WikiLeaks, protest and the law: The rights and wrongs of hacktivism | The Economist: ”
The rights and wrongs of hacktivism
Protest can be disruptive but legal. But furtiveness removes its moral weight

Two ends of the spectrum are clear. Consumer boycotts are a matter of individual choice. There is nothing wrong with people expressing their disapproval of companies that have dumped WikiLeaks, such as Visa, MasterCard, Amazon, PayPal, by stopping doing business with them. But using the internet to try to disrupt, say, power supplies or the fire service, as happened in Estonia in 2007, is a crime.

Dec 16th 2010 | from PRINT EDITION “