WikiLeaks and the protect-ip Act:
A New Public-Private Threat to the
Internet CommonsYochai Benkler
Abstract: The WikiLeaks affair and proposed copyright bills introduced in the Senate are evidence of a
new, extralegal path of attack aimed at preventing access and disrupting the payment systems and advertising
of targeted sites. In this model, the attacker may be a government agency seeking to circumvent
constitutional constraints on its power or a private company trying to enforce its interests beyond those
afforded by procedural or substantive safeguards in the law. The vector of attack runs through the targeted
site’s critical service providers, disrupting technical services, such as Domain Name System service,
cloud storage, or search capabilities; and business-related services, such as payment systems or advertising.
The characteristics that make this type of attack new are that it targets an entire site, rather than aiming
for removal or exclusion of speci½c offending materials; operates through denial of business and ½nancial
systems, in addition to targeting technical systems; and systematically harnesses extralegal pressure
to achieve results beyond what law would provide or even permit.To download the whole PDF-file, please go to: http://benkler.org/WikiLeaks_PROTECT-IP_Benkler.pdf
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The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
2011-10-22
Professor writes paper on the US banking blockade against WikiLeaks
