Becky Hogge: "Why I Signed The WikiLeaks NDA"

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/05/wikileaks-organisation-order

Why I signed the Wikileaks NDA
Posted by Becky Hogge - 16 May 2011 16:06

I confess I didn't think too hard before I signed a non-disclosure agreement with Wikileaks in October 2010. It helped that I wasn't planning on doing anything to undermine the organisation's operations, that the penalty mentioned for doing so was a mere £100,000 - and not the £12 million detailed in the document released by the New Statesman last week - and that, unlike last week's document, there was no clause gagging me from speaking about Wikileaks' own operations. I skim-read the document, noted how badly-drafted it was, saw it was to expire a fortnight or so later, and took my chances.

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I would like to suggest that what Wikileaks has been attempting to do is engage with the commercial media on its own terms, in order to draw more attention to the material it leaks. Or, to put it in more theoretical terms, to create artificial scarcity in an environment of information abundance, in order to make its operations compatible with the commercial operations of the world of newspapers.

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This isn't just guesswork. Julian Assange and Daniel Domscheit-Berg laid out this strategy about six months before the release of the Afghan War logs, at the December 2009 Chaos Computer Congress in Berlin (eight minutes into this video, and continuing in this video). Having explained their intentions, Julian Assange concludes "If we release the material and it has no political impact, we're not doing our job."

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Julian Assange could well be a little emperor, the NDA certainly is poorly drafted, and it may be terrible PR. But remember that Wikileaks is an organisation conceived and run by computer hackers. Underlying the contract is a complex logic that is ultimately consistent with the aims of a non-profit organisation that seeks to support - and not exploit - the bravery of whistleblowers.

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5/11/11:
I sez: Story smells like a RW hit piece. nt

OP replies: In the New Statesman?

rather normal for an operation that deals with confidential information.

Law firms often require them as do many other companies.

Hospital staff are required by federal law to respect the privacy and right to no disclosure of personal information of patients.

This is really not a big deal although the terms of the agreement appear to be a bit awkward.

Remember the guy who went to prison because he exposed the secrets of a tobacco company. That was some years ago.

Nothing unusual. I've signed these kinds of agreements.