[zbanks]

At the same time, this is an incredibly direct source. It's not a long-winded blog post that editorializes.

Hopefully someone here can enlighten us, though.

[gte910h]

Oh definitely. Also definitely an illegal thing to download which will probably have court cases going after it and IP trolls fiercely finding who downloaded it, etc.

I'm a big boy: I can ignore editorial commentary if I get to not commit a crime.

[adambyrtek]

It's telling that even Hacker News users are so intimidated that they are afraid to click on a link. I find it surprising and a bit scary (but I don't live in the US).

[gte910h]

Do you have days to spend talking to police and lawyers instead of working? I'd rather not.

It's not 'clicking on a link' that's the issue, it's making a copy of sony's website's source code, which is very possibly a felony.

[GiraffeNecktie]

How could it be any more illegal than reading wikileaks?

[zbanks]

To download it, you (basically) are also sharing the file.

It's as illegal as mirroring wikileaks.

[mquander]

The government's PR branch has really done a number on you. It's absolutely legal to host or mirror Wikileaks, under any reasonable interpretation of the law; remember that the only way that the government can dig up a case on Assange is to try to label him as a co-conspirator in directly obtaining the information. Just distributing the material is protected -- it's the same thing that newspapers do all the time.

EDIT: On reflection, I shouldn't sound so confident, because I'm not a lawyer. But that's my understanding.

[JoachimSchipper]

It does seem to be legal, for now. That doesn't mean that the US government is unwilling to, say, question you every time you fly: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Appelbaum#Investigation_a....

(Note that Jacob was more involved than simply running a mirror, though.)

[derrida]

Mirroring Wikileaks is not illegal, First Amendment... highest law in the land.

[rabidsnail]

Copyright is an exception, unfortunately.

[GiraffeNecktie]

Oh, you mean like these?

http://boingboing.net/2010/12/03/wikileaks-blocked-bu.html