There appears to a habit here at HN to downvote a comment simply because one disagrees with said comment.
You have a valid point. I disagree, however.
One has to weight the situation. A government operating in the darkness of secrecy will not lead to anything good.
It started with simply stopping lawsuits against "renditions" by citing national security concerns (i.e. the government can basically do what it wants and then just draw the "national security" card) and goes on with knee-jerk, infantile reaction against WikiLeaks.
Under out current system, the government has decided the level of disclosure that it wishes to maintain. If you do not agree, you are welcome to write your representatives a letter (however futile) and complain. You may disagree with the level that the government has chosen and I applaud your concern. But, you will have to live with your choices if you choose to break the rules of the current situation. I can only hope that your actions will prove your innocence and the rules can be amended due to public outcry and representative support and a pardon granted. Until such time, you cannot have freedom to be the sole decider on which level of secrecy the government maintains. You cannot act without repercussion in anything that you do and what this bill aims to do is to fix a hole and remind people that secret/confidential documents are that way for a reason and it does not matter how many times removed you are from the initial action, helping the perpetrator is just as bad.
Comments
There appears to a habit here at HN to downvote a comment simply because one disagrees with said comment.
You have a valid point. I disagree, however.
One has to weight the situation. A government operating in the darkness of secrecy will not lead to anything good.
It started with simply stopping lawsuits against "renditions" by citing national security concerns (i.e. the government can basically do what it wants and then just draw the "national security" card) and goes on with knee-jerk, infantile reaction against WikiLeaks.
Under out current system, the government has decided the level of disclosure that it wishes to maintain. If you do not agree, you are welcome to write your representatives a letter (however futile) and complain. You may disagree with the level that the government has chosen and I applaud your concern. But, you will have to live with your choices if you choose to break the rules of the current situation. I can only hope that your actions will prove your innocence and the rules can be amended due to public outcry and representative support and a pardon granted. Until such time, you cannot have freedom to be the sole decider on which level of secrecy the government maintains. You cannot act without repercussion in anything that you do and what this bill aims to do is to fix a hole and remind people that secret/confidential documents are that way for a reason and it does not matter how many times removed you are from the initial action, helping the perpetrator is just as bad.
the government is the worst possible decider of the level of disclosure that it wishes to maintain.