Here Come The WikiLeaks Copycats: IndoLeaks, BrusselsLeaks And BalkanLeaks

[Turborama]

When Daniel Domscheit-Berg defected from WikiLeaks in September to create his own leak-focused project, he told Der Spiegel that “there must be a thousand WikiLeaks.” The four that launched in just the last few days aren’t a bad start.

Last Thursday, a group of former European Union officials and journalists launched a site they’ve called BrusselsLeaks, focused on obtaining and publishing leaked internal information about the backroom dealings and secrets of the E.U. The Bulgarian newspaper The Sofia Echo reported on Saturday that a Bulgarian expat in Paris has set up BalkanLeaks, a WikiLeaks-modeled site that declares that “the Balkans are not keeping secrets anymore.” WikiLeaks itself pointed on Sunday in its Twitter feed to IndoLeaks.org, a whistle-blowing site that has already published revealing documents from the country’s Suharto administration, *though it seems to have since been brought down temporarily by technical glitches.

Though IndoLeaks wasn’t visible Monday, the two other sites appear to use anonymous submissions systems similar in principle to the one that WikiLeaks offered until October of this year, when it stopped accepting documents. BalkanLeaks uses the anonymity tool Tor to protect its leakers, while BrusselsLeaks employs the encrypted messaging service Hushmail.

German former WikiLeak staffer Domscheit-Berg may be launching his own leaks site, OpenLeaks.org, as early as Monday, though unlike WikiLeaks or its copycats, OpenLeaks won’t publish any documents, instead functioning as a cryptographically secure submissions box on other sites, a strategy that passes the responsibility for leaked documents directly to whatever media or activist organization a leaker wishes.

Full article: http://blogs.forbes.com/andygreenberg/2010/12/13/here-come-the-wikileaks-copycats-indoleaks-brusselsleaks-and-balkanleaks/?boxes=techchannelsections

* It's working now, here's a Google translated version: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=id&u=http://www.indoleaks.org/&ei=AAcLTa_nBdDirAeKvKzZCw&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDsQ7gEwBA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dindo%2Bleaks%26num%3D100%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-US%26prmd%3Divns

I've been offline for a few days and am a bit behind the news on this. Here's some related articles for anyone who's interested...

http://channel6newsonline.com/2010/12/over-100000-downloads-in-two-days-of-indonesias-version-of-wikileaks/">Over 100,000 downloads in two days of Indonesia’s version of Wikileaks

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/12/14/indoleaks-revives-1965-autopsy-documents.html">Indoleaks revives 1965 autopsy documents

[EFerrari]

1. Oops.

[TheKentuckian]

2. Good.

[2Design]

3. good

[malaise]

4. Great

K&R

[Occulus]

5. "The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers."

:D

[Norrin Radd]

6. kr

[Turborama]

7. Copycat WikiLeaks sites make waves

As the political impact of sensitive diplomatic information continues to reverberate, a set of WikiLeaks spin-offs hopes to capitalise on the successes of the whistleblowing site and its Australian chief, Julian Assange.

The US and other authorities have cracked down on WikiLeaks and Assange since the site started publishing thousands of confidential US diplomatic cables that have embarrassed both the US and other parties around the world.

Assange, who founded WikiLeaks in 2006, seems to have inspired a flood of new gossip-mongering sites. If just a few of the copycat organisations manage to provide useful information to the public, Assange's positive contribution to global civil society might be more widely acknowledged.

In an interview with Forbes magazine the embattled activist said, "It's not something that's easy to do right" but then added, "it's helpful for us to have more people in this industry".

Here are five notable new imitations of the WikiLeaks model: http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2010/12/20101216194828514847.html

[mmonk]

8. Good.

They can't arrest the whole world, can they?

[Oilwellian]

9. The more the better n/t

[tekisui]

10. Naturally. And awesome.