WikiLeaks row: why Amazon's desertion has ominous implications for democracy /Amazon's decision to abandon WikiLeaks sends out a clear message: you can publish what you like -- as long as it meets with the government's approval / # John Naughton <http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/johnnaughton> # guardian.co.uk <http://www.guardian.co.uk>, Saturday 11 December 2010 10.00 GMT One of the most interesting aspects of the WikiLeaks <http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/wikileaks> controversy is the light it has shed on the providers of cloud computing <http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/cloud-computing>. One after another they have fallen over like dominoes when the going got rough <http://www.renesys.com/blog/2010/12/wikileaks-moving-target.shtml>. First, some of the ISPs hosting WikiLeaks caved in; then EveryDNS, the company that mapped its domain names (eg wikileaks.org) on to machine addresses, dropped it; then Amazon, which had enough computer power and bandwidth to resist even the most determined cyber-attacks, took it off its computers; then PayPal and later Mastercard, the online conduits for donations, cancelled its accounts. The rationalisations these outfits gave for dropping WikiLeaks had a common theme, namely that it had violated the terms and conditions under which the terminated services had been provided. Amazon is the most interesting case. It provides so-called "cloud computing services" by renting out some of the thousands of computers used to run its online store. WikiLeaks moved its site on to Amazon's cloud to ensure that it would not be crippled by the denial-of-service attacks that had brought other ISPs to their knees. But then the company received a call from senator Joseph Lieberman, the kind of politician who gives loose cannons a bad name, who had been frothing about WikiLeaks being "implacably hostile to our military and the most basic requirements of our national security" <http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/110905-lieberman-wikilea...>. Some time after that, Amazon terminated WikiLeaks's account. [...] Continua qui: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/dec/11/wikileaks-amazon-denial-dem...