This is democracy’s Napster moment, the point at which the forms of governance that have evolved over two hundred years of industrial society prove wanting in the face of the network, just as the business models of the recording industy were swept away by the ease with which the internet could transmit perfect digital copies of compressed music files.

Bill Thompson on the legacy of WikiLeaks.

Denizens of the Net are choosing sides. To my dismay, Amazon and eBay’s PayPal have decided that they are on the Net but not of the Net. When it comes down to it, they have decided they don’t really care for the Internet all that much, except as a low-friction cash register. How we would have rejoiced if Amazon and eBay had stood up to those who want to stop the flow of information that they don’t like. Instead they folded.

David Weinberger.