WikiLeaks claims court victory against Visa

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jul/12/wikileaks-court-victory-visa


Julian Assange's WikiLeaks has claimed a court victory against Visa. Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

WikiLeaks has claimed a "significant victory" in its struggle with the US government to allow people to make donations to it through the Visa payment scheme, after an Icelandic court ruled that a payment processor there had broken contract laws by blocking credit card donations to Julian Assange's whistleblowing site.

But Visa International said that the ruling, against a Reykjavik-based company called Valitor – formerly Visa Iceland – might not have any broader application and may not change the current position, in which payments cannot be made to WikiLeaks using Visa cards and other US-owned credit cards. That has choked off the vast majority of donations to WikiLeaks, which said it had lost about $20m in funding as a result.

US financial institutions including Visa, Bank of America, Mastercard, PayPal and Western Union, stopped accepting or handling payments intended for WikiLeaks in December 2010, after the site began leaking US diplomatic cables from a cache of nearly 250,000 it had acquired.

MasterCard and Visa both said at the time that they were cutting the links because WikiLeaks was "engaging in or facilititating" illegal activity. A PayPal vice-president said that he had come under pressure from the US state department to cut payment links with the site. Until Visa cut its links, the only way to pay a donation was via a web page hosted by Iceland-based Datacell, which acted as WikiLeaks's payment processor.

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1. Iceland Court Orders Valitor to Process WikiLeaks Donations

By Omar R. Valdimarsson on July 12, 2012

Reykjavik’s District Court ordered Valitor hf, the Icelandic partner of MasterCard Inc. (MA) and Visa Inc. (V), to open card payments to anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks within two weeks or face daily penalties of 800,000 kronur ($6,200), the court said today. Valitor was sued by Icelandic data hosting service provider DataCell, after the payment card company refused to process payments to WikiLeaks the same day it signed a contract with DataCell ...

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-07-12/iceland-court-orders-valitor-to-process-wikileaks-donations

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2. "... Even if Valitor is eventually forced to comply with the judgment,

it isn't clear whether Visa or MasterCard would allow their customers to make donations to DataCell or WikiLeaks. Both companies have refused to deal with WikiLeaks for the better part of two years, leading to allegations that they had bowed to U.S. pressure to starve the organization of funds. Neither Visa Inc. nor MasterCard Inc. immediately returned emails seeking comment on the judgment."
WikiLeaks Gets Court Victory in Fight Against Visa
By RAPHAEL SATTER Associated Press
LONDON July 12, 2012 (AP)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/wikileaks-court-victory-fight-visa-16762018

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3. ... Assange said in a statement: "This is a significant victory against Washington's attempt

to silence WikiLeaks. We will not be silenced. Economic censorship is censorship. It is wrong. When it's done outside of the rule of law its doubly wrong. One by one those involved in the attempted censorship of WikiLeaks will find themselves on the wrong side of history" ...
WikiLeaks claims court victory against Visa
Icelandic court rules that payment processor broke contract laws by blocking credit card donations to whistleblowing site
Charles Arthur
Thursday 12 July 2012 12.40 EDT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jul/12/wikileaks-court-victory-visa

[Luminous Animal]

5. +1

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4. Icelandic company feels heat from Visa and Mastercard over Wikileaks service (Dec 2010)

Posted on 08 December 2010

... In an extended interview with Icelandic radio station RAS 2, Datacell’s founder Olafur V. Sigurvinsson said that Wikileaks.ch is hosted by Datacell in Switzerland and that donations to the site are processed by Datacell Iceland. According to DV, Datacell is now the only way to give to Wikileaks and even that company is now under pressure from Visa and Mastercard to stop accepting payments ...

http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/12/08/icelandic-company-feels-heat-from-visa-and-mastercard-over-wikileaks-service/

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6. ... Valitor plans to appeal ...

WikiLeaks gets court victory in fight against Visa
Originally published: July 12, 2012 10:35 AM
Updated: July 12, 2012 12:59 PM
By The Associated Press RAPHAEL SATTER (Associated Press)
http://www.newsday.com/news/world/wikileaks-gets-court-victory-in-fight-against-visa-1.3833430

[2ndAmForComputers]

7. K&R for good news.

And if you don't think this is good news, then (INSERT INSULT HERE).