US puts Internet protests on trial as part of PayPal 14 prosecution
▻http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/10/29/prosecutors-put-paypal14andinternetprotestontrial.html
With online relationships, it’s complicated.
The billionaire founder of eBay, #Pierre_Omidyar, is bankrolling a new media company with reporters who have used WikiLeaks to break giant stories.
But the eBay-owned subsidiary PayPal is working with the Justice Department to prosecute a handful of WikiLeaks supporters. The defendants could serve decades in prison, and their convictions could decide if “hacktivism” is free speech or a felony offense.
On Oct. 31, 14 defendants are scheduled to walk into a federal court in San Jose, Calif. They are known as the PayPal 14, and prosecutors will ask them to plead guilty to attacking PayPal, the online payment service based in that city.