WikiLeaks to staff: Don't leak our stuff or we'll come down on you like Thor's hammer

Really? Really.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange requires WikiLeaks staff to sign a confidentiality agreement that claims the organization’s collection of leaked documents is “solely the property of WikiLeaks,” according to a published report.

Savor that for a minute.  WikiLeaks is asserting that the stuff it pilfers or gets handed to it from others who have pilfered it, is solely the property of WikiLeaks.

The confidentiality agreement says that unpublished documents leaked to the organization are “valuable proprietary commercial information, the misuse or unauthorized disclosure of which would be likely to cause us considerable damage.”

The legal agreement was leaked to the New Statesman and published Wednesday [PDF].

And savor that, too: Someone thought well enough of the agreement to leak it. Pass the popcorn as we await Julian Assange conducting an internal investigation to determine the source of the leak so he can punish them.

The agreement spells out fines and penalties for leakers, indicating that WikiLeaks is a commercial enterprise (and a gigantic hypocrite). Doesn’t that then put it in the position of engaging in what amounts to industrial espionage?