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On TechCrunch's receiving end, those documents - stolen or not - their simply news. They didn't do the hacking and if the documents weren't Twitter's it wouldn't cause so much controversy. After all, it's Twitter's fault it got hacked.

Well, this is a good point. Why the documents were stolen?
In the Techcrunch case, they if in fact received stolen property, and it is a crime to possess stolen property. Let the law of land justify it.

Seems to me everybody fogot about the security issue, and no body is complaining about poor security or holes in security systems.

how were these documents stolen, and why ?

news is news, and there are many unethical methods used to obtain good, truthful news, but few are ever discussed or brought into the open.

We will need to see who complains, and where the complaints lead to, but boycots are not good for business, as you usualy shoot yourself in the foot when you boycot somebody for reasons that are not clearly explained, or if there is no real policy and expected results are not clear.

What is the reason for this sugested boycot, and what will be achieved ?

many people will be without their information distribution tools, and many others will not be reading valuable information, which may make their life a lot easier.

Loose, loose and loose again through boycots ?

or live with the hand that life has dealt you and make the best of your personal situation ...

you choose, and live with your decision.

in 2 years time neither Twitter nor TechCrush will be worth that much

between a 'leak' and a 'hack', either way source party did not grant it's release. I assume news organizations are no longer allowed to posses or published leaked documents?

A few points to bear in mind before burning Techcrunch:

1. Techcrunch seemed to be not the only one in possession of the documents. As always in news, if anyone published, the info is not secret anymore, so that'll have been some consideration for Techcrunch in publishing the documents.

2. There clearly seems to be have been some conversation between Techcrunch and Twitter, acknowledged by both. Only now, both disagree about what was agreed. Perhaps because Techcrunch had an oerly optimistic view on what was agreed, or the other way around, because Twitter initially thought they had no options and said 'Okay if you indeed leave out this and that', and now has a change of heart after deep consultations with the lawyers.

Hard for us to judge at this stage, but we'll probably hear more about it

First, TC should have been sure and not lied about being given permission to give such information. I am sure they had some permissions, but not that kind of permission.

Should boycotting TC be a good retribution. Not really. In fact, hopefully TC will learn after this and go back to not getting into a bunch of wankage. For those who are disgusted, not visiting again might be the best solutions, but not always for everyone.

Will TC issue a retraction? Hopefully, but that will not solve all the people who probably saved all of the screenshots on their article and all the damage it has caused.

Common sense... seems to be something sorely lacking.

If the information included social security numbers, would we be so quick to write it off?

It seems because we're on the internet, we forget that not all information is up for grabs. Hackers used to get caught, sentenced to jail and the terms of their probation included no access to computers.

Computer hacking is a huge concern in this country. What's to keep someone from attacking your confidential databases and releasing them? Or the databases of the payment systems you depend on, like ClickBank, 2CheckOut, PayPal or Google and releasing documentation which includes financial information on you and your clients.

Reporting that information was stolen is not wrong, but publishing the actual documents, just encourages more theft.

As it stands now, credit card companies and retailers pay millions in bribes every year to keep confidential lists from being released.

It's in everyone's self interest to shut this down.

Of course Twitter is right and Arrington is wrong. Arrington has a history of doing stuff like this for self-promotion.

The interesting piece of this is that John Dvorak proved long ago that making an ass out of one's self can build page views. No doubt Arrington suffers from the same egomaniacal sickness and is willing to risk a lawsuit to drum up page views, ad clicks, or whatever it is that keeps his ego or bank account or both afloat.

Most of us consider ourselves more ethically bound than the likes of Arrington or Dvorak but I wonder if each of us has a price beyond which we'd sell out. I'd like to think I don't but until the situation arises I'll never be sure.

Whether it's ethicial or not is besides the point. It's illegal to possess stolen goods. And since it crossed state lines, it is actually a violation of federal law. The FBI needs to step in and arrest those responsible.

If this can happen to Twitter, it can happen to anybody especially content producers. TechCrunch did this on purpose--self-promotion as they're hungry for publicity and Twitter with such massive following is a great target to get huge traffic and buzz. It's becoming a scary (internet) world when your valuable information can be stolen and get publicised without your consent. And with this incident, I even doubted if every single post on TechCrunch aren't stolen. Come on, read between the lines,
"...a few of the documents have so much news value that we think it’s appropriate to publish them"
Whether the information is "STOLEN or ILLEGAL" as long as it can create BUZZ, it's ethical? Well, this is the game online, the new trend as they say technology trends that steal and walkaway and whoever gets hurt and compromised are weak and pityful. Is this how BUZZ hungry the internet sites are now?! I think so and I will not be surprised if one time there would be war on cyberspace. This issue will just fade anyway among the dust of yesterday, sorry Twitter coz you're vulnerable and they are strong. You loose...they gain...that's life and it sucks sometimes!

Once upon a time, Internet time wise- there was a highly regarded thing called netiquette, and every newcomer to the to the Word Wide Web was told to understand this unenforceable law.

Far gone by now. Decency and netiquette is not really in the buzz.Being firts with the worst is the self promoting thing of the day.
Fact of life? Yes, but sad nevertheless!

In short - they were wrong to publish stolen docs.
IMHO, that is.

Cheers!
/Petit