Can PayPal really afford to say no? The government has many ways it can make life miserable for the company.

Isn't that the VERY PROBLEM Wikileaks is showcasing here?

What laws, in particular, did you have in mind? Wikileaks has not, to the best of my knowledge, been charged with any violation of law in the United States (or anywhere else, for that matter).

Much less did Amazon or PayPal violate any law.

I don't see anyone suggesting Amazon or PayPal violated any laws in this discussion, but maybe I missed it. I certainly haven't made such a suggestion.

That was my impression of silverstorm's comment - that PayPal has to comply with US law and thus shouldn't be denigrated for this decision. Not even Wikileaks has been shown to have violated US law, but my point was that Yahoo and PayPal can't even rely on the fact that they have to comply with US law, because they haven't violated it at all.

Well. They may have now - PayPal in particular could be accused of fraud for freezing an account unless they release the funds relatively quickly. This might even have the kind of visibility that would result in that kind of good outcome.

Wikileaks really is shining light on a lot of roaches this week...

It's a problem that the laws are such that obeying them or being considered ethical by one's customers is a double-bind.

It's even more a problem that the law isn't even on the government's side here...

They'll change the law, as always. That's why they wanted to include Wikileaks as a terrorist org. All the way clean for them.