So, given that the site guidelines ask us to make substantive comments, can you go into detail as to why you think that this is a good thing?

I think that it's pretty shady to profit off of 'confidential information' rather than disallowing the dissemination of it. Personally, I smell a vendetta against the individual rather than an action meant to discourage the spread of confidential data.

Even without an opinion of Snowden himself, that kind of tactic from a government against an individual seems pretty ruinous and petty; like red-scare blacklisting kind of petty.