ricardo dominguez on 13 Mar 2001 19:03:28 -0000 |
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[Nettime-bold] Re: <nettime> Hackers: the political heroes of cyberspace - reply by Paul Mobbs |
----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul Mobbs" <mobbsey@gn.apc.org> To: "ricardo dominguez" <rdom@thing.net> Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2001 1:24 PM > > I actually couldn't give a damn for media or book deals (I find the first > of these two tedious to deal with, and the last one completely unavailable > to people like me, at least in the UK). I'm not an academic - I've been a > community activist for nearly 20 years, but one who also happens to have > been using computers as part of that work for around 15 years. And with > regards to 'hacktivism starting in 1998', what I said was that it wasn't > until 1996 to 1998 that there was a 'critical mass' of the public online to > make a broad-based online protest a viable and truely effective > proposition. People have been actually hacking code (albeit hardwired code) > since the Colossus (one of those wonderful British inventions, later > appropriated by the USA). > > I just want to have the open debate. I think people in the UK are now > waking up to this in retrospect. > > Unless we have the open debate so the public can understand the issues > involved in hacktivism then all hackers will be subjected to the same > bullshit we have had in the UK over the past year. The only reason Jack > Straw, the Home Secretary, was able to get the Terrorism and RIP > legislation through Parliament was because nobody knew about the issues. > Consequently they just believed the bullshit he peddled them about the > risks to the public from people bent on 'disrupting electonic networks'. > Now suddenly we can be classed as terrorists for planning online protest > action. > > Unless the public understand hacking/hacktivism they're going to regard all > hackers/hacktivists as a 'breed apart'. Consequently, hackers will always > be fair game for knocking down in the media. It's then only a matter of > time until politcians use the law to criminalise us. Attacking hacktivists > with new laws is SO EASY. The majority of the public are not hackers. So a > politician can talk up the "menace", and then make new repressive laws on > the use of electronic. > > The towers many hackers sit in may be made of silicon and plastic rather > than ivory, but they're just as remote to the general public. I have no > problem with some people wanting to sit in remote towers and hack code, > often because it produces things that the rest of us can use beneficially. > But I think hacker culture is completely screwed up if it thinks it can > live in a little reality construct of its own making. > > Unless you engage the general public about the use of electronic networks > for protest, and the development of civil rights around the use if IT and > networks, then there's a lot of vested interest out there who will give > politicians all the excuses they need to criminalise us. I think you only > have to look at how the new RIP and Terrorism laaws enacte din Britian in > 2000 are now being proposed, using Britain as an example, in Australia, > Japan, Korea and some European countries (even the Germans are talking > about this now in their Justice ministry). > > > <RANT> > It's very easy to be radical in order to be a radical. Being radical for a > purpose takes commitment, and a willingness to pay for your screw ups. I > think a lot of people involved in hacktivism need to decide which of these > chat rooms they're in. > </RANT> > > > Peace 'n' love > > P. _______________________________________________ Nettime-bold mailing list Nettime-bold@nettime.org http://www.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold