alex on Wed, 15 Aug 2001 05:31:27 +0200 (CEST) |
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Re: <nettime> Information cannot be free |
On Tue, 14 Aug 2001, a wrote: > its great when you have a tool like google that really works well with > free information - but if those tools dont exist then free information > is often really useless. but google does exist. > corresponding to this, i believe that censorship (such a harsh word, > but i use it in its loosest sense) actually has value. you wouldn't > expect an adobe user manual to have 600 pages of useless noise, for > example. both forms are of great value, and both require the right > methods of access. hmm, editing and censorship are not the same. > but what i heard was that HAL was a breeding ground for trouble - > warez servers, continuous cracking on the local net, etc. i expect these things happened, but i don't think they caused anyone any trouble. > anyway, my worry is that the hacker community cannot actually separate > itself from its sinister alter-ego. i don't think the hacker community is so well defined. it's too anarchic to settle on a particular politic or stereotype. > so you end up with this increasing mass of hacker types exploring > 'freedom of information' with systems such as gnutella (which, let's > face it, is used to distribute information illegally) that's an unfair assumption. > how does an honest hacker reconcile the knowledge that others in her > community are using her same political stance to justify illegal > activities? who knows, but you assume that we know what is illegal; testing the law goes some way towards forming it. alex -- "y0, I am in the desert" # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net