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Why Are Hackers Becoming So Angry?

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zridling:


Glyn Moody asks: Why Are Hackers Becoming So Angry? Among the reasons:

-- "Political clout needed to abuse the narrow commercial scope of copyright protection," i.e., taxpayer monies paying for research that is then sold back to the public and institutions at exorbitant prices.

-- "Copyright maximalists have co-opted governments to attack ordinary citizens for sharing things, with huge collateral damage to basic liberties." (Severe copyright enforcement legislation like ACTA, HADOPI, the Digital Economy Act, La Ley Sinde, and the US PROTECT IP.)

Against this background of three-strikes legislation, plans for widespread Web censorship, huge fines for sharing files even when there is zero evidence any financial damage was caused by doing so, and disproportionate threats of extradition, I predict we will see many more such actions from angry hackers frustrated by the continuing abuse of existing legal, economic and political structures by a few powerful groups - particularly in the media world - for their own self-interest. As to why it seems to be mostly hackers that are angry in this way, the reason is simple. In addition to being well placed to understand the profound implications of the transition away from a closed, analogue world of scarcity, they are also one of the few groups that have the ability and means to fight back by harnessing the power of the open, digital abundance that is replacing it.
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I'd call that righteous anger.

40hz:
Whenever people come to the realization that they are being denied due process and equal protection under the same laws they are ordered to obey, their only recourse is to either reform the system they live under - or rebel against it.

Since much of our current legal system is bought and paid for by special interests, it has become difficult (bordering on impossible) for the system to reform itself through the mechanisms that were instituted for it to do so.

As a result, people are seeking champions - and taking the law into their own hands.

This should come as no surprise to anybody in the Unites States, least of all its leaders. Because there's a historic precedent for it here. It's something every school child learns:

...Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
--- End quote ---

Some of these government officials and sworn officers of the court (see below) need a refresher course.  ;)

 

worstje:
I've been reading articles originating from this article for the past 30 minutes. I always knew the world was screwed up, but this only emphasizes it. :(

Why don't they use all that money spent sueing to pay off debt? I bet that if one gave it a decade, the entire system would come to stand under a lot of stress, eventually leading to lower costs. (Then again, politicians would consider it an excuse to spend even more money they don't have...)

Stoic Joker:
Whenever people come to the realization that they are being denied due process and equal protection under the same laws they are ordered to obey, their only recourse is to either reform the system they live under - or rebel against it.-40hz (July 22, 2011, 08:01 AM)
--- End quote ---

Bingo!

It is, in reality, the people that are angry. As in "We the people". And in abiding by the law of averages...Many of those people accidentally just so happen to be really good with a computer (hehe). And seeing as none of us are really inclined to "take it" lying down given the nature of the beast which is mankind. Something is gonna have to give. Hence, being that the self elected target is a class that makes most mules appear quite accomodating...Slightly more extreme measures are required to get their attention. Necessity being a mother and all that.

kyrathaba:
I find myself in agreement with the sentiments being expressed here. Thank goodness that, in addition to the laziness of the human animal, there are also specimens that are exceptional. I say more power to hackers who are using their skills to be modern-day revolutionaries.

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