"Vigilante" is an idiotic term to use here. These people are protesters, nothing else, no different than people who block entrances to government buildings or bombard politicians with mail and phone calls. Why is it that when something happens on the Internet, it suddenly becomes something more than the same act happening in real life?
That's only true up to a point. The HBGary incident involved breaking into email accounts and (iirc) the remote wiping of an iPad. While hilariously funny, these actions exceed that of sit-in/slow down protesters.
They aren't vigilantes anymore when they attack someone for the sole reason they were investigating them.
I think that is only half true. The reality is they uncovered some Serious Wrongdoing. Whether or not that was any one individual's intent, the Anon cloud seems to employ the Streisand effect to broadcast some major inequities.
On the other hand, they also go after kids on "the facebook" and hassle random people in video streaming and god knows what else. I find it very peculiar that these types of actions never make the big media coverage. If my tinfoil hat was not at a jaunty angle, but rather attached by my tinfoil chinstrap, I might wonder who's interest that serves. I mean, the news networks would get tons of eyeballs for a story like that, wouldn't they?
The parents were for YEARS (and probably are still) harassed. And the dudes from south park owe them a public apology.
Vigilantes may target the wrong people even though they 'mean to do good'. People are morons. Sometimes they have power many times thank god they dont.
I'm sorry you chose to AC this comment, as I was not aware of the DNA development. Forensic exoneration is the best kind, and I'm glad to have learned this.
Agreed. No one ought to have sympathy with the corruption of a government. However, if so-called vigilantes have impunity then they could become a new oppressive regime.
Wow. You're right. If the government doesn't protect us, Anonymous will RULE THE COUNTRY, banishing all women from the internet and compelling people to put things in other things so that they may do things while they do things.
I guess having national ID cards and internet licenses is a small price to pay. I mean, I don't mind putting things in things, but I'll be damned if I'll then go do things while I do things. Where would it end?
The consequences are nothing but a pack of powers that be that are looking for a convenient excuse for something they are hell bent on imposing anyway.
They have the motive and means. The hacktivists only provide opportunity.
Sounds terribly familiar, but I just can't 9/11 place it.
How meta of you. I'd still like to be able to get married and have it recognized in other states. I'm not interested in your assessment of its importance.
Almost exact. The parties agree to disagree on a few issues that are really of no importance, like gay marriage, in order to maintain the illusion that the vote matters.
Just because something is of no importance to you doesn't mean it isn't at the top of someone else's personal agenda. This is an excellent example, a classic civil rights issue. Unimportant? It sure doesn't seem that way to me.
What are you talking about? The true Slashdot hardcore do not even read the TITLES, much less the summaries. The articles? Those don't actually exist. Ever tried clicking on one? Don't waste your time, there's never anything at the other end of that link.
That's insane, no rational human being can justify stealing music from content creators. If you want to listen, buy the media - period.
Wow. Sodomizing terrified teenagers is a popular fantasy, nowadays? Japan's contribution to the world is starting to show...
"I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description [hard-core pornography]; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that." Justice Potter Stewart
If we'd have a "day of copyright rage", getting millions of civil-disobedience copyright-breakers in public squares, with (logically) police trying to break them up, we'd get real policy debate.
Fucking right. A mass protest in this circumstance is to have a letter signed by people across the country which states that on such-and-such a day everyone will pirate some specific piece of media. I would suggest the oldest movie available that is still under copyright. My source at the venerable and precise Answers.com suggests (URL below):
"Anything from a movie prior to 1923 or prior to 1964 and not properly renewed is in the public domain and can be used freely, without copyright restriction. Most other movies are still under copyright protection & you will have to seek permission from the rights holder."
Hundreds, or even thousands, of voluntarily identified individuals signing on to something like that would be a remarkable statement. To risk freedom in its name demonstrates our right to a return to democracy. Fricken Egypt showed us how it's done. Don't get me wrong, I don't want everything I own confiscated, but picket lines don't get press - especially when they're in cages. (Which is a rant for another time... free speech zones make me murderously angry - (that's hyperbole, DHS...(yeah, I'm a little paranoid))).
Hey hey hey now. What's your problem with Barney Frank? The guy is a goddamn hero as far as I'm concerned, one of the very few politicians who speaks his mind and has thoughtful discourse with constituents. He actually went to town hall meetings with the healthcare proposal in hand and answered very specific questions by consulting the text directly. Brilliant, decent guy.
Why is this ridiculous sort of mob justice tolerated ? We've all been in the playground, we've all seen mob justice in action, and we all know what WILL happen. So why do these people get any support whatsoever ?
Are we truly such hypocrites ? Insist on rights, when it's about us... And then demand and defend swift illegal and criminal action against anyone we don't like ? Is that what is meant by "internet protest" ? Because if it is, frankly, it must be squashed with any amount of violence necessary.
I can't say I'd participate, but I can certainly understand the frustration of seeing an incompetent government security firm in action. Think about the last 12 years for more than a second, and the word 'security'... well, a shiver runs down my spine. The *immediate* surrender of the country's principles and well-being following the bombings in 2001 while dissenters are booed from the spotlight and ostracized. All the things done in the name of security that made us less secure, all (all!) of the money spent on endless, fruitless military operations and grandma groping. Like many/.ers it troubles me deeply, and I see the country breathe a cheeto-stench sigh of disinterest while all but a handful of legislators jerk off on their bases while doing nothing to manage the cancerous meme of security uber alles, all out of cowardice and greed.
Maybe some people think mob justice is the closest they'll ever get to the real thing.
Huh. Guess I'm a little more pissed off than I thought... I'm going to go get some coff... eh, decaf.
there are enough Catholics calling themselves Christian that it makes little sense to make that distinction.
Well, anyone can call themselves anything, that doesn't really relate. I think I get what you're trying to say though. It's an interesting exercise to take a look at some of the arguments for and against the proposal that Catholics are Christian.
I was going to list a few, but 'are catholics christians' in google comes up with a massive amount of both sides.
Almost as much as you obviously don't have the balls to print it. You're going to make an accusation, have the balls to put your name on it. Don't send readers out looking for conspiracy theory web sites.
All those conspiracy nutters drive me crazy, too. I mean honestly, who really believes that the rape and murder of a girl by Glenn Beck in 1990 is being covered up? There is absolutely no ironclad evidence to suggest it was him in the first place, no matter how close she was to his home when they found her.
I'll tell you who *didn't* know: the average uninformed Fox viewer. It's no surprise that he doesn't want them using Google.
I don't think it's fair to say that the rumors of Glenn Beck raping and murdering a girl in 1990 are a hoax. Those rumors are quite real.
Whether or not they're accurate is harder to say, of course. I mean, I didn't personally know Glenn Beck in 1990, so how can I really be certain that he didn't rape and then murder some poor girl back then? Still, I would be remiss to suggest that he DEFINITELY raped and then murdered that girl because I have direct evidence. I don't. From what I understand, there was a girl raped and then murdered not far from where Beck was living in 1990, but there was not enough hard evidence to arrest him.
I just hope that some day that girl's parents will be able to watch Beck's show without wondering if he was the man who raped and murdered their daughter. Actually, I'm pretty surprised he hasn't gotten on the air and publicly denounced this particular rumor. Most innocent people I know want to clear their names beyond a shadow of a doubt if they are wanted in questioning regarding the rape and murder of a girl, and I personally know several people who would like to question Beck about that.
Oh well, I'm sure when he dies God will forgive whatever terrible sins he's committed on earth, including all the rapes and murders of girls (if he has taken part in those kinds of activities before).
most of them accept the Trinity and many accept Saints as well
Since you bring up fallacies, I feel the need to point out that there are no Christian (well, Protestant then) sects (... giggity) which recognize sainthood, and I've never met a Protestant who buys the concept of the trinity (I am assured they exist, though). I suppose "most" might encompass Catholics and some Protestants, but the concept is far from ubiquitous, and I have heard many Christians argue that Catholicism isn't really Christianity at all.
I confess, I'm embarrassed by Christians, but it has nothing to do with the difference between monotheism and the holy quadrinity (Mary and me, and baby makes... four?). I'm embarrassed by the ones who don't recognize the value of the following passage in Matthew:
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
The vast majority of Christians believe in a male diety
Wow. Really? I don't remember reading anything about God's genitalia in Sunday school. So this omnipotent and omniscient being who transcends corporeal form is still a dude?
Only on slashdot and other tech blogs can something so trivial as the PS3's DRM be considered as bad as what happened to Lisa McPherson, or any other number of deaths, morbidities or other horror stories to come out of the COS.
Hell, once I saw someone say that we should riot in the street Egyptian style because of what Sony's doing. Here's a bit of perspective. Egyptians rioted on the streets because they couldn't eat. Not because they can't play Xbill and Nethack on their consoles.
YAFMC
I don't think Nethack has been released for the PS3 yet. I'm sure the devteam'll get to it Real Soon Now.
Also, you should unwind your ascot. It was a joke, and humor is an adaptive tool in the face of stress and trauma. Sony wants to kill people!... well I laughed.
Slashdot Mirror
...and the answer is that that's what the readership wants.
The readership will eat what they're given. It's what the ad revenue dictates.
Now their Cyber Vigilantes. Should be asking if Upton Sinclair should be cheered or feared?
Wow, a funny mod. How grim. And true.
"Vigilante" is an idiotic term to use here. These people are protesters, nothing else, no different than people who block entrances to government buildings or bombard politicians with mail and phone calls. Why is it that when something happens on the Internet, it suddenly becomes something more than the same act happening in real life?
That's only true up to a point. The HBGary incident involved breaking into email accounts and (iirc) the remote wiping of an iPad. While hilariously funny, these actions exceed that of sit-in/slow down protesters.
They aren't vigilantes anymore when they attack someone for the sole reason they were investigating them.
I think that is only half true. The reality is they uncovered some Serious Wrongdoing. Whether or not that was any one individual's intent, the Anon cloud seems to employ the Streisand effect to broadcast some major inequities.
On the other hand, they also go after kids on "the facebook" and hassle random people in video streaming and god knows what else. I find it very peculiar that these types of actions never make the big media coverage. If my tinfoil hat was not at a jaunty angle, but rather attached by my tinfoil chinstrap, I might wonder who's interest that serves. I mean, the news networks would get tons of eyeballs for a story like that, wouldn't they?
Curious.
A good case in point
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JonBen%C3%A9t_Ramsey
The parents were for YEARS (and probably are still) harassed. And the dudes from south park owe them a public apology.
Vigilantes may target the wrong people even though they 'mean to do good'. People are morons. Sometimes they have power many times thank god they dont.
I'm sorry you chose to AC this comment, as I was not aware of the DNA development. Forensic exoneration is the best kind, and I'm glad to have learned this.
Thanks
Agreed. No one ought to have sympathy with the corruption of a government. However, if so-called vigilantes have impunity then they could become a new oppressive regime.
Wow. You're right. If the government doesn't protect us, Anonymous will RULE THE COUNTRY, banishing all women from the internet and compelling people to put things in other things so that they may do things while they do things.
I guess having national ID cards and internet licenses is a small price to pay. I mean, I don't mind putting things in things, but I'll be damned if I'll then go do things while I do things. Where would it end?
The consequences are nothing but a pack of powers that be that are looking for a convenient excuse for something they are hell bent on imposing anyway.
They have the motive and means. The hacktivists only provide opportunity.
Sounds terribly familiar, but I just can't 9/11 place it.
How meta of you. I'd still like to be able to get married and have it recognized in other states. I'm not interested in your assessment of its importance.
You're kidding me, right? Did I make any assertion about his motivation?
H E
C H A N G E D
I T
Do I care *why* he did? I do not, in fact, give a damn.
Almost exact. The parties agree to disagree on a few issues that are really of no importance, like gay marriage, in order to maintain the illusion that the vote matters.
Just because something is of no importance to you doesn't mean it isn't at the top of someone else's personal agenda. This is an excellent example, a classic civil rights issue. Unimportant? It sure doesn't seem that way to me.
persecute you if you're a homosexual (Obama directed his DOJ to defend the DOMA in courts)
What? Keep up with the news, my friend.
http://www.wggb.com/Global/story.asp?S=14137011
He may not be as different as we'd like, maybe not by a long shot, but I assure you, it's still better than the other guys.
What are you talking about? The true Slashdot hardcore do not even read the TITLES, much less the summaries. The articles? Those don't actually exist. Ever tried clicking on one? Don't waste your time, there's never anything at the other end of that link.
That's insane, no rational human being can justify stealing music from content creators. If you want to listen, buy the media - period.
#1 Teen Anal Nightmare 2
Wow. Sodomizing terrified teenagers is a popular fantasy, nowadays? Japan's contribution to the world is starting to show...
"I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description [hard-core pornography]; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that." Justice Potter Stewart
If we'd have a "day of copyright rage", getting millions of civil-disobedience copyright-breakers in public squares, with (logically) police trying to break them up, we'd get real policy debate.
Fucking right. A mass protest in this circumstance is to have a letter signed by people across the country which states that on such-and-such a day everyone will pirate some specific piece of media. I would suggest the oldest movie available that is still under copyright. My source at the venerable and precise Answers.com suggests (URL below):
"Anything from a movie prior to 1923 or prior to 1964 and not properly renewed is in the public domain and can be used freely, without copyright restriction. Most other movies are still under copyright protection & you will have to seek permission from the rights holder."
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_copyright_laws_regarding_old_movie_stills_and_photographs
So something from 1924? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1924_in_film#Films_released_in_1924
Hundreds, or even thousands, of voluntarily identified individuals signing on to something like that would be a remarkable statement. To risk freedom in its name demonstrates our right to a return to democracy. Fricken Egypt showed us how it's done. Don't get me wrong, I don't want everything I own confiscated, but picket lines don't get press - especially when they're in cages. (Which is a rant for another time... free speech zones make me murderously angry - (that's hyperbole, DHS...(yeah, I'm a little paranoid))).
Hey hey hey now. What's your problem with Barney Frank? The guy is a goddamn hero as far as I'm concerned, one of the very few politicians who speaks his mind and has thoughtful discourse with constituents. He actually went to town hall meetings with the healthcare proposal in hand and answered very specific questions by consulting the text directly. Brilliant, decent guy.
Anyway, that's my perception - what's yours?
If you kill/imprison the people calling themselves Anonymous the attacks stop either way regardless if they're one group or many groups.
I am Spartacus!
I'm Brian, and so's my wife!
Why is this ridiculous sort of mob justice tolerated ? We've all been in the playground, we've all seen mob justice in action, and we all know what WILL happen. So why do these people get any support whatsoever ?
Are we truly such hypocrites ? Insist on rights, when it's about us ... And then demand and defend swift illegal and criminal action against anyone we don't like ? Is that what is meant by "internet protest" ? Because if it is, frankly, it must be squashed with any amount of violence necessary.
I can't say I'd participate, but I can certainly understand the frustration of seeing an incompetent government security firm in action. Think about the last 12 years for more than a second, and the word 'security'... well, a shiver runs down my spine. The *immediate* surrender of the country's principles and well-being following the bombings in 2001 while dissenters are booed from the spotlight and ostracized. All the things done in the name of security that made us less secure, all (all!) of the money spent on endless, fruitless military operations and grandma groping. Like many /.ers it troubles me deeply, and I see the country breathe a cheeto-stench sigh of disinterest while all but a handful of legislators jerk off on their bases while doing nothing to manage the cancerous meme of security uber alles, all out of cowardice and greed.
Maybe some people think mob justice is the closest they'll ever get to the real thing.
Huh. Guess I'm a little more pissed off than I thought... I'm going to go get some coff... eh, decaf.
there are enough Catholics calling themselves Christian that it makes little sense to make that distinction.
Well, anyone can call themselves anything, that doesn't really relate. I think I get what you're trying to say though. It's an interesting exercise to take a look at some of the arguments for and against the proposal that Catholics are Christian.
I was going to list a few, but 'are catholics christians' in google comes up with a massive amount of both sides.
Almost as much as you obviously don't have the balls to print it. You're going to make an accusation, have the balls to put your name on it. Don't send readers out looking for conspiracy theory web sites.
All those conspiracy nutters drive me crazy, too. I mean honestly, who really believes that the rape and murder of a girl by Glenn Beck in 1990 is being covered up? There is absolutely no ironclad evidence to suggest it was him in the first place, no matter how close she was to his home when they found her.
Get a life, guys - seriously.
Wow, really? A hoax? Who knew?
I'll tell you who *didn't* know: the average uninformed Fox viewer. It's no surprise that he doesn't want them using Google.
I don't think it's fair to say that the rumors of Glenn Beck raping and murdering a girl in 1990 are a hoax. Those rumors are quite real.
Whether or not they're accurate is harder to say, of course. I mean, I didn't personally know Glenn Beck in 1990, so how can I really be certain that he didn't rape and then murder some poor girl back then? Still, I would be remiss to suggest that he DEFINITELY raped and then murdered that girl because I have direct evidence. I don't. From what I understand, there was a girl raped and then murdered not far from where Beck was living in 1990, but there was not enough hard evidence to arrest him.
I just hope that some day that girl's parents will be able to watch Beck's show without wondering if he was the man who raped and murdered their daughter. Actually, I'm pretty surprised he hasn't gotten on the air and publicly denounced this particular rumor. Most innocent people I know want to clear their names beyond a shadow of a doubt if they are wanted in questioning regarding the rape and murder of a girl, and I personally know several people who would like to question Beck about that.
Oh well, I'm sure when he dies God will forgive whatever terrible sins he's committed on earth, including all the rapes and murders of girls (if he has taken part in those kinds of activities before).
In other words, Glenn Beck is a professional troll?
Typical, another Slashdotter who doesn't read the modding instructions! Glenn Beck is tagged flamebait, not troll. He really doesn't know any better.
I mean... probably, right? It's a hell of an act to keep up, and I know Papa Bear thinks he's a total wingnut.
I ran in to Glen Beck at the dry cleaners yesterday. He was picking up his sheep's clothing. True story.
Well that's pretty cool, actually. Most people just give them cab fare.
most of them accept the Trinity and many accept Saints as well
Since you bring up fallacies, I feel the need to point out that there are no Christian (well, Protestant then) sects (... giggity) which recognize sainthood, and I've never met a Protestant who buys the concept of the trinity (I am assured they exist, though). I suppose "most" might encompass Catholics and some Protestants, but the concept is far from ubiquitous, and I have heard many Christians argue that Catholicism isn't really Christianity at all.
I confess, I'm embarrassed by Christians, but it has nothing to do with the difference between monotheism and the holy quadrinity (Mary and me, and baby makes... four?). I'm embarrassed by the ones who don't recognize the value of the following passage in Matthew:
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
The vast majority of Christians believe in a male diety
Wow. Really? I don't remember reading anything about God's genitalia in Sunday school. So this omnipotent and omniscient being who transcends corporeal form is still a dude?
That is so Batman.
Only on slashdot and other tech blogs can something so trivial as the PS3's DRM be considered as bad as what happened to Lisa McPherson, or any other number of deaths, morbidities or other horror stories to come out of the COS.
Hell, once I saw someone say that we should riot in the street Egyptian style because of what Sony's doing. Here's a bit of perspective. Egyptians rioted on the streets because they couldn't eat. Not because they can't play Xbill and Nethack on their consoles.
YAFMC
I don't think Nethack has been released for the PS3 yet. I'm sure the devteam'll get to it Real Soon Now.
Also, you should unwind your ascot. It was a joke, and humor is an adaptive tool in the face of stress and trauma. Sony wants to kill people! ... well I laughed.