[pp.int.general] Open letter to Anonymous (please distribute)

[Yves Quemener]

On 06/06/2011 12:21 AM, lilo wrote:
> i wondering for the bad answers in hackerspace,  they simply write that
> the "politic  does not apply to hackers".

Sorry but this is not an accurate description of what happened on the 
hackerspaces mailing list. The first reaction was that giving 
instructions to anonymous or to internet at large was just wishful thinking.

I then proceeded to explain that political speech on a technical mailing 
list was doomed to receive negative response. Understand that people 
calling themselves hackers on this mailing list are for most of them 
makers, not security experts or crypto-geeks.

Understand as well that the message signed by the CCC, l0pht and cult of 
dead cow amongst others is a 1999 message urging hacktivists to not 
disrupt internet infrastructure of regimes they did not like, that this 
was counter-productive. The "open letter to Anonymous" did not (yet) 
receive any kind of major support.

I have the feeling that in 2011, the confrontation that the 1999 message 
wanted to avoid finally happened. Wikileaks censorship, mandatory DRMs, 
criminalization of every trivial online act... I think many crackers 
(yes that's the word we should use in theory instead of "hackers" when 
referring to people who break into someone's computer, I know this is a 
lost fight) considered the various censorship laws and actions that 
appeared recently as a casus belli. I have the feeling that the 
wikileaks DNS records affair has been the igniting spark.

These people break the laws we are trying to change. We don't have to 
support them but we have to admit that they are our shadow, that we move 
together not because of an agreement but because we react to the same 
things. We don't obey them, they don't obey us. But we hit the same 
targets : where we protest, they are attacking.

Whether or not this conflict becomes the first cyber-war that the media 
rapaciously wait for or a demonstration of progress through democratic 
discussion relies a lot on the actions of the pirate parties of the 
world. If we can bring credible changes in the laws, the crackers will 
become obsolete and useless. If we can't, we will be as useless as 
diplomats in a blitzkrieg.

That may look like a dramatization, but a lot of things in the 21st 
century will depend on the stance the world takes toward this 
"intellectual property" mess. It is more than just about culture : it 
encompasses science and technology through patents and copyrights on 
designs, agriculture through property rights on crops species, and 
medicine on the generic drugs issues.

Iv