the media and hacktivism (was Re: Heinrich Article)

[jesse hirsh <jesse@tao.ca>]

[: hacktivism :]

On Wed, 1 Sep 1999 xdaydreamx@gmx.net wrote:

> This Heinrich guy doesn't seem to be such a clear cut case after all. 
> I did some research and at first everything was as expected: The magazine
> the article was published in, "Infosystems Executive"(www.plesman.com/ise),
> belongs to the "Plesman Communications" (www.plesman.com) group (are they
> owned by anybody? I found some references to the "McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. -
> Anybody from Canada know anything about them?). They own a whole number 
> of technical journals in Canada, described somewhere (I forgot where) as
> reporting what the mainstream media does not report. Their mission statement
> is : 

thanks for this info jjf, we've been quite successfull in tracking down
the sources of this story, which all seem to point to the computer
security industry as a whole, with a few pundits explicitly reponsible for
spreading the vision of hacktivists as terrorists. as always, a lot of
this is coming out of toronto, so we'll be sure to continue following up.
the mcgraw-hill companies are a subsidiary of news corp. which of course
is owned by rupert murdoch. so no surprise to see that sort of connection
emerge.

we got a lot of response to this story, of people (friends and supporters)
encouraging us to take legal action. the main appeal of course being the
fundraising that this could accomplish, but that may simply be a pipe
dream... (we're still thinking that over, and will prolly talk to our
lawyers)...

the cbc (canadian broadcasting company) yesterday had tons of segments on
the whole hotmail incident, privacy on the net, the power of microsoft,
and the prevalence of hacktivism. i think i counted 10 different episodes
that appeared on different shows (radio and tv) each of them independently
produced by different staff, with varying takes on what was up. another
email list i'm on (efc-talk@insight.mcmaster.ca) has a whole bunch of your
run of the mill internet pundits (jim carrol and david jones for example)
who were also all busy yesterday commenting to the media about this
fiasco.

i was fortunte enough to get a gig on the cbc's National Magazine, which
is the current affairs show that is part of the nightly national news. i
was part of a panel with the general manager (spin/damage control) of
microsoft canada, and kk campbell, a journalist with integrity and
intelligence, who often writes for the toronto star. both kk (ken) and i
used the material that James Glave had dug up (explicitly the rumour about
this being a developer's back door) as well as some stuff felix stalder
had passed to me, to really lay into the microsoft guy.

in the end the 8 minute piece was actually pretty good for national tv and
its inherent limitations. we got some good stuff in vis a vis monopoly
power, the deliberate miseducation of their users, the benefits of open
systems versus closed systems, and the fear-mongering that's done around
hackers and their abilities. my role on the panel was that of 'hacker' (i
only play one on tv) and the host was somebody i've worked with a number
of times before, so he totally served up the questions on a platter. i had
one great question on what makes a hacktivist, and how do we relate to
them, to which i answered that hacktiism was about public education in the
public interest, and that the folk with these abilities should generally
be viewed as the best friends the public could have in an age of
unaccountable corporate power. this then led the framework for the team-up
ken and i then made against microsoft and their attack against the public
interest. the microsoft guy got really defensive, and the host of the show
also started ripping into him. so in the end, it felt worthwhile, if only
for the fact that it really got some contrary ideas out into the national
public space. after the interview i ended up spending 15 minutes or so
with the (unionized) techies who were working the gear talking about the
finer points of reality hacking, and how we should all use the means and
artefacts around us to carve out a new sustainable freedom around this
emerging network society. loads of fun i can assure you :)






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