Monday, January 21, 2013

Technology II

Hey there. This post is for 1 MA/3. If you're in 1 MA/4 please see this link for this week's class.

So, this Thursday I'd like to do a class looking at internet freedom and activism or so-called "hacktivism". The easiest starting point is to have you read this:

www.propublica.org/article/hacktivism-civil-disobedience-or-cyber-crime

In addition, I'd like youou may not have heard of him to read something about Aaaron Swartz. You may not have heard of him but he was the inventor of RSS, helped to start Reddit and was one of the driving forces against SOPA legislation (similar to ACTA here) in the US last year among many other things. Anyway, he committed suicide almost two weeks ago and there's so much material online it's hard to pick the best. The easiest is probably this:
http://gawker.com/5975889/the-death-of-aaron-swartz-and-the-new-hacker-crackdown
This is Aaron's manifesto, definitely worth a read:
http://pastebin.com/cefxMVAy
This is probably my favorite piece but it's pretty long and heavy on politics:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/01/aaron-swartzs-politics.html
This is a great piece from a Harvard law professor:
 http://lessig.tumblr.com/post/40347463044/prosecutor-as-bully
More on the legal justification of the DOJ (department of justice):
http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/01/14/doj-invoked-aaron-swartz-manifesto-to-justify-investigative-methods/
More on how this effects the legal rights of us all:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/01/everyone-interesting-is-a-felon.html
A decent article in the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/13/aaron-swartz-government-abuses-gilmor

Like I say, there's tons more. Pick and choose as time allows. See you Thursday

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