Consider a world where indie digital film producers, 3D printing artists, and anonymous hacktivists combined their efforts to bring to the world ideas that are even more creative, more esoteric, and more revolutionary. While the mainstream often views underground culture as one unified force, commentators of indie, hacker, and makers cultures disagree on the purpose of underground culture. Indie traditionalists argue that indie artists seek to express themselves through original and independent art. Hacker separatists argue that hackers aim to force positive change in the mainstream through resistance and protest. Maker evolutionists claim that the maker community is characterized by its goal to evolve the mainstream with its creativity and …show more content…
In Gabriella Coleman’s article, “Hacker Politics and Publics,” she describes a theoretical example of hacktivism: “If the copyright industries use digital rights management (DRM) to control their digital content, then the response of hackers is not just to crack DRM but to initiate a robust protest movement to insist on their right to do so” (Coleman 515). Through this example, Coleman communicates that hacker culture aims to defend individual rights, like the right to redistribute content they bought. As Coleman explains earlier in the essay, hackers achieve this goal by exercising the power of the individual in protesting the shortcomings of the mainstream through the act of hacking. In stark contrast with the indie artists that indie traditionalists describe, hackers, as viewed by Coleman, communicate their agenda not through art but through technological dissonance and digital …show more content…
In the first chapter of Matt Mason’s book, The Pirate’s Dilemma, he outlines what he thinks is the mantra of the revolutionary DIY makers which he calls “Punk Capitalists”: “Do it (for) yourself, resist authority, combine altruism with self-interest” (Mason 31). Mason claims in his explanation of these three points that punk capitalists should leverage their creativity and independence to make a “path to a brighter future” (Mason 31). This emphasis on making the world a better place is reiterated by Mark Hatch in his book The Maker Movement Manifesto. In the first two pages, Hatch summarizes nine major points as his abbreviated “manifesto”: “make,” “share,” “give,” “learn,” “tool up,” “play,” participate,” “support,” and “change” (Hatch 1-2). Through these points, Hatch implies that the maker movement is as much about the maker as it is about non-makers. The points “share,” “give,” “participate,” and “support” all involve the maker community improving the world around them through their knowledge of making. Hatch’s other points delineate the act of making a means of creating for others. Through their abstract analyses of the maker movement, Mason and Hatch both argue that the goal of the maker community is to evolve the mainstream into something better by leveraging their creativity and knowledge of
His essay doesn’t highlight the fact that technology has been taken advantage of and it has hurt some causes instead of helping them. For example, Anonymous in 2008 launched DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks on the Church of Scientology’s website and posted videos to recruit people to their cause (Hacktivism). All of this illegal activity hindered the cause instead of helping it and the activities also hurt the legal forms of protesting (Hacktivism). The groups like anonymous have had problems with people forming their own groups and breaking off from the original group because like Gladwell said these are weak ties not strong
While it is wrong to stereotype hackers as evil people with malicious criminal intentions, they cannot be stereotyped as compassionate freedom fighters as the hackers like to see themselves. Hackers must also realize that the actions of criminals will always reflect poorly on the hacker community as a whole, until the hacker community tries to police itself, which will never happen. Their actions are by definition, criminal. They can suffer consequences, which include being criminally prosecuted and hated by the information security community.
In this book Sterling discusses three cyberspace subcultures known as the hacker underworld, the realm of the cyber cops, and the idealistic culture for the cyber civil libertarians. At the beginning of the story Sterling starts out with discussing the birth of cyberspace and how it came about. The Hacker Crackdown informs the readers of the issues surrounding computer crime and the people on all sides of those problems. Sterling gives a brief summary of what cyberspace meant back then and how it impacted society, and he investigates the past, present and future of computer crimes. For instance he explains how the invention of the telephone led to a world that people were scared of because the telephone was something that was able to let people talk to one another without actually being in the same area. People thought that it was so strange and so different because they didn’t understand all of the information behind it. Back then people thought of the telephone as a tool that allowed others to talk to them in a way that was so personal yet impersonal. Sterling then goes on to explain how “phone phreaks” played such an important part in relating the telephones to computer crimes and how they were so closely related back then.
The most influential cultural practice of our time is the culture of capitalism, as it is the dominant form of economic organization across the globe (Anderson 2010). Capitalism takes and makes places throughout the globe, leaving traces that affect the commodities we buy, the livings earned, the methods and motives for travelling, and the meanings associated with them (Anderson 2010). The culture of capitalism is based upon trading products, experiences, and services, at all different scales - locally, nationally, or globally. Those who successfully trade products and services, and those who are limited to selling their labour to help other manufacture and provide the desired product often define capitalism. The process of making more money is a key defining element of the culture of capitalism (Anderson 2010).
The definition of a counter-culture, according to Merriam-Webster, is a culture with values and customs are very different from and usually opposed to those accepted by most of society. Anonymous is a loosely aligned group of “hacktivist”. A hacktivist is a person or group that hacks into a website or web entity for the purpose of exposing the group or getting revenge because of their disagreement with something about the group. Anonymous warned the Westbor...
The documentary Rise of the Hackers, focuses on the rising criminal use of hacking and how it is effecting multiple areas of technology. The documentary describes simple and complicated situations concerning hacking, but there still questions that must be answered when it comes to hacking and crime. The main question is in trying to determine why a person would choose to commit computer hacking. There are various theories already present within the criminal justice system that may explain at a micro-level and macro-level. These theories would explain why offenders would commit the crimes, but it may not answer the full scope of the question. The Routine Activities Theory would help to explain why offenders offend, why victims are victimized,
In the Notes From Underground Man (UM) he introduces himself as an depress, unattractive man who feels he has nothing to live for. The Underground man has went through many hardships throughout his life that somewhat justifies his perceptions of people and why he has a preference of being alone than surrounding himself around people. However throughout his story he struggles with being a self conscious intellectual man or being a man that takes action. The underground Man is very self conscious throughout the book when it comes to his audience what other characters throughout the book think of him. Also when it comes to him being a man of action, he tries to save a young prostitute but he unfortunately blows it.
Hacking has two primary definitions; the first refers to the enthusiastic and skilful use of computers to solve problems (Techterms, 2013); the second, to “gain unauthorized access to data in a system or computer” (Oxford Dictionaries, 2013). In the context of this essay the second definition is more appropriate and will be the meaning inferred throughout. This definition also more closely aligns with legal terminology used in the UK when describing the hacking of computers. The Computer Misuse Act (1990) introduced three criminal offenses:
Notes From the Underground was a tale written by Dover Dostoyevsky in 1864. It presents a very disjointed view into the mind of a man who is hyper aware of his existence and sees himself as a man of great intelligence. As the main character is known as, “The Underground Man,” there is a tone of implied madness that the man suffers with his existence of isolation. In this analysis of the novella will identify the Underground Man’s suffering with an understanding of his desire to seek out revenge and his acceptance of what he has sought.
Think about the most laid back, independent, self-sufficient, and wild or extreme music movement. What is it? The answer to that is DIY punk. DIY punk began in the mid 70’s and had a huge impact on that time period. These punk bands were ones that did not follow societal norms and did not necessarily care about making a profit from their music. In the article “Do It Yourself… and the Movement Beyond Capitalism,” Ben Holztman et al states that DIY members were collective individuals going against capitalism (45). They did not want to be involved in that sort of atmosphere. Instead, DIY music addressed value and social relationships (Holtzman et al 45). It was very important for these bands to form new friendships with others that had the same
“The law has not caught up with technology, but it will.” These words were said by Dr. Lentz during a lecture, that she probably doesn't remember, in the Fall of 2012. However, an argument can be made against these wise words that the law has already begun to catch up with technology. Technology law is becoming a fast growing area of legal study and practice in this country. There are multiple cases pertaining to this area, such as Brown vs. E.M.A. and PSINet Inc. vs. Chapman, and mountains of legislation, both federal and state. Many of technology law issues affect not only average ordinary citizens, but also the “deviant” subcultures that have emerged as a result of the electronic age in which we live. In these subcultures things like high speed Internet connectivity and the ability to host large amounts of data are prized. In the pirate and hacker subcultures there is a hierarchy that is based on the level of technical skill and the amount of files that are shared. Those with a high level of technical skill, who readily break copyright law and share files and provide file sharing services are given a high level of respect. Those individuals are called “citizens” by the rest of the community because they disseminate pirated materials to the rest of the community and work to better the community as a whole instead of focusing on their own desires. At the bottom of the hierarchy are “leeches,” those who just leech off of the pirated materials provided by a “citizen” and do little to augment the pirate community. (Holt & Copes, 2010) Many pirate communities use a file sharing technology called bittorenting. “This technology involves the simultaneous upload (sending files to others—called ‘‘seeding’’) and download (receiving files f...
The Truth about Hackers In the winter of the year 2000 an eighteen year old hacker, who went by the name Curador accessed about 26, 000 credit card numbers and put them on the internet. With the help of an ex-hacker, Curador was eventually tracked down and sentenced. All of this was explained in a frontline interview with Curador himself also known as Raphael Gray. Who are these so called hackers? Are peoples assumptions about teenage hackers correct? In 1995 the movie Hackers portrayed the images and lifestyles of hackers similar to the one mentioned above. The characters in Hackers show a media example of finding themselves in cyberspace by forming a community which creates their own boundaries. According to Coppin, hacking is the process of writing and reading code. People who code in an open range of society are hackers. The term a hack is often meant as a fast and dirty solution. Hackers are often confused with hackers are crackers. Crackers are people who break into or crack computer security systems (Coppin). In Hackers, high school cyberpunk teenagers get together and associate with the rave lifestyle known as techno. Due to the medias portrayal of the average hacker, people constantly associate hackers as teens with a love for techno music and rave-like gatherings. This is not necessarily true. Anyone can be a hacker. Even those with a family, a job, and an ideal lifestyle, including females have the potential of being a hacker. Therefore, no stereotypical labels should be placed on hackers due to their possible diversity. Hackers influences the way people tend to associate how everyday hackers are supposed to be. Hackers also show how hackers form their own cyber communities. They share simil...
Most of us own neither the tools and machinery we work with nor the products that we produce--they belong to the capitalist that hired us. But everything we work on and in at some point comes from human labor. The irony is that everywhere we turn, we are confronted with the work of our own hands and brains, and yet these products of our labor appear as things outside of us, and outside of our control.
The Maker Movement is more of a call to create than a demand for social revolution that the Arts and Crafts movement was. Their similarities, though, are still striking. The kindred spirits that are Ruskin, Morris and Hatch thrive through the use of machine-tools in order to create, share and change the world through the act of artists and designers making objects.
What is a hacker? This term has been used a lot lately, especially due to the cyber attacks that have escalated to a whole new level in the recent years. According to Sjoholm and Rosencrance, a hacker is “an individual who uses computer, networking or other skills to overcome a technical problem”. It also refers to a person that gains unauthorized access to systems or networks for the purpose of committing acts of malicious intent. There are three different types of hackers: White hat, black hat and grey hat hackers. White hat hackers or ethical hackers are the hackers that seek to remain in the best interest of the pubic. Black hat hackers are criminals that seek to violate laws and regulations and cause chaos by illegally