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4chan DDoS Takes Down MPAA and Anti-Piracy Websites

torrentfreak.com

41–50 of 55 posts

Re: 4chan DDoS Takes Down MPAA and Anti-Piracy Websites

#41
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Civil disobedience has a long and recognized history and plays an important role in democratic societies as much as any other kind. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Parks It very well could indicate a flaw in democracy, nothing is perfect.

Civil disobedience is a very well-defined term in its proper usage, and does not extend to all forms of "breaking the law because you're angry about something". Civil disobedience goes like this: 1. You observe that a law is unjust (no blacks at the front of the bus, no Indians making salt) 2. You break that law, and only that law, deliberately and openly. 3. You get arrested and punished. 4. The fact that you're bei…

What would you classify John Brown's raid of the Harpers Ferry armory as?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpers_Ferry,_West_Virginia#Jo...

Re: 4chan DDoS Takes Down MPAA and Anti-Piracy Websites

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also for the young kids: illegal is not always synonymous with immoral, and sometimes to be a productive member of society you have to step across that line.

DDoS or human flesh search would be morally acceptable IF there were no other recourse in society for justice. In china the government is authoritarian and the people have human flesh searches as their effective form of justice. But to condone illegal activity for change in places like the united states is to suggest that there is critical flaw in the democratic process. Is there? Because if there is then we should a…

> But to condone illegal activity for change in places like the united states is to suggest that there is critical flaw in the democratic process.

The USA isn't a democracy. Not formally, because it doesn't have universal adult suffrage, and because votes aren't of equal value. Not practically, because the electoral system means that no-one outside the two big parties can get anywhere. And that's even before we look at abuses of the system such as gerrymandering, or votes not being counted properly.

The USA is in practise run by corporate interests such as the MPAA and RIAA. A good example of this is the ACTA treaty, negotiations for which started under the Bush administration and continued seamlessly under Obama. So lacking in democratic oversight is this that lawmakers aren't even allowed to know what's in it.

Re: 4chan DDoS Takes Down MPAA and Anti-Piracy Websites

#43
post #17

Oddly, while giving a tutorial on how to be a part of the DDoS, the article misses out the minor detail that it is in fact illegal.

Participating in a distributed denial of service attack is not necessarily illegal. There has to be some intent on the part of the visitor to cause damage. You could get involved in one just by innocently visiting a malicious web page which makes your browser download large files from the victim. Or suppose I set up an under-sized server with a very popular web application, the server might collapse under the load, b…

The earlier attack on the Scientologists sent at least two guys to prison:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/01/guilty-plea-in-scie...

Re: 4chan DDoS Takes Down MPAA and Anti-Piracy Websites

#44
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Civil disobedience is a very well-defined term in its proper usage, and does not extend to all forms of "breaking the law because you're angry about something". Civil disobedience goes like this: 1. You observe that a law is unjust (no blacks at the front of the bus, no Indians making salt) 2. You break that law, and only that law, deliberately and openly. 3. You get arrested and punished. 4. The fact that you're bei…

What would you classify John Brown's raid of the Harpers Ferry armory as? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpers_Ferry,_West_Virginia#Jo...

Well, I'm not American and I'm not especially familiar with all the details of US history, so this is the first I've heard of this particular event. However, I'll have a read of the wikipedia article (there's a longer article about the actual event linked from the one on the location) and see what I think.

Well, it certainly doesn't fit the definition of "Civil Disobedience" under any circumstances. Whether it was justified or not is a question I'll leave to others with more knowledge of the era... but to me it certainly doesn't seem to me like it was a good way to pursue the political aim of ending slavery.

Re: 4chan DDoS Takes Down MPAA and Anti-Piracy Websites

#45
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you classify John Brown's raid of the Harpers Ferry armory as? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpers_Ferry,_West_Virginia#Jo...

Well, I'm not American and I'm not especially familiar with all the details of US history, so this is the first I've heard of this particular event. However, I'll have a read of the wikipedia article (there's a longer article about the actual event linked from the one on the location) and see what I think. Well, it certainly doesn't fit the definition of "Civil Disobedience" under any circumstances. Whether it was ju…

Do you live in the US?

Re: 4chan DDoS Takes Down MPAA and Anti-Piracy Websites

#46
post #5

I might be missing something here but surely a web presence is not vital to either of these organizations, and while it might be satisfying to DDOS them it doesn't accomplish much. Also www.aiplex.com appears to be back up.

I believe to us it seems like a futile attempt, they should really target mail servers (which appear to be hosted by microsoft anyway). But to these not so tech-savvy people, I think it's enough to annoy them.

They seem to be fighting fire with fire but the fire of DDoSing a torrent file server burns brighter.

Re: 4chan DDoS Takes Down MPAA and Anti-Piracy Websites

#47
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I'm not American and I'm not especially familiar with all the details of US history, so this is the first I've heard of this particular event. However, I'll have a read of the wikipedia article (there's a longer article about the actual event linked from the one on the location) and see what I think. Well, it certainly doesn't fit the definition of "Civil Disobedience" under any circumstances. Whether it was ju…

Do you live in the US?

What's the relevance?

Re: 4chan DDoS Takes Down MPAA and Anti-Piracy Websites

#48
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Civil disobedience is a very well-defined term in its proper usage, and does not extend to all forms of "breaking the law because you're angry about something". Civil disobedience goes like this: 1. You observe that a law is unjust (no blacks at the front of the bus, no Indians making salt) 2. You break that law, and only that law, deliberately and openly. 3. You get arrested and punished. 4. The fact that you're bei…

What would you classify John Brown's raid of the Harpers Ferry armory as? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpers_Ferry,_West_Virginia#Jo...

"Civil disobedience is the active refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government" - Wikipedia.

Based on that definition I would say those guys managed to actively disobey many laws, including the unjust and discriminatory ones.

If this one guy is hitting another guy do you have the moral right to use force to stop him? I'd say yes, or at least I'd sacrifice my moral purity to defend that person. However in the case of anonymous vs MPAA/RIAA, is there a moral right to sidestep laws (unrelated to copyright, btw) just because the MPAA/RIAA doesn't let people get movies and music for free? Copyright is different from DoS attacking. Choose what you stand for clearly. If you truly believe in DoS attacks AND anti-copyright go ahead and actively disobey both (not that you're automatically right). But if you only believe in disobeying one and breaking the other law just to further your motive in the former objective, well then that's bad.

Re: 4chan DDoS Takes Down MPAA and Anti-Piracy Websites

#49
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's like telling George Wallace to go to the back of the bus. If the MPAA wants to be the chief asshole of the internet then they don't get to play in it with the rest of us. It's not the downfall of society, it's just a little mischief to compensate for an obviously broken democracy. It has always happened and always should.

What, precisely, has the MPAA done that is so wrong? Personally I'd take the copyright debate a lot more seriously if I could separate the folks who have legitimate and well thought-out points to make about the weaknesses of existing copyright law from the folks who just want to get stuff for free.

> What, precisely, has the MPAA done that is so wrong?

I know right? If they did something wrong point that out. Attacking them because you think they're assholes and you feel like it is just plain immature.

Re: 4chan DDoS Takes Down MPAA and Anti-Piracy Websites

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you classify John Brown's raid of the Harpers Ferry armory as? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpers_Ferry,_West_Virginia#Jo...

"Civil disobedience is the active refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government" - Wikipedia. Based on that definition I would say those guys managed to actively disobey many laws, including the unjust and discriminatory ones. If this one guy is hitting another guy do you have the moral right to use force to stop him? I'd say yes, or at least I'd sacrifice my moral purity to defend that person.…

"Civil disobedience is the active refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government" - Wikipedia

An impossibly broad definition -- it encompasses all crime.

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