1. It was 6:00 in the morning.
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2. I got a knock on my door... a
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3. really loud knock... and I
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4. thought it was my dad, who had
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5. locked himself out or something.
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6. So I opened it, and it's the.
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7. I.e.d. Flashlights and the
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8. really obnoxious bullet-proof
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9. vest and the dragging me out
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10. into the cold when I'm in my
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11. pajamas.
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12. That was not fun.
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13. They seemed pretty shocked by
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14. the sarcastic, belligerent,
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15. angry teenager that they dragged
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16. out of bed that day.
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17. I don't know if it's just that I
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18. was 19 or that I was a girl, but
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19. they didn't expect... This.
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20. 10,000 angry kids... whoever
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21. they are, they scared the shit
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22. out of some people those days.
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23. They scared the shit out of the
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24. powers that be, and that's why
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25. this is being investigated.
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26. That's why I'm under
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27. indictment.
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28. That's it, because between the
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29. days of December 6th and
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30. December 10th, 10,000 angry
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31. people proved to the government
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32. that their regulations, their
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33. ideas, their view of PayPal,
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34. their view of wikileaks, their
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35. view of the Afghan war, and
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36. Egypt and Tunisia and Libya...
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37. It didn't... Matter.
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38. Their opinion no longer mattered
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39. because someone was out on the
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40. Internet kicking ass.
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41. The computer hacker group
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42. anonymous is claiming tonight
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43. that it took down the website of
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44. the federal appeals court in
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45. San Francisco this afternoon.
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46. They took down senate. Gov
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47. servers, they've taken down
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48. hbgary, Sony's claiming they did
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49. $150 million worth of damage.
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50. So many confidential files
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51. that tonight, because of these
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52. hackers, can be in the hands of
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53. anyone.
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54. Visa, mastercard, the PayPal
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55. situation.
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56. The criminals who hacked into
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57. Sarah Palin's private e-mail.
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58. The church of scientology
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59. says anonymous is a
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60. cyber-terrorist group of
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61. religious bigots.
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62. Anonymous and this other
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63. group called lulzsec... they
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64. seem to be wanting to prove a
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65. point.
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66. Anonymous kind of was like
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67. the big, strong, buff kid who
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68. had low self-esteem, and then
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69. all of a sudden, punched
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70. somebody in the face and was
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71. like, "holy shit, I'm really"
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72. strong!"
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73. And anonymous calls itself "the"
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74. "final boss of the Internet," and
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75. sometimes if proves to be
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76. really fucking true.
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77. If you are going to violate the
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78. freedoms of the Internet, you
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79. certainly better watch the fuck
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80. out.
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81. They are kind of the rude
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82. boys of activism.
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83. There's a real rough edge to
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84. them, which I think also is one
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85. reason why they garner so much
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86. love and hate from people, too.
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87. They represent a certain sort of
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88. chaotic freedom.
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89. Individual, young, nameless,
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90. faceless folks are having
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91. geopolitical impact.
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92. I mean, it's both exhilarating
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93. to realize that and terrifying
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94. to realize that.
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95. It kind of depends on how that
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96. power is wielded.
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97. We are legion.
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98. We do not forget.
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99. Expect us.
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100. We stand for freedom.
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101. We stand for freedom of speech,
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102. the power of the people, the
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103. ability for them to protest
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104. against their government, to
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105. right wrongs.
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106. No censorship, especially online
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107. but also in real life.
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108. We have members throughout
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109. society, in all stratas of it
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110. worldwide.
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111. Yeah, we have no leadership.
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112. It's one voice... it's not
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113. individual voices.
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114. That's why we don't show our
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115. faces, that's why we don't give
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116. our names.
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117. We're speaking as one.
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118. It's a collective.
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119. Good timing.
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120. I got called a terrorist
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121. sympathizer.
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122. We've been called kids, we've
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123. been called cyber-bullies, we've
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124. been called hooligans, and, you
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125. know, sometimes those words
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126. aren't entirely unfair, but this
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127. is a serious political movement.
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128. No one in the general public
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129. really seems to get it.
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130. What they don't seem to get is
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131. that the ability for anonymous
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132. to be everything and anything is
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133. it's power.
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134. Anonymous is a series of
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135. relationships... hundreds and
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136. hundreds of people who are very
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137. active in it, and who have
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138. varying skill sets, and who have
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139. varying issues they want to
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140. advance and who are
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141. collaborating in different ways
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142. each day.
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143. They're a little bit like a
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144. prism or a kaleidoscope...
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145. They're got many different
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146. facets and many different sides.
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147. Of course, when you spend enough
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148. time with them, you start to get
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149. a sort of feel or texture that's
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150. not just random, right?
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151. Yet it's very multifaceted,
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152. very rich, which does span from
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153. the quite lighthearted to the
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154. very, very serious.
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155. Bob Dylan had a line in his
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156. song, to sing, "to live outside"
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157. the law, you must be honest."
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158. They might do something which
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159. isn't technically correct,
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160. maybe it's not legally correct,
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161. but they're doing it for
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162. purposes that, in their minds at
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163. least, are ethical.
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164. People who know what they're
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165. doing, who share an ethos, who
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166. have a commitment to exposing
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167. and humiliating "the man," who
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168. have a very low tolerance of
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169. lies and what they perceive as
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170. evil on the part of overweening
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171. power structures.
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172. They share information, they
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173. share tools and techniques, and
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174. they are currently having a very
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175. good time.
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176. They hacker culture, as we
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177. know it, really sprang from one
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178. place.
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179. It was m.I.T., and it was
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180. specifically the people in the
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181. model-railroad club, the
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182. tech-model-railroad club.
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183. Hacking originated as
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184. humorous pranks when the guys at
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185. m.I.t. Put a Volkswagen up on
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186. top of the dome of the building,
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187. and people woke up and saw the
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188. car up there in the morning.
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189. Or they measured a bridge by the
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190. body lengths of somebody, I
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191. would say his name was Brian,
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192. and discovered the bridge over
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193. the Charles river was
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194. 822 Brians.
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195. These are funny things.
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196. That's where hacking originated,
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197. and it migrated into engineering
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198. and computer communities.
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199. It's witty. It's pranks.
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200. Basically, Microsoft and
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201. apple both got their entire
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202. start off computer crime.
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203. Bill Gates stole pretty much all
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204. of ms-dos.
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205. Steve Jobs... he was creating
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206. boxes to defraud the phone
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207. company.
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208. I always saw hacking as
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209. implicitly political.
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210. Hackers, whether they're
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211. conscious about it or not,
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212. whether they're explicit about
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213. it or not, make a statement
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214. about how we should treat
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215. information.
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216. And some years after my book
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217. came out, one of the people I
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218. wrote about, Richard stallman,
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219. got very publicly and
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220. explicitly political about
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221. software.
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222. And he believed that software
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223. should be free... free as in
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224. freedom, not free as in beer, as
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225. he put it there.
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226. Behind it, whether misguided or
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227. not, there's a political
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228. impulse.
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229. I'm Chris wysopal, former
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230. member of the lopht.
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231. We don't necessarily say
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232. "hacking group" because it makes
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233. it sound like we're hacking, so
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234. we used to call it
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235. "a hacker's think tank."
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236. "Hacktivism" was a term coined
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237. by a group called
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238. "the cult of the dead cow."
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239. The lopht had an interesting
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240. relationship with
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241. the cult of the dead cow.
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242. Actually, there were some
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243. members that were in both
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244. organizations.
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245. And we kind of kept, like, the
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246. serious security research that
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247. they were doing, they would do
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248. under the lopht name, and if
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249. they were doing some sort of
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250. just goofy stunt-like things,
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251. they would do it under
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252. the cult of the dead cow name,
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253. because the cult of the dead cow
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254. was really kind of sort of like
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255. a propaganda type of
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256. organization.
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257. They had a guy who was the
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258. minister of propaganda.
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259. They're kind of merry
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260. pranksters, like everything they
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261. did was completely over the top.
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262. One of the guys there coined the
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263. term "hacktivism" because he saw
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264. one of the things his group was
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265. doing, which he called
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266. "hacktivism," was writing
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267. software that people in other
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268. countries could use to
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269. communicate securely, even if
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270. their government was spying on
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271. them.
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272. So the principle was really
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273. freedom of expression.
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274. It was everyone should have
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275. access to the Internet, everyone
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276. should be able to communicate
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277. and get their message out on the
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278. Internet, even more important,
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279. in countries where there was
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280. repressive regimes that if you
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281. said something against the
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282. regime, they would come and take
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283. you away and you weren't saying
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284. it anymore.
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285. "Hacktivism" has often meant
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286. to designate a form of political
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287. activity in which technology
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288. assistance is used for
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289. human-rights activism.
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290. That's kind of the narrow sense
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291. of the word.
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292. It usually stays within the
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293. purview of the law... usually,
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294. because by providing
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295. technological assistance, you
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296. may be breaking a local law,
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297. however.
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298. And yet, other forms of digital
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299. interventions, protest, dissent,
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300. disobedience are clearly pushing
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301. the boundaries of the law, are
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302. seeking to actively break the
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303. law in protest, or are just
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304. merely transgressive, as well.
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305. Just like in traditional
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306. activism, it spans the full
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307. gamut from sit-ins or pickets to
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308. actually spiking trees and
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309. pouring sand in the engines of
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310. construction vehicles.
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311. I mean, there's real sabotage.
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312. The same thing does all fall
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313. under the "hacktivism" label.
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314. There is a spectrum.
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315. A good place to start are
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316. with what has often been called
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317. virtual sit-ins, which use the
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318. tactic of a denial of service
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319. attack.
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320. Denial of service has been
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321. around for a long, long time.
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322. The equivalent of if you, for
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323. some reason, wanted to disrupt a
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324. bus service, right?
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325. You can hire a thousand extras
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326. to all go and line up at the bus
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327. station and get on the bus.
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328. And so then anyone who was
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329. really trying to get on the bus
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330. couldn't do it.
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331. It's as simple as that... when
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332. you stop trying to visit,
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333. website goes back up, no
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334. permanent damage.
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335. And this tactic has been used
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336. by a number of different groups.
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337. Probably the most famous is the
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338. electronic disturbance theater.
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339. Another really interesting case
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340. happened in Germany where a
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341. group of activists got together
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342. who wanted to protest the fact
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343. that the airline lufthansa...
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344. They were using their planes to
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345. deport immigrants.
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346. And they would take down the
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347. site.
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348. And, in fact, eventually, the
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349. German courts ruled that this
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350. could be a legitimate form of
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351. protest.
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352. This sometimes has strong
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353. anarchist flavor to it, as well.
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354. It's resistance to authority and
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355. those who would impose
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356. group-think and group-behavior
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357. on the people, which was
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358. rightly perceived to be a
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359. consequence of the digital
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360. revolution as it was used by
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361. people in power... to do
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362. hacking on behalf of
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363. righteousness and to redress the
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364. grievances of the world.
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365. Lance-lowered Don quixote on his
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366. horse, nag though she was,
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367. flying at the windmills of
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368. modern life.
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369. Anonymous grew out of what's
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370. know as 4chan.
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371. And essentially, this is just a
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372. website where people can upload
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373. images and you don't actually
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374. give your name, it's just sort
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375. of anonymous.
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376. When you look at 4chan,
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377. you're often surprised because
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378. it looks like a site from like
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379. 1995 or something.
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380. The idea is very simple... you
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381. post a comment and you post a
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382. picture, and you can post under
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383. your name or anonymously.
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384. And it's separated into boards
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385. about particular topics, so
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386. there's a topic on anime,
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387. there's a topic on weaponry.
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388. There's like a 4chan board
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389. for origami and you just upload
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390. interesting pictures of origami.
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391. And then, there was a group
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392. called the "/b/ board," which
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393. essentially was for, like,
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394. anything goes.
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395. The first time anybody goes
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396. on /b/, it's kind of an instant
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397. revulsion, 'cause there's never
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398. a time that you go on there
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399. where you don't see something
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400. horrible.
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401. That instantly puts off a lot of
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402. people.
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403. The idea is post something
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404. that can never be unseen.
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405. Half of the posts on /b/ are
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406. there specifically to make
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407. people not want to come back to
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408. /b/.
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409. Have you ever read
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410. "lord of the flies"?
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411. 4chan and especially /b/ is
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412. "lord of the flies," except some
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413. of them aren't 16 anymore.
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414. They're just allowed to act 16.
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415. It's the most vile,
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416. disgusting, and funny thing on
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417. the Internet.
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418. 4chan was founded by
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419. Chris "moot" poole when he was
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420. very young, maybe 15, in the
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421. early 2000s.
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422. He started 4chan because he was
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423. a big fan of Japanese animation.
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424. Chris "moot" poole's the
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425. sweetest kid you've ever met in
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426. your life.
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427. He's small, and he's, like...
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428. He's got these sort of like tiny
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429. features, and he runs the most
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430. disgusting website in the world.
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431. What I think is really
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432. intriguing about a community
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433. like 4chan is just that it's
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434. this open place.
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435. As I said, it's raw, it's
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436. unfiltered, and sites like it
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437. are kind of going the way of the
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438. dinosaur right now.
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439. They're endangered because we're
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440. moving towards social
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441. networking.
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442. We're moving towards persistent
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443. identity.
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444. We're moving towards, you know,
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445. a lack of privacy, really.
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446. The /b/ board... that's the
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447. exact opposite of Facebook.
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448. Facebook, you're supposed to be
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449. who you are and there's sort of
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450. one model, which is that you're
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451. friends with people, right?
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452. In 4chan, you're a totally
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453. anonymous nobody.
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454. And anonymous speech is... a lot
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455. of it's ugly, but not all of it
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456. is.
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457. It's actually sort of a place
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458. where people can be honest.
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459. One of the important things
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460. about 4chan is to have a thread
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461. that really explodes and lasts
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462. for a long time.
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463. 'Cause if it doesn't, then it
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464. disappears... it's a site that's
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465. not archived.
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466. So it creates conditions for
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467. anything that grabs attention,
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468. at some level, and so humor and
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469. grotesqueness, as a result, are
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470. quite good for that.
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471. I'd rather just be referred
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472. to as anonymous, I guess, in the
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473. interviews 'cause I have some
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474. docs out on me.
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475. You'll see something posted one
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476. day, and then a week later it's
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477. got 50,000 derivatives of it.
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478. A lot of the great Internet
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479. memes that we all know and love,
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480. you know, lolcats, right, you
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481. know, little cats doing funny
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482. things and then they have "I can"
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483. "has cheezburger," right?
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484. All that stuff seems to start in
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485. this petri dish that is 4chan,
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486. /b/ board.
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487. Name any meme from the last
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488. about six years, and I'll bet
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489. you, either in it's first
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490. posting ever was on 4chan, or at
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491. least one of it's earliest
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492. revisions that became what it
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493. was was on 4chan.
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494. I can see the food situation
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495. is so we'll be on our
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496. way.
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497. It's basically the best
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498. breeding ground for Internet
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499. culture, as far as I'm
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500. concerned.
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501. 4chan is also very known for
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502. acts of trolling.
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503. For them, it's funny, that
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504. people think the Internet is
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505. serious business.
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506. And if people think the Internet
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507. is serious business, it's a
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508. troll's job to make their life
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509. terrible.
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510. The idea of anonymous came
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511. initially as a joke.
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512. I mean, somebody suggested that,
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513. "what if the whole site, what if"
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514. 4chan, what if /b/ was just one
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515. person, and what if that's just
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516. one guy called anonymous sitting
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517. somewhere and you're just
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518. reading all these posts by one
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519. "guy?"
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520. And it kind of looked like
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521. that, from the outsider's
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522. perspective.
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523. I mean, there's no way to tell
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524. the difference.
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525. It might as well be one guy.
Copy !req
526. Fox news did a very famous
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527. segment about it.
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528. They call themselves
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529. "anonymous."
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530. They are hackers on steroids,
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531. treating the web like a
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532. real-life video game... sacking
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533. websites, invading MySpace
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534. accounts, disrupting innocent
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535. people's lives, and if you fight
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536. back, watch out.
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537. Threats from a gang of
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538. computer hackers calling
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539. themselves "anonymous."
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540. I've had seven different
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541. passwords, and they've got them
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542. all so far.
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543. Anonymous hacked his site and
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544. plastered it with gay-sex
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545. pictures.
Copy !req
546. His girlfriend left him.
Copy !req
547. She thought that I was
Copy !req
548. cheating on her with guys.
Copy !req
549. As long as I can think back,
Copy !req
550. anonymous has done some pretty
Copy !req
551. off-color things in the name of
Copy !req
552. getting cheap laughs, you know?
Copy !req
553. But, I mean, that's part of the
Copy !req
554. culture.
Copy !req
555. They get what
Copy !req
556. they call "lulz."
Copy !req
557. "Lulz" is a corruption of
Copy !req
558. "lol," which stands for laugh
Copy !req
559. out loud.
Copy !req
560. Anonymous gets big "lulz" from
Copy !req
561. pulling random pranks.
Copy !req
562. For example, messing with online
Copy !req
563. children's games like
Copy !req
564. "habbo hotel."
Copy !req
565. "Habbo hotel" was this online
Copy !req
566. community where you had an
Copy !req
567. avatar and you walked around and
Copy !req
568. talked to other people.
Copy !req
569. It was kind of like an early
Copy !req
570. version of "world of warcraft"
Copy !req
571. or "second life" or any of those
Copy !req
572. virtual worlds.
Copy !req
573. What the people on /bl did was
Copy !req
574. invade "habbo hotel," created
Copy !req
575. thousands of avatars.
Copy !req
576. They all had this one uniform of
Copy !req
577. a black guy with a big afro
Copy !req
578. wearing a black suit.
Copy !req
579. And so there would be thousands
Copy !req
580. of these people... black guys,
Copy !req
581. black suit, huge afro... walking
Copy !req
582. around this world, and they
Copy !req
583. would do things like form a
Copy !req
584. swastika out of themselves.
Copy !req
585. And I think that was a real
Copy !req
586. landmark because it was when
Copy !req
587. they were able to see that they
Copy !req
588. can use their numbers to do
Copy !req
589. something really interesting and
Copy !req
590. really disruptive.
Copy !req
591. Those kids loved that pool.
Copy !req
592. They loved the shit out of their
Copy !req
593. pool.
Copy !req
594. The goal was actually to
Copy !req
595. offend everyone, simply because
Copy !req
596. the idea that we could offend
Copy !req
597. you by drawing a little shape on
Copy !req
598. the screen was stupid to the
Copy !req
599. people involved in it.
Copy !req
600. They were like, "really?"
Copy !req
601. You're gonna get that mad over
Copy !req
602. us doing... just drawing this on
Copy !req
603. the screen?
Copy !req
604. Wow, well, you need to refocus a
Copy !req
605. little on life, 'cause this
Copy !req
606. should not be upsetting you that
Copy !req
607. "much."
Copy !req
608. Barrett brown, I'm the
Copy !req
609. director of project pm and a
Copy !req
610. former operative with anonymous.
Copy !req
611. We were targeting furries, which
Copy !req
612. meant we entered a subculture of
Copy !req
613. people, of course, who a lot of
Copy !req
614. people on 4chan find irritating
Copy !req
615. by virtue of they're being
Copy !req
616. irritating.
Copy !req
617. A furry is someone, generally a
Copy !req
618. male in his 20s, who identifies
Copy !req
619. with animals and often times has
Copy !req
620. sexual attraction to other
Copy !req
621. people dressed as animals.
Copy !req
622. We had furry infiltrators,
Copy !req
623. people trying, you know... we
Copy !req
624. had secret groups.
Copy !req
625. Mine was called the
Copy !req
626. "illuminati/I/illuminati," and
Copy !req
627. our goal was to wreak as much
Copy !req
628. havoc as possible, because it
Copy !req
629. was stupid.
Copy !req
630. There was a point when I
Copy !req
631. otherwise seemed a respectable
Copy !req
632. writer, in 2007, and my first
Copy !req
633. book had come out like that, but
Copy !req
634. I spent my evenings on
Copy !req
635. "second life," that big virtual
Copy !req
636. world riding around in a virtual
Copy !req
637. spaceship with the words
Copy !req
638. "faggory daggory do" written on
Copy !req
639. it, wearing afros, and dropping
Copy !req
640. virtual bombs on little villages
Copy !req
641. and concerts, and waving giant
Copy !req
642. penises around.
Copy !req
643. And that was the most fun time I
Copy !req
644. ever had in my life.
Copy !req
645. All these different
Copy !req
646. organizations online, whether
Copy !req
647. it's 4chan or just any website,
Copy !req
648. there's typically a community
Copy !req
649. aspect to it.
Copy !req
650. This is where people have their
Copy !req
651. social relationships.
Copy !req
652. This is where their friends are.
Copy !req
653. This is where they have a
Copy !req
654. creative outlet.
Copy !req
655. And so all those aspects are
Copy !req
656. going in to groups like
Copy !req
657. anonymous where people feel like
Copy !req
658. they're part of a bigger thing
Copy !req
659. and they're able to express
Copy !req
660. themselves within that group.
Copy !req
661. There were certain words,
Copy !req
662. certain phrases, certain ways
Copy !req
663. people respond to things,
Copy !req
664. certain images that are posted
Copy !req
665. that created a pattern, and that
Copy !req
666. pattern was, I guess, the origin
Copy !req
667. of what is now anonymous.
Copy !req
668. It's like free masons with a
Copy !req
669. sense of humor, in so much that
Copy !req
670. they have this common symbology
Copy !req
671. and one of their chief joys,
Copy !req
672. which is kind of wrapped up in
Copy !req
673. power and secrecy, was the fact
Copy !req
674. that they could recognize each
Copy !req
675. other by referencing these
Copy !req
676. symbols, referencing these
Copy !req
677. phrases... "over 9,000."
Copy !req
678. It's over 9,000!
Copy !req
679. "I lost my iPod,"mudkipz,"
Copy !req
680. anything involving mudkipz.
Copy !req
681. So you have this weird sort of
Copy !req
682. international culture developing
Copy !req
683. with people across the world,
Copy !req
684. wherever they may be.
Copy !req
685. In late '06, and into early
Copy !req
686. '07, there's a bit of a sea
Copy !req
687. change where instead of just
Copy !req
688. posting a bunch of content, or
Copy !req
689. randomly saying, "we're going to"
Copy !req
690. go over to some website and post
Copy !req
691. a bunch of dirty comments
Copy !req
692. "against someone," it becomes a
Copy !req
693. little more organized.
Copy !req
694. Welcome to
Copy !req
695. "the hal Turner show"!
Copy !req
696. They went after a guy named
Copy !req
697. hal Turner.
Copy !req
698. I am being discriminated
Copy !req
699. against because I'm white.
Copy !req
700. Hal Turner was a Neo-Nazi who
Copy !req
701. was big online and had a
Copy !req
702. podcast.
Copy !req
703. I think that the 14th
Copy !req
704. amendment was not ratified
Copy !req
705. properly, and I think,
Copy !req
706. therefore, it is still okay to
Copy !req
707. have negroes as slaves in
Copy !req
708. America.
Copy !req
709. I'm like, "yeah, screw that"
Copy !req
710. racist son of a bitch!
Copy !req
711. "Let's do this," you know?
Copy !req
712. So I joined in, and I made some
Copy !req
713. of the phone calls and I played
Copy !req
714. around on the chat thing on his
Copy !req
715. website and posted in the
Copy !req
716. threads, and whatnot.
Copy !req
717. Who are you?
Copy !req
718. Where you calling from?
Copy !req
719. Hola!
Copy !req
720. This is Pedro! From San Diego!
Copy !req
721. Spic, don't call my radio
Copy !req
722. show anymore, you filthy spic
Copy !req
723. animal!
Copy !req
724. The college that I go to has
Copy !req
725. begun an integration program
Copy !req
726. where they try and purposely
Copy !req
727. lower standards to bring more
Copy !req
728. blacks and "diversify" the
Copy !req
729. campus.
Copy !req
730. And by the end of the next five
Copy !req
731. years, they intend to bring
Copy !req
732. over 9,000.
Copy !req
733. He was just a horribly racist
Copy !req
734. radio personality who seemed to
Copy !req
735. handle it well when you called
Copy !req
736. in.
Copy !req
737. Like, he could handle being
Copy !req
738. berated by anonymous.
Copy !req
739. And that made it very
Copy !req
740. interesting.
Copy !req
741. It made it a bit of a challenge.
Copy !req
742. It wasn't some guy who just
Copy !req
743. either crumbled or stopped
Copy !req
744. answering the phone.
Copy !req
745. It was a guy who would yell
Copy !req
746. back.
Copy !req
747. I don't see really where
Copy !req
748. you're going with this.
Copy !req
749. Where I'm going is I believe
Copy !req
750. Barack Obama is genetically
Copy !req
751. incapable of exercising the
Copy !req
752. power necessary to govern the
Copy !req
753. most complicated nation on
Copy !req
754. earth.
Copy !req
755. That's where I'm going with
Copy !req
756. this.
Copy !req
757. And I think part of the reason
Copy !req
758. he's incapable of doing it is
Copy !req
759. because of racial-genetic
Copy !req
760. inferiority.
Copy !req
761. Is that clear enough for you?
Copy !req
762. No, you changed the subject
Copy !req
763. again.
Copy !req
764. Wait a second, you asked
Copy !req
765. me...
Copy !req
766. Hal Turner wasn't the first
Copy !req
767. actual person that anonymous had
Copy !req
768. caused trouble for, but the
Copy !req
769. circumstances ended up being
Copy !req
770. significant.
Copy !req
771. They ddos'd his website, stuff
Copy !req
772. like that, costing him thousands
Copy !req
773. of dollars in bandwidth fees.
Copy !req
774. And then they ended up
Copy !req
775. getting some real hackers to
Copy !req
776. help them out, like this wasn't
Copy !req
777. sort of pranks.
Copy !req
778. They actually were able to get
Copy !req
779. into hal Turner's private
Copy !req
780. servers and his mail servers and
Copy !req
781. find some interesting e-mails
Copy !req
782. that he was serving as an FBI
Copy !req
783. informant, which if you're a
Copy !req
784. right-wing Neo-Nazi is not a
Copy !req
785. good thing be.
Copy !req
786. And obviously, him being an
Copy !req
787. FBI informant, and also his
Copy !req
788. reaction... his sort of
Copy !req
789. douche-baggy reaction... to the
Copy !req
790. raids damaged his credibility
Copy !req
791. within the white nationalists
Copy !req
792. scene, which is a shame.
Copy !req
793. Hal Turner's gone.
Copy !req
794. He's been prosecuted by the feds
Copy !req
795. for threatening judges.
Copy !req
796. It wasn't supposed to be
Copy !req
797. different, but it ended up being
Copy !req
798. different.
Copy !req
799. People who observe anonymous see
Copy !req
800. this group called anonymous is
Copy !req
801. going after this white
Copy !req
802. nationalist and say, "oh, hey",
Copy !req
803. look, anonymous must be some
Copy !req
804. "kind of activist organization."
Copy !req
805. So, by virtue of those people
Copy !req
806. joining anonymous, anonymous
Copy !req
807. becomes more of an activist
Copy !req
808. organization.
Copy !req
809. What follows is a period of
Copy !req
810. confusion and anger in which the
Copy !req
811. original anonymous people... the
Copy !req
812. sort who want to keep anonymous
Copy !req
813. as this nihilist little
Copy !req
814. ridiculous group... are upset
Copy !req
815. that now the most terrible thing
Copy !req
816. on the Internet is now becoming
Copy !req
817. a force for good all of a
Copy !req
818. sudden.
Copy !req
819. Anonymous has never been
Copy !req
820. about getting media attention or
Copy !req
821. getting all of this attention
Copy !req
822. towards it.
Copy !req
823. I mean, it's a community, a
Copy !req
824. pretty sometimes insular
Copy !req
825. community that just kind of kept
Copy !req
826. to itself, made jokes and made
Copy !req
827. content.
Copy !req
828. But that was, of course, changed
Copy !req
829. completely.
Copy !req
830. It's thrown completely on its
Copy !req
831. head when chanology started.
Copy !req
832. Anonymous began to become
Copy !req
833. less just of a culture, you
Copy !req
834. know, of people who wanted to
Copy !req
835. perform pranks and more of the.
Copy !req
836. Internet's first army.
Copy !req
837. I'm Mike vitale, and my
Copy !req
838. handle's "sethdood."
Copy !req
839. Now, this is January 2008.
Copy !req
840. Anonymous is strong now.
Copy !req
841. You know, we're not a little
Copy !req
842. dinky fucking group anymore.
Copy !req
843. Like, this is, like, millions of
Copy !req
844. people worldwide, and we're
Copy !req
845. watching.
Copy !req
846. And then scientology stepped in
Copy !req
847. with a big target on its chest.
Copy !req
848. A video came out of
Copy !req
849. Tom Cruise.
Copy !req
850. It was supposed to be, like, an
Copy !req
851. internal scientology video
Copy !req
852. talking about secrets of
Copy !req
853. scientology.
Copy !req
854. Being a scientologist, when
Copy !req
855. you drive past an accident, it's
Copy !req
856. not like anyone else.
Copy !req
857. As you drive past, you know you
Copy !req
858. have to do something about it
Copy !req
859. because you know you're the only
Copy !req
860. one that can really help.
Copy !req
861. Talks about "you're the only"
Copy !req
862. one who can stop, you know, bad
Copy !req
863. "things from happening."
Copy !req
864. And so, this is kind of wildly
Copy !req
865. mocked online.
Copy !req
866. It circulated like wildfire.
Copy !req
867. There's nothing
Copy !req
868. parting a wave for me.
Copy !req
869. It's just "whoo!"
Copy !req
870. These people found it
Copy !req
871. humorous and goofy.
Copy !req
872. And the church of scientology
Copy !req
873. went into their legal mode, and
Copy !req
874. they threatened websites with
Copy !req
875. lawsuits if they didn't pull
Copy !req
876. down the video.
Copy !req
877. Instantly, the scientologists
Copy !req
878. post a dmca... digital
Copy !req
879. millennium copyright act.
Copy !req
880. And this is a way that if you
Copy !req
881. own content, you can go to video
Copy !req
882. sites, upload sites and have
Copy !req
883. your content pulled when someone
Copy !req
884. uploads it illegally.
Copy !req
885. Scientology's always at odds
Copy !req
886. with the Internet, always trying
Copy !req
887. to legally bully people out of
Copy !req
888. fucking them over on the
Copy !req
889. Internet.
Copy !req
890. They always did that.
Copy !req
891. And then here they are trying
Copy !req
892. again, but you know what?
Copy !req
893. Anonymous saw that, and they
Copy !req
894. said, "oh, you guys just fucked"
Copy !req
895. around badly.
Copy !req
896. Like, you're trying to censor
Copy !req
897. our Internet.
Copy !req
898. You know, like, are you trying
Copy !req
899. to take a joke away from
Copy !req
900. anonymous?
Copy !req
901. "Like, you don't do that."
Copy !req
902. What these people did, in
Copy !req
903. this case... gregg housh and
Copy !req
904. these other people... was, they
Copy !req
905. decided, you know, "we can"
Copy !req
906. probably harness anonymous in
Copy !req
907. this case and target
Copy !req
908. "scientology."
Copy !req
909. A few anons, a few people on
Copy !req
910. 4chan posted "hey, we should"
Copy !req
911. grab that video and post it on a
Copy !req
912. "few other sites."
Copy !req
913. And I was one of the people in
Copy !req
914. that thread talking about it.
Copy !req
915. We got the original source of
Copy !req
916. the video by reaching out to the
Copy !req
917. person behind the accounts and
Copy !req
918. everything.
Copy !req
919. We start posting it.
Copy !req
920. The surprising thing was how
Copy !req
921. fast they were dmcaing them on
Copy !req
922. every site.
Copy !req
923. It looked to us like they must
Copy !req
924. have direct contact with the
Copy !req
925. lawyers and the team who
Copy !req
926. actually pulls videos at all of
Copy !req
927. these sites.
Copy !req
928. Like, it was... it was minutes
Copy !req
929. and these things were falling
Copy !req
930. down.
Copy !req
931. We're like, "holy crap."
Copy !req
932. That's messed up."
Copy !req
933. What followed was... this is
Copy !req
934. a term called the
Copy !req
935. Barbra Streisand effect... and
Copy !req
936. this video, as they're
Copy !req
937. attempting to suppress it, went
Copy !req
938. everywhere.
Copy !req
939. Like, everywhere you look on the
Copy !req
940. Internet, you were gonna stumble
Copy !req
941. upon this video.
Copy !req
942. Actually, gawker, the site
Copy !req
943. that I work for, was, I think,
Copy !req
944. the first one to put it on the
Copy !req
945. website, and we got in a huge
Copy !req
946. legal battle with scientology,
Copy !req
947. who wanted us to take it down.
Copy !req
948. A guy joins the channel, and
Copy !req
949. he says, "you should all look at"
Copy !req
950. gawker."
Copy !req
951. So, we go over to gawker, and
Copy !req
952. the strangest thing has
Copy !req
953. happened.
Copy !req
954. This big media company had the
Copy !req
955. video up on their front page and
Copy !req
956. basically had a comment
Copy !req
957. underneath of it that stated
Copy !req
958. very clearly that they were sick
Copy !req
959. of this abuse that was going on.
Copy !req
960. That made us think, "what have"
Copy !req
961. we got ourself mixed up in
Copy !req
962. "here?"
Copy !req
963. Scientology is an interesting
Copy !req
964. target, because in some ways,
Copy !req
965. it's the perfect inversion of
Copy !req
966. what geeks and hackers value.
Copy !req
967. At so many different levels...
Copy !req
968. Science fiction, intellectual
Copy !req
969. property, discourses of freedom,
Copy !req
970. science and technology.
Copy !req
971. It's very proprietary.
Copy !req
972. It's closed.
Copy !req
973. And so, in some ways, if you had
Copy !req
974. something like a cultural
Copy !req
975. inversion machine and you stuck
Copy !req
976. geeks and hackers in there,
Copy !req
977. you'd get something that looks a
Copy !req
978. lot like scientology.
Copy !req
979. So it's quite offensive, and
Copy !req
980. there's a real pleasure in
Copy !req
981. attacking your perfect Nemesis.
Copy !req
982. What really kind of dared us
Copy !req
983. and set us off about scientology
Copy !req
984. is specifically the treatment of
Copy !req
985. their critics.
Copy !req
986. Anybody who says anything bad
Copy !req
987. about scientology is
Copy !req
988. automatically some sort of
Copy !req
989. criminal, some sort of crazy
Copy !req
990. person, a drug addict.
Copy !req
991. It's just that kind of
Copy !req
992. mentality, that kind of... like,
Copy !req
993. if anybody says anything bad
Copy !req
994. about you, we're gonna fuck you
Copy !req
995. over in the worst possible way.
Copy !req
996. It's just... it resonated, like,
Copy !req
997. this feeling of disgust within
Copy !req
998. us.
Copy !req
999. That was a big problem.
Copy !req
1000. That was the big problem, the
Copy !req
1001. censorship aspect of it, the
Copy !req
1002. audacity of this cult, this
Copy !req
1003. creepy cult, to go into our
Copy !req
1004. territory and tell us that we
Copy !req
1005. can't post this?
Copy !req
1006. No. Fuck them.
Copy !req
1007. No. It's not gonna happen.
Copy !req
1008. And people who knew what
Copy !req
1009. anonymous was to begin with were
Copy !req
1010. like, "oh, my god."
Copy !req
1011. Anonymous is gonna go to war
Copy !req
1012. with scientology?
Copy !req
1013. This should be really
Copy !req
1014. "interesting."
Copy !req
1015. Especially 'cause it's two
Copy !req
1016. weird-ass groups.
Copy !req
1017. I mean, you know, I've been an
Copy !req
1018. anon for a long fucking time.
Copy !req
1019. I know anonymous is really
Copy !req
1020. strange.
Copy !req
1021. Like, they're weird, and the
Copy !req
1022. stuff we like is weird, and it's
Copy !req
1023. really not mainstream at all.
Copy !req
1024. Now you have scientology... also
Copy !req
1025. really weird.
Copy !req
1026. A lot of crazy shit goes down.
Copy !req
1027. Anybody on the outside who's
Copy !req
1028. seen this is going, "let's watch"
Copy !req
1029. these two retards fight.
Copy !req
1030. Like, both their pants are gonna
Copy !req
1031. fall down.
Copy !req
1032. They're gonna trip, and it's
Copy !req
1033. gonna hurt everybody, and it's
Copy !req
1034. "gonna be hysterical."
Copy !req
1035. And what happened was all these
Copy !req
1036. people who were geared up, the
Copy !req
1037. infrastructure was built to war
Copy !req
1038. with other anons, said, "you"
Copy !req
1039. know what... fuck it.
Copy !req
1040. Everybody's gonna get together
Copy !req
1041. and pound the fuck out of
Copy !req
1042. "scientology."
Copy !req
1043. And then that's when 4chan
Copy !req
1044. kind of reared into action,
Copy !req
1045. really reared into action.
Copy !req
1046. And they started to troll the
Copy !req
1047. church of scientology.
Copy !req
1048. And this took the form of
Copy !req
1049. pranking the dianetics hotline,
Copy !req
1050. ordering pizzas.
Copy !req
1051. Every fax number we get, and
Copy !req
1052. we're sharing them all.
Copy !req
1053. You know, every number we get,
Copy !req
1054. we'd send black pieces of paper
Copy !req
1055. on a loop until it wastes all
Copy !req
1056. their ink.
Copy !req
1057. I go to call them on the phone,
Copy !req
1058. and it's busy, busy, busy.
Copy !req
1059. You know, and that's their main
Copy !req
1060. fucking dianetics hotline, their
Copy !req
1061. dianetics 800-number.
Copy !req
1062. You can't get through because
Copy !req
1063. anons have completely fucking
Copy !req
1064. clogged it and just probably
Copy !req
1065. saying stupid shit.
Copy !req
1066. The whole idea was just you call
Copy !req
1067. them just to keep them on the
Copy !req
1068. phone.
Copy !req
1069. "What's an elrond?
Copy !req
1070. How do I dianetics my face?"
Copy !req
1071. They were not expecting that,
Copy !req
1072. and they couldn't handle it.
Copy !req
1073. I'm Brian mettenbrink.
Copy !req
1074. I always liked anything
Copy !req
1075. technical, mechanical, anything
Copy !req
1076. sciencey, really.
Copy !req
1077. Computers do what you tell them
Copy !req
1078. to.
Copy !req
1079. They don't all of a sudden start
Copy !req
1080. doing weird stuff.
Copy !req
1081. And if they do, it's probably
Copy !req
1082. your fault, and I always like
Copy !req
1083. that, you know.
Copy !req
1084. They're perfect, really, in a
Copy !req
1085. way.
Copy !req
1086. I'd just gone to 4chan just on
Copy !req
1087. pure happenstance, and I saw a
Copy !req
1088. post about the scientology
Copy !req
1089. thing, and I started looking up
Copy !req
1090. stuff.
Copy !req
1091. And I'm like, "oh, this is"
Copy !req
1092. actually for a decent cause.
Copy !req
1093. I think I'll, you know, do
Copy !req
1094. "this."
Copy !req
1095. Anonymous members have
Copy !req
1096. developed a distributed
Copy !req
1097. denial-of-service attack tool
Copy !req
1098. called low-orbit ion Cannon,
Copy !req
1099. which is a name taken from a
Copy !req
1100. computer game.
Copy !req
1101. Low-orbit ion Cannon is
Copy !req
1102. what's called an endgame weapon
Copy !req
1103. in "red alert."
Copy !req
1104. All you had to do was literally
Copy !req
1105. follow instructions step by
Copy !req
1106. step.
Copy !req
1107. I downloaded a program that's
Copy !req
1108. free and legal for anyone to
Copy !req
1109. download and use.
Copy !req
1110. And I followed the instructions,
Copy !req
1111. and I typed in
Copy !req
1112. www.scientology.org, and I
Copy !req
1113. pushed "go."
Copy !req
1114. And what it does is it tells
Copy !req
1115. scientology.org, in this case...
Copy !req
1116. It tells them to send their
Copy !req
1117. website to my computer about, I
Copy !req
1118. think, it was 800,000 times in a
Copy !req
1119. weekend.
Copy !req
1120. And I'm pretty sure I probably
Copy !req
1121. took it down myself a couple of
Copy !req
1122. times.
Copy !req
1123. This tool is low-orbit ion
Copy !req
1124. Cannon, sometimes referred to as
Copy !req
1125. "loic."
Copy !req
1126. I am actually not breaking any
Copy !req
1127. laws by using this tool against
Copy !req
1128. my own computer, 127.0.0.1,
Copy !req
1129. which is a non-routable address.
Copy !req
1130. But, of course, if I were to
Copy !req
1131. have attacked one of those other
Copy !req
1132. bigger sites out there, I would
Copy !req
1133. have severely been breaking the
Copy !req
1134. law and would have been doing it
Copy !req
1135. in a way that was quite easy to
Copy !req
1136. track.
Copy !req
1137. What you do is, you put in the
Copy !req
1138. site.
Copy !req
1139. You see that the I.P. Is
Copy !req
1140. correct.
Copy !req
1141. You make sure that all these
Copy !req
1142. settings are good, and you hit
Copy !req
1143. the button.
Copy !req
1144. And off it goes.
Copy !req
1145. It felt like you were making
Copy !req
1146. a difference, you know, just you
Copy !req
1147. yourself and you didn't even
Copy !req
1148. have to leave your home, you
Copy !req
1149. know?
Copy !req
1150. You just sat at your computer
Copy !req
1151. and followed instructions and
Copy !req
1152. stood up for what you believe
Copy !req
1153. in, so to speak.
Copy !req
1154. You made your say in the world,
Copy !req
1155. and hopefully it turns out
Copy !req
1156. better for it.
Copy !req
1157. And like I said, we need to
Copy !req
1158. make a video.
Copy !req
1159. We have to make a video.
Copy !req
1160. Hello, leaders of
Copy !req
1161. scientology.
Copy !req
1162. We are anonymous.
Copy !req
1163. When the video came out on
Copy !req
1164. January 21st, that was one of
Copy !req
1165. the first times that anonymous
Copy !req
1166. as a culture started referring
Copy !req
1167. to itself as "anonymous," as a
Copy !req
1168. movement and declared that it
Copy !req
1169. was going to take down and
Copy !req
1170. destroy the church of
Copy !req
1171. scientology.
Copy !req
1172. That video probably changed
Copy !req
1173. everything.
Copy !req
1174. Knowledge is free.
Copy !req
1175. We are anonymous. We are legion.
Copy !req
1176. We do not forgive.
Copy !req
1177. We do not forget. Expect us.
Copy !req
1178. It basically looked like if a
Copy !req
1179. computer was going to tell you
Copy !req
1180. that he was gonna beat the shit
Copy !req
1181. out of you, this is what it
Copy !req
1182. would look like.
Copy !req
1183. That one video, it really
Copy !req
1184. galvanized that moment, that
Copy !req
1185. moment of innovation that that's
Copy !req
1186. exactly... like, with that
Copy !req
1187. video, Internet activism, as
Copy !req
1188. it's known today, was born.
Copy !req
1189. What the video was saying
Copy !req
1190. was, "it's over."
Copy !req
1191. You're not going to be able to
Copy !req
1192. follow people back to their
Copy !req
1193. house anymore with impunity.
Copy !req
1194. You're not going to be able to
Copy !req
1195. just issue a cease-and-desist
Copy !req
1196. letter to any reporter who wants
Copy !req
1197. to write some shit about you
Copy !req
1198. that you don't like, you know.
Copy !req
1199. That's done with.
Copy !req
1200. Every time you do that,
Copy !req
1201. anonymous is gonna hit you
Copy !req
1202. "harder."
Copy !req
1203. So, we made a video named
Copy !req
1204. "call to arms."
Copy !req
1205. It said "we're going to the"
Copy !req
1206. streets.
Copy !req
1207. Every major city of the world
Copy !req
1208. "has a scientology building."
Copy !req
1209. Be very wary of the 10th of
Copy !req
1210. February.
Copy !req
1211. Anonymous invites you to join us
Copy !req
1212. in an act of solidarity.
Copy !req
1213. Anonymous invites you to take up
Copy !req
1214. the banner of free speech, of
Copy !req
1215. human rights, of family and
Copy !req
1216. freedom.
Copy !req
1217. Join us in protest outside of
Copy !req
1218. scientology centers worldwide.
Copy !req
1219. And you just see this
Copy !req
1220. consensus forming that it's
Copy !req
1221. going to happen.
Copy !req
1222. So we made the third video, the
Copy !req
1223. "code of conduct."
Copy !req
1224. "Don't bring weapons."
Copy !req
1225. Dress accordingly.
Copy !req
1226. Cover your faces 'cause they
Copy !req
1227. will try and find out who you
Copy !req
1228. "are and screw with your life."
Copy !req
1229. Rule number 17... cover your
Copy !req
1230. face.
Copy !req
1231. This will prevent your
Copy !req
1232. identification from videos taken
Copy !req
1233. by hostiles.
Copy !req
1234. Scientology has a history of
Copy !req
1235. harassing, stalking, and just
Copy !req
1236. doing horrible things to its
Copy !req
1237. critics.
Copy !req
1238. So people needed a way to hide
Copy !req
1239. their identities.
Copy !req
1240. A lot of people had very
Copy !req
1241. legitimate fears.
Copy !req
1242. They don't want to be followed
Copy !req
1243. home.
Copy !req
1244. They don't want to be stalked.
Copy !req
1245. They don't want to put their
Copy !req
1246. families and themselves in
Copy !req
1247. danger.
Copy !req
1248. Everyone was going, "well",
Copy !req
1249. we're gonna wear a mask.
Copy !req
1250. What's the only fucking mask
Copy !req
1251. that we already know or have a
Copy !req
1252. "joke about?"
Copy !req
1253. And it's the guy Fawkes mask.
Copy !req
1254. You see the movie
Copy !req
1255. "v for vendetta."
Copy !req
1256. You know, the ending scene where
Copy !req
1257. everyone's wearing the
Copy !req
1258. guy Fawkes mask, that is very
Copy !req
1259. reminiscent of what anonymous
Copy !req
1260. thinks anonymous is.
Copy !req
1261. We wanted to represent anonymity
Copy !req
1262. in some way when it moved into
Copy !req
1263. real life.
Copy !req
1264. I think that the guy Fawkes mask
Copy !req
1265. was one of the most natural
Copy !req
1266. things to happen.
Copy !req
1267. It is the idea that none of us
Copy !req
1268. are as cruel as all of us.
Copy !req
1269. You have this massive crowd of
Copy !req
1270. people who are anonymous that is
Copy !req
1271. going to fight against a bigger
Copy !req
1272. thing and win.
Copy !req
1273. Even after watching the
Copy !req
1274. videos, like, "yeah, this is"
Copy !req
1275. great, but who's actually gonna
Copy !req
1276. do it?
Copy !req
1277. Who's gonna step up?
Copy !req
1278. Are people actually gonna get
Copy !req
1279. "out of their house?"
Copy !req
1280. Like... and I guess we were
Copy !req
1281. really affected by the
Copy !req
1282. stereotype of that whole
Copy !req
1283. community, being Internet nerds.
Copy !req
1284. They're too afraid to leave
Copy !req
1285. their moms' basements.
Copy !req
1286. I figured maybe 15 nerds from
Copy !req
1287. every city somewhere might show
Copy !req
1288. up and wear their masks at a
Copy !req
1289. building for awhile and leave.
Copy !req
1290. No one thought that they were
Copy !req
1291. gonna come out.
Copy !req
1292. This is me on the way there.
Copy !req
1293. I haven't slept.
Copy !req
1294. I'm very fucking tired.
Copy !req
1295. And I remember going to the park
Copy !req
1296. that day, and it's really
Copy !req
1297. fucking early in the morning,
Copy !req
1298. which I thought was a bad idea.
Copy !req
1299. And I'm smoking a cigarette, and
Copy !req
1300. I'm looking around like, "where"
Copy !req
1301. the fuck is everybody?
Copy !req
1302. "Like, there's nobody here."
Copy !req
1303. So, here I am sitting in
Copy !req
1304. Bryant park.
Copy !req
1305. Waiting for the other anons to
Copy !req
1306. show up.
Copy !req
1307. I remember thinking like, "oh",
Copy !req
1308. fuck.
Copy !req
1309. Like, am I gonna be the only one
Copy !req
1310. in the park?
Copy !req
1311. Am I gonna walk to scientology
Copy !req
1312. with fucking six or seven
Copy !req
1313. people, which totally defeats
Copy !req
1314. the entire purpose of this
Copy !req
1315. because now they could single me
Copy !req
1316. "out?"
Copy !req
1317. You know, then I get up, and I
Copy !req
1318. start walking around, and I see
Copy !req
1319. there's a lot of green balloons
Copy !req
1320. over there for some reason.
Copy !req
1321. On the other side of the park,
Copy !req
1322. there was like fucking 200
Copy !req
1323. people.
Copy !req
1324. There was guy Fawkes masks
Copy !req
1325. everywhere, and I'm like, "holy"
Copy !req
1326. shit, this is huge!"
Copy !req
1327. There's a fucking lot of us.
Copy !req
1328. That's pretty good.
Copy !req
1329. I had no idea how many anons
Copy !req
1330. there were until we started
Copy !req
1331. moving.
Copy !req
1332. Ha ha.
Copy !req
1333. And it just fucking got bigger.
Copy !req
1334. I remember walking through.
Copy !req
1335. Times Square, and everybody in.
Copy !req
1336. Times Square was an anon.
Copy !req
1337. Like, you know, this is, like, a
Copy !req
1338. fucking 1,000-person per, like,
Copy !req
1339. fucking minute foot-traffic
Copy !req
1340. area, and everywhere I'm
Copy !req
1341. looking, I'm seeing fucking anon
Copy !req
1342. symbols.
Copy !req
1343. It was fucking wild.
Copy !req
1344. It was really wild.
Copy !req
1345. [ Crowd chanting
Copy !req
1346. Whoo!
Copy !req
1347. Hell, yeah!
Copy !req
1348. So we start getting numbers
Copy !req
1349. in, and Sydney.
Copy !req
1350. We're thinking that it's going
Copy !req
1351. to be 50 people.
Copy !req
1352. And before 10:00 A.M., before
Copy !req
1353. even time, there's already 50
Copy !req
1354. people there, and there are
Copy !req
1355. still streams of people walking
Copy !req
1356. down the streets.
Copy !req
1357. A couple hours into it, you
Copy !req
1358. know, 'cause I didn't go to bed
Copy !req
1359. until 1:00 in the morning, you
Copy !req
1360. know, you're looking at Sydney
Copy !req
1361. as, "wow, there's 250 people in"
Copy !req
1362. Sydney.
Copy !req
1363. The cops are estimating higher
Copy !req
1364. than that for their reports.
Copy !req
1365. What just happened?
Copy !req
1366. Adelaide, Perth, and Melbourne
Copy !req
1367. happened.
Copy !req
1368. And, you know, over 200 at each
Copy !req
1369. of them.
Copy !req
1370. We nearly broke 1,000 leaving
Copy !req
1371. Australia.
Copy !req
1372. Now, the next protest was.
Copy !req
1373. Tel Aviv, which had actually
Copy !req
1374. gotten its first scientology
Copy !req
1375. building right before this.
Copy !req
1376. There were Palestinians and
Copy !req
1377. Israelis at this protest both
Copy !req
1378. holding their flags.
Copy !req
1379. And at one point, they actually
Copy !req
1380. switched flags and held up each
Copy !req
1381. other's flags and whatnot.
Copy !req
1382. It was awesome to see.
Copy !req
1383. I call our guy in London,
Copy !req
1384. briternon, and I say, "hey",
Copy !req
1385. what's going on there?"
Copy !req
1386. And he's like, "did you just get"
Copy !req
1387. out of bed?"
Copy !req
1388. I said, "yeah, I haven't even"
Copy !req
1389. turned on the computer.
Copy !req
1390. "I just figured I'd call you."
Copy !req
1391. And he said, "we got 600 people"
Copy !req
1392. and the cops are really, really
Copy !req
1393. "mad at me."
Copy !req
1394. All the major cities were
Copy !req
1395. having hundreds of people come
Copy !req
1396. out.
Copy !req
1397. It was massive.
Copy !req
1398. Clearwater had like 300 people.
Copy !req
1399. I don't think anyone beat out.
Copy !req
1400. I.A.
Copy !req
1401. I think I.A. had over 1,000
Copy !req
1402. people.
Copy !req
1403. The thing that happened was
Copy !req
1404. something completely different.
Copy !req
1405. Hundreds and hundreds of people
Copy !req
1406. from every city just swarmed the
Copy !req
1407. streets.
Copy !req
1408. It was kind of overwhelming, a
Copy !req
1409. little even scary, but scary in
Copy !req
1410. a good way.
Copy !req
1411. Soon, you know, we're at
Copy !req
1412. around the 10,000 Mark, you
Copy !req
1413. know, and we were joking the
Copy !req
1414. whole time "over 9,000," you
Copy !req
1415. know, one of those memes.
Copy !req
1416. It was too surreal.
Copy !req
1417. It was not believable.
Copy !req
1418. And you go by what name?
Copy !req
1419. We are anonymous.
Copy !req
1420. It was very empowering,
Copy !req
1421. especially after people saw the
Copy !req
1422. thousands of people showing up.
Copy !req
1423. This was it.
Copy !req
1424. We owned the world at that
Copy !req
1425. point.
Copy !req
1426. You've got lolcats and you've
Copy !req
1427. got rickrolling.
Copy !req
1428. You've got all these other
Copy !req
1429. things that anonymous has been
Copy !req
1430. involved in.
Copy !req
1431. Then, you know, take us a month
Copy !req
1432. later and, you know, 10,000
Copy !req
1433. people were just in the streets
Copy !req
1434. and in every major country in
Copy !req
1435. the world in every major city
Copy !req
1436. in the world and what the hell
Copy !req
1437. just happened?
Copy !req
1438. What changed, you know?
Copy !req
1439. Who flipped the switch?
Copy !req
1440. The world looked very different
Copy !req
1441. to me at that point.
Copy !req
1442. We all met each other.
Copy !req
1443. The idea of an anon is you're
Copy !req
1444. fucking alone until you get to
Copy !req
1445. 4chan, you know, and then these
Copy !req
1446. people think like you, you know.
Copy !req
1447. Then all of a sudden, you're not
Copy !req
1448. alone.
Copy !req
1449. You are with fucking 500 others,
Copy !req
1450. you know.
Copy !req
1451. They all know the same jokes as
Copy !req
1452. you.
Copy !req
1453. They all have... clearly have
Copy !req
1454. similar interests as you.
Copy !req
1455. Here's your culture.
Copy !req
1456. You meet your own people
Copy !req
1457. finally.
Copy !req
1458. [ Crowd chanting
Copy !req
1459. Immediately, you felt like
Copy !req
1460. you were at home.
Copy !req
1461. If you were an anon, you were at
Copy !req
1462. home.
Copy !req
1463. We all, like, spent years in the
Copy !req
1464. same place, looking at the same
Copy !req
1465. pictures, laughing at the same
Copy !req
1466. jokes, and we pretty much were
Copy !req
1467. already friends even though
Copy !req
1468. we've never, every met.
Copy !req
1469. It was very happy.
Copy !req
1470. It's perhaps a little
Copy !req
1471. surprising.
Copy !req
1472. It's not just preteens or
Copy !req
1473. teenagers.
Copy !req
1474. There's a far more even mix of
Copy !req
1475. males and females than you would
Copy !req
1476. imagine otherwise.
Copy !req
1477. Everyone always figured
Copy !req
1478. anonymous was a very male, you
Copy !req
1479. know, thing, but it wasn't like
Copy !req
1480. that at all... at all.
Copy !req
1481. There's some fucking hot girls
Copy !req
1482. come through.
Copy !req
1483. Like, there's some really...
Copy !req
1484. Like, you'd be surprised.
Copy !req
1485. And, you know, there were a
Copy !req
1486. lot of... a lot of, you know,
Copy !req
1487. these so-called guys who weren't
Copy !req
1488. socially good.
Copy !req
1489. They were very awkward.
Copy !req
1490. They still lived at home at
Copy !req
1491. 23... half of them are virgins.
Copy !req
1492. And I'll tell you the amount of
Copy !req
1493. those people who got laid from
Copy !req
1494. these protests happening is in
Copy !req
1495. the thousands... that would not
Copy !req
1496. have, for years probably.
Copy !req
1497. And that's why those protests
Copy !req
1498. were so important.
Copy !req
1499. It was a chance to finally meet
Copy !req
1500. other people that were
Copy !req
1501. previously anonymous and
Copy !req
1502. unknown, and hence it was the
Copy !req
1503. moment of the end of their
Copy !req
1504. anonymity.
Copy !req
1505. Scientology... they kind of
Copy !req
1506. fought back, so to speak.
Copy !req
1507. They posted stuff online.
Copy !req
1508. While claiming they are
Copy !req
1509. peaceful, in less than three
Copy !req
1510. weeks, anonymous members made or
Copy !req
1511. encouraged 8,139 harassing or
Copy !req
1512. threatening phone calls, 3.6
Copy !req
1513. million malicious e-mails, 141
Copy !req
1514. million hits against church
Copy !req
1515. websites, 10 acts of vandalism,
Copy !req
1516. 22 bomb threats, and 8 death
Copy !req
1517. threats against members and
Copy !req
1518. officials of the church of
Copy !req
1519. scientology.
Copy !req
1520. They wanted to find me.
Copy !req
1521. They did. They hired p.I.S.
Copy !req
1522. They started taking pictures
Copy !req
1523. of us, threatening to sue us.
Copy !req
1524. People were getting followed.
Copy !req
1525. People were getting followed
Copy !req
1526. home.
Copy !req
1527. It'd be a regular thing for
Copy !req
1528. someone to say, "oh, I had to..."
Copy !req
1529. I had to lose someone on the
Copy !req
1530. subway.
Copy !req
1531. I saw someone from the
Copy !req
1532. scientology center, and they
Copy !req
1533. "were following me."
Copy !req
1534. They would follow us to our
Copy !req
1535. houses, try to intimidate us,
Copy !req
1536. send us cease-and-desist
Copy !req
1537. letters.
Copy !req
1538. These old tactics that they used
Copy !req
1539. to fight the activism they faced
Copy !req
1540. before the Internet were
Copy !req
1541. completely ineffective against
Copy !req
1542. chanology.
Copy !req
1543. You know, most of the people
Copy !req
1544. who received them actually
Copy !req
1545. framed them and put them on
Copy !req
1546. their wall.
Copy !req
1547. I've seen multiple of them
Copy !req
1548. framed and put on the wall.
Copy !req
1549. Mine's sitting in my closet
Copy !req
1550. somewhere in a box.
Copy !req
1551. I did the whole low-orbit ion
Copy !req
1552. Cannon stuff, and then I pretty
Copy !req
1553. much just went about my life
Copy !req
1554. after that for probably, let's
Copy !req
1555. see, I think it's six months.
Copy !req
1556. And then the FBI showed up here
Copy !req
1557. at my parents' house, where I
Copy !req
1558. wasn't, looking for me.
Copy !req
1559. Two men got out of the car,
Copy !req
1560. and took their jackets off, and
Copy !req
1561. laid their guns on the front
Copy !req
1562. seat, and came up to ask us if
Copy !req
1563. Brian was home, and explained
Copy !req
1564. that they were the FBI and they
Copy !req
1565. were looking for Brian.
Copy !req
1566. And I've never been so scared.
Copy !req
1567. And then my parents directed
Copy !req
1568. them to where I was living, and
Copy !req
1569. they showed up and said, "I'd"
Copy !req
1570. like to have a friendly
Copy !req
1571. "conversation with you."
Copy !req
1572. And I had the worst friendly
Copy !req
1573. conversation of my life.
Copy !req
1574. We sat down at my dining-room
Copy !req
1575. table, and they just started
Copy !req
1576. asking me questions.
Copy !req
1577. And I'm trying to figure out
Copy !req
1578. what they're here for 'cause I
Copy !req
1579. have no idea.
Copy !req
1580. And they eventually started
Copy !req
1581. asking me questions about
Copy !req
1582. anonymous.
Copy !req
1583. I was scared to death.
Copy !req
1584. I mean, my son is... Is looking
Copy !req
1585. at five years in jail and a
Copy !req
1586. $100,000 fine.
Copy !req
1587. You know, I had no idea that
Copy !req
1588. it was any sort of... this big
Copy !req
1589. of a crime to do what I did.
Copy !req
1590. I thought it was the kind of
Copy !req
1591. "slap on a wrist," $200-fine
Copy !req
1592. type crime.
Copy !req
1593. So, I actually told them that I
Copy !req
1594. did it at that point.
Copy !req
1595. Then it went from there.
Copy !req
1596. Yeah.
Copy !req
1597. As he explained it to me at
Copy !req
1598. the time, it was like pushing
Copy !req
1599. the refresh button over and over
Copy !req
1600. and over and over 800,000 times.
Copy !req
1601. And it seems like such a little
Copy !req
1602. thing.
Copy !req
1603. I did the second-most damage
Copy !req
1604. is what scientology said I did.
Copy !req
1605. I sent the second-most out of
Copy !req
1606. everybody so I got the maximum
Copy !req
1607. for my category, which was one
Copy !req
1608. year in prison and one year
Copy !req
1609. supervised release.
Copy !req
1610. I think... you know, the way I
Copy !req
1611. feel is, for what I did... was
Copy !req
1612. one of the most, like, lopsided
Copy !req
1613. punishments I've ever, like,
Copy !req
1614. read about or heard of.
Copy !req
1615. Yeah, I think it's ridiculous,
Copy !req
1616. especially the year supervised
Copy !req
1617. release where I can't touch a
Copy !req
1618. computer for a year.
Copy !req
1619. I'm not sure what that's
Copy !req
1620. supposed to solve, except make
Copy !req
1621. my, like, life difficult.
Copy !req
1622. So, that computer behind me,
Copy !req
1623. back there, I could go back to
Copy !req
1624. prison if I went over and
Copy !req
1625. touched it, because I can't
Copy !req
1626. knowingly associate with members
Copy !req
1627. of anonymous.
Copy !req
1628. They just made a big deal about
Copy !req
1629. scientology as a religion and
Copy !req
1630. that this is America and you can
Copy !req
1631. believe in whatever you want to
Copy !req
1632. believe.
Copy !req
1633. I'm pretty sure they actually
Copy !req
1634. compared me to, like, the kkk
Copy !req
1635. and the Nazis and stuff in the
Copy !req
1636. courtroom.
Copy !req
1637. Yeah, it's... it's a
Copy !req
1638. completely different issue.
Copy !req
1639. I'm very proud of what he did.
Copy !req
1640. He stood up for what he believed
Copy !req
1641. in, but that was never, ever
Copy !req
1642. mentioned.
Copy !req
1643. I never would even dream of
Copy !req
1644. hurting anybody, you know.
Copy !req
1645. It's just... Not me.
Copy !req
1646. Prior to anonymous, critics
Copy !req
1647. of the church still had to be
Copy !req
1648. very, very careful because of
Copy !req
1649. the aggressive lawsuits that
Copy !req
1650. were launched against academics,
Copy !req
1651. journalists, and other critics.
Copy !req
1652. I would say that era is over.
Copy !req
1653. And anonymous more than any
Copy !req
1654. other sort of intervention is
Copy !req
1655. probably responsible for that
Copy !req
1656. change.
Copy !req
1657. This actually caused a decent
Copy !req
1658. rift in anonymous.
Copy !req
1659. There was one big group...
Copy !req
1660. Significant group of people, who
Copy !req
1661. would say, "this chanology"
Copy !req
1662. stuff, it's cancer, it's awful,
Copy !req
1663. it's bad, it's... it's just
Copy !req
1664. bringing attention to us that we
Copy !req
1665. "don't want."
Copy !req
1666. The trolling isn't happening.
Copy !req
1667. We aren't getting our jollies.
Copy !req
1668. Like, now this is all really
Copy !req
1669. serious and moral and somber.
Copy !req
1670. And, like, "well, that's not"
Copy !req
1671. what I signed up for... that
Copy !req
1672. "kind of thing."
Copy !req
1673. And then there are the people
Copy !req
1674. who were on the other side, who
Copy !req
1675. were going, "well, I only signed"
Copy !req
1676. up for the serious and somber.
Copy !req
1677. You guys, go away.
Copy !req
1678. "This is... this is," you know.
Copy !req
1679. And, you know, there became this
Copy !req
1680. very fierce clash of ideologies,
Copy !req
1681. and it was alien to us.
Copy !req
1682. And they decided... in their
Copy !req
1683. own words, which I was privy to,
Copy !req
1684. 'cause it was told to me...
Copy !req
1685. "stop ruining our bad name."
Copy !req
1686. So, to make anonymous look bad,
Copy !req
1687. they go off and they post
Copy !req
1688. animated gifs... animated
Copy !req
1689. images... to epilepsy forums,
Copy !req
1690. that are black and white, just
Copy !req
1691. strobing really quickly, so any
Copy !req
1692. of the epilepsy people on these
Copy !req
1693. support forums see it and they
Copy !req
1694. fall off their chairs, you know,
Copy !req
1695. in seizure.
Copy !req
1696. You start hearing this term,
Copy !req
1697. "moralfag."
Copy !req
1698. If you're not out there making
Copy !req
1699. epileptics have seizures, then
Copy !req
1700. you're doing it wrong...
Copy !req
1701. So, you're a moralfag.
Copy !req
1702. Which is what I am... a
Copy !req
1703. moralfag, those who want to
Copy !req
1704. use anonymous as, you know, a
Copy !req
1705. tool for good in some sense
Copy !req
1706. rather than just doing what we
Copy !req
1707. used to do, which was to screw
Copy !req
1708. with video games.
Copy !req
1709. One anon said it well once.
Copy !req
1710. "There is no leader."
Copy !req
1711. Their ops have... Momentary
Copy !req
1712. "leaders, de facto leaders."
Copy !req
1713. Almost through meritocracy.
Copy !req
1714. There's more respected or more
Copy !req
1715. persistent participants.
Copy !req
1716. Some people participate in a
Copy !req
1717. single operation and are never
Copy !req
1718. heard from again.
Copy !req
1719. It might even be a housewife who
Copy !req
1720. just, you know, agrees with that
Copy !req
1721. political statement or that
Copy !req
1722. protest.
Copy !req
1723. If you had asked me all
Copy !req
1724. throughout 2008 and most of
Copy !req
1725. 2009, "is the politics of"
Copy !req
1726. anonymous always gonna be
Copy !req
1727. sutured and hinged to the church
Copy !req
1728. "of scientology?" I would have
Copy !req
1729. said yes.
Copy !req
1730. And it became unsutured,
Copy !req
1731. unhinged, when a different
Copy !req
1732. political wing was born in 2010.
Copy !req
1733. It's our task to find secret
Copy !req
1734. abusive plans and expose them
Copy !req
1735. where they can be opposed before
Copy !req
1736. they're implemented.
Copy !req
1737. The interesting thing about
Copy !req
1738. someone like assange is that he
Copy !req
1739. actually also sprang from, you
Copy !req
1740. know, a hacker culture.
Copy !req
1741. It's a mentality of spreading
Copy !req
1742. information.
Copy !req
1743. Julian was mendax.
Copy !req
1744. He was the greatest hacker that
Copy !req
1745. ever walked the face of the
Copy !req
1746. earth when I was a kid.
Copy !req
1747. I mean, they rumored he could
Copy !req
1748. move satellites around in space
Copy !req
1749. by hacking into NASA.
Copy !req
1750. I mean, you know, maybe it never
Copy !req
1751. happened but, I mean, you know,
Copy !req
1752. it was a myth that kept young
Copy !req
1753. kids like me wanting to, like,
Copy !req
1754. you know, plug a computer into a
Copy !req
1755. modem and see if I can move some
Copy !req
1756. satellites around.
Copy !req
1757. Wikileaks is an extension of
Copy !req
1758. the hackers ethos... truth wants
Copy !req
1759. to be free, and we want to
Copy !req
1760. liberate it.
Copy !req
1761. Wikileaks released a huge
Copy !req
1762. trove of diplomatic cables.
Copy !req
1763. There was a lot of controversy
Copy !req
1764. from every quarter of society.
Copy !req
1765. The wikileaks website
Copy !req
1766. released nearly 400,000 secret.
Copy !req
1767. U.S. files on the Iraq war late
Copy !req
1768. today.
Copy !req
1769. It was the largest leak of
Copy !req
1770. classified U.S. files in
Copy !req
1771. history.
Copy !req
1772. The diplomatic cables show
Copy !req
1773. the U.S. is spying on its
Copy !req
1774. allies.
Copy !req
1775. Lots of things which were
Copy !req
1776. understood in private and may
Copy !req
1777. have been not even talked about
Copy !req
1778. explicitly... suddenly they're
Copy !req
1779. out there in the cold light of
Copy !req
1780. day, and it's gonna make some
Copy !req
1781. governments and some individuals
Copy !req
1782. very uncomfortable.
Copy !req
1783. There was one particular
Copy !req
1784. moment that really sparked the
Copy !req
1785. fire, and this was when PayPal,
Copy !req
1786. mastercard, and Amazon pulled
Copy !req
1787. services for wikileaks.
Copy !req
1788. So, all of a sudden, there's
Copy !req
1789. no way to actually, like,
Copy !req
1790. process donations to wikileaks.
Copy !req
1791. And then people went and found,
Copy !req
1792. like, Neo-Nazi groups.
Copy !req
1793. Visa and mastercard were
Copy !req
1794. perfectly fine with you being
Copy !req
1795. able to, like, you know, PayPal,
Copy !req
1796. being able to, like, make
Copy !req
1797. donations to them.
Copy !req
1798. But wikileaks... no.
Copy !req
1799. Anonymous very quickly moved
Copy !req
1800. into an attack mode.
Copy !req
1801. Cyber protests, sit-ins...
Copy !req
1802. However you want to look at
Copy !req
1803. it... ddos is a tool that is a
Copy !req
1804. big giant... it's like driving a
Copy !req
1805. finish nail in with a
Copy !req
1806. sledgehammer.
Copy !req
1807. The numbers of participants
Copy !req
1808. were massive... massive.
Copy !req
1809. And they manage over the course
Copy !req
1810. of a couple of days to disable
Copy !req
1811. the websites of mastercard and
Copy !req
1812. PayPal.
Copy !req
1813. It was like watching the hack
Copy !req
1814. magician finally get a trick
Copy !req
1815. right, because you're not
Copy !req
1816. expecting it and then it's
Copy !req
1817. magnificent.
Copy !req
1818. It was beautiful.
Copy !req
1819. 'Cause what you had is people
Copy !req
1820. finding you stood up for
Copy !req
1821. something.
Copy !req
1822. How long has it been since we
Copy !req
1823. had a huge, really relevant
Copy !req
1824. protest.
Copy !req
1825. I'm not talking tea party, "I
Copy !req
1826. want to bring my guns in
Copy !req
1827. "public."
Copy !req
1828. I'm talking... I'm talking 10,000
Copy !req
1829. angry people said, "this is not"
Copy !req
1830. right, and I want to do
Copy !req
1831. "something about it."
Copy !req
1832. Soon after, wikileaks was
Copy !req
1833. blocked in Tunisia.
Copy !req
1834. And anonymous got wind of that.
Copy !req
1835. They then intervened... at
Copy !req
1836. first, solely for the purposes
Copy !req
1837. of, like, stopping the kind of
Copy !req
1838. censorship that was happening.
Copy !req
1839. And they did some ddosing.
Copy !req
1840. And this was a time period where
Copy !req
1841. they were getting involved with
Copy !req
1842. what I would call
Copy !req
1843. "non-internety" social
Copy !req
1844. movements and building lines of
Copy !req
1845. solidarity.
Copy !req
1846. My name's Pete fein.
Copy !req
1847. You can call me an internaut or
Copy !req
1848. a hacktivist.
Copy !req
1849. Telecomix is an ad hoc cluster
Copy !req
1850. of volunteer net activists who
Copy !req
1851. have have spent much of last
Copy !req
1852. year trying to keep the Internet
Copy !req
1853. running in the middle east.
Copy !req
1854. During that time, we saw the
Copy !req
1855. Tunisian government not only
Copy !req
1856. censoring and filtering the
Copy !req
1857. Internet but also doing some
Copy !req
1858. kind of technical trickery to
Copy !req
1859. steal people's Facebook
Copy !req
1860. passwords and delete their
Copy !req
1861. posts and see who was posting
Copy !req
1862. what and, you know, fake
Copy !req
1863. posts... stuff like that.
Copy !req
1864. Some Tunisian hackers came to
Copy !req
1865. us.
Copy !req
1866. They were members of anonymous,
Copy !req
1867. and I didn't even know we had
Copy !req
1868. members of anonymous in Tunisia,
Copy !req
1869. so it was a shock to me.
Copy !req
1870. And they had some... they had
Copy !req
1871. the keys to some parts of the
Copy !req
1872. kingdom, so to speak, when it
Copy !req
1873. came to the dictator in Tunisia.
Copy !req
1874. We went in on behalf of those
Copy !req
1875. Tunisian anons, and we helped
Copy !req
1876. them get that and extract it,
Copy !req
1877. and then it went to wikileaks.
Copy !req
1878. The Tunisians overthrew
Copy !req
1879. Ben Ali, who was kind of a
Copy !req
1880. repressive dictator.
Copy !req
1881. A revolution that was
Copy !req
1882. facilitated by... by the
Copy !req
1883. Internet, by Facebook, and by
Copy !req
1884. Twitter.
Copy !req
1885. Not caused by it.
Copy !req
1886. I mean, 50 years of dictatorship
Copy !req
1887. has caused the arab spring, but
Copy !req
1888. the Internet has certainly been
Copy !req
1889. helping.
Copy !req
1890. The same group of hackers
Copy !req
1891. that target anti-wikileaks sites
Copy !req
1892. have now turned their attention
Copy !req
1893. to Egypt.
Copy !req
1894. In kind of the lead-up to the
Copy !req
1895. Egyptian revolution, we would
Copy !req
1896. tweet on people's behalf.
Copy !req
1897. We'd get people from Egypt who
Copy !req
1898. were unable to access Twitter on
Copy !req
1899. their own, on our r.C. Network,
Copy !req
1900. and we would take reports from
Copy !req
1901. them and tweet them out using...
Copy !req
1902. Using our account to kind of
Copy !req
1903. help them get the word out about
Copy !req
1904. what they were experiencing.
Copy !req
1905. Some of this shit is
Copy !req
1906. personal, and one of the things
Copy !req
1907. about the movement as a whole
Copy !req
1908. when Egypt rolled around is that
Copy !req
1909. Egypt broke us emotionally.
Copy !req
1910. Watching in real-time with live
Copy !req
1911. feeds that we helped set up,
Copy !req
1912. Egyptians getting massacred with
Copy !req
1913. machine guns.
Copy !req
1914. It was different, and I have
Copy !req
1915. never in cyber-activism wept
Copy !req
1916. before.
Copy !req
1917. It's never bothered me like
Copy !req
1918. that.
Copy !req
1919. It's never been able to touch
Copy !req
1920. me the way Egypt touched me.
Copy !req
1921. It was fucked up that we were
Copy !req
1922. watching people killed for no
Copy !req
1923. reason other than leaving their
Copy !req
1924. homes, that these people had
Copy !req
1925. every right to freedom, that
Copy !req
1926. they had every right to choose
Copy !req
1927. their government.
Copy !req
1928. And then January 27th,
Copy !req
1929. January 28th rolls around and
Copy !req
1930. the Egyptian government starts
Copy !req
1931. shutting down the Internet.
Copy !req
1932. I mean, just... for the whole
Copy !req
1933. country, for the whole country.
Copy !req
1934. There's this fantastic traffic
Copy !req
1935. graph that you can see the
Copy !req
1936. traffic coming out Egypt, and it
Copy !req
1937. looks like... you know, like
Copy !req
1938. this.
Copy !req
1939. Just totally stops.
Copy !req
1940. And we were just shocked.
Copy !req
1941. We were just like, "what the"
Copy !req
1942. fuck... like, what the fuck?"
Copy !req
1943. To think that a country would
Copy !req
1944. completely cut itself off as
Copy !req
1945. much as it was able to from the
Copy !req
1946. outside world was pretty
Copy !req
1947. unthinkable.
Copy !req
1948. You know, we know... we know bad
Copy !req
1949. things go on in the dark places.
Copy !req
1950. I put myself in their place,
Copy !req
1951. and I found myself in a desert
Copy !req
1952. of nothingness because he just
Copy !req
1953. wiped out everything that my
Copy !req
1954. world incorporated.
Copy !req
1955. That just showed me and
Copy !req
1956. everybody else that this same
Copy !req
1957. thing can happen at anytime,
Copy !req
1958. anywhere, in any government.
Copy !req
1959. Anonymous and the people on
Copy !req
1960. the Internet stood up and said,
Copy !req
1961. "go fuck yourself."
Copy !req
1962. You want to shut down their
Copy !req
1963. Internet... fine.
Copy !req
1964. The people on the Internet will
Copy !req
1965. show them how to turn it back
Copy !req
1966. on.
Copy !req
1967. In Egypt, the care package we
Copy !req
1968. put together included some kind
Copy !req
1969. of rcom information, the ham
Copy !req
1970. radio and dial modem details.
Copy !req
1971. In total, we helped coordinate
Copy !req
1972. and run about 500 dial-up modem
Copy !req
1973. lines.
Copy !req
1974. We also googled treatments for
Copy !req
1975. tear gas and other kind of basic
Copy !req
1976. medical treatment and found
Copy !req
1977. folks who could translate that
Copy !req
1978. into arabic... sort of put this
Copy !req
1979. together in a nice one-page pdf
Copy !req
1980. and fax, and off it goes.
Copy !req
1981. I think the most effective
Copy !req
1982. thing was shutting down
Copy !req
1983. government websites.
Copy !req
1984. We're taking your dictator's
Copy !req
1985. web pages down.
Copy !req
1986. President hosni mubarak has
Copy !req
1987. decided to step down from the
Copy !req
1988. office of president of the
Copy !req
1989. Republic.
Copy !req
1990. We had Egyptians come thank
Copy !req
1991. us as we're doing this stuff,
Copy !req
1992. and I said... I'm like, "look",
Copy !req
1993. you guys just get our back if
Copy !req
1994. "stuff goes down here."
Copy !req
1995. The FBI is now investigating
Copy !req
1996. anonymous... a loose collection
Copy !req
1997. of rogue, tech-savvy hackers
Copy !req
1998. credited with bringing down the
Copy !req
1999. websites of mastercard and visa
Copy !req
2000. last December.
Copy !req
2001. So, over 40 raids back then,
Copy !req
2002. they seize computers,
Copy !req
2003. cellphones, and those kinds of
Copy !req
2004. technical apparatus, sometimes
Copy !req
2005. including, in the case of the
Copy !req
2006. 19-year-old girl living with her
Copy !req
2007. family, they took her parents'
Copy !req
2008. stuff, too.
Copy !req
2009. There's always been a sort of
Copy !req
2010. cat-and-mouse dynamic, not just
Copy !req
2011. in relation to the feds but also
Copy !req
2012. to these sort of groups that
Copy !req
2013. have appointed themselves as
Copy !req
2014. guardians of the Republic.
Copy !req
2015. Suddenly on February 5th,
Copy !req
2016. a financial times article comes
Copy !req
2017. out that we all see.
Copy !req
2018. It's quoting this guy named
Copy !req
2019. Aaron barr, who's the c.E.O. Of
Copy !req
2020. hbgary federal, which is an
Copy !req
2021. intelligence contractor, and
Copy !req
2022. Aaron barr is telling this
Copy !req
2023. financial times journalist
Copy !req
2024. Joseph menn that he's been
Copy !req
2025. secretly monitoring the anonops
Copy !req
2026. server, where all this is going
Copy !req
2027. on, and has done so for several
Copy !req
2028. weeks, and using his own custom
Copy !req
2029. brand of information-operations
Copy !req
2030. techniques has managed to
Copy !req
2031. identify the alleged leadership
Copy !req
2032. of anonymous, including 25
Copy !req
2033. "lieutenants" of some sort.
Copy !req
2034. We have to see this document.
Copy !req
2035. Everyone wants to know.
Copy !req
2036. We don't need to destroy him.
Copy !req
2037. We don't need to destroy his
Copy !req
2038. company.
Copy !req
2039. We just need to see the
Copy !req
2040. document, and we'll decided what
Copy !req
2041. comes next after looking at the
Copy !req
2042. document.
Copy !req
2043. So, they get it.
Copy !req
2044. It was unbelievably easy to get
Copy !req
2045. into that network.
Copy !req
2046. And my name was on there...
Copy !req
2047. As a screen name.
Copy !req
2048. And gregg housh was listed there
Copy !req
2049. by his screen name.
Copy !req
2050. The fact of the matter is what
Copy !req
2051. he told financial times was...
Copy !req
2052. Everything he told them was
Copy !req
2053. demonstratively untrue and very
Copy !req
2054. much hilariously so.
Copy !req
2055. He had to be shut up.
Copy !req
2056. It had to be proven to the world
Copy !req
2057. that this guy was a retard and
Copy !req
2058. that his information was in no
Copy !req
2059. way valid.
Copy !req
2060. And to put that in hacker
Copy !req
2061. terms, anonymous is a hornet's
Copy !req
2062. nest and barr said, "I'm gonna"
Copy !req
2063. stick my penis in that thing."
Copy !req
2064. In a mere 24 hours, he was
Copy !req
2065. owned, pwned completely by a
Copy !req
2066. small group of participants who
Copy !req
2067. basically went on a hacking
Copy !req
2068. rampage.
Copy !req
2069. Faster than you can say, "get"
Copy !req
2070. these hornets off my penis,"
Copy !req
2071. anonymous took down barr's
Copy !req
2072. website, stole his e-mail,
Copy !req
2073. deleted the company's backup
Copy !req
2074. data, trashed his Twitter
Copy !req
2075. account, and remotely wiped his
Copy !req
2076. iPad.
Copy !req
2077. And he had just reached the
Copy !req
2078. "ham 'em high" level on
Copy !req
2079. "angry birds."
Copy !req
2080. The hbgary hack brought about
Copy !req
2081. 70,000 e-mails.
Copy !req
2082. Probably the most important
Copy !req
2083. ones had to do with a proposal
Copy !req
2084. that hbgary had already
Copy !req
2085. formulated.
Copy !req
2086. It was packaged up as a nice
Copy !req
2087. powerpoint presentation.
Copy !req
2088. Kind of act as privatized agent
Copy !req
2089. provocateurs where they were
Copy !req
2090. gonna discredit wikileaks.
Copy !req
2091. Hbgary was proposing
Copy !req
2092. submitting fake documents to
Copy !req
2093. wikileaks and then, when
Copy !req
2094. discovered as fake, the error
Copy !req
2095. could be called out and it would
Copy !req
2096. discredit wikileaks.
Copy !req
2097. So, there's a lot of, like,
Copy !req
2098. specifics I can't talk about, so
Copy !req
2099. let me try to answer that,
Copy !req
2100. though, in a general sense.
Copy !req
2101. Well, first of all, I'm... it's
Copy !req
2102. probably no surprise to anybody
Copy !req
2103. I'm not a big fan of wikileaks.
Copy !req
2104. I think that the broad purpose
Copy !req
2105. of trying to get as much
Copy !req
2106. information... proprietary or
Copy !req
2107. classified information for the
Copy !req
2108. government... expose that, is an
Copy !req
2109. extremely destructive and
Copy !req
2110. dangerous purpose.
Copy !req
2111. The proposals involved
Copy !req
2112. conducting information war on
Copy !req
2113. wikileaks and its supporters,
Copy !req
2114. creating dissension within
Copy !req
2115. wikileaks, ddos attacks.
Copy !req
2116. You also wanted to launch
Copy !req
2117. cyber attacks on wikileaks
Copy !req
2118. infrastructure to get
Copy !req
2119. information on document
Copy !req
2120. submitters.
Copy !req
2121. One thing, I guess, I want to
Copy !req
2122. make sure is clear is...
Copy !req
2123. None of those activities had
Copy !req
2124. actually occurred.
Copy !req
2125. You know, there's... in
Copy !req
2126. business, there's... You know,
Copy !req
2127. when you start proposing or
Copy !req
2128. thinking about an idea, there's
Copy !req
2129. a brainstorming phase.
Copy !req
2130. And somebody says, "well, what"
Copy !req
2131. if, you know... what could we
Copy !req
2132. do?
Copy !req
2133. "What's theoretically possible?"
Copy !req
2134. Well, still, this was an
Copy !req
2135. idea.
Copy !req
2136. This was proposed.
Copy !req
2137. This was something that you
Copy !req
2138. thought about.
Copy !req
2139. Right.
Copy !req
2140. They also wanted to go on a
Copy !req
2141. campaign kind of targeting
Copy !req
2142. Glenn greenwald, who's a
Copy !req
2143. reporter for salon, who's an
Copy !req
2144. outspoken kind of critic of the
Copy !req
2145. government and supporter of
Copy !req
2146. wikileaks.
Copy !req
2147. It seems like you're trying
Copy !req
2148. to attack a journalist here.
Copy !req
2149. Yeah, and I, you know... I
Copy !req
2150. don't want to talk too much more
Copy !req
2151. about Glenn greenwald, but other
Copy !req
2152. than, you know, what I
Copy !req
2153. previously said is, you know...
Copy !req
2154. There was never an intent to
Copy !req
2155. attack... journalists.
Copy !req
2156. Not on my part.
Copy !req
2157. You know... I guess I should
Copy !req
2158. say... I should generalize that
Copy !req
2159. and to say that, you know, I
Copy !req
2160. would never just outwardly
Copy !req
2161. attack a journalist other than
Copy !req
2162. if I felt that there was a
Copy !req
2163. journalist, in my mind, that was
Copy !req
2164. acting unethically.
Copy !req
2165. That's a fair game for having a
Copy !req
2166. public discussion about it.
Copy !req
2167. They were walking a very fine
Copy !req
2168. ethical line at points, and, in
Copy !req
2169. many cases, the mass opinion is,
Copy !req
2170. "no, they stepped well past it."
Copy !req
2171. I will not support broad
Copy !req
2172. theft of... of information
Copy !req
2173. released to the public 'cause
Copy !req
2174. that's nothing but destructive.
Copy !req
2175. If somebody has information
Copy !req
2176. that's been stolen from them,
Copy !req
2177. and whether or not wikileaks
Copy !req
2178. encouraged the theft of that or
Copy !req
2179. whether or not it was just put
Copy !req
2180. in their lap... still,
Copy !req
2181. they're... they're threatening
Copy !req
2182. to release the information that
Copy !req
2183. was the private property of
Copy !req
2184. another organization.
Copy !req
2185. So, your choices are to just
Copy !req
2186. allow that to happen or to try
Copy !req
2187. to stop it.
Copy !req
2188. How offensive is too offensive?
Copy !req
2189. You know, we've certainly seen a
Copy !req
2190. lot of strategy coming out of
Copy !req
2191. governments across the world
Copy !req
2192. now, saying, you know...
Copy !req
2193. Publicly admitting that they
Copy !req
2194. need to become... they need to
Copy !req
2195. develop better offensive
Copy !req
2196. strategies in cyber security,
Copy !req
2197. because defense as a whole isn't
Copy !req
2198. enough.
Copy !req
2199. It never is enough.
Copy !req
2200. In the court of public
Copy !req
2201. opinion that took hbgary quickly
Copy !req
2202. from being a perceived victim to
Copy !req
2203. being a perceived villain
Copy !req
2204. themselves.
Copy !req
2205. It was becoming harder and
Copy !req
2206. harder to distinguish the good
Copy !req
2207. guys from the bad guys.
Copy !req
2208. Hbgary changed anonymous...
Copy !req
2209. As tremendously as optunisia
Copy !req
2210. did.
Copy !req
2211. And within essentially a month
Copy !req
2212. of each other, these two events
Copy !req
2213. were totally formative for the
Copy !req
2214. collective.
Copy !req
2215. Optunisia was where it got its
Copy !req
2216. moral compass and its sense that
Copy !req
2217. it could affect the world.
Copy !req
2218. Hbgary is where it got its
Copy !req
2219. swagger.
Copy !req
2220. George hotz made it possible
Copy !req
2221. for PlayStation to run
Copy !req
2222. homebrewed software, which also
Copy !req
2223. lets you run pirated software.
Copy !req
2224. Yo! It's g.O. Hot.
Copy !req
2225. And for those that don't know,
Copy !req
2226. I'm getting sued by Sony.
Copy !req
2227. So, Sony went after him,
Copy !req
2228. claiming it was a dmca
Copy !req
2229. violation.
Copy !req
2230. They just kind of mass-lawyer
Copy !req
2231. nastygrammed him and shut him
Copy !req
2232. down and did sue him.
Copy !req
2233. He settled.
Copy !req
2234. And the response to that was
Copy !req
2235. immediate and brutal.
Copy !req
2236. Sony has confirmed that
Copy !req
2237. hackers broke into its
Copy !req
2238. PlayStation network, exposing
Copy !req
2239. the personal information of up
Copy !req
2240. to 77 million users worldwide.
Copy !req
2241. Over the next six to eight
Copy !req
2242. months, they were hacked over 20
Copy !req
2243. times.
Copy !req
2244. There's no evidence that
Copy !req
2245. anonymous was anywhere near the
Copy !req
2246. majority of the hacks.
Copy !req
2247. One of the reasons why it
Copy !req
2248. captured so much of the media
Copy !req
2249. imagination when anonymous did
Copy !req
2250. it, as opposed to when other
Copy !req
2251. people did it, is because they
Copy !req
2252. were loud and bombastic, and
Copy !req
2253. they had a great image you could
Copy !req
2254. throw on the top of your
Copy !req
2255. article, and they made
Copy !req
2256. statements that, when you're
Copy !req
2257. constructing a story, you just
Copy !req
2258. can't resist.
Copy !req
2259. And then, kind of seemingly
Copy !req
2260. out of the blue, there was
Copy !req
2261. something by the name lulzsec
Copy !req
2262. that sailed into the seas.
Copy !req
2263. Lulzsec... it's a sort of a
Copy !req
2264. group, mostly from anonymous,
Copy !req
2265. who... large part of the same
Copy !req
2266. people who hacked hbgary.
Copy !req
2267. And they decided to form this
Copy !req
2268. little group and carry on
Copy !req
2269. operations outside the purview
Copy !req
2270. of anonymous for awhile.
Copy !req
2271. Lulzsec tried to say it
Copy !req
2272. wasn't anonymous for awhile.
Copy !req
2273. They tried to divide itself off.
Copy !req
2274. I don't think anyone bought it
Copy !req
2275. for a minute.
Copy !req
2276. There was no way that lulzsec
Copy !req
2277. was not anonymous, but the
Copy !req
2278. majority of time, the majority
Copy !req
2279. of anons were not doing anything
Copy !req
2280. particularly illegal.
Copy !req
2281. When they are, a huge number of
Copy !req
2282. them try to do that in a very
Copy !req
2283. specific political context.
Copy !req
2284. For those people, what lulzsec
Copy !req
2285. was doing... they were funny but
Copy !req
2286. they were attacking random
Copy !req
2287. targets.
Copy !req
2288. They were breaking the
Copy !req
2289. quasi-rules by attacking media.
Copy !req
2290. There was a lot of
Copy !req
2291. in-fighting about it because
Copy !req
2292. their way, you know, wasn't
Copy !req
2293. really our way.
Copy !req
2294. We will not attack the media.
Copy !req
2295. Pbs's "frontline" runs a
Copy !req
2296. documentary mainly focused on
Copy !req
2297. Bradley Manning, the alleged
Copy !req
2298. leaker to wikileaks, and a lot
Copy !req
2299. of Bradley Manning supporters
Copy !req
2300. didn't like it.
Copy !req
2301. They hacked the website,
Copy !req
2302. putting a story that 2pac and
Copy !req
2303. biggie had kind of escaped the
Copy !req
2304. world of celebrity, fame, and
Copy !req
2305. attention and retired quietly
Copy !req
2306. and discreetly in New Zealand.
Copy !req
2307. Lulzsec, when they attacked
Copy !req
2308. pbs, you know, that gave me the
Copy !req
2309. creeps, you know.
Copy !req
2310. As a journalist, I'm not too
Copy !req
2311. thrilled with the idea of
Copy !req
2312. someone judging that, "we don't"
Copy !req
2313. like you to write that.
Copy !req
2314. We don't like your reporting, so
Copy !req
2315. we're gonna shut down your
Copy !req
2316. "website."
Copy !req
2317. I'm uncomfortable with that.
Copy !req
2318. It could be me, and I could be
Copy !req
2319. writing something about a group
Copy !req
2320. that they didn't like.
Copy !req
2321. And I'm happy to sit and talk
Copy !req
2322. with them about it, but, you
Copy !req
2323. know, don't shut my website
Copy !req
2324. down.
Copy !req
2325. Hacktivism started to
Copy !req
2326. become... sort of... I would say
Copy !req
2327. almost more nasty, using, you
Copy !req
2328. know, sort of more
Copy !req
2329. no-holds-barred kind of
Copy !req
2330. attacks... sort of more vicious
Copy !req
2331. attacks.
Copy !req
2332. Lulzsec adds this dimension
Copy !req
2333. of bombastic lawbreaking to
Copy !req
2334. anonymous.
Copy !req
2335. For the people who are focused
Copy !req
2336. on things like the freedomops,
Copy !req
2337. who want anonymous to be a way
Copy !req
2338. of standing up to the powers
Copy !req
2339. that be, this is diluting and
Copy !req
2340. possibly counterproductive to
Copy !req
2341. their project in anonymous.
Copy !req
2342. You can try to make a case
Copy !req
2343. for civil disobedience and for,
Copy !req
2344. you might call it, crowd-sourced
Copy !req
2345. investigations using
Copy !req
2346. sometimes illegal means.
Copy !req
2347. It's hard to keep making that
Copy !req
2348. case, it's hard to maintain that
Copy !req
2349. case when you have these people
Copy !req
2350. from the movement...
Copy !req
2351. Fucking with people, you know,
Copy !req
2352. just fucking with people.
Copy !req
2353. They sort of saw themselves
Copy !req
2354. as going out there and breaking
Copy !req
2355. into, like, anything,
Copy !req
2356. everything... government,
Copy !req
2357. corporations, police
Copy !req
2358. departments... largely for the
Copy !req
2359. same reason that anonymous
Copy !req
2360. would.
Copy !req
2361. They went after Arizona for
Copy !req
2362. immigration policy.
Copy !req
2363. 50-day run causing mayhem,
Copy !req
2364. havoc... and then ended it.
Copy !req
2365. The computer hacking group
Copy !req
2366. lulzsecurity has announced it's
Copy !req
2367. disbanding, saying it had
Copy !req
2368. achieved its mission to disrupt
Copy !req
2369. government and corporate
Copy !req
2370. organizations for fun.
Copy !req
2371. I call this whole thing the
Copy !req
2372. rise of the chaotic actor.
Copy !req
2373. And chaotic could be chaotic
Copy !req
2374. good, neutral, or evil.
Copy !req
2375. And if you go back to the old
Copy !req
2376. "dungeons & dragons" charts...
Copy !req
2377. And some people see it on ops
Copy !req
2378. initially and will stick with
Copy !req
2379. anonymous as chaotic good.
Copy !req
2380. They saw operation payback or
Copy !req
2381. they saw attacking scientology,
Copy !req
2382. and they say, "that's good."
Copy !req
2383. It's like Robin hood, right?"
Copy !req
2384. Chaotic good... outside the
Copy !req
2385. system but doing something good.
Copy !req
2386. Other people saw anon as chaotic
Copy !req
2387. evil like the joker.
Copy !req
2388. They just want to see the world
Copy !req
2389. burn and are doing potentially
Copy !req
2390. irreparable damage.
Copy !req
2391. And the truth is, yes, it's the
Copy !req
2392. entire column of chaotic.
Copy !req
2393. I'm actually a little less
Copy !req
2394. concerned about some of the
Copy !req
2395. things lulzsec has done and more
Copy !req
2396. concerned about the next
Copy !req
2397. generation of lulzsec, the next
Copy !req
2398. turn of the crank of "who takes"
Copy !req
2399. it further or is more
Copy !req
2400. "aggressive?"
Copy !req
2401. Whoever fights monsters, you
Copy !req
2402. know, should see to it that they
Copy !req
2403. don't themselves become one.
Copy !req
2404. Sabu was probably the most
Copy !req
2405. famous anon who managed to kind
Copy !req
2406. of remain famous for awhile.
Copy !req
2407. Somebody who gets famous in anon
Copy !req
2408. generally gets punished very
Copy !req
2409. harshly by anonymous.
Copy !req
2410. But sabu managed to avoid that a
Copy !req
2411. few ways.
Copy !req
2412. I mean, he was a controversial
Copy !req
2413. figure... incredibly
Copy !req
2414. controversial figure... inside
Copy !req
2415. of anonymous.
Copy !req
2416. He was bombastic.
Copy !req
2417. He was thuggish.
Copy !req
2418. But he was also very good at
Copy !req
2419. mentoring and encouraging people
Copy !req
2420. and giving them permission to
Copy !req
2421. try things.
Copy !req
2422. And that was, I think, one of
Copy !req
2423. the most pivotal things about
Copy !req
2424. sabu's role.
Copy !req
2425. And it also speaks to the
Copy !req
2426. absolutely soul-crushing level
Copy !req
2427. of betrayal... When it was
Copy !req
2428. revealed that sabu was working
Copy !req
2429. for the FBI.
Copy !req
2430. There are still people who
Copy !req
2431. cannot let go of the idea that
Copy !req
2432. he was somehow on their side,
Copy !req
2433. that somehow he had to have been
Copy !req
2434. working against the FBI to help
Copy !req
2435. them... no matter how much is
Copy !req
2436. revealed.
Copy !req
2437. But he had betrayed the
Copy !req
2438. collective.
Copy !req
2439. It devastated everyone that he
Copy !req
2440. had touched.
Copy !req
2441. Hugh Davies.
Copy !req
2442. I'm an independent barrister.
Copy !req
2443. Amongst the cases I'm working on
Copy !req
2444. at the moment are the lulzsec
Copy !req
2445. base prosecution.
Copy !req
2446. I can't comment on sabu, but
Copy !req
2447. with cyber criminals, whatever
Copy !req
2448. their motivation, it may not be
Copy !req
2449. personal profit, but it is a
Copy !req
2450. very strong, sometimes
Copy !req
2451. destructive motive simply for
Copy !req
2452. those with whom they disagree.
Copy !req
2453. In criminal terms, it's
Copy !req
2454. vandalism.
Copy !req
2455. One has to be extremely careful
Copy !req
2456. that one person's exercise of
Copy !req
2457. freedom of speech is not at the
Copy !req
2458. expense of some other quite
Copy !req
2459. legitimate organization's equal
Copy !req
2460. right to have a lawful website
Copy !req
2461. operating, available to the
Copy !req
2462. public in a Democratic society.
Copy !req
2463. And simply taking out lawful
Copy !req
2464. websites 'cause you disagree
Copy !req
2465. with them is an erosion of
Copy !req
2466. freedom of speech rather than
Copy !req
2467. extending it.
Copy !req
2468. Really, as powerful as they
Copy !req
2469. seem to be, lulzsec and
Copy !req
2470. anonymous are really small
Copy !req
2471. potatoes compared to the bigger
Copy !req
2472. operations that are going on
Copy !req
2473. that we don't hear about, maybe
Copy !req
2474. operations funded by
Copy !req
2475. governments.
Copy !req
2476. The criminal hackers... this
Copy !req
2477. is not some lone idiot, you
Copy !req
2478. know, hunkered down like
Copy !req
2479. beavis or butt-head, cackling at
Copy !req
2480. midnight over his computer.
Copy !req
2481. There are a few of those but
Copy !req
2482. it's organized.
Copy !req
2483. There are ad hoc contract
Copy !req
2484. workers.
Copy !req
2485. It comes out of Russia, comes
Copy !req
2486. out of Romania, comes out of
Copy !req
2487. Iran... comes out of wherever.
Copy !req
2488. But they work on behalf of the
Copy !req
2489. usual criminal enterprises
Copy !req
2490. the computer-security
Copy !req
2491. industry has just been growing
Copy !req
2492. and growing and growing over the
Copy !req
2493. last, you know, 10, 15 years.
Copy !req
2494. There's $10 billion companies in
Copy !req
2495. the computer-security industry.
Copy !req
2496. I don't know what the total
Copy !req
2497. market cap is, but it's
Copy !req
2498. certainly in the billions of
Copy !req
2499. dollars.
Copy !req
2500. Black hat, when I first started
Copy !req
2501. coming, like 15 years ago, there
Copy !req
2502. was, like, 500 people.
Copy !req
2503. And there's 8,500 people today.
Copy !req
2504. So, every year, more and more
Copy !req
2505. people come to learn about what
Copy !req
2506. are the attacks.
Copy !req
2507. Companies come to, you know,
Copy !req
2508. sell new products.
Copy !req
2509. And the government is coming,
Copy !req
2510. saying, "we want to recruit"
Copy !req
2511. you to come be our new cyber
Copy !req
2512. "warriors."
Copy !req
2513. The kind of thing that drives
Copy !req
2514. people to something like
Copy !req
2515. anonymous is that sense that
Copy !req
2516. their government is going to
Copy !req
2517. watch them every moment of the
Copy !req
2518. day and, in America, our
Copy !req
2519. government is kind of watching
Copy !req
2520. us all the time.
Copy !req
2521. Like, we now know that with the
Copy !req
2522. warrantless wiretapping.
Copy !req
2523. You know, we live under constant
Copy !req
2524. cctvs.
Copy !req
2525. We have that sense that not only
Copy !req
2526. are we being tracked, but it's
Copy !req
2527. about to get a lot worse.
Copy !req
2528. The NSA has embraced domestic
Copy !req
2529. spying.
Copy !req
2530. They're building a giant
Copy !req
2531. spy center in Utah.
Copy !req
2532. And the only thing... the only
Copy !req
2533. thing... that even gives them
Copy !req
2534. pause is encryption.
Copy !req
2535. Anonymous gives people a way to
Copy !req
2536. exist outside of this system.
Copy !req
2537. There's a certain online
Copy !req
2538. culture that believes in certain
Copy !req
2539. values like freedom of
Copy !req
2540. expression.
Copy !req
2541. They're against corruption.
Copy !req
2542. They're against governments
Copy !req
2543. controlling their citizens.
Copy !req
2544. And when they see those values
Copy !req
2545. harmed in some way by some
Copy !req
2546. organization, the hacktivists
Copy !req
2547. strike back.
Copy !req
2548. 16 people were arrested
Copy !req
2549. today.
Copy !req
2550. Dozens of FBI agents targeted
Copy !req
2551. alleged members of a loose-knit
Copy !req
2552. hacking group.
Copy !req
2553. Armed with search warrants,
Copy !req
2554. agents hit six homes in.
Copy !req
2555. New York, along with locations
Copy !req
2556. across the country.
Copy !req
2557. The people arrested yesterday
Copy !req
2558. were suspected of attacking.
Copy !req
2559. PayPal's website after the
Copy !req
2560. company shut off payments to
Copy !req
2561. wikileaks.
Copy !req
2562. Defenders of the hackers say
Copy !req
2563. they're merely engaged in civil
Copy !req
2564. protest, but FBI officials worry
Copy !req
2565. the disruptive cyber attacks
Copy !req
2566. could move in a more dangerous
Copy !req
2567. direction.
Copy !req
2568. So, the FBI shows up.
Copy !req
2569. It's 6:00 in the morning, and it
Copy !req
2570. was really obnoxious.
Copy !req
2571. And I remember being frustrated
Copy !req
2572. and angry because there was
Copy !req
2573. nothing that I had done that
Copy !req
2574. would have justified an FBI
Copy !req
2575. search warrant.
Copy !req
2576. They came and... Guns blazing
Copy !req
2577. and all this other good stuff...
Copy !req
2578. Busted down the door.
Copy !req
2579. I immediately just dropped down
Copy !req
2580. on the floor, 180.
Copy !req
2581. I wasn't trying to fight nobody.
Copy !req
2582. The theory of the case is
Copy !req
2583. they were, you know... they
Copy !req
2584. flooded... "a number of people"
Copy !req
2585. flooded access to PayPal,
Copy !req
2586. thereby creating economic
Copy !req
2587. distress to a protected
Copy !req
2588. "corporation."
Copy !req
2589. End of story.
Copy !req
2590. This isn't... this is not a case
Copy !req
2591. involving identity theft,
Copy !req
2592. involving outing e-mails,
Copy !req
2593. involving violating privilege,
Copy !req
2594. involving theft of services,
Copy !req
2595. involving, you know, shutting
Copy !req
2596. down business.
Copy !req
2597. It is a pure case of Internet or
Copy !req
2598. cyber sit-ins.
Copy !req
2599. I think when barrack Obama gets
Copy !req
2600. on television and says, "flood"
Copy !req
2601. the switchboard, shut down the
Copy !req
2602. Republicans, send the
Copy !req
2603. "message"... that's legal.
Copy !req
2604. And even if you accept what the
Copy !req
2605. theory of this prosecution is,
Copy !req
2606. it's no different.
Copy !req
2607. This is an electronic sit-in at
Copy !req
2608. its finest.
Copy !req
2609. So, what I'm facing is a
Copy !req
2610. felony... 15 years in federal
Copy !req
2611. prison and a $250,000 fine.
Copy !req
2612. If you're a pedophile, the
Copy !req
2613. average is 11 years.
Copy !req
2614. That's ridiculous.
Copy !req
2615. I mean, you can go molest
Copy !req
2616. children and get less of a
Copy !req
2617. sentence than you would for
Copy !req
2618. breaking into someone's phone.
Copy !req
2619. If you... even if you accept
Copy !req
2620. what the government is saying is
Copy !req
2621. true, what is important is that
Copy !req
2622. people are participating in the
Copy !req
2623. process.
Copy !req
2624. It is very much the process.
Copy !req
2625. It is sitting in at a counter in
Copy !req
2626. Selma, Alabama, 500 freedom
Copy !req
2627. riders refusing to allow people
Copy !req
2628. to go sit in at a segregated
Copy !req
2629. lunch counter.
Copy !req
2630. They write books about that
Copy !req
2631. stuff.
Copy !req
2632. It is demonstrating at a street
Copy !req
2633. corner saying no to a war.
Copy !req
2634. It's just a different... it's
Copy !req
2635. just a different vehicle.
Copy !req
2636. It's the same result.
Copy !req
2637. You know, I would never
Copy !req
2638. compare myself to people like
Copy !req
2639. Gandhi or.
Copy !req
2640. Dr. Martin Luther King, but they
Copy !req
2641. were one person, and they were
Copy !req
2642. willing to go out and change the
Copy !req
2643. world.
Copy !req
2644. And their messages live on every
Copy !req
2645. day through everybody.
Copy !req
2646. And to not take the chance of
Copy !req
2647. having something like that to do
Copy !req
2648. is foolish.
Copy !req
2649. I only wish we had 50 million
Copy !req
2650. Mercedes haefer.
Copy !req
2651. I'd feel a lot more comfortable
Copy !req
2652. as a guy getting towards the
Copy !req
2653. tail end of his career if there
Copy !req
2654. were more Mercedes.
Copy !req
2655. There's always gonna be legal
Copy !req
2656. consequence when you decide to
Copy !req
2657. break the law.
Copy !req
2658. That comes with the territory.
Copy !req
2659. And it would be naive not to
Copy !req
2660. expect that.
Copy !req
2661. The question is whether the
Copy !req
2662. punishment will be proportional
Copy !req
2663. to the crime.
Copy !req
2664. And I suspect it might not be.
Copy !req
2665. People will be watching very
Copy !req
2666. closely to see how these cases
Copy !req
2667. proceed on what grounds and
Copy !req
2668. whether there's any room during
Copy !req
2669. the trials to think especially
Copy !req
2670. of the denial-of-service attacks
Copy !req
2671. as a legitimate form of protest.
Copy !req
2672. So much of our lives are now
Copy !req
2673. configured at least in part on
Copy !req
2674. the Internet, so we better start
Copy !req
2675. thinking about how we claim
Copy !req
2676. parts of the Internet as spaces
Copy !req
2677. that we can also protest.
Copy !req
2678. This is the point in history
Copy !req
2679. at which you decide whether or
Copy !req
2680. not protesting is possible
Copy !req
2681. online.
Copy !req
2682. You can stand up, and you can
Copy !req
2683. say freedom of speech extends to
Copy !req
2684. online.
Copy !req
2685. We have the right to not be
Copy !req
2686. monitored by our government
Copy !req
2687. because of our opinions.
Copy !req
2688. It's up to you.
Copy !req
2689. You're in the position of
Copy !req
2690. huck Finn.
Copy !req
2691. Do you remember huck Finn at the
Copy !req
2692. end of the book?
Copy !req
2693. He's told he's got to take that
Copy !req
2694. slave and give it back.
Copy !req
2695. Two things will happen if he
Copy !req
2696. doesn't.
Copy !req
2697. One... legally, he'll go to
Copy !req
2698. jail, as Jim is property.
Copy !req
2699. Two... he'll be damned eternally
Copy !req
2700. and burn in hellfire 'cause he's
Copy !req
2701. in an Evangelical environment in
Copy !req
2702. Missouri.
Copy !req
2703. And huck smokes his corncob pipe
Copy !req
2704. all night, thinks about it.
Copy !req
2705. And next morning, he says,
Copy !req
2706. "well, damn it, I'll go to hell,
Copy !req
2707. then."
Copy !req
2708. In other words, he discovered
Copy !req
2709. that in order to be an expert at
Copy !req
2710. ethics, you had to transcend the
Copy !req
2711. legal and sanctioned religious
Copy !req
2712. appropriate truths of the day in
Copy !req
2713. order to access the meta truth
Copy !req
2714. of both legality and
Copy !req
2715. righteousness.
Copy !req
2716. Well, hackers see themselves as
Copy !req
2717. huck putting down that corncob
Copy !req
2718. pipe and saying, "all right",
Copy !req
2719. I'll go to jail.
Copy !req
2720. All right, I'll go to hell.
Copy !req
2721. But I'm gonna do the right
Copy !req
2722. "thing."
Copy !req
2723. I suppose the question you
Copy !req
2724. really want to ask is, would I
Copy !req
2725. do it again?
Copy !req
2726. And honestly, after thinking
Copy !req
2727. about it, I felt that I did what
Copy !req
2728. was right.
Copy !req
2729. I had a belief... I still do...
Copy !req
2730. That what I did was the right
Copy !req
2731. thing.
Copy !req
2732. And hopefully someone got some
Copy !req
2733. good out of it.
Copy !req
2734. You know, I'd love to think that
Copy !req
2735. maybe I stopped someone from
Copy !req
2736. joining a cult, you know.
Copy !req
2737. Probably wouldn't tell on myself
Copy !req
2738. next time, but, you know, I
Copy !req
2739. don't think I would have changed
Copy !req
2740. a single thing other than the
Copy !req
2741. whole "talking to the FBI"
Copy !req
2742. thing.
Copy !req
2743. Just that little detail.
Copy !req
2744. Yeah, just the little detail
Copy !req
2745. that kind of changed everything.
Copy !req
2746. Yeah.
Copy !req
2747. I'm angry.
Copy !req
2748. Occasionally, I have small
Copy !req
2749. breakdown moments of terror.
Copy !req
2750. But I haven't stopped believing
Copy !req
2751. what I believe.
Copy !req
2752. I haven't stopped wanting to
Copy !req
2753. fight.
Copy !req
2754. I haven't stopped caring.
Copy !req
2755. Show me what democracy looks
Copy !req
2756. like!
Copy !req
2757. This is what democracy
Copy !req
2758. looks like!
Copy !req
2759. Show me what democracy looks
Copy !req
2760. like!
Copy !req
2761. We got sold out!
Copy !req
2762. I don't think this whole
Copy !req
2763. issue is a technical hacking
Copy !req
2764. thing.
Copy !req
2765. This is more about human
Copy !req
2766. philosophy and psychology,
Copy !req
2767. what's motivating us, why is
Copy !req
2768. there so much unrest or
Copy !req
2769. disenfranchisement or anger that
Copy !req
2770. would lead people to want to
Copy !req
2771. take matters into their own
Copy !req
2772. hands and join them.
Copy !req
2773. Whether you think it's bad or
Copy !req
2774. not is irrelevant.
Copy !req
2775. It's not going away.
Copy !req
2776. I have stood upon the
Copy !req
2777. mountaintop known as anonymous
Copy !req
2778. and looked down on a world
Copy !req
2779. enflamed with revolution.
Copy !req
2780. What can you say?
Copy !req
2781. Your spine tingles when you're
Copy !req
2782. at the cusp of history.
Copy !req
2783. When you're surfing, you know,
Copy !req
2784. the waves of history, your spine
Copy !req
2785. tingles.
Copy !req
2786. Descent has a face now.
Copy !req
2787. It has an aesthetic.
Copy !req
2788. There's this package it can pick
Copy !req
2789. up and put on anywhere in the
Copy !req
2790. world for any cause it wants.
Copy !req
2791. And sometimes that's gonna be
Copy !req
2792. terrible, and sometimes it's
Copy !req
2793. going to be wonderful.
Copy !req
2794. One thing I can kind of promise
Copy !req
2795. is that it's gonna be
Copy !req
2796. interesting.
Copy !req
2797. It's rare in history that new
Copy !req
2798. things happen, but I think this
Copy !req
2799. is one of them.
Copy !req
2800. If you have power in real
Copy !req
2801. life and you have money in real
Copy !req
2802. life, you know, it doesn't
Copy !req
2803. fucking matter on the Internet.
Copy !req
2804. What matters on the Internet is
Copy !req
2805. your actual ideas, you know, how
Copy !req
2806. smart you are, the quality of
Copy !req
2807. you.
Copy !req
2808. And when certain organizations
Copy !req
2809. that, you know... they want to
Copy !req
2810. extend their real-life power
Copy !req
2811. onto the Internet, it's not
Copy !req
2812. gonna fucking take because of
Copy !req
2813. anonymous.
Copy !req
2814. I don't care if you're a
Copy !req
2815. democrat or a republican or an
Copy !req
2816. independent or if you like
Copy !req
2817. Ron Paul or if you worship
Copy !req
2818. pigeons or scientology or if
Copy !req
2819. you're catholic or atheist or
Copy !req
2820. methodist.
Copy !req
2821. I don't care about that.
Copy !req
2822. Your opinion matters.
Copy !req
2823. I don't care if I disagree with
Copy !req
2824. it.
Copy !req
2825. I don't care if I hate your
Copy !req
2826. guts.
Copy !req
2827. Your opinion matters.
Copy !req
2828. Is there going to be any
Copy !req
2829. further action?
Copy !req
2830. I mean, does anonymous intend to
Copy !req
2831. prove that they can, in fact,
Copy !req
2832. manipulate the westboro baptist
Copy !req
2833. church network of websites?
Copy !req
2834. What can we expect going
Copy !req
2835. forward, anonymous?
Copy !req
2836. Actually, I'm working on that
Copy !req
2837. right now.
Copy !req
2838. He's working on that right
Copy !req
2839. now!
Copy !req
2840. Oh, yay.
Copy !req
2841. So, hold on.
Copy !req
2842. I am getting a thumbs up from my
Copy !req
2843. producer that there has been a
Copy !req
2844. message posted that appears to
Copy !req
2845. be from anonymous on downloads.
Copy !req
2846. Westborobaptistchurch.com.
Copy !req
2847. Anonymous, are you taking
Copy !req
2848. responsibility for this?
Copy !req
2849. Yep.
Copy !req
2850. We just did it right now this
Copy !req
2851. very second.
Copy !req
2852. That is so special.
Copy !req
2853. That's so special.
Copy !req