Anonymous claims to have "warhead"

[Ringsgold]

I must say their video editing skills have improved.

[Domitilde]

They don't need to be labeled a terrorist organization to be subject to the Patriot Act. The Patriot Act is so broad that it could easily be applied to them, or really, to anyone the government grabs and whisks away.

[Смерть]

Anonymous do a lot of pretty cool stuff, I've noticed that (in the uk at least) they don't publicly name checked for the positive news stories, the exposing local corruption, finding missing people, identifying mad grannies who keep putting kittens in bins, providing the evidence that France, Spain & Austria are using to ban scientology. Its only for the hacking that they actually get credit for. I suppose it's all to do with narrative

Indeed; I did not know that stuff, thanks for sharing.

...

Not in response to the quote, but a different tangent..

Actually, isn't Anonymous less of a group than it is a symbol and a movement? While some good acts done under the pseudonym does not excuse bad acts; that responsibility in the end ignores Anonymous as a "group" centering rather on individual delinquency -- in hand praising individual goodness -- of unrelated individuals or collectives acting anonymously?

[Rob Van Der Sloot]

Epic video, but anonymous sure is long winded. I think they should release these videos as a trilogy, because they are pretty long to sit through, and most of the message gets lost along the way because it is taking so long. Maybe they should also consider leaving some speeches out, and then release them on the extended DVD edition.

[Смерть]

Rhetoric, the art of being long winded -- at times. Or is that BSing? Such a fine line.

[raspberry jam]

lel some asshat killed himself and that makes us want to ddos the world. again.

Seriously, I support what Aaron Swartz did, think it's completely right and don't think he should be prosecuted so harshly, or at all - but Anonymous should stick to what they do best.

And yes I mean posting pictures of dead babies on /b/.

[Domitilde]

Are you saying that the law should not be enforced? Are we to be selective on which laws get enforced and which do not? You can't flip-flop based on your personal feelings about something. It's either a law to be enforced, or it isn't, and you believe in enforcing laws.

[raspberry jam]

Are you saying that the law should not be enforced? Are we to be selective on which laws get enforced and which do not? You can't flip-flop based on your personal feelings about something. It's either a law to be enforced, or it isn't, and you believe in enforcing laws.

I am saying that the essence of what he did was right. That it would be illegal to disseminate academic articles is completely ridiculous. Basically consider what he did as the internet version of the Boston tea party. Was that an illegal act? Sure was, but was it right? Yeah, that too.

That said, it's his own damn fault that he died. That's how suicides work after all.

[Alaris]

I'd have to say that the publishing wheel in academia is weird, we often pay to publish articles, even articles that then publishers ask money to grant access to. We're the opposite of paid to publish our work, it's as if our publications served as advertising rather than as contributions to society.

But I would not exactly say that this is morally wrong. It's a system that works, and until we get a viable alternative, it gets the job done without big abuses. Scientists publish, use those publications as proof of productivity, and get funding as a result. The publishing costs have to be paid somewhere.

One can conceive of alternatives, and some have tried to implement alternatives... but basically I see this as a free market problem where the current solution gets enough demand from readers and writers alike to survive quite well, and enforcing the rules allows it to keep staying alive. I'll gladly swap to a different viable system when I see one, but I don't see "making the current system collapse" as a viable way to go about it.

[raspberry jam]

The publishing costs have to be paid somewhere.

For printed materials? Sure.

"Publishing costs" for PDF or PS files? lololol