boutons_deux
01-24-2013, 06:25 AM
the hacktivist collective Anonymous voiced their displeasure with PayPal, over that company's part in the banking blockade of Wikileaks.
A reported 10,000 protesters around the world took to the internet with a protest method known as DDoS (distributed denial of service) – the functional equivalent of repeatedly hitting the refresh button on a computer. With enough people refreshing enough times, the site is flooded with traffic, slowed, or even temporarily knocked offline. No damage is done to the site or its backing computer system; and when the protest is over, the site resumes business as usual.
the United States government decided to serve 42 warrants and indict 14 protesters. While protest charges have typically been seen as tantamount to nuisance crimes, like trespassing or loitering, these were different. The 14 PayPal defendants, some of whom were teenagers when the protest occurred, find themselves looking at 15 years in federal prison – for exercising their free speech rights; for redressing their grievances to PayPal, a major corporation; for standing up for what they believed was right.
Since the PayPal prosecution, there have been no DDoS protests on that scale. Speech has been chilled.
Supreme court Justice William O Douglas said:
"Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us."
You can't fight city hall, and you can't fight corporations.
Toward that end, it's time to begin a conversation about acknowledging DDoS as legitimate protest speech, deserving of first amendment protection.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/22/paypal-wikileaks-protesters-ddos-free-speech
secret (corporate) money to politicians is protected "free speech", but protesting against corporations, esp hurting their profits, is not.
A reported 10,000 protesters around the world took to the internet with a protest method known as DDoS (distributed denial of service) – the functional equivalent of repeatedly hitting the refresh button on a computer. With enough people refreshing enough times, the site is flooded with traffic, slowed, or even temporarily knocked offline. No damage is done to the site or its backing computer system; and when the protest is over, the site resumes business as usual.
the United States government decided to serve 42 warrants and indict 14 protesters. While protest charges have typically been seen as tantamount to nuisance crimes, like trespassing or loitering, these were different. The 14 PayPal defendants, some of whom were teenagers when the protest occurred, find themselves looking at 15 years in federal prison – for exercising their free speech rights; for redressing their grievances to PayPal, a major corporation; for standing up for what they believed was right.
Since the PayPal prosecution, there have been no DDoS protests on that scale. Speech has been chilled.
Supreme court Justice William O Douglas said:
"Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us."
You can't fight city hall, and you can't fight corporations.
Toward that end, it's time to begin a conversation about acknowledging DDoS as legitimate protest speech, deserving of first amendment protection.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/22/paypal-wikileaks-protesters-ddos-free-speech
secret (corporate) money to politicians is protected "free speech", but protesting against corporations, esp hurting their profits, is not.