[CS-FSLUG] Internet War?

[Ed Hurst]

On Fri, 10 Dec 2010, Jon Glass wrote:

> And, as to whether the US is restricting "internet freedom".... well,
> regardless of how you view Assange, et al, their actions _are_ an act
> of war. As such, they have opened themselves up to attack.

You didn't address it directly, but I wish to note in a technical sense,
Assange did not break any US laws, despite the posturing of some
officials. The actual case histories of such things points out the
publications of this particular type of leaked material is not illegal,
just highly embarrassing. Whomever leaked the material did break the
law. And that he pokes only at the US is accurate. Whether that is good
or bad is a subject to wide ranging political debate.

Of course, if we go too far in discussing this side of things, it
becomes off topic politics. Anyone on the list going that direction
needs to add the [OT] marker in the subject. I was trying to keep the
discussion on the narrower issue of Internet politics, which is
generally on topic.

I offer qualified agreement with your assessment of the 4chan crowd,
which is pretty much the source for the so-called Anonymous and Project
Payback. I rather think they will continue so long as it entertains
them, but not much farther. Whether anyone in that mix is actually
more determined remains to be seen. I rather think more determined
actors would be simply using Anonymous as a mask, provoking a noisy
rabble to hide something more serious in nature.

Let's assume for a moment someone involved actually intends to defend
the relative freedom of the Internet. Aside from political activism
itself, what might someone do technologically, were they fairly capable?
What sort of Internet events would signal something more serious afoot?

Ed Hurst
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