Most US citizens are cyber-terrorists

From: Michael Wiik (mwiik@messagenet.com)
Date: Fri Jul 27 2001 - 15:04:47 MDT


There's been a lot of fictional scenarios for a totalitarian police
state arising in the US, ranging from commie takeovers to right-wing
religious zealots, but I dunno if anyone (till quite recently) expected
possible violation of copyrights as the trigger.

E.g.:

Duncan Frissell on why Napster users are federal felons
http://www.politechbot.com/p-02305.html

(Estimate 55 million felons. Frissell doesnt call them cyber-terrorists
but they're computer-using felons, so imho the term fits).

Copyright wars: Cops nab 14-year old, librarians as terrorists
http://www.politechbot.com/p-02311.html

>...librarians are finding themselves the subject of rhetoric usually
>reserved for terrorists or revolutionaries. "They've got their radical
>factions, like the Ruby Ridge or Waco types," who want to share all
>content for free, said Judith Platt, a spokeswoman for the Association of
>American Publishers.

Let's not forget the entire Internet was cooked up by cyber-terrorists
to begin with:

Taming the Wild, Wild Web
Corporations contend the Internet's freewheeling design kills
moneymaking opportunities.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-072601netarch.story

> "The Internet is an important cultural phenomenon, but that doesn't excuse its failure to comply with basic economic laws," said Thomas Nolle, a New Jersey telecommunications consultant. "The problem is that it was devised by a bunch of hippie anarchists who didn't have a strong profit motive. But this is a business, not a government-sponsored network."

Ok, so he doesnt explicitly say 'cyber-terrorists' either, but in my
view any anarchist wth a computer must be a cyber-terrorist.

Actually, I would say anyone who actually has the temerity to actually
*use a computer* (as opposed to a media-conglomerate-approved device for
viewing or listening to media-conglomerate-approved content) is a
potential cyber-terrorist. The same should apply to those web users who
dare to turn javascript or images off, or refuse cookies. Hell, why not?

Surely business-minded extropians would support calls for massive
death^H^H^H^H^H re-edutainment camps to lock up these legions of wanton
cyber-terrorists.

        -Mike

-- 
======================================================================
Michael Wiik
Principal
Messagenet Communications Research
Washington DC Area Internet and WWW Consultants
http://messagenet.com
mwiik@messagenet.com
======================================================================


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