What do Julian Assange, Peter Sunde and Kim Dotcom have in common? Sure, they are famous tech activists slash criminals (depending on where you stand). Assange is a crook according to US security agencies (and wanted for sex crimes in Sweden, but that probably has nothing to do with the internet). Peter Sunde used to be the face and voice of The Pirate Bay, and judging from the documentary TPB AFK he was the force behind the move from hacker prank to pseudo-political movement. And Kim Dotcom obviously an uber-pirate, having made a fortune from massive-scale IP-infringement on his Megaupload service. But it’s not the hacktivism that makes this trio special, what sets them apart is their… wait for it… political ambition! That’s right, Assange is running for senate in Australia, Sunde is a top name for the Finnish Pirate Party EU parliament bill and the other day, Dotcom announced he’s starting a new political party in New Zealand. This is a surprising trend, the story was always that technology beats democracy, what with the national borders and all. Are these ambitions in traditional politics a sign that public institutions may be where the real power is after all?
From Tech Crime to Big Politics
5 September 2013 | Per Strömbäck
Worth Reading
- What Dune Can Tell You about Copyright and Creative Work (bonus: Space Swim Suit) »
- Europe’s Digital Phantom Pains (or: How Start-up Programs Feed the Tech Beast) »
- Feature Creep and the Horror of Opportunity »
- Why Europeans (and Floorball) Benefit from Geo-Blocking »
- Where Did Technology Neutral Go? »
- Move Fast and Ban Things »
- Generative AI – The Hidden Centaur »
- Metaverse or Metaverses? »
- Millimeter Waves Or: Network Tax in Space »
- Would Network Tax Bring Better Broadband? »
- Twitter Exodus and the EEE Playbook »
- Spotify on Netflix Brings out Old Frenemies »
- Putting the Art into ARTificial Intelligence »
- The AI Effect »
- Nobel Laureate Calls Oversight Board “Deflection” – She Is Right and Here Is How »
- So Difficult to Make Good Propaganda these Days »
- The Power of Ownership - Follow Musk »
- Can Copyright Save the Planet? »
- Will Putin’s War Split the Internet? »
- The First Casualty of War »
- Facebook’s Myspace Moment »
- Turns Out SOPA/PIPA Wouldn’t Have Broken the Internet After All »
- Fake Xmas Trees »
- Have You Met a Whistleblower? »
- The (Non-)Democracy Machine – How the Tech Giants Gave in to Kremlin »
Netopia
© Netopia | Forum for the Digital Society | Editor: Per Strömbäck | stromback@netopia.eu