
Five arrested over 'Anonymous' web attacks - ssclafani
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12299137
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coderdude
Excellent. How dumb do you have to be to try and DDoS the homepage of a major
credit card company from your personal computer using a downloaded tool?
Script kiddies or not, the law is the law. I'm glad to see them get popped for
this. I can't stand all that Anonymous crap -- they've redefined what it means
to be lame. This should hopefully set an example for anyone else that decides
to do some vigilante work of their own. LOIC, give me a break.

"We are Anonymous. We are legion. We are no one. And everyone."

~~~
mycroftiv
The anonymous DDOS attacks were obviously stupid and pointless. I think what
you are missing is that these people are primarily teenagers who really don't
know how to engage in social change in a productive way. In fact, I'm an
adult, and I don't know how to engage in social change in a productive way.
I'm smart enough to know that participating in a DDOS attack is
counterproductive, but I'm also smart enough to know that sending Amazon and
Paypal an email telling them I disagree with their decision making is also
pointless. Do you have any productive suggestions for human individuals
wishing to exert pressure on the decision making processes of large
corporations? Also, do you believe the attitude "the law is the law" is
correct for individuals living in countries with highly repressive
governments? I have a lot of empathy for these misguided youngsters, and I
hope someone figures out more ethical and effective ways for people who want
to contest corporate ethics to do so.

~~~
coderdude
You're defending the wrong kind of people. I understand the empathy for
misguided youth, but these kids (and adults) knew that what they were doing
was illegal. They were proud to engage in these acts because it was "cool" for
them and their little /b/ buddies. They aren't the repressed political
activists you're making them out to be. Besides, look at where they're from.
They're not citizens of some third world nation with an oppressive regime in
power. The laws they broke aren't unjust by any stretch of the imagination.
They simply hopped onto a bandwagon with a bunch of other script kiddies and
got popped for it. Don't light a candle for them.

Besides, citation needed on the claim that they were just confused and wanted
to enact social change but just didn't know how. That's not typical of your
average Anonymous devotee.

Yes, let the trolls and fake accounts people are creating solely for this
thread have their way with this comment. I can spare it.

And people, stop complaining about my "the law is the law" remark as though it
must be some unwaivering principle of mine even in the face of unjust laws (of
which none are present in this situation).

~~~
jarek
> Yes, let the trolls and fake accounts people are creating solely for this
> thread have their way with this comment. I can spare it.

You're losing it. You need a non-trivial amount of upvotes to downvote a
comment. You're not being downvoted by fake accounts.

You also haven't provided any productive suggestions for human individuals
wishing to exert pressure on the decision making processes of large
corporations. Should we take this as a statement that you don't believe those
exist, or that you don't believe those should exist?

~~~
coderdude
You're right about the down votes. That's my bad. I know of no productive
means by most people's definition of productive. I always say the same thing,
and that's to write your senators or the equivilant in your government. What
more can be done? Certainly not attacking and defacing private property based
on what you read on the Web. People who defend these acts or play the devil's
advocate are only fueling the attitude that is getting these people in
trouble.

~~~
steveklabnik
> What more can be done?

That's the whole crux of this. If all of your legal recourses for changing the
law don't work, sometimes, you have to move to illegal ones. morality !=
legality. This obviously requires a lot of thought, a preparation to deal with
the consequences, and a serious commitment. But sometimes, it's worth it.

~~~
coderdude
The issue at hand is people damaging private organizations that chose to not
do business with another private organization. Not fixing messed up or unjust
laws. Not fighting a faceless government. Simply attacking a business they
don't like for not doing business with an organization they do like. That's
what's being defended here by the people arguing against my points.

~~~
steveklabnik
It doesn't matter if they're private organizations or governments. It's about
the power relationship. I won't get into 'corporate america blah blah blah,'
but I'm sure that you can see that in this role, MasterCard plays the same
role the government does. There's a certain level of responsibility that comes
into play when you're a gigantic credit card company that's different then
when you're a mom-and-pop grocery store.

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saturdayplace
Only five? I always assumed that there were _hordes_ of folks taking part in
the Anonymous shenanigans. Do they only arrest five people because that's all
they could reliably identify, or because to go after more would expend
disproportionate effort, and they just needed to make an example?

> This investigation by the Central e-Crime Unit was carried out in
> conjunction with law enforcement agencies in Europe and the US.

Seems that if we're going to this level of coordination, we should have ended
nabbing more of these guys.

~~~
xorglorb
This is a scare tactic. They know that "Anonymous" is really a bunch of
basement dwelling geeks between the ages of 14 and 24 and are actually too
scared to do anything once their companions start getting arrested.

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hcack
Akin to accusing a handful of participants for massive political
demonstrations.

