[hackerspaces] S036.NET attacked by German Police

[quemener.yves at free.fr]

----- "Matt Joyce" <matt at nycresistor.com> a écrit :

> I guess what I am saying is, talking at people, promoting an ideology,
> and various other sundry bits of politics do not bring to my mouth a
> flavor I am willing to share.

The idea is not really to promote an ideology. As you point it out, hackerspaces but also free software, does it quite well. The main work is to provide people with another ballot option. Not promoting, it, making it available. That alone is quite a big job already.

> Put a soldering iron in every home and see how easy it will be to lock
> them out of their appliances. The vcr didn't win out over the mpaa for
> any other reason than popularity. Popularity is the name of the game
> and we're pretty cool.

Filesharing tools are already in most homes. I suspect there are more people using filesharing tools for downloading movies than there are people using VCRs. Yet politics fight it today despite its overwhelming popularity, claiming it to be morally and legally wrong. And the fact is, their point of view is not without merit. There is a need to transform filesharing into a socially acceptable practice. This involves technological innovation but also politics and probably some new business models, a la flattr (http://flattr.com/). People are convinced that having unlimited culture at their fingertips is awesome. The hackers' mission is done there. But their efforts will be in vain if politicians fail to understand the opportunities it presents.

Filesharing is only one such example. How long do you think DIY biology and genetics will be possible without lawmakers forbidding these practices at large ? 

> I guess what I am saying is... the very function of hackerspaces, and
> their success is paramount in furthering the cause of educating the
> average person on stem fundamentals. Between our own projects, or work
> and family responsibilities, and that... we have used up most of our
> time. I feel we should focus on no more than we are able to. I've
> spread myself far too thin in the past and still find myself searching
> for a happy medium.

Yes. That is a real problem. The world is full of interesting hacking projects to do and 24 hours are not enough. It is sickening to see the intelligence and energy wasted by competent people on issues like software patents or DMCA, yet, this is something that better be addressed in an organized way. 

I don't know how the situation is in your country, but here the political implications of HADOPI can be quite serious for computing : internet blacklists, three-strikes anti-piracy laws without possible recourse, mandatory "connexion securing" software (that will be proprietary and probably not cross-platform). All of these will probably not be more applied than the law that says you can go to jail if you sell a free DVD reader (we have our own DMCA here, never been used in court yet) but I am not sure I want my country's law to contain such dangerous bits without protesting.