{"id":1314,"date":"2013-04-08T11:00:05","date_gmt":"2013-04-08T15:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/masspiratesweb.mayfirst.org\/blog\/?p=1314"},"modified":"2013-04-08T10:50:38","modified_gmt":"2013-04-08T14:50:38","slug":"say-no-to-the-cfaa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/masspirates.org\/blog\/2013\/04\/08\/say-no-to-the-cfaa\/","title":{"rendered":"Say No to the CFAA!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fixthecfaa.com\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"\/\/dihq71mhvy8o7.cloudfront.net\/images\/justice-for-aaron.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) is a law that has been repeatedly misused to go after net activists and handout draconian punishments. Aaron Swartz is but one example. Indeed the CFAA can be easily read so broadly that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eff.org\/deeplinks\/2013\/04\/are-you-teenager-who-reads-news-online-according-justice-department-you-may-be\" target=\"_blank\">anyone under 18 who reads news on-line could be a criminal<\/a>. Yet, the Department of Justice wants to make this bill even worse, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.techdirt.com\/articles\/20130326\/14213522465\/cybersecurity-experts-scratching-their-heads-house-judiciarys-awful-cfaa-reform-proposal.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">Congress seems willing to help<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>We are asking you to help take a stand against the CFAA, and demand it be fixed. Three things you can do:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fixthecfaa.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Urge your Congress people to roll back the CFAA<\/a>, especially today and tomorrow,<\/li>\n<li>This Saturday, join with us, Demand Progress, and other groups to <a href=\"http:\/\/act.demandprogress.org\/sign\/boston_rally\/\" target=\"_blank\">rally for Aaron Swartz and roll back the CFAA<\/a>. We will meet at noon Dewey Square Park in downtown Boston,<\/li>\n<li>Spread the word to your friends and get them to help!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Aaron isn&#8217;t the only person to run afoul of the CFAA. Australian activist Asher Wolf, eloquently details how it was used to convict\u00a0Andrew Auernheimer (Weev) for the crime of accessing an AT&amp;T public interface and revealing that it wasn&#8217;t secure. \u00a0Many thanks to Asher!<\/p>\n<h3><a href=\"http:\/\/asherwolf.net\/the-tragedy-of-jailing-weev-the-internet-prophet-of-discord\/262\/\">THE TRAGEDY OF JAILING WEEV, THE INTERNET PROPHET OF DISCORD.<\/a><\/h3>\n<section><strong>\u201cInjustice, swift, erect, and unconfin\u2019d,<br \/>\nSweeps the wide earth, and tramples o\u2019er mankind.\u201d ~ The Iliad, Book 9.<br \/>\n<\/strong>On November 20, 2012 a jury sitting in the Federal District Court for the District of New Jersey convicted Andrew Auernheimer of one count of conspiracy to violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (18 U.S.C. 1030(a)(2)(C)) and one count of identity theft (18 U.S. C. 1028(a)(7).In essence, Andrew Auernheimer \u2013 or Weev, as much of the Internet knows him \u2013 was found guilty of incrementing a number on a url \u2013 doing basic arithmetic \u2013 and has been ceremoniously chucked behind bars for the next 41 months of his life \u2013 as a result of speaking up to point out a security problem.Weev was sent to jail on a trumped-up charge, for a crime that hurt nobody, not even a fly.At his pre-sentencing press conference Weev read poetry by John Keats on the steps of the courthouse \u2013 \u2018The Fall of Hyperion\u2019, according to reports from onlookers:<strong>\u201cWho alive can say,<br \/>\n\u2018Thou art no Poet may\u2019st not tell thy dreams?\u2019<br \/>\nSince every man whose soul is not a clod<br \/>\nHath visions, and would speak\u2026\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The process of writing about Weev is a disorderly affair, which seems appropriate. Descriptions of his history vary. Versions change depending on who you ask about him. Even Weev\u2019s own versions of his history changes from time to time. Perhaps it\u2019s so difficult to write about Weev because we live in complicated times, and our tales \u2013 our histories are not so simple anymore. It\u2019s as though I could write an epic novel in verse about Weev and yet, the truth would be still like a needle in a haystack.<\/p>\n<p>A quote by Raymond Queneau, a French poet and novelist jumped out at me when I began to write about Weev:\u00a0<em>\u201cthe Illiad is the private lives of people, thrown into disorder by history.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0The tale of Weev, meanwhile is the story of a man thrown into history by disorder. Some of that disorder of course, came from Weev\u2019s own making. But the tragedy of this story is of a bright, young person, swept into the pathway of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act \u2013 a hugely over-reaching piece of legislation. Today, Weev has been sentenced to four times the years the Steubenville rapists will spend behind bars \u2013 for a \u201ccrime\u201d that has no victim.<\/p>\n<p>I spent a lot of time trying to think about how to write honestly about Weev. The act of writing about someone is essentially the art of attempting to bring order to a narrative of history. But before all ordering of items, first there is always chaos.<\/p>\n<p>Originally I began trying to write about Weev by trampling across the internet in search of the \u201ctrue history\u201d of Weev. Dumb idea. It soon became apparent the amount of information generated by Weev\u2019s escapades made determining a singular history almost an impossible task.<\/p>\n<p>So instead, I will tell you about Weev, as I have come to know him.<\/p>\n<p>Weev is a master of chaos, a devotee of the Discordian persuasion. He is a joker, a puck, an epic troll, a jester, and just perhaps an exiled prophet railing on the fringe of society, variously misidentified as a drug-addled, mentally imbalanced felon. Scratch the surface and you find a man who likes reading Proust, and listening to Wagner.<\/p>\n<p>I initially got to know Weev when an Australian TV show was looking to interview trolls. They asked me if I knew any trolls they could invite on to the program. Weev immediately came to mind.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShould we be concerned about Weev creating chaos on the show?\u201d, the program\u2019s research assistant asked me worriedly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not actually sure. I guess\u2026 treat him like a live grenade?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve never really known how to respond to Weev. I\u2019ve oscillated between the desire to mother him and an a repetitive urge to strangle him. I\u2019m sure Weev would say it\u2019s a sexual thing. One of my earliest responses was to claim \u201cHE\u2019S NOT MY FRIEND\u201d loudly on twitter, when people linked us. I was scared, simply of being associated with him. Later, I was ashamed of myself.<\/p>\n<p>Weev has become a friend. A good friend. Someone \u2013 who for all his offensive statements \u2013 is never inane, and for all his trickery is never dishonest.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of his flash-bang shock of his razor-sharp wit and inexplicable statements that variously offend most sub-segments of the world\u2019s population, Weev is someone I genuinely *like* \u2013 despite his despicable outbursts \u2013 and let the record show, I don\u2019t really, genuinely like many people at all.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond the mouthy, chaotic prick trolling the universe there\u2019s a soul fighting not to flat-line in cognitive dissonance \u2013 and Weev has had more than his fair share of fear, disappointment and sadness, unsettled adolescence viewing life through the lens of relentless intelligence.<\/p>\n<p>Weev\u2019s capacity to create chaos thru trolling is considered epic across the Internet \u2013 a person needs only to Google \u201cgoatse\u201d (please don\u2019t) to immediately experience a taste of the kind of abhorrent shock factor his trolling can create.<\/p>\n<p>I spoke to Weev in the final days before sentencing. He was unrepentant.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cOur whole society is so stagnant and un-innovative now, because we spend this huge amount of resources trying to fight against entropy. And if there is one thing that is always true, it is that the principle of disorder is as strong or much stronger than the principle of order.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cTrolling is using rhetoric divisively, I do not put a bigger definition on it than that. It can be small or large, important or banal, good or evil. Its a rhetorical method for fucks sake, and it suits me just fine.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAren\u2019t you scared of consequences?\u201d, I asked Weev.<br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\n\u201cNo, I\u2019m scared of stagnancy. Consequences are in the future and I only give a vague fuck about that. I\u2019m more concerned about now, because stagnant things smell like shit, literally and figuratively. I don\u2019t want to live in a place that smells like shit \u2013 and yet, now I am stuck in New Jersey. Joke\u2019s on me!The trial \u2013 defies reflection. It is a living story and it is not over yet I suppose. I mean, they will not let me work. Dennis Yu, he made Yahoo Personals once. Now he has a company called BlitzMetrics, he handed me an offer letter. But my employment has to be pre-approved by pre-trial services. They\u2019re kind of like a probation officer for people who have not yet been convicted of a crime. They simply won\u2019t approve it. I have $2.66 in my bank account. I spent a lot of nights not eating. That is the worst part. The bail conditions make it impossible to work or live<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>It has been two years since they ripped me from my home. Anyways, I used to drive to the airport in Bentonville, AR, from my shack in Fayetteville when I was leaving town to go on a job. And on the way, I\u2019d smell the honeysuckle. I always picked flights late at night, because if I left in the day, sometimes I\u2019d cry. Maybe that is weird, but I am spiritually connected to that land, and I just didn\u2019t want to see the landscape roll by in the daytime. The mountains, the land, the rivers\u2026 those Ozark hills are dear to me<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>They took me out of my home, two years ago, from a town where the rent floor is around $200, they took me out in leg irons and they brought me to a fucking shithole, on some fucking piece of shit criminal complaint full of lies written by some faggot FBI Agent.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>I mean New Jersey is the single most unhappy state in the US. It looks like shit, and smells like shit. And they have not let me back to Arkansas in 2 years. I\u2019m forced to stay in a place where the rent is $800 per month \u2013 and they won\u2019t let me work. So yeah my life sucks now<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Yeah I expect I\u2019m going to fucking prison. It\u2019s a fucking travesty. But whatever, I am in a war. You don\u2019t fucking get into a war and not expect to be a casualty. This is a fucking war-zone. I am a fucking scrapper. You fight, sometimes you die\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou felt like you took on the U.S. government?\u201d, I asked Weev.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cLet\u2019s just say I\u2019d rather go to Valhalla than stay at home\u201d<\/strong>, he responded.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWeev \u2013 why does the government want to lock you up?\u201d Something inside me is nagging at the idea that the only reason the authorities want to lock Weev up is \u201cbecause he\u2019s just too much gawdam trouble.\u201d But it\u2019s still not a good enough reason to put someone behind bars.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cThey said in a search warrant once that they\u2019d been surveilling me since 2001. I was 15 in 2001. I wonder what the fuck I could have done to be watched by the government from a young age. I got involved in a number of ideological movements\u2026everything in the press that I\u2019ve ever done ain\u2019t shit compared to what never hit the press.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou going to tell me a little of what hasn\u2019t hit the press?\u201d, I begged Weev.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cSure, but getting it credited to me could get me killed, could get my friends killed\u2026\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And then Weev told me a story. It\u2019s a Weev kind of story. The story of an epic trolling he\u2019d undertaken on a ketamine high. The sort of incident that scrambled governments out of their beds at night. It was the sort of tale that made my jaw hang agape, and caused me to jump up out of my seat and pace nervously around the living room for half an hour after he\u2019d finished telling me the details. If Weev had told me he\u2019d hacked the the launch codes for intercontinental ballistic missiles attached to nuclear warheads \u2013 my teeth would have been chattering perhaps as much.<\/p>\n<p>Weev backed up his tale with a link to a news article confirming he wasn\u2019t making it up. He\u2019s never been caught for the incident. Weev and I discussed the possibility of releasing the story \u2013 and I wish I could. But I\u2019ve since consulted lawyers and after taking advice have decided it\u2019s in nobody\u2019s interest to know the details.<\/p>\n<p>Weev finished his story with a flourish.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cAnd that was the best damn Apple I ever threw.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere\u2019d you dispose of it?\u201d, I asked. Then hurriedly added: \u201cdon\u2019t answer that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Confusion abounded.\u00a0<strong>\u201cDispose of what?\u201d<\/strong>, asked Weev.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYour Apple computer. You tossed your computer into a lake afterwards, right?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cOOhhh nOooo. I was referring to the story where Eris throws the golden apple and ends up starting a war. I\u2019m a Discordian \u2013 I\u2019m into throwing apples. I\u2019ve started unfathomable amounts of shit in this world. Most of it \u2013 very few people know about.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Eris and the Apple of Discord \u2013 the roots of the Trojan War. Eris, the goddess of discord who Peleus and Thetis failed to invited to their wedding. Eris, who stormed in and threw a golden apple onto the table \u2013 the apple which Eris claimed belonged to whomever was the fairest. Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite each reached for the apple\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s no wonder Weev identifies with Eris. His trolling always played society\u2019s flaws back like a mirror. He\u2019s an ubiquitous shit-stirrer. And the consequences of his small actions \u2013 though perhaps you won\u2019t believe me \u2013 affect nation states.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo you think there\u2019s any chance you\u2019ll walk without a sentence?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cProbably not, can\u2019t imagine. There\u2019s the pre-sentencing report. It said 41 months. So about 3.5 years? However thats just the guidelines, the judge can sentence me higher, up to the statutory maximum of 10 years \u2013 plus I\u2019ve been a right mouthy bastard, so i imagine it might be ticked a little higher.\u201d<br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\nMy heart fell when I heard Weev had been sentenced to jail this morning, even though I was sure it would be the outcome\u2026 it is pointless injustice. The powers who hold freedom in their hands, have locked yet another of our best and brightest behind bars.<\/p>\n<p>As a child my school teachers and parents somehow imparted the idea to me that best and brightest would without doubt be of the ilk that march in time, and sing in perfect harmony like an angelic school choir.<\/p>\n<p>Yet as an adult I\u2019ve come to believe that wisdom is often contained in spaces, places and individuals most difficult to access, most problematic to interact with. There are ideas in this world that are painful, difficult, offensive, and inexplicable to many \u2013 Weev spoke of those ideas. It doesn\u2019t make him any less than the best and brightest amongst us.<\/p>\n<p>Our governments continue to lock up the people who speak truth to power. Bradley Manning. Jeremy Hammond. Barrett Brown. The list goes on. Men and women who say things that offend the powers that be, end up behind bars or frozen in their tracks, awaiting verdict.<\/p>\n<p>Our governments call them criminals, deviants, law-breakers. The authorities force the accused into the worst of situations, barred from financially supporting themselves while they await the verdict of a court. All this, is meant to shut us up. It\u2019s meant to make us meek and mild, while the machine churns onwards.<\/p>\n<p>Weev often spoke to me of martyrs and prophets. He taught me there is a defining factor amongst them all \u2013 outcast, persecuted for speaking truth to power. And now Weev \u2013 the filthy, prophet of discord, infinitely raging against the machine \u2013 has been martyred upon the pyre of the U.S. regime\u2019s bloodlust for revenge against whistleblowers, technologists, journalists, hackers, and intellectuals.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m just that much angrier than I was yesterday when the cops bashed the last group of protesters, or dispossessed yet another home-owner, sold-out the people and the land in search of another dollar to line the pockets of Wall Street or bombed another country in search of natural resources.<\/p>\n<p>Austerity is coming to the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>You can see it already in the crumbling infrastructure. The emperors have no clothes. Change will come, and to be honest it will be a happier affair for everyone if the U.S. opts for reform rather than revolution.<\/p>\n<p>Weev and his ilk are not the enemy. The discord they surf \u2013 the chaos of a world of inconsistent values and hypocritical, corrupt governance \u2013 is within the fabric of everything we have grown up with. The abhorrent practice of locking up people who turn a mirror on corruption, insecurity and abuse is as useless as trying to stop the sun rising in the morning.<\/p>\n<p>Putting Weev behind bars is pointless and tragic. Jailing the most outspoken men and women amongst our generation won\u2019t stop the leaks, the hacks, the news revelations, the whistleblowers \u2013 and most of all it won\u2019t stop the rage of the malcontent, dispossessed youth from eventually tumbling down upon the heads of the bureaucrats who sold us out and then tried to lock us up when we complained.<\/p>\n<p>Weev will fight for an appeal. And one way or another, eventually he\u2019ll be free. And even in jail, I have no doubt, Weev will find a way to make himself heard.<\/p>\n<p>And they can\u2019t shut us all up. Fuck \u2018em.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) is a law that has been repeatedly misused to go after net activists and handout draconian&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[34,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cfaa","category-slider"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1W8mg-lc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/masspirates.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/masspirates.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/masspirates.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masspirates.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masspirates.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1314"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/masspirates.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1316,"href":"https:\/\/masspirates.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314\/revisions\/1316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/masspirates.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masspirates.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masspirates.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}