ANONYMOUS GROUP MANIPULATED FOR POLITICAL AGENDA

The fact that anyone can be Anonymous raises doubts on the validity of any message that has apparently been produced by the secret group. Anonymous is now in the news because of some FBI conversation that was leaked and uploaded to Youtube. This conversation was not something meant for the public domain. It was technically stolen and uploaded to Youtube. Some believe that Google should not of allowed the video to be posted since it could mean that it is hosting copyrighted material which was one of the reasons for the shutdown of Megaupload.

The whole copyright infringement argument has now become extremely complex. There is no doubt that there are going to be long drawn out legal cases and new jobs for patent, copyright and intellectual property lawyers who are internet savvy. If you are studying law right now, you might want to think about becoming a lawyer and taking up internet law because it seems that the world is currently short of these experts. We can't expect the general public to understand these complex issues, especially when they cross international borders and jurisdictions.

If there is going to be an anonymous march at the end of February 2012 for the reason of "solidarity" then people who are considering joining the march ought to think about the meaning of solidarity. One of the definitions is "the feeling or expression of union in a group formed by a common interest"

What is the "common" interest of Anonymous? How can a secret group be unified if their members do not even know if others are true members or even what they stand for? It is unclear to me what purpose Anonymous has in hacking government and business websites. Hacking is a criminal activity, so what is the benefit of joining people who are supporting crime? If there is injustice, do we have to turn to illegal means to find justice? Surely this is a dangerous proposition because later on the lines between what is right and wrong will be blurred. What about working within the law itself?

There seem to be thousands of Youtube videos made by Anonymous right now. Who is making these videos? Who is the real anonymous? Could Anonymous be manipulated by other groups pretending to be Anonymous for political or financial gain? Of course they could. These are things that people ought to think about before voting for Anonymous and swearing allegiance. I certainly will not be joining them.

Anyone who has watched the movie will see that the mask normally associated with the group called Anonymous was obviously inspired by the movie V for Vendetta. Why not support your local video store and buy the movie. Of course you can download it for free but that is the part of the argument and why there is so much heated debate over copyright, file sharing, p2p and online piracy right now.