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MyDoom - the most sucessful anti-globalisation action ever??

Our doom | 03.02.2004 17:37 | Globalisation | World

Isn't it odd how Indymedia, born from the anti-capitalist movement fails to recognise one of the most public and widespread anti-globilsation actions the world has seen.

The main target of MyDoom was www.sco.com, which for the last few days has been unobtainable. This company is trying to undermine the efforts of hundreds of open source developers who've communally created an operating system (Linux) for computers that is availble to everyone, everywhere and for free. If they succeed in claiming that parts of the of the Linux code belong to them, Linux will get sucked into the global market place along with all the others.... please discuss.

Our doom

Comments

Hide the following 11 comments

why not have a discussion on a DISCUSSION BOARD?

03.02.2004 18:36

wouldnt it be a hell of a lot better to use the NEWSWIRE for NEWS and have discussion elsehwere such as on a DISCUSSION FORUM?!

There are loads of anti-authoritarian discussion boards around such as enrager.net and urban75.com....

Why post stuff on the newswire like this>?

ffs

SCO want their site to be down

03.02.2004 19:23

SCO could keep

http://www.sco.com/ up if they wanted, they clearly don't at the moment, see Netcraft for more info...

http://news.netcraft.co.uk/

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/01/31/1720221

http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2004/01/30/wwwscocom_is_a_weapon_of_mass_destruction.html

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/01/1417246

http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2004/02/03/new_sco_site_experiences_outages_and_slow_response_times.html

http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2004/02/02/sco_to_use_new_domain_for_the_duration_of_mydoom_ddos.html

cynic

MyDoom nothing to do with anti-globalisation

03.02.2004 20:38

Don't believe the hype from the corporate press. The SCO denial-of-service component is a red herring, covering up a keystroke logger. The author of MyDoom is about as "anti-capitalist" as Rupert Murdoch. It's in aid of stealing credit card numbers, that's all. Wise up.

And ffs is right, this isn't a discussion board, it's a newswire. Please post some news, or at least some analysis, when you've got some.

Jon

No

03.02.2004 21:17

As a Linux user, I applaud any direct action against SCO, although I seriously doubt that MyDoom was intended as an act of anti-capitalist protest. If it was, why does it also leave a backdoor into infect machines. (Answer: they'll probably later be used to send spam). And why do it in the form of a virus which was indescriminate in the damage it caused to innocent bystanders the Internets infrastructure as a whole.

But that aside, to describe MyDoom as the most effective anti-capitalist action of all time is nonsense. SCO hasn't really been hurt. Their business model doesn't require a functioning website - they are only interested in pumping up their stock using their bogus campaign of litigation against Linux. If anything, MyDoom has probably helped them, by drawing media attention to the lies SCO have been trying so hard to spread.

Jynx

Linux already recuperated

04.02.2004 11:48

Linux is already a part of the market economy. You know how there are different ´distributions´ of Linux (Red Hat, Suse etc)? These are mostly profit-making companies competing to sell commodified versions of Linux and the service contracts that go with them. A successful anti-capitalist action against SCO would be to create ´Activix´ an idiot-friendly desktop version of Linux for non-profit organisations and activists, not writing stupid viruses.

The SCO case is a no-brainer. In order to win in court SCO must show which lines of the Linux kernel breach their copyright - which they refuse to do. If they do, Linus and his team will remove the lines and rewrite them from scratch. That´s assuming they actually have a case which I doubt. The biggest problem this case brings up for open source projects is how to validate that submitted code doesn´t copy someone´s ´intellectual property´ when proprietary code is always secret.

Notice I don´t refer to the ´open source community´? A bunch of geeks sharing code doesn´t make a community any more than keeping knowledge secret and punishing people for sharing makes it property.

BTW Anti-capitalist analysis and discussion of current events is a perfectly valid use for an Indymedia newswire. Even if whoever posted this MyDoom stuff is off the mark.

Strypey
mail e-mail: strypey@indymedia.org
Homepage: http://strypey.orcon.net.nz/

MyDoom

05.02.2004 15:56

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3457823.stm

the bbc seems to think what I think.....

and to the contributor who called Indymedia a newswire... I think thats the idea, but not an actuality.

Check yesterday for instance, couragous anti-war protestors throw 'whitewash' over the gates of downing st... Q: how many hours before Indymedia.org.uk reported this? Check it out for yourselves...

Our Doom

Newswire

05.02.2004 17:00

I don't quite follow you: it took 4 or 5 hours before someone posted a story about it, so it's not a newswire?

Why didn't you post the story, if you knew about it?

Mick

Linux and Redhat/Suse/Debian

06.02.2004 14:51

I would not concur with the idea that Linux is totally lost. The idea of packaging it has been a great service to the community, because while you have great intentions, I doubt you could have made Linux the success it is without support from RedHat et al. I realise where you are coming from, but is the aim to have cheap software which offers a real alternative to the King of Permatempdom or to be insular and have our own little way of doing things?

And besides, there are some releases of Linux which can be copied regardless, and actually, the way RedHat makes its money is not through the discs, its through RedHat network, which is an added frill from them. As long as people don't join RHN they aren't doing RedHat many favours. I don't for one moment think RedHat are less than Boergious Scum, but they have played an invaluable role in promoting open source software.

If, as has been suggested, we start producing open-source textbooks, then a company decides to be like RedHat and produce hardcopies with a disc with the word files (fullfilling the open source aspect), what does that mean? Sell out? No, you can still get the book online but who wouldn't prefer a properly bound book?

Rebel W

oh yeah, something happened somewhere.... give us an hour or 4...

07.02.2004 15:37

I'm not a regular here, just someone who doesn't understand exactly what service this website is trying to provide. On one hand you have people critising posts for being suited more for a discussion board and then, like I pointed out above, you have events in London worthy of a independant newswire and yet they take 4-5 hours to appear.

Its a perfect example. Protestors 'whitewash' gates on Downing Street AM, if this had been reported quickly we could have inspired people to get down there and make some noise and coincidently cheer the gallery protestors as they came out....

It just feels as if things work a snails pace around here...

SYLLABICATION: news·wire
PRONUNCIATION: nzwr, nyz-
NOUN: A wire/news service that transmits UP-TO-THE-MINUTE (NOT HOUR) news, usually electronically, to the media and often the public.

Our Doom

Purpose of newswire

07.02.2004 20:12

The purpose of the newswire is for you to post news. Not somebody else: everybody, including you. We're volunteers, running a service allowing activists to post up news. If it's a really good article, we turn it into a Feature, and move it into the middle column.
Corporate newswires have paid staff whose job it is to receive reports from journalists and fire them onto the newswire immediately. This newswire, OTOH, will only be up to the minute if all its readers (i.e. you) post the news as soon as they know about it. So next time you hear about an action like the Downing St. Whitewash, don't wait for us to post it up: that's your job.

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/static/mission.html

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/static/editorial.html

Analysis on a recent news event is also welcome. But please don't just post up a couple lines of an idea, and say "discuss", cause the newswire's not meant as a discussion wire like Urban 75 etc.

Cheers,

An IMC guy

A bunch of geeks sharing code doesn´t make a community...

14.02.2004 13:20

http://debian.org/ is not a community?!! The countless groups developing free software are not communities?? These are communities just as much as Indymedia is a community and in fact they have much in common...

Chris

UK Indymedia

MyDoom - the most sucessful anti-globalisation action ever??

Comments

why not have a discussion on a DISCUSSION BOARD?

SCO want their site to be down

MyDoom nothing to do with anti-globalisation

No

Linux already recuperated

MyDoom

Newswire

Linux and Redhat/Suse/Debian

oh yeah, something happened somewhere.... give us an hour or 4...

Purpose of newswire

A bunch of geeks sharing code doesn´t make a community...

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