Media-Undefended

Man, these guys are sure taking a beating. I have to admit, though; i'm sort of on the fence about this kind of thing. I have a soft spot for the sort of vigilante justice that some of these hackers are executing, but by the same token these acts on their own are not something we would want to encourage. This eventually leads to the idea of balancing the age-old question of do the ends justify the means, and as usual the answer is fairly nebulous. I detest the stupid stupid fair-use rules and RIAA/MPAA bullshit that pushes these companies and their questionable practices into existence; but as we develop a counter-culture to run interference against them, at some point it seems almost inevitable that those retaliatory acts will become more atrocious and damaging than the original problem was. If this argument seems familiar, it should; it's really some of the same questions we have to ask ourselves in national security, schoolyard bullies, police brutality vs. violent crime, and a hundred other balances we are asked to assess throughout our daily lives. I don't think there's a silver bullet, be-all-end-all answer; the solution is simply one of never accepting the status quo and continuously questioning the processes and initiatives that are put in place. It is that dialog that will maintain the oversight required to keep these movements in check.