WikiLeaks

Everyone's whining for the whole fucking week about this website and how it exposes embarassing stuff about different people. I've looked around on different websites (including everlying Wikipedia) and found out that the guys behind the website are actually doing a very cool thing! As a guy having one of his interests lying in computing field, i am truly amazed what these guys are doing - they are actually using the very power of the Internet, which lies in its anonimity and decentralization.

On my highway to this knowledge i've found out about numerous other things, including Freenet, cyberpunk, cypherpunk and loads of other cool stuff. I have been using PGP encryption keys for quite some time now (to conceal some of the data on my hard drive) but this stuff is golden. These guys are literally making cypherpunk dream come true - they are beating the System with the use of global network! I might seem like a wannabe revolutionist who read all this cool stuff and thought that it was cool and decided to be like these people (which i haven't), but i hereby declare my full support and endorsement for the Freenet project (i have installed and now run a Freenet node with 5GB space), and i declare my full support and endorsement of actions of WikiLeaks and its creators. And that guy, Julian Assange, he not only is cool as hell in terms of what he's doing, he actually looks like an albino cyborg!

Now as i said, i have been using cryptographic tools for some time (i even have several of my public keys uploaded to pool.sks-keyservers.net, most of which are revoked or outdated). I used them mainly to encrypt some files like private photos, private letters, password lists, some sensitive stuff that has a potential of getting me some problems. I've also used free (as in freedom) software for quite some time and am going to start a couple of projects myself and i recognize the value of freedom to read, modify and run any code i wish and for whatever purpose i want. But now, as i've found out what lengths people go to conceal the truth from the general public, and what lengths do they go to get rid of people that are actually revealing these secrets (Assange has just got an Interpol arrest warrant), coupled with the fact that we keep losing our privacy and being told that this is for our own good, coupled with the laws in some countries that require people to surrender their encryption keys and passwords to the officials or else face prosecution, coupled with the fact that the mass media is always under control of the government and corporations, i say - fuck you. Yes, that's right, i said that - FUCK YOU.

This brings us to the online privacy issues. I will write a bigger rant some time later on the subject, but for now i'll just say that i value my freedom and my privacy. I am not going to surrender my rights just because someone thinks someone else will use the technology for doing dodgy things. They don't forbid cars because of drunk drivers, they don't forbid guns because of bank robbers - why do i have to surrender my right to communicate without anyone looking through my mail? I watch porn - everybody does, but i don't want every Tom, Dick and Harry know what kind of porn i watch and how often i watch it. Not even every Tom, Dick and Harry - i don't want any Tom, Dick and Harry to look through the stuff i am jacking off to - unless i want to explicitly inform them about this.

Moreover, i want to be able to tell Tom, Dick and Harry about stuff my managers do without getting jailed and without any interference from the management, even if my manager happens to be Steve Ballmer and the information i am about to tell is going to expose his dirty little secrets. Now i don't care which porn Ballmer jacks off - he might as well watch bestiality porn, i for one don't care not a little tiny bit. But if he is robbing his employees, or if he is corrupt, or if he uses unfair business tactics like aforementioned corruption, malicious marketing or uses his financial power to undermine competition - i feel obligated to tell the world about that regardless of whether his children will be in danger. He should've thought about his children before he started to act like an asshole.

The same applies to the stuff WikiLeaks exposes - i admit i don't care about the contents of Sarah Palin's mailbox (although there was some interesting stuff inside the mailbox that wasn't exactly ethical) but if Hillary Clinton orders people to spy on UN officials and gather their DNA samples - that's another fucking story, this is against the law! She should get jailed for that! And what do we get? Is she jailed? Is she prosecuted? Is she  under investigation? Was she even questioned about the events?