I never really fitted the artist mold, but I loved the various methods and technologies I encountered whilst learning about media and the creation of various forms of art.

That is why I took to the web so quickly and easily. It was instantly rewarding, accessible and relatively cost-free (more-so now).

For many long years a war has been waged against the common internet user. But you might not know anything about it. Let me help.

Be a Pirate !!!

The internet used to be a place of freedom, expression and ideas – all being exchanged and improved-upon. This was the ideas behind the original Hyper Text Mark-up Language as invented by Tim Berners-Lee – a web where users could add, edit and remove the content of any document they were browsing.

The internet Mr Berners-Lee conceived and built was based upon the first international network of computers (inter-net) called the Arpanet, where information was king – the very idea being that you could readily exchange, copy and swap information freely and easily, anywhere on the network.

As things have progressed, things have obviously changed, a world wide web where everyone has the power to edit is problematic when your not solely involved in a research project with other scientists, thus the web as we know it today with sites and pages we ‘view’ exists. And this is what many know to the be whole truth.

Rarely do we question the authorities that regulate and organise the systems and structures within which with exist. And therein lies the problem.

Simply because something is put on the internet does not make it a crime – we all free to share and distribute any and all information we deem fit. But there are people working for lobby organisations and legal departments that are drawing rings around what is and is not legal in the online world. And this has never happened before, so how do we know what is right and wrong ?

Steal this film

‘Steal this film‘ is an important piece of public-domain media that aims to demystify the culture of Peer-to-peer file sharing and to a lesser extent tells the story fo the famous torrent search engine The Pirate Bay.

Get the Part 1 torrent file

Get the Part 2 torrent file

The Green Party have also joined the foray of debate by putting this site together to let their policies be known – http://iwouldntsteal.net/

as well as this short video;

There is also a superb documentary piece called Good Copy Bad Copy – that is worth watching.

It is fairly large and long, but highly worth while. See the full-size version on the website here – http://www.goodcopybadcopy.net/.

Facebook

Facebook, is by-far the most prominent of all the social networking sites, with the largest saturation and user-base for non-geeky internet types. The site is used by many for as wide a set of uses as you can imagine, with third-party apps, groups and causes flooding your home screen daily.

I personally use Facebook as a reference point for friends and family to keep me in touch with and available to people I might not email or call regularly.

Facebook as been constantly in the public eye for a host of reasons regarding security, privacy and even human rights, but this week I had a entirely new Facebook experience.

Its not uncommon for people to use online networking communities to gather research on individuals, but this is usually limited to the privacy rules set by the individual along with the relevant site, i.e. – you could use Facebook to research somebody, but only if they have privacy set so low that they want the outsied world to get a view of what they are doing.

Rarely, if ever, would you expect to have your details and information surveyed if you believe you have set all the correct measures in place to secure yourself.

Unless someone you know hands over THEIR login details to a third-party to allow them to profile and research you….  which is what happened to me.

Now, all joking aside, I dont have any dirt to be gleamed by hacking my Facebook account, and I wasn’t being hacked maliciously, nor where the perpetrators seeking to base a highly important career decision based on what they found. But they did circumvent one of the most basic privacy protection measures we all have – our own individual login details, and that blew a hole in my personal privacy the size of the Grand Canyon.

What im saying here is;

Dont under-estimate the control you have of your own privacy, and dont EVER give out your login and password details to ANYONE !

Between media scare-mongering and the onslaught of malicious hackers, its ever-more important to keep yourself secure online. Use each part of the internet for its intended purpose, research and find out about how the site or application works and then configure your own settings to meet your needs.

Dont let the technology get the better of you – its a tool there to aid in the achievement of something and used the correct way will provide huge benefits.

But use it safely and confidently.

Also, we love his ability to find pivotal world-issues that face us all.
Behold Pirate vs. Ninja…