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Op/Ed: Limits of Freedom of Speech: Reddit’s Child Pornography Problem

Several weeks ago, the popular message board Reddit announced that it was making a policy change to ban all “suggestive or sexual content featuring minors.” Owned by Advanced Publications, Reddit has made a name for itself in part by its hands-off, pro-free-speech, let-the-users-decide, and self-police approach. In fact, before the policy change, the only rules [...]

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PaleFire’s Open Letter to Kalel Venkman

Have griefers turned the JLU into a paranoid collective? When I approached Peter Ludlow at the Society of Cinema and Media Studies in May 2010, I never would have guessed that my research would cause so much concern among anti-griefing organizations, and by that, I mean specifically Kalel Venkman.  Here’s why I am writing this [...]

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Anonymous to Launch HackerLeaks

Not too long ago Peter Ludlow noted that the recent prominence of Internet activist groups such as Wikileaks is symptomatic of a new generation of hacktivist culture that is quickly transforming from a small underground subculture into mainstream culture for a younger generation. Calling this new generation of hacktivists “Generation W,” Peter Ludlow observed that [...]

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Generation D is for Disruption

Gene Simmons:  Be litigious. Sue everybody. Take their homes, their cars Kiss bassist Gene Simmons announced he is fighting back against the “popcorn farts” – that would be Anonymous – for having launched Operation Payback. Anonymous, with its latest operation, has  declared war against the media giants. But the content czars are not going to [...]

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Operation Payback is a Bitch: Hactivism at the dawn of Copyright Controversies

As operation Payback is a Bitch finished up its second week, things seem to be winding down. For those unaware of what went down, here’s a recap: The operation is launched by Anonymous against the entertainment companies, in particular MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and RIAA (The Recording Industry Association of America) and their [...]

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GameCrush – Hawt Online PlayDates for Basement Dwellers

Gamers have been frequently stereotyped as having poor social skills. Consider, for example, Felicia Day’s Web series The Guild that relates the stories of a group of dysfunctional World of Warcrafters who are good at looting and farming, but not at interacting with one another or maintaining a relationship. But help is on the way [...]

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Hacktivism, Governance, and Copyright Debates 4chan Style

Operation Payback follows The Wrong Hands vs Justice League Unlimited script Terra Nova is the term used to describe our weird existence in the digital realm that we call virtual worlds. Edward Castronova claims that we are in the process of exodus to these worlds. Equally interesting to note is that, as new worlds, our [...]

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