It took a while, but those cyberhippies are becoming real political actors. Gil may be a mere Brazilian pop star, but look how keenly he frames the debate. "Counter-cultural militants" versus
"reactionary orthodoxy."
When the reactionary orthodoxy was out-inventing the hippie militants, nobody raised this issue. Now that Microsoft can't manage to launch an OS and the RIAA and MPAA are expecting to sit back and clip IP-coupons for the rest of their lives, they really do look like a "reactionary orthodoxy." In 2006, is there anybody left now who really thinks that Microsoft is in charge of "The Road Ahead"? They're all about stringing barbed-wire over the "road behind."
From the point of view of South Americans, the USA is
an "irrational empire" full of "reactionary orthodoxy." That's
a much more interesting critique than the 20th century notion
that Americanization is the same thing as globalization.
Gil is quietly inventing a new foreign policy here.
Instead of trying to shore up your borders against a flow
of American goods (are there any?) you just fire up your
website and route right around the Yankees. And they're
so preoccupied with their own decline that they probably
won't even notice.
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/05/29/1661679.htm
[May 29, 2006]
Brazilian culture minister hails hackers
(EFE Ingles Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)Barcelona, Spain, May 29 (EFE).- Brazil's culture minister defended computer hackers here Monday as "counter-cultural militants."
Minister Gilberto Gil, a renowned musician who accepted President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's invitation three years ago to join his cabinet, commented at the opening of the Global Internet Congress here. Participants in the four-day conclave are discussing current tendencies in cyberspace and challenges facing the World Wide Web.
"I, Gilberto Gil, as minister of culture of Brazil and as a musician, work every day with the impulse of the ethics of hackers," he said.
Though hacking - or unauthorized access to Web sites or other Internet-borne information - is a criminal activity in most nations, he said hackers should be distinguished from those he called "crackers," or pirates intent on stealing or otherwise doing harm while overcoming Web security barriers.
Gil, 63, called hackers "counter-cultural militants who see in the computer a fantastic tool for communication."
He said the Internet allows good hackers "to create permanent spaces of equality" that give them, as they pursue universal free software, strength against "the reactionary orthodoxy" controlling much of the sector.
"Hackers create, innovate, solve problems and voluntarily exercise a mutual help organization," which he said meshes with the founding principles of the Internet.
Gil said "the technological revolution cannot be justified in and of itself, and must be reflected in benefits for and the well-being of people."
He hailed efforts by Da Silva's socialist government to extend computer hardware and software to poorer segments of Brazilian society.
"Thanks to the Internet, an Amazonian Indian is able to offer his hand-woven baskets to buyers in the developed world, avoiding middlemen and obtaining a price 100 times higher that what he previously received," he said. EFE
