Nastic Gryzunova. Seine. Issue 60.

January 21 is a big holiday for hackers and their sympathizers. Kevin Mitnick was released from prison to his personal semi-freedom. Without the right to use computer equipment, software, modems, peripheral devices, laptops, mobile devices, cell phones, television, as well as any other means of communication that can be connected to the Internet.

For some reason, despite the refusal to perceive hackers as heroes of the new century, Mitnik cannot be treated in the same way as the green youth who post political pamphlets on the servers of the Japanese government. As if Mitnik had already played his game. As if his hacks were somehow fundamentally different from what his many young colleagues are doing now. The difference between “stole and not stolen” is, in fact, insignificant. Even if, having hacked into a banking network, the hacker did not take a penny/cent from it, the work to bring the network into proper shape will still require time and money, and a lot of it. And still Mitnik is separate. Probably because he, one of many, is truly talented.

The authorities took it out on the hacker: he was banned from any computer-related work for three years. Thus, he is prohibited from doing what is, in fact, his main business for another three years. Of all the technological achievements of mankind, he was left only with the radio (he was interested in amateur radio as a child) and the telephone. They are so afraid of him. Three years in freedom without the right to self-realization - that would be a more accurate way to formulate the sentence. Three years is a little less than ten, and just like eternity .

Moratorium on academic topics

On December 19, the official opening of the Internet Academy took place. Having poured out all my bewilderment into the “ Internet ” section in Vesti.Ru , now I can only shrug my shoulders inexpressively. The Internet Academy has opened. What changed? " That's right, almost nothing, or very little ." One organization, backed by Intel sponsorship and a ton of money, will be giving out the National Intel Internet Award in March. Another organization would justify calling several online competitions of varying degrees of authority “academic.” The organizers of both structures are trying, not unsuccessfully, to look serious.

This is what seems to confuse me. They are terrifyingly serious. Charter . Goals and objectives. Just the word “academy” makes my jaw clench. Then the cheekbones. Then paralysis sets in. Only two people present at the press conference remembered that the “academy” is actually about fundamental science. The rest did not speak very clearly about the public organization.

I want to formulate one, in my opinion, obvious thought - after this I am even ready to declare a moratorium on academic topics, and burn it all with fire. My thought is simple and clear: all these online-offline games for public organizations are absolutely not what is needed now. The Academy is prestigious, probably, but it is a fiction. We have a real prospect of getting a couple of laws on the Internet, written by the subordinates of smart people like Reiman, and then there will be, if not quite a skid (we will never get a rock), then, in any case, an obvious great depression. If we want to influence the authorities in order to adopt adequate legislative acts - or, even better, adapt existing ones taking into account the existence of the Internet - for this purpose we need professional associations of online citizens - lawyers, human rights activists, journalists, the devil in the mortar. The Academy has nothing to do with it. RAI can still be likened to the American Film Academy - it’s also funny, but it’s possible, and it will turn out impressive. What came out of IA (a very sad word, by the way; there was such a Donkey) is some kind of Noah’s Ark.

Of course, there is no point in judging until we see the real results of the work of this structure. In general, a moratorium has been declared. Despite all my militant pessimism, I finally fall silent. Let's wait for the results.

Victory for free lard

On January 18, the long-awaited trial took place in the Babushkinsky Intermunicipal Court of Moscow. The case “Ad Marginem and Vladimir Sorokin versus Andrey Chernov” was examined in court regarding the publication of the novel “Blue Lard” and links to it on the Internet. Ad Marginem lost miserably.

Not only that, the lawsuit filed against Chernov was an example of unimaginable nonsense. The lawyer was of no use to the plaintiff - he practically dropped out of the race, violating some formalities. But Chernov was defended by Alexander Glushenkov (who, as readers probably remember, acted as a lawyer for the publishing house "Educational Book Plus" in the trial of Timofey Bokarev's lawsuit regarding plagiarism). In general, the trial ended quickly, justice triumphed. We, of course, were in vain to fear that there would be a precedent for an indictment in connection with the publication of a link - there are no judicial precedents in Russia due to the lack of case law. In general, the trial somehow did not generate any news. Two words: Chernov won. It's time to regret the lack of passions. Ivanov, director of Ad Marginem, says something sluggishly about cassation complaints, but this is even less interesting than the trial that took place.

News in brief