From: Michael Wiik (mwiik@messagenet.com)
Date: Sat Mar 15 2003 - 12:53:49 MST
I think it's unfortunate that the term (in the article) is bonded to
'violence and mayhem'. I have been thinking recently of how to
distribute legal responsibility and/or provide plausible deniability to
network-coordinated protest groups, as in, for example, protest signs of
single alphabet characters spelling out obscene/incendiary (o/i) slogans
that, if held by individuals, would result in their quick arrest. (It'd
be cumbersome to carry around an alphabet of signs, I was thinking some
sort of electronic ink or large low-res LCD screens).
Such slogans might exist only in the eyes of a camera, set for long
exposure (a few seconds perhaps). A keen observer might notice
something's up, but otherwise the o/i slogan first appears as a jpeg on
the web, a clear slogan with a fuzzy crowd. It's missed during the
actual protest. Maybe this would work best at night with big LED type signs.
Of course, at that point you might just as well hold up an array of
signs and flash thru the entire alphabet. Separate each sign and letter
into photoshop layers and make any slogan you want. The difference
between this and just photoshopping over normal protest signs seems
quite subtle.
It would be 'leaderless' since there's no single coordinator, indeed,
just program a computer to spit out random o/i slogans and broadcast it
to the demonstrators.
This could be done with chanting, too. Small groups of people (being
careful about timing) each chant out one word of a sentence which (if
voiced by an individual) would be prosecuted as a death threat or
incitement to riot.
The only connection between such demonstrators would be a single URL
which would be abandoned after the event. What are the laws that make a
group guilty if every single member of the group is individually innocent?
Of course, this won't apply if the crowd actually starts rioting itself.
Hmmm, maybe a well-disciplined riot-starting seed group that stays
nonviolent itself. It could be a weird century of protest :-)
-Mike
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