Interesting Documentary

[Terr]

I'll see about d/ling it overnight here with Mr. DSL. I'll see if I can give you guys a synopsis tomorrow evening.

EDIT: Okay, I started it up. It's been running for a few, got 5% so far, two download sessions from two diff sites. I added a second site (wiretapped.net) and it got a lot better... 2.5 hours remaining, 25kbytes/s... But not I gotta go to bed. Cya all.

(I'm gonna leave sysmon running to see what my peak value for speed is... Theoretical max should be about 32kb/s on this 256kbaud modem. (kilobits, 256 kiloBITS)

[casper3699]

The documentry was ok, although a lot of their crapping on was boring.. I was hoping it would go into some pretty cool stuff.. alas, I spent 5 minutes watching a toy train go around....

That was a pointless part of it.
I kinda wished they would have gone a little more in depth on some parts and not put other parts of it in there.
I thought that it was going to show more about the hackers and what they do around NY. Like what they use for computers, op systems, and other things.

I haven't a hope in hell of downloading that video file! Let me see...217Mb at about 4K/sec average...no thanks.

Same here at home I only have a 56K connection. I had to go to work and download it using the DSL connection. If I didn't then I would have had to have my computer downloading for a couple hours.

[Terr]

My impressions of the NYC Hackers video, written out in Ultraedit as I watched it. Quotes are paraphrased unless I explicitly say they are 'direct' quotes. Please note that some names and such may be wrong, the subtitling and text within the movie itself contains some spelling/punctuation errors.
________________________________________


Starts with various news clips describing 'Hackers' and cyber-vandals, and money lost...

Sounds of computer-operation (Hard drive clicking, fans, etc, images of title of movie, etc)

Shots of New York from air (with WTC towers...)

Images of NY at street level, subways, bars, taxis, buildings.

"Off the Hook" Radio show (99.5mhz) interview with Kevin Mitnick, filmed within the studio, Emmanuel Goldstein talking to Mitnick over the phone.

Mitnick talking about how the Internet has really taken off since he was incarcerated.

Mentioning an article of Mitnick's arrest, by John Markoff saying Mitnick had 20,000 credit card numbers in first paragraph. 19 paragraphs later he mentioned there was no mention you ever used any of them.

Comments on "Oh, hackers did this.', mentioning that the people causing DoS floods don't need to be hackers, anyone with access to a large T3/OC12 could have done these things. Not everyone with access is a hacker. End of Radio show.

Music, and images showing 2600, on-screen text mentioning 2600's suing by MPAA for distributing DeCSS, will go on trial in July.

Start of interview with "Eugene E. Kashperuff" (That's how they spelled it in the subtitles), he talks about how the main basic freedoms are freedoms of speech and of privacy, in other words, both of communication. Internet has changed how we communicate as a world-wide society. Many people feel the internet is a free medium, but it is not. It's controlled by the US. Govt, they control the IP allocation to who gets a domain space, how the 1st-tier ISPs can do business. This is pretty much total control of the internet.

End Kashperuff interview, shots of spy images, grainy film, helicopters, media, Simpsons, car crashes, police brutality... lots of different stuff... creepy music. This goes on for a while.

(9 minutes into film now.) Images of subway... actually, a model train...

Images of MIT, ENIAC-stuff, etc... "Where the Trains run on time". Overhear these people talking about how to change designs of train-track... They describe the 'electro-mechanical system' they use. Apparently the origins of MIT's computer club... I don't get it. Nostalgic recollections of things these people did in MIT, such as some games they made, Tech Model Railroad Club. They had a TX-0, which "computer hacking at TMRC' started with. Telephone security was mainly security-through-obscurity. The club members were interested in the phone system, as they were learning many electrical skills already...

Shots of inside a subway. (Grand-central station?)

Guy talks about his 486 33mhz ($800) He took it apart and added a CD-rom. He was 11-12. He's recollecting his love with technology and how it started. Turns out he works at a security company. (Mike Hudack) "In the past... was frequently known as a hacker" (speaking of himself)

Camera shots of monthly 2600 meeting.

(Him commenting) "There is a definite community, but most of them are people who just want to be hackers, and tend not to have the skill that someone who would legitimately be called a hacker would have."

"More often the FBI will assume you are guilty before proven innocent." "You won't see the more skilled people at the 2600 meeting" "Hackers tend to be loners, only with society in general." "With other hackers, they are not loners at all." "The case against 2600 is ridiculous, you don't sue people who post to Bugtraq, you thank them. Public exposure is something traditionally done in the computer industry."

End of Hudack and 2600 meeting scenes.
Title: 3,000 hackers attend H2K conference.
Interview with "Spudz" (pudgy guy, seems young)
"I consider most of the people here in one shape, way, or form, hackers. "Hackers "doesn't just apply to computers. I think it applies to everything. It applies to many fields and skills.

(Shots of hundreds of monitors in a room, people setting up. "**** the MPAA" banner... Conference in full swing.)

Old-Guy talking about how NY is a political activism center (people, location, news services based here.) H2k is not actually political, "but lately politics is invading technology."

"All hacking is is hacking away at a computer keyboard until it does what you want it to do. That's all! Our proper title has been usurped by the press and handed off to these 14 year old twerps that crack into system security and we call these people crackers because they crack system security." - Direct quote from Old-Guy (21:58 into video) Old-Guy founded TAP (some Technological American Party magazine that ended in '84, I think his handle is Cheshire Catalyst)

("Spudz" again)(image of someone running Nmap)
"Some of the things that they are planning to do on the hacktivism front are great, such as providing internet access for the Chinese. It's almost like they are closed off on a local network, rather than a huge global network. They don't know what's out there, they have no idea. They haven't seen the top of the iceberg yet and what the hacktivists are planning to do is punch some holes in their defenses, if you will, where they keep the Chinese inside and letting them out so that they can see what's out there on that whole internet, the whole global Internet. I think that's a good thing. I think it's time that the Chinese got their eyes open beyond what's given to them by their government, so they can see what's really going on out here and let the citizens of that country decide for themselves whether or not they should be granted that access, and a revolution will occur." - Direct quote.

(Personally, I find it interesting that he doesn't question OUR media and 'net news, not questioning why CNN doesn't emphasize much about when we hit the wrong things in Afghanistan... but along with the film. 23:15 into it now.)

(Images of a disco-like-scene, and mixers... probably still at conference.)

Interview with Jon Johanses, "DeCSS Entrepreneur"... He's facing a fine, and in Norway fines are based on previous year's income... he didn't make anything last year.

(TAP Old guy again.) "Sometimes a guy is screwed, and I am terribly afraid that Emmanuel might get screwed. But when you look at the solid facts behind the case, the technology behind the case, I think Emmanuel is going to come out on top, and I think the MPAA is just running scared. They started something, they did not understand what they were starting, because they don't understand the bits and bytes of the technology, and I think it's going to go back and bit them." - Direct Quote

(25:15 into movie) Title: July 17th 200, MPAA vs 2600 trial begins. Shots of NYC. Canned talk by 2600 lawyers. Protesters "For Free speech", holding banners regarding DeCSS, MPAA lawyer talking about this is not about free speech, but about intellectual theft.

(Webpage images: 2600 loses, appeal planned. Shots of NYC and WTC) (27:04 into video)

Kashparuff (Kasparov?) interview again:
"I don't necessarily think it is a counter-culture, I think it is part of culture. I believe in socially responsible hacking. Technology and the deployment of technology is a great force that is affecting the daily lives of everybody in our society today, more and more everyday, as technology speeds forward. The employment of this technology in our daily lives brings up real issues, issues that pertain to those basic human rights we hold, those basic human rights of communication. Now on the one hand the development of the laws, the acceptable societal norms, which control that technology, is driven largely by commercial interest. The hackers largely are the people's voice that can be raised up to have an effect on the development on those rules, those laws, that govern the deployment of the technology, for the people, not for the commercial interest. " - Direct Quote

(The End). (29:07 into 30:06 movie) (List of interviewed people)
________________________________________-

PHEW, that was long! I'm too tired to post comments.

EDIT: FIXED SOME SPELLING ERRORS

[Ennis]

Excellent summary Terr. Yet another great post.

[Terr]

Thanks. I was suddenly overcome with emotion for my poor lower-bandwidth former-confederates...

I didn't like the documentary itself too much. I think the abscence of any sort of narration was a big problem with it. It didn't *flow* very well. I think it was a great attempt at an amateur film/documentary, but as a documentary itself, it seems to me to be more of a moving scrapbook of sound bites and clips than a real deep inquiry.

I found it interesting that the "Spudz" guy was so certain in his views on China. I lived *technically* in China, (Hong Kong), so I'm near, but not in there... I just think he's sort of ignoring the kind of media... "selective highlighting" that happens in our society. For more detail on that particular problem... anyone ever seen Wag The Dog? Good movie, in a cheesy way.

[AtomSmurf]

Hi!

I am the maker of "New York City Hackers" and I must say that I am extremely happy of all the criticism, positive and negative, that my film has recieved in this forum!

A bit about myself: I am student in Visual Anthropology at the University of Tromsø, Norway (thats above the polar circle in case you wondered), and this is my exam film for my master thesis. So far the film has been competing in four film festivals, and it being a student film I think it has reached an incredible large audience. The access statitics on the web site (www.atomsmurf.pasta.cs.uit.no) list 20.043 hits at a total of 175.179.807 KBytes transferred since april when we put out the DivX online version. By January next year I'll be working on a DVD version, and hopefully we will have a new, much cleaner copy, of the film online. And improved subtitling!

The film was shot in Hi8 over three periods, fall and spring of 1999/2000 and during the H2K conference in New York City July 2000. It was edited at our Media100 editing suite starting october 2000 and mastered in mid-december. I did everything on this film except the online and some of the audio post-editing.

In retrospect, and after working on several commercial projects afterwards, I know there a lot I would do different. First off all shooting in Hi8 was not a creative choice, I hoped to shoot in DV/DVVCAM but the institute had no available DV cameras before I left for fieldwork. Also I would have opted for a different and definitively less time-comsuming shooting schedule. Also I would have liked to have a crew with me, but thats beyond the scope of master thesis in anthropology anyway! In terms of editing I am quite satisfied seen in relation with the material I had, but ofcourse certain parts of the film wouldnt have suffered with a more aggresive style of editing. As an attempt to make an anthropological film, I can say that the response have been overwhelmingly positive. To me to hear that people feel given an insight into a culture that they found utterly alien before viewing the film is very grateful indeed.

I will be at next years HOPE conference, and if things work out, I will screen a broadcast quality copy there.

Bye and again thanx for all the response and keep telling everybody about my film!

Stig-Lennart Sørensen a.k.a. AtomSmurf

[porcupine_tree]

Originally posted by Terr
My impressions of the NYC Hackers video, written out in Ultraedit as I watched it. Quotes are paraphrased unless I explicitly say they are 'direct' quotes. Please note that some names and such may be wrong, the subtitling and text within the movie itself contains some spelling/punctuation errors.
________________________________________


Starts with various news clips describing 'Hackers' and cyber-vandals, and money lost...

Sounds of computer-operation (Hard drive clicking, fans, etc, images of title of movie, etc)

Shots of New York from air (with WTC towers...)

Images of NY at street level, subways, bars, taxis, buildings.

"Off the Hook" Radio show (99.5mhz) interview with Kevin Mitnick, filmed within the studio, Emmanuel Goldstein talking to Mitnick over the phone.

Mitnick talking about how the Internet has really taken off since he was incarcerated.

Mentioning an article of Mitnick's arrest, by John Markoff saying Mitnick had 20,000 credit card numbers in first paragraph. 19 paragraphs later he mentioned there was no mention you ever used any of them.

Comments on "Oh, hackers did this.', mentioning that the people causing DoS floods don't need to be hackers, anyone with access to a large T3/OC12 could have done these things. Not everyone with access is a hacker. End of Radio show.

Music, and images showing 2600, on-screen text mentioning 2600's suing by MPAA for distributing DeCSS, will go on trial in July.

Start of interview with "Eugene E. Kashperuff" (That's how they spelled it in the subtitles), he talks about how the main basic freedoms are freedoms of speech and of privacy, in other words, both of communication. Internet has changed how we communicate as a world-wide society. Many people feel the internet is a free medium, but it is not. It's controlled by the US. Govt, they control the IP allocation to who gets a domain space, how the 1st-tier ISPs can do business. This is pretty much total control of the internet.

End Kashperuff interview, shots of spy images, grainy film, helicopters, media, Simpsons, car crashes, police brutality... lots of different stuff... creepy music. This goes on for a while.

(9 minutes into film now.) Images of subway... actually, a model train...

Images of MIT, ENIAC-stuff, etc... "Where the Trains run on time". Overhear these people talking about how to change designs of train-track... They describe the 'electro-mechanical system' they use. Apparently the origins of MIT's computer club... I don't get it. Nostalgic recollections of things these people did in MIT, such as some games they made, Tech Model Railroad Club. They had a TX-0, which "computer hacking at TMRC' started with. Telephone security was mainly security-through-obscurity. The club members were interested in the phone system, as they were learning many electrical skills already...

Shots of inside a subway. (Grand-central station?)

Guy talks about his 486 33mhz ($800) He took it apart and added a CD-rom. He was 11-12. He's recollecting his love with technology and how it started. Turns out he works at a security company. (Mike Hudack) "In the past... was frequently known as a hacker" (speaking of himself)

Camera shots of monthly 2600 meeting.

(Him commenting) "There is a definite community, but most of them are people who just want to be hackers, and tend not to have the skill that someone who would legitimately be called a hacker would have."

"More often the FBI will assume you are guilty before proven innocent." "You won't see the more skilled people at the 2600 meeting" "Hackers tend to be loners, only with society in general." "With other hackers, they are not loners at all." "The case against 2600 is ridiculous, you don't sue people who post to Bugtraq, you thank them. Public exposure is something traditionally done in the computer industry."

End of Hudack and 2600 meeting scenes.
Title: 3,000 hackers attend H2K conference.
Interview with "Spudz" (pudgy guy, seems young)
"I consider most of the people here in one shape, way, or form, hackers. "Hackers "doesn't just apply to computers. I think it applies to everything. It applies to many fields and skills.

(Shots of hundreds of monitors in a room, people setting up. "**** the MPAA" banner... Conference in full swing.)

Old-Guy talking about how NY is a political activism center (people, location, news services based here.) H2k is not actually political, "but lately politics is invading technology."

"All hacking is is hacking away at a computer keyboard until it does what you want it to do. That's all! Our proper title has been usurped by the press and handed off to these 14 year old twerps that crack into system security and we call these people crackers because they crack system security." - Direct quote from Old-Guy (21:58 into video) Old-Guy founded TAP (some Technological American Party magazine that ended in '84, I think his handle is Cheshire Catalyst)

("Spudz" again)(image of someone running Nmap)
"Some of the things that they are planning to do on the hacktivism front are great, such as providing internet access for the Chinese. It's almost like they are closed off on a local network, rather than a huge global network. They don't know what's out there, they have no idea. They haven't seen the top of the iceberg yet and what the hacktivists are planning to do is punch some holes in their defenses, if you will, where they keep the Chinese inside and letting them out so that they can see what's out there on that whole internet, the whole global Internet. I think that's a good thing. I think it's time that the Chinese got their eyes open beyond what's given to them by their government, so they can see what's really going on out here and let the citizens of that country decide for themselves whether or not they should be granted that access, and a revolution will occur." - Direct quote.

(Personally, I find it interesting that he doesn't question OUR media and 'net news, not questioning why CNN doesn't emphasize much about when we hit the wrong things in Afghanistan... but along with the film. 23:15 into it now.)

(Images of a disco-like-scene, and mixers... probably still at conference.)

Interview with Jon Johanses, "DeCSS Entrepreneur"... He's facing a fine, and in Norway fines are based on previous year's income... he didn't make anything last year.

(TAP Old guy again.) "Sometimes a guy is screwed, and I am terribly afraid that Emmanuel might get screwed. But when you look at the solid facts behind the case, the technology behind the case, I think Emmanuel is going to come out on top, and I think the MPAA is just running scared. They started something, they did not understand what they were starting, because they don't understand the bits and bytes of the technology, and I think it's going to go back and bit them." - Direct Quote

(25:15 into movie) Title: July 17th 200, MPAA vs 2600 trial begins. Shots of NYC. Canned talk by 2600 lawyers. Protesters "For Free speech", holding banners regarding DeCSS, MPAA lawyer talking about this is not about free speech, but about intellectual theft.

(Webpage images: 2600 loses, appeal planned. Shots of NYC and WTC) (27:04 into video)

Kashparuff (Kasparov?) interview again:
"I don't necessarily think it is a counter-culture, I think it is part of culture. I believe in socially responsible hacking. Technology and the deployment of technology is a great force that is affecting the daily lives of everybody in our society today, more and more everyday, as technology speeds forward. The employment of this technology in our daily lives brings up real issues, issues that pertain to those basic human rights we hold, those basic human rights of communication. Now on the one hand the development of the laws, the acceptable societal norms, which control that technology, is driven largely by commercial interest. The hackers largely are the people's voice that can be raised up to have an effect on the development on those rules, those laws, that govern the deployment of the technology, for the people, not for the commercial interest. " - Direct Quote

(The End). (29:07 into 30:06 movie) (List of interviewed people)
________________________________________-

PHEW, that was long! I'm too tired to post comments.

EDIT: FIXED SOME SPELLING ERRORS

Thanks! 217Mb+6k\sec=bankruptcy. no thanks

[Tomsan]

Originally posted by intruder
great ennis keep it up...
u know ennis i always...admire u ...as my source of inspirations...

thanks a lot for that....and once again a very good post...

keep the good work...

intruder...

Dude!! how deep can your tong go in his arse?? your half way his darmsystem

[Ennis]

Oi leave intruder alone lol!

[proactive]

He, that was 45 minutes worth of download on my DSL. Good movie, but not so informative. I guess it takes a lot of research to come up with something that'll impress this site. Most of the info was old news, but I liked the part about MIT. I would like to attend some of their courses sometime. But I guess it's hard to get in. The place is legendary, though.