Strategies for Unbridled Data Dissemination: an Emergency Operations Manual
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Strategies for Unbridled Data Dissemination: An Emergency Operations Manual Nikita Mazurov PhD Thesis Centre for Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths, University of London 1 Declaration To the extent that this may make sense to the reader, I declare that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Nikita Mazurov 2 Acknowledgements The notion that the work in a thesis is ‘one’s own’ doesn’t seem quite right. This work has benefited from countless insights, critiques, commentary, feedback and all potential other manner of what is after all, work, by those who were subjected to either parts or the entirety of it during encounters both formal and informal. To say nothing of the fact that every citation is an acknowledgement of prior contributory work in its own right. I may have, however, mangled some or all of the fine input that I have received, for which I bear sole responsibility. Certain images were copied from other publications for illustrative purposes. They have been referenced when such is the case. Certain other images were provided by sources who will rename anonymous for reasons of safety. Assistance with technical infrastructure in establishing a server for part of the project was provided by another anonymous source; anonymous for the same reason as above. 3 Abstract This project is a study of free data dissemination and impediments to it. Drawing upon post-structuralism, Actor Network Theory, Participatory Action Research, and theories of the political stakes of the posthuman by way of Stirnerian egoism and illegalism, the project uses a number of theoretical, technical and legal texts to develop a hacker methodology that emphasizes close analysis and disassembly of existent systems of content control. Specifically, two tiers of content control mechanisms are examined: a legal tier, as exemplified by Intellectual Property Rights in the form of copyright and copyleft licenses, and a technical tier in the form of audio, video and text-based watermarking technologies. A series of demonstrative case studies are conducted to further highlight various means of content distribution restriction. A close reading of a copyright notice is performed in order to examine its internal contradictions. Examples of watermarking employed by academic e-book and journal publishers and film distributors are also examined and counter- forensic techniques for removing such watermarks are developed. The project finds that both legal and technical mechanisms for restricting the flow of content can be countervailed, which in turn leads to the development of different control mechanisms and in turn engenders another wave of evasion procedures. The undertaken methodological approach thus leads to the discovery of on-going mutation and adaptation of in-between states of resistance. Finally, an analysis of various existent filesharing applications is performed, and a new Tor-based BitTorrent tracker is set up to strengthen the anonymization of established filesharing methods. It is found that there exist potential de-anonymization attacks against all analyzed file-sharing tools, with potentially more secure filesharing options also seeing less user adoption. 4 Table of Contents Cover ...........................................................................................................................................001 Declaration ..................................................................................................................................002 Acknowledgements .....................................................................................................................003 Abstract........................................................................................................................................004 Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................005 Table of Tables ............................................................................................................................008 Table of Figures...........................................................................................................................009 Disclaimer of Liability ................................................................................................................013 0. Introducing the Project: A Schematic Overview of the Operations Manual...........................014 0.0 Project Overview ..............................................................................................................015 0.1. Part I. Methodological Mobilization: Towards the Hacker Academic............................017 0.2 Part II. Ordnance the First: Contraceptive Strategies for Data Liberation .......................020 0.3 Part III. Ordnance the Second: Emancipato-Surgical Strategies for Data Liberation ......023 0.4 Part IV. Ordnance the Third: Distributive Strategies for Data Liberation .......................026 1. Methodological Mobilization: Towards the Hacker Academic ..............................................029 1.0 An overview of the ensuing method.................................................................................030 1.1 Actor Network Theory: The Tunnel (↔) .........................................................................030 1.2 Towards the Hack: A Critical Xylology of Rogue Intellectualism ..................................039 1.2.0 The Lizard on the Wire.............................................................................................039 1.2.1 Stirner: Humanism, Realism, Personalism...............................................................040 1.2.2 Gramsci: Traditional and Organic Intellectuals........................................................042 1.2.3 Foucault: The Situated Intellectual...........................................................................045 1.2.4 Kristeva: The Dissident Intellectual .........................................................................047 1.2.5 On the Emergent Non-Legalism...............................................................................049 1.3 Anonymous Subjectivity: The Hack as a Rejection of Statist Stasis................................050 1.3.0 Monstrous Unions ....................................................................................................050 1.3.1 Anonymous Unions ..................................................................................................055 1.4 Participatory Action Research and Knowledge Propagation............................................057 1.4.0 Approximating PAR.................................................................................................057 1.4.1 Case Study 1: Goldsmiths Research Online (GRO).................................................062 1.4.2 Case Study 2: Hacking Away at Twilynax Publishing.............................................072 5 2. Ordnance the First: Contraceptive Strategies for Data Liberation ..........................................080 2.0 Did You See the ©?..........................................................................................................081 2.1 The is harder to ©.........................................................................................................098 2.1.0 $ floats in the ........................................................................................................104 2.1.1 V£R$O......................................................................................................................111 2.1.2 ©©............................................................................................................................116 2.1.3 Free Software (‘free’ as in ‘not’)..............................................................................119 2.2 The CS Approach .............................................................................................................126 2.3 Informational Illegalism (Anti Theory)............................................................................128 2.4 Case Study 3: Informational Illegalism (Critical Praxis) — Unwatermarking Eestro eJournal Articles..........................................................................................................................132 3. Ordnance the Second: Emancipato-Surgical Strategies for Data Liberation...........................136 3.0 Cinema as Prison (CaP1)...................................................................................................140 3.1 Cinema as Prison (CaP2)...................................................................................................143 3.2 Cinema as Prison (CaP3)...................................................................................................151 3.3 Cinematic Watermarking as Post-Disciplinary Control ...................................................160 3.3.0 Soundtrack Modulation [AFM; L1] ..........................................................................162 3.3.0.0 Case Study 4: Auditory Forensic Marker Neutralization .................................164 3.3.1 Secondary Location Tracking [AFM, VFM; L2]......................................................166 3.3.2 Primary Location Tracking [VFM; L1] ....................................................................171 3.3.2.0 Case Study 5: Emancipato-Surgical Operation for Visual Forensic Marker Excision.......................................................................................................................................175