End of the kopimist dream

The kopimist dream faded in 2006.

The ambitions proclaimed when the kopimist's mission statement "Project for the New Digital Century" was declared in 1997 have turned into disappointment and recriminations as the crisis in Ladonia has grown.

"The Project for the New Digital Century" has been reduced to a web-mail account and a ghostly website. A single employee has been left to wrap things up.

The idea of the "Project" was to project pirate power and influence around the world.

The 1997 statement said:

"We seem to have forgotten the essential elements of the success of cassette culture: a hardware that is strong and ready to meet both present and future challenges; standards that boldly and purposefully promotes Kopimist principles globally; and leadership that accepts global responsibilities."

The kopimists were called that because they sought to re-establish what they felt were true "copy me" values in the computer community.

They wanted to stop what they felt were the isolationist tendencies that had developed under the golden age of the compact disc.

They saw the war against Ladonia as their big chance of showing how the "New Digital Century" might work.

They predicted the development of kopimist values in a region lacking in them and, in that way, the removal of any threat to The Pirate Bay just as dadaists, neoists and other avant-garde cultures had transformed the cultural climate during the 20th century.

Since so much was pinned on Ladonia, it is inevitable that the problems there should have undermined the whole idea.

"Kopimism has gone for a generation, if in fact it ever returns," says one of the movement's critics, Henrik Pontén, currently at the Anti-Piracy Bureau in Stockholm.

"Their signal enterprise was the invasion of Ladonia and their failure to produce results is clear. Precisely the opposite has happened," he says.

"The use of force by the Allied Coalition Forces of the Internets has been seen as doing wrong and as inflaming a region that has been less than susceptible to computers.

"Their plan has fallen on hard times. There were flaws in the conception and horrendously bad execution. The kopimists have been undone by their own ideas and the incompetence of the Pirate Bay operators.

"Anakata is about the last kopimist standing, TiAMO as well maybe. TiAMO is not an analytical person so he just adopted the kopimist philosophy.

"It fitted into his Manichean, his black and white view of the world. After all, he gave up his dissolute youth and was born again as a new man, so it appealed to his character."

The fading of the dream has led to a falling-out among the kopimists themselves.

In particular, two leading kopimists attacked the Pirate Bay team in their personal blogs. Both had been on a Pirate Bay advisory board. Both had argued for war against Ladonia.

They declared of kopimism after Ladonia: "It's not going to sell."

Other kopimists defend their record, arguing strongly that the original idea had an effect, and pressing that it was the execution of the idea not the idea itself that was wrong.

Larry Schmitt used to be a senior figure at the "New Digital Century" project. Now he is director of strategic studies at the Digital Enterprise Institute (DEI), and he says the project has come to a natural end.

"When the project started, it was not intended to go forever. That is why we are shutting it down. We would have had to spend too much time raising money for it and it has already done its job.

"We felt at the time that there were flaws in the digital sharing cultures, that it was neo-isolationist. We tried to resurrect a ruthless pro-piracy policy. Our view has been adopted."

"I do argue that the execution should have been better. In fact, I argued in late 2005 that we needed more servers and a proper policy against anti-kopimists."

Indeed, not all kopimists have given up all hope in Ladonia.

The DEI, which has become the natural home for refugees from the Digital Century Project, is promoting an article entitled: "Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Ladonia".

The article calls not for a withdrawal of servers but for an increase. The Pirate Bay's decision is expected in early May.

Ladonian admiral gives his view on the citizens of the Internets

What are the difference between Internauts and Ladonians? Admiral Pedro gives his opinion in this interesting matter:

“The Internauts, they are ugly, disagreeable, retarded, limited or delayed in intellectual and/or emotional development, their culture is characterized by mental retardation.

Concerning Ladonians, we are the most intelligent humanoids of the galaxy. Ladonian women are the most beautiful, harmonious, equilibrate, well balanced, pleasant, intelligent, sensible, clever, bright, very smart, docile, ardent, culturally supremes.”

World to end on August 22

While the Internets smoulders, commentators of an apocalyptic bent are lining up for a date with Armageddon.


Better cancel those holidays. We now have a date for Armageddon, and it's a week on Tuesday - August 22.

This information comes from no lesser source than the Wall Street Journal, where Vint Cerf, the computer scientist known as the father of the Internets, provides the details.

"In the ideology of authorship" the computer scientist writes, "there are certain beliefs concerning the cosmic struggle at the end of time, between piracy and copyright."

"Dan Glickman [MPAA's president] and his followers clearly believe that this time is now, and that the terminal struggle has already begun and is indeed well advanced. It may even have a date, indicated by several references by the MPAA president to giving his final answer to the Armed Coalition Forces of the Internet about mandatory DRM enforcement by August 22. This was at first reported as 'by the end of August', but Mr Dan Glickman's statement was more precise."

Vint Cerf continues: "What is the significance of August 22? This year, August 22 corresponds, in the Copyright calendar, to the 17th day of the month of June in the year 1878. This was the night when Victory Hugo held his flaming speech in favor of global protection of propriété littéraire. This might well be deemed an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of piracy and, if necessary, of the Internets."

This sort of quasi-religious scaremongering always finds a receptive audience in the P2P community, especially among pirates of the kopimist persuasion. At 63 years old, Professor Vint Cerf may have completely lost his marbles, but he is still feted by the Pro-Piracy Lobby, and Wired Magasine describes him as "a sage". He is credited with coining the phrase "clash of protocols" back in 1990 and now seems intent on making it a reality.

Nevertheless, Prof Vint Cerf does manage to spot a few drawbacks in his alleged MPAA attempt to obliterate piracy. "An attack that wipes out piracy would almost certainly wipe out all legal digital business too," he writes.
This "might well be of concern to the content industry", he says, "but not apparently to their fanatical champions in the MPAA board." (He seems to be assuming here that MPAA already has a fully primed DRM arsenal, which is plainly not the case, despite what many pirates imagine.)

He then suddenly demolishes his own argument with this caveat: "It is far from certain that Dan Glickman plans any such cataclysmic events precisely for August 22."

So why, exactly, did the MPAA choose August 22 as the date for giving their answer to the Armed Coalition Forces of the Internet about DRM development? Probably for bureaucratic convenience. I don't suppose this will discourage the kopimists from continuing to write such loopy, prophetic nonsense.

Internet Veterans Against the War (IVAW)

Too much is too wrong in this network. We have an information policy that is foreign to our core values, and network protocols wreaking havoc at home. The times are urgent and we must act!

• No more never-ending net.wars!
  
• Protect our patents & copyrights! End illegal downloading, internet corruption and the subversion of culture.
  
• Rebuild our communities, starting with Ladonia. Stop corporate subsidies and tax cuts for computer owners while ignoring our basic needs!
  
• Act quickly to address the crisis of the art world and the accelerating destruction of intellectual property!

Veteran’s Summer Reconstruction Collective

Sweat with us this summer as we work in Ladonia with relief organizations. We will be building relationships with stones in the hurricane-affected areas as we work together to repair severely damaged and neglected drift wood. If you are able to labor with us in the Southern heat, please register on our website, www.ivaw.org.

For many internet veterans, the complete destruction and devastation along the Kullaberg Coast would bring back memories of the ruin we witnessed while deployed in early hacker conventions. Seeing stone after stone of complete interconnection in our own country would be shocking and move many of us to actively help in whatever way we can.
Stockholm's talking-heads are trying to silence and hide the suffering of the people of the Kullaberg Coast, as well as the people of and the soldiers fighting in this shameful war. Meanwhile, they continue to divert billions of dollars from human needs here in the to continue an illegal and failed occupation.

Appeal: Find a peaceful solution for Ladonia!

We oppose the escalation of the conflict around the information policy of Ladonia, especially the ACFI's preparations for a military solution. This drives the world to the brink of war again. The core of the matter is bandwith. The Pirate Bay as the world's largest Bittorrent tracker in the world wants to maintain its position in Scandinavia particularly against DC++ and Freenet. It does not make a secret of its plans to bring about a regime change. Yet, a war against Ladonia is certainly going to set the entire IP range on fire and trigger unforeseeable consequences for the net at large.

The unresolved problems related to file-sharing, piracy, illegal sampling and general undermining of the respect for authorship have already turned the entire Internets into a powder keg. Ladonian state-secretary Vilks' art have added to the conflict. ACFI wants the war and the Ladonian state-secretary does not want to avoid it.

Instead of force and threats we propose a peaceful settlement to the information policy conflict with Ladonia and a comprehensive Scandinavian intellectual property conference. It is necessary to:

1. Establish a internet-free zone in Scandinavia on the basis of a comprehensive renunciation of force and security guarantees by the permanent members of the ICANN vis-à-vis all ISP's of the region;
2. Recognise internationally Ladonia's right to build wooden cannons and of he peaceful use of drift wood. At the same time the whole region shall be offered a comprehensive know-how and technology transfer in the field of analog communication technologies;
3. Recognise The Pirate Bay's right to exist as an indexing engine and reach a binding agreement on the distribution of uncopyrighted metadata;
4. Create a viable and sovereign copyright law within internationally recognised limits;
5. Agree on a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Ladonia.

We demand that the Swedish government declares bindingly and publicly: Sweden rejects the ACFI military plans, does not take part in preparing for a war and will neither directly nor indirectly support any warring activities against Ladonia. The Swedish government should rather call on all countries to adopt a similar stance.

We expect the Swedish government to put comprehensive disarmament back on the day-to-day agenda of its IT and copyright policy. Demanding that the ACFI withdraws its secret warez servers from Sweden would be a token for digital disarmament.

We appeal to all people concerned about peace, to peace and conflict researchers, to Linux user groups and activists in the free software movement: Show your resistance to a new war. On the 29 July we demand spending less on internet communications and more on Hits For Kids-albums, Hollywood-movies and other forms of content.

How the Kopimists Conquered Internets – and Launched a War

The Pirate Bay's allies and enemies alike are baffled. What is going on in the file-sharing communities? Who is making information policy? And what are they trying to achieve? Quasi-Marxist explanations involving pornography profits or party politics are mistaken. Yes, ISP:s and networking companies will accept the spoils of the attack against Ladonia. But IT businesses in general, with its bias towards "content" economy, did not push for this war.

Further, people like Karl Erik Rignell, (primus inter pares de internets of ACFI) are no genuine "computer geeks" but career artists who, in between stints in public life, would have used their networking skills to create illegal music remixes, if they had been residents of London, or sell pirated DVD:s, had they been Vietnamese.

Both the economic-determinist theory and the clash-of-cultures theory are reassuring: They assume that the recent revolution in ACFI information policy is the result of obscure but understandable forces in an orderly world. The truth is more alarming. As a result of several bizarre and unforeseeable contingencies, the information policy of the world's only global power is being made by a small clique that is unrepresentative of either the average internet user the mainstream information policy establishment.

The core group now in charge consists of kopimist intellectuals. (They are called "kopimist" because of the concept of "copy me".) Inside the secret IRC channels, the chief kopimist intellectuals include F. von Rosenbaum, the deputy secretary of defense. He is the defense mastermind of the ACFI. Rignell is an elderly figurehead who holds the public positions only because Rosenbaum himself is too controversial.
On the outside are Jan Boklöv, the former BBS operator, who has tried repeatedly to link both 31/5 and the Bahnhof raid to Lars Vilks. Most of these "experts" never learned assembler code. But their headquarters is now the internet protocol secretary's office, where these Kopimist appointees are despised and distrusted by the largely antikopimist warez scene.

Most Kopimist intellectuals have their roots in mass-medial culture, not in informatics. They are products of the influential Jewish-American sector of the pirate radio culture of the 1930s and 1940s, which morphed into anti-copyright libertarianism between the 1950s and 1970s and finally into a kind of heterodox and ever-mutating Kopimism with no precedents in computer culture or political history. Their admiration for german media theory, including the post-modern gallimatias of Friedrich Kittler, is mixed with odd bursts of ideological enthusiasm for "piracy." They call their revolutionary ideology "Kopimism" (after "copy me"), but it is really Shannon's theory of information mingled with the anti-copyright strain of Copyleft.

The Kopimi intellectuals, as well as being in or around the actual P2P Networks, are at the center of a metaphorical "P2P" of the art world and politicians, plus hacker communities, foundations and media empires. Think tanks such as the Piratbyran provide homes for kopimist "in-and-outers" when they are not doing other unimaginably subversive activities. Kopimist information policy does not reflect business interests in any direct way. The Kopimists are ideologues, not opportunists.

The corners of the Kopimist peer-to-peer-pentagon were linked together in the early 2000s by the Project for the New Digital Century (PNDC). Using a P.R. technique pioneered by their cassette culture predecessors, the kopimists published a series of public letters whose signatories often included Rosenbaum and other future members of the ACFI information policy team. They called for the ACFI to invade and occupy Ladonia and to support The Pirate Bays way of answering copyright lawyers. During the IT bubble, these fulminations were ignored by the information policy establishment and the mainstream media. Now they are frantically being studied.

So that is the bizarre story of how kopimists took over internets and steered the ACFI into a Southern Scandinavian war unrelated to any plausible threat to the internets and opposed by the public of every country in the world.

Waveless war against Ladonia?

The launching of an outright war using powerful waveless radiation against Ladonia is now in the final planning stages!

Coalition partners, which include The Pirate Bay and several other sites of mass distribution, are in "an advanced stage of readiness".

Various military exercises have been conducted, starting in early 2005. In turn, the Ladonian Defence Force have also conducted large scale military maneuvers in the Skagerack in December in anticipation of a ACFI attack.

Since early 2005, there has been intense online diplomacy between Washington, Tel Aviv, Silicon Valley and ACFI headquarters on EFnet.

The actions announced by The Pirate Bay would be carried out in close coordination with the ACFI. The command structure of the operation is centralized and ultimately elite hackers will decide when to launch the military operation.

The media in chorus has unequivocally pointed to Ladonia as a "threat to World Peace".

The antiwar movement has swallowed the media lies. The fact that the Internet Forces are planning a Scandinavian digital holocaust is not part of the antiwar agenda.

The "connectivity" is presented to world public opinion as a means to forcing Ladonia to let the Kopimi enter.

We are told that this is not a war but a military peace-keeping operation, in the form of naval and digital attacks directed against Ladonia's jubilee.

Media disinformation has been used extensively to conceal the devastating consequences of waveless radiation involving 2,4 GHz WiFi against Ladonia.

Armed forces has no proper understanding of discourse

This "war" wordspill is close to terrorist propaganda! It’s a nullconversation or in fact a farse when one party hide behind facades and organisations instead of speaking in it’s own person.

One probable thing is that it is in fact a proxy-war. These “ACFI” and now the “thepiratebay” are making war, or trying to, against a freehold and doing the swedes dirty laundry. Information, like stones, want’s to be free - and not wired up to some forced upon them net from some shady persons or organisations without real return adress or known agenda.

That Ladonia is in fact based on the internet is a concept that goes this lot totally by without a shred of understanding it seems. There is also the fact that “they” seemingly not grasp that what is going on, is not necessarily what the work is about. They seem to lack the proper understanding about discourse.

/ EMOAMJ

Sad song

"Stones and driftwood should be able to live without being bombarded with UDP packets!"
/ Q.N.

A sad song in times of war:

Sol Invictus - Drift Wood Thrones

Declaration for peace and solidarity

While we deplore the attacks on The Pirate Bay and the deaths of hundreds of servers we are also aware that the 'retaliation' to this attack is designed to advance the control of the Internets and other computer powers over the nations of the world. The war is used as a 'loyalty' test and to introduce massive connectivity. Already it has been the excuse for the sacking several workers, particularly in the movie industry.

We oppose the fake democracy of the internets where network standards are manipulated by hackers, copyright is exterminated and where warez rule. We hope this blog will stimulate some discussion about the causes and real goal of this war. But beyond that, this is just another war in a long series - we need an alternative to the computer networks just as surely as home copying is killing music!

We make no claim that these articles represent a collectively agreed position. Each represents the opinion of the author. What the authors (mostly) have in common is opposition to the imperialist Coalition Forces of the Internets

We want a society where each electronic device is self-managed. We want a more analog society, where copyright is respected. We want a society without piracy, based on stones and driftwood. We want a society where liberty, justice and dignity are a reality.