What the hell??!? (blah, blah of a wannabe alien)
Wired Magazine Article
Okay, okay… I’ve had the issue for a couple days now, and I was a bit torn if I was going to post anything about it on my blog or not. I didn’t like a few things about it… For one thing, I’m not a “hero” (I’m a pretty normal guy), but they titled the article Shawn Hogan, Hero. Anyway, today it seems everyone knows because I’ve been bombed with emails, phone calls, etc. about it. People have scanned the article and posted it around and it also made the front page of Slashdot today.
So I guess at this point the world knows about it, so if you want to read it, here it is…
http://wired.com/wired/archive/14.08/start.html?pg=3
P.S. – it was kind of funny to see my mug shot in Wired Magazine’s table of contents (in the August print edition).
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#4 written by David 6 years ago
Mr. Hogan-
I was one of the masses who read the article about your willingness to take the MPAA to trial. I would hope that you would defend yourself against being labled a hero, as it says a lot about your character, but do believe that people see you that way. Myself included.
You obviously have resources available to you that others do not, and I am pleased to see that you are using them to make a statement that has thusfar fallen on deaf ears–namely that the judicial system ishould not be a tool for extortion of citizens by monolithic corporations.
A few years ago I was caught up in a dragnet run by DirecTV. I purchased some equipment from an online retailer that could be used for hacking DirecTV’s signal, and once they had my name I was threatened with court action. Their demands were simple–pay them $2500 or defend myself in court.
The lawyer with whom I consulted said he would not take the case for any less than $5000 up front. At the time, I was unemployed and already on the verge of selling my house. Eventually we “settled” on $2200.
I wanted desperately to take them to task. I still do. When I watched as the MPAA and RIAA started using the same tactic in their “war on piracy”, I was sure that someone somewhere would step up and help the little guys out. I’ve heard almost nothing about anyone doing so. I’ve heard of even fewer successes.
So you may not be a hero in the sense of saving someone from a burning building, but know that your actions are appreciated almost as much as someone who did.
Thank you.
David
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#14 written by Mark Miller 6 years ago
You Rock! Thanks for standing up to the man.
I think an even better way to take a stand is to put together a non-profit orginization to fight these legal battles. Were people like me who can’t afford hundreds of thousands of dollors can give a hundred bucks and it can be pooled with other people who can give smaller amounts. An who knows maybe we can even find layers to help fight at discount rates or even volunteer their time.
one thing is for shure this country needs copyright reform.
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Already been tossing around the idea of putting together a self-help site so people have the resources to defend themselves (for example auto-generate court filings needed, etc.) Not sure if I have the time to do it quite yet, but it’s one of the zillion ideas that have been rolling around in the back of my mind lately.
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#22 written by Dustin 6 years ago
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“WE ARE NOT WORTHY ! WE ARE NOT WORTHY ! ”
I hope you trash those bastards in court and some legal precedent is set for such cases, these mafia-men cannot continue to get away with these gang-land practices.
PS: If there is a jury they’re toast, the bastards have gotten so much bad press I would find it hard to believe anyone would pass judgement in their favor.
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#29 written by Adoniram 6 years ago
Dear Shawn Hogan,
Thank you so much for fighting for the rights of the consumer. If the MP/RI AA had their way, I am quite sure countless consumer rights would be eroded to nonexistence. As an independent media creator and student of media law, I want you to know that I am in your corner and many, many others like myself are too.
The MP/RI AA aren’t loathsome for their frivolous lawsuits alone, but also for the fact that their business practices have resulted in stagnation and homogeny in the media world.
Thank you again.
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I’ll be following this case with interest to see where it all ends up. These organizations have backed down in the past and dismissed their suits when the come up against people willing and able to defend themselves.
Honestly, the whole idea that someone who could sink ‘Millions’ to defend themselves against an accusation of illegally downloading a movies is quite ludicrous. It makes me wonder if anyone on their legal advisory team uses a brain.
Regardless, to anyone saying they’d donate money to aid in this fight, why not donate that money to an organization that would help people accused of these alleged offenses that DON’T have the means to defend themselves? I think that would be a far wiser investment.
Mr. Hogan, I wish you the best of luck in this case, and I hope that this will proceed to the point where the tactics used by these organizations in their witch hunts will finally be exposed to the public at large. Somehow though, I have this feeling that once the publicity dies down, they’ll be looking for a way to back out of this one…
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#31 written by Anon 6 years ago
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While you are at it, ask them how they got the US Gub’ment to offer sanctions to Sweden if they don’t comply with MPAA requests… Last I checked, MPAA didn’t stand for Motion Picture Association of PLANET EARTH! Even so, if they’re going to act like a Gub’ment organization, I want the right to vote in who is in charge…
In short, thanks a lot! I’ll support you in spirit cuz that’s all I can give. Thanks!
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#39 written by Michael T. 6 years ago
Just another person here who is glad to see somebody standing up to fight what is clearly an abuse of the system. I’d be happy to throw whatever money I could afford towards furthering the case should you need it, whether it is fighting the case against you, or launching a new case once (as I fully expect) they drop this one…
You’ve got my email – please, let me know if you accept donations at any point in the future.
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#42 written by Ben 6 years ago
Just read about you on Digg and I wanted to say thanks. Seriously, thanks. From the bottom of my heart. You’re standing up and doing what’s right, and I don’t know if that makes you a hero, but it’s less common than it should be. Anyway, we’re all behind you, and if there’s anything we can do to help just say (type?) the word.
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You’re actions are of course cool, but exactly what I would expect from the technorati. So the question is — when will we start dominating politics? Of course I’m signed up for http://www.freestateproject.org/, but I’m hoping that someday people like you (or me if I can get off my lazy ass) will start running for office.
$50 for the EFF in your name.
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Hey Shawn,
Good luck with the trial man. I know you don’t consider yourself a hero but to the rest of us “normal guys” just the simple fact that someone is finally taking a stand against the MPAA tactics is a good enough reason to warrant the title “Shawn Hogan, Hero”. It’s just a shame that one has to spend so much money in order to fight the MPAA.
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#62 written by Connecticut, USA 6 years ago
One good programmer (with money) can stand up to injustice and system abuse by RIAA, MPAA and the kind. These organizations are killing innovation and progress by holding onto dead business practices. I would compare your plea as a first step towards Digital Abolition. Digital slavery is something very shameful that exists in the society today and is being abused by RIAA and MPAA. Please, fight it, your fight is just.
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#70 written by James 6 years ago
Glad to hear someone is going to stand up for their rights instead of being forced to settle because they don’t have the knowledge and resources to defend themselves.
The thing that I find very interesting about all of these cases is that they are all based on an individuals IP address. What if I am using a wireless router and have not set up proper security precautions like a lot of people? I can’t tell you how many people I’ve talked to that hook up their wireless router straight out of the box and don’t bother to log in and change the user/pass. Now, any one of their neighbors can latch on to their connection and download whatever they want. Who get’s blamed for that? The person that owns the IP address inside the router. The only thing the outside world sees is a request from a single IP address. There could be 5 people using the wireless network, yet, all of the requests go out under the same IP. Once they come back to the router, it decides what information goes to which computer. That’s my understanding of the process.
The best analogy I can think of is someone stealing your car, commiting a crime, and putting your car back exactly where you found it before you noticed. The next day, the police arrest you for the crime because one person got the license plate number of your car. They don’t care if it was actually YOU in the car. They have your license plate number, how could it be anyone else? I just don’t get it.
Good luck man, fight the good fight.
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#74 written by stoMPAA 6 years ago
Given the increasingly high profile of your case, I hope several excellent sources of legal counsel compete for the
chance to represent you.
If not, consider giving this fellow a call:
http://www.spertuslaw.com/attorney_profile.php
I imagine he’d love the chance to stick it to his former
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#76 written by Helen T. 6 years ago
Shawn,
If you start a website documenting everything they do, that’ll be helpful to everyone next on their list.
Chillingeffects.org is one site like that.
A few years ago a patent troll went after tiny businesses: sueing them and then offering to settle. No tiny company could afford the fight. Once they found each other and banded together, they stopped the guy. Their website was youmaybenext.com: it doesn’t exist anymore, but it still is in the internet archive.
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Best news I’ve heard all week, that you will stand up and fight this. Good luck from Sweden!
Dan, taking the technorati to controlling positions is exactly what we are trying to do in sweden, with the Pirate Party. Look past the name, in sweden “pirate” has almost turned to become an alltogether positive term.
We have a good chance of getting into the parliament in the upcoming elections, as we have gained a great following and spawned a new debate on copyright and filesharing in the Swedish media. Parties like ours have been formed in a handfull of European contries in the last months, and if we in fact get in to parliament, it will probably echo around Europe. To actually get in, we need more than 4% in total – aprox 200 000 votes.
Check us out: http://www2.piratpartiet.se/international/english
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Firstly, good luck on the legal defence Shawn, hope it all goes well.
Secondly, slightly off topic but on the same sort of theme, people having legal action (or are interested in this sort of thing) taken against them might want to check out the RIAA vs The People blog ( http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/ ) which has a wealth of information regarding the same sort of tactics that the RIAA are using against people who have been alleged filesharers.
Thirdly, just saw your pic from wired on your sisters blog and i gotta agree with Rebecca, hard to believe you broke that chair, haha! Good work
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#83 written by Megain 6 years ago
oh yeah, you just got farked too
http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=2192503&ok=1
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I don’t know – you’re certainly my hero. Enough that I googled you to find out if there was a way to contact you and tell you how awesome you are for doing what you are doing.
MPAA and RIAA are abusing the legal system, and are using scare tactics as a form of HARASSMENT. Most companies would never harass their customers the way both organizations do. It’s obscene.
So thank you. And you’re my hero.
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Hey Shawn,
Thanks for joining the fight against the RIAA.I think it’s important to fight them in court, but I think the best way to fight the RIAA is through the consumer. At this point the RIAA is just a middleman… using current technologies and the internet, we can now make a direct connection between the listener and the artist, no longer requiring a label to distribute the music.
I have recently designed software that would revolutionize the music industry. Its takes all the best elements from Youtube, Itunes, Myspace, and American Idol combines them into the ultimate tool for buying, selling & sharing music over the internet. Unfortunately my business partner fell through on the funding for development and I have months of work sitting idly on my mac that I’m not ready to give up on.
After reading about you, you seem to be the perfect person to bring this idea to life. You have both the mission and the resources to make it happen. You also have the medias attention, which is more valuable than any marketing that we could do…
Lets not just fight the RIAA, lets take them down!
Contact me if you are interested. -
#95 written by MultiSync 6 years ago
Having the same kind of lawsuit staring back into my face not that long ago and being forced to settle, you are a breath of fresh air. You don’t know how bad i wanted to fight this, but lost wages, time and the lack of resources to even start out with are what made me settle. With any hope you’ll make a difference in how these frivolous **aa lawsuits are played out from now on.
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#97 written by Traci 6 years ago
I am being sued by Warner Bros. for allegedly downloading “Bewitched” (ick). I didn’t, my husband didn’t, the kids, the dogs, nobody! We had the forensics done on our computers and there is no evidence of that movie ANYWHERE! Yet, I have to pay THEM and my lawyer fees or else it will cost me plenty more to fight them. I feel like I’ve been you know what up the you know what. How is it possible when all the evidence proves your innocence, the innocent still pays the big bad wolf??? what the hell?? I am so angry right now and just need to vent EVERYWHERE I CAN!!!!
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#99 written by Michael Chermside 6 years ago
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#104 written by Francis 6 years ago
Hero or not, you have certainly become a semi-celebrity. I believe you have enough character to handle that status.
You will certainly be in the spotlight for a time, and once more when the legal proceedings start.
This being a personnal blog and all I wish you the best, at the personnal leve, as being a “public figure” can have its unexpected tolls on the psyche and on one’s personnal life. As I alerady stated I do believe you have the character required to make the best of this for yourself and those you love.Be strong, be true to yourself, stay PROUD.
Do the right thing.regards,
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#109 written by Andrew 6 years ago
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Well, i’ve just read an article explaining the things and i’ve got linked here. Thanks a lot for what you’re doing. As all the rest, i agree with the points you’ve made. It’s quite annoying the way MPAA (and many others all around the world) operate. I hope you give them what they deserve…
Again, thanks. timonoj, from spain -
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#121 written by Javier Carro 6 years ago
First they came…
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.When they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.by Pastor Martin Niemöller or Bertolt Brecht
(the origin is not clear) -
One of my favorite movie quotes, starring “Meet the Fockers” Dustin Hoffman:
Geena Davis’s Gale Gayley asks John Bubber Andy Garcia’s John Bubber
“If everyone thinks of you as a hero, Mr. Bubber, how do you see yourself?” Bubber answers“I think we’re all heroes, if you catch us at the right moment.”
This is your time, dude!
- Mike
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#124 written by imgoingtobed 6 years ago
More power to you, I hope you set a precident and don’t just let them drop the case. Somone needs to stop the chilling effect
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilling_effect -
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You say that you don’t want to be called a hero–and I respect that.
I find less inspiration from heros, and more from the ordinary person who decides to do something extraordinary.
That’s something to respect.