Customer Reviews

Anarchy ONLINE

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I enjoyed this book but found 'Life and Death on the Internet' by Keith Schroeder to be more useful, informitive and interesting. Personally, I would pass on this book and get Mr. Schroeder's.

I quite enjoyed both parts of this book. "Net Crime" does a lot to put real computer crime in perspective -- not the media hype that most people are used to. It's not very technical, so non-techies could understand and appreciate it. The section on satellite piracy doesn't seem directly relevant, but it's very interesting and does well to illustrate some basic "hacker principles" without actually saying so. (All you hackers that don't believe in piracy, don't trip, Platt doesn't tend to overgeneralize.)

On the flip side, "Net Sex" provides (afaik) an accurate historical account of the 'net (and BBS) pr0n scare and some of the aftermath. There's a lot of serious discussion about freedom of speech, but the author's bias doesn't stop him from carefully portraying both sides of the issues.

All in all, these were two very interesting books. Anyone interested in studying hacking (from a social/legal point of view, not a technical one) and/or the Internet porno industry should read this book. So should people who just want to learn a little more about computer crime and porn laws and how they came to be.

The part on net-crime was great since it showed history, ethics, pyschology and the zen of hacking itself. i was hoping that the coverage could have been broader, but the book was halfed into net-sex where it talked about BBS pr0n which is kinda dead nowadays.

Nonetheless, a good book if you're towards the history and the sense of hackers. But if you're looking for technical stuff, uhmm, better turn your back. The book is not for those wanting to learn, or is in search of technical knowledge. The book is for critics, professors, and the mass who don't understand what hacking is all about.

I actually enjoyed reading this book. Quite a good deal when you consider you get 2 books rolled into one.

The content itself was not to bad. I only wish it took into consideration the thoughts of hackers themselves instead of just one person. Another thing that was a bit annoying was that it only concentrated on the US, what about the UK, a quick look at alt.ph.uk will tell you that there is a lively hacker movement in the UK as well.

But, all in all, a good read..

An interesting book that presents the "freedom issues" surrounding censorship of the Net. I found it food for thought because it presented several issues that may not be so obvious to those who are concerned about Libertarian concepts. Interesting, educational and inspiring.

Charles Platt once agian uses the myth behind the mythto show everyday folks the sceens playing outbehind the text that runs wild across thier computer screens. With clear, concises, and often confounding truths Platt exposes the answer to the question "Wheres the crime?". From the much hyped dark hacker criminal to free speach radicals we are shown that its the hype thats messing things up. Every journalist should be forced to read this, and every one just getting online would do well to read it. There is much to be read by old time net users as well, including an interview with the elsuive Dark Fiber and his criminal underground posse.

Platt's book caters to people who subscribe to stereotypes about the Internet. The main problem with this book is it's misleading title: "Anarchy Online." It totally leaves out all of the online content being created by anarchists today, especially the hundreds of really useful websites. Platt should stick to fiction, although this book could be classified as fiction.

This book deals to much with pornograghy. Even though it raises intersting points about the freedom of the internet. Still this book is evil since I'm a very religos person. This book is evil in that it deals with the freedom to post porno on the internet. I think this book is bad and should not be viewed by anyone. I think that this book should be band from all book stores. I wonce again hate this book. By the way I'm 13 years old.