I found in interesting website that discusses the very same WTO protest in Seattle that Spier discusses. It talks about a UK group known as the "Electrohippies" that practices "electronic activism and civil disobedience". The article discusses how some people protest in person while others protest by using their computers. In the case of the Electrohippies, "bombard[ed] the WTO Web site with http-redirects in a massive denial-of-service attack attempting to bring the site down". I agree with the article that this definitely goes beyond activism and into crime. What do you guys think?
Here is the article
DoS attacks are definitely criminal. It's already part of UK legislation (as of 2006, I believe), with attackers getting up to 10 years in prison. Similar to environmental activists that cross into criminal acts to make their points.
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