A Counter-History of the Internet

Programming prodigy and information activist Aaron Swartz achieved groundbreaking work in social justice and political organizing. His passion for open access ensnared him in a legal nightmare that ended with the taking of his own life at the age of 26.

This documentary looks at the computer hacker community in New York City of today, its meetings and conferences, political annotations, and historically explores the roots of the original definition 'hacking' amongst the model train enthusiasts at MIT.

Hacks is a 73 minute European documentary exploring what nature of "Hacking" is in a social context. In HACKS, the Austrian multimedia artist Christine Bader examines who is the computer hacker and what moves him or her. Is the hacker a Robin Hood in cyber space or an anarchistic agitator? Bader speaks with Dutch, German and American communication freaks who are working with various kinds of network issues, like making the Internet accessible to individual persons (Felipe Rodriguez, founder of Internet provider Xs4all), creating a meeting place in cyber space, or designing an ultramodern communication network on a ‘multimedia art ship‘. ‘Hackers are not encumbered by technical, financial or organizational problems, they just want to do things‘, Rodriguez thinks. That the technological means ‘just to do things‘ are now freely available is demonstrated by the numerous computer initiatives that whiz past in HACKS.

Anonymous and exploitative, a network of online chat rooms ran rampant with sex crimes. The hunt to take down its operators required guts and tenacity.

REVOLUTION OS tells the inside story of the hackers who rebelled against the proprietary software model and Microsoft to create GNU/Linux and the Open Source movement.

In The Realm of the Hackers is a documentary about the prominent hacker community, centered in Melbourne, Australia in the late 80's to early 1990. The storyline is centered around the Australian teenagers going by the hacker names "Electron" and "Phoenix", who were members of an elite computer hacking group called The Realm and hacked into some of the most secure computer networks in the world, including those of the US Naval Research Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a government lab charged with the security of the US nuclear stockpile, and NASA.

Italy’s biggest political party, the Five Star Movement, promotes direct democracy through internet voting. Five Star Movement uses a digital platform named Rousseau, that allows Movement’s members to vote online and express their opinion on various issues. But who governs this data?

In 1999, Internet entrepreneur Josh Harris recruits dozens of young men and women who agree to live in underground apartments for weeks at a time while their every movement is broadcast online. Soon, Harris and his girlfriend embark on their own subterranean adventure, with cameras streaming live footage of their meals, arguments, bedroom activities, and bathroom habits. This documentary explores the role of technology in our lives, as it charts the fragile nature of dot-com economy.

Discover the intoxicating world of hacking through the eyes of Michael “Mafiaboy” Calce, who, at 15, was involved in one of the most egregious and widely covered cybercrimes in North America. As hacking becomes more sophisticated and widespread, and information becomes synonymous with profit, can anyone remain immune to a breach of security?

Why do people vent such toxic opinions online? Filmmaker Kyrre Lien spent three years travelling the world to find out who these anonymous ‘internet warriors’ are and why they do it.

For years now, the Kremlin has been systematically trying to use well-trained hackers for its own benefit. In exchange for freedom and protection, they do the dirty work of the state, interfering in other countries’ elections and penetrating government networks. Just how dangerous is Russia’s cyber army?

Using real cases, this documentary demonstrates the extent to which violent criminals can use social media to locate and manipulate victims.

Friends since high school, 20-somethings Kaleil Isaza Tuzman and Tom Herman have an idea: a Web site for people to conduct business with municipal governments. This documentary tracks the rise and fall of govWorks.com from May of 1999 to December of 2000, and the trials the business brings to the relationship of these best friends. Kaleil raises the money, Tom's the technical chief. A third partner wants a buy out; girlfriends come and go; Tom's daughter needs attention. And always the need for cash and for improving the site. Venture capital comes in by the millions. Kaleil is on C-SPAN, CNN, and magazine covers. Will the business or the friendship crash first?

As the nights go by, a young filmmaker uses his video camera to express his thoughts, dreams, and inner turmoil to an online friend.

A feature-length documentary about the Free Kevin movement and the hacker world.

Uncompromising millennial radicals from the United States and the United Kingdom attack the system through dangerous technological means, which evolves into a high-stakes game with world authorities in the midst of a dramatically changing political landscape.

Global, dynamic, and eye-opening, this is story of the most daring cyber heist of all time, the Bangladeshi Central Bank theft, tracing the origins of cyber-crime from basic credit card fraud to the wildly complex criminal organisations in existence today, supported by commentary and fascinating insight from highly regarded cyber security experts.

From the front lines of the bankrupt Chicago Tribune, to the vibrant local online publishing and start-up scene, pioneering journalists struggle to reinvent a storied, yet troubled industry. "Mashed Media" visits bloggers, independent publishers, hacker journalists, and social media mavens working in the trenches of Chicago, providing a rare and intimate look at the future of journalism now.

A documentary that follows three women who perform via webcam to paying customers.

In 1986, astronomer turned computer scientist Clifford Stoll had just started working on a computer system at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory when he noticed a 75-cent discrepancy between the charges printed by two accounting programs responsible for charging people for machine use. Intrigued, he deduced that the system was being hacked, and he determined to find the culprit. This is the re-enactment of how he tracked down KGB cracker Markus Hess through the Ethernet to Hannover, Germany.