Mediengruppe Bitnik

FILTER: VIOLENCE AND ITS COUNTERSTRIKES

The Darknet is the anonymous part of the Internet that is only accessible with special software. Not only does the Darknet protect political dissidents from repression, it is also a refuge for the trade of illegal goods, including weapons, counterfeit money, pornography and narcotics. !Mediengruppe Bitnik instructed a bot (computer program) to shop weekly with hundreds of dollars of bitcoins’ on Agora, the E-Bay of the Darknet. The bot made random purchases and sent them to the artists. This led to a collection of various items, ranging from Lord of the Rings e-books, a fake Louis Vuitton handbag, a baseball cap with hidden camera to two hundred Chesterfield cigarettes and some ecstasy. The last purchases especially drew the attention of the police. But can the police arrest a robot or a piece of software for committing a crime?

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