The Hacktivist, Award Winning Short Film Documentary

Celebrity hacker Andrew 'Bunnie' Huang first clashed with US tech giant Microsoft for teaching others how to modify the Xbox. Almost 20 years later, he is suing the US government to push for the right to use and own technology, all while creating hackable hardware with other tech superstars like whistleblower Edward Snowden and firmware hacker Sean Cross.
Bunnie is convinced that, “If you can’t hack what you have, you don’t own it.” This documentary tinkers with the hacker’s mind on issues around transparency and privacy in the hardware world, all while Bunnie dismantles his childhood, his philosophy, and his controversy.
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[@rakersa]

"Without the right to tinker and explore, we risk becoming enslaved by technology; and the more we exercise the right to hack, the harder it will be to take that right away" - Andre "Bunnie" Huang

[@megsman4749]

It seems like only the Chinese are allowed to do that nowadays.

[@milahu]

hah, we are already "enslaved by technology". ask Ted Kaczynski our enemies already have hardware backdoors, compromising emissions (tempest), closed-source firmware/drivers/hardware, ... but sure, "feel free"

[@dedsec5271]

Ohhh yeah and we will keep on hacking then

[@daviddunkelheit9952]

Too bad he sold out to DC …

[@Plyrs]

The next time my friends complains about how messy my room is, I'll just tell them I sort my things in hash algorithm.

[@oozly9114]

clean your room

[@umop3plsdn]

@@oozly9114 that will ruin the hash algorithm though!

[@slimyelow]

emphasis on 'Hash' !

[@IsNoGood4uM1kkel]

I also build my room on hash algorithms 👽🍁 Peace out

[@TheOneAndOnly_skiF]

​@@IsNoGood4uM1kkeltrue Canadian

[@adrenalinflow]

Bunnie is a freaking genius! I wish I had his drive, knowledge and discipline! Keep up the good work and keep fighting the good fight, dude

[@singularityu]

We are glad you liked the doc and are inspired by him!

[@joseramirez4384]

@@singularityu what would bunny profession be called ?? Computer engineering??

[@SammyFash]

​@@joseramirez4384hacker

[@TheDavidlloydjones]

@@joseramirez4384 This is what "hacker" meant, back in ARPA, pre-DARPA, days, i.e. before the stoo-pid people folded in the meaning cracker on top.

[@johnboylan3832]

You can have all three of these things. The only reason you don't is because you don't want them.

[@novidemami8763]

It's good to have people like Bunnie and Sean working together on projects like Precursor to bring free and open source hardware/software in one package. I hope they win against DMCA and all people have the Right to Repair.

[@FulcrumMason]

i like what they are doing so much im going to invest , thanks for the heads up. this amount of honesty and transparency just doesnt exist in the commercial world, anywhere ever.

[@Eric_Kabucha_]

I was smiling all through out this film. I love the Bunnies and GeoHots of this world. We need a billion of them around.

[@RM-gm7lu]

100

[@arianj2863]

love bunnie, skeptical about geohot

[@elvismwogoi504]

Kenyan here

[@ivannasha5556]

It's been a while since we saw a real hero stand up and battle the beast without becoming a beast.

[@e30gangsta]

Fantastic documentary. Thank you for making this, and sharing Bunnies story. The world needs more people like him.

[@michaeljames3393]

Good luck to you Bunnie - my childhood was similar, it's nice to know others shared my young experiences

[@igorschmidlapp6987]

"Right To Repair" is a big battle... The "farmer" analogy was very apt. It's like making the old "Shadetree Mechanic" a criminal, and bust you for changing your spark plugs and air filter ( and, God forbid you change the plug gap)...

[@Sashasdoc2]

It's not just an analogy. The John Deere company is doing exactly what was described in the film to farmers in North America.

[@Brawlstriker89]

I wanna be a part of this so bad! Started learning everything I could about computers 1.5 years ago. I’ve learned C, C++, assembly language, MySQL, Microsoft server 2018, PHP, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, JSON. I improved my keyboarding WPM to 86. Made and launched my own website. Learned binary, hex, including its arithmetic. Learned 3D modeling in blender. Game design in Roblox studio, lua. And I still feel like I have so far to go.

[@JAODc-fo9gf]

If you "learned" all this stuff in only 1.5 years, yes, you have a lot to go. It is not bad to experiment different things, but it will take you ages to dominate something if you are learning C, C++, Assembly, Web development and Game Development at the same time. Focus on dominating one thing, and it will become easier to dominate the others as you go. If you start learning C++ today, and then in 3 months you decide to study JavaScript, in 3 months you are still on step 1. I work as a developer and I understand the enthusiasm to learn a lot of different things, and you can do that. But focus on one single point, dedicate 80% of your study time to it, and then spend the other 20% learning the other stuff if you want to, once you start to dominate one technology or language, you will start to understand the other ones easier

[@JAODc-fo9gf]

In order to become a "master" of programming, one of the things you need to know is what a paradigm is, what is the difference, what changes from one to another, why C, C++, Python and Java are different from each other, what a garbage collector is and what it does, what is the difference of a language that has garbage collector to a language that do not have, what is a compiler and how it works, what is a transpiler, etc. It may seem a lot of things, and it its, but this is not stuff that you learn by sitting on a chair and watching youtube videos or reading online blogs, it may help you, but this kind of stuff you will only dominate with experience, and by failing. Failure is the best teacher, when you try to make a project in one language and it is a nightmare, try making it in other languages, maybe some will be easier or harder than the first attempt, and even if at the end the project didn't came out how you wanted, it was still a success, because you learned a lot of new stuff trying to do it.

[@Brawlstriker89]

@@JAODc-fo9gf o actually took all those as courses in college. Each being a term a piece. I achieved honor roll in computer science along the way as well. That’s not to boast myself, but to show how passionate I am about learning this stuff. Thanks for the pointers. I’m aware of what the differences between languages are and why certain are useful over others. I’ve learned compilers. I’ve also already done a few projects. My knowledge is based on actual classroom labs and doing. Not just watching. I’ve made my own snake, rock paper scissors, trivia, tic tac toe games. Playable online on my site. Launched my own website. Made a website to showcase my art. Earned a couple certifications. I love doing the actual hands on aspect. Couldn’t agree more that that’s what it takes. Not just watching videos.

[@Laceinspace]

Bro I met this guy in 2016 he legit hacked all of our xboxs im the only one who literallt knows he existed in this town Hahah hes real

[@mikewazowski350]

I remember reading the essay called "The Cathedral vs The Bazaar". If you haven't read it, I recommend it. The differences between business models of Microsoft and Linux. Microsoft spends tons of money and time trying to find and fix bugs, while Linux/community finds them quickly and cheaply, making Linux a more stable system. And his work area is just like mine. It looks like a mess, but I know where everything is in the given space by closing my eyes.

[@vanessasw3634]

The humility. These are the kind of human-beings that give hope and push global development towards the right direction. Great documentary!!

[@chrisskidmore1942]

Around this time people were also using a saved game file from 007 Agent Under Fire to create a buffer overflow that allowed you to load other operating systems. I still have an original XBOX running Linux and a ton of emulators.

[@CodyCookMusic]

brilliant doc, amazing stuff! Just a quick thought from a pentester who is also a composer: list the score and tracks used in the credits. It's free and takes a few extra seconds of run time but can make a huge difference in the lives of the musicians. As a pentester, THIS is why I do it. Bunnie has been such an amazing icon. I'm so glad he got the exposure he deserves because over the years the narrative was driven by the corporations. This was simply incredible!

[@emmanuelkwawu4744]

I want to be a Pentester and currently undergoing cybersecurity course, what advice do you have for someone from a third world country, Africa for that matter as far as job prospects are concerned?

[@Nate-asaurus-Rex]

This got recommended on my feed and wow I am glad I clicked on this, Bunnie is such a fascinating person.

[@bildwerck]

Brilliant, thank you Bunnie & Sean!

[@resin8n]

Great video. Thanks for sharing!

[@victormatos2562]

I think and re-think that once you buy a product you're the owner, corporation loose their ownership on the product that I bought and own. Now what I cannot do is rebuild modify and sale the product. But as long as I'm the owner I could do what I feel like doing. I could also do Is sale my update finding or modification to the corporation.

[@SlightlyTechnical]

if you buy a device, you own it period ,its yours to do what you want with it, i love that hackers put companies in their place, they are the shop , we are the customers, its simple as that, if they don't like customers modifying what they legally own, maybe the company shouldn't take part in the free market.

[@AndyWJP]

Great documentary. I have thought for a while that it is important for many individuals to understand how things work from the ground up such as computers. If we only learn the top level technology, then AI could take over the lower-level stuff as humans become more and more disconnected from it. Imagine if something like the Arm core was replaced by something designed by an AI that no human could hope to understand in a reasonable time and there was no readable documentation for it or Dev. tools for human use since those things could be viewed as pointless to make.

[@liricabox]

Thank you for sharing this with subtitles! I really enjoy this documentary. I didnt know about Bunny and his job seems amazing. Inspires me to be better. Thanks! Have a good day!

[@cinatic2774]

great documentary, we need this disruptive thinking, break things to understand or/and to change

[@user-ff3qh4zh9n]

Unbelievable. This man is an artist to be recon with.

[@parenzopoker]

we need more people like this

[@ClarkPotter]

Fantastic! Loved Bunnie and your window into him.

[@roguishowl3915]

What an excellent documentary! 😎

[@emceewater171]

👍🏆🏅🎖️ People like Bunnie and those along the lines of Richard Stallman among others deserve More Recognition for their work. Technology is A Great Leveler! Thanks for Empowering Ordinary People and Improving Their Access to Tech.

[@dennisfahey2379]

Interesting video. It amazed me how fast the DMCA was run through Congress. I've never witnessed any law that broad and far reaching in scope move that quickly with so little debate and refinement. Clearly big money was behind it and have little doubt it was industry written and provided to Congress for passage. To put 1998 in context the Internet and its ability to move copyrighted assets around the world at the push of a button was exploding. The first Internet "killer app" - Napster - was allowing music to be easily pirated. Full lengths movies were not far behind but were artificially capped by slow bandwidth limits of most Internet Service Providers (56Kb dialup). Something WAS needed. But here we are a quarter of a century later and individual (citizen's) rights, such as limits to scraping and mandatory data sharing notification/traceability, are not even in House draft stages.

[@surenbono6063]

..I dismantled a kiddy wrist watch when I was in primary school...can you believe it depends on a piece of rock crystals to tell accurate time...its amazing tech...

[@tasfarsowad7612]

Great documentary!!

[@user-sf7yu7ob5c]

Just, thank you! What great humans they are, how great you are to introduce them. Just make me smile time, and give me strength and hope, once again ... And also remember me, this little quote...a special kid could change everything! Semi-utopia..😉

[@KDFOXSCI]

This was great and an inspiration. Thanks!

[@dripcode2600]

This is awesome!

[@greentubeless]

awesome!!!!!!!! you made me a believer

[@paulussantosociwidjaja4781]

Thank you for the learning. Xie2, cheers!

[@marloncorrea4571]

Interesante recién conozco sus ideas y la forma como lo ve, como tantos otros que intentamos que las personas tengan acceso libre, buen documental

[@mrhassell]

50 years old. 39 years ago, MSX was a computer, that had ROMs. When I learnt I could dump the ROM of any game, then use DEBUG to read back in, Penguin Adventure went from Cartridge to Casette and the 3.5 Floppy... from there in, it was a matter of learning ASM and routines. C made the first language I learnt, to do the same on the Amiga platform.

[@codycbradio]

Is that what I think it is at 00:16:34? The MOnSter 6502 de-integrated processor on top of his Raspberry PI Server?

[@danilomassoni5294]

Very good!

[@TzfasDoc]

Great! Everyone needs to watch this!

[@spastischelastisch8482]

This should have w a y more views. Thanks!

[@alanthomaswhite]

Great video. I love that Americans try to build and improve things. Knowledge and curiosity is power.

[@yippy327]

You know what? If I paid "my money" for something, I will do what I want to it.

[@EyeCanShootFL]

loved this

[@ViaConDias]

Very important story being told here..!

[@omgedson42]

WHY WAS THAT LADY SCREAMING AT US THO!?

[@TradieTrev]

This bloke blows the crap out of the water for how I like to break down things. Wish I had his mindset!

[@StevanNetto-qg7gx]

The farmer analogy is just perfect. Under DMCA, if you use a broken tractors engine to run a water pump, or it's alternator to generate electricity, you'd be a criminal. Money talks louder than state's duty to protect individuals.

[@philipmccrackeniii4575]

I disassembled many things including the lawnmower. So many spare parts now.

[@monogramadikt5971]

first time ive heard of these guys.. has anybody got any links to updates on the mobile devices they are developing ?

[@iamroot9711]

Many software developers often rely on pre-made libraries or frameworks without delving into their underlying mechanisms. The extensive level of abstraction prevalent in the development community has made it easier to initiate projects quickly, but it has also led to a significant portion of developers not gaining a deep understanding of the systems and, consequently, hindered their capacity to enhance them. Really inspired by Sean 'XOBS' in this documentary.

[@vectoralphaSec]

Thats cause most developers are not hardware engineers, they are software engineers. Two different types of people. The software engineers/ developers want to build software, they are creators who want to create, you dont need deep hardware knowledge for that.

[@megsman4749]

He is Anakin in our time and world. Wonderful person.

[@RahimLadhajuma]

Super interesting

[@tannercoggins8793]

I'm curious if the documentary mentioned farmers' equipment in particular, have there been events around that industry in particular?

[@hijomojo]

Yep, have a look into right to repair issues around John Deere

[@toucan221]

Very interesting, we should have more people like Bunnie, Not afraid to tinker and Hack.

[@ricksanchez188]

My family overheard me listening to this today. Even with this guys success, valid arguments and his goals/accomplishments to rectify clear crimes against personal privacy; they still think im crazy (just not quite to this level yet LOL). It's never easy being a pioneer. I guess for now I'll just have to be content ripping apart second hand second hand electronics on my own 😆

[@tonymendestv]

When can we buy the phone

[@Sweetz404]

Could someone please tell me what the song's name is at 15:22?

[@LMGraph]

sounds like a succesful adhd story and as a person diagnosed with adhd i can relate to many of his traits!

[@gelijkjatoch1009]

Wanted to see if debian will accept the first AMD Athlon with GeForce 2 to work with. The thing sucked it in from the internet for all long time and everything worked fine. Better kernel, more stability and better graphics.

[@KevinMcmanimen]

Open source is the future. Everything should be open sourced. why I mainly use linux Right to repair is huge for me

[@moc9818]

Wow that's interesting it felt like I'm watching myself in this documentary. Bunny and i have the same dreams... thats wierd because I'm also a hacker..😮

[@Zubbbz]

This is inspiring

[@jairunet]

Bright guy, all the very best and let's see, I might reach out, free software is the way.

[@jonlaban4272]

Why I support open source tech

[@Mikdefish]

If people can understand all your parts because they are open source what's to stop Pegasus and advanced AI supercomputers.from cracking it.

[@daveking3494]

I would love to see Andrew take apart an apple Vision Pro, just to demonstrate what it is really doing.

[@spiritlevelstudios]

I took one apart. Inside I found a laser etched circuit board image of Steve Jobs' nutsack and the words Deez Nutz emblazoned on every IC. Then Microsoft started leaving encrypted messages on my open source fax machine.

[@ivannasha5556]

I miss when you bought something and it was yours.

[@user-wx2fp9cm3i]

i took my first computer apart 1000 times back in the late 90´ was the best time would hade wished my dad led me to programming

[@ssent1]

"They can shoot me in the head a billion times and only the first bullet hurts." -Andrew 'Bunnie' Huang

[@Hermaeus7]

Gaming Counsel? Allowing them to source code? Lol wtf is she saying

[@jonathanporter5223]

That chic was loud and slightly annoying. She butchered the whole farmers right to repair their own machinery argument, too. Like, why was she even interviewed let alone featured in this documentary? She didn't contribute anything insightful that wasn't already known, and she sure as hell has nothing to do with the lawsuit or hacking the xbox.

[@iqueque]

And has the most annoying tone of voice I have ever encountered!

[@ion_q]

she's certainly "a big no-no."

[@JeTTRod]

I remember figuring out how to play a gameboy game while using a sega gamegear for the screen by using the tv tuner that came with the gamegear... ..few yrs later had a friend watching tv on his desktop, even changing channels, using my satellite tv gear a town away.... (tho it used up my monthly upload limit in about 2 hrs)...

[@76yacumo]

Go Bunnie Go!!

[@neonteepee8453]

Its not what the hardware does anymore, its the data it collects and what gets done with that information. There is no such thing as anonymised data. I worked for a data analytics firm for a while, set them a challenge to track my transit card. I only ever put cash on it, you don't hand over any details when you get the card, they didn't know where I lived, I regularly travelled different ways to work using buses and/or trains, got off at different stations near work for a nice walk or to get a coffee from somewhere else. Took them 14 minutes to give me 3 weeks of my travel info, the card number, when and where I had added money and more worryingly, my date of birth, my home address, my Tax file number (like an SSN in AU), my UK tax information (dual citizen), and a whole bunch of other stuff to do with my bank accounts.

[@reemssmeer-maar-dan-omgeke9028]

The gaming counsel

[@andycordy5190]

At a time when the concerns are being voiced over the development of unregulated AI systems and super intelligent computers being available for all kinds of purposes both good and bad, when mischievous examples of these uses outnumber benign ones, I found the attitudes expressed here very reassuring. As a nobody, I don't anticipate being targeted for commercial or military reasons but I can see that people like Bunnie and Sean, rubbing corporations and governments up the wrong way would be pretty dangerous.

[@PrescottChapHouse]

Everyone knows about NASA, flat earth, the AI cult, Ron Watkins, etc. you're being followed by the feds. All of you are. Tails has a backdoor. Prescott got raided. Hundreds of informants already flipping on each other. 😂

[@claucemicro1080]

It's beyond right to repair, it's the right to own. Empowering someone not by adulation but by enabling a person to be an owner of his/her device, not just a user.

[@davidh2550]

I can relate to this guy alot.

[@tanishq4160]

Where is amin??

[@onemoreguyonline7878]

Not sure why this showed up on my subscription feed, but sure, ill byte.

[@thatguyidk123]

I did this stuff when the first xbox came out as well years ago never heard about this guy though

[@curtisnewton895]

why does she talk like if hacking was invented at the time of the first xbox ?

[@strattus99]

Because she has no idea what she’s talking about

[@pickowatton626]

My friend 20 years ago had an Xbox running his whole house at the time I knew nothing about it but he had nothing but knowledge and hacked the original Xbox to do loads more than todays . Unfortunately the next I tried to contact him he was dead ... He was in his 40s

[@calliemorano3212]

@@strattus99o

[@nietzschebietzsche]

Prob didn't want to start the video in the 1960s, lol

[@CF39D4FB4A]

And why is she shouting?

[@trevorscarnival3997]

Proprietary software that came with the PC /msdos turned me off computers for over a decade.

[@DaveTan65]

workaround for that tracker was a faraday bag.

[@sifterbox]

hardcoded subtitles...?

[@holdouts]

Ahh the memories. I still have my modded xbox consoles. One i am using in my MAME cabinet and can run all the old arcade games with it.

[@notlikethisss]

He hacked the gaming council =( how could you have done this.

[@SamFPlays]

Soccer’s transformation 😊

[@mikezeestraten7000]

I was super jazzed to learn about the internet and how, someday, finally, there would be something out there for all citizens, to use how they wished without government interference or big money. Yet here I am, decades later, being held hostage for wanting to fix or experiment on my own property. P.S. farmers have really taken it in the shorts.

[@MrKeyhole1]

Brilliant, love these guys, from an old fart who just doesn’t get technology but it scares the crap out of me.

[@user-cy6cr8ux1q]

The monopoly of information. If you create something and other people want to live and learn. They are not allowed to create something exactly as it is created because of laws.

[@ulyssesfister3735]

production really put this kid on the spot lol

[@onzbrau]

why is this whole thing forced subtitled wtf

[@igorschmidlapp6987]

I'm going to sue every car manufacturer, since one of my human ancestors invented the wheel... ;-P

[@V_Electronics]

Epic

[@MODERNDAYROCKERS]

be smart be like this guy :)

[@trunahforealthoe24]

Modding lights is hacking??? Ugh I've must have fallen off a different tree.

[@cameronrich2536]

I want one of those phones

[@thekaiser4333]

What is an Xbox?

[@FigmentHF]

“A gaming council” ?? Lol