by CHRISTIAN PARENTI
Farhan made his money as a phone freak turned pro. He and some friends devised a way to use the Internet to circumvent international phone lines to make long-distance calls for almost nothing. The phone companies saw this as theft and tried to shut them down.
“Some of us were actually tortured by the police,” says Farhan. Eventually, Farhan’s pirate network grew too large and the big phone companies bought him out. Now he’s rich, but, in classic cyberpunk fashion, he is working on a new way to screw the big guys. This time, he and his friends are going to use wireless systems to create a nearly free Internet-based cell phone service.
The Brooklyn Rail for more
(Thanks to Robin Khundkar)