Anonymous|The great hactivistic group
Anonymous
Description
Anonymous (used as a proper noun) is a loosely associated international network of activist and hacktivist entities. A website nominally associated with the group describes it as "an Internet gathering" with "a very loose and decentralized command structure that operates on ideas rather than directives".
Anonymous originated in 2003 on the imageboard 4chan, representing the concept of many online and offline community users simultaneously existing as an anarchic, digitized global brain. Anonymous members (known as "Anons") can be distinguished in public by the wearing of Guy Fawkes masks in the style portrayed in the graphic novel and film, V for Vendetta. Dozens of people have been arrested for involvement in Anonymous cyberattacks, in countries including the U.S., UK, Australia, the Netherlands, Spain, and Turkey. Evaluations of the group's actions and effectiveness vary widely. Supporters have called the group "freedom fighters" and digital Robin Hoods while critics have described them as "a cyber lynch-mob" or "cyber terrorists". In 2012,Time called Anonymous one of the "100 most influential people" in the world.
Philosophy
Anonymous has no strictly defined philosophy, and internal dissent is a regular feature of the group. A website associated with the group describes it as "an Internet gathering" with "a very loose and decentralized command structure that operates on ideas rather than directives". Gabriella Coleman writes of the group, "In some ways, it may be impossible to gauge the intent and motive of thousands of participants, many of who don't even bother to leave a trace of their thoughts, motivations, and reactions.Among those that do, opinions vary considerably."
We [Anonymous] just happen to be a group of people on the Internet who need just kind of an outlet to do as we wish, that we wouldn't be able to do in regular society. ...That's more or less the point of it. Do as you wish. ... There's a common phrase: 'we are doing it for the lulz. -Trent Peacock.: The face of Anonymous, February 7, 2008. Because Anonymous has no leadership, no action can be attributed to the membership as a whole. Parmy Olson and others have criticized media coverage that presents the group as well-organized or homogeneous; Olson writes, "There was no single leader pulling the levers, but a few organizational minds that sometimes pooled together to start planning a stunt." Some members protest using legal means, while others employ illegal measures such as DDoS attacks and hacking. Membership is open to anyone who wishes to state they are a member of the collective; Carole Cadwalladr of The Observer compared the group's decentralized structure to that of al-Qaeda, writing, "If you believe in Anonymous, and call yourself Anonymous, you are Anonymous. "Olson, who formerly described Anonymous as a "brand", stated in 2012 that she now characterized it as a "movement" rather than a group: "anyone can be part of it. It is a crowd of people, a nebulous crowd of people,working together and doing things together for various purposes."
Journalists have commented that Anonymous' secrecy, fabrications, and media awareness pose an unusual challenge for reporting on the group's actions and motivations. Quinn Norton of Wired writes that "Anons lie when they have no reason to lie. They weave vast fabrications as a form of performance. Then they tell the truth at unexpected and unfortunate times, sometimes destroying themselves in the process. They are unpredictable." Norton states that the difficulties in reporting on the group cause most writers, including herself, to focus on the "small groups of hackers who stole the limelight from a legion, defied their values, and crashed violently into the law" rather than "Anonymous's sea of voices, all experimenting with new ways of being in the world".
History
The name Anonymous itself is inspired by the perceived anonymity under which users post images and comments on the Internet. Usage of the term Anonymous in the sense of a shared identity began on imageboards, particularly the board of 4chan, dedicated to random content. A tag of Anonymous is assigned to visitors who leave comments without identifying the originator of the posted content. Users of imageboards sometimes jokingly acted as if Anonymous was a single individual. The concept of the Anonymous entity advanced in 2004 when an administrator on the 4chan image board activated a "Forced_Anon" protocol that signed all posts as Anonymous.As the popularity of imageboards increased, the idea of Anonymous as a collective of unnamed individuals became an Internet meme.
Users of 4chan's board would occasionally join into mass pranks or raids. In a raid on July 12, 2006, for example, large numbers of 4chan readers invaded the Finnish social networking site Habbo Hotel with identical avatars; the avatars blocked regular Habbo members from accessing the digital hotel's pool, stating it was "closed due to fail and AIDS". Future LulzSec member Topiary became involved with the site at this time, inviting large audiences to listen to his prank phone calls via Skype. Due to the growing traffic on 4chan's boards, users soon began to plot pranks offline using Internet Relay Chat (IRC). These raids resulted in the first mainstream press story on Anonymous, a report by Fox station KTTV in Los Angeles, California in the U.S. The report called the group "hackers on steroids","domestic terrorists", and an "Internet hate machine".
Project Chanology
Anonymous first became associated with hacktivism in 2008 following a series of actions against the Church of Scientology known as Project Chanology. On January 15, 2008, the gossip blog Gawker posted a video in which celebrity Scientologist Tom Cruise praised the religion; and the Church responded with a cease-and-desist letter for violation of copyright.4chan users organized a raid against the Church in retaliation, prank-calling its hotline, sending black faxes designed to waste ink cartridges, and launching DDoS attacks against its websites. The DDoS attacks were at first carried out with the Gigaloader and JMeter applications. Within a few days, these were supplanted by the Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC), a network stress-testing application allowing users to flood a server with TCP or UDP packets. The LOIC soon became a signature weapon in the Anonymous arsenal; however, it would also lead to a number of arrests of less experienced Anons who failed to conceal their IP addresses.Some operators in Anonymous IRC channels incorrectly told or lied to new volunteers that using the LOIC carried no legal risk.
During the DDoS attacks, a group of Anons uploaded a YouTube video in which a robotic voice speaks on behalf of Anonymous, telling the "leaders of Scientology" that "For the good of your followers, for the good of mankind—for the laughs—we shall expel you from the Internet."Within ten days, the video had attracted hundreds of thousands of views. On February 10, thousands of Anonymous joined simultaneous protests at Church of Scientology facilities around the world.[51] Many protesters wore the stylized Guy Fawkes masks popularized by the graphic novel and movie V for Vendetta, in which an anarchist revolutionary battles a totalitarian government; the masks soon became a popular symbol for Anonymous.In-person protests against the Church continued throughout the year, including "Operation Party Hard" on March 15 and "Operation Reconnect" on April 12. However, by mid-year, they were drawing far fewer protesters,and many of the organizers in IRC channels had begun to drift away from the project.
Arrests And Trials
Since 2009, dozens of people have been arrested for involvement in Anonymous cyberattacks, in countries including the U.S., UK, Australia, the Netherlands, Spain, and Turkey. Anons generally protest these prosecutions and describe these individuals as martyrs to the movement. The July 2011 arrest of LulzSec member Topiary became a particular rallying point, leading to a widespread "Free Topiary" movement.
The first person to be sent to jail for participation in an Anonymous DDoS attack was Dmitriy Guzner, an American 19-year-old. He pleaded guilty to "unauthorized impairment of a protected computer" in November 2009 and was sentenced to 366 days in U.S. federal prison.
On June 13, 2011, officials in Turkey arrested 32 individuals that were allegedly involved in DDoS attacks on Turkish government websites. These members of Anonymous were captured in different cities of Turkey including Istanbul and Ankara. According to PC Magazine, these individuals were arrested after they attacked these websites as a response to the Turkish government demand to ISPs to implement a system of filters that many have perceived as censorship.
Chris Doyon (alias "Commander X"), a self-described leader of Anonymous, was arrested in September 2011 for a cyberattack on the website of Santa Cruz County, California. He jumped bail in February 2012 and fled across the border into Canada.
On September 2012, journalist and Anonymous associate Barrett Brown, known for speaking to media on behalf of the group, was arrested hours after posting a video that appeared to threaten FBI agents with physical violence. Brown was subsequently charged with 17 offenses, including publishing personal credit card information from the Stratfor hack.
Analysis
Evaluations of Anonymous' actions and effectiveness vary widely. In a widely shared post, blogger Patrick Gray wrote that private security firms "secretly love" the group for the way in which it publicises cyber security threats.Anonymous is sometimes stated to have changed the nature of protesting, and in 2012, Time called it one of the "100 most influential people" in the world.
In 2012, Public Radio International reported that the U.S. National Security Agency considered Anonymous a potential national security threat and had warned the president that it could develop the capability to disable parts of the U.S. power grid. In contrast, CNN reported in the same year that "security industry experts generally don't consider Anonymous a major player in the world of cybercrime" due the group's reliance on DDoS attacks that briefly disabled websites rather than the more serious damage possible through hacking. One security consultant compared the group to "a jewelry thief that drives through a window, steal jewels, and rather than keep them, waves them around and tosses them out to a crowd ... They're very noisy, low-grade crimes." In its 2013 Threats Predictions report, McAfee wrote that the technical sophistication of Anonymous was in decline and that it was losing supporters due to "too many uncoordinated and unclear operations".
Graham Cluley, a security expert for Sophos, argued that Anonymous' actions against child porn websites hosted on a darknet could be counterproductive, commenting that while their intentions appear beneficial, the removal of illegal websites and sharing networks should be performed by the authorities, rather than Internet vigilantes. Some commentators also argued that the DDoS attacks by Anonymous following the January 2012 Stop Online Piracy Act protests had proved counterproductive. Molly Wood of CNET wrote that "if the SOPA/PIPA protests were the Web's moment of inspiring, non-violent, hand-holding civil disobedience, #OpMegaUpload feels like the unsettling wave of car-burning hooligans that sweep in and incite the riot portion of the play."Dwight Silverman of the Houston Chronicle concurred, stating that "Anonymous' actions hurt the movement to kill SOPA/PIPA by highlighting online lawlessness." The Oxford Internet Institute's Joss Wright wrote that "In one sense the actions of Anonymous are themselves, anonymously and unaccountably, censoring websites in response to positions with which they disagree."
Created By ROOPESH :-)
The Doors
The Doors were among the most intense and revolutionary bands of
the Sixties (or any decade, for that matter). The impact of their
meteoric career has resonated far beyond their brief half-decade as a
recording and performing entity. Their words and music captured the
Sixties zeitgeist with undeniable power. A cult of personality continues
to surround Jim Morrison, their tempestuous lead singer. Morrison was a
brooding, charismatic frontman in the classic mold of Elvis Presley and Mick Jagger.
Yet he was given to more extreme and confrontational forms of behavior
than those icons. Morrison pushed himself to the limit with drugs,
alcohol and hard living, becoming one of rock’s most celebrated martyrs
when his body gave out at the age of 27. Only six years passed from the
Doors’ formation in 1966 to Morrison’s death in 1971. During that time,
the group released six studio albums and left a smoldering trail of
memorable and often controversial concert performances that cemented
Morrison’s legend.
The Doors comprised vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek,
guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore. Their music combined
classical elocution with jazzy improvisation and infused heady
psychedelic rock with the earthiness of the blues. As Manzarek put it in
a 1997 interview: “We just combined the Apollonian and the Dionysian.
The Dionysian side is the blues, and the Apollonian side is classical
music. The proper artist combines Apollonian rigor and correctness with
Dionysian frenzy, passion and excitement. You blend those two together,
and you have the complete, whole artist.” Quite obviously, the Doors
were no ordinary group. Thirty years earlier, in the group’s original
bio, Manzarek had listed his “hobbies” as “projecting the feel of the
future.”
Morrison’s lyrics, sung in a resonant baritone, evinced the
sophistication of a schooled poet and the street-level immediacy of a
rock lyricist. Especially on the classic albums The Doors and Strange Days, the group epitomized the sound of “acid rock,” which took psychedelia to its limits.
Morrison’s charged theatricality and the band’s challenging musical
flights were suffused with unpredictability and genuine danger. On
several occasions, the singer’s erratic behavior, which included baiting
audiences and authorities from the stage, put him in legal jeopardy and
physical risk. He fearlessly approached Doors performances as a kind of
experiment in mass provocation, resulting in scenes of illumination and
chaos. It was his way of externalizing a personal philosophy. As he
stated in the Doors’ original Elektra Records bio: “I’ve always been
attracted to ideas that were about revolt against authority. I like
ideas about the breaking away or overthrowing of established order. I am
interested in anything about revolt, disorder, chaos – especially
activity that seems to have no meaning. It seems to be to be the road
toward freedom...”
What the Doors offered listeners was not just entertainment but an
exhortation to “break on through to the other side.” That was, in fact,
the title of the Doors’ first single and the opening track of their
self-titled debut album from 1967. In addition to “Break On Through (To
the Other Side),” The Doors included “Light My Fire.” Penned by
guitarist Krieger in his first songwriting attempt, the song catapulted
the group to stardom, topping the charts for three weeks during the
Summer of Love. (For purposes of AM airplay, the single version of
“Light My Fire” was edited from its nearly seven-minute album length to
just under three minutes.) Then there was “The End,” a harrowing epic
that ambitiously recast elements of the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex in a
disturbing, acid-rock frenzy. “The End” ran for more than 11 minutes,
making it one of rock’s first long-form compositions.
Over the next four years, The Doors released five more studio albums – Strange Days (1967), Waiting for the Sun (1968), The Soft Parade (1969), Morrison Hotel (1970) and L.A. Woman (1971) – and the concert compendium Absolutely Live
(1970). In the 40 years since Morrison’s death, there have been
numerous compilations, live releases and box sets. The surviving members
even recorded two albums (Other Voices and Full Circle) as a trio. Still, the original studio albums remain the core of the Doors’ still-viable catalog.
More than any other band, the Doors reflected the turbulence of the Sixties and the clash between generations. “We want the world and we want it now,” Morrison screamed in “When the Music’s Over” (from Strange Days). This album-closing masterpiece warned of ecological apocalypse well before the rise of an organized environmental movement that would sound similar alarms. “The Unknown Soldier,” an unlikely Top 40 hit, was the most potent antiwar song of the Vietnam era. Drawing upon Morrison’s and Manzarek’s background in film studies, the Doors further recast the song as a dramatic rock video – one of the first.
The Doors’ outsized personality came largely from Morrison, who
projected sexuality (he once described the Doors as “erotic
politicians”), a deep interest in shamanism and ritual, and an
unsettling preoccupation with death. The source of Morrison’s intensity
was addressed early in the group’s existence. “It’s the feeling of a
bowstring being pulled back for 22 years and suddenly let go,” he
explained.
Much as Bob Dylan
raised the bar for lyric-writing in the folk realm, Morrison brought a
heightened poetical sensibility to rock lyrics. As keyboardist Manzarek
stated in a 2006 interview, “Jim Morrison was a great young American
poet working in the genre of rock and roll.” He was well-read and had a
keen intellect. His principal literary influences ranged from Beat
Generation writers (notably Jack Kerouac) to French symbolist poets
(especially Arthur Rimbaud) and English poet-savants including John
Keats and William Blake. He derived the Doors’ name from a passage in
Blake’s “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell”: “If the doors of perception
were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.” That
same passage inspired the title of Aldous Huxley’s 1954 essay on his
first psychedelic experience, "The Doors of Perception," which Morrison
had read.
The origins of the Doors date back to the summer of 1965, when
Morrison and Manzarek – who’d met as students at UCLA’s film school –
first broached the idea of forming a rock band that would marry words
and music in provocative new ways. Morrison had come to Southern
California after an itinerant childhood. (His father, George Morrison,
was a naval officer who attained the rank of admiral.) Young “Jimmy”
Morrison lived in Clearwater and Tallahassee, Florida; Alexandria,
Virginia; and Alameda, California, among other places. Manzarek hailed
from Chicago, growing up in proximity to the blues scene on the city’s
Southside.
During a chance meeting between the two on Venice Beach, Morrison
sang a few of his songs to Manzarek, including “Moonlight Drive” (which
would appear on Strange Days, their second album). Manzarek
responded by saying: “Jim, those are the best songs I’ve ever heard...
Man, we’ve got to get a band together. We’re going to make a million
dollars!” Morrison responded, “Ray, that’s exactly what I had in mind.”
Morrison even had the band’s name picked out: The Doors.
Early Doors lineups evolved out of Rick and the Ravens, Manzarek’s
bar band, which included his brothers Rick and Jim. Guitarist Robby
Krieger and drummer John Densmore, both of whom were in a meditation
group with Manzarek, joined as others fell away, and the group
solidified as a four-piece. Krieger could play a variety of styles,
including flamenco, blues and psychedelia, and his skill as a slide
guitarist became a core ingredient in the group’s sound. As a drummer,
Densmore had a creative, dynamic flair that lent itself to the Doors’
surreal, kaleidoscopic music. Notably, the Doors had no bass player.
Manzarek filled that role at live shows and on early recordings by
playing a Fender keyboard bass with his left hand while playing
conventional keyboards (organ and piano) with his right hand. In the
studio, they’d occasionally recruit other musicians to play bass. The
list of bassists who played on Doors albums included sessionmen Larry
Knechtel and Jerry Scheff, Clear Light’s Douglas Lubahn and old-school
rocker Lonnie Mack.
Much of the Doors’ original repertoire came together during a series
of extended club residencies on Los Angeles’ Sunset Strip. For much of
1966 and 1967, the Doors were the house band at the London Fog and then
the more prestigious and popular Whisky a Go Go. Their six-song demo,
recorded in 1965, had been turned down by nearly every other label.
Based largely on their burgeoning popularity as a live band, the Doors
were offered a contract by Elektra Records. Among their champions on the
local scene was Love, a band of similarly anarchic spirits who were on
Elektra.
Having conquered the L.A. club scene, the Doors achieved national success and critical acclaim soon after the release of The Doors, their 1967 debut. Produced by Paul Rothchild – as was every one of the original Doors albums except L.A. Woman – The Doors was a tour de force of literate, visionary acid-rock and one of the major releases of 1967. Its followup, Strange Days,
appeared later the same year and drew from the same impressive
wellspring of material. Notable tracks included “When the Music’s Over,”
“Love Me Two Times” (a raunchy, riff-driven hit) and the haunting title
song. For the last of these, Morrison’s vocal received an eerie
electronic treatment from Moog synthesizer pioneer Paul Beaver. If any
album ever captured the disorienting aura of those conflicted times,
steeped in violence-, political- and drug-induced paranoia, it was Strange Days. The album was strange right down to its Fellini-esque cover rendering of a back-street carnival freak show.
Waiting for the Sun - the Doors’ third album, released in
1968 - was their first (and only) album to hit Number One, a position it
held for four weeks. Despite its chart success, it had been a difficult
album to make, as the group had nearly exhausted its reserve of
original material and “hit the third album wall,” in producer Paul
Rothchild’s words. Moreover, Morrison’s hedonistic lifestyle was wearing
him out and wearying his bandmates as well. The group failed to cut a
satisfactory take of Morrison’s magnum opus, a suite of poetic songs and
snippets entitled “Celebration of the Lizard,” although lyrics from it
were printed inside the album. Still, it had some exceptional moments,
including “The Unknown Soldier,” “Hello, I Love You” and “Five to One.”
The last of these, a bluesy rant about generational conflict and
youthful revolt, contained the often-quoted line “No one here gets out
alive.”
The most problematic of the Doors’ albums, The Soft Parade,
followed a year later. It was made with relatively less enthusiasm and
involvement from Morrison, and the inclusion of strings and horns on
many tracks took it far afield from the Doors’ previous work. Tellingly,
he insisted that the shared group songwriting credit be abandoned and
that each song’s primary writer – either Krieger or Morrison – be
identified. The album reached Number Six and spawned four Krieger-penned
singles, including the Number Three hit “Touch Me,” which included a
jazzy sax solo by hornman Curtis Amy. The eight-minute title track,
largely a Morrison creation, was the most notable track and the Doors’
last epic composition.
Morrison reasserted himself on Morrison Hotel, their fifth
album, which took a bluesier, more down-to-earth approach. It kicked off
with “Roadhouse Blues,” their hardest-charging song and a bonafide
anthem on par with Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild.” It also included
“Waiting for the Sun” (a song left off the album of the same name), the
sublime, jazzy “Queen of the Highway” and “Peace Frog,” an apocalyptic
slice of psychedelia revisited.
Away from the studio, Morrison’s ongoing issues with drugs and
alcohol – combined with his antiauthoritarian mindset - resulted in
ever-unpredictable behavior. He was arrested onstage in New Haven in
December 1967. His performances at Doors concerts during the difficult
year of 1968 were erratic – often brilliant, sometimes problematic. The
tumult engendered by Morrison culminated in Florida. During an infamous
concert at Miami’s Dinner Key Auditorium on March 1, 1969, he was
alleged to have exposed himself onstage and was subsequently charged
with indecent exposure and public profanity.
With the specter and distraction of a court trial – and possible jail
time - hanging over his head, Morrison found himself in real trouble.
Interestingly, no photographic evidence affirming his exposure has ever
surfaced. Prior to the Miami show, Morrison had been attending and even
participating in performances by the provocative Living Theatre troupe.
While he no doubt meant to challenge the audience in Miami in much the
same way, it would appear that he employed suggestion and illusion to do
so, stopping short of exposure. Nevertheless, he was found guilty on
both charges and sentenced to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine. Those
convictions were under appeal when Morrison died in 1971. In 2010 he was
officially pardoned by the Florida Clemency Board, led by Governor
Charlie Crist.
In the wake of the Miami incident and pending trial, Morrison and the
Doors rebounded from adversity with renewed focus. They undertook a
U.S. concert tour that found them delivering some of the strongest shows
of their career. Many were taped for the double album Absolutely Live,
which culled the best takes from along the tour. By this point, the
Doors were working more bluesy and roots-oriented material – both
originals and covers – into their sets. (“The Doors were basically a
roadhouse blues band with intellectual pretensions,” Manzarek noted in Keyboard
magazine.) Decades later, beginning in 2001, a number of these concerts
were released in their entirety on Bright Midnight, the surviving
Doors’ label for archival releases. The Doors’ final performance took
place in New Orleans, on December 12, 1970, where Morrison appeared
creatively spent and mentally and physically exhausted.
All the while, much like such kindred spirits and guiding lights as
Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsburg, Morrison nurtured a growing fascination
with America in his later song lyrics and the poems he was writing
outside the group. Some of Morrison’s readings of his poetry – recorded
in a Los Angeles studio on his 27th (and last) birthday - were
posthumously issued in 1978, with music overdubbed by the surviving
Doors, as An American Prayer.
The Doors sixth and final studio album - L.A. Woman,
released in 1971 - harked back to their early years, when they
collectively worked out new material in a more casual, workshop-type
setting. After Paul Rothchild, the Doors’ long-time producer, walked out
in frustration early in the sessions, the Doors decided to self-produce
the album with engineer Bruce Botnik. The group rose to the challenge –
especially Morrison, who tempered his excesses as best he could during
the sessions. Despite all the controversy, including blacklisting by
radio stations and concert promoters, the Doors still proved capable of
cracking the Top 40, as both “Love Her Madly” and “Riders On the Storm”
were sizable hits in 1971. The propulsive, seven-minute title track
acutely captured the alluring yin and alienating yang of the City of
Angels, becoming one of the group’s best-loved songs.
Before the release of L.A. Woman, Morrison took an
open-ended hiatus from the Doors and moved to Paris. There was talk of
him returning to tour with the group, based on the resurgent momentum
generated by the album’s success, but it was not to be. Jim Morrison
died of a heart attack in the Paris apartment he shared with longtime
girlfriend Pamela Courson on July 3, 1971.
Morrison’s death at age 27 closed the door on the original group,
although the surviving members released two albums as a trio – Other Voices (1971) and Full Circle
(1972) – before disbanding and moving on to other projects. Both
Krieger and Manzarek have issued solo albums. Manzarek also produced the
first four albums by the celebrated L.A. punk-rock group X; briefly
belonged to Nite City, an L.A. rock group; and collaborated with Beat
Generation poet Michael McClure. Drummer Densmore and keyboardist
Manzarek published autobiographies of their lives with the Doors in 1990
and 1998, respectively.
Meanwhile, the continuing interest surrounding the Doors periodically
erupted into a phenomenon whenever a fresh young audience discovered
them. The first such wave occurred in 1980. It was triggered by three
things: the use of “The End” in a scene from director Francis Ford
Coppola’s Vietnam War film, Apocalypse Now; the publication of the first in-depth Doors biography (No One Here Gets Out Alive, by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugarman); and Elektra Records’ release of Greatest Hits (which has sold more than 3 million copies in the U.S.). In 1981 Rolling Stone
ran a feature on the Doors’ resurgence with a cover shot of Morrison
alongside the unforgettable line, “He’s hot, he’s sexy and he’s dead.”
Oliver Stone’s 1990 film biography of the band, which ran for more
than two hours, triggered another wave of Doors-mania. Another
newsworthy event was the 2000 release of Stoned Immaculate: The Music of the Doors.
This 17-track CD found a variety of artists – ranging from John Lee
Hooker and Aerosmith to Creed and Stone Temple Pilots – covering Doors
songs, often joined by one or more original band members. The release of
several Doors box sets - especially 1997’s The Doors Box Set, with its wealth of unreleased material, and the 2006 leviathan Perception - also provided ways for new and old fans to approach or rediscover the legacy. Meanwhile The Best of the Doors,
a double-disc compilation released in 1987, has quietly become the
top-selling album of their career, having been certified nine times
platinum (the equivalent of nine million copies sold).
In 2002 Krieger and Manzarek formed the Doors of the 21st Century
with vocalist Ian Astbury (of the Cult) and other musicians, touring
under that name in 2003 and 2004. Drummer Densmore sued his former
bandmates over their use of that name, and in 2005 a California court
decreed that no permutation of the Doors’ name could be used without the
consent of all members of the Doors’ partnership. (That decision was
upheld by the California Supreme Court in 2008.) Krieger and Manzarek
have subsequently performed as Riders on the Storm and Manzarek-Krieger.
Densmore has also refused to allow the Doors’ songs to be used for
commercial purposes, despite offers of millions of dollars. In a
partnership proposed by Morrison back in 1965, each group-related
decision requires unanimity. In 1969, Morrison strongly disapproved when
the others approved the use of “Light My Fire” for a Chrysler
commercial without his consent, threatening to take a sledgehammer to
the car in question on national TV if the deal weren’t rescinded. By
honoring Morrison’s refusal to license the Doors’ songs, Densmore has
allowed their music – almost alone among rock acts of any significance –
to remain uncompromised by such associations.
