Trash Piracy: A Dive Into Ethical Crime

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Speaker: Eric DeCourcy

Type: Lightning Talk

Expertise: No prior knowledge

Event: Devcon

Date: Nov 2026

(This talk does NOT encourage or condone criminal acts in any jurisdiction) Recycling service in the USA is not a given; some places have it and some don't. And if (hypothetically) someone were to place their recyclables in a bin not owned by them, that would be illegal. This is "Trash Piracy". Diving into this seedy underworld yields practical lessons in an increasingly surveilled world. We explore the difference between ethicality and legality, the incentives driving different actors, and navigating the ever more treacherous seas of surveillance capitalism. The fact that this is happening in the real world - with real locations, faces, and physical evidence - makes this distinctly different from cyberspace... or does it? Join us for a nautical jaunt into what it means to sail under one's own flag, following the law of the high seas, and how to avoid the gallows. Prepare your timbers to be shivered. This talk will be pirate themed and be done in “pirate speak”.