Vision Machine is a comic-book miniseries by Greg Pak and R.B. Silva. It is notable for being an open-source series; Pak openly encourages fans to redistribute it or edit it however they like, as long as he is given credit and any edited versions are released under the Creative Commons license.
In the not-too-distant future (2061, to be precise), Sprout Computers releases the iEye, a new piece of personal technology that allows people to record and edit anything they see. At first, it completely revolutionizes media, making it easier than ever for people to make movies and TV shows. But then the government and big business get involved, and people find themselves stuck in a dystopia where they can be fined for whistling copyrighted music in public. With the future at stake, one group, Off Of The Official Network, fights back, trying to overthrow Sprout Computers and free the Internet again.
This miniseries includes examples of:
- Batman Gambit: OOTON sends Buddy into their servers to fight Jane, knowing that he has no chance of beating her and knowing that she will destroy their servers in the ensuing fight, in order to gather data on her.
- Crapsaccharine World: The widespread use of iEyes turns the world into one of these. Everyone's having a lot of fun, but while they're all distracted by their seemingly-expanding freedom, the government and the corporations are working to establish a police state where everyone is being monitored and gouged.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: The government's decision to outsource much of its law-enforcement functions to Sprout Computers makes it easier for OOTON to cripple them by hacking Sprout's servers.
- La Résistance: After the government and the corporations start creating their privatized police state, OOTON (Off Of The Official Network) fights back.
