UK's new national firewall: O2's "parental control" list blocks Slashdot, EFF, and Boing Boing. Duck Duck Go search engine founder talks about data privacy [video] - Boing Boing. Online-privacy-policies-explai. Australia-legalizes-violent-vi. Leaked-itus-secret-internet. Accor will drop fees for WiFi at 500 hotel properties. UN torture investigator: US gov's treatment of accused Wikileaks source Manning "cruel and inhuman" Canadian music labels demand keys to the Internet. All is not well in Greece.
A gasoline bomb explodes at riot police during a huge anti-austerity demonstration in Athens' Syntagma (Constitution) square February 12, 2012. Historic cinemas, cafes and shops went up in flames in central Athens on Sunday as black-masked protesters fought Greek police outside parliament, while inside lawmakers looked set to defy the public rage by endorsing a new EU/IMF austerity deal. Below, a protester hurls rocks at riot police; another flees. (photos: REUTERS) FBI tells net cafe owners that TOR users might be terrorists. Canada's new SOPA-style copyright bill could shut down YouTube. UPDATED: SOPA is DYING; its evil Senate twin, PIPA, lives on. Updated: Commenters have pointed out that I've jumped the gun here. SOPA is shelved, but not killed. It could be put back into play at any time. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has killed SOPA, stopping all action on it.
He didn't say why he killed it, but the overwhelming, widespread unpopularity of the bill and the threat of a presidential veto probably had something to do with it. Before you get too excited, remember that the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), the extremely similar Senate version of SOPA, is still steaming forward, and has to be stopped. But you can get a little excited, as this is pretty goddamned great news. Let's keep on saving it. House Kills SOPA (via /.) White House rejects SOPA and PIPA. Ranking members of the Obama administration have published a memo condemning the approach taken in SOPA and PIPA, the punishing, pending Internet bills that establish and export a censorship regime in the name of fighting copyright infringement: We must avoid creating new cybersecurity risks or disrupting the underlying architecture of the Internet.
Proposed laws must not tamper with the technical architecture of the Internet through manipulation of the Domain Name System (DNS), a foundation of Internet security. Our analysis of the DNS filtering provisions in some proposed legislation suggests that they pose a real risk to cybersecurity and yet leave contraband goods and services accessible online. We must avoid legislation that drives users to dangerous, unreliable DNS servers and puts next-generation security policies, such as the deployment of DNSSEC, at risk. Obama Administration Responds to We the People Petitions on SOPA and Online Piracy (Thanks, James!)
CES vs SOPA. Articulate explanation of how SOPA came about, and how it might be stopped. PC Gaming is a Donor-Supported Industry with the Pretense of Selling a Product. Swarm Economy – Zacqary Adam Green In today’s world, everything digital can, and will, be made available free. They’re non-scarce goods. One industry has reacted to this new reality by sustaining itself with its fans’ desire to voluntarily reward creators — even if it won’t admit that to itself. The act of physically purchasing PC games is going extinct. If a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24/7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer; and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store; then the pirate’s service is more valuable.
The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. So, before Steam came to Russia, piracy was apparently the only method of digital distribution without long wait times and inconvenient DRM. Except for the price tag. Convenience Same number of steps. Security Speaking of which: No. Tomorrow is American Censorship Day: FIGHT SOPA! Anonymous and Occupy Wall Street. NYC backs off Occupy Wall Street “cleaning” Lawrence Lessig at Occupy Wall Street. [Video Link] Here's Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig in Boston NYC: "If this movement can be identified as a fight against the corruption that our political system has become, then it has the potential to bridge left and right in a way that could become much more generative, much more important, because people on the left and people on the right look at the crony capitalism of this system and they look at the way in which money from Wall Street bought the regulatory infrastructure that led to the collapse of 2008.
And even worse, after the collapse of 2008, the same money blocked any reform of this regulatory infrastructure. Both the left and the right can look at this and say 'there's something deeply wrong with this system.'" Open Culture: Lawrence Lessig Occupy Wall Street Could Bridge Left And Right. Occupy Wall Street: “Declaration of the Occupation of New York City” Report: “Internet companies increasingly co-opted for surveillance” Copyright lobbyists given floorspace for “educational exhibit” in Senate building rotunda during PROTECT-IP debate. Canada’s Tories set to reintroduce DRM-friendly copyright bill without consultation. Wikileaks: Guardian journalist negligently published password to unredacted cables (Update: Guardian denies)
Wikileaks, facing criticism after unredacted versions of diplomatic cables escaped into the wild, today accused a Guardian journalist of negligently publishing the password required to decrypt them. A Guardian journalist has negligently disclosed top secret WikiLeaks’ decryption passwords to hundreds of thousands of unredacted unpublished US diplomatic cables. Knowledge of the Guardian disclosure has spread privately over several months but reached critical mass last week. The unpublished WikiLeaks’ material includes over 100,000 classified unredacted cables that were being analyzed, in parts, by over 50 media and human rights organizations from around the world.
For the past month WikiLeaks has been in the unenviable position of not being able to comment on what has happened, since to do so would be to draw attention to the decryption passwords in the Guardian book. Now that the connection has been made public by others we can explain what happened and what we intend to do. CCTVs in the UK: one crime solved per 1,000 cameras. Many US ISPs in epidemic of covert search-hijacking of their customers.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation worked with UC Berkeley's International Computer Science Institute to uncover a widespread program of search-hijacking by American ISPs. Many US ISPs run covert proxies that redirect certain lucrative search queries (made by customers who believe that they are searching Google or another search engine) to their preferred suppliers, pocketing an affiliate fee for delivering their customers. Participating ISPs, which include Cavalier, Cogent, Frontier, Fuse, DirecPC, RCN, and Wide Open West (Charter used to do this, but appear to have stopped), did not disclose the practice to their customers, who were meant to believe that they were getting the search results that their preferred search-engines had presented.
EFF and ICSI uncovered the vendor that supplied the hijacking software, a company called Paxfire. Widespread Hijacking of Search Traffic in the United States. Wikileaks to sue Visa and MasterCard for "unlawful, U.S. influenced, financial blockade" Wikipedia is giving away its old servers. Wikimedia, the foundation that oversees Wikipedia and related projects, is upgrading a lot of its servers, and cycling out some of the old hardware. But rather than selling it or throwing it away, they're donating it to other, worthy projects -- maybe even yours.
Most systems (but possibly not all) have the following specifications: * Dual CPU 2.5 GHz * From 3GB to 24GB of RAM, depending on role. * Most have 80 GB or larger HDD (some have two hard drives, some drives are 160GB or possibly even 250GB) If you are interested, please provide the following information in your email to us: * Registered non-profit name and information. * Your contact information, including email address, phone number, and relationship with requesting non-profit. * Information on the non-profit, their charter, mission and goals. * Shipping address information for a FedEx Ground delivery (i.e., the shipment destination)* * How the servers will be used.
(We like to know and share with folks!) Design for Privacy contest: make free software for personal privacy with the ACLU, TOR and IPC! Free download of horror film The Tunnel. L019: Bitcoin P2P Currency: The Most Dangerous Project We've Ever Seen - Launch - Solid discussions of this piece on BoingBoing.net, Hacker News, Slashdot and Reddit. Rob Tercek has a follow up to this piece here. by Jason Calacanis and the LAUNCH team A month ago I heard folks talking online about a virtual currency called bitcoin that is untraceable and un-hackable. Folks were using it to buy and sell drugs online, support content they liked and worst of all -- gasp! -- play poker. Bitcoin is a P2P currency that could topple governments, destabilize economies and create uncontrollable global bazaars for contraband. I sent the 30 or so producers of my show This Week in Startups out to research the top players, and we did a show on Bitcoin on May 10.
After month of research and discovery, we’ve learned the following: 1. What Are Bitcoins? 1. Each owner transfers the coin to the next by digitally signing a hash of the previous transaction and the public key of the next owner and adding these to the end of the coin. The benefits of a currency like this: Mozilla tells DHS: we won't help you censor the Internet. WorldWideWeb: 18 years in the public domain. Copyright laws prevents release of historic jazz recordings. In the 1930s an audio engineer named William Savory (above) made a lot of high-quality recordings of live jazz performances of Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Teddy Wilson, Lester Young, Bunny Berigan, Coleman Hawkins and others.
The National Jazz Museum in Harlem acquired the collection after Savory died. Steven Seidenberg of the ABA Journal reports that "jazz experts were stunned," by the recordings. "The extent and quality of the Savory collection was beyond anything they had imagined. " Unfortunately, we will probably never get to hear the recordings, thanks to current copyright laws. Among the treasures: Coleman Hawkins, the first great tenor saxophonist in jazz, playing multiple ad-lib choruses on the classic "Body and Soul. " Billie Holiday, accompanied only by piano, singing a moving rubato version of "Strange Fruit," a chilling musical condemnation of lynching. A Trove of Historic Jazz Recordings has Found a Home in Harlem, But You Can't Hear Them. Canadian pro-Net Neutrality/anti-censorship/anti-surveillance party gaining support. Dropbox asks file sharing add-on to drop dead.
France to require cleartext password storage. Canada's New Democratic Party promises national broadband and net neutrality. 100 classic Atari games for iPad. Recording industry lobbyist appointed head of copyright for European Commission. Maria Martin-Prat, who took a leave from her job at the European Commission to work as Deputy General Counsel and Director of Legal Policy and Regulatory Affairs for the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI -- thee international version of the RIAA, CRIA and BPI, though they're all basically the same companies), has returned to the EC to run its copyright unit.
While Martin-Prat was enjoying her holiday as a lobbyist for the industry she now regulates, she took a number of extremist copyright positions, including lobbying against the private copying exemption (part of European Fair Dealing), and arguing that it should be illegal to break the DRM on the media you buy, even if you don't violate copyright in doing so. Christian Engström, Pirate MEP, writes, "Welcome to the European Union, where the big business lobby organizations are calling most of the shots at the Commission, and where citizens are just seen as a nuisance to be ignored. Choco-Thulhu. Censorship Executive Jobs - JB1628725 | Dubai, UAE. Job Description Intigral is a Media/Telecoms company that aggregates, develops, and promotes digital content to the consumers of regional telecom operators.
That includes all digital content offered on IPTV, the mobile, and the web. We have offices based in Dubai and Riyadh. Intigral is seeking Censorship Executives with the following responsibilities: Majority of this role is to ensure that programming is within the compliance guidelines. Skills Computer literate and MS office proficiency Excellent communication skills Must work well under pressure Exposure to market trends (Gulf/Saudi Arabia) Strong judgment regarding compliance Awareness to flag issues Consistency in maintaining routine tasks Fluency in English is a must, Arabic preferred Salary Range: Job Details Job Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates Company Industry: Telecommunications; Arts/Entertainment/and Media Company Type: Employer (Private Sector) Job Role: Quality Control Joining Date: Employment Status: Unspecified. ACTA will force your ISP to censor your work if someone lodges an unsupported trademark claim.
Copyright scholars talk Copyright Termination. Dwiff sez, "Three copyright scholars - including David Nimmer [ed: legendary copyright expert] - discuss copyright termination and the pivotal role played in case law by Superman, Captain America, Fantastic Four, Lassie and Winnie-the-Pooh. Starts slow, but well worth the listen. " Copyright law has long recognized in authors an unwaivable right to terminate certain contracts and licensing agreements. A handful of high-profile cases have already called substantial attention to this termination provision, with disputes touching such iconic characters as Superman, Captain America, the Fantastic Four, Lassie, and Winnie the Pooh.
In this edition of the IP Colloquium, copyright guru David Nimmer joins UC Berkeley Professor Peter Menell and UCLA Professor Doug Lichtman in an informal conversation about the termination right, its controversies, and the implications for modern copyright practice. Intellectual Property Colloquium - Copyright Termination (Thanks, Dwiff!)