Links

Well, folks, so much for the idea of getting these out more frequently, so this is a bit of a long bunch of links. It seems I’m going to need to rethink how I go about putting these links together, or perhaps to find some means of compiling comments simultaneously with saving links, so that it’s easier to get a post together from a bunch of links. I’m not sure where I’ll go with it, but I’ll get around to re-writing the script which aggregates them for me at some point so that I can pull my comments together.

Censorship:

1. Censorship of war casualties in the US – Opinion – Al Jazeera English    29 July 2011, 4:48 am

Self-censorship, really, is what the above link is about – Obama has lifted some restrictions on what may be reported about the various wars the U.S. is engaged in right now, but Bush’s censorship seems to have taken hold to some degree. It also points out the differences between how photography was allowed during the U.S. / Vietnam War and how photographs have to be authorized by the U.S. Military in its current wars.

Copyright / Patent:

1. Angry Birds maker Rovio sued over app patents    22 July 2011, 6:39 am
2. Does the infamous “Happy Birthday to You” copyright hold up to scrutiny?    22 July 2011, 6:40 am
3. Judge Slashes ‘Appalling’ $1.5 Million File Sharing Verdict to $54,000    22 July 2011, 11:29 am
4. Judge Slashes P2P Award Again In Capitol v. Thomas    22 July 2011, 2:18 pm
5. Big Content’s latest antipiracy weapon: extradition    23 July 2011, 4:49 am
6. When Patents Attack    24 July 2011, 7:18 am
7. Felix Salmon: The Cost of Patent Trolls    25 July 2011, 4:43 am
8. Aaron Swartz v. United States    25 July 2011, 9:10 am
9. Lodsys Adds ‘Angry Birds’ Claim in Suit Against App Developers    26 July 2011, 3:04 am
10. Google On The Nortel Loss, Patents As Government-Granted Monopolies    26 July 2011, 5:21 am
11. University Of Calgary Refusing To Pay Access Copyright Any More    26 July 2011, 6:08 am
12. Former Google CIO: LimeWire Pirates Were iTunes’ Best Customers    26 July 2011, 6:52 am
13. Info Tech Law: Be on guard or pay the price    26 July 2011, 11:02 am
14. George Lucas loses Stormtrooper battle at Supreme Court    27 July 2011, 5:25 am
15. End Software Patents (organization)    27 July 2011, 5:33 am
16. When Patents Attack    27 July 2011, 5:45 am
17. Judge Finds Apple in Violation of HTC’s Newly Acquired Patents    27 July 2011, 8:03 am
18. High number of infosec textbooks almost 100% copied, according to attrition.org    28 July 2011, 4:20 am
19. News of the World hacked Sarah Payne’s mother’s phone    28 July 2011, 8:34 am
20. ITC Ruling Keeps Lawsuits Swinging for Light Saber ‘Patent Troll’    29 July 2011, 2:15 am
21. Are Software Patents Evil? (2006)    29 July 2011, 2:33 am
22. The Supreme Court Should Invalidate Software Patents    29 July 2011, 2:39 am
23. The America Invents Act’s Patent Reform Might Strengthen Patent Trolls    29 July 2011, 7:58 am
24. UK ruling makes Internet browsing a copyright risk    30 July 2011, 11:56 am
25. IV games the USPTO to build its empire on questionable patents    31 July 2011, 2:23 am
26. Gene Patent in Cancer Test Upheld by Appeals Panel    31 July 2011, 2:44 am
27. U.S. Steps up probe of Nortel Patents    31 July 2011, 2:44 am
28. Good Defensive Patents Are Bad Patents (Julian Sanchez)    31 July 2011, 2:51 am
29. Tech-patent lawsuits discourage innovation    1 August 2011, 12:21 pm

OK, this past week has meant an explosion of copyright / patent issues. This is, no doubt, due to the sale of Nortel’s patents (links 10 and 27), a story from NPR coming out about the evils of patents (link 6) and a number of patent-reform initiatives working their way through the U.S. and U.K. legal systems. Of particular interest is link 18 which presents an analysis of various Information Security textbooks for copyright violations; oh, the irony.

Digital Activism:

1. Hackers steal 8 GB of data from Italian anti-cybercrime unit    26 July 2011, 3:12 am
2. Anonymous targets Norway killer’s manifesto    26 July 2011, 6:56 am
3. In ‘Anonymous’ Raids, Feds Work From List of Top 1,000 Protesters    26 July 2011, 3:48 pm
4. Paypal (eBay) stock opens at a loss thanks to #OpPayPal    27 July 2011, 7:31 am
5. Anonymous & LulzSec Initiate #OpPayPal: Urge Mass PayPal Account Closings    27 July 2011, 7:31 am
6. Scotland Yard Busts Suspected LulzSec Spokesman    27 July 2011, 11:40 am
7. British Police Duped by LulzSec Into Arresting the Wrong Guy?    28 July 2011, 6:28 am
8. Rebuttal: LulzSec Ups The Ante    28 July 2011, 9:52 am
9. Internet abuzz with claims that UK police picked up the wrong Topiary    28 July 2011, 4:48 pm
10. Feds Defend Seizure of WikiLeaks Supporter’s Laptop    28 July 2011, 5:46 pm
11. Anonymous releases internal data on another FBI contractor, ManTech    31 July 2011, 2:44 am

I’ve decided to roll “hacking,” “WikiLeaks,” “AntiSec,” “LulzSec,” and “Anonymous” together into “Digital Activism.” I think this better reflects the various efforts out there, and that they’re all about a variety of means for calling attention to problems in the world. In the case of WikiLeaks, this is fairly obvious. The others, though, may be argued to be “bad things” for the world … but are cases of activism whether or not you agree with their methods or motivations.

Equality:

1. US ends ban on gays serving in military    23 July 2011, 1:21 am
2. Texas Battlefield 3 launch LAN bans women from attending    25 July 2011, 6:27 am
3. Sudan: Woman journalist jailed for reporting rape case    26 July 2011, 3:34 am
4. One in five American men don’t work: Where’s the outrage?    26 July 2011, 4:15 am
5. What happened to all the female developers?    26 July 2011, 9:49 am
6. A Recession for White Americans, A Depression for Black and Latino Americans    29 July 2011, 5:32 am
7. Mass Incarcertation | Visual.ly    30 July 2011, 5:29 am

Gender, Race, Sexual Orientation have been rolled into the Equality category. Link 7 may arguably be considered to concern Race … or could just reflect the insanity of the U.S. prison system.

Google and Names:

1. Google Deletes Last 7 Years Of User’s Digital Life, Shrugs    23 July 2011, 4:39 am
2. Google Plus Deleting Accounts En Masse: No Clear Answers    24 July 2011, 6:12 am
3. Google Kills Profile of Engineer on Google+    24 July 2011, 6:34 am
4. Google [briefly] suspends Limor Fried’s (“Ladyada”) Google+ profile    24 July 2011, 6:34 am
5. Another Google “abuse prevention gone wrong” horror story    24 July 2011, 6:34 am
6. Google Plus to relax the “real names only” restriction?    25 July 2011, 2:50 am
7. Why Google cares if you use your real name    25 July 2011, 6:49 am

Ahh, Google. They want to be the center of your universe. They’d also like for you to use your “real” name for everything, so that they can sell advertisements and things (link 7) and guarantee that you’re a “real person” with all sorts of browsing behavior to tie into the sales. The problem, though, is that names are so complicated that it’s not really possible to systematically determine what a “real name” should look like. What if you don’t have a surname? What if you only have a single letter as your first name? What if you have “punctuation” in your name? Beyond that, even: what if you’ve developed an online identity surrounding a nicname? In any of these cases, you may have a very good reason why you don’t fit in with Google’s desire to force you into using your real name, or you may have a very good reason to use something other than your real name. Well, Google has stumbled a bit, irritating people (and destroying their information) in its drive to sell their data. What, you thought that just because they had a cute catchphrase about doing no evil that they’d actually … not be evil? Yeah, right.

Law:

1. United States – Reporters Without Borders objects the decision to ban Mumia Abu Jamal from a new sentencing hearing    22 July 2011, 6:29 am
2. As Criminal Laws Proliferate, More Are Ensnared    24 July 2011, 9:31 am
3. Are Student Cell Phone Records Discoverable?    24 July 2011, 3:06 pm
4. E-Discovery Jobs Site Launching Soon    26 July 2011, 3:04 am
5. Bill Would Force Intel Chief to Renounce ‘Secret Patriot Act’    28 July 2011, 8:23 am
6. Assessing Obama’s record on transparency    29 July 2011, 4:36 am
7. AT&T verifies data throttling for top 5% of users    30 July 2011, 4:12 am

Link 1 refers to a case I’ve been following for quite some time (over 10 years) in which a journalist has been imprisoned for the murder of a police officer … and the case looks to be a serious frame-up. It’s detailed, it’s dirty, it involves corrupt police and corrupt lawyers. It involves politically-motivated judgments against a political journalist. In short: it’s a massive miscarriage of justice and deserves to be held up to some intense scrutiny, as does the entire criminal system in the U.S.

Medical Technology:

1. Researchers create tattoo that tracks sodium and glucose via iPhone    22 July 2011, 8:19 am
2. 10% of a population is the tipping point for intellectual disruption    26 July 2011, 6:56 am

How cool is an invisible tattoo so that you could test your blood sugar (and any number of other things) just by exposing the tattoo to ultraviolet light? Massively cool! See the first link. The second link talks about what it takes people to adopt any particular belief when they interact within in a network of people; in short: if 10% of people are “firm believers” in anything the society will gradually be converted their view. Creepy, when it comes down to it, but also kinda cool.

Miscellany:

1. The news coverage of the Norway mass-killings was fact-free conjecture | Charlie Brooker | Comment is free | The Guardian    25 July 2011, 8:33 am
2. Why Steve Jobs Couldn’t Find a Job Today    26 July 2011, 5:05 am
3. Who owns America? Hint: It’s not China    26 July 2011, 10:00 am
4. The Periodic Table of Irrational Nonsense    27 July 2011, 7:30 am
5. Inside the War for Tech Talent    27 July 2011, 8:17 am

As always: a hodge-podge of links which wouldn’t fit in anywhere else. I’m horrified at the mass murders which took place in Norway … and even more horrified at the “media” response. See link 1 and you can have some of that horror. There’s no “media” category this week (apparently we’re all going to forget about the phone-hacking scandal this week), so your media nightmare is fairly confined.

Museum / Library / Archive / Records:

1. Seeing Promise and Peril in Digital Records    22 July 2011, 10:29 am
2. Dispute Arises Over Attempt to Delete D.C. Police Data in Civil Rights Suit    29 July 2011, 2:16 am
3. Judge: Time to unseal Nixon’s secret Watergate testimony    30 July 2011, 9:39 am

You thought records were boring. Nah – all sorts of things get involved with records at some point, particularly if you have any interest in law or politics. Or your health, even.

Politics:

1. Google & Facebook Set Company Records for Lobbyist Spending    22 July 2011, 10:33 am
2. Forget Anonymous: Evidence Suggests GOP Hacked, Stole 2004 Election    24 July 2011, 6:01 am
3. Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%    24 July 2011, 6:58 am
4. Paypal to cut off funds for sites IFPI doesn’t like, without judicial oversight    25 July 2011, 10:38 am
5. Cyberwar Hysteria Aids Consultants, Hurts U.S.: Susan Crawford    26 July 2011, 5:09 am
6. Chomsky: In Israel, a Tsunami Warning    27 July 2011, 5:52 am
7. The End of Net Neutrality? British Telecom ordered to block access to NewzBin2    28 July 2011, 3:35 am
8. Israeli and Lebanese troops trade fire    1 August 2011, 2:30 am

Is Israel insane? Have a read of link 6 if you think 1) not so much, or 2) absolutely – you don’t know how deep it goes. Link 8 is thrown in there just for the icing on top of link 6. There’s been a bit of rumbling about the 2004 election having been hacked and stolen (see link 2) … or … well … at least that the network was configured in such a way as to allow such a thing to take place by the Bushies whose companies were in the prime position to do such a thing and that the person who could have testified to such hacking happening died suspiciously, scared for his life (he said; hey, he’s dead, so we can’t ask him anything else). Is that evidence of wrongdoing? No, of course not. Why care? Well: let’s just say that if it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck…. I didn’t know whether to throw links 4 and 7 into copyright or what, because they have to do with copyright-violating sites being blocked country-wide … which is a political thing, kinda, because the sites are being blocked in the U.K. for violating U.S. copyright. Sounds mighty political to me, really, particularly since the only domains which are supposed to come under U.S. jurisdiction are those which are hosted in the U.S. Welcome to the United States’ Colonial Empire, Britania.

Privacy:

1. The Politics of Surveillance: The Erosion of Privacy in Latin America    22 July 2011, 9:56 pm
2. Groupon Sued for Privacy Policies    24 July 2011, 7:16 am
3. South Korean Class Action Suit Filed Over Privacy    24 July 2011, 3:07 pm
4. It’s Me, In an Ad, On Facebook. Is This Legal? Allowed? Who Knows?    25 July 2011, 4:37 am
5. Experts Debate When Customers Should Be Notified of Data Breaches    26 July 2011, 3:03 am
6. Chinese Wi-Fi monitoring requirement goes into effect at Internet cafes, etc.    26 July 2011, 3:15 am
7. Anonymity and Pseudonyms in Social Software    26 July 2011, 5:09 am
8. Forced DNA Collection Without Search Warrant Violates Privacy Rights    27 July 2011, 9:17 am
9. In Secret, Senate Panel May Re-Up Vast Surveillance Dragnet    27 July 2011, 4:33 pm
10. Do You Know Who's Watching You? | Visual.ly    28 July 2011, 10:28 am
11. Document: FBI Surveillance Geeks Fear, Love New Gadgets    28 July 2011, 10:54 am
12. Internet privacy controls challenge tech industry    28 July 2011, 12:25 pm
13. Crime-Fighting Face Recognition Tech Stirs Controversy    29 July 2011, 7:42 am
14. A Case for Pseudonyms    29 July 2011, 10:53 am
15. Vague Anti-Stalking Law Threatens Protected Speech Online    29 July 2011, 11:22 am
16. Pakistan tries to ban encryption under new telco law    30 July 2011, 8:17 am
17. Here’s How U.S. Spies Will Find You Through Your Pics    31 July 2011, 2:22 am
18. House Committee Approves Bill Mandating That Companies Spy on Their Users    31 July 2011, 2:51 am

Gotta love link 11: the FBI loves the technology which lets them spy on you, but hates that they can’t keep it all to themselves. And a bonus for those who think I’m paranoid: link 17 talks about using information which is generated by your camera (GPS info included) to aid in spying on you or others. Yes, link 17 is why I no longer geotag our photos, and why I’ve always zapped out license-plates from our photos.

Privacy (data retention):

1. Susan Landau: Data Retention? News of the World Demos the Risks    22 July 2011, 7:06 am
2. Don’t Let Congress Order Internet Companies to Spy on You — Block the Data Retention Mandate    22 July 2011, 3:30 pm
3. EFF Warns Congress: Data Retention Would Endanger Privacy, Gain Little    28 July 2011, 1:07 pm
4. House Committee Approves Bill Mandating That Internet Companies Spy on Their Users    28 July 2011, 5:23 pm
5. ISP Data-Retention Bill Rankles Privacy Advocates    31 July 2011, 2:21 am

Welcome to the world of indirect legislation leading to an erosion of your privacy, those of you who either live in the U.S. or have your ISP in the U.S. In order to “find the pedophiles,” (10,000 arrests in the U.S. since 1996), the United States wants your Internet Service Provider to record (you 270 million Americans with an internet connection) all manner of personal information about you and a whole year of your browsing history. And, on top of that, they’d of course not be violating your privacy by requesting that information, because they’d be asking that from a company rather than from you (which would require a search warrant). Thus, by passing legislation (“to protect the children!”), they’re effectively opening the entire country up to being surveilled. Of course, that’s if you believe they’re not already doing so … in which case, well, you’re not reading these links very carefully.

Robotics:

1. Who Needs Humans?    22 July 2011, 10:30 am

Ahh, the old worry: Robots replace the need for Humans. And … so? Isn’t that the idea? Of course, we’d hope that humans would get a better deal by having to work less. That wouldn’t work out in the U.S., of course, so yeah, it’ll end up that Robots put Humans out of work in the U.S. Hopefully the rest of the world can ease the burden on workers (as lots of it already has).

Security:

1. Iran still suffering effects of Stuxnet    24 July 2011, 7:18 am
2. Apple MacBooks Can Be Hacked Through The Battery    24 July 2011, 7:40 am
3. Write your passwords down    25 July 2011, 4:50 am
4. How a Security Researcher Discovered the Apple Battery ‘Hack’    25 July 2011, 1:56 pm
5. New Court Filing Reveals How the 2004 Ohio Presidential Election Was Hacked    26 July 2011, 7:18 am
6. DHS Fears a Modified Stuxnet Could Attack U.S. Infrastructure    26 July 2011, 2:51 pm
7. U.S. Fight Against Cyber-Intruders Goes Local    27 July 2011, 4:47 am
8. Hackers find way to unlock car doors via SMS    28 July 2011, 3:34 am
9. Researchers Say Vulnerabilities Could Let Hackers Spring Prisoners From Cells    29 July 2011, 12:11 pm

I was torn: should I put links 1 and 6 into politics, or into security? After all, nobody doubts that the Stuxnet virus was a cyberweapon developed by the U.S. (with some Israeli assistance) against Iran. I put them into security because of link 6: “we released a virus into the wild, and we think it’s going to come back to plague us, oh help!” Mockery aside: “cyberwarfare” is 1) idiocy, and 2) dangerous to everybody on the planet, no matter where they live (or what hardware they happen to use). Links 2 and 4: yeah, you didn’t know that your computer’s battery was really a computer, did you? And links 8 and 9: you didn’t think before you bought that car which could be remotely-unlocked (“in case you lock your keys inside”) or started (“for your convenience”) or that, well, if you lock folk up and buy your equipment off-the-shelf that it’s going to be able to be controlled using standard components. The world of computer security isn’t so much about sophistication in computing: it’s about a world full of people who do not think things through and who are insufficiently paranoid.

Social Media:

1. Amateur Archeologists Invited to Decipher Papyri    27 July 2011, 2:09 pm
2. Rare Birds Go High-Tech to Get Tweets Followed, Cheap    29 July 2011, 9:25 am

Go Social Media! Decipher some ancient manuscripts! Track some endangered species!

Technology:

1. A Bomb in Oslo? What Google Lost by Ending Real-Time Search    22 July 2011, 8:44 am
2. Eye-Tracking Technology Could Benefit Disabled Children    22 July 2011, 10:23 am
3. Is Your Smartphone Too Smart?    24 July 2011, 2:47 pm
4. iOS ebook apps removing stores. Google Books expelled? Status of Kindle?    25 July 2011, 4:30 am
5. Twice the height of the Empire State – massive solar tower for AZ    25 July 2011, 4:42 am
6. The Ajiro Bamboo Bike: Grown From the Ground Up    25 July 2011, 4:51 am
7. Advocates Lament Computer Science Gap in Standards Push    25 July 2011, 11:15 am
8. Block sites from ever appearing again in Google results    27 July 2011, 5:45 am

Again, we come back to Oslo, Norway (link 1). Unfortunately, we come back not with a story of any joy, but with sorrow: Google has let their “real-time-search” agreement with Twitter lapse (presumably because they were stupid enough to think that their own social network would rise to the top of everything in the universe). What happens when you want to know what’s going on in the world in real time? Well, you certainly don’t ask Google any longer – you go to Twitter, where people are restricted by length to only saying brief things … such as, “Oslo was bombed, here are some pictures!” The rest of the links in “Technology” are, of course, interesting and cool (have a read of link 6 – now!). But the loss of real-time-search means that we’ll have to find some other resource for anything which is time sensitive. Well … there you go for trusting Google, anyway.

-D