Links

Another batch of links for your enjoyment. It’s been awhile since I’ve put these out – mostly that’s because internet access has been a bit difficult since the move. We don’t even have a land-line at the moment. By the time we have a land-line, it’ll have been 2 weeks without phone or internet. Then it’ll be another 2 weeks until Sky gets their act together enough to turn on the DSL. Why should it take a solid month to get such basics activated? If there were another option, Sky would have lost a customer. Anyway. Enjoy the links!

Censorship:

  1. UK gov may block Twitter/Facebook to prevent riots    11 August 2011, 7:00 am
  2. Index on Censorship reaction to David Cameron comments on social media    11 August 2011, 7:36 am
  3. British Prime Minister Does a 180 on Internet Censorship    11 August 2011, 5:06 pm
  4. United Kingdom – Concern that social networks to be targeted as BlackBerry helps British police identify rioters    12 August 2011, 6:47 am
  5. The London Riots and 7 Other Things Blamed on Social Media    12 August 2011, 9:38 am
  6. US railway blocked phones to quash protest    13 August 2011, 3:53 am
  7. If We’re Turning Off Social Media, I Want News Channels Shut Down, Too    14 August 2011, 3:02 am
  8. Long Beach Police Chief Confirms Detaining Photographers    14 August 2011, 12:40 pm
  9. Cellphone Service Stays On During San Francisco Subway Protest    15 August 2011, 8:44 pm
  10. Egypt – Leading woman blogger could be tried by court martial over Tweet    16 August 2011, 10:35 am
  11. San Francisco Subway Spokesman Says Cellphone Shutdown Was His Idea    16 August 2011, 5:01 pm
  12. This Week in Internet Censorship: Egyptian Twitter User Faces Trial While Argentina and Pakistan Ratchet Up Censorship    16 August 2011, 5:40 pm
  13. ACLU Sues School District Over Website Filtering    17 August 2011, 4:14 am
  14. Four-year jail terms for Facebook riot posts    17 August 2011, 4:15 am
  15. China Applauds UK Move To Restrict Access To Social Media    17 August 2011, 12:13 pm
  16. Egypt – Armed forces drop defamation charges against woman blogger    19 August 2011, 5:35 am
  17. Want Public Safety? Don’t Disable Cell Phones    19 August 2011, 12:26 pm
  18. Argentine ISPs Use Bazooka to Kill Fly    19 August 2011, 5:59 pm
  19. Mo. Teachers Group Sues Over Social Networking Restrictions    23 August 2011, 2:57 am
  20. Spain – Media presence not wanted when police disperse protests    23 August 2011, 3:16 am

Technology does more than facilitate communication: it makes it possible for censorship to take place far more easily, rapidly, and broadly than ever before. In the UK they’ve been contemplating shutting down social media because people have used it to communicate intent to riot (links 1-5, 7, 14, 15). In San Francisco, the police have been involved in shutting down cell phone reception over fears of a protest (links 6, 9, 11,17). In Egypt, tweeting can get you in trouble … or not (links 10 and 16). Of course, it’s not just communication which is censored, but access to information (13, 18, 19). These types of censorship follow along with other forms of repression, such as restricting photography (link 8 ) and restricting media coverage (20). In all of these cases, oppressive regimes are acting to suppress speech and communication. It amazes me that such things take place across the globe, and that there isn’t more of an uproar.

Copyright / Patent:

  1. Google Parcel Service? Search giant patents shipping notifications    11 August 2011, 4:21 am
  2. Why software patents are not fixable    11 August 2011, 8:56 am
  3. Sony and LG Agree to Mutually Withdraw Patent Infringement Suits    12 August 2011, 2:03 am
  4. Abolish Patents    12 August 2011, 2:18 am
  5. Ignore the code: More on Software Patents    12 August 2011, 2:33 am
  6. Google Tells ITC Judge: Microsoft Revealed Our Secret Source Code    12 August 2011, 6:04 am
  7. Someone patented linked lists    12 August 2011, 6:05 am
  8. Apple Expands Legal Attacks to Motorola’s Xoom Tablet    12 August 2011, 6:19 am
  9. How Sun Tzu Would Outflank Patent Trolls    12 August 2011, 6:19 am
  10. Topic for discussion: “In Defense of Software Patents”    13 August 2011, 4:22 am
  11. The BBC’s fundamental misunderstanding of copyright    13 August 2011, 7:33 am
  12. Patently Insane, Part 2: Fowl Play And How Writing And Coding Are Similar    13 August 2011, 4:05 pm
  13. Can You Trademark a Color?    14 August 2011, 2:54 am
  14. New Blood at Federal Circuit Could Alter Fate of Patent Cases    17 August 2011, 4:20 am
  15. 8,000,000 patents and nothing has changed    17 August 2011, 8:26 am
  16. Federal Circuit case renders many broadly written software patents invalid    17 August 2011, 12:13 pm
  17. Are software patents the “scaffolding of the tech industry”?    17 August 2011, 12:31 pm
  18. The Return of Anthony Brown, the ‘Original Patent Troll’    18 August 2011, 5:23 am
  19. Federal Circuit: Business Method Patent for Software Invalid    19 August 2011, 1:05 am
  20. Poking More Holes in the First Sale Doctrine    19 August 2011, 4:31 pm
  21. Anti-Piracy Bill Set To Cost Taxpayers $47m To 2016    21 August 2011, 7:11 am
  22. Specialist Patent Courts Are Part of the Problem    21 August 2011, 7:13 am
  23. The Terrible Cost Of Patents    21 August 2011, 7:19 am
  24. 2nd Circuit Shelves Freelancers’ Pact With Publishers and Databases    21 August 2011, 7:31 am
  25. Mobile patent lawsuits    22 August 2011, 12:23 am
  26. Judge OKs Unlicensed Cloud Music-Storage Service    22 August 2011, 3:51 pm
  27. Fox’s 8-Day Delay on Hulu Triggers Piracy Surge    23 August 2011, 2:47 am
  28. Oracle’s ‘APIs are copyrightable’ defense = nightmare for programmers    24 August 2011, 1:50 am
  29. The patent to invalidate software patents    24 August 2011, 3:55 am
  30. ‘FarmVille’ maker Zynga sued over patents    24 August 2011, 11:51 pm
  31. Are Social Gaming Patents the Next Big Litigation Battlefield?    25 August 2011, 1:17 am
  32. Is There Prior Art for Tablet Computers in ‘2001’?    25 August 2011, 1:17 am
  33. Doctorow on DRM, DMCA, and copyright. His keynote at SIGGRAPH    25 August 2011, 7:01 am

Copyright and Patent have been making quite a splash recently. Some of this is because it seems as if every technology company in the world is suing several of the other technology companies. Some of it is because, at base, technologists don’t really want to be restricted in what they do, yet are forced into playing the game as insurance against everybody else. Being forced into getting patents and forced into paying others who have patents acts to restrict innovation – exactly what copyrights and patents are supposed to promote. See link 11 for a glaring example of where the system acts against the individual creators of copyrighted works and where it’s respected selectively.

Hacktivism:

  1. Hackers Expose San Francisco Subway Police Data    17 August 2011, 4:16 pm
  2. German Pirate Party On Course to Election Win    21 August 2011, 7:11 am
  3. ‘Anonymous’ hacker quits; calls members hypocrites, efforts fruitless    21 August 2011, 7:15 am

As the penalties for hacking grow in the US, other parts of the world (without a “2 party” monopoly on governance) are moving forward. Here’s hoping that the Pirate Party continues to grow!

Holocaust:

  1. ‘Step on the Gas’: Far-Right Party Under Fire for Suspected Holocaust Allusion    11 August 2011, 8:58 am
  2. Records Reveal Warm Words for Holocaust Organizer: Protestant Church Said Eichmann Was ‘Kind-Hearted’    22 August 2011, 6:02 am
  3. Fighting Nazis with Fakes: The Hidden Life of the Humanitarian Forger    25 August 2011, 4:20 am

Miscellany:

  1. Going Godless: Does Secularism Make People More Ethical?    11 August 2011, 7:55 am
  2. Open Office Layout is Bad for Brain    12 August 2011, 2:19 am
  3. For-Profit College Group Sued as U.S. Lays Out Wide Fraud    12 August 2011, 2:31 am
  4. Are You Perceived as a Low Status Techie?    14 August 2011, 2:54 pm
  5. R. Heinlein: Specialization is for Insects    15 August 2011, 11:38 am
  6. US tobacco firms sue over graphic labels    17 August 2011, 12:04 am
  7. 100-Pound Rodent Spotted in California    17 August 2011, 12:40 pm
  8. Wikipedia Has Gender Bias    19 August 2011, 8:50 am
  9. Web Surfing Helps at Work, Study Says    22 August 2011, 7:41 am
  10. Company Scans Your Books For a Dollar – Ship ‘Em In, Get a PDF via Email    25 August 2011, 7:33 am

How many times must it be repeated that office layout makes the difference between an “average” employee and one whose performance is truly phenomenal? IBM knew it 30 years ago and designed a whole facility around the idea that people needed office space which was free from distractions. Now (link 2) comes another study about how open office layouts are bad for thinking. This shouldn’t be a surprise, yet cubicle farms seem to be the norm. Why is this? Also: to all those people who think that web surfing at work is bad, have a read of link 9 in which a study proves that taking a mental break from time to time actually improves productivity.

Museum / Library / Archive:

  1. Los Alamos Builds Time Machine to the Way the Web Was    10 August 2011, 9:13 am
  2. Malamud seeks to unlock Smithsonian archives    12 August 2011, 7:15 am

Politics:

  1. Devastating Bank of America CEO emails made public in court    11 August 2011, 6:26 am
  2. Israel to build 1,600 more settler homes    11 August 2011, 6:35 am
  3. U.S. Hires Shady Mercenary for Somali Proxy War    11 August 2011, 7:48 am
  4. E-Mail Discussion Found to Violate Open Public Meetings Act    12 August 2011, 10:15 am
  5. Attacking the messenger: how the CIA tried to undermine drone study    12 August 2011, 12:34 pm
  6. US censures report on drone casualties    13 August 2011, 2:01 am
  7. Hello World: Israel is Out-Classing You in Civil Disobedience    14 August 2011, 2:47 am
  8. Cisco Sued By Chinese Political Prisoners Over ‘Golden Shield’    16 August 2011, 12:16 am
  9. Analysis: Why are BCCI fraudsters being protected?    16 August 2011, 3:35 am
  10. Riots in England: Britain’s Society Broken by Greed    16 August 2011, 7:21 am
  11. Israel firm on not apologising over flotilla    17 August 2011, 12:25 pm
  12. Las Vegas Slots vs Electronic Voting Machines    17 August 2011, 2:01 pm
  13. Bureau Recommends: UK banks investing in cluster bomb manufacturers    18 August 2011, 6:36 am
  14. Daily Kos: Iceland's On-going Revolution    22 August 2011, 7:37 am
  15. Floating City, Libertarian Colonies Close to Reality    22 August 2011, 8:04 am
  16. Israel – Palestinian journalists under fire again from Israeli troops    23 August 2011, 5:00 am
  17. Nokia-Siemens Spy Tools Aid Police Torture in Bahrain    23 August 2011, 11:30 am
  18. Bureau Recommends: Is the SEC covering up Wall street crimes?    24 August 2011, 4:47 am
  19. Drone War Exposed – the complete picture of CIA strikes in Pakistan    24 August 2011, 2:00 pm
  20. Protection from torture weakened under new plans    25 August 2011, 10:44 am
  21. Troubling Brazilian Cybercrime Law Makes a Comeback    25 August 2011, 11:58 am

Ahh, Iceland. I sincerely hope that they can pull together a decent political system (read link 14). I also hope that other countries follow suit, getting rid of the stranglehold that financial institutions have upon the political arena. I have to hope that Cisco and Nokia-Siemens get their comeuppance (links 8 and 17) for supporting oppression – maybe companies who do evil should be held accountable, yes?

Privacy:

  1. On Its Own, Europe Backs Web Privacy Fights    10 August 2011, 9:11 am
  2. LinkedIn pulls a Facebook-like swifty on ‘social advertising’    11 August 2011, 6:28 am
  3. Google Admits Handing over European User Data to US Intelligence Agencies    11 August 2011, 6:29 am
  4. Even without face recognition, Google’s reverse image search can find you    11 August 2011, 9:00 am
  5. Giving your real name to an advertising company isn’t a great idea    15 August 2011, 3:44 am
  6. Industry Tries to Streamline Privacy Policies for Mobile Users    15 August 2011, 8:50 am
  7. Respawn Redux: Undeletable Cookies    15 August 2011, 11:37 am
  8. South Koreans Sue Apple Over iPhone User Information    18 August 2011, 5:23 am
  9. Social media monitored more by law enforcement    20 August 2011, 5:28 pm
  10. Chris Hoofnagle discusses online privacy    20 August 2011, 10:56 pm
  11. Germany vs. Facebook: Like Button Declared Illegal, Sites Threatened With Fine    21 August 2011, 7:17 am
  12. NYPD Intelligence Unit Seen Pushing Rights Limits    24 August 2011, 6:18 am
  13. Judge Calls Location-Tracking Orwellian, While Congress Moves to Legalize It    24 August 2011, 1:50 pm
  14. Why IP Addresses Alone Don’t Identify Criminals    24 August 2011, 3:01 pm
  15. EFF’s Warrantless Wiretapping Cases Back in Court on August 31    24 August 2011, 5:33 pm
  16. Probe sought on CIA role in Muslim ‘spying’    25 August 2011, 1:48 am
  17. Dangerous Cybercrime Treaty Pushes Surveillance and Secrecy Worldwide    25 August 2011, 9:58 am
  18. Facebook reworks its maligned privacy settings    28 August 2011, 3:55 pm

Pseudonymity:

  1. Fake Names On Social Networks: A Fake Problem    10 August 2011, 11:59 am
  2. What we lose when we lose anonymity    12 August 2011, 4:01 am
  3. South Korea: Plans to scrap real-name system    12 August 2011, 4:25 am
  4. Google Plus Tells Pseudonym Lovers to Shove It    12 August 2011, 9:13 am
  5. Nymwars: A view from the trenches within Google    21 August 2011, 7:09 am
  6. Google Plus must stop this Identity Theatre    21 August 2011, 7:09 am
  7. Google to roll out verification badges on profiles.    21 August 2011, 7:09 am
  8. Nym Wars (Google+ “real name” rules)    21 August 2011, 7:13 am
  9. What happens when Google+ cuts you off?    24 August 2011, 3:31 am

The right to be anonymous / pseudonymous used to be a fundamental feature of the internet. Advertising companies, though, would rather that you weren’t, so that they could target their advertisements to you. This truly isn’t a good thing, because there are times when speaking under your real name might cause you trouble at work or at home or even bring you legal grief … yet you’d still like to speak. Forcing people to reveal their “real name” means that people will lose their voices, and the world will be a poorer place (and not just because the marketing companies have sold you stuff that you didn’t need).

Robotics:

  1. Robot 'Mission Impossible' wins video prize – tech – 12 August 2011 – New Scientist    15 August 2011, 12:23 pm
  2. Robot Planes Get Their Own Airport… in Wales    19 August 2011, 4:22 am

Oooh – watch the movie on link 1! Truly awesome robots, self-organizing and working together to accomplish a task. Fun stuff!

Security:

  1. Can we believe our eyes? Misleading people with Unicode.    11 August 2011, 9:14 am
  2. Security Flaws in Encrypted Police Radios    12 August 2011, 6:00 am
  3. Hacking practice ‘approved’ at UK tabloid    16 August 2011, 12:24 pm
  4. Recreational Hacking: Second Horseman of the Tech Apocalypse    17 August 2011, 4:20 am
  5. Lawmakers Call for Probe of Medical Devices After Researcher Hacks Insulin Pump    19 August 2011, 9:57 am
  6. Bill would turn Internet providers into snoops    19 August 2011, 7:05 pm
  7. Mediocre Hackers Can Cause Major Damage    23 August 2011, 3:04 am
  8. Google starts to block hacked WordPress blogs as malware    24 August 2011, 1:45 am
  9. An update on Paxfire and search redirection    25 August 2011, 2:33 pm
  10. Did a basic email take down US defence contractor RSA?    26 August 2011, 4:43 am

Technology:

  1. Captchas To Keep Idiots Out Of Comment Threads    10 August 2011, 6:43 am
  2. Amazon and Walmart launch iPad web apps to evade Apple’s app policies    11 August 2011, 7:03 am
  3. Electronic tattoo ‘could revolutionise patient monitoring’    12 August 2011, 7:47 am
  4. 8 grams of thorium could replace gasoline in cars    12 August 2011, 8:01 am
  5. Analysis: BBC refuses to reveal iPlayer viewing figures    17 August 2011, 2:35 am

Link 3 is a truly awesome invention: a tattoo / sticker with built-in medical monitoring technology. Very, very cool.

WikiLeaks:

  1. Al-Jazeera Follows EFF’s Whistleblower Recommendations    10 August 2011, 1:03 pm
  2. Assange Battle Escalates: Ex-Wikileaks Spokesman Destroyed Unpublished Files    22 August 2011, 3:16 am
  3. NASA Might Be Open to Boosting Whistleblower Protections    22 August 2011, 8:15 am
  4. Former WikiLeaks Spokesman Destroyed More Than 3,500 Unpublished Documents    22 August 2011, 12:10 pm
  5. Former WikiLeaks Spokesman Disputes Claims About Destroyed Files    23 August 2011, 5:10 pm
  6. Wikileaks former spokesman ‘destroyed’ secret Bank of America hard drive    24 August 2011, 1:48 am

The WikiLeaks people continue to feud … which isn’t particularly newsworthy, except that when somebody’s gone to the trouble of leaking documents, those documents should be safeguarded. I fail to understand how a disgruntled WikiLeaks employee – who has started his own company along the same lines as WikiLeaks – can think that anybody would trust him after he’s destroyed documents. It just doesn’t make sense.

-D

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.