Links

There aren’t many happy links this week, unfortunately. Perhaps I need to slow down on paying attention to the censorship news, and the copyright / patent news. Either that or I’m going to have to rename this section “dark links” rather than just “links.” I need to add some more positive technology feeds to my reader, and perhaps drop a few of those which are focused on security, information law, and hacktivisim. I don’t know, though, because those areas are of interest to me, and they’re also very important not only to me but to the world as a whole. Will give it some thought. Meanwhile, here’re your links for the week.

Censorship:

1. iFreedom Conference: State Leaders on the Future of Free Expression Online    10 December 2011, 6:43 pm
2. MPAA Boss: If The Chinese Censor The Internet, Why Can’t The US?    10 December 2011, 6:57 am
3. Senator Wants Answers from DHS Over Domain Name Seizures    9 December 2011, 4:34 pm
4. Blacklist Bills Ripe for Abuse Part II: Expansion of Government Powers    9 December 2011, 3:24 pm
5. Chinese Internet Users Relish Irony Of SOPA’s Great Firewall Of America    9 December 2011, 12:45 pm
6. ICE admits year-long seizure of music blog was a mistake    9 December 2011, 3:22 am
7. Indian Authorities Try (And Fail) to Make Tech Companies Block Politically Offensive Content    7 December 2011, 2:40 pm
8. Indian Govt wants social networking sites to pre-screen status updates    7 December 2011, 9:26 am
9. Does New Missouri Law Muzzle Teachers on Facebook?    7 December 2011, 4:06 am
10. Turkey – New Internet filtering system condemned as backdoor censorship    2 December 2011, 12:44 am
11. Feds’ Anti-Piracy Vid Is Reefer Madness for the Digital Age    1 December 2011, 11:38 am
12. Patient sues dentist over gag order, gets Medical Justice to backtrack    1 December 2011, 5:49 am
13. The Pirate Bay Dancing for Firefox Bypasses National IP & DNS Blocks    1 December 2011, 5:05 am
14. Federal Judge Orders Google, Facebook to Disappear Hundreds of Sites    29 November 2011, 3:50 pm
15. About pepper spray    29 November 2011, 3:43 am
16. The PROTECT IP Act Is Very Real and Very Bad — Call Now to Block It    28 November 2011, 6:43 pm
17. Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Attempts to Ban “Obscene” Words from Texts    28 November 2011, 10:32 am
18. 90% of Mainstream Media Controlled By 6 Media Giants (Infographic)    28 November 2011, 6:36 am
19. Current Time Magazine Cover (Depending on Country)    28 November 2011, 6:35 am
20. Why wireless mesh networks won’t save us from censorship    28 November 2011, 5:57 am
21. IFPI Sues Pirate Bay Admins in Finland, Demands Further ISP Blocks    28 November 2011, 5:57 am

Ahh, link 2 – yes, why can’t the U.S. censor the internet? It amazes me, the power that the “content industries” exert over the political process in the US. Link 19 is in here because of the irony of the differences between the US cover (“anxiety is good for you”) and the covers for the rest of the world (“revolution redux”). Sure, maybe Time didn’t have the white-washed cover because they were censored by a government agency … but, well, self-censorship is just as bad, if not worse, I think.

Copyright / Patent:

1. Oblivious Supreme Court poised to legalize medical patents    9 December 2011, 4:21 am
2. Apple can’t call an iPad an iPad in China, says court.    7 December 2011, 8:48 am
3. Groups Petition for Right to Hack the Xbox, Back Up DVDs    5 December 2011, 3:47 pm
4. Swiss Government: Downloading Movies and Music Will Stay Legal    5 December 2011, 8:45 am
5. Why Apple (and Sony, Amazon, Microsoft etc.) Should Support Jailbreaking    2 December 2011, 2:02 pm
6. Anti-piracy group uses musician’s music without permission on anti-piracy ad    2 December 2011, 5:25 am
7. EFF Seeks to Widen Exemptions Won in Last DMCA Rulemaking    1 December 2011, 2:06 pm
8. Programming languages cannot be copyrighted, says senior EU court adviser    30 November 2011, 5:07 am
9. Holder Asks America to Remain ‘Vigilant,’ Report Intellectual-Property Crime    29 November 2011, 3:06 pm

Link 9 is just … disturbing. You’d think that Americans, steeped in the ideology of the cold war, in which “comrades” snitched on their neighbors, and in which Stasi spies snitched on everybody … well, you’d think that government officials wouldn’t be encouraging “citizens” to report on each other, especially for “intellectual-property crime.” How the world turns, I guess.

Education:

1. Minorities, Women Often Discouraged From Entering Engineering, Science Fields    9 December 2011, 9:08 am
2. IT’s Most Wanted: Mainframe Programmers    5 December 2011, 2:23 am
3. Twenty States Involved in Changing Science Instruction    29 November 2011, 3:12 am
4. Government Backs Call for Classroom Coding    29 November 2011, 3:11 am

The Mainframe programmers are getting old, and there’s nobody there to replace them (link 2). It could be a growing market, if one wanted to go into that. I’m certain that it’d pay well, or that it will end up doing so – after all, it’s so not fun that I can’t see any youth going for it. It’s funny, though, because I can’t see that it’d be much different than writing any other software. How odd, that programming can be “hip” and affected by such trends. It’s sort of like thinking that people who use a flat-head screwdriver aren’t cool. Distinctly strange.

Hacktivism:

1. WikiLeaks Posts Spy Firm Videos Offering Tools For Hacking iTunes, Gmail, Skype    9 December 2011, 2:12 am
2. Government Opposes Bradley Manning Defense Witness Requests    8 December 2011, 12:36 pm
3. Bradley Manning’s Defense Attorney Looks to Blame Military for Leaks    5 December 2011, 1:43 pm
4. WikiLeaks Unveils the Selling of Surveillance, Sort Of    1 December 2011, 12:41 pm
5. WikiLeaks: The Spy Files    1 December 2011, 9:23 am
6. Bradley Manning: MEPs’ open letter to the US government    30 November 2011, 5:10 am
7. Feds Withholding Evidence Favorable to Bradley Manning, Lawyer Charges    28 November 2011, 1:36 pm
8. Cablegate One Year Later: How WikiLeaks Has Influenced Foreign Policy, Journalism, and the First Amendment    28 November 2011, 12:00 am

WikiLeaks is still going, despite all the drama surrounding it. The US government is still persecuting Bradley Manning for leaking files, too. Let the drama continue. It’s changed the world a bit, though, and I think in a good way.

Holocaust:

1. Nazi Memorabilia Boom: ‘The People Want Souvenirs’    7 December 2011, 5:54 am
2. 1944 Massacre in France: German Police Raid Homes of Six Former SS Soldiers    6 December 2011, 4:59 am
3. More Victims Eligible: Rules Revised for Holocaust Survivor Compensation    6 December 2011, 4:28 am
4. Obama backs envoy after Israel remarks    5 December 2011, 9:01 pm
5. Obscuring the Past: Intelligence Agency Destroyed Files on Former SS Members    30 November 2011, 3:00 am
6. For Whom the Bell Tolls: Nazi Memorial Embarrasses German Community    25 November 2011, 8:35 am

Law:

1. Del. Federal Judge Rules Defendants Can Be Served via Email    10 December 2011, 2:46 am
2. Montana Blogger Sued for Defamation Not a Journalist, Judge Rules    9 December 2011, 6:11 am
3. Are International Cybercrime Laws a Hopeless Fantasy?    2 December 2011, 3:41 am
4. Rights group urges Bush’s arrest during tour    1 December 2011, 10:14 am
5. Are Muslims allowed rights?    28 November 2011, 4:43 am

I think it’s rather odd that the state in which one lives determines whether one is a journalist or not (link 2). If the same person had lived in the state of Washington, they’d have been protected by shield laws. It makes me wish that link 3 weren’t so depressing as, at least if there were a common framework of law for acts committed electronically, we’d be able to approach it as a single entity, fighting for changes on one front rather than upon literally hundreds of fronts. It’s perhaps a bit naive to think that a single body of law would fix things – I’m certain that it would not; however, just having a common body of law might at least arrive at some least-restrictive body, rather than states and countries deciding what is appropriate for their own citizens even though those citizens are committing acts in a jurisdiction which would seem to be outside of the country, or in no country.

Museum / Library / Archive:

1. Libraries: Where It All Went Wrong    28 November 2011, 3:57 am

Open Access:

1. Drug study secrecy puts lives at risk    29 November 2011, 12:40 am
2. Secrecy in science – an argument for open access    29 November 2011, 12:25 am

Here’s an interesting concept: open access is actually just arguing against censorship. Of course, it’s an argument against secrecy, too, but it’s a bit more complex than companies simply wanting to keep their information a secret: it’s also about publishing companies not wanting to lose their revenue, and about publicly-funded research being kept secret from the public which funded that research.

Politics:

1. Senate Wants the Military to Lock You Up Without Trial    1 December 2011, 1:45 pm
2. The Republicans’ Farcical Candidates: A Club of Liars, Demagogues and Ignoramuses    30 November 2011, 11:39 pm
3. EFF Joins Advocacy Organizations in Criticizing Secure Communities    29 November 2011, 12:05 pm
4. Dutch parliament refuses ACTA secrecy while the EU parliament meets in secret    28 November 2011, 6:54 am
5. National Defense Authorization Act – Turning US into a Battlefield    28 November 2011, 4:20 am
6. Broken America: The Country of Limited Possibilities    22 November 2011, 4:37 am

Links 1 and 5 are perhaps only of concern to people inside the US. I’m sure, though, that the rest of the world watches the downward spiral of conditions within the US (links 2 and 6), and is paying attention to the Occupy movement and how “the people” are being deprived of their voices in the common fora. I’m also certain that those in power, as they live behind their security fences (link 3), and as they attempt to maintain their stranglehold on information distribution (link 4), aren’t listening to much of what the Occupy movement has to say. I suspect that they’ve drunk the kool-aid being handed out by those in link 2. Where will the US be in the next decade? It certainly doesn’t seem like anyplace worth visiting, much less considering as a home.

Privacy:

1. Carrier IQ’s own marketing material implies that it spies on users    9 December 2011, 9:01 am
2. Senator Demands Telcos & HTC Come Clean on Carrier IQ    6 December 2011, 12:29 pm
3. Could the U.S. Government Start Reading Your Emails?    3 December 2011, 9:34 am
4. Carrier IQ Admits Holding ‘Treasure Trove’ of Consumer Data, But No Keystrokes    2 December 2011, 5:53 pm
5. Apple: We Don’t Use Carrier IQ… In Most Of Our Products… Anymore.    2 December 2011, 8:07 am
6. CarrierIQ not on Blackberry by Default    2 December 2011, 8:07 am
7. New York Times Has a Sunday Dialogue on Anonymity and Civility on the Internet    1 December 2011, 6:13 pm
8. Critics Line Up to Bash Maker of Secret Phone-Monitoring Software    1 December 2011, 3:43 pm
9. Is Your Cell Phone Spying on You?    1 December 2011, 12:04 pm
10. House Committee Rushing to Approve Dangerous “Information Sharing” Bill    30 November 2011, 2:24 pm
11. Documents Reveal TSA Proposal To Body-Scan Pedestrians, Train Passengers    30 November 2011, 3:40 am
12. Researcher’s Video Shows Secret Software on Millions of Phones Logging Everything    29 November 2011, 4:18 pm
13. Long Term Privacy with Forward Secrecy    29 November 2011, 4:03 pm
14. N.Y. Panel Backs Use of GPS Device on State Worker’s Personal Vehicle    29 November 2011, 2:36 am

These past few weeks have revealed that a company called Carrier-IQ has installed spyware upon millions of mobile telephones, at the request of manufacturers. Of course, links 3, 7, 10, 11, 13, 14 aren’t about that, but about a variety of different issues. Perhaps, though, Carrier-IQ will resonate with a large enough group of people to get some changes in motion, though. After all, very few people care that the government is placing GPS devices on people’s vehicles without warrant because they don’t think it’d ever happen to them. The chances are, though, that Carrier-IQ has been spying on you if you’ve a modern mobile phone in the US. Perhaps that should concern somebody.

Security:

1. The Download.com Debacle: What CNET Needs to Do to Make it Right    9 December 2011, 9:58 am
2. Spy Firm Videos Show How to Hack WiFi, Skype and Email    8 December 2011, 3:00 pm
3. 8 Out of 10 Software Apps Fail Security Test    7 December 2011, 3:00 am
4. Insider: $56 Billion Later, Airport Security Is Junk    6 December 2011, 3:30 am
5. Surveillance: A thriving British industry    1 December 2011, 10:27 am
6. Exclusive: Comedy of Errors Led to False ‘Water-Pump Hack’ Report    30 November 2011, 2:54 pm
7. Troublesome Trojans: Firm Sought to Install Spyware Via Faked iTunes Updates    22 November 2011, 7:26 am

Link 4: is anybody surprised? The links speak for themselves, really.

Social Media:

1. Facebook is Hiding Your Mail    10 December 2011, 2:10 pm
2. Researcher shows how to “friend” anyone on Facebook within 24 hours    1 December 2011, 5:08 am
3. With FTC Settlement, Facebook Moves Closer to EFF Bill of Rights for Social Network Users    29 November 2011, 2:25 pm
4. FTC Slaps Facebook’s Hand Over Privacy Deception    29 November 2011, 9:57 am

I find link 1 particularly disturbing: FaceHook has arbitrarily decided to categorize people’s email into messages which go into the “inbox” and messages which go into “other” … and there’s no way for you to decide how things are allocated. So, you now have to check 2 mailboxes, one of which is guaranteed to be chock full of spam (and a few important messages which they thought weren’t, because they’re not from your “Friends.”). Talk about insanity. Of course, I don’t know a soul who uses FaceHook as their primary email client. Or do I? I have no way of knowing, really, as I’m certain that I block anything coming from FaceHook. If you’re lost out there in antisocial networking land, well, good luck finding your way back.

SOPA:

1. Two Congressional Staffers Who Helped Write SOPA Become Entertainment Lobbyists    10 December 2011, 6:50 am
2. An Alternative to SOPA: An Open Process Befitting an Open Internet    8 December 2011, 11:15 am
3. Kaspersky Dumps Anti-Piracy Group in SOPA Protest    5 December 2011, 8:28 am
4. SOPA on the ropes? Bipartisan alternative to ‘Net censorship emerges    2 December 2011, 8:06 am
5. Senator Floats Alternative to Internet Blacklisting Bills    1 December 2011, 9:46 pm
6. Stop Online Piracy Act Puts Future of Internet at Stake    30 November 2011, 2:20 am
7. Both LA Times and NY Times Pen Editorials Opposing SOPA    29 November 2011, 3:31 am

Really, SOPA is a subset of censorship, but it’s unique in that it’s driven by the content industries. And, oh, the irony of link 1: write a bill which benefits a particular group, get paid a bunch of money to go to work for them. Yeah, that’s politics in the USA.

Technology:

1. Carnegie Mellon Researchers Develop Computerized Method for Finding Similar Images in Photos, Paintings, Sketches    7 December 2011, 10:56 am
2. Bendy Bot Limbos To The Rescue    30 November 2011, 6:16 am
3. Truth goggles sniff out suspicious sentences in news    29 November 2011, 3:59 am
4. BBC Trust Vice Chairman on net neutrality    28 November 2011, 9:03 am

Link 3 is kinda cool: it’s not so much about linguistic analysis, per se, but about fact-checking. An automated way to check facts as spouted by political talking-heads. Very nice!

-D