Links

Today’s links are mostly about SOPA / PIPA. Who knows where it’ll all end up, but I guess we’ll know sooner or later whether the internet will be censored by the US government. Of course, that’s what everybody’s talking about, but it’s not necessarily the most important bit of legislation that’s under consideration. Have a read of Elsevier = Evil to get an earful.

With the PhD coming to a close, I suppose I’m wondering what’s next. In that vein, I had a nightmare that I went to work for Google, and it was just like high-school, with all of the cliques and cool kids and snobbery. How ironic that this article should show up to confirm that it would, indeed, be a nightmare: What It’s Really Like to Work at Google.

Censorship:

  1. U.S. Government Threatens Free Speech With Calls for Twitter Censorship    6 January 2012, 10:59 am
  2. Spain’s Ley Sinde: New Revelations of U.S. Coercion    9 January 2012, 2:11 pm
  3. Oregon Defamation Decision Could Chill Free Speech    12 January 2012, 2:14 pm
  4. EMI Sues Irish State For Not Implementing Piracy Blocking Provisions    13 January 2012, 3:56 am
  5. India OKs censoring Facebook, Google, Microsoft, YouTube    15 January 2012, 7:02 am
  6. How British libel laws help rich villains escape the scrutiny of the press    16 January 2012, 10:40 am
  7. It Has Begun – Singapore Considering Following USA’s Lead With SOPA/PIPA    16 January 2012, 11:36 am
  8. Singaporean Minister Meeting with MPAA to Discuss Anti-Piracy Legislation    18 January 2012, 11:06 am

Censorship comes in many forms, including simply squashing those who would speak by throwing the law at them (links 3 and 6). Links 7 and 8 talk about how Singapore has gone ahead with their own version of SOPA/PIPA under pressure from US copyright holders; link 4 is the same issue, really, of copyright holders wanting censorship for their own interests. I wonder where it’ll end, or if it will.

Copyright / Patent:

  1. Comic Book writer does it right: No DRM, multiple formats    5 January 2012, 11:23 am
  2. IBM Patents Half-day Out of Office Notifications    11 January 2012, 4:47 am
  3. US Citizens Should Try The Copyright Monopoly As Unconstitutional    11 January 2012, 4:58 am
  4. Universal Blasts Megaupload in Video Takedown Flap    11 January 2012, 2:20 pm
  5. Just the Facts: Lawsuit Against TimeZone Database Deserves Sanctions    12 January 2012, 12:58 pm
  6. EFF Demands Withdrawal of Bogus Time Zone Database Lawsuit    12 January 2012, 2:41 pm
  7. This Year’s Dominant IP Strategy Appears to Be All-Out War    14 January 2012, 4:30 am
  8. JSTOR Tests Free, Read-Only Access to Some Articles    14 January 2012, 9:09 am
  9. Adolf for Everyone: ‘Mein Kampf’ Extracts To Be Sold in Germany    16 January 2012, 6:58 am
  10. Nokia sells essential GSM patents to patent troll    16 January 2012, 11:33 am
  11. Copyright King: Why the “I Have a Dream” Speech Still Isn’t Free    17 January 2012, 4:41 am
  12. Supreme Court Says Congress May Re-Copyright Public Domain Works    18 January 2012, 10:56 am

Link 11 just … makes me ill. How can such an important piece of history be owned? Of course, link 12 says that just because something has gone into the public domain doesn’t mean it’ll stay there: the US Congress may allow “re-copyrighting” of public domain works. I really think that copyright & patent need a serious re-think, so that “the public” may be considered in the whole thing.

Holocaust:

  1. Israeli court ruling on citizenship ‘racist’    12 January 2012, 12:58 pm
  2. Adolf for Everyone: ‘Mein Kampf’ Extracts To Be Sold in Germany    16 January 2012, 6:58 am

Link 2 is about copyright and also about the Holocaust: a publisher wants to demonstrate that Mein Kampf is insane rantings by republishing pieces of it … except that the state of Bavaria owns the copyright and won’t allow for its publication. A rather strange situation, really: it’s crazy ramblings, but nobody can know this because it’s hidden away.

Law:

  1. Sony sued over PSN “can’t sue us” clause    5 January 2012, 11:14 am
  2. Rare Legal Fight Takes On Credit Card Company Security Standards and Fines    11 January 2012, 3:47 pm

Sony, after being hacked, instituted a “you can’t sue us” clause in their terms-of-use. They’re now being sued (link 1) over whether such a thing is legal. Link 2 is rather interesting, but only if you’re into technology and security, I suppose.

Miscellany:

  1. U.S. to Tell Drug Makers to Disclose Payments to Doctors    17 January 2012, 4:55 am
  2. What It’s Really Like to Work at Google    18 January 2012, 12:10 pm

Museum / Library / Archive:

  1. NASA Inquiry Stops Apollo 13 Notebook Sale    6 January 2012, 12:39 pm
  2. Secret Aerial Photos: Book Provides Fresh Glimpse of Berlin’s Destruction    10 January 2012, 9:09 am
  3. Cinemetrics creates a visual fingerprint for movies    12 January 2012, 2:30 am
  4. Complete [US] Civil War submarine unveiled for first time    14 January 2012, 9:07 am
  5. ‘Witness to Extermination’: Auschwitz Museum Publishes Prisoner Sketchbook    17 January 2012, 9:03 am
  6. Lost TV episodes recovered from 47 yr old signals bouncing back to earth    18 January 2012, 12:02 pm

Have a look at all of the photos from link 4, particularly the one which shows a person standing next to the submarine to give you a sense of perspective. It looks like a sub … but wow it was a tight squeeze in there! Also, link 6: the universe doing our “preservation” for us by bouncing television signals back from 25 light-years away (probably an April Fool’s link, and looks as if it’s based upon a Reader’s Digest article from 1958).

Open Access / Open Source:

  1. Lockdown – The coming war on general-purpose computing    11 January 2012, 4:55 am
  2. NASA: Prize Money a Bargain for Better Software    11 January 2012, 9:17 am
  3. ‘Open Science’ Challenges Journal Tradition With Web Collaboration    17 January 2012, 4:52 am
  4. Elsevier = Evil    17 January 2012, 4:53 am

I don’t know what we’ll do about it, but the issue raised in link 4 needs some serious attention. Currently, any medical research funded by public funds in the US must be reported in an open access journal. Well, Elsevier wants to make some money on such publications, and has “bought some politicians” to write law so that publicly-funded research can remain private and secret, kept behind the profit-seeking journals as they’d really like.

Politics:

  1. UK Government in Microsoft-Pressured IT Policy U-Turn    11 January 2012, 6:13 am
  2. New Software Designed to Improve Politics    18 January 2012, 11:20 am

Link 2 holds out some hope for interesting changes in politics by examining political speech. There has been some interesting work in this area recently, and I can only hope that it continues.

Privacy:

  1. Feds Want Judge to Force Suspect to Give Up Laptop Password    5 January 2012, 1:23 pm
  2. Biometrics in Argentina: Mass Surveillance as a State Policy    10 January 2012, 11:27 am
  3. In which Eben Moglen calls out a reporter for having Facebook    11 January 2012, 4:39 am
  4. Disqus data shows pseudonymous commenters are best    11 January 2012, 6:00 am
  5. Obama Eyeing Internet ID for Americans    13 January 2012, 3:30 am
  6. Will the Supreme Court Have the Last Word on GPS Tracking?    14 January 2012, 4:30 am
  7. EPIC – FOIA Documents Reveal DHS Monitoring Political Dissent on Social Networks    14 January 2012, 6:48 am
  8. Inter-Parliamentary Union Condemns Government Investigation into Member of Iceland’s Parliament    17 January 2012, 5:24 pm
  9. D.C. Software Industry Trade Group Can Keep Informant Anonymous    18 January 2012, 4:54 am
  10. Dallas Firm Sues ‘Doe’ Defendant Over Online Review    18 January 2012, 4:54 am

Oh, FaceHook. Read link 3 – it’s quite worthwhile, even if you don’t mind that FaceHook knows so much about you. Link 4 is quite interesting in light of the Nymwars controversy of a few months back: anonymity makes for better interaction on the web.

Security:

  1. Circumventing the No-Fly list in thirty seconds    13 January 2012, 3:29 am
  2. EFF asks: Who’s flying unmanned aircraft in the US?    13 January 2012, 4:01 am
  3. Convicted Internet Pirate’s Online Posts Draw Prosecutors’ Ire    14 January 2012, 4:30 am
  4. Abolish the Department of Homeland Security    14 January 2012, 6:57 am

Links 1 and 4 are about the stupid Transportation Security Administration and how inept, wasteful, ineffective, and confused they are. The other two … well, link 2’s interesting just because “they” don’t want you to know who’s surveilling you. Link 3 is interesting because it demonstrates that having the technology to monitor means that someone will monitor, whether it’s right or not.

SOPA / PIPA:

  1. Gamers against SOPA    5 January 2012, 11:21 am
  2. SOPA-Supporting News Outlets Aren’t Covering SOPA    6 January 2012, 9:47 am
  3. The Truth about the Economics Behind the Blacklist Bills    6 January 2012, 3:49 pm
  4. Geeks to Testify (Finally!) About SOPA Blacklisting Implications    9 January 2012, 2:21 pm
  5. Blacklist Bills Becoming Hot Button Issue in 2012 Election    9 January 2012, 11:29 pm
  6. WordPress The Latest Tech Company To Come Out Strongly Against SOPA/PIPA    11 January 2012, 6:14 am
  7. Why Google And Facebook Need To Go Dark To Protest SOPA    11 January 2012, 9:20 am
  8. Pro-SOPA Comcast just implemented SOPA-incompatible DNSSEC    11 January 2012, 1:21 pm
  9. The Internet Goes to Washington on January 18    12 January 2012, 1:04 pm
  10. Leahy Offers to Remove Net-Altering DNS Redirects in Anti-Piracy Bill    12 January 2012, 4:21 pm
  11. List of 61 senators refusing to meet and discuss PIPA/SOPA    13 January 2012, 3:50 am
  12. Forbes: If Facebook Can’t Stop SOPA, We Can Do It For Them    13 January 2012, 3:51 am
  13. The author of SOPA is a copyright violator    13 January 2012, 3:54 am
  14. It’s time to place the web in safer hands    13 January 2012, 4:07 am
  15. Signs of Progress on the Internet Blacklist Bills, but the Fight Continues    13 January 2012, 2:28 pm
  16. Rep. Smith Waters Down SOPA, DNS Redirects Out    13 January 2012, 2:59 pm
  17. Fighting Antipiracy Measure, Activist Group Posts Personal Information    14 January 2012, 6:40 am
  18. Remain Diligent: SOPA and PIPA Must Be Squashed, Not Changed    14 January 2012, 6:48 am
  19. Under voter pressure, members of Congress backpedal (hard) on SOPA    14 January 2012, 8:21 am
  20. What everyone in the SOPA debate is missing: IP is not a fundamental right    14 January 2012, 8:22 am
  21. PIPA’s Own Sponsors Backing Off Bill; Ask Senate To Hold Off On Voting    14 January 2012, 8:22 am
  22. My Call to Senator Schumer’s Office on PIPA: It’s So Much Worse Than I Thought    14 January 2012, 9:04 am
  23. White House Blasts Internet Blacklisting Bills    14 January 2012, 10:47 am
  24. Blackout your WordPress site on January 18th    15 January 2012, 6:50 am
  25. MIT Media Lab adds to opposition to SOPA/PIPA    15 January 2012, 6:50 am
  26. Boing Boing will go dark on Jan 18 to fight SOPA    15 January 2012, 6:55 am
  27. How PIPA and SOPA Violate White House Principles Supporting Free Speech and Innovation    16 January 2012, 12:00 am
  28. Jimmy Wales: Wikipedia To Go Completely Dark on Wednesday (for SOPA)    16 January 2012, 11:33 am
  29. What Canadians can do to fight SOPA/PIPA    16 January 2012, 11:33 am
  30. SOPA ‘shelved’ until consensus is found    16 January 2012, 11:36 am
  31. United States – Reporters Without Borders to close its English-language site for 24 hours    17 January 2012, 1:59 pm
  32. January 18: Internet-Wide Protests Against the Blacklist Legislation    17 January 2012, 5:29 pm
  33. Watching ‘wtf Wikipedia’ as SOPA/PIPA blackout begins    17 January 2012, 10:03 pm
  34. TheOatmeal.com blacked out    17 January 2012, 10:37 pm
  35. Why We’ve Censored Wired.com    18 January 2012, 4:55 am
  36. Wired Magazine Blacks Out    18 January 2012, 5:51 am
  37. FARK has gone white to “support” SOPA/PIPA    18 January 2012, 5:51 am
  38. Please censor the Web America, the rest of us can’t wait    18 January 2012, 5:52 am
  39. The Daily WTF goes white to “support” SOPA    18 January 2012, 7:20 am
  40. Mozilla blacks out    18 January 2012, 7:20 am
  41. The SOPA Blackout Roundup    18 January 2012, 7:22 am
  42. 4chan “blacking out” (or, “spoilering”) all comments as SOPA protest    18 January 2012, 7:56 am
  43. GNU SOPA Blackout page    18 January 2012, 7:56 am
  44. Have a profile pic, lets black it with this to protest against SOPA    18 January 2012, 7:57 am
  45. Hacker News Blacking Out Logo    18 January 2012, 7:57 am
  46. WordPress Blacked Out    18 January 2012, 7:57 am
  47. OpenDNS to censor its service in support of anti-SOPA blackout    18 January 2012, 7:57 am
  48. Protest on Web Uses Shutdown to Take on Two Piracy Bills    18 January 2012, 11:18 am
  49. SOPA/PIPA: More than 250k tweets / hr    18 January 2012, 11:45 am
  50. With Today’s Protests, SOPA Becomes a Mainstream Issue    18 January 2012, 11:48 am
  51. SOPA SEO: Googlebot to crawl at slower rate today    18 January 2012, 11:49 am
  52. Internet blackout against U.S. law fails to enlist big sites    18 January 2012, 11:51 am
  53. SOPA lives—and MPAA calls protests an “abuse of power”    18 January 2012, 11:54 am
  54. SOPA not Dead. Hearings to Resume in Feb.    18 January 2012, 11:54 am
  55. What the first web blackout looked like, 17 years ago    18 January 2012, 12:00 pm
  56. Reeling MPAA declares DNS filtering “off the table”    18 January 2012, 12:00 pm
  57. Congressman blacksout official .gov website    18 January 2012, 12:38 pm

There are no bright spots here, really. So many have come out against this idiot legislation, yet the legislation continues to exist and be discussed, and many worry that it’ll just be put on a back burner and slipped into place in any event. At times like this I’m SO glad that we don’t live in the US! Link 38 takes a light-hearted look at the issue, though, from the perspective of Europe: basically, go for it, United States, because Europe will be glad to accept your innovators when you’ve driven them away.

-D

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