Another example where copyright laws are being used to censor one’s critics

January 31, 2012 — xanthippa

Yes, ThunderF00t and William Lane Craig have some serious disagreements on the topic of science.  And both have been speaking up on this topic on YouTube.

ThunferF00t is a bona-fide scientist, with the credentials to prove it.

William Lane Craig is a theologian, self-described philosopher and calls himself ‘Dr.’.

They got into a bit of a spat – ThunderF00t used clips of Craig’s videos in his rebuttal videos:  this is perfectly legal and ‘protected se’ under the DMCA rules.  Despite this, someone has, on behalf of Dr. Craig, filed false DMCA claims against ThunderF00t and others.  (We know they know their claims are false because they have filed these DMCA notifications many times on the same groungs – even after being repeatedly told that this use is not a violation of their copyright – yet they continue filing…)

The purpose of these types of actions is clear:  to force the filer’s critics to spend so much time and energy fighting against these false claims that they will not have the time and energy to criticize him.

The reason we must pay attention to this is because it demonstrates how laws already passed with the good intent to protect copyright are already being abused to stifle speech – and these laws are nowhere near as intrusive as the ailed SOPA bill was…and we all know that those promoting these tools of censorship will not stop.  They will simply try to pass these types of laws more stealthily, a tiny increment at a time.

Constant vigilance!

Posted in freedoms, politics, technology. Tags: , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »

US Judge orders a person to divulge her password

January 27, 2012 — xanthippa

This is an interesting story with wide-ranging implications.

Police suspected a woman of fraud and, with a warrant, siezed her computers.  One of these computers was password protected and running PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) security software so the police IT experts were not able to ese the usual back doors to crack it.  The police believed that this computer contained data that would incriminate their suspect, Ramona Fricosu.

What to do?

The Colorado police went to a judge and got an order compelling Ms. Fricosu to reveal the password to the police.

This is highly problematic, on several fronts.  The PopSci article quotes the DOJ’s :

“Failing to compel Ms. Fricosu amounts to a concession to her and potential criminals (be it in child exploitation, national security, terrorism, financial crimes or drug trafficking cases) that encrypting all inculpatory digital evidence will serve to defeat the efforts of law enforcement officers to obtain such evidence through judicially authorized search warrants, and thus make their prosecution impossible.”

The other side – both the defense and the civil liberties groups whose attention was turned to this case – has, in my never-humble-opinion, a much more solid position:

“The Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination is not necessarily a right to prevent you from giving bad things over to the government, but you are protected from disclosing your thoughts,” said Hanni Fakhoury, a staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which filed an amicus brief in this case. “We argued that providing access to the contents is the equivalent to her ‘emptying the thoughts of her mind,’ because it would require her password.”

What a can of worms this one is…

Thoughts?

Posted in freedoms, technology. Tags: , , . 2 Comments »

You’ve got to fight for your right to jailbreak

January 26, 2012 — xanthippa

Imagine you buy a cake mix and then don’t follow the recipe on the box.  You could risk ‘sub-optimal results’ – but that is it.

How different would our world be if you were also facing jail time?

What if not following the manufacturer’s instruction – even just to add chocolate chips to the mix – meant that you could be arrested and criminally charged?

Well, that is actually quite similar to what used to happen to people who used their electronic devices in slightly different ways than what the manufacturer said they should.  For various reasons, the manufacturers of electronic devices argued that even though a person has purchased and 100% owns an electronic device, they are not allowed to add the ‘chocolate chips’ (like, say, Linux) to ‘the cake mix’ in a process so persecuted, it has been dubbed ‘jailbreaking’.

Why are the manufacturers opposed to this?  It really just boils down to a loss of control over their customer, making it harder for the companies to spy on their customers to obtain loads of data they could monetize…

Luckily, consumer (we really should say ‘citizen’) groups have won this battle:  jailbreaking smartphones became OK through an exemption in the DMCA.

A temporary exemption.

Which is about to run out…

bunnie Huang, standing shoulder to shoulder with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, has drafted a letter and a petition to extend the jailbreaking exemption, both in time and in scope:

‘Three years ago, the Copyright Office agreed to create an exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act so that folks could jailbreak their smartphones. But that exemption is about to expire. We need you to renew that exemption and expand it to cover jailbreaking gadgets with similar computation potential. These are all siblings to the PC, yet unlocking their potential as versatile and powerful computers is burdened with legal murkiness.’

You can sign the petition here.

Unless, of course, you don’t think people should be allowed to add chocolate chips to their cake mix…

 

Posted in freedoms, technology. Tags: , , , , , . 2 Comments »

Thunderf00t documenting DMCA abuse

January 26, 2012 — xanthippa

If things are like this under existing laws (DMCA), imagine the situation under SOPA or SOPA-like laws!

Posted in corruption, freedoms. Tags: , , . Leave a Comment »

One Law For All: ‘Hold this date – 11 February 2012: A Day to Defend Free Expression’

January 19, 2012 — xanthippa

One Law for All is calling for a rally in defence of free expression and the right to criticise religion on 11 February 2012 in central London from 2-4pm.

We are also calling for simultaneous events and acts in defence of free expression on 11 February in countries world-wide.

The call follows an increased number of attacks on free expression in the UK, including a 17 year old being forced to remove a Jesus and Mo cartoon or face expulsion from his Sixth Form College and demands by the UCL Union that the Atheist society remove a Jesus and Mo cartoon from its Facebook page. It also follows threats of violence, police being called, and the cancellation of a meeting at Queen Mary College where One Law for All spokesperson Anne Marie Waters was to deliver a speech on Sharia. Saying ‘Who gave these kuffar the right to speak?’, an Islamist website called for the disruption of the meeting. Two days later at the same college, though, the Islamic Society held a meeting on traditional Islam with a speaker who has called for the death of apostates, those who mock Islam, and secularist Muslims.

Whilst none of this is new, recent events reveal an increased confidence of Islamists to censor free expression publicly, particularly given the support received from universities and other bodies in the name of false tolerance, cultural sensitivity and respect.

The right to criticise religion, however, is a fundamental right that is crucial to many, including Muslims.

Clearly, the time has come to take a firm and uncompromising stand for free expression and against all forms of threats and censorship.

11 February is our chance to take that stand.

You need to be there.

Enough is enough.

NOTES:

Contact us for more information or with details of actions or events being organised outside of London:
Maryam Namazie
Anne Marie Waters
Spokespersons
One Law for All
BM Box 2387
London WC1N 3XX, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 7719166731
onelawforall@gmail.com
www.onelawforall.org.uk

To help with the costs of the rally and donate to the crucial work of One Law for All, please either send a cheque made payable to One Law for All to BM Box 2387, London WC1N 3XX, UK or pay via Paypal.

The One Law for All Campaign was launched on 10 December 2008, International Human Rights Day, to call on the UK Government to recognise that Sharia and religious courts are arbitrary and discriminatory against women and children in particular and that citizenship and human rights are non-negotiable. To join the campaign, sign our petition here.

Posted in freedoms, politics, religion, society. Tags: , , , , . 5 Comments »

Justice delayed, justice denied: Gary McHale on Caledonia

January 8, 2012 — xanthippa

Gary McHale is fighting our fight!

 

Posted in corruption, freedoms, opression, politics, society. Tags: , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »

EFF: U.S. Government Threatens Free Speech With Calls for Twitter Censorship

January 8, 2012 — xanthippa

The full article is at Electronic Frontier Foundation:

‘ Moreover, criminalizing, or even trying to criminalize a neutral communications service like Twitter would set a dangerous precedent –like criminalizing pens and pencils or typewriters and computers based on what people choose to say when using them.’

…

‘Twitter is right to resist.  If the U.S. were to pressure Twitter to censor tweets by organizations it opposes, even those on the terrorist lists, it would join the ranks of countries like India, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Syria, Uzbekistan, all of which have censored online speech in the name of “national security.”  And it would be even worse if Twitter were to undertake its own censorship regime, which would have to be based upon its own investigations or relying on the investigations of others that certain account holders were, in fact, terrorists.’

This is the true test of our committment to the freedom of speech:  do we deny it to those who are despicable scum?

Who is to know if you yourself will, one day, be defined to be ‘despicable scum’ by the powers that be?

Some things are non-negotiable.

Freedom of speech is one of these non-negotiables!

Posted in freedoms, technology. Tags: , , , . 1 Comment »

Missouri judge rules in favour of warrantless GPS surveillance

January 3, 2012 — xanthippa

From WiredNews:

‘The ruling, upholding federal theft and other charges, is one in a string of decisions nationwide supporting warrantless GPS surveillance. Last week’s decision comes as the Supreme Court is expected to rule on the issue within months in an unrelated case.’

It seems that ‘expectation of privacy’ is dwindling so much that pretty soon, there will be no expectation of privacy for anyone, anywhere!

Just how far will we permit ‘big brother’ to stretch the ‘no expectation of privacy’?

Let’s see just how close to zero expectation of privacy we actually are, right now:

  • We  do not have it when walking around in public, as the use of surveilance cameras is being supplemented by a growing fleet of unmarked back-scatter X-ray vans roaming the urban streets.
  • We do not have it in our cars – either the built-in GPS system (like OnStar) can be accessed by ‘big brother’ or ‘big brother’ can add his own, as the above ruling shows.
  • We no longer have it in any form of electronic communication, as laws like SOPA and PIPA make warantless surveilance of all electronic communication the norm, thus removing any expectation to privacy in anything one does online, including VOIP phone calls.
  • US citizens do not have an expectation of privacy in their homes, as the courts there have ruled (I think I blogged it at the time) that using high-tech surveillance tools (including infrared detectors to monitor the movement of individuals inside the home) is perfectly legal as long as the tools are used outside of the home.

Where is left?

Truly and honestly, where do we have left where we enjoy ‘expectation of privacy’?!?!?

When you have no place left where you have ‘an expectation of privacy’, does this mean that the government has the right to monitor your every move, 24/7/365?

Is this truly the society we wish to build?

Posted in corruption, freedoms, opression, politics, society, technology. Tags: , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »

Tommy Robinson tells details of how he was attacked by Islamists – again

January 3, 2012 — xanthippa

Posted in corruption, freedoms, politics, religion, society. Tags: , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »

GoDaddy: a case study in how democracy is being lost

December 29, 2011 — xanthippa

December 29th, 2011, is the official ‘Boycott GoDaddy Day’:  everyone is being encouraged to move any domain names they may have with GoDaddy

Why GoDaddy?

Let me count the ways…

Yes, GoDaddy has backtracked on their support of SOPA – but this is more than just a case of ‘too little, too late’.

GoDaddy actually helped draft SOPA – and is already one of the go-to companies when the US government  (long before SOPA ever becomes a law) wants to blacklist websites:

“That was good enough for Judge Kent Dawson to order the names seized and transferred to GoDaddy, where they would all redirect to a page serving notice of the seizure. In addition, a total ban on search engine indexing was ordered, one which neither Bing nor Google appears to have complied with yet.”

Yes – right now, long before SOPA, a judge had ordered that a website be transferred to GoDaddy in order for it to make it easier to blacklist them – following a court proceeding where the accused may not even be notified until after the ruling is made.

(Aside:  this shows that the stated goal of SOPA – to protect copyrights from pirating – is unnecessary, as all of this is already being accomplished under current laws.  The scales of justice are already very strongly tipped towards the copyright holder and against regular citizens – SOPA would not only tip them even further, it would destroy the internet as we know it.  If, say, one copyright holder complained that one single blogger at WordPress were to publish a link on their blog that led to a home movie of their kid singing a (copyrighted) pop song, under SOPA, the whole of WordPress and all the innocent blogs on it would be blacklisted!!!!  Yes – this is what life under SOPA would be, and not just in the US because the effects would be internet-wide!)

It seems GoDaddy is a willing tool at best, an active collaborator in the process of oppressing people without just process at worst.  This is the type of behaviour which enables totalitarian governments to keep their populace ‘under control’!

It is easy to see why it is so very easy for people to hate GoDaddy – even before one considers their idiotic commercials or their CEO’s weird hobby of shooting and killing elephants…

In other words, GoDaddy is a poster child for the collusion of government and business – the result of which is that government policy is increasingly shaped by the concerns (and thus passes laws to the benefit of) of a smaller and smaller circle of businesses.  This leaves the citizenry unable to affect political change, since legislators of all stripes are dependent on these corporate interests to raise sufficient funds.

Have you ever heard of the ‘four boxes’ necessary for constitutional democracy to function?

  • Soap box: A box you stand on in the street trying to explain your views to the public. Figuratively, building public opinion for your case.
  • Ballot box: Public, free, democratic elections. If the laws don’t work, and the elected representatives don’t get it, replace them.
  • Jury box: If no public representatives get it, neither the elected nor those available to elect, the second to last line of defense is the judicial system, which can overturn laws that go against the most fundamental rights.
  • Ammo box: If the system has been so thoroughly corrupted that the entire establishment is acting as one, and it is not possible to change the laws to safeguard fundamental liberties, then only one option remains.

Think about this while keeping in mind the lessons of SOPA:

  • Our soap box is being taken away on the internet using anti-piracy and anti-child-predator laws so badly written that once passed, they can be used to ‘disappear’ any voice on the internet the government does not like – at the same time as anti-terrorism laws coupled with classifying even non-violent protesters as ‘low-grade terrorists’  and the rise of anti-blasphemy legislation is stripping our rights to speak our minds in public.
  • Our ballot box has been made irrelevant:  the political process has been so twisted that now, in order to get elected, governments are less reliant on the citizenry than they are on an ever-narrowing circle of corporate and special interests.  We, the regular people, no longer believe that it makes any difference whom we vote for, because all the politicians are responding to the needs of this circle,, not to the citizens.  THAT is why the voter turnouts are falling so rapidly:  ordinary people believe that the ballot box has been lost to irrelevance…
  • The Jury box:  that is where we are now!  We are now relying on the last of the checks and balances – the judiciary – to protect us.  But, if the above-linked ruling and the Austrian ruling against Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff are any indication, we are quickly but surely loosing our third box, on both sides of the big pond!
  • Which inevitably leaves us with the very last box:  the ammo box…  This is not something I would like to see happen, but we must never forget that all our rights exist only as long as we are prepared to take up arms to defend them…which is why there is such a direct link between how oppressive a government is and how much it wishes to disarm its citizens.

So, how did we get from the GoDaddy boycott to taking up arms in defense of our innate rights?

GoDaddy has highlighted just how close we are to having lost our first three boxes.

It has highlighted just how high the stakes are.

It has shown us just how hard we have to fight so that our society does not devolve to that fourth box!

Posted in corruption, freedoms, politics, society, technology, war. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »
« Older posts
Newer posts »