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Paul Merrell

YouTube flushes Flash for future flicks * The Register - 0 views

www.theregister.co.uk/...lushes_flash_for_future_flicks

HTML5 Flash Youtube

shared by Paul Merrell on 28 Jan 15 - No Cached

  • YouTube has decided it's had enough of Adobe's perenially-p0wned Flash and will therefore now default to delivering video with the HTML5 <video> tag.

    A post by the video vault's engineering and development team says the move is now possible, and sensible, because the industry has invented useful things like adaptive bitrates, encryption, new codecs and WebRTC that make the <video> usable work in the real world.

    Those additions mean HTML5 is at least as functional – or more so – than Flash, and if YouTube detects you are running Chrome, IE 11, Safari 8 and beta versions of Firefox, it'll now deliver video using <video> and flush Flash.

    YouTube's also decided to can what it calls the “'old style' of Flash embeds and our Flash API. We encourage all embedders to use the iframe API, which can intelligently use whichever technology the client supports.”

  • YouTube seems not to care a jot that its actions are inimical to Adobe, saying it's just doing what all the cool kids – Netflix, Apple, Microsoft and its competitor Vimeo – have already done. Which is not to say that Flash is dead: those who don't run the browsers above will still get YouTube delivered by whatever technology works bes tin their environment. And that will often – perhaps too often* – be Flash. ® Bootnote * Until they get p0wned, that is: Flash is so horridly buggy that Apple has just updated its plugin-blockers to foil versions of the product prior to 16.0.0.296 and 13.0.0.264.
Paul Merrell

Canadian Spies Collect Domestic Emails in Secret Security Sweep - The Intercept - 0 views

firstlook.org/...ony-express-email-surveillance

surveillance state Canada CSE bulk-collection email

shared by Paul Merrell on 27 Feb 15 - No Cached
  • Canada’s electronic surveillance agency is covertly monitoring vast amounts of Canadians’ emails as part of a sweeping domestic cybersecurity operation, according to top-secret documents. The surveillance initiative, revealed Wednesday by CBC News in collaboration with The Intercept, is sifting through millions of emails sent to Canadian government agencies and departments, archiving details about them on a database for months or even years. The data mining operation is carried out by the Communications Security Establishment, or CSE, Canada’s equivalent of the National Security Agency. Its existence is disclosed in documents obtained by The Intercept from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The emails are vacuumed up by the Canadian agency as part of its mandate to defend against hacking attacks and malware targeting government computers. It relies on a system codenamed PONY EXPRESS to analyze the messages in a bid to detect potential cyber threats.
  • Last year, CSE acknowledged it collected some private communications as part of cybersecurity efforts. But it refused to divulge the number of communications being stored or to explain for how long any intercepted messages would be retained. Now, the Snowden documents shine a light for the first time on the huge scope of the operation —&nbsp;exposing the controversial details the government withheld from the public. Under Canada’s criminal code, CSE is not allowed to eavesdrop on Canadians’ communications. But the agency can be granted special ministerial exemptions if its efforts are linked to protecting government infrastructure —&nbsp;a loophole that the Snowden documents show is being used to monitor the emails. The latest revelations will trigger concerns about how Canadians’ private correspondence with government employees are being archived by the spy agency and potentially shared with police or allied surveillance agencies overseas, such as the NSA. Members of the public routinely communicate with government employees when, for instance, filing tax returns, writing a letter to a member of parliament, applying for employment insurance benefits or submitting a passport application.
  • Chris Parsons, an internet security expert with the Toronto-based internet think tank Citizen Lab, told CBC News that “you should be able to communicate with your government without the fear that what you say … could come back to haunt you in unexpected ways.” Parsons said that there are legitimate cybersecurity purposes for the agency to keep tabs on communications with the government, but he added: “When we collect huge volumes, it’s not just used to track bad guys. It goes into data stores for years or months at a time and then it can be used at any point in the future.” In a top-secret CSE document on the security operation, dated from 2010, the agency says it “processes 400,000 emails per day” and admits that it is suffering from “information overload” because it is scooping up “too much data.” The document outlines how CSE built a system to handle a massive 400 terabytes of data from Internet networks each month —&nbsp;including Canadians’ emails —&nbsp;as part of the cyber operation. (A single terabyte of data can hold about a billion pages of text, or about 250,000 average-sized mp3 files.)
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • The agency notes in the document that it is storing large amounts of “passively tapped network traffic” for “days to months,” encompassing the contents of emails, attachments and other online activity. It adds that it stores some kinds of metadata —&nbsp;data showing who has contacted whom and when, but not the content of the message —&nbsp;for “months to years.” The document says that CSE has “excellent access to full take data” as part of its cyber operations and is receiving policy support on “use of intercepted private communications.” The term “full take” is surveillance-agency jargon that refers to the bulk collection of both content and metadata from Internet traffic. Another top-secret document on the surveillance dated from 2010 suggests the agency may be obtaining at least some of the data by covertly mining it directly from Canadian Internet cables. CSE notes in the document that it is “processing emails off the wire.”
Paul Merrell

Lawmakers Say TPP Meetings Classified To Keep Americans in the Dark | Global Research - 0 views

www.globalresearch.ca/...5437233

U.S.-foreign-policy trade agreements TPP secrecy Congress

shared by Paul Merrell on 17 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • US Trade Representative Michael Froman is drawing fire from Congressional Democrats for the Obama adminstration’s continued imposition of secrecy surrounding the Trans-Pacific Parternship. (Photo: AP file) Democratic lawmaker says tightly-controlled briefings on Trans-Pacific Partnership deal are aimed at keeping US constituents ignorant about what’s at stake Lawmakers in Congress who remain wary of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement are raising further objections this week to the degree of secrecy surrounding briefings on the deal, with some arguing that the main reason at least one meeting has been registered “classified” is to help keep the American public ignorant about giveaways to corporate interests and its long-term implications.
  • Among its other critics, Sen. Elizabeth Warren has&nbsp;slammed&nbsp;the idea of ISDS provisions as a surrender of democratic ideals to corporate interests. According to Warren, ISDS would simply “tilt the playing field in the United States further in favor of big multinational corporations.” By having unchallenged input on secretive TPP talks, Warren argued last month, these large companies and financial interests “are increasingly realizing this is an opportunity to gut U.S. regulations they don’t like.” According to Grayson, putting Wednesday’s ISDS briefing in a classified setting “is part of a multi-year campaign of deception and destruction. Why do we classify information? It’s to keep sensitive information out of the hands of foreign governments. In this case, foreign governments already have this information. They’re the people the administration is negotiating with. The only purpose of classifying this information is to keep it from the American people.”
  • “I’m not happy about it,” Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) told the&nbsp;Huffington Post, referring to the briefing with Froman and Labor Secretary Thomas Perez on Wednesday. The meeting—focused on the section of the TPP that deals with the controversial ‘Investor-State Dispute Settlement’ (ISDS) mechanism—has been labeled “classified,” so that lawmakers and any of their staff who attend will be barred, under threat of punishment, of revealing what they learn with constituents or outside experts. According&nbsp;to the&nbsp;Huffington Post: ISDS has been part of U.S. free trade agreements since NAFTA was signed into law in 1993, and has become a&nbsp;particularly popular tool&nbsp;for multinational firms over the past few years. But while the topic remains controversial, particularly with Democrats, many critics of the administration emphasize that applying national security-style restrictions on such information is an abuse of the classified information system. An additional meeting earlier on Wednesday on currency manipulation with Froman and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is not classified.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • As&nbsp;The Hill&nbsp;reports: Members will be allowed to attend the briefing on the proposed trade pact with 12 Latin American and Asian countries with one staff member who possesses an “active Secret-level or high clearance” compliant with House security rules. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) told The Hill that the administration is being “needlessly secretive.” “Even now, when they are finally beginning to share details of the proposed deal with members of Congress, they are denying us the ability to consult with our staff or discuss details of the agreement with experts,” DeLauro told The Hill. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) condemned the classified briefing. “Making it classified further ensures that, even if we accidentally learn something, we cannot share it.&nbsp;What is [Froman]working so hard to hide? What is the specific legal basis for all this senseless secrecy?” Doggett said to The Hill. “Open trade should begin with open access,” Doggett said. “Members expected to vote on trade deals should be able to read the unredacted negotiating text.”
Paul Merrell

Russia passes law to force websites onto Russian servers | Reuters - 0 views

www.reuters.com/...rictions-idUSKBN0F91SG20140704

internet-balkanization Russia internet-censorship

shared by Paul Merrell on 06 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • (Reuters) - Russia's parliament passed a law on Friday to force Internet sites that store the personal data of Russian citizens to do so inside the country, a move the Kremlin says is for data protection but which critics see an attack on social networks. The law will mean that from 2016, all Internet companies will have to move Russian data onto servers based in Russia or face being blocked from the web. That would likely affect U.S.-based social networks such as Facebook, analysts say.
  • Putin, an ex-KGB officer who has called the Internet a "CIA project", denied he was restricting web freedoms, saying his main concern was protecting children from indecent content.
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

Hollywood Director Slams "Pathetic" Anti-Piracy Crusade | TorrentFreak - 0 views

torrentfreak.com/tic-anti-piracy-crusade-140708

Hollywood director slams pathetic anti-piracy crussade Lexi Alexander

shared by Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 09 Jul 14 - No Cached
    • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.
      Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 09 Jul 14
       
      # we need Tens, Hundreds, Thousands of Directors saying so... let's the time go...
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 09 Jul 14
     
    [ Ernesto on July 8, 2014 C: 27 Breaking Movie director Lexi Alexander wants to "occupy Hollywood" by bridging the gap between pirates and filmmakers. Sporting a banner to free Pirate Bay founder Peter Sunde, Alexander says that the criminalization of file-sharing is "pathetic", while calling out the losses claimed by the MPAA as "bullshit"....]
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

Piracy Fight Needs Content Available at a Fair Price, Minister Says | TorrentFreak - 0 views

torrentfreak.com/air-price-minister-says-140731

piracy fight needs content availability fair price minister says stop media manipulation democracy culture access requirements

shared by Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 31 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 31 Jul 14
     
    " Andy on July 31, 2014 C: 13 Breaking Content owners need to up their game if they want to be taken seriously in the battle to reduce online piracy, a leading Australian minister said this morning. Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull said making content universally and at a fair price is a key "obligation" if copyright owners are to be taken seriously in their piracy fight."
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 31 Jul 14
     
    " Andy on July 31, 2014 C: 13 Breaking Content owners need to up their game if they want to be taken seriously in the battle to reduce online piracy, a leading Australian minister said this morning. Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull said making content universally and at a fair price is a key "obligation" if copyright owners are to be taken seriously in their piracy fight."
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

Punish Music Pirates With Finger Amputations, Artist Says | TorrentFreak - 0 views

torrentfreak.com/amputations-artist-says-140731

music pirates cut finger artist says abnormal industry

shared by Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 01 Aug 14 - No Cached
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 01 Aug 14
     
    [ # ! Another abnormal of the Recording Industry... :/ ] "But one musician in Nigeria believes she has a quick and easy solution to stop people illegally pirating her work. Her version of the so-called "graduated response" is controversial, but might just work. "Cutting their fingers off will stop them, by the time you cut off two people's fingers others will stop," popular singer Stella Monye told the News agency of Nigeria."
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 01 Aug 14
     
    [ # ! Another abnormal of the Recording Industry... :/ ] "But one musician in Nigeria believes she has a quick and easy solution to stop people illegally pirating her work. Her version of the so-called "graduated response" is controversial, but might just work. "Cutting their fingers off will stop them, by the time you cut off two people's fingers others will stop," popular singer Stella Monye told the News agency of Nigeria."
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

Record Biz Wants To Tax Brits For Copying Their Own Music | TorrentFreak - 0 views

torrentfreak.com/copying-their-own-music-141126

more taxes to finance caducous music business lobbying instead creating

shared by Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 27 Nov 14 - No Cached
    • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.
      Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 27 Nov 14
       
      # ! For when some exigencies to the recording industry … like diminishing prices and increasing, as much the quality of the works like the respect to the public…?
    • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.
      Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 27 Nov 14
       
      # ! as if there weren't already enough taxes...
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 27 Nov 14
     
    [Several music industry organizations in the UK have launched an application for a judicial review after the government passed legislation allowing citizens to copy their own music for personal use. The group says that in order for the system to be fair, the public must pay a new tax. ...] # ! Definitely... # ! ... '#Music #watchmen' -th@se who persecute aficionad@s # ! just for #sharing- are 'watching' for everything BUT The Music... # ! Let's The #sharing #protect -effectively- the #Culture... (# ! perhaps, 'someone' thinks we don't pay enough taxes yet... # ! ...while Billions 'disappear' yearly from the public coffers....)
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 27 Nov 14
     
    [Several music industry organizations in the UK have launched an application for a judicial review after the government passed legislation allowing citizens to copy their own music for personal use. The group says that in order for the system to be fair, the public must pay a new tax. ...]
Paul Merrell

Guest Post: NSA Reform - The Consequences of Failure | Just Security - 0 views

justsecurity.org/...sa-reform-consequences-failure

surveillance-state NSA-reform encryption

shared by Paul Merrell on 02 Dec 14 - No Cached
  • In the absence of real reform, people and institutions at home and abroad are taking matters into their own hands. In America, the NSA’s overreach is changing the way we communicate with and relate to each other. In order to evade government surveillance, more and more Americans are employing encryption technology.&nbsp; The veritable explosion of new secure messaging apps like Surespot, OpenWhisper’s collaboration with WhatsApp, the development and deployment of open source anti-surveillance tools like Detekt, the creation of organizationally-sponsored “surveillance self-defense” guides, the push to universalize the https protocol, anti-surveillance book events featuring free encryption workshops— are manifestations of the rise of the personal encryption and pro-privacy digital resistance movement. Its political implications are clear: Americans, along with people around the world, increasingly see the United States government’s overreaching surveillance activities as a threat to be blocked.
  • The federal government’s vacuum-cleaner approach to surveillance—manifested in Title II of the PATRIOT Act, the FISA Amendments Act, and EO 12333—has backfired in these respects, and the emergence of this digital resistance movement is one result. Indeed, the existence and proliferation of social networks hold the potential to help this movement spread faster and to more of the general public than would have been possible in decades past. This is evidenced by the growing concern worldwide about governments’ ability to access reams of information about people’s lives with relative ease. As one measure, compared to a year ago, 41% of online users in North America now avoid certain Internet sites and applications, 16% change who they communicate with, and 24% censor what they say online. Those numbers, if anywhere close to accurate, are a major concern for democratic society.
  • Even if commercially available privacy technology proves capable of providing a genuine shield against warrantless or otherwise illegal surveillance by the United States government, it will remain a treatment for the symptom, not a cure for the underlying legal and constitutional malady. In April 2014, a Harris poll&nbsp;of US adults showed that in response to the Snowden revelations, “Almost half of respondents (47%) said that they have changed their online behavior and think more carefully about where they go, what they say, and what they do online.” Set aside for a moment that just the federal government’s collection of the data of innocent Americans is itself likely a violation of the Fourth Amendment. The Harris poll is just one of numerous studies highlighting the collateral damage to American society and politics from NSA’s excesses: segments of our population are now fearful of even associating with individuals or organizations executive branch officials deem controversial or suspicious. Nearly half of Americans say they have changed their online behavior out of a fear of what the federal government might do with their personal information. The Constitution’s free association guarantee has been damaged by the Surveillance State’s very operation.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • The failure of the Congress and the courts to end the surveillance state, despite the repeated efforts by a huge range of political and public interest actors to effect that change through the political process, is only fueling the growing resistance movement. Federal officials understand this, which is why they are trying—desperately and in the view of some, underhandedly—to shut down this digital resistance movement. This action/reaction cycle is exactly what it appears to be: an escalating conflict between the American public and its government. Without comprehensive surveillance authority reforms (including a journalist “shield law” and ironclad whistleblower protections for Intelligence Community contractors) that are verifiable and enforceable, that conflict will only continue.
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

Apple on trial: Were iTunes updates really an anti-consumer scheme? | Ars Technica - 0 views

arstechnica.com/...really-an-anti-consumer-scheme

apple trial itunes updates anti-consumer scheme DRM swindle ars

shared by Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 03 Dec 14 - No Cached
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 03 Dec 14
     
    "OAKLAND, Calif. - The Apple iTunes DRM trial underway in federal court here will come down to how jurors view certain code that Apple added to iTunes. The plaintiffs, representing a class of about 8 million consumers as well as large retailers, say it was anything but an "upgrade." They're seeking $351 million in damages."
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 03 Dec 14
     
    "OAKLAND, Calif. - The Apple iTunes DRM trial underway in federal court here will come down to how jurors view certain code that Apple added to iTunes. The plaintiffs, representing a class of about 8 million consumers as well as large retailers, say it was anything but an "upgrade." They're seeking $351 million in damages."
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

ISP Wants to Understand Technology Used to Track Pirates | TorrentFreak - 0 views

torrentfreak.com/y-used-to-track-pirates-141110

isp wants understand tricky technology track pirates sharers unfair law lawless

shared by Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 11 Nov 14 - No Cached
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 11 Nov 14
     
    " Andy on November 10, 2014 C: 25 Breaking Legal representatives for ISP iiNet say they want an anti-piracy tracking system put under the microscope. Hundreds of the Aussie service providers customers are at risk of being sent "speculative invoices" demanding cash for alleged infringements but iiNet definitely isn't going to give plaintiff Dallas Buyers Club an easy ride" [# ! Everyb@dy wants # ! … to #understand… # ! …why '#They' don't research for #adapting to the #times # ! instead of #chasing #citizens… # ! Too.]
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 11 Nov 14
     
    " Andy on November 10, 2014 C: 25 Breaking Legal representatives for ISP iiNet say they want an anti-piracy tracking system put under the microscope. Hundreds of the Aussie service providers customers are at risk of being sent "speculative invoices" demanding cash for alleged infringements but iiNet definitely isn't going to give plaintiff Dallas Buyers Club an easy ride"
Paul Merrell

Obama wants to help make your Internet faster and cheaper. This is his plan. - The Wash... - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...et-service-to-rival-large-isps

internet broadband U.S. Obama FCC state-preemption

shared by Paul Merrell on 15 Jan 15 - No Cached
  • Frustrated over the number of&nbsp;Internet providers that are available to you? If so, you're like many who are limited to just a handful of broadband companies. But now President Obama wants to change that, arguing that choice and competition are lacking in the U.S. broadband market. On Wednesday, Obama will unveil&nbsp;a series of measures aimed at making high-speed Web connections cheaper and more widely available to millions of Americans. The&nbsp;announcement will focus chiefly on efforts by cities to build their own alternatives to major Internet providers such as Comcast, Verizon or AT&amp;T —&nbsp;a public option for Internet access, you could say. He'll write to the Federal Communications Commission urging the agency to help neutralize&nbsp;laws, erected by states, that effectively protect large established Internet providers&nbsp;against the threat represented by&nbsp;cities that want to build and offer their own, municipal Internet service. He'll direct federal agencies to expand grants and loans for these projects and for smaller, rural Internet providers. And he'll draw attention to a new coalition of mayors from 50 cities who've committed to spurring choice in the broadband industry.
  • "When more companies compete for your broadband business, it means lower prices," Jeff Zients, director of Obama's National Economic Council, told reporters Tuesday. "Broadband is no longer a luxury. It's a necessity." The announcement highlights a growing chorus of&nbsp;small and mid-sized cities&nbsp;that say&nbsp;they've been left behind by some of the country's biggest Internet providers. In many of these places, incumbent companies have delayed network upgrades or offer what customers&nbsp;say is unsatisfactory service&nbsp;because it isn't cost-effective to build new infrastructure. Many cities, such as Cedar Falls, Iowa, have responded by&nbsp;building&nbsp;their own, publicly operated&nbsp;competitors. Obama will travel to Cedar Falls on Wednesday to roll out his initiative.
Paul Merrell

The Great SIM Heist: How Spies Stole the Keys to the Encryption Castle - 0 views

firstlook.org/...great-sim-heist

surveillance state NSA GCHQ SIM-card-keys mobile-devices decryption

shared by Paul Merrell on 20 Feb 15 - No Cached
  • AMERICAN AND BRITISH spies hacked into the internal computer network of the largest manufacturer of SIM cards in the world, stealing encryption keys used to protect the privacy of cellphone communications across the globe, according to top-secret documents provided to The Intercept by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden. The hack was perpetrated by a joint unit consisting of operatives from the NSA and its British counterpart Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ. The breach, detailed in a secret 2010 GCHQ document, gave the surveillance agencies the potential to secretly monitor a large portion of the world’s cellular communications, including both voice and data. The company targeted by the intelligence agencies, Gemalto, is a multinational firm incorporated in the Netherlands that makes the chips used in mobile phones and next-generation credit cards. Among its clients are AT&amp;T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint and some 450 wireless network providers around the world. The company operates in 85 countries and has more than 40 manufacturing facilities. One of its three global headquarters is in Austin, Texas and it has a large factory in Pennsylvania. In all, Gemalto produces some 2 billion SIM cards a year. Its motto is “Security to be Free.”
  • With these stolen encryption keys, intelligence agencies can monitor mobile communications without seeking or receiving approval from telecom companies and foreign governments. Possessing the keys also sidesteps the need to get a warrant or a wiretap, while leaving no trace on the wireless provider’s network that the communications were intercepted. Bulk key theft additionally enables the intelligence agencies to unlock any previously encrypted communications they had already intercepted, but did not yet have the ability to decrypt.
  • Leading privacy advocates and security experts say that the theft of encryption keys from major wireless network providers is tantamount to a thief obtaining the master ring of a building superintendent who holds the keys to every apartment. “Once you have the keys, decrypting traffic is trivial,” says Christopher Soghoian, the principal technologist for the American Civil Liberties Union. “The news of this key theft will send a shock wave through the security community.”
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • According to one secret GCHQ slide, the British intelligence agency penetrated Gemalto’s internal networks, planting malware on several computers, giving GCHQ secret access. We “believe we have their entire network,” the slide’s author boasted about the operation against Gemalto. Additionally, the spy agency targeted unnamed cellular companies’ core networks, giving it access to “sales staff machines for customer information and network engineers machines for network maps.” GCHQ also claimed the ability to manipulate the billing servers of cell companies to “suppress” charges in an effort to conceal the spy agency’s secret actions against an individual’s phone. Most significantly, GCHQ also penetrated “authentication servers,” allowing it to decrypt data and voice communications between a targeted individual’s phone and his or her&nbsp;telecom provider’s network. A note accompanying the slide asserted that the spy agency was “very happy with the data so far and [was] working through the vast quantity of product.”
  • The U.S. and British intelligence agencies pulled off the encryption key heist in great stealth, giving them the ability to intercept and decrypt communications without alerting the wireless network provider, the foreign government or the individual user that they have been targeted. “Gaining access to a database of keys is pretty much game over for cellular encryption,” says Matthew Green, a cryptography specialist at the Johns Hopkins Information Security Institute. The massive key theft is “bad news for phone security. Really bad news.”
  • Paul Merrell on 20 Feb 15
     
    Remember all those NSA claims that no evidence of their misbehavior has emerged? That one should never take wing again. Monitoring call content without the involvement of any court? Without a warrant? Without probable cause?  Was there even any Congressional authorization?  Wiretapping unequivocally requires a judicially-approved search warrant. It's going to be very interesting to learn the government's argument for this misconduct's legality. 
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

New Report Says How Much Advertising Is Going to Piracy Sites | Adweek - 1 views

www.adweek.com/...sing-going-piracy-sites-155770

report says much advertising piracy sites

shared by Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 22 Oct 14 - No Cached
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 22 Oct 14
     
    "In the longstanding fight to combat online piracy, there's been growing pressure on the advertisers whose ads appear on sites that steal copyrighted material. The Obama administration has called for private-sector actions to reduce piracy. The 4As and ANA have adopted best practices to keep their members' ads off such sites, and industry leaders have spoken forcefully on the subject. "
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 22 Oct 14
     
    "In the longstanding fight to combat online piracy, there's been growing pressure on the advertisers whose ads appear on sites that steal copyrighted material. The Obama administration has called for private-sector actions to reduce piracy. The 4As and ANA have adopted best practices to keep their members' ads off such sites, and industry leaders have spoken forcefully on the subject. "
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

International Day Against DRM is Wednesday, May 6th 2015 | Defective by Design - 0 views

www.defectivebydesign.org/dayagainstdrm

international day against DRM DefectiveByDesign.org for media accessing freedom web www May 6th 2015 again

shared by Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 12 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 12 Apr 15
     
    "On Wednesday, May 6th, 2015, activists across the world will come together to say no to Digital Restrictions Management. You can read about last year's actions here. Day Against DRM 2014 in Dhaka, Bangladesh See how you can get involved leading up to the Day, by planning an event or an individual action."
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 12 Apr 15
     
    "On Wednesday, May 6th, 2015, activists across the world will come together to say no to Digital Restrictions Management. You can read about last year's actions here. Day Against DRM 2014 in Dhaka, Bangladesh See how you can get involved leading up to the Day, by planning an event or an individual action."
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

The Linux desktop battle (and why it matters) - TechRepublic - 2 views

www.techrepublic.com/...ktop-battle-and-why-it-matters

linux desktop battle party why IT matters strong community despite proprietary press pamphlets

shared by Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 30 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 30 Mar 15
     
    Jack Wallen ponders the problem with the ever-lagging acceptance of the Linux desktop and poses a radical solution.
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 30 Mar 15
     
    "Jack Wallen ponders the problem with the ever-lagging acceptance of the Linux desktop and poses a radical solution. Linux desktop I have been using Ubuntu Unity for a very long time. In fact, I would say that this is, by far, the longest I've stuck with a single desktop interface. Period. That doesn't mean I don't stop to smell the desktop roses along the Linux path. In fact, I've often considered other desktops as a drop-in replacement for Unity. GNOME and Budgie have vied for my attention of late. Both are solid takes on the desktop that offer a minimalistic, modern look and feel (something I prefer) and help me get my work done with an efficiency other desktops can't match. What I see across the Linux landscape, however, often takes me by surprise. While Microsoft and Apple continue to push the idea of the user interface forward, a good amount of the Linux community seems bent on holding us in a perpetual state of "90s computing." Consider Xfce, Mate, and Cinnamon -- three very popular Linux desktop interfaces that work with one very common thread... not changing for the sake of change. Now, this can be considered a very admirable cause when it's put in place to ensure that user experience (UX) is as positive as possible. What this idea does, however, is deny the idea that change can affect an even more efficient and positive UX. When I spin up a distribution that makes use of Xfce, Mate, or Cinnamon, I find the environments work well and get the job done. At the same time, I feel as if the design of the desktops is trapped in the wrong era. At this point, you're certainly questioning the validity and path of this post. If the desktops work well and help you get the job done, what's wrong? It's all about perception. Let me offer you up a bit of perspective. The only reason Apple managed to rise from the ashes and become one of the single most powerful forces in technology is because they understood the concept of perception. They re-invented th
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 30 Mar 15
     
    Jack Wallen ponders the problem with the ever-lagging acceptance of the Linux desktop and poses a radical solution.
Paul Merrell

ISPs say the "massive cost" of Snooper's Charter will push up UK broadband bills | Ars ... - 0 views

arstechnica.co.uk/...ill-push-up-uk-broadband-bills

surveillance state UK ISPs cost Snooper's-Charter

shared by Paul Merrell on 14 Nov 15 - No Cached
  • How much extra will you have to pay for the privilege of being spied on?
  • UK ISPs have warned MPs that the costs of implementing the Investigatory Powers Bill (aka the Snooper's Charter) will be much greater than the £175 million the UK government has allotted for the task, and that broadband bills will need to rise as a result. Representatives from ISPs and software companies told the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee that the legislation greatly underestimates the "sheer quantity" of data generated by Internet users these days. They also pointed out that distinguishing content from metadata is a far harder task than the government seems to assume. Matthew Hare, the chief executive of ISP Gigaclear, said with "a typical 1 gigabit connection to someone's home, over 50 terabytes of data per year [are] passing over it. If you say that a proportion of that is going to be the communications data—the record of who you communicate with, when you communicate or what you communicate—there would be the most massive and enormous amount of data that in future an access provider would be expected to keep. The indiscriminate collection of mass data across effectively every user of the Internet in this country is going to have a massive cost."
  • Moreover, the larger the cache of stored data, the more worthwhile it will be for criminals and state-backed actors to gain access and download that highly-revealing personal information for fraud and blackmail. John Shaw, the vice president of product management at British security firm Sophos, told the MPs: "There would be a huge amount of very sensitive personal data that could be used by bad guys.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • The ISPs also challenged the government's breezy assumption that separating the data from the (equally revealing) metadata would be simple, not least because an Internet connection is typically being used for multiple services simultaneously, with data packets mixed together in a completely contingent way. Hare described a typical usage scenario for a teenager on their computer at home, where they are playing a game communicating with their friends using Steam; they are broadcasting the game using Twitch; and they may also be making a voice call at the same time too. "All those applications are running simultaneously," Hare said. "They are different applications using different servers with different services and different protocols. They are all running concurrently on that one machine." Even accessing a Web page is much more complicated than the government seems to believe, Hare pointed out. "As a webpage is loading, you will see that that webpage is made up of tens, or many tens, of individual sessions that have been created across the Internet just to load a single webpage. Bluntly, if you want to find out what someone is doing you need to be tracking all of that data all the time."
  • Hare raised another major issue. "If I was a software business ... I would be very worried that my customers would not buy my software any more if it had anything to do with security at all. I would be worried that a backdoor was built into the software by the [Investigatory Powers] Bill that would allow the UK government to find out what information was on that system at any point they wanted in the future." As Ars reported last&nbsp;week, the ability to demand that backdoors are added to systems, and a legal requirement not to reveal that fact under any circumstances, are two of the most contentious aspects of the new Investigatory Powers Bill. The latest comments from industry experts add to concerns that the latest version of the Snooper's Charter would inflict great harm on civil liberties in the UK, and also make security research well-nigh impossible here. To those fears can now be added undermining the UK software industry, as well as forcing the UK public to pay for the privilege of having their&nbsp;ISP carry out&nbsp;suspicionless surveillance.
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

Readers Say 'No' to Antivirus on Linux | FOSS Force - 0 views

fossforce.com/...s-say-no-to-antivirus-on-linux

readers say no antivirus Linux inherently safe cautious behavior foss force

shared by Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 06 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 06 Feb 16
     
    "FOSS Force Staff The FOSS Force Poll A few weeks back when Ken Starks wrote an anecdotal column on an experience with a false positive from Avast antivirus on GNU/Linux, we started thinking. We run antivirus on our LAMP servers with the intent of protecting poor suckers on Windows, but on our Linux desktops and laptops? Pretty much, no. Some of us had tried the open source ClamAV at one time or another, mainly out of curiosity, but none of us had stuck with it. To our knowledge, until Starks wrote his column none of us even knew anybody who had ever run proprietary AV on Linux boxes."
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

GNU.org Website Says Microsoft's Software Is Malware - 0 views

news.softpedia.com/...ftware-is-malware-496689.shtml

GNU.org website says microsoft Apple Amazon malware evil software

shared by Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 27 Nov 15 - No Cached
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 27 Nov 15
     
    "GNU.org has a category on its website named "Philosophy of the GNU Project," where the Microsoft software is described as malware, along with Apple and Amazon."
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 27 Nov 15
     
    "GNU.org has a category on its website named "Philosophy of the GNU Project," where the Microsoft software is described as malware, along with Apple and Amazon."
Paul Merrell

Apple could use Brooklyn case to pursue details about FBI iPhone hack: source | Reuters - 0 views

www.reuters.com/...apple-encryption-idUSKCN0WU1RF

surveillance state Apple FBI Brooklyn iPhone security

shared by Paul Merrell on 31 Mar 16 - No Cached
  • If the U.S. Department of Justice asks a New York court to force Apple Inc to unlock an iPhone, the technology company could push the government to reveal how it accessed the phone which belonged to a shooter in San Bernardino, a source familiar with the situation said.The Justice Department will disclose over the next two weeks whether it will continue with its bid to compel Apple to help access an iPhone in a Brooklyn drug case, according to a court filing on Tuesday.The Justice Department this week withdrew a similar request in California, saying it had succeeded in unlocking an iPhone used by one of the shooters involved in a rampage in San Bernardino in December without Apple's help.The legal dispute between the U.S. government and Apple has been a high-profile test of whether law enforcement should have access to encrypted phone data.
  • Apple, supported by most of the technology industry, says anything that helps authorities bypass security features will undermine security for all users. Government officials say that all kinds of criminal investigations will be crippled without access to phone data.Prosecutors have not said whether the San Bernardino technique would work for other seized iPhones, including the one at issue in Brooklyn. Should the Brooklyn case continue, Apple could pursue legal discovery that would potentially force the FBI to reveal what technique it used on the San Bernardino phone, the source said. A Justice Department representative did not have immediate comment.
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