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Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

Fix Copyright! | Help us Reform Copyright - 0 views

www.fixcopyright.eu

#Fixcopyright fix copyright EU europe culture participation knowledge action

shared by Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 10 Jun 16 - No Cached
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 10 Jun 16
     
    "01 DYSFUNCTIONAL & NOT FIT FOR THE DIGITAL WORLD Copyright reform is needed to adapt to the digital world we live in. Under the current system everything tends to fall under copyright unless it is covered by a specific exception in the law. The trouble is that these exceptions are narrow, specific and technologically outdated: the list was written in 2001! This was well before YouTube and Facebook were created. As a result, everyday habits of online users could be considered illegal today. A blogger linking to copyrighted content, a meme based on a copyrighted image, a video with some footage from an existing movie or a song: all of that could create issues for the user that posted them."
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 10 Jun 16
     
    "01 DYSFUNCTIONAL & NOT FIT FOR THE DIGITAL WORLD Copyright reform is needed to adapt to the digital world we live in. Under the current system everything tends to fall under copyright unless it is covered by a specific exception in the law. The trouble is that these exceptions are narrow, specific and technologically outdated: the list was written in 2001! This was well before YouTube and Facebook were created. As a result, everyday habits of online users could be considered illegal today. A blogger linking to copyrighted content, a meme based on a copyrighted image, a video with some footage from an existing movie or a song: all of that could create issues for the user that posted them."
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

How Open Source Is Becoming the Core of All Software | FOSS Force - 1 views

fossforce.com/...open-source-core-software

open source become core all software

shared by Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 19 Jul 16 - No Cached
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 19 Jul 16
     
    "Phil Shapiro The open source development model is taking over the enterprise. Two companies that were late coming to the OSS table but which now contribute much code are Cisco and Capital One."
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 19 Jul 16
     
    "Phil Shapiro The open source development model is taking over the enterprise. Two companies that were late coming to the OSS table but which now contribute much code are Cisco and Capital One."
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

Doing for User Space What We Did for Kernel Space | Linux Journal - 0 views

www.linuxjournal.com/...space-what-we-did-kernel-space

Linux kernel user space spaces tech open source free software technology

shared by Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 08 Jul 16 - No Cached
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 08 Jul 16
     
    "Jul 06, 2016 By Doc Searls in Community Identity kernel Privacy I believe the best and worst thing about Linux is its hard distinction between kernel space and user space. Without that distinction, Linux never would have become the most leveraged operating system in the world. Today, Linux has the largest range of uses for the largest number of users-most of whom have no idea they are using Linux when they search for something on Google or poke at their Android phones. Even Apple stuff wouldn't be what it is (for example, using BSD in its computers) were it not for Linux's success. "
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 08 Jul 16
     
    "Jul 06, 2016 By Doc Searls in Community Identity kernel Privacy I believe the best and worst thing about Linux is its hard distinction between kernel space and user space. Without that distinction, Linux never would have become the most leveraged operating system in the world. Today, Linux has the largest range of uses for the largest number of users-most of whom have no idea they are using Linux when they search for something on Google or poke at their Android phones. Even Apple stuff wouldn't be what it is (for example, using BSD in its computers) were it not for Linux's success. "
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

Massive EU data protection overhaul finally approved | Ars Technica UK - 0 views

arstechnica.co.uk/...pr-data-protection-law-details

EU data protection overhaul approved

shared by Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 15 Apr 16 - No Cached
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 15 Apr 16
     
    "The European Parliament today voted in favour of major reforms to data protection in the EU, first put forward in January 2012 as a replacement for the current rules, which were drawn up in 1995. The new law is done and dusted and will come into action in April 2018."
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 15 Apr 16
     
    "The European Parliament today voted in favour of major reforms to data protection in the EU, first put forward in January 2012 as a replacement for the current rules, which were drawn up in 1995. The new law is done and dusted and will come into action in April 2018."
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

10 Tips to Push Your Git Skills to the Next Level - 1 views

www.sitepoint.com/10-tips-git-next-level

tips push git skills next level tutorial

shared by Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 21 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 21 Jun 14
     
    " Published June 17, 2014 Tweet Subscribe Recently we published a couple of tutorials to get you familiar with Git basics and using Git in a team environment. The commands that we discussed were about enough to help a developer survive in the Git world. In this post, we will try to explore how to manage your time effectively and make full use of the features that Git provides."
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 21 Jun 14
     
    " Published June 17, 2014 Tweet Subscribe Recently we published a couple of tutorials to get you familiar with Git basics and using Git in a team environment. The commands that we discussed were about enough to help a developer survive in the Git world. In this post, we will try to explore how to manage your time effectively and make full use of the features that Git provides."
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

BitTorrent Wants to Become RIAA Certified Music Service | TorrentFreak - 0 views

torrentfreak.com/rtification-music-sales-140930

bittorrent riaa certified music paid service $6 a CD piece industry evolution

shared by Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 02 Oct 14 - No Cached
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 02 Oct 14
     
    "Last Friday Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke released his new solo album via BitTorrent. A few tracks were made available for free, but those who want the full album are charged $6. "
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 02 Oct 14
     
    "Last Friday Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke released his new solo album via BitTorrent. A few tracks were made available for free, but those who want the full album are charged $6. "
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

Awful Spanish Copyright Law May Be Stalled Waiting For EU Court Ruling On Plans To Chan... - 0 views

www.techdirt.com

more critics international spanish copyright law

shared by Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 26 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 26 Sep 14
     
    "from the stopping-good-ideas,-stopping-bad-ideas dept Techdirt has written about Spain's new copyright law a couple of times. There, we concentrated on the "Google tax" that threatens the digital commons and open access in that country. But alongside this extremely foolish idea, there was another good one: getting rid of the anachronistic levy on recording devices that was supposed to "compensate" for private copying (as if any such compensation were needed), and paying collecting societies directly out of Spain's state budget. "
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 26 Sep 14
     
    "from the stopping-good-ideas,-stopping-bad-ideas dept Techdirt has written about Spain's new copyright law a couple of times. There, we concentrated on the "Google tax" that threatens the digital commons and open access in that country. But alongside this extremely foolish idea, there was another good one: getting rid of the anachronistic levy on recording devices that was supposed to "compensate" for private copying (as if any such compensation were needed), and paying collecting societies directly out of Spain's state budget. "
Paul Merrell

Hackers Prove Fingerprints Are Not Secure, Now What? | nsnbc international - 0 views

nsnbc.me/...prints-are-not-secure-now-what

surveillance state OPM-computer-breach fingerprints iPhone Galaxy Android

shared by Paul Merrell on 24 Sep 15 - No Cached
  • The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) recently revealed that an estimated 5.6 million government employees were affected by the hack; and not 1.1 million as previously assumed.
  • Samuel Schumach, spokesman for the OPM, said: “As part of the government’s ongoing work to notify individuals affected by the theft of background investigation records, the Office of Personnel Management and the Department of Defense have been analyzing impacted data to verify its quality and completeness. Of the 21.5 million individuals whose Social Security Numbers and other sensitive information were impacted by the breach, the subset of individuals whose fingerprints have been stolen has increased from a total of approximately 1.1 million to approximately 5.6 million.” This endeavor expended the use of the Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the National Security Agency (NSA), and the Pentagon. Schumer added that “if, in the future, new means are developed to misuse the fingerprint data, the government will provide additional information to individuals whose fingerprints may have been stolen in this breach.” However, we do not need to wait for the future for fingerprint data to be misused and coveted by hackers.
  • Look no further than the security flaws in Samsung’s new Galaxy 5 smartphone as was demonstrated by researchers at Security Research Labs (SRL) showing how fingerprints, iris scans and other biometric identifiers could be fabricated and yet authenticated by the Apple Touch ID fingerprints scanner. The shocking part of this demonstration is that this hack was achieved less than 2 days after the technology was released to the public by Apple. Ben Schlabs, researcher for SRL explained: “We expected we’d be able to spoof the S5’s Finger Scanner, but I hoped it would at least be a challenge. The S5 Finger Scanner feature offers nothing new except—because of the way it is implemented in this Android device—slightly higher risk than that already posed by previous devices.” Schlabs and other researchers discovered that “the S5 has no mechanism requiring a password when encountering a large number of incorrect finger swipes.” By rebotting the smartphone, Schlabs could force “the handset to accept an unlimited number of incorrect swipes without requiring users to enter a password [and] the S5 fingerprint authenticator [could] be associated with sensitive banking or payment apps such as PayPal.”
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Schlab said: “Perhaps most concerning is that Samsung does not seem to have learned from what others have done less poorly. Not only is it possible to spoof the fingerprint authentication even after the device has been turned off, but the implementation also allows for seemingly unlimited authentication attempts without ever requiring a password. Incorporation of fingerprint authentication into highly sensitive apps such as PayPal gives a would-be attacker an even greater incentive to learn the simple skill of fingerprint spoofing.” Last year Hackers from the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) proved Apple wrong when the corporation insisted that their new iPhone 5S fingerprint sensor is “a convenient and highly secure way to access your phone.” CCC stated that it is as easy as stealing a fingerprint from a drinking glass – and anyone can do it.
Paul Merrell

High Court Rules UK's Surveillance Powers Violate Human Rights - 0 views

www.tomshardware.com/...ourt-dripa-unlawful,29615.html

surveillance state GCHQ UK litigation

shared by Paul Merrell on 20 Jul 15 - No Cached
  • UK's High Court found the rushed Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (DRIPA) to be illegal under the European Convention on Human Rights and EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, both of which require respect for private and family life, as well as protection of personal data in the case of the latter. DRIPA was challenged by two members of Parliament (MPs), Labor's Tom Watson and the Conservative David Davis, who argued that the surveillance of communications wasn't limited to serious crimes, that individual notices for data collection were kept secret, and that no provision existed to protect those who need professional confidentiality, such as lawyers and journalists. DRIPA was pushed through in three days last year after the European Court of Justice ruled that the EU data retention powers were disproportionate, which invalidated the previous data retention law in the UK. The UK High Court also ruled that sections 1 and 2 of DRIPA were unlawful based on the fact that they fail to provide precise policies to ensure that data is only accessed for the purpose of investigating serious crimes. Another major point against DRIPA was that it didn't require judicial approval, which could limit access to only the data that is strictly necessary for investigations.
  • DRIPA passed in only three days, but the Court allowed it to continue for another nine months, to give the UK government enough time to draft new legislation. Although this almost doubles the time in which this law will exist, it might be better in the long term, as it gives the members of Parliament enough time to debate its successor, without having to rush yet another law fearing that the government's surveillance powers will expire. This court ruling arrived at the right time, as the UK government is currently preparing the draft for the Investigative Powers Bill (also called Snooper's Charter by many), which further expands the government's surveillance powers and may even request encryption backdoors. It also joins other recent reviews of the government's surveillance laws that called for much stricter oversight done by judges rather than the government's own members. "Campaigners, MPs across the political spectrum, the Government's own reviewer of terrorism legislation are all calling for judicial oversight and clearer safeguards," said James Welch, Legal Director for Liberty, a human rights organization.
  • Paul Merrell on 20 Jul 15
     
    The Dark State takes another hit.
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

Git 2.4.5 Out Now with Lots of Under-the-Hood Improvements - Softpedia - 0 views

news.softpedia.com/...hood-improvements-485343.shtml

git lots improvements linux GNU_Linux code repo repositories

shared by Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 30 Jun 15 - No Cached
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 30 Jun 15
     
    "Now available for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X The wonderful developers behind Git, the world's most popular open-source distributed version control system, were more than happy to announce the immediate availability for download of Git 2.4.5."
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 30 Jun 15
     
    "Now available for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X The wonderful developers behind Git, the world's most popular open-source distributed version control system, were more than happy to announce the immediate availability for download of Git 2.4.5."
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

USA Freedom Act Passes: What We Celebrate, What We Mourn, and Where We Go Fro... - 0 views

www.eff.org/...-we-mourn-and-where-we-go-here

shared by Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 04 Jun 15 - No Cached
  • The Senate passed the USA Freedom Act today by 67-32, marking the first time in over thirty years that both houses of Congress have approved a bill placing real restrictions and oversight on the National Security Agency’s surveillance powers. The weakening amendments to the legislation proposed by NSA defender Senate Majority Mitch McConnell were defeated, and we have every reason to believe that President Obama will sign USA Freedom into law. Technology users everywhere should celebrate, knowing that the NSA will be a little more hampered in its surveillance overreach, and both the NSA and the FISA court will be more transparent and accountable than it was before the USA Freedom Act. It’s no secret that we wanted more. In the wake of the damning evidence of surveillance abuses disclosed by Edward Snowden, Congress had an opportunity to champion comprehensive surveillance reform and undertake a thorough investigation, like it did with the Church Committee. Congress could have tried to completely end mass surveillance and taken numerous other steps to rein in the NSA and FBI. This bill was the result of compromise and strong leadership by Sens. Patrick Leahy and Mike Lee and Reps. Robert Goodlatte, Jim Sensenbrenner, and John Conyers. It’s not the bill EFF would have written, and in light of the Second Circuit's thoughtful opinion, we withdrew our support from the bill in an effort to spur Congress to strengthen some of its privacy protections and out of concern about language added to the bill at the behest of the intelligence community. Even so, we’re celebrating. We’re celebrating because, however small, this bill marks a day that some said could never happen—a day when the NSA saw its surveillance power reduced by Congress. And we’re hoping that this could be a turning point in the fight to rein in the NSA.
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 04 Jun 15
     
    [The Senate passed the USA Freedom Act today by 67-32, marking the first time in over thirty years that both houses of Congress have approved a bill placing real restrictions and oversight on the National Security Agency's surveillance powers. The weakening amendments to the legislation proposed by NSA defender Senate Majority Mitch McConnell were defeated, and we have every reason to believe that President Obama will sign USA Freedom into law. Technology users everywhere should celebrate, knowing that the NSA will be a little more hampered in its surveillance overreach, and both the NSA and the FISA court will be more transparent and accountable than it was before the USA Freedom Act. ...]
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

Creators Must Move Beyond Suing the Audience | Electronic Frontier Foundation - 0 views

www.eff.org/...ust-move-beyond-suing-audience

trust Culture Freedom stop suing promote sharing as free promotion for all creators

shared by Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 29 May 10 - Cached
  • Paley avoided traditional film distribution deals and instead released the film under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license, writing: You don't need my permission to copy, share, publish, archive, show, sell, broadcast, or remix Sita Sings the Blues. Conventional wisdom urges me to demand payment for every use of the film, but then how would people without money get to see it? How widely would the film be disseminated if it were limited by permission and fees? Control offers a false sense of security. The only real security I have is trusting you, trusting culture, and trusting freedom
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 29 May 10
     
    [...Paley avoided traditional film distribution deals and instead released the film under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license, writing: You don't need my permission to copy, share, publish, archive, show, sell, broadcast, or remix Sita Sings the Blues. Conventional wisdom urges me to demand payment for every use of the film, but then how would people without money get to see it? How widely would the film be disseminated if it were limited by permission and fees? Control offers a false sense of security. The only real security I have is trusting you, trusting culture, and trusting freedom]
Paul Merrell

Reset The Net - Privacy Pack - 1 views

pack.resetthenet.org

surveillance state digital-privacy NSA-reform Reset-the-Net

shared by Paul Merrell on 03 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • This June 5th, I pledge to take strong steps to protect my freedom from government mass surveillance. I expect the services I use to do the same.
  • Fight for the Future and Center for Rights will contact you about future campaigns. Privacy Policy
  • Paul Merrell on 03 Jun 14
     
    I wound up joining this campaign at the urging of the ACLU after checking the Privacy Policy. The Reset the Net campaign seems to be endorsed by a lot of change-oriented groups, from the ACLU to Greenpeac to the Pirate Party. A fair number of groups with a Progressive agenda, but certainly not limited to them. The right answer to that situation is to urge other groups to endorse, not to avoid the campaign. Single-issue coalition-building is all about focusing on an area of agreement rather than worrying about who you are rubbing elbows with.  I have been looking for a a bipartisan group that's tackling government surveillance issues via mass actions but has no corporate sponsors. This might be the one. The reason: Corporate types like Google have no incentive to really butt heads with the government voyeurs. They are themselves engaged in massive surveillance of their users and certainly will not carry the battle for digital privacy over to the private sector. But this *is* a battle over digital privacy and legally defining user privacy rights in the private sector is just as important as cutting back on government surveillance. As we have learned through the Snowden disclosures, what the private internet companies have, the NSA can and does get.  The big internet services successfully pushed in the U.S. for authorization to publish more numbers about how many times they pass private data to the government, but went no farther. They wanted to be able to say they did something, but there's a revolving door of staffers between NSA and the big internet companies and the internet service companies' data is an open book to the NSA.   The big internet services are not champions of their users' privacy. If they were, they would be featuring end-to-end encryption with encryption keys unique to each user and unknown to the companies.  Like some startups in Europe are doing. E.g., the Wuala.com filesync service in Switzerland (first 5 GB of storage free). Compare tha
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 04 Jun 14
     
    "This June 5th, I pledge to take strong steps to protect my freedom from government mass surveillance. I expect the services I use to do the same."
  • Paul Merrell on 07 Jun 14
     
    I wound up joining this campaign at the urging of the ACLU after checking the Privacy Policy. The Reset the Net campaign seems to be endorsed by a lot of change-oriented groups, from the ACLU to Greenpeac to the Pirate Party. A fair number of groups with a Progressive agenda, but certainly not limited to them. The right answer to that situation is to urge other groups to endorse, not to avoid the campaign. Single-issue coalition-building is all about focusing on an area of agreement rather than worrying about who you are rubbing elbows with.  I have been looking for a a bipartisan group that's tackling government surveillance issues via mass actions but has no corporate sponsors. This might be the one. The reason: Corporate types like Google have no incentive to really butt heads with the government voyeurs. They are themselves engaged in massive surveillance of their users and certainly will not carry the battle for digital privacy over to the private sector. But this *is* a battle over digital privacy and legally defining user privacy rights in the private sector is just as important as cutting back on government surveillance. As we have learned through the Snowden disclosures, what the private internet companies have, the NSA can and does get.  The big internet services successfully pushed in the U.S. for authorization to publish more numbers about how many times they pass private data to the government, but went no farther. They wanted to be able to say they did something, but there's a revolving door of staffers between NSA and the big internet companies and the internet service companies' data is an open book to the NSA.   The big internet services are not champions of their users' privacy. If they were, they would be featuring end-to-end encryption with encryption keys unique to each user and unknown to the companies.  Like some startups in Europe are doing. E.g., the Wuala.com filesync service in Switzerland (first 5 GB of storage free). Com
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

New Year's Message: Change, Innovation And Optimism, Despite Challenges | Techdirt - 0 views

www.techdirt.com/...imism-despite-challenges.shtml

innovation challenges optimism despite politics laws

shared by Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 03 Jan 15 - No Cached
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 03 Jan 15
     
    "so happy and optimistic despite constantly writing about negative things that were happening -- people trying to block innovation, politicians passing crazy laws, judges making bad rulings, etc. As I pointed out then, I actually found it rather easy to stay happy because I had seen how far we've come over the years since Techdirt began, way back in 1997. I had seen how much innovation had happened in spite of attempts to stop it. "
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 03 Jan 15
     
    "so happy and optimistic despite constantly writing about negative things that were happening -- people trying to block innovation, politicians passing crazy laws, judges making bad rulings, etc. As I pointed out then, I actually found it rather easy to stay happy because I had seen how far we've come over the years since Techdirt began, way back in 1997. I had seen how much innovation had happened in spite of attempts to stop it. "
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

Best of open govenment on Opensource.com this year | Opensource.com - 1 views

opensource.com/...-review-open-source-government

opensource open source government open government technology society democracy

shared by Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 31 Dec 14 - No Cached
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 31 Dec 14
     
    "As I reflect on another year of open source in government stories, I took a look back at the articles we published on Opensource.com this year to see if there were any noticeable commonalities."
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 31 Dec 14
     
    "As I reflect on another year of open source in government stories, I took a look back at the articles we published on Opensource.com this year to see if there were any noticeable commonalities."
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

Why is everyone hating on operating systems? | Opensource.com - 0 views

opensource.com/...lightning-talks-brian-proffitt

operating syatems haterd opensource.com love containers virtualization interaction

shared by Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 22 Dec 14 - No Cached
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 22 Dec 14
     
    All Things Open 2014 lightning talk with Brian Proffitt "In the beginning, there were operating systems. Computers have changed, evolved, and grown ever more powerful. But the operating system is still underlying everything, and it's not going anywhere."
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 22 Dec 14
     
    All Things Open 2014 lightning talk with Brian Proffitt "In the beginning, there were operating systems. Computers have changed, evolved, and grown ever more powerful. But the operating system is still underlying everything, and it's not going anywhere."
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

Monkey selfie, aboriginal language among Wikipedia copyright takedown requests | ITworld - 0 views

www.itworld.com/...ia-copyright-takedown-requests

copyright takedown notices abuse money selfie wikimedia wikipedia monkey

shared by Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 09 Aug 14 - No Cached
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 09 Aug 14
     
    [# ! Wonder HOW the Pic was 'leaked' to wikimedia...] "A selfie taken by a black macaque monkey and an entire aboriginal language were asked to be removed from Wikipedia by people who claimed to have the copyrights to them, the Wikimedia Foundation said in its first transparency report."
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 09 Aug 14
     
    [# ! Wonder HOW the Pic was 'leaked' to wikimedia...] "A selfie taken by a black macaque monkey and an entire aboriginal language were asked to be removed from Wikipedia by people who claimed to have the copyrights to them, the Wikimedia Foundation said in its first transparency report."
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

Why Kim Dotcom hasn't been extradited 3 years after the US smashed Megaupload | Ars Tec... - 0 views

arstechnica.com/...fter-the-us-smashed-megaupload

kim Dotcom megaupload extradition not happens Intellectual Property power politics over culture flow

shared by Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 21 Jan 15 - No Cached
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 21 Jan 15
     
    "Why Kim Dotcom hasn't been extradited 3 years after the US smashed Megaupload An extradition hearing is set for June 2015. Based on history, don't hold your breath. by Cyrus Farivar - Jan 18, 2015 10:30 pm UTC Share Tweet 37 Kim Dotcom made his initial play for the Billboard charts in late 2011. Kim Dotcom has never been shy. And in December 2011, roughly a month before things for Dotcom were set to drastically change, he still oozed with bravado: Dotcom released a song ("The Megaupload Song") in conjunction with producer Printz Board. It featured a number of major pop stars-including the likes of Kanye West, Jamie Foxx, and Serena Williams-all singing that they "love Megaupload."" [ # ! this is not an #IntellectualProperty #enforcement #issue, # ! it is a bunch of #governments (& friend companies) saying # ! #citizens that #information & #culture belong to '#Them'... # ! ;/ # ! ... and this doesn't work this way. # ! :) ]
  • Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 21 Jan 15
     
    " Why Kim Dotcom hasn't been extradited 3 years after the US smashed Megaupload An extradition hearing is set for June 2015. Based on history, don't hold your breath. by Cyrus Farivar - Jan 18, 2015 10:30 pm UTC Share Tweet 37 Kim Dotcom made his initial play for the Billboard charts in late 2011. Kim Dotcom has never been shy. And in December 2011, roughly a month before things for Dotcom were set to drastically change, he still oozed with bravado: Dotcom released a song ("The Megaupload Song") in conjunction with producer Printz Board. It featured a number of major pop stars-including the likes of Kanye West, Jamie Foxx, and Serena Williams-all singing that they "love Megaupload.""
Paul Merrell

FBI Flouts Obama Directive to Limit Gag Orders on National Security Letters - The Inter... - 0 views

firstlook.org/...ders-national-security-letters

surveillance state FBI NSLs litigation 1st Amendment civil-liberties

shared by Paul Merrell on 24 Feb 15 - No Cached
  • Despite the post-Snowden spotlight on mass surveillance, the intelligence community’s easiest end-run around the Fourth Amendment since 2001 has been something called a National Security Letter. FBI agents can demand that an Internet service provider, telephone company or financial institution turn over its records on any number of people — without any judicial review whatsoever — simply by writing a letter that says the information is needed for national security purposes. The FBI at one point was cranking out over 50,000 such letters a year; by the latest count, it still issues about 60 a day. The letters look like this:
  • Recipients are legally required to comply — but it doesn’t stop there. They also aren’t allowed to mention the order to anyone, least of all the person whose data is being searched. Ever. That’s because National Security Letters almost always come with eternal gag orders. Here’s that part:
  • That means the NSL process utterly disregards the First Amendment as well. More than a year ago, President Obama announced that he was ordering the Justice Department to terminate gag orders “within a fixed time unless the government demonstrates a real need for further secrecy.” And on Feb. 3, when the Office of the Director of National Intelligence announced a handful of baby steps resulting from its “comprehensive effort to examine and enhance [its] privacy and civil liberty protections” one of the most concrete was — finally — to cap the gag orders: In response to the President’s new direction, the FBI will now presumptively terminate National Security Letter nondisclosure orders at the earlier of three years after the opening of a fully predicated investigation or the investigation’s close. Continued nondisclosures orders beyond this period are permitted only if a Special Agent in Charge or a Deputy Assistant Director determines that the statutory standards for nondisclosure continue to be satisfied and that the case agent has justified, in writing, why continued nondisclosure is appropriate.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Despite the use of the word “now” in that first sentence, however, the FBI has yet to do any such thing. It has not announced any such change, nor explained how it will implement it, or when. Media inquiries were greeted with stalling and, finally, a no comment — ostensibly on advice of legal counsel. “There is pending litigation that deals with a lot of the same questions you’re asking, out of the Ninth Circuit,” FBI spokesman Chris Allen told me. “So for now, we’ll just have to decline to comment.” FBI lawyers are working on a court filing for that case, and “it will address” the new policy, he said. He would not say when to expect it.
  • There is indeed a significant case currently before the federal appeals court in San Francisco. Oral arguments were in October. A decision could come any time. But in that case, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which is representing two unnamed communications companies that received NSLs, is calling for the entire NSL statute to be thrown out as unconstitutional — not for a tweak to the gag. And it has a March 2013 district court ruling in its favor. “The gag is a prior restraint under the First Amendment, and prior restraints have to meet an extremely high burden,” said Andrew Crocker, a legal fellow at EFF. That means going to court and meeting the burden of proof — not just signing a letter. Or as the Cato Institute’s Julian Sanchez put it, “To have such a low bar for denying persons or companies the right to speak about government orders they have been served with is anathema. And it is not very good for accountability.”
  • In a separate case, a wide range of media companies (including First Look Media, the non-profit digital media venture that produces The Intercept) are supporting a lawsuit filed by Twitter, demanding the right to say specifically how many NSLs it has received. But simply releasing companies from a gag doesn’t assure the kind of accountability that privacy advocates are saying is required by the Constitution. “What the public has to remember is a NSL is asking for your information, but it’s not asking it from you,” said Michael German, a former FBI agent who is now a fellow with the Brennan Center for Justice. “The vast majority of these things go to the very large telecommunications and financial companies who have a large stake in maintaining a good relationship with the government because they’re heavily regulated entities.”
  • So, German said, “the number of NSLs that would be exposed as a result of the release of the gag order is probably very few. The person whose records are being obtained is the one who should receive some notification.” A time limit on gags going forward also raises the question of whether past gag orders will now be withdrawn. “Obviously there are at this point literally hundreds of thousands of National Security Letters that are more than three years old,” said Sanchez. Individual review is therefore unlikely, but there ought to be some recourse, he said. And the further back you go, “it becomes increasingly implausible that a significant percentage of those are going to entail some dire national security risk.” The NSL program has a troubled history. The absolute secrecy of the program and resulting lack of accountability led to systemic abuse as documented by repeated inspector-general investigations, including improperly authorized NSLs, factual misstatements in the NSLs, improper requests under NSL statutes, requests for information based on First Amendment protected activity, “after-the-fact” blanket NSLs to “cover” illegal requests, and hundreds of NSLs for “community of interest” or “calling circle” information without any determination that the telephone numbers were relevant to authorized national security investigations.
  • Obama’s own hand-selected “Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies” recommended in December 2013 that NSLs should only be issued after judicial review — just like warrants — and that any gag should end within 180 days barring judicial re-approval. But FBI director James Comey objected to the idea, calling NSLs “a very important tool that is essential to the work we do.” His argument evidently prevailed with Obama.
  • NSLs have managed to stay largely under the American public’s radar. But, Crocker says, “pretty much every time I bring it up and give the thumbnail, people are shocked. Then you go into how many are issued every year, and they go crazy.” Want to send me your old NSL and see if we can set a new precedent? Here’s how to reach me. And here’s how to leak to me.
Paul Merrell

ISPs take GCHQ to court in UK over mass surveillance | World news | theguardian.com - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...rveillance-privacy-court-claim

surveillance state GCHQ litigation ISPs NSA-blowback

shared by Paul Merrell on 02 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • Internet service providers from around the world are lodging formal complaints against the UK government's monitoring service, GCHQ, alleging that it uses "malicious software" to break into their networks.The claims from seven organisations based in six countries – the UK, Netherlands, US, South Korea, Germany and Zimbabwe – will add to international pressure on the British government following Edward Snowden's revelations about mass surveillance of the internet by UK and US intelligence agencies.The claims are being filed with the investigatory powers tribunal (IPT), the court in London that assesses complaints about the agencies' activities and misuse of surveillance by government organisations. Most of its hearings are held at least partially in secret.
  • The IPT is already considering a number of related submissions. Later this month it will investigate complaints by human rights groups about the way social media sites have been targeted by GCHQ.The government has defended the security services, pointing out that online searches are often routed overseas and those deemed "external communications" can be monitored without the need for an individual warrant. Critics say that such a legal interpretation sidesteps the need for traditional intercept safeguards.The latest claim is against both GCHQ, located near Cheltenham, and the Foreign Office. It is based on articles published earlier this year in the German magazine Der Spiegel. That report alleged that GCHQ had carried out an attack, codenamed Operation Socialist, on the Belgian telecoms group, Belgacom, targeting individual employees with "malware (malicious software)".One of the techniques was a "man in the middle" attack, which, according to the documents filed at the IPT, bypasses modern encryption software and "operates by interposing the attacker [GCHQ] between two computers that believe that they are securely communicating with each other. In fact, each is communicating with GCHQ, who collect the communications, as well as relaying them in the hope that the interference will be undetected."The complaint alleges that the attacks were a breach of the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and an interference with the privacy rights of the employees under the European convention of human rights.
  • The organisations targeted, the submission states, were all "responsible and professional internet service providers". The claimants are: GreenNet Ltd, based in the UK, Riseup Networks in Seattle, Mango Email Service in Zimbabwe, Jinbonet in South Korea, Greenhost in the Netherlands, May First/People Link in New York and the Chaos Computer Club in Hamburg.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Among the programs said to have been operating were Turbine, which automates the injection of data and can infect millions of machines and Warrior Pride, which enables microphones on iPhones and Android devices to be remotely activated.
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