Links

And now for the news. SOPA / PIPA / ACTA seem to have calmed down somewhat, but I suspect that they’ve just been driven underground a bit and that we’ll see some new form of them soon. We’re still heavy on copyright / patent this week, but I’m glad that most of the furor has died down. Privacy is always going to be a large section here, but this week it’s some new revelations about companies spying on smart-phone users, so at least have a peruse of the section. And, if you don’t read any of the rest, please do read How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did – I’ve spoken about the value of data mining before, but this article really explains what it’s all about and why it’s a bit creepy.

Censorship:

1. EFF Unveils New Project: Bloggers Under Fire    13 February 2012, 8:54 am
2. “Interpol is meant to be tackle serious crime, not act as the little helper for régimes that want to kill journalists”    13 February 2012, 10:19 am
3. Members of UK Parliament Recommend Censoring Online Extremism    15 February 2012, 12:44 pm
4. Spy Tech Companies & Their Authoritarian Customers, Part I: FinFisher And Amesys    16 February 2012, 12:30 am
5. Iranian Web Programmer’s Death Sentence to Be Carried Out Any Moment    16 February 2012, 9:33 am
6. Thailand – Website editor’s trial resumes, court hears defence witnesses    17 February 2012, 6:41 am

I think that what’s interesting to me about the face of censorship today is that it’s increasingly facilitated by the use of advanced technology and that it becomes easier and easier for governments to implement as our world becomes increasingly dependent upon electronic communication over an easily – surveillable message-transport infrastructure. In the past, where someone may have had a limited reach with their seditious, hand-printed tracts, today electronic communications let’s the whole world listen … and those who are interested include people who quite easily can track down the person communicating, whereas a hand-printed screed might have taken many days of effort to track back to the source. I suppose what bothers me is not that people have increasing reach with their communications – that’s as it should be – but that censorship and privacy-violations are all that much easier.

Cloud Computing:

1. Feds Seize $50 Million in Megaupload Assets, Lodge New Charges    17 February 2012, 2:34 pm
2. Additional charges for Megaupload in US case    17 February 2012, 10:53 pm

Still more with MegaUpload – and now it appears that those whose files were confiscated can’t really expect to get them back. Still, I guess we’ll see where it ends up. I still find it odd that the creators of sharing software can be hauled off to a foreign country (they’re from New Zealand, not the US) to stand trial for other people using their software to share copyrighted material. There really must be something wrong with that, surely.

Comics:

1. Playmobil Security Check Point    13 February 2012, 1:32 pm
2. wasting my tax dollars on a poor kid    15 February 2012, 1:00 am

Perhaps we’ll call this the “dark humor” section instead of “comics” from here on out. Probably better, actually.

Copyright / Patent:

1. IPads being confiscated in China after trademark loss to Proview    13 February 2012, 4:36 am
2. Software Patents are Self-Defeating    14 February 2012, 9:20 am
3. AP Sues Aggregator Over ‘Parasitic Business Model’    14 February 2012, 1:51 pm
4. Why the Patent System Doesn’t Play Well with Software: If Eolas Went the Other Way    15 February 2012, 11:26 am
5. Disney’s Marvel uses copyright to crush already broke Ghost Rider creator    15 February 2012, 11:32 am
6. MP3 Reseller Accuses Capitol Records of Sabotage    15 February 2012, 3:36 pm
7. Jotform domain seized by US due to user generated content    16 February 2012, 9:39 am
8. UK Police: download a file, go to jail for 10 years and pay an “unlimited” fine    16 February 2012, 9:40 am
9. EFF promising intensified fight against bogus software patents    16 February 2012, 9:50 am
10. UK seizes rnbxclusive.com, owners arrested, website visitors threatened    16 February 2012, 9:57 am
11. Secret Service Seizes JotForm.com, Nuking Millions of Online Forms (Updated)    16 February 2012, 3:03 pm
12. Apple wins over Motorola in ‘slide-to-unlock’ ruling    17 February 2012, 1:06 am
13. Beyonce, Jay-Z move to trademark Blue Ivy    17 February 2012, 10:43 am
14. Court Overturns Conviction of Ex-Goldman Programmer    17 February 2012, 10:50 am
15. How we know piracy isn’t an issue: media companies have yet to change    17 February 2012, 10:53 am
16. EU Court of Justice: Social Networks Can’t Be Forced to Monitor and Filter to Prevent Copyright Infringement    17 February 2012, 3:23 pm
17. Goldman Sachs Code-Theft Conviction Reversed    17 February 2012, 3:46 pm
18. Florida Judge Halts 27 Copyright Troll Cases—Attorney Caught Practicing Law Without A License?    17 February 2012, 5:18 pm
19. Ex-Goldman Sachs employee acquitted on appeal for “stealing” source code    19 February 2012, 3:25 am
20. Oracle v. Google: “the value of this case keeps getting smaller and smaller”    19 February 2012, 9:35 am

There are some strange ones (link 13 – media celebrities copyrighting their kid’s bizarre name) and some really interesting ones. Links 7 and 11 are about the siezure of domain JotForm.com – a place which lets you make “contact us” forms for your websites, and which hosts more than a million forms for all sorts of sites. 14, 17, and 19 are about a programmer who’s been accused of stealing source code and who has now been released on appeal – something I find rather heartening. Link 16 makes me quite happy, as, in short, it means that media companies can’t force companies to surveil users of their software … at least, they can’t in Europe, and I really wonder how this will play out in light of the MegaUpload thing going forward in the US (see the cloud computing section, above). Link 1 makes me snicker: somebody in China already owned the name “iPad” and now Apple’s devices are being confiscated there.

Gender:

1. Pinterest: A “Shocking” Example of Women Using the Internet    19 February 2012, 5:51 pm
2. The (un)importance of gender in programming    17 February 2012, 10:54 am

I must say that I’ve not visited Pinterest – but, again, I don’t do social networks. The article, though, talks about tech journalists being sexist. It’s a slightly different issue than that of programmers being sexist (neither is acceptable, of course) and something I find rather interesting, and I wonder whether tech reporting is mirroring the stupid attitudes of some programmers.

Medical Technology:

1. Doing Biotech in My Bedroom    15 February 2012, 4:28 am
2. Gene Therapy For Blind Again A Success, More Patients To Be Treated    16 February 2012, 7:54 am
3. Blood Tests Can Accurately Diagnose Depression    16 February 2012, 9:34 am
4. How 1-Minute Intervals Can Improve Our Health    16 February 2012, 9:38 am
5. The man who hears colour    17 February 2012, 10:58 am

Link 4 talks about what exercise you actually do need to get … but if you’re the type of person to be able to exercise at 100% capacity for one minute, I think that you’re not likely to care that that’s the only amount of exercise you really need. Some interesting discussion, though.

Miscellany:

1. Climate Warming Denial: Big Business    17 February 2012, 3:09 am
2. Canadian Digs Out Basement Using Only Radio Controlled Scale Tractors and Trucks    17 February 2012, 10:51 am
3. The Inside Story on Climate Scientists Under Siege    17 February 2012, 12:05 pm
4. US firm must return Spain shipwreck treasure    18 February 2012, 12:26 am

OK, Link 2 is just … odd. Links 1 and 3 are about the climate-change-denial people and the money that goes into the whole thing (and I don’t care to field any comments on those two links, please). Link 4 is just … strange, ’cause I thought there were laws about shipwrecks and salvage, and also that 1) this ship went down in 1804, 2) the treasure is valued at $500 million US Dollars, and 3) the company who found and recovered the loot doesn’t get any money whatsoever, even to cover the expenses of the salvage.

Museum / Library / Archive:

1. California Cuts All State Funding for Libraries    13 February 2012, 12:45 am
2. Digital Dictionaries Help Save Vanishing Languages    17 February 2012, 9:33 am
3. How to Save Books    17 February 2012, 10:34 am
4. Robbers fleece Greece’s Olympia museum    17 February 2012, 2:05 pm
5. Save the Libraries. Cut University Funding Instead.    19 February 2012, 5:36 am
6. Every day at my job I helped people just barely survive    19 February 2012, 5:36 am

In case you hadn’t heard, California has just cut funding for its library services down to zero, which means that there will be no more inter-library loans in California, no more literacy programs, etc. That’s links 1, 5, and 6. Link 2 is interesting more as an anthropological experiment than anything else.

Open Source / Open Access:

1. Get involved in Open Source today – How to contribute a patch to a GitHub hosted Open Source project like Code 52    24 January 2012, 6:12 pm
2. Can A Free Online Education Land You A Job? The Era Of Online Education Dawns    13 February 2012, 8:49 am
3. Show HN: Hackershelf. Community curated collection of legally free books    14 February 2012, 9:22 am
4. Does Government GIS Data Belong to the People?    14 February 2012, 9:27 am
5. WolframAlpha Pro launches in an effort to democratize data science    16 February 2012, 1:38 am
6. Introduction to Copyright Law (MIT OpenCourseware)    16 February 2012, 9:35 am
7. Show HN: An Open-Source Solution to Expensive Textbooks    16 February 2012, 10:01 am
8. A Decade of Open Access (And the Challenges Ahead)    16 February 2012, 10:42 am
9. Academic publisher Elsevier hit with growing boycott    19 February 2012, 3:12 am
10. Stack Exchange Open Source Projects    19 February 2012, 6:53 am

Link 9 seems to be moving along nicely, with some 6,000 academics having pledged not to publish or peer review articles put out by Elsevier. I think it could go further and be expanded to a general protest in support of open access – it’d be interesting to know how many might be willing to agree not only to not publish in or peer review articles for closed-access journals, but also to not cite them nor read them. At some point the monopoly on learning needs to be broken, and I think that perhaps academic journals might be a good place to start.

Politics:

1. Wired Opinion: Cyberwar Is the New Yellowcake    14 February 2012, 3:30 am
2. Why Don’t Americans Elect Scientists?    14 February 2012, 4:59 am
3. FBI Purges Hundreds of Terrorism Documents in Islamophobia Probe    15 February 2012, 3:30 am
4. The World from Berlin: Ruling on German Academic Salaries ‘Is a Disaster’    15 February 2012, 6:38 am
5. The crappy Google problem that dogs Mitt Romney    16 February 2012, 10:30 am
6. Corruption considered a major problem the UK    17 February 2012, 7:24 am

I actually found link 4 to be a happy link, rather than the “disaster” that is claimed in the headline. And link 5, well, that’s the problem with the internet: stuff just never goes away.

Privacy:

1. It’s 2012 and your kids have an iPhone – Do you know where they are? I do.    10 February 2012, 8:01 pm
2. Anger for Path after Privacy Breach: So Many Apologies, So Much Data Mining    12 February 2012, 1:38 pm
3. Congress Left in Dark on DOJ Wiretaps    13 February 2012, 3:30 am
4. Path addresses privacy controversy, but social apps remain a risk to users    13 February 2012, 4:48 am
5. Privacy Tool Lets Users Quickly Rank Websites on Privacy Policies    13 February 2012, 1:01 pm
6. Do You Like Online Privacy? You May Be a Child Pornographer    14 February 2012, 4:04 am
7. No doesnt mean No to those selling personal info    14 February 2012, 9:24 am
8. The Global Impact of the EU’s New Rules on Data Privacy    16 February 2012, 1:07 am
9. From encryption to darknets: As governments snoop, activists fight back    16 February 2012, 9:52 am
10. Your address book is mine: Many iPhone apps take your data    16 February 2012, 9:57 am
11. Lawmaker Demands DHS Cease Monitoring of Blogs, Social Media    16 February 2012, 12:15 pm
12. McCain: Cybersecurity Bill Ineffective Without NSA Monitoring the Net    16 February 2012, 4:21 pm
13. Google Circumvents Safari Privacy Protections – This is Why We Need Do Not Track    16 February 2012, 8:00 pm
14. Companies learn your secrets with data about you    16 February 2012, 10:38 pm
15. DHS Testimony on Social Networking and Media Monitoring    17 February 2012, 12:56 am
16. Mobile Apps Take Data Without Permission    17 February 2012, 10:17 am
17. Stanford researcher: Google Circumvents iOS Privacy protection in AdSense ads    17 February 2012, 10:33 am
18. Google Busted With Hand in Safari-Browser Cookie Jar    17 February 2012, 12:02 pm

Link 1 is a must-read for anybody who has a “smart” phone or who is related to anybody who does or just wants to know how vulnerable they are. Links 2 and 10: basically, a company stole address books from smart-phones and now wants to cry and say they’re sorry, except that it’s apparently all too common – Google has been bypassing your security in links 13, 16, 17, 18. Link 8 is just awesome, particularly if it drives more privacy change internationally.

Robotics:

1. In new mass-production technique, robotic insects spring to life    15 February 2012, 12:53 pm
2. STEM Studies: Robotics Leading a Surge in Interest in Science and Math    17 February 2012, 10:18 am

Link 1 is just awesome – mass-production of insect-sized robots! And, of course, link 2 just shows that robots will always be cool.

Security:

1. Microsoft Store hacked in India, passwords stored in plain text    13 February 2012, 4:38 am
2. The Trouble With Keeping Legacy Data Around    14 February 2012, 12:48 am
3. Researchers Use EFF’s SSL Observatory To Discover Widespread Cryptographic Vulnerabilities    14 February 2012, 5:44 pm
4. US voter registration system ‘flawed’    15 February 2012, 3:03 am
5. How to Build a Shadow Internet    15 February 2012, 6:02 am
6. Anonymous plans to take down the 13 root DNS servers that power the Internet?    16 February 2012, 9:51 am
7. Crack WPA on the cloud    16 February 2012, 9:58 am
8. Feds Urge Court to Reject Laptop Decryption Appeal    17 February 2012, 12:49 pm

Link 2 should be a must-read for any designer of information systems, really: in a nutshell, “don’t keep stuff around just because you think you might need it, ’cause more than likely it’ll get you into trouble, if you can even find it.”

SOPA / PIPA / ACTA:

1. Senate sneaks in SOPA under a new name    12 February 2012, 1:34 pm
2. The World From Berlin: ‘ACTA Criticism is Hysterical and Misinformed’    13 February 2012, 5:54 am
3. Germany Stalls Signing International Treaty on Internet Copyright Law    14 February 2012, 12:47 am
4. The Dangerous “Research Works Act”    16 February 2012, 9:50 am
5. Polish Prime Minister – “Our position on ACTA was not thought out”    17 February 2012, 10:44 am
6. US Government: You’re Scaring Web Businesses Into Moving Out Of The US    19 February 2012, 3:26 am

Oh, the irony of links 2 and 3: within 2 days of saying that the people against ACTA were “hysterical and misinformed,” Germany backs down and has another think about the whole stupid thing. Link 4 could really go into Open Source / Open Access, or into Copyright, as it’s about Elsevier’s attempts to keep the doors closed on information; something about it feels similar, though, to the whole SOPA / PIPA / ACTA thing, in that it’s something a media industry is trying to sneak into law in order to protect their profits. So, it’s in here.

Technology:

1. Kan. Judges Use iPads for Warrants    14 February 2012, 4:45 am
2. Hit men, click whores, and paid apologists: Welcome to the Silicon Cesspool    14 February 2012, 9:31 am
3. Nanosecond Trading Could Make Markets Go Haywire    16 February 2012, 3:30 am
4. How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did    17 February 2012, 11:02 am

Link 4 is something which will put it to you quite nicely that your purchase information should be private, and why. Link 2 is about the incestuous nature of “venture capitalists” and the companies they support, and just how that plays out in technology public relations – it’s fairly dark, but explains nicely just how some of the seedy underbelly of tech politics really works.

-D