Links

Not much commentary this week – just a bunch of links. Enjoy them.

Censorship:

  1. Grit in the engine    3 April 2012, 2:00 am
  2. Major tech and gaming companies unite to purge sex offenders from online games    8 April 2012, 2:44 pm
  3. Senator Lieberman proposes to eliminate Section 230 immunity from blogs    9 April 2012, 5:34 am
  4. Words and deeds    10 April 2012, 7:11 am
  5. Global coalition of NGOs call for official withdrawal of Pakistan censorship plans    10 April 2012, 7:13 am
  6. This Week in Censorship: The Increasingly Censorious World    12 April 2012, 4:27 pm
  7. Enemies of free speech    13 April 2012, 6:51 am
  8. Iran Building a Private, Isolated Internet, but Can It Shut Out the World?    13 April 2012, 9:22 am
  9. Vietnam – Draft decree would end online anonymity, force foreign Internet firms to censor    13 April 2012, 12:28 pm
  10. UK moves to restrict Internet freedom    15 April 2012, 6:28 am
  11. It is only adults who ever feel threatened    19 April 2012, 6:53 am
  12. FBI seizes riseup.net server    20 April 2012, 2:19 am

I’m really not sure about link number 2. I mean, OK, fine, if there’s a restriction on someone’s use of a computer, then they shouldn’t be allowed to be use a computer. Fair enough, I guess. But that there are companies teaming up to do this? That makes me very uneasy. It’s a very small step to prevent “pedophiles” from accessing content vs. stopping any “undesirable” person from accessing content. And who determines what is “undesirable?” Well, nobody can say this, really, and if this is being done by companies rather than by a legal agency, then there’s really no recourse to those who have been excluded.

CISPA:

  1. CISPA- the new SOPA    5 April 2012, 4:01 am
  2. Fascism Comes to the Internet: Introducing CISPA    5 April 2012, 11:54 am
  3. Hollywood Loves a Sequel — But Really, SOPA 2?    6 April 2012, 8:58 am
  4. United States – Draconian cyber security bill could lead to Internet surveillance and censorship    6 April 2012, 9:48 am
  5. Internet activists take aim at a new House cybersecurity bill    8 April 2012, 2:25 pm
  6. The 28 Corporations Supporting CISPA    9 April 2012, 2:50 am
  7. ACTA: The State of Play in the US    10 April 2012, 9:09 am
  8. Netflix creates pro-SOPA super-PAC    12 April 2012, 3:46 am
  9. Tell Obama And Dodd: No Backroom Dealing, No New SOPA    13 April 2012, 10:02 am
  10. Alliance for Internet Freedom – Internet’s PAC to Defeat Pro-SOPA politicans    13 April 2012, 10:20 am
  11. Facebook Explains Why It’s Supporting Congress’ CISPA Cybersecurity Bill    14 April 2012, 3:34 am
  12. Cybersecurity Bill FAQ: The Disturbing Privacy Dangers in CISPA and How To Stop It    15 April 2012, 10:39 pm
  13. Stop Cyber Spying Week Launches to Protest CISPA    15 April 2012, 11:47 pm
  14. Stop Cyber Spying Week – Join EFF in a Week of Action Opposing CISPA    16 April 2012, 7:25 am
  15. United States – Internet Advocacy Coalition Announces Twitter Campaign to Fight Privacy-Invasive Bill (CISPA)    16 April 2012, 7:48 am
  16. Internet to Congress: CISPA is TMI    17 April 2012, 8:17 am
  17. EFF Joins Two Coalition Letters Opposing CISPA    17 April 2012, 5:47 pm
  18. Initial Media Coverage of CISPA Protests    17 April 2012, 5:56 pm
  19. Yes, CISPA Could Allow Companies to Filter or Block Internet Traffic    17 April 2012, 11:27 pm
  20. CISPA Isn’t ‘Son of SOPA’ (But That’s Not Saying Much)    18 April 2012, 12:44 pm
  21. Voices of Opposition Against CISPA    19 April 2012, 12:32 pm

The US is still trying to censor the internet, surprise surprise. Will the politicians ever learn? Perhaps they should be fired … but that would require them to get funding for their campaigns from somewhere other than industry, much like it used to be back in the old days of politics, where people running for office were given equal access to broadcasting. Ronald Reagan, though, changed the whole game: in his administration, the FCC eliminated the requirement for equal access, which meant that anybody running for office had to buy advertising time rather than just being given the time for free. Thus, the only people to make it into office are those with loads of money, meaning that politics in the US is essentially a money game, rather than being anything about the people they’re supposedly representing. Thus we have the continuing idiocy of the US government trying to prevent “piracy” by censoring the content on the internet.

Comics:

  1. Dilbert Comic for April 2, 2012    1 April 2012, 10:00 pm
  2. SMBC, April 03, 2012    2 April 2012, 9:00 pm
  3. Ablogalypse    XKCD, 15 April 2012, 9:00 pm

Copyright:

  1. The Missing 20th Century: How copyright protection makes books vanish    1 April 2012, 5:32 am
  2. Megaupload Goes to Court: A Primer    4 April 2012, 11:15 am
  3. Supreme Court Considers GM Crop Patent Case    5 April 2012, 8:15 am
  4. Appeals Court Revives Viacom’s Billion-Dollar YouTube Lawsuit    5 April 2012, 1:08 pm
  5. Viacom v. Google: A Decision at Last, and It’s Mostly Good (for the Internet and Innovation)    5 April 2012, 1:37 pm
  6. 3 Major Publishers Sue Open-Education Textbook Start-Up    9 April 2012, 4:22 am
  7. Megaupload: Feds Want to Destroy User Data to Hobble Defense    9 April 2012, 12:44 pm
  8. EFF Fights for Megaupload Users’ Rights in Friday Hearing    10 April 2012, 8:55 am
  9. Code Not Physical Property, Court Rules in Goldman Sachs Espionage Case    11 April 2012, 2:06 pm
  10. US government sues Apple in e-book scandal    11 April 2012, 11:18 pm
  11. DOJ: E-Book Settlement With Publishers to Benefit Consumers    12 April 2012, 1:23 am
  12. Shades of 1984 Emerge in Broadcast TV Copyright Flap    13 April 2012, 3:30 am
  13. MPAA Just Won't Quit: Argues Links & Embeds Are Infringing    13 April 2012, 4:58 am
  14. Oracle thinks you can copyright a programming language, Google disagrees    13 April 2012, 9:41 am
  15. Dear DoJ: You Need To Sue Apple Again    13 April 2012, 9:51 am
  16. Apple contemplated illegally dividing the digital content world with Amazon    13 April 2012, 9:53 am
  17. Can Source Code Be a ‘Stolen Good’? Second Circuit Says No    14 April 2012, 3:19 am
  18. Censoring The Pirate Bay is Useless, Research Shows    15 April 2012, 6:38 am
  19. Court Orders Megaupload Parties to Come Up with a Plan    16 April 2012, 4:20 pm
  20. MPAA Filter Censors Legit Torrent Files on isoHunt    17 April 2012, 4:24 am
  21. David vs Goliath: Children’s book publisher pulls its titles from Amazon    17 April 2012, 4:32 am
  22. Another Reason Why DRM Is Bad — For Publishers    17 April 2012, 4:36 am
  23. Twitter’s IPA Is a Powerful New Tool in the Patent Wars    17 April 2012, 11:46 am
  24. FBI: Motorcycle Gang Trademarked Logo to Keep Narcs at Bay    18 April 2012, 3:30 am
  25. Hollywood loses final appeal in piracy case    20 April 2012, 2:17 am

Education:

  1. Northern Ireland Police threaten academic freedom    2 April 2012, 7:57 am
  2. Microsoft Calls on Elite Universities to Join Schools in IT Course Revamp    13 April 2012, 9:19 am
  3. Picking Up the Pieces of No Child Left Behind    13 April 2012, 10:15 am

Gender:

  1. The Silent Sex: Women Excluded from Germany’s Opinion Pages    4 April 2012, 8:42 am
  2. Giving Women the Access Code    5 April 2012, 11:15 am
  3. Banned from Kickstarter for Being a Stalking Victim    14 April 2012, 3:34 am
  4. Kickstarter Apology to Rachel Marone    17 April 2012, 4:33 am
  5. Equal Access: Anonymous Applications Help Immigrants and Women    18 April 2012, 9:10 am

Law:

  1. US Holocaust Legislation: German National Railway Fears Flood of Lawsuits    2 April 2012, 3:36 am
  2. Justices Approve Strip-Searches for Any Offense    3 April 2012, 3:08 am
  3. Bill Allows IRS to Deny Americans Right to Travel    5 April 2012, 11:04 am
  4. Hacking IT Systems to Become a Criminal Offense    5 April 2012, 11:14 am
  5. Watch Out, White Hats! European Union Moves to Criminalize ‘Hacking Tools’    6 April 2012, 3:30 am
  6. Judge Allows Man to Probe Alleged Assailant’s Facebook Page    6 April 2012, 3:58 am
  7. EU wants to criminalize “Hacking Tools”    9 April 2012, 2:48 am
  8. Court Rebukes DOJ, Says Hacking Required to Be Prosecuted as Hacker    10 April 2012, 3:10 pm
  9. Appeals Court Rules That Violating Corporate Policy Is Not a Computer Crime    10 April 2012, 3:21 pm

Medical Technology:

  1. Chronic Buckyball Administration Doubles Rat Lifespan    17 April 2012, 4:24 am

Miscellany:

  1. Creating Victims And Then Blaming Them    1 April 2012, 5:47 am
  2. C. S. Lewis on Writing    3 April 2012, 6:08 am
  3. How Facebook ‘Contagion’ Spreads    3 April 2012, 7:25 am
  4. Loophole Could Allow Private Land Claims on Other Worlds    5 April 2012, 3:30 am
  5. Britain’s Sky News admits to email hacking    5 April 2012, 1:15 pm
  6. RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH: BLESSED BLING    5 April 2012, 9:31 pm
  7. Wealthier people are less honest than lower classes    8 April 2012, 2:24 pm
  8. Disruptions: Top Lists Lead to Less Choice on the Web    9 April 2012, 5:36 am
  9. Geek Chic: ‘Brogrammer?’ Now, That’s Hot    12 April 2012, 1:27 am
  10. How Computers Are Creating a Second Economy Without Workers    13 April 2012, 9:49 am
  11. Bollywood star in US ‘racial profiling’ row    13 April 2012, 10:32 pm
  12. Judge: Marine who criticized Obama on Facebook can be dismissed    15 April 2012, 3:38 am
  13. Using Non-Newtonian Fluids to Fill Potholes    17 April 2012, 4:41 am
  14. Addicted to Antibiotics: How Factory Farm Drug Abuse Makes Vets Rich    18 April 2012, 6:58 am
  15. Call for a global Immigration Reform    19 April 2012, 5:27 am
  16. CIA’s Secret Fear: High-Tech Border Checks Will Blow Spies’ Cover    20 April 2012, 2:18 am

Museum / Library / Archive:

  1. From cold fusion to human-powered flight: Great tech hoaxes throughout history    31 March 2012, 9:27 am
  2. Rare, Beautiful and Disturbing Objects From the National Library of Medicine    2 April 2012, 3:30 am
  3. Preserving The Internet… and Everything Else    2 April 2012, 5:08 am
  4. ‘The Holocaust Is German Family History’: Book Urges Germans to Quiz Dying Nazi Generation    11 April 2012, 12:12 am
  5. Temple for Rent: Italy Hopes Sponsoring Can Save Cultural Treasures    18 April 2012, 3:20 am

Open Source / Open Access:

  1. Skype55 deobfuscated version released    31 March 2012, 9:27 am
  2. Hot Type: Open Letter to Academic Publishers About Open Access    9 April 2012, 5:18 am
  3. WorkiLeaks: How to Be a Workplace Leaker Without Getting Caught    12 April 2012, 5:06 pm
  4. Elsevier Boycott Nears 10,000 Signatures    14 April 2012, 8:49 am
  5. How Microsoft Fought True Open Standards I    17 April 2012, 4:17 am

Politics:

  1. The truth about the US Postal Service    1 April 2012, 5:38 am
  2. New U.S Domestic Spy Program Takes ‘Neighborhood Watch’ to Scary New Level    2 April 2012, 10:46 am
  3. Hungary president quits over plagiarism row    2 April 2012, 1:12 pm
  4. CIA Committed ‘War Crimes,’ Bush Official Says    4 April 2012, 5:48 am
  5. A View on Günter Grass: Why We Need an Open Debate on Israel    6 April 2012, 6:11 am
  6. Political Revolution in Germany: Pirates Country’s Third Strongest Party in New Poll    10 April 2012, 3:23 am
  7. Wave of Legal Complaints: Swiss Magazine Under Fire for ‘Racist’ Roma Cover    11 April 2012, 3:51 am
  8. Tennessee’s Anti-Science Bill Becomes Law    11 April 2012, 6:35 am
  9. US slams Australia’s on-shore cloud fixation    13 April 2012, 10:22 am
  10. US suspends North Korea food aid    13 April 2012, 6:49 pm
  11. Taxes Prompt More Americans to Renounce Citizenship    17 April 2012, 4:28 am
  12. Romney Quiz    17 April 2012, 9:00 pm
  13. Global Online Freedom Act 2012 Is An Important Step Forward    18 April 2012, 8:17 am
  14. Time for Technology Companies to Stand Up for Human Rights    18 April 2012, 8:20 am
  15. Outrage in Britain: Cameron Pushes to Weaken Human Rights Court    18 April 2012, 8:58 am
  16. Spanish king sorry for hunting trip    18 April 2012, 6:29 pm

Privacy:

  1. (In)voluntary Access    26 March 2012, 4:00 am
  2. After Car-Tracking Smackdown, Feds Turn to Warrantless Phone Tracking    31 March 2012, 2:13 pm
  3. No joke: Al Franken rings alarm over Facebook, Google    1 April 2012, 5:24 am
  4. Educator suspended when she refused to show her Facebook page    1 April 2012, 5:27 am
  5. UK government to monitor email and web use under new laws    1 April 2012, 5:49 am
  6. Face.com Brings Facial Recognition to the Masses, Now with Age Detection: Interview With CEO    1 April 2012, 8:02 am
  7. UK ‘considers’ internet surveillance network    1 April 2012, 11:17 am
  8. Harris Corporation AmberJack, StingRay, StingRay II, KingFish Wireless Surveillance Products 2010 Price List    2 April 2012, 1:54 am
  9. America’s new data centre makes UK surveillance plans seem petty    2 April 2012, 5:59 am
  10. New Surveillance System Identifies Your Face By Searching Through 36 Million Images Per Second    2 April 2012, 7:36 am
  11. United Kingdom – Radical phone and Internet monitoring proposal to be put to parliament    2 April 2012, 10:39 am
  12. Next Phase of the Surveillance State: Nuclear Powered Drones    2 April 2012, 4:04 pm
  13. Shady Companies With Ties to Israel Wiretap the U.S. for the NSA    3 April 2012, 3:30 am
  14. Graduated Response Program: Let’s Press the Reset Button    3 April 2012, 9:59 am
  15. Local Cops Following Big Brother’s Lead, Getting Cell Phone Location Data Without a Warrant    3 April 2012, 1:51 pm
  16. UK Government Proposes Law Monitoring Every Email, Phone Call, and Text Message    3 April 2012, 4:20 pm
  17. On Profiling, And Google’s Big Double-Cross    4 April 2012, 11:34 am
  18. Privacy & Publicity on Facebook: The Virtues of Being Discreet    4 April 2012, 2:06 pm
  19. Campaign Targeting Syrian Activists Escalates with New Surveillance Malware    4 April 2012, 3:49 pm
  20. Huge variation in police spying powers raises concerns    5 April 2012, 4:57 am
  21. Britain Weighs Proposal to Allow Greatly Increased Internet ‘Snooping’    5 April 2012, 11:15 am
  22. April 2012, the State of Do Not Track: Lead Up to Tracking Protecting Working Group Negotiations in Washington, DC    5 April 2012, 1:42 pm
  23. Your Cell Phone Makes You A Prisoner Of A Digital World Where Virtually Anyone Can Hack You    6 April 2012, 4:16 am
  24. ‘Homeland Security could inspect what enters the United States in cyberspace’    9 April 2012, 4:24 am
  25. Encrypt Everything    9 April 2012, 5:36 am
  26. Feds Want Way to Hack Xboxes and Wiis for Evidence    9 April 2012, 12:38 pm
  27. Privacy Suits Slamming App Developers    10 April 2012, 4:14 am
  28. As Some Companies Choose “Do Not Target” Over “Do Not Track,” What Are User Attitudes?    10 April 2012, 7:38 am
  29. In Tunisia and Palestine, Be Careful What You Say on Facebook    10 April 2012, 11:13 am
  30. Monitoring the Opposition: Siemens Allegedly Sold Surveillance Gear to Syria    11 April 2012, 4:18 am
  31. Maryland bans employers from asking for employee social media passwords    11 April 2012, 5:21 am
  32. EFF Sponsors California Bill to Protect Location Data    11 April 2012, 12:13 pm
  33. UAE Signs Deal to Integrate National IDs Into Mobile Phones    12 April 2012, 6:34 pm
  34. When did Facebook become so uncool?    13 April 2012, 5:02 am
  35. This Internet provider pledges to put your privacy first. Always.    13 April 2012, 9:57 am
  36. Facebook’s privacy settings are too complex for ANYONE to use – Change these settings today    13 April 2012, 3:29 pm
  37. What Facebook Wants in Cybersecurity Doesn’t Require Trampling On Our Privacy Rights    15 April 2012, 9:33 pm
  38. Police Recording More and More: Cars, Uniforms, and Equipment With Cameras    16 April 2012, 8:01 am
  39. Will Industry Agree to a Meaningful Do Not Track?    16 April 2012, 2:40 pm
  40. Will Industry Agree to a Meaningful Do Not Track?    17 April 2012, 4:18 am
  41. Judge Faults DEA Agent for Concealing GPS Tracking    19 April 2012, 12:45 am
  42. ISPs Have to Identify Alleged Pirates, EU Court Rules    19 April 2012, 6:24 am
  43. New Smartphone Chips Will Pinpoint Your Exact Location Down To The Inch, Even Inside Buildings    19 April 2012, 8:04 am
  44. ‘Big brother’ black boxes to soon be mandatory in all new cars    19 April 2012, 11:25 am

Robotics:

  1. Brain Hack with Open Source TDCS Circuit Diagram    4 April 2012, 5:17 am
  2. Talking With the Founders of Vergence Labs: First Steps Towards Merging Man and Machine    9 April 2012, 10:05 pm
  3. SushiBot Serves Up An Order Of 3,600 Per Hour    12 April 2012, 7:58 am

Security:

  1. What geeks need to tell our parents about shopping online safely and securely    4 April 2012, 11:34 am
  2. Researchers Release New Exploits to Hijack Critical Infrastructure    5 April 2012, 10:30 am
  3. Courtyard Marriott in Times Square is Spying on and Manipulating your Internet    9 April 2012, 4:27 am
  4. Apple Snubs Firm That Discovered Mac Botnet    10 April 2012, 4:26 am
  5. Public-Private Partnerships Expand Amidst Cybersecurity Fears    16 April 2012, 10:38 am
  6. Contradicting a Federal Judge, FCC Clears Google in Wi-Fi Sniffing Debacle    16 April 2012, 3:41 pm

Technology:

  1. Girls Around Me Has Been Yanked From The App Store    1 April 2012, 5:25 am
  2. wasting money on a new phone    2 April 2012, 1:00 am
  3. Internet-induced fear culture (or: Why Girls Around Me isn’t the problem)    3 April 2012, 3:10 am
  4. Meet Catalyst: IARPA’s Entity and Relationship Extraction Program    4 April 2012, 1:54 am
  5. Self-Sculpting Sand    5 April 2012, 11:15 am
  6. Save the Internet from the US    6 April 2012, 4:07 am
  7. Pinterest now the third most popular social network after Facebook & Twitter    6 April 2012, 4:07 am
  8. Pinterest’s Pernicious Terms of Service    6 April 2012, 10:05 am
  9. My car ships with crapware    10 April 2012, 1:21 pm
  10. Bell Pottinger exposed in plans to hijack ‘people’s petitions’    10 April 2012, 1:26 pm
  11. Board Urges Feds to Prevent Medical Device Hacking    10 April 2012, 3:47 pm
  12. Congress, wireless industry team up to make stolen phones worthless    11 April 2012, 5:15 am
  13. ‘We Read Best on Paper’: Cultural Resistance Hobbles German E-Book Market    13 April 2012, 1:10 am
  14. US military developing multi-focus augmented reality contact lenses    13 April 2012, 9:43 am
  15. Texmaker 3.3.3 released – Unicode capable cross-platform LaTeX editor    13 April 2012, 10:16 am
  16. Miami-Dade PD Releases Information about Its Drone Program; Will the FAA Follow Suit?    13 April 2012, 12:20 pm
  17. The Impending Cybersecurity Power Grab – It’s not just for the United States    18 April 2012, 3:03 am
  18. Google Lays Out Defense Against Oracle CEO: Ellison Was Flattered    19 April 2012, 12:45 am

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