Bonum Certa Men Certa

Censorship Online Does Not Work Against Everybody

Video download link | md5sum 858837215b4b60e7ee24b03e512c8d1a Battling Hydras Online Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: Daniel Pocock lost one Debian domain, but he has registered two since then (even 3 or 4 if one counts non-Debian domains); it shows that such DNS-level battlegrounds aren't quite as simple as one might assume and they're very costly, especially for censorious plaintiffs with a very thin skin and strong corporate connections

THE "terrain" online is multi-faceted. There's the cable network, the phone network, the Internet... then there's DNS, the Web, P2P and so on. Policing people on the Internet isn't easy. Creative types can also shift between modalities to express themselves so long as the general population is connected by digital and analogue means. When the state fails to provide any, technical types can compensate with radio and transmission equipment, even modified wireless routers that make up a mesh.



About half a decade ago it was shown, based on hard evidence, that the overzealous and oversensitive (incapable of introspection) US officials deemed Wikileaks -- and Julian Assange in particular -- a "sophisticated" target from a technical and legal standpoint. It was a precarious situation. At the time, Wikileaks had already gotten some very powerful lawyers and journalists on its side. Even politicians were willing to help. So any attempts to silence Wikileaks were risky and in 2017 the CIA plotted to just torture and assassinate Assange, based on leaked material (the CIA did not even deny this, it just got angry about this information coming out to the press).

"...any attempts to silence Wikileaks were risky and in 2017 the CIA plotted to just torture and assassinate Assange, based on leaked material..."We're by no means comparing one Melbourne student (Assange) to another (Pocock), but it's interesting to see how WIPO (also headed by a Melbourne graduate, Gurry, for many years in fact) after repeated failed attempts to silence Pocock. The video above explains why this is relevant to us. Along the way or between the lines it also mentions software patents in relation to Tillis (still trying and failing, fronting for patent and copyright maximalists) and the potential of a copyright troll connected to EPO management having a go at SLAPP over our EPO reporting. It's just that based on the track record of EPO censorship, it cannot be ruled out completely. We're currently trying to get the EFF involved; as a supposed (maybe former) champion of free speech, it has more than one reason (patents too) to speak out on these issues. This has a lot to do with European software patents, based on recently-leaked documents.

The conclusion of the matter is, if you're going to try to silence and/or discredit someone online, be sure to foresee what happens next. Resourceful and determined people typically find a way to regain their voice no matter what. Debian chose an utterly poor approach -- so tasteless that it ruins the brand more than any Web site possibly could. Will Devuan pick up the mantle? Maybe [1, 2, 3].

Recent Techrights' Posts

They're Very Jealous of Richard Stallman and His Freedom (or Simple Lifestyle)
Jealousy is toxic because it can cause rational people to act irrationally and even severely harm themselves
Akira Urushibata on GNU coreutils
new message
There's Nothing Funny About Lawbreaking
There's plenty of room in society for humour, but "hacking" the state by breaking laws isn't cool or hip
Gemini Links 26/05/2025: Intangible Stuff and Slop Issues
Links for the day
 
Microsofters Have, in Effect, Attempted Extrajudicial Action Against Us
Courts and Judges (or Masters) don't exist to facilitate this kind of "bro" culture
UK High Court Masters Are Not Your Jesters, Microsoft
Judges aren't there for "funny" spectacles, they're there to act as arbiters in critical cases, not SLAPPs
Links 27/05/2025: Mass Layoffs at Volvo and More Evidence of 'AI' (Slop) Being a Passing Fad
Links for the day
The Code of Conduct (CoC) Gaslighting Phenomenon
There are still many people and projects foolish enough to outsource their labour to Microsoft via GitHub
Anouk Rozestraten (Deputy Director) Appears to Have Left the Free Software Foundation
Let's hope Rozestraten is still using and promoting Free software
More Mass Layoffs Coming Soon to Microsoft, Just a Question of When and How Many
Numbers from Washington were close to 5% and judging by prior rumours, it would be 5% + 5% (total 10%) at a later month
Links 27/05/2025: Bikes, Ideal Computers, and BYO
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, May 26, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, May 26, 2025
Richard Stallman's Milan Talk (Public Presentation) Was Packed, Video Available Soon
Looks like they even ran out of seats
The Openwashing Shills Initiative (OSI) - Part I: Complaints to IRS or USDOJ Needed
If enough people do it, this will be more effective, more so if people who are based in the US do it
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Lobbying and the OSI's Status at Stake
At the end we plan to summarise all the issues in one very long article
Breaking Into Other People's Devices Without Authorisation Isn't "Funny" or "Research"
“Chaos was the law of nature; order was the dream of man.”
The Issue Isn't the Internet, the Issue is How People Are Taught to Use or Misuse It
The Web is circling down the drain. The Internet is not.
A Healed Reputation of a Movement's Leader and His Robust Message
The more aggressively you push against resistors, the more credibility they will gain
Links 26/05/2025: Deletions from Microsoft's GitHub, Telegram Blocked in Vietnam
Links for the day
Linux Released Last Night and There's Already LLM Slop With Slop Images
BetaNoise does not seem to mind this anymore
Links 26/05/2025: Walmart Layoffs and DRM Dumpster Fire ('Old' Fire TV Devices Lose Netflix Access)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/05/2025: USB Camera Viewer and Fantasy Life
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, May 25, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, May 25, 2025
Links 25/05/2025: 15 Years of UK Legal Aid Applicant Data Grabbed and 2 Billion Discord Messages Leaked Online
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/05/2025: Farming and OpenBSD 7.7 on Acer Aspire ES 15
Links for the day
Fighting for Freedom is Much Better Than Fighting for Money
If life is about accumulation of money, then people will be "busy making money" till they die prematurely (with nothing to do with this money)
The Microsoft SLAPP Dossiers
A rather likely outcome is, they'll lose their licence to operate
Links 25/05/2025: Harvard’s Troubles and New Openwashing Examples
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/05/2025: Whales and Battery Replacement
Links for the day
Links 25/05/2025: Climate Action Ridiculed and "Tesla Executive Admits That Self-Driving Is Going Nowhere Fast"
Links for the day
The Next Two Phases of Our Open Source Initiative (OSI) Series
Whatever people used to think about the OSI is no longer applicable and its current acronym is a misleading misnomer
Richard Stallman Has Barely Changed
Collecting "estate" "assets"? That's not "success" in the eyes of Dr. Stallman
Public Talk by Richard Stallman (RMS) Tomorrow
Still advertised
Gemini Links 25/05/2025: Konsole Layout Changes and Capitulation to Surveillance World
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 24, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, May 24, 2025