08.23.22
Gemini version available ♊︎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]. █
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