10.18.13

The Loss of Moral High Ground

Posted in Action at 9:52 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Warmongering and insistence that peace is “terrorism” or that war is “for peace” discredit the promises made by the West

THE moral high ground of NATO-affiliated nations was almost obliterated by violent intervention inside nations that did not ask for it. One recent example of this was the invasion into Iraq — an unnecessary and unpopular invasion which is now claimed to have killed half a million people [1,2]. Leaks from Assange and his colleagues contributed to estimates, so no wonder he is besieged by the British government [3]. The UK Ministry of Defence now views “anti-war” as some kind of terrorism [4] and the BBC lobbies hard for us to support invasion into Syria, Iraq’s neighbour [5,6]. Even a former UK ambassador is fuming about this propaganda.

Some sites, like Truth Out, now openly accuse Obama of terrorism [7] and a new interview with Noam Chomsky goes further [8]. Congressional approval under Obama’s reign has dropped below 10% [9], which really says a lot about whose side actual US citizens take. Has Nobel peace prize winner Obama got the moral high ground? Not in anyone’s mind. █

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. Iraq war claimed half a million lives, study finds

   Some critics of previously controversial survey methods praise new approach, while others remain skeptical

2. So Half a Million Iraqis Did Die, After All

   Remember, a few years back, when a couple of studies (including one published by prestigious Lancet) that found hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died in the years after the U.S. invasion were derided, even mocked, by most media and many expert commentators? They pointed to reputable counts of those killed in the conflict, placing the number at “only” about 100,000. When WikiLeaks released its Iraq War Logs, documented deaths shot up another 10,000 or so.

3. Julian Assange: my life in the embassy

4. UK Ministry of Defence seeks to counter growing opposition to war

   A document obtained by the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act exposes the preoccupation of Britain’s ruling elite with how to prosecute future wars in the face of growing anti-war sentiment.

   The study was written in November 2012 by a Ministry of Defence (MoD) think tank, the Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre (DCDC) and entitled Risk: The Implications of Current Attitudes to Risk for the Joint Operational Concept .

5. Fake BBC Video

   But once you realise the indisputable fact of the fake interview the BBC has put out, some of the images in this video begin to be less than convincing on close inspection too.

6. The Theatre of War

   My last post on the BBC footage of Syrian casualties – and the different versions of what the doctor said – has brought me a deluge of emails, not least from the Guardian who have been in touch with the BBC and, if the Guardian can get over its phobia at ever mentioning me at all, will doubtless produce a “Craig Murray is a Conspiracy Theorist” piece. It would be unethical for me to reveal what the BBC said ahead of the Guardian, but I might point out that in a large amount of verbiage they completely failed to address or admit the point that they showed two different versions of what the doctor said.

   Close inspection of the two different versions, by numerous commenters and for which I am grateful, reveals that there were actually two or more takes of this scene. The easiest tell is the arm position of the man in the fluorescent jacket next to the doctor.

   Actually, that is much worse than if it were overdubbing. What this means is, that what is portrayed as a live action piece with casualties being rushed in, was actually a rehearsed piece of which several takes were done. Rehearsed because, with the exception of the words napalm and chemical weapons, the words are precisely the same, which is not easy spontaneously especially under that kind of stress.

7. Empire Under Obama: Barack Obama’s Global Terror Campaign

   Under the administration of Barack Obama, America is waging a global terror campaign through the use of drones, killing thousands of people, committing endless war crimes, creating fear and terror in a program expected to last several more decades. Welcome to Obama’s War OF Terror.

8. Noam Chomsky | On Shutdown, Waning US Influence, Syrian Showdown

   Harrison Samphir: Thank you for speaking with me today, Mr. Chomsky. I would like to begin with the recent federal government shutdown in the United States. Acknowledging that it has happened once before, how is this instance different, if at all? How does it speak to the unwillingness from above to institute meaningful reform – healthcare or otherwise – and respond to the desires of the majority of the population?

   Noam Chomsky: Well, actually, there was pretty good commentary on it this morning [October 4] in The New York Times by Paul Krugman who basically makes the point, it’s a narrow point, that the Republican Party among the public is a minority party. So for example, they do run the House of Representatives, they’re a majority there, and it’s the House that is essentially sending the government into shutdown and maybe default. But they won the majority of seats there because of various kinds of chicanery. They got a minority of the votes, but a majority of the seats, and they’re using them to press forward an agenda which is extremely harmful to the public. The particular thing that they’re focusing on is defunding the health-care system.

9. Less Popular Than Zombies: Congressional Approval Rating Drops to Single Digits

   He told the House Committee on Veterans Affairs the short-term effects include disability claims production slowing by an average of about 1,400 per day since the shutdown began Oct. 1, and that has stalled the department’s efforts to reduce the backlog of disability claims pending for longer than 125 days. Over 190,000 accumulated cases had been resolved in recent months.

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Internet Bodies Engage in Illegal Censorship and Free Speech on the Web Continues to Erode

Posted in Action at 9:35 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: The Internet as a platform for free speech is no more; the law is being bypassed to silence opposing voices

THE Internet is broken. ICANN should know this because domains are being censored now, despite no guilt established [1]. Anonymity is being impeded by the NSA, the FBI, and other parties, including some governments [2]. Freedom of speech is being compromised and intimidation against sites is now a tool for achieving this [3]. When it comes to surveillance sites, such as Facebook, censorship goes even further [4]. As one story shows us [5], merely publishing a list of names can now lead to legal abuse [5]. Rather than deal with abuse of the law (financial fraud) we have our “law enforcement” bodies dealing with those who speak about it. This is wrong. Censorship of the Web has been a hot topic in the UK recently and judging by where things are heading, the Internet needs a censorship-resistant alternative. █

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. Seized Torrent Domains Must Be Released Says Domain Registrar

   As the fallout from this week’s seizure of file-sharing domains continues, it’s now been revealed that the registrars involved could now be exposing themselves to disciplinary action by IP address and DNS body ICANN. With the police now confirming to TorrentFreak that the action by the registrars was voluntary and based only on a “potential” breach of terms and conditions, it now appears that affected registrars must allow seized domains to be released.

2. Asking the EU Commission to stop blocking Tor

3. EU court holds news website liable for readers’ comments

4. Facebook Gives ‘Social Fixer’ Ultimatum

   Things aren’t going well for Matt Kruse, the developer of the über-popular Social Fixer browser extension which gives users control over how their Facebook pages and news feeds appear to them. It works within the browser and doesn’t affect the experience of anyone on Facebook other than the user. With it, status updates can be tabbed, items can be filtered, and it allows hiding or blocking sponsored stories and other advertising that runs through the news feed.

5. Greece retries journalist who leaked ‘Lagarde list’ of suspected tax evaders

   Kostas Vaxevanis published details of of more than 2,000 wealthy Greeks with cash deposits in Switzerland

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“NSA Director Stepping Down to Spend Less Time With Your Family”

Posted in Security at 9:14 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: NSA news of interest and some international impact, especially in the United Kindgom

Keith Alexander is said to be “stepping down” and the above quote is a nice joke found in Twitter. Mr. Alexander is not going to be sued and he is not going to jail, either. When people have loyalty to a flag rather than loyalty to human values and principles, then as long as they stay within the country of that flag, they’ll enjoy immunity (Bush and Kissinger can’t travel much around the world, for fear of getting jailed for war crimes).

Let’s look at some of the latest news about the NSA. First of all, famous cryptographer Adi Shamir is yet another person who can’t enter the US, possibly because of his views [1]. Having spoken about back doors, he cannot enter a conference sponsored by the National Security Agency — the agency which lies about the public “dangers” of the leaks [2] (the only danger is to the budget of the NSA). Greenwald is going to have more of a day field with leaks [3] and Edward Snowden, who now gets a platform through other whistleblowers [4], debunks the lies we see in the corporate media [5-6]. Maybe it’s truly high time for Greenwald to step out of the British press, which finds itself embroiled in domestic scandals [7-9] as the attack on the press here intensifies (comments suggest that Greenwald and his new publisher will work far away from the reach of US political aggression and diplomatic blackmail).

Domestic surveillance [10] and abuses of the law [11,12] by US law enforcement currently breed debate and other misconceptions are being tackled [13] because those who abuse the law really struggle to find justification. They make a mockery of “law enforcement”. Let’s hope that many more heads will roll, not just Alexander’s. We were promised a “war on terror” and in due course we were all labeled “terrorists” and lost our dignity. Who’s the real terrorist here (terrorising people)? And how do we restore human dignity now? █

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. Cryptographer Adi Shamir Prevented from Attending NSA History Conference

   In this email message to colleagues, Israeli cryptographer Adi Shamir recounts the difficulties he faced in getting a visa to attend the 2013 Cryptologic History Symposium sponsored by the National Security Agency. Adi Shamir is the “S” in the RSA public-key algorithm and is “one of the finest cryptologists in the world today,” according to historian David Kahn. The NSA Symposium begins tomorrow. For the reasons described below, Dr. Shamir will not be there.

2. 10 reasons not to trust claims national security is being threatened by leaks

   Time and again GCHQ and other intelligence agencies have spuriously used ‘national security arguments’ to suppress information and stifle debate

3. Why Pierre Omidyar decided to join forces with Glenn Greenwald for a new venture in news

   Yesterday word leaked out that Glenn Greenwald would be leaving The Guardian to help create some new thing backed by Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay. I just got off the phone with Omidyar and can report more details about what the new thing is and how it came to be.

   [...]

   NewCo is new venture— a company not a charity. It is not a project of Omidyar Network. It is separate from his philanthropy, he said. He said he will be putting a good deal of his time, as well as his capital, into it. I asked how large a commitment he was prepared to make in dollars. For starters: the $250 million it would have taken to buy the Washington Post.

4. My Visit With Edward Snowden

   He is an “asylee,” not a “fugitive,” as the mainstream media in America describe him routinely—even some of the trusted journalists who write exclusives based on his revelations. An asylee has the right to be left alone, not hunted like an animal. But similar to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Snowden is in a new purgatory the US has created: free but not free. Snowden is technically free, but still circumscribed by the specter of his home country, which refuses to recognize Russia’s grant of political asylum under international law and human rights agreements.

5. Ed Snowden Confirms He Took None Of The Documents To Russia

   As we noted last month, from earlier comments Ed Snowden had made about it being impossible for him to reveal the documents he leaked to the Russians or Chinese, it seemed quite likely that he got rid of the documents and had no copies any more himself. This seemed even more likely after the report from earlier this week that the four laptops he took were more of a diversion than anything else. And now, Snowden has confirmed directly that he handed the documents off to Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald and did not keep copies for himself, as he’s now explained to the NY Times’ James Risen.

6. Snowden Says He Took No Secret Files to Russia

7. UK spy agencies inquiry to take public evidence

   Parliament’s intelligence watchdog is to hear evidence from the public as part of a widening of its inquiry into UK spy agencies’ intercept activities.

8. GCHQ accused of monitoring privileged emails between lawyers and clients

   Allegation relates to eight Libyan nationals and comes in wake of Guardian’s revelations about GCHQ and Tempora programme

9. UK Prime Minister Urges Investigation Of The Guardian Over Snowden Leaks; There Shall Be No Free Press

10. SD Times Blog: Oakland launches new program using Big Data to bolster police surveillance

    The city of Oakland is taking two popular buzzwords—“Big Data” and “surveillance state”—and combining them into a new program to aid in law enforcement.

    Joining similar police initiatives in Massachusetts, Texas and New York City, the Oakland Police Department is re-appropriating US$7 million in federal grants initially purposed for preventing terror attacks, and using it to construct a new surveillance center. Scheduled to open next summer, the project, formerly referred to as Oakland’s Domain Awareness Center, will electronically gather and analyze data around the clock from a variety of sensors and databases, displaying selected info on a bank of giant monitors.

11. Feds Sued for Hiding NSA Spying From Terror Defendants

    Five years after Congress authorized warrantless electronic spying, the Obama administration has never divulged to a single defendant that they were the target of this type of phone or email surveillance — despite lawmakers’ claims the snooping has stopped terrorist plots and resulted in arrests.

12. Door May Open for Challenge to Secret Wiretaps

    Five years after Congress authorized a sweeping warrantless surveillance program, the Justice Department is setting up a potential Supreme Court test of whether it is constitutional by notifying a criminal defendant — for the first time — that evidence against him derived from the eavesdropping, according to officials.

13. ‘Individual privacy vs collective security’? NO!

    Privacy is often misconstrued as a purely individual right – indeed, it is sometimes characterised as an ‘anti-community’ right, a right to hide yourself away from society. Society, in this view, would be better if none of us had any privacy – a ‘transparent society’. In practice, nothing could be further from the truth: privacy is something that has collective benefit, supporting coherent societies. Privacy isn’t so much about ‘hiding’ things as being able to have some sort of control over your life. The more control people have, the more freely and positively they are likely to behave. Most of us realise this when we consider our own lives. We wear clothes, we present ourselves in particular ways, and we behave more positively as a result. We talk more freely with our friends and relations knowing (or assuming) that what we talk about won’t be plastered all over noticeboards, told to all our colleagues, to the police and so forth. Privacy has a crucial social function – it’s not about individuals vs. society. Very much the opposite.

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Truecrypt Cannot be Audited Because It’s Proprietary Software

Posted in Free/Libre Software, Security at 8:37 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Why nobody should trust Truecrypt (or any other piece of proprietary software for that matter), even if it claims to have been “audited”

THE other day we alluded to Truecrypt in this post, not quite mentioning the holes in the argument that Truecrypt can be “audited” [1-3]. Unless everyone can view the code and compile it independently (or rely on others to do so independently), we must assume that Truecrypt is not secure and that it might contain back doors (either unidentified or deliberately planted). This whole Internet ‘debate’ about Truecrypt “audit” should remind us that Free software is vital for dodging surveillance.

The NSA has used corporations to facilitate snooping and it may not be alone [4]. This is happening at many levels [5-7] based on new leaks and revelations, so rather than look for evidence of insecurity (e.g. back door) we should pursue real assurance of security. You know what the spies like to tell us: if you have nothing to fear, you have nothing to hide, right? So come on, Truecrypt, share your source code. What have you got to hide? █

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. Should Truecrypt be audited?

   Truecrypt is a cross-platform, free disk encryption software for Windows and Unix-like operating systems. It is generally considered a good disk encryption software, and not too long ago, I wrote a tutorial that showed how to encrypt the Windows installation of a Windows-Linux dual-boot setup (see Dual-boot Fedora 18 and Windows 7, with full disk encryption configured on both OSs).

2. New effort to fully audit TrueCrypt raises $16,000+ in a few short weeks

3. Can you trust ‘NSA-proof’ TrueCrypt? Cough up some dough and find out

   The source code for the Windows, Linux and Mac OS X utility is publicly available for people to inspect and verify, but this has not been enough to convince every cryptography guru that it’s entirely secure.

4. After Snowden’s leaks, China’s Huawei calls for more transparency in the tech industry

   With all of the recent revelations about the US National Security Agency’s surveillance programs, it must be hard for the Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei not to gloat a little bit.

   After all, the leaks from former contractor Edward Snowden showed that the NSA enlisted US technology companies to enable its snooping on global telecommunications networks—which is exactly what US intelligence officials have accused Huawei of doing on behalf of the Chinese government.

5. Europe Moves to Shield Citizens’ Data

   Lawmakers here have introduced a measure in the European Parliament that could require American companies like Google and Yahoo to seek clearance from European officials before complying with United States warrants seeking private data.

6. Dutch Telcos Used Customer Metadata, Retained To Fight Terrorism, For Everyday Marketing Purposes

   One of the ironies of European outrage over the global surveillance conducted by the NSA and GCHQ is that in the EU, communications metadata must be kept by law anyway, although not many people there realize it.

7. NSA Harvesting Contact Lists

   A new Snowden document shows that the NSA is harvesting contact lists — e-mail address books, IM buddy lists, etc. — from Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook, and others.

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Scarcity of Women is Not a Free Software Issue But a Western Issue (Science Stereotypes)

Posted in Free/Libre Software, FUD at 8:19 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Tackling the claim that FOSS discourages women (common way to discredit a movement or individuals) using real research

OVER the years we have challenged many attempts to demonise FOSS by claiming that it was hostile towards women. This is actually a dishonest attack on FOSS, which narrows down a computer science (or more broadly, science) issue and tries to ascribe it just to the segment of collaborative and freely-shared software.

Over the past few days there have been numerous articles [1-4] that shed light on the gender gaps and where they can be found, why, and how to measure it. It is not a FOSS issue. It’s a real issue, but it is not a FOSS issue. It’s just a convenient way to try to attack FOSS, just like feminism or chauvinism have both become a very effective mechanism for attacking/discrediting individuals. Anna Troberg (pictured above) should know this. █

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. SparkFun Ponders Women in STEM Fields

   Tuesday was [Ada Lovelace] day and to recognize it SparkFun posted an article about women in their workforce and the STEM initiative. [Ada Lovelace] is credited with forging a path for women in mathematics and computing. The STEM acronym represents a movement to get more of America’s students into Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics fields in order to keep up with the rest of the developed world.

2. How The Gender Gap In The Sciences Differs Around The Globe

   A map from UNESCO provides a very rough picture of “the gender gap in science” around the globe, showing large swaths of relative equality in parts of South America and Central Asia, and great inequality in countries including India, France, Germany, and Japan.

3. The Boards Are All White: Charting Diversity Among Tech Directors

4. Science images from across the globe

   One hundred images form a stunning new photographic exhibition that demonstrates the role played by imaging across many areas of science.

   The show reveals many aspects of Nature not usually visible to the naked eye.

   The Royal Photographic Society is hosting the event alongside the Science and Technology Facilities Council.

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Climate Change: Still the #1 Threat

Posted in Deception at 7:59 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Illiteracy when it comes to science and technology fuels apathy towards a cause of famine and territorial wars over basic resources

IT IS commonly being said that human activity warms up the planet. This commonly-reached conclusion follows simple logic. When you burn stuff it creates heat, and moreover it emits smoke, which traps heat inside the atmosphere. But common sense and simple physics won’t satisfy the ultra-’sceptics’ — those to whom absolutely everything that we are being taught must always be a lie and every chemical in our air and water, especially if this chemical is harmful, must be there intentionally, perhaps part of a plot of the government to dumb people down (this is the common nonsense referred to as “chemtrails” [1]).

People here in Britain say that this winter is going to be extremely cold and erratic. It’s not just Britain though [2]. Here, unlike in the United States, there is at least high acceptance of the fact that global warming is real and that it is caused at least in part by humans. Alternative energy sources are being explored [3] and we can rest assured that whatever can slow down the warming is at least being considered. Recycling of trash is also quite big here, with many different bins having become quite the standard several years ago (I have used them for many years).

I personally find it ironic that some people in the nation responsible for the worst attacks by chemical weapons (in Vietnam) need to make up some theories about “chemtrails”, accusing the government of poisoning its own population from planes up high (this is commonly done against foreign populations, with help from corporations like Monsanto, which continues to bribe the government [4]). Alternative versions of the “chemtrails” theory try to blame atmospheric warming on attempts to actually reduce warming. In other words, even attempts to make things better are now being characterised as demonic.

Based on new figures [5], here in Britain around 80% of people accept the reality of global warming, That’s much better than in the US, where the PR campaign run by Big Polluters has been exceptionally successful. Sadly, when it comes to biodiversity, Britain still does quite poorly [6]. Assuming that only humans count is misguided because there are many dependencies in nature; engineering nature just to nourish us (never mind health implications and monopoly) is the type of vision Monsanto has. █

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. Conspiracies fuel climate change denial and belief in chemtrails

2. Historically unprecedented climates to arrive by mid-century

3. Green power: UK solar installation heads for record

   Investment in clean technology for UK has risen to £1.6bn, but sector remains under pressure amid growing energy bills

4. Monsanto Hires Former Sen. Blanche Lincoln As Lobbyist

5. What climate change? Fewer people than EVER believe the world is really warming up

6. Britain – no country for top carnivores

   I believe Britain is a zoophobic nation. While other European countries rewild to great success, we are shamefully disconnected from our wild past of wolves and bisons. And our timid, visionless conservation movement is complicit

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When Progress is Outlawed

Posted in Action at 7:22 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Commentary on the social regression and the worrisome dynamics we see when it comes to political reformism

The crackdown on dissent intensifies as national debts surge [1] to unprecedented levels [2] and social unrest increases [3]. The Internet has devolved into a sordid surveillance mess with no effective encryption for people and 'encryption' (DRM) as part of the ‘standard’ for abusive monopolistic corporations that make “Intellectual Monopolies” out of copyright, much like a cartel (illegal). The Microsoft booster of Ars Technica, Peter Bright, is of course all for it (see him liked in the good analysis which is [4]) and other news from Ars Technica shows that anything which challenged the centrally-managed and fundamentally-broken Internet is deemed “illegal” and forced to pay huge sums of money to compensate for hypothetical ‘damages’ [5]. Guess which side the police, which is supposed to defend the people, is taking [6]? Anything which challenges the status quo is being crushed, even if the status quo is seriously unjust and morbidly dysfunctional (plainly broken). As long as corporations control governments and those two are groups are propping up organisations like the World Intellectual Property Organization [4] we are going to see no progress whatever. Those who demand progress will be hunted down, jailed, killed, ‘suicided’, or pressured into committing suicide. Just look what happened to people like Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, Aaron Swartz, Barrett Brown, and Jeremy Hammond, who helped expose the “shadow CIA”. No progress can be made in a society which bans reform and carries out surveillance against whistleblowers, journalists, protesters, and civil rights activists. █

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. Congress passes bill to raise US debt ceiling and end shutdown – live

   Today begins with hopes for a bipartisan Senate deal. The Wall Street Journal has published an editorial telling Republicans that enough is enough: “Republicans can best help their cause now by getting this over with and moving on to fight more intelligently another day,” the paper concludes. The conservative National Review reports that GOP members indeed are ready to just “get it over with”.

2. How bad are US debt levels?

   The US has averted a crisis after the Senate agreed to a cross-party deal to end a partial government shutdown and raise the debt limit.

   Without that deal the US government may not have been able to pay its bills or honour its debts.

3. Osborne plan to cut energy efficiency funds for fuel poor is ‘unforgivable’

4. DRM/EME in HTML5 – an American thing

   The idea seems to be that it doesn’t mean any harm to standardize at W3C. I would argue, because of the W3C patent pools, that this is wrong. Anti-trust authorities in both the EU and the US are increasingly looking at anti-competitive uses of patent licenses and other licenses, because especially in high-end technologies like electronics and software it’s leading to a lot of problems. In the EU, we additionally have the Microsoft browser case which establishes that a de facto standard can be equally abused as an adopted formal standard. The W3C standardisation process sets up a patent pool which is free for everyone in the world [was corrected on this point, but it makes an even more important difference for the anti-trust, I guess] all the W3C members. A non-enforcement pact. That makes W3C very resilient to anti-trust investigations, which would not be the case if a DRM standard was adopted outside of the W3C as a de facto standard. If one does not believe that DRM is conducive to online innovation, and if one does not believe that Netflix is the pinnacle of God’s creation, one may not want to provide them with that out.

   Especially large commercial interests, including Google, Netflix and Microsoft are highly aware of this. Those who were irritated with Microsoft’s behaviour in standard organisations in the late 1990s may want to seriously consider if it’s more OK to do the same thing just because it’s one decade later.

5. BitTorrent search site IsoHunt will shut down, pay MPAA $110 million

   isoHunt, a search engine for BitTorrent files founded more than a decade ago, has agreed today to shut down all its operations worldwide. The company, founded by Canadian Gary Fung, has also accepted a judgment that it must pay the movie studios that sued it $110 million. It’s not clear how much of that the studios will actually be able to collect.

6. ExtraTorrent Threatens Legal Action Over Police-Ordered Domain Seizure

7. Model Statute for Implementation of the WIPO Marrakesh Treaty

   The Marrakesh Treaty, adopted by the World Intellectual Property Organization this past summer, provides Contracting Parties with great flexibility concerning the implementation of its obligations. Article 4(2) sets forth one way a Contracting Party may meet its obligation under Article 4(1) to permit the making and distribution of accessible format copies domestically. Likewise, Article 5(2) sets forth one way a Contracting Party may meet its obligation under Article 5(1) to permit the cross-border exchange of accessible format copies.

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Alternatives Needed to the Existing Internet, Which Turned From Tool of Self Expression and Creativity to Surveillance and Oppression

Posted in Action at 6:50 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

By Вени Марковски

Summary: The de facto packet transmitter, which came from the budget hoard of the US military, is broken beyond repair and needs to be replaced in order for human dignity to be restored

RATHER than use the Internet to emancipate ourselves and communicate privately, many of us are now using it to inform corporations and governments, letting them read our minds. The transition is an interesting one to explore. The Internet came from the US military, so it is not surprising that the US still controls the Web [1], no matter what some may claim [2] to save face. The NSA has “commandeered” the Web/Internet, as Bruce Schneier put it, and it is now used as a strategic tool for controlling the population, e.g. by intruding people’s hard -drives remotely (Microsoft Windows), fetching lists of everyone they ever spoke to (Facebook), and even reading their minds (Google). Telecom giants in the US meanwhile move forward, advancing their attacks on the Internet/Web [3,4]. Here in the UK (but elsewhere too), some silly Internet bodies like Nominet just look for new ways to tax us [5] for merely registering domains (an overpriced process as it is, given how little infrastructural overhead it entails). DPI is also a big menace here.

“The notion of hypertext was not invented by Tim Berners-Lee and the Web was not so innovative.”The Internet is getting seriously messed up and now that the W3C wants to make it a DRM conduit it seems like a good time to embrace alternatives to the Internet (note capitalisation), ones that are build for security and privacy from the ground up, are decentralised, and definitely not controlled by the most militant nation on Earth (the flawed topology also enabled China to police its citizentry through the Internet, adding layers of censorship and surveillance). Even tools like Tor are not so trustworthy anymore; they’re under attack. Darknets are loosely defined in Wikipedia, but maybe the notion of an independent network of peer-to-peer-like nodes (e.g. wireless) should be embraced. OLPC sought to implement such a thing (interconnected meshes that use encryption and send packets by hopping netween end nodes) and Eben Moglen spoke about the flaws in existing networks a couple of years ago, suggesting one alternative or workaround. To many, this would seem impossible, ludicrous, unnecessary, etc. But after the NSA leaks it should become clearer that things are far worse than the population and even our governments care to realise. Even the US government was not properly informed (people like James Clapper lied repeatedly) of what the NSA (or military) had begun doing on the Internet.

It seems reasonable to say that in many ways the Internet is now broken beyond repair and it might be worth starting something from scratch. That would also obviate the need to figure out migrations from IPv4 to IPv6 (which hardly ever happened, even after a decade of waiting). The notion of hypertext was not invented by Tim Berners-Lee and the Web was not so innovative. Project Xanadu was the first hypertext project and it is more than half a century old. We can pick these earlier efforts (some are better implemented in their linking methods than the World Wide Web) and see if a better ‘internet’ can be built, this time more properly, right from the get-go. Whether landline infrastructure and wireless equipment can be re-purposed to suit the requirements of a new ‘internet’ is an open question and given what’s practical to implement, perhaps it’s worth making a strong start (the Internet can be used as a temporary compatibility layer, buffered with encryption to circumvent snooping). █

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. The US is Losing Control of the Internet…Oh, Really?

   All of the major internet organisations have pledged, at a summit in Uruguay, to free themselves of the influence of the US government.

   The directors of ICANN, the Internet Engineering Task Force, the Internet Architecture Board, the World Wide Web Consortium, the Internet Society and all five of the regional Internet address registries have vowed to break their associations with the US government.

   In a statement, the group called for “accelerating the globalization of ICANN and IANA functions, towards an environment in which all stakeholders, including all governments, participate on an equal footing”.

2. The core Internet institutions abandon the US Government

3. What if Verizon succeeds in killing the Internet?

4. AT&T: The Internet is awesome, so let’s get rid of phone regulations

5. Say no to the Nomitax!

   Nominet were told to stop creating new second level domains (like .co.uk or .me.uk) because they are a monopoly, and instead an independent consultative group decides when new .uk domains are needed. This group also decides who controls them, to avoid Nominet simply inventing new new second level domains (SLDs). This is important, as many people want to own all the domains potentially associated with their personal or company name. Only really new and non-confusing SLDs should be added, so that this problem is avoided.

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