06.23.11

Free Press: We Must Stop Apple Again.

Posted in Apple at 11:22 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Apple cult

Summary: Apple’s tools of digital repression signal the need to resist

AN HOUR ago we called for another Nemesis to come after Apple's Hubris. It’s gratifying to see we’re not alone. Read the following message:

Subject: Steve Jobs Wants to Censor You
From: "Josh Levy, FreePress.net" 
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2011 18:28:09 +0000

   [1]SavetheInternet.com
                                                            [1][IMG]

                                              [2]Act Now: Stop Apple's
iPhone
                                                        Kill Switch

   Dear Larry,

   Think you own your smartphone? Think again.

   Apple wants to patent a kill switch technology that can detect when
people are using their phone cameras and give corporations the power to
shut them down.^1

   Think that's bad? Imagine what would happen if this tool fell into
the hands of repressive regimes. Thousands of people across the Middle
East have used cellphone cameras to document government abuses.

   This kind of technology would give tyrants the power to stem the flow
of videos and crack down on protesters with impunity.

   [3]Sign our letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs: Demand that Apple stop
developing technology that harms democracy and free speech.

   Apple says this new technology was designed to stop concertgoers from
taking unofficial video at live events. But you can bet that
governments   and corporations will use it  in other, more dangerous
ways - to silence   the voices of protesters, political opponents or
anyone else they   dislike.

   As Steve Jobs obviously knows, smartphones have become extensions of
ourselves. They are incredibly powerful tools for communication
education, political expression, community organizing and just plain fun.

   [4]Tell Steve Jobs that WE control our phones: Neither Apple nor
anybody   else can dictate what we photograph and film with them.

   Earlier this year, researchers discovered that iPhones recorded your
every   move for the past year in a hidden but unprotected file.^2 The
public was   outraged, and Apple soon announced that it was updating its
software to   better protect users.

   We must stop Apple again. This new camera-blocking technology is a
pre-emptive strike against free speech. If activated, it would be
immensely harmful to our rights to connect and communicate.

   Please take action now to urge Steve Jobs to pull the plug on this
censorship technology.

   Thanks,
   Josh Levy
   Online Campaign Manager
   Free Press
   www.freepress.net

   1. "Is Apple Launching a Pre-emptive Strike Against Free Speech?"
   Huffington Post, June 22, 2011:
    [5]http://act2.freepress.net/go/4692?akid=2596.9633377.I38UGX&t=1

   2. "Got an iPhone or 3G iPad? Apple is recording your moves," O'Reilly
   Radar, April 20, 2011:
   [6]http://act2.freepress.net/go/4627?akid=2596.9633377.I38UGX&t=2

References

   Visible links
   1. http://act2.freepress.net/go/4626?akid=2596.9633377.I38UGX&t=3
   2.

http://act2.freepress.net/go/4626?ak_proof=1&akid=.9057871.z0WfPP&t=2&akid=2596.9633377.I38UGX&t=4

   3. http://act2.freepress.net/go/4626?akid=2596.9633377.I38UGX&t=5
   4. http://act2.freepress.net/go/4626?akid=2596.9633377.I38UGX&t=6
   5. http://act2.freepress.net/go/4692?akid=2596.9633377.I38UGX&t=7
   6. http://act2.freepress.net/go/4627?akid=2596.9633377.I38UGX&t=8

“The [...] message doesn’t have a suggestion of *how* to “to urge Steve Jobs to pull the plug on this censorship technology,” noted the reader who sent it to us. Any suggestions? █

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23 Comments

Needs Sunlight said,

June 23, 2011 at 1:34 pm

The right to peaceable assembly could be encroached by the presence of a kill switch.

Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
June 23rd, 2011 at 6:29 pm
As we saw in Egypt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodafone_Egypt#Vodafone_Egypt_during_the_2011_riots

Needs Sunlight Reply:
June 24th, 2011 at 2:58 am
(Assuming the validity of Wikipedia)

The irony of them moving the protests to Facebook…
There’s another single point of failure or chokepoint for your.

Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
June 24th, 2011 at 3:12 am
Facebook is also biased.

Needs Sunlight Reply:
June 24th, 2011 at 5:32 am
Facebook might or might not be biased, but it would be easy enough to shut down or control if federal or corporate pressure is applied. Unlike Usenet which is decentralized and uncensorable, Facebook is easily censored and very centralized. it being one of those awful walled garden.

Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
June 24th, 2011 at 9:30 am
Yes, it is a very bad idea to organise campaigns there. See how Egypt used the site to spy on people and arrest them.
Eric-Karl said,

June 23, 2011 at 4:57 pm

That may seem obvious and perhaps naive, yet I’d say “Vote with your wallet”: don’t buy apple.

Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
June 23rd, 2011 at 6:28 pm
Yes, it’s probably more or less implied.

Needs Sunlight Reply:
June 24th, 2011 at 3:05 am
That’s implied but not a real solution. There must be some other way to provide feedback on what is acceptable rather than an all-or-nothing approach.

Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
June 24th, 2011 at 3:10 am
Maybe persuading friends and family to do the same.

Needs Sunlight Reply:
June 24th, 2011 at 5:34 am
There’s got to be some middle ground, some way of providing feedback. Apple makes very easy to use systems. And from OS X 10.0 through 10.5 it looked like it was heading towards more open.

twitter Reply:
June 24th, 2011 at 8:03 am
What middle ground is there with a company that won’t let their employees even talk about software freedom? Ultimately, non free software is about control and owners won’t give that up no matter how “open” they pretend to be. Apple is also fighting your freedom by supporting MPEG-LA and this harms more than their own customers.

The only thing they understand is sales, so don’t buy the devices. Boycotts or digitally restricted music worked with every company but Apple so far. Zune was a colossal failure and so are Microsoft phone efforts because Microsoft’s greedy restrictions don’t work. As Apple tightens up, their sales will go south. If you must have Apple hardware, buy it used and put free software on it like RockBox or gnu/linux. When you give them money, you fund MPEG-LA and other nasties. You are probably better off buying hardware from a less restrictive company anyway. Tivoized devices are worthless outside their function and the lifespan of that function is intentionally limited. Non free software is always a bad deal.

Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
June 24th, 2011 at 9:31 am
Apple has other clients, such as Hollywood. Mac OS X is not just about the OS users.
twitter said,

June 23, 2011 at 6:16 pm

The easy way to shut this down is to demand software freedom in your cell phone. I still don’t own one of those because the owners can and do abuse people with them.

Apple is not the first company to think of this and all non free software has this power. Look up the obnoxious euphemism, “polite device” to see that Microsoft already has a patent on this concept (2008). The Microsoft booster linked to above gushes with what a wonderful thing this would be. Every petty tyrant dreams of this kind of control. Not far from this is the fact that Microsoft mail servers are able to brick your iPhone or other mobile device if you use it that way. All of your contacts, personal and company, are erased and you phone will stop working at the push of a button when you are fired. Use of non free software can be terminated at any time for any reason. The more you depend on it and the more networked a device is, the more you need free software to protect you from this kind of malice.

Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
June 24th, 2011 at 3:13 am
Another term for “polite device” was “digital manners” (another euphemism, as if silencing/restricting someone is having manners).
Needs Sunlight said,

June 24, 2011 at 4:25 am

In a step away from software freedom, Fink is no loner available for current versions of OS X. Hopefully that’s just temporary.

Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
June 24th, 2011 at 4:36 am
I’ve just read in several sites about Apple censoring negative reviews. Is that true?

Needs Sunlight Reply:
June 24th, 2011 at 5:46 am
I wouldn’t know how to find out since I’ve not really seen any reviews on Apple products.

Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
June 24th, 2011 at 9:33 am
Here is one article among many on the subject.
Wayne Borean said,

June 26, 2011 at 5:42 pm

Apple isn’t as bad as Microsoft. If we were to rate the two companies on a scale of 1 to 10, Microsoft would be rated at 9, and Apple would be rated at 8.

Oracle would also be rated at 8. IBM would be rated at 7. In other words the largest companies in the IT sector are a bunch of Psychopaths.

Wow. Aren’t I cheerful today?

Wayne

Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
June 27th, 2011 at 2:11 am
What would SCO’s score be?

Wayne Borean Reply:
June 27th, 2011 at 6:33 am
That’s a good one. The SCO Group was so off the wall that I don’t think they were possible to measure on any normal scale.

And it really was too bad, because they managed to ruin the names of two once respected companies.

Wayne

Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
June 27th, 2011 at 7:38 am
Plus all the renames.

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