http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.org.pfir.announce hourly 1 1901-01-01T00:00+00:00 http://gmane.org/img/gmane-25t.png http://gmane.org http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.org.pfir.announce/3390 <pre> For Shame: The Internet Cruelty Machine Torments GIF Inventor http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/001033.html I've never been quite sure what it is about the Net that tends to bring out, amplify, and exacerbate the cruel, infantile, and snarky side of so many people, including persons who really, seriously should know better. Perhaps they get caught up in the moment like a rioting crowd, and the degrees of separation from "real life" -- allowing the easy spouting of bile that most of them would never do in person -- is also in play. But none of this is any excuse for acting like a jerk. Case in point, the rampant, mean-spirited attacks now being widely deployed against Steve Wilhite, who created the omnipresent "GIF" graphics format in 1987 while at CompuServe. Still widely used for conventional photos even in the face of more recent formats, it is the backbone of repeating animated image displays, from funny cats to serious diagrams. A couple of days ago Steve -- who suffered a stroke in 2000 and now primarily communicates using email over the Net itself -- accepted a well-deserved lifetime achievement "Webby" award. In the course of subsequent discussion, he noted his long-standing belief that GIF -- a term we must remember he invented -- should be pronounced with a soft G rather than a hard G -- not the first time this issue has arisen by any means. Immediately, the Web pounced in ridicule, with satirical articles, obscene comments, and even a video whose producer claims is in fun but just comes off crude and cruel -- like pulling wings off insects. As it happens, I've always pronounced GIF with a hard G -- not Steve's pronunciation. I always figured that since the G stood for Graphics, the hard G made the most sense. And I'm not going to change that now. But for the love of the Net and basic human decency, can't we give the man an award -- someone who provided us with a tool that has become part and parcel of the Web -- without tormenting him afterwards like children during recess torturing another kid about the pronunciation of his name? As the creator of GIF, Steve Wilhite outranks us all when it comes to what he feels is the "official" pronunciation. But you and I can still pronounce GIF any way we choose, and we can do so without behaving like asses. Consider growing up just a little bit people, please. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren&lt; at &gt;vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info - Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com </pre> PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility) Announcement List 2013-05-23T20:12:42 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.org.pfir.announce/3389 <pre> Kim Dotcom claims patent on multiple-factor authentication system [BUT ...] "Kim Dotcom to Google, Twitter, Facebook: I Own Security Patent, Work With Me" http://j.mp/12xVgB1 (TorrentFreak) The patent, US6078908 titled Method for authorizing in data transmission systems, was filed way back in April 1998 and published in June 2000 under Dotcom's birth name of Kim Schmitz. There can be little doubt from the patent's abstract that it does indeed describe a two-step verification system. "Google, Facebook, Twitter, Citibank, etc. offer Two-Step-Authentication," writes Dotcom. "Massive IP infringement by U.S. companies. My innovation. My patent." - - - He does have a patent, but it's unlikely to be enforceable since relevant prior art (going back to 1983 and certainly earlier) is easily discovered and documented with a simple Google Search. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren&lt; at &gt;vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info - Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com </pre> PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility) Announcement List 2013-05-23T15:13:23 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.org.pfir.announce/3388 <pre> Reporters use Google, find breach, get branded as "hackers" http://j.mp/10onoVP (ars technica) However, Vcare and the two telecom companies assert that the reporters "hacked" their way into the data using "automated" methods to access the data. And what was this malicious hacking tool that penetrated the security of Vcare's servers? In a letter sent to Scripps News by Jonathan D. Lee, counsel for both of the cell carriers, Lee said that Vcare's research had shown that the reporters were "using the 'Wget' program to search for and download the Companies' confidential data." GNU Wget is a free and open source tool used for batch downloads over HTTP and FTP. Lee claimed Vcare's investigation found the files were bulk-downloaded via two Scripps IP addresses. - - - Ah yes -- wget -- more dangerous to mankind than General Zod! --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren&lt; at &gt;vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info - Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com </pre> PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility) Announcement List 2013-05-23T05:34:53 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.org.pfir.announce/3387 <pre> Smartphone Wi-Fi client security weakness http://j.mp/16agpYE (Net-Security) "Google Android, Apple iOS, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile devices have an inherent security weakness in the method they use for connecting to Wi-Fi networks that has the potential for exploitation by skilled cyber-attackers says security expert Raul Siles. The vulnerability is dependent on how the network is added to the device and stems from the procedure where Mobile devices keep a list of manually configured wireless networks plus any networks it has previously connected to on a Preferred Network List (PNL)." - - - --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren&lt; at &gt;vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info - Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com </pre> PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility) Announcement List 2013-05-23T03:55:21 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.org.pfir.announce/3386 <pre> Twitter launches (limited) 2-factor authentication http://j.mp/10nsH8b (TechCrunch) "However the brands and news outlets whose accounts are the most valuable to hackers may not benefit from the feature. They can only set one phone number as the recipient of the two-factor authentication codes, but may have several staff members who need to access the account. If they enabled it, whoever carried the phone registered with Twitter would have to relay the code to all the other staffers to get it to whoever needed it. That hassle might prevent shared accounts from turning on login verifications, and so the hackings may continue." - - - Limited and a bit unwieldy, but definitely better than nuttin', and a good first step. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren&lt; at &gt;vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info - Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com </pre> PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility) Announcement List 2013-05-22T22:23:03 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.org.pfir.announce/3385 <pre> How We Imagined the Internet Before the Internet Even Existed http://j.mp/169vn0Z (Gizmodo) "The paper was written by J.C.R. Licklider and Robert Taylor, illustrated by Rowland B. Wilson, and appeared in the April 1968 issue of Science and Technology. The article includes some of the most amazingly accurate predictions for what networked computing would eventually allow. Granted, amazingly accurate with a retro-futuristic twist that keeps it firmly a product of its time." - - - --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren&lt; at &gt;vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info - Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com </pre> PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility) Announcement List 2013-05-22T22:02:36 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.org.pfir.announce/3384 <pre> Now, you know what the RIAA really has in mind, don't ya'? "RIAA pulls 20 million links off Google, but "system isn't working" http://j.mp/10nne0X (ars technica) "Buckles goes on to suggest that Google doesn't do anything to punish pirate sites, even when it receives hundreds of notices about a site. He even discusses the idea that the RIAA needs to send a full URL, calling it a "controversial interpretation" of copyright law by a tech company." - - - Now, you know what the RIAA really has in mind, don't ya'? They want to be able to just say something like "Any time you see a mention of this song that might be a download, delete it." They hate having to deal with specific URLs, and they'd love to move complaints of incorrect takedowns over to Google and others. Under the kind of scheme the RIAA has in mind, the RIAA would be even more insulated from collateral damage to innocents, which at the moment costs them almost nothing at all, since there are essentially no DMCA penalties for false takedown claims. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren&lt; at &gt;vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info - Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com </pre> PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility) Announcement List 2013-05-22T21:41:56 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.org.pfir.announce/3383 <pre> U.S. Is Urged to Allow Counterattacks on Hackers http://j.mp/12uDDC6 (New York Times) "If counterattacks against hackers were legal, there are many techniques that companies could employ that would cause severe damage to the capability" of the Chinese or other groups committing computerized theft, the report said ..." - - - The lunatics have taken over the asylum. *What could go wrong?* --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren&lt; at &gt;vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info - Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com </pre> PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility) Announcement List 2013-05-22T15:01:29 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.org.pfir.announce/3382 <pre> Hollywood studios attempt to censor Pirate Bay documentary http://j.mp/12JzD2d (Torrent Freak) "Over the past weeks several movie studios have been trying to suppress the availability of TPB-AFK by asking Google to remove links to the documentary from its search engine. The links are carefully hidden in standard DMCA takedown notices for popular movies and TV-shows. The silent attacks come from multiple Hollywood sources including Viacom, Paramount, Fox and Lionsgate and are being sent out by multiple anti-piracy outfits." - - - There is nothing whatever in this documentary that would justify a DMCA takedown. And I'll add here, as we've discussed many times before, that while piracy issues are real, the lost sales figures quoted by the entertainment industry are utterly inflated and bogus, assuming as they do that each downloaded illicit copy actually represents a lost sale. Most are opportunistic, and never would have been sales. AT&amp;T tried a similar approach back in the days of phone phreaks, a topic with which I have considerable (er, uh, second and third hand, of course!) experience. AT&amp;T tried claiming that free calls made by phone phreaks represented actual lost call revenue. But most of those calls would otherwise never have taken place, and actually occurred in relatively inconsequential numbers over idle circuits already in place with significant available capacity." --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren&lt; at &gt;vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info - Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com </pre> PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility) Announcement List 2013-05-21T16:44:54 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.org.pfir.announce/3381 <pre> AT&amp;T: Google Hangouts video chat support coming later this year http://j.mp/12Jw0cO (Fierce Mobile Content) AT&amp;T is now clarifying its position, indicating it will lift restrictions on preloaded apps. "For video chat apps that come pre-loaded on devices, we currently give all OS and device makers the ability for those apps to work over cellular for our customers who are on Mobile Share or Tiered plans. Apple, Samsung and BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY) have chosen to enable this for their pre-loaded video chat apps," the carrier said in a statement Monday. "And by mid-June, we'll have enabled those apps over cellular for our unlimited plan customers who have LTE devices from those three manufacturers. Throughout the second half of this year, we plan to enable pre-loaded video chat apps over cellular for all our customers, regardless of data plan or device; that work is expected to be complete by year end. Today, all of our customers can use any mobile video chat app that they download from the Internet, such as Skype." - - - The distinction between pre-loaded app and downloaded app strikes me as entirely artificial in this context. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren&lt; at &gt;vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info - Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com </pre> PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility) Announcement List 2013-05-21T16:22:28 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.org.pfir.announce/3380 <pre> Ever wonder what an SEO scammer trying to rip you off with fake Google+ services sounds like? Here's one that hit my voicemail this afternoon, with a Caller ID showing +111111111. http://j.mp/11Tjta4 (Lauren's Blog - MP3 Audio - 89K) The problem here isn't people who immediately realize this is a scam, but persons who falsely believe it is Google calling, and either (a) fall for the rip-off pitch or (b) inappropriately get angry at Google for calling (which of course, they did not). No obvious solution for this is evident, other than lots of prior warning. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren&lt; at &gt;vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info - Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com </pre> PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility) Announcement List 2013-05-21T02:22:04 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.org.pfir.announce/3379 <pre> Yahoo's Big Tumble Into Big Porn, Big Sleaze, and Perhaps, Big Trouble http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/001032.html By now you've likely heard that Tumblr is selling itself to Yahoo for just over a billion bucks in cash. Oh wait, excuse me, that's Tumblr. -- officially, there's a period after Tumblr, a flourish added to the current vogue of purpsly drpping leters frm yor nme. Yahoo wants to be "cool" again -- young, hip, bad, fresh, sick, tight -- or whatever your favorite current euphemism for youth monetization might be. In furtherance of this worthy end, Yahoo will be providing Tumblr's (insert the periods yourself if you must) 26-year-old, high school dropout founder with a payday of something on the order of a quarter of a billion dollars -- and each Tumblr employee something like a paltry six meg each. To which I say -- more power to them! Man, if you can get it, take it! While it appears that P.T. Barnum never actually uttered the phrase usually attributed to him -- concerning the birth rate of suckers -- it's true nonetheless. In the last couple of days, I've realized that a surprising number of folks have either never heard of Tumblr, or purport to know virtually nothing about its content and user policies. The old echo chamber strikes again -- it's easy for us to forget that not everyone spends their days thinking about the Net. The fact is that Tumblr brings to Yahoo a rather fascinating dilemma. It would be unfair to call Tumblr a sleaze site per se -- because they do host a wide variety of utterly un-sleazy materials posted by their freewheeling users on a virtually endless series of "microblogs." But, truth be told, Tumblr is also an almost bottomless pit of seamy, gross, and in some cases borderline illicit postings of all sorts. The topic range in these particular categories is both broad and deep, and of the sort to make your creepy Uncle Ernie both pant and vomit with joy. We're not talking here simply about happy adult pornography, but bestiality, self-mutilation, racism, anorexia fan sites, near c-porn, and so, so much more. Certainly it's true that other major sites are not necessarily entirely devoid of such goodies. But the Tumblr terms of use have tended to either implicitly or explicitly condone -- and so attract -- this sort of content. Which brings us back to Yahoo. I'm a first amendment, free speech guy, and so my concern in this context is not with that Tumblr content itself -- however disgusting I personally find much of it to be. Like I say all the time, censorship on the Internet doesn't work and just makes things worse -- don't even try it. But seeming corporate hypocrisy related to a billion dollar acquisition really bugs me. Yahoo is claiming that it's going to be "hands off" Tumblr -- that (at least for now) Tumblr will operate separately with no changes to their usage terms. "Tumblr and Yahoo will be independent," said Yahoo today -- on the same day they moved (with considerable fanfare) the Yahoo official blog to a tumbler.com address. Hmm. But sooner or later, Yahoo is going to want to monetize the Tumbler throngs, and therein awaits the advertising trap. Pretty much the worst thing that could happen to most major advertisers is to have their products pitched in conjunction with serious sleaze, especially in this age of flash boycotts. What to do? Well, obviously Yahoo will be pushing for Tumbler users to be rigorous about accurately labeling their sites -- e.g. as "Not Safe For Pretty Much Anyone" -- but just like right now, many users will ignore this, and likely others will begin purposely mislabeling as a form of protest against Yahoo's takeover. Algorithms can try to ferret out some of this automatically -- "Running Procedure sicko_seek-pns49300A.3" -- but a lot will still slip through, so to speak. All told, it's almost impossible to visualize anything beyond a relatively near-term future where the existing full content range on Tumblr will be tolerable to Yahoo. My guess is that Yahoo will be subtly working to drive out those "troublesome" aspects of the Tumblr user base over time -- one way or another -- ideally before the first big public blowup in the "Yahoo era" over Tumblr content. This won't happen overnight. It's in Yahoo's interests right now to try make Tumblr users of all stripes feel that they're wanted, valued, and cherished. Welcome to the joyful embrace of Yahoo! But if I were a Tumblr user with content that was, shall we say, considerably divergent from the mainstream, I'd be starting to look around right now for a different place to host my stuff, and some new URLs to forward over to good ol' Uncle Ernie. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren&lt; at &gt;vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info - Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com </pre> PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility) Announcement List 2013-05-21T00:26:43 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.org.pfir.announce/3378 <pre> DDoS-for-hire service works with blessing of FBI, operator says http://j.mp/13zS4nD (ars technica) "A website that accepts payment in exchange for knocking other sites offline is perfectly legal, the proprietor of the DDoS-for-hire service says. Oh, it also contains a backdoor that's actively monitored by the FBI." - - - --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren&lt; at &gt;vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info - Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com </pre> PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility) Announcement List 2013-05-19T22:29:25 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.org.pfir.announce/3377 <pre> WSJ: Yahoo board approves buying Tumblr for 1.1B in cash It's (Mostly) Official: Yahoo Buying Tumblr for $1.1 Billion in Cash http://j.mp/13zcJZ0 (Gawker) "Cash! The WSJ says "the Yahoo board has approved a deal" to make this happen, and given that crew's track record so far, we believe it. It's hard to imagine Tumblr turning this down. One of the most unpopular companies in the world will soon own one of the most popular in history, and we'll all find out if you really can buy cool." - - - Reference: "Tumblr: Still Full of Porn, Self-Mutilation, and Eating Disorders" http://j.mp/13zcxcv (Gawker) [Not safe for family, Not safe for work] --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren&lt; at &gt;vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info - Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com </pre> PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility) Announcement List 2013-05-19T17:01:57 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.org.pfir.announce/3376 <pre> Revenge, ego and the corruption of Wikipedia http://j.mp/YRr7xE (Salon) [quite long] "The answer to this question is on the one hand simple, almost trivial: Qworty turned out to be another author who had a long history of resenting Hannah. The late night Wikipedia edits are certainly not the first time that a writer's ego has led to mischief. But the story is also important. Wikipedia is one of the jewels in the Internet's crown, an amazing collective achievement, a mighty stab at realizing an awesome dream: a constantly updated repository for all human knowledge. It is created from the bottom up, a crowd-sourced labor of love by people who require no compensation for their work but also don't need to jump through any qualifying hoops. Anyone can edit Wikipedia. Just create an account and start messing around! Qworty's edits undermine our trust in this great project. Qworty's edits prove that Wikipedia's content can be shaped by people settling grudges and acting out of spite and envy. Qworty alone, by his own account, has made 13,000 edits to Wikipedia. And Qworty, as the record will show, is not to be trusted." - - - --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren&lt; at &gt;vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info - Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com </pre> PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility) Announcement List 2013-05-18T23:42:22 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.org.pfir.announce/3375 <pre> Fed. Appeals Court Says Police Need Warrant to Search Phone http://j.mp/YQOoQl (Slashdot) "In a decision that's almost certainly going to result in this issue heading up to the Supreme Court, the Federal 1st Circuit Court of Appeals [Friday] ruled that police can't search your phone when they arrest you without a warrant. That's contrary to most courts' previous findings in these kinds of cases where judges have allowed warrantless searches through cell phones." - - - Yep, SCOTUS will have to deal with this now. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren&lt; at &gt;vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info - Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com </pre> PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility) Announcement List 2013-05-18T16:45:45 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.org.pfir.announce/3374 <pre> Concerns over Internet wiretaps (duh!) http://j.mp/10JYRuf (New York Times) "The 20 computer experts and cryptographers who drafted the report say the only way that companies can meet wiretap orders is to re-engineer the way their systems are built at the endpoints, either in the software or in users' devices, in effect creating a valuable listening station for repressive governments as well as for ordinary thieves and blackmailers." - - - This is, of course, hardly a revelation. We've been saying this for many, many years. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren&lt; at &gt;vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info - Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com </pre> PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility) Announcement List 2013-05-17T14:21:20 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.org.pfir.announce/3373 <pre> ----- Forwarded message from [Name withheld by request] Date: Fri, 17 May 2013 XX:00:11 NNNN From: [] Subject: a users view on the ASIC request To: Lauren Weinstein &lt;lauren&lt; at &gt;vortex.com&gt; Lauren, there is a dimension of the story you didn't capture maybe. if others have told you this I apologize for duplication. Not only was the ASIC request not really judicially assessed or understood to have force of law, the ISPs acted quite differently. Some blocked. some did not. The level of understanding of who can, and cannot request, and when it has force of law, and when 'show me a warrant' is an acceptable response is not clear. The ASIC is trying to re-posture as having misunderstood associated damage but it goes far beyond that: which laws empowered this takedown? there are laws which empower takedowns. What was this one? There are many blameable parties in this. the ISPs which blocked, should have been more conscious of what they were doing. the ISPs who refuse to speak, were being blinded by laws which relate to porn and other filters, which they are under legal obligation not to publicise for fear the blacklist becomes a URL set to trawl. there is no sense obvious to me the ASIC had the right to say 'do not tell' The differentiation of did block and did-not gets to really strange places. in Australia, we have legal defences in common-carrier laws which means ISPS can be like telephone networks, not held to be responsible for crimes in the data because they carry, not editorialize. In agreeing to block, the ISP inherits responsibilities: in not blocking, risk for loosing immunity, but.. the block/not-block mix makes this very complicated. Thanks for highlighting things btw. this is a very important story. I am personally outside the ISP community so I do not wish to join the debate. As a user, I am totally appalled by the lack of due process, respect for law by BOTH the ASIC, and the ISPs. I believe they behaved unprofessionally. I am not a lawyer. No doubt some lawyers will buy into this and call me wrong. ----- End forwarded message ----- --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren&lt; at &gt;vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info - Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com </pre> PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility) Announcement List 2013-05-17T02:52:41 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.org.pfir.announce/3372 <pre> You probably won't believe how often Sprint hands subscriber data to government http://j.mp/10IEfCK (house.gov) --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren&lt; at &gt;vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info - Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com </pre> PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility) Announcement List 2013-05-16T20:38:26 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.org.pfir.announce/3371 <pre> AT&amp;T blocks Google Hangouts video chats on Android http://j.mp/YMFxPq (Fierce Mobile) "AT&amp;T Mobility (NYSE:T) is blocking video chat features integrated into Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) new Hangouts messaging service for Android. The standalone Hangouts app--introduced Wednesday and also available for Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS and the Web--integrates text, photo and video interactions into one service, rivaling over-the-top messaging efforts like WhatsApp, Viber and BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY) Messenger. SlashGear reports that video chat functionality is disabled on AT&amp;T Android devices connected to the operator's cellular network, although the feature is accessible over Wi-Fi connections. iOS users can send and receive video calls over the AT&amp;T cellular network as well." - - - --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren&lt; at &gt;vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info - Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com </pre> PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility) Announcement List 2013-05-16T17:48:38 http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.org.pfir.announce/3370 <pre> Governments already abusing website blocking facilities (surprise!) http://j.mp/m1t7oU (Delimiter) ASIC believed that the website in question was operating in breach of Australian law, specifically section 911a of the Corporations Act 2001," Conroy's office said. "Under Section 313 of the Telecommunications Act, websites that breach Australian law can be blocked." "Melbourne Free University's website was hosted at the same IP address as the fraud website, and was unintentionally blocked. Once ASIC were made aware of what had happened, they lifted the original blocking request. The government is working with enforcement agencies to ensure that Section 313 requests are properly targeted in future." - - - Website blocking is a cancer. It never stays in one place, but spreads to the limits of politicos' imaginations. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren&lt; at &gt;vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info - Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com </pre> PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility) Announcement List 2013-05-16T15:52:14 Search the mailing list at Gmane query http://search.gmane.org/?group=$group=gmane.org.pfir.announce