censorship

Photo: mugley on Flickr.

For those that doesn’t know this already, Australia is one of the countries that are actively filtering and censoring the internet. They are doing this to “protect” their citizens from the big bad wolves that reside in the internet tubes without giving their citizens liberty even a second glance.

Read this on the Australian security firm Sûnnet Beskerming’s blog:

“In the lead up to last year’s national election in Australia there were a range of promises made by the incumbent government, under the name NetAlert, which was reported to be for a range of projects including Internet blocking software at the user end, tracking down online predators, and filtering of traffic on the network.

“There can be no other way to put it other than to suggest that these efforts are being pushed through out of an ignorance of the structure and nature of the Internet, even when accurate information is readily available.”

It’s really frightening to see how fast things can go bad. So far we have not seen this kind of lunacy here in Sweden but it feels like we’re getting there.

The internet’s content is not to be controlled by any unique institution or governing organization, as the whole idea of it is then lost. The Internet is a place that should be a free, unbiased, space for information of all kinds from all sources. Sure some will be hostile, but this is not a reason to filter it.

Doesn’t the Australian politicians relate what they’re doing to what dictatorships are doing? Can’t they see that they’re heading down a very dangerous path by restricting free speech? Besides this being a anti-democratic thing, remember that a society that closes on itself and censors it’s citizens never can evolve at the same speed as the world surrounding them, and therefor the country will suffer both economically and culturally.

The Internet was born free and should remain that way. If we can’t do that, then the whole idea behind it is dead and it’s time to form a new network.

Are you with me?

Photo: cambiodefractal on Flickr.

From IPTegrity.com and Monica Horten (via HAX (Swedish)):

Annexe 1, Point 19 amendment to the Authorisation Directive has been deleted and replaced with an alternative text, that paves the way for ISP filtering at the framework level of EU law.

Annexe 1, Point 19 of the Authorisation Directive was an amendment which meant that EU governments could place copyright enforcement as a term of doing business for ISPs. In principle, it’s a good thing that it has been deleted. What I am concerned about, is the possible interpretation of the text that has replaced it.

The deletion was voted through by the Industry, Research and Energy committee (ITRE) on July 7th. In its place, there is a new text, which refers to another amendment - Article 8 - point 4 - g. This amendment refers (via another linked amendment) to co-operation between ISPs and rights-holders. I have now been able to analyse it, and as I suspected, it means more or less the same thing as the original amendment. It just says it in a roundabout way, instead of saying it directly, as the original one did.
[...]
This is an appalling way to make laws. Amendments, hidden within a long text on a different piece of policy, suddenly switched at the last minute before a vote, in such a fashion that no-one even knows they are there.

It would be comical, if it wasn’t so serious and if it didn’t mean the difference between a free or a restricted Internet.

Bolded by me, as I kinda recognize this from somewhere else… Oh yeah, it was when the Swedish gov. & Parliament tried to sneak through our massive wiretap law… :/

Are these guys sharing ideas or is it the same coach?

Anyways, in short, some of the effects of this law would be:

* Make it possible (but not mandatory) for member countries to force ISP’s to block filesharers.

* Recommend ISP’s to change their EULA’s to enable arbitrary disconnection of filesharers (without possibilities of appeal)

* This in turn forces ISP’s to monitor all traffic flowing through their network to identify potential filesharers. That is, they’ll be mandated to do surveillance of their customers.

And we’re worried about FRA and government surveillance, imagine this done by a private company with no public scrutiny whatsoever.

I wonder how happy the ISPs will be over having to act as police, prosecutor and judge. It’ll also create some “interesting” legal problems for them.

In the law-text there are also loose formulations that an ISPs customers should only be given access to “lawful content“. This could be interpreted that they are only to give users access to data that is expressively stated as lawful. As HAX notes, this is probably not the politicians intentions but it might be the real effect and then all information on the Internet will have to be classified

Hehe, I’d love to see that database (or even the supercomputer that is going to hold it)

The resistance (Swedish link) is being organized and the Swedish delegate Christofer Fjellner (from the Moderate party) is holding a press conference on the 27th of August in the European Parliament. The Speakers are:

* Jon Karlung, CEO, Bahnhof AB, Sweden
* Niels Huijbregts, Public Affairs, XS4ALL Internet bv, Netherlands
* Monica Horten, University of Westminster, Communications & Media Research Institute, UK
* Eddan Katz/ Gwen Hinze, Electronic Frontier Foundation, USA
* Jeffrey Lawrence, Director Content Policy, Intel Corporation
* Nuria Rodriguez Murillo, Legal Officer BEUC
* Levi Nietvelt, Economic Officer BEUC

Apparently, this conference has not been very popular with the French and some other regulation-happy countries. It is very nice to see a Swedish politician actually stand up for a free internet for a change.

Large portions of this post has been directly translated from HAXs latest blogposts (1|2) in order to spread this information as much as it’s possible.
I hope it’s OK

Another rap song about the swedish mass surveillance law and the associated Radio Defense Agency (FRA) has been released freely in the internet tubes.

This time it’s the rapper Promoe (and the band he’s a member of, Looptroop Rockers), and the song’s name is “Den ljusnande FRAmtid” which translates to something like “The brightening future”. Makes more sense in Swedish though

It’s a great song and there are more on Promoe’s Myspace page, and it’s all in english. More general info can be found on Wikipedia.

If you do not have an Myspace account you can download the .mp3 here, from Looptroop Rockers.

Niceness

Photo: Quinnums on Flickr.

I’m getting seriously sick of stuff like this.

WTF people. A former fascist government that controls and censors information. Hrrm… well… maybe not “former”.

And even more tiring than this is seeing them being ridiculed time after time after time. Please realise that you are trying to mess with some of the most skilled service providers in the world (also pictured above). I mean, Latvia or Georgia could not withstand the Russian attacks on their servers, but PRQ has been able to hold the site Kavkaz Center up against the same DDoS attacks.

They are also, besides The Pirate Bay and The Piracy Bureau, hosting Wikileaks and has been able to hold that up under the juridical pressure that has been applied from both governmental and private institutions.

A DNS hack or blocking an IP will not, I repeat, WILL NOT stop The Pirate Bay.

When will “they” learn that information wants to be free? The internet is an extremely free medium and as long as the internet still exists the freedom of information will persist. There’s some logic for you.

And this step, stopping a legal market distribution channel just because it’s also used for supposedly illegal stuff… Well that boggles the mind. The moment that the Swedish government tries to control my media and consumer channels I’m gone. Especially if the government owns the share majority in the country’s largest “legal” ones.

Italy, ACTA, FRA, NSA and royal idiocy… Once again - Where will it stop…