EDRi: 2017 – another extremely challenging year for digital rights »
Archive | January, 2017
An absurd battle over free speech
As you may have heard, last week we were sued for $15 million by Shiva Ayyadurai, who claims to have invented email. We have written, at great length, about his claims and our opinion — backed up by detailed and thorough evidence — that email existed long before Ayyadurai created any software. We believe the legal claims in the lawsuit are meritless, and we intend to fight them and to win.
There is a larger point here. Defamation claims like this can force independent media companies to capitulate and shut down due to mounting legal costs. Ayyadurai’s attorney, Charles Harder, has already shown that this model can lead to exactly that result. His efforts helped put a much larger and much more well-resourced company than Techdirt completely out of business.
So, in our view, this is not a fight about who invented email. This is a fight about whether or not our legal system will silence independent publications for publishing opinions that public figures do not like.
And here’s the thing: this fight could very well be the end of Techdirt, even if we are completely on the right side of the law.
EU and mass surveillance
Asaf Lubin’s summary of the legislation in Just Security shows how the UK Snoopers Charter, Germany’s Communications Intelligence Gathering Act and France’s International Electronic Communications Law all legalise the kind of surveillance that outraged Europeans and their leaders in the wake of the Snowden revelations. Despite the fact that Europe’s high court has already ruled that this kind of surveillance is illegal, parliaments around the EU continue to pass their own Snoopers Charters, in a race to the bottom with autocratic states like Russia and surveillance-happy nations like the USA.
Boingboing: Germany, France and the UK are moving the EU to continuous, unaccountable, warrantless mass surveillance »
Manning: Presidential pardon – or not?
Chelsea Manning, the Army soldier who was handed a 35 years prison sentence in 2010 for leaking military files to Wikileaks, may be on President Obama’s short list of sentence commutations before he leaves office.
This comes from NBC News, which cited an unnamed Justice Department official. The report said a decision on Manning could come as soon as Wednesday, though Obama has until his last day in office to do so. High profile or controversial pardons and sentence commutations, as this would be, typically come at the end of presidents’ terms.
Vocativ: Chelsea Manning Is Reportedly On Obama’s Commutation Short List »
Boingboing: Chelsea Manning on the short list for commutation: call the White House at 202-456-1111 to help her »
Sweden – not so neutral, after all?
By HAX on January 9, 2017 in Big Brother, GCHQ, Intelligence, IT security, NSA, Rule of law, surveillance, Sweden, UK, US
Possible targets might be the administrators of foreign computer networks, government ministries, oil, defense, and other major corporations, as well as suspected terrorist groups or other designated individuals. Similar Quantum operations have targeted OPEC headquarters in Vienna, as well as Belgacom, a Belgian telecom company whose clients include the European Commission and the European Parliament. (…)
Significantly, while WINTERLIGHT was a joint effort between the NSA, the Swedish FRA, and the British GCHQ, the hacking attacks on computers and computer networks seem to have been initiated by the Swedes.
It’s worth keeping in mind that Swedish intelligence agency FRA – together with British GCHQ – declined to participate in the European Parliaments hearings on mass surveillance.
The New York Review of Books: The Swedish Kings of Cyberwar »
Germany towards a centralised Police State?
By HAX on January 9, 2017 in Big Brother, Civil rights, Democracy, Germany, Police state, War on Terror
German interior minister Thomas de Maiziere has announced a series of proposals that revolve around giving the German federal government more power over security agencies, cyber attacks, policing and deportations; permitting the deployment of the military internally; expanding the scope of the proposed EU Entry/Exit System and loosening the the EU definition of “safe third countries”.
There is this German proverb: History does not repeat itself. But it rhymes.
Statewatch » Interior ministry “wish list”: strengthen central government security, policing and deportation powers »
Assange on Fox: Governments hate transparency
By HAX on January 8, 2017 in Assange, Big Brother, Big Government, Democracy, Free Information, Hacktivism, Rule of law, Transparency, Wikileaks
“We’re in the business of publishing information about power,” Assange said. “Why are we in the business of publishing information about power? Because people can do things with power, they can do very bad things with power. If they’re incompetent, they can do dangerous things. If they’re evil, they can do wicked things.”
In Part III of the interview, which aired Thursday on the Fox News Channel, Assange also said that governments “hate transparency. They loathe it. Because they have to work harder.” (…)
Governments are “full of incompetent people,” Assange told Hannity. “And the more secretive the area is, the more incompetent it becomes because there’s no proper oversight.” (…)
“If you don’t know what’s happening in the world with powerful individuals, corporations and governments … immoral actors within the state or within those big corporations prosper,” Assange said at the conclusion of the interview.
Fox: ‘Hannity’ Exclusive: Wikileaks’ Assange: Governments ‘Hate Transparency. They Loathe It’ »
“Apple Removes New York Times Apps From Its Store in China”
Apple, complying with what it said was a request from Chinese authorities, removed news apps created by The New York Times from its app store in China late last month.
The move limits access to one of the few remaining channels for readers in mainland China to read The Times without resorting to special software. The government began blocking The Times’s websites in 2012, after a series of articles on the wealth amassed by the family of Wen Jiabao, who was then prime minister, but it had struggled in recent months to prevent readers from using the Chinese-language app.
NYT: Apple Removes New York Times Apps From Its Store in China »
EU proposal: All travel to be registered
By HAX on January 6, 2017 in Big Brother, Civil liberties, EU, PNR, Police state, Privacy, War on Terror
I cannot say that I am surprised. I have seen this coming, for a long time:
Jambon’s plan takes this initiative [PNR] and applies it to other means of transport. It will mean that anyone wanting to travel by rail, sea or by bus to another EU country will have to register their information.
Fighting terrorism is just a pretext. Politicians want ever more control and surveillance of the people. They will not be satisfied until there is total control.
• Euractiv: Belgium prepares to present passenger data plans to rest of EU »
• Techdirt: Belgium Wants EU Nations To Collect And Store Personal Data Of Train, Bus And Boat Passengers »
33C3: Germany and mass surveillance after Snowden
33C3 » 3 Years After Snowden: Is Germany fighting State Surveillance? – with Edward Snowden »