ORG just kicked off another fundraising campaign yesterday at Open Tech 2008. I was one of many online supporters who has written about ORG’s activities that they contacted to help raise awareness around this drive. You’ll notice in the sidebar a widget, one you too can embed, tracking the drive’s progress. Also, if you visit the ORG-GRO page, you can see exactly where and how they are spending your contributions.

I know I have lot of readers and listeners in Britain and the EU who could help them out. If you’ve thought about helping ORG, now is an excellent time.

ShareThis

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” — Thomas Jefferson

I am very fond of much of Jefferson’s writings. He is imminently quotable on a wide variety of subjects dear to me as well. This is a quotation to which I often return, especially today when we in the US commemorate the start of the events that led to the founding of our country.

The vigilance of which Jefferson spoke is too easily interpreted as mere watchfulness for obvious, external enemies. This line of thinking is a hallmark of the regime that has gotten our country embroiled in an unsustainable set of foreign conflicts that have more to do with the politics of hate than of liberty.

I have always considered the true price of freedom to be intellectual vigilance. Never take the facile interpretation of a difficult political or moral situation. Jefferson, among other things, was a free thinker. I think that is consistent with my view, that to retain our liberty we must constantly exercise our own intellects as strenuously as he did. Reject dogma and seek out truth and knowledge for yourself. Only in the face of fact and logic can you make a reasonable critical judgement.

There rarely are answers to complex questions that are both simple and true. That should not stop you from rising to the challenge and trying to find an intellectually tenable stance. It is easy to follow majority opinions, doing so involves no real sacrifice. We live in an unprecedented age with regards to our access to knowledge. Use those resources to discover for yourself what forms of liberty are individually dear to you and how best to defend them.

Today of all days should be one spent in consideration of personal liberty. Consider too how you can be mindful, vigilant, every day and how you may also act, add your voice, your actions to those issues of freedom that matter most to you.

ShareThis

I will be taking a hiatus to catch up on planning and writing for the show. There will be no new shows in the feed for the next two weeks. The show will return with a feature cast on July 16th.

In the intro, a quick review of Wall*e based on my taking my two sons to see it this weekend. I highly and thoroughly recommend this film. I think it has an overlooked hacker theme to it, to boot.

The only security alert this week is just discussing some new malware for OS X which may be new or an existing but recent one and simple advice on how to protect yourself. The folks over at ZDNet’s Zero Day blog also think Snow Leopard is a good opportunity to get ahead of any uptick in malware for the operating system.

In this week’s news, opening of Java sources to be completed this year though some question its relevance, the future of JavaScript, ICANN considering opening up top level domain names, and the risks in a new wave of remove kill switches in consumer devices.

Following up this week, just the FISA Amendments Act with news that several senators have voiced strong opposition including willingness to filibuster, and that the vote has been delayed until July 8th, that there may be some passable compromises if outright rejection fails.

Grab the detailed show notes with time offsets and additional links either as PDF or OPML.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

ShareThis

ShareThis

ShareThis

ShareThis

The hacker word of the week this week is deep space.

The feature is a mild rant about what I am calling the Three Year Itch, a phenomenon I have observed in my professional life related to the typical duration of each of my successive jobs and how it seems to be biasing me towards voluntarily splitting my career up on that particular interval.

Grab the detailed show notes with time offsets and additional links either as PDF or OPML.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

ShareThis

ShareThis

Please, go to the EFF action center’s alert, enter your ZIP code or login, and make the call. Help the EFF by logging the results of your call, too. To help with the logging, be sure to ask for the Senator’s stance on the bill, ask with whom you are speaking and don’t be shy about reading the script provided or using it as a jumping off point.

I would suggest going further, too, in trying to find out if either of your Senators will support the bill with the immunity provision, despite opposing immunity, as I warned Senator Obama has stated. Make sure they understand you find such a stance untenable and if they oppose immunity, they should work to defeat the provision separate from any other concerns the bill may address. I would even recommend pressing any on-the-fence senators on what other aspects of the bill they would support if they support that non-comitall line od reasoning. The EFF’s analysis doesn’t indicate there really is anything to this bill other than telecom immunity.

I didn’t think to ask Mikulski’s staffer where she stood. I am not happy with her agreement with my views on past issues so wouldn’t be surprised if she supports the bill. I was grateful that Cardin’s office says he does oppose immunity and when I pressed he opposes immunity in any form, that unlike others he would not support the bill at all if it includes immunity. I hope that equates to a willingness to filibuster or do whatever else is necessary to defeat this draft of the bill and any future draft that tries to absolve the telcos of their culpability in the illegal wire tapping of US citizens.

ShareThis

In the intro, just a quick mention of the end of Search Engine on CBC Radio One, that I wrote about on the blog, previously.

The only security alert this week is a couple of security vulnerabilities in Firefox 3 already though a fix is on the way and eavesdropping on encrypted VoIP.

In this week’s news, top woman coder explains gender differences in coding styles, UCITA sneaks back inside on the new anti-spyware bill, AP issues legal notice to a blogger that leads to a discussion of guidelines with a group whose legitimacy is unclear, and the house passes telecom immunity as part of a new FISA bill.

Following up this week, an interview with Minister Prentice and first responses to Judge Davis’ call for comments on the Jammie Thomas case.

Grab the detailed show notes with time offsets and additional links either as PDF or OPML.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

ShareThis

ShareThis

ShareThis

ShareThis

I heard the news on the June 19th episode and had to hit the web site as soon as I got to a wireless access point. It’s true, the radion program is ending though it will live on as a series of segments in other CBC programs. That is a crying shame.

The host, and of of the producers, Jesse Brown will be continuing the series on his own purely as a blog and podcast in the Fall. I wish him luck and plan on sending some personal correspondence indicating my gratitude for the program and an offer of help, as much as my own commitments will allow.

ShareThis

The hacker word of the week this week is deep magic.

The feature is an Inner Chapter on the hacker work ethic, drawing heavily from my own experience on what motivates me to hack.

Grab the detailed show notes with time offsets and additional links either as PDF or OPML.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

ShareThis

I have been using Firefox 3.0 since I think the 2nd beta. I have been happy with the performance and stability starting even then. The three release candidates, in particular, have been pretty much ready for prime time as far as I am concerned.

My critical extensions, like Sxipper, have worked throughout and with later releases, extension support has caught up quickly. With the official release, I expect any actively maintained extensions to catch up soon.

No excuses–download today!

ShareThis

Mur Lafferty, a good friend and yet another podcaster¹, posted her inaugural article for her column at Suicide Girls. WARNING: If you go cruise around the site, beyond just the article link, Suicide Girls contains material of an adult nature. Mur’s article is totally safe for work and her boss at SG says the ads and other content should also be safe for work, if a bit racy.

She isn’t speaking to computing or hacking but she describes a very clear way of marking time in our lives by the experiences we have. In her case, her geeky recollections of playing the various incarnations of Nintento’s Mario Kart franchise. That’s the common element, to me, the experience. Through her narrative, you get a vivid sense of what these experiences meant to her, both embedded in her life and the broader sense of her life at that time.

When I think about the time I spent dialing into BBSes, first learning BASIC, hacking around with Pascal during Summer session at college, and even more recent milestones, it as much about the whole sense of my life at those times as about the particular activity. Without verbally jumping up and down on them like I just have, she deftly puts her finger on these threads of experience.

I look forward to her future essays for SG and expect them to be equally geeky, perhaps even things to which I can draw parallels in my hackerly experience, too.

[1] More a commentary on the fact that almost all of my personal friends these days are podcasters, not any commentary on any specific one, such as Mur in this case.

ShareThis

In the intro, a consideration of my geek dad in light of Father’s Day, a reminder of the upcoming 3rd anniversary of the show, and a thank you for all feedback past.

The only security alert this week is a discussion of an update to existing ransomware with a stronger encryption key and one security vendor’s desire to crack it despite skepticism from the experts.

In this week’s news, The Piracy Bureau speaks on the inevitable failure of copyright on digital goods, what is at stake with the success or failure of white space devices, a new algorithm that exploits symmetries, and Google is preparing a neutrality measurement tool for the average user.

Following up this week, just the introduction of the Canadian DMCA which I wrote about but the best analysis if from Michael Geist about which I’ve already commented, twice. Ars Technica has a concise overview and there is a neat bit of hacktivism in the form of a comic book made out of linked, remixed quotes.

Grab the detailed show notes with time offsets and additional links either as PDF or OPML.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

ShareThis

ShareThis

ShareThis

He also shares cause for optimism, based on the activist push back on prior attempts to table this bill. And asks for those that acted before to continue to do so. The post on his blog also has links for taking such action.

ShareThis

Some highlights:

• The language around DRM is worse than I feared. Here in the US, there have been bills suggested to make circumvention tools outright illegal and much case law that so far has held up a safe harbor where there is substantial non-infringing use. This bill would have Canada leap frog the question and outright criminalize these tools.
• There is no regular exemption processing, like under the US DMCA. That odd phrase I spotted, about the government intervening for the public good? According to Geist’s reading so far, that is substituting for the regular exemption petition and review process.
• He suspects that if ACTA comes to fruition and Canada signs, the milder notice and takedown system and safe harbor for ISPs will be irrelevant. I noticed not only the mention of ACTA in the backgrounder but also C-59, the camcorder bill, so Geist’s point is credible.
• The otherwise generous education provisions, on which I did not comment, seem to be hugely limited by the particulars of the bill.

ShareThis

This backgrounder itemizes four principles:

1. The rights of those who hold copyright must be balanced with the needs of users to access copyright works.
2. The Copyright Act must provide clear, predictable and fair rules to allow Canadians to derive benefits from their creations.
3. The Copyright Act should foster innovation in an effort to attract investment and high-paying jobs to Canada.
4. Canada must ensure that its copyright framework for the Internet is in line with international standards.

Some of these actually sound pretty good. Of course there may lie a vast gulf between a description of what the bill is meant to accomplish and what it actually contains.

The first principle seems to be a strong win, promising the consumer the right to time and format shift as well as generous consideration for fair dealings. But how that will actually jibe with the last principle, given how the global normalization of copyright has almost uniformly meant increased control by rights holders, remains to be see. I like language that talks about access to information, a strong notion in the description of the first principle. It just seems to be at odds with the intention described by some of the other principles. It is curious to note that in many places where this document talks about access, it only talks about access. Outside of the first principle, there is no further mention of any fair uses, transformative or otherwise.

Read that third principle closely, too–Canadian competition is based on “the ability to use high-quality Internet services to create or access copyright content” (emphasis mine). Create or use. Not re-use, remix or transform. The section goes on to talk about new opportunities but only explicitly mentions distribution. Not new or imaginative derivative uses. Just using the internet as yet another retail channel, essentially.

There is also some language strongly hinting at stiffer statutory penalties:

The government believes that it is important to provide stronger measures that rights holders could decide to use to fully exploit and enforce their rights and combat infringement in an Internet environment.

The reference to an Internet environment is particularly chilling. This says to me that Canada may be the latest to fall prey to the entertainment industry’s push for online filtering as the industry is starting to realize that DRM and litigation are failing to protect its outdated business models.

The last section is the worst. It basically just bows down to what WIPO has done with the WCT and WPPT. It comes right out and states “their approach represents the most developed and coherent response by the international community to these new challenges”. Despite the almost whole sale elimination of fair use or fair dealings in the US’s implementation of these treaties, the much maligned DMCA? Few countries have managed to do better with these treaties, at best carving out meager allowances for consumer rights with very strict and daunting boundaries on the other side of which lay ever increasing threats and penalties.

The second half, the proposed approach, delivers on many the horrible gut churns and skin crawls induced by the introductory half. Those consumer protections under the first principle? Only allowed in as far as the consumer doesn’t circumvent DRM. There is some minimal salve in that they seem to be contemplating a cap on statutory damages if the infringement turns out to have been wholly for personal use. Gee, thanks.

I am not a strong enough IP geek to read the tea leaves of the new creator rights but I have a bad feeling when the discussion turns to distribution rights and moral rights. Coupled with the fact that the same section spends as much time considering DRM as a creator right and I think even without detailed analysis or a strong legal and/or historical framework from which to assess these changes, they will mean very bad things indeed for the typical consumer and do more to benefit the middle men than the actual creators.

A glimmer of hope is offered, though.

The bill also introduces important limitations on TM protections to address potential concerns over their impact on freedom of speech, privacy and “follow-on” innovation.

The exceptions listed include reverse engineering, security research and transformation for the purposes of accessibility. There is also some nebulous language about the government reserving the right to further limit DRM where the public interest may be served. I rather suspect the true depth of these limitations is going to depend on considered analysis by the likes of Geist and Felten.

The proposal for ISPs is a surprise, given my initial sense that it would entail filtering. There is no mention of active filtering, quite the contrary. There is some disturbing language about data retention but what this document seems to be describing is a safe harbor similar to that under the US DMCA, with a similar notice and takedown mechanism.

All told, I am not sure this is a step forwards or a step backwards from the deal we’ve been dealt here in the US by the DMCA. It seems to be quantitatively, not qualitatively, different and only minutely so. No doubt the more interesting and progressive measures will be hotly debated by both sides. At a minimum, we now know what we are dealing with and genuine debate can begin.

ShareThis

The hacker word of the week this week is DEC.

The feature is a monologue trying to answer a question Kreg Steppe, a listener and fellow podcaster, posed about unintended use of free software.

Grab the detailed show notes with time offsets and additional links either as PDF or OPML.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

ShareThis

Professor Michael Geist has the scoop. This long debated bill will apparently finally table the bill tomorrow. It looks like Prentice, along with his co-sponsors, will be holding a press event to field questions. Prentice tried this before and some intensely pointed queries were launched and promptly deflected. has the audio of the previous Q & A in their show archive onlibe.

Would any of my Canadian listeners be willing to try to record some audio from this event? I know it is short notice but I’ve been following this bill with considerable interest. I have no doubt many listeners, in Canada, the US and abroad have been as well.

ShareThis

Perhaps I am spoiled by EFF’s action center where they craft an issue specific, well though out, well argued letter which you can customize or send as is. I took the time to write out my own please, so should you. I can only hope that because Amazon is an online business, they will give more wait to email entreaties. History doesn’t suggest that anything other than paper mail is very effective at persuading companies or governments.

We won’t know unless you add your voice.

ShareThis

ShareThis

I actually like this idea. In asking after card payments, I think it shows the article’s author doesn’t entirely get the appeal of a cash access point. If you want an access point that takes plastic or a pre-loaded card, that’s pretty much how every pay system currently works. Adding a card processor onto the coin op box would mean the purchase information may go over a dial up line, like a traditional POS unit, or via the box’s dedicate internet connection. If we are talking about my card info, I’d rather be able to see the merchant processing the card and check that their certificates are up to snuff.

Some of the subsidized access points are free with a purchase. This is close to a cash service in that I can buy the necessary goods however I like. Really I can only drink so many lattes in a working day though. A coin or note operated access point means I can directly support the vendor or venue without having to expand my waistline when I need to make extended usage and would prefer to leave the plastic at home.

ShareThis

Security alerts this week are researching new counter measures against worms and Mozilla contemplating a successor to the same origin policy.

In this week’s news, a new paper from Princeton on open government, the real threat posed by ACTA including some history and an opportunity to act as well as commentary from Bill Patry, the ease of spoofing copyright infringement with some additional points to consider from Ed Felten, and reverse engineering the brain.

Following up this week, Media Defender doesn’t defend itself very well and Apple fixes OS X’s implementation of DTrace.

Grab the detailed show notes with time offsets and additional links either as PDF or OPML.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

ShareThis

ShareThis