Category Archives: freedom

GNU-Darwin Action: USTR releases finalized ACTA text: Concerns remain – #drm #law #dmca #coica #music #freedom

November 16, 2010 – 1:07 pm

As usual, we expect major problems with the ACTA treaty. Here is some info from Public Knowledge about the current text. I am also posting a link to the notes I published regarding last month’s ACTA revision to the twitter. Here is the link for your convenience. More on this later.

proclus: #ACTA notes – #drm #law #dmca #coica #music #freedom #downloads #internet #software #technology http://xi.nu/gd369

Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/


 

Today the United States Trade Representative (USTR) released the finalized text of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), claiming to smooth out disagreements among the negotiating parties. However, our concerns with respect to some provisions remain. I had outlined these concerns in my previous post. Here are the changes in the new text.

read more

By gnudarwin | Also posted in technology | Comments (0)

Stop the Internet Blacklist! – #drm #law #acta #dmca #coica #music #freedom #downloads #internet #software #technology

October 19, 2010 – 7:31 pm

Hey — have you heard about this new Internet blacklist bill? It would allow the Attorney General to censor entire websites in the United States — even if the site hasn’t been convicted of any crime!

President Obama has been denouncing countries like China and Iran for censoring the Internet — but now the U.S. Senate is about to do the same thing here at home. And they’re trying to rush the bill through right after the election without having any debate.

Can you take a second to sign a petition opposing this bill? Click here.
http://act.demandprogress.org/go/4?akid=6.45919.J_5eKt&t=2

Already over 200,000 people have signed and they’re trying to hit 250,000 before they start delivering petitions at the end of this week. Adding your name could make a real difference.

Please forward this email far and wide — people need to hear about this bill.

Thanks!

Regards,
proclus
http://ww.gnu-darwin.org/

By gnudarwin | Also posted in technology | Comments (0)

proclus: #ACTA notes – #drm #dmca #coica #music #downloads #technology

October 9, 2010 – 2:38 am

Activists may wish to go straight to Section 5, which deals with digital enforcement and explicitly stipulates that the provisions preserve fundamental principles, such as free speech rights.  A caveat would be that these stipulations are not present in the first part of the document, which deals primarily with non-digital property.  Section 5 is about the restriction of access to knowledge.

The treaty uses a peculiar term which I have not encountered before, fair process.  This principle appears to be similar to fair use, but it is best thought of in another way.  For example, If I put your logo on the top of a document, I am free to list the reasons why I don’t like your organization under the logo as long as I don’t say the communication is from you.  That is my understanding of fair process, which is essentially the clear right to use your logo as a designator to make comments, comparisons to competitors and so forth.  If this is not a correct conception of fair process, then someone please clue me.

As I noted previously with respect to the onerous COICA legistlation, it is far too tempting for corporations to use trademark enforcement to quell unfavorable expression, and they should NOT be encouraged to do so.  This is a MAJOR problem with ACTA as well, and the trademark provisions are among the most controversial perhaps for this reason.

It is no surprise to see such stipulations of basic rights spelled out explicitly in the digital enforcement section, because such provisions are often so problematic.  For example, ACTA says effectively in this section that governments shall promote the adoption of DRM by corporations. It is simply a contradiction in terms to promote DRM at the same time as free speech, fair use, and privacy rights, which are basic principles and protected liberties.   The fact that people don’t seem to see this contradiction is a huge problem which transcends the ACTA treaty.

The fallacy that DRM is compatible with fundamental rights is what makes ACTA so onerous, and this fallacy blooms full in the anti-circumvention provisions.  They are legal sophistry and an offence to basic liberties, while at the same time claiming to support such liberties.  It is the same problem with the DMCA.  Saying that you support free speech, fair use, and privacy is different than actually supporting them, and neglect of this fact has led to many problems.  There will be more and more problems until the DRM fallacy is recognized.  DRM and liberty are incompatible, and the anti-circumvention provisions of ACTA make this OBVIOUS.  Attempts to enforce such provisions constitute an illegitimate authority.

In the case of ACTA, sections subsequent to section 5 are tainted with this fallacy and illegitimate notion of authority which violates the very basic principles that it claims to uphold.  It is really quite a power grab.  As such, the document is very troubling indeed, and will no doubt continue to receive vociferous opposition.  Although the problems with trademark infringement are troubling, in actuality, the document is deeply flawed. If the ACTA treaty is ratified, I am predicting that many parties will withdraw from it. 

Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

By gnudarwin | Also posted in ecommerce, free software, open source, technology, weblogs | Comments (0)

DarwinSourceArchive Index – #gnudarwin #darwin #free #download #foss #osx86 #free #software #freedom #source #code

August 22, 2010 – 4:09 am
Index of DarwinSourceArchive – back online finally! ;-}

http://src.gnu-darwin.org/DarwinSourceArchive/

Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

By gnudarwin | Also posted in darwin, download | Comments (0)

Reject UltraViolet #DRM – #dvd #mp3 #sony #nokia #software #freedom #nokia #sony

July 28, 2010 – 7:29 pm

Reject UltraViolet DRM

"Throughout the relatively short history of Digital Restrictions Management, we have seen various methods of user restriction come and go. Now, there is a new threat on the horizon: UltraViolet. A soon to be implemented DRM scheme, UltraViolet — or should that be Ultraviolent…"

Read more,
http://www.defectivebydesign.org/ultraviolet

Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

By gnudarwin | Comments (0)

Michael L. Love: I love posterous!

April 22, 2010 – 4:44 pm

Michael L. Love
telepresence guru

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Love posterous! This will be a great resource for blogging on the following topics. Expect regular action here.

administrator, biochemistry, book of mormon, chips, cyrus, editorial, installation, jesus christ, laboratory, love story, mormons, parsley, polaris, radical, resveratrol, sinclair, structure, adapters, aging, analysis content, antioxidant, antioxidants, audio cables, biography, brandeis, brigham young, cancer, cornell, darwin, darwin mac, darwin os, debian, download, facebook, faith, free downloads, free software, freedom, gimp, gnu-darwin, guitar effects, history, iphone, instrument cables, johns hopkins, joseph smith, keychain tool, latter day saints, leopard, life span, linus pauling, liquid vitamin, liquid vitamins, longevity, love song, manager, medieval, memory cards, molecular, molecules, mormon church, music, natural vitamins, nutritional supplements, open source, preparedness, printable, proclus, project, protein crystallography, purdue, rasmol, retractable sd cards, revelation, sharing, software, structural biology, technologies, tiger, treatment for, universities, vitamin store, vitamin supplement, windowmaker, x ray crystallography, x11

Here is more.

get fit, diet and exercise, low calorie diet, fitness plans, weight lossplan, radical mormon mormons lds news rm rms rms, healthy nutrition, weight loss programs, losing weight, diet, vitacost, nutrition facts, healthy diet and fitness, weight loss aids, fitness, weight loss tools, healthy lifestyle, nutrition counseling

proclus-gnu-darwin reads 5 posterous blogs.
The Official Posterous Posterous


Spectrumville


Michael L. Love writes for…
proclus-gnu-darwin’s posterous
By gnudarwin | Also posted in blogging software, free software, gnu-darwin, internet tools, technology, web design | Comments (0)

GNU-Darwin ports and packages for Darwin-8 and above, alpha

April 6, 2010 – 7:03 pm
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Current alpha darwin8+, plz report

2010-04-06 18:01 on GNU-Darwin Distribution
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/www001/?N=A

The link contains packages and ports directories, including the current alpha for Darwin-8 and above. This package set is the basis of the GNU-Darwin Molecules machine, so that it is heavily tested. If you try it, please send a report, so that we can move it to beta and release. All suggestions welcome.

Regards,
proclus
http://www.gnu-darwin.org/

via proclus.gnu-darwin.org

GNU-Darwin ports and packages for Darwin-8 and above, alpha
open source, internet tools, operating systems, ecommerce, technology, darwin, darwin mac, darwin os, download, free downloads, free software, freedom, gnu-darwin, gimp, molecular, molecules, open-sou

Posted via web from proclus-gnu-darwin’s posterous

By gnudarwin | Also posted in darwin, darwin mac, darwin os, download, ecommerce, free downloads, free software, gimp, gnu-darwin, internet tools, molecular, molecules, open source, operating systems, technology | Comments (0)