WASHINGTON -- Google will join thousands of tech activists, entrepreneurs and corporations on Wednesday in protesting the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act, a controversial bill that has generated national outrage among Internet experts.
On Wednesday, more than 7,000 websites are expected to voluntarily "go dark," by blocking access to their content to protest the bill, according to organizers of SOPAStrike.com. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans to bring the measure to a vote next week. Some of the biggest names on the Internet plan to participate in the blackout, including Wikipedia, Mozilla, Reddit and WordPress. On Tuesday, Google stopped short of vowing to take down its popular search engine, but said it would change its home page to show solidarity with protesters.
"Like many businesses, entrepreneurs and web users, we oppose these bills because there are smart, targeted ways to shut down foreign rogue websites without asking American companies to censor the Internet," said a Google spokeswoman in a written statement provided to HuffPost. "So tomorrow we will be joining many other tech companies to highlight this issue on our U.S. home page."
While Hollywood movie studios and major record labels have lauded the bill as a robust effort to crack down on online copyright violations, Internet experts maintain that the tools proposed for the legislation would hamper efforts to improve online security and threaten the basic functioning of the Internet.
Tech companies have been raising objections to the bill since the Senate version, Protect IP, was introduced last spring. Free speech experts also argue that the measure's basic anti-piracy tool would risk seriously violating the First Amendment in allowing the government and private companies to shut down entire websites accused of piracy without a trial or even a traditional court hearing.
Web/Tech
January 17, 2012
Google Joins Online SOPA Protest
Students Panic Ahead Of Wikipedia Blackout: 'How Am I Going To Do Homework?'
"omfg NO wikipedia is closing tomorrow HOW AM I GOING TO DO HOMEWORK"
That question, posed by @LucieLovesYah on Twitter, is weighing heavily on students' minds this week following news that Wikipedia will black out its English-language pages for a 24-hour period beginning Wednesday morning. (@LucieLovesYah later wrote us to clarify that her tweet was sarcastic.)
The site's shutdown, which is intended as an online protest against the controversial Congressional bills known as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), has students in a tizzy and altogether unsure how they can complete assignments without being able to access to the online encyclopedia.
In my day, you had to walk all the way to the library and get an actual book.
June 24, 2011
Anonymous: From Civil Disobedience to "Cyberwar"?
The release was credited as being a part of it and LulzSec's ongoing Operation Anti-Security. The operation is a new cyber campaign led by the two hacking collectives designed to protest and combat any and all institutions or governments attempts to censor or moderate the internet.
Already its brother-in-arms LulzSec has taken credit for attacks and hacks on Arizona law enforcement, the U.K.'s Serious Organised Crime Agency and two Brazilian Government owned websites.
Anonymous is yet to release a formal statement outlining its reasons for the hack.
via uk.ibtimes.com
Anonymous' DDoS attacks against PayPal, Visia, etc., they claimed were in retaliation for these companies cutting off WikiLeaks under government pressure. You know, like AT&T did with the Bush Administration. At any rate, on the standard version of civil disobedience this is a stretch since it requires the disobedient to accept punishment. Anonymous is, well, . . . . You see the problem. Nevertheless, they had, I think, a legit beef and we might argue a little bit over whehter accepting punishment is a necessary condition for civil disobedience. Now, with the rise of LulzSec things have changed. If Anonymous was engaged in "civil disobedience" before changed to something more like "cyberwar" against companies and governments that censor the internet. Some of these latest hacks aren't anything like a 21st century verion of the sit-in, as Anonymous has described it's previous DDoS attacks regarding WikiLeaks. It's not just relatiation or a plea for reconsideration or justice like in civil disobedience. This should be a good case study for information and computer ethics and political philosophy. It sure is interesting to see some of the debate over the morality of these hacks carried out within Anonymous itself. The key moral question: Do these information leaks harm innocents? It seems pretty clear that with hacks like the Sony thing there's a great potential for haming innocents here. They released personal information for a lot of people that just happen to use Sony's service. They aren't responsible for Sony's poor internet security, but they're all in danger of identity theft, etc. That's a lot of potential collateral damage to point out a security flaw and it seems different than the Brazil hack.
June 17, 2011
Anonymous vs. LulzSec
Anonymous and LulzSec are not getting along.
After LulzSec released the account information of up to 62,000 innocent users, its 4Chan-born sibling Anonymous reportedly targeted it, leading to a declaration of war between the two hacking collectives.
Anonymous' targeting of the group has since been reported as a response to LulzSec's machine-gun approach to hacking.
Anonymous members have reportedly taken exception to LulzSec's habit of targeting anyone and anything in its cyber attacks regardless of whether the company or person has done anything wrong.
LulzSec's recent attacks on "soft targets" such as the gaming websites Minecraft and Eve Online and subsequent release of 62,000 innocent internet users email and social networking account information has widely been speculated as the straw-that-broke-the-camels-back.
The two collective's began trading blows over 4chan.org's message board. The first message from LulzSec reading, "Just saw a thread on /b/ where they're trying to hunt us: you /b/tards realize that we are everything you've ever tried to be?"
To which Anonymous replied, "We are the concentrated success of 2005 /b/, being 'hunted' by the 2011 furry horde. Challenge accepted, losers".
It's interesting that some of the discord appears to be a matter of ethics.
June 14, 2011
Anonymous's War On The System is Apparently Live
This video was just posted on YouTube from an account that claims association with Anonymous.
June 13, 2011
Anonymous Targets Bernanke, FED
If a new video purportedly by cyber-group "Anonymous" is to be believed, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has become the focus of a pointed threat.
In the video, uploaded on Saturday, the anonymous group, self-described as loosely connected and Internet based, allegedly claims that the Federal Reserve is guilty of "crimes against humanity" and calls for the resignation of Ben Bernanke. In addition, the group would seem to demand the break up of the Federal Reserve and other major banking institutions.
Here's the video.
June 05, 2011
"Little Winstons" Trying to Edit Wikipedia Paul Revere Page
You've probably heard about Sarah Palin's family vacation. She's riding around the country learning about American History. Some of news coverage of the tour indicates she definately needs an educational vacation this summer. She either doesn't quite understand what Paul Revere actually did or cannot communicate her understanding clearly. In typical Palin fashion, she is refusing to admit any fault in either her understanding of US History or of her ability to communiate it clearly, she doubled-down on it. The "great communicator" she is not. Some of her supporters have taken things a little further. From Little Green Footballs:
Man, you’ve gotta almost admire the sheer blind dedication of Sarah Palin’s wingnut acolytes.
Now they’re trying like crazy to edit the Wikipedia page for “Paul Revere” to make it match Palin’s botched version of history. Here’s the Revision history of Paul Revere; check out the edits that are being reversed.
Also see the discussion page for an entertaining exchange between Wikipedia editors and a would-be revisionist.
In George Orwell's 1984 - which, I think, is a much better referrence our current economic predicament than Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged - the main character, Winston, works in The Ministry of Truth. His job is to go back and revise the content past documents that make up "the official record" so that it suits the political leadership's current political purposes. But, in order for the machine to work, enough people have to be willing to do this kind of work. Totalitarian regimes require a measure of popular support in order to carry out their plans. It looks like some Palin supporters are willing to do this kind of work. They're Palin's "little Winstons." Thankfully, Wikipedia is not the official record.
February 24, 2011
February 12, 2011
"Revolution 2.0"
January 31, 2011
Telecomix Message to Egypt and North Africa
Telecomix appears to be another collective of internet citizens like "Anonymous."
Search
Recent Comments