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posted by chromas on Wednesday June 13 2018, @01:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the bells-will-be-ringing dept.

As Europe's latest copyright proposal heads to a critical vote on June 20-21, more than 70 Internet and computing luminaries have spoken out against a dangerous provision, Article 13, that would require Internet platforms to automatically filter uploaded content. The group, which includes Internet pioneer Vint Cerf, the inventor of the World Wide Web Tim Berners-Lee, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, co-founder of the Mozilla Project Mitchell Baker, Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle, cryptography expert Bruce Schneier, and net neutrality expert Tim Wu, wrote in a joint letter that was released today:

By requiring Internet platforms to perform automatic filtering all of the content that their users upload, Article 13 takes an unprecedented step towards the transformation of the Internet, from an open platform for sharing and innovation, into a tool for the automated surveillance and control of its users.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/06/internet-luminaries-ring-alarm-eu-copyright-filtering-proposal


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  • (Score: 5, Touché) by jmorris on Wednesday June 13 2018, @04:19AM (5 children)

    by jmorris (4844) on Wednesday June 13 2018, @04:19AM (#692215)

    There are only a few things end users can do. Keeping places like this populated is one. Getting the hell off of censoring social media is another. I never fell for most of it, but if you have Facebook or Twitter leave it. Don't delete the account, just starting creating the MySpace sea of abandoned accounts. Get on Gab and the other Alt-Tech. Don't depend on Google beyond that absolutely required. That means look at alternatives to gmail (there are lots), put video on the other services quickly spinning up to fill the hole they are leaving, use hooktube when you just have to view Youtube content (simply replace you with hook in the URL) to deny them the metrics and spying. Install a browser plugin to automagically redirect wikipedia to infogalactic. Use a VPN if your ISP is an asshole. Start voting with your wallet and eyeballs.

    Middle term lobby your Congresscritter to start applying anti-trust laws and let the legal system remind them of the DMCA Safe Harbor they abandoned when they started exercising editorial control. Having Big Tech productize us for ad dollars was bad, having them become Big Brother unopposed is something we shouldn't accept.

    Longer term we the tech types have to see this censorship and route the damned Internet around it. We got lazy and screwed up. NEVER AGAIN. No more centralized choke points. So how? That conversation should have started a year ago. How does a decentralized Internet work? How does a decentralized search engine work? Is it a contradiction in terms or is it buildable? And if it CAN be built, at least in theory, how does it get built in the real world; how does it monitize itself enough to sustain itself? Gab was working on the "Exodus Protocol" to create social media without a central server but It haven't seen Torba post an update in months so who knows? But it is the right idea, if there is no central server there is no place to direct rage mobs, boycotts or legal papers. If they fail we have to try again until somebody cracks the problem. If trackerless bittorrent could be solved, it is at least within the realm of possibility.

    As for governments, if the Internet threatens to mainstream darknets we can probably make em an offer they don't refuse. If the official oppression stays managable people won't go to the extra bother. Kind of like Netflix and Spotify pretty much solved the casual piracy problem. Make the legal path attractive and most people take it. Threats of censorship, dodging the police, etc. has to have the counter offer of "and if you can't FIND anyone to arrest?" We can build that. They can banhammer away and we can outrun them. Governments are slow and stupid and for now that, thankfully, isn't a solvable problem.

    The recent https everywhere craze actually serves us well now. With everything encrypted it becomes very hard to know who is doing what if a minimal attempt at obfuscation is used. Unless they ban encryption, which bans Internet commerce and they will find a lot of resistance to that.

    But the big takeaway we should be spreading across the Internet and into our elected rulers is that we CAN fight and we WILL fight them over this. And if they push us too far, especially here in the U.S. of A. we still retain the 2nd Amendment Option. A little revolution is a good thing, from time to time. And a credible threat of one is usually sufficient in direct measure to the believability of the threat.

    "When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."
        -- Shit Jefferson may or may of not have actually said. But probably would have given the chance... monticello.org at least says it isn't in his papers.

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  • (Score: 1, Flamebait) by aristarchus on Wednesday June 13 2018, @04:41AM

    by aristarchus (2645) on Wednesday June 13 2018, @04:41AM (#692222) Journal

    Psst! jmorris! I have been submitting stuff about this for weeks! Gab is compromised!

    https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=27129 [soylentnews.org]

    The whole thing is a Jewish Honeypot! Get out while you can, and support the abolition of netneutrality, jmorris! You have been had!

  • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday June 13 2018, @09:38AM

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Wednesday June 13 2018, @09:38AM (#692280) Homepage Journal

    mostly at the green site but even on usenet when aol set its thundering hooves loose

    ive been meaning to set up a hidden service for soggy jobs. ill do that this weekend.

    there is at least one hidden service search engine

    to the extent legislation can help its far more effective to send snail mail so they can weigh their stacks of letters. youll be happy to know that every politician replies to every such letter with snail mails of their own. i once got a phone call from one of pelosi's staff seeking the details of boy scout solar water stills after i wrote her in response to her mention of desalinization on the radio.

    if you write on dead trees, while your critter is unlikely to change their position maybe you can persuade some of their staff to.

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
  • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday June 13 2018, @09:43AM

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Wednesday June 13 2018, @09:43AM (#692281) Homepage Journal

    that there is a company in germany that distributes a decentralized bot is why .DE is consistently the top country in my server logs.

    if you want decentralized search, ask opencrawl to send you a tape. ironically you can get their data for free if you use the same AWS data center as they do.

    i expect if you show up in person, thebwayback people will let you fill your station wagon with tapes absolutely free of charge

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
  • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday June 13 2018, @09:52AM (1 child)

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Wednesday June 13 2018, @09:52AM (#692285) Homepage Journal

    No, we dont.

    Kalshnikov was a hero to the soviet union because in my understanding only the barrel requires machining, the rest can be made of cut and folded sheet metal.

    even if you make your own, your puny AK-47 is no match for white phospherus, a pure chemical element that the departmentnod defense didnt hesitate to defend The American Way from the Viet Kong and the NVA.

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 13 2018, @03:51PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 13 2018, @03:51PM (#692380)

      The Viet Cong and NVA will be surprised to learn their AK's lost to WP. What do we call Saigon now, again?

      Economy is a concern (Wikipedia says $147 for an AK to $647 for an AR. But the AK was also revolutionary because of its semi-mythic hardiness, at the sacrifice of accuracy. Turns out "good enough" accuracy is often good enough.

      And it is actually emblematic.... you certainly can suffocate out a tunnel complex with WP (if it doesn't have adequate backup ventilation). But if you have more tunnels and personnel than the enemy can find it is still futile.