The Real Danger of Wiretapping

Julian Sanchez has an Op-Ed at the LA Times which does a wonderful job reframing the debate over government wiretapping. The majority of the time the debate over government surveillance is considered a trade-off between privacy and security. Julian, however, points to the fact that the weight of history suggests the real value to be lost is political freedom and democracy.

Citing examples throughout the 20th Century, Julian notes that "Without meaningful oversight, presidents and intelligence agencies can -- and repeatedly have -- abused their surveillance authority to spy on political enemies and dissenters."

Have a read.

Chinese Censorship during Tibetan Protests

My interest in copyright reform stems from a larger desire to see the possibilities of technology recognized. One such possibility is that of free expression through the internet and other technologies. However, as my recent post on Chinese censorship points out, the decentralization of the internet doesn't mean that control isn't possible.

In recent days the Tibetan minority in China has been the subject of a massive censorship effort by the Chinese authorities. For one, YouTube is blocked. Now, Global Voices co-founder Rebecca MacKinnon is reporting via numerous sources of the common sentiment throughout China that the Tibetans are "ungrateful minorities" who are without legitimate causes for complaints.

The filtered text messages from Tibet, shut down chat rooms and blocked images are all misuses of technologies if you care about access to information, political plurality and freedom of speech. Davesgonechina is calling for those who care about these concepts to engage Chinese citizens via the internet. Perhaps it is the only way we can change China - from within.

Is the DMCA Still Relevant?

Over at Info/Law Tim Armstrong wonders whether or not the DMCA is still relevant. His key historical analogy is to 1992 Audio Home Recording Act whose provisions drove the DAT format into obscurity. Today, though the AHRA is still a valid law, it holds little power because DAT is dead.

Armstrong thinks that the DMCA may be heading the way of the AHRA because (1) DMCA-related cases are decreasing in frequency, (2) DRM has been (rightly) vilified and (3) DRM is being dropped by a number of industries.

I think he may be right noting that Section 1201 of the DMCA has diminished importance. After all, §1201 what written to stop users from circumventing DRM and as DRM goes to the grave, it will be of little importance.

However, I think he misses two important points: the historical significance of §1201 and the continuing significance of the rest of the DMCA.

For the past decade, content has been sold which is locked into proprietary formats by DRM. Future users will be breaking the law if they have to unlock the content to use in future machines. Just look at HD-DVD and Blu-Ray - consumers stuck with HD-DVDs and players now have soon-to-be useless pieces of plastic because they chose the losing side in the proprietary format war. If, like the AHRA, the DMCA stays on the books, freeing DRM'd material will still be illegal.

Secondly, the DMCA is much more than just §1201. For example, Section 512 forces internet service providers to remove any offending material if they are notified by copyright owners. In the past, this notice and takedown provision has been used to silence critics as reported here and fought by the EFF. Even if portions of the DMCA lapse into obscurity, it remains a potent law with chilling effects.

Clay Shirky on Love and Longevity

Amazing (short) video by Clay Shirky who has a new book.

The Great Firewall of China

The Atlantic has a great story clearing up a lot of the misconceptions about the Chinese government's internet censoring efforts. The net has been heralded as a tool for freedom of speech and expression, yet censoring and filtering has been rampant in countries like China, Saudi Arabia and Singapore. The OpenNet Initiative covers many of these efforts.

Anyways, The Atlantic's story says that the Chinese effort is much more complicated and less effective than presumed. In effect, what the authorities have done is introduce a surmountable barrier which serves to focus the Chinese in on themselves:

All the technology employed by the Golden Shield, all the marvelous mirrors that help build the Great Firewall—these and other modern achievements matter mainly for an old-fashioned and pre-technological reason. By making the search for external information a nuisance, they drive Chinese people back to an environment in which familiar tools of social control come into play.