Tag law

On Device Identifiers.

Mere hours after pressing ‘Publish’ on the previous mini-article concerning walled gardens, an article on TechCrunch, this morning, clarified the situation we have more or less been suspecting for a while now: that Apple, after deprecating UDIDs (one of the things they truly did well in iOS from the beginning), they will start rejecting apps […]

Υψηλό Δυναμικό. Χαμηλή Απόδοση.

Γράφει το σχετικό άρθρο του BBC: But to meet targets on renewable energy, the scientists say a grid is required that will take energy from the areas with an abundance of sun, wind and tidal power to those without. Βρίσκω την ιδέα αρκετά ενδιαφέρουσα αλλά κυρίως στρατηγικά άρτια και ουσιαστικότερη, πέραν του συνηθισμένου, της αλλοτριωμένης […]

Lopssi 2

Lopsided if anything. Yet another gross error in judgment from Mini Napoleon Wannabe. Yet another nail in the coffin of French Legislation. Much can be said of Sarkozy's predecessors; both Chirac and Mitterrand were accused of corruption, sleaze, excess etc. None were as classless, blatantly ignorant or downright corrupt as Sarkozy has proved to be in less than two years in office.

Defend the Open 'Net

I couldn't avoid posting this and I cannot stress how important it is. The web site may, at times, undoubtedly include the standard 'act now before we it's too late' text that's stereotypical of activists globally whenever some braindead lobby tries to threaten our hard earned liberties. Ignore that part. Don't ignore the fact that it is important that you and the people around you know what's happening in Brussels and Strasbourg, what's at stake. You should strive to stay up to date and --- last, but not least --- act. Do yourself a favour and read the linked page; filter the excessive parts, see beyond the sentimentalism. Then try to find out more about the proposed directive by reading the text [or a summary of the controversial amendments]. An open and neutral internet is way more important than any national election in Europe, even to those that have no clue what the internet really is. Act today. Call your MEPs and tell them how you feel about the internet. It doesn't matter which part of the political spectrum you identify with; the internet is part of everyone's life.

That's not how Western democracies work

Dealing with illegal file-sharing is a job for the police. It is their job to enforce the law. Now we have given private corporations the legal right to go after our civilians. That's not how Western democracies work.[...] In a study, 80% of people thought we shouldn't go after file-sharers. But ask them how they feel about taking money out of the pockets of musicians, authors or artists and that number falls by a significant amount. Ultimately we have to change peoples perception on file-sharing.
Indeed we do. But most importantly we have to change executives' in those media multinationals perception on culture, art, freedom of communication and privacy as well as protect our liberties from unbounded profit and greed. If file sharing did anything, besides rendering the status quo obsolete, it was to bring to the spotlight on how slanted and unfair the media industry is: favouring less than 1% of the artists globally, fixing prices to maximise profit, compromising on our very own cultural foundations through the systematic, condescending promotion of junk while at the same time making thousands of executives rich for no reason whatsoever. There's no doubt that stealing is bad, although I'm not so sure that not-for-profit sharing of digital copies is. What I am sure about is that what the industry is accustomed to doing --- and keeps trying to achieve, now through the institutions --- is worse.

An ISP is not a court.

The saga continues, with the music industry attempting to subvert the law in Europe and turn ISPs into policy enforcers and courts of law all at once. With ever higher profits in 2008, and a pretty grim record of accusing and prosecuting the elderly, single mothers with no computers etc. in the States, it seems like the music industry would rather hand the dirty job over to ISPs. This is, besides illegal, pretty prone to error --- as history has shown. I'm really looking forward to the next settlement Eircom will reach, this time with wrongly-accused (and disconnected) individuals. Hopefully it'll be more than enough to compensate for their stupidity.

Breaking The Law…

…or how ‘Le Sénat français a décidé de violer la législation europeénne’. Sarkozy’s authoritarianism seems to be behind this. Yet it puzzles me how violating EU legislation can be so easily accepted by the Senate: « 1° La suspension de l’accès au service pour une durée de trois mois à un an assortie de l’impossibilité, […]

Δικτυακή Ουδετερότητα στην Ευρώπη. Το Κράτος ως Ρυθμιστής.

Η δικτυακή ουδετερότητα είναι ένα ζήτημα που φέρνει κοντά πολύ κόσμο που κατανοεί την αξία της ελευθερίας του επιχειρείν, της έκφρασης και της επικοινωνίας στο διαδίκτυο, ανεξαρτήτως της ευρύτερης ιδεολογίας του και πολιτικών θέσεων. Θεωρητικά, η βέλτιστη προσέγγιση στο θέμα της ουδετερότητας — και με την οποία τείνω να συμφωνήσω — θέλει τη πολιτεία να […]

ePrivacy loopholes.

Earlier today, ten days since my return from Brussels, I received an email from Mr. Lambrinidis regarding a number of amendments on the upcoming e-Privacy directive that he contributed to. An interesting topic that I think merits a short post was that of breach notification. Breach notification refers to the situation when citizens whose personal […]

Λίγο πριν τις Βρυξέλλες

Λίγο πριν την αναχώρηση για τις Βρυξέλλες, έκατσα και συγκέντρωσα σημειώσεις, bookmarks και σκέψεις σχετικά με τα θέματα προς συζήτηση. Μπορεί κανείς να συνοψίσει τα βασικά ζητήματα στο παρακάτω πίνακα: Στη κορυφή του πίνακα παραθέτω τις χαρακτηριστικές ‘εφαρμογές’, ή αν προτιμάτε δραστηριότητες που φέρονται να ‘απαιτούν’ επιπλέον νομοθετική ‘ρύθμιση’. Αφ’ενός το peer to peer, ή […]