Gaimans oplevelse er, at jo mere hans bøger er til rådighed som gratis downloads på nettet, jo flere sælger han. Mange mennesker opdager deres yndlingsforfattere på biblioteket – eller på nettet, og derfor mister en forfatter ikke noget ved at få sine bøger lagt på nettet – snarere tværtimod, om man skal tro Gaiman.
Category: IT-politik
Wikileaks: Boykot Apple
Det opfordrer Mark LeVine til – han skriver på Aljazeera.net:
On December 21, Apple pulled a WikiLeaks application from its iTunes store, banning it forever. When reporters queried the company about why it did so, the response was: “We removed WikiLeaks because it violated developer guidelines. An app must comply with all local laws. It may not put an individual or target group in harm’s way.”
And so Apple has joined capital’s war on WikiLeaks; adding its power to that of the credit card company’s online retailers and even Swiss banks who refuse to do any business with the grassroots whistleblowing organisation that has done more to bring the malfeasance of governments and corporations to the light of public scrutiny than any other organisation in at least two generations.
And because of that, I will never buy another Apple product again. You’ve made your choice, Mr. Jobs, and now so have I.
LeVine skriver mere, og det er alt sammen værd at læse. Men egentlig er der ikke mere at sige. At mene, at Apple-produkter er cool er det samme som at mene, at politisk censur er cool – for Apple praktiserer politisk censur og er stolt af det.
Casper Christensen og Frank Hvam: Bare download vores film
– I skal sgu ikke være bange for at piratkopiere filmen. Download den – fyr den af – og lav den i mange kopier. Casper og jeg har det sådan – og det er med hånden på hjertet – at når vi tæller sammen hvad vi er blevet snydt for af penge, så er det ikke piraterne der har snydt os. Det er distributørerne og producenterne der har snydt os, det er ikke jer søde piratbrugere … Fyr den løs!
Distribution via download er jo også blevet en del af den virkelighed, som filmmagere og musikere må forholde sig til i disse år. Det er uden tvivl langt klogere at ride med den bølge fremfor at forsøge at svømme imod den.
Johan Schlüter fra IFPI og Antipiratgruppen: Børneporno er alle tiders
Til et møde i Stockholm for nylig slog advokat Johan Schlüter fra Antipiratgruppen (en gruppe, der bl.a. er kendt for at sende erstatningskrav i hundredetusindersklassen til teenagere, der linker til sider, der måske indeholder ulovlige MP3-filer) sig løs med betragtninger om, hvor meget han holder af børneporno. Ikke som “forbruger”, men fordi det kan udnyttes til at overtale politikerne til at indføre overvågning og censur:
“Child pornography is great,” the speaker at the podium declared enthusiastically. “It is great because politicians understand child pornography. By playing that card, we can get them to act, and start blocking sites. And once they have done that, we can get them to start blocking file sharing sites”.
The venue was a seminar organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Stockholm on May 27, 2007, under the title “Sweden — A Safe Haven for Pirates?”. The speaker was Johan Schlüter from the Danish Anti-Piracy Group, a lobby organization for the music and film industry associations, like IFPI and others…
“One day we will have a giant filter that we develop in close cooperation with IFPI and MPA. We continuously monitor the child porn on the net, to show the politicians that filtering works. Child porn is an issue they understand,” Johan Schlüter said with a grin, his whole being radiating pride and enthusiasm from the podium.
Tro det eller lad være, men den helt store overraskelse er det nok ikke.
Link: IFPI’s child porn strategy (via Boing Boing).
Update: Nu også på ComputerWorld.
Lækkede dokumenter: Danmark går forrest i hemmeligholdelsen af ACTA
Forhandlingerne om den kommende, ifølge rygterne superhårde og meget skadelige konvention om ophavsret (ACTA) foregår i dybeste hemmelighed, så vi som borgere ikke har mange muligheder for at finde ud af eller blande os i, hvad de er ved at trække ned over hovederne på os. Dette er der ikke enighed om rundt om bordet – ifølge nogle lækkede, hollandske dokumenter er nogle regeringer meget åbne for at tage diskussionen i åbenhed, mens andre – formentlig dem, der er mest i lommen på industrien og dens interesser – presser på for at holde den så hemmelig som mulig.
Blandt de allerstørste syndere er Danmark. Surprise? Michael Geist skriver:
Throughout the debate over ACTA transparency, many countries have taken public positions that they support release of the actual text, but that other countries do not. Since full transparency requires consensus of all the ACTA partners, the text simply can’t be released until everyone is in agreement. Of course, those same countries hasten to add that they can’t name who opposes ACTA transparency, since that too is secret.
No longer. In an important new leak from the Netherlands (Dutch, Google English translation), a Dutch memorandum reporting back on the Mexico ACTA negotiation round names names, pointing specifically to which countries support releasing the text and which do not (note that the memo does not canvass everyone – Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are known to support transparency but are not named in the memo). According to the Dutch memo, the UK has played a lead role in making the case for full disclosure of the documents and is of the view that there is consensus for release of the text (there is support from many countries including the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Ireland, Hungary, Poland, Estonia, and Austria). However, the memo indicates that several countries are not fully supportive including Belgium, Portugal, Germany, and Denmark. Of these four countries, the Dutch believe that Denmark is the most inflexible on the issue.
Skandale – eller …? Geists konklusion: “Those in the U.S., South Korea, Singapore, Belgium, Portugal, Germany, and Denmark should be demanding answers from their leaders”.
Og dét lyder ikke helt dumt.
Link: New ACTA Leak: U.S., Korea, Singapore, Denmark Do Not Support Transparency
Foredrag om ACTA, det nye ophavsmareridt
Dette er et tyve minutters foredrag om ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, den nye traktat om ophavsret, der forhandles på plads i dybeste hemmelighed i disse dage. Vi snakker nye drakoniske muligheder og straffe. Hvis lobbyisterne ender med at få magt som de har agt i denne sag, kan threee strikes-love og fængselsstraffe for download af musik til eget forbrug hurtigt blive dagens orden.
Link: The ACTA Threat: My Talk on Everything You Need To Know About ACTA, But Didn’t Know To Ask (via Boing Boing).
Læs også: ACTA: Worldwide Net restrictions without public debate
Venezuela vil forbyde voldelige computerspil
Læs om det, bl.a. i Register Hardware:
An end to the sale of violent videogames in Venezuela has moved one step closer to becoming a reality.
Venezuela’s National Assembly recently considered the Prohibition of Video Games and Toy Weapons bill, which it subsequently approved after just one debate.
The bill’s exact details aren’t widely known, but the title suggests that all videogames – violent or not – could face sales restrictions in the country.
Before the bill can be written into Venezuelan law, it must be debated and approved during a second National Assembly session – and then rubber-stamped by President Hugo Chavez.
Exactly how the bill’s supporters envisage a ban on violent videogames contributing to a reduction in the country’s colossal crime rate is a mystery. A link between the violent crime and violent games has never been proven.
Før vi griner alt for hånligt og overlegent, er det naturligvis værd at huske, at der også er politikere på vore breddegradder, der har været inde på noget af det samme – senest i Tyskland. Selveste Hillary Clinton var ude at forlange en undersøgelse med henblik på et forbud af det berømte GTA San Andreas.
Ikke desto mindre er det stadig ret dårligt nyt. En ung mand fra Venezuela beklager sig højt og klart over den nye lov:
The law scapegoats gamers for the obscene levels of violence in our country (see below), and goes to extraordinary lengths to criminalize gaming, to the point of holding out long jail terms to people who buy the wrong kinds of games.
It’s no joke. Last year, on a trip to the US, I was able to buy a Nintendo DS for my brother, and a puzzle game that deals with using weapons to defend the fish stock of penguins in Antarctica, Defendin’ de Penguin. Early next year, when the law kicks in, bring such a game could land me in jail for 3 to 5 years, for importing forbidden violent games, as the penguins use snowball guns to ward off walruses, foxes (in Antarctica? OMG think of Biogeography!), polar bears and the Yeti.
The law is just the latest nail in the coffin of Venezuelans’ right of dissent and broader civil liberties. A pitiful attempt to blame video games and toys for the widespread lethal violence in our country, instead of a defective judicial structure, systemic corruption and governmental (purposeful?) ineptitude to deal with the problem.
I am 26 years old. Ever since I can remember Venezuela has been a very dangerous place. Every year the body count seemed to climb higher than the previous year. Being on the streets after dark, especially in the big cities, became a little bit more dangerous with each passing year, no matter who was in power or how high prices for our oil rose.
I believed it was just a fact of life. Then, ten years ago, Hugo Chávez came to power promising change at every level, promising a new, less corrupt, wealthier, safer society. Most of my friends and family voted for him, to register their contempt for our traditional politicians, because they wanted justice and a decent country.
Ten years later, we are indeed wealthier, thanks to a feverish oil boom, but the country’s also falling deeper into debt, issuing bonds and getting loans even from the despised Capitalist tool that is the IMF, and printing money like there’s no tomorrow, while our electric system collapses, many staples are hard to find on store shelves, our hospitals are rotting and corruption and crime are still getting worse. […]
Let’s put this in perspective. Last year, we had almost 14,000 deaths due to crime, out of a population of about 27 million people. Let’s round it up to 28 million, and make some calculations: If Bangladesh had our murder rate, there would be 125,000 murder victims there every year, if the US had our murder rate, we would be talking about 150,000 deaths due to crime, if Japan had our problem, there would be 60000 Japanese dead due to crime every time our pretty planet goes around the sun. If China and India had our levels of violence, we would get rid of 1,100,000 people every year.
The numbers of death due to violence do not seem so big in Venezuela due to our smallish population, but this a serious problem that is only getting worse after almost 11 years of Bolivarian rule. The number of people mugged, assaulted and robbed are much greater than that. Some relatives of mine have been shot and stabbed, most of my friends have been robbed at least once, and I had to jump from a bus in motion to avoid being robbed a month ago, in Mérida, where I live, a university town that not so long ago used to be relatively safe. In Valera, where my parents live, it is unwise to go out after 9 in the streets, and after 8:30, it gets really difficult to find public transportation.
So, will the government correct its strategy, accept that we have a huge problem that has to be solved ASAP and will follow its rhetoric and work along the communities to tackle crime (Death penalty and traditional top-down approaches won’t work)?
No. Instead, it will blame the gamers for the problem.
Sørgeligt.
‘I support free software’
Jeremy Allison forklarer i denne video fra Free Software Foundation, hvad fri software er, og hvorfor det efter hans mening er bedre.
Rumæniens Højesteret forbyder logning af emails og telefonsamtaler
I et angiveligt retssamfund som Danmark har vi “logningsdirektivet”, der påbyder landets Internet-udbydere og telefonselskaber at logge oplysninger om tid, person og sted for samtlige emails, telefonsamtaler og SMS’er og stille dem til rådighed for politiet og PET, hvis de skulle bede om det.
Denne overvågning af borgerne giver mindelser om Orwells “1984” og er også et af de mest eklatante brud på princippet om, at man er uskyldig, til det modsatte er bevist: Staten har besluttet, at alle er under mistanke og forbeholder sig ret til at snage i alle menneskers privatliv, som om de var kriminelle.
Men så er det jo godt, at der er nogle EU-lande, hvor retssamfundet faktisk kan tage sig sammen og håndhæve borgernes elementære, demokratiske rettigheder mod den snigende overvågning.
Som traditionelt selvtilfreds nordbo kan jeg dog ikke lade være med at finde det en smule ironisk, at det her netop er Rumænien, der går foran med et godt eksempel:
Romania’s Constitutional Court Thursday ruled unconstitutional a controversial law compelling telecom operators to store data on people’s calls, emails and short messages and provide them to investigators on request.
The law was challenged before the Constitutional Court by an NGO which argued, during a trial involving telecom operator Orange Romania, that the law infringes article 28 of Romania’s Constitution, which guarantees the secrecy of correspondence.
Several other NGOs called on the ombudsman to notify the Constitutional Court regarding this law, which they say breaches citizens’ fundamental rights and liberties.
Nu mangler vi bare, at den danske Højesteret gør det samme – men vi skal nok ikke holde vejret.
Link: Romania’s Constitutional Court Rules Data Storage Law Unconstitutional
Spar finanskrisen væk med fri software
Alverdens firmaer og regeringer kunne spare 5.000.000.000.000 – nej, der er ikke for mange nuller: Fem tusind milliarder kroner ved at gå over til fri/open source software og spare de dyre licenser, har forretningsmand og grundlægger af open source-firmaet Cygnus Michael Tiemann beregnet, skriver Computerworld:
Michael Tiermann fremhæver i et interview med Computerworlds engelske søsterblad, at hvis alle virksomheder gik over til open source-licenser, ville de samlet årligt spare fem billioner kroner – svarende til fem tusinde milliarder kroner – eller slet og ret 5.000.000.000.000 kroner.
Det astronomiske beløb har Michael Tiermann sjusset sig frem til ved at gå ud fra analysehusets Gartners beregninger om et verdensomspændende årligt it-budget på 17,3 billioner kroner i 2008.
Erfaringer med, at mellem 18 til 30 procent af budgettet bliver brugt på proprietær software, giver et årligt forbrug mellem tre og fem billioner kroner i, hvad Michael Tiermann kalder “dødsvægt-udgifter”.
Han fremhæver i en publikation fra Open Source Initiative, at det har været fremme, at it-industrien sidste år samlet set tabte omkring 305 milliarder kroner i tabte licenskroner, fordi folk og virksomheder benyttede open source-software frem for proprietære softwarelicenser.
“Det er helt sikkert historien om glasset, der er halvtomt eller halvfyldt, for de kunder, der brugte færre penge på it-udstyr, kunne jo skabe mere værdi for dem selv,” forklarer Michael Tiermann om, at samfundet ville have godt af besparelserne.
Og så er der også meget solide politiske og forbrugermæssige fordele ved fri software – læs selv mere i linksene herunder.
Link: Spar 5.000.000.000.000 kroner med open source
(med tak til Martin Pihl).
Læs også: