December 2010 - nexa - server-nexa.polito.it

Simon Phipps: "Copyrights vs Human Rights"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Dec. 29, 2010

Dec. 29, 2010

E' sorprendente quanto spesso un mix di propaganda e di ragionamenti superficiali riesca ad oscurare il buon senso. Simon Phipps ribadisce in maniera chiara e convincente punti che dovrebbero essere condivisi da tutti (quasi). juan carlos Copyrights vs Human Rights December 28, 2010 8:30 AM by Simon Phipps I wrote last week <http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2010/12/three-strikes-typhoid-m…> about the "Typhoid Mary" of internet restriction laws, observing how Wikileaks has confirmed that a wing of the US Government - the US Trade representative <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_the_United_States_Trade_Representati…> (USTR) - has been systematically bullying European and other world governments. The goal has been to use threats against their other trade activities to force them to introduce laws that summarily restrict the freedom of their citizens to use the Internet - without judicial involvement, if possible. The bullying is distasteful, but it may be that you've not considered what's really wrong with the laws themselves. Bad Law What /is/ wrong with these laws? The problem is that USTR is being used as a puppet by powerful US-based multinational companies to protect their businesses against the inevitable gravity of the three technology laws <http://www.jimpinto.com/writings/techlaws.html>. It's not just that companies who built their business by freely using the contents of our collective cultural commons now want to strangle it (although they hypocritically do want that). It's not just that those same companies want their faltering business models shored-up by chilling effects, framing the celebration /by their customers/ of the culture /they are trying to create/ as akin to murder, rape and theft ("piracy"). It's not /even/ that the new laws give a bunch of businesses who have shown themselves to have severely asymmetric morals the power to simply accuse without proof to get results. Cultural Conduit No, the problem is much deeper than some of the campaigns against Internet restrictions laws designed around the idea of "Guilt Upon Accusation" would suggest. Our society has changed fundamentally in the last decade. The emergence of the world-wide web pushed the Internet from research curiosity into endemic facility, present in every office, then every home and now every pocket. It is now the medium for culture, for education, for finance, for politics, for engagement with government services. We will increasingly see the Internet be the /only/ way things can be done - it's already getting close to that way in some areas (airline bookings, tax filings, event tickets all being easy examples). [...] Continua qui: http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2010/12/copyrights-vs-human-rig…

1 0

l'Economist vede lungo sulle radici ideologiche di wikileaks
by J.C. DE MARTIN Dec. 29, 2010

Dec. 29, 2010

Non sorpredentemente, l'Economist sa riconoscere il liberalismo quando lo incontra (enfasi mia). juan carlos /I share many common misgivings about the way WikiLeaks' has conducted itself. But as far as I can tell, that Mr Assange and his colleagues aspire to some sort of crazy post-national crypto-utopia is a pernicious canard. Rather, the silver couch-surfer's political philosophy appears some sort of mundane, mainstream democratic liberalism. He thinks that the legitimate exercise of state power requires what liberal political theorists call "public justification <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/justification-public/>". *What is so startling about the reception to WikiLeaks' latest release of documents is that it has revealed that boring old liberal theories of political legitimacy strike a lot of people as too dangerous to even contemplate. */ /I think old Immanuel Kant was perhaps a bit too sunny when he said this <http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/kant/kant6.htm>:/ /A maxim which I cannot divulge without defeating my own purpose must be kept secret if it is to succeed; and, if I cannot publicly avow it without inevitably exciting universal opposition to my project, the necessary and universal opposition which can be forseen a priori is due only to the injustice with which the maxim threatens everyone./ /I doubt even self-evidently unjust policies (or strategems or maxims or wars) ever excite anything near "universal oppostion". But Mr Kant is right, as is Mr Assange, that ongoing injustice tends to require secrecy. He is right, as is Mr Assange, that injustice made public is thereby at least somewhat threatened. And he is therefore right, as is Mr Assange, that policies (or strategems or maxims or wars) that survive the test of thoroughgoing publicity are least likely unjust. *Liberalism was once a radical, revolutionary philosophy, but it has become hard to believe it. What is most intriguing about the WikiLeaks saga is *not the pathology of hacker culture as envisioned by Mr Sterling's fecund imagination,**but *the possibility that Julian Assange and his confederates have made dull liberal principles seem once again sexily subversive by exposing power's reactionary panic when a few people with a practical bent actually bother to take them seriously.*/ Paragrafi conclusivi di: http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2010/12/analysing_wikilea…

1 0

[NEXA]Utenti in rivolta: «Le applicazioni di iPad e iPhone ci spiano» - Corriere della Sera
by vale.it＠gmail.com Dec. 29, 2010

Dec. 29, 2010

http://www.corriere.it/cronache/10_dicembre_29/apple-class-action_bf304298-…

1 0

"The first truly honest privacy policy"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Dec. 29, 2010

Dec. 29, 2010

[...] Here's what a real privacy policy might look like: "At COMPANY _______ we value your privacy a great deal. Almost as much as we value the ability to take the data you give us and slice, dice, julienne, mash, puree and serve it to our business partners, which may include third-party advertising networks, data brokers, networks of affiliate sites, parent companies, subsidiaries, and other entities, none of which we'll bother to list here because they can change from week to week and, besides, we know you're not really paying attention. We'll also share all of this information with the government. We're just suckers for guys with crew cuts carrying subpoenas. Remember, when you visit our Web site, our Web site is also visiting you. And we've brought a dozen or more friends with us, depending on how many ad networks and third-party data services we use. We're not going to tell which ones, though you could probably figure this out by carefully watching the different URLs that flash across the bottom of your browser as each page loads or when you mouse over various bits. It's not like you've got better things to do. [...] Continua qui: http://www.itworld.com/print/129778

1 0

Dailymotion soupçonné d'avoir censuré le PCF pour protéger Nicolas Sarkozy
by Andrea Glorioso Dec. 29, 2010

Dec. 29, 2010

1 0

NYer: "Fantasy Diplomacy. How Hillary Clinton wishes the Wiki-Leaked cables had read"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Dec. 29, 2010

Dec. 29, 2010

Ancora un sorriso. Auguri! juan carlos Fantasy Diplomacy by Yoni Brenner <http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/bios/yoni_brenner/search?contributorName=…> December 13, 2010 H/ow Hillary Clinton wishes the Wiki-Leaked cables had read:/ DATE: 2010-03-08 SOURCE: Embassy Berlin SUBJECT: AL-WASSAM RENDITION 1. (S/NF) Following a series of heated telephone exchanges, Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) met face to face with German deputy Rolf Müller to discuss the abduction and rendition of German national who CIA believed was Al Qaeda mastermind Abdul al-Wassam---later discovered to be Wacky Fritz, a popular children's television personality. 2. (S/NF) DCM responded to Müller's concerns in a calm, mellifluous voice---his tone equal parts firm and soothing---artfully defending the CIA's methods while reiterating USG's deepest regard for both Wacky Fritz and the larger community of German children's television personalities. <http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2010/12/13/101213sh_shouts_brenner#ixzz19VIC…> [...] Continua qui: http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2010/12/13/101213sh_shouts_brenner

1 0

Nemesys in EUPL: una proposta
by marco scialdone Dec. 29, 2010

Dec. 29, 2010

Ieri Punto Informatico ha ripreso<http://punto-informatico.it/2970592/PI/News/banda-larga-consumatori-meta.as…>la proposta avanzata negli ultimi giorni da me e Fabio Bravo affinchè l'AGCOM rilasci Nemesys, il software per la misurazione della velocità delle connessioni a banda larga, con licenza EUPL. So che in lista ci sono persone che lavorano all'AGCOM. Sarebbe interessante poter aprire un dialogo su questo punto. Magari dopo le ferie :-) M.S. -- Avv. Marco Scialdone Blog: http://scialdone.blogspot.com Site: www.computerlaw.it PEC: marcoscialdone(a)ordineavvocatiroma.org Flavors me <http://flavors.me/marcoscialdone> My profile: www.linkedin.com/in/marcoscialdone CC Network: https://creativecommons.net/marcoscialdone/

2 2

NY Times: "Managing Scientific Inquiry in a Laboratory the Size of the Web"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Dec. 29, 2010

Dec. 29, 2010

December 27, 2010 Managing Scientific Inquiry in a Laboratory the Size of the Web By ALEX WRIGHT Hanny van Arkel had been using the Galaxy Zoo <http://www.galaxyzoo.org> Web site less than a week when she noticed something odd about the photograph of IC 2497, a minor galaxy in the Leo Minor constellation. "It was this strange thing," she recalled: an enormous gas cloud, floating like a ghost in front of the spiral galaxy. A Dutch schoolteacher with no formal training in astronomy, Ms. van Arkel had joined tens of thousands of other Web volunteers to help classify photographs taken by deep-space telescopes. Stumped by the unusual image on her computer screen, she e-mailed the project staff for guidance. Staff members were stumped, too. And thus was christened the celestial body now known to astronomers worldwide as Hanny's Voorwerp (Dutch for "object"). Stories like Ms. van Arkel's are becoming more common, as the Internet opens up new opportunities for so-called citizen scientists. And as millions of people get involved in these participatory projects, scientists are grappling with how best to harness the amateurs' enthusiasm. Some critics argue that citizen science projects are often little more than ploys to stimulate public interest rather than advance scientific knowledge. Others fret over the quality of data generated by nonspecialists. But scientists must weigh such risks against the benefits of a powerful new research tool: a vast computer network that can parcel out complex projects into small tasks that can be completed by individuals with relatively limited training. [...] Continua qui: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/28/science/28citizen.html

1 0

Gli eccessi del copyright
by Marco Pancini Dec. 29, 2010

Dec. 29, 2010

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1608239.php/Germ… -- Marco Pancini European Senior Policy Counsel Google Italy Corso Europa, 2 20122 Milano, Italia Tel. +39 02 36618524 Cell. +39.348.9946222 pancini(a)google.com Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/googlepolicyit This email may be confidential or privileged. If you received this communication by mistake, please don't forward it to anyone else, please erase all copies and attachments, and please let me know that it went to the wrong person. Thanks.

2 1

2010: Odissea dell'Italia digitale
by Guido Scorza Dec. 28, 2010

Dec. 28, 2010

L'invito ad intervenire all'ultimo mercoledì di Nexa, targato 2010, ha ispirato questo video-compendio su fatti e misfatti del 2010 a proposito di politica della (dis)innovazione. Se avete voglia, potete guardarlo o leggerne il contenuto qui: http://www.guidoscorza.it/?p=2371 Un abbraccio e buon anno a tutti gli iscritti! G. __ www.guidoscorza.it

4 6