March 2011 - nexa - server-nexa.polito.it

Lauren Weinstein: "New Facebook Feature Empowers the Dangerous "Comment Nazis""

by J.C. DE MARTIN

Qualche utile riflessione sul tema anonimato in rete, che troppo spesso in italia viene ridotto a: "che cosa hai da nascondere ?" juan carlos March 07, 2011 New Facebook Feature Empowers the Dangerous "Comment Nazis" Greetings. Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg has been quoted as saying: /"You have one identity. The days of you having a different image for your work friends or co-workers and for the other people you know are probably coming to an end pretty quickly ... Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity."/ This statement, particularly the latter portion, could only have been made by someone supremely self-confident -- and so young that they haven't accumulated much "life baggage" as of yet. In fact, it is an extremely alarming statement, one that would have gladdened the hearts of despots and government spooks all through human history. Coming from the man child who controls the Facebook empire, such a quote should trigger alarm bells of concern for every person, everywhere, who cares about free speech and civil liberties. A realization of Zuckerberg's stifling and twisted vision <http://technologizer.com/2011/03/07/facebook-comments-zuckerberg-vision/> has now emerged in a new Facebook-based Web site commenting system, that permits sites to hand off their commenting infrastructures essentially wholly to Facebook, and requires users who wish to leave comments to do so using their Facebook identities (which, at least in theory, are supposed to be their real names and identities). Popular site TechCrunch (recently purchased by AOL, it's worth remembering) immediately jumped on this bandwagon, along with this ingratiating note to their readers: /"More important, you'll notice that any comments you write are being left under your real name, which spells bad news for you trolls and spammers."/ Bad news for spammers and trolls perhaps, but even worse news for honest folks who wish to leave quality comments without being formally associated with them. This isn't just a matter of stifling whistleblowers -- though that's an obvious effect. It's a matter of having basic control over your identity and your life. [...] Continua qui: http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000823.html

March 7, 2011

SSRC new report: "Media Piracy in Emerging Economies"

by J.C. DE MARTIN

http://piracy.ssrc.org/ We are very happy to announce the release of /Media Piracy in Emerging Economies, /the first large scale, comparative, independent study of media piracy and enforcement. A number of the authors will be blogging over the next weeks to talk about the issues raised by the report and respond to questions. We hope you'll take a closer look. We've made some smaller portions available under Resources for those looking to test the water before going in. About the Report /Media Piracy in Emerging Economies/ is the first independent, large-scale study of music, film and software piracy in emerging economies, with a focus on Brazil, India, Russia, South Africa, Mexico and Bolivia. Based on three years of work by some thirty-five researchers, /Media Piracy in Emerging Economies/ tells two overarching stories: one tracing the explosive growth of piracy as digital technologies became cheap and ubiquitous around the world, and another following the growth of industry lobbies that have reshaped laws and law enforcement around copyright protection. The report argues that these efforts have largely failed, and that the problem of piracy is better conceived as a failure of affordable access to media in legal markets. "The choice," said Joe Karaganis, director of the project, "isn't between high piracy and low piracy in most media markets. The choice, rather, is between high-piracy, high-price markets and high-piracy, low price markets. Our work shows that media businesses can survive in both environments, and that developing countries have a strong interest in promoting the latter. This problem has little to do with enforcement and a lot to do with fostering competition." Major Findings * *Prices are too high. *High prices for media goods, low incomes, and cheap digital technologies are the main ingredients of global media piracy. Relative to local incomes in Brazil, Russia, or South Africa, the retail price of a CD, DVD, or copy of MS Office is five to ten times higher than in the US or Europe. Legal media markets are correspondingly tiny and underdeveloped. * *Competition is good*. The chief predictor of low prices in legal media markets is the presence of strong domestic companies that compete for local audiences and consumers. In the developing world, where global film, music, and software companies dominate the market, such conditions are largely absent. * *Antipiracy education has failed*.**The authors find no significant stigma attached to piracy in any of the countries examined. Rather, piracy is part of the daily media practices of large and growing portions of the population. * *Changing the law is easy. Changing the practice is hard. *Industry lobbies have been very successful at changing laws to criminalize these practices, but largely unsuccessful at getting governments to apply them. There is, the authors argue, no realistic way to reconcile mass enforcement and due process, especially in countries with severely overburdened legal systems. * *Criminals can't compete with free.* The study finds no systematic links between media piracy and organized crime or terrorism in any of the countries examined. Today, commercial pirates and transnational smugglers face the same dilemma as the legal industry: how to compete with free. * *Enforcement hasn't worked.* After a decade of ramped up enforcement, the authors can find no impact on the overall supply of pirated goods.

March 7, 2011

Corriere delle Comunicazioni (Salerno): "Il tesoro nascosto nella PA"

by Giuseppe Futia

07.03.2011 Dalle mappe ai musei Il tesoro nascosto nella PA ANTONELLO SALERNO I dati pubblici sono materiale prezioso per il mercato delle apps mobili. Come liberarli? Link all'articolo: http://www.paperlit.com/read/corrierecomunicazioni#page=16 <http://www.paperlit.com/read/corrierecomunicazioni#page=16>

March 7, 2011

Fwd: [fcf_discussion] "Using the world´s blind as human shields against common-sensical change in copyright law"

by Paolo Brini

March 7, 2011

Articolo di Giulio Giorello sul Corriere: i pirati informatici usurpatori o liberatori?

by Marco Pancini

Cari Tutti, Vi giro questo articolo interessante. Un caro saluto. marco PS Come potete leggere dalla mia firma, mi sono trasferito a lavorare nell'ufficio di Bruxelles e queste sono le mie nuove info di contatto. -- Marco Pancini Senior Policy Counsel - Google Chaussee d'Etterbeek 180 - 1000 Brussels - Belgium Desk: +32.(0) 28948492 - Mobile: +32.(0) 473531203 We blog: European Public Policy Blog 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.

March 7, 2011

Fw: [Creis_Terminal] Un décret encadre les obligations d'authentification des internautes

by Mariella Berra

inoltro mb ----- Original Message ----- From: "Maurice Liscouët" <maurice.liscouet(a)univ-nantes.fr> To: <creis_terminal(a)lecreis.org> Sent: Sunday, March 06, 2011 10:37 PM Subject: [Creis_Terminal] Un décret encadre les obligations d'authentification des internautes http://www.lemondeinformatique.fr/actualites/lire-un-decret-encadre-enfin-l… -- Maurice Liscouët _______________________________________________ Creis_terminal mailing list Creis_terminal(a)lecreis.org https://listes.globenet.org/listinfo/creis_terminal

March 6, 2011

Defining Internet ‘Freedom’: Ars Interviews Senator Al Franken

by J.C. DE MARTIN

Defining Internet ‘Freedom’: Ars Interviews Senator Al Franken # By Nate Anderson, Ars Technica <http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/author/nate-anderson-ars-technica/> Email Author <mailto:nate@arstechnica.com> # March 1, 2011 Since winning election to the U.S. Senate in 2008, Al Franken (D-Minnesota) has become one of that chamber’s top net neutrality defenders. With the House uninterested in compromise on the issue, the real push to gut the FCC’s existing net neutrality order will take place this year in the Senate. Last week, Franken and three other senators drafted a letter in which they blasted the House for trying to “defund” the FCC’s net neutrality enforcement. House Republicans “claim to stand for freedom,” the letter says <http://franken.senate.gov/files/letter/110223_Leadership_NetNeutrality.pdf> (.pdf). “But the only freedom they are providing for is the freedom of telephone and cable companies to determine the future of the internet, where you can go on it, what you can attach to it, and which services will win or lose on it.” Franken has even gone so far as to call net neutrality the “First Amendment issue of our time.” Those are tough words, but Franken remains convinced of their truth, even as he supports a controversial plan to [...] Continua qui: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/03/franken/

March 6, 2011

Weinberger: "Public data and metadata, Google style"

by J.C. DE MARTIN

*"Public data and metadata, Google style" * Posted on February 20th, 2011 I'm finding Google Lab's Dataset Publishing Language <http://code.google.com/apis/publicdata/> (DSPL) pretty fascinating. Upload a set of data, and it will do some semi-spiffy <http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=l6t8doc0rch3u_&ctype=l&strail=f…> visualizations of it. (As Apryl DeLancey <http://apryl.posterous.com/google-opens-up-public-data-explorer-to-your> points out, Martin Wattenberg and Fernanda Viegas now work for Google, so if they're working on this project, the visualizations are going to get much better <http://hint.fm/>.) More important, the data you upload is now publicly available. And, more important than that, the site wants you to upload your data in Google's DSPL format. DSPL aims at getting more metadata into datasets, making them more understandable, integrate-able, and re-usable. So, let's say you have spreadsheets of "statistical time series for unemployment and population by country, and population by gender for US states." (This is Google's example in its helpful tutorial <http://code.google.com/apis/publicdata/docs/tutorial.html>.) * [...] Continua qui: http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/2011/02/20/2b2k-public-data-and-metadata-go…

March 6, 2011

Government and Internet conference - 8-9 March, European University Institute, Firenze

by Angela Daly

Una conferenza (in inglese) questa settimana (il 8 e 9 marzo) al European University Institute (Firenze) sul tema di Government and Internet: Participation, Expression, Control" . Piu informazione: http://www.eui.eu/SeminarsAndEvents/Index.aspx?eventid=66313 Angela -- Angela Daly Department of Law European University Institute Villa Schifanoia Via Boccaccio 121 50133 Firenze Italia

March 5, 2011

Apple: you must be at least 17 years old to use Opera

by Paolo Brini

This week, the Opera web browser became the first non-native browser made available in Apple's Mac App Store. While Apple approved the browser, it still managed to hurt its competitor by putting this ridiculous label on it: "You must be at least 17 years old to download this app." <http://www.techspot.com/news/42668-apple-you-must-be-at-least-17-years-old-…> Ciao, Paolo

March 4, 2011