November 2014 - nexa - server-nexa.polito.it

NYT: "Obama Urges F.C.C. to Adopt Strict Rules on Net Neutrality"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Nov. 10, 2014

Nov. 10, 2014

*Obama Urges F.C.C. to Adopt Strict Rules on Net Neutrality* By MICHAEL D. SHEAR and EDWARD WYATT NOV. 10, 2014 WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday put the full weight of his administration behind an open and free Internet, calling for a strict policy of so-called net neutrality and formally opposing deals in which content providers like Netflix would pay huge sums to broadband companies for faster access to their customers. The president’s proposal is consistent with his longstanding support for rules that seek to prevent cable and telephone companies from providing special access to some content providers. But the statement posted online Monday, as Mr. Obama traveled to Asia, is the most direct effort by the president to influence the debate about the Internet’s future. In the statement, and a video on the White House website, Mr. Obama urged the Federal Communications Commission to adopt the strictest set of neutrality rules possible and to treat consumer broadband service as a public utility, similar to telephone or power companies. “We cannot allow Internet service providers to restrict the best access or to pick winners and losers in the online marketplace for services and ideas,” Mr. Obama wrote in the statement. […] Continua qui: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/11/technology/obama-net-neutrality-fcc.html

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Arduino e il MoMa
by Mariella Berra Nov. 10, 2014

Nov. 10, 2014

the Makers -- http://www.glistatigenerali.com/sharing-economy_startup_tech/arduino-conqui… --

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David Weinberger: "Italy’s Declaration of Internet Rights"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Nov. 9, 2014

Nov. 9, 2014

*Italy’s Declaration of Internet Rights* Posted on:: November 8th, 2014 An ad hoc study commission of the Italian Chamber of Deputies has published a draft “Declaration of Internet Rights” that should be cause for cheers and cheer. It’s currently open for public comment at the Civici Platform — which by itself is pretty cool. TechPresident explains that this came about thanks to the initiative of the presidency of the Chamber of Deputies, a dedicated Committee of experts and members of the Parliament from the Committee on Internet Rights and Duties. The bill aims to inform the debate about online civil liberties and fundamental freedoms during the Italian semester of the European Union presidency… I like the document a lot. A lot a lot. The principles are based on a genuine understanding of the value that the Net brings and what enables the Net to bring that value. This is crucial because so often those who seek to govern the Net do so because they see it primarily as a threat to order or a challenge to their power. The Declaration focuses on the rights of individuals, taking the implicit stance (or so I read it) that the threat to those rights comes not only from Internet malefactors and giant Internet conglomerates run amok, but also from those who seek to govern the Net. It includes as rights not only access to the Net, but access to education about how to use the Net, a point too often forgotten. (Not by Eszter Hargittai, though, who has done the seminal work in showing that Internet skills are not as easily acquired as we often assume.) […] Continua qui: http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/2014/11/08/italys-declaration-of-internet-r…

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Re: [nexa] Computer Scientists Ask Supreme Court to Rule APIs Can?t Be Copyrighted
by Simone Aliprandi Nov. 8, 2014

Nov. 8, 2014

> November 7, 2014 > *Computer Scientists Ask Supreme Court to Rule APIs Can?t Be Copyrighted* > > EFF Files Amicus Brief on Behalf of Tech Pioneers in Oracle v. Google > Court Battle Sul tema segnalo la riflessione di Carlo Piana fatta nel 2012 in occasione di una simile vertenza giurisprudenziale davanti alla Corte del Northern District of California (Google contro Oracle). http://www.apogeonline.com/webzine/2012/06/12/questa-o-quella-per-me-api-so… "Troppi “massimalisti del copyright” vorrebbero che il diritto d’autore in un programma software fosse uguale a quello in un’opera letteraria, così che ogni e qualsiasi volta che qualcuno copia le stesse espressioni, il copyright del primo titolare venga violato (se non nelle rare eccezioni in cui l’utilizzo è libero). Altre volte vorrebbero che, così come non è possibile riprodurre la struttura di un libro utilizzando gli stessi nomi per farne un sunto, un adattamento eccetera, lo stesso divieto debba applicarsi anche al software […]. Il copyright del software è diverso dal copyright concesso alle opere letterarie. Il software è protetto come se fosse un’opera letteraria, ma per interpretarne e applicarne le regole del copyright, non può essere ignorata la natura utilitaristica del software, inclusa la necessità di interoperare." Un cordiale saluto. -- Simone Aliprandi - http://www.aliprandi.org/

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Protezione dalle contraffazioni... e le pen-drive non funzionano!
by La Zanna Nov. 8, 2014

Nov. 8, 2014

Leggo su PC-professionale: La Ftdi (azienda leader nella produzione di chipset per dispositivi USB), stufa della contraffazione dei propri chip, ha "aggiornato" i propri driver (distribuendo l'aggiornamento tramite window-update), per riconoscere i chip contraffatti e renderli irriconoscibili. Risultato: migliaia di utenti si ritrovano inaccessibili pen-drive, hard-disk e altro. Le reazioni furibonde hanno provocato infine il ritiro del drive, ma chi risponderà del disagio provocato? Luca Z. Inviato con AquaMail per Android http://www.aqua-mail.com

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Roma 13 novembre convegno: " Governance di Internet ed efficienza dele regole: verso il nuovo regolamento europeo sulla privacy
by Mauro Alovisio Nov. 8, 2014

Nov. 8, 2014

Gent.me/mi segnalo interessante convegno sulla privacy il prossimo 13 novembre 2014 alle ore 14 a Roma ad oggetto "Governance di Internet ed efficienza dele regole: verso il nuovo regolamento europeo sulla privacy" con Prof. Stefano Rodotà, il Presidente Autorità Garante per la Protezione dei dati Personali (Dott. Antonello Soro) e professori universitari ( Salvatore Sica, Valeria Falce, Giorgio Resta, Oreste Pollicino) per informazioni: http://www.corrierecomunicazioni.it/eventi/30822_governance-di-internet-ed-… Cordiali saluti Mauro Alovisio

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German Court Asks European Court of Justice if IP Addresses are Personal Data
by valerio lubello Nov. 8, 2014

Nov. 8, 2014

Vicenda interessante, a presto, Valerio ---- *German Court Asks European Court of Justice if IP Addresses are Personal Data <https://www.huntonprivacyblog.com/2014/11/articles/german-court-asks-europe…>* //*Privacy and Information Security Law Blog <https://www.huntonprivacyblog.com/2014/11/articles/german-court-asks-europe…>* On October 28, 2014, the German Federal Court of Justicereferred <http://juris.bundesgerichtshof.de/cgi-bin/rechtsprechung/document.py?Gerich…>the question of whether an IP address constitutes personal data under the EU Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC (“EU Data Protection Directive”) to the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”). The German court referred the question to the ECJ for a preliminary ruling in connection with a case that arose in 2008 when a German citizen challenged the German federal government’s storage of the dynamic IP addresses of users on government websites. The citizen’s claim initially was rejected by the court of first instance. The claim was granted, however, by the court of second instance to the extent it referred to the storage of IP addresses after the users left the relevant government websites. Subsequently, both parties appealed the decision to the German Federal Court of Justice. The German Federal Court of Justice has suspended the proceedings and referred two questions to the ECJ: Whether, under Article 2A of the EU Data Protection Directive, an IP address is personal data (i.e., any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person) when the IP address is stored by an Internet service provider(“ISP”) and a third party (e.g., the ISP) possesses sufficient additional data to identify the user.Whether the EU Data Protection Directive is contrary to a provision in the German Telemedia Act. According to the relevant provision of the Telemedia Act, a website provider may collect and process the personal data of users without their consent only to the extent it is necessary to (1) enable the general functionality of the website or (2) arrange payment. In addition, the relevant provision of the Telemedia Act states that enabling the general functionality of the website does not permit user data to be processed after the user closes, or navigates away from, the website. ---- Shared via*my feedly reader <http://feedly.com>*

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Computer Scientists Ask Supreme Court to Rule APIs Can’t Be Copyrighted
by J.C. DE MARTIN Nov. 7, 2014

Nov. 7, 2014

November 7, 2014 *Computer Scientists Ask Supreme Court to Rule APIs Can’t Be Copyrighted* EFF Files Amicus Brief on Behalf of Tech Pioneers in Oracle v. Google Court Battle San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a brief with the Supreme Court of the United States today, arguing on behalf of 77 computer scientists that the justices should review a disastrous appellate court decision finding that application programming interfaces (APIs) are copyrightable. That decision, handed down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in May, up-ended decades of settled legal precedent and industry practice. Signatories to the brief include five Turing Award winners, four National Medal of Technology winners, and numerous fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery, IEEE, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The list also includes designers of computer systems and programming languages such as AppleScript, AWK, C++, Haskell, IBM S/360, Java, JavaScript, Lotus 1-2-3, MS-DOS, Python, Scala, SmallTalk, TCP/IP, Unix, and Wiki. "The Federal Circuit's decision was wrong and dangerous for technological innovation," EFF Intellectual Property Director Corynne McSherry said. "Excluding APIs from copyright protection has been essential to the development of modern computers and the Internet. The ruling is bad law, and bad policy." […] Continua qui: https://www.eff.org/press/releases/computer-scientists-ask-supreme-court-ru…

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"Without Greater Transparency And Meaningful Net Neutrality Rules, The Netflix Interconnection War Will Get Much, Much Uglier"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Nov. 7, 2014

Nov. 7, 2014

*Without Greater Transparency And Meaningful Net Neutrality Rules, The Netflix Interconnection War Will Get Much, Much Uglier** * from the sunlight-is-the-best-disinfectant dept If you've followed the ongoing feud between Netflix and the nation's biggest ISPs, you'll recall that streaming performance on the nation's four biggest ISPs (AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner Cable) mysteriously started to go to hell earlier this year, and was only resolved once Netflix acquiesced to ISP demands to bypass transit partners and pay carriers for direct interconnection. Though the FCC has refused to include interconnection in their consideration of new net neutrality rules, we've noted how it's really the edges of these networks where the biggest neutrality battles are now being waged. While Netflix's deals did resolve the congestion issues for users on these ISPs this past fall, the debate over this practice has since broken down into two distinct camps. One is Netflix, its transit partners, and consumer advocacy groups, who claim that the nation's biggest ISPs have intentionally let key transit points degrade, intentionally creating significant congestion and forcing Netflix to pay them directly if they want their video services to work. On the other side is the mega-ISPs, their PR folks and a smattering of industry consultants, who argue that Netflix is to blame by choosing Cogent as a cheaper transit link to these carriers. […] Continua qui: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20141106/05594529063/without-greater-tran…

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Re: [nexa] Sistemi di voto elettronico
by la_zanna Nov. 7, 2014

Nov. 7, 2014

Fabio P: "... quindi per cose importanti come "elezioni politiche" (o anche in cui c'è un impatto diretto sulle istituzioni) li considero eccessivamente rischiosi per la democrazia." Oggi, concordo con te che sono eccessivamente rischiosi per cose importanti (elezioni politiche o referendum nazionali). Meo: "...La soluzione è uno "scrutinatore elettronico" da poche decine di euro che risiederà con dieci suoi colleghi nella sede del seggio elettorale..." Questa è una via interessante che potrebbe essere battuta nel medio periodo per ridurre costi e/o aumentare consultazioni. Peraltro, il concetto è già attuato: sono rimasto sorpreso da sapere che la motorizzazione controlla in tempo reale le officine di revisione. Da una sede remota, operatori, leggono in tempo reale la strumentazione di controllo (opacimetri, banchi dinamometrici, centralina meteo, ecc...), visionano l'officina con una webcam, e rilasciando il tagliando di revisione. Infine, tralasciando l'ovvio (ma non per tutti) problema della necessità di anonimato nel voto, vorrei segnalare la mia preoccupazione per tutti i sistemi di voto verificabile individualmente e "successivamente" (sull'esempio di questo progetto), che permetterebbe alle persone di avere in tasca un "buono-voto" da spendere secondo convenienza (utile per le società clientelari). Saluti Luca Z.

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