January 2020 - nexa - server-nexa.polito.it

Three years after the W3C approved a DRM standard, it's no longer possible to make a functional indie browser
by Giacomo Tesio Jan. 13, 2020

Jan. 13, 2020

Una ulteriore prospettiva sugli enormi problemi tecno-politici del web odierno. Giacomo PS si consiglia di visitarlo con uMatrix o simili precauzioni. ____ https://boingboing.net/2020/01/08/rip-open-web-platform.html Back in 2017, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) approved the most controversial standard in its long history: Encrypted Media Extensions, or EME, which enabled Netflix and other big media companies to use DRM despite changes to browsers extensions that eliminated the kinds of deep hooks that DRM requires. At the time, the Electronic Frontier Foundation warned that, by approving its first non-unanimous standard, the W3C would give control over browser design to the big browser companies, and two years later, that warning has fully proven out. First, Google -- whose proprietary technology must be licensed in most cases if you want to make a new browser -- stopped permitting open source browsers to use its DRM technology, effectively requiring all new browsers to be proprietary. Now, Microsoft and Apple -- the remaining two vendors who can also supply the proprietary components that Google won't license -- have effectively stopped answering the phone when small browser creators call. Microsoft might let you license its tools if you pay them $10,000 to submit an application and then $0.35 for every browser you ship. Samuel Maddock has been trying to create a rival "indie" browser, and has been to each of the EME DRM vendors and has been sent away by all of them. The W3C's mission is to create an Open Web Platform" so that "everyone has the right to implement a software component of the Web without requiring any approvals or waiving license fees." When EME was approved, we warned that they were effectively ending the Open Web era by putting every future browser developer at the mercy of three giant incumbent browser developers. And here we are. Next up: watch for lurking software bugs in EME that compromise user security and privacy to go unreported while they are exploited by criminals and spies. DRM laws like Section 1201 of the DMCA allow software vendors to threaten whistleblowers who disclose bugs without permission with both civil and criminal liability, and the W3C specifically turned down every single proposal to make its members promise not to abuse this power -- even when those members signalled that they viewed the power to decide who could criticize their products as a feature of the EME process, and not a bug. The web is not merely reduced to five giant sites, each filled from screenshots from the other four, it's also a near-monoculture of browsers, almost all of them controlled by tech giants who have been complicit in both commercial and state surveillance, including surveillance by the world's most notorious torturing and murdering autocracies. The W3C's decision to hand these monopolists perpetual Internet Domination Licenses was the gravest mistake in its history, just when we needed its principled leadership the most. We are living in the aftermath of that decision today and things will get worse long before they get better. Meanwhile, the W3C's own page on EME is completely silent on the most controversial standarization process in the organization's history. > Since the introduction of EME to web standards, the ability > for new browsers to compete has become restricted by > gatekeepers, which goes against the promises of the platform. > > Using the Open Web Platform, everyone has the right to > implement a software componet of the Web without requiring > any approvals or waiving license fees. > > Yes, the EME standard can be implemented by anyone, but > it's moot when the requirement of a CDM says otherwise.

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MIT’s Inconvenient Truth - The Boston Globe
by J.C. DE MARTIN Jan. 13, 2020

Jan. 13, 2020

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/01/12/opinion/mits-inconvenient-truth/ (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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France's digital minister says tax on big tech is just the start | France | The Guardian
by J.C. DE MARTIN Jan. 13, 2020

Jan. 13, 2020

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/12/frances-digital-minister-tax-… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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Inside Google’s Quest for Millions of Medical Records
by Enrico Nardelli Jan. 12, 2020

Jan. 12, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/paging-dr-google-how-the-tech-giant-is-laying-… ... The failed Cerner deal reveals an emerging challenge to Google’s move into health care: gaining the trust of health care partners and the public. So far, that has hardly slowed the search giant. Google has struck partnerships with some of the country’s largest hospital systems and most-renowned health-care providers, many of them vast in scope and few of their details previously reported. In just a few years, the company has achieved the ability to view or analyze tens of millions of patient health records in at least three-quarters of U.S. states, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of contractual agreements. In certain instances, the deals allow Google to access personally identifiable health information without the knowledge of patients or doctors. The company can review complete health records, including names, dates of birth, medications and other ailments, according to people familiar with the deals. The prospect of tech giants’ amassing huge troves of health records has raised concerns among lawmakers, patients and doctors, who fear such intimate data could be used without individuals’ knowledge or permission, or in ways they might not anticipate. Google is developing a search tool, similar to its flagship search engine, in which patient information is stored, collated and analyzed by the company’s engineers, on its own servers. The portal is designed for use by doctors and nurses, and eventually perhaps patients themselves, though some Google staffers would have access sooner. Google executives and some health systems say that detailed data sharing has the potential to improve health outcomes. Large troves of data help fuel algorithms Google is creating to detect lung cancer, eye disease and kidney injuries. Hospital executives have long sought better electronic record systems to reduce error rates and cut down on paperwork. ... -- EN ===================================================================== Prof. Enrico Nardelli Dipartimento di Matematica - Universita' di Roma "Tor Vergata" Via della Ricerca Scientifica snc - 00133 Roma tel: +39 06 7259.4204 fax: +39 06 7259.4699 mobile: +39 335 590.2331 e-mail: nardelli(a)mat.uniroma2.it home page: http://www.mat.uniroma2.it/~nardelli blog: http://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/blog/enardelli/ http://link-and-think.blogspot.it/ ===================================================================== --

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Meditate gente, meditate.
by Antonio Casilli Jan. 12, 2020

Jan. 12, 2020

Se anche i tuoi dipendenti sono sottopagati e stressati, fai come Starbucks: regala a tutti un abbonamento gratuito a una app di meditazione: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/z3bxn3/starbucks-workers-want-more-hours… (Perché niente dice "mi preoccupo delle tue condizioni di lavoro" meglio di un aspiratore di dati personali... https://twitter.com/funnymonkey/status/1216112326971097089) -- Antonio A. Casilli Professor, Telecom Paris, Institut Polytechnique de Paris Member, Interdisciplinary Institute for Innovation (i3 UMR 9217 CNRS) Associate Member, LACI-IIAC (EHESS) Faculty Fellow, Nexa Center for Internet & Society *We respect your right to disconnect. This email send time is due to my own workflow efficiency. You are in no obligation to take action or reply to it outside your office hours.*

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Il pc dell’Olivetti (che spaventò l’America) e il mistero della morte di Mario Tchou
by don Luca Peyron Jan. 12, 2020

Jan. 12, 2020

Tra storia ed un po' di romanzo il nostro passo tecnologico. Buona lettura e buona domenica dl https://www.corriere.it/cronache/20_gennaio_11/mistero-tchou-suo-computer-i… _________________________ www.universitari.to.it via XX settembre 83, Torino tel. 011 5156239

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Sacha Baron Cohen Is Wrong About Social Media, Wrong About Section 230... And Even Wrong About His Own Comedy
by J.C. DE MARTIN Jan. 11, 2020

Jan. 11, 2020

Una polemica di fine 2019, ma il tema è sempre d'attualità. jc * **Sacha Baron Cohen Is Wrong About Social Media, Wrong About Section 230... And Even Wrong About His Own Comedy* Fri, Nov 22nd 2019 9:31am — Mike Masnick I honestly did not think I'd ever be writing about Sacha Baron Cohen's thoughts on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, but this is 2019 and nothing makes sense any more. And because nothing makes sense any more, I'm going to start out discussing Sacha Baron Cohen's views on CDA 230 by actually talking about magician Penn Jillette. Jillette has a podcast called Penn's Sunday School that is often really, really good. And he actually talked about Sacha Baron Cohen in the latest episode -- which, bizarrely, is not on the page I linked to, because it appears that Penn and his team stopped updating their podcast webpage last month. […] Continua qui: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20191122/00412943432/sacha-baron-cohen-is…

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Major union launches campaign to organize video game and tech workers
by Stefano Zacchiroli Jan. 11, 2020

Jan. 11, 2020

"The last two years have witnessed a wave of walkouts, petitions and other workplace actions at video game and tech companies. But despite this swell in labor activism, employees at no major video game studios and only a handful of tech offices have formally voted to form or join a union. A new campaign launched Tuesday by one of the nation’s largest labor unions — and spearheaded by one of the leading video game industry activists in Southern California — aims to change that." Continua qui: https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2020-01-07/major-union-la… -- Stefano Zacchiroli . zack(a)upsilon.cc . upsilon.cc/zack . . o . . . o . o Computer Science Professor . CTO Software Heritage . . . . . o . . . o o Former Debian Project Leader & OSI Board Director . . . o o o . . . o . « the first rule of tautology club is the first rule of tautology club »

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Why Sonos Has Already Lost Its Patent Suit Against Google
by J.C. DE MARTIN Jan. 11, 2020

Jan. 11, 2020

Why Sonos Has Already Lost Its Patent Suit Against Google All it would get is money, not protection of its inventions. By Joe Nocera January 10, 2020, 12:35 PM EST https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-01-10/even-if-sonos-wins-it… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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Farmers Are Buying 40-Year-Old Tractors Because They're Actually Repairable - VICE
by J.C. DE MARTIN Jan. 11, 2020

Jan. 11, 2020

Farmers Are Buying 40-Year-Old Tractors Because They're Actually Repairable John Deere makes it difficult to repair its new tractors without specialized software, so an increasing number of farmers are buying older models. By Matthew Gault Jan 7 2020, 4:57pm https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bvgx9w/farmers-are-buying-40-year-old-tr… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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