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[News] [Rights] Digital Freedom Becomes a Universal Freedom

  • Subject: [News] [Rights] Digital Freedom Becomes a Universal Freedom
  • From: Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2007 01:03:52 +0000
  • Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
  • Organization: Netscape / schestowitz.com
  • User-agent: KNode/0.10.4
Revealing Errors 

,----[ Quote ]
| Geeks support groups like the FSF and EFF because, as people who understand 
| technology, they understand just how powerful technology is. Geeks know that 
| control of our communication technologies is control over what we can say, 
| who we can say it to, and how and when we can say it. In an increasingly 
| technologically mediated age, control over technology is not only the power 
| to control our actions; it is the power to limit our possible actions. Our 
| freedom to our technology is our freedom, full stop.      
`----

http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/20071107-00

This explains the importance of shunning a spyware/virus/malware like Windows
Vista. Windows will get worse (then forcefed) as time goes by. BSD and
GNU/Linux are an escape route.

Included below are shocking examples of how people totally lose control of the
Web and their PCs.


Related:

Fight malware by upgrading to Vista, urges MS

,----[ Quote ]
| Really fighting fire with fire
`----

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/23/rsa_vista_security_pitch/


Microsoft could be teaching police to hack Vista

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft may begin training the police in ways to break the
| encryption built into its forthcoming Vista operating system.
`----

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2150555/microsoft-teaching-police-hack


75% of Chinese PCs hit by viruses

,----[ Quote ]
| The People's Daily said a government department estimated 75% of computers
| in China were the target of viruses between May 2005 to May 2006.
`----

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=33667


German spyware plans trigger row

,----[ Quote ]
| The e-mails would contain Trojans - software that secretly installs itself on 
| suspects' computers, allowing agents to search the hard drives. 
`----

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6973018.stm


FBI ducks questions about its remotely installed spyware

,----[ Quote ]
| There are plenty of unanswered questions about the FBI spyware that, as we 
| reported earlier this week, can be delivered over the Internet and implanted  
| in a suspect's computer remotely. 
`----

http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9747666-7.html


United States Government Online Watchdogs? Part of the war on terror?

,----[ Quote
| Is there anyone in the abandonia community with a US based connection who is 
| experiencing this watchdog behavior? Are any foreign Vista users experiencing 
| similar attacks from their own countries ministries and governing agencies?"   
`----

http://www.whitedust.net/news/3984/United_States_Government_Online_Watchdogs?_Part_of_the_war_on_terror?.../


Schäuble renews calls for surreptitious online searches of PCs

,----[ Quote ]
| In his speech towards the end of the national conference of the Junge Union, 
| the youth organization of the ruling conservative Christian Democratic Union 
| (CDU), in Berlin the Federal Minister of the Interior Wolfgang Schäuble has 
| again come out in favor of allowing authorities to search private PCs 
| secretly online and of deploying the German Armed Forces in Germany in the 
| event of an emergency.     
`----

http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/97755/from/rss09


FBI remotely installs spyware to trace bomb threat

,----[ Quote ]
| While there's been plenty of speculation about how the FBI might deliver 
| spyware electronically, this case appears to be the first to reveal how the 
| technique is used in practice. The FBI did confirm in 2001 that it was 
| working on a virus called Magic Lantern but hasn't said much about it since.    
`----

http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9746451-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20


Beware of Skype

,----[ Quote ]
| The Skype network has been a concern of government intelligence agencies 
| since its inception because it provides a worldwide network of encrypted VoIP 
| calls to potential “terrorists”. So how coincidental is it that 10 days after 
| Bush signs into law a Bill giving the government authority to track foreign 
| calls that go through U.S. networks that Skype, for the first time in its 
| existence, undergoes a massive worldwide outage?     
| 
| [...]
| 
| But there are FOSS alternatives to Skype people really should start 
| considering now. One is the OpenWengo Project. Businesses, and even 
| individuals, should also consider setting up their own Asterisk servers with 
| encryption.   
`----

http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/node/2479


UK holds Microsoft security talks

,----[ Quote ]
| "UK officials are talking to Microsoft over fears the new version of 
| Windows could make it harder for police to read suspects' computer files."
`----

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4713018.stm


How NSA access was built into Windows

,----[ Quote ]
| A careless mistake by Microsoft programmers has revealed that
| special access codes prepared by the US National Security Agency
| have been secretly built into Windows.
| 
| [...]
| 
| The first discovery of the new NSA access system was made two years
| ago by British researcher Dr Nicko van Someren. But it was only a
| few weeks ago when a second researcher rediscovered the access
| system. With it, he found the evidence linking it to NSA.
`----

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/5/5263/1.html


NSA Builds Security Access Into Windows

,----[ Quote ]
| A careless mistake by Microsoft programmers has shown that special access
| codes for use by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) have been secretly
| built into all versions of the Windows operating system.
`----

http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19990903S0014


Microsoft patents the mother of all adware systems

,----[ Quote ]
| The adware framework would leave almost no data untouched in its quest to 
| sell you stuff. It would inspect "user document files, user e-mail files, 
| user music files, downloaded podcasts, computer settings, computer status 
| messages (e.g., a low memory status or low printer ink)," and more. How could 
| we have been so blind as to not see the marketing value in computer status 
| messages?     
`----

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070717-microsoft-patents-the-mother-of-all-adware-systems.html


The Longest Suicide Note in History

,----[ Quote ]
| Gutmann: The genie's out of the bottle before the operating system has even
| been released! But that doesn't mean Vista users in particular - and
| the computer community at large - won't end up paying for Microsoft's
| DRM folly. At the risk of repeating myself repeating myself, yet
| another reason to move to Linux.
`----     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

http://blogs.pcworld.co.nz/pcworld/tux-love/2007/01/the_longest_suicide_note_in_hi.html


DRM in Windows Vista

,----[ Quote ]
| Windows Vista includes an array of "features" that you don't want.
| These features will make your computer less reliable and less secure.
| They'll make your computer less stable and run slower. They will
| cause technical support problems. They may even require you to
| upgrade some of your peripheral hardware and existing software.
| And these features won't do anything useful. In fact, they're
| working against you. They're digital rights management (DRM)
| features built into Vista at the behest of the entertainment
| industry.
| 
| And you don't get to refuse them.
`----

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/02/drm_in_windows.html


Avoid the Vista badge, it means DRM inside 

,----[ Quote ]
| The root of this crappy DRM infection is Microsoft. It is the driving
| force here. This has nothing to do with protecting content, as we 
| keep pointing out, there has never been a single thing that has had
| a DRM infection applied that didn't end up cracked on the net in
| hours. DRM is about walled gardens and control.
| 
| He who controls the DRM infection controls the market. DRM is
| about preventing you from doing anything with the devices
| without paying the gatekeeper a fee. This is what MS wants,
| nothing less than a slice of everything watched, listened to
| or discussed from now on. DRM prevents others from playing
| there, thanks to the DMCA and other anti-consumer laws.
| 
| Make no mistake, MS is pushing the DRM malware as hard as
| it can so it can rake in money hand over fist with no
| competition. It is really good at lock-in, in fact, the firm
| based its entire business model on harming the user so they
| have to comply and spend more.
`----

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=38926


,----[ Quote ]
| "It also was strange to see just how many resources are aligned
| against me when I write a story about Microsoft."
| 
| "there were close to a dozen other people involved...Some transcribed
| the interviews I conducted; others kept notes on my every utterance
| for clues about what questions I might ask next and ultimately what my
| story would say; others briefed executives with questions I had asked
| and suggested good answers."
`----

http://blog.wired.com/business/2007/03/enough_about_me.html


Back doors in Windows XP...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGlNTEQ0RzM


Mother of all spyware...

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Forget-about-the-WGA-20-Windows-Vista-Features-and-Services-Harvest-User-Data-for-Microsoft-58752.shtml


Police eats your CPU cycles and disk space...

,----[ Quote ]
| Vista—Microsoft’s latest operating system—may prove to be most
| appropriately named, especially for those seeking evidence of how a
| computer was used.
`----

http://www.abanet.org/journal/ereport/jy13tkjasn.html


"Trusted" Computing

,----[ Quote ]
| Do you imagine that any US Linux distributor would say no to the
| US government if they were requested (politely, of course) to add
| a back-door to the binary Linux images shipped as part of their
| products ? Who amongst us actually uses the source code so helpfully
| given to us on the extra CDs to compile our own version ? With
| Windows of course there are already so many back-doors known and
| unknown that the US government might not have even bothered to 
| ask Microsoft, they may have just found their own, ready to
| exploit at will. What about Intel or AMD and the microcode on
| the processor itself ?
`----

http://tuxdeluxe.org/node/164


,----[ Quote ]
| In relation to the issue of sharing technical API and protocol
| information used throughout Microsoft products, which the
| states were seeking, Allchin alleged that releasing this
| information would increase the security risk to consumers.
| 
|        "It is no exaggeration to say that the national security is
|        also implicated by the efforts of hackers to break into
|        computing networks. Computers, including many running Windows
|        operating systems, are used throughout the United States
|        Department of Defense and by the armed forces of the United
|        States in Afghanistan and elsewhere."
`----

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Allchin


AT&T censors Pearl Jam's anti-Bush lyrics

,----[ Quote ]
| Pearl Jam fans and Internet watchdogs were up in arms Thursday after it was 
| revealed that AT&T censored portions of the rock band's live concert 
| cybercast on Sunday.  
`----

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-6201759.html


AT&T admits it censored other bands

,----[ Quote
| It looks like Pearl Jam isn't the only band that has had its politically 
| charged comments bleeped from concerts streamed from AT&T's Blue Room Web 
| site.  
| 
| [...]
| 
| AT&T quickly apologized for the incident and blamed the company that handles 
| the Webcasting for performances on Blue Room. 
`----

http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9759184-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20


Report highlights blog censorship

,----[ Quote ]
| Bloggers are now finding themselves prey to censorship from repressive 
| governments as much as journalists in traditional media, a report says. 
`----

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/7047336.stm


Comcast Cuts Off Heavy Internet Users

,----[ Quote ]
| Customers complain bandwidth limits are secret.
`----

http://consumeraffairs.com/news04/2007/08/comcast_ban.html?imw=Y


Chinese Internet dissident committed to mental hospital

,----[ Quote ]
| "It is not acceptable that Chinese authorities use such methods to silence 
| citizens who have merely peacefully voiced their opinions", expressed the 
| organisation in an announcement. Apparently authorities have not abandoned 
| the practice of punishing those who have exposed the abuse of power and 
| defied censorship by compulsorily committing them to mental institutions.    
`----

http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/94864/from/rss09

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