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submitted this at 1 am

BoingBoing picked up a report that German police has raided and seized TOR server rooms. TOR is a service that allows one to anonymize his or her internet experience (web, chat, etc). BoingBoing writes: “We need support, lots of people are chanting the same stupid arguments against anonymization over and over again... "You dont need to be afraid if you have nothing to hide" ... "Only criminals have the need for anonymity." [] AskMefi has a great list of responses to that infernal "if you have nothing to hide..." question.

soultcer.net : "According to an owner of one of the servers, who talked to a public prosecutor, the public prosecutors office knew that the server owners had nothing to do with the child pornography case. Regardless they confiscated some hard disks so that the TOR servers were unusable. As reason they stated that they wanted to scan for traces (e.g. log files). Even though TOR does not keep any logs? I dont really believe them...
Why have the hard disks really been confiscated??"

citizen428.net: :Don’t get me wrong, child pornography is one of the worst crimes I can think of, and I wish the German authorities all the best in finding the people they are after. I do however feel that the route taken here wasn’t ideal, as it may well lead to a negative perception of Tor in the general public."

itnomad: "One operator whose server was seized as well wrote a letter to all the TOR-operators in Germany he was aware of, reaching me as well; he wrote that he is not aware of any charges pressed against him at the moment and that his provider, whose server-room was raided, was not avilable for a real comment on the weekend."

submitted this at 1 am

BoingBoing picked up a report that German police has raided and seized TOR server rooms. TOR is a service that allows one to anonymize his or her internet experience (web, chat, etc). BoingBoing writes: “We need support, lots of people are chanting the same stupid arguments against anonymization over and over again... "You dont need to be afraid if you have nothing to hide" ... "Only criminals have the need for anonymity." [] AskMefi has a great list of responses to that infernal "if you have nothing to hide..." question.

soultcer.net : "According to an owner of one of the servers, who talked to a public prosecutor, the public prosecutors office knew that the server owners had nothing to do with the child pornography case. Regardless they confiscated some hard disks so that the TOR servers were unusable. As reason they stated that they wanted to scan for traces (e.g. log files). Even though TOR does not keep any logs? I dont really believe them...
Why have the hard disks really been confiscated??"

citizen428.net: :Don’t get me wrong, child pornography is one of the worst crimes I can think of, and I wish the German authorities all the best in finding the people they are after. I do however feel that the route taken here wasn’t ideal, as it may well lead to a negative perception of Tor in the general public."

itnomad: "One operator whose server was seized as well wrote a letter to all the TOR-operators in Germany he was aware of, reaching me as well; he wrote that he is not aware of any charges pressed against him at the moment and that his provider, whose server-room was raided, was not avilable for a real comment on the weekend."

For all intents and purposes it looks like "harrassing" is the answer. There are several articles about this (See http://www.boingboing.net/2006/09/10/report_german _police.html for a nice round up of them) which clearly indicate that the authorities were both aware of how TOR operates and aware that any data gleaned from the TOR servers would likely be uselss. The good news is that the owners of said servers are (currently at least) treated as witnesses and not suspects; the bad news is that all raided nodes were exit nodes and that at least in one instances the hard drive was wiped during the investigation before being returned. Arguably, they might want to ensure that the owners of the TOR servers did not somehow try to mask their own access to kiddie porn through it, but in all it looks like heavy handed harassment.

• the term 'tivoisation' is of course ...about the tivo. Companies doing an end-run on the letter of the GPL is unacceptable. The GPL is about freedom, and Tivo doesn't play nice.
• Tivo includes DRM. That's reason on it's own...
• ...but the DRM will be misused; even if by 'mistake'.
• ...and the DRM is forced on you in mandatory software updates
• The mandatory updates change the product after you buy it. How this is acceptable to anyone is beyond me. Like anyone would accept their 300hp car suddenly being downgraded to a 150hp car because GM was pressured by another industry....say the insurance industry.
• And of course anything else that they might want to do with their hardware (it's clearly not yours!).

On my to-do list is to build a myth box.
And I'm going to build it with open-source, because I'm going to install it on hardware that I own and therefore should control.

• the term 'tivoisation' is of course ...about the tivo. Companies doing an end-run on the letter of the GPL is unacceptable. The GPL is about freedom, and Tivo doesn't play nice.
• Tivo includes DRM. That's reason on it's own...
• ...but the DRM will be misused; even if by 'mistake'.
• ...and the DRM is forced on you in mandatory software updates
• The mandatory updates change the product after you buy it. How this is acceptable to anyone is beyond me. Like anyone would accept their 300hp car suddenly being downgraded to a 150hp car because GM was pressured by another industry....say the insurance industry.
• And of course anything else that they might want to do with their hardware (it's clearly not yours!).

On my to-do list is to build a myth box.
And I'm going to build it with open-source, because I'm going to install it on hardware that I own and therefore should control.

If Google really does this, can you imagine what the spammers will try?

Maybe they'll buy those blink ads on the radio. Maybe spam email will start containing sound clips. Maybe they'll distribute ring tones with high-pitched noises that make the right hash value.

On the other hand, maybe everyone will just get Blue Bunny ads whenever the ice cream truck rolls by.

1. Great, we've just established you mostly like the very media that bittorrent is good for. So it's no surprise that you don't see the problem for everyone else.

2. In this case you're definitely only looking for the most mainstream stuff out there. Again, you're fine but many other people won't be.

3. When you know what your'e doing ripping a DVD can be automated to a one- or two-click process (as it is on my machine). This makes ripping DVDs a lot more "usable" than hunting mininova or isohunt for variable-quality reliant-on-other-people torrents.

4. To my certain knowledge this is going on in the USA, Canada, Australia, the UK and several other european countries. And the USA is famous for nothing if not putting pressure on other countries to adopt its economic and legal policies.

"Ok, so we can reach the conclusion that you certainly like more obscure titles than I do. Which is impressive in and on itself."

Less the sarcasm, correct. You don't seem to spend much time on the fringes of bittorrent, but are safely ensconced in the middle of the most popular torrents. And you seem to have little care for either the future or the idea that what happens in other countries affects your life too. Where are you from, exactly (if you don't mind me asking)?

"We have a consumer protection legislation -- and popular movements -- that make the passing of DMCA-like legislation practically impossible, which is GOOD."

That is good. However, given the USA is putting serious amounts of pressure on various governments to fall into line and adopt its IP policies, how long do you think you'll stand against the world, if the USA continues unchecked?

"TCP-less hardware abound here and will continue to abound for a long time... even after every single piece of hardware in the USofA is TCP-enabled."

Who designs and manufactures most of the hardware and software in the world? What country still dominates the web (even though it didn't even invent it)? What countries' corporations determine the de-facto standards that everyone else has to be compatible with? What country consitutes the single largest market in the world for hardware, and where's the equivalent of Microsoft or Dell pushing for non-TCP hardware?

And who produces a massively disproportionate quantity of the world's mass-media?

"This is a 180-million people country, and others (China and India) will follow suit."

Says who? One small region's administration in India says it's adopting open source (important: it hasn't done it yet - there's still plenty of time for it to pull a Massachusetts), and China's making vague moves in the direction of Red Flag Linux, that's all.

"About hardware hacks: if you stop to remember, before the 1960's there were no software hacks..."

Indeed, and there was a miniscule fraction of the number of people who could use them, compared to now, when even my grandmother can rip MP3s off a CD.

"but plenty of hardware hacks, with secret recipies being exchanged in the underground (do you know what is a 999 key?) The internet will continue to make those hardware hacks available to anyone anonymously, even in a TCP-dominated USofA. And it's just slightly more expensive to implement, but plenty of people will do so. And plenty of unDRMed media will be available, even if more obscure titles don't."

All correct. But the number of people with the skills, time and patience for hardware hacking is pathetically small compared to the number of people who'll download a ripping app and use it to rip CDs/DVDs.

All DRM is theoretically possible to break. It's the difficulty of implementing the solution that matters. You can't argue that hardware hacking is more specialised and expensive than writing code. You can't reasonably argue that making a complex hardware device is as eas

"The iPod makes money. The iTunes Music Store doesn't." Apple won't die (in the music industry) as long as the iPod does well, and it's plainly obvious that iTunes has virtually nothing to do with the success of the iPod. I don't like DRM any more than the next guy, but I'm not about to claim it's the sole reason Apple isn't six feet under.

Somehow I don't feel at all threatened by the MPAA, the RIAA and the like. I have nothing whatsoever to worry about from them.

Yes, of course, because we all know that if you're doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about.

They've already written a follow-up: An open letter to Microsoft: Why you shouldn't kill FairUse4WM.

This whole thing reminds me of Cory Doctorow's DRM and MSFT: A Product No Customer Wants.

Because their founders were selected as famous & influential enough to feature for inclusion as Silicon Valley "pioneers", HP were offered first chance to sponsor this art and buy the life-sized portraits - not really a "cardboard cut-out" - at the end of their journey. $6,000 seems to me not an unreasonable figure considering the normal selling price of portraits & paintings, and the publicity that this project had garnered, but HP declined. Surely $6,000 is a paltry amount to pay for portraits of your founders to place in the foyer of your company headquarters, but hey! that's HP's choice.

Sun were aware of this back-story because one of their engineers worked on integrating a mobile phone tracking system into the portraits, so that members of the art-loving public could view the progress of the "cardboard cut-outs" on a website which used Google Maps' API. So when they heard that HP had declined to sponsor the project, Sun, perhaps a little jealous of the prestige given to their competitor's founders by this art project, decided to get some free publicity by stepping up to the plate, buying the artwork and dressing them up in girls' clothes or whatever.

This is Slashdot-worthy because it involves technology companies acting like spoilt children. Have fun!

Stroller.

All this could be a moot point if DRM systems are as crackable as Windows Media Player's is. I heard via Boing Boing that someone's created a program that blows a great big hole in the subscription model of music downloads.

Sort of like this guy?

No, TSA staff will do that for you:
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/08/10/if_the_liquid _could_.html

...whereupon the Smithsonian will transfer the copyright of the tapes to Showtime, and we'll never see them again outside of that network.

Get over it & Grow up these ARE REAL THREATS!

Maybe, but the Transportation Safety Administration apparently doesn't even believe it themselves...

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/08/10/if_the_liquid _could_.html

If they really thought that the confiscated liquids were potentially dangerous, you'd think they'd handle them a little more carefully, no?

Apparently not, because they're emptying all of these containers of potential explosive and dangerous chemicals into big trashcans right in the middle of airport crowds:

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/08/10/if_the_liquid _could_.html

Is there any way they would endanger the public this way if they really thought there was any chance the "liquids" could be dangerous? And if they don't think there's such a chance, why are they confiscating them in the first place?

I call bullshit.

And what would you recommend?

Realizing who the real terrorist are.

And...

Understanding the context of a few thousand people dieing because of terrorism. We easily put up with much worse things in life.

Terrorism rates extremely low on the probability scale when it comes to how you will die.

Just for a start...

Oh yeah, I'd also recommend stop being such a chicken shit.

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/07/02/sen_stevens_h ilariou.html

"it's too bad he didn't have a flying mokey to release for the gawkers wanting a mac-gasm."

"[Mac Pro] be based on intel Xeon chipset. [...] Every Mac Pro will have two of them -- quad Xeons. (much orgasmic ooooohing in audience). 2.1x faster than quad g5. Twice as fast as the machine it replaces. 1.6x faster on specfp floating point. Xcode runs 1.8 times faster on new Mac Pro. Dual 1.33 Ghz front-side buses, delivering 21 GB/s. Memory: up to 16GB memory. Twice as wide as powermac g5 and faster. Less cooling systems, we gain lots of space, so four hard drive bays can fit. (entire audience just came, more orgasmic screams). "

Let me ask you this: In your mind, are there no good uses for trusted computing? Are there never circumstances where trusted computing could be applied without evil effect? Or is all trusted computing inherently evil and must be stamped out?

This will be acceptable when it's acceptable for my car manufacturer to tell me which roads I can drive on
...when it's acceptable for my telephone company to tell me which numbers I can dial
...when it's acceptable for my TV manufacturer to tell me which channels I can watch
...when it's acceptable for my stove to tell me I what I can and can't cook, and what time I can cook at
...when it's acceptable for my couch to say I can't sit on it just now....

My personally owned objects are to serve me. At my discretion. Not some corporation.

If you like your "freedom" to be at the mercy of Thomas Hesse, that's your problem. I'm not interested.

Lastly, there's nothing beneficial that can be accomplished in hardware (ref:TPM) that can't be done in software and thereby be at the control of the user instead of at the control of software and media vendors.

This guy spent £495 to annoy the shit out of you? Either you deserved this, or the guy is a complete prick, in the latter case, fight fire with fire. Get some _very_ large subwoofers, a good amp, and play a song like Hootchie Mama by 2 live crew, or if that's not your style, maybe something like "Superpredators" by Massive Attack.
    Or, even if you don't like that, just find something with real spleen shattering bass and just blast it.

Also, for those interested, I found a link to the mosquito sound here from an article at the Beeb here, also, another interesting turn-around:
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/05/24/kids_turn_tee n_repel.html
Quite fascinating...

I understand; you're saying "don't stand for political correctness by pretending that it's not there", that is: do the right thing, and refuse to inherit ridiculous standards. Act deliberately "blindly", but reasonably in your own terms.

I agree that doing the right thing is an important part of the fix, but it is not in itself enough. In brief, you need a network to fight a network. The PC network works through "building awareness", and this is therefore an important part of the response. If you don't do this, you will find yourself "showing insensitivity", and it will hurt your career. This "insensitivity" has nothing to do with real compassion, but is rooted in self-justification for minding one's own back. Weakness is promoted into "morality" of the weakest kind, that has nothing to do with courage.

Here's an example of poor humour on Digg. PC nonsense and ridiculous thin-skinnedness needs to be pointed out, and this will occur at some (slight) cost to oneself. Ironically my own post was modded as Troll, as if it was intended to get a rise out of people and generate replies as sport, rather than state an opinion and make people think.

When I say legislation, I agree that social pressure is not in itself legislation, but it becomes legislation when one is considering "hate speech", for example. Hate speech used to mean speech that has the intent behind it of causing harm. Now increasingly, it need only cause offense. The creeping erasure of robust speech needs to be brought to light repeatedly and courageously, or we will find ourselves breaking the law for reasonable criticism in a few years. In fact, it is already happening.

Did you also notice how he links to a blog entry he wrote, but than he misrepresents what he originally wrote? He links to this, saying in the current story that it is about how Apple killed off the ROKR. But if you bother to read the actual blog entry, he points out that the main blame is supposedly with the cell carriers.

It's this sort of intellectually dishonest crap that turned me off of Doctrow a long time ago. He wants to be a Cringley (which some might argue is not a very lofty aspiration), but instead is firmly caught in a Dvorak transmogrification. I've lost all respect for Doctrow. Hey Cory, on the off chance you read this, I have one question for you: is that a real poncho or is that a Sears poncho?

The guy needs to try a spell in the real world.

I am wondering why askslashdot is being used to push agendas/post news stories, i know this isn't a new thing, but aren't there real questions to be answered? Why couldn't this story just be a normal news submission?

Seriously: agenda-pushing "stories", hyperbolic summaries, rhetorical questions? What is this, BoingBoing?

Cheers,
Ari

I have nothing insightful to add to this discussion. Just wanted to post an image of this wicked shirt from the recent HOPE conference making fun of Ted Steven's dumbassery:

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/07/23/best_series_o f_tubes.html If you really want to know what the internet is, read World of Ends.

Slashdot: What was on Boingboing two days ago.

Despite the sentiments, however, it was apparent from the carefully selected panel and audience members that the internet - despite its global reach - remains an English-speaking possession. Not one of the 11 panel members, nor any of the 22 people that spoke during the meeting, had anything but English as their first language.

I'm thinking that this doesn't mean that 1/3rd of their projects relate to DRM. RFID isn't even on their list of legal cases. Here's the EFF's major topics:

• Privacy
• IP
• Fair Use and DRM
• File Sharing
• Innovation
• Free Speech and Censorship
• Bloggers' Rights
• International
• E-Voting

But if you get a take-down notice, or you get sued because of your blog post, or you want to built technology without Hollywood's permission, who other than the EFF is going to understand both the technological and the legal- even Constitutional- implications? The EFF is innovation insurance.

The atari 2600.

I personally don't understand the logic behind viewing the blu-ray part of the PS3 as a selling point. Who really cares? Is the subtle (in most cases) graphical advantage really going to make my gaming experience sufficiently more fun to justify the extra cost? I really doubt it.

from BoingBoing http://boingboing.net/ http://craphound.com.nyud.net:8080/man-machine-mer ger.mp3

"I've used Apple computers since 1979 and have a Mac tattooed on my right bicep, but this is a deal-breaker."

"Just like war. It is far more fitting" I'm not sure if you mean the term "war" is more fitting than competition, but everyone here understands that there are winners and losers in competitions, but in war people die, so it is not appropriate to use the term war for coders creating new browser software as no one will die.

You have been successfully indoctrinated to the "culture of war".
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/07/18/image_of_the_ day_chi.html

Related to the topic: Bud.com is a related passive multiplayer game. As reported in BoingBoing.

It would be interesting to try Bud out, but last I looked on their site they had presentations and description of the idea, but the game was not online yet.

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/11/16/ibuzz_ipod_vi brator.html The sorostitutes at Arizona State are going nuts over these.

I'm surpised nobody has posted an EFF link yet. Here's the summary & link from BoingBoing:

Cindy Cohn, EFF's stellar Legal Director, sez, "Senator Specter and the Bush Administration today announced that they have reached a deal to send all of the cases concerning the illegal NSA wiretapping (including EFF's) to the secret FISA court. This is being spun in the press as a big concession by the Administration but in truth it's an abomination -- the FISA court acts in secret and doesn't even hear argument from both sides. This bill will likely move fast, so we only have a limited window to try to stop it. Here's s direct link to EFF's action center to let you write to the relevant Congressional committees."

It takes less than 30 seconds to send an e-mail to your congresscritter, and it's really the least you can do if you really care about this issue.

For anyone who hasn't heard of biomimicry, check out this reference: http://www.biomimicry.net/intro.html

The general idea is that all of human design and engineering in the future should try to mimic nature as closely as possible. The most controversial aspect of the theory is that anything we think we can come up with, nature has already figured out a *far* more elegant and sophisticated solution (not to mention ecologically balanced and sustainable), albeit not directly suited to our needs.

So this brain control technology is definitely cool, but nature has already done it:

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/02/03/wasp_performs _roachb.html

It's an article about how a specific wasp evolved the ability to sting a cockroach in such a way that it can override the motor control of the cockroach, but where the cockroach is not actually disabled (from the wasps' perspective of course). I'm sure if we did enough digging in nature, there is something even far more spectacular than that example.

You think the phone company would just tell you who a line belonged to if you called them up?

Actually, if you're using Sprint, they've even got an automated system to do it for you!

eBay provides a number of non-paypal alternatives and it's not about monopolistic practices.

I agree. One possible reason is that Google Checkout bans many things eBay sells. So that would be problematic from the get-go. Then their is this pessimistic line of reasoningg.

Either way, it's time to set the tin foil hats down for now.

yeah, sorry, I forgot that the Internet is a series of tubes

will Boing Boing have a fit over MS scanning your iTunes directory? Even if it is to "unlock" your music. When do the DBD protesters arrive at the MS campus?

The Boing-boing entry refers to an essential software list on which I particularly loved the recommendation for the web browser:

'Mozilla Thunderbird. It's just like Evolution, except it's intelligently designed.'

Who cares? Well, some very smart people do. (Of those, Tim Bray himself switching as well.)

Whether you personally know or respect Mark, Tim and Cory, they're being looked to by a huge amount of others for guidance. This isn't a lightly made switch - "oh you know, I have a spare box lying around and I'm going to see how this shiny new OS works out, and then next week I'll go and play with Gentoo, and I've always been meaning to give Solaris a try as well". This is people with a tremendous amount of experience and knowledge, having spent their whole life on Macs, deciding that enough is enough, that the bough has broken, and that they care more about their data than about anything else. They all have a huge following, and their thoughts will reverberate.

Most people who will actually read their thoughts (rather than going for the knee-jerk "no, it's Monday so apple is good!" slashdot reaction that I've seen far too many posters here resort to) will probably be set thinking because of it. And everyone will make up their own minds, and most people will probably decide not to switch, for reasons that for them will be very valid. But you can sure as hell bet that the importance of open data formats and lack of DRM will become more of a talking point in the months to come, and that if Apple doesn't heed this warning, more and more people will come to the same conclusions as Mark, Time and Cory have.

(If you want to get the whole story, I'd read the following articles in this order:

1. Mark Pilgrim: Bye Apple
2. Mark Pilgrim: When the Bough Breaks
3. John Gruber: And Oranges
4. Mark Pilgrim: Juggling Oranges
5. Tim Bray: Time to Switch?
6. Cory Doctorow: Mark Pilgrim's list of Ubuntu essentials for ex-Mac users

Not to be the joke-missing joke-misser or anything, but maybe you've heard of Boing Boing? Either way, extrapolating from two people is dumb.

1992, eh? These people have been active users and developers on Macs since respectively 1983 and 1984.
They have indeed come to the Mac. And now they've gone from it, and you might just want to listen up and find out why.

officer: Where do you live? Where do you live? You have to tell me where you live, what your name is, or anything like that.

tester: For a complaint? I mean, like, if I have --

officer: Are you on medications?

tester: Why would you ask me something like that?

officer: Because you're not answering any of my questions.

tester: Am I on medications?

officer: I asked you. It's a free country. I can ask you that.

tester: Okay, you're right.

officer: So you're not going to tell me who you are, you're not going to tell me what the problem is.You're not going to identify yourself.

tester: All I asked you was, like, how do I contact --

officer: You said you have a complaint. You say my officers are acting in an inappropriate manner.

Look for misspelled items. This relies on 2 simple truths:

1) A lot of sellers either aren't too good at English or aren't too good at proofreading
2) Most searches performed for items on eBay are spelled correctly

If you look for the misspelled items, they'll be the least viewed ones, and hence the ones with the fewest bids, hence having the lowest prices.

This tip stolen from Boing Boing: http://www.boingboing.net/2005/10/16/search_for_ch eap_mis.html

And lets face it, the best articles on /. showed up on Boing Boing two days earlier.

once I purchase a CD I can do whatever I want with the music, which the RIAA wants to prevent

enforce a licensing model of music sales where they can charge you every time you listen to a song