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Unlike the story at K5 somehow the posters don't seem to be able to bring a message of respect. Ah well, it's only Slashdot. I guess the little cross on the top right of the window should stop the melancholy...

Hemos took a lot of liberty with my submission including changing the title as well as cutting of some technical analysis at the end of my submission.

You might want to try Kuro5hin instead, or in addition, next time. We welcome technical analysis and such. :)

Note that the French court was not banning the Yahoo pages in question for all internet users, just French users. This is perfectly within the jurisdiction of national courts; in this sense Internet is not any more special than other media, such as the TV, radio, or newspapers. There would be no big outcry if French courts would forbid the New York Times, for instance, from publishing such material in France -- even though the New York Times is based in the US (for New Yorkers: that includes the area outside city limits).

I think the problem people have with the ruling (apart from the usual reflexive furriner-bashing in any US-vs-Europe story), is that it is a lot easier for a newspaper to enforce a publishing ban in a given country ( just don't , to quote Nike), than it is for a dot com company, given the technical structure of the internet.

Note that the French court was not banning the Yahoo pages in question for all internet users, just French users. This is perfectly within the jurisdiction of national courts; in this sense Internet is not any more special than other media, such as the TV, radio, or newspapers. There would be no big outcry if French courts would forbid the New York Times, for instance, from publishing such material in France -- even though the New York Times is based in the US (for New Yorkers: that includes the area outside city limits).

I think the problem people have with the ruling (apart from the usual reflexive furriner-bashing in any US-vs-Europe story), is that it is a lot easier for a newspaper to enforce a publishing ban in a given country ( just don't , to quote Nike), than it is for a dot com company, given the technical structure of the internet.

You might like to read the original article (in Polish) http://www.computerworld.pl/wiadomosci/archiwum/3/ 1/3146.asp, plus the kuro5hin story that this story was taken from originally.

• .pro: Professionals? Protractors? Pronunciation guides? Pronouns? What the hell is this for?
• .museum: Are museums a major portion of the net? I can't recall ever, in my life, having looked at a museum website. Now they get their own TLD? Coming next year: .photo-kiosk and .larrys-truck-repair!
• .aero: Let's see... "boeing.aero", "airbus.aero"... ummm, yeah that's about it. Way to expand the scope of the net.
• .coop: One URL: "chicken.coop". That's all I have to say on this one.
• .name: So who gets to own "bob.smith.name"? This one'll be a barrel of litigious fun.
• .info: Having chosen one (relatively) good tld, and eight that are way too specific, ICANN must have thrown this one in so that the "way too general" lobby was placated. I mean, think for a minute here. Everything on the net is "info". It's an information medium. Look at the application for this one; the same people also proposed ".web" and ".site". We're playing with the mental giants now, folks.

ICANN, once again, has demonstrated that it is just dumb. So I'll close with a plea for you to support OpenNIC. We already have the means and the motive to just ignore ICANN and improve the DNS heirarchy ourselves. Won't you please help?

According to the K5 article, Stirling advocated the implementation of laws requiring that ID-tags be affixed to data transversing the Freenet.

"I propose a law requiring a transparent tag showing origin and history on any file on any server, and that the file be immediately accessible on request. The authorities should develop and send out a "sniffer" intelligent agent program to detect files not meeting these criteria. Immediately shut down any server/node that doesn't reply properly. With really... severe... penalties for anyone owning hardware harboring pirate files. Sufficient to make them take elaborate precautions not to do so."

Furthermore,

Stirling claims that he talked to the FBI, who told him that they have the ability to penetrate Freenet's anonymity. I suspect that either they were (a) blowing happy smoke Stirling's way, or (b) they were thinking of Carnivore catching the evil copyright violator's insertion at the ISP, before it actually enters the Freenet.

To some extent, I can empathize with Stirling's fears as an author -- I wouldn't necessarily want someone to reproduce my copyrighted works with impunity and scatter to texts to the winds. However, I find Stirling's "draconian" (to use his own words) reaction unsettling.

I'm wondering about the possibility of Stirling's proposed restrictions to Freenet. Are such measures feasible (legally and technologically)?

Sincerely,
Vergil

infoAnarchy reports on the many, many alternatives to Scour & Napster, be it distributed or centralized. It uses the K5 site engine, meaning anyone can submit stories and moderate submissions.

In our Resources section, you can get an overview of the many available file sharing tools. Here's the ones I would recommend:

• One of the best alternative feature-wise is Filetopia (its userbase is relatively small).
• And for MP3s, Songspy is quite powerful.
• If you like Napster, get Napigator. It allows you to connect to OpenNap servers where any file type can be shared (and which are not concerned by any changes in Napster's business model).
• A good alternative to the Windows Napster client is FileNavigator.
• Recently reborn: CuteMX, has a lot of features but requires IE.
• Somewhat closer to Gnutella, with distributed servers: DirectConnect
• Distributed, anonymous, encrypted: Blocks

But again, please come visit us at iA to find out about the best new tools. We know our stuff.

File sharing will never die.

--

On a post elsewhere Lucas, the author of the article, mentions that Co-Op is probably the wrong word, but he couldn't think of another one.

This company, Spindletop, will be dealing with equipment, not food, so they won't be 'supporting' anyone. And from what I understand, the only paid positions are like bookkeeping, and other grunt work that even volunteers won't do.

That is just my understanding, feel free to ask them yourself.

I've seen a few people complain that they can't view the article because of the slashdot effect.

We have a copy of the article posted by Lucas on Kuro5hin, complete with everything you need :-)

Happy to help. Have a nice day.
--

I was wondering what happened when the router lit up like a Christmas tree!

The full article is here.

Slashdot has run this article before. When you experience 'deja vu', it is a glitch that means they changed something in The Matrix (The Matrix was obviously a closed source project). Just don't complain and enjoy it in blissful ignorance, or exit The Matrix and eat mush over at k5.

(no offense, I love k5)

Mike

Kuro5hin already has an open submission queue. Go there if you want that.

Wouldn't it be boring if Slashdot and Kuro5hin were exactly the same?

- Joe

I'd love to be able to go through the submitted stories and see if I'm sending in a repeat. But I can't!

Umm in this case, the repeat story was posted two months ago (Sep 22). So the author could have (and in fact should have) checked the archives to see if it had already been posted.

I think the abuse to which FAQ refers is not a matter of low quality stories, it's a matter of spammers clogging up the submission queue with penisbirds becuase they know all of slashdot is going to read it (and not just Taco, etc.).

...and for the last time (I wish): if you want moderated submissions, go to K5!

So you wish you had mod points right now. How would you like to have mod points all the time? Look at Kuro5hin. Every logged-in user can rate every comment between Score=1 and Score=5. In systems like Half-empty's Glasscode and Everything, every user can rate every comment +1 or -1 (like on Slashdot).

And that's how it should be. :)

Letting people defend their own IP sounds like a good idea in theory, but I wonder about how practical it would be. For example, the only way to prevent people from recording a piece of music would be to lock down the music player all the way to the speakers, which is totally unreasonable, not to mention something that Slashdotters frequently speak out against. You can bet that you would not be allowed to play that music on Linux. After all, redirecting /dev/dsp to a raw WAV file is hardly a challenge.

It's sort of like Libertarianism. I like the idea, but there's no way in hell that it will work in practice. (see this comment for my take on that.)

..but being against pubic government protection...

I certainly don't want the goverment to have anything to do with my pubic area, either. :)

------

Kuro5hin had a story about this on Nov. 1. Here .

I really wish Slashdot would start moderation on articles too

You really wish you were looking at Kuro5hin. All logged-in users are always moderators at all times, and all logged-in users can vote +1 or -1 (remind you of [e2]?) on story submissions in the public queue.

If you're seeking more WOW from the real and original Signal11, he found the bulk comment here poisoned by fascist management, so now inhabits Kuro5hin instead.

(plus Kuro5hin readers wisely voted this story section only, probably where it belongs)

--Robert

Posters will have to take that up with Google, if they have a problem with it. It's nothing to do with me.

Your 'contract' is invalid because it is factually incorrect.

How so?

Besides which, what's your point? It's posted to a public forum and now it's in the publc domain.

So, I can go to Salon and take any article posted there because it's posted on the web? That's "posted to a public forum" just as much as any K5 comment is. It's text, which is available on the web, and under copyright. If my copyright notice is invalid, then so is theirs. That's absurd, and any lawyer would tell you so.

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There is no K5 cabal.

wow, you can regurgitate content.

fo llow this link for cross-postational goodness, evidence, and a reply.

I'm not sure why you think Gore is a champion of the people, afterall Bush says "unity" just as often.

Nader doesn't have a chance not because of two party monopoly, but because his platform is one that few Americans support.

So it's not because people haven't heard his platform, it's because they don't support it. riiiight.

--

That's completely untrue. Here is the relevant copyright notice from K5:

So, when you post a comment here, we take that to grant Kuro5hin.org and the entirely fictional Mrs. Edna Graustein, of Kansas City, Mo., the right to display your comment on the page on which it was posted by you. It may also be displayed on other pages within the site, or reachable through searches or other means, but it will always and only be here on kuro5hin, and we have no intention of ever reusing, reprinting, or recreating your comment anywhere else. By posting here, you also grant us the right to remove your comment if we choose not to want it here. We do not edit comments, except in extreme cases of comments which include html or other characters that damage the usability of the site. We do remove comments that are inappropriate or offensive to the admins.

You lose no copyright control over your words, and are not beholden to us in any way shape or form.

Kuro5hin.org claims no liability for the accuracy of user's comments, and reserves no ownership of them whatsoever.

Now who to sue, or how, is another matter. I don't think that would be easy. But just because the law is hard to enforce doesn't make it no longer the law. This is the same attitude that makes people think MP3's are "in the public domain" just because they're easy to copy and the laws against it are hard to enforce. It's not true in that case, and it isn't here either.

--
There is no K5 cabal.

That's completely untrue. Here is the relevant copyright notice from K5:

So, when you post a comment here, we take that to grant Kuro5hin.org and the entirely fictional Mrs. Edna Graustein, of Kansas City, Mo., the right to display your comment on the page on which it was posted by you. It may also be displayed on other pages within the site, or reachable through searches or other means, but it will always and only be here on kuro5hin, and we have no intention of ever reusing, reprinting, or recreating your comment anywhere else. By posting here, you also grant us the right to remove your comment if we choose not to want it here. We do not edit comments, except in extreme cases of comments which include html or other characters that damage the usability of the site. We do remove comments that are inappropriate or offensive to the admins.

You lose no copyright control over your words, and are not beholden to us in any way shape or form.

Kuro5hin.org claims no liability for the accuracy of user's comments, and reserves no ownership of them whatsoever.

Now who to sue, or how, is another matter. I don't think that would be easy. But just because the law is hard to enforce doesn't make it no longer the law. This is the same attitude that makes people think MP3's are "in the public domain" just because they're easy to copy and the laws against it are hard to enforce. It's not true in that case, and it isn't here either.

--
There is no K5 cabal.

Plagarism! I've never seen a post so badly plagarized!

For those interested in seeing how this Karma Whore PLAGARIZED this post, please check out these links.

This is the original post on Kuro5hin.

And, this is what the original poster was advised to do.

What out for such blatant Karma-Whoring and Plagarism next time!

Plagarism! I've never seen a post so badly plagarized!

For those interested in seeing how this Karma Whore PLAGARIZED this post, please check out these links.

This is the original post on Kuro5hin.

And, this is what the original poster was advised to do.

What out for such blatant Karma-Whoring and Plagarism next time!

This post by Th3 D0t appears to be a clear cut case of plagarism.

Over at k5, user kennedy made this exact same post.

Given that kennedy's k5 post is time stamped about an hour prior to Th3 D0t's /. post, it seems to me to be a clear case of plagarism. Consider moderating it accordingly.

have a day,

-l

This post by Th3 D0t appears to be a clear cut case of plagarism.

Over at k5, user kennedy made this exact same post.

Given that kennedy's k5 post is time stamped about an hour prior to Th3 D0t's /. post, it seems to me to be a clear case of plagarism. Consider moderating it accordingly.

have a day,

-l

This post by Th3 D0t appears to be a clear cut case of plagarism.

Over at k5, user kennedy made this exact same post.

Given that kennedy's k5 post is time stamped about an hour prior to Th3 D0t's /. post, it seems to me to be a clear case of plagarism. Consider moderating it accordingly.

have a day,

-l

Because you stole this entire story verbatim from a poster on Kur5hin (which he has also mentioned in reply to you). I provide evidence against your pathetic, karma-whoring, plagiaristic ass.

Please note the time on this message (10:02:33 AM CST), and then note the time on the parent (12:06PM CDT).

You didn't even have the decency to change it one bit. If karma means that much to you, at least use your own effort and imagination, don't steal it from someone else.

This is on k5 also. K5

See the same article on Kuro5hin - the responses there make interesting reading as well.
Richy C.
--

Broken links suck, sorry. You can find kuro5hin here.

--

How many people out there with a computer are actually terrorists? How many people have been caught plotting a terrorist activity by the FBI using something like a network sniffer or Carnivore? Pedophiles, on the other, have been caught under certain circumstances. I would love to see pedophiles and terrorist get thrown in jail, but to give up everyone's right to privacy and to make potential criminals out of everybody is not the way to do it. I will NEVER consent to this type of fascist orwellian abuse of power. I will stop surfing the net alltogether should this happen. I know what you're thinking... "yea yea, whatever dude." However, I'm dead serious on this one. I value my freedom and my privacy more than anything and no I don't have anything to hide and I'm no criminal, however I do believe I am entitled to certain rights! On the other hand, I can only stand in horror and dismay at the eroding freedoms in the US. I posted a rant on Kuro5hin called Has the US government become to hungry for power? In this rant I pointed out some abuses by corporations and government both overseas and on the local front. I encourage you to read it.

If the FBI indeed pressured the NZ government to do this then a similar plan is in effect here. I mean we do have carnivore, but to have a backdoor to everyone's PC? That is an Orwellian nightmare! What about fourth amendment protection against searches and seizures? If they can go into your computer at will, the fourth is standing on it's last leg. Wait, civil forfeiture laws already have the fourth amendment on it's last leg. Well, so much for the fourth.

My point here is, if you give the government and inch, it will take a mile. This is an attempt by government to make potential criminals out of it's citizens. If everyone is suspect then the police don't have to justify a warrant. This is the end of your civil liberties buddy! It is sad that governments are using this technology to spy on their own citizens. What is more sad is that you buy into their lie and believe that government is doing this for your protection. It is doing this to have more control under the guise of "protecting the innocent." Sorry, I don't buy this and neither will anyone else with half a brain. Whether we can do anything about it is another story alltogther.

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin

I recently left slashdot, in part over the moderation system. I thought that now that everything is settled and squared, it would be a good time to do a writeup on what group-think is, how FUD works, and how to be persuasive in any crowd. Click on the widget to read my screed.

I'm from Australia, so I can't vote in the election. It is of interest to me, though, because the US goverment is probably as important to Australia as our own (Sad but true).

I tend towards the left side of the centre politically, so there was no way I was really going to be a fan of Harry Browne's political views. After doing some reading in preperation for the K5 interview I was truely shocked at how naive the mans views are, though. I realise that he can afford not to have his idealistic Libertaian views tempered by reality because he isn't goint to win, but I did think he would/should care more about the specific issues rather than the politics.

Take his stance on environmentalism. I'm sure it is nice from the Libertaian political point of view, but from the environmental point of view it sucks, badly. Rather that go into it, read my about it - I got fairly worked up.

He clearly ;has no idea about intellecual property. Suggesting protecting it by saying use encryption make for a good sound-bite, but doesn't address specific issues like patent reform.

I could go on but I won't. All I'll do is say he sounds just like a hundred other politicions. He just echos the same statements over & over. Read his website - you won't find anything new in the K5 interview, because he doesn't want to say anything. Nothing jumps out and makes me think "Now there is a leader".

I'm from Australia, so I can't vote in the election. It is of interest to me, though, because the US goverment is probably as important to Australia as our own (Sad but true).

I tend towards the left side of the centre politically, so there was no way I was really going to be a fan of Harry Browne's political views. After doing some reading in preperation for the K5 interview I was truely shocked at how naive the mans views are, though. I realise that he can afford not to have his idealistic Libertaian views tempered by reality because he isn't goint to win, but I did think he would/should care more about the specific issues rather than the politics.

Take his stance on environmentalism. I'm sure it is nice from the Libertaian political point of view, but from the environmental point of view it sucks, badly. Rather that go into it, read my about it - I got fairly worked up.

He clearly ;has no idea about intellecual property. Suggesting protecting it by saying use encryption make for a good sound-bite, but doesn't address specific issues like patent reform.

I could go on but I won't. All I'll do is say he sounds just like a hundred other politicions. He just echos the same statements over & over. Read his website - you won't find anything new in the K5 interview, because he doesn't want to say anything. Nothing jumps out and makes me think "Now there is a leader".

This is another example of government and it's hunger for power. I am becoming more and more upset day by day. Our freedoms are being eroded away and the average joe has no clue. Those of us who are in the know are a very small group. I posted a rant on this matter on kuro5hin in a post called Has the US government become to hungry for power? Read it and you'll see what I mean.

I believe I will add this to the list of things that governments do to take away legitimate freedoms in the name of the greater good. I can only hope that the supreme court will see this as a free speech issue. The problem here is that non-techie people are making techie decisions about things they don't understand. When will the madness stop?

This is another example of government and it's hunger for power. I am becoming more and more upset day by day. Our freedoms are being eroded away and the average joe has no clue. Those of us who are in the know are a very small group. I posted a rant on this matter on kuro5hin in a post called Has the US government become to hungry for power? Read it and you'll see what I mean.

I believe I will add this to the list of things that governments do to take away legitimate freedoms in the name of the greater good. I can only hope that the supreme court will see this as a free speech issue. The problem here is that non-techie people are making techie decisions about things they don't understand. When will the madness stop?

The articles are in *cough* English...
use the fish, or maybe if can't read English anyway...
--
There is no K5 cabal.

Unlike tangible goods and real property, the nature of IP -- or any form of knowledge -- is to spread."

Looks a lot like "Information wants to be free" to me.. :)

Yes, but then he goes on to say

As far as IP being worthy of being safeguarded, it matters little to me whether or not a week's worth of my labor was spent fashioning a dining room table or writing code -- both consumed part of my life and are fruits of my labor, and I want both to be guarded from those who would take them without my giving me something in exchange.

The (unspoken) implication is that copyright, patents, and other forms of IP are OK, although strictly speaking he did not state that explicitly.

I think he (and a lot of people, both here and elsewhere) need to be educated and made to realize (or at least confront and argue against) the notion that a government mandated and enforced monopoly isn't necessary for IP creators to be fairly compensated and, furthermore, has a stifling impact on the field of endeavor so affected, not to mention the society, culture, and the economy as a whole.

Nevertheless, while Libertarians are split on the question of IP (and he perhaps falls on the wrong side of that debate), he is quite correct in saying that "our first step on the road to freedom is to return to the Constitution as the rule of law for our nation." We can (and must) fix the debacle that is IP, but he argues (perhaps correctly) that getting bogged down in that is putting the cart before the horse.

Although I disagree with his (implied) stance on patents and copyrights, I have been persuaded to vote for Harry Browne over Ralph Nader nevertheless. There is no candidate I agree with on every issue, but I agree with Harry Browne's agenda on far more points than I do with any other candidate.

(And yes, as someone who was going to vote for Ralph Nader based on his stance WRT corporate and special interests influencing government, I have had my mind changed. This happens from time to time, if one's mind is truly open.)

why do people like you have to waste bandwidth complaining about moderation?!?! I laugh that you even bother believing that slashdot has moderation. If you want moderation, come here. As for manners.. I have no respect for slashdot stories anymore, so i'll write like i damn well please thankyou.

Agreed hopefully eiter freenet or something like it will provide some basic fuctionallity. I would like to see distributed anonymous p2p emoney

Chinese officials are good about looking the other way when it comes to IP, especially if it is to the benefit of China. In any other country, whether this idea ultimately ends up being on the level or not, there would be a restraining order against the manufacture of these devices so fast that a small flotilla of Navy ships would have the shipment stopped in the middle of the Pacific.
--
There is no K5 cabal.

Speaking of Harry Browne...there's a round table with him going on at kuro5hin all week; he's got an account and he's answering questions. Seriously.

Speaking of Harry Browne...there's a round table with him going on at kuro5hin all week; he's got an account and he's answering questions. Seriously.

Unfortunately, Kuro5hin isn't setup very well for looking at the parents of his comments - it shows you all the other comments at the same "level" in the heirarchy. And for the top level, that takes a long time to load for this story.

These personal firewall systems are really starting to piss me off. Now millions of instant "security experts" can shriek every fucking time they get a ping. At home, you'll know you've been r00ted when mysterious traffic starts showing up on your modem or router. Sure, you've noticed someone scanned you, but WTF do you do after that? Send a complaint to the netblock maintainer? Hah, like they care what someone from their thousands of systems ran a portscan on someone in 24.x.x.x!

At work, your firewall *should* be good enough. Reporting abuses of your network to the maintainer of that netblock may actually produce some results. You *should* have some qualification (read: you know what you're talking about), be able to speak that person's lingo, and *should* have some well documented log excerpts to show a clear pattern of abuse, not some untraceable and/or forgivable indiscretions.

That's my $0.02.
--
There is no K5 cabal.