Slashdot Mirror

Well here in France we're already experimenting with the idea: this guy was home-jailed based solely on his Google search history. Best part is, no judge was involved, no hearing was done, not even a single formal accusation levied, it all happened on the Police's sole authority and discretion, by demanding his search history from Google (they complied) and then issuing an administrative order.

This guy was actually documenting possible work-related health hazards.

But an embarrassed agency appealed..

Actually, no. The agency acted responsibly, it did NOT appeal the decision and further embarrass itself. Instead, it was the Parquet de Justice (think of it as an equivalent of US General Attorney) who seized the affair and appealed in their place, and in the end got Laurelli sentenced for whatever reason they could muster at the time.

This is very much a case of blunt, direct censorship attempt through usurpation of judicial authority by some executive administration.

Put this in context by considering that France is responsible for a whopping 87% of all tweet removal demands that Twitter receives. That's a lot more than all other countries combined generate, even including Russia and China.

The official republic electronic voting system (reserved for consulate registered voters so far) has never been breached (that is known of).

First that system belongs to Scytl, a Spanish company so the government has little control over it. Second it has been breached:

• * First it had an SQL Injection vulnerability in the online support page (handled by Atos). The person who reported this wisely did not further exploit it to see which other systems this would give him access to.
• * Then there is this paper shows it's easy to change the Java client so it modifies the user's vote before submitting it. There is also a video and a recipe for exploiting this on a large scale.
• * Finally it has been shown that in the second round it was possible to vote for a candidate that had been eliminated during the first round! While voting for an eliminated candidate is not very useful, it did show up in the election result. Also it may open the door to voting for candidates from every other districts. Unfortunately that voter was again not reckless enough to attempt it and blog about the result.

Some other reminders: voting required using a very specific version of Java that Sun made obsolete just days before the election; on Mac OS X one had to register as an Apple developper to get the right version of Java; the applet would happily send your vote over http rather than https (that's a 'feature'); passwords were sent late or lost with no second chance.

So we have a wide range of mess ups and weaknesses and the only proof we have that the vote was not hacked is that the government says so. You trust the government right? They would not have any incentive to hide embarrassing information, right? And a computer hack always leaves obvious traces that point right at the author, right? If you're not sure about any of these claims then you cannot be sure that vote was not hacked.

Google Analytics are blocked too: http://www.numerama.com/magazine/24672-free-ne-bloque-pas-que-la-publicite.html (in french, Free only operates in France)

According to this article (in french), the Member of the European Parliament in charge of the ratification process of ACTA, Mr Kader Arif, just resigned his position, saying that the whole process is just an anti-democratic farce.

The info about the 60 people at 3rd signaling is a week old. Latest news is that François Hollande, a Socialist (main opposition party) primary candidate leading the polls, has announced in a film industry lobby meeting that he will keep the HADOPI including the repressive part, just "adapting" it. That's contrary to his party programme and we will see how that fares in the primary and later.

Well, here in France, the "open-office firewall" is becoming a real meme. And here is the source: http://www.numerama.com/magazine/12508-albanel-le-ministere-de-la-culture-a-comme-pare-feu-open-office-maj.html You can even see the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph6ZeEDnFmc Both links are in French, but Google Translate will help you :) To be fair, it's been 1 year since this ministry has been replaced, but it is unsure the one in place knows any better about IT.

Any time I realize that
every thought I have
every sentence I write, every character I type
every mouseover, every click I do
everything I purchase or ever purchased
everything I ever put in my shopping bag
every cent on my bank account
any flu or cold I ever had
any travel or booking of mine, any place I've ever been
any people I have met or ever spoken to
any planning or calendar event I have
any subject I search and everything I ever searched
any email I read or write
any image and video I store or watch
any document I create, open or modify
the contents of any file I ever owned
any tiny little action I do
any dream I ever had
any breath I take:
        can all be dutifully registered,
        relatively easy to capture and store forever
        geotagged with my name and full identity,
        which in turn can be connected to a folder
        containing everything else I ever did in my all life
                and that all is linked
                and that people sees things just black or white
                and sues, fights, destroys lives, loses jobs, starts wars for just one single wrong word
                or for one thing it wants
                otherwise just tries to take profit of it all
                or abuse of it all.

Any time I realize that
        all my dreams have been stolen
        all my innermost feelings
        and emotions
        are not mine anymore
        but lost in a virtual sea
        of spying corporations
        or governments
        or unknown people
        and marketing departments.
That if I want to live
        in this world
        there is little or no places left
        to escape.
And the kids of today
        stuck
        into their golden electronic cage
        will never have a chance
        to dream
        and what's worse
        will never even notice
        what they've missed

Any time I realize that
        sadly
        I am a number.
        I am not free.
        Nobody is.

You bet I'd tend to get into anti social behavior. Or be just slightly upset..

Look at France (then learn french if needed)

This new legislation may also be declared unconstitutional.

This time they try with a special court consisting of one judge to decide cases. The judge may not hear the parties involved, but is only allowed to give his decision solely based on a report from the new state antipiracy office. He is supposed to work expediently and not use more than 45 minutes per case.

Also language has been changed in the new law text possibly making it legal to eavesdrop private communications like email for antipiracy purposes.

The law text passed the senate wednesday, and is expected to pass the national assembly soon.

Links in french: Numerama Le Monde