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Fair Use Computer Game
mpawlo writes "As reported by Greplaw, The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) together with Privacyactivism has released an interactive video game designed to
educate players about their privacy and fair use rights. The game is focused on digital rights management technologies, online spyware, and data profiling servers. We have seen similar games in Sweden from the Anti-piracy Bureau and Flash movies from BSA in the US, however striking a different tune. Play Carabella." Cute idea.
Too bad the 'game' didn't really give me any background info.
"I might have infringed copyrights." What if I did?
Are they coming to get me now?
This "game" seems all too reminiscent of the kind of "edutainment" that the War on Drugs has been pumping out. If parents want their children to love liberty, then they should teach them about it when the children are old enough to understand. Trying to brainwash them with video games will work until they're 15, at which point they'll run away from home, become pot-addicted prostitutes, and join the Christian Coalition.
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
Okay, so I'm bored and on lunch break, so I played the game. Seems there's no way to get 100%. Is there? Unless she steals the import CD, of course... but that's not an option. It's just a way to promo their efforts to get people behind their cause... Yet, no one in real life will score "100%" either because there is always going to be a cost, unless you download from a P2P system. Of course, then you get copyright infringement issues. The real option should have been, buy the cheaper CD, then d/l the songs you then own. You've paid for use of the music, so use it. Or, maybe, download a ripper that recognizes and overwrites the copy-protection bit. ;)
Never attribute to Hanlon that which can be adequately attributed to Heinlein.
Of course, you mean 'Copy-protected' CDs. Non-copyrighted (public domain) CDs are probably not selled in retail stores. :)
That's about the extent of the game.
Why not just send out a press release?
Perhaps. But then, the algorithm used in Civilizations, SimCity or other highly-addictive games (except for Nethack) could probably boil down to a few bullet lists as well.
The point of a game is the experience that made the player identify with the protagonist -- a press release would be a highly ineffective way to accomplish that.
This is a good thing for those people who are not aware of what is going on out there in the digital world in America. It might just shine some needed light on it. The only problem is that nobody but geeks will probably see this and the crimes of the politicians that are screwing the American people of their Privacy and other Online rights goes unnoticed until something major happens and it's far to late. A crying shame actually.
The Uber
http://www.tulg.org/
http://devurandom.livejournal.com/
So, I go to the site.
Play the game
It tells me I should surf anonymously.
I try the privacy.net page to see what I leave behind.
I go to the recommended www.anonymizer.com.
Put in the privicy.net page to check what they really do:
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This Page is available with an Aonymizer subscription
WHY IS THE PAGE UNAVAILABLE
The Anonymizer Free Trial version restricts access to some web sites in order to keep the service working quickly and efficiently, without overloading.
Sites most often restricted include gaming, casino, adult, career, and web email sites. Other sites may be restricted at random as well.
Our Full Version premium service DOES NOT restrict access to any pages, costs less than $5 per month, and has many more features than the free version. Sign up now!
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So, in order to check out what they are trying to sell me, I need to subscribe?
On to the next (rewebber):
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WELCOME TO REWEBBER!
You are a registered user of our regular service? Please press the button
You do not have a valid Rewebber account yet? We are very pleased about your interest and give you the option to test our service for free.
Please register for your test account
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Registering REQUIRES an email account that they will send a testing password to (sure, mail accounts are easy to come by, but it is kind of a bother to just have a look at the results.
NEXT: http://www.multiproxy.org
No Data. This is a site that appears to exist to sell ads to you in the most annoying way they can. It's a freeware thing you load and appears to - damn, another ad floated in and blocked that part of the page.
Next: www.inetprivacy.com
35 bucks. Although it says you can download from a broken link.
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Overall, pretty bad results from the EFF recommended way of surfing without leaving a trail.
Spackler
PS: I ran these from IE (hence the floating ads that I had not seen in a while). Man, this is how people surfed before Mozilla?
So if I choose Limewire, there is no privacy issues? Audio Galaxy is -25 in score and Kazaa is -40.
The last time I saw Limewire, it was the most spyware infested software I have ever but maybe that has changed?
The end text mentions loss of privacy when using AudioGalaxy and Kazaa, but not Limewire? So what am I missing here. Has Limewire cleaned up their act? Or are their spying just not as bad as the others?
my sig
So, the game links to a site http://www.multiproxy.org/ which seems to me to have ad's for that infernal Bonzi buddy, a spyware program. :)
The site contains a list of open proxies that you can use to anonymize your surfing.
it seems to me that the list is made from a scan and in the end the page reads:
"Disclaimer: this list is provided for information purposes only. Use it on your own risk. Legally you need to ask a permission to use any of the proxy servers in this list. I shall not be responsible for any damages of any kind arising out of use of these servers and the list itself."
So, I know that we could start a discussion about people not securing their proxies have really asked for it. But still I think that these things it does not really give the game a lot of credibility. But maybe that's just me.
my sig
The game addressed this. The problem encountered by the character was that the music she was looking for wasn't available on the "legit" online sites because the major lable involved wasn't licensing there. There was one subscription service that had it, but only in a proprietary format. One of the goals was to get it in a format that could be played on any of her regular music devices (mp3 player, computer CD-ROM, burned to a mix CD for the car, etc.).
The scenarios are a bit manufactured... they deliberately choose the worst of all worlds to make their point (copy-protected CD only available online in a proprietary format). But if the RIAA gets their way, that'll be the only possible world, so it's a point that needs making.