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Richard Stallman Accosted For Tinfoil Hat
ndansmith writes "Bruce Perens posts in his blog about an amusing encounter between Richard Stallman and United Nations security at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis. It seems that RFID technology, which Stallman opposes for privacy reasons, was used in the identification badges for the conference. From the blog: 'You can't give Richard a visible RF ID strip without expecting him to protest. Richard acquired an entire roll of aluminum foil and wore his foil-shielded pass prominently.' During a keynote speech, Stallman also passed around the tinfoil for other to use as well. It seems that UN security was not amused, however, as they would not let him leave the room for some time." What makes this even funnier, of course, is that tin foil hats won't stop them.
They really had no idea who they were dealing with.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Wasn't the whole point of the MIT article that aluminum amplifies and tin degrades signals?
I'm confused... who am I supposed to root for? Stallman or the UN?
;)
Excuse me while I go curl into the fetal position in a corner until I resolve this dilemma.
I am an Army of 1 in 10
But I think this was just a message he was trying to get accross. Now what I wonder is why the security didn't let him leave? OH NOES HE HAS TIN FOIL OVER BADGES!!1 Unless they had something to hide...?
If the holeys in a mesh are half the size of the average wavelength of the radiation, practically none will get through, assuming it is made of the right material. The proper size mesh for RFID technology is left as an excerise for the reader.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
"What makes this even funnier, of course, is that tin foil hats won't stop them."
:P
what are you talking about? Tin foil hats stop everything
Viable Slashdot alternatives: https://pipedot.org/ and http://soylentnews.org/
You deserve what you get if you use aluminum foil. Any conspiracy theorist worth his salary won't accept anything less than genuine tin.
For months as this RFID contraversy has progressed, people on the 'dot have said, "well, you can always block it with a piece of foil if you don't want to be tracked".
Well, guess what? As predicted by a quick examination of human nature, they WON'T let you block your tracking devices. You will not have a choice as to when and where you will be tracked. This is just the very beginning, the closing of the gate, of our World Prison.
Tell me why again we have to have tracking devices embedded on our persons? I seem to have missed the reasoning. Terrorism?
Exactly. The story does NOT say "Richard Stallman Accosted For Tinfoil Hat". It says he wrapped his RFID card in aluminum foil, which is 100% effective in preventing reading the card without the card carrier's knowledge. The story also says that Mr. Stallman willingly took off the foil at checkpoints.
The guy has balls and he'll make a stand against what he believes in no matter how it looks. Sure, the tinfoil hat doesn't actually work, but it's a visible symbol that cannot be ignored. Without people like him making a visible protest on a forum that so many high-level people will notice, protests against tracking technologies are just pissing into the wind.
Rock on Richard.
Not at all. The "major purpose" of Bit Torrent is to transfer large files efficiently. Bram Cohen intended that to be used for entirely legal purposes such as Linux distributions. The fact that, like most tools, it had wider application is completely irrelevant. You can break into someone's home with a screwdriver ... that doesn't make a screwdriver inherently evil.
Bit Torrent and similar technologies simply give individuals more power. Yes, more power to do things that some organizations would rather they didn't do, but also more power to make their lives better as well. A trade-off, in other words, and one that (for once) is on the side of the many, rather than the few.
Valid complaints about RFID are generally not "RFID rechnology is just inherently evil", but are oriented against governments and/or criminal organizations that would use it to hurt people. Yes, there are many legitimate benefits conferred by RFID tech, but those must be balanced against the potential for people to get hurt by them. Thoughtless dissemination of RFID technology (such as the U.S. State Department was all set to do with passports) will cause a lot more damage than it is worth.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Are you sure it was the tinfoil?
I mean, if I was a security guy and got confronted by thisthis, I would be pretty nervous too!
Whatever happened to being polite when visiting somebody?
Whatever happened to being polite to one's guests?
RMS was right, the UN organizers were wrong. End of story.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
The real story for this conference is the sad irony of having an information summit in Tunis, which violently suppresses freedom of expression.
You can read lots more stories here. I'm pretty surprised the freedom-loving editors at slashdot didn't pick this up as a separate story, it's much more important than Stallman's RFID-tinfoil stunt.
- "When you want something with all your heart, the entire universe conspires to give it to you" -Paulo Coelho
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
By definition, it doesn't work if you play by their rules. If he'd just chosen not to show up, nobody would care. Doing this, however, caused enough of a commotion that we're now reading about it on Slashdot. This is exactly what RMS WANTED to happen!
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Actually, beeing an electrical engineer, I can tell you that aluminum or tin would be an equally effective shield for RFID or any other frequency in which it is relativly large enough. (Relative to the wavelength used by the transmitting device..in the case of RFID it can use anything from 52 mm to 2398 m. No matter the frequency, encasing an entire object in metal foil will block its RF output as explained loosely below.)
If you wrap any RF transmitting device in tin OR aluminum foil, you are going to completely shield the device and no RF will get in or out because the foil would act as a farady cage.
This is because aluminum conducts electricity just fine, and as RF is composed of electro-magnetet waves, a solid conducting surface will act as a ground (short) and bounce the signal. If there is no way for the signal to escape, it wont.
Any electrically conductive material would have this property. You could (and it has been done many times) make a faraday cage out of aluminum just as easily as steel or tin. Aluminum of course only has about 60 percent of the electrical conductivity of copper so copper (actually silver but obviously too expensive) would be the ideal material, but for weak signals like RFID it is irrelivant and both would work fine.
It's easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
This is exactly what he intended. If they hadn't harassed him, then the story wouldn't be in the news, and nobody would know about it. However, he knew that this would most likely cause some kind of stink, which would generated a news story that gets people talking about the issue. Now we're all here thinking about RFD, just as RMS wanted.
RMS played the UN security like puppets on strings just the same way as terrorists play the administration and congress: they know what the knee-jerk reaction will be and they use it to their advantage.
lead is the only way to go
I used to use a anti-xray film bag for shoplifting, works a treat
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
It is extreamly common for people in authority to use other who have no say to deliver their messages. This is often done with the express purpose of pushing unreasonable requests on people, and creating exactly your feelings on anyone who complains. This is not just in government, but in jobs, and even in families.
How many people have had a review, that included a "wage review", at work where they are told that someone not involved in the meeting, and unaccessable to the employee, is the final decicion on their raise. This was the same thing.
So basically you are wrong. In most situations, being a jerk to the innocent guys just trying to do their job is the only way to get things changed. If your job is Henchman, expect to be treated like it.
Ladies and gents: Aluminum foil may not work for head-gear, but it will work just dandy for covering an RFID tag.
;~)
Tag == 100% wrapped.
Head != 100% wrapped (one would hope)
Aluminum foil is conductive. That and complete coverage is all you need for a faraday cage.
There are like 30 posts already that act like it won't work: it will. Want to test it? Wrap your walkman in foil and try to listen to FM. Freqs are different for RFID (probably), but it doesn't matter.
Take care not to touch the ant. of the radio to the foil though, or you may actually improve reception
``aluminum amplifies''
So now I know what they were doing with me in that incubator. They were installing an aluminum hat under my skin. Clever. I'll cut it out, though!
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
How is wearing tinfoil around a badge, and removing it when asked, being "a jerk to innocent guys?" Sounds to me like the confrontation is being caused by typical, officious guard behavior. Nor is it clear to me that he didn't protest the badge when it was handed to him--I don't know where you got that from.
If you read Perens' account, you doubtless saw the UN (according to Perens, anyway) broke a promise not to use RFID cards at this year's protest--presumably in response to complaints last year to the "head of security" or some such. The options are presumably complain again, boycott the conference, or do some sort of symbolic protest. Boycotting in a hissy fit would be acting like a jack ass; complaining has proven to be useless; he chose the last option.
I'm definitely not a Stallman fan (my impression of him is summed up by joking about killing an anti-Free Software spokesmen, then needing to explain to Perens that "he wouldn't really kill anyone.") But this two-bit protest became an issue because guards felt their manhood was being challenged.
Stallman wanted to make a point, not actually stop the signal.
To him, the message was more important than what it actually did.
People more immediately understood the significance of wrapping it in tin foil than anything else.
// file: mice.h
#include "frickin_lasers.h"
You don't seem to understand that the Free Software movement is a sociopolitical movement that cares more about freedom than about mainstream popularity. Strange concept in this day and age right?
I respect RMS because he has never waivered from his ideals, even though people running "Linux", think he's a crazy person. He doesn't let fear of perception goad him into giving over his integrity. He and the FSF are not just trying to become popular, they're trying to protect your freedom and mine.
IMO idealistic integrity is in too short supply in the world these days.
So, it's great that you like "Linux", but remember that without RMS and the FSF and their allies, your "Linux" would not exist.
Linux is mainstream. Mainstream does not mean number-one; mainstream means widely-used.
The ideals of FOSS are far more important than the perceptions of any corporation about it. To quote a saying: "If you are willing to become evil in order to fight evil, why are you fighting it ?"
If you are willing to give up everything that FOSS stands for in order to get it accepted as "mainstream", why do you even bother - it won't be Free or Open anymore then, so you can just use the proprietary products and save yourself the bother.
There is nothing childish or immature in demonstrating your viewpoint. No matter how much powers-that-be try to make you think so, playing by their rules and silently accepting defeat instead of using your brains to make a scene that gets everyones attention is not a sign of maturity; it is a sign of weakness and/or stupidity.
Had Stallman played by their rules and simply refused to attend, or perhaps been given a special no-RFID ID card, they would have won; there would be no article here, no fuss risen over the use of RFID. Instead, Stallman played his own game, and drew attention to this issue. Stallman used his brains, and put up an effective fight; nothing immature in that.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
RMS played the UN security like puppets on strings just the same way as terrorists play the administration and congress: they know what the knee-jerk reaction will be and they use it to their advantage.
With the small but important difference that RMS did not harm or kill anyone. Makes it easy to sympathize with him and his cause, which is not possible with terrorists.
Stallman did something completely appropriate. It made a point. It made a valid point. It made the point effectively by attracting attention and publicity. It did not hurt anybody. It caused the barest minimum of disruption and inconvenience.
It has probably brought the matter to the attention of U.N. officials who honestly didn't know or understand the problems with RFID, and regardless of their visible behavior I am sure that it educated the security people as well. I don't know whether this in itself will change policy, but I'd bet a nickel that behind the scenes there have been some discussions and briefings.
Now, the U.N. security people did as close to the right thing as you can imagine them doing. You can't expect them to make an instant technical analysis of the situation. The facts they were presented with were: a) the badges are being used for security, to make sure that only authorized people attend; b) Stallman was conspiciously doing something or other with the badges; c) they had no way of knowing whether it was any kind of security threat, but at least the possibility existed. Screwing around with a security pass is suspicious, even if you don't know what exactly to suspect, and even if in this case it was innocent.
They didn't arrest him. They didn't beat him up. They created the barest minimum of disruption and inconvenience to Stallman and to the meeting.
I say Stallman was effective, on a matter that has some real society importance. And I say the security guards' response was measured and sensible.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
That was in 1997. STFU until you pay your debts, deadbeat.
mentioning the child rapes
Seriously, STFU.
Most infamous of which is the gang rape of a japanese schoolgirl in the 90's, which so outraged the population that the base is being relocated.
You can't take the sky from me...
It saddens me that so many here don't seem to understand a simple but very important concept behind Stallmans protest. It was a catch-phrase in the '60s. I was born in the '70s, but I guess I'm lucky that it was effectively taught to me.
I wish I could make this huge:
QUESTION AUTHORITY!
That is all RMS was doing. And when he did put the question to them we saw their reaction. It scares me, the number of people who think the UN's reaction was appropriate.
"It's because they're stupid, that's why. That's why everybody does everything." -Homer Simpson
What if you're doing something morally right, but illegal, or socially unpopular?
I mod down anyone who says "I will be modded down for this", regardless of the rest of their comment
Every other rich country pays a little bit more than its fair share to compensate for countries in civil war or deep economic crisis. Japan for instance is paying 19% of the budget for less than 10% of the global GDP, Gernany 8% of the budget for less than 5% of the global GDP and so on. So with 24% of the budget for 21.17% of the global GDP, the U.S. contribution seen as a share of its GDP is already the lowest of all developped countries: in raw dollars, the U.S. assessments of $440,000,000 is 0.0037% of its GDP when Japan for instance pays $346,000,000 i.e. 0.0092% of its GDP. So you personally are contributing almost 3 time less of your annual incomes to the U.N. than a japanese or me in Europe. What about "everyone except the US has already paid its (proportionaly larger) share"?
If the U.S. was at least paying 21.17% of the budget instead of 24%, the complaints would not be so loud. The problem is that the U.S. has not even paid half its commitments for 2004, and not even 15% of its due for 2005 (that is less than 4% of the U.N. budget). In contrast, every other major contributor has already fully paid 2004 and 2005.
If you aggregate the effective payements made on the last 12 months, the U.S. is only the 6th contributor to the U.N. budget, behind Italy (2.89% of the world GDP)!
Here are the hard and daunting data (remember you asked for it):
http://www.globalpolicy.org/finance/tables/reg-bu
Why do you think U.S. officials always speak of the assessments (never the payments)?