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File Sharing — Harmful to Children and a Threat to National Security
jkrobin writes to mention that a recent report from the US Patent office calls peer-to-peer file sharing harmful to children and a threat to national security. "Interestingly, the report makes numerous references to RIAA and MPAA legal actions against file actions, as well as cites a 2005 Department of Homeland Security report that government workers had installed file-sharing programs that accessed classified information without their knowledge."
Software patents are harmful to the US economy and the whole of humanity.
<sarcasm>You go USPTO!!!</sarcasm>
Stop the INSANITY!
This is getting just stupid.
We live in a MEDIA driven State of Fear.
oh please wont someone think of the children
OMG think of the children the terrorists have won WTF
This idea was invented by Shampoo.
It's good to know that RIAA and MPAA are willing to expend so much energy and money to educate our public officials. After all, we wouldn't want any extra freedoms to slip under the door.
So we have a GOOD reason, for once, to comment without reading the article.
we will end no whine before its time
The ordinary pencil is, in our modern America, a flagrant excess that cannot be tolerated. Pencils can be used to copy national secrets from one piece of paper to another, and leave no identifying marks of any kind on the documents that have been copied. Their sharp ends can be used to gouge; children can inflict grevious rubber burns upon one another using the rubber end. Perhaps most shocking of all, the pencil graphite is conductive and could be used in any number of explosive devices where conductive elements are required.
The Pencil manufacturing concerns of America, however, are resolved to work with the U.S. government to mitigate this crisis. Henceforth, all pencil purchases are tracked with a unique REAL ID-coordinated identifier. Authorized use of pencils will require a tiny microchip implanted under the skin of the right hand. A left-handed version of the chip is expected to be available before 2020--until then, pencil-using left-handed Americans will have to make the sacrifice of writing less legibly until the chip is available.
Wow, I'm really bored today.
So they busted out the old terrorist chesnut and "Think of the children?" All they needed was to add something about immorality (implying Christian morality), and they would have had a perfect score.
[snip]
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
It's two-- two-- two scare tactics in one!
"Oh boy! Are we going to try something dangerous?"
It sounds like the network administrators in said "governmental offices" should take the precautions neccessary to police the bandwidth. Furthermore, any environment in which said p2p applications are capable of leaking any private information need to be under closer scrutiny.
Don't blame the p2p networks for the actions and negligence of those in control of their own computer infrastructure.
A decade ago, the idea that copyright infringement could become a threat to national security would have seemed implausible. Now, it is a sad reality.Since when is copyright infringement, and not massively-propagating worms and keyloggers, the problem for national security. The latter causes FAR more breeches of personal identity information and credentials.
for sale
I'm a self-modifying sig virus
The threat to national security is not the file sharing software it's the asshats who have access to classifed documents,who are installing Kazaa on their government owned work computers. You could just as likely leave a few thumbdrives with trojans sitting around where these guys have lunch.
We are all just people.
"""
as well as cites a 2005 Department of Homeland Security report that government workers had installed file-sharing programs that accessed classified information without their knowledge.
"""
I don't think this is the fault of file-sharing programs. It's more the profound stupidity of the government worker. I mean seriously, making info public when secret docs are lying around!?!? Perhaps the government should work more on enforcing existing policies instead of putting the blame (falsely) elsewhere.
> Wow, I'm really bored today.
;-)
If you produce that level of satire as a result, please be bored more often
"2005 Department of Homeland Security report that government workers had installed file-sharing programs that accessed classified information without their knowledge"
Applications must be thoroughly reviewed and only installed per authorized usage on secured systems. Somebody needs to be fired over this.
Jim
Also may cause dizziness, insomnia, psoraisis, and the Creeping Crimean Crud.
The cause of the fall of the Roman Empire? File sharing.
JFK's assassins? File sharers.
Besides, file sharing isn't mentioned in the Bible, so it must be forbidden by God.
"Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." -- Eric Hoffer
The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
Oh, and while we're at it, Wolf! Woooooooooooooolf!
How ya like dat?
Recently, Paper has also been called into question.
If you take a heavy-stock piece of high quality paper, fold it into quarters, grasp the edges, and slam your arm down to force air through the middle flap, you can create a sound that will stop an airport in its tracks.
The Etch-A-Sketch brand has been revived and is being offered as a paper-replacement tool, but Microsoft has expressed doubt that the One Etch-a-Sketch Per Child program will work.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
"Department of Homeland Security report that government workers had installed file-sharing programs that accessed classified information without their knowledge."
How about changing the title to: Human Stupidity-a Threat to National Security?
They say that file sharing is a "threat to our children", but did you read WHY?
So... it's file sharing's fault that the RIAA looks like profiteering litigious bastards for suing a dozen teenage kids. Somehow, file sharing made them do it
I can't believe I just read that.
gah.
I'm moving to the Czech Republic or something.
Stew
There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don't.
What do they have to do with this? Get back to rubber-stamping that patent on the two-dimensional pointer array. Go now, before congress yells at you for not rubber-stamping enough!
So the "harmful to children" line is completely bogus. LOTS of stuff is harmful to children. That is why parents have to take some responsibility to protect their kids. ... Oh, think of the children. Yes, think just how terrible it will be to grow up under information tyranny.
The second line is much most interesting. p2p really IS a threat to the nation state system. More generally, free information exchange will erode the power of the state significantly. Lots of people all freely sharing information will mean the whole concept of countries starts to break down. If everyone can get all the information they need from anywhere across the globe and across borders, why do we need those borders still? To protect the physical resources? Hardly. Information is the last (latest) great resource humanity has stumbled upon and now people are making Googles of money doling it out, just like the oil barons, and other folks who have controlled major resources in the past.
The really cool thing about information is that you don't loose it when you copy it, so there CAN NEVER be scarcity of information (at least long term) UNLESS the laws and the state artificially support systems to create information scarcity. WHY WOULD HUMANS CHOOSE THAT? Quite simply, they won't, when they fully understand the choice. p2p works directly against the idea that information should be artificially maintained as a scarce resource by laws, and hence, it gives the 'ole thhhhbbbtbtbtbt to the nation state and the lynch pins of it's power and ability to control the people.
Life is a such beautiful thing. It unfolds exactly as it should. This is good.
- Windows XP SP2 - $83
- Mac Tiger OSX - $129
- Half life 2 - $29.99
- 20Gb of music - ~$2000
- Getting all of the above with p2p - Free
- Murdering children and bringing to a halt the fabric of modern society - Priceless
- ?????
- Profit!
For this and everything else, there's Bittorrentfor sale
I'm a self-modifying sig virus
Which is to say that, of course, music and movies depicting or narrating gangbangers pimping hoes, killing rivals/cops/etc, and committing various other crimes are not harmful to children.
Hmmm... well at least their glass houses get a lot of light.
Maybe I am, but if by the time I was 12 it'was as easy as today to download full pr0n movies, I would surely have missed some things good.
...are merely bogus with repetitive loops of non-classified material.
In fact, when a classified document becomes particularly popular, the CIA floods the network with bogus info and entire documents of redacted text.
What it is really saying is how stupid those who are promoting it really are.
Or maybe they are just being deceptive, mostly to themselves.
Guess what, I just shared a file... the one this message is contained in.
what method of sharing has nothing to do with any arguement.
I've recently used FTP to download, http to download, even ssh to edit my own site which is sharing files eveytime someone access it.
I have also used bittorrent recently to download dynebolic and other linux distros as well as watched and saved some videos from youtube.
I've sent some CDs (linux) to friends, etc...
So My question is when are we going to take the computers away from those who preceive them and their use to be bad? And lets niot for get about their cars too.....
Wouldn't it be better to say:
"Government Employees - A Threat to Children and National Security"
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
For the Federal Government, this threat became manifest during 2005, when the Department of Homeland Security warned all Federal Agencies that government employees or contractors who had installed filesharing programs on their home or work computers had repeatedly compromised national and military security by "sharing" files containing sensitive or classified data. These users probably did intend to use these programs to download popular music, movies, software or games. But it seems highly unlikely that any of them intended to compromise national or military security for the sake of "free music." The only thing scary about this is the fact that there are people with access to documents that could compromise national security that a) store them on their personal home computers, and/or b) are to daft to figure out how to figure a p2p client to share specific folders instead of their whole computer.
We need to outlaw conventional paper and force the use of PDF documents everywhere.
Think of how many times you have cut your finger on the edge of rough paper. And now, can you tell me that paper is harmless to children and not a threat to national security? I don't think so.
I, for one, think this law will enable greater national security and protect the children from harm.
We may as well move all the children into special homes where they can't do anything to harm themselves, in fact we will do the whole human race a favor and keep them drugged so they don't do anything stupid.
I am too angry at the audacity of this statement to try justify why it so insanely stupid, you can't blame technology when stupid/ignorant/careless people are to blame. For a poor attempt at an analogy, should we also ban the use of motor vehicles because of all the fatalities each year from them?
A recent report from the US Patent office calls peer-to-peer file sharing harmful to children and a threat to national security.
File sharing doesn't kill people. People kill people.
If we ban people first, I'm pretty sure file sharing will be a complete non-threat to either children or national security. If we ban file sharing first, I'm pretty sure children and national security will both be in just about as much danger as they're in today.
The fact is, most government officials were adults and very busy before personal computers were common. Since they have been so busy with their careers they have had little time to educate themselves about technology. It isn't exactly correct to call them ignorant, because that's too respectful. More precisely, they are iggerunt.
Remember, Ted Turner, the founder of CNN, called the Time-Warner merger with AOL, "better than sex". Immediately after, the combined company lost 88 billion dollars because of the deal. Quote from the linked article: "AOL reported a loss of nearly $100bn for 2002, after a loss of $44.9bn for the final three months of the year."
Ted Turner is a smart guy, but he was iggerunt about technology.
The proper response to "Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO" Jon W. Dudas is, "Dude, you're fired."
President Kennedy wanned you all about this check the video.
America and the world are really in a mess.
This is kind of a damning double edged statement. Classified material isn't supposed to be processed on the same systems as non-classified material. The military has a completely separate network for classified info. This to me says that there's a complete lack of understanding, awareness, and general common sense used in the administration of governmental networks (is this statement redundant?).
First question: Why was filesharing software installed (it's against regulations)?
Second: Why was classified material on an unclassified machine?
And last, who got fired for this oversight?
preview-owned on the previous comment..
For the Federal Government, this threat became manifest during 2005, when the Department of Homeland Security warned all Federal Agencies that government employees or contractors who had installed filesharing programs on their home or work computers had repeatedly compromised national and military security by "sharing" files containing sensitive or classified data. These users probably did intend to use these programs to download popular music, movies, software or games. But it seems highly unlikely that any of them intended to compromise national or military security for the sake of "free music."
The only thing scary about this is the fact that there are people with access to documents that could compromise national security that a) store them on their personal home computers, and/or b) are to daft to figure out how to configure a p2p client to share specific folders instead of their whole computer.
well, if you dont want them looking at pr0n just chmod 000 /usr/bin/vlc. of course using a OS where one can have simple control over execute permissions is great.
Why UNIX?
government workers had installed file-sharing programs that accessed classified information without their knowledge.
Was it Michael D. Brown?
Libertarian Leaning Political Discussion Forum.
We need to abandon earth and become a space-faring civilization - otherwise our children's children will be plagued by potential weapons (rocks) to use against one another.
I call for a disbanding of the NRA (The national rock association)
for sale
I'm a self-modifying sig virus
The "When you pirate MP3s, you're downloading COMMUNISM!" poster dates back to 2000; it only took us seven years to go from wacky parody to grim reality.
I guess it never dawned on them that government workers are the real threat to national security and to our children.
Wait a second, does that mean the workers didn't know the file sharing programs accessed classified information, or that we don't even know what our own government workers are doing ?
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
From the report, page 1 (I. Executive Summary): This report concludes that the distributors of these five filesharing programs... (BearShare, eDonkey, KaZaA, LimeWire, and Morpheus) ...have repeatedly deployed features that had a known propensity to trick users into uploading infringing files inadvertently.
If this were true, what's to stop every user that gets sued from claiming "BearShare/eDonkey/KaZaA/LimeWire/Morpheus made me share those files, I had nothing to do with it!"? If the RIAA's and MPAA's lawsuits are based on the fact that the files were illegally made available, would that not then be the perfect defense since it would cast reasonable doubt on the case?
shares your HD by default under a hidden share.
No, it's not (spelling aside) - it's yet another attempt to create certain "truths" that support a specific political agenda (which is a corporate agenda after all, but where's the difference today?). Repeat lies often enough and they become truth. Support your "report" with "evidence" that national security and/or kids are in danger, and you can count on it that your arguments will be heard and spread, no matter how wrong or - in this case - mindboggingly stupid they are. To even question - as lots of /.ers do - who in his clear mind would believe the findings of the report is denying how credulous people are. This is a report from a government agency, after all, and it mentions kids! And homeland security! Fear always works as a motivator. It is going to fall on fertile ground and it's another piece in the "p2p is evil" puzzle... . Not exactly hilarious, that.
What the propagandists are trying not to say is simply this:
"The US economy was once based on manufacturing. Our cars and buildings and aeroplanes and weapons were the best you could buy, and people bought them and America prospered. Lately people have stopped buying all those things, and we no longer manufacture anything for export but movies, music, and software.
Our economy has gone from world-leading to "service-based" in just a few decades, and our only hope of exporting something that people might want to buy is in movies, music and software. Unfortunately, all those things are now digital, and easily copied millions of times for free. Even more unfortunately, the more we try to protect our eroding export figures with DRM and IP enforcement, the more we realize that other countries don't have to play by the rules we make up. And it's those other countries that count most.
So it's time for education. Or perhaps Re-education. Time to teach everyone that, despite our own flagrant disregard for the Berne conventions and international IP rights from 1886 up until 1989 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_convention), it's vital that the world now all fall into the US party line on IP enforcement and DRM. And if we can't do it with WTO, IMF, WIPO, and Most Favored Nation status, we'll do it with propaganda.
File sharing kills babies! File sharing promotes pedophilia! File sharing is communist and fascist and Saddam-loving! File sharing destroys family values and promotes the gay agenda!
I've wanted to say this for a long time.
the US is on the fast track to VBP: Very Bad Place.
Of course it's a threat to national security. It's difficult to censor, difficult to trace, there's a low barrier to entry, and, worst of all, it allows Freedom.
tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
I'd have added baby seals, but those seem to have fallen out of favor.
Just as well: When you paint 'em green to save 'em from the fur market the mothers stop nursing them and they stave to death.
Or maybe they think they won't have to save as many now if the polar bears are going to have to swim farther go get between ice floes.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Allowing secure, uninhibited communications amongst individuals is a grave threat to national, and more importantly, corporate security. We must put procedures in place to register those who wish to apply for the privilege of uploading anything other than their credit card number.
What?
File sharing harms the U.S. economy. That's the bottom line.
Back in 1890, when all the interesting IP was being produced in Britain, the US were unabashedly pirating all they could. And they did well.
Up until 99 years later, when the balance tipped, and the US economy started to depend on exporting its own IP. Then the US converted to the side of righteousness, joined the Berne convention, and became evangelistic about it. Meanwhile China and most of Asia and Africa are net importers of IP, and are unabashedly pirating all they can. The cycle continues.
What I think -- I think Americans should, for patriotic reasons (having nothing to do with children's morality), strongly support copyright and IP.
I think other countries should decide what's best for their own citizens.
And let the market work out as it may.
Insofar as outdated, unjust laws and inept government employees with far too much access to unsecured computers and networks are the fault of P2P, I suppose the patent office is on to something.
Game... blouses.
and children of idiots.
Many of the classified documents on p2p networks...are merely bogus with repetitive loops of non-classified material.
In fact, when a classified document becomes particularly popular, the CIA floods the network with bogus info and entire documents of redacted text.
Any bets on whether the KaZaA install allegedly publishing the classified information was actually a disinformation operation in the first place - with the Dept of Homeland Security warning part of the operation?
"Oh, DEAR! Some idiots installed KaZaA on machines with REAL, GENUINE, USEFUL to ENEMIES classified information and it LEAKED! Oh the HORROR! (Snicker.)"
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Thank god they let me know in time! I will stop my file sharing immediately or it could result in the destruction of the free world! Jesus Christ, how could I be such an insensitive clod?!
"Those who would sacrifice essential liberties for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - BenF
It would appear that letting other people have things is really the source of what threatens our way of life. And sharing? Not expecting anything in return? Not in my America, bub.
Anybody with half an ounce of business knowledge knows that the MPAA and RIAA are not going to be around much longer. Media distribution isn't a viable business any more. Times change. We also don't need buggy whip makers any more, either. So why not just relax, ignore them, and stop buying their products?
We already have tons and tons of *good* independent music that you can get without dealing with them. Movies will come soon. It'll be painful for them, and for the industry-created "artists" (ie: virtually all "musicians" that are invented for teen consumption), but they'll go away soon enough. I'm looking forward to seeing movies both becoming popular and being distributed via whatever the You-Tube equivalent is a few years from now.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go download some Pearl Jam shows.
I don't respond to AC's.
While I myself have never used P2P file sharing software (nor do I intend to), this notion begs the question: If P2P is indeed a dire threat to security, perhaps government employees should simply be restricted from using the software instead of broad sweeping statements of FUD to be shouted from the rooftops. ("Joe, you use Limewire or anything like it, you're fired. End of story.")
Further, I'll go on to say that there are other F-A-R greater dangers to national security, too, like people using traditional telephone lines, dialing in to the government institutions, then using social engineering to trick the person receiving the call to doing their bidding for the callers ill-gotten gain.
Yikes. Let's hope that has never happened....
Funny thing is, I don't seem to recall any calls (no pun intended) for banning phones in government institutions.
Running 'Nix is like owning a Lightsaber. It's "a more elegant weapon for a more civilized time."
Just come to Canada.. we're quite friendly here, and haven't heard of anybody getting sued by any record industry yet (and I run a bittorrent tracker).
The magical number is: 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
Did someone say slippery slope?
Does it bother anyone that the lead author of this report is Thomas D. Sydnor II? Before joining the USPTO, he was an attorney at Arnold & Porter, the RIAA's main outside law firm. While at Arnold & Porter, he litigated patent and copyright cases. I have no clue whether he actually did work for the RIAA, but the contacts are interesting.
Come play Heroes of Might and Magic Mini online.
Perhaps most shocking of all, the pencil graphite is conductive and could be used in any number of explosive devices where conductive elements are required.
Normally I don't double post, but as an American I feel it's my civic duty to apologize for the pun in that sentence. Though completely unintended on my part, I understand that the repercussions were still more unexpected by my victims and were, indeed, unwarranted.
Forget the Children!
Won't somebody please think of the ponies!
This is reminding me of what they were saying about rock'n roll and comic books in the 50's.. they had huge hearings on it, it was the bane of culture, it promoted sexual deviance, it threatened the foundations of society itself!!!!!11one!1
first, they ignore you
then, they laugh at you
then they fight you
then you win.
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
Mr. President, we must not allow...a P2P network gap!
Fill in your four or five-letter word of wisdom here _ _ _ _ _.
Until now my fears were not confirmed, but this seals the deal.
You goddamn free software commies are destroying our great nation. It starts with using funky, African-named software, trading "music" with Russia, but now you're killing babies and collapsing national security.
Free software also causes global warming. Reliable tests show that FreeBIOS causes far more CO2 emissions than a proprietary BIOS. FreeBIOS also makes your processor run at a cancer-causing frequency.
The battle lines are drawn! This is where Windows users must unite and take back the world from our oppressors! Take your cancer sticks and shove them, because we want clean air!
Hello, my name is chmod. Get to know me!
You should also meet my cousin chown! He's a righteous dude.
If you don't know me, you can always type
$man chmod
at your terminal.
Modded insightful!
Brilliant!
for sale
I'm a self-modifying sig virus
The sad thing is that those posters are entirely too accurate in summing up their position...
If government workers "installed file-sharing programs that accessed classified information without their knowledge" then file-sharing isn't the threat to national security, it's government workers who recklessly install things like file-sharing software on gov't computers.
that's it. Everytime I hear about someone ceasing to use P2P out of fear generated by this kind of nonsense, I'm going to punch a baby.
"According to the RIAA, everytime you download a song Chuck Norris Roundhouse-Kicks(TM) a small child"
Sorry - but until www.chucknorrisfacts.com is back online I'm on my own with these.
ôó
From the paper linked to TFA:
The authors have identified specific behavior, documented efforts to get certain people to change that behavior, and demonstrated that it has not changed. What more do they have to do to be taken seriously?
But we cannot get rid of paper, for paper beats rock, and rocks are the BIGGEST concern.
Not true! You can bring a rock on an airplane, but try boarding with a pair of scissors...
ZuluPad, the wiki notepad on crack
SECRET information resides on SIPRNET which has no connections to the Internet. Media frequently confuses SECRET with NONE OF YOUR DAMN BUSINESS information. Yup, there are issues, and one of them is not knowing what you're reporting. If trully SECRET information was on a network connected to the Internet (firewall or no firewall), then there is a bigger story in the little story.
Thats all it will take for it all to come crashing down on us and for our digital freedoms to dry up. Enough people get snowed into thinking this and we are all screwed.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
What really bites here is these reports are always faceless. The USPTO doesn't "say" anything. Some anonymous bureaucrats that work there do. The public deserve to know who they are, because to come out with sheer fiction like this demonstrates they're clearly incompetent.
Many of us work in the corporate sector. If my colleagues and I were to put out a report, but then to hide our names and put it in the name of the company, then say something equally preposterous like this, my Director wouldn't have a bar of it. He'd rip into us, and if it was clearly and utterly incompetent, he'd sack us. He'd be negligent not too.
Yet we have these USPTO bureaucrats, *who we pay the salaries of*, churning out slurf like this? We will only have accountability in government where bureaucrats are named and held to account for what they say.
Can we use the Freedom of Information act to find out who these people are?
Dude, firstly I must emphasize that I bait, cajole, antagonize, and fuck with you Canadians on a regular basis (yes, as an AC).. but all screwing around aside, it's a matter of time till the US rolls over you guys and you end up harmonizing your copyright laws with ours. Don't fret though, because you and I along with the original poster can still go to Amsterdam and get so fucked up that we don't care. THEN we can all move to the Czech Republic.
If I flipped the patent office the bird with an amount of force proportional to my rage, angst, and sadness my middle finger would fly off, break my monitor, and blow the head off the person in the next room. And don't even get me started on the topic of proportional furious masturbation... ceiling cat would be dead already.
Your ideas are only serving to embolden the enemy!
for sale
I'm a self-modifying sig virus
... is everyone continuing to support these -AA fukshtiks by buying their members' content?
national security threatens you!
-insert a witty something-
So we need to keep the rocks to defeat the scissors.
But wait, we need scissors to beat paper!
But wait, we need paper to beat rock!
Uh-oh.
America is insane. I feel ashamed to be an American.
We are so fucking powerless against these morons that use these silly trump card excuses to control us all....
Freedom is good for children!
Privacy is good for children!
Free speech is good for children!
A representative government is good for children!
Freedom of Religion is good for children!
Politicians and greed... are bad for children.
Either we kill the politicians... or we kill the children.
Take your pick.
Just think about how ballistic some politicians would go if a simple demonstration were shown to them about the sites you can find with Google by searching for the words "tits" or "wide snatch". They'd be pushing for the internet to be closed down immediately if not sooner. I predict just such a demonstration will be forthcoming in the very near future. Just as soon as there's some new US scandal they want to divert attention away from. It will be the mother of all diversions and has the potential to really crimp the usefulness of the internet in the US.
Now to interesting stuff: where are the urls/torrents for confidential information in p2p networks?
Okay okay if I'm reading this correctly, file sharing is a threat to national security because it's getting installed on government computers that hold sensitive information ? Does that mean that photocopiers, faxes, mailing envelopes and even cameras are all threats to national security because they have the potential to be misused by dumb government employees ?
#1 - File sharing is only as dangerous as the person running the software. If the user's a twit, don't blame the software, just replace them with a better user.
#2 - File sharing's risk can be controlled at the firewall, either keep an eye on it or shut it out completely. We're talking about offices here, places that have no legitimate reason to be using Limewire et al. in the first place.
#3 - Gov't employees have always had ways to leak information. Sometimes they toss stuff in the garbage without properly shredding confidential documents. Sometimes they get their notebook stolen. Sometimes they leave their passwords written on post-it notes stuck to their monitor. And sometimes they're just would-be spies taking bribes.
#4 - The more stuff gets legislated "out of existence", the more ways people will find to get around the law. They shut down Napster, so people started using decentralized networks. They could try to shut down P2P, we'll find a sneakier way to do it (already happening with encrypted VPN tunnels). How's the saying go ? If [thing] is outlawed, only outlaws will do [thing].
#5 - This is our goddamned government. This ain't a dictatorship or monarchy, it's a democracy. If these officials aren't acting in accordance with the people's needs, we need to fire the bastards!
-Billco, Fnarg.com
Recent bill passed in the senate:
All babies born beginning in 2008 will have the arms, legs, teeth and brain removed. This will prevent children from ever possibly injuring themselves and greatly reduce crime and copyright infringement.
It was a tough compromise. The bill originally had the skeletal structure removed but with the brain still intact. It was argued however that the possesion of a brain could still perform copyright infringement and aid the terrorists.
Today's bill brought to you by Corporate America, Ranchers for Gelatinous Meat Sacks, and the letters W, T, and F.
~X~
~X~
I am disappointed to see my attempt at humour modded into -1 oblivion. The title of this article is like a meme parody of slashdot.
Maybe my subtlety is too much. Or maybe I'm just not funny.
This idea was invented by Shampoo.
"Finally, other disclosures decreased over time. Information can be disclosed in ways that make it too ambiguous to be useful. For example, in The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy" , aliens create a supercomputer called Deep Thought to calculate the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. After calculating for ages, Deep Thought discloses that the answer to the meaning of life, the universe and everthing is "42." Just "42." This disclosure does not really illuminate the meaning of life." Not to jump on the side of the patent office or their lawyers, but this report is clearly going after unintentional file-sharing as a result of application settings that users either don't understand or are duped into sharing files. This applies heavily to the national security threat because even smart people can make mistakes if the software is written to encourage (or dupe in the eyes of this report) making folders/files shared which shouldn't be or which the user doesn't realize are being shared.
The link between file sharing and a national security threat is weak to the point of ridicule. If you want to talk about a threat to national security, look at encrypted traffic over the internet. If you are concerned about internet-based national security threats, you only need look at an IPSEC based virtual private network where all the traffic is encrypted and the encryption keys rotate. What about the ability to send email with S/MIME or PGP encryption? So, I really don't want to hear weak, bullshit articles trying to make a case for file sharing as a national security issue.
See how legislation expands previous legislation?
Up until now, the only thing being removed from children was their brains by the national educational infrastructure established many decades ago.
Now we have arms, legs and teeth being removed.
Where will it end?
It's like the income tax!
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
The spread of information by means of communication is a threat to national security.
Its raining men!
By making something more available and less scarce, you may increase its value.
The bigger threats are parents who don't teach their children properly and those employees who think that their work computers are their own private property to do with what they want, ie install anything and everything. The biggest threat is the same thing and it isn't software based but the moronic idiotic incompetant people who don't know what the hell they are doing.
RIAA: Ban filesharing! a file-sharing client was used to obtain cassified info from the dept. of National Security!
Gov't: Say, weren't you guys the ones who were hacking kazaa clients to illegally obtain evidence from users?
RIAA: Errr....
One of these days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces.
Reminds me of when my brother got busted with pot. He lost his car and about $3k in fines and court costs. My parents blamed pot. Although pot didn't do that to him the government did. Pot only ever got us high.
Funny thing. A friend of mine smoked some pot and totaled his car. The police issued lots of fines but missed his stash. He did not blame the cops, government or pot. He blamed those damn bats that ran him off the road.
He first saw those bats on a Madonna video, which he watched on Youtube and then shared by accident with Communist China. Arguably, the bats, and P2P by extension, are both a menace to corporate profits and a national security risk. They sure did him harm.
I don't even want to mention the spiders he's talked about.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Huh? Where I work there is something called an Air Gap(tm). There are no classified systems anywhere near a p2p program or the Intarweb. Classified info on a publically connected net?
Prosecution of the admins and users.
Of course I think TFA is all bullshit. I DO think a site called shadowmonkey that cites this info is legit.
Not. I see no evidence in the article that anything classified has leaked. I work in this environment every day. Man! The hoops we go through...
BZZZT!!!!
Show me the monkey.
qz
Quick, pull the plug, they know this decades root password to the constitution!
www.isoHunt.com
I read the first 5 pages or so, and realize that this was a paid for study. What is the US Patent office putting this up for? Are these people in the patent office really this clueless? No wonder our patent system is failing.
And no feedback links on there website that I could find.
Another nail in the US innovation coffin.
I take no responsibility for what I say. Even though I'm never wrong
to know that these are idiots we're dealing with here. I had to sign a confidentiality agreement to protect the info of my customers last year. It included a claus on file sharing. Since when are government workers exempt from such agreements?
"Everytime you share a file, God kills a kitten."
So... It's the RIAA that's the real threat to children. Aren't there already laws against child predators?
The latter.
Your child will need a tin foil hat (made to regulation standards) and oven mitts to protect them from the harmful effects of the internets!
Seen on one of the very first episodes of Battlestar Galactica:
I think it fits perfectly here.
* that peer-to-peer networks could manipulate sites so children violate copyright laws more frequently than adults, exposing those children to copyright lawsuits and, in turn, make those who protect their copyrighted material appear antagonistic, and
* file-sharing software could be to blame for government workers who expose sensitive data and jeopardize national security after downloading free music on the job
why are we letting children do government work?
"Interestingly, the report makes numerous references to RIAA and MPAA legal actions against file actions, as well as cites a 2005 Department of Homeland Security report that government workers had installed file-sharing programs that accessed classified information without their knowledge."
What does any of this have to do with examining patents? Maybe what they should have said is "The Patent Office is Harmful to Children and a threat to National Security".
Don't they run as a the equivalent of root on a Windows Box, or am I thikning of the bad old days of NT ? They can upload whatever they like. Have they _ANY_ idea what else the screen saver is doing after they installed it ? Lets BAN SCREEN SAVERS. In fact, lets BAN SCREENS - Use Teletypes and we don't need screensavers, and all the data is safe. Oh yes, and lets fund free shredders for everyone who gives up their screen to buy a teletype. D
http://davesboat.blogspot.com/
We have p2p and other weapons of mass destruction.
File sharing isn't a threat to national security, stupid government employees that install file sharing programs on work computers and then make the shared folder one that contains important documents are a threat to national security.
But by the sound of it, he doesn't understand how mild pot actually is. Remember the 'run, he's a pothead' adverts on American TV? Where they tried to portray someone smoking pot as crazed killers?
Well, lets face it, on slashdot we are already doing our bit. Just say no to reproduction, or else the terrorists have won!
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Should we just go ahead and abolish the free interchange of ideas while we're at it, so we can stop the sharing of such harmful ideas as "I think we should go home and beat our children" or "I think we should get together and resist our Tyrannical Opressors (TM)" and then just silently curse this minority that 'ruined free speech' for the rest of us?
Or should we recognize that govenment regulation of the exchange of information or ideas which, (although not being a lawyer) I could have SWORN was for forbidden by the first amendment, is the action of the corrupting influence of large amounts of what was originally, (ironically) OUR money which we gave to the RIAA/MPAA etc., when we purchased music and movies "legitimately" in the first place?
RIAA and MPAA are like DRUG ADDICTS, we gave them the drug, cash, we want to stop supplying them, but they are strung out and need more of the drug. Always they need more, and I think, if they could, they would be willing to kill (you or me) to get it. However, killing is generally still illegal, so they can't.
Seeing them pull the strings of our lawmakers telling us ultimately, that it is illegal for us to talk to one another is disenhartening to say the least.
~Hal
Oh wait , those morons wouldn't know what FTP or SMB were and that fact it and other general peer to peer file sharing methods have been around for decades if the facts were stamped on their sloping foreheads in glowing green ink. I truly despair of politicians and it frightens me that these morons have public mandates.
But even so, here in NZ, there's talk of introducing similar legislation - WTF?
It seems to me that corporate policy has much more influence than government policy - there's basically fuck-all money to be had letting a ship dock - easy decision - no skin off my political nose - just good-guy-points to score.
But when money and ignorance are involved, the lubricant is free, and the the consumer, while bending over to check out relevant stuff, notices some discomfort - but only after a very long time realizes the tissue damage.
Who is the author of the report? by Jon W. Dudas,
Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States
Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property? What does that involve? Duh! Helping ones greedy friends in the MAFIAA fight their War on Freedom. Pretty obvious Mr. Dudas!
assignment != equality != identity
So we have government employees storing classified data on machines that are connected to the Internet, and then the authors of this report blame file-sharing software software? I've worked in a classified lab before. If I, say, decided to store my work in an unsecured office instead of the safes provided for me, whose fault would it be if there were a security breach? (Answer: my boss's, for not firing me) The only way to keep data safe is to keep it off the net. Period. (Even that is not really enough but it's a necessary condition).
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
Why is the patent bureau writing such reports anyway?
Don't they have any patents to fact-check?
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
this document was very likely emailed to hundreds of people in draft form before it was published. This is exactly the kind of thing that this file sharing technology produces!
Most likely it was done with the evilister of all evils on the axis-MS Outlook, this should be banned from any public computer and it's authors taken to federal court for the harm they have wrought on our system with their 'Exchange' technology!
When the country falls into chaos, politicians talk about 'patriotism'. Lao-Tzu
Who the fuck cares with a patent office's opinion about file sharing? The various *AA's surely got an interest and a right to jab about it, but a patent office??? They have absolutely no right to issue official documents about file sharing. Unless, of course, they collect money for a file sharing patent.
Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
I am afraid that I have trangressed already.
:-)
But my wife has me on a special 0 step program
to ensure it does not happen again.
emt 377 emt 4
File sharing software doesn't threaten national security:
People threaten national security.
By the same token
File sharing software harmful to children:
People are harmful to children... wait... that one doesn't sound right.
Resistance is futile. Your technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. You will become one with the morgue
Life needs more saving throws.
Zapp: "Rock crushes scissors! But paper covers rock. And scissors cuts paper! Kif, we have a conundrum." ... bring me a rock!"
Kif: *sigh*
Zapp: "Search them for paper! And
http://www.skullsecurity.org/blog/
1) Coffee is pretty harmful to kids (I mean, look at Tweak FFS), and a nation hopped up on massive amounts of caffeine without knowing it would be severely dangerous to our national security. Let's ban coffee!
2) Oh god, the children, please, the children, the childrenthechildren. If you're worried about the children so much, how about loving the ones that are on this planet first before making some of your own. To me, that seems a much nobler task.
3) This paper was submitted to USPTO by a law firm that was developing it for "other purposes". I'm positive this is pro-*AA work to leverage that good ole' FUD.
I think the big shots are starting to realize what a threat to THEIR security file-sharing really is. Seeing them squirm like should make us coalesce into one hearty gut-laugh. The more they hate it, the more I'll be one of them.
P.S.: Why should the USPTO have any influence? They oughta worry about doing their job more efficiently and not yap about global policy.
"oddles"?
"oddles"?!
Have you mis-spelt "oodles"?
BTW, you can't use propaganda on someone who's not had their brains removed earlier...that was the point (besides trying to get modded funny, which apparently didn't work.)
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
In a related story, experts have also discovered that the telephone, fax machine, photocopiers, scanners, cameras, and silly putty also pose a grave risk to national security.
Good security is based upon reality and common sense. Common sense is a function of having common knowledge.
What a joke...knives and guns are ALSO a threat to our children/security, but can be useful as well...just like file sharing is a social and easy-to-use alternative to FTP! In any case, their battle's already lost, there's a plethora of encrypted file-sharing solutions on the market that let people exchange content in complete privacy, GigaTribe is one of them ( http://www.gigatribe.com/ ), and there are probably others as well...
At least i know why they are too busy to actually review anything.
WTF does the patent office have to do with security or protecting the children or classified info?
I'm not an american, but why on earth is a patent office paying for reports that apparently have nothing to do with patents?
In addition to the drain they place on network resources, peer-to-peer file-sharing applications pose a hazard to your privacy and to the security of files....also to your children..
The thing about national security is it doesn't exist -- at least, not at the price most are willing to pay, if they are in their right mind. What stops the man down the street from losing it an just blowing people away with a gun acquired after a week of waiting -- the law, national security, morals, fear of death? What would happen if say, 30 well armed men with moderate tactical skills just simply started killing in a densely populated urban area. An average city has -- what, 200-400 police officers. With say a 1/3 of that responding in, oh say -- 1h and the fastest being 10 minutes. How much damage could they do? Would the police have a clue where to begin? Sure, national security makes it "difficult" for such men to acquire weapons -- or so you might presume. How many of your neighbors have more than enough guns for three men? How much would you trade to sleep without worry of such things as killing, war, and fear? Would you trade the choice of what you will eat, where you can sleep, what you can speak, or even the very thoughts in your head?
We don't let people on the public roads without a drivers' license. We don't let people fly planes without a pilot's license. We don't let anyone broadcast radio without a license.
Computers should only be allowed on the public internet when they are administered by a licensed operator. It's a matter of competence, public safety and accountability. And a great new business opportunity.
We are the 198 proof..
Why it is so important to attack children on file sharing on children. Insteed of making new law and investigate the children they should come out with a perfect way to allow them to share file. I mean the music industry has make up to billion of dollars in music revenue and it doesnt enough for them? Why