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Canadian Censorship Takes Down 4500 Sites
uncadonna writes "According to activist group The Yes Men, the government of Canada has shut down two parody websites criticizing Canada's poor environmental policy. The article goes on to claim that 'In response to Environment Canada's request, Serverloft immediately turned off a whole block of IP addresses, knocking out more than 4500 websites that had nothing to do with the parody sites or the activists who created them. Serverloft was shown no warrant, and never called the web hosting company about the shutdown.'"
Umm, http://ec-gc.ca/ is working for me.....
in soviet russia web site Censors you!
URL or it didn't happen!
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
I thought Canada was a bastion of civil liberties. What, with all the whiny hippies claiming they would move there if $event happened.
Offshore your servers. Just for fun.
The next thing to remember is to put next things next.
So it does work out in the end? There is bound to be some high profile sites out there that got shutdown and will now switch to another provider that will shows some *sunglasses* backbone?
Just goes to show you that our Bill of Rights is worth about as much as this.
(Yeah, we're not much different in that from anywhere else; just in what's censored.)
Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
"The net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it." The solution is obvious: Move your servers to a more free-speech friendly country. When the US and Canada start to see that taking down sites at the drop of a hat is very harmful to their hosting businesses, then maybe they will do something about it.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Do you mean in Soviet Canada?
Between USA's Bush, Canada's Harper, and long string of other bozos in other countries governments, it seems like this past decade has been filled with myopic, self-centered, stupid (more than usual, anyway...) politicians. And it looks like the coming decade won't be any better.
My problem is that I can't tell if this is a new and disturbing trend, or if it was always this bad but the reporting just got more visible?
No, no, that's not it... they are dumping toxic waste in the rivers and feeding fish oil to seals.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
How can you blame the Canadian government for the hosting provider incompetence? They sent the provider a letter with their grievance, the provider is the one responsible for following through without due process, a warrant and apparently then they screw it up?
Sounds like hosting provider fail to me and the yes men crying like little whiners.
Uh, could the press release (from the Hoaxsters, no less) just be more of a Hoax?
Ed R.Zahurak
You know, oblivion keeps looking better every day.
Is it me or is the Global Elite just getting lazy?
At least for the last 120 years they put some effort into hiding the fact that we are in fact all powerless pesants under the heel of an elite in which the law only serves said elite. At least we had the illusion of "equality, the rule of law, and freedom."
I for one an dissapointed in my ruling shadow government and would like to formally request that a new shadow government that plans to treat me like a pesant, rise up, over throw the existing elite, and establish a new global elite that will at least TRY and hide the fact there is a global elite that owns us, does as they please, and mearly offer us the illusion that laws apply to everyone equally.
-=[ Who Is John Galt? ]=-
This happens all the time in the U.S. The government even shut down a Spanish travel agency that arranged tours to Cuba -- they were foolish enough to register their domain name here. http://thespamdiaries.blogspot.com/2008/03/dont-register-or-host-your-domain-in-us.html
No, no, see they're dumping seals into rivers and feeding oil to toxic waste.
So the Canadian government says "jump" and the ISPs ask "how high?" before any kind of due process.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
From Wikipedia re The Yes Men: "...they create and maintain fake websites similar to ones they want to spoof, and then they accept invitations received on their websites to appear at conferences, symposia, and TV shows".
I would be looking at this with tongue firmly in cheek.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_yes_men
In post Patriot Act America, the library books scan you.
Under the current conservative party government, we've been on a slow, quiet, insidious slide toward fascism. Suppression of information is a frequent and favourite tactic of this government - which is ironic considering they campaigned on "openness and accountability" during the '06 election.
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
This is exactly the sort of the The Yes Menthrive on. Nobody was looking at the parody websites. Now everyone knows Environment Canada has a poor policy.
The Yes Men's entire raisin d'etre is publicity. It would make sense for them to specifically choose ISPs that are willing to roll over easily.
He loved casting the Canucks as free-spirited, tolerant, rigidly honest characters. Now they just seem as stupidly human as the rest of us.
Why don't you blame the people who are REALLY responsible? The voters.
As long as people vote for the guy who tells them they can keep their 2 suvs and that he will lower their taxes (never actually happened anywhere) you will get these kind of guys.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Welcome to the club.
I don't think that word means what you think it means.
I am not Canadian but I believe the name of the party is The Conservative Party. The word "conservative" lost its meaning a long time ago, particularly in the USA. How else do you explain the politicians who self-identify as "conservative" who are so eager to expand the size and power of government?
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
...but this is one good reason why we need commercial space flight.
With commercial space flight you collect money to put a pre-built server into orbit and serve pages from there.
Now granted the bandwidth wouldn't be fast but for things like free speech related documents you really don't need speed just stable retention. You could still store video up there as well it would just be slow to get on and off the server obviously.
As long as the system had power and a good antenna the data could be available for anyone with a satellite dish to point at it. (Though you could probably find a comsat company that would accept money to rebroadcast the signal if you could afford that.)
"Bah!" - Dogbert
Wouldn't the Canadian authorities really be lumberjackbooted? If so, do they have pointy high-heels? Those could really hurt!
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
Was that they infringed on copyrights and tradmarks.
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
Which word? Their legal name is the Conservative Party of Canada (or Parti conservateur du Canada).
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
As a Canadian I can confirm that they are in fact called "The Conservative Party of Canada" or more colloquially "The assholes who somehow managed to win an election and try to claim divine mandate with less then 25% of voting Canadian behind them."
I may agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to face the consequences of saying it.
since the site seems to be fine from anywhere and a whole ip-segment was screwed, maybe these yes-men screwed up one of their own routers, suspected some conspiracy and then made up this story?
Wait, what? Oh fuck. Thanks, Canada, there goes my backup plan...
The Yes Men's entire raisin d'etre is publicity. It would make sense for them to specifically choose ISPs that are willing to roll over easily.
It would make even more sense for them to just release a hoax announcement claiming that the ISP shut down their parody websites, even though the websites are actually still online.
"You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." -- Albert Einstein
How else do you explain the politicians who self-identify as "conservative" who are so eager to expand the size and power of government?
That's an easy one. The core philosophy in conservatism is maintaining the existing power structures in society. The size of government is immaterial, and will be increased when necessary and decreased when unnecessary to the achievement of this aim. The existing power structure in the USA is based around the military industrial complex, which dictates big, big, big government (but which spends very little on actual social programs). The power structure in Canada is based around the resource economy, which dictates government small enough that the energy, mining, and forestry companies can override popular opposition. That pretty much explains everything you need to know about the differences between American and Canadian conservatives.
They forgot that part. Perhaps that happens in Canada only. In the USA, I have never once witnessed a significant decrease of the size and power of the federal government during my entire lifetime. Ever. I have seen this on the state and local levels, but never on the federal level.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
Succinct, cogent and accurate. Are you sure you're on the right site?
This is the voice of World Control. I bring you Peace.
Inconceivable!
Odi profanum vulgus et arceo
Crude oil is also organic.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
What were the other 4500 related websites?
... The existing power structure in the USA is based around the military industrial complex, which dictates big, big, big government (but which spends very little on actual social programs)....
Very little? The entitlement mentality will be the end of the US. What seems like a little only seems that way because there is never enough for those who want the fruits of someone else's labor.
The next thing to remember is to put next things next.
Words become corrupted, but concepts survive. We continue to use the old corrupted words until better ones come along.
The next thing to remember is to put next things next.
As a Canadian I can confirm that they are in fact called "The Conservative Party of Canada" or more colloquially "the fuckers."
FTFY. (I am also Canadian.) They got in riding the anti-gay-marriage ticket. The next two elections were done when the other parties were hurting, hoping that they'd win a majority. (Turnabout is fair play -- Cretin did this years ago.) No issues have been brought forward in any way that makes the citizens of this country go out and vote.
It pisses me off when they (and I mean any party) call us "voters", "constituents", or "taxpayers". We aren't any of those things. We're citizens, and they exist at our whim.
The problem we have is that not one party up here is worth voting for. Our choices are:
1. Sweatervest,
2. Clueless,
3. Dr. Moustachio,
4. La Wall Briq, and
5. Outcast.
None of these people deserve to run the country, and none of them have done a thing to impress the Canadian public.
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
Do you mean in Soviet Canada?
Nah, it fascist Harper's government. You guys had to put up with Bush for 10 years, while we get this Harper guy. The sad thing is the alternatives aren't much better.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Indeed, why did Serverloft, a German company (according to TFA) react at all?
They should just have shown a huge phat finger to the Canucks, and say "you can't get us accross the huuuuge ocean". After all, it's not as if Canada was in a position of unleashing an Operation Desert Storm over Germany. One hosting company to avoid!
And such behavior would be entirely appropriate: after all that's exactly how Canada behaves when German citizens that have been wrongfully imprisoned in Canada want to seek compensation.
I am advocating that next election we simply remove the party leaders. They have shown over and over again that that are incapable of leading, and don't even seem to be able to work and play well with others.
As you so rightly pointed out there are no good choices. I for one would vote for the first one that can show me they realize that if you have $10 you can't spend $20. This simple concept seems to be beyond most/all politicians.
If I were God, wouldn't I protect my churches from acts of me?
Yet another reason I can tell my clients to use us for hosting. Being their developers, we only host our own projects.
The Canadian government has decided to use RPGs to take out shoplifters.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
The word "conservative" lost its meaning a long time ago, particularly in the USA. How else do you explain the politicians who self-identify as "conservative" who are so eager to expand the size and power of government?
Well, we still have the word "libertarian" so we can tell who actually wants to make government smaller, although even that one has to be taken with a bit of skepticism sometimes.
-=Steve=-
Space game using normal deck of cards: http://BattleCards.org
The current government in Canada needs to go. I don't give a shit about environmentalists and their agendas, but they have every right to publish them on their web sites.
ServerLoft was most likely bullied into taking that action... it's the Harper government's MO. Behind closed doors, "or else" type directives. What a bunch of spineless fucks... they don't even have datacenters in Canada. Just the threat of being sued.
We all know what hosting datacenter to avoid now. ServerLoft can go piss up a rope. The negative publicity from this will punish them.
I thought Canada was a bastion of civil liberties.
Haha. Coffee-splutter! You owe me a new keyboard.
In Canada you can get imprisoned for 3 months without seeing a judge, attorney, your embassy, or even a doctor, and without access to a telephone, simply for criticizing how the Rotary Club runs a Shelterhouse. After these 3 months, when your visa (luckily) runs out, you're shipped back to your home country sans luggage.
Now, good luck on getting any redress or compensation. Or even getting your luggage back.
No, Canada is not the fairy-tale land of civil liberties that everybody believes.
If you're a hippy (especially if you're a hippy...) don't set foot in Canada under any circumstances, if you value your backpack and its contents :-) Or if you absolutely must, don't offer up any environmental advice that might upset powerful locals. And make sure your visa is not one day longer than needed.
That simply means that smaller federal government has never served the aims of the military-industrial establishment. It's not that they forgot, it's that smaller government is actually contrary to their aims. The US military alone spends more than all state and local governments combined, and that is only one federal department. Conservatives who think conservatism has anything to do with small government are borderline romantics, thinking back to a pre-WWII America, even a 19th-Century America where the USA was individualistic, isolationist, and still driven by the pioneer spirit. It's an appealing national myth, but a myth nonetheless in the 21st Century.
That's why we need electoral reform and proportional representation. When the cast of characters you list above are forced to work with 2-3 other parties as well as a handful of independent MPs in order to get measures passed through parliament, they will suddenly discover that autocratic, partisan bullshit will harm their ability to get things done and to remain in power.
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
It was Bush for 8 years, and his replacement happens to have a virtually identical domestic policy, which means we are essentially screwed.
Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
My first thought on reading the summary was that Serverloft was a bunch of tools. As I read more and realized the press release was probably a hoax, it made me think. I know the US and Canada have different laws, and IANAL, but if this were the US, I would tend to think Serverloft would have a decent case of libel against them. They can claim "parody" all they want, but if I had merely skimmed the surface, and not read deeper, Severloft woulda been stuck with a negative connotation for me all because these a holes want to screw around. How many of Serverloft's customers read that press release and immediately went and checked if their sites were up? How many are currently looking for a new provider right now? I am all for free speech. If I say "Company A sucks" then fine. Too bad for them. (In the US, of course, I'm sure some company's attorney would want to sue you over voicing that opinion.) But to say they killed 4500 customers in a knee jerk reaction when they didn't? That is not the same thing at all. That can have actual damages. And if I were Serverloft, I'd be consulting someone about it.
WWJD?
JWRTFM!
That's one thing I wish people would wake up about - just because something is "organic" doesn't mean it is good for you! There are a hell of a lot of deadly, toxic, nasty things out there that are organic.
It drives me nuts, all this "organic" nonsense these days.
Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
Ummm... I can't seem to find information on the story you're talking about. Could you provide a link, please?
Interesting.
The sad thing is the alternatives aren't much better.
Then I would suggest voting for better alternatives.
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
Just the obvious question since I live in Canada and have been involved in politics for 15 years, but..where were you when the Liberal party was in power and were actively censoring everyone and everything that could get them removed from office and interfering in official investigations at the federal level. Including shutting down agencies that do that investigation.
You really sound like another party hack that's upset that the liberal didn't get a 20yr majority. Too bad they were fucking the entire country over and using it for their own personal play thing.
Om, nomnomnom...
I would like to do business with ISPs that have Warrant Canaries:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrant_canary
Like my offsite backup provider maintains:
http://www.rsync.net/resources/notices/canary.txt
However, in absence of this (I realize this is rare) your ISP should at the very least have a stated policy as to how they respond to warrants and "requests".
Turning off an entire block of IP space because some joker calls you on the phone is absolutely terrible. If you continue to do business with "serverloft" you deserve whatever you get.
If it were a stunt, I doubt they would identify as The Yes Men while pulling it.
"Oppression and harassment is a small price to pay to live in the land of the free." -- Montgomery Burns.
Yeah! Greedy taxpayers, build your own roads!
404: sig not found.
They won the election because, despite how crappy of a policy they may have had, and with people complaining about Harper all the time, he/they were still better than ANY OTHER CANDIDATE/PARTY running in either election. Martin lost because he was terrible, Dion couldn't even convince his own party that he was good enough and got booted out (not before trying to force the GG to topple the rightfully elected Conservative government with a coalition farce). I don't know too much about Ignatieff, but what I have seen of his speeches, I wouldn't vote for him.
Also, in the last election, the Conservative party increased the number of seats they controlled in the House, taking them primarily away from the Liberals. If you have a problem with the leading party having less than 25% of overall votes, then howabout we do away with this bajillion-and-a-half party system and work it more like the Americans and their "Two Party" system.
None of the other parties have any possible hope of getting even a minority government in the near future.
So, say whatever you want about the Conservatives, enough voting Canadians think they're the best option to keep them in Minority power.
5 minutes with a spreadsheet and any system can be gamed.
57% of the Canadian population lies within a 75000 km^2 urban area between Windsor and Quebec City, throw a bone to BC and 99.25% of the area of Canada have no voice. Arguably a good thing, but fairness and equity aren't its strengths.
The only meaningful electoral reform would be 90+% voter turnout; but in a world of milquetoast politicians afraid of being beaten by their masters, it isn't likely.
It was Bush for 8 years, and his replacement happens to have a virtually identical domestic policy, which means we are essentially screwed.
Hey, now! Bush wanted to take our clumsy, wasteful pyramid scheme of a social security system and make it slightly worse, while Obama wants to take our clumsy, wasteful hellhole of a health care system and make it significantly worse. We may still be getting screwed, but it really is going in a different orifice.
Now, when it comes to foreign policy, it's all the same - spend absurd amounts of money bombing people until they learn to love us.
I'm pretty sure Harper has done more to dismantle transparency in the last 3 years than Chretien/Martin did during their tenure.
Just a sampling of things I can recall off the top of my head since 2006: This, this, this, this, this, this, this, and this.
And I'll repeat again what I said above: all this (and more that I suspect I've mercifully forgotten over the last 3 years) has taken place under the watch of an autocrat who explicitly ran on the promise of transparency and accountability in the 2006 election.
... and people wonder why the general public thinks politicians are a bunch of assholes ...
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
far more than 25% of voting Canadians voted for the Conservative party.
Well, to be pedantic it depends how you want to define "voting Canadians." If we take that to mean "Canadians who are eligible to vote" then the 25% figure is probably pretty close since voter apathy keeps many people away from the polls.
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
None of the other parties have any possible hope of getting even a minority government in the near future.
The federal Conservatives better hope and pray nothing like the Wildrose Alliance ever appears on the federal scene ... because then the vote on the right will be fragmented (once again) just as the vote on the left is today.
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
In the USA, I have never once witnessed a significant decrease of the size and power of the federal government during my entire lifetime. Ever.
That's because the military-industrial complex has also been increasing in size. Did you not read/comprehend the post that you replied to?
... and then they built the supercollider.
Both of the above are off topic and trolling. Mods?
do you mean we have no choice ??? elect this guy or we're doomed ???
this is the downside to the ban on clubbing
Also, it forced all the douchebags out of the clubs and into public places...
(There is supposed to be a Sarcmark® here, but my $1.99 check hasn't cleared, yet...)
How else do you explain the politicians who self-identify as "conservative" who are so eager to expand the size and power of government?
That's an easy one. The core philosophy in conservatism is maintaining the existing power structures in society. The size of government is immaterial, and will be increased when necessary and decreased when unnecessary to the achievement of this aim. The existing power structure in the USA is based around the military industrial complex, which dictates big, big, big government (but which spends very little on actual social programs). The power structure in Canada is based around the resource economy, which dictates government small enough that the energy, mining, and forestry companies can override popular opposition. That pretty much explains everything you need to know about the differences between American and Canadian conservatives.
The core philosophy in conservatism is maximizing individual liberty. The problem is there aren't anymore American conservatives left.
Off topic, sure - just like the post I was replying to. No argument there.
But trolling? Pretty ballsy for someone Cowering behind Anonymity.
And they really need to add a "-1 No Sense of Humor" mod.
---
"I can't complain, but sometimes still do..." Joe Walsh
I have never once witnessed a significant decrease of the size and power of the federal government during my entire lifetime
Same here. I think the last time there was a significant decrease in governmental power in the United States was when we declared independence from our previous government in 1776.
I think you are missing that this is not a letter that was sent from "the government" of Canada. This was someone who is an advisor in the Intellectual Property Branch of Environment Canada. http://www.digital-copyright.ca/node/5100
For all I can tell from the government directory, this could be a private sector consultant. His entry doesn't look much different than my own when I'm on contract to the government. Try looking up my name in January in http://sage-geds.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/ , as I am returning to a contract at Agriculture Canada doing Linux Sysadmin/GIS work.
An email from me, regardless of what email address I use, should never be confused as an official statement from the Government of Canada.
Digital Copyright Canada forum
As a Canadian, I respect your right to say whatever idiocy you like.
I myself have never voted for them, and agree that in many respects they are "asshats".
However, that is both the political system we live in and the government model we have been using for well over a 100 years now.
Your choices are to vote for an alternative system, which already happened, and failed, or to join the system and try to propagate change from within, or to try and mobilize the citizenry into demanding change.
Otherwise quit your bitching and if you have that much of a problem you can always leave. As I have said, as flawed as you might think it might be, the current system certainly predates you.
In all likelihood, you voted for one of the other opposition parties (if you voted at all, in which case really shut up), which at any time could have toppled the current government and forced another election (unless you voted for the Green Party, in which case you have my condolences for being silly). So write your representative and encourage others to do so as well. The other parties are at this point just as responsible for keeping the Conservatives in power as the Conservatives themselves, and together they certainly have a majority, both in seats and likely in popular vote, as per the law and the system, so your arguments are groundless.
That was not the case at the time that I posted. The website was very much alive and kicking and serving satirical content.
"You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." -- Albert Einstein
Sounds like this story is still in a state of flux.
---
"I can't complain, but sometimes still do..." Joe Walsh
The Yes Men's entire raisin d'etre is...
raisin means grapes. The word you're looking for is raison.
How is one to do that when there aren't any on the ballot?
Free Martian Whores!
Don't know if it's the same in Canada, but in the states, ballot nominees are also determined by the voters during the primaries. And it's up to the voter to make sure they seek out and nominate the right lizard.. as opposed to waiting for FOX to present their endorsements to them. If we continue to refuse to take conscious control of our government and economy, we simply have no one else to blame...
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
I'm not illiterate. Just inept at typing. Curse you Mr Qwerty and your typewriter layout!
You mean like Chretien/Martin dismantling the oversight offices? Removing the powers of the AG office to investigate, shifting powers away from internal investigation units to secondary units which have no regulatory power. Giving more power to other regulatory agencies to stifle information and flow access. That's just the stuff off the top of my head.
And if you're going to argue points, next time don't use our most left-wing-anti-conservative media outlets as a source either. Try for something unbiased they're out there, and editorials don't really count in the frame of it either. Unless you're a hack.
Om, nomnomnom...
Any of the news items I referenced (because some of us "hacks" are still stuck on the notion of providing references in support of the assertions we make in argument - I see you are far above such plebeian tasks) can easily be found on alternate channels. Those URLs were just the ones that came up first in google.
And are you seriously calling CBC, the Globe&Mail, and CTV left-wing-anti-conservative outlets? I'll grant you the fact some Toronto Star columnists have a left-of-centre bias, but you do realize that the whole "bash the messenger" routine doesn't exactly enhance your credibility don't you?
Anyhow, I'll close with yet another brilliant piece of anti-democratic behaviour by the governing conservatives - hiding behind the Governor General in order to avoid transparency and accountability. And this time I'll reference the National Post and the Wall Street Journal ... unless you also consider those outlets to be left-wing rags?
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
I usually play it safe in the primaries. I pick the candidate I least want to be elected, select that party's ballot, and vote against him or her. I usually select the party that's not in office, as an incumbant almost always gets nominated.
Free Martian Whores!