Internet Censorship Arms Race Gets New Weapon From Georgia Tech

coondoggie writes "Trying to get out in front of what they call a censorship arms race, a team of researchers has come up with technology that lets users exchange messages through heavily censored networks in countries such as China and North Korea in hidden channels via user-generated content sites such as Twitter or Flickr. Researchers with the Georgia Tech School of Computer Science will demo the technology known as Collage for the first time at next month's Usenix security conference and ideally have a working package the public can download by the end of August."

Comments

I don't think this really solves anything.

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

China's censor ship is designed to prevent people from openly sharing content that they don't want shared. Communications between two people who have an existing relationship and a desire to exchange information is always going to be possible through a variety of methods. This doesn't change that.

Re:I don't think this really solves anything.

[PopeRatzo]

Now all their plans are ruined.

Not at all. It's the Shock Doctrine.

Corporations are still making a profit. Lots of shares bought and sold on Wall Street. Big companies are getting bigger by the day, eating the smaller.

I don't think their plans are ruined, I think their plans are coming to fruition.

Ah...

[Andorin]

Collage's success lies on a censor's unwillingness to block large quantities of legitimate content.

As we all know, the definition of "legitimate" varies from totalitarian regime to totalitarian regime, and also depends on what the leaders want the public to see and how badly something like this needs to be blocked.

Re:Ah...

[Arancaytar]

Exactly. Just about the only legitimate content one could more or less safely hide behind is communication that is vital for business and international finance.

The government of China is all too willing to block Google over failing to censor certain search results - why would they have qualms about blocking Flickr if it is being used for spreading "subversive" content?

Re:If it involves steganography it's useless now

[Caerdwyn]

If it involves steganography it's useless now. Because now China, North Korea and Australia know to look for it.

I wonder if the Aussie people and the Aussie government realize just what a condemnation of what they have become this is... to be legitimately and accurately grouped with the likes of China, North Korea, Iran, and Myanmar over a basic human rights and civil liberties issue.

The government for what it does to its citizens.
The people for tolerating it.

Re:If it involves steganography it's useless now

[PopeRatzo]

Revolution worked far better before we even had the technology we do.

You took the words out of my mouth. Censorship can only be defeated by a non-compliant citizenry willing to sacrifice comfort for freedom. Technology is just a tool, like a bomb or a gun, or a printing press, to use against repressive regimes.

And let's not forget the kind of censorship that's employed by corporations that would use patents and copyrights to enforce their power. Like a corporation that would seek to patent, say, the turning of a virtual page. Last week when the direct attacks against Creative Commons and the EFF started, the scales fell from my eyes. I finally realized that they're not just trying to protect their own "intellectual property", they want a monopoly on ALL intellectual property. They want to have a monopoly on all information, on all culture, on every product of human intellect.

That's when I realized the Pirate Party was the only political group I could possibly support going forward.

I think the parent meant

[nu1x]

USA, not China/NK.

For the worst, and most importantly, trend-setting shit happens in USA.

Trend-setting for China and like.

But more importantly, also us western people (I am european).

So, pirate party.