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Tech Specs Leaked For French Spyware
An anonymous reader writes "With the 'three strikes' law now in effect in France, the organization tasked with implementing it, Hadopi, has been working on technology specs for making the process work — and those specs have now leaked. It appears to involve client-side monitoring and controlling software, that would try to watch what you were doing online, and even warn you before you used any P2P protocol (must make Skype phone calls fun). It's hard to believe people will accept this kind of thing being installed on their computers, so I can't wait to see how Hadopi moves forward with it. It also appears to violate EU rules on privacy."
The government pinky-promised that they won't use this for anything other than enforcing this law. And you have their *word* on that.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Oh, nice! Can I have the Linux version?
What are they going to do? Fucking outlaw Mac OS X, Linux and all the other non-Microsoft operating systems?
Funny fact: in french it's called système d'exploitation. Maybe that's why they want such software. To exploit you and your computer.
All of have to do just install anti-spyware software - no need to even run it - and the French spyware immediately uninstalls itself without me having to do anything.
RIP America
July 4, 1776 - September 11, 2001
The whole suggestion of enforcing this client-side is so idiotic that I'm inclined to believe that there will be ISP-side enforcement and that in fact the client is only there to warn the user.
Nullius in verba
In France your ISP (well 99% of them) provide you with a preconfigured modem/routeur that they call a "box". This box handles IPTV and VoIP too. IPTV and VoIP depends on specs often known only to the ISP and therefore it is hard to find a compatible modem/routeur of your own, forcing you to use the ISP's if you want to use VoIP and IPTV (which is actually forced upon you as part of most ISP's basic package, it is difficult to get a truly IP-only connection here for a reasonable price, IP+VoIP+IPTV is actually cheaper than just IP) The long term plan is for all ISPs to agree on some basic standards for their "box" and the filtering software/spyware would be implemented on the "box" thus making it "unavoidable". Most people won't notice (don't get me started on how completely technically illiterate people are even allowed to connect to the network) the firmware update (they already don't as it is and most rely on basic out of the box settings) and blacklist updates and so on. Thank you ISPs who catter to technical morons and thanks to the french government for basically planning to introduce a mandatory in-your-home wiretap for everyone, guilty or not.
It surrenders itself immediately!
You know we around /. like to joke about things like encryption and the year of the linux desktop, but the more intrusive governments get, the more I see the internet as a whole routing around this damage and increasing both the use of *nix based systems and encryption. Imagine facebook levels of popularity but with encryption, privacy, and control as primary factors of computing for the masses. Because, in the end, its either that or we might as well just start walking around naked because we have "nothing to hide".
"It's ok, I'm completely secure as long as my iron is off"
France was also the country where scuba diving took off first in the general public (it used to be strictly military). The patent for the demand regulator was from Cousteau (ze one ;) & Gagnan, the World Underwater Federation (http://www.cmas.org/) has a French acronym because it was founded by the same gang that made scuba diving popular in France.
And at the time, the equipment was nowhere near as good as today. And the experience was lacking, or limited to very fit young military guys... so not immediately applicable to some less fit people. Diving was also not a commercial activity (where the business have a vested interest in making sure there's no problem), it was and still is in France largely handled by non-profit clubs. Who attracted adventurers at the time, less concerned about risk. So all this led to accident, who got the attention of authorities, who legislated to limit the worst abuse and make sure people had a proper training. All that scuba club do today in other countries.
As for what this scuba police is... I guess a cop fond of scuba diving found a trick to be paid to do what he liked ;)
Page 15, under "key objectives": "integration in any environment, including free software".
I'm curious to see how they intend to make that work out. :P
-- B.
This sig does in fact not have the property it claims not to have.
And I sure as hell won't allow them to install any of that stuff here.
What are they going to do if I refuse? Throw me in jail? Fine me? "
No, just disable your internet connection until you do. What's the problem?
They're pretty naive. For instance, they call ANY USB dongle, be it memory stick, Bluetooth dongle, HASP key, HSDPA/3G modem, a "key" (clé). They're also pretty much in the same shelf in their retail stores (FNAC/Darty). I've been living in France since January so I've had enough time to observe them. Their lack of interest for all things IT is troubling. Sure, they do have an elite, but the overall apetite for technology is surprisingly low. Must be the wine, I guess :)
This as yet non-existent, and obviously impossible piece of software will merely be the only way to disculpate oneself from accusations illegal warezing. Since it obviously reverses the burden of proof, it's unlikely to stand up to legal scrutiny whem it reaches a high court.
Note that, not only are the technical specs moronic, but they also are self defeating. For instance they want a FLOSS compatible version. Well, guess what, my Linux kernel license allows me to change it so that it will hide whatever I want from a given process. This is typically done by rootkits that hide their processes/files/modules from the rest of the system, but it should be quite easy to implement for the good guys.
In any case, as had been pointed out during the debates in parliament, you just need to do your downloading on a separate box, and not tell anyone about it. Sarkonazy's lapdog's response? "people onlh have one computer" - I shit. You. Not.
I keep a very expensive bottle of Champagne at all times in my fridge, just in case something humiliating and/or painful happens to the diminutive fascist son of a bitch. And if the fucker dies before the next election, I swear I'm ordering 12 case of Dom Pe to give away in the street.
In the first elections after the damn law was passed (regionales), they got disastrous results for the below 30 demo. Sarkonazy met with UMP MPs to discuss the bad results, and according to insiders they were freaked out and complained that his pet project had cost them the young vote for good. In an unpublished poll they found out that they had lost something close to half the young voters. Now those are not the most reliable voters, but Naboléon's core demographics of Alzheimer patients, racist deranged grannies and Vichy nostalgists has one redeeming quality: they're more likely to be rotting in hell than to be getting a hard on at the fucker's newest racist gimmick while dropping their bulletin in the ballot box.
For reference, in the 2007 election, the son of a bitch got 53% of the votes; but his opponent got 53% of the below 65 demo, he just got 65% of the geriatrics! Thankfully, many of those scumbags will have expired next time.