On a recent visit to China, I found that none of the cybercafes I visited allowed me to open an ssh connection to a remote server. Also, the private internet cafes did not allow me to create any kind of ssl connection. However, the offical one inside the postal office allowed to do that.
While this is obviously not a representative study, it seems evidence that certain types of connections (ie. those that cannot be monitored) are difficult to establish from computers that are publically accessible .
As the economist article points out, censorship does not need to be wateright to be effective.
Jon Katz, quoting Arendt, says that all revolutions are about feeling free and creating something new and that this applies to the Internet as much as it applies to,say, the French or the Russian revolution. However, there is a deep difference between the Net and other revolutions and this difference might be the reason why is the there is such a feeling of emptiness now.
All other revolutions were about something very specific. The French was about creating a rational and just society (as opposed to the irrational and traditional society of the ancien regime). The Russian revolution was about ending exploitation (as opposed to capitalism which is based on it). The fact that they never really got there doesn't matter for the moment. The Net revolution was never really about anything in particular. Even Linux and Open Source is, at its heart, about good tools and the right to play with them. The movement as a whole has barely any social or political vision behind. I think that is one of the reason why so many people sold out so quickly. There weren't any ideals to compromise. If corporate webserves run on Apache you could have the cake and eat it too. Be part of the revolution and get a good pay check.
Given the fact the customer liability is limited to $50 (in the US) in case of credit card fraud, this is primarily to protect the credit card companies from dealing with all the complaints, both from users and merchants. If it's a one time number, then you cannot argue anymore that someone stole your number.
Bottom line: good for AMEX, no change for you and me.
There a are a couple of programs history of science and technology at universities in the US, and, eventually, they will catch up with computers....
The best histories of media technologies (TV, computers etc.) are written by German scholars (don't ask me why), particularly Friedrich A. Kittler and Siegfried Zielinksi. Kittler is Professor in Berlin, Zielinksi is founding rector and chair for Communication and Media Studies at the Kunsthochschule fur Medien in Cologne, Germany.
Little has been translated into English and it is a bit theory-heavy but if you're determined that's the place to start.
France is protecting state interests not individual rights. Just consider that France recently passed a law that requires ISPs and other access providers to gather the full names of their users, effectively making it impossible to use a French services to publish anything anoymously.
Corporatism is the classic poli-sci definition of fascism. The idea behind it is that there are less differences between business and government of a single nation than between nations (or more recently, tradition blocks). In Germany and Italy in the 1920s and 30s, this went so far as also to include the unions into the mix and create vertically integrated corporative bodies (e.g. the chemical industry that includes companies, workers and government agencies, all working on the alleged common goal). It's easy to see what that does to dissent and the freedom of speech. The result of this, historically, was an industry that worked in the interests of the government (e.g. producing huge amounts of military material on credit) what happens now is that government works in the interests of industry (e.g. by enacting over-blown copyright laws). A good book on that is Betram Gross Friendly Fascism : The New Face of Power in America
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On a recent visit to China, I found that none of the cybercafes I visited allowed me to open an ssh connection to a remote server. Also, the private internet cafes did not allow me to create any kind of ssl connection. However, the offical one inside the postal office allowed to do that.
While this is obviously not a representative study, it seems evidence that certain types of connections (ie. those that cannot be monitored) are difficult to establish from computers that are publically accessible .
As the economist article points out, censorship does not need to be wateright to be effective.
Jon Katz, quoting Arendt, says that all revolutions are about feeling free and creating something new and that this applies to the Internet as much as it applies to,say, the French or the Russian revolution. However, there is a deep difference between the Net and other revolutions and this difference might be the reason why is the there is such a feeling of emptiness now.
All other revolutions were about something very specific. The French was about creating a rational and just society (as opposed to the irrational and traditional society of the ancien regime). The Russian revolution was about ending exploitation (as opposed to capitalism which is based on it). The fact that they never really got there doesn't matter for the moment. The Net revolution was never really about anything in particular. Even Linux and Open Source is, at its heart, about good tools and the right to play with them. The movement as a whole has barely any social or political vision behind. I think that is one of the reason why so many people sold out so quickly. There weren't any ideals to compromise. If corporate webserves run on Apache you could have the cake and eat it too. Be part of the revolution and get a good pay check.
Given the fact the customer liability is limited to $50 (in the US) in case of credit card fraud, this is primarily to protect the credit card companies from dealing with all the complaints, both from users and merchants. If it's a one time number, then you cannot argue anymore that someone stole your number. Bottom line: good for AMEX, no change for you and me.
There a are a couple of programs history of science and technology at universities in the US, and, eventually, they will catch up with computers.... The best histories of media technologies (TV, computers etc.) are written by German scholars (don't ask me why), particularly Friedrich A. Kittler and Siegfried Zielinksi. Kittler is Professor in Berlin, Zielinksi is founding rector and chair for Communication and Media Studies at the Kunsthochschule fur Medien in Cologne, Germany. Little has been translated into English and it is a bit theory-heavy but if you're determined that's the place to start.
France is protecting state interests not individual rights. Just consider that France recently passed a law that requires ISPs and other access providers to gather the full names of their users, effectively making it impossible to use a French services to publish anything anoymously.
Corporatism is the classic poli-sci definition of fascism. The idea behind it is that there are less differences between business and government of a single nation than between nations (or more recently, tradition blocks). In Germany and Italy in the 1920s and 30s, this went so far as also to include the unions into the mix and create vertically integrated corporative bodies (e.g. the chemical industry that includes companies, workers and government agencies, all working on the alleged common goal). It's easy to see what that does to dissent and the freedom of speech. The result of this, historically, was an industry that worked in the interests of the government (e.g. producing huge amounts of military material on credit) what happens now is that government works in the interests of industry (e.g. by enacting over-blown copyright laws). A good book on that is Betram Gross Friendly Fascism : The New Face of Power in America