Thank God (and Torvalds) for Linux. There won't be any spyware on my machine.
Only if you're not installing binary blobs, i.e. drivers (*cough* nVidia *cough*) in the kernel and closed source programs (*cough* Flashplayer *cough*). And who knows what's lurking inside your closed-source BIOS (both on the motherboard and in network adapters)? I'm not saying that those binary blogs contain spyware, but I have no way (short of reverse-engineering them) to be sure they don't... and never will on subsequent updates.
Then we'll see how long it takes for the free-market to self correct.
It could take longer than you think. All those ISPs mentioned in the article are in fact big nationwide network providers (owners of the WAN cables and infrastructure), with near-monopoly on the pipes. Most smaller ISPs are actually subcontractors to those big ones. If those 800lb gorillas decided to depeer Google, it would immediately affect most other ISPs too.
Never underestimate the aggregate power of the NSA's infrastructure. While they don't need to decrypt every communication (even if they could by some secret advances in cryptography), they can very easily do automated traffic analysis on the whole traffic they're tapping into. And that's all they need to know to do their job quite effectively nowadays.
The infamous Hamburg District Court is known for routinely churning out some very dubious verdicts, void of common sense. As long as nobody takes them up to higher courts, including the Supreme Court, they'll continue doing so and being the venue of choice for all kinds of plaintiffs... like this one in the US.
Sure, many other countries don't do it, but how long do you think it'll be until they implement those kinds of checks for foreigners?
IIRC, some countries like Brazil apply the principle of reciprocity. I.e. they fingerprint US travelers, but not travelers from the EU, simply because Brazilians don't get fingerprinted in the EU but get fingerprinted in the US. But I may be wrong, as I don't recall exactly where I've read or heard that.
Sorting by sender, subject, time of arrival etc is non existent!
Just use your favorite IMAP client to access GMail. Personally, I use GMail via IMAP too, because GMail's web interface won't display mails in non-proportional fonts, basically ruining any ASCII diagrams I get or send (or I haven't yet figured out how to configure GMail to get rid of those proportional fonts).
Much noise has been made about cryptographic trust relationships, but the fact that none has ever materialized in P2P over the last decade+, indicates it's not as easy of a problem as people would like to believe.
Indeed. There's a whole section of papers dedicated to the problem of trust and accountability in P2P networks on the gnunet website.
Once the admins and users will start getting jail time and huge fines more often, we would have already moved to more decentralized and anonymous P2P technologies, and if not, such a (predictable) move would just accelerate this migration. And besides, dictatorships crack down heavily on their internet users, but these users still try to get past censorship despite very heavy risks for their own lives. What makes you think that western governments' cracking down on filesharers will have any more effect than what China, Iran et. al. do to their people? Filesharing will go on, it will just be a little bit more underground and not so open as it is today.
Content you get for free can't be paid content, by definition. That content was meant by the copyright holder to be purchased and paid for, but it isn't paid if you got it for free.
With every employee that nurses a grudge against you, and with every employee who thinks he/she needs more than his/her regular salary... heck, with every employee that you hire, your risk of getting spies increases. Sub-contracting NSA or third parties and closely monitoring them is significantly safer than the trusted spies within.
Honest question - is it really worth their time (and costs) to write open-sourced drivers for Linux?
How much time does it take to publish the source code of their currently closed binary blob? Nobody asks them to write a different driver that they could open-source, as that would be silly.
I for one appreciate the great binary only drivers you provide me on my Linux systems.
Good for you. But some of us actually care about the nature of the code that runs in kernel mode (sic!) for security and auditing reasons... and some of us don't use popular/supported kernel like Linux but something more exotic. Sure, we can always use X in VESA mode there, but Nvidia's binary-only move still sucks. It's AMd/ATI and Intel all the way here.
We already have that -- it's just not as popular / convenient for average Joes and Janes: it's called the Web! Everyone can create and operate his/her own website, and link to friends' websites to their hearts desires. With the added benefit of being in complete control of their own little realm and not at the mercy of some corporations that would sell their customers' data every time they feel like it.
Why not? So Google will finally require https as opposed to http for their search engine front, just like they do with Gmail. A couple less eavesdroppers in the middle can't be too bad.
They learned the lesson from the Soviet communists: as soon as they start political reforms (they were the first to start economic reforms, so they're not totally averse to reforms per se), they won't be able to keep their firm grip on their population. So they agree to keep going, hoping they'll remain in power for as long as possible.
Back in the days when the 'net was a IE-only turf, things were rather ugly, and somewhat hopeless. Then came Mozilla, and slowly things started to change.
I remember using NCSA-Mosaic on SunOS, a couple of years before IE even existed.
Slashdot Mirror
Only if you're not installing binary blobs, i.e. drivers (*cough* nVidia *cough*) in the kernel and closed source programs (*cough* Flashplayer *cough*). And who knows what's lurking inside your closed-source BIOS (both on the motherboard and in network adapters)? I'm not saying that those binary blogs contain spyware, but I have no way (short of reverse-engineering them) to be sure they don't... and never will on subsequent updates.
Nope, the already installed NSA or DoJ spyware will simply be "upgraded." ;-)
I too wished Flash went away, because of Adobe's non-support of FreeBSD. This why such on-the-fly transcoding services are highly welcome here.
It could take longer than you think. All those ISPs mentioned in the article are in fact big nationwide network providers (owners of the WAN cables and infrastructure), with near-monopoly on the pipes. Most smaller ISPs are actually subcontractors to those big ones. If those 800lb gorillas decided to depeer Google, it would immediately affect most other ISPs too.
And then, the friendly TEMPEST guys in black vans will sniff all your electromagnetic interferences, while you're re-encrypting your precious data...
Never underestimate the aggregate power of the NSA's infrastructure. While they don't need to decrypt every communication (even if they could by some secret advances in cryptography), they can very easily do automated traffic analysis on the whole traffic they're tapping into. And that's all they need to know to do their job quite effectively nowadays.
Colonel Sandurz: Are we being too literal?
Dark Helmet: No you fool, we're following orders. We were told to comb the desert so we're combing it.
The infamous Hamburg District Court is known for routinely churning out some very dubious verdicts, void of common sense. As long as nobody takes them up to higher courts, including the Supreme Court, they'll continue doing so and being the venue of choice for all kinds of plaintiffs... like this one in the US.
IIRC, some countries like Brazil apply the principle of reciprocity. I.e. they fingerprint US travelers, but not travelers from the EU, simply because Brazilians don't get fingerprinted in the EU but get fingerprinted in the US. But I may be wrong, as I don't recall exactly where I've read or heard that.
Just use your favorite IMAP client to access GMail. Personally, I use GMail via IMAP too, because GMail's web interface won't display mails in non-proportional fonts, basically ruining any ASCII diagrams I get or send (or I haven't yet figured out how to configure GMail to get rid of those proportional fonts).
Indeed. There's a whole section of papers dedicated to the problem of trust and accountability in P2P networks on the gnunet website.
Once the admins and users will start getting jail time and huge fines more often, we would have already moved to more decentralized and anonymous P2P technologies, and if not, such a (predictable) move would just accelerate this migration. And besides, dictatorships crack down heavily on their internet users, but these users still try to get past censorship despite very heavy risks for their own lives. What makes you think that western governments' cracking down on filesharers will have any more effect than what China, Iran et. al. do to their people? Filesharing will go on, it will just be a little bit more underground and not so open as it is today.
If your hand passes right through it, it's probably a holo-duck on some holo-deck.
Content you get for free can't be paid content, by definition. That content was meant by the copyright holder to be purchased and paid for, but it isn't paid if you got it for free.
In western countries, Copyright jails you!
Let's hope Novell will also refrain from harassing us OpenSolaris users.
With every employee that nurses a grudge against you, and with every employee who thinks he/she needs more than his/her regular salary... heck, with every employee that you hire, your risk of getting spies increases. Sub-contracting NSA or third parties and closely monitoring them is significantly safer than the trusted spies within.
How much time does it take to publish the source code of their currently closed binary blob? Nobody asks them to write a different driver that they could open-source, as that would be silly.
Good for you. But some of us actually care about the nature of the code that runs in kernel mode (sic!) for security and auditing reasons... and some of us don't use popular/supported kernel like Linux but something more exotic. Sure, we can always use X in VESA mode there, but Nvidia's binary-only move still sucks. It's AMd/ATI and Intel all the way here.
I don't know about Linux, but BSD definitely contained Unix code from USL, and vice-versa. They settled out of court. Should ever SCO decided to go after BSD, it would open a big can of worms. More details can be found in The Unix Heritage Society and Bitsavers Archives.
So, basically, you want a (biological?) VISOR.
We already have that -- it's just not as popular / convenient for average Joes and Janes: it's called the Web! Everyone can create and operate his/her own website, and link to friends' websites to their hearts desires. With the added benefit of being in complete control of their own little realm and not at the mercy of some corporations that would sell their customers' data every time they feel like it.
Why not? So Google will finally require https as opposed to http for their search engine front, just like they do with Gmail. A couple less eavesdroppers in the middle can't be too bad.
They learned the lesson from the Soviet communists: as soon as they start political reforms (they were the first to start economic reforms, so they're not totally averse to reforms per se), they won't be able to keep their firm grip on their population. So they agree to keep going, hoping they'll remain in power for as long as possible.
I remember using NCSA-Mosaic on SunOS, a couple of years before IE even existed.