Twitter has been busy opening its data up to media ? through a deal with CNN and Dataminr ? and the music industry ? via an agreement with 300 Entertainment ? and now it is focusing on helping researchers and academics.
Why DRM is the root of all evil
In my latest Guardian column, What happens with digital rights management in the real world?, I explain why the most important fact about DRM is how it relates to security and disclosure, and not how it relates to fair use and copyright. Most importantly, I propose a shortcut through DRM reform, through a carefully designed legal test-case.
Peter from the Electronic Frontier Foundation writes, “Over at EFF, we just released a version of our HTTPS Everywhere extension for Firefox for Android.
Now Published: Study Showing Pirate Bay Blockade Has No Effect
First time accepted submitter Neelix21 writes “Last week a Dutch court decided that the blockade of the Pirate Bay website was ineffective and disproportionate. The academic study that measured this effect has now been published: ‘This paper studies the effectiveness of this approach towards online copyright enforcement, using both a consumer survey and a newly developed non-infringing technology for BitTorrent monitoring.
A new Snowden leak, reported by NBC, documents the UK spy agency GCHQ’s attacks on Anonymous, which included Denial-of-Service attacks, which are strictly forbidden under UK law. As the Slashdot story notes, “Regular citizens would face 10 years in prison and enormous fines for committing a DoS / DDoS attack. The same applies if they encouraged or assisted in one. But if you work in the government, it seems like you’re an exception to the rule.”
UK ‘used denial of service’ against Anonymous
A division of UK surveillance agency GCHQ launched a distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) against Anonymous, according to documents taken from the US National Security Agency (NSA) by Edward Snowden and seen by NBC News. The revelation
The New Snowden Revelation Is Dangerous for Anonymous ? And for All of Us
Whether you agree with the activities of Anonymous or not — there are many shades of gray around using DDoS attacks as a protest tactic — the salient point is that democratic governments are now using their very tactics against them. The key difference, however, is that those involved in Anonymous can and have faced their day in court for those tactics … while governments remain unchecked. And that power differential makes all the difference
Bitcoin is more than a speculators? currency
Swapping in and out of Bitcoin sounds complex but is less so than a typical foreign exchange transaction via a bank, , which goes through several platforms
Google?s long-running antitrust case with the European Commission is finally coming to a close. The technology company has agreed to prominently display at least three of rival services whenever a search result returns a link to one of its own services, such as Google Shopping or Gmail.
8 Ways Facebook Changed the World
Happy birthday, Facebook!
It’s only been 10 years, but the company that connected the world has had more experiences than most have in a lifetime. It’s been the focus of a major motion film. It’s played a role in multiple political revolutions. And most notably, it connects more people than any other single company ever has
Smartphones have changed our lives so much that it can be difficult to imagine what will come next. But there are times when our smartphones fail us: when we are exercising or when we want to be unplugged, but remain reachable in case of an emergency. Wearable devices are stepping into those places where smartphones are falling short, integrating their technological capabilities more seamlessly into our daily lives.
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