The Hacktivists is a one-hour documentary on cultural subversion in the digital age. Powerful new types of protest on the internet reveal an emerging movement that’s leaderless, global, anarchic and chaotic.
A large BitTorrent tracker dealing only in documentaries has been shutdown after an anti-piracy company wrongfully identified content being tracked by the site. The 150,000 member site, which has had just “one mildly upset” copyright-related email in 4 years of operation, is moving to a new host.
The book Grand Theft Childhood got a good bit of attention upon its release, and the authors are back discussing reactions to the book, as well as issues that
Facts from IBM:In a quirk of fate, I met someone from IBM who was directly involved in implementing the wiretapping system that is all over the news. It is much worse than the news would suggest.As some have reported, this is definitely not just NSA. The bidding for the technology to do this project was conducted by members of the FBI and the CIA. During the proposal process, IBM was told explicitly that they were to answer questions, not ask them.One of the most noteworthy comments was that the Government had specified 60 Terabytes of monthly storage for digital versions of conversations. MONTHLY!
I'm referring, again, to the Viacom - Google lawsuit, the latest development of which is Google giving IP addresses (and other personal data) of users to Viacom
The Bush administration has reportedly ordered the Pentagon to prepare contingency plans for attacking seven countries with nuclear weapons. Quoting a secret Pentagon report, the Los Angeles Times newspaper names China, Russia, Iraq, North Korea, Iran, Libya and Syria as potential targets.
Christopher Hitchens writes in Vanity Fair:Here is the most chilling way I can find of stating the matter. Until recently, “waterboarding” was something that Americans did to other Americans. It was inflicted, and endured, by those members of the Special Forces who underwent the advanced form of training known as sere (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape). In these harsh exercises, brave men and women were introduced to the sorts of barbarism that they might expect to meet at the hands of a lawless foe who disregarded the Geneva Conventions. But it was something that Americans were being trained to resist, not to inflict.Exploring this narrow but deep distinction, on a gorgeous day last May I found myself deep in the hill country of western North Carolina, preparing to be surprised by a team of extremely hardened veterans who had confronted their country’s enemies in highly arduous terrain all over the world. They knew about everything from unarmed combat to enhanced interrogation and were going to show me as nearly as possible what real waterboarding might be like.Hitchens undergoing his first waterboarding session. Photograph: Gasper Tringale.
With his go-it-alone approach on Iraq, President Bush is flouting Congress and the public, so angering lawmakers that some consider impeachment an option over his war policy, a senator from Bush's own party said Sunday.
The father of Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks has confronted Prime Minister John Howard on radio about the charge laid against his son by the United States military commission South Australian
The nation's top spy, Michael McConnell, thinks the threat of cyberarmageddon! is so great that the U.S. government should have unfettered and warrantless access to U.S. citizens' Google search histories,
Staff in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet have been editing Wikipedia to remove details that might be damaging. - The Sydney Morning Herald