Oh, this is great. Earlier this year, Christopher Knight made a video to promote his run for the Board of Education in Rockingham County, NC. He posted his video to you-tube, and because it was clever and funny it got a lot of attention. VH-1 decided to include Mr. Knight’s video in it’s Web Junk 2.0 show. Mr. Knight, excited to see his video broadcast internationally, posted a copy of his segment of Web Junk 2.0 on You-Tube. Viacom, the parent of VH-1, then issued a take down order to You-Tube, and threatened Mr. Knight with copyright infringement. So to recap: Knight made a video which Viacom then broadcast without Knight’s permission; Knight posted a copy of that video showing his original video online and was sited for copyright violation of his own original material.
This is an example of the complete insanity which has come out of the copyright wars. Under Viacom’s logic, once they use someone else’s content they own it. But it is more likely that Viacom has just decided that if you are not a multi-national media company you have no copyright protection.
It has become the worn cliché of our times to express one’s disbelief in the ineptitude and corruption of our government or its officials. The very idea that the government should aid its neediest citizens has become a nostalgic dream — a tail handed down from past generations. Two years ago this week, hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and surrounding areas. Our government was slow to respond and quick to blame. Two years later, after issuing billions of dollars for reconstruction, not a single one of the 115 critical projects identified by local government has been completed.
Conservative ideology has always been set on proving that government is less efficient and more wasteful then the private sector. The Bush administration went out of its way to accept this ideology and make it true. Instead of supplying funds to New Orleans, or municipalities it funneled money to large contractors like Halliburton early on believing that large private sector firms were more competent and appreciative then local business could be. The result has been a disaster for the people of New Orleans. Money has been moved away from public services like education, subsidized housing, and health-care and into charter schools, planned developments, and private hospitals. Instead of letting the people of New Orleans decide what the priorities of rebuilding were, this administration let the market decide. Some people have pointed to this as evidence of a conspiracy against the poor and middle-class of Louisiana, but there is no conspiracy: it is merely incompetence and greed.
The idea that private enterprise is more efficient that government has been accepted as gospel since the days of Ronald Reagan. It has never been true. Private enterprise is inherently corrupt - it has to be. It’s primary goal is not to deliver goods or a service, but to generate profit whatever way possible. Within that marketplace the only reason private enterprise delivers any quality of goods or services is due to competition and regulation. Conservative ideology was taken in by the notion that the larger and more successful a company the more competent it is. But when the government issues a massive contract there is no competition; the is no reason for the company to deliver goods or respond to the needs of citizens, and larger companies are inherently better at generating profits then delivering services.
The people of New Orleans are ready and capable of rebuilding their city, but this government, and its cadres, have withheld financial support. The people of New Orleans continue to suffer today because this administration is determined to prove its ideology of a low-tax privatized empire. It is beyond time that we recognized that this ideology is a failure, and return to the idea of a government for the people.
The Washington Post reported today that China will begin pushing images of cartoon police officers to Beijing Internet users beginning September 1st. The anime officers will remind users of their government’s all watchful eye. Specifically,
[t]he male and female cartoon officers, designed for the ministry by Sohu, will offer a text warning to surfers to abide by the law and tips on Internet security as they move across the screen in a virtual car, motorcycle or on foot.
The Internet in China is one of the most heavily monitored and censored in the world. Users are frequently banned from viewing material which is considered impolitic or immoral. The goal of this project is to further the specter of the all seeing and powerful government eye. But China’s Internet users have become adaptive and resourceful over the past few years, learning to circumvent and avoid their government’s controls. The AP noted that “[d]espite the controls, nudity, profanity, illegal gambling and pirated music, books and film have proliferated on Chinese Internet servers,” and a recent report on NPR highlighted the successes of Chinese online gamers in defeating government controls.
Governments, including our own, should know by now that censorship is pointless in an age where technology is plentiful. And that those citizens who are resourceful, curious, and adaptive enough to bypass government filters are the very citizens which have the necessary skills to lead their countries into the future. They should be lauded and not punished. If governments do not learn that lesson they will find themselves under siege by the best and brightest of their own citizens.
Alberto Gonzales resigned today as United State Attorney General. After nearly a year of growing criticism over his AG, Mr. Bush continued to defend his long time friend saying: “It’s sad that we live in a time that a talented and honorable person like Alberto Gonzales is impeding [sic] from doing important work because his good name was dragged through the mud for political purpose.” Many have hailed this resignation as a victory, or good news. They are wrong.
Alberto Gonzales led the most politicized and corrupt Justice Department seen in our times. His selective enforement of the law, his shielding of his political friends, and his contempt for congressional oversight made a mockery of the ideals of American justice. As Mr. Gonzales leaves on September 17th, he will leave unfettered by the notion that he has done anything wrong. No court, no committee, no prosecutor will have stepped up to hold him accountable. The legislature by their lack of legal action has sanctioned his. And the next Attorney General who decides that she/he will not pursue illegality in the White House or will use his/her powers the enrich their party may look back to the record of Alberto Gonzales and be assured that as long as you assert that your president is king, and that you are simply his vassal, you are inviolate. You need not be concerned that you will be judged against those same laws your swore to uphold. For as we now know, laws are for the common people and political opponents.
Earlier this week, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell gave a lengthy and somewhat duplicitous interview with the El Paso Times. Mr. McConnell made available a number of interesting assertions and revelations. For instance, this is the first time a government official acknowledged that private firms (such as AT&T and Verizon) had been aiding the intelligence establishment. The involvement of these firms had remained a secret until now. This confirmation will surely allow the EFF lawsuit against AT&T to continue. But McConnell also made some pretty odd assertions. In order to justify the government’s need to exempt eavesdropping from court reviews and the warrant process, the NID asserts that the 4th amendment just generates too much paperwork:
And now you’ve got to write it all up and it goes through the signature process, take it through (the Justice Department), and take it down to the FISA court. So all that process is about 200 man hours for one number.
As Ryan Singel has pointed out, based upon available figures from 2006 in which 2176 FISA warrants were approved, this means the NSA spent 436,200 hours on FISA warrants last year — an incredible number — around 53,275 workdays. This means the NSA employs one of the largest army of lawyers in country or Mr. McConnell is simply exaggerating to make his case more plausible. As it would be unthinkable to believe that our government would ever ever make up facts to justify its actions, I recommend all law students begin to flood the NSA with their resumes.
Throughout the interview McConnell stresses that foreign intelligence gathering should be unfettered by laws. Here, he’s essentially stating what both policy and law have reflected for nearly 50 years. FISA was never meant to apply to foreign surveillance - the original laws specifically exempts gathering on foreign soil. We are led to believe that a recent court ruling stated that a warrant was required if a called passed through American facilities, but not terminated in this country, and the law needed ‘updating’ due to this ruling. But McConnell’s duplicity seems to know no bounds. The law passed allows surveillance on American soil, against Americans, for any reason as long as he and the Mr. Gonzoles believe one of the parties is outside the country. By reiterating the need for foreign intelligence gathering, McConnell tries to give the impression that somehow American’s are exempt from warrantless surveillance. He even suggests that he insisted upon it:
[in the FISA update] I was after three points, no warrant for a foreigner overseas, a foreign intelligence target located overseas, liability protection for the private sector and the third point was we must be required to have a warrant for surveillance against a U.S. person. And when I say U.S. person I want to make sure you capture what that means. That does not mean citizen. That means a foreigner, who is here, we still have to have a warrant because he’s here . . .
McConnell tries to spin himself and the intelligence community as simply professional and law abiding. But given what we know about the previous year’s Terrorists Surveillance Program, we know this is not the case. What we know of the program strongly indicates that it was carried out in violation of FISA and several other federal laws. During that time little effort was made to modify FISA or share information about the program. It would appear that FISA didn’t need ‘updating’ until TSP became public. In other words, McConnell is saying now that you know about our illegal activities, we need to make them legal so those pesky courts can’t annoy us.
McConnell then goes on to employ the greatest trope used used by the security state:
The fact we’re doing it [discussing surveillance] this way means that some Americans are going to die, because we do this mission unknown to the bad guys because they’re using a process that we can exploit and the more we talk about it, the more they will go with an alternative means and when they go to an alternative means, remember what I said, a significant portion of what we do, this is not just threats against the United States, this is war in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Q. So you’re saying that the reporting and the debate in Congress means that some Americans are going to die?
A. That’s what I mean. Because we have made it so public. We used to do these things very differently, but for whatever reason, you know, it’s a democratic process and sunshine’s a good thing.
Yes, for some reason, it’s a democratic process - damm founding fathers, and their checks and balances.
This is without a doubt the most absurd argument put forth by this administration in the entire surveillance state debate. The “I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you” message is designed to stop all critical inquiry into our government’s actions. It is intimidation through hyperbole. The argument suggests that our intelligence community is either 1) greatly under estimating their adversaries, 2) engaging in acts which would be abhorrent to the people they are serving, or 3) both.
Around the world, America is viewed as a technological powerhouse. We have the largest and most sophisticated intelligence gathering operations in the world. Anyone who has ever reviewed the basics of American surveillance during the Cold War would come away inspired by American ingenuity and technology. Yet, this administration suggests that the same terrorists which they claim have a vast global well organized network would not think that America was eavesdropping on their phone calls? Do they really believe that these terrorists networks are unfamiliar with the basics of guerrilla warfare? The premise of which states that a weaker force should always use their opponents strengths against them — for instance, an opponent with vast electronic eavesdropping capabilities may be overwhelmed by false intelligence planted electronically. If we are to believe the ‘wiretapping is too secret to talk about’ argument, then we are to believe that our own intelligence community is comprised of unimaginative dunces spending all their time filling out warrant requests and scrutinizing every utterance as a real threat against America. If this is the case no amount of secrecy will prevent attacks against this country. It is far more likely that the intelligence community requires such secrecy because it is engaged in acts which violate the law and founding principles of this country. It is more likely that this administration is more interested in surveilling political opponents at home then they are eavesdropping on threats abroad. It it more likely that the intelligence community is building a national surveillance state rather then protecting the laws they were sworn to enforce.
Mr. McConnell was absolutely correct about about one thing, “sunshine is a good thing”, but dawn remains far off for the moment.
Robert Greenwald has done a nice video summation of the push for war with Iran:
The media has been particularly lazy in trying to understand or present the complexities of both Middle Eastern and Islamic culture and politics. For instance, I am sure that you have not heard that Al Qaeda has been threatening Iran with war, but I am sure you have been given the impression that somehow the two are working together.
I learned today that Joybubbles (aka Josef Engressia) had died on August 8th. I never knew Joybubbles, never spoke to him, but I knew of him. I had first heard his name some thirty years ago when I was shown my first bluebox, and heard how he had routed a phone call around the world to a phone next to himself just to hear his voice travel. Joybubbles, and others like him, inspired my generation of ‘hackers’ to learn about systems and how they work — to seize technology and harvest it where we could, to invent and aspire. Joybubbles lived a tragic life, but his legacy is vast and deep. You may never have heard of him, but the fact that you are reading this online means you owe him a debt of gratitude.
Oh, this is great. Earlier this year, Christopher Knight made a video to promote his run for the Board of Education in Rockingham County, NC. He posted his video to you-tube, and because it was clever and funny it got a lot of attention. VH-1 decided to include Mr. Knight’s video in it’s Web Junk 2.0 show. Mr. Knight, excited to see his video broadcast internationally, posted a copy of his segment of Web Junk 2.0 on You-Tube. Viacom, the parent of VH-1, then issued a take down order to You-Tube, and threatened Mr. Knight with copyright infringement. So to recap: Knight made a video which Viacom then broadcast without Knight’s permission; Knight posted a copy of that video showing his original video online and was sited for copyright violation of his own original material.
copyright, intellectual property, you-tube
