denyerec.co.uk

Looks like the snowball is about to gather speed, so all stand for the entrance of Big Brother! “British” Telecom have block the Pirate Bay, presumably off the back of the lawsuit which found the operators guilty of linking to other people. Whilst I don’t support rampant proliferation of copyright material (As a photographer, that is one thing you become quite sensitive to) I am acutely aware of the ramifications of both the lawsuit and the move on behalf of BT. What we are seeing here is pressure from private enterprise forcing potentially erroneous legal judgements and censorship. BT Blocked the pirate bay because MGM and the music industry leant on them hard enough. Will they block anti-war material if BAE Systems lean hard enough too? Will they surreptitiously silence Pro-Green website should Shell and Exxon pad the brown envelopes with sufficient enthusiasm? I believe they’re calling this move an adoptation of a “voluntary” code, voluntary purely because the capitalist directors of said actions aren’t the ones who can call it law. Yet.

Blocking adult content, whilst altruistic in the vein of preventing exposure (ho ho) of children to such material is at the mercy of whoever gets to define “Adult”. Do we prevent coverage of wars via mobile media beause it’s “Unsuitable for children”? How about police brutality, will that eventually fall under the PG-13 filter? Public opinion and the social conscious is already defined by and large by the powers that control popular media but, for now, the free press and democratic contributors to the public domain pool of knowledge are at least given an even field on which to play. I’m as able to visit fox.com as I am www.medialens.org. Admittedly I choose not to visit Fox, as I don’t want to have to take a shower afterward, but you hopefully see my point. Once private enterprise is allowed to interfere with the neutrality of the internet insofar as to have content that conflicts with their agenda blocked, you open the doors to a dark, dark place.

I wanted to rant about Adobe’s new storefront, which is all flash based. But I’m too angry. I’m actually too worked up to phrase it coherantly. I will return when I’ve calmed down to explain myself. In the meantime, whoever built the thing, please, choke on a rock, die in a fire and then burn in whichever hell you believe.

Actually, thinking about it, that might not even be harsh enough.

A gem I was directed to by Tigl from IRC, apparently the No2ID guys lifted our dear home secretary’s fingerprints from a glass they whipped out of a speaking venue. Brilliant.

It seems that the BBC, guilty of the odd jaunt into fictional reporting, has turned it into a full time occupation. Apparently our beloved facist underminer Jacqui Smith believes that ID Cards are in demand, which is funny, because I don’t know of a single person with whom I’ve discussed the issue who actually thinks they’re a good idea.

Don’t make me put the Niemoller quote again. Please don’t.

Turns out my occasional ranting about the really really rude people at the TV Licensing has picked up its fair share of traffic from Google, leading to an email from the owner of a site called NoTVLicenceFee. Go ahead and take a look, he’s certainly more motivated than me when it comes to raising awareness and actually doing something about it.

Again another shining example of why large government databases are a bad idea. No, not because I’m paranoid about the government (Honest!) but I’m paranoid about the random Toms, Dicks and Harrys that are going to pick up my private data in a pub car park.

12M Government Gateway accounts compromised concerns me more than usual, because now I have to amend all my Government Gateway details.

I wish pigshit-thick civil servants would stop liberally hosing my personal details around the place, thankyouverymuch. The level of complacancy displayed by our database-obsessed overlords when it comes to digital information is really quite frightening. Fighting terror in Iraq? I say spend a little money on “fighting terror” at home, with simple, cost effective measures such as “Not leaving your laptop on a train” and “Keeping your memorysticks encrypted and on a secure keychain”. I’m sure that’s a lot cheaper than a Eurofighter, though not really as sexy to sell.

..because you’ll know you should be buying a new PC.

I knew there was a quote I wanted to use in my earlier post, but couldn’t put my finger on it. Fortunately a Democracy Now vid tipped me off and I sought it out.

When Hitler attacked the Jews I was not a Jew, therefore I was not concerned.

And when Hitler attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and therefore, I was not concerned.

And when Hitler attacked the unions and industrialists, I was not a member of the unions and I was not concerned.

Then, Hitler attacked me and the Protestant church — and there was nobody left to be concerned.

-Martin Niemoller, German Protestant Pastor, 1892-1984

We do not have to agree with each other, but we do have to stand together to protect against being taken advantage of.