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Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2006 12:00:05 +0100
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Subject: NetBehaviour Digest, Vol 66, Issue 5
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Today's Topics:
1. Pirate Party Launches World's First Commercial Darknet. (info)
2. Police decryption powers 'flawed'. (marc)
3. Complaint filed with FTC over AOL data exposure. (info)
4. U.S. Lags World in Grasp of Genetics and Acceptance of
Evolution. (info)
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Message: 1
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2006 11:01:00 +0100
From: info <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [NetBehaviour] Pirate Party Launches World's First Commercial
Darknet.
To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity
<netbehaviour@netbehaviour.org>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Pirate Party Launches World's First Commercial Darknet.
Today, the Swedish Pirate Party launched a new Internet service that
lets anybody send and receive files and information over the Internet
without fear of being monitored or logged. In technical terms, such a
network is called a "darknet". The service allows people to use an
untraceable address in the darknet, where they cannot be personally
identified.
"There are many legitimate reasons to want to be completely anonymous on
the Internet," says Rickard Falkvinge, chairman of the Pirate Party. "If
the government can check everything each citizen does, nobody can keep
the government in check. The right to exchange information in private is
fundamental to the democratic society. Without a safe and convenient way
of accessing the Internet anonymously, this right is rendered null and
void."
File sharing of music, films, and other forms of culture is where the
surveillance of Internet addresses has attracted the most attention,
largely because the entertainment industry has been so aggressive in
suing Internet users for copyright infringement, suing college students
and single mothers alike without concern.
"But there are much more fundamental values at stake here than
copyright," Rickard Falkvinge says. "The new technology has brought
society to a crossroads. The only way to enforce today's unbalanced
copyright laws is to monitor all private communications over the
Internet. Today's copyright regime cannot coexist with an open society
that guarantees the right to private communication."
"Until we have changed the laws to ensure that citizens' right to
privacy is respected, we have a moral obligation to protect the citizens
from the effects of the current routine surveillance," Falkvinge
continues. "This is our technical means to do just that."
The service is provided by the Swedish high-tech company Relakks, which
offers a neutral IP on top of your existing ISP service through a
strongly encrypted VPN connection. Basically, this gives users the
advantage of a Swedish IP address from anywhere in the world.
more...
http://linkme2.net/9e
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Message: 2
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2006 11:04:40 +0100
From: marc <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [NetBehaviour] Police decryption powers 'flawed'.
To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity
<netbehaviour@netbehaviour.org>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Police decryption powers 'flawed'.
The government faces criticism over plans to give police powers to make
suspects produce readable copies of encrypted computer evidence. The
police say the powers are needed because criminals are increasingly
using encryption to hide evidence.
They estimate that currently there are 30 cases in which encrypted
evidence had stumped investigators. But some peers, academics and
cryptographers say the plans are flawed and risk being abused.
The plans to let police demand decryption are part of the controversial
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) that came into force in
2000. Part III of RIPA gives law enforcement agencies the decryption
powers and, provided some conditions are met, makes it a serious offence
to refuse to turn scrambled files into an "intelligible" form. Those
refusing could see their sentence increased as a result.
The government is holding a consultation exercise on the code of conduct
that those using these powers will have to abide by. The code was
debated at a public meeting organised by digital rights group the
Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR).
At the meeting a government spokesman, Simon Watkin of the Home Office,
defended the plans saying there were limits on when powers could be invoked.
more...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4794383.stm
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2006 11:08:58 +0100
From: info <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [NetBehaviour] Complaint filed with FTC over AOL data
exposure.
To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity
<netbehaviour@netbehaviour.org>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Complaint filed with FTC over AOL data exposure.
by Eric Bangeman.
On the list of things you hope no one finds out about you, the fact that
you have a fetish for Simpsons porn would have to be up near the top.
One user's predilection for erotica based on prime-time cartoons is only
one of the thousands of data points revealed in last week's disclosure
of AOL users' search history by the ISP. In response, the Electronic
Frontier Foundation has filed a complaint (PDF) with the Federal Trade
Commission, accusing AOL of violating the Federal Trade Commission Act
and asking for the FTC to take action against it.
The EFF says AOL has engaged in deceptive and unfair trade practices
with its data disclosure. Citing AOL's own Network Privacy Policy, the
EFF says that the company failed to "implement reasonable and
appropriate measures to protect personal consumer information from
public disclosure." Beyond that, AOL's failure to "employ proper
security measures... to protect personal consumer information from
public disclosure" constitutes an unfair trade practice, says the EFF.
more...
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060815-7504.html
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2006 11:15:07 +0100
From: info <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [NetBehaviour] U.S. Lags World in Grasp of Genetics and
Acceptance of Evolution.
To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity
<netbehaviour@netbehaviour.org>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
U.S. Lags World in Grasp of Genetics and Acceptance of Evolution.
By Ker Than.
A comparison of peoples' views in 34 countries finds that the United
States ranks near the bottom when it comes to public acceptance of
evolution. Only Turkey ranked lower.
Among the factors contributing to America's low score are poor
understanding of biology, especially genetics, the politicization of
science and the literal interpretation of the Bible by a small but vocal
group of American Christians, the researchers say.
???American Protestantism is more fundamentalist than anybody except
perhaps the Islamic fundamentalist, which is why Turkey and we are so
close,??? said study co-author Jon Miller of Michigan State University.
The researchers combined data from public surveys on evolution collected
from 32 European countries, the United States and Japan between 1985 and
2005. Adults in each country were asked whether they thought the
statement ???Human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species
of animals,??? was true, false, or if they were unsure.
The study found that over the past 20 years:
-The percentage of U.S. adults who accept evolution declined from 45 to
40 percent.
-The percentage overtly rejecting evolution declined from 48 to 39
percent, however.
-And the percentage of adults who were unsure increased, from 7 to 21
percent.
Of the other countries surveyed, only Turkey ranked lower, with about 25
percent of the population accepting evolution and 75 percent rejecting
it. In Iceland, Denmark, Sweden and France, 80 percent or more of adults
accepted evolution; in Japan, 78 percent of adults did.
more...
http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/060810_evo_rank.html
------------------------------
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