Wednesday 25 January 2012

RAP NEWS 11: Australia Day (For tomorrow!)

The Swinging Days of Newt Gingrich

HA!

(Click to enlarge)

evgenymorozov Evgeny Morozov
Assange must have pissed off literally everyone in the media by now; so now he gets his own TV show to interview himself?

Exclusive TV series hosted by Julian Assange to premiere on RT in March

Hallucinogenic Chemical Found in Magic Mushrooms Subdues Brain Activity

Tuesday 24 January 2012

- MegaUpload - Closed.
- FileServe - Closing does not sell premium.
- FileJungle - Deleting files. Locked in the U.S..
- UploadStation - Locked in the U.S..
- FileSonic - the news is arbitrary (under FBI investigation).
- VideoBB - Closed! would disappear soon.
- Uploaded - Banned U.S. and the FBI went after the owners who are gone.
- FilePost - Deleting all material (so will leave executables, pdfs, txts)
- Videoz - closed and locked in the countries affiliated with the USA.
- 4shared - Deleting files with copyright and waits in line at the FBI.
- MediaFire - Called to testify in the next 90 days and it will open doors pro FBI
-Org torrent - could vanish with everything within 30 days "he is under criminal investigation"
- Network Share mIRC - awaiting the decision of the case to continue or terminate Torrente everything.
- Koshiki - operating 100% Japan will not join the SOUP / PIPA
- Shienko Box - 100% working china / korea will not join the SOUP / PIPA
- ShareX BR - group UOL / BOL / iG say they will join the SOUP / PIPA
Via

MegaUpload Loses Top Lawyer After ‘Outside’ Pressure

Phone hacking: News of the World journalists lied to Milly Dowler police

Lana Del Rey - Video Games (Jamie Woon Remix)

Rick Falkvinge: the Swedish radical leading the fight over web freedoms

Rick Falkvinge, right, celebrates the election of Christian Engström, left, as an MEP in 2009 European parliament elections by hoisting a pirate flag over Stockholm. Photograph by Magnus Jönsson/PA

With his polished shoes, and formal three-piece pinstriped suit, Rick Falkvinge looks like the kind of man you might meet to discuss your tax affairs, or the finer points of your investment portfolio.
Not radical politics. Or illegal file-sharing. Or revolutionary e-currencies that may destroy the global banking system. Because, although sipping a soy latte in the Stockholm cafe that he calls his office, Falkvinge has the air of a successful corporate lawyer, he's actually the founder and chief ideologue of Europe's youngest, boldest, and fastest growing political movement: the Pirate party.
The Pirates are a political force that have come out of nowhere. Dreamed up by Falkvinge in 2006, they're an offshoot of the underground computer activist scene and champion digital transparency, freedom and access for all. In three years, they gained their first seat in the European parliament (they now have two) and became the largest party in Sweden for voters under 30. Since then they've gained political representation in Germany and swept large parts of Europe.
What they've done is to use technology in new ways to harness political power. Falkvinge describes how "we're online 24/7", how they operate in what he calls "the swarm" – nobody is in charge, and nobody can tell anybody else what to do – and how, essentially, they are the political embodiment of online activist culture.
The Pirates are geekdom gone mainstream and Falkvinge is the Julian Assange-style figurehead. A leading player in a fight for digital freedom that last week came to a dramatic head when the US Congress prepared to vote on the Stop Online Privacy Act (Sopa), and Wikipedia, supported by the likes of Google, led a 24-hour blackout of the internet.
The controversial legislation has, temporarily at least, been shelved, but Falkvinge is unequivocal about the gravity of the threat. The law would have given American courts the right to crack down on internet sites anywhere in the world and to monitor anybody's private communications. It is, he claims, nothing less than an attack on fundamental human rights.
"We're at an incredible crossroads right now. They're demanding the right to wiretap the entire population. It's unprecedented. This is a technology that can be used to give everybody a voice. But it can also be used to build a Big Brother society so dystopian that if someone had written a book about it in the 1950s, it would have been discarded as unrealistic."
The creeping attempts at legislation are down to the power of what he calls the "copyright monopoly", and although the US record industry and Hollywood studios view file-sharing sites as theft, and this week succeeded in having the founders of one site, Megaupload.com, charged with racketeering, Falkvinge is clear that it's no such thing.
"It's not theft. It's an infringement on a monopoly. If it was theft and it was property, we wouldn't need a copyright law, ordinary property laws would suffice." Nor does he have any truck with the argument that file-sharing hurts art and artists.
"It's just not true. Musicians earn 114% more since the advent of Napster. The average income per artist has risen 66%, with 28% more artists being able to make a living off their hobby. What is true is that there's an obsolete middle market of managers. And in a functioning market, they would just disappear."
But in any case, he says, it's not about the economy or creativity. "What it boils down to is a privileged elite who've had a monopoly on dictating the narrative. And suddenly they're losing it. We're at a point where this old corporate industry thinks that, in order to survive, it has to dismantle freedom of speech."
These are rights, he says, which the younger generation takes for granted and become incensed about when they are attacked.
"There's a complete disconnect between the way the younger generation understands technology and the way the older generation does. If you look at the record industry, particularly the British record industry, they don't call themselves the record industry but the 'music industry' or even just 'music'.
"So when the record industry is in a decline, they honestly think that music is in a decline, but it's not: 90% of music online isn't published through a label. There's more diversity than ever."
What isn't in any doubt is that the Pirates have appealed directly to young people. Falkvinge turned 40 yesterday and although he is of the first generation to have been brought up with computers – he got his first, a Commodore VIC-20 when he was eight – he's ancient for a Pirate party member.
"There are a few seniors, by which I mean people over 30, but the bulk is much, much younger. Honestly, if a member of a traditional party looked at our demographic, they wouldn't believe it. We are peaking at ages 18, 19."
And the issues which have made headlines this week, the attempts of lawmakers and the traditional, established industries to take on the new young upstarts of the digital age, are the ones which, he says, speak to the heart of this generation. "In the 1960s the buzzwords were peace and love. For this generation, it's openness and free speech. This generation has grown up being able to say anything to anybody. Letting ideas battle it out for themselves. And all of a sudden, corporations want to take that away. And 'offended' does not do their emotions justice."
Having taught himself how to code, Falkvinge set up his first software company aged 16, and calls himself "a first generation digital native". Although he's stepped down from day-to-day leadership of the Pirate party, and now operates as a self-styled "political evangelist", he certainly doesn't lack ambition. "Every 40 years, there's a new grassroots political movement," he says and traces a path between the rise of liberal parties in the 1890s, to the labour movement of the 1920s and 30s, the emergence of green politics in the 60s and the 70s, right up to the Pirate parties of today.
"Looking at the cycles of history, the time is right for a major new political wave. And the Pirate party is in 56 countries now. We had this smash success where we got into the European parliament in just three and a half years from founding. We became the largest party in that election for people under 30, just sweeping the floor with the most coveted demographic.
"The establishment didn't know what hit them."
In Germany last autumn, they gained major representation in the Berlin state parliament, and they're likely to achieve further success in Schleswig Holstein's elections in May.
"Where are we going?" Falkvinge asks rhetorically. "I think we are the next Greens."
That won't be seen as the hugest threat in Britain, I point out. But Britain is not Europe, and Falkvinge and the Pirates are ineffably European. There's more than a touch of Stieg Larsson to them. From the Scandi-cool roots, the computer hacking background of many of its members, and the underground nature of its support network, even up to its sexual politics. Falkvinge's Wikipedia entry describes him as "openly polyamorous".
What does that mean? "It means that I don't feel jealousy. I need to logically learn what it is. And I can be in love with several people at the same time and there's no conflict. And you know, in Sweden, this isn't a big issue."
Sexual libertarianism isn't an official Pirate policy, but "people in the Pirate party do tend to be more open to non-mainstream ideas. They are not as conformist as your average citizen."
The pinstripe suit is a bit of a cover, he admits. Look like a corporate lawyer. Act like a covert revolutionary. It's how to do politics, the pirate way.
Carole Cadwalladr @'The Guardian'

It’s Time To Go On The Offensive For Freedom Of Speech

Cyberlocker Ecosystem Shocked As Big Players Take Drastic Action

♪♫ Lana Del Rey - Born To Die (Remix by Damon Albarn)

Monday 23 January 2012

Jacob Applebaum: War On The Internet (Trades Hall/Melbourne 21/1/12)

Leonard Cohen and Old Ideas

In a recent public conversation with fellow rock bard Jarvis Cocker about the new recording Old Ideas, Leonard Cohen answered the younger man's suggestion that his songs are "penitential hymns" (a phrase Cohen himself employs in his new song "Come Healing") with jocular humility. "I'm not sure what that means, to be honest," Cohen reportedly replied. He continued, "Who's to blame in this catastrophe? I never figured that out."
The catastrophe he mentions is life itself — a description Cohen probably picked up from a fictional character he admires, Zorba the Greek, who embraced the "full catastrophe" of a well-connected, joyfully physical existence. The Buddhist teacher Jon Kabat-Zinn has also borrowed it for a book title, which is relevant, since Cohen's writing is famously philosophical, connecting his Jewish heritage to years of Zen meditation and an enduring existentialist bent.
But this spiritual master is a sensualist, too: His artistry is grounded in the careful examination of how the body and the soul interact. Old Ideas, his 12th studio album, was recorded after a triumphant world tour that had Cohen performing three-hour shows night after night — no mean feat for a man in his late 70s. It throbs with that life, its verses rife with zingers and painful confessions, and its music sounds more richly varied than anything Cohen has done in years.
Its depth comes in the tenderness and refined passion Cohen brings to his thorough descriptions of being human — a state in which pain and failure dance with transcendence and bliss, as he growls in harmony with his angelic backup singers in the beautiful "Come Healing," "The heart beneath is teaching to the broken heart above."
Old Ideas provides plenty of new lines like that, worthy of a Quotable Cohen anthology. (My favorite right now is from the folksy waltz "Crazy to Love You": "Crazy has places to hide in that are deeper than any goodbye.") But what makes this album special is its sound, which steps back from the synthesizer-heavy arrangements dominant on Cohen's other late-period work and explores a range of styles, from countrypolitan twang to gypsy jazz to Dylanesque blues.
Bobby Zimmerman, in fact, is a clear reference point throughout Old Ideas. At times, it seems like a response to Time Out of Mind, the 1997 release that marked the beginning of Dylan's epic lion-in-winter phase. (That he was only 57 when he made it shows how long a pop star's old age can last.) Like that album, Old Ideas contemplates mortality in the bitter light of failed romance; it fearlessly broaches emotional extremes while still dropping the wisdom of an elder who should know better. "The Darkness," with its funky undertow, and "Banjo," an easy talking blues, are especially Dylanesque, with Cohen adding tartness to his own gravelly growl and his band getting into a loose Americana groove.
In the end, of course, Leonard Cohen remains his own man, with a unique sound that brings the temple to the cabaret and a sensibility balancing humor and profundity on the crystal stem of a glass filled with red wine of an ideal vintage. In "Going Home," whose words were recently featured in The New Yorker by poetry editor Paul Muldoon, Cohen's inner spirit pokes fun at his pop-star self: "He's a lazy bastard living in a suit," the enlightened voice says. But you know what? That suit still fits, and the cut is perfection.
Ann Powers @'npr'

Leonard Cohen – Old Ideas (2012 - Albumstream)

Tracklist:
1. Going Home
2. Amen
3. Show Me The Place
4. Darkness
5. Anyhow
6. Crazy To Love You
7. Come Healing
8. Banjo
9. Lullaby
10. Different Sides
STREAM

Rapidshare says:

Dear RapidShare fans,
You posted some comments on our wall today regarding the shutdown of Megaupload. There is no reason to be concerned. We distinguish ourselves from services like Megaupload in many major issues and we aren’t threatened in any way. One of the main differences between RapidShare and Megaupload is that we never wanted to escape from the legal access of any administration. RapidShare AG was founded in Switzerland, was always based at the address cited in the imprint and was always managed with an authentic name without any anonymous intermediary companies. The drastic measures against Megaupload were obviously seen as necessary by the FBI because the situation was different there.
We wish you a great time with RapidShare!

:)

LoveIsFreedom69 Liam
@rupertmurdoch - Dear Murdoch. You are fucking old and going to die soon. Dont tell us kids what to think and feel anymore. Thanks

Another one bites the dust:

'UploadBox file hosting service is no longer available. All files will be deleted on January 30th. Feel free to download the files you store with UploadBox until this date.'

The Obama Memos

Let's talk about the law that already exists

Coming soon: The Flaming Lips & Ke$ha

Via

Boots Riley, Amiri Baraka & David Murray Live

Via

Monsanto, World's Largest Genetically Modified Food Producer, To Be Charged With Biopiracy In India

Can interviewed about Tago Mago (1972)

Interview in 1972 by Mike Rasfeld. Rasfeld worked for a program called 'Triad Radio' which aired on
WXFM in Chicago from 1969-1977.
Download
HERE

Can’s Crowning Krautrock Moment

Increased risk of Parkinson’s disease in individuals hospitalized with conditions related to the use of methamphetamine or other amphetamine-type drugs

(PDF)

(Thanx Keith!)

HA!

Image

Irony non?

Gingrich’s Deceptions

How Ed Wood's long lost horror film 'Final Curtain' finally made it to the big screen

mattblaze matt blaze

Belief that "content" is something created exclusively by "professionals" is what enables things like #SOPA to get the traction they do.

mattblaze matt blaze

I once asked a group of incoming undergrads how many were "content creators". Almost none. Yet almost all had FB pages, etc.

New European data laws to be announced on Wednesday: Facebook, Google face tough times

'Ooer Missus' X3

Fun starts around the minute mark...
Via

Collateral damage in the copyright wars

Last week's takedown of Megaupload and the counterattack by Anonymous demonstrate the stupidity and hypocrisy of the zealots on both sides of the internet's copyright war.
In the blue corner we have the US criminal justice system.
On Thursday, acting on requests from a US federal prosecutor, New Zealand police arrested Kim Dotcom, founder of Hong Kong-based Megaupload Limited, and three other company executives. The company's internet domains were seized and servers shut down. Authorities in Hong Kong froze $39 million in assets.
Megaupload ran a network of internet services, the best-known of which was file hosting site Megaupload.com. Users could upload files for others to download, either anonymously or as registered users with either a free or paid account.
"File sharing", in other words, but I'm avoiding that term because the copyright industries are keen to equate the noble word "sharing" with "stealing". Let's not encourage that fraud.
The feds claim Megaupload's customers were illegally distributing copyrighted material, generating $175 million as proceeds of that crime, and costing copyright owners $500 million in lost revenue.
In the red corner we have Anonymous.
Well, we have a random and unknown collection of people who claim that they support the worldview that is espoused by people who say they espouse the worldview labelled Anonymous. Could be anyone. But for the purposes of lazy reportage we'll just say "Anonymous said" and "Anonymous hacked", m'kay?
Anonymous claims (see previous paragraph) to have conducted "the single largest Internet attack in its history", though no numbers were given.
As usual, it was a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that flooded a bunch of websites off the grid. As usual, it was a scattergun selection, either "the law" or "the evil industry" or the like, ranging from the US Department of Justice and the FBI, to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and its chief executive Chris Dodd, Warner Music Group and so on.
In a way, this story is nothing new. Law enforcement agencies took action against an alleged copyright-infringing operation, and in retaliation there was a DDoS of various big-name sites. Yawn.
But in a week when the blackout protest of some of the world's most popular websites - as well as an estimated 75,000 to 115,000 others - drew attention to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA), thinking people's antennas are more finely attuned to the issues.
It's easy to point to Megaupload and say that something dodgy must have been going on. At least some of the more than 180 million registered users are bound to have been distributing copyright material. With those numbers, how could it be otherwise?
And that's without even exploring the site and seeing how easy it was to find the good stuff.
The FBI goes further, alleging that "the conspiracy" had set up their business model specifically to encourage users to upload popular copyrighted material for others to download.
"The indictment alleges that the site was structured to discourage the vast majority of its users from using Megaupload for long-term or personal storage by automatically deleting content that was not regularly downloaded," said the FBI's media release.
"In addition, by actively supporting the use of third-party linking sites to publicise infringing content, the conspirators did not need to publicise such content on the Megaupload site [itself]."
Other techniques were allegedly used to conceal copyright infringement, or convey the impression that Megaupload was acting to curb such activity when it wasn't.
None of this has yet been proven in court. Yet the sites have been shut down. Megaupload users who were going about their perfectly legitimate business have lost their subscription fees. Families can no longer exchange their home movies. Musicians, filmmakers and software developers can no longer share the files they were working on.
The FBI's timing is remarkably ham-fisted. This is precisely the kind of guilt-by-allegation and collateral damage that the anti-SOPA protestors have been banging on about. And if current laws make it difficult for American authorities to reach out beyond US shores to get the bad guys, um, so what just happened? Why are SOPA and PIPA needed, exactly?
What the FBI has just shown is that they'll pursue the movie, TV, book and music industries' allegations and shut down devices on the internet if it's believed - not proven - that they contain files that someone, somewhere, has an interest in. The device's owners or anyone else with an interest in what else is happening on that device won't be notified or, indeed, worried about at all.
And by "devices" I mean any of the 5 billion internet-connected computers, from a major company's cloud storage service to your businesses' file server, to the shared hosting server where its website lives, to your home media server, to the laptop on your desk, to the smartphone in your pocket.
Warner Music Group's revenue might be protected, but what about the band that just lost access to the master file for its new album? There goes next month's rent. What about your sales team's shared prospect list? There goes next quarter's revenue. Oops.
It's certainly put a dent in IT industry's call to "put it in the cloud".
It's certainly put a big red "must find out more" tag next to open source privacy-enhancing projects like the FreedomBox.
But Anonymous has been (see earlier paragraph) clueless too.
As Chenda Ngak wrote for CBS News, any goodwill in Washington that the anti-SOPA blackout generated has just been wiped out.
"The effort put forth by millions of activists on Wednesday wasn't about promoting piracy. It was about asking congress to write a better bill to protect intellectual property. Anonymous' latest hacking spree changed the conversation," he wrote.
"Thanks a lot, Anonymous. This is why we can't have nice things."
Last week The Greens' Senator Scott Ludlam pointed out that here in Australia, the Government's internet copyright discussions only involve the middle men: the distributors and the internet service providers.
"They appear to have left out the creative people who make the content and the audience... The people who actually matter in that debate aren't in the room," he told the Linux.conf.au 2012 conference in Ballarat.
"We should be in that room, in the copyright debate. Otherwise, we are going to get some kind of dumbed-down Australian-flavoured SOPA. Twelve months after it resolves itself in the United States, it'll pop up here, you can absolutely guarantee it."
But if Anonymous continues to behaves like it does, or if lobby groups like the Pirate Party don't disassociate themselves from this rabble, the audience will never be in that room.
Stilgherrian @'ABC'

Investigate Chris Dodd and the MPAA for bribery after he publicly admited to bribing politicans to pass legislation

Recently on FOX News former Senator Chris Dodd said (as quoted on news site TechDirt), "Those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake," This is an open admission of bribery and a threat designed to provoke a specific policy goal. This is a brazen flouting of the "above the law" status people of Dodd's position and wealth enjoy.
We demand justice. Investigate this blatant bribery and indict every person, especially government officials and lawmakers, who is involved.
HERE