The internet is less free than last year. Thanks a bunch, Snowden The internet is getting less free year by year with governments passing more laws to restrict online speech and increase monitoring of users. That's according to New York-based Freedom House which on Friday published its fifth annual study of internet freedom around the globe. According to the editors, governments have become …
Innumerable.
Two bookcases worth of laws as of 1974, a third for the compiled annual updates since then and another bookcase to cover the encylopedia of forms and precedents which as case law are effectively laws.
For comparison, we also have one singular book (without a publication date) listing every law written at the time of publication. It contains provisions for colonists in the American colonies however, which dates it.
So it's business as usual then, just more of it.
The boys in blue with guns and badges will be around to make sure you obey the laws written in special code open to interpretation by pill-popping octogenarians and all-age harpies of the male and female sort, all of them minding other people's business for their own good. Meanwhile you will be under the automated ever-watchful eye of the algorithm, bayesian or otherwise.
Of course, you will also pay for all of that.
I suggest people awail themselves to some media disinformation and popular culture dross to upgrade their happiness index. We also don't want the economy reeling on destructive interventionism to tone done the festive feeling of Buy Everything Day.
Snowden was merely the vector that allowed for confirmation of what various "security" agencies were up to.
If the internet is becoming less free it is become the governments are becoming worried about something...and I doubt very much that terrorism is the real issue in hand...
Aliens? Is it Aliens? It must be something terrifying for the 0.000000000000000000001% of the global population to go to all this trouble for.
Perhaps they're bugging everyone so they can find the Aliens before the Aliens get us? If so then i think that having no more freedom and priviacy, is a small price to pay, to be protected by our masters (because they are better than us) and as a wage slave i would like to thank them for ruling over me from the moment i fell out of my mothers cunt!.....Thank you masters, wherever you are.
It must be something terrifying for the 0.000000000000000000001% of the global population to go to all this trouble for.
0.000000000000000000001% = [counts on fingers] 1e-21 people
x ~7e9 humans alive now = 1e-12 people
x ~1e12 cells/person = 7 cells.
I guess they've really gotta be the right 7 cells. Are they all in the same body?
The keyword here is control.
When we were still ruled (more or less) by the church it was all heaven and hell; best do what they said otherwise it wouldn't be good for you.
More or less (to a certain extend) during the cold war. Communism was the root of evil so yah; very terrifying indeed. Now; this isn't really a black/white subject but some events regarding Russia didn't quite go as we were being told. Only now does the truth come out here and there.
Terrorism is also a very good way to keep people under control. Once again, and the main problem, is that it is a grey area. There are threats and there are dangerous situations. But not all of it comes "out of the blue". Perhaps an extreme example, yet still legit: when the US has put Saddam Hussein into power he pretty much kept things more or less stable in the Middle East. That is, of course, ignoring the war with Iran but we didn't have much other threats with regards to extremists because they were kept under control. Look where we are now... Just like most everyone who knew the region predicted; create a power vacuum and you will attract problems... Yet it still happened. Under a false flag operation too.
But yah; thats the main problem for governments: the Internet usually doesn't forget. They can make sure to keep some things out of the media (the classic "We found $major terrist!", and 6 months later (on page 13) you read in the newspaper that he wasn't a terrist afterall), and this is happening, but opinionated bloggers and other "community media" usually doesn't forget these things and will address them.
And there's the main problem, especially if it could spell problems for a current administration.
Now you're in trouble...
Big brother is here, they're simply smart enough to stay hidden in the shadows. And anyone who shines their flashlight will soon be dubbed enemy of the state.
You are right, we read loads of reports that terrorists have been arrested, but apart from the 7/7, 21/7 and Glasgow Airport bombings, which were actual real terrorist incidents, has anyone actually been convicted. It usually goes very quiet after the initial arrest. One exception was the Castle Quay Shopping Centre plot, which was laughed out of court. That was widely reported.
The rich getting richer and richer both inside of countries and among countries causes tensions. The UK already had mass protests which were ignored when they were peaceful and only picked up by the media when there was property damage.
Of course the easy way would be to share. We'd need to tax the rich and feed the poor. We'd need to let more refugees in... but for the people in power that's obviously not desirable. It seems much cheaper to hire cops to shoot poor people than actually helping them. In any case it's the cops who get the blame.
"These costly measures could expose user data to local law enforcement,"
It probably already is and if you are not a citizen or resident of the US or UK what would you prefer?
To have all of your information being read by the "Five Eyes" or solely by the authorities in your own country? Not much of a choice I will admit but as the saying goes "They are bastards, but at least they are our bastards." I'm sure people in Germany, Belgium and Brazil amongst many others can relate to that sentiment.
As for the denizens of the UK, US, Australia, NZ and Canada, you are out of luck. The above-mentioned "bastards" have everything anyway. Whether they are actually "your bastards" is a moot point.
"Whether they are actually "your bastards" is a moot point."
Indeed. Whosever bastards they are, they govern uncompromisingly for the special interests who enable them to stay in power.
Regarding the point about local law enforcement, I believe that we in the US may well be seeing a movement to discredit and disempower local law enforcement as a precursor to establishing what amounts to a national police state. (For this discussion, I would define a "police state" as one in which the executive branch of the national government exercises the discretion to bring criminal charges against and imprison its citizens selectively and with virtual impunity.)
As Dylan observed, you don't have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. . .Consider the following:
A local cop has the questionable judgment to get macho on a 6-4 300 pound black male walking down the middle of the street at 2:00 AM, lets the kid get within arm's reach and is incredibly lucky not to get shot or get his head twisted off. He reacts by shooting the young man. A tragedy for all concerned, but not indictable a grand jury decides. People riot; the Obama Administration is outraged--goes balls to the wall investigating and pontificating for political gain.
An even larger black man--a virtual giant requiring a several policemen to subdue--dies after resisting arrest. One of the officer's has his arm around the man's neck during the struggle. This is immediately characterized as a lethal choke hold, although this does not appear to have been supported by the findings of the autopsy. Looking at the video, it is not apparent to me that the situation warranted an attempt at a physical takedown. Neither the situation nor the crime itself involved violence until the police attempted to subdue Garner. The combination of the victim's physical condition and the exertion of the takedown caused the man's death. Again, a tragedy, but not according to the grand jury, indictable. Again the Obama administration postures, people riot . . .
Consider now the case of Miriam Carey, a relatively petite young black woman--Chased through the streets of Washington in broad daylight; ultimately surrounded by dozens of armed and armored men, many with fully automatic weapons; and shot in the back from a safe distance by multiple shooters who are immediately hailed by federal and DC police spokespersons as heroes. The shooters, whoever they are, subsequently fully exonerated as acting in accordance with local policy.
The Obama administration and Justice department stay quiet as mice. No one but the family expresses any outrage. Nobody riots. The "spontaneous rioters" understand the message from the feds. Screw with us and we can come after (and even kill) you with impunity.
Terrorism has arguably achieved its goal of changing our society. And that is the greater tragedy. Thousands have been killed by terrorism for no other reason than that they were citizens of free countries. It falls to us, the people to defend the freedoms that terrorism deprived them of.
"....A local cop has the questionable judgment to get macho...." No, Darren Wilson was enforcing the law. It applies to all, regardless as to their colour or bulk. The matter would have ended there if Brown had had the sense (and not been stoned) to just get out of the road when told to do so. Brown was the aggressor and criminal, his death was his own fault and the fact that Darren Wilson has had to give up his job just goes to show (IMHO) the lawless mentality of certain members of the Ferguson community.
"....it is not apparent to me that the situation warranted an attempt at a physical takedown...." When someone is resisting arrest you do not make it easier by letting them stand on their feet where they can swing away at you, you aim to get them down on the ground where they are easier to control. The police do so because it reduces the chances of injuries to both the cops, the suspect, and any byestanders. Even more so than Brown, Garner was at fault because he had previous experience of resisting arrest and criminal assault, he had to have known that refusing to let himself be handcuffed could only end one way, with the cops forcing him down and putting cuffs on him. The 'chokehold' was nothing of the sort, Garner's death was more to do with his poor health and being overweight. If Eric Garner had said he was thinking of running the New York marathon in his condition you would think him an idiot, but he gets promoted to sainthood when he puts his life at risk resisting arrest?
As for Miriam Carey, you forgot to mention the bit where she tried to use her car to ram her way into the Whitehouse grounds (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Capitol_shooting_incident_(2013)), despite commands to stop, ran over a security guard and knocked down another, and ignored all requests to surrender. My first suggestion would be to consider her mental state or the likely hood she was on drugs.
Indeed, your whole post missed the most pertinent case of a black person being shot for no reason by an US police officer, Akai Gurley (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/22/akai-gurley-nypd_n_6205492.html). Gurley was unarmed, walking in a stairwell in his building at a time when there was no open police call for any criminal event in his building. Two officers on patrol entered the building and one appears to have paniced and shot Gurley. But then you probably down't know about that case for the same reason it seems Al Sharpton ignored it - the cop in that case was American-Chinese.
The pervasive and dominant practice in USA particularly of "shooting the messenger" without any intelligent, cohrent or factual addressing of "the messege" is alive and well in this article.
Such is the state of mentality in The USA that convoluted, non-sensical and wasteful time of such articles consume so much of technology discourse.
TheRegister and ZDNet really need to attract more competent journalism
The USA has a habit of this. Then they also have problems killing their allies (Friendly fire) and shooting first and not asking questions.
Then you get the Creationists and you get a crazy mixed up place that really has no identity. Sure they wave the flag but what do they really stand for?
Since we're banging on the USA I feel obliged to point out that I've seen more positive, democratic engagement and discussion about these issues from Americans than I have from my fellow Brits. As Brits we seem happy to condemn and bitch about stuff, but where is our action to fight for a better tomorrow for us and our children?
Kudos to all those who truly fight for freedom and the benefit of all mankind. They're the reason things aren't as bad as they could be right now.
That's what this looks like.
Sure, Mr Snowden absolutely forced the gubbermints to all do this stuff. They never intended to do any of it did they. Why, only yesterday they were all saying how they need to reduce the amount of control and surveilence they employ. They didn't really want all that spying stuff either, but it was Mr Snowden alone who pre-emptively made them let their spooks do it just so he could complain about it and make loads of dosh... Oh, strike that bit. He didn't did he?
PAH!
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"They already have had the ability to snoop on electronic communications for ages."
I seem to remember many years ago (ok, it was only the late 90's) that Mark Thomas covered something about this with his little Hot Air Balloon Over Menwith Hill stunt. Whilst he was in the balloon, he pulled out his mobile phone and rang his mum and started saying (not entirely) random words along the lines of "bomb" and suchlike. At which point his mum asked if he was high. Which he sort of was at the time (hot air balloon, remember?)
The general thrust of the piece was the listening post that the NSA had built slap-bang in the middle of Menwith Hill, without any real public knowledge or oversight, how the facility could tap into 100,000 live phone conversations at the drop of a hat (my memory is a bit tarnished about the figures here...), but the one thing they had forgotten to do was apply to the local council for building permission, which meant that there was a tiny little legal loophole and the airspace directly above the listening post was effectively open (no flight restrictions). So he flew right through it. And made his MI5 file all the larger because of it.
I seem to remember at the time thinking "how can they get away with this; surely this can't be right, let alone legal?". Then the Snowden leaks came along, and the Menwith Hill episode was the first image that floated to the top of my memory. And I was proven wrong on both of those last counts, as there seems to be no moral or legal argument that can be used to stop this sort of behaviour.
Sorry, got to go, incoming choppers and all that...
He was just an excuse for something they wanted to do all along.
Like how after 9/11 we were no longer allowed to leave football games at halftime and get back into the stadium. They claimed it was because "terrorism", but I'm sure they'd wanted to do it for years because people would leave at halftime to slam a few beers, eat some food that wasn't overpriced, etc.
The internet has technically never been "free" so that's the first false conclusion of this story. In addition the Net like all medium needs to be controlled so that ass clowns don't libel other people. Third those who misuse the Net for digital crimes should be severely punished unlike in the UK where that say bad things about the crims and then allow them to continue their evil ways.
The report states that various governments have used the Snowden revelations as an excuse to tighten control.
It's an excuse. They (Russia [ironic given where Snowden's hanging out], Turkey the 2 countries named) are well aware it's an excuse. The report describes it as such. Nobody is seriously claiming that it's Snowden's fault.
RTFA.
Irony bypass?
I suppose you could treat it as Poe's Law, though I prefer to see this instance as the Reg editors once again successfully trolling a significant portion of their readership. And why not? If we give up our time-honored traditions, what will be left?
Or, at least, that's the guiding principle behind everything that's happening in Europe right now.
It is of course completely wrongheaded, but EU/UK politicians are firmly in the pocket of special interests who really really want to be able to F the citizens without the citizens being able to F them back.
Idiotic decisions like the data retention act, criminalization of trolling, and the right to be forgotten are all symptoms of the same core disease: politicians are buys dismantling freedom speech all over Europe, because it is messy and irritating to them and their corporate friends.
Right... So governments are becoming more corrupt and instead of focusing on that you decide to apportion blame to the person that came forward to let us all know about it.
The Register should go and grown some balls before even referencing snowden. Take a look at the Guardian as something to aspire to. And for this article... You should ask forgiveness for using snowden's name as clickbait.
"....Take a look at the Guardian as something to aspire to....." Really? A consistently loss-making newspaper with a declining readership (".....down from 350,000 to 180,000, has recorded a 48% six-year loss...." http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/oct/10/abc-figures-show-papers-efforts-to-stem-circulation-decline) and kept alive only by a dwindling trust fund (The Scott Trust Ltd, an attempt to garner investment funds for the failed Scott Trust 'charity' fund which had some fun when some of their investors failed The Guardian's ethics test), and KGB payments (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Gott)? I think the fact El Reg seems to be going from strength to strength financially and in terms of readership would actually make them the envy of The Guardian.
BTW, maybe you forgot that The Guardian not only was a noted supporter of Tony Blair, but their track record includes objecting to the creation of the NHS; supporting the disarming of Iraq's WMDs; and their hilariously ham-fisted attempt to influence the 2004 Presidential election voting in Clark County, Ohio (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardian#Clark_County), which was credited with gifting Bush Jr the local vote and turning many undecided US voters his way. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for either effectiveness nor vision!
Mark... so declining readership is synonymous with declining newspaper quality?
That I did not knew... the Sun must be the best source of journalistic insight in Britain then !?
No newspaper is without fault... that is true and I do not believe I know enough to be defending all the actions that the Guardian newspaper has done in the past. What I can tell you is that they have shown backbone and journalistic integrity by defending their sources and publishing the Snowden data even against the downright illegal bullying and intimidation done my the home office and the GCHQ spooks.
If Snowden had given his data to BBC he would probably be in a dark hole somewhere. And all his revelations would probably ended up covered up with all BBC journalists involved with a gagging order to never disclose what they knew!
".....so declining readership is synonymous with declining newspaper quality?...." Their subsequent financial desperation goes a long way to explaining their hyperventilating treatment of the Assange and Snowden stories.
".... I do not believe I know enough to be defending all the actions that the Guardian newspaper has done in the past....." Well, maybe if you had more than five minutes of experience to bring to bear on the matter.
".....illegal bullying and intimidation...." AGAIN, for something to be 'illegal' it has to be shown to be so in a court of law, so unless you have some actual and real cases to discuss, your opinion alone does not make anything illegal.
So .. I am guessing that for you, arresting an individual under the terror laws and threatening him with a long jail sentence if he did not give them access to his computer files is completely lawful?
Also the forcing of the destruction of private property under the threat of a gagging order of one of the main newspapers in the land is completely lawful to you?
Let me guess... you see nothing wrong with the NSA tapping into underwater fibre-optical cables and collecting bulk data from everyone without any sort of due process . All perfectly legal correct?
Give me a break!
"....arresting an individual under the terror laws....." The authorities (at least in the West) do not arrest without good reason/evidence. As to the authorities in whatever Third World country you got your education in I can't say.
".....and threatening him with a long jail sentence if he did not give them access to his computer files...." In the West, when arrested, even terrorists with no regard for the law get legal representation that will tell them exactly what they can and can't be threatened with. Idiots that commit crimes and then get surprised by how bad they could be sentenced usually learn so first from their defence lawyer trying to talk some sense into them, not from the coppers.
"....is completely lawful?...." Under a Section 49 request, made under the RIPA, obviously it is legal as the request has to be authorised. They are not just handed out by the coppers. Similarly with the use of the All Writs Act in the States, a judge has to issue the request, and will do so only in cases the prosecution can show reasonable cause, so again completely legal.
"....Also the forcing of the destruction of private property under the threat of a gagging order of one of the main newspapers in the land is completely lawful to you?..." What mythical happening are you going on about now? A D-notice just warns against publication, it does not destroy anything (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DA-Notice). If you are referring to the destroying of hard-drives at The Guardian that was because they contained specific secret material which it was against the law to have in their possession.
"....Let me guess... " By my estimation, all your posts are based on guesswork!
".....you see nothing wrong with the NSA tapping into underwater fibre-optical cables....." Not if it was in the US and the process was overseen by the FISC under a warrant, as it would then be completely legal. Same goes for TEMPORA in the UK (completely legal under the RIPA) and when done abroad with the permission of the host government (such as at Seeb in Oman).
".....and collecting bulk data from everyone without any sort of due process...." Which is not happening. Firstly, it is all done under due process, under warrants authorised by the FISC in the case of the NSA and under the RIPA in the case of GCHQ. Secondly, they are not bulk collecting anything, they are tracking metadata and intercepting and examining specific communications. You seem to need to go back and read the actual Snowden 'revelations' and not just the headlines.
".....All perfectly legal correct?...." Yes, it is, despite your whining about it not being.
"...Give me a break!" Try reading for a start.
"A consistently loss-making newspaper with a declining readership"
Isn't that most newspapers and print media though? I thought that teh intarwebs was rapidly eroding the readership and pound value of newspapers?
I'm sure I read that online somewhere...
I was watching the movie V for Vendetta (again) the other night and after reading this article it seems to me that we are rapidly approaching a time when that movie is going to have to become a reality so we can get our freedom back.
I would rather have a lot less security than a LOT less freedom. In the 70s there were a lot of airlines being hijacked by terrorists and that didn't stop people from flying and the scum running (or should that be ruining) the country(s) didn't curtail our freedoms during that event.
I wonder how horrified our WWII heroes are at these so-called terrorist laws that continually eroded our privacy and rights. These revered brave men and women fought and died to protect our freedom only to have the elected scum spit in the face of their sacrifices. I fear for our children and their children.
It's all there own fault anyway, they bought the contract's with Mickey Mouse Software inc and then wondered why all the screen's all turned into Chinese, yes, I've had reliable reports of this happening in .gov department's. Then not a single government department except for the U.S actually use's encryption to any extent and a lot of good it did them too when some kid came along with a USB stick!
If this was a secure production platform, then prey tell how on earth did he gain access to a protected resource? Speaks volumns about there own security measures! No DAC or CAC card required? No, just ask another employee if he can log you in, because you've forgotten your password!
Then reflect that Windows malware has been on the rise and now look at the state of open source in general? I love the fact they label it as an extremeist communications platform, that must make the entire U.S airforce a bunch of extremeists! See: http://www.spi.dod.mil/lipose.htm
Neglecting to mention, that Law enforcement relies upon those systems too for Forensics!
Way to go! Superlative excellence, from the moron who sit's there going refined Access Controls stop hackers getting into our buisness how?
We want to know it all, own it all and smoke it all into oblivion too! They're all still at it, because all they got was a little telling off and told, no dont do that, but doesnt change the fact they're all still at it and fucking clueless to boot! So they'll keep at it, until the internet is not just dead but dead and buried!
Just one platform, just one, with no backdoors or bugs in it, is that so fucking hard to ask for?
Maybe it's the graphics that are the problem, cant look at porn without those eh, oh I know we'll kill the GPU drivers and remove the graphics an remove all those CAMERAS we embedded in there device, just use text and some encryption, no wait we cant allow that, they might be plotting dissent or sidition, we need to know it all... It's called TRUST you counter-intuitive none intelligent PRICK and right about now, our trust in your intelligence or your technology is at an all time LOW..
One would think that Mr Snowden's revelations would require a re-calibration of previous years. An guessing that these organisations are not planning on doing anything particularly different, perhaps this should be taken into account for the current figures.
One things that is not really taken into account is the pervasive harassment of some people - particularly women who express views about the Internet. One can look at all the freedoms, but if one can't make a comment without threats or being targeted for abuse, then how free is it? It is absurd to claim that South Africa was free during Apartheid - it was free if you were white and male. The measures are as effective as that.
Correct and of course the Service providers all like, you see years ago there was an arguement about which was best, it was called the Unix flame wars and it lasted for quite a while, the original architect who developed what we have today was a purist, he wanted to use just Pure C# everywhere but when they dished out what they had originally created, everybody did protest at the NEW saying no this may have it's rust spots but it work's.. Years later and where are we with all this technology? Rapidly going backwards! Why because they ignored the original architects design and said "No it's got rust spots but it works!" Oh yeah, it works really well, if you dive into some of the original idea's they originally had like Plan9 or Inferno then you'd find encrypted link layers are actually a standard, but nobody talks of such things with those that are unworthy of such knowledge, hence now you've got people that know vs the people that dont know... If they'd stuck to the Plan from the beginning, none of this insider trading would be taking place, but instead they push Robespieres broken Posix everywhere and then they wonder why they havent stamped out the problem yet... Maybe because the guys selling you a RedHat Solution or a Microsoft Solution all have an agenda, called lets make as much money as we can forcing our broken standards and crap operating system down as many peoples throats as we can!
An of course nobody buys into there solutions as much as the Govern'mints whom are just as clueless as the next newb! We'll tap the fiber optics, "cool" shame you cant tap the encrypted link's that all the genuine nerd's and geeks spent half there lives developing for the betterment of a secure and compliant network, with no Windows, no Linux and a bare minimum of Posix!
Oh look they're watching there network's like a hawk oh and look there running packet capture and packet trace, oh look, they've setup full take logs an oh look thats called a TarPit honey pot where clueless idiots go to get stuck trying to break into the security layers for a very long time!
The internet is more free than it's ever been, thanks a bunch Snowden!
We've got layers of Ass-Hats pushing SystemD, we've got Mozilla putting GeoIP tracking everywhere, but in the run of it all, they forget about the systems that really matter, the ones, that proliferate the entire internet backbone, they attack Linux saying, we cant let people have access to this kind of technology, wait till they see the Styx protocol and encrypted AES as a standard, wait till they see the DecNET protocol turning there terminal into a telephone.. Less free, LOL whilst your sleeping the hackers are peeping! Wait till they see what happens when you Kill JAVA everywhere because Oracles java has always been shit and deserve's to be erradicated but then so does every other scripting language that pontificates about Good security like SQL and then after it tells everyone they need to Sanitise there database statements, nobody does and it's not built into the language as a standard, something like SQL pre-check for mistakes..... Wait for it, you'll see a new generation of operating systems soon, built on SqL, built on Python, Built on Ajax (sarcasm), but just not today! :)~
What is the GNU - in a nutshell its a huge pile of Cow-Shit where everybody is more concerned with how much money they can make exploiting it as there cure all solution, they want tracking data for analytics they want more and more of that wonderful Bull-Shit and they dont care who the Cow tramples on to get what they want! Whilst in a nut-shell there whole industry is tainted, tainted with stories of insider trading, theft of trade secrets, theft of peoples idea's and there solution is, we'll push some broken encryption standards and then we'll keep the keys.. :) what a cool idea... Fuck'me!
What is Linux - is it floor wax or desert topping? Make your mind up time! An whilst you make up your mind take your advertsing buisness and your marketing buisness and stay the fuck off the internet, stick to what your good at, pushing tampon adverts on television!
"And it's largely thanks to rogue sysadmin Edward Snowden."
Blaming Snowden for the repressive actions of national governments makes about as much sense as blaming rape victims because "they really wanted it."
Snowden's actions, regardless of how one views them--criminal and traitorous, or heroic and ultimately patriotic--are on his conscience. What the powers that be use them as an excuse to do is on theirs. And on the consciences of all who stand silent and allow them the freedom to do it unopposed.
The founders of the US, and their British forebears had a deep and abiding distrust of government in general. This was based on humility and a profound understanding of the frailties of human nature.
Human nature has not changed.
Nope, human nature is still doing as human nature does best, "we've got exploits against ext3, ext4 and UFS..!" all good if you use reiserFS, jfs or xfs then!
There only crapping there pants right now because they've been caught theiveing and suddenly all the guru's and admins have gone WTF! and they've put a stop to it! Or semi-put a stop to it! But the pressure will be on from now on and the guys with IPv6 and there shitty IPSec are none to happy about TCPCrypt or CurveCP.. Oh dear it looks like snowdens heads up is making the IT crowd shit in there tea-cup.. It's just refreshing to see there faces on television prattling on about something they know sweet FA about.. eric holder, "our hackers are zoming in on the problem with there lazers!" followed up by the awesome comment "all these hackers are baseless geeks who hide in there mom's basement!" oh it's on! Take your false flag cyber operations and stuff them where the sun doesnt shine.
They've got exploits against some system's but they'll never have exploits to all systems and thats where they're going to come unstuck... baseless geeks, you mean the guys with a soldering iron, the guys that examine the chips your trying to proliferate everywhere, the guys with an ohm meter and a sine-wave... Dear Mr Holder "Your treading on dangerous turf and we're ready to munch!"
Or was it holden? Can't really remember dont really care.. Got to love reiserFS named after its inventor.. Hans Reiser he was german of course and the slogan is "i killed my wife!" because she nagged him day in and day out about how his filing system would never be popular! So first he got the axe, then he got the shovel!
Dont blame Snowden. This was inevitable.
It is the very fundamental nature of all human organisations, especially governments, to endlessly seek more and more power/control over individuals, so in time they would have gotten around to limiting the internet anyway (or even possibly worse had it not been for Snowden).
The will to do this was there all along, Snowden was just the excuse they needed. if he hadn't have come along they would have simply cooked some other ridiculous excuse up to justify the removal of yet more of our freedoms. Probably something around anti-terrorism or preventing child abuse.
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