Stop ACTA NOW !
p2pnet news view Politics | Freedom | P2P:-If you believe all conspiracy theories are garbage and you’re not open to What, Why, How and When, please put in a request to come back in the next life as an ostrich.
The content industries have learned push begets pushback, which begets more push on their part which creates even larger pushback, and so on, to the point where the National Security of the free world may be challenged permanently because of the actions of one run-away train The Music Industry.
We’ve all heard the term Tyranny of Power. But what does it really mean?
When each of us voted for (Australia) Rudd (Canada) Harper, (Japan) Aso, (NZ) Clark, (Sth Korea) Moo-hyun, (USA) Obama, none of us realized these men would be implementing policy that removed our basic right of privacy by legislation.
There`s an old saying in business: if something is too risky, or too unpopular, get the government to do it. After all politicians have a different mandate to the rest of us and Big Industry quite often has the same problem as you and I — it can’t get to The Man.
So lobbyists are hired, advertising programs are launched, campaign contributions are remembered and everyone ’suddenly realizes’ that ‘X’ was what they needed all their lives.
And the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is born.
114 active identified P2P clients in use globally
Why are the governments of the world allowing an industry to dictate international trade policy?
Why is your government so intent on stamping out P2P?
Why is anti-file sharing legislation being implemented around the world.
Because it matches what our elected leaders’ advisors are telling them and if no-one tells them any differently, that’s what they’ll continue to believe.
The Justification
- P2P is used by terrorists. (True)
- P2P is used by Pedophiliac sickos (True)
- P2P denies intellectual property rights to inventors, and artists. (Bullshit.)
The Actual Situation
- P2P is used by kids (yep about 87% of the connected next gen kids are using it)
The Real Problem
- P2P has reached such high levels of encryption and such ubiquity that NSA computers can no longer track all content.
Say what ?
You read it right.
There are now 114 active identified P2P clients in use globally, 42 have encryption capabilities, and of those 42, 16 have encryption capabilities at 128 bits or better.
40 bit encryption was pretty useless
In 1995, Netscape announced the US government had ‘allowed’ 40 bit encryption to be exported.
Here`s why »»»»»»
40 bit encryption was pretty useless.
On June 18th 1997, thousands of Internet users made history by cracking a 56=bit DES encryption key.
So the NSA did a deal with Microsoft.
The ACTA Free Trade Agreement (Boy that description should warn us something is afoot) is an attempt by governments to achieve what the US has failed to achieve since the Internet went commercial.
In 1986, it was the chip that was to be installed in all computers.
In 1994 it was the Echelon device on the edge routers in the USA so all packets could be investigated.
Both of these implementations failed in their ubiquity through consumer pushback.
In 1998 it became the ADVAPI.dll file inside every Microsoft shipped operating system.
The story (or lack of a story) of its failure to sweep the world (it was only downloaded 574,964 times) can be found on http://www.cryptonym.com/ which used to be the site of the famed ReplaceNsaKey.zip ( 83.57K ) file that could be used to subvert the capability inside the Microsoft ADVAPI.DLL file. (And attached as an attachment at the end of this article warning not for the technically challenged )
How could a file in Windows help the NSA to decrypt my most confidential PGP emails?
The Lesson
If the underlying system has a separate Key under yours, that key overrides your key.
Imagine living in an apartment building where the super has a master key to every apartment.
You buy a valuable piece of jewellery and place in the freezer in a plastic container full of custard with a label clearly saying ‘Left over Custard’. You leave the apartment reasonably sure the valuable is safe.
Unfortunately, however, the NSA trained cat-burglar, who’s bribed the super for a copy of the master key, enters, removes the valuable, replaces it with fakes.
And it may be months or years before you realize that the valuables escaped.
So your data are encrypted and safe from prying eyes with the exception of the NSA or Government permitted commercial entities?
Yes. You too can become a government favoured commercial entity just so long as you pony up enough in the way of campaign contributions.
And if you do, the government will allow you to draft legislation like the International ACTA Treaty —-
—- especially if it then allows the government to inspect the hard-disks of anyone it wants via the customs agencies in any country.
Do I now expect a knock on my door? Yes.
Will I blog again?
That depends on who’s knocking on the door.
I`m fifty-one, I smoke far too much and the Milleniumites are terrorizing me. So there’s a race between the Knock on the Door and natural attrition.
And although I like Unix, do I as a citizen of the free world want to be forced to run a Linux operating system I compiled from source to ensure no-one is encroaching on my privacy?
Not really.
There’s an argument that when something becomes ubiquitously accepted, it becomes the new line in the sand for future measurements.
The world has accepted every PC running Microsoft Windows (post windows 95 and Win NT 4.1) is actually bugged.
What will we accept next?
Quote of the Day: “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. – Sir Winston Churchill.”
So FILE YOUR OBJECTION TO ACTA !!!
In Australia, go here IP@dfat.gov.au but please read this first ->> Public information and consultations on the ACTA
Read the materials relevant to your country.
Contact your congressman, representative, member of parliament, minister and STOP ACTA NOW.
References
How NSA access was built into Windows – http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/5/5263/1.html
A Secret DES Encryption System – http://www.cs.iupui.edu/~xkzou/teaching/csci590/chapter3_l1.ppt
Cracking 56 bit key Encryption – http://www.interhack.net/projects/deschall/whathtml
Original Cryptonym Webpage – http://web.archive.org/web/20000301191546/http://www.cryptonym.com/
Talk:Classified US, Japan and EU ACTA trade agreement drafts, 2009 (Partially Transcribed) – http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Talk:Classified_US%2C_Japan_and_EU_ACTA_trade_agreement_drafts%2C_2009
The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement – Summary of Key Elements Under Discussion – http://www.dfat.gov.au/trade/acta/summary_of_discussions.html
Zog May Be Reading Windows Software In Your Computer – http://www.vnnforum.com/archive/index..php/t-78567.html
Tom Koltai – p2pnet
[Koltai is an economist in Sydney Australia. He's says he's been online for 26 years, has run several ISPs and, "lobbied governments in four countries to prevent Internet restrictive usage legislation from being enacted". He says he's a strong believer in P2P, "as being a technological requirement to fully exploit the convergence of telephony with computers and remove the last barriers to human communication and interaction".]
April 8, 2009
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April 15th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Most of the links in the above references are so old they are no longer valid links.
April 15th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
Each link works from Australia.
April 15th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
But they dont seem to work from here. – AHA – small gremlins came aloing and changed the letters – Typos guys – sorry. Here are the two links that dont work under references.
Cracking 56 bit key Encryption -
http://www.interhack.net/projects/deschall/what.html
Zog May Be Reading Windows Software In Your Computer
http://www.vnnforum.com/archive/index.php/index.php/t-78567.html
April 15th, 2009 at 11:22 pm
“Each link works from Australia.”
Does that mean we should try typing the URLs backwards?
: P
April 16th, 2009 at 3:38 am
Ummm, no – upside down…. gee you northern hemisphere folk just dont understand physics – sheesh!
April 16th, 2009 at 8:57 am
I really liked this article, very interesting and educational at the same time, learnt something new!
…but, wish it didnt end so abruptly but went on a bit more.
Dont get me wrong, it does get the message across fine… only wish it tapered off slowly, guess i was enjoying my read too much
Looking forward to more from you Tom.
Cheers!
April 16th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
I’m in a bit of a quandry right now:
1. The information is good, but one of the links mentions “Zog” (the Zionist Occupation government). I’m definitely no fan of racism, including antisemitism, but at the same time I’m really skeptical of the Israel lobby etc.
Dunno if this is off-topic or not, but what does it say when privacy conerns/skepticism about government gets tied to terms like “Zog?”
For the record: I don’t think Anti-zionism and “anti-semintism” are the same thing, but there IS a lot of pressure to tie the two together. TO a Google/scroogle search on “The New Anti-semitism”, or there’s also some good info about it on Wikipedia.
Just something to think about.
May 22nd, 2009 at 7:01 am
Wondering where the 87% figure came from that talks about kid users?