Http://KayO.LA
Http://TheFresh.IT
StoneAgeMag.Com
>
> > .........!.........!.........!.........!.........!.........!..
> EFFector 23.4: Come Celebrate EFF's 20th Birthday with Adam Savage and
> Friends on February 10!
>
> EFFector Vol. 23, No. 4, February 3, 2010 editor@eff.org
>
> A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
> ISSN 1062-9424
>
> : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . :
>
> In our 527th issue:
>
> Come Celebrate EFF's 20th Birthday with Adam Savage and Friends on
> February 10!
>
> Join TV geek Adam Savage and a cast of EFF legends and luminaries
> at EFF's 20th birthday party! Our birthday fundraiser on February
> 10th will celebrate two decades of digital freedom-fighting in San
> Francisco's world-famous DNA Lounge.
>
> Adam will present a unique look back and forward to EFF's founding
> and the future of digital rights. DJs Adrian & the Mysterious D, the
> duo that founded the seminal, globe-trotting mashup party "Bootie," > will
> get people moving with their genre-mashing blend of tracks, with
> guest DJs dropping sets throughout the evening. It's a once-in-a-
> lifetime event for those who love freedom, technology, and
> celebration!
>
> Doors open at 8 p.m. We'll be asking for a $30 donation at the door to
> fund our work defending your digital freedom.
>
> WHAT: EFF's 20th Birthday Fundraiser with Adam Savage and Surprise
> Special Guests!
>
> WHEN: Wednesday February 10, 2010
> Doors open at 8 pm
> Tickets are $30
>
> WHERE: DNA Lounge
> 375 Eleventh Street
> San Francisco, CA 94103
>
> Please RSVP to events@eff.org. This is an all ages event.
>
> For more information:
> http://www.eff.org/birthday
>
> Advance ticket purchase is available at:
> http://www.dnalounge.com/calendar/2010/02.html#10
>
> * VIP Event with Adam Savage, John Perry Barlow, Mitch Kapor,
> John Gilmore, Mark Klein, Steve Jackson and more!
>
> Join EFF for a special VIP event with Adam Savage and EFF founders
> and luminaries! For a special donation of $250, you're invited to
> attend our VIP event before the birthday party, where you can meet
> many of the amazing people who helped EFF reach this historic
> milestone. Special VIP donors receive free admission to the
> birthday party, which starts immediately afterwards, as well as a
> commemorative EFF 20th Anniversary poster. The VIP event begins at
> 7pm.
>
> For more information: http://secure.eff.org/happybirthday
> Please also RSVP to events@eff.org
>
> : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . :
>
> ~ Seven "Corporations of Interest" in Selling Surveillance Tools to
> China
> Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's announcement of a new U.S. policy
> on global Internet Freedom included a bold new statement about the
> responsibilities of American technology companies:
>
> "We are urging U.S. media companies to take a proactive role in
> challenging foreign governments' demands for censorship and
> surveillance. The private sector has a shared responsibility to help
> safeguard free expression. And when their business dealings threaten
> to undermine this freedom, they need to consider what's right, not
> simply what's a quick profit."
>
> While Clinton focuses on Internet media companies like Google, Yahoo!
> and Microsoft, there are plenty of other companies deserving scrutiny.
> Many other U.S. and multinational technology companies may be
> knowingly selling Chinese authorities the surveillance equipment used
> to commit or facilitate human rights abuses.
>
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/selling-china-surveillance
>
> ~ Blogging ACTA Across the Globe: Lessons From Korea
> If there's one country that might have insight into what a post-ACTA
> future may look like, it's the Republic of Korea. Korea is known as
> having one of the most advanced networks in the world, but more
> recently it has also been the recipient of some of the strongest
> foreign pressure to ramp up its IP laws. Heesob Nam is a member (and
> former Chair) of IPLeft, a Korean digital rights activist group
> founded in 1999 to critique the increasingly maximalist IP rights
> agenda in that country and to research and present alternative policy
> proposals. He writes of the impact on Korea of Anti-Counterfeiting
> Trade Agreement (ACTA) and other international IP agreements.
>
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/acta-and-korea
>
> ~ Blogging ACTA Across the Globe: The View from France
> La Quadrature Du Net is a French advocacy group formed to promote
> digital rights and online freedom. Its name comes by analogy between
> the unsolvable mathematical problem of "squaring the circle", and
> similarly impossible attempts to "effectively control the flow of
> information in the digital age by the law and the technology without
> harming public freedoms, and damaging economic and social
> development." In our ongoing series of perspectives on ACTA from
> around the globe, Jérémie Zimmermann and Félix
> Tréguer of La Quadrature du Net describe how the trade
> agreement undermines democratic challenges to IP policies in France
> and beyond.
>
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/acta-and-france
>
> ~ Obama Reverses Position on Disclosing Lobbyist Contacts
> In his State of the Union Address, President Obama made another
> important commitment to openness and transparency in government: "It's
> time to require lobbyists to disclose each contact they make on behalf
> of a client with my Administration or Congress."
> This is welcome news. For the past few years, EFF has been litigating
> a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case against the government,
> seeking the identities of lobbyists who contacted the Department of
> Justice and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on
> behalf of their telecommunications company clients in order to push
> for telecom immunity. With the help of lobbyists from AT&T,
> Verizon, and Sprint, the FISA Amendments Act passed with an
> unconstitutional provision to retroactively grant immunity to the
> telecoms for collaborating with the warrantless wiretapping program.
>
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/obama-reverses-position-disclosing-lobbyist-contac
>
> ~ FCC's Net Neutrality Plan Would Permit Blocking of BitTorrent
> Remember what put the debate over net neutrality into high gear? In
> 2007, EFF and the Associated Press confirmed suspicions that Comcast
> was clandestinely blocking BitTorrent traffic. It was one of the first
> clear demonstrations that ISPs are technologically capable of
> interfering with your Internet connection and that they may not even
> tell you about it. After receiving numerous complaints, the FCC in
> 2008 stepped in and threw the book at Comcast, requiring the company
> to stop blocking BitTorrent. The Comcast-BitTorrent experience put net
> neutrality at the top of the FCC agenda.
> Yet now that the FCC has formally issued draft net neutrality
> regulations, they include a huge copyright loophole -- a loophole that
> would theoretically permit Comcast to block BitTorrent just like it
> did in 2007 simply by claiming that it was "reasonable network
> management" intended to "prevent the unlawful transfer of content."
>
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/net-neutrality-plan-would-permit-blocking-bittorrent
>
> ~ Help EFF Research Web Browser Tracking
> What fingerprints does your browser leave behind as you surf the web?
> Traditionally, people assume they can prevent a website from
> identifying them by disabling cookies on their web browser.
> Unfortunately, this is not the whole story.
> When you visit a website, you are allowing that site to access a lot
> of information about your computer's configuration. Combined, this
> information can create a kind of fingerprint -- a signature that
> could be used to identify you and your computer. But how effective
> would this kind of online tracking be?
> EFF is running an experiment to find out. Our new Panopticlick website
> will anonymously log the configuration and version information from
> your operating system, your browser, and your plug-ins, and compare it
> to our database of five million other configurations. Then, it will
> give you a uniqueness score -- letting you see how easily identifiable
> you might be as you surf the web.
>
> https://panopticlick.eff.org/
>
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/help-eff-research-web-browser-tracking
>
> ~ A Primer on Information Theory and Privacy
> If we ask whether a fact about a person identifies that person, it
> turns out that the answer isn't simply yes or no. If all I know about
> a person is their ZIP code, I don't know who they are. If all I know
> is their date of birth, I don't know who they are. If all I know is
> their gender, I don't know who they are. But it turns out that if I
> know these three things about a person, I could probably deduce their
> identity! Each of the facts is partially identifying.
> There is a mathematical quantity that allows us to measure how close a
> fact comes to revealing somebody's identity uniquely. That quantity is
> called entropy, and it's often measured in bits. Intuitively you can
> think of entropy being generalization of the number of different
> possibilities there are for a random variable: if there are two
> possibilities, there is 1 bit of entropy; if there are four
> possibilities, there are 2 bits of entropy, etc. Adding one more bit
> of entropy doubles the number of possibilities.
>
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/primer-information-theory-and-privacy
>
> ~ Browser Versions Carry An Average of 10.5 Bits of Identifying
> Information
> Whenever you visit a web page, your browser sends a "User Agent"
> header to the website saying precisely which operating system and web
> browser you are using. This information could help distinguish
> Internet users from one another because these versions differ, often
> considerably, from person to person. We recently ran an experiment to
> see to what extent this information could be used to track people (for
> instance, if someone deletes their browser cookies, would the User
> Agent, alone or in combination with some other detail, be unique
> enough to let a site recognize them and re-create their old cookie?).
> Our experiment to date has shown that the browser User Agent string
> usually carries 5-15 bits of identifying information (about 10.5 bits
> on average). That means that on average, only one person in about
> 1,500 (210.5) will have the same User Agent as you. On its own, that
> isn't enough to recreate cookies and track people perfectly, but in
> combination with another detail like geolocation to a particular ZIP
> code or having an uncommon browser plugin installed, the User Agent
> string becomes a real privacy problem.
>
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/tracking-by-user-agent
>
> ~ Blogging ACTA Across the Globe: FFII's Ante Wessels on Exporting
> Europe's Flaws
> Every major country in the ACTA negotiations claims that its own laws
> will remain unchanged by the treaty. But without changing a word of
> domestic law, ACTA can still be dangerous to a country's or a
> continent's economy. We asked guest bloggers from around the world to
> give their perspective on the trade agreement. Giving the view from
> the heart of the European Union is Ante Wessels, analyst for the
> Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure, a group best known
> for its work in Europe's debate over software patents.
>
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/blogging-acta-across-globe-ffiis-ante-wessels-expo
>
> ~ Terms of (Ab)Use: US and UK Consumers Dance to Different iTunes
> Too often, online services draft their "Terms of Service" (TOS)
> agreements in ways that are one-sided and overreaching. In Europe,
> however, regulators are beginning to step in to protect consumers. In
> late November, the U.K.'s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) announced that
> Apple, Inc., agreed to change the terms and conditions for its popular
> iTunes online music store in the United Kingdom. In particular,
> according to the statement from the OFT, the changes would make the
> iTunes terms "clear, fair and easy to understand," and, more
> importantly, give consumers "clear and accurate information about
> their rights in case things go wrong." The OFT took action following a
> similar intervention by the Norwegian Consumer Council.
>
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/terms-ab-use-dancing-different-itunes-differences
>
> ~ HOWTO: Thrive as a Musician Without Suing Your Fans
> TechDirt's Mike Masnick put together a fantastic memo to the
> International Association of Entertainment Lawyers: The Future Of
> Music Business Models (And Those Who Are Already There).
> Masnick writes that the mainstream entertainment industry's formula
> for contending with the Internet desperately trying to invent "new
> copyright laws or new licensing schemes or new DRM or new lawsuits or
> new ways to shut down file sharing" is counterproductive. He lists a
> dozen artists who've done well for themselves through various
> permutations of this model. Everyone knows about the efforts of big
> names like Trent Reznor and Radiohead, but Mike also draws attention
> to less-famous success stories like Josh Freese, Jill Sobule, Corey
> Smith, Jonathan Coulton, Moto Boy, Amanda Palmer, Matthew Ebel,
> Moldover and K-Os.
>
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/howto-thrive-musician-without-suing-your-fans
>
> ~ Clinton on Internet Freedom, and Principled Stands
> Secretary Clinton’s speech on Internet Freedom was an important
> step in bringing online free expression and privacy to the forefront
> of the United States' foreign policy agenda.
> But for all the strong language, it was also a speech of caveats:
> powerful statements like "we stand for a single Internet where all of
> humanity has equal access to knowledge and ideas" sat close to hedges
> about the dangers of anonymous speech and how it might be used to
> distribute "stolen intellectual property." Clinton expressed concern
> at those who "violate the privacy of citizens who engage in
> non-violent political speech," but she also spoke of "redoubl[ing]
> efforts" similar to the Convention on Cybercrime, a document that
> provides scant protections for the privacy of anyone being
> investigated by a foreign government.
>
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/clinton-internet-freedom-and-principled-stands
>
> ~ Over-Redaction in Audit of FBI’s Use of Illegal Exigent
> Letters
> The DOJ's Inspector General issued a heavily redacted report about the
> FBI's Communications Analysis Unit (CAU), which found "shocking"
> violations, including embedded telecom employees providing customer
> phone records in response to post-it notes.
> While the underlying violations are egregious enough, the report
> itself is problematic because it redacts huge swaths of information
> that is already publicly known.
> The report cryptically refers to AT&T, Verizon and MCI as Company
> A, B and C. Yet, the source that identified the telecoms embedded with
> the CAU was none other than FBI General Counsel Valerie Caproni, in
> sworn testimony before Congress. Moreover, information in the IG
> report combined with letters to Congress from the telecoms themselves
> shows that Company A is AT&T.
>
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/over-redaction-audit-fbi-s-use-illegal-exigent-let
>
> : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . :
>
> miniLinks
>
> ~ The Case Against The iPad
> Timothy B. Lee says the iPad is part of Apple's attempt to roll back
> the trend towards open computing platforms.
> http://timothyblee.com/?p=2169
>
> ~ 3-Strikes Is Not Mainstream
> Michael Geist says 3-strikes provisions in different countries have
> proven unpopular, expensive and controversial.
> http://www.thestar.com/business/article/755443--geist-three-strikes-and-you-re-out-system-draw-cries-of-foul-from-governments
>
> ~ ArsTechnica on EFF's Panopticlick
> Even without cookies, a browser leaves a trail of crumbs.
> http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/01/even-without-cookies-a-browser-leaves-a-trail-of-crumbs.ars
> : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . :
>
> Announcements
>
> * Help EFF Go to SCaLE!
>
> EFF is looking for donations of airline miles, flight vouchers, and
> hotel points for the Southern California Linux Expo, as well as other
> conferences and speaking engagements. If you have enough airline miles
> for a free ticket and would like to send an EFF staffer to a
> conference, let us know, and we will help you with the process of
> making the reservation. Please note that at this time we are unable to
> combine miles from multiple individuals. We are also looking for
> hotel rewards points to help reduce our overall travel costs.
>
> As a thanks for your donation, we can offer a free membership and a
> mention in EFFector (if you'd like). Please contact aaron@eff.org if
> you can help!
>
> *EFF at ShmooCon in DC!
>
> EFF will have a booth at the 2010 ShmooCon from February 5-7. East
> Coast hackers unite! Come by and say hello!
>
> Location:
> Wardman Park Marriott
> 2660 Woodley Road Northwest
> Washington, DC 20008
> (202) 328-2000
>
> Exhibition Hours:
> Friday, February 5: 12:30-8 PM
> Saturday, February 6: 9:30-8 PM
> Sunday, February 7: 9:30-2 PM
>
> For More Information:
> http://www.shmoocon.org
> : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . :
>
> Administrivia
>
> EFFector is published by:
> The Electronic Frontier Foundation
> http://www.eff.org/about
>
> Editor:
> Eva Galperin, Referral Coordinator
> eva@eff.org
>
> Membership & donation queries:
> membership@eff.org
>
> To support EFF:
> http://links.eff.org/emaildonate
>
> General EFF, legal, policy, or online resources queries:
> information@eff.org
>
> Back issues of EFFector are available at:
> http://www.eff.org/effector/
>
>
> Any and all original material in EFFector may be freely distributed at
> will under the Creative Commons Attribution License. All material that
> is not original to EFF may require permission from the copyright
> holder to redistribute.
>
>
Http://TheFresh.IT
StoneAgeMag.Com
>
> > .........!.........!.........!.........!.........!.........!..
> EFFector 23.4: Come Celebrate EFF's 20th Birthday with Adam Savage and
> Friends on February 10!
>
> EFFector Vol. 23, No. 4, February 3, 2010 editor@eff.org
>
> A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
> ISSN 1062-9424
>
> : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . :
>
> In our 527th issue:
>
> Come Celebrate EFF's 20th Birthday with Adam Savage and Friends on
> February 10!
>
> Join TV geek Adam Savage and a cast of EFF legends and luminaries
> at EFF's 20th birthday party! Our birthday fundraiser on February
> 10th will celebrate two decades of digital freedom-fighting in San
> Francisco's world-famous DNA Lounge.
>
> Adam will present a unique look back and forward to EFF's founding
> and the future of digital rights. DJs Adrian & the Mysterious D, the
> duo that founded the seminal, globe-trotting mashup party "Bootie," > will
> get people moving with their genre-mashing blend of tracks, with
> guest DJs dropping sets throughout the evening. It's a once-in-a-
> lifetime event for those who love freedom, technology, and
> celebration!
>
> Doors open at 8 p.m. We'll be asking for a $30 donation at the door to
> fund our work defending your digital freedom.
>
> WHAT: EFF's 20th Birthday Fundraiser with Adam Savage and Surprise
> Special Guests!
>
> WHEN: Wednesday February 10, 2010
> Doors open at 8 pm
> Tickets are $30
>
> WHERE: DNA Lounge
> 375 Eleventh Street
> San Francisco, CA 94103
>
> Please RSVP to events@eff.org. This is an all ages event.
>
> For more information:
> http://www.eff.org/birthday
>
> Advance ticket purchase is available at:
> http://www.dnalounge.com/calendar/2010/02.html#10
>
> * VIP Event with Adam Savage, John Perry Barlow, Mitch Kapor,
> John Gilmore, Mark Klein, Steve Jackson and more!
>
> Join EFF for a special VIP event with Adam Savage and EFF founders
> and luminaries! For a special donation of $250, you're invited to
> attend our VIP event before the birthday party, where you can meet
> many of the amazing people who helped EFF reach this historic
> milestone. Special VIP donors receive free admission to the
> birthday party, which starts immediately afterwards, as well as a
> commemorative EFF 20th Anniversary poster. The VIP event begins at
> 7pm.
>
> For more information: http://secure.eff.org/happybirthday
> Please also RSVP to events@eff.org
>
> : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . :
>
> ~ Seven "Corporations of Interest" in Selling Surveillance Tools to
> China
> Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's announcement of a new U.S. policy
> on global Internet Freedom included a bold new statement about the
> responsibilities of American technology companies:
>
> "We are urging U.S. media companies to take a proactive role in
> challenging foreign governments' demands for censorship and
> surveillance. The private sector has a shared responsibility to help
> safeguard free expression. And when their business dealings threaten
> to undermine this freedom, they need to consider what's right, not
> simply what's a quick profit."
>
> While Clinton focuses on Internet media companies like Google, Yahoo!
> and Microsoft, there are plenty of other companies deserving scrutiny.
> Many other U.S. and multinational technology companies may be
> knowingly selling Chinese authorities the surveillance equipment used
> to commit or facilitate human rights abuses.
>
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/selling-china-surveillance
>
> ~ Blogging ACTA Across the Globe: Lessons From Korea
> If there's one country that might have insight into what a post-ACTA
> future may look like, it's the Republic of Korea. Korea is known as
> having one of the most advanced networks in the world, but more
> recently it has also been the recipient of some of the strongest
> foreign pressure to ramp up its IP laws. Heesob Nam is a member (and
> former Chair) of IPLeft, a Korean digital rights activist group
> founded in 1999 to critique the increasingly maximalist IP rights
> agenda in that country and to research and present alternative policy
> proposals. He writes of the impact on Korea of Anti-Counterfeiting
> Trade Agreement (ACTA) and other international IP agreements.
>
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/acta-and-korea
>
> ~ Blogging ACTA Across the Globe: The View from France
> La Quadrature Du Net is a French advocacy group formed to promote
> digital rights and online freedom. Its name comes by analogy between
> the unsolvable mathematical problem of "squaring the circle", and
> similarly impossible attempts to "effectively control the flow of
> information in the digital age by the law and the technology without
> harming public freedoms, and damaging economic and social
> development." In our ongoing series of perspectives on ACTA from
> around the globe, Jérémie Zimmermann and Félix
> Tréguer of La Quadrature du Net describe how the trade
> agreement undermines democratic challenges to IP policies in France
> and beyond.
>
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/acta-and-france
>
> ~ Obama Reverses Position on Disclosing Lobbyist Contacts
> In his State of the Union Address, President Obama made another
> important commitment to openness and transparency in government: "It's
> time to require lobbyists to disclose each contact they make on behalf
> of a client with my Administration or Congress."
> This is welcome news. For the past few years, EFF has been litigating
> a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case against the government,
> seeking the identities of lobbyists who contacted the Department of
> Justice and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on
> behalf of their telecommunications company clients in order to push
> for telecom immunity. With the help of lobbyists from AT&T,
> Verizon, and Sprint, the FISA Amendments Act passed with an
> unconstitutional provision to retroactively grant immunity to the
> telecoms for collaborating with the warrantless wiretapping program.
>
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/obama-reverses-position-disclosing-lobbyist-contac
>
> ~ FCC's Net Neutrality Plan Would Permit Blocking of BitTorrent
> Remember what put the debate over net neutrality into high gear? In
> 2007, EFF and the Associated Press confirmed suspicions that Comcast
> was clandestinely blocking BitTorrent traffic. It was one of the first
> clear demonstrations that ISPs are technologically capable of
> interfering with your Internet connection and that they may not even
> tell you about it. After receiving numerous complaints, the FCC in
> 2008 stepped in and threw the book at Comcast, requiring the company
> to stop blocking BitTorrent. The Comcast-BitTorrent experience put net
> neutrality at the top of the FCC agenda.
> Yet now that the FCC has formally issued draft net neutrality
> regulations, they include a huge copyright loophole -- a loophole that
> would theoretically permit Comcast to block BitTorrent just like it
> did in 2007 simply by claiming that it was "reasonable network
> management" intended to "prevent the unlawful transfer of content."
>
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/net-neutrality-plan-would-permit-blocking-bittorrent
>
> ~ Help EFF Research Web Browser Tracking
> What fingerprints does your browser leave behind as you surf the web?
> Traditionally, people assume they can prevent a website from
> identifying them by disabling cookies on their web browser.
> Unfortunately, this is not the whole story.
> When you visit a website, you are allowing that site to access a lot
> of information about your computer's configuration. Combined, this
> information can create a kind of fingerprint -- a signature that
> could be used to identify you and your computer. But how effective
> would this kind of online tracking be?
> EFF is running an experiment to find out. Our new Panopticlick website
> will anonymously log the configuration and version information from
> your operating system, your browser, and your plug-ins, and compare it
> to our database of five million other configurations. Then, it will
> give you a uniqueness score -- letting you see how easily identifiable
> you might be as you surf the web.
>
> https://panopticlick.eff.org/
>
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/help-eff-research-web-browser-tracking
>
> ~ A Primer on Information Theory and Privacy
> If we ask whether a fact about a person identifies that person, it
> turns out that the answer isn't simply yes or no. If all I know about
> a person is their ZIP code, I don't know who they are. If all I know
> is their date of birth, I don't know who they are. If all I know is
> their gender, I don't know who they are. But it turns out that if I
> know these three things about a person, I could probably deduce their
> identity! Each of the facts is partially identifying.
> There is a mathematical quantity that allows us to measure how close a
> fact comes to revealing somebody's identity uniquely. That quantity is
> called entropy, and it's often measured in bits. Intuitively you can
> think of entropy being generalization of the number of different
> possibilities there are for a random variable: if there are two
> possibilities, there is 1 bit of entropy; if there are four
> possibilities, there are 2 bits of entropy, etc. Adding one more bit
> of entropy doubles the number of possibilities.
>
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/primer-information-theory-and-privacy
>
> ~ Browser Versions Carry An Average of 10.5 Bits of Identifying
> Information
> Whenever you visit a web page, your browser sends a "User Agent"
> header to the website saying precisely which operating system and web
> browser you are using. This information could help distinguish
> Internet users from one another because these versions differ, often
> considerably, from person to person. We recently ran an experiment to
> see to what extent this information could be used to track people (for
> instance, if someone deletes their browser cookies, would the User
> Agent, alone or in combination with some other detail, be unique
> enough to let a site recognize them and re-create their old cookie?).
> Our experiment to date has shown that the browser User Agent string
> usually carries 5-15 bits of identifying information (about 10.5 bits
> on average). That means that on average, only one person in about
> 1,500 (210.5) will have the same User Agent as you. On its own, that
> isn't enough to recreate cookies and track people perfectly, but in
> combination with another detail like geolocation to a particular ZIP
> code or having an uncommon browser plugin installed, the User Agent
> string becomes a real privacy problem.
>
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/tracking-by-user-agent
>
> ~ Blogging ACTA Across the Globe: FFII's Ante Wessels on Exporting
> Europe's Flaws
> Every major country in the ACTA negotiations claims that its own laws
> will remain unchanged by the treaty. But without changing a word of
> domestic law, ACTA can still be dangerous to a country's or a
> continent's economy. We asked guest bloggers from around the world to
> give their perspective on the trade agreement. Giving the view from
> the heart of the European Union is Ante Wessels, analyst for the
> Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure, a group best known
> for its work in Europe's debate over software patents.
>
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/blogging-acta-across-globe-ffiis-ante-wessels-expo
>
> ~ Terms of (Ab)Use: US and UK Consumers Dance to Different iTunes
> Too often, online services draft their "Terms of Service" (TOS)
> agreements in ways that are one-sided and overreaching. In Europe,
> however, regulators are beginning to step in to protect consumers. In
> late November, the U.K.'s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) announced that
> Apple, Inc., agreed to change the terms and conditions for its popular
> iTunes online music store in the United Kingdom. In particular,
> according to the statement from the OFT, the changes would make the
> iTunes terms "clear, fair and easy to understand," and, more
> importantly, give consumers "clear and accurate information about
> their rights in case things go wrong." The OFT took action following a
> similar intervention by the Norwegian Consumer Council.
>
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/terms-ab-use-dancing-different-itunes-differences
>
> ~ HOWTO: Thrive as a Musician Without Suing Your Fans
> TechDirt's Mike Masnick put together a fantastic memo to the
> International Association of Entertainment Lawyers: The Future Of
> Music Business Models (And Those Who Are Already There).
> Masnick writes that the mainstream entertainment industry's formula
> for contending with the Internet desperately trying to invent "new
> copyright laws or new licensing schemes or new DRM or new lawsuits or
> new ways to shut down file sharing" is counterproductive. He lists a
> dozen artists who've done well for themselves through various
> permutations of this model. Everyone knows about the efforts of big
> names like Trent Reznor and Radiohead, but Mike also draws attention
> to less-famous success stories like Josh Freese, Jill Sobule, Corey
> Smith, Jonathan Coulton, Moto Boy, Amanda Palmer, Matthew Ebel,
> Moldover and K-Os.
>
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/howto-thrive-musician-without-suing-your-fans
>
> ~ Clinton on Internet Freedom, and Principled Stands
> Secretary Clinton’s speech on Internet Freedom was an important
> step in bringing online free expression and privacy to the forefront
> of the United States' foreign policy agenda.
> But for all the strong language, it was also a speech of caveats:
> powerful statements like "we stand for a single Internet where all of
> humanity has equal access to knowledge and ideas" sat close to hedges
> about the dangers of anonymous speech and how it might be used to
> distribute "stolen intellectual property." Clinton expressed concern
> at those who "violate the privacy of citizens who engage in
> non-violent political speech," but she also spoke of "redoubl[ing]
> efforts" similar to the Convention on Cybercrime, a document that
> provides scant protections for the privacy of anyone being
> investigated by a foreign government.
>
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/clinton-internet-freedom-and-principled-stands
>
> ~ Over-Redaction in Audit of FBI’s Use of Illegal Exigent
> Letters
> The DOJ's Inspector General issued a heavily redacted report about the
> FBI's Communications Analysis Unit (CAU), which found "shocking"
> violations, including embedded telecom employees providing customer
> phone records in response to post-it notes.
> While the underlying violations are egregious enough, the report
> itself is problematic because it redacts huge swaths of information
> that is already publicly known.
> The report cryptically refers to AT&T, Verizon and MCI as Company
> A, B and C. Yet, the source that identified the telecoms embedded with
> the CAU was none other than FBI General Counsel Valerie Caproni, in
> sworn testimony before Congress. Moreover, information in the IG
> report combined with letters to Congress from the telecoms themselves
> shows that Company A is AT&T.
>
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/over-redaction-audit-fbi-s-use-illegal-exigent-let
>
> : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . :
>
> miniLinks
>
> ~ The Case Against The iPad
> Timothy B. Lee says the iPad is part of Apple's attempt to roll back
> the trend towards open computing platforms.
> http://timothyblee.com/?p=2169
>
> ~ 3-Strikes Is Not Mainstream
> Michael Geist says 3-strikes provisions in different countries have
> proven unpopular, expensive and controversial.
> http://www.thestar.com/business/article/755443--geist-three-strikes-and-you-re-out-system-draw-cries-of-foul-from-governments
>
> ~ ArsTechnica on EFF's Panopticlick
> Even without cookies, a browser leaves a trail of crumbs.
> http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/01/even-without-cookies-a-browser-leaves-a-trail-of-crumbs.ars
> : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . :
>
> Announcements
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> : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . :
>
> Administrivia
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