Censorship and Privacy on the Web

"Censorship and Privacy on the Web" is the title to a presentation I made (in Portuguese) for "Crime in the XXI century" 2 days event, as ANSOL's Vice-President. Here's the presentation (yes, I'm trying Google Drive for the first time).

Source, images and resulting PDF can be used and re-used, here.

Security Flaw on MySpace affects one million users

After waiting for a resolution (which didn't happen) and ranting online about it (which had no effect), at the 25th of November I sent this bug report on MySpace:

According to Wikipedia[1], more than 1% of web users use a resolution of 800x600 or less on their web browsers. If those users come to MySpace, they'll be able to log in, but not to sign out (because the "Sign Out" button will be always not visible).

As you can understand, this is an huge security flaw, which MySpace must solve as soon as possible. As it is, it would better not let them log in than forcing them sto stay logged in.

[1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_resolution#Current_standards

Since until now I've got no reply, I'm posting this in the hopes that the issue gets more exposure. Wanna help? Please send yourself a similar bug report, and spread the word!

Where are we heading to?

Some interesting stuff lately:

The "Portuguese version of Google Summer of Code" is "Sapo Summerbits", with its 2009 version already going on with 10 approved projects. From those, two are quite interesting to me:

• "Erro de Sistema" (translated to "System Error") is going to be an Open Source 3D Animation Short Movie ("open content film"), made entirely with Open Source and about Open Source. The script is already published, and the team is getting more contributors. Work on the storyboard and concept art has already started. The project will use Open Source tools like Celtx, Blender, Pencil, Debian, Ubuntu, Ardour, Audacity, LMMS, Transverso DAW, Gimp, Inkscape, Cinelerra, Kdenlive and Farmerjoe. The student behind this project is João Alberto, which you might recall as being one of the two guys who made the 3D Animation Short Movie "Playground", which I've talked about here in the past since its soundtrack was made using Merankorii tracks.
• "Portucale" is going to be a Real Time Strategy Game about the History of Portuguese Conquests. It will be written in "C/C++" (maybe a mixture of the two?) and Javascript for user interaction with the game's interface. It will use NASM, SDL, Boost, zlib, libpng, libxml2, OpenGL, OpenAL, libogg, libvorbis, cryptopp, wxWidgets, gamin, BFD, enet and DevIL. I think it will be a fork of 0 A.D..

Facebook bought Friendfeed, supposedly to get its staff into their R&D. This is a huge blow to Friendfeed users, which - it's easy to see - aren't happy with the decision. The biggest question is wether (or, in fact, when) Friendfeed will just be shutted down. Facebook isn't a replacement for almost every Friendfeed user: there are the few of us that simply refuse to have a Facebook account (I'm in this group, as you already know if you're a regular reader of this blog), but for the others there's still the simple fact that they are two really distinct web apps with really distinct communities. Not only Friendfeed isn't replaceable by Facebook in terms of features - something that Facebook people might want to change - but specially the two services have different purposes. So, people are already planning "the future", their jump. From people asking for good methods to backup all their Friendfeed data (including their social graph), to people asking Facebook to just make Friendfeed's code Open Source, or people actually looking into alternatives. I've been looking into those alternatives myself, and the most convincing one for me was Identoo.com, because it lets you do almost everything that Friendfeed does (until now I only missed the "Hide" functionality), adaptation and migration is more or less quick, and it is mobile-friendly (heck, here it is better than Friendfeed: instead of using a fftogo-like mobile portal, I can use Identoo's website in the mobile without problems). I didn't considered in my tests one fact that makes Identoo even better: Identoo is nothing more than an installation of the Open Source platform NoseRub (similar to what Identi.ca is to Laconi.ca), which means that the development of NoseRub (thus Identoo) is transparent, and we can actually affect where is it heading to (even if not with code, just by making bug reports, suggestions, feature requests and such). Is it as good as Friendfeed? No, but it can turn out to be as good or even better, and it is good enough for when Friendfeed dies (if you, like me, won't believe that Facebook would open source Friendfeed's code). When I heard about FB buying FF I was worried, now I'm relaxed about it.

The WTF moment: Microsoft was told it can't sell "Microsoft Word" on the United Stated while it still has the ability to open XML, DOCX or DOCM files that have "custom XML" (and also pay a fine), thanks to a patent infringement. Ridiculous, like every other patent case... Of course, this being Microsoft, and them having the money they have, they'll appeal and try to rule the patent as invalid. And they'll do it again and again until they manage to win. The bad news is that they still don't see patents as bad (how could they, when they use their own patents to try to scare their competition?), just invalid (like every other patent against them would be, and neither of those patents owned by Microsoft are, for sure).

The RealDVD case is finally over, the making DVD copies program is now illegal in the United States. Yes, people can make copies of their DVDs, but they can't invent a way of doing that copy, nor use a tool to make that exact copy. Am I the only one seeing this as obviously stupid?

And the final rant of the day: two guys were convicted in UK of refusing to decrypt data. These are, as far as I know, the first two victims of 2007's law that gives authorities the power to force people to unscramble their data. "Privacy? Rights? Pfft, we can't have those if we want to take down the terrorists!"

Links for today

Another round of links...

http://www.worldsinmotion.biz/2007/09/agdc_biowares_gordon_walton_gi.php
Lessons we can take from the WoW success

http://mashable.com/2007/11/21/holiday-facebook-functionality-updates/
More facebook privacy issues

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebook_moveon_beacon_privacy.php
More facebook privacy issues, part II

http://lmms.sourceforge.net/home.php
Yet another open source tool to produce music. It looks cool, and I installed it, so I expect to give it a try this weekend or so...

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/21/chris-collins-from-linden-lab-stability-is-the-key/
Interview to Linden Labs about the future of Second Life. Hot points: they aim to open up everything; they'll introduce more registration requirements; they're working on the best way of implementing verification that is inclusive of all legitimate signups no matter where users live (forget anonymity :-( )

http://secondliferesearch.blogspot.com/2007/11/second-lifes-virtual-potential-is-real.html
The second life potencial is real... Now let's see people using it, shall we?

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=3898293
Making Second Life more like real life

So Long, Facebook

I just deactivated my Facebook account. Thanks Armando: http://www.asourceofinspiration.com/2007/10/25/scared-of-facebook/

Is Google getting evil?

If you read my posts about Google [1] you'll see that I keep writing about the general feeling of distrust on Google: not only I'm feeling more and more bewildered with the possibilies they have with the data they collect, but I also see that the feeling is getting generalized. Cory Doctorow wrote a short Sci-Fi novel [2] called "Scroogled", were he envisions a dark Google in a not-so-distance future. The frightning thing about the story is that it is really possible, just a matter of them wanting or not to "do no evil". Now, today Vitor wrote [3] about a new "feature" that "frightened him a bit", and I can't but ask... Where should they stop? Are you also getting afraid of Google?

[1] - http://mindboosternoori.blogspot.com/search/label/Google
[2] - http://tinyurl.com/yudbmh
[3] - http://tinyurl.com/23mkey

My Take on 9/11

Several years after the tragic attack to the World Trade Centre, today news sources and blogs are recalling what happened that day and the impacts it had to their life's.

I wrote in the past [1] my thoughts on what happened that day, basicly citing Ani DiFranco. But the most important thing for me is what purposes did this served. Even today, day by day, "terrorism" serves as an excuse to limit people's rights, violate their privacy, using fear as a weapon to achieve control. Dystopias and our world never were so close. And if you think that it has already stopped, think twice: six years later we're still using WTC as an excuse to create a control state [2] or to limit access to information and knowledge [3].

So, if you really want my opinion, the terrorist act here is that being practiced everyday and in the daylight - that of using fear to control you and limit your rights. I understand the sadness that 9/11 caused - I was pretty shocked myself. But we shouldn't just cry over it, we should fight to stop that terrorist act, because it didn't end that day - 9/11 was just the excuse, the terrorism is being done every day. Think about it.

[1] - http://tinyurl.com/2d2vsz
[2] - http://tinyurl.com/yrnkxn
[3] - http://tinyurl.com/2fyn8d

Do you have a Google Account?

Do you have a Google Account? Something like a Blogger account, or Gmail, or Orkut, or... anything? I bet you do. And did you read this?

11. Content licence from you

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive licence to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This licence is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

11.2 You agree that this licence includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.

11.3 You understand that Google, in performing the required technical steps to provide the Services to our users, may (a) transmit or distribute your Content over various public networks and in various media; and (b) make such changes to your Content as are necessary to conform and adapt that Content to the technical requirements of connecting networks, devices, services or media. You agree that this licence shall permit Google to take these actions.

11.4 You confirm and warrant to Google that you have all the rights, power and authority necessary to grant the above licence.

I tried to find this a couple of days ago in a discussion on why using GMail was really bad privacy-wise, but it seems that I had to come to the general Services TOS... Yet, this still applies for those. All Your Base Are Belong To Google?

Lack of Vision

I hate the lack of vision. Fortunately GNUnet solves all this issues... Not in Microsoft's point of view, of course, but in the point of view of those that, like me, are interested in Freedom, Privacy and Anonymity.

Yes, I know that this is my third post in sequence where I do some publicity on GNUnet. You just have to think that it just proves that (I believe that) GNUnet is an important piece on the digital future.