#open-source insurgency

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Anti-innovation: EU excludes open source from new tech standards

Op-ed: Big US companies could use patent licensing to throttle EU startups.

As part of its Digital Single Market strategy, the European Commission has unveiled "plans to help European industry, SMEs, researchers and public authorities make the most of new technologies." In order to "boost innovation," the Commission wants to accelerate the creation of new standards for five buzzconcepts: 5G, cloud computing, internet of things, data technologies, and cybersecurity.

The key document is one entitled "ICT Standardisation Priorities for the Digital Single Market," which says: "Open standards ensure ... interoperability, and foster innovation and low market entry barriers in the Digital Single Market, including for access to media, cultural and educational content." The word "open" occurs 26 times in the document, and is also frequently found in the other "communications" just released by the European Commission: on digitising European industry (9 times), and on theEuropean Cloud Initiative (50 times).

"Open" is generally used in the documents to denote "open standards," as in the quotation above. But the European Commission is surprisingly coy about what exactly that phrase means in this context. It is only on the penultimate page of the ICT Standardisation Priorities document that we finally read the following key piece of information: "ICT standardisation requires a balanced IPR [intellectual property rights] policy, based on FRAND licensing terms." ...

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P2P Foundation

Vinay Gupta remains an indispensable analyst of the current shift, always interesting and provocative and combining references from a wide variety of fields.

According to his own assessment, and we concur that it is an excellent mustwatch video presentation, this is his best introduction to the importance of the blockchain.

Thanks for spreading it around,

Michel Bauwens

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Ethereum: Rise of the World Computer - Silicon Valley Data Science

The Ethereum network is a distributed economy like Bitcoin, except it is much, much more powerful. The essential difference is that Ethereum is programmable. In fact, it only takes a few minutes to program a whole new currency like Bitcoin. There’s been a lot of attention on Ethereum recently as its market capitalization has risen 500% since the beginning of the year to reach $400m (at the time of this writing). Some of this increase might be attributed to Microsoft’s tacit approval of the technology with their release of the “Ethereum Blockchain as a Service” platform on Azure. ...

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Like the Iron Curtain of the old Soviet bloc, which depended on tightly restricting the movement of information, the DRM Curtain — a global corporate system depending on proprietary control of information — is falling everywhere. Aaron Swartz was one of the pioneers in the struggle to tear down that wall in academia. And the job he did so much to help start is now nearing completion.

Kevin Carson, Aaron Swartz is Dead — But Not His Work

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C4SS just backed PINE A64, First $15 64-Bit Single Board Super Computer on @Kickstarter http://kck.st/1ma9GY0

PINE A64 is not only a computer, it is a super affordable 64-bit high performance expandable single board computer (SBC).  Whether you are an IT professional, electronics hobbyist, student, teacher, hacker, inventor, or just someone who wants to have more flexibility to increase their productivity at work, the PINE A64 is a computer board made for everyone.  Enjoy more fun and entertainment at home with endless possibilities. ...

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The William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism

In 1818, Jeremiah Chubb collected a reward of £100 (a fairly princely sum back then — depending on how the inflation is calculated, perhaps upward of half a million US dollars today) from the British government. After a major dockyard burglary, the government ran a competition to produce a lock which could only be opened with its own key. Chubb’s “detector lock” took the prize.

Were they alive today, Chubb and his brother Charles (they also invented the modern safe) might find themselves doing quite well in a similar business: Encrypting data to keep it away from prying eyes. But instead of reaping rich rewards from the US government for that kind of work, they’d likely have US Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Richard Burr (R-NC), not to mention FBI director James Comey, calling for their heads.

Comey visited Capitol Hill on December 9, delivering his latest tantrum over encryption to the US Senate’s Judiciary Committee. He wants America’s tech industry to produce the equivalent of pre-picked locks: Encryption that the government can compromise at will with a court order. ...

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FBI declared War against Encryption.

Encryption is defeating government intelligence agencies to detect terrorist activities and after the recent ISIS-linked terror attacks in Paris and California, the issue has once again become a political target in Washington. ...and meanwhile, Kazakhstan plans to make it Mandatory for its Citizens to Install Internet Backdoor, allowing the government to intercept users' traffic to any secure website and access everything from web browsing history to usernames and passwords.

FBI: For God's Sake, Don't Use End-to-End Encryption

At a Senate hearing on Wednesday, FBI's Director James Comey called for tech companies currently providing users with end-to-end encryption to reconsider "their business model" and simply stop doing that, reported The Intercept. ...

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Surveillance Self-Defense

Tips, Tools and How-tos for Safer Online Communications

Modern technology has given those in power new abilities to eavesdrop and collect data on innocent people. Surveillance Self-Defense is EFF's guide to defending yourself and your friends from surveillance by using secure technology and developing careful practices.

Select an article from our index to learn about a tool or issue, or check out one of our playlists to take a guided tour through a new set of skills. ...