A recent blog post by the Students for Free Culture has been making the rounds in social media in the last few days. The article calls for an end to Creative Commons non-free licences, namely those with non-commercial (NC) and non-derivative (ND) elements. The blog is based on the dislike Read more
Internet openness is all the rage these days. From call signs on buildings to Declarations of Internet Freedom, an important sector of informed users is catching on to the relevance of keeping the Web open. This openness movement has been prompted in part by the perceived and real threats coming Read more
1. Reality does not easily comply with numbered lists. 2. They are created mostly to attract easy traffic using SEO-friendly keywords. 3. They are the hallmark of lazy thinking. 4. Arbitrary number choice. 5. They are shallow. 6. After the first couple of entries, it becomes clear that the writer Read more
Back in 2010, Wikileaks was at the peak of its power and influence. The release of the Collateral Murder video, of the Afghanistan logs, and of the US diplomatic cables have to be seen as the zenith of the struggle between the Internet and the world powers. Although I was Read more
For years Eben Moglen has been warning about potential dangers of proprietary software in embedded computers, from trusted computing to chips running software nobody can access. Moglen’s warnings are more relevant, as builders and architects are racing to implement intelligent buildings and smart grids, which are widely heralded as a Read more
The latest issue of SCRIPTed, A Journal of Law, Technology & Society, is now online. Plenty of good things on this issue, including an excellent article on the Chilean Free Trade Agreement, several on Internet regulation, and an interesting take on patent claims. (2012) 9:2 SCRIPTed Issue DOI: 10.2966/scrip.090112 Read more
Keeping local information is a thing of the past. Nowadays everything is in the cloud, haven’t you heard? From Dropbox to Google Drive we keep our files stored in some nameless data farm in Iowa, and any Apple user will have lots of information stored in the iCloud. While these Read more
Two cases in the news have been prompting questions about the way in which we interact with social media, and how it affects everyday life. In the UK, a teenager has been issued with a harassment order after he made a decidedly offensive tweet to British diver Tom Daley when Read more