It's not just Bush who trawls for your information - know and protect your online privacy rights

This post is mostly for my US readers and covers various resources for those who either suspect or know that their right to free speech online is being abused. In all the coverage and commentary about the Bush administration's unlawful behaviour both against foreign citizens and its own we tend to lose site of the fact that commercial organisations can and do file very dubious subpoenas against private citizens. Copyright holders can and do file subpoenas essentially as "fishing" expeditions. If you've been targetted in this way under American law there are two sites that you need to know about Subpoena Defense and Chilling Effect. Subpoena Defense "This site is a resource for individuals seeking information on how to defend themselves if their identity has been subpoenaed by a private third party seeking to enforce their copyrights on the Internet. It includes resources for those who have been sued or have received threat letters from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and other copyright holders." Full site here The second site "Chilling Effects" are linked via subpoena defense: Chilling Effects Clearinghouse A joint project of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, University of San Francisco, University of Maine, George Washington School of Law, and Santa Clara University School of Law clinics. Do you know your online rights? Have you received a letter asking you to remove information from a Web site or to stop engaging in an activity? Are you concerned about liability for information that someone else posted to your online forum? If so, this site is for you. Chilling Effects aims to help you understand the protections that the First Amendment and intellectual property laws give to your online activities. We are excited about the new opportunities the Internet offers individuals to express their views, parody politicians, celebrate their favorite movie stars, or criticize businesses. But we've noticed that not everyone feels the same way. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some individuals and corporations are using intellectual property and other laws to silence other online users. Chilling Effects encourages respect for intellectual property law, while frowning on its misuse to "chill" legitimate activity. The website offers background material and explanations of the law for people whose websites deal with topics such as Fan Fiction, Copyright, Domain Names and Trademarks, Anonymous Speech, and Defamation. Chilling Effect's page to report an abuse can be found here. Their FAQ page "Frequently Asked Questions (and Answers) about DMCA Subpoenas" can be found here. Finally don't forget the Electronic Frontier Foundation "EFF is a nonprofit group of passionate people — lawyers, technologists, volunteers, and visionaries — working to protect your digital rights." They can be found here.

Oh Fuck

Syrians torch Danish, Norway embassies over cartoon Reuters Note to commenters and would-be commenters: I'll get around to reading and either accepting or rejecting your comments as and when I can. I'll add that so far I've rejected every single comment. I will not under any circumstances whatsoever publish comments that seek to inflame ethnic or religious tensions here in Denmark or anywhere else in the world for that matter. I don't give a damn whether you're a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Hindu, an Atheist, or whatever you think of yourself as - if you've come here to make either inflamatory or "snarky" comments, you're wasting your time.

Hooting Grampa

I'm in a bad mood today the Jyllands Posten cartoons affair about which several people are trying to persuade me to write continues to escalate. Needless to say those with axes to grind are doing their very best to continue to fan the flames. Mostly as an antidote for myself I'm posting this flash movie from the freeway blogger And via Firedoglake commenter "Grampa" there's this darkly hilarious gem about what happens to innocent people who accidentally get on the wrong side of the Bush administration. I'll let grampa's comment speak for it self "OT, but in case you missed it, check out this "Al Qaeda Caller ID<" linked at HuffPo: http://current.cf.huffingtonpost.com/ It's a hoot. Grampa | 02.02.06 - 4:25 pm | # "

Translating

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A bomb exploded alongside a group of Iraqi men waiting for work in eastern Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least eight and wounding more than 50 … [snip] Baghdad's latest bomb attack struck at about 7 a.m. near the Sunni Muslim al-Samaraei mosque in the New Baghdad neighborhood. Police sealed off the area and the wounded were taken to nearby hospitals. Col. Ahmed Abboud, chief of police in New Baghdad, cited eyewitnesses saying a man placed a bag full of explosives near a cart that sold tea to men waiting near a crowded intersection for a day's work. "The people did not suspect him when he first came with the bag because all workers carry their food in such bags," Abboud told The Associated Press. Abboud and another police official, Capt. Mohammed Jassim Jaber, said at least eight people were killed and more than 50 wounded. … … … Let's translate that from "reporterese" into Engllsh: A group of men were waiting for the chance to work in Eastern Baghdad. Eastern Baghdad is a very poor neighbourhood. The men were looking for badly paid physically arduous day labourer jobs. Somebody decided to attempt to further disrupt the American led occupation of Iraq by attacking those men as they waited for work. At least 8 men were killed by the bomb at least 50 were wounded. As always their relatives and dependents are left to grieve and wonder how they will now survive.

Unfortunately we are old and betoddlered

For some reason I can't fathom I visit Defective Yeti in fits and starts. Months can go by without a visit to his site and then something prompts me and I joyfully rediscover his writing. I wrote about his text misadventure game last month. The title to this posting made me LOLIR and has been gleefully shamelessly and unabashedly stolen from his latest. Wise, witty, sometimes heartbreaking, go read.

An Intervention for Good

On January 15th I described the plight of Iraqi widows here and asked my readers to contribute what they could to the Allan Enwiyah's widow. Allan was working as the translator to the kidnapped American reporter Jill Carroll. Her ordeal continues and our attention remains focussed upon her - that is as it should be. But I asked you not to forget another young woman whose nightmare also began that dreadful day - Allan Enwiyah's wife. Allan was murdered by Jill Carroll's kidnappers leaving behind a wife and two small children. As I said back then: "Allan Enwiyah's widow is now living what must surely have been her worst nightmare, is facing dire poverty, and must cope not only with her grief but with comforting her children and trying to provide for them." I asked that you go to Fayrouz's site and give what you could to ease her plight. Fayrouz has been listing the donations as they come in and I've been updating my original posting tracking the donations here is the amount raised as of February 1st 2006. Total Gross Amount: $6,683.75 Total PayPal Fees: -$218.04 Total Net Amount: $6,465.71 Total Wired Amount: $0.00 Total Wire Fees: $0.00 Total Remaining Amount: $6,465.71 I know that some of my readers here gave generously and encouraged others to do so. Thank you, I'm very grateful. It is good to know that in the hellish bloodsoaked mess created by western governments in Iraq that one family have had their plight somewhat lessened by ordinary people reaching out in sympathy. Mark Update February 3rd 2006: $6,764.91 - wouldn't it be wonderful if it went over us$7000, I'm starting to hope that it just might. Update February 6th 2006: $6,855.54