Peacefire vs CyberSitter
Parental control abuses
An insider quarrel between a blocking software company and a cyber right's teenager group make people understand that systems such as "parental control" technology may not be as "moralist" as one have claimed
Cartoon : Paul Gemperle / Planete Internet
The quarel concerns blocking-software CyberSitter and one of the Web site it decided to block, a US youth association against Net censorship, Peacefire. Bennet Haselton, 18, Peacefire's founder, wrote on December 7 : "Sometime today or yesterday, CYBERsitter put www.peacefire.org on its list of blocked sites. Next time users of the program update their "filter file", they will see our web page blocked along with Playboy.com, Penthouse.com etc." (not to mention National Organization of Women's site, Members.GNN.com, C2.org, and Yahoo's Gay directory). "Apparently, the company president read our page about CYBERsitter at: http://www.peacefire.org/censorware/CYBERsitter.html and didn't like it."
Solid Oak Software, owner of the blocking program, claims Peacefire put online some advices or tips to abort CyberSitter efficiency for teenagers; claimed one time of "copyright infringements"; and decided to urge Peacefire's IAP to block its account.
Remember that these softwares were designed to allow parents to control their child's access to the Internet. "Parental control", as it is called, was suppose to give ways for parents to self-censor Internet content. But when people trust the technology and give too much faith to black-listed sites maintained by other individuals' moral standards, parents don't really keep on their "parental control" anymore. They even fail to tackle their own responsability towards their childs. On December 27 the CPSR wrote a protest letter to Solid Oak. Abstracts: "Your own description of your product provides a fairly concise description of CYBERSitter's restrictions: "any site that focuses on topics such as adult or issues, illegal activities, bigotry, racism, drugs or pornography". Using this list", the CPSR went on, "any determined individuals with web browsers might easily build a profile of sites that are blocked by CYBERSitter. Several members of our group dowloaded your demo, and quickly verified that your software completely or partially blocks access to sites such as the National Organization of Women, and the Yahoo search engine. Since CYBERSitter's behavior can be easily categorized, Peacefire's publishing of a list of blocked sites does not justify blocking Peacefire's site, or any similar unsavory activities. ... By blocking sites that focus on topics such as [sex] and drug use, SolidOak may filter potentially educational materials regarding AIDS and drug abuse prevention."
It is a draft decree prepared by the SCSSI, the security agency, which draws a preliminary picture of future French "trusted third party" agencies (TTPs), or "key recovery agents".
A brief summary of what the French electronic notary will look like:
The government - The SCSSI
The TTP, "le notaire"
The (commercial) user
The (basic) user
The new policy is scheduled in France in the comming weeks.
Strange hacking, hey??! The story, which broke in the London's Sunday Times on November 17 was followed by the respectable newspaperLe Monde in Paris. But all was just dope -- a fake, phoney and bull story.
Read, for example, what a fan from the Nederlands says about the case. He told the real story to the Times which didn't even publish a word of it!
What's the story? A videotape with 45 sec' abstracts from both songs were released by Island Records-Hungary in November (it was the scheduled date for U2's upcomming album, but now scheduled in March!). And a guy simply put a microphone besides his TV and put the digital stuff online. Where's the hack anyway?
The Hungarian's fan explains also the story about the video, but didn't erase the songs from his server.
Follow their fight daily on the Internet : http://eurasianews.com/erc/serbopp1.htm
Read the news on:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/radikal,
http://www.xs4all.nl/~felipe/germany.html
As Haselton wrote later, "Most letters to the president,
P.S.- The European Commission has submitted draft guidelines to member States concerning the Internet's content regulations. They were quite reserved about the real efficacy of content control specifications like PICS, but nonetheless approved it. See the file: http://www.echo.lu/best_use/best_use.html
Crypto Soap Opera
Other leaked documents from France and the OECD
If you're an encryption addict and fluent in French, jump to the document beside published by Planete Internet magazine.
* Will say which encryption product will be concerned; all crypto systems will be OK if a key recovery scheme is scheduled; (PGP and the like are not on the list of "approved" products);
* Will decide which firm is OK to become a TTP; but no justification will be needed for negative requests;
* All commercial firms or entities (SA, SARL, consortiums...) will be concerned;
* But all its members, CEOs or associates must be "French": like the majority of its finantial assets;
* Will be submitted to "professionnal secret" and obliged to keep third party encryption keys away from illegal wiretapping activities;
* Will be obliged to use authorised encryption products; * Will engage itself to fully cooperate with the TTP;
* Even if the sheme will not be mandatory, using encryption without the backing of a TTP will be considered illegal;
* Huge finantial and logistical procedures will discourage NGO's, small companies and the citizen to protect legally its electronic communications.
Leaked document from the OECD's crypto hearings
International teams of cryptographers went on to publish some draft document from the Ad Hoc Expert Group on Cryptography of the OECD
Short-circuits
U2 hacked? Big Lie in Cyberspace
You surely read numerous stories about the U2 rock band that were "robbed" in Cyberspace by hackers that traveled through cables of a digital camera that broadcasted on the Internet views of their Dublin studio. Hackers put 2 new songs (Discotheque and Wake Up Dead Man) online from a site in Hungary, the story went on.
Serbia's fight for democracy reach digital age
Read David S. Bennahum's last MEME bulletin about Serbia's democratric fight. Bennahum spent one week in Belgrade and met democrats willign to create cyber-rights organisations like the EPIC or the CDT.
Radikal censorship
A left-wing and anarchist magazine banned in Germany, Radikal, available online in the Nederlands, was the target of German policemen on Dec. 11. After failing to urge Nederlands authorities to block the Web site last September, German police decided to act conventionally, with the help of their Dutch counterpart and raided a house in Vaals. It turns out that they acted to block Radikal at the source : its paper version.
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