Hooking Up The Big Brother Machine... And Fighting It: Via EFF.org Updates.

Here's a movie pitch: One lone telecommunications technician, going about his ordinary daily work in San Francisco, begins to realize things aren't quite what they seem. There's a "secret room" downstairs, and ordinary employees aren't allowed to enter it. Coworkers — almost casually! — remark that a government spy agency is involved, that similar facilities are being built across the country, that some of them are stamped with the government's ominous eye-and-pyramid "Total Information Awareness" logo.

Soon, the plot thickens. Mundane technical procedures produce startling revelations. He stumbles on a document that suggests the room contains a supercomputer designed to data-mine phone calls and Internet traffic. And, indeed, he soon realizes that the room is sucking up copies of electronic communications from millions of random Americans.

All this in the early 2000s, when "the political atmosphere in the country after 9/11 had a witchhunt feel to it, and even modest criticism of the administration was getting painted as disloyalty or worse."

What happens to our hero when he finally decides to go public? [ Read more ... ]

ACLU’s Jameel Jaffer at New School Conference: Via Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union.

This week, The New School in New York City will be hosting a conference, on "Limiting Knowledge in a Democracy," which will assess where America is today with respect to limits on our access to information. The two-day conference will explore the issues of citizens’ right to free public information, the ways in which the government and other political organizations restrict or manipulate the flow of information, and the importance of investigative journalism in upholding democracy and calling for accountability.

The ACLU’s National Security Project Director, Jameel Jaffer, will participate in a session on “Arguments for and Against Limits on Knowledge in a Democracy” to discuss the disadvantages of limits on knowledge. The session, which takes place on Thursday, February 25, 2010 from 2:15 pm – 5:00 pm, [ Read more ... ]

Wikileaks and Iceland MPs propose 'journalism haven': Via BBC News.

Iceland could become a "journalism haven" if a proposal put forward by some Icelandic MPs aided by whistle-blowing website Wikileaks succeeds.

The Icelandic Modern Media Initiative (IMMI), calls on the country's government to adopt laws protecting journalists and their sources.

It will be filed with the Althingi - Iceland's parliament - on 16 February.

If the proposal succeeds it will require the Icelandic government to consider introducing legislation.

Julian Assange, Wikileaks' editor, told BBC News that the idea was to "try and reform Iceland's media law to be a very attractive jurisdiction for investigative journalists".

He has been in Iceland for a number of weeks and is advising MPs on the IMMI.

The hope is that journalist-friendly laws will encourage media businesses to move to Iceland. [ Read more ... ]

TSA Threatens Blogger Who Posted New Screening Directive: Via Threat Level.

Two bloggers received home visits from Transportation Security Administration agents Tuesday after they published a new TSA directive that revises screening procedures and puts new restrictions on passengers in the wake of a recent bombing attempt by the so-called underwear bomber.

Special agents from the TSA’s Office of Inspection interrogated two U.S. bloggers, one of them an established travel columnist, and served them each with a civil subpoena demanding information on the anonymous source that provided the TSA document.

The document, which the two bloggers published within minutes of each other Dec. 27, was sent by TSA to airlines and airports around the world and described temporary new requirements for screening passengers through Dec. 30, including conducting “pat-downs” of legs and torsos. The document, which was not classified, was posted by numerous bloggers. Information from it was also published on some airline websites. [ Read more ... ]

The NYT's view of "journalistic objectivity": Via Salon: Glenn Greenwald.

(updated below)

I've written many times before about Sami al-Hajj, the Al Jazeera cameraman who was abducted by the U.S. in late 2001, tortured at Bagram, sent to Guantanamo for seven years -- where he was never charged with any crime and was interrogated overwhelmingly about Al Jazeera's operations, not about Terrorism -- and then suddenly released without explanation last year, as though the whole thing never happened.  The due-process-free imprisonment of this journalist by the U.S. government was ignored almost completely by the American media (other than Nicholas Kristof), even as it righteously obsessed on the far shorter and far more humane imprisonment of journalists by countries such as Iran and North Korea (hey, look over there at those tyrannical countries - they imprison our journalists!!!!!).  Aside from al-Hajj, we've imprisoned numerous other journalists without charges in Iraq -- and continue to this day to do so -- including ones who work for Reuters and the Associated Press.

Today, The New York Times' media reporter Brian Stelter profiles al-Hajj, who is now an on-air correspondent for Al Jazeera.  The article recounts the details of al-Hajj's detention, his description of his torture, and the physical and psychological wounds he still suffers from his treatment at the hands of his American captors.  All things considered, the article is a decent effort to explain what happened, and Stelter deserves credit for bringing some desperately needed attention to this story.  Nonetheless, the article contains some rather striking and revealing passages, beginning with this: [ Read more ... ]

The Joys of Airstrikes and Anonymity: Via Salon: Glenn Greenwald.

Each time the U.S. bombs a new location in the Muslim world, the same pattern emerges.  First, officials from the U.S. or allied governments run to their favorite media outlet to claim -- anonymously -- that some big, bad, notorious, "top" Al Qaeda leader "may have been" or "likely was" killed in the strike, and this constitutes a "stinging" or "devastating" blow against the Terrorist group.  These compliant media outlets then sensationalistically trumpet that claim as the dominant theme of their "reporting" on the attack, drowning out every other issue.  [ Read more ... ]

Cybercrooks Trick Gawker Into Serving Malware-Laced Ad: Via Threat Level.

Remember when the global economic crisis was supposed to drive legions of desperate, unemployed computer programmers into cybercrime? It turns out the real threat comes from unemployed advertising agents.

Scammers posing as the well-known ad agency Spark-SMG tricked Gawker Media into running a fake Suzuki ad last week that served malicious code, according to a report in Silicon Alley Insider. A similar scam hit the New York Times in September. Unlike the newspaper, Gawker has released the e-mails it exchanged with the scammers, and the messages show just how confidently the perps navigated the ad-buy process. [ Read more ... ]

Tucker Carlson and the right's perpetual self-victimhood: Via Salon: Glenn Greenwald.

(updated below)

The number one rule of American politics:  the greatest, most insatiable need of the standard conservative is to turn themselves into oppressed little victims.  In The Daily Beast today, Tucker Carlson devotes his entire column to complaining that Obama is "bullying" Fox News, absurdly claiming that the White House and liberals are trying "to use government power to muzzle opinions they don't agree with."  Needless to say, Carlson doesn't say a word about the endless -- and far worse -- attacks by the Bush White House on a whole array of media outlets, ones that went far beyond mere criticisms.  

But far more delusional is Carlson's central complaint:  that "the press decide[d] to go along with all of this" -- meaning Obama's criticisms of Fox.  He echoes the typical, woe-is-us conservative whine:  "Why is the press corps giving the White House a pass for behavior it would never have tolerated from other administrations? [ Read more ... ]

Wikileaks plans to make the Web a leakier place: Via ITworld a part of the IDG News Service.

Wikileaks.org, the online clearinghouse for leaked documents, is working on a plan to make the Web leakier by enabling newspapers, human rights organizations, criminal investigators and others to embed an "upload a disclosure to me via Wikileaks" form onto their Web sites.

The upload system will give potential whistleblowers around the world the ability to leak sensitive documents to an organization or journalist they trust over a secure connection, while giving the receiver legal protection they might not otherwise enjoy.

"We will take the burden of protecting the source and the legal risks associated with publishing the document," said Julien Assange, an advisory board member at Wikileaks, in an interview at the Hack In The Box security conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. [ Read more ... ]

The joint Post/Obama defense of the Patriot Act and FISA: Via Salon: Glenn Greenwald.

(updated below - Update II)

The Washington Post's Anne Kornblut today produces an extreme piece of government-serving, stenographic "journalism," publishing a dubious administration press release masquerading as a lengthy news article on Obama's approach to Terrorism and civil liberties.  The Post depicts Obama as heavily and heroically engaged in disrupting the alleged Najibullah Zazi domestic terrorist plot and -- repeatedly highlighting that success -- claims "the White House has been charting a delicate course as it attempts to turn the page on Bush-era anti-terrorism policies," whereby "the Obama administration is increasingly confident that it has struck a balance between protecting civil liberties, honoring international law and safeguarding the country."  Here are all of Kornblut's cited sources for the article -- every last one of them -- in the order she cites them:

Obama aides pointed . . . administration officials said . . . a senior administration official said . . . officials said . . . a senior administration official said . . . senior Obama officials stressed . . . a senior administration official said . . . aides said . . . officials said . . . one senior administration official said. . . . one senior official said. . . . The official said . . . a senior administration official said . . . a senior administration official said . . . administration officials said . . . . a senior official said.

Not a single named person is cited, and there's not a syllable of quoted dissent in any of it.  Virtually every sentence in the long article does nothing but praise Obama and depict him as stalwartly safeguarding America's civil liberties (unlike Bush did) [ Read more ... ]

Fact Check on FOX News' Misleading PATRIOT Act Reporting: Via EFF.org Updates.

Unfortunately, it appears that the only television news network that's been regularly covering the PATRIOT Act renewal process in Congress has been FOX News, and their coverage has seemed a lot more like pro-PATRIOT propaganda than unbiased news reporting. Fortunately, Julian Sanchez of The Cato Institute has been fact-checking them closely, in this detailed blog post and in this illuminating video: [ Read more ... ]

Mark Lloyd and the Burden of Free Speech: Via CDT - PolicyBeta.

Mark Lloyd has devoted his long and distinguished public interest life to fighting for media diversity and free speech for all of us. In recognition of his career and expertise, he has been appointed Associate General Counsel at the FCC. Congratulations Mark! From all of us who served with you on the board of the Center for Democracy & Technology and all of those who have worked with you over the years.

Now Lloyd has been paid another honor: an attack from none other then Glen Beck, one of our leading media voices of rage and distortion who spends his time 24/7 working to smear anyone associated with progressive policies.

Art Brodsky of Public Knowledge has written a careful deconstruction of Beck’s distorted attack on Lloyd’s character and public record to set the record straight and it is worth a read at for anyone interested in the facts and truth. Unfortunately, we don’t think Beck or his followers are interested… but many will be. [ Read more ... ]

NY Times Should Report on NY Times Ad Malware: Via Freedom to Tinker.

Yesterday morning, while reading the New York Times online, I was confronted with an attempted security attack, apparently delivered through an advertisement. A window popped up, mimicking an antivirus scanner. After "scanning" my computer, it reported finding viruses and invited me to download a free antivirus scanner. The displays implied, without quite saying so, that the messages came from my antivirus vendor and that the download would come from there too. Knowing how these things work, I recognized it right away as an attack, probably carried by an ad. So I didn't click on anything, and I'm fairly certain my computer wasn't infected.

I wasn't the only person who saw this attack. The Times posted a brief note on its site yesterday, and followed up today with a longer blog post. [ Read more ... ]

How Far Should Google Go To Protect User Privacy In Lawsuits?: Via Techdirt.

We've already discussed the ridiculous circumstances under which a model, Liskula Cohen, ended up getting a judge to order Google to reveal an anonymous blogger who Cohen felt defamed her by calling her a "skank," among other things. That no longer anonymous blogger, Rosemary Port, is now planning to sue Google, though it seems her chances of winning are slim to none. Still, the whole thing did raise questions about the level to which Google should go to protect the anonymity of people who use its services. [ Read more ... ]

Snatching Rights On the Playa: Via EFF.org Updates.

In a few weeks, tens of thousands of creative people will make their yearly pilgrimage to Nevada’s Black Rock desert for Burning Man, an annual art event and temporary community celebrating radical self expression, self-reliance, creativity and freedom. Most have the entirely reasonable expectation that they will own and control what is likely the largest number of creative works generated on the Playa: the photos they take to document their creations and experiences.

That’s because they haven’t read the Burning Man Terms and Conditions.

Those Terms and Conditions include a remarkable bit of legal sleight-of-hand: as soon as “any third party displays or disseminates” your photos or videos in a manner that the Burning Man Organization (BMO) doesn’t like, those photos or videos become the property of the BMO. [ Read more ... ]

AP's DRM Announcement: Much Ado About Nothing: Via Freedom to Tinker.

Last week the Associated Press announced it would be developing some kind of online news registry to control use of news content. From AP's press release: [ Read more ... ]

Feds want paper to cough up identifying data on commenters: Via Law & Disorder Section - Ars Technica.

The US Attorney for Nevada is going after a Las Vegas newspaper in order to get information on certain commenters on its website. The Las Vegas Review-Journal says that the attorney's office is asking for the identities of two specific commenters who made statements that could be construed as threatening to jurors or prosecutors in a case. This request is significantly scaled back from the original demand, however, which the attorney's office now acknowledges was overly broad. [ Read more ... ]

IRAN ELECTION 2009 | Gathering the news about Iran's 2009 National election in one place.: Via IRAN ELECTION 2009.

IRAN ELECTION 2009 Gathering the news about Iran's 2009 National election in one place.
http://IranElection2009.com/

I just wanted to point out a site that is coming together to try and give a central place to get information about Iran's recent election. [ Read more ... ]

AP Reporter Reprimanded For Facebook Post; Union Protests: Via Threat Level.

An Associated Press reporter’s official reprimand over an innocuous comment on his Facebook page has sparked the ire of union officials. They are now demanding that AP clarify its ethics guidelines and are also urging reporters to watch who they add to their friends lists.

“We have seen about six Facebook problems over the last two months, with employees — maybe managers you have as friends — reporting potential issues to management,” union guild chief Kevin Keane wrote in a memo to union members last week. “You must be careful who you allow on as friends.” [ Read more ... ]

Photo censorship vs. digital photography: Via Freedom to Tinker.

On the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square events (protests? uprising? insurrection? massacre?), the New York Times' Lens Blog put up a great piece about the four different photographers who photographed the iconic "Tank Man". Inevitably, half of the story concerns the technical details of being in the right place and having the right equipment configuration to capture the image (no small thing in the middle of a civil insurrection). The other half of the story, though, is about how the film got out of the camera and out to us. The story of Tank Man (NYT article, PBS Frontline piece) is quite amazing, by itself, but I want to focus on the photographers. [ Read more ... ]

NSA Whistleblower Meets Anthrax ‘Person of Interest’: Via Threat Level.

WASHINGTON — They sat near different ends of a long table Thursday: a former Justice Department official who leaked information on Bush’s warrantless domestic spying program to the New York Times, and a former Army scientist who was wrongly linked to the 2001 anthrax attacks by different, but equally-anonymous, government sources.

You couldn’t ask for a starker example of everything good and bad about journalists’ use of anonymous sources in Washington, and both men have had their lives changed by their experiences. [ Read more ... ]

Chinese voices silenced (again) as Tiananmen media blackout begins: Via CDT - PolicyBeta.

The Chinese government has blocked access to Twitter and a slew of other online platforms for expression in China on Tuesday. Users report that Twitter, Flickr, Bing.com, Hotmail, Windows Live, Blogger.com, and other services are unavailable. YouTube has also been largely blocked since March.

The Chinese government often restricts access to online services during politically sensitive periods. As this week marks the twentieth anniversary of the deadly crackdown on democracy activists in Tiananmen Square, “politically sensitive” would be an immense understatement in describing the tension in Beijing and permeating the rest of the mainland.

The Chinese government has been here before:  [ Read more ... ]

Bloggers, TV, Go Nuts Over Misleading ‘Patriot Act’ Claim: Via Threat Level.

It’s the false TV news report heard ’round the world. Raleigh, North Carolina’s WRAL-5 reported last week that a 16-year-old bomb hoax suspect was hauled out of his mother’s home by federal agents, and is now being held without any legal rights on the authority of the 2001 USA PATRIOT Act, which “supercedes the Constitution.” [ Read more ... ]

Public Booted from DVD Copying Trial Over ‘Secret’ CSS Code: Via Threat Level.

AN FRANCISCO — Whether the public has a right to make a “fair use” copy of DVDs is on trial in a San Francisco federal court. Yet the public may never know whether the verdict was reached fairly because the presiding judge removed the press just as the nuts and bolts of the case was to be aired out.

U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel’s contempt for the media is widely known by the San Francisco tech press. Patel, a Carter appointee, presided over the Napster trial in one of the smallest courtrooms in the San Francisco federal building – despite unsuccessful press pleas that the high-profile case be moved to a substantially larger courtroom that perpetually sits vacant. Hence, many reporters were excluded for lack of space.

Fast forward to Friday. Patel excluded several reporters from the same courtroom in a case testing Hollywood’s lock on the DVD. The press, including Wired, CNET, Reuters, Bloomberg News Service, The New York Times and The Associated Press and other outlets were ordered removed as the guts of the case got underway. [ Read more ... ]

Listening to the Dot-Comments: Via Doug Feaver's blog on washingtonpost.com .

I am writing in defense of the anonymous, unmoderated, often appallingly inaccurate, sometimes profane, frequently off point and occasionally racist reader comments that washingtonpost.com allows to be published at the end of articles and blogs.

Aside from the fact that the newspaper business model is evaporating, there are few subjects more vexing for journalists and many readers of my generation than what to do about those comments. We don't let this happen in letters to the editor. Where are the standards? [ Read more ... ]