SOPA, PIPA, and Citizens' Need For A "Backup" Internet

Well, it looks like we have dodged a bullet - for now.

News sources reported yesterday that our illustrious Congress critters have backed off on ramming through legislation that could have shut down many websites - possibly including this blog. President Obama has also backed away from his original position, saying he won't be signing any SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) or PIPA (Protect IP Act) legislation right away. No doubt he doesn't want to make any more adverse waves, given this is an election year and the outcry these bills have caused.

These bills were put forth ostensibly to stop piracy of movies, music, and other intellectual property. As one who has created my share of copyrighted property, I fully understand and sympathise with ANYONE wanting theirs protected. But what these pieces of legislation would do is basically allow an individual or company to sue you and have your website shut down if you as much as linked to a suspicious site. If a reader's comment published on your blog contains a link to suspicious material, that alone could prove sufficient cause to have your entire site shut down. This, BEFORE you even get a chance to argue your case in court!

ALL of this could happen WITHOUT due process, folks. This basically renders null and void the idea of "innocent until proven guilty" - one of THE founding principles America was based on.

Laws such as this could put sites like blogger, you-tube, ... out of business because the legal risk they would incur by hosting the millions of videos and blogs would be overwhelming. Imagine the undertaking it would be for blogger to check EVERY blog out on their system for possible copyright violations.

As someone said a while back, "SOPA and PIPA are basically the legal equivalent of burning down your house because you found a couple roaches in the kitchen." There are better ways of handling the problem.

An Opening For Repressive Governments
Regularly we read about how China, Egypt, and other repressive regimes curtail their citizens' access to information online. Thus far, the Constitution and other legal protections have kept this from happening here in America. We have seen how easily the USA Patriot Act was pushed through Congress with nary a whimper after the 9/11/2001 attacks. Bear in mind that the Republicans soundly defeated similar legislation - calling it "Draconian" - when Bill Clinton proposed it just a few years earlier. The USA Patriot Act opened the door for, among many other things, the gross violations of our dignity we suffer for the privilege of boarding an airliner nowadays.

It is likewise quite conceivable that SOPA and PIPA could start us on a slippery slope whereby the US government and/or others could also more readily clamp down on the flow of information when "inconvenient truths" on ANY subject threaten to surface.

The Common Citizen's Workaround - Or Digital "Jungle Telegraph"
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Common citizens should have ALTERNATIVE ways of communicating, exchanging news and information, as well as storing and accessing needed web content should there be any kind of censorship or shutdown of the Internet. Just as Amateur (HAM) radio allows communications when the regular infrastructure is down, a "mesh" network could quickly serve as the modern, information-age equivalent to "ham" or CB radio in an emergency. The software to do this is available online for FREE right now. All you need is the software and a wi-fi enabled laptop or desktop PC. Any desktop PC can be made wi-fi capable with an inexpensively purchased USB dongle.

How it works:
With a mesh network, a person's PC, laptop, or even a smart phone becomes a network repeater. Let's say I want to communicate with someone several blocks, or even miles away. I'd send out a signal, which would be picked up by the nearest computer or phone running the appropriate software. That device would then forward that to another one farther away, and so-on, until the message reached its destination. The more devices you get involved the more robust the network becomes. If you have several nodes in a neighborhood and one or two are lost, the signal still can go elsewhere and eventually get where it is going. Since unlike the regular Internet, there are MULTIPLE WAYS for an individual PC to connect, these networks are quite reliable. You are NO LONGER dependent on just your DSL or cable connection to get out. And neither is anyone else running a wi-fi mesh setup. And of course ANY of these devices could be running a server or host a shared directory for sharing files. Short of a major EMP incident (which would destroy most electronic hardware anyway), such a network would be very hard to completely jam or take down. The phones and PCs involved would still retain their originally intended functionality - this software runs quietly in the background.

Scalability: A mesh network can be as small as a few PCs in an apartment building or it could quite conceivably span an entire city. Licensed ham radio operators routinely transmit computer data over their radios - this is called "packet radio". Imagine the possibilities that open when you combine packet radio with mesh networks.

For more information I have included the following links:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/world/12internet.html?_r=1

http://fabfi.fablab.af/

http://code.google.com/p/fabfi/

http://code.google.com/p/fabfi/wiki/HowToMake

http://inkarlslab.blogspot.com/2011/10/more-internet-censorship-on-way-in-good.html

http://inkarlslab.blogspot.com/2011/06/wanna-beat-internet-censorship-build.html

Cyber-Clouds In My Coffee*

We have all heard all the hoopla about cloud computing, and how it is the greatest thing for mankind since sliced bread. It's been harder than I would expect to get a coherent explanation of what cloud computing really is. Boiled down, it refers to a paradigm in which computing is basically a "service" or a "utility" that you pay a monthly fee to use, rather than as something you buy in a box, take home, setup, and plug in. [I think of it as akin to regularly sending one's laundry to a laundry service as opposed to buying a washer and doing it at home.] Taken to its ultimate end, it could involve having your applications software hosted on a remote server, and also your data stored elsewhere. You would access your applications and data from anywhere there is Internet access via small, relatively cheap commodity devices such as tablet computers and "smart phones".

While it probably does have its place, its widespread implementation has some important and potentially negative ramifications for Joe Average User. Especially in this day of terrorism, government crackdowns, and a general lack of accountability on the part of Big Business. The huge new legal and ethical issues surrounding the use of this technology are unprecedented and could take years to resolve.

Before you swallow all the marketing hype "hook, line, and sinker", check out this article quoting Richard Stallman, activist, privacy advocate, and computer programmer:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/sep/29/cloud.computing.richard.stallman

The article, and the ones linked to at the bottom of this post, do quite a bit to de-mystify the general concept of cloud computing by striping away the marketing mumbo-jumbo to get to its essence.

Here are a few quotes highlighted from the article:
Stallman said "But there has been growing concern that mainstream adoption of cloud computing could present a mixture of privacy and ownership issues, with users potentially being locked out of their own files."

"One reason you should not use web applications to do your computing is that you lose control," he said. "It's just as bad as using a proprietary program. Do your own computing on your own computer with your copy of a freedom-respecting program. If you use a proprietary program or somebody else's web server, you're defenceless. You're putty in the hands of whoever developed that software."

He goes on to tell people "to stay local and stick with their own computers."

He said it more eloquently than I could have. Using my laundry analogy above, one must trust that the laundry service won't lose the wash, spill bleach or dye on it, overcook it in the dryer and shrink it, return it to the wrong person, ...

Here's where it "hits home":
Typically, my ISP is 'down' an average of two days per month. I have few viable options for Internet services in my semi-rural location. It's not that the infrastructure isn't here for more service providers; it's the fact we have one 300# gorilla that has cornered the market and for all practical purposes locked out the competition. I'd be crazy to want my access to my music, school homework, business files, ... contingent upon having access to the Internet. That's just a couple of the 'local issues'. But there are much larger implications.

Having observed the government crackdowns on Internet and phone service in places like Egypt and parts of the Arab World, and the continuing government control of the Internet in places such as China, I have a very cautious and skeptical attitude toward anything in which we as individuals and small businesses are asked to (or told we must) give up any more control over our own data and infrastructure.

* In keeping with giving proper attribution of ideas to their owners, the title of this post makes reference to the song "You're So Vain", by Carly Simon. "Clouds in my coffee" refers to illusions, or having "cloudy" vision so you can't see things clearly.

The following sites will help "part the clouds" surrounding this potentially game-changing technology:

http://www.techtangerine.com/2009/06/02/ten-reasons-why-cloud-computing-is-a-bad-idea/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2008/aug/06/whengoogleownsyouyourdata

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/london/defense-giant-ditches-microsofts-cloud-citing-patriot-act-fears/1349?tag=nl.e539


A short side bar - but related issue:
The Obama administration and our illustrious congress critters are working to pass a bill that would give the U.S. Government the power to shut down and/or censor Internet and presumably telephone access for US citizens at the slightest whim. Another bill - the so-called "Protect IP Act" - in the works essentially gives large companies such as Microsoft and Hollywood studios carte blanche to censor our access to many websites we use everyday. See the short video at http://vimeo.com/31100268 to understand the far-reaching implications of this legislation.
I've talked about this and related topics in my posts regarding Internet censorship, service interruption, and the need for "grass roots" neighborhood "mesh networks". Judging from my blog stats on those posts, my attempts to reach and warn people of the chilling effect this can have on our basic rights of free speech in the digital age have failed. But please bear in mind that until 911, legislation such as the "USA Patriot Act" would have seemed unthinkable to most Americans. For those interested in more information about Internet Censorship and how to beat it, check out the following:
http://inkarlslab.blogspot.com/2011/10/more-internet-censorship-on-way-in-good.html

http://inkarlslab.blogspot.com/2011/06/wanna-beat-internet-censorship-build.html

More Internet Censorship On The Way In Good Ol' USA?

As with most news that we really NEED to be paying attention to, the "Protect IP Act" is something the mainstream media is NOT covering much in its "news" programs. While billed as another attempt at stopping music and movie piracy, it definitely has the earmarks of something far more sinister.

Having worked in the electronics and IT-related industries, I have read much about the "Protect IP Act" recently - but for those of you who are uninitiated, here's a quickie 3-4 minute video that explains what could happen quite soon:

http://mgelei.eu/2011/10/the-great-firewall-of-china-might-move-to-the-usa/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-great-firewall-of-china-might-move-to-the-usa

Kudos to Mate Gelei for putting this up on his blog!!

I am completely against piracy of other people's intellectual property and hard work. However, this looks like a tool more useful for social control, curtailing free discourse, and manufacturing consensus, rather than for protecting copyrighted work. As pointed out in the video, media companies already have a powerful arsenal of laws and regulations to use against piracy. This is akin to burning down the house because you found two or three roaches in the kitchen.

So, what can we do?
Besides boycotting companies who are spearheading this, there IS technology available to help.

A while back I wrote about "mesh networks" - which are a stealthy way of creating Internet access which bypasses the regular government or corporate controlled network infrastructure.
http://inkarlslab.blogspot.com/2011/06/wanna-beat-internet-censorship-build.html
Just as truckers use CB radios to warn each other of adverse road conditions ahead, such a stealth "internet" could well be about the only way the common man (or woman) will be able to get REAL news and information at some point. Just look at the conditions in China, the recent commotion in Egypt, ... for examples. In these situations even cellular and land line phone networks were mostly shut down. Another possible scenario where a mesh network could really help is a natural or man-made disaster that could take down normal communications services. During such emergencies, mesh networks and amateur radio could really make a huge difference in helping ordinary folks.

Such "mesh" or ad-hoc networks could span anywhere from a city block to a large metropolitan area - perhaps farther using some creativity. These would be relatively hard to control or shut down, and would be fairly robust even in situations that would knock out standard DSL, cellular and land line phone, or cable access.

Along with shortwave radios and amateur "ham" radio, this is something every freedom-loving person might want to look into.

Wanna BEAT Internet Censorship? Build Your OWN Internet!

We have read recently how the Egyptian, Chinese, and Syrian governments have cut Internet access to their citizens to control the flow of information and keep ordinary citizens from being able to report human rights abuses. In the case of Syria, cell phones have also been affected by government censorship efforts. Since time immemorial governments have treated their citizens "like mushrooms - keeping them in the dark and feeding ..." - well, you know the rest of the saying.

Even as the United States government talks of "needing" the ability to shut down Internet access to US CITIZENS in the event of "cyber terrorism" or "other civil crises", the state Department and Pentagon are spending American tax dollars to develop and provide alternative cyber networks to folks in other countries affected by such censorship.

Here's a link to an article in today's New York Times online edition:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/world/12internet.html

While I think most of what the New York Times produces is best used as bird cage liner or kitty litter, THIS article actually has some VERY GOOD information.

Quoted directly from the article:
"The group’s suitcase project will rely on a version of “mesh network” technology, which can transform devices like cellphones or personal computers to create an invisible wireless web without a centralized hub. In other words, a voice, picture or e-mail message could hop directly between the modified wireless devices — each one acting as a mini cell “tower” and phone — and bypass the official network. "

"mesh networks - information hops directly between cell phones and computers without going through state-controlled networks. They do this with special software."

Given the natural disasters that have hit the US within the past few years, as well as other events that could suddenly cripple the ability of US Citizens to communicate freely by phone or Internet, perhaps we would do well as individual citizens to network with each other and create our own 'free' Wide-Area-Networks (WANs), or community Internets. This would go far in augmenting the services that amateur radio (ham) operators provide in times of need. Amateur radio operators use "packet radio" to transmit digital information. Unfortunately most folks don't have the training or the license to use it. But most of us who own laptops DO have Wi-Fi capability which are readily adaptable for use in mesh or ad-hoc networks.

Something for any concerned citizen to think about.

For those interested in developing this technology, a google search will turn up all the information you need to get started. I've included a couple links here:

"Fab-fi networks" - open-source systems using common, "every-day" materials and readily-available equipment for creating community wireless Ethernet networks.

http://fabfi.fablab.af/

http://code.google.com/p/fabfi/

http://code.google.com/p/fabfi/wiki/HowToMake