From: here

Will American society continue to exclude ordinary citizens from important choices about the design and development of new technologies and information systems? Most likely there will continue to be unequal power over decisions about what is built and why, intensive efforts to hem in and control people’s lives in both work and consumerism, and present our future as something nonnegotiable.

Businesses will demonstrate accomplishment in what could and should be choices only to be decided by public investigation and debate - a disguised form of economic plunder. They conceal their strategy by designs that appeal to individual gratification which complicate social issues. Those with the understanding of what is happening must choose to protest or at least inform groups willing to take action on behalf of the community.

From: Publico.es

Rebelion.org is a means of information-their editors prefer to call it "counter" - composed of a dozen volunteers, as can be read on its website, "published the news that are not considered important by traditional media." Today, one of his colleagues had noticed that Wikipedia has blocked access to this newspaper since the free encyclopedia.

One of those responsible for Rebellion, Carlos Martinez, explains: "We reached an email from one of our colleagues is that, while publisher usual articles on Wikipedia. He told us that, after writing a text, when tried to put a link to our site, the program prevented him from saving it. "

The editing system of the free encyclopedia, which allows the provision of Internet, check all pages you want to put a reference to an article and compares them with a blacklist of sites. If you get the list prevents save the article. The cause appears as block reasons is that Rebellion is considered "non-neutral source nor verifiable."

"We are not neutral"

With out taking sides on the matter and only focusing on the fact that yahoo will give confidential information to a government, in this particular case to a foreign government .. but foreign or not, people needs to know or start to care about all this tools they use in the internet with out thinking in the political seeds they are helping create giving this corporations their power in popularity and market share.. think twice before using yahoo/google/myspace and such corporate manipulatory tools and such..

From amnesty international:
He was sentenced to 10 years in prison for sending an email.

Support online freedom of speech by asking your Representative to support H.R. 275, the Global Online Freedom Act.

from Dailyradical

Madrid .- The world of piracy is extensive. Especially when the world of computers involved. Within this field that lies beyond the line of legality, but that many dare to exceed, is that of piracy of pay-TV broadcasters. That question must respond Murdoch before a jury this month in California, in a process that, strangely, nothing discussed in the United States.


The case is worthy of a Hollywood movie. Its protagonists include former secret agents, pirate Canadian television, 'hackers' Bulgarians and Germans, emails stolen and the mysterious suicide of a' hacker 'Berlin, who had been both by the Murdoch company shortly before his death, according to the Web describes Wired.

from Dailyradical

In the Information Technology world, the Free Software Foundation is the organization that struggles against the drive to convert knowledge itself into a capitalist commodity known as Intellectual Property. The emergence of Linux, the fastest growing computer operating system (OS), has done much to validate the FSF work. Today, the FSF and the Linux movement have given rise to an increasing number of politically active programmers, including the Progressive Programmers League, based in the United States.

How It All Began...

Computer programmer Richard M. Stallman left MIT and launched the GNU Project in 1984. His goal was to develop a complete UNIX style operating system free of the restrictions associated with commercial software. UNIX is the industrial strength operating system (OS) that dominates servers on the Internet and in the corporate sector.

The Free Software Foundation (FSF), a non-profit charity that distributes the GNU Project’s software and accepts donations to keep the Project alive, was founded in 1985.

from Dailyradical

In recent months, has been word of mouth a name: "Facebook." Facebook is
the name of a Web site on the Internet that serves as a social tool to
connect people (www.facebook.com). In this type of page is what you call
Social Network Sites (SRS).

Facebook serves to endless uses. It serves to connect the Web fellow
class of the College, which serves to connect old friends physically
separated by distance and the passing of life; serves to contact
prostitut @ s (say that the governor of the state of New York contacted
a prostitute through a BSS is called MySpace); serves to play, and, also
serves to organize a way of doing politics. Facebook, for example, was
channel-organization worldwide-from demonstrations against the FARC that
took place on February 4, 2008. Currently serves as a space for
organizing demonstrations against President Hugo Chavez to be held on
April 11, 2008. It also has spaces for the help and support of the
candidacy of Leopoldo Lopez and to contact people who "hate Mario Silva."

What are many of us but artists, and what do we do but create? We can function in the world of suits and clocks, but to do so we have to press ourselves. We suffer and strain for the art, sure, but no more than any parent does so for their child – no more than is worthwhile for what we get to experience in return. A parent does not need to force upon themselves the task of being a guardian to their children, certainly not anyone intended to raise young in the first place – we who were born knowing there was naught to do but create, simply do so. It is the most basic function of our existence… the action we revert to when there is nothing else being imposed upon our will… it is our default application. This community, and the rare few like it - here we can breath or suffocate. Whichever we choose though, it is a gift, because, we got that choice.

http://www.dailyradical.org/knowledge/Venezuela_and_the_Hackers_Revoluti...

The Third International Forum on Free Knowledge was recently held in Maracaibo, Venezuela, bringing together many people interested in the development of free software worldwide. One reason Venezuela chose to host this event is that, in January 2006, their new free software law came into effect, which mandates that all government agencies migrate to free software over a two-year period. I was invited to speak about the use of free software in telecommunications. Many of the events and presentations at the event were, much like mine, of a rather technical nature. From the many technical people present I was able to draw my own understanding of how Venezuela’s economic revolution was being implemented.

The People’s Ministry of Economics

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Scientology_threatens_Wikileaks_over_secret_cu...

The cult of Scientology has one again tried to censor one of their online critics, but it's not going to work this time. In the past, Scientology has abused the DMCA to force site owners to take down "copyrighted" internal information from their religious organization. They have also been known to use murder and some people have had to flee the country to escape their grasp. I have taken on Scientology before on a small scale, and they are no ordinary foe. But this attack on Wikileaks is unacceptable, and those who wish to stop the free flow of infomation must be held accountable for their actions and said information must be freed.

Internationally the word is spreading about the US Online censorship
on Youtube, Facebook and government like this article from theNewYork Times

The blacklist of sites associated with Cuba in OFAC

An opportunity to End Software Patents: ESP briefs Court in its historic rehearing of the Bilski case - [FSF.US]

Harald Welte and Groklaw announced as winners of the FSF's annual free software awards - [FSF.US]

Comrades, it has happen again!
DIGG this story HERE
this is truly dreadful, and a grim precedent!
They just tried this last week with Wikileaks --
probably the people that they are harrassing can
get their domain names registered overseas, but
you can see the path we're going down here...
You can find the original story from the NYTimesHERE
And another story HERE
I will like to make a call to action, spread the word and post this links on as many mailing list and sites as you can, for more information subscribe to our World Wide Digital Freedoms mailing list. Feel free to sent us your links and information about the case.

In solidarity
ReK2

Despite having their domain shut down, WikiLeaks is still continuing on with their work of insuring governmental transparency. Just today, they released a document detailing US plans to shoot down an earth-bound satellite. The document is a presentation given by FEMA.

While WikiLeaks pushes on, acting as a clearinghouse for leaked documents, we must continue to defend them here in the United States. If you haven't done so already, read my previous blog post on the WikiLeaks gag order. You'll be able to find mirrors, files, and ways to help WikiLeaks.

We must break the congressional silence on this issue. Despite being reported in almost every major news outlet, no members of our congress have stepped forward on this issue. It's time that our representatives show their support of WikiLeaks and whistleblowers everywhere.

Please take the time to call the offices of Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul. If anybody is going to do something about this in Congress, it's probably them.

Wikileaks, a wiki-based information clearinghouse for whistleblowers that TIME said "... could become as important a journalistic tool as the Freedom of Information Act.", has had their .org domain taken offline due to an illegal court order out of California. The court took them offline because they leaked files documenting many rich, powerful people in the United States, some of them running for president, using offshore banking to evade taxes.

We need to act swiftly to make sure these documents can get out and that wikileaks is put back online. We need to get these files out there. If you can't access wikileaks.org, use the alternate domain names at the end of this article.

1. Get Those Files, Spread Em
Go to one of the mirrors and start downloading. Start sharing, start uploading. Throw it in your Samba shares and put that shit on Limewire. Post it on your site. Feel free to share them! We are seeding both torrents.

The Full Archive:
http://thepiratebay.org/tor/4034919/WikileakS.org_mirror_archive_(Feb_10th_2008)
http://wikileaks.bluenorway.org/wikileaks-08-0210.zip

The BF Supplement to the Full Archive:

"Tell the FCC and Congress You Support Net Neutrality

We got the heads up from John Laesch, Democratic candidate in the
special election to replace Dennis Hastert in IL-14. The FCC has made
provision for comments from the public on net neutrality, and on
John's request we created a special action page that pipes your
personal comments into the FCC electronic filing system, AND sends
your messages to all your members of Congress at the same time.

Net Neutrality FCC Comments:
http://www.usalone.com/laesch/pnum786.php (anyone can use this link)

Facebook Version:
http://apps.facebook.com/fb_voices/action.php?qnum=pnum786 (to use
this you must be a member of Facebook and logged in)

We have already seen blatant moves towards making a two tier toll
road out of our wide open democratic internet, as when Comcast
started discriminating against particular users recently. And you
remember when the AT&T censored Pearl Jam's criticism of Bush, and
when Verizon censored NARAL's pro choice text messages. This is our
chance to speak out and make our voices heard to defend our free
internet.

John Laesch's special primary election is coming up in just 1 week on

"Yesterday, I wrote to all of you about the case of Derek Blackadder, the trade union organizer banned from Facebook for ... organizing.

You responded instantly and the word spread like wildfire. Within 8 hours, nearly 2,400 of you signed up to join the Facebook group protesting the ban on Derek.

Facebook has now removed the ban. We won.

Thank you!

Many of you also wrote to me expressing your views -- pro and con -- regarding Facebook.

I wanted to make clear that I was not endorsing Facebook as a tool trade unionists should use. To the contrary, I have published an article entitled "Bandwagons and Buzzwords: Facebook and the Unions" which takes an entirely critical view.

Others have different views. John Wood, who took the initiative to set up the Facebook group to protest the ban on Derek, has written a response to my article, which is worth reading in full. He too is not uncritical of Facebook.

A very large number of you wrote to me yesterday and of course that would be the moment that my email provider crashed. We're trying to recover all those emails now (and yes, I've changed providers since then). Your patience is appreciated.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: The Pen
Date: Jan 24, 2008 2:43 PM
Subject: FISA Action Page: It's Time For A Majority Leader Who Is More Than A Gutless Supplicant
To: 2600denver@gmail.com

Yesterday Harry Reid again brought forward the version of the FISA
bill containing a provision for telecom immunity for their criminal
complicity in illegal wiretaps of American citizens. Sure we need to
win another filibuster, but we also need a stronger message. Reid
must go.

What part of exercising power doesn't Harry Reid get? The Washington
Post reports him "pleading" with the White House. And yet, it is his
decision which version of the FISA bill to have the Senate consider,
and by choosing to bring forward the bad one, he is knowingly forcing
opponents of yet another "get out of jail free card" for Cheney
cronies to get 60 votes to strip it out of the bill. Or filibuster
yet again.

Step Down Harry Action Page:
http://www.usalone.com/step_down_harry.php (anyone can use this link)

Facebook Version:
http://apps.facebook.com/fb_voices/action.php?qnum=pnum784 (for this
link must be a member of Facebook and logged in)

* Action Alert: Your Photos and Videos Needed at
StopTheSpying.org!

Let's show our elected representatives that we the people
-- concerned Americans and voters from across the country
-- oppose telecom immunity. Visit StopTheSpying.org for
details on making photos and videos to drive the point
home: no immunity for lawbreaking telecoms!
http://www.stopthespying.org

The Senate has begun discussing telecom immunity and the
FISA Amendments Act on the Senate floor, and by many
indications a vote is imminent. Congress needs to hear from
citizens like you on this issue!

It is likely that there will be several rounds of
amendments and filibusters in the Senate. In addition, the
House version of the surveillance bill does not include
immunity for telecoms, setting the stage for an inevitable
reconciliation of differences in the House and Senate bills
if the Senate does pass retroactive immunity. Congressional
champions that have so far remained resolute in rejecting
telecom immunity to defend the rule of law and privacy
rights need your support now more than ever!

So visit StopTheSpying.org now to speak out against telecom
immunity!