The Senate will soon vote on a bill to regulate the electronic eavesdropping on Americans. What we don't know is whether Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will ask the Senate to take up a bill that was written closely with the Bush administration, or a more reasonable bill.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has a choice to make. We need to tell him to make the right choice.

President Bush wants Congress to bury the truth by stopping pending lawsuits against phone companies that illegally handed over the phone calls and emails of Americans. Stopping lawsuits that could uncover the truth about illegal spying lets him off the hook. And it gives no incentives for companies to follow the law in the future. Tell Senator Reid to bring up reasonable bill that does not let lawbreakers off the hook, a bill that brings spying in line with the Constitution.

Tell Senator Reid to bring up a reasonable bill that does not let lawbreakers off the hook, and does not let the government seize your phone calls and emails without a warrant.

Sony BMG has agreed to sell DRM-free music at AmazonMP3
(http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/11/technology/11sony.html?_r=1&oref=slogi...).
They are the last of the Big 4 music companies to do so. This is a
major victory for consumer rights, as it is now possible to buy DRM-free
digital music of almost any major artist.

Consider buying some DRM-free music now, and keep up the pressure: Video
is the next battle.

Matt Flaschen
BinaryFreedom

hi,

In case you have not signed the petition opposing OOXML as an ISO standard, or haven't seen the vote count recently, you can see both here:

http://www.noooxml.org/petition

I have submitted this petition to Digg here. Please help push this story to the front page, so we can get more signatures!

http://digg.com/software/Petition_opposing_OOXML_reaches_76_505_users_in...

I also submitted the story to the Slashdot firehose, and it is here:

http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&id=461342

Thanks either way for considering a digg and a vote in the /. firehose. Here is a copy of the story that I submitted to /.

Earlier I had asked you to contact your representatives asking them to pass the OPEN Act. The OPEN Act is an extension of the FOIA and has been endorsed by groups such as the EFF. Here is what the new bill, just signed into law will do:
* Imposing meaningful deadlines on agencies handling information requests;

* Establishing a FOIA hotline;

* Bringing government records held by private contractors into full public view;

* Creating a FOIA Ombudsman to provide an alternative to costly litigation between FOIA requestors and federal agencies; and

* Allowing federal agencies to waive FOIA fees for freelance journalists and bloggers.

Thanks to everybody who helped make this a reality,
Comrade Ringo Kamens

Action alert: Don't let the EU sanction DRM

Take action:

* Digg this story at http://defectivebydesign.org/sites/nodrm.civicactions.net/modules/civicr...
* Sign the Open Letter demanding that Viviane Reding retract her statement in support of DRM. http://defectivebydesign.org/sites/nodrm.civicactions.net/modules/civicr...

Yesterday, Viviane Reding, European Union commissioner for information society and media, issued a report sanctioning a "transparent" DRM framework for the EU. This irresponsible and senseless report comes just a day before Sony BMG announced that they would join Warner Music Group, EMI, and Vivendi's Universal Music Group in selling DRM-free music downloads in the United States.

Help us take action now by reading and signing our open letter. Our signed letter will be sent to the commission's office, and will add weight to the dozens of phone calls that will be made next week to her office demanding that she retract her statement and letting her know that we oppose any attempt by the EU to sanction, promote, or endorse DRM technology platforms.

In Solidarity,

Free data formats are really the environment in which Free Software can flourish. So the competition for a truly open standard at ISO, the International Standards Organization, is really crucial. There is a really important ISO vote on whether Microsoft's locked-down OOXML should become an ISO standard, and so now is the time to really keep the story in front of the public.

ODF's adoption worldwide was good in 2007. The PDF link below has the story. Please consider a digg and a vote in the Slashdot firehose to promote this story!

http://www.odfalliance.org/resources/AnnualReport2007.pdf

http://digg.com/linux_unix/Nations_and_Organizations_that_Adopted_ODF_in...

the firehose story is here, and not doing too well, so help would be appreciated!

http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&id=449044

Thanks!

--
Christian Einfeldt,
Producer, The Digital Tipping Point
--

Microsoft is once again doing what it does best, screwing over their customers by requiring unnecessary upgrades. Their most recent Microsoft Service Pack makes it so that users can't open older Office files. They are doing this because older office formats are "insecure" but we all know the real reason: they want you to upgrade to the new office.

"D00dz stop sending me deze old-ass attachments"
"Why man"
"I dunno man, one day my word just stopped openin them!!!"
"dude that's the lameness"

Exactly. So the message, as Microsoft users have always gotten, is "upgrade or die". When are you going to switch to a free office application? OpenOffice doesn't have any nasty upgrades, superflous security holes, or anti-consumer practices. Find out more at openoffice.org
Against corporate corruption,
Comrade Ringo Kamens

From the IdeaStorm entry:
"I was all excited to read that "Today, we're adding Ubuntu 7.10 (a.k.a Gutsy Gibbon) to the Dell Consumer Linux line-up for customers in the United States. It will also be available on the Inspiron 530 in England, France, and Germany later this week." but then it was with a bit of horror that I read:

"Pre-installation of [Adobe's] Flash for a better web experience"

and

"we now include built-in DVD movie playback with all Ubuntu 7.10 systems" using LinDVD

So under the guise of 'customer desire' Dell is going contrary to the 'spirit of Ubuntu' by preinstalling non-libre software. What's worse, as confirmed by a second posting:

"Note that this is a closed-source, proprietary application, and is not included on the Ubuntu 7.10 OS media. [...] ISO images DO NOT CONTAIN LinDVD, as LinDVD is a non-free application that is included in the cost of a system purchased with our Ubuntu 7.10 factory-installation. We'll make information available on how this application can be purchased after the holidays."

The government is at it again, taking away our rights in the name of saving the children. Earlier, the State of New Jersey had made it illegal for convicted sex offenders to use social networking sites. This is a restriction on their constitutional rights to free speech. A much better solution, if they really thought banning sex offenders from social networking sites was the answer would have been to pressure Myspace, Facebook, etc. to ban users with the names of sex offenders in the public databases.

"Warner has agreed to drop DRM on part of its catalog, selling standard
MP3s through Amazon's DRM-free service, AmazonMP3
(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/technology/28music.html?_r=1&ref=busin...).
This would never have happened without our continued pressure. Just
months ago, Warner claimed, dropping DRM was "completely without logic
or merit."

This turnaround shows they have realized that denying customers fair use
is what's truly illogical. Now, 3 of the 4 Big Four labels are selling
DRM-free music. The remaining label to require DRM is Sony BMG.

To change their mind, we need to use our voice and our market power.
Buy DRM-free music from EMI, Universal, and Warner, and avoid Sony BMG.

Matt Flaschen
BinaryFreedom"

As Matt said, this is a result of pressure. Remember when we asked you to contact Warner and boycott their products? Looks like it worked. While I still don't advocate buying from a company who sues children and families while trying to take down sites like the Pirate Bay, a thank you card would certainly be in order.

In Victory,
Comrade Ringo Kamens

This article deals with computer software. That may sound a bit abstract to some of our readers, but it is a subject that is relevant to everybody who uses a computer, for example to read this very article. You should care about the way the computer industry functions today and the way it imposes severe restrictions on us since you may one day no longer be allowed to listen to your MP3's or read your Microsoft Word documents. You may think you will be able to continue these simple tasks forever because you believe you actually own and control most of what is stored on your computer. However, according to big business that is not the case.

They outsourced our jobs, they outsourced our postal system, they outsourced our troops, and now they're outsourcing our justice system. The Securing Adolescents From Exploitation-Online Act of 2007 (S. 519) has some disturbing language that delegates the job of law enforcement to a non-governmental organization. It requires any person offering internet access and has reasonable reason to believe it is being used for child porn to "as soon as reasonably possible, make a report of such facts or
circumstances to the CyberTipline of the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children, or any successor to the CyberTipline operated by
such center."

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is a non-profit organization that is not operated by the government. If your neighbor saw your house getting robbed would you want them to call the neighborhood watch or the police?

A communique from the folks at riseup.net.

The kind birds from your trusty tech collective have hatched a new
organization! We call it Riseup Labs.

For seven years, riseup.net has provided secure, movement-run services
to thousands of folks like you. We feel that in an era of automated mass
surveillance, it is a deeply radical act to provide secure alternatives
to the corporate interweb. Although we still have a lot of work to do to
improve reliability and expand capacity, lately we have become limited
by the available tools.

Like us, you have probably learned to be very creative at using the
tools available to you. But organizing and movement building are really
different than promoting a band or managing an office. You can certainly
limp along with existing tools, until youtube restricts your video for
having political content, or facebook closes your account for violating
the laws of any jurisdiction on earth (you are most likely breaking the
law somewhere!)

Enter Riseup Labs. Where riseup.net provides services for the movement,
Riseup Labs exists to promote the development of tools to meet the

I'm asking you to call your senators today to oppose S. 519. Here is why:

1. The bill creates more government control, uses taxpayer dollars, and doesn't actually do anything.

2. The bill makes it possible for a judge to authorize a wiretap (internet) of a person just because they are a sex offender. So basically straight up censorship, because the government sees everything the person does. Welcome to 1984

From The Pen

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: The Pen
Date: Dec 20, 2007 5:59 AM
Subject: Just What We Need, Another House Un-American Activities Committee
To: 2600denver@gmail.com

There has been a tremendous amount of alarm expressed recently about
H.R. 1955/S. 1959 [text of bill], the self-titled "Violent
Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007", but
which many have dubbed the "Thought Crimes Prevention Bill".

The language of the proposed bill is just an idle invitation to
totalitarian mischief and must be rejected. Please submit the page
below to send your real time messages to all your members of
Congress, and a letter to the editor of your nearest daily local
newspaper too if you like.

Regular Action Form: http://www.usalone.com/s1959.php

Facebook Version:
http://apps.facebook.com/fb_voices/action.php?qnum=762 (for this one,
you must be a member of www.facebook.com and logged in)

Like so many recent bills, whose official title is a dishonest
representation of its true intent, H.R. 1955/S. 1959 includes enough
vague and undefined language to be very grossly abused. At best, it

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Joshua Gay
Date: Dec 20, 2007 3:14 PM
Subject: [DBD] Don't let DRM get between you and a good book
To: Ringo Kamens <2600denver@gmail.com>

DefectiveByDesign.org
DRM ACTION ALERT
Don't Let DRM Get Between You and a Good Book

Take action:

* Digg this story!
* Print this double-sided flyer.
* Hand them out to friends.
* Post them at work and school.
* Ask your local bookseller to carry them to help discourage customers from buying DRM ebooks.
* Read the Blog.

This weekend we want to make sure that last-minute shoppers are not buying ebook readers. Help us let everyone know that DRM locks you in to a single device. When your device breaks or becomes outdated, you can't open your book -- you are locked out!

Every few years you will have to buy a new copy of your favorite books, and a new ebook reader to go along with it. Any ability to lend your ebook to family or friends is severely limited at the whim of the DRM owner. For the future of reading: Don't buy ebook readers that use DRM technology—our books will end up locked shut.

Read the blog for more.

The State of New York is soliciting comments on the ODF standard. Thanks to Christian E. for alerting us to this!

-- New York Residents --

Hey, we only have until December 28, 2007 to submit public comments, so anyone who wants to comment, please do so right away!

-- Everybody --
http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&id=430726
The digg story is here, but I am almost sorry that I dugg it, due to the last sentence, which is juvenile, IMHO. BTW, please let me be really clear that I am *not* the person who submitted this digg story:
http://digg.com/microsoft/NY_Govt_Looks_to_ODF_as_an_Alternative_to_Micr...
I would like to get people's opinions as to how we should deal with that nasty last sentence in that digg story. Should I undigg myself on that story or not?
But it would be nice to get a few votes in the firehose for the /. story.

Comrade Ringo Kamens

Our favourite software vendor, Microsoft, is at it again: selling away their customer's privacy and trust to government organizations. They've had a rich history of this, and just a recent story on Slashdot shows that the random number generator in the most recent Windows Vista service pack includes a algorithm known to contain NSA backdoors. This is extremely dangerous to anybody using Microsoft products because many programs use these random numbers to secure data and even encrypt it. See http://it.slashdot.org/it/07/12/17/1754257.shtml.

In the past, Microsoft has cooperated with the NSA. In fact, Microsoft "consulted" the NSA on Vista in order to "make it more secure". Does that means backdoors? It sure as hell looks like it. See http://www.privacy.org/archives/001908.html
http://www.cio.com/article/28077/NSA_Microsoft_Worked_Together_on_Window...

French Intelligence has also claimed that US Secret Service agents worked inside Microsoft, exploiting their position to insert backdoors into software used by millions worldwide. See http://cryptome.org/nsa-ms-spy.htm