USA ISPs to launch massive copyright spying scheme July 12

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ASmith

USA ISPs to launch massive copyright spying scheme July 12

Post by ASmith »

USA Internet Service Providers To Launch A Massive Copyright Spying Scheme beginning July 12th. !!!
"If you download potentially copyrighted software, videos or music, your Internet service provider has been watching, and they're coming for you. Specifically, they're coming for you on Thursday, July 12. That's the date when the nation's largest ISPs will all voluntarily implement a new anti-piracy plan that will engage network operators in the largest digital spying scheme in history, and see some users' bandwidth completely cut off until they sign an agreement saying they will not download copyrighted materials." One day, years from now, historians are going to debate whether this was the point of no return.[1]
Is this so-called 'National Security Operation' Funded by US taxpayer dollars thru the goose stepping US Department of Homeland Security OR thru much higher USA ISP charges to their customers?

While encrypted SSL, HTTPS connections on both ends of a file transfer would make it very difficult for a users ISP to sniff out the potential files you may or may not be transferring to or from, the ISP could certainly log who you are logged to.

Also Americans purchasing a copyrighted movie or music track/album appear to have the legal right for a digital backup which would include obtaining that via a torrent download or direct P2P file transfer. Apparently such police state operations are going to push American citizens into obtaining and having copious amounts of records of licences, copy-writes and end-user agreements HANDY and Available. Many of the older Linux users laughed when Cheech and Chong pantomimed half crazed <violates forum rules> troopers demanding papers from some old man demanding, 'show me ze papers ole man'. Well, such 'reality' NOW across USA could very well mean far more than your photo ID, passport and birth certificate but a truck load of copyright agreements and end user contracts. Are YOU Missing 5 or 10 out of the 300 copyright licenses investigators demanded? Hope for a understanding local non-federal Jury because it is very likely the US DOJ will try to make scape goats of those swept up in the first few years and the prison sentences and fines are likely going to be pretty extreme.

Just the vast IT equipment specifically used to sniff and watch and log major ISP customers is bound to be expensive and you can bet the farm YOU are going to be paying for that, thru taxpayer funding and thru higher ISP prices. PLUS there is bound to be a tidal wave of false notifications to USA ISP customers notifying them that because they downloaded 30 Gigabytes last month, they must have broken some unknown, double secret USA law regarding alleged copyrighted files. Some suggested fines have been posted at 150,000 dollars which of course is totally outrageous but given the police state environment in the US government, very likely also. This is bound to have a heavy blow-back on the entertainment industry and their cough Apartheid State Middle East league of attorney's.

Meanwhile I would suggest:
1) Using full encryption when possible, https whenever that is available.
2) Routinely shuttle your client out traffic thru a Elite Proxy Server (Elite Proxy's scrub all forwarding information OFF and many do not cache any data either making them very Anonymous and not evident they are in fact a Proxy Server). Your ISP would track/log you connecting to that (Elite Proxy) IP but not obtain who that proxy was linked to nor if the connection were encrypted what the data packets contained in any fashion to sniff out a copyright violation or not.
3) You might consider also obtaining a private VPN service you can then use should that need arise also.
4) You might consider adding encryption to your email handler such as OpenPgP, and TrueCrypt to your entire system's Hard Drive which has been proven to stop goose stepping agencys dead in their tracks provided your passphrase/token file is reasonably strong.

Reference:
[1] http://www.osnews.com/story/25647/US_IS ... me_July_12
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 07, 2022 4:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Habitual

Re: USA ISPs to launch massive copyright spying scheme July

Post by Habitual »

ASmith wrote:...While encrypted SSL, HTTPS connections on both ends of a file transfer would make it very difficult for a users ISP to sniff out the potential files you may or may not be transferring to or from, the ISP could certainly log who you are logged to...


Uh, all they have to do is monitor Ports and traffic volume to those ports. ssl/https be damned.
This practice is already an industry standard.
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tdockery97
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Re: USA ISPs to launch massive copyright spying scheme July

Post by tdockery97 »

Absolutely stupid. Everyone who uses the internet, repeat EVERYONE, is downloading copyrighted material. If you read any article, news story, watch any news video, you have downloaded potentially copyrighted material. If it goes into your browser cache, that means it's on your computer, and that boys and girls means you have downloaded it. You cannot browse the internet without "downloading potentially copyrighted material". Now this means that ISP's would have to report, and probably lose every single customer they have. Do you really think they are going to do this? Absolutely ridiculous.

So stop with the scare tactics already!!!!
Mint Cinnamon 20.1
spider2097

Re: USA ISPs to launch massive copyright spying scheme July

Post by spider2097 »

Habitual & tdockery97 are correct. ISP's can already track what you're doing online (and control your bandwidth while you're doing it), and "authorities" already have the power to take that information from them. That's why your free (yet entire legal) download of 600Mb (for example) ISO of your favourite Linux distro can take 4hrs, whilst your legal (but paid for) download of a 1.4Gb video file can only take half an hour*. It's also why people have been investigated (and in some cases charged) for using the likes of Napster & P2P downloads in the past. In the same way, user tracking by ISP's has been used to positive effect in pinpointing & catching those who deal in the likes of child <violates forum rules> & terrorist materials.

Now, to the subject of the OP's post. I guess one of the main questions about this report should be : will this be "retroactive"? Or will it only apply from that point (the date mentioned) forward? What exactly defines copyrighted material & how it's been used? For instance, an amateur DJ/music producer creates a mix & makes it available for download - but they have not cleared any potential rights conflict. Would the fault lie with the downloader or the person who made it available? What powers in terms of accessing "private" HDD's does this agreement give the ISP's? Also, I notice that no mention is made of whether it applies only to "illegal" downloads or if it applies to legal/paid for downloads either.

*Admittedly, it's arguable that a paid for film/video download service will have higher bandwidth & a better server set up at their end than the provider of a Linux distro.
ASmith

Re: USA ISPs to launch massive copyright spying scheme July

Post by ASmith »

Habitual wrote:
Uh, all they have to do is monitor Ports and traffic volume to those ports. ssl/https be damned. This practice is already an industry standard.
Non-standard port transfers in no fashion state the information passing thru it is 'copyright' materials or not. Many Torrent clients have a random port call. However, YES of course all ISP's keep track on total upload/download data transfers which again in no fashion when that data is encrypted is telling them it is copyright materials in that encrypted packet or not. The danger however would come from the logs showing a customer connecting to centralized tracker servers whose sole business has the appearance of sharing copyright information. IF the USA ISP customer used SSL encryption (or https) to a VPN or an elite Proxy Server the ISP log would only show a connection to that IP not to who the VPN or elite Proxy Server had connected to or was relaying files and packets from.
tdocker97 wrote:
Absolutely stupid. Everyone who uses the internet, repeat EVERYONE, is downloading copyrighted material. If you read any article, news story, watch any news video, you have downloaded potentially copyrighted material. If it goes into your browser cache, that means it's on your computer, and that boys and girls means you have downloaded it. You cannot browse the Internet without "downloading potentially copyrighted material". Now this means that ISP's would have to report, and probably lose every single customer they have. Do you really think they are going to do this? Absolutely ridiculous.
So stop with the scare tactics already!!!!
I would strongly suggest YOU never use as your legal defense 'the law is stupid' in a US Court of Law, you'd be crushed by the judge and then slammed with his/her harshest penalty as a result. Moreover, I have repeatedly raised this concern of everyday Internet browsers caches scooping up copy write materials thru everyday routine Internet surfing. That places YOU and virtually anyone that get's their home visited and YOUR computer taken for forensic analysis to explain and prove the ownership of possibly hundreds of individual copy-write materials, files, images etc. Who are you referring to as using scare tactics? There is nothing warm and fuzzy about this overt threat to US Internet users. It should be clear that the US DOJ is providing the US ISP's immunity regarding criminal charges being levied back against them for unjust charges etc.

In further regards to this goose stepping invasion of US Internet users privacy being 'stupid', I respectfully disagree. This operation by the attorneys from a 'cough' Middle East nation on behalf of their Hollywood clients is utterly deliberate and very specifically designed to have enormous legal scope and reach.

This invasion of US citizens ability's to obtain copywrite materials could impact all used goods, cloths, software, records, shoes, books and turn thrift stores, religious store outlets, even used book stores into collectors for the 'cough' moneychangers copywrite attorneys. Such could easily outright ban everyday common yard-sale's and flea-saie's held across America, flooding them with agents demanding end-user contracts and seller's copywrite licenses. Show me your papers ole man...

A typical U.S. metro-city district attorney's office has multi-million dollar funding with a staff of paralegals behind them, all paid by that State's taxpayers and more than capable of ploughing under anyone that is a non-multi-millionaire with a high power attorney team to represent them into the legal ground of harsh penalty's and jail time. Such is a harsh reality across America to those not born yesterday and in no fashion a mere scare tactic. By all means do what you can to not end up on the receiving end of some Apartheid Middle East nation's team of attorneys under this absurd attempt to extend copywrite laws into the farthest reaches of American citizens lives.

Please review my recent suggestion to the Linux Mint forum,community to add Retroshare and Tribler to the Synaptic Software Package as well as to the standard Mint Software Installation to directly address this problem by providing the Linux Mint community users with better security right out of the box.

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=97578
Habitual

Re: USA ISPs to launch massive copyright spying scheme July

Post by Habitual »

This thread is quickly turning troll'ish.

Honest people have no need to fear.
craigevil

Re: USA ISPs to launch massive copyright spying scheme July

Post by craigevil »

Use a vpn or i2p along with encryption and a blocklist . always use https when possible. I suggest installing the https Everywhere extension along with Peerguardian. I use Tor on my computer and on my Android phone and Kindle Fire.My laptop's harddrive is also encrypted. HTTPS Everywhere works with Firefox and Chrome. If you google the anonymous care package they have a list of vpn services that do not keep logs. I plan on continuing to use torrents, just be paranoid because they really are out to get you. 8-)

Sent from my MOTWX435KT using Tapatalk
ASmith

Re: USA ISPs to launch massive copyright spying scheme July

Post by ASmith »

craigevil wrote:
Use a vpn or i2p along with encryption and a blocklist . always use https when possible. I suggest installing the https Everywhere extension along with Peerguardian. I use Tor on my computer and on my Android phone and Kindle Fire.My laptop's harddrive is also encrypted. HTTPS Everywhere works with Firefox and Chrome. If you google the anonymous care package they have a list of vpn services that do not keep logs.
Good solid suggestions craigevil which are positively helping to support and further the Linux Mint Community's security and safety. The HTTPS everywhere add-on/extension is free and highly recommended with today's computers and connection speeds making the observed speed difference insignificant between encrypted and non-encrypted connections. However, degradation does begin to be noticed as various cough agencys pressure Internet users and website owners to have ever higher levels of encryption (512, 1024, 4096 bit for example) which are exponentially stronger but also more of a CPU drain. Behind the scenes 128 bit encryption has been nearly all phased out and soon 256bit also as serious cryptologists suspect NSA and other Gov. agencys have cracked those levels of encryption. The behind the scenes move now is to shift over to a minimum of 512 bit AES encryption for web certificates etc.

I would also suggest to Linux Mint Community users to install 'Bleachbit' (run as root) on their Linux Mint powered devices to safely, securely delete and erase un-needed or previously deleted files from your system drives. Even if you run it once a week, it sanitises your system hard drive very well from anyone trying to dig up or construct a previously deleted file. Also Available in the Mint Synaptic Package Manager. I have routinely used Bleachbit on my Mint distro's run as 'Root' with every cleaning box checked in the Bleachbit application for about 1 year and have not lost a single file by corruption nor had any file I didn't want eliminated, removed by that program. It's safe and bulletproof, highly recommended.[1]

[1] Bleachbit http://bleachbit.sourceforge.net/

BleachBit
BleachBit quickly frees disk space and tirelessly guards your privacy. Free cache, delete cookies, clear Internet history, shred temporary files, delete logs, and discard junk you didn't know was there. Designed for Linux and Windows systems, it wipes clean 90 applications including Firefox, Internet Explorer, Adobe Flash, Google Chrome, Opera, Safari,and more. Beyond simply deleting files, BleachBit includes advanced features such as shredding files to prevent recovery, wiping free disk space to hide traces of files deleted by other applications, and vacuuming Firefox to make it faster. Better than free, BleachBit is open source.
HTTPS Finder 0.85
by Kevin Jacobs
HTTPS Finder automatically detects and enforces HTTPS connections when available. It also provides one-click creation and in-browser editing for HTTPS Everywhere rules.[2]
[2] HTTPS Finder Firefox Add-On https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... ps-finder/

HTTPS Everywhere
HTTPS Everywhere is a Firefox and Chrome extension that encrypts your communications with many major websites, making your browsing more secure. Encrypt the web: Install HTTPS Everywhere today.[3]
[3] HTTPS Everywhere https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere

The fine folks of the Tor Project's article on the HTTPS Everywhere Addon for Firefox,Chrome and their efforts, thoughts on it:

HTTPS Everywhere Firefox addon helps you encrypt web traffic
https://blog.torproject.org/blog/https- ... eb-traffic

The folks of the Webmonkey development team provide their positive thoughts on the HTTPS Everywhere Add-on
http://www.webmonkey.com/2010/11/secure ... re-add-on/

A updated blocklist to use with the Transmission BitTorrent Client, likely works on other BitTorrent Clients also.[4]
[4] Transmission and BitTorrent Blocklist Updated near daily http://list.iblocklist.com/?list=bt_lev ... eformat=gz
Last edited by ASmith on Tue Mar 20, 2012 3:13 am, edited 1 time in total.
ASmith

Re: USA ISPs to launch massive copyright spying scheme July

Post by ASmith »

Blocklist applications enables Linux Mint Community users to block various Internet traffic based on malicious agencys, hackers, spammers and various government employed scum.

Sadly, it appears the Linux Mint Synaptic Package Manager does not contain the most popular ones largely based on PeerGuardian formats designed to keep you SAFE and your computer SECURE from known attackers. Among the most popular blocklist applications are MoBlock, PeerGuardian Linux, IPlist and Uljanow.[1]

MoBlock
MoBlock is an application that enables you to block internet traffic based on large lists of IP address ranges in order to protect your privacy. It uses a file in PeerGuardian format (guarding.p2p) or an ipfilter.dat.[2]
[1] Deb files for MoBlock and PeerGuardian Linux http://moblock-deb.sourceforge.net/

[2] Ubuntu docs on MoBlock https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MoBlock

There are extensive instructions in the MoBlock Ubuntu documentation via the above link [2] as well as precise download and testing commands. Such are found with each flavor or version of similar Peerblocking lists and applications. While the default automatic functions are often adequate and transparent for many users, if there's a conflict where one of your needed Internet applications is suddenly blocked, the Ubuntu documentation for MoBlock is quite handy if trouble shooting is needed after installing.

PeerGuardian

PeerGuardian helps protect your privacy by blocking many ranges of aggressive IPs while you use P2P.[3]

[3] PeerGuardian project http://sourceforge.net/projects/peerguardian/

IPlist

By uljanow, a very popular IPblocker written in Java with a graphic interface.[4]

[4] IPlist Project and files http://sourceforge.net/projects/iplist/
In today's world of Internet espionage, it becomes increasingly important to cover one's rear end in cyberspace. Windows users have long enjoyed the simple GUI of Peer Guardian 2, while Linux was left with a more hardcore console based application.

For those unfamiliar with IP blocking, here's the basic principal. When you browse the internet and download files, you have to go through thousands of different computers that make up the Internet. Various organizations set up monitoring software along the way to intercept your information. The most common reason to do this is policing online piracy.

This is where IPBlock comes in. Written in Java, it's pretty obvious what it's inspired by. It copies the interface of PG2, and does a great job of it. Just grab the correct package download for your distro, and you'll be shooting down spammers and government agencies in no time.[5]
[5] Older review of then Java application IPBlock now named IPlist http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/ ... for-linux/
iplist is a Linux application for blocking connections to and from a specified range of hosts using the netfilter netlink-queue library. Iplist is an open source IP filtering program similar to PeerGuardian for Linux.[6]
[6] iplist sourceforge project home http://iplist.sourceforge.net/

I-BlockList
I-BlockList contains individual extensive lists based on various categorys (example Spammers,badpeers, Primary Threats) which downloaders can chose and often combine several for their final custom blocklist.[7]
[7] Large individual list collections of badpeers to block http://www.iblocklist.com/lists.php
ASmith

Re: USA ISPs to launch massive copyright spying scheme July

Post by ASmith »

The smoking gun exposed:

NSA's Spy Program 'Stellar Wind' is the sudden backroom tie-in to USA ISP's spying mentioned in the original discussion and immunity against mass lawsuits from their Internet customers.
The lead story in Wired magazine for April exposed the Stellar Wind program for its intended purpose: to spy on every jot and tittle of every American citizen’s life all the way down to his “pocket litter:” parking-lot stubs, receipts from McDonalds, tickets from his haircut at Cost Cutters, as well as all the way up to the content of his every e-mail, every Google search, every telephone or cellphone conversation.

Stellar Wind is the code name for an effort approved by President George W. Bush following the September 11, 2001 attacks to mine a large database of communications of American citizens but which was allegedly terminated when Congress pushed back against it.

However, the National Security Agency, awash with funds provided by Congress, is nearly finished constructing its Utah Data Center as the collection point for data provided from around the country and around the world. Its purpose: “to intercept, decipher, analyze and store vast swaths of the world’s communications … [including] all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls and Google searches.”[1]
[1] NSA's Spy Program 'Stellar Wind' http://www.thenewamerican.com/tech-main ... r-is-blown
Court challenges to the program, brought by the EFF and the ACLU, attempted to argue that even allowing the NSA to harvest Americans’ communications alongside foreigners into giant databases to be sifted over later violated American law and the Constitution. However, those challenges have never survived the Bush and Obama administration’s invocation of the “state secrets” privilege to have them thrown out of court.

Which is another way of saying, Americans have no idea what’s going on. Given the choice between an administration official saying nothing is going on and a respected reporter with inside sources saying something wicked this way comes, I know where my trust would lie.[2]
[2] NSA Chief Denies,Denies (such a surprise!) http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/0 ... ies-wired/

Additional References:

[3] NSA refuses to disclose its secret links with Google, go figure! https://rt.com/usa/news/nsa-epic-foia-court-413/

[4] The NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say) http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/0 ... nter/all/1
Habitual

Re: USA ISPs to launch massive copyright spying scheme July

Post by Habitual »

Stop it.
You're scaring the women. :lol:
zimmbran

Re: USA ISPs to launch massive copyright spying scheme July

Post by zimmbran »

Also Americans purchasing a copyrighted movie or music track/album appear to have the legal right for a digital backup which would include obtaining that via a torrent download or direct P2P file transfer.
I don't think that counts. If you are downloading a movie that you have the rights to through a torrent or P2P, then chances are your uploading the same file to someone who doesn't have a license and that is breaking the law. It would be legal if you created the digital copy and did not distribute it.
Habitual

Re: USA ISPs to launch massive copyright spying scheme July

Post by Habitual »

Oh but how some love to rationalize their behavior...
All these scenarios and arguments would be shot down in 5 minutes in a court, (assuming the NSA gives you a court date/hearing).
Sane people do not "digitally backup" their stuff via torrent.
People steal other people's property and that is all torrents are good for.

Personally, no one is more cynical about these activities than I, a former member of 5 different crack groups in the mid-1990s to 2002.

There would be NO valid reason this ex-cracker can fathom that would be a justifiable 'excuse' for downloading something I do not own.
I believe the Government of the USA wants to put an end to all torrents and file-sharing activities.

It all comes down to Personal Responsibilit
y.

Personally, I think it all sophistry

Mental masturbation. Stop it, you'll go blind and be in jail.

dbCooper
Phrozen4Life.
Last edited by Habitual on Thu Aug 27, 2015 6:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
spider2097

Re: USA ISPs to launch massive copyright spying scheme July

Post by spider2097 »

Habitual wrote:There would be NO valid reason this ex-cracker can fathom that would be a justifiable 'excuse' for downloading something I do not own.
I believe the Government of the USA wants to put an end to all torrents and file-sharing activities.

It all comes down to Personal Responsibility
.

Personally, I think it all sophistry

Mental masturbation. Stop it, you'll go blind and be in jail.

dbCooper
Phrozen4Life.
I heartily agree with the personal responsibilty argument, however the use of torrents & P2P sharing need not be construed as an illegal activity in and of itself. The content being shared may or may not be copyright free, but that doesn't make the method illegal. It's been quite some time time since I used torrents to download music/video/software that has a cost to it (ie pirated material). However, I still use torrents an awful lot - mainly in downloading my favourite Linux distro's and material by those artists/directors/creative types who make their work available via that medium. The TV series "Sanctuary" started life as a low budget web series "transmitted" via torrent, which grew a core audience & broke into "mainstream" TV (I say that, whether you class the Sy-Fy network (or whatever it's called these days) as mainstream is a different matter). The industrial music group "Nine Inch Nails" have gone from railing against the digital medium, to releasing whole albums available only via torrent from their website.

The simple argument is this : Don't steal/pirate software, music or video and you won't have anything to worry about. Pirating copyright material harms the creative process, not the corporations who take advantage of those who create that material.
ASmith

Re: USA ISPs to launch massive copyright spying scheme July

Post by ASmith »

Wow, there must be a lot of red faces on the Linux Mint developers over some folks here spewing and stating Torrents and P2P filesharing is only used for illegal purposes. Gosh, getting Mint and other Linux distro's via a torrent in such ridiculous thinking is illegal?

Such exposes either a great deal of ignorance on the enormous content of information sent via torrents and P2P formats which is not all illegal or copyright materials, or folks deliberately trying to torpedo any factual and actual discussion on the topic. I suspect folks trying to dissuade any actual discussion on this and other security,privacy and encryption topics.

If I purchased a DVD of a movie, I have the full right to a digital copy which I can legally pull down via a torrent file, a ISP has no idea if I 'own' that movie and therefore if I have a legal right to a digital copy or not. I rather doubt a ISP even with secret US Gov. immunity has the deputised rights to come to my home and demand the copywrite license agreement or receipt for that movie. Moreover, if I received that file via a encrypted torrent on both ends, all the ISP could state is the IP's I connected to, not the unencrypted torrent file's content, such in no fashion indicates copywrite information from non-copywrite files.

File sharing via a non-centralized encrypted system Retroshare or Tribler would not provide any useful data to ISP's based on IP's someone connected to. Their packets up/down would be shown but I would guess under 30 gigabytes/month it wouldn't necessarily trigger a automatic response. If a VPN or elite SSL Proxy server were used as a man in the middle, ISP's would simply log that IP and nothing more.

Why do some folks state the Mint community doesn't want better privacy, security, encryption nor does the same cliché seem to want discussions on torrent files and government related censorship programs? What is their agenda?
craigevil

Re: USA ISPs to launch massive copyright spying scheme July

Post by craigevil »

http://pastehtml.com/view/1dzvxhl.html
http://retroshare.sourceforge.net/
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions ... rnet-3080/

wonders how old the people are that think anyone that uses a torrent must be stealing?

the entire copyright/IP system is corrupt and it is crap. if something is on the net its up for grabs.

peerguardian+encrypted torrent+ either vpn or i2p. screw the RIAA AND THE MPAA.

Hack the planet!!

Sent from my MOTWX435KT using Tapatalk
ASmith

Re: USA ISPs to launch massive copyright spying scheme July

Post by ASmith »

I certainly feel torrent, P2P and assorted de-centralized anonymous and encrypted file sharing protocols are an essential and valuable service for present and future Internet users and ultimately the Linux Mint Community users as well as developers.

The future on these protocols does however appear to be shifting to de-centralized servers, anonymous users and encrypted files as well as SSL encrypted connections for privacy as well as personal security.

Please consider voting on my suggestions to add these specific bitTorrent clients to the Linux Mint bundle which specifically enable the Linux Mint user to employ de-centralized servers, operate in anonymous fashion and with Anomos utilise the .atorrent encrypted format via these links below, thanks.

Add Anomos an Anonymous,Encrypted BitTorrent Client to Linux Mint Software Bundle

Community comments, voting here: http://community.linuxmint.com/idea/view/2248

Add Retroshare and Tribler for Anonymous Secure File Sharing

Community comments, voting here: http://community.linuxmint.com/idea/view/2454
BigJake

Re: USA ISPs to launch massive copyright spying scheme July

Post by BigJake »

I'm kind of new to this forum, but I have been using computers and Linux in various forms for a while and I find that one little rule is all I need to keep my comp safe and myself out of jail or any other trouble. Never upload or download anything you do not own or are not 110% sure is open source. I never even download copyrighted programs for Windows. I either buy the disk in a local store or find a free open source alternative. That's all you need to do. I don't see the point of your increasingly paranoiac posts about the "terrible US government" and how they are stealing our freedoms. If you dislike the USA so much, try to find a better, freer place to live and when you do, go there. This government you rant about is the reason you are able to publish these views in an open forum. The governments of many countries, past and present, would brand you a seditionist and track you down for making public statements like those in your recent topics.

Some of the recent doings of the US government are not quite as correct as we would like. In fact, a few things are downright criminal. Ranting about it in a Linux forum is not the way to handle it, though. Get involved in the political party of your choice. I, personally, am a Libertarian. Don't let the name fool you. True Libertarians are probably the most politically conservative people you will ever meet. We believe in strict adherence to the Constitution as written in 1787 and modified by the Bill of Rights. Basically, governments at all levels from local to federal should be absolutely as small as possible to do the jobs they are mandated to do by the Constitution ( which is considerably less than they are doing now). If Libertarians were in power, the government would be less than a third as large as it is now.

You strike me as an armchair liberal who likes the fact that you can get others worked up over these government excesses by uploading these diatribes to what is supposed to be an apolitical, international, support forum - not a soapbox for your rants. Although I may agree with much that you say and I absolutely agree with (and have fought to defend) your right to say it, I do not think this is the proper place for it. Write or email your Congressmen and Senators., let them know of your concerns. Become active in a political party, try to change the things you do not like about our current government. These actions are much more positive and more likely to effect change than what you are doing here.
ASmith

Re: USA ISPs to launch massive copyright spying scheme July

Post by ASmith »

It is always curious when someone fiends concerns over someone pointing out and providing references which directly effects a specific area in society, in this case the Linux community and hence computer users that are more concerned about their privacy and security than some other cough operating systems.

I not only provide references and links PLUS do the leg work to provide free downloadable suggestions, applications and work arounds, a rather small minority pushes back on that effort. The loss of liberty's, freedoms and expressions for computer users must not simply be addressed to elected officials which I and many others email and talk to on a monthly basis (Congress and US Senators) but also to computer users who are directly impacted as well.

Letting your Linux Mint brothers and sisters get blind-sided by laws and restrictions by their ISP providers or nation's government isn't helping them by stifling discussion on how such can and would impact them. A small minority doesn't want other members to learn of the sweeping changes taking place, why is that I wonder? Scores are helped not only with the updates, heads-up but also the application suggestions. The same minority doesn't appear to want others to be able to obtain those either, why is that I wonder?

Privacy and security are important foundations which are inherent in the Linux Mint community users and developers, that which works to enhance or attempts to subtract those vital functions are important to address, suggest, point-out and ultimately improve upon as circumstances change or require.
jelabarre59
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Joined: Thu Jan 20, 2011 6:57 pm

Re: USA ISPs to launch massive copyright spying scheme July

Post by jelabarre59 »

Habitual wrote:This thread is quickly turning troll'ish.

Honest people have no need to fear.

Quite the contrary. "Honest" people have EVERYTHING to fear. People who are intentionally "breaking copyright" will likely be taking precautions to cover their tracks. It's the regular citizen who will unknowingly or accidentally do something the IP thugs will consider infringment, and will be blindsided by the Disney Stormtroopers [TM] breaking down their doors.
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