[AktiviX-discuss] Privatising the global software commons...

Thu Mar 17 23:02:28 UTC 2005

Over at the "Identity Corner" Stefan Brands dares argue against the
system he helps build up:

     "Albert Einstein has said: “In our time, scientists and engineers
carry a particularly heavy burden of moral responsibility, because the
development of military means of mass destruction is dependent on their
work.” As identity architects, I believe we bear a similar
responsibility for how we design distributed identity systems that are
intended for use well beyond the enterprise. Identification
architectures are all about power relations; as such, when we design
identity architectures for general societal use we are in effect
cementing power relations into our societal fabric. The way we do this
has potentially far-reaching implications.

     As I have been arguing from time to time on this personal blog
(notably here and here), the powers that today’s enterprise identity
management systems would give to government when widely adopted to
digitally manage and exchange identity information on citizens would be
unprecedented. Of particular concern are distributed identity
architectures that revolve around all-powerful central organizations
that house the capability to electronically track and trace individuals
in real time wherever they go. Adopting such panoptical identity
architectures for intra-enterprise use may be fine, but for government
identity management infrastructures the situation is entirely different. "

Dan wrote:
> ... you may have invented it and let it roam free, but as with
> basmati rice or anything else that a quick buck can be squeezed from,
> that won't stop em enclosing it:
> 
> Coming to a European Union near you: Patents for profit: dystopian 
> visions of the new economy
> 
> http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates/article-8-40-2370.jsp
> 
> "In the patent-free environment, contributions to the common pool of
>  programming knowledge come from all corners of the world, from the 
> amateur hacker working until 4am in his bedroom to corporations
> leasing the most expensive real estate in Silicon Valley. Richard
> Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation, likens reading a
> piece of software code to walking around a city – the expert eye will
> recognise “architectural periods”, little stylistic ticks that
> identify a piece of recycled code with a particular time, even place.
> 
> 
> "Software patents take chunks of code out of this vast pool of shared
>  knowledge and lock them down using IP law. United States case law 
> already shows how companies can use such patents to claim ownership
> of code that had previously been regarded as an open standard. The
> effect is not simply to appropriate and centralise a shared knowledge
> resource, but to make it impossible to create a new programme without
> infringing the patent. Where software is concerned, patents
> obliterate progress..."
> 
> _______________________________________________ AktiviX-discuss
> mailing list AktiviX-discuss at lists.aktivix.org 
> http://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/aktivix-discuss
> 
> 

-- 
------
"It's hard to differentiate schizophrenic ramblings like 'Modernity
chunk where the sink goes flying on the ping-pang' from legitimate
terminology like 'Unstable equilibria lie on the nodal points of a
separatrix in phase space."
apologies for any cross-posting.

==========
  Norther Bulletin News Service
==========

Resists G8 Sheffield "Letter to G8" – asks governments behind the G8 to
disband – Press release- Press conference, (date, place, contact)

resist g8 2005 – media coverage – www.agp.org

Press Release Wednesday xxxxxxx 2005

Over 2005, the UK holds the Presidency of the G8, and over this year
will be hosting a series of ministerial meetings around the UK,
culminating in the heads of state summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, on
6-8th July Ministers from the G8 countries will gather to discuss a
range of issues from security, trade, relations with developing
countries, energy and the environment. Even domestic issues, such as
employment will be discussed. The meeting to be held in Sheffield will
be on justice and home affairs issues, including including
counter-terrorism, migration, law enforcement, legal affairs and hi-tech
crime.
Over the past several years G8 Summits have been a focus for protests
and counter summits. Following the Peoples Global Action call for a
united global day of action in 1998, the Summit protests have, however,
grown and strengthened, forcing the G8 Summits to more inaccesible
locations with ever increasing security costs. The venue for the
Ministerial meetings in Sheffield and the security implications that
will follow are not yet known.

In the words of activist Casey Vayan Todos:  "TV cameras will show
contextless images, newspapers will report the protests as isolated
aberrations, "failures of the democratic process". Those who are there
will know better, that we're reaching towards a better, more directly
democratic idea. We know that with the chains we break and the
friendships we make this summer, we will take more steps towards
building the new world that exists in all of our hearts."
A petition for the G8 to disband will be distributed for further
publication.
Press Conference - Home Office, London - Thursday 3rd March 12.00 noon

For years anti-detention and anti-racist campaigners have been
highlighting alleged violence and abuse against immigration detainees by
Home Office contractors during detention and the removal process.

Many of our allegations have been substantiated by various government
reports but little has changed.

For the last 9 months we have provided input into the BBC's 60 minute
"Asylum Undercover" documentary which will be broadcast on BBC1
Wednesday 2nd March at 9pm

"The Real Story goes undercover to expose evidence of racism and
violence at the heart of UK's asylum system. Over a period of three
months, two BBC journalists worked undercover in a detention centre and
for a company that escorts asylum seekers and immigrants around the
country. Their investigation uncovers disturbing evidence of a culture
of violence, abuse and assaults against detainees. Contains very strong
language."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcone/listings/programme.shtml?day=wednesday&service_id=4223&filename=20050302/20050302_2100_4223_57791_60

Despite a wealth of reports from detainees, anti-detention campaigners,
government officials, and independent monitory bodies - perpetrators of
violence and abuse against detainees have not been adequately held to
account and, indeed, the private profit making companies involved have
been rewarded with further lucrative contracts, the details of which
often remain "commercially confidential".

No less significant than racism and physical violence are the less
visible abuses which undermine asylum claims - unreasonable asylum
determinations based on flawed material, lack of legal representation
and the erosion of access to appeal rights.

Press Conference - Home Office, London - Thursday 3rd March 12.00 noon
--
   Disclaimer:

In support of global demonstrations against xxxxxx
, a broad grouping of people will protest on XXXXXto educate people of
Sheffield about the negative impacts of Capitalism.

Protests begin at XXXpm at the XXXX, 11-16 XXXXXX
Press Contact:	xXXXXXX or XXXX: 089999333

On Tuesday 26 September a group of Belfast residents plan to highlight
problems created by the governments behind the G8 summit.  While many
people consider these institutions to only create problems in developing
countries, local activists point out that the economic liberalisation
policies  advocate can be traced to Brightside in Sheffield. These
concerns are the same as those echoed by thousands of protesters on the
streets everywhere.  Activists claim that G8 policies can be addressed
by consumers here in Sheffield.

Over 2005, the UK holds the Presidency of the G8, and over this year
will be hosting a series of ministerial meetings around the UK,
culminating in the heads of state summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, on
6-8th July Ministers from the G8 countries will gather to discuss a
range of issues from security, trade, relations with developing
countries, energy and the environment. Even domestic issues, such as
employment will be discussed. The meeting to be held in Sheffield will
be on justice and home affairs issues, including including
counter-terrorism, migration, law enforcement, legal affairs and hi-tech
crime.
Over the past several years G8 Summits have been a focus for protests
and counter summits. Following the Peoples Global Action call for a
united global day of action in 1998, the Summit protests have, however,
grown and strengthened, forcing the G8 Summits to more inaccesible
locations with ever increasing security costs. The venue for the
Ministerial meetings in Sheffield and the security implications that
will follow are not yet known. Organiser XXXXXXXX  explains why the
Belfast S26 collective is protesting outside of the Ulster Bank.  “The
world's major banks are involved in underwriting or selling bonds in the
World Bank.  This includes the Ulster Bank, part of the Natwest Group,
and HSBC and Barclays Bank.” Instead of helping the poor, these funds
are then passed on to multinationals like Exxon who have recently been
handed millions to fund a 600 mile oil pipeline from Chad to Cameroon,
which will wreck the local environment and destroy local communities.
“These banks are trading in misery for the Third World and reaping the
profits from environmental destruction. Demand that these institutions
divest from the World Bank – and boycott World Bank bonds.”

Event organiser Jason Kirkpatrick also expressed concern about global
labour policies of Disney, explaining that workers in Haiti and China
have their basic human rights violated in order to bring cheap Mickey
Mouse tee shirts to Belfast.  “Workers live in appalling conditions and
are forced to meet production quotas in Haiti that are impossible to
meet.  Because they can’t meet the quotas, they only receive pay valued
at less than a pound a day.”  Similar conditions exist in China and one
worker there recently stated that her Chinese co-workers at the plant
making Disney clothes had no hopes and no dreams for themselves or their
families. (www.cleanclothes.org)

Spokesperson for the Derry S26 collective, Goretti Horgan, says "there
are so many reasons to protest against the IMF and World Bank, it's hard
to know where to start. But it's clear from our campaigning on the
streets of Derry that the majority of people here want to see third
world debt scrapped immediately. Ms. Horgan claims that "The
International Monetary Fund (IMF) which is meeting in Prague this week
squeezes billions from the poor. Between 1980 and 1992 the poorest
countries paid 3 times more to the IMF and World Bank than their
original debt. The debt burden of the poorest countries kills 19,000
children every day. The poor countries of sub-Saharan Africa owe more
than £300 billion in debts. In Ethiopia debt repayments are four times
greater than spending on health. In Tanzania, where 40 percent of people
die before the age of 35, debt repayments are six times more than health
spending.”  (More IMF/World Bank info at: www.inpeg.org)

The Belfast group urges community groups, trade unions, families, young
people, and anyone concerned with the future of Sheffield to attend
demonstrations on xxxx.  Protests begin at 3:30pm at the xxxxxxxx, and
proceed up Royal Avenue.

For further information, see:  http://praha.indymedia.org/, or the S26
site at:   http://www.x21.org/s26/

SADY, NCADC and CARF invite you to a Press Conference outside the office
of the
Home Secretary
Peel Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

End of Bulletin:

Source for this Message:
SADY, NCADC and CARF