Jag väljer att hålla mig lite utanför diskussionerna om datalagringsdirektivet, som ju ändå i vilket fall bordlags ett år nu. Det känns som FRA 2008! Ja!

I Europakommissionen tycker kommissionären för den inre marknaden herr Michel Barnier inte att blinda ska få läsa. Världsorganisationen för blinda har tillsammans med Knowledge Ecology International och Trans-Atlantic Consumer Dialogue arbetat i flera år, i Geneve, i Bryssel och i Washington för att få till ett avtal om undantag i licensrätterna för blinda så att tillgängligheten för böcker anpassade för synskadade ska bli mer lättillgängliga. USA och EU har vägrat i sten, gruppen av afrikanska länder i WIPO har varit skeptiska eftersom de tycker att undantagen borde utsträckas till alla former av licenser, och den 26 februari har så Världsorganisationen för blinda slutligen dragit sig ur diskussionerna efter de inte kommer någon vart.

Europaparlamentet har visserligen försökt gå till kamp för blindas rättigheter. David Hammerstein från TACD har arbetat länge med avtalet och anordnat flera konferenser om vikten av tillgång till böcker för blinda. Världsorganisationen för blinda säger att de kommer att fortsätta kämpa för ett avtal som stödjer deras medlemmars rätt till kultur.

bleeerarrguh

As I reported two days ago, and is now noted also by Walter van Holst, a recent South Korean DDoS attack may in fact be a malicious attempt at sneaking through an oppressive law allowing the government to snoop commercial and private traffic alike. The European security agency ENISA published two reports on botnets not long ago, but appears to be supporting the idea of internet service providers notifying their customers of a potential infection instead.

Being an avid owner of no gaming consoles what so ever I noticed this morning that the prices of gaming consoles are expected to drop this summer. I doubt it will make me buy one, but what else is, regardless of the prices of gaming consoles the companies making them aren't exactly encouraging any larger console purchasing binges either. IPKat obtained a fresh analysis of the LG/Sony case, straight from a Dutch court (very legal analysis). 300'000 PS3's that were detained by Dutch customs officers have now been released and the core of the problem seems to be a vendetta-like conflict going on between Sony and LG relating not only to Blu-Ray technology but also to cellular phones. Apparently LG according to the rules of a business alliance of which both LG and Sony are members technically force LG to license their stuff to Sony. Equivalent obligations for Sony to license cellular phone technology patents to LG do not exist and therefore Sony has blocked LG-branded phone imports to the US. Granted, a game console does not compare with a mobile phone, but most people I know use both, for different purposes. This is childish. This should stop.

Update: Prof. Keechang Kim has now provided two blogposts in English on the matter: On Zombie MPs and suggestion in parl and the strangeness of the DDoS attacks:

It was the 3rd of March 2011. South Korea was under attack. A ddos attack, but not your average ddos attack, in fact, it was no ddos attack at all. It was an attack targetting social networks, banks, businesses and private citizens infecting them with a worm wiping the harddisks of infected computers and then self-destruct.

It was the 7th of July 2009. South of Korea was under attack. A ddos attack, but not your average ddos attack, in fact, it was no ddos attack at all. It was an attack targetting social networks, banks, businesses and private citizens infecting them with a worm wiping the harddisks of infected computers and then self-destruct.

The observant reader will have seen by now that these numbers boil down to 3.3 and 7.7, an observation also made by Korean openweb activist Keechang Kim.

Jag gillar inte imaginära varor så mycket. Jag köper att man i elektricitetsläran och åtföljande produkter måste använda sig av imaginära tal för att kunna beskriva statiska värden i situationer där man... Ja. Deriverat eller integrerat, men imaginära varor går lite bortanför min gräns.

Jag tycker faktiskt inte att argumentet för att domännamn skulle vara egendom är särskilt nyttigt, eller att de i sådana fall utnämna dem till varumärken.

Innehavaren har rimligtvis en viss identitet kopplad till utrymmet hen skapat och yttrandefrihet är inte bara att få snacka vid köksbordet utan att prata offentligt. Men det är nog offentligheten som är det viktiga att skydda. Det känns intuitivt fel att kriga mot den offentliga platsen.

Man får nog välja vilka offentliga platser man går till. Och det dyker alltid upp nya offentliga arenor, särskilt på nätet.

Ibland är mitt liv lite bättre än jag tror.

Jag har just läst ikapp på min El Reg-feed som jag i en månad noggrannt hållit mig borta ifrån. Med min nyfunna energi upptäckte jag omedelbart att det ökända hackerkollektivet Anonymous har hacketihackat Westboro Baptists. Tydligen misstänker nu några av medlemmarna att aktionen egentligen var en fälla uppsatt av församlingen i syfte att spåra IP-adresser som har använts av bedrägliga individer som brukat det likaledes ökända LOIC-verktyget. Ironiskt nog har den portugisiska regeringen nyligen brukat liknande tarvliga fällor för att spåra användare av den jävulusiska fildelningsteknologin. Åtminstone, får man anta, IP-adresser till användare som inte anonymiserar sitt ondsinta uppsåt.

Sometimes I truly feel I live a grand life.

Reading up on my El Reg-feed, which I have carefully neglected for a month, I see that the infamous hacker collective Anonymous has hacked Westboro Baptists. Apparently some of them now suspect this was the result of a Baptist honeypot action by the communion, the purpose of which was to track down IP addresses guilty of using the equally infamous LOIC tool. Ironically, the Portuguese government is also using honeypots for the same nefarious reasons, except, in Portugal it is a targetted action against the users of file-sharing technologies. At least, presumably, IP address of users that aren't anonymising their villainous intent.

Of course, as the mischievous knave Jester claims the credits for this felonious anti-Baptist action. In the light of my recent writings on Jesus resisting Legion, thereby ending up with John the Baptist and the Holy Spirit, I cannot help but wonder if this is a carefully orchestrated joke. Of course, given that the Swedish Christian Democrats worship God, I want to believe.

This is just really a short notice from the Pirate Parties International conference in Germany. We've technically been able to follow it through a web stream. I like the IRC-chat better even though it's slightly awkward that it was places on freenode rather than piratenpartij.

I was, also technically, a candidate for the Administrator Secretary(?) position of the organisation. Eventually, it was rewarded to Lola Voronina from the Russian Pirate Party. I only knew Sergey from the Russian Pirate Party before, but I've all their work with Russian WTO membership negotiations is very, very important and it's been very, very inspirational for me as a person to get in touch with PPRU because of that..

After having talked to several members of revspace in The Hague about possible trade sanctions against Russia I find EU maliciousness in information technology and trade with Russia less worrisome. Russian authority to defend themselves against trade sanctions will be limited. Many laws will, I guess, come under review. On the other hand, a PPRU member told me on twitter that Russian copyright law is not compatible at all with making anything public without strong protection, and I can't know enough about Russian law to make proper evaluations. I hope that Lola's new position will bring closer ties with Russian pirates and, because I'm me, particularly around trade issues. Russia is the strongest bastion of information innovation in the world. They surpass Europe and the US from better legislation (or less respect for it) and as opposed to China aren't cumbered with cultural censorship supreme. It would be sad if TRIPs would change that.

I like science fiction. One of my favourite science fiction writers is Dan Simmons. I will at some point probably explain more about the Spanish science fiction tradition.

But Japan has a different story telling tradition for almost every kind of fiction. Whether it is meant for young people, old people, women or men, there is a distinct Japanese-ness about it that you really can't avoid. Not only in comics, also in writing (although the writing is given much less attention -- sadly!!).

In Kobe, 1992, a major earthquake hit Japan. Probably many people my age will remember being little and seeing the short white and black film of a man in an office holding on to a shelf. The people who don't will definitely remember the one happening right now (10'000 people missing at the time of writing). Japanese author Haruki Murakami published a book called After the Quake, containing four short stories about different personas in different states of reality experiencing the Kobe quake. I want to remember a man exploring the tunnels under Kobe and ending up having to settle a violent conflict between a very big mole and a similarly gigantic earthworm.

Haruki Murakami comments on Japanese society from a generally fantastic point of view. The desolate plains of sheep and Hokkaido. The journey from Tokyo to the far north. He is very mainstream now, presumably for the same reasons as Terry Pratchett: he brings a different image to the world, we see the world from a place where things that we would otherwise not see or understand can be explained and given context.