Kony2012; My response to Invisible Children's campaign.

Reblogged from Rosebell's Blog:

For the last many hours i have followed a campaign by Invisible Children NGO called KONY2012 that has gone viral getting more than 20 million hits on Youtube. I am a story teller and i know the danger of a single story  . It is something many people can easily ignore especially if we are outsiders to the story.

This is the video i recorded late in the night.

Read more… 103 more words

This is why research on an issue before reacting is crucial. Everyone should listen what to she has to say, she has shed light to issues about the state of Northern Uganda and the hysteria caused by the KONY 2012 video.

Above, a video by Rosebell Kagumire, a Ugandan multimedia journalist who works on ”media, women, peace and conflict issues.” She writes, “This is me talking about the danger of portraying people with one single story and using old footage to cause hysteria when it could have been possible to get to DRC and other affected countries get a fresh perspective and also include other actors.”

Twitter to censor tweets in certain countries

Twitter announced that they are now capable of censoring tweets in certain countries, to comply with the requests of local governments to censor or block content in the microblogging site. The Twitter blog post, dated January 26, 2012, it says:

As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression. Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there. Others are similar but, for historical or cultural reasons, restrict certain types of content, such as France or Germany, which ban pro-Nazi content. Until now, the only way we could take account of those countries’ limits was to remove content globally. Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country — while keeping it available in the rest of the world. We have also built in a way to communicate transparently to users when content is withheld, and why. We haven’t yet used this ability, but if and when we are required to withhold a Tweet in a specific country, we will attempt to let the user know, and we will clearly mark when the content has been withheld

Although they have not yet censored Tweets or withhold Tweets from users in specific countries, they are saying that people will be notified if a certain Tweet is censored by replacing the Tweet with an alert box that says “Tweet Withheld”. It was also noted in a Twitter Help Center post that it has the ability to also block access to an entire account and will be replaced with ”@Username withheld” if it is blocked in your counutry.

…if you see a grayed-out user in your timeline or elsewhere on Twitter , access to that particular account has been withheld in your country.

  Twitter partnered with Chilling Effects, an organization focused on free speech online to create a site  http://chillingeffects.org/twitter that notifies a country of what Tweets have been blocked. Users could, however, get around restrictions. The Next Webposts about bypassing censorship. The Next Web went on saying:

Chances are that Twitter perfectly knows about this workaround, and its details are particularly well thought. Knowing that content has been blocked is a very good start, but that’s not the best thing about it. What’s particularly clever is its ease of use, even in countries where technical workarounds may be difficult to access. Users won’t need to hide their IP with a proxy: Twitter lets them change it manually, despite the potential loss in hyperlocal ad dollars for the platform. Well done, Twitter, chances are tweets will continue to flow for quite a while.

Twitter users were enraged by this news, last week a Twitter Blackout was staged and an online petition to “Stand against Twitter censorship” went viral. Jillian York, director of the International Freedom of Expression at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, wrote

Let’s be clear: This is censorship. There’s no way around that. But alas, Twitter is not above the law.  Just about every company hosting user-generated content has, at one point or another, gotten an order or government request to take down content.  Google lays out its orders in its Transparency Report.  Other companies are less forthright.  In any case, Twitter has two options in the event of a request: Fail to comply, and risk being blocked by the government in question, or comply (read: censor).  And if they have “boots on the ground”, so to speak, in the country in question?  No choice. In the event that a company chooses to comply with government requests and censor content, there are a number of mitigating steps the company can take.  The most important, of course, is transparency, something that Twitter has promised.  Google is also transparent in its content removal (Facebook? Not so much).  Twitter’s move to geolocate their censorship is also smart, given the alternative (censoring it worldwide, that is)

Save Undershaw

About Undershaw via the Save Undershaw website

Undershaw in Hindhead, Surrey, United Kingdom, is the former residence of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his family. A fine example of  late Victorian architecture, it was built in 1897 in an era when few houses were actually designed by the occupier.

Here he wrote ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ and ‘The Return of Sherlock Holmes’ and entertained many notable people, including Bram Stoker, the author of ‘Dracula’, J M Barrie, the creator of ‘Peter Pan’, and the young Virginia Woolf.

Undershaw’ was built by Conan Doyle so that his invalid wife Louise, who was suffering from tuberculosis, could benefit from Hindhead’s healthy microclimate and glorious views down the Nutcombe Valley to the South Downs. Nestling in its three acre plot, Doyle himself drafted the first designs of the house, before passing them on to architect and friend Joseph Henry Ball to complete.

Undershaw is under threat from property developers who wish to divide it into 3 separate units, like a town house. The goal of the Undershaw Preservation Trust is to preserve it, and possibly make it accessible for tourists, students, and literary enthusiasts.

For more updates, visit their website at http://www.saveundershaw.com/.

You can also like their Facebook page: The Undershaw Preservation Trust

Petition: Save Undershaw

And for real time updates, follow them on Twitter @Save_Undershaw and Lynn Gale @spiritangel04

Their application for a Judicial Review has been approved, and the hearing will be on the 23rd of May 2012. Hopefully, redevelopment will not push through.

The ACTA signing by the EU is not the end

I got this from Falkvinge who got this from La Quadrature who translated this from Numerama (Don’t say I didn’t site sources)

Former rapporteur of ACTA says:

Kader Arif, rapporteur for ACTA in the European Parliament quit his role as rapporteur saying:

”I want to denounce in the strongest possible manner the entire process that led to the signature of this agreement: no inclusion of civil society organisations, a lack of transparency from the start of the negotiations, repeated postponing of the signature of the text without an explanation being ever given, exclusion of the EU Parliament’s demands that were expressed on several occasions in our assembly.”

“As rapporteur of this text, I have faced never-before-seen manoeuvres from the right wing of this Parliament to impose a rushed calendar before public opinion could be alerted, thus depriving the Parliament of its right to expression and of the tools at its disposal to convey citizens’ legitimate demands.”

“Everyone knows the ACTA agreement is problematic, whether it is its impact on civil liberties, the way it makes Internet access providers liable, its consequences on generic drugs manufacturing, or how little protection it gives to our geographical indications.”

“This agreement might have major consequences on citizens’ lives, and still, everything is being done to prevent the European Parliament from having its say in this matter. That is why today, as I release this report for which I was in charge, I want to send a strong signal and alert the public opinion about this unacceptable situation. I will not take part in this mascarade.”

It looks as if Kader Arif was saying that, as Falkivinge says it, parliament was “deliberately kept in the dark about the whole thing. Parliament will not have a say on this issue, which will, and I do agree with Arif, be of great consequence not just in Europe, but the world. His statement also indicates that there might be a lot of people in parliament that is also, like him, holding grudges about this. Might we expect a coup d’etat?

Next Steps

It is important to know that today’s signing of the ACTA agreement by the EU member states accounts for absolutely nothing. It is for show. A ceremony. Theater. The legally binding action happens in votes in parliaments; the national parliaments across Europe, and notably the European Parliament. That’s the final line of defense, and that’s where we must win.

The vote in European Parliament is estimated to happen somewhere around June 10. On the road there, it needs to pass through three or four subcommittees of the European Parliament. I expect similar mechanisms to happen in the national parliaments.

Expect lies.

The Polish minister of digitization, Michal Boni, was lying through his teeth yesterday, saying that Poland “had no option” but to sign the agreement, and that Poland would submit “an addendum clarifying Poland’s conditions”. These are blatant lies. He also claimed that all other EU countries had already signed it, which as another blatant lie.

First, if no vote in parliament was needed, you can be damn sure it wouldn’t be held in the first place. If parliament says no, any parliament, then no it is. And the Members of Parliament push exactly the button they want to – there is no “must push yes”. Nobody holds a gun to their head.

Second, there are no addendums or appendixes which may appease the public. The ACTA text is closed. There is no more adding to it. What remains is a yes or a no to the text exactly as it is written.

Make Noise

This is where we come in. We must take everything we learned from defeating SOPA and apply it to national parliaments in Europe in general, and the European Parliament in particular.

Activism on the streets. Flood them with phone calls and emails. (Do not overload their servers, though: that will be seen as borderline terrorism and just make them more determined that more Internet control is the right thing to do.) Citizens of Poland have been exemplary here in taking to the streets.

SOPA is dead, and nobody in the US legislature wants to touch copyright monopoly issues. If we win ACTA – and we know that we can – then that may be the beginning of the end for the copyright industry and its attempts to kill our freedom of speech. Yes, really.

Remember, it is not yet the end. If the European Parliament can be convinced that this is a bad idea, then we can put an end to this. Again, I would have to reiterate that this is not just for Europe, but for all the countries on this green Earth. Every little thing helps. Sign petitions. Blog about it. Call the government. Whatever it is, it will definitely help.

Petition: Just say NO to ACTA 

Meanwhile, in Poland, member if the Parliament held up Guy Fawkes masks in protest to the Passage of ACTA

[Via Falkvinge/La Quadrature/Numerama]

In other news: Twitter caves to global censorship, will block content on country-specific basis as required via BoingBoing

Petition for Twitter censoring: Stand Against Censorship

UPDATE: Legalities of the CBS modern take of Sherlock

Steven Moffat tweeted this, an article from The Independent

It’s a fresh take on Sherlock Holmes which will transplant the sleuth to a modern-day setting. But it doesn’t take Baker Street’s finest to deduce the source material for a major new drama announced by American network CBS.

The producers of the BBC’s acclaimed Sherlock series, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, are prepared to take legal action against the US network over a rival Holmes series which appears to tread on familiar ground.

The BBC version is already a cult hit in America, where it is screened on the PBS network. The show’s contemporary reinvention of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories, allied to slick production values, impressed network executives at CBS – so when an offer to remake the BBC’s Sherlock for US viewers came to nothing, they decided to go ahead and make their own.

In a move which has caused concern at Hartswood Films, the BBC show’s producers, CBS has commissioned Elementary, described as a new Sherlock Holmes adaptation set in modern-day New York.

Sue Vertue, Sherlock Executive Producer at Hartswood Films, said: “We understand that CBS are doing their own version of an updated Sherlock Holmes. It’s interesting, as they approached us a while back about remaking our show. At the time, they made great assurances about their integrity, so we have to assume that their modernised Sherlock Holmes doesn’t resemble ours in any way, as that would be extremely worrying.” She added: “We are very proud of our show and like any proud parent, will protect the interest and wellbeing of our offspring.”

Conan Doyle’s creation has been subject to numerous screen incarnations, including Guy Ritchie’s all-action Hollywood version. Holmes’ sleuthing skills and character quirks also inspired House, Hugh Laurie’s medical detective.

But it is Elementary’s relocation of the character to a modern setting which may closely impinge on the BBC series, which has made laptops and text messaging an important element of its plots.

Margaret Tofalides, a copyright specialist at law firm Manches, said: “The concept of a new Sherlock Holmes is unprotectable. But if the unusual elements of the BBC series – the modern settings, characters, clothes, plots and distinctive visual style – were closely reproduced in the CBS version, that could form the basis of a potential copyright claim.”

An American Sherlock could threaten the revenues returned to BBC Worldwide from the Cumberbatch show. The episodes have found an international audience through DVD sales and iTunes downloads.

After reading the article, I realised that it would be quite hard to modernise a classic character without the use of technology. Because let’s face it, modernization is equal to progress in technology, which the BBC Sherlock has maximized.

It is quite intriguing now, actually. Now that we know that if they, in any way, replicate, or use any of the BBC Sherlock‘s trademarks, they would be in big trouble.

Anyway, again I think it would be best to wait for it. People are making a big fuss of this now, not surprising since the BBC show has a cult following, but if it continues, how will they transport Sherlock in a modern-day setting, and in New York, without infringing copyright?

And a funny question that has been in my head for quite some time now, will it resemble CSI?

Say no to ACTA

If you are scared and angry of SOPA AND PIPA, then guess what? We have another enemy,ACTA. The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Act establishes international standards on intellectual property rights. It includes counterfeit goods, generic medicines, and copyright infringement on the Internet. ACTA would create a separate governing body outside of existing international organizations, including WTO (World Trade Organization), WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) and the UN (United Nations). It is proposed by Japan and is already signed last October 11, 2011 by the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, South Korea, and Singapore. The European Union, Mexico, and Switzerland did not sign but attended the meeting showing their support to ACTA. But it has been reported that EU will be signing on January 26.

This was done in secret, and so some of us found out about this when drafts were leaked.

The shutdown of Megaupload is our taste of what ACTA can do to the Internet. It’s not only SOPA or PIPA that is going to break the internet, ACTA will be the endgame.

From Chocotaur:

Five facts:

1. ACTA isn’t the “European” SOPA. It’s nearly GLOBAL, and will apply to every country that signs the treaty.

2. ACTA is far more aggressive. ACTA will not simply affect websites and have them blocked out of the internet – its measures go as far as surveillance of anything you share through private channels.

3. ACTA doesn’t have a campaign against it that is as wide-spread and organized as the SOPA one. This is DANGEROUS, as there’s less time between now and the final signing of ACTA.

4. ACTA has effects on healthcare, trade, and even tourism.

5. ACTA has to be stopped.

Let’s start spreading the word and organizing a good, solid response to it.

Click these links to know more about ACTA:

Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Act

EU to sign ACTA later this month

Secret Copyright Treaty leaks

Finalized text of ACTA (Subject to legal review)

How to act against ACTA

Petition to stop ACTA (Please inform us if there are other petitions for this)

Stop ACTA

Be informed. Please take time to watch the videos below

Say no to ACTA

Anti-ACTA:What can you do?

Megaupload Dangerous Secrets affects YOU! Mike Mozart (JeepersMedia)

Protect IP/SOPA Breaks the Internet

I know a number of people are still wondering why Wikipedia, WordPress, or Tumblr were blacked out yesterday night (Well for us at SEA it was yesterday night). It is because of SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) . These are anti-piracy bills in the US Congress that will eventually constitute to censorship. To put it this way, if you upload a video of yourself on Youtube, and incidentally a music is playing in the background, then you can be sued just for that. That in itself is considered a copyright infringement. Or, if you are an artist trying to make it big in the music business, making a cover of a song will now be banned. What is worst is that there will be control of information, which means the US Government can sift through your posts and will censor whatever it is that they consider to be violating intellectual Property Rights. Sites that will be affected most especially are the sites that we use everyday; like Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, and Tumblr. Blogs also like WordPress, Blogspot, and Livejournal will be deeply affected, because we depend greatly on the news articles, videos, and artistic images, that we are able to get on the interwebs. It also means that search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo, can now be sued if they upload articles that will somehow violate property rights.

Why am I reacting if I am not American? If you can observe, most of what we are using are US based, Twitter and Facebook just some of those. If there is censorship, a tweet or a status update can now be considered a violation of PIPA if the US government thinks it is. Also, if the US can do this, I am sure other countries will follow. Because although we think our country is different and they would not think of stripping us of our rights to express ourselves openly, if this SOPA and PIPA will be passed, it would be inevitable that our country will follow as well. Plus, the fact that if the US could not control sites outside of their country, they could have US sites and companies to revoke our access to information.

We have been connected through the internet, maybe even made friends through internet. I plan on supporting the strike. The internet would be useless if these are passed.

To know more about SOPA and PIPA just click on the links below:

SOPA and PIPA Debate

SOPA explained: What is it and why it matters

Andy Samberg, Neil Gaiman, Trent Reznor, Azis Ansari, Adam Savage and more tell Congress: Don’t Pass PIPA or SOPA in our names

The Oatmeal blacked out in protest of SOPA/PIPA

Learn more about the protest:

SOPA strike 

American Censorship

#BlackoutSOPA

Understanding PIPA and SOPA:Why you should be concerned from New Left Media

Wikipedia video: Imagine a world without free knowledge

The day the Lolcats died

SOPA and PIPA by Khan Academy

Gaiman on Copyright Piracy and the Web

Ruled “out of order”?

From thedailywhat

 Father Nathan Monk of the St. Benedict Orthodox Church took to the podium during the open comment period at last Thursday’s Pensacola City Council meeting to call Council President Sam Hall out for arbitrarily denying speakers with whom he disagreed their right to redress of grievances by ruling them “out of order” and having them removed by force.

In a scene that would make George Orwell blush, Father Monk was himself ruled “out of order” and approached by Police Chief Chip Simmons and two uniformed officers.

The priest stood his ground and refused to leave, calling attention to the fact that he still had over a minute left to speak.

A tense standoff ensued, during which two council members — Sherri Myers and John Jerralds — exited the room to protest Councilman Hall’s unconstitutional ruling.

So basically, Father Nathan was stating the obvious, telling the council and especially Sam Hall that they were out of line…and he gets “ruled out of order”?

Civil War in the Philippines

I was actually supposed to publish another post when finally WordPress decided to work, but I saw this on Tumblr and I feel like I’ve been spending a lot of time on things that seem less important

President Benigno Aquino and Vice President Jejomar Binay witness the arrival at the Villamor Airbase in Fort Bonifacio of the slain seven Marines. MARIANNE BERMUDEZ/INQUIRER

(Source)

I watch the news, or at least try to, everyday, and I’ve honestly only paid attention to the weather updates and the other local crimes that has been happening around. I know about the concerns and reactions about the President’s SONA, I know about the issue on the ballot switching where our previous President is yet again involved, I know about the bus that fell over Skyway, but it’s quite sad that I know nothing about this.

We Filipinos often joke about how low tech we are in terms of weapons and machinery, but we pride ourselves of the people who make do with the “hand-me-down” instruments that we get and still do an exemplary job. This would probably be one of the reasons why I wish we had better equipment. But, I hurriedly shunned that idea because I’m against people killing people, I think we all are. War, especially within the country and against your fellowmen isn’t really my cup of tea.

I haven’t heard of an Abu Sayaff related news for months, and the beheading of the 5 Marines, for me, was a sign that shouts “We’re still here!” Have we gone complacent?  Did we just forget that our soldiers are risking their lives fighting people who should not have been our enemies at all?

But I don’t like how some react to people who actually live in the battlefield region. Like if a person is from the southern part of the Philippines, and he or she happens to be from one of the places where a known leader of the radicals is located, and automatically this person is under suspicion and is seen as a potential threat. Some would be denying this, but I know that this happens a lot.

I hope the government will take action. There are a lot of mindless killings happening in this country. Peace is still far from our grasps. I still wait for the day when everyone just got along because it seems that everyone holds some kind of grudge against, well, everybody.

I salute the 5 Marines; I know that they fought bravely.

Para sa mga sundalong lumalaban para sa Pilipinas, saludo ako sa inyo. Sana ay matapos na itong hidwaan sa ating bansa, nang sa gayon ay magkaroon ng pagkakaisa sa Pilipinas, pagkakaisang matagal na nating inaasam.

So this happened…

The Philippines is currently experiencing the wrath of the merciless typhoon we named Falcon. It really does not look good out there and we’re just hoping that it would stop soon because it has been raining since yesterday and it hasn’t stopped since. I’m not even exaggerating, the typhoon has a lot of energy stored in it, didn’t even take a break. And as I’m posting this, from faint raindrops it has gotten stronger. I know I’ve said before that sometimes rain helps me think, but this is just too much.

I was lucky enough to have been home before DLSU was flooded yesterday, but there were a number of students who were not so fortunate, and from what I’ve heard, some of them spent their nights there. The University was nice enough to give them sustenance and keep them company throughout what seemed to be an awfully long night.

Today, I heard there were two or three twisters that had hit Manila, and then an overflowing Marikina River had forced ten thousand residents to evacuate and there were a number of power disruptions. I didn’t even need to watch the news because it was all over Facebook and Twitter. A lot of people have been tweeting about the typhoon and #prayforthephilippines and Marikina River were trending topics worldwide.

Couldn’t help but feel a tad bit emotional about this because we had the misfortune of experiencing typhoon Ondoy before and it was really scary. None of us would want that to happen again because that typhoon really rendered the country helpless. We’re not just talking about knee-deep or waist deep floods, the flood devoured a whole house, and a lot of people have lost their lives saving other people. This was the time when I saw how  easy it was for Filipinos to help another person without any regard for their own safety, and that just shows how heroic people could become in the face of danger.

I have always thought that since half the time, since our country does get hit by typhoons like this that we have gotten used to it, but it’s like every year there is always that one storm that would just leave us flabbergasted and shocked and unprepared, and every year we lose lives because of it. But despite that, Filipinos still have a little sense humor and cleverness left. Take a look at this guy, he has outsmarted the flood!

(Source)

Tumblr even agrees that this is where the cliche statement “Only in the Philippines” starts justifying itself. He is treading water like a boss!

I know this is just one of the many typhoons that our country will have to live through, but the events of today scared the heck out of a lot people, including myself. I think Falcon would be leaving the Philippine Area of Responsibility tomorrow, at least I hope it does.

Stay safe guys!