[p2p-research] French Government Looks to Mass Spyware to Control P2P Software

[Michel Bauwens]

super tom, thanks a lot!

On Tue, Sep 7, 2010 at 8:22 PM, Tom Rawlings <tom at fluffylogic.net> wrote:

>  A while ago I wrote about the technical difficulties of implementing any
> reasonable solution to stopping people from using p2p to download
> copyrighted material – I notice that the French government is adopting
> methods very similar to that of China in an attempt to control p2p use;
>
> "French Internet users could soon be asked to install spyware on their PCs
> that tracks their surfing habits and analyzes the applications installed on
> their machines in order to prevent file sharing piracy. Plans for this type
> of surveillance surfaced this week when a paper authored by the French
> Hadopi agency, which was put in place to police the French Internet and
> prevent copyright infringement as part of the country’s three strikes
> legislation, leaked online."
>
> You may remember early 2009 a policy emerged in China that would require
> all new PC to come pre-installed with government spyware with the
> appropriate name of ‘Green Dam‘ – under the guise of protecting the youth
> from dubious morality. However, Professor Jonathan Zittrain, of Harvard’s
> Berkman Center said:
>
> "Once you’ve got government-mandated software installed on each machine,
> the software has the keys to the kingdom… While the justification may be
> pitched as protecting children and mostly concerning pornography, once the
> architecture is set up it can be used for broader purposes, such as the
> filtering of political ideas."
>
> Indeed. What is interesting is that it appears that there is no easy
> technical solution to the laws that politicians have passed – and I can’t
> see how their will be, unless you can impose some very draconian system, but
> even then there will be ways round it. I suggest this is doomed to expensive
> failure – consider the $84 million the Australian government spent
> developing a filter system, also to protect youth from dodgy material – only
> to have a 16 year old hack it in 30 minutes.
>
> (I've sheduled a version of this post with links on the p2p website,
> thanks!)
>
> --
> Tomas
>
> -----------------------
> Tomas Rawlings
> Development Director, FluffyLogic Development Ltd.
> web: www.fluffylogic.net
> tel: 0117 9442233
> -
> Also see:
> blog on film&  interweb: www.plugincinema.com
> blog on games, p2p, media ecology&  evolution:
> http://agreatbecoming.wordpress.com
> tweet: www.twitter.com/arclightfire
>
>
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