Accuracy and truth are more important than speed

A wise man once said that “if you don’t read the newspapers you’re uninformed, if you read them, you’re misinformed.” That’s very true. Newspapers and in general news agencies are focusing on speed, not the truth.

They’re in a competition with other news agencies to deliver news, often no matter true or fake, as fast as possible. What we need, however, is truth. People will prefer truth over speed.

You may be the last one who delivers news to us but as long as you tell the truth and we know we can trust you, we’ll want news only from you.

Journalists and news companies have responsibility over this. They’re responsible for misinformation in the society and they’re responsible for every consequence of spreading news because words effect people and people effect each other.

What we need is truth, not speed.

Apple’s encryption is not enough

Apple encrypts your data but Apple also can easily look at your files and information, exactly like FBI, CIA, NSA, and other agencies. Apple can look at your photos, read your private notes, save a copy of your messages and chats, and follow up your communications easily.

Apple does encrypt your data but only with its own private key. Your sensitive data are not encrypted with your own key, rather with what Apple controls. It means whoever encrypts the data (in this case, Apple) can also decrypt them.

Apple is very proud of its privacy policies and advertises a lot about it but what Apple doesn’t explain about this encryption, is how it works.

Apple dances around the encryption saying that your data are encrypted “in transit” and “on server” but this encryption is as unacceptable as Zoom’s, Facebook’s, or Google’s encryption.

While ago, Zoom announced that it’s going to encrypt users’ data “end-to-end” only for paying users and a lot of people complained about it. If what Zoom does is wrong, so is Apple.

iCloud and our device backups hold a lot more of our sensitive, private data than our video calls do, and over a much longer time-span.

Zoom doesn’t end-to-end encrypt the contents of individual calls. Apple fails to end-to-end encrypt your entire device backup, which contains your complete message history for every single iMessage and SMS conversation you have ever had on the device, without time limitation.

We need justice!

 

Free software/free culture does not accept discrimination

Update: After reading the full notice on Fedora download page, Mr. Stallman says that Fedora didn’t require users to promise anything therefor it’s not a violation of free software terms.

If you study it carefully, it does not require the downloader to promise not to do certain things. Rather, it requires the downloader to affirm awareness of these US rules, which may or may not apply.

Because of this, it does not contradict the GPL.

However, as our discussion shows, it is easy for people to misundestand and get the wrong idea about what it actually requires. They mey THINK it requires something that would violate the GPL even though it actually does not.

Richard Stallman

Original note:

Following my email message to Mr. Stallman, I had a lot of other discussions with different people but I think the best response was from Mr. Stallman himself.

He stated that the notice on Fedora download page makes it nonfree and the limitations are not compatible with GPL license.

Here’s Mr. Stallman’s email message:

[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider ]]]
[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]]
[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden’s example. ]]]

> I believe parts of this notice are violations of software freedom. The notice says that Fedora complies with “Unites States Export Administration Regulations (the =E2=80=9CEAR=E2=80=9D) and it’s prohibited for use in connection with the design, development or production of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, or rocket systems, space launch vehicles, or sounding rockets, or unmanned air vehicle systems.”

As stated, that would make Fedora nonfree. However, Fedora cannot impose such requirements on GPL-covered programs unless Fedora has the copyright.

The GNU Project encryption programs were developed outside the US and I think users get them without passing through the FS.

> The other part says “You may not provide Fedora software or technical information to individuals or entities located in one of these countries or otherwise subject to these restrictions.”

Isn’t it a violation of freedom 2 (The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others)?

Yes, it would be — but I don’t think anyone can enforce it on you if you are outside the US and you download Fedora. That is why I did not make a fuss about it.

> So does that mean that I, a typical user of free software, am restricted from using and distributing a software that is licensed free? Do you and free software movement accept this discrimination?

The reason for section 8 is to prevent patents from being used to make a program effectively nonfree.

If in country C some company Q threatens to make the program priorietary by suing the users using Q’s patent, that would in effect make the program proprietary.

Using section 8, the developer can say, “You can’t make my program proprietary. With section 8 I make it not available at all in country C. Give my program liberty or give it death!.”

In other words, “I’d rather destroy my program than let you turn it into your proprietary product.”

RMS's email regarding Fedora's discrimination and violation of software freedom terms.

International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression

The International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression is a United Nations observance each 4 June. It was established on 19 August 1982.

Originally focused on victims of the 1982 Lebanon War, its purpose expanded to “acknowledge the pain suffered by children throughout the world who are the victims of physical, mental and emotional abuse. This day affirms the UN’s commitment to protect the rights of children.”

The General Assembly, having considered the question of Palestine at its resumed seventh emergency special session, “appalled at the great number of innocent Palestinian and Lebanese children victims of Israel’s acts of aggression” decided to commemorate 4 June of each year as the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression. 31st plenary meeting 19 August 1982.

If you see child abuse or aggression against any child, please call your local child support center, police station, or social worker. Also, there’s a helpful article on Medical News Today.

Does free software/free culture accept discrimination?

Update: Mr. Stallman responded.

A while ago I wrote a blog post about moving from Fedora. After a lot of discussions with my friends, I finally decided to send an email message to Mr. Stallman about Fedora’s notice. I’m now waiting for Mr. Stallman’s response. Here’s my email message:

Dear Dr. Stallman,
Howdy.

Mr. Stallman, I’m a free software activist for more than 7 years now and I’ve using free software since I found out about the concept of software freedom. There’s not a single proprietary software in my computers. I even didn’t have a smart phone till a year ago. My phone currently runs LineageOS.

My operating system was Fedora untill I found out about a notice on Fedora GNU+Linux distro download page. https://getfedora.org/en/workstation/download/

I believe parts of this notice are violations of software freedom. The notice says that Fedora complies with “Unites States Export Administration Regulations (the “EAR”) and it’s prohibited for use in connection with the design, development or production of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, or rocket systems, space launch vehicles, or sounding rockets, or unmanned air vehicle systems.”

Isn’t it violation of freedom 0 (The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose)?

The other part says “You may not provide Fedora software or technical information to individuals or entities located in one of these countries or otherwise subject to these restrictions.”

Isn’t it a violation of freedom 2 (The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others)?

The four freedoms doesn’t mention any country or specific software so I believe the terms of software freedom are applicable to all software no matter what country they’re based in.

A friend of mine told me that section 8 of GNU General Public License version 2 accept this discrimination.

“8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the original copyright holder who places the Program under this License may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among countries not thus excluded. In such case, this License incorporates the limitation as if written in the body of this License. “

So does that mean that I, a typical user of free software, am restricted from using and distributing a software that is licensed free? Do you and free software movement accept this discrimination?

All my life, I fought for freedom. I’m an Iranian and I live in a country that basic human rights are violated and I fought for freedom and my people’s rights in the streets with my bare hands. If free software movement, FSF, and you sir, accept this discrimination, I no longer will fight for free software as it’s just a lie to me.

I know that companies and maybe projects based in U.S. should comply with USA’s laws but it’s not a good reason for discrimination like this. If free software can be restricted for some people or it can only be used by a group of people a country or a company chooses, then I believe free software movement is not what it says it is.

I remember you once said that free (as in freedom) software leads us to a free society. If this freedom is only for some people, then it’s just a lie, isn’t it?

Can you please explain to me and my friends how free software movement reacts to this?

Thanks a lot.

Ali Reza Hayati

New hackers need to focus on everything; not only computers

I know a lot of hackers. I, myself, am a hacker but being a hacker doesn’t just mean infiltrating other people’s systems (those are crackers). If you do hacks, you’re a hacker.

For example, few years ago when I was backpacking I had trouble opening a glass of pickles. What I did was to use a spoon to lower the pressure between the lid and the glass and when the compressed air was released, I opened it.

That was a hack. A simple hack to open a glass. Hacking doesn’t just mean sabotaging or entering security holes.

But what I want to talk about is not hacking itself. I want to talk about the life of hackers, specifically computer hackers. A lot of computer hackers, for example programmers, dedicate their lives to and focus on computers.

They talk about operating systems, security, privacy, codes, hardware, etc. and only a few of them really pay attention to society. Few of them talk about politics, or nature. We see less and less hackers talking about plastic problems in world.

Of course there’s people who are interested in technologies that help mother nature but there’s not a lot of them. New hackers, mostly, think that being a computer guy means leaving every other subject in life; and that’s wrong.

The hacker community talks about everything. They value life, just like other people. Being hacker doesn’t mean that you should dedicate your life to computers. Politics, nature, people, global affairs, etc. all matter.

New hackers and the hackers community need to focus on life. We don’t live in computers, we live in a world full of people and everything affects us like others.

If world runs into a global crisis, like a pandemic, we all should do what we can. We’re not robots and computers, we’re humans so we should do what humans do.

Free software is about freedom, not price

I almost always call “free software”, “software libre” to avoid misunderstanding between price and freedom. Whenever I say free software, I should explain to people that by free software, I mean a software that respects freedom.

Free software is different with freeware. When we say free software, we mean free as in freedom. That’s why I call it free software. But there’s still some questions for people.

One of the questions people ask me is that if a software is libre, how can we make money from it? My answer is always simple and short. You can make money from free software the way you make money from proprietary software.

Continue reading
MHD logo

Menstrual Hygiene Day

Menstrual Hygiene Day is an annual awareness day on May 28 to highlight the importance of good menstrual hygiene management. It was initiated by the German-based NGO WASH United in 2014 and aims to benefit women and girls worldwide. The 28th was selected to acknowledge that 28 days is the average length of the menstrual cycle.

In low-income countries, girls’ and women’s choices of menstrual hygiene materials are often limited by the costs, availability and social norms.Adequate sanitation facilities and access to feminine hygiene products are one part of the solution. Creating a culture that welcomes discussion and makes adequate education for women and girls is of equal importance. Research has found that not having access to menstrual hygiene management products can keep girls home from school during their period each month.

Menstrual Hygiene Day creates an occasion for publicizing information in the media, including social media. Public information campaigns can help to engage decision-makers in policy dialogue. The day offers an opportunity to actively advocate for the integration of menstrual hygiene management (MHM) into global, national and local policies and programs.

Google is helping China to censor internet

Two days ago, Palmer Luckey reported on Twitter that Google (YouTube) is deleting his comments about a Chinese propaganda.

YouTube has deleted every comment I ever made about the Wumao (五毛), an internet propaganda division of the Chinese Communist Party. Who at Google decided to censor American comments on American videos hosted in America by an American platform that is already banned in China?

Palmer Luckey

Ninja Logic, another user, also replied that Google (YouTube) also deletes entire chat if you send certain words.

YouTube will also delete the ENTIRE chat replay from a livestream if a single person types the phrase 共匪, 五毛, or any of the other blacklisted terms critical of the CCP. Might be disruptive if people typed these phrases en masse in all the popular stream chats.

Might be disruptive if people typed these phrases en masse in all the popular stream chats.

Ninja Logic on Twitter

This is internet censorship. Lots of Hong Kong people are protesting against Chinese government because of discrimination and inequality and they are dependent on these services. Hong Kong people are fighting for justice and what Google is doing is helping Chinese government suppress these protests.

YouTube is one of the platforms for sharing videos and flow of information about protests and human rights and Chinese government is violating this right with the help of Google.

This is not acceptable. America claims to be the leader of free world and yet its corporations are violating human rights every day. Something should be done about this.

What’s the Solution?

This is just another reason for us to move towards software freedom. Free software protects people from this. By using free programs, you’ll be sure that your freedom and rights are respected and if any violation happens, you can simply make your own platform with your own rules.

Free software makes sure you have essential freedoms of regarding your computing, therefore it can be used to protect your freedom when you’re fighting, like Hong Kong people fight.

If you’re in touch with any Hong Kong protester, please let them know about free software alternatives such as Peertube. It’ll help them talk freely.