Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

The first episode of this season, “What Police Get When They Get Your Phone” with @harlanyu, explores the tools that are being used by police departments across America—often without warrants—to access the most intimate information on your cell phone. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/11/podcast-episode-what-police-get-when-they-get-your-phone

Police used 3 cameras mounted on utility poles to secretly record someone's life 24/7 for 18 months. A court said cops didn't need a warrant for this highly intrusive act. We're asking SCOTUS to make clear that's a violation of the Fourth Amendment. https://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-supreme-court-warrantless-24-hour-video-surveillance-outside-homes-violates

Has anyone working on #FreeSoftware ever seen an MIT License with a mandatory arbitration clause?

https://github.com/opengovsg/FormSG/blob/develop/LICENSE.md

#FLOSS #OpenSource

@doctormo @lightweight This is actually the emerging trend right now. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/10/how-to-build-digital-public-infrastructure-estonia/

@lightweight @downey

The first step is to consider computer software and business standardisation to be INFRASTRUCTURE.

Using Microsoft Office is, to me, the same as giving a company a private toll road right through the middle of your local city and business districts.

@lightweight Microsoft/GitHub are big sponsors and speakers at this year's UN Internet Governance Forum where a major topic is digital sovereignty. 🤯

"Farmers have already told us that they’re buying older tractors to avoid the software repair restrictions that manufacturers like Deere put in place." https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wxd8wy/the-used-tractor-market-is-far-wilder-than-the-used-car-market

Also sometimes you'll see the narrative "Look how much we can accomplish when we work together! Millions of lines of code!" This is thankfully dying down, but I think it's problematic in a different way.

Because when a project's too large, it's impractical to exercise any of the Four Freedoms you might legally have. To e.g. alter Chrome or Firefox & keep it working.

And I do reckon established projects should invest in solid governance to give non-programmers influence over it.

4/4

What do I view as being toxic?

* Insist everyone must want to put time into customizing their computers.

* Insist every Linux user (or worse computer user) needs to understand how computers work.

People may have other things to do!

* Villify software projects you don't like; You don't have to use them! systemd haters can have their own distros!

Often a fossbro will villify a project for hiding configuration options...

* Telling others "just fork it" and/or villifying subsequent forks.

3/4

The digital sovereignty discussion is growing louder in the EU... https://www.euractiv.com/section/digital/news/french-government-seeks-to-speed-up-deployment-of-open-source/ Wouldn't it be refreshing if our NZ government caught up, and codified our national sovereignty (and use of open standards and #FOSS!) in its new Digital Strategy!?

This is some great reporting. We need a lot more of this. I don't want to hear what some talking-head pundit thinks, I want to hear from the workers.

The year in staff resignations: Food industry workers recount what drove them to quit en masse

https://thecounter.org/solare-seattle-fleishers-dollar-general-burger-king/

Our local regional council seems to have been asleep at the wheel... or it's been corrupted by corporate interests. Or both. We need better local government and regulators, because the corporates will privatise profit and externalise costs 'til the cows come home. We need better people to hold them (who, in many cases, aren't great people, no matter what they might think) to account. https://www.newsroom.co.nz/ecan-exposed-regulator-hides-damning-report

O.K., brits. I got word back from New Zealand's negotiators of the UK-NZ free trade agreement on my opposition to copyright extensions.

Apparantly "The Agreement in Principle confirms changes to some aspects of New Zealand’s copyright law will be required." I need your opposition too!

Seriously! How are we supposed to reel these unjust copyright laws back? If we can't halt copyright term extensions, how are we supposed to revoke anticircumvention laws!?

How to Cheat in an Argument
(or, even better, how to catch yourself doing it):

https://leanlogic.online/how-to-cheat-in-an-argument/

Sign this petition to demand a living wage for workers at REI #Coop ✊

https://www.coworker.org/petitions/a-living-wage-for-rei-greenvests

$2000/month to every American #moneyforthepeople #covid19

https://chng.it/Q7wwFTJnxW