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Internet Warning Signs

Cracked has a series of humorous Internet warning signs – there is a touch of seriousness in each one. My favorite is this one.

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There is more than a grain of truth in this warning. With the Internet no one needs to have an unsatisfied curiosity however with this ability comes the burden of choice. Most users can see ugly things on the Internet but must then actively choose not to do so. Understanding of this responsibility is only gained through painful experience and even then it is difficult for most of us not to click on a link that we know may affect us negatively.

This freedom and individual responsibility on such a broad spectrum will change us individually and collectively but in what ways.

What happens to a person who can explore every twisted desire or experience all manner of horror – but without ever leaving the comfort and security of home? A dulling of the senses or a deepening of understanding of the role of choice in the lives of individuals?

Whatever happens we are on our way and will not be deterred from this development. All we can do is hang on and enjoy the ride.

Posted on by mklang

Ethics for Scientists

The British government’s chief scientific advisor Professor Sir David King has set out a universal ethical code for scientists.

1) Act with skill and care, keep skills up to date
2) Prevent corrupt practice and declare conflicts of interest
3) Respect and acknowledge the work of other scientists
4) Ensure that research is justified and lawful
5) Minimise impacts on people, animals and the environment
6) Discuss issues science raises for society
7) Do not mislead; present evidence honestly

Professor King says: “We believe if every scientist followed the code, we would improve the quality of science and remove many of the concerns society has about research.”
The seven points are a bit obvious but then again maybe that’s the point?

(via Purse Lips Square Jaw)

Posted on by mklang

ISP Liability in Sweden

Yesterday, the Cecilia Renfors presented the results of her investigation on copyright issues in relation to the Internet (press release in Swedish). The investigation entitled Music and Film on the Internet – threat or possibility? (Musik och film på Internet – hot eller möjlighet?). The purpose of this investigation was to understand and to create a way in which illegal file-sharing would decrease and users would be encouraged to pay for the downloading of video and audio.

The main suggestion in this investigation is to hold the ISP’s liable for users’ treatment of copyrighted material. In reality this would entail that the ISP would move from being an anonymous carrier of information to being actively involved in the content their customers desire. Cecilia Renfors suggests that the ISP’s should be forced to, for example, close accounts for users involved in illegal file sharing.

These suggestions have not been accepted quietly. Naturally the ISP’s are protesting – they don’t want to chase their own customers. But there is a wider issue at stake here.

Suppose that an Internet account is terminated because it has been used for illegal file sharing. This punishment does not fit the crime. Considering the drive towards e-government and the amount of services which are moving wholly online the loss of one’s Internet connection is too high a punishment. Another question is who actually carried out the downloading? Was it the underage child? Or is it a neighbor abusing an open network?

Most users do not know enough about their technology to control their own Internet accounts. In addition they do not know enough about the complexities of copyright law in relation to the Internet. A study (pdf here – in Swedish) user’s rights (paid for by an ISP), also presented yesterday, shows that most people do not know which actions in relation to the copying of copyrighted material are legal or not. This latter study shows that 83% of Swedish teenagers download music from the Internet. Half of them believe that when they make a copy of music for a friend or family member that this act is also illegal.

An example of scenarios presented in the examination:

My friend has bought a song on the internet. She plays it for me on her mp3 player and I would like to copy the song to my mp3 player. Is this act legal?

Teenagers answer
* No: 51%
* Yes: 29 %
* Don’t know: 21%

Teenagers parents answer:
* No: 55%
* Yes: 21 %
* Don’t know: 24%

The correct answer is that this act is legal. Sharing a legally purchased song with friends and family is permissible. It is not permissible to share it to the general public nor is it legal to circumvent technical protection measures to copy the song.

The lack of legal and technical information makes this a sensitive issue. Naturally everyone within a society is expected to know the laws which applies to them. Ignorance of the law can never be a defence. However, the fact is that few people really know whats what in copyright and online environments.

If we create an environment where we begin closing access to Internet we are taking a step back in the information society. Access to Internet today is arguably more important than being connected to a telephone system. Not that I would like to give up either.

Posted on by mklang

Peer Review

A good short term strategy when attempting to prevent something is to use obviously false arguments. This is a good strategy because even false arguments can be believed if they are stated with a sense of conviction. But this is a crappy strategy in the long run since it undermines the credibility of the fool making the false argument.

One of the arguments against open access is that open access will ruin the peer review system. This is obviously total bull but stated with conviction by publishers it sounds almost credible. It sounds very credible to those who have no idea what peer-review is. It sounds even more dangerous when the importance of peer-review to the progress of science is explained.

So people tend to get nervous when open access is invoked and fear for the demise of good science. Therefore it is always a good thing to have a answer to this prepared.

Peter Suber’s article in the September 2007 SPARC Open Access Newsletter is just what you need – please read Why Open Access Undermine Peer Review?

Posted on by mklang

Birds Return

In May last year I wrote about the pictures of birds which began appearing around central Göteborg. An example of this was this Jackdaw

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The birds gave me an idea and I went out on bird-spotting expeditions and posted my pictures on flickr. Since I only have a free account the birds on flickr cannot be seen anymore – but the good news is that the whole thing further developed my interest in street art.

In a few comments left on this blog today the birdmen of Göteborg, John Skoog and Eric Berglin, (check out their own pictures) tip me off that they will soon be releasing a new publication of some sort (?) – check out their website.

Posted on by mklang

For the children…

A recent AP-Ipsos poll in August showed that Americans don’t read much. One in four Americans did not read books at all. The poll shows that they tend to be older, less educated, lower income, minorities, from rural areas and less religious. While polls such as these may be interesting or indicative they are hardly the stuff of serious science.

In 2004, a National Endowment for the Arts report titled “Reading at Risk” (pdf) found only 57 percent of American adults had read a book in 2002, a four percentage point drop in a decade.

So is reading important? Well you can find plenty of people who would argue that reading books is not an essential skill. But after looking at a video of Lauren Caitlin Upton, Miss Teen USA South Carolina I think that the most people would agree that reading is important.

She is attempting to address the issue of why most Americans cannot find their own country on a world map. I think her solution is to help the rest of the world to become just as dumb as Americans.

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Please avoid the temptation to make obvious blond jokes!

Update:

After her answer became an online & offline sensation Lauren Caitlin Upton was a guest on Tuesdays Today show and gave this answer:

Personally, my friends and I, we know exactly where the United States is on our map. I don’t know anyone else who doesn’t. And if the statistics are correct, I believe there should be more emphasis on geography in our education so people will learn how to read maps better.

You can watch that video here.

Posted on by mklang

Too late for a good idea

Is it ever too late for a good idea. Sometimes the world just moves along and makes what would have been a good idea obsolete. One of the local free newspapers (Metro) reports that the government wants to take a softer approach on illegal file sharing. Despite the uncertainty of the source – I rarely trust tabloids and free newspapers even less – it is an interesting idea.

The idea now is not to send in the police at once but rather have the copyright holder send the infringer a letter. The reporter makes this all sound like a matter of sending a polite reminder much in the tone of “Uhm, excuse me… but you seem to be infringing my copyright”. If the infringer then does not react a civil suit will follow.

This idea is long overdue. Digital copyright infringement should be a civil procedure rather than a criminal one.

Unfortunately the idea may be so long overdue as to be useless. The world has changed and I am not sure that there is any longer a window of opportunity for this idea. In part this is because the habits and expectations of internet users have changed and in part because the interpretation of our international obligations may require us to use criminal rather than civil procedure.

Posted on by mklang

Free Expression & T-shirts

Did you know that you could be arrested for wearing a t-shirt with an inappropriate text on it? No I am not talking arrested for indecency or for bad taste. Several people in the United States and the United Kingdom have been arrested for wearing t-shirts with political messages on them. In July last year I presented several examples of this on this blog.

In 2004 Nicole and Jeff Rank were removed from the event at the West Virginia Capitol in handcuffs after revealing T-shirts with President Bush’s name crossed out on the front. Nicole Rank’s shirt had the words “Love America, Hate Bush” on the back and Jeff Rank’s read “Regime change starts at home”

The good news is that the couple settled their lawsuit against the federal government for $80,000, the American Civil Liberties Union announced Thursday (via ABC news).

It’s good to hear that the even if protesters are arrested the right to freedom of expression is still a valued and protected right. However, the threat of being arrested is not something that most people want to experience and therefore freedom of expression is diminished even when people are compensated later.

Posted on by mklang

How DRM Becomes Law

Cory Doctorow has written a short must read article on how DRM becomes law in Information Week. I know that there is a lot of stuff out there which is must-read but DRM is really important. It has already reached a point where the regulation of our access and use of technology is controlled not by a transparent process of law and regulation but by the interests and technology of those who manufacture technology.

Imagine if road traffic where regulated by the groups who made asphalt, air-traffic by airplane manufacturers and what you could say on the phone was controlled by the mobile phone companies! Nobody would agree to that. And yet we accept DRM.

By the way, Cory also has the most decorated laptop I have ever seen. I just had to take a picture of it in Dubrovnik.

 

Posted on by mklang

Bottled Water

Ever held a plastic bottle of water in your hand and wonder why you are drinking imported water? Or why I just paid for a plastic bottle filled with tap water? I often do. I know that there is a guilty story waiting to be uncovered but I tend to try not to think about it. I look for arguments that the water I am drinking is healthier than the soft drinks I used to prefer.

Via Boing Boing comes some of the ugly secrets in an article on Fast Company called Message in a Bottle. Some of the ugly truths we are trying to avoid hearing are:

  • Last year, we spent more on Poland Spring, Fiji Water, Evian, Aquafina, and Dasani than we spent on iPods or movie tickets–$15 billion. It will be $16 billion this year.
  • In the United States alone we transport 1 billion bottles of water around a week…One out of six people in the world has no dependable, safe drinking water.
  • In Fiji, a state-of-the-art factory spins out more than a million bottles a day of the hippest bottled water on the U.S. market today, while more than half the people in Fiji do not have safe, reliable drinking water.
  • You can buy a half- liter Evian for $1.35–17 ounces of water imported from France for pocket change. That water seems cheap, but only because we aren’t paying attention…If you bought and drank a bottle of Evian, you could refill that bottle once a day for 10 years, 5 months, and 21 days with San Francisco tap water before that water would cost $1.35.
  • 24% of the bottled water we buy is tap water repackaged by Coke and Pepsi for our convenience.

Naturally there is a trend to counteract the bottled water industry and the water sellers are working hard to maintain that they are connected to health and purity rather than environmental decay.

It is hard to understand why people believe that water imported from another country is a healthy choice. It is strange to think that people are prepared to pay dearly for tap water in a plastic bottle.

There are other issues such as the waste left behind, the health effects of the plastic traces in the water, the transport costs on the environment and the privatization of water…

This is definitely another area where we should be more critical.

Posted on by mklang