Bruce Sterling's Blog, page 225
November 22, 2013
Artists in Laboratories #11: Regine Debatty interviews Nelly Ben Hayoun
*What could be more endearing than to hear these two supernaturally with-it Francophone tech-art chicks tackling English, while also invading outer space with NASA’s resources? “Jasmina Tesanovic? She sings? Ooooh!”
November 21, 2013
Bruno Munari’s “Manifesto del Macchinismo” (1938)
*This seventy-five-year-old declaration sounds remarkably New Aesthetic. It’s an argument: machines surround us now, we spend all our time with machines, more and more are coming along faster and faster, and it’s old-fashioned not to recognize that. Creatives should get on with accustoming themselves to the new realities of vision and production. If you took out the term “machine” and substituted “software,” you’d almost be there.
*The emphasis on glitching — “re-route them into functioning in irregular ways” — and the projection of animism and vitalism onto non-human things, that’s an especially New Aesthetic attitude. The bit about machines as reproducing insects sounds rather Singularitarian.
*It’s of interest that, during his entire lifetime, nobody was ever able to figure out what Bruno Munari was really doing, or what Munari was quite getting at. Munari was famous, busy, productive and even quite popular, but always remained somehow indefinable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Munari
Manifesto del Macchinismo
Manifesto of Machinism
Bruno Munari, 1938
“Today’s world is a world of machines.
“We live among machines, they help us with everything we do in our work and recreation. But what do we know about their moods, their natures, their animal defects, if not through arid and pedantic technical knowledge?
(((In English that sentence may sound like a train wreck, but in Italian it goes down like gelato. “Ma cosa sappiamo noi dei lore umori, della lore nature, dei lore difetti animali, se non attraverso cognizioni tecniche, aride e pedanti?”)))
“Machines reproduce themselves faster than mankind, almost as fast as the most prolific of insects; they already force us to busy ourselves with them, to spend a great deal of time taking care of them; they have spoiled us; we have to keep them clean, provide them with nourishment and rest, continually attend to them and meet their every need. In a few years’ time we will become their little slaves.
“Artists are the only ones who can save mankind from this danger. Artists have to be interested in machines, have to abandon their romantic paint-brushes, their dusty palettes, their canvases and easels. They have to start understanding the anatomy of machines, the language of machines, their nature, and to re-route them into functioning in irregular ways to create works of art with the machines themselves, using their own means.
“No more oil paints but blowtorches, chemical reagents, chroming, rust, coloring by anodes, thermal alterations.
“No more canvases and stretchers, but metals, plastics, synthetic rubbers and resins.
“The form, color, movement, noise of the world of machines no longer viewed from without and deliberately reproduced, but harmoniously composed.
“Machines today are monsters!
“Machines must become works of art!
“We shall discover the art of machines!”
[image error]
The latest EDRi-gram
*I could do with an EDRi-ometer, which would painlessly tell me how ticked-off EDRi is every couple of weeks. Every since Snowden started snowing, this has truly been the winter of EDRi’s discontent. The moral temperature is well below zero in this latest one.
======================================================================
EDRi-gram
biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe
Number 11.22, 20 November 2013
=======================================================================
Contents
=======================================================================
1. Failure of “Licenses for Europe”
2. Microsoft and Skype may continue to send Europeans’ data to US
3. Search engines pushed to inefficient Internet filtering
4. EDPS: Still a lot of work to be done
5. Bogus hearing of the UK intelligence agencies
6. Mapping the public domain – a priority for France
7. TPP may be worse than ACTA
8. ENDitorial: How antivirus vendors handle state-sponsored malware
9. Recommended Action
10. Recommended Reading
11. Agenda
12. About
=======================================================================
1. Failure of “Licenses for Europe”
=======================================================================
Ahead of the last meeting of the “Licences for Europe” initiative, EDRi
together with other four European civil rights organisations – Centrum
Cyfrowe, Kennisland, Modern Poland Foundation and La Quadrature
du Net – released, on 13 November 2013, the following joint press
release reaffirming the urgent need of an European Copyright reform.
Today, the Licenses for Europe experiment comes to an end. This
initiative, launched almost a year ago was ostensibly an attempt to
‘explore the potential and limits of innovative licensing and
technological solutions in making EU copyright law and practice fit for
the digital age’.
At the end of this process we are compelled to conclude that 10 months
of meetings have largely failed to identify any solutions which can be
backed by all, or even the majority of, stakeholders involved. It is
evident that there is very little consensus among stakeholders about the
appropriate approach to making EU copyright law and practice fit for the
digital age. It is unclear as to how licensing solutions can provide a
significant improvement to a copyright system that has been widely
recognised as being inefficient and out of date.
As a result, and as many stakeholders have been arguing for years, it is
long past time that the European Commission initiated a full review of
the existing copyright framework to identify areas where legislative
changes are needed. We call on the Commission to stop delaying this
urgent step, to proceed now, and to waste no additional time in further
discussion on whether or not legislative action is necessary.
In real policy making terms this means that the copyright directive must
be analysed by reopening the list of possible exceptions, and reviewing
each individual exception to determine if and how they need to be
adapted to the changed environments. As all of the exceptions are, by
definition, compliant with the 3-step-test, they should be made
mandatory, in order to avoid an unnecessary restriction on access to
culture and freedom of communication.
‘User Generated Content’
Our organisations participated in Working Group 2 of the stakeholder
dialogue on ‘User-generated Content and Licensing for Small-scale Users
of Protected Material’. From the start this working group has struggled
to identify, let alone agree, a (set of) problem(s) that need to be
addressed: Civil society groups and representatives of users have
stressed the need to have clearly established rights for European
citizens that allow them to create and share works that include
protected works from third parties.
The representatives of rights holders have insisted that this is not
necessary. Instead they have advocated an approach where rights holders
license their works to platform operators, which would in turn allow
users of these platforms to share such works via these platforms.
Given the focus of the Licenses for Europe process on ‘innovative
licensing and technological solutions’ and the explicit refusal of the
Commission to allow any discussion of other approaches the stakeholder
dialogue proved itself to be incapable of even attempting to reconcile
these different approaches.
It has however clearly shown that the general approach of facilitating
the agreement of licensing arrangements between rights holders and
platform operators does not produce outcomes that address the needs of
the public and other non-industry stakeholders such as institutions in
the public sector. In the current technological environment, copyright
affects ordinary citizens and many professionals, such as teachers and
cultural heritage professionals, that are not represented by the two
industries that Commission’s approach suggests are the only legitimate
stakeholders. There are user rights at stake in this discussion that are
extremely important in fields other than popular culture, in particular
in education, but also for political expression and democratic
participation.
Looking back, it is difficult to view the proceedings of Working Group 2
as anything other than a fundamentally undemocratic attempt to subjugate
the ability of citizens to express themselves through digital media to
the outcome of licensing negotiations between rights holders and
platform operators. Such a process does not create rights, it would
simply authorise certain forms of expression on the terms of rights holders.
Looking forward
This means that the discussion needs to shift to the question of how we
can best guarantee the right of European citizens to make transformative
use of protected materials, in order to express themselves via digital
media. Canada has recently introduced an exception for such uses into
its copyright law. Member states such as the Netherlands are currently
exploring the possibility of broadening an existing exception to achieve
the same effect. From our perspective, any attempt to ‘make EU copyright
fit for the digital age’ should follow these examples and reform current
copyright legislation. It is worth noting that these examples only
address non-commercial uses by private individuals and as such do not
unreasonably restrict the ability of rights holders to negotiate
licenses for commercial uses that platforms make of the works in
question. As stated above, such actions need to be integrated into a
full review of the EU copyright directive that also looks at the issues
that have been addressed in other working groups (such as Text and Data
Mining) and issues that have been left outside of the scope of the
Licenses for Europe process (such as use of protected materials for
educational activities).
Press release on EDRi website
EU speech: Licences for Europe: fostering access and distribution of
culture in the digital era (13.11.2013)
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_...
=======================================================================
2. Microsoft and Skype may continue to send Europeans’ data to US
=======================================================================
On 18 November 2013, Luxembourg’s Data Protection Authority (National
Commission for Data Protection – CNPD) decided that Microsoft and Skype
subsidiaries in Luxembourg have not broken EU privacy law by sending
Europeans’ data to the US, although we all know where this data goes.
As a response to a complain filed by Europe v Facebook activist group,
CNPD considered that the data transfer was legal under the Safe Harbor
agreement, through which US companies can self-certify they comply with
EU-strength privacy standards, even though their country does not.
Which means that we have to take their word for that.
“The fact finding operations conducted since July 2013 and the
subsequent detailed analysis did not bring to light any element that the
two Luxembourg-based companies have granted the U.S. National Security
Agency mass access to customer data,” said CNPD’s statement.
“Safe Harbor decision allows for data use for purposes of law
enforcement and national security, but the NSA does much more than that.
In addition the European Commission has recently said that PRISM would
not be covered by the ‘Safe Harbor’, so it seems like the authorities in
Brussels and Luxembourg are not in line. If PRISM would be allowed under
the ‘Safe Harbor’ decision there is no doubt that the decision would be
illegal. So overall we can’t really understand the response,” stated
campaigner Max Schrems who added: “There is an urgent need that the
European Commission amends the ‘Safe Harbor’ decision accordingly or at
least formally calcifies that transfer of data is illegal if there is
probable cause that US companies are forwarding Europeans’ data to the NSA.”
Besides the complaints against the European subsidiaries of the US-based
internet companies Skype and Microsoft in Luxembourg, Europe v Facebook
filed similar complaints in Ireland, against the European subsidiaries
of Facebook and Apple, and in Germany, against Yahoo.
The complaint against Yahoo! Germany is still under investigation by the
German Federal Data Protection Authority while the Irish Data Protection
Commissioner (DPC) gave the group a similar resolution as this in
Luxembourg, but is now under a judicial review procedure with the Irish
High Court.
Privacy campaigners lose Luxembourg bid to censure Microsoft over NSA
links (18.11.2013)
http://gigaom.com/2013/11/18/privacy-...
NSA: Microsoft and Skype may further transfer data from EU to US.
Luxemburg DPC sees ‘adequate protection’ despite PRISM (18.11.2013)
http://www.europe-v-facebook.org/PA_1...
EDRi-gram: Skype is investigated in Luxembourg for its relations to NSA
(23.10.2013)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number11...
EDRi-gram: Irish DPA: OK for Facebook and Apple to share personal data
to NSA!?! (31.07.2013)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number11...
=======================================================================
3. Search engines pushed to inefficient Internet filtering
=======================================================================
The UK government continues its endeavours to censor the Internet and
has succeeded in convincing search engines to filter search term results
“associated” with child abuse images within its child abuse policy,
despite the lack of proof of any efficiency of such measures, the rinks
to abuses and the dangers to the citizens’ democratic rights. It is not
clear how the measure will be implemented, if it will be reported in the
Transparency Reports and if this kind of a search result manipulation
will not be extended for other topics in the future.
The UK government is thus wasting time and money with other measures
such as the opt-in system adopted for ISPs, by which, by the end of
2013, any new broadband account will have filters automatically switched
on by default, blocking all online material the British government
considers objectionable. The system will be extended to all existing
users by the end of 2014.
Jim Gamble, former head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection
Centre (CEOP) explained on ITV’s website that there would be other more
logical and efficient ways to fight child pornography: “The way to deter
offenders from raping, abusing, photographing, sharing or seeking out
images of child abuse is to line child abusers up, in the dock of a
court room. One of the main problems is that people can see that is not
happening. That is why public frustration often results in online
vigilantes like Letzgo hunting enticing paedophiles to meet offline or
actions by charities like Terre des Hommes who raised awareness of the
problem by luring thousands of suspect sex offenders from their online
nests to engage a virtual child. This is where the government must
pause, look at themselves in the moral mirror they hold up to others so
often, and ask whether they are doing enough? And before ministers hide
behind the wall of recession and austerity consider this. Less than £1.5
million a year would pay for 12 regional child protection experts,
supported by twelve training coordinators.”
Moreover, the government seem to be deaf to all specialists’ statements
who have been, for some time now, explaining filtering is not the
solution: it is easy to circumvent, it leads to over-filtering and is
infringing people’s rights.
Even one of Cameron’s technology advisers, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy
Wales, considered the filter “an absolutely ridiculous idea” saying the
software necessary to implement the policy would not work and ridiculing
the opt-in system: “Additionally when we use cases of a paedophile who’s
been addicted to child porn videos online, you realise all that
Cameron’s rules would require him to do is opt in and say, ‘Yes, I would
like porn please’.”
Cameron and his adviser Claire Perry pushed companies like Google, Yahoo
and Microsoft to take action by accusing them of aiding paedophiles. So,
Google hurried to express its eagerness to play nice: “We actively
remove child sexual abuse imagery from our services and immediately
report abuse to the authorities. This evidence is regularly used to
prosecute and convict criminals,” says Google chief Eric Schmidt who
enumerates the measures the company has taken to block child pornography
on its search engine.
While it makes some excuses related to the shortcomings of the
technology, (“There’s no quick technical fix when it comes to detecting
child sexual abuse imagery. This is because computers can’t reliably
distinguish between innocent pictures of kids at bathtime and genuine
abuse. So we always need to have a person review the images”), Schmidt’s
speech ends up apotheotically: “We welcome the lead taken by the British
Government, and hope that the technologies developed (and shared) by our
industry will make a real difference in the fight against this terrible
crime.”
Oh, and as if this were not enough, Cameron has announced he will
involve GCHQ in this matter. “There’s been a lot in the news recently
about the techniques, ability and brilliance of the people involved in
the intelligence community, in GCHQ and the NSA in America. That
expertise is going to be brought to bear to go after these revolting
people sharing these images (of child abuse) on the dark net, and making
them available more widely,” the UK prime minster said.
‘We’ve listened – and here’s how we’ll halt this depravity’: Google
chief ERIC SCHMIDT explains block on child porn (18.11.2013)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/artic...
Child abuse image policies risk looking like cynical manipulation
(18.11.2013)
https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/...
David Cameron: GCHQ will be brought in to tackle child abuse images (18.11.2013)
http://www.theguardian.com/technology...
ENDitorial: European Financial Coalition against CP launched…again
(27.02.2013)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number11...
=======================================================================
4. EDPS: Still a lot of work to be done
=======================================================================
In a press release published on 15 November 2013, the European Data
Protection Supervisor (EDPS), criticised the Commission proposal for a
Regulation laying down measures concerning the European single market
for electronic communications. The announced goal of this Regulation is
to ease the requirements for communications providers, standardize
wholesale products, aiming at harmonising the rights of end-users. In
general, Hustinx approves the idea to include net neutrality, but points
out that the Regulation provides the permission for abuses by the
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who would be legally allowed to manage
and monitor the internet traffic of their users. Hustinx stated serious
concerns especially with regard to Deep Package Inspections (DPI):
“Any monitoring and restriction of the internet activity of users should
be done solely to achieve a targeted, specific and legitimate aim. The
large-scale monitoring and restriction of users’ internet communications
in this proposal is contrary to European legislation as well as the EU
Charter of Fundamental Rights. Such interference with the right to
personal data protection, confidentiality of communication and privacy
will do little to restore consumer confidence in the electronic
communication market in Europe.”
The current proposal would offer broad interpretations for the service
providers to control the online activities of their customers by
monitoring their data flows ranging from visits of websites to the
receiving of e-mails and would even legitimate the slowing down of bit
rates or the restriction of access to allegedly illegal services and
content.
Not only is this the clear opposite of net neutrality, it would further
be a breach of both the Human Rights Declaration and the EU Charter of
Fundamental Rights:
“The right to privacy or private life is enshrined in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (Article 12), the European Convention of
Human Rights (Article 8) and the European Charter of Fundamental Rights
(Article 7). The Charter also contains an explicit right to the
protection of personal data (Article 8).”
In the next months, the upcoming discussions and negotiations in the
Parliament will be an opportunity to add necessary corrections to this
proposal and to bring it in line with international law standards and
fundamental individual rights.
Opinion of the EDPS (14.11.2013)
https://secure.edps.europa.eu/EDPSWEB...
EDPS Press Release (15.11.2013)
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_...
Draft Regulation – the European single market for electronic
communications
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/L...
“Building a connected continent”, Neelie Kroes (11.09.2013)
http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2...
Will the EU Parliament Enable Discrimination Online or Uncompromising
Net Neutrality? (19.11.2013)
http://www.laquadrature.net/en/will-t...
(Contribution by Karim Khattab – EDRi intern)
=======================================================================
5. Bogus hearing of the UK intelligence agencies
=======================================================================
On 7 November 2013, the heads of the three UK internal and foreign
intelligence agencies, GCHQ, MI5 and MI6, were publicly heard by UK’s
secretive intelligence and security committee (ISC) concerning Snowden’s
leaks regarding the mass surveillance by US and UK intelligence.
Although this was a historical even being the first instance when heads
of intelligence services were questioned in a public 90-minute
broadcasted meeting, considered a first step to a transparency era, it
seems that actually, the three agencies had been briefed beforehand on
the questions that were to be asked by the nine members of ICS, all MPs
and Lords.
Moreover, the questions were far from being tough giving the three
intelligence heads the possibility to bring arguments for their
position. Also, there were serious questions, like that related to
spying on Angela Merkel’s communications, that have not been touched.
“But the chairman Malcolm Rifkind, who used to be the Foreign Secretary
and in charge of GCHQ and MI6 a few years ago, has already exonerated
GCHQ in the wake of the Snowden disclosures about endemic surveillance
and things like that. So he’s already been on the record, arguing in
favor of what the intelligence agencies do. I had no expectation there
would be any difficult questions whatsoever,” stated former MI5 agent
Annie Machon.
MI5′s head Andrew Parker even condemned Snowden’s revelations as
damaging qualifying the leaks as “the gift [terrorists] need to evade us
and strike at will”. “Unfashionable as it might seem, that is why we
must keep secrets secret, and why not doing so causes such harm,” he
said as if terrorist group had no idea they could be under surveillance
before Snowden’s revelations.
“What I can tell you is that the leaks from Snowden have been very
damaging. They have put our operations at risk. It is clear that our
adversaries are rubbing their hands with glee. Al-Qaeda is lapping it
up,” stated Sir John Sawers, head of MI6. He did not mention however the
fact that several European politicians have also been under
surveillance. Or did they think they were all terrorists?
When asked about why the security services, despite the amount of
information they gathered, had not been able to predict such events as
9/11 or the Arab Spring, Sir John Sawers said that was not their job:
“We acquire the secrets that other countries don’t want us to know… we
are not all-knowing specialists in what’s going to happen next month or
next year.”
GCHQ’s head, Iain Lobban, stated he needed a “ring of secrecy” to do his
work and that his operations did not exceed the limits of the British
law. He also described the internet as an “enormous hay field” where
terrorists are plotting attacks. “We are very, very well aware that
within that haystack there is going to be plenty of hay which is
innocent communication, innocent people, not just British,” he said. He
also suggested that the leaks could help paedophiles avoid detection,
and said the success of intelligence operations required the country’s
enemies to be “unaware or uncertain” of methods.
Journalist Glenn Greenwald, who worked with Snowden on stories for the
Guardian said the UK Parliament had not succeeded in holding UK
intelligence agencies accountable. “There was a huge suspicion-less
system of mass spying that the British people and the American people
had no idea had been built in their name and with their money,” he said.
Meanwhile, a new study published on 6 November 2013 by seven academics
says British, Dutch, French, German and Swedish spying operations
violate the EU Treaty, the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the
European Convention on Human Rights.
“It’s no longer credible to say the EU has no legal competence and
should do nothing on this,” one of the authors, Sergio Carrera told the
EU parliament, urging MEPs to block an EU-US free trade deal unless the
US and EU countries fully disclose their surveillance activities.
He also suggested that MEPs should push EU countries to draft a
“professional code for the transnational management of data,” and set up
a permanent, EU-level intelligence oversight body.
UK spy chiefs defend mass-snooping on Europeans (8.11.2013)
http://euobserver.com/justice/122030
Grilling of spy chiefs ‘a total pantomime’ (17.11.2013)
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/n...
UK intelligence work defends freedom, say spy chiefs (7.11.2013)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics...
As it happened: Spy chiefs quizzed (7.11.2013)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics...
UK intelligence chiefs getting such a soft touch is ‘shocking’
(8.11.2013)
http://rt.com/op-edge/intelligence-se...
Mass Surveillance of Personal Data by EU Member States and its
Compatibility with EU Law (6.11.2013)
http://www.ceps.eu/book/mass-surveill...
=======================================================================
6. Mapping the public domain – a priority for France
=======================================================================
On 7 November 2013, during the closing session of the “Transmission of
culture during the digital era” event, Aurélie Filippetti, the French
Minister of Culture and Communication, announced a R&D partnership
between her ministry and the Open Knowledge Foundation France meant to
create a French public domain calculator.
The project will thus develop a tool to help establishing the legal
status of cultural works, giving the cultural sector the possibility to
use it as a pedagogical tool in order to better know the status of a
work and to help users in realizing whether they have passed out of
copyright into the public domain.
“We often say that a work has “fallen” into the public domain, as though
it falls into a state of disuse, abandonment or oblivion. In fact,
precisely the opposite is true. When a work enters the public domain, it
experiences a rebirth. And I want to show that my department recognises
this. Therefore, to support our thinking in this area, we have formed a
partnership with Open Knowledge Foundation France to develop a prototype
of a French public domain calculator using a set of cultural metadata
(in this case a selection of metadata about works from the Great War)
provided by the National Library of France” said Filippetti in her speech.
During the event, there were also talks from the Rijksmuseum and the
British Library about what they are doing to publish and encourage the
reuse of open data and open digital copies of public domain works.
Speaking at the Mapping of Commons, Jonathan Gray, Director of Public
Policies and ideas of Open Knowledge Foundation, also stated: “In any
case, our aim is clear: we want to model the most crucial bits of
copyright law and related rights that are relevant to making an informed
estimate as to whether or not a given work is still in copyright or
whether it has entered the public domain in a given country. We started
off doing very basic models for this in the UK. We also worked with the
late Aaron Swartz, who was then at the Internet Archive in San Francisco
and interested in mapping which works are in the public domain in the
US. We have gone on to work with a global network of lawyers and legal
experts to map copyright law in countries around the world, producing
flow diagrams to show what questions you must answer in order to
establish the copyright status of a work. Europeana then took up the
mantle and built on our work to produce flow diagrams for 30 European
countries.”
The demonstrator of the French public domain calculator will be achieved
on the basis of the cultural metadata from the National Library of
France and the Media library of Architecture and Patrimony and will be
presented during the first trimester of 2014.
New partnership to map the public domain in France (8.11.2013)
http://blog.okfn.org/2013/11/08/new-p...
Aurélie Filippetti, Minister of Culture and Communication’s speech, held
during the closing ceremony of the exchange day “Transmission of culture
during the digital era” and the awarding of the Digital Fall prices
(only in French, 7.11.2013)
http://www.culturecommunication.gouv....
The calculator of the French public domain (only in French, 8.11.2013)
http://cblog.culture.fr/projet/2013/1...
Public Domain Calculators for European jurisdictions
http://publicdomain.okfn.org/calculat...
=======================================================================
7. TPP may be worse than ACTA
=======================================================================
A version of 30 August 2013 of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
Chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) draft confirms previously
expressed concerns that the negotiating parties are prepared to expand
the reach of intellectual property rights to the detriment of consumer
rights and data protection. The document was recently leaked and
published by Wikileaks on 13 November 2013.
The secretly negotiated TPP IPR draft which was distributed among the
Chief Negotiators by the USTR after the 19th Round of Negotiations at
Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, on 27 August 2013, includes granting more
patents, creating IPR on data, extending the terms of patents and
copyrights protection, expanding right holder privileges, increasing
penalties for infringement, while limiting at the same time the space
for exceptions in all types of intellectual property rights.
The US, as well as other countries, have defended the secrecy of the
negotiations considering the government negotiators get enough advice
from 700 corporate advisors cleared to see the text which actually is
far from being reassuring having in mind corporate right holder lobbying
pressures.
Although all of the TPP member countries are members of the WTO, which
has its own extensive obligations on copyright, and the TRIPS has
already expanded copyright coverage to software, providing extensive
protections to performers, producers of and broadcasting organizations,
the TPP contains its own detailed lists of obligations. In the TPP, the
copyright provisions are meant to extend copyright terms beyond the life
plus 50 years (as in Berne convention), create new exclusive rights, and
provide specific instructions as to how copyright is to be managed in
the digital environment.
The TPP leaked draft offers less space for exceptions than provided in
the 2012 WIPO Beijing treaty, the 2013 WIPO Marrakesh treaty or the
TRIPS Agreement. It also wants to stop any return to copyright systems
requiring registration which has been suggested as a possibility to
solve some of the issues occurring due to the copyright’s automatic
nature. Lately, copyright policy makers and scholars have reconsidered
the positive results of the registration of works and other formalities,
especially having in view the massive orphan works problems.
Also, TPP wants strong protection for DRM. The copyright section
includes a log text on technical protection measures, especially on the
creation of a separate cause of action for breaking technical protection
measures, which would make it illegal to circumvent DRM even if it has
been applied to materials that are in the public domain. The exemptions
to the restrictions on breaking technical protection measures include
“lawfully authorized activities carried out by government employees,
agents, or contractors for the purpose of law enforcement, intelligence,
essential security, or similar governmental purposes.”
Regarding damages for copyright infringement the draft uses the same
phrasing used by ACTA: “In determining the amount of damages under
paragraph 2, its judicial authorities shall have the authority to
consider, inter alia, any legitimate measure of value the right holder
submits, which may include lost profits, the value of the infringed
goods or services measured by the market price, or the suggested retail
price.”
Yet, the TPP negotiation has been more secretive than the ACTA
negotiation, and the TPP leaked text is now much worse than the ACTA
text.
“If instituted, the TPP’s intellectual property regime would trample
over individual rights and free expression, as well as ride roughshod
over the intellectual and creative commons. If you read, write, publish,
think, listen, dance, sing or invent; if you farm or consume food; if
you’re ill now or might one day be ill, the TPP has you in its
crosshairs,” said Julian Assange, the founder and editor-in-chief of
WikiLeaks.
There is also some hope as the leaked text shows various areas, such as
patents, medicines, copyright and digital rights, where parties have not
come to terms and there is still time and room for countries to take
positions in the public interest and in preserving consumer rights. So
much the more now that the text is leaked to the public.
TPP IP Chapter Leaked, Confirming It’s Worse Than ACTA (13.11.2013)
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/201...
KEI analysis of Wikileaks leak of TPP IPR text, from August 30, 2013
(13.11.2013)
http://keionline.org/node/1825
Secret TPP treaty: Advanced Intellectual Property chapter for all 12
nations with negotiating positions – WikiLeaks release (13.11.2013)
http://keionline.org/sites/default/fi...
WikiLeaks publishes secret draft chapter of Trans-Pacific Partnership
(13.11.2013)
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013...
TPP on Wikileaks
=======================================================================
8. ENDitorial: How antivirus vendors handle state-sponsored malware
=======================================================================
Last month, an international coalition of civil rights organizations and
academic experts asked antivirus software vendors how they handled
state-sponsored malware. Some of them already responded and the
responses are interesting.
The letter, drafted by Bits of Freedom and signed by organisations such
as EDRi, several EDRi-members and security experts such as Bruce
Schneier, was sent to various antivirus companies (see below for a
complete list). The coalition writes in the letter that these companies
have a vital position in providing security and maintaining the trust of
internet users engaging in sensitive activities such as electronic
banking. Therefore, they were asked to answer four questions:
1) If they have ever detected the use of state sponsored software for
the purpose of surveillance;
2) If they have ever been approached with a request by a government to
not detect such software or, if detected to not notify the user of their
software;
3) If they have ever granted such request;
4) How they would respond to such a request in the future.
Up until this moment, only a handful of the vendors have replied ESET,
F-Secure, Norman Shark, Kaspersky, Panda and Trend Micro. All of the
responding companies have confirmed the detection of state sponsored
malware, e.g. R2D2 and FinFisher. Furthermore, they claim they have
never received a request to not detect malware. And if they were asked
by any government to do so in the future, they said they would not
comply. All the aforementioned companies believe there is no such thing
as harmless malware.
Furthermore, this means that several vendors did not respond to the
letter before the deadline. We are now considering a follow up towards
these companies.
The letter was sent to: Agnitum, Ahnlab, Avira operations GmbH & Co. KG,
AVG, AVAST software a.s., Bullguard Ltd, Bitdefender SRL, F-Secure
Corporation, Kaspersky Lab, McAfee Inc, Norman Shark, Microsoft
Corporation, ESET spol. S r.o., Panda Security S.L., Symantec
Corporation and Trend Micro Incorporated.
Internatonal coalition letter (25.10.2013)
https://www.bof.nl/live/wp-content/up...
Experts call upon the vendors of antivirus software for transparency
(25.10.2013)
https://www.bof.nl/2013/10/25/experts...
AV-vendors: we will act upon detecting govt malware (15.11.2013)
https://www.bof.nl/2013/11/15/av-vend...
Response ESET (11.11.2013)
http://www.welivesecurity.com/2013/11...
Response F-Secure(1.11.2013)
http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archiv...
Response Kaspersky (6.11.2013)
http://usa.kaspersky.com/about-us/pre...
Response Panda (12.11.2013)
http://pandalabs.pandasecurity.com/pa...
Response Trend Micro (7.11.2013)
http://blog.trendmicro.com/trend-micr...
(Contribution by Ton Siedsma – EDRi member Bits of Freedom – Netherlands)
=======================================================================
9. Recommended Action
=======================================================================
EDRi looks for a Community and Communications Manager
Deadline for applications: 6 December 2013
http://www.edri.org/Community-Communi...
Will the EU Parliament Enable Discrimination Online or Uncompromising
Net Neutrality? (19.11.2013)
Citizens must contact the rapporteur and Members of the ITRE committee,
and urge them to ensure the European Parliament guarantees a genuine and
unconditional Net neutrality principle.
http://www.laquadrature.net/en/will-t...
=======================================================================
10. Recommended Reading
=======================================================================
Joint-stakeholder statement on MEP Castex’ report on private copying
levies (19.11.2013)
Waiting for Freedom of the Press in Bulgaria (17.11.2013)
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2013/11...
Italian Court Orders ISPs to Block Russia’s Facebook and Rapidgator
(19.11.2013)
http://torrentfreak.com/court-orders-...
CoE: Ministerial conference calls for effective safeguards against
electronic mass surveillance (8.11.2013)
http://hub.coe.int/en/web/coe-portal/...
“The Evil Will Be Punished”: Russia Establishes Federal Service For
Copyright (12.11.2013)
http://www.ip-watch.org/2013/11/12/th...
=======================================================================
11. Agenda
=======================================================================
25 November 2013, Luxembourg
Public hearing on guidelines on recommended standard licences, datasets
and charging for the re-use of public sector information
https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/e...
27–30 December 2013, Hamburg, Germany
30C3 – 30th Chaos Communication Congress
https://events.ccc.de/congress/2013/w...
22-24 January 2014, Brussels, Belgium
CPDP 2014: Reforming data protection: The Global Perspective
http://www.cpdpconferences.org/
3-5 March 2014, San Francisco, California, USA
RightsCon: Silicon Valley
19-20 March 2014, Athens, Greece
European Data Forum 2014 (EDF2014)
CfP by 10 December 2013
24-25 April 2014, Barcelona, Spain
SSN 2014: Surveillance Ambiguities & Asymmetries
28-29 April 2014, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
OER14: building communities of open practice
============================================================
12. About
============================================================
EDRi-gram is a biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe.
Currently EDRi has 35 members based or with offices in 21 different
countries in Europe. European Digital Rights takes an active interest in
developments in the EU accession countries and wants to share knowledge
and awareness through the EDRi-gram.
All contributions, suggestions for content, corrections or agenda-tips
are most welcome. Errors are corrected as soon as possible and are
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This EDRi-gram has been published with financial support from the EU’s
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Except where otherwise noted, this newsletter is licensed under the
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A newsletter from the Center for the Study of the Drone
*I just subscribed. They have some interesting sources of news and opinion.
*Also, this newsletter of theirs is full of embedded hotlines that I can’t be bothered to include. Also, not including those links probably reduces the likelihood of my blog’s readers getting suddenly blown up.
****************************************************************************************************
“Somebody you know may have added you to our mailing list because they thought you’d be interested. If you know someone who would like to receive the Weekly Roundup, please have them write to us at csd@bard.edu, or just send us their emails yourself!”
At the Center for the Study of the Drone
In an in-depth interview, artist and environmentalist Natalie Jeremijenko explains why we should completely re-think our relationship with drones. “There’s a fascination about the capacity we have to take other points of view, which I think is very intellectually productive, and just seductive. It’s just fascinating to look at. But what we do with that view is then the question,” Jeremijenko says.
Writer, artist and co-creator of the Murmuration Festival Adam Rothstein visited the Bard College campus to meet with students for a discussion about drones in popular culture.
News
As the NATO mission in Afghanistan winds down, the U.S. Air Force is considering ways to reduce the number of unmanned aircraft it acquires and maintains. At a breakfast sponsored by the Defense Writers Group, General Mark A. Welsh III, the chief of staff of the Air Force, gave the latest in a series of signals that the military is seeking to move away from drones. “We shouldn’t rush into buying a whole bunch of remotely piloted aircraft just because we can,” said Gen. Welsh. (Washington Post)
A Reaper drone crashed into Lake Ontario after malfunctioning. The remains of the drone, which had been operated by the Air National Guard’s 174th Attack Wing in Syracuse, New York, were not recovered from the lake. Following the incident, drone flights in the area were suspended. (The Syracuse Post-Standard)
Four days later, two sailors were injured when a U.S. Navy drone crashed into the USS Chancellorsville during testing off the coast of Southern California.The exact cause of the accident is being investigated. (CNN)
The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission is considering whether to ban the use of drones for hunting. The state of Colorado already prohibits the use of manned aircraft for hunting. “There is a ton of technology available to people that would make it very, very easy for people to hunt,” said Randy Hampton, the spokesperson for the Commission.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the frequency of strikes in Pakistan and Yemen has reduced significantly since President Obama imposed restrictions on the use of drones back in the spring.
In a draft agreement between Germany’s Christian Democratic Union and Social Democrats, legislators promised to place a moratorium on the purchase of armed drones for the next four years. The agreement follows the fallout from Germany’s failed “Euro Hawk” surveillance drone program. “Before acquiring a qualitatively new arms system, we will thoroughly investigate all associated civil and constitutional guidelines and ethical questions,” reads the agreement. (The Local)
Meanwhile, NDR, a German media outlet, reported that the U.S. has on several occasions run lethal drone operations out of bases in Germany. (DW)
Commentary, Analysis and Art
At Forbes, Ryan Calo argues that, contrary to what some critics have suggested, the FAA is taking sensible steps to protect privacy in its plans for drone integration into U.S. airspace.
Sci-fi author Daniel Suarez explains how society will need to accommodate the proliferation of automated systems in the very near future. “While the Singularity will no doubt be an issue of concern to coming generations,” writes Suarez, “for now we’ve got more pressing concerns —namely, how we’re going to grapple with highly capable, cost-effective, scalable, and yet relatively dumb…automation proliferating all around us.” (TED)
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism announces a new podcast series on drones, featuring news, commentary and interviews.
At the Express Tribune, Nusrat Javeed considers the Pakistani Interior Minister’s angry comments on drones following the strike against the Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud.
Meanwhile at The New Yorker, Mohammed Hanif argues that U.S. drone strikes transform Pakistan’s Taliban members from enemies of the state into martyrs. “Why does Pakistan’s political and military élite celebrate the very people it is fighting?: asks Hanif. “The logic—or its absence—goes like this: Hakimullah Mehsud was our enemy. But the United States is also our enemy. So how dare the Americans kill him?”
Christine Fair’s essay “Drones, Spies, Terrorists and Second-Class Citizenship in Pakistan” examines seven recent reports and books about the effects of drone operations on the FATA areas of northern Pakistan. Based on the seven publications, Fair concludes that the lack of transparency surrounding drone operations is the main obstacle to addressing possible human rights and humanitarian concerns. (Small Wars and Insurgencies)
Writing for Motherboard, Arthur Holland Michel attends a “Build Your Own Drone” workshop in New York City and determines that it is safer to make your own drone at home than to buy one.
Salon posts an excerpt from Lloyd Gardner’s new book, “Killing Machine: The American Presidency in the Age of Drone Warfare,” which charts the expansion of the U.S. drone program and considers how it has challenged traditional structures of accountability and transparency in the U.S government.
Meanwhile, Arthur Holland Michel reviews Killing Machine for Bookforum.
In a transcript from a debate with Benjamin Wittes at the University of Richmond, Conor Friedersdorf, a staff writer at The Atlantic, delivers the case for a moratorium on drones. “Due to drones,” he argues, “lethal acts occur that wouldn’t have happened in a world without drones. And those acts can be carried out with more secrecy than would otherwise be possible.”
Micah Zenko, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, contends that drones “are quickly becoming a tool in just about every country’s toolbox.” (Politico)
Know Your Drone
Iran’s Defense Ministry unveiled a new combat and surveillance drone. Named “Fotros,” the drone can reportedly stay aloft for thirty hours, and has a range of 1,250 miles. The Fotros is the latest in a series of military drones being developed and produced by Iran’s military. (CBS News)
Russia’s military has developed an advanced radar defense system to protect the country against foreign aerial surveillance carried out by both manned aircraft and drones. (RT)
Two British airports are preparing controlled airspace sites for developing and testing unmanned aerial systems. These will be the first such sites in Europe. (Aviation International)
A conservation group in New Zealand is testing heat-detecting RC drones for hunting possums, an invasive species. New Zealand’s possums carry bovine tuberculosis, which causes large-scale economic damage to the country’s beef and dairy industry. (Motherboard)
Northrop Grumman announced that it has upgraded its catapault-launched Bat surveillance drone with radar-jamming capabilities. (Wired)
For updates, news, and commentary, follow us on Twitter!
Design Fiction: Oriana Persico and Salvatore Iaconesi on Near Future Design
*This approach to teaching design-fiction may sound a bit odd (especially for those whose first language isn’t Italian), but they seem to be getting quite good results with it.
(…)
“Process
“We have formalised a process to perform Near Future Design.
“Here are its steps:
Define topic areas of interest
during each cycle/project we define the topics of areas of interest which form our research domain;
these can be contiguous, complementary or contextual, providing continuity, but also the possibility to expand the observation to the indirect aspects of transformation to human societies brought on by our object of research;
the output of this stage is a visual representation of the research domain, along with its extended documentation;
“The Future World Map
the map aims to collect information about what is perceived as “possible”, “impossible”, “desired”, “feasible”, “preferred” and “envisioned”;
it has two main areas, regarding the state of the arts and technologies, and the anthropological, ethnographic, psychological and emotional analysis of relevant cultures, communities, groups, organisations and individuals;
the part of the map that takes into account the state of the arts and technologies mainly deals with technical issues concerning the advancement of technologies, the data and information about the relevant contexts, the description of trends and tendencies;
the part of the map that takes into account the anthropological, ethnographic, psychological and emotional analysis deals with the collection of evidence about the ways that human societies shape themselves in the referenced contexts, describing approaches, strategies, tactics, rituals, relationships, networks, emotional expressions, gestures, economies, dynamics, ecosystems and their balances, both in their current state and in their transformation;
in all sections, information is provided for the background information, the socio-technical settings, the possible actors and stakeholders, and providing an expanded context for the stories that are about to be told;
the output of this stage is a visual map, a report and an extensive knowledge base, which can assume different forms, depending on the context and circumstances;
“The Story Setup
it is the incipit of the story;
it describes in general terms the future scenarios which we aim to describe, at the same time limiting the scope to explicitly exclude certain areas which will not be examined, and opening up to the domains which will be part of the research;
its output is under the form of a narrative, expressed in visual and textual terms;
“The Concept(s)
each possible future examined is described with conceptual (often abstract or diagrammatic sketches) as well as with a draft narrative which highlights its main modalities and which sets up the development of the actual storytelling;
“The Story Functions
each story is designed according to a formalised schema (usually the three-acts of Setup, Conflict and Resolution), to provide consistent, solid narratives;
for each story, the basic story functions are created, highlighting the kernel of each narrative, which describe in growing detail the “stories of the chosen future”;
multiple stories can be created for each concept, even following different paths among the identified possibilities;
the output of this stage consists of the list of kernel events for each story, as well as a diagrammatic representation of their relations and of the relations running among the different (and alternative) storylines that are being developed;
“The Event Maps
each story is expanded into an Event Map;
each Event Map is a diagram in which the main parts of the stories are grouped into circles, starting from the kernel functions (the main phases of each story) as well as some additional events which might be added to balance the story logic;
satellite events, alternative paths and time-based items are added to the Map to create context, and to enhance the world-building characteristics of this stage;
each story described in this way constitutes a world, giving a full sense of context and of credibility;
the output of this stage is constituted by the Event Maps diagrams and by their documentation sets;
“The Story Maps
the Event Maps are transformed into sketches;
the representation in sketch form increases granularity and makes them more concrete;
this phase allows for some iteration with the previous ones, as its concreteness gives immediate evidence about the balance of the stories and about the necessity to re-factor them at one of the previous stages;
the output of this stage is constituted by the sketches and by their documentation;
“The Design Fictions
“Simulacra
the objective of this phase is to create a simulacrum, a credible, possibly functional, “prototype from the near future” (a pre-totype), through product design and communication design, working across different media;
the objective is “world building”, creating not only “the object” (or service, or idea, or …) but also to create the world around it, for its credibility;
we answer the questions “What would be the world like, if there was object X? What would be in it? How would people behave?”, and we try to implement as much as we can about the answer using different media;
the final result should create a state of “suspended (dis)belief” in which it is impossible (or at least somewhat difficult) to decide if the “object” is real or fake, as there are multiple clues and evidences that point to its existence;
the simulacrum (and its state of suspended dis-belief) is the tool which we use to “shift the perception of the possible”, and to start the global dialogue around the possibility of the transformation of human societies, thus triggering the performative dimension of Near Future Design;
“Transmedia Narratives
the output of the Design Fiction phase, thus, is constituted by a set of Transmedia Narratives implementing the simulacrum for the story;
the Transmedia Narrative is a multi-modal storytelling technique which is able to move and combine the effects of multiple media, from physical objects, to websites, urban interventions and more….”
(((There’s lots more where that came from.)))
Dead Media Beat: Internet cafes
*Another casualty of the revolution in mobile devices.
*Or: “those who live by disruption die by disruption.”
http://qz.com/148734/internet-cafes-i...
“Internet cafes across the developing world are reporting dwindling numbers of customers as smartphones make the mobile web ubiquitous. After all, why pay for web access on someone else’s creaky old PC when you can peruse Facebook on your Android device from anywhere you like?
“In Rwanda, a cafe owner told the New Times last month that he once had 200 customers per day; now he sees about 10. Internet cafes in India are also suffering—some in the southern city of Mysore have opted to sell stationery or sweets instead of web access, while others have diversified their offerings to include flight bookings, mobile phone top-up cards, and accessories for various gadgets. Cafes in Thailand seem to be facing similar challenges when it comes to customer volume, and even cyber cafes in Myanmar, where mobile penetration is just 4%, say visitors have fallen sharply.
“Even more developed markets, like those in East Asia, are seeing fewer people flock to venues that cater to immersive online gaming, which one might assume to be immune from the PC to mobile shift. The number of these facilities in South Korea fell to 15,800 last year from 19,000 in 2010, a 17% drop, according to Allison Luong, managing director of gaming industry consultancy Pearl Research. The number of cafes in China, meanwhile, dropped 7% to 136,000 in 2012 from the previous year, she told Quartz….”
The International Space Orchestra Is Orbiting the Earth
From: Nelly Ben Hayoun
THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE ORCHESTRA (ISO) IS ORBITING THE EARTH
19th November 2013
Two Ardusat (Arduino based Nanosatellites run by Nanosatisfi) Carrying ISO’s Ground-Control: An Opera in Space Recordings Launched Into Space on 4th August 2013
On 19th November 2013, these Ardusats got released from the International Space Station by the six-member Expedition 38 crew. The orbiting residents worked with mission controllers around the world on deploying the Ardusats from Kibo’s airlock Tuesday 19th at 7:10 a.m. EST. The Japanese robotic arm grappled and unberthed a deployer mechanism containing the Ardusats from Kibo’s airlock. Flight Engineer Koichi Wakata monitored the satellite deployment while operating the Japanese robotic arm from inside Kibo.
(You can see explanations on the deployment here: http://tinyurl.com/n9synrl ).
The broadcast of Ground-Control: An Opera in Space (27min) is being broadcast by radio waves and Morse code from the Ardusats. And you can listen in with your own amateur HAM equipment—learn more here: http://bit.ly/184uecB. One Ardusat is broadcasting the voice, the other one the musical part, resembling a real ‘space’ orchestra.
GROUND-CONTROL: AN OPERA IN SPACE first performed by the International Space Orchestra (ISO) in September 2011 in front of the World Largest Windtunnel in NASA Ames Research Center, was Recorded at Skywalker Ranch, George Lucas’ Studio. The two Ardusats carrying ISO’s recordings were launched aboard the H-II transfer vehicle, HTV-4, also known as Kounotori-4.
The Ardusats operate along the same orbit as the International Space Station, so you can follow the path of the International Space Orchestra by tracking the ISS orbit: http://www.isstracker.com/.
Read more on Expedition 38, the astronauts currently on board of the ISS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expediti...
See report of the Nanosatisfi Ardusat deployment from NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/content/crew-depl...
Audio Broadcast Method—Morse Code and Radio Waves: http://bit.ly/184uecB
See the Ardusats launching from earth on 4th August 2013 here: http://tinyurl.com/pvj4tbh
See the deployment from the ISS on 19th November 2013 here: http://tinyurl.com/ps7272t
READ MORE ON http://www.nellyben.com and http://www.groundcontrol-opera.com.
*****************************************
Nelly Ben Hayoun
Director and Experience Designer
Designer of Experiences at the SETI Institute, CA, USA
WWW.NELLYBEN.COM
THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE ORCHESTRA: www.groundcontrol-opera.com
DISASTER PLAYGROUND: www.disasterplayground.com
SETI Institute: www.seti.org
www.superksonic.com
www.micronationsrevolution.com
www.glitchfiction.com
Twitter: @NellyBenHayoun
Ars Electronica at the ITU in Bangkok
*That’s quite a handsome — even definitive — set of tech-art installations. I wonder what the international telecommunications bureaucrats will make of those.
ARS ELECTRONICA LINZ MAKES A GUEST APPEARANCE IN BANGKOK
Ars Electronica Linz Makes a Guest Appearance in Bangkok
Linz Media Art Platform Presents an Exhibition at ITU 2013
(Linz, November 20, 2013) Since 1971, the ITU–International Telecommunication Union has regularly hosted conferences attended by experts from throughout the world and representing both the public and private sectors. Most recently, more than 3,000 heads of government and ministers, corporate CEOs, consultants, specialists in related academic fields, and UN agency officials convened in Dubai to give some thought to the future of the telecommunications industry. This year, ITU World is set for November 19-22 in Bangkok. For an on-site exhibition, Ars Electronica has been invited to contribute art installations that make some relevant, eye-opening statements.
Ars Electronica Linz Stages “The Lab”
Whether it’s the use of mobile devices, the so-called internet of things, or issues related to privacy and data security—the points of departure of all these artistic investigations are the latest technologies, the social upheavals they trigger, and their potential consequences for the telecommunications industry. “The Lab” demonstrates how very creative people are already using new technologies, and which applications might soon strike the fancy of mainstream masses too. Ars Electronica presents best-practice examples at the nexus of art, technology and society that reveal the emerging opportunities and looming risks facing protagonists in business, science, politics, art and societies worldwide. The focus is on new forms of communication and participation, new types of artists and scientific disciplines, uncommon alliances and business models with tremendous future promise. This will be a fascinating encounter with the enormous potential of technological innovations and the changed relations of power that will inevitably result from them.
The Lab / Works
AE Solutions (AT): Shadowgram (2010)
http://www.aec.at/solutions/en/shadow...
Shadowgram is an innovative spin-off of so-called social brainstorming. It gets interesting things started by photographing a participant standing before an illuminated wall. The result is a striking silhouette that can be printed out as a sticker, which the participant then brings to life with a speech balloon (that can contain remarks and personal opinions about any particular subject) and attaches to a map. Grouped into predefined thematic clusters, the silhouettes and accompanying speech balloons speak loud and clear about current opinions and trends.
Golan Levin, Shawn Sims (US): The Free Universal Construction Kit (2012)
http://fffff.at/free-universal-constr..., http://vimeo.com/37778172, Golan Levin talking about The Free Universal Construction Kit: http://shelby.tv/video/vimeo/44337372..., http://prix2012.aec.at/prixwinner/7444/
The Free Universal Construction Kit is not a product, but a provocation. It offers working adapters between Lego, Duplo, Fischertechnik, Gears! Gears! Gears!, K’Nex, Krinkles (Bristle Blocks), Lincoln Logs, Tinkertoys, Zome and Zoob—adapters that can be downloaded free from various sharing sites as a set of 3D models suitable for reproduction by personal manufacturing devices such as the Makerbot (an inexpensive, open-source 3D printer). In so doing, The Free Universal Construction Kit prompts consideration about intellectual property, open-source culture and reverse engineering as a mode of cultural practice.
Markus Kayser (DE): Solar Sinter Project
www.markuskayser.com, http://prix2012.aec.at/prixwinner/5807/
In a world increasingly concerned with questions of energy production and raw-material shortages, this project explores the potential of desert manufacturing, where energy and material are abundant. In this experiment, sunlight and sand are used as raw energy and material to produce glass objects using a 3D printing process that combines natural energy and material with high-tech production technology. Solar-sintering aims to raise questions about the future of manufacturing and triggers dreams of the full utilization of the production potential of the world’s most efficient energy resource—the sun. While not providing definitive answers, this experiment aims to provide a point of departure for fresh thinking.
Matthew Gardiner (AUS): Oribotics (2012)
www.oribotics.net
Matthew Gardiner investigates aesthetic, biomechanical and morphological connections among nature, origami and robotics. The configuration of his patterns of folds—particularly the precise array of V-shaped valleys and Λ-shaped ridges—determines the mechanical design of his creations. In these structures that are the outcome of “nature’s origami,” thousands of folds occur in a few microseconds, and even a single folding error can have a devastating effect on an organism’s viability. Accordingly, the latest “Oribotics” generation features a polyester fabric membrane that can withstand millions of interaction sequences with hardly any wear and tear. Each Oribot is equipped with a proximity switch that registers any object in its immediate surroundings. If an installation visitor’s hand, for instance, approaches, the Oribot opens its flower-like structure, an operation in which 1,050 folds are in motion. All macro-interactions are network- & software-controlled. Each micro-interaction is forwarded to every other Oribot in the installation and thereby triggers more than 50,000 folds.
h.o: Kazamidori
“Kaza” (wind) “mi” (watch) “dori” (bird) is a Japanese expression for a weathervane. Kazamidori is a device to indicate the social wind of interests on the Internet. It works by using the social energy of web accesses to Ars Electronica. When somebody visits the Ars Electronica website, Kazamidori turns to point in the direction of the visitor.
g.tec: Brain Computer Interface
Orthobionic® is the term coined at Ottobock to refer to the observation and analysis of bodily functions as a basis for the technical development of prosthetic and orthotic products. From knowledge about natural structures and processes, our engineers derive technical solutions designed with people in mind. The essence of Orthobionic® innovation is interdisciplinary collaboration among experts in technology and medicine. Technicians perform research on the human body to consider how medical findings and insights can be implemented in the form of machines. Orthobionic® is the scientific basis of Ottobock’s technological edge.
Paro
www.aist.go.jp
Paro is an animal-like robot that has been in use in Japan and Europe since 2003 for therapeutic purposes—for example, providing care to people with Alzheimer’s disease. Modeled on a baby seal, Paro registers environmental stimuli via two computers and five sensors that measure touch, light, sound, temperature and physical position. This enables it to interact with its human interlocutor. Paro is able to learn—it can recognize 50 different voices and responds to its name. The form of a baby seal was selected because most people have no preconceptions about how this creature behaves.
Martin Frey (DE): CabBoots (2005)
http://www.freymartin.de/de/projekte/...
German artist Martin Frey’s “CabBoots” constitute an innovative pedestrian guidance system. The interface makes the communicated information palpable and intuitively understandable by applying it right to that part of the body that is most directly involved in walking: the foot. The point of departure of Martin Frey’s considerations is the topography of a hiking path, which is typically trampled down in the middle and noticeably higher on either edge. Walking along such a trail, your feet come down upon flat ground only in the middle of the path. The upward curvature of the ground on the trail’s outer edges produces a slight—and slightly uncomfortable—pronation of the foot. This is something that human beings intuitively avoid, so that we invariably seek out the middle of the path. This is where Martin Frey’s “CabBoots” come in. They tilt the soles to the outside or inside and thus steer the wearer in a particular direction. In this way, virtual routes can be navigated without a map—or one’s eyes, for that matter. The software for determining the walker’s position and calculating the route is designed to run on mobile devices like a smartphone, iPhone or PDA that can communicate wirelessly with the CabBoots.
Dash Macdonald (GB): In Your Hands (2008)
The roller skates Dash MacDonald dashes about on aren’t the kind you buy in stores. His skates can be remote controlled via radio and steered in any direction. In one of his “In Your Hands” performances, he literally turns over the controls to passers-by, who can then move him about like an action figure. With people faced by such temptation, it usually doesn’t take long before the skates are being maneuvered into ever-more-absurd and impossible situations. Amidst the general mirth, most people fail to get the point Dash Macdonald is trying to make here: to find out how far people will go in amusing themselves at someone else’s expense? “In Your Hands” was inspired by the Milgram and Stanford Prison experiments. “Impetus and Movement” presents a video of a performance.
Iori Tomita (JP): New World Transparent Specimens (2012)
www.shinsekai-th.com
For his “New World Transparent Specimens” Japanese artist Iori Tomita turned sea creatures into strangely fantastic specimens. As a student, he learned the technique of producing specimens for purposes of scientific analysis. The creatures’ muscle tissue is made translucent by dissolving its natural proteins; thus, it takes laboratory techniques developed by scientists to reveal the precise forms created by nature. The body parts are then stained, whereby the harder and softer tissues (such as cartilage) are treated with different colors. Depending on the size of the organism, it can take up to six months to create a specimen. The way Iori Tomita works is an example of the interplay of art and science. Employing what is actually a method of scientific analysis, he creates bizarre sculptures that resist pigeonholing either as a work of art or as a scientific project.
Otto Bock (AT): Orthobionic
http://www.ottobock.at/cps/rde/xchg/o...
Ottobock’s research & development mission is to come as close as possible to the consummate ideal: nature itself. Simply formulated questions yield technological challenges: How does a knee joint function? What stresses does a foot have to withstand on a daily basis? Which terms best describe the operation of the hand as a high-precision organ for grasping? The analysis of natural interrelationships inspires our R&D engineers to think innovatively and come up with novel solutions. In this endeavor, enhancing existing products is just as important as developing new technologies. The results have been a whole series of high-tech breakthroughs.
Neurowear (JP): NECOMIMI
www.neurowear.com, http://vimeo.com/53588182, http://prix2013.aec.at/prixwinner/10784/
Necomimi is world’s first commercialized communication tool using brain wave. The headset can detect and interpret your brainwaves using a single sensor that rests on your forehead. Necomimi then translates the brainwave data into cat-like reactive movements that show how interested or relaxed you are in real time. When something catches your attention, the ears shoot straight up. When relaxed, the ears droop down. Necomimi uses EEG to show emotion from subconsciousness. Using Necomimi, the communication overcoming languages, ages, genders, or races, turns into reality. “Neurowear” is a team of creators based in Tokyo, focused on creating “communication for the near future”.
Belinda Cullen (GB), Jim Reeves (GB), Martin Riddiford (GB): GravityLight
http://deciwatt.org/, http://prix2013.aec.at/prixwinner/10798/
GravityLight is a revolutionary and sustainable approach to generating power and light. It eliminate the need for kerosene lamps, offering huge health, economic and environmental benefits. It takes around three seconds to lift the weight that charges GravityLight, which will provide up to 30 minutes of constant light as the weight drops under the force of gravity. The weight is a bag (which doubles as the product packaging) that the user fills with 9 to 12.5kg of material (earth, rocks or sand). This connects to GravityLight via a plastic strap that passes through the generating mechanism. A series of gears and a generator inside translates this slow falling mass into electrical energy. The system can be varied to provide either task or ambient lighting, or both simultaneously at a lower level. It has terminals on the front to allow it to be used purely as a generator to top up batteries, or to power various low-voltage devices, such as FM radios. GravityLight has no batteries to run out, replace or dispose of and has no reliance on the external environment, time of day, season or weather. As there are no running costs after the initial low-cost purchase, GravityLight has the potential to help lift people who would otherwise spend a large proportion of their income on kerosene for lighting out of poverty.
Ars Electronica Solutions: Brain Battle
http://www.aec.at/solutions/brain-bat...
Brain Battle is an extraordinary form of interaction that makes a futuristic game controller available right now: the brain-computer interface. Players use the power of their thoughts to face off in the ultimate form of mental combat. An electroencephalogram (EEG) is something most of us associate with imaging in the medical field, but now this technology has been introduced into computer gaming. In Brain Battle, the aim is not only to control the course of the game via thoughts; the interface also enables players to use body language—for instance, tilting their head or facial expressions—as a form of interaction. This adds a fresh twist to classic computer games like Pong, Space Invaders and Pac-Man.
The Blind Robot
http://prix2013.aec.at/prixwinner/11160/, http://www.aec.at/aeblog/2013/10/28/t...
With The Blind Robot, the aim is to further understand the degrees of engagement, whether intellectual, emotional or physical, that are generated when a social robot intimately touches a person. Initially, The Blind Robot is a minimalistic piece of mechanical engineering. The rationale is to start from a recent known cultural artifact—the robot arm—and transform it from a high precision tool into a fragile, imprecise and emotionally loaded agent. The Blind Robot comprises a typical robotic arm equipped with an articulated hand. In this installation, visitors are invited to sit in the front of this machine and engage into a non-verbal dialogue with it. The robot delicately explores the body—mostly the face and upper body—of the visitor in a manner that recalls what blind people do to recognize a person or an object. On a nearby screen or projection the machine then produces a visual rendering of what its fingertips have “seen.”
Spaxels – Ars Electronica Quadcopter Swarm (2012)
The Ars Electronica Quadcopter Swarm is a World-novelty in professional event & show business. It’s a swarm of up to 50 LED-equipped quadcopters that fly in formation and perform cool feats of airborne choreography. The accompanying lighting and sound effects create an extraordinary aesthetic experience. The technology employed isn’t all that’s state-of-the-art; what wows viewers most of all is the performance’s futuristic artistry, which thus lives up to the claim to excellence that has made a name for Ars Electronica worldwide.
Gustavo Valera (ES): 3D Printer
Gustavo Valera is part of the Ultra-Lab project. His specialty is fabrication technologies that enable the members of an entire community to produce and distribute things themselves. At the same time, this approach also generates knowledge that, in turn, flows back into the community.
Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (DE): Visible Light Communication
http://www.hhi.fraunhofer.de/en/media...
Providing illumination isn’t all that ceiling-mounted lighting fixtures can do; they’re also able to quickly and securely deliver films in HD quality to any smartphone or laptop in the room! Visible Light Communication (VLC) is what makes it possible. The spectrum of potential applications is incredibly broad, ranging from hospital operating rooms where security has top priority, to trade shows and factory floors where radio transmission is often difficult.
Press Release “Ars Electronica Linz Makes a Guest Appearance in Bangkok” / PDF
Spime Watch: Chinese off-label Android devices
Or, the “Internet of China-Priced Semi-Piratical Things.”
http://ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2013/11/20/the-meaning-of-really-cheap-android
(…)
“Then there’s this TV dongle – no screen, but does it have a ‘tablet’ chip? A ‘phone’ chip? If you used it to watch Youtube, what would Google think it was? (Note also the memory card slot, used for side-loading pirate movies.)”
(…)
“The important dynamic here is that a combination of very cheap off-the-shelf chips and free off-the-shelf software means that Android/ARM has become a new de facto platform for any piece of smart connected electronics. It might have a screen and it might connect to the internet, but it’s really a little computer doing something useful and specialised, and it probably has nothing to do with Google.
“As should be obvious, this makes counting total ‘Android’ devices as though they tell you something about Google or Apple’s competitive position increasingly problematic. But to me, pointing out that ‘Android’ doesn’t necessarily competed with iPad is rather boring – what’s really interesting are the possibilities that these new economics might unlock….”
Beating up open-source Indian electronics
*These alleged “stress tests” are sort of great.
http://www.simplelabs.co.in/content/induinox-arduino-learners-kit
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