Ecuador Using Copyright To Try To Take Down Leaked Documents About Its Surveillance Practices
from the copyright-as-censorship dept
While Ecuador has received plenty of attention for granting asylum to Julian Assange and being one possible landing place for Ed Snowden, it's no secret that the country is not exactly known as a bastion of civil liberties protection. In fact, last year, just as it was granting Julian Assange asylum, there were reports coming out about highly questionable activities by the Ecuador government in extraditing someone who had exposed corruption. In that post, it was noted that Ecuardor scrapped its own rules requiring a warrant to investigate someone's IP address and has been known to seize the computers of critical journalists.So, it should come as little surprise that while so much attention is on Ecuador, it was leaked to Buzzfeed that the country is in the middle of purchasing equipment for widespread surveillance, including a system called "GSM Interceptor" (subtle!) and some unmanned surveillance drones. Basically, the country does not have a great record on protecting civil liberties or freedom of the press.
But, here's where the story gets even more bizarre. Buzzfeed's reporters, Rosie Gray and Adrian Carrasquillo, had posted the various documents they got revealing these purchases on Scribd and embedded them beneath the story. Here's a screenshot:
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Filed Under: censorship, copyright, ecuador, ed snowden, julian assange, leaks, surveillance
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Re:
1) Power seekers are the ones that seek office. They do so so they can use power to advance their own agenda.
2) Legislatures are set up as law making bodies, and so they will make laws. This sets up a trend towards totalitarianism, as more laws mean more 'control' over the population.
These two problems form a self reinforcing feedback mechanism, as it is almost impossible to gain power on a platform of doing very little or reducing the governments power, which means the more extreme type of power seekers gain power, as they are the only ones proposing new laws.
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I'm keen to guess
How's Iceland doing these days?
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Re: I'm keen to guess
( •_•)
( •_•)>⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)
...They're cool with it.
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Re: I'm keen to guess
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Re: Re: I'm keen to guess
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Re: Re: Re: I'm keen to guess
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Wrong Island (to: Ninja, #6)
As Erik the Red said, in naming Greenland, circa 980, you don't want to give a place a nasty name if you're trying to sell people on going there.
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Re: Wrong Island (to: Ninja, #6)
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Re: I'm keen to guess
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North Korea.
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As you claim for intellectual property, doesn't last in society.
Copyright IS gov't protecting the civil liberty of its populace: owning one's work-product.
Now, Mike puts out a similar false premise: "Are there any places left on earth that actually do respect basic civil liberties?" -- First, I suppose you intended countries or gov'ts, not "places". -- And the answer is: NEVER WAS. Totally baseless idealism that leads to wrong world view. The nature of gov'ts and The Rich is always to NOT respect civil liberties; they do so only when the populace arms against tyranny. Even ancient Greece, the supposed "birthplace of democracy", it was only a small portion of the populace who enjoyed liberty: the rest were slaves.
One must judge particular acts, not just jingoistically support any gov't in its every act. Common law morality is what lends any gov't legitimacy, not the chance of where one was born. So, Ecuador telling the US that the treaty is dead for leverage so buzz off was most excellent. -- Yet already Mike has been overwhelmed by his copyright mania and attacks Ecuador for comparatively small flaw.
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Re: As you cCopyright isn't ownership oo works, it's monopolization of them
What copyright does is give you monopoly power so you can stop others from execising their own property right to take their knowledge of the product you masde and produce their own
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Right....
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Look outside
Every country respects civil liberties... of people not concerned with them. The US respects the civil liberties of Chinese, Ecuador respects the civil liberties of Americans, etc.
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For instance, GSM interceptors are used to watch the phone calls made by inmates at prisions who use smuggled cell phones to command drug rings, while drones are deployed to watch the Amazonic frontiers. The trouble isn't the tech, the trouble is how little in the way the tech is used by Governamental Agencies is reported to the general public.
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Wouldn't jammers be a cheaper and easier way to accomplish this goal?
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even more bizarre
Because they are righteous freedom fighters ?? I don't think so, and it's only a matter of time before even you can work that out Masnick.
Assange and Snowden are pawns, they are being used for the very purposes they were against, and you have been helping the various Governments do that to these people.
You have failed to address the real issues, you appeared to understand for about 5 seconds that the message is lost, and it's all about the messenger, and who is aiding them.
you lost the plot, and it's only a matter of time before you work that out.
For now, you will enable this political manipulation of Ecuador, and ensure Assange and Snowden are well and truly used and reamed before they are fed to the hounds.
Mark my words sorry, mark my words.
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Re: even more bizarre
"Even more bizarre" is that you seem to think that anybody ever believed that this is an altruistic move on Ecuador's part.
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If Snowden had any brains
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Re: If Snowden had any brains
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Re: If Snowden had any brains
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Re: Re: If Snowden had any brains
We'll he already has a track record of doing stupid things, what do you suggest ?? spend the rest of his life at a Russian air port ?
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