James Clapper Says They're Just Trying To 'Understand' Tor To Keep Terrorists From Killing You

NSA Uses EFF Images To Explain Tor; EFF Jokingly Claims Creative Commons Violation

from the now-wouldn't-that-be-a-fun-lawsuit dept

Fri, Oct 4th 2013 4:05pm — Mike Masnick

With this morning's revelation of how the NSA and GCHQ are trying to attack Tor, some of the presentations being used by the NSA to explain Tor are somewhat interesting or amusing. For example, in one presentation about the program EgotisticalGiraffe (I don't make 'em up, so don't ask), the NSA amusingly feels the need to highlight the fact that "terrorists" use Tor:

In a different presentation, the NSA helpfully tries to explain how Tor works by making use of the EFF's own Tor explainer.

The whole thing is labeled Top Secret, and, somewhat amusingly, the EFF jokingly claimed that this likely violates their Creative Commons license, before saying that the NSA is free to use the images under fair use. To be honest, I'm not sure that's actually accurate either. It looks like the EFF uses the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 3.0 US) license, which requires attribution and that's basically it. The images show the EFF's logo, so you could argue they've properly complied with the license.

Either way, another randomly amusing tidbit in the midst of all of this.

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Filed Under: creative commons, fair use, nsa, nsa surveillance, tor
Companies: eff

14 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 4 Oct 2013 @ 5:08pm

Hmmmmmm. Wonder if the NSA discovered the spyware lurking in those images, planted there by the EFF and designed specificity to infiltrate the entire NSA network, copy everything, and send it to super secret places before being revealed to the world. Muhahahaha!

(The're already paranoid. Let's really eff with them.)
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- Anonymous Coward, 4 Oct 2013 @ 5:25pm
  
  Re:
  > Let's really eff with them.
  
  I see what you did there.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Oct 2013 @ 5:23pm

You know, THAT is what annoys me the most.

It is not some dry presentation drawn from the bowels of PowerPoint hell by some lobotomized wage slave.

The writing style and the kind of humor used, including the obviously self-deprecating jab by highlighting the "terrorists" word that way, shows that whoever made that presentation, and presumably that whole system, is one of us.

One. Of. Us.

It is not some faceless goon defined solely by his desire to screw over the whole Internet while cackling manically. It is a normal technologist like us, with a normal life, with normal desires. He might even be reading the comments here.

That is what hurts the most. It is not an "enemy" attempting to destroy the whole of the Internet civilization. It is someone who should be an ally. To another technologist like me, it feels like betrayal.
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- Bob Robertson, 7 Oct 2013 @ 5:44am
  
  Re: One.Of.Us.
  Well, consider where they got the graphics. To do that they would have to read the web site, which means hearing all the arguments against the NSA's activities.
  
  Including the EFF slides whole was an act of subversion.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Oct 2013 @ 5:33pm

The NSA was afraid that if they tried to explain, in their own words, how TOR works they will get something wrong and be made fun of by the entire Internet community. So, instead, they figured a safer bet was to just copy an explanation from the EFF.
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- Anonymous Coward, 5 Oct 2013 @ 6:31am
  
  Re:
  No. It isn't fear. It's laziness. Why bother making your own presentation when you can simply grab something someone else already put together and made available publicly.
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Zakida Paul (profile), 4 Oct 2013 @ 5:47pm

It bears repeating
The kind of terrorist who sends their plans over the Internet, encrypted or not, is not the kind of terrorist we should be most worried about.
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sorrykb (profile), 4 Oct 2013 @ 6:23pm

They forgot the ZOMG before "Terrorists!"
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Oct 2013 @ 6:30pm

T for Torrist. "No shit"
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Oct 2013 @ 9:37pm

What's funny is: EFF is probably lumped in with the Terrorists! that slide talks about
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- Anonymous Coward, 5 Oct 2013 @ 12:10pm
  
  Re:
  The NSA and its kin are supplying the terrorists with all of reactive ammunition than they can possibly use. How many Vietnams, Iraqs and Afghanistans do we have to have before we learn.
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  - Pragmatic, 7 Oct 2013 @ 5:55am
    
    Re: Re:
    AC, I don't think they see Vietnams, Iraqs and Afghanistans as bugs, but as features. There's a hungry MIC to keep fed by all those fat war machinery contracts, after all. Peace is bad for business as far as they're concerned.
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Tom, 7 Oct 2013 @ 6:14am

EFF says: "If you redistribute something you got from the EFF site, it is appreciated if you make it known where the file originated, so people can get more info or updated versions."

Does "appreciated" imply you must do it legally?
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T, 16 Oct 2013 @ 1:02am

Aaaaaarg
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