In regards to cybersecurity legislation, I often hear statements like "we could make progress if it weren't for special interests". I always jump in at that point to say "but cyberscurity is a special interest". I never convince anyone of this, because of course, no special interest thinks of themselves as such.

Errata Security: Myth: that secret coffee slush fund

Some bad ass surf rock - saw these guys live at Atlanta Rollergirls.

Kill, Baby...Kill! AL | Anniston, AL | Instrumental / Surf / Rock | Music, Lyrics, Songs, and Videos | ReverbNation

I will veto any bill that lacks strong privacy and civil-liberties protections.

Obama has taken a stand on Internet Civil Liberties a few times this year. Is it because this is an election year? Will Obama have "more flexibility" on these issues after the election?

(At least with the Democrats I get civil liberties once every four years...)

Barack Obama: Taking the Cyberattack Threat Seriously - WSJ.com

By me:

I have no doubt that we will see more password compromises in the future. Passwords are the oldest security control that we have, and they are probably the least understood. It would be nice to imagine that these breaches will result in the universal adoption of two-factor authentication technologies, or at least password vaults, but those changes are not going to happen everywhere for both economic and usability reasons. The fact is that passwords are here to stay, and it is time to get serious about modernizing the approach that corporations take to password security.

Technology News: Network Intrusion: Our Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Password System

The Internet Defense League is a network of people and sites who use their massive combined reach to defend the open internet and make it better. Because it can sound the alarm quickly to millions of users, people are calling it “a bat-signal for the Internet”.

For the launch, two ideas seemed awesome: 1) Launch on the night the new Batman movie comes out (the midnight showings for hard-core fans) and 2) have launch parties in cities around the world with real-life bat cat signals.

This idea is silly but on some level it is also awesome. Imagine the protest impact of actual cat signals being put up over major cities whenever some assholes decide to fuck up Internet civil liberties for their personal financial interest.

The Internet Defense League - Protecting the Free Internet since 2012

A lack of discipline is apparent these days in just about every aspect of American society.

Why Are American Kids So Spoiled? : The New Yorker

In mid-February, Alec Empire of the iconic digital hardcore band Atari Teenage Riot got a call from Sony. The company was creating a commercial for their new handheld game console, the Sony Vita, and they wanted to use the song Black Flags from ATR’s most recent album Is This Hyperreal? for the score.

ATR tricked Sony into basically donating money to a legal defense fund for Anonymous members. I haven't listened to ATR in years so this connection is interesting.

ATR describes their new album as "a protest album for the Google age".

Atari Teenage Riot Goes for the Lulz With Anonymous | Threat Level | Wired.com

It used to be we valued music for its ability to help us escape, and its ability to help us define an identity for ourselves.

We now control both of these aspects of our lives, to a greater degree and in a more self directed way than ever possible before.

What was once valuable is now color.

This is the most intelligent thing that I've read yet about Lowery's post.

Are We Really Still Discussing This? – Or: My Response to David Lowery - blackrimglasses.com

One recalled that the labels “don’t license you if you don’t have traffic” but once enough footfall is achieved then “they want to get paid for ‘infringement’ and the longer it takes to license you, the larger the ‘infringement’ number they can justify charging you.”

Another described a litigation “Ponzi scheme” whereby settlements and other fees extracted from startups were used to fund the labels’ ongoing litigation strategy. However, like all Ponzi schemes there was a problem – maintaining momentum. “Once you stop suing new people there are no new settlements to pay for the ongoing litigation,” one interviewee reported.

This paper was funded by Google.

How Big Music Threatened Startups and Killed Innovation | TorrentFreak

I thought Lowery's piece was so badly flawed, with its conspiracy theories and sloppy appeals to emotion, that it didn't warrant a response. But others didn't feel the same way. Techdirt's Mike Masnick has posted a guided tour of the best rebuttals, including Jeff Price from Tunecore on the real data on musicians' income in the Internet age; Steve Albini on the false picture Lowery paints of a golden age of the labels that never existed; Jonathan Coulton on the perversity of mourning for a loss of scarcity; former Warner Music CTO Ethan Kaplan on how the labels cut their own throats by fighting innovation; Travis Morrison from Dismemberment Plan on how access to music and compensation for artists are separate issues. Taken together, it's a series of bracing reads and a strong tonic.

Rebuttals to David Lowery's indictment of "free culture" and its alleged murder of musicians - Boing Boing