NO FEAR - IF YOU HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE

If everyone’s every action were being monitored, and everyone technically violates some obscure law at some time, then punishment becomes purely selective. 

(Marlinspike, 2013)

A Danish boy, Tobias was denied entrance in the states two days ago. He had no idea why, but his name was apparently blacklisted. Experts found out that his phone number once belonged to a person connected to a terror organisation and the theory for the blacklisting reasons is connected to this number (Skjoldager, 2013).

The fact about the boy is clearly wrong. And since a simple mistake like this has made it impossible for him to enter US in properly eternity, it makes me wonder what kind of mistakes they could do as well and if their skills are at the level it should be, in order to work with fragile information.

Well the politicians wanting these increases in surveillance, they have no skills in the techniques used for spying. I ought to believe they find it more secure for the people, as they in Britten say about the law-obeying people: “…You have nothing to fear”:

BBC Amdrew Marr Show, 09 June 2013 

(http://goo.gl/RdFVPq)

GovernmentCommunications HQ ensures that the British people can be confident in the way their agencies work to keep them safe. (DR, 2013 13:55-14:02) But what happens when they make mistakes, just like the US did with Tobias? Or when personal information is leaked to the public by mistake? More examples like these has happen – the worst example is the case of a German citizen who was kidnapped and tortured in Afghan, and then released when the spies found out he was the wrong guy.  

Since no one seems to have an overview of the amount of information, how can the government be sure of the quality? And should we just sit around until they make a mistake a grabs… well… me? The surveillance industry simply cannot control itself and it has gotten out of hand.

Bib: 

Marlinspake, 2013,"Why 'I have nothing to hide' is the wrong way to think about surveillance", 'Security and privacy', Wired

Skjoldager et al, 2013, ”Overvågning: Ung dansk turist får nej til at rejse ind i USA”, Politikken, 2013, Denmark

Niels Lindvig, 2013, ”Orientering”, podcast Orientering 13-08-21, DR, Cph, Denmark

THE PUBLIC NEEDS TO DECIDE

If capitalism is ultimately based on (unequal) exchanges based on a money economy, in such a ‘free’ economy can we be said to have capitalism in its traditional sense, or are we beginning to see the emergence of the outlines of a new form of capitalism?

(Ritzer et al., 2010, 22)

This capitalism simply can and will not be controlled, as can the ‘prosumers’ (consumers and producers). Example of this getting out of hand is You Tube, who now has more than 6 Billion hours of video watched each month all over the World (You Tube, 2013). Every time Google’s algorithm finds something not allowed copying, the next 1000 forbidden videos have been uploaded.

I regret to think that since the prosumers accept and contributes to this development in such fast development of extreme leaks, the organisations trying to establish control and capitalism, as they know it, respond in the same or even more extreme ways.

An example of this situation is the case of Edward Snowden. He shared the scary fact of ALL people are being watched by the US. And this is not only in the US due to globalisation and the medias aces to personal information e.g. through social media.

I think it is extreme that governances (and companies as NSA) all over the world are spying on me! Well I know the American people are pretty paranoid in nature (This is a hypothesis made on the fact of them having huge guns everywhere) but to spy in such way on everyone?

If they did not cover it up as they did, and explained the importance and the reason of the surveillance, I am sure the American people would accept it through voting. It is the least they could do when breaking personal boundaries of their own citizens. Perhaps it is not made in the best interest for the people? I’m starting to think so.

So did Mr Snowden. He realised that he could not accept people being abused in their everyday lives. Since he was alone with these democratic views he needed to go public (Poitras, 2013, 01:09-02:06). Disturbingly the media focused only on him and what crime he had committed – NOT on the fact that people are not free, possible due to the influence of governance and other shareholders. Is this their idea of freedom of speech?

However I agree to the fact that Snowden has made a crime by breaking a silence policy. But he did it for the people’s rights, not for the increasing of national threat or in order to support a movement of terrorism. He even illuminates NSA’s possibility to be a threat to the nation, as they could choose the ‘victim’ personally (03:14-03:27).

According to Henrik Poulsen, Doc. in Phyciatry, 'when people think they are being watched, they attend not to do something wrong!'(DR, 2013, 28:38-28:39) The government actually tricked them selves!

I am convinced preventing accidents are both cheaper and much less dramatic as when the crime (or whatever they are looking for) is done.

Bib:

I simply MUST break this, as my last blog post discussed copyright and the willing to share knowledge: Praxis Film wrote this about sharing the interview on You Tube; ”We are making such material available in an effort to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.”

Poitras, L, 2013, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden: 'I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things' Praxis Films,

Ritzer, George and Jurgenson, Nathan 2010 ‘Production, Consumption, Prosumption: The nature of capitalism in the age of the digital ‘prosumer’, Journal of Consumer Culture, vol. 10 no. 1

DR, 2013, 'DU Lyver!', Doc, Danske Radio, Copenhagen (http://www.dr.dk/tv/se/du-lyver/du-lyver#!/22:27)

You Tube statistics, Aug 2013 (http://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html).

POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!

'When a powerful perpetrator attacks a weak target, many people feel this is unjust.Their outrage can be reduced when they believe fairness is being ensured by bodies; such as ombudsmen, courts or expert panels.'

 (Moore, M.B. et al., 2010)

Due to the flow of media and information, it is now easy for everyone who has access to the Internet to contribute with files. “I find it positive for the industry (academics) with file sharing”, Professor Wallis says. He believes it promotes knowledge all over the World. (Klose,2013, 0:20:13 – 0:23:17).

In 2009 The Pirate Bay (TPB) was held to court for breaking the copyright law. The site was the World’s biggest P2P file sharing system (Schoeder, 2009). What the government missed out: Everyone was guilty.

Warner Brothers, Columbia, 20th Century Fox and MGM were the main prosecutors in the trial. As their economy is sweating, the companies are desperate for someone to blame. The US government even threatened Sweden with trade sanctions, if TPB was not shut down (TPB AFK, 0:02:00 – 0:02:03)!!

The Pirate Bay logo

According to Peter Sunde; 'the problem is that old people are running the companies. They know how to make money before and they do not want to change'. Maybe he is right. As many other media related businesses, you need to compete with every citizen and think creatively, in order to win back market. Journalist Dan Gillmor points out: 'When anyone can be journalists, many talented people will try – and the’ll find things the professional miss' (2006, 25).

Are these 'old people' in denial? Well, I can see the problem with the income, but this is how globalisation has made it possible for everyone to contribute. We need to accept it – it has gotten out of anyone’s control.

Peter Sunde among many others came up with an idea: donation! Either way, your work will be copied – and this I believe covers almost every genre, so why not ask for credit, instead of forcing it and get none? The term crowdfunding covers it.

The future?

Bib:

Martin, B, Moore, C and Salter, C. 2010, ‘Sharing music files: tactics of a challenge to the industry’, First Monday, vol. 15, no. 12

Klose, S, 2013, TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away From Keyboard, Doc, Sweden, Nonami

Gillmor, D 2006, We The Media: Rise of Citizen Journalism, Dan Gillmor on grassroots journalism by the people, for the people, O'Reilly Media


Schoeder, S. 2009, 'TPB Trial: Guilty as charged', Mashable, NY