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Why Open Source is Needed to Combat Climate Change
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| The new U.S. Administration has
| demonstrated an immediate commitment to
| investing in green energy technologies and
| developing the new regulatory frameworks
| required to address the crisis of climate
| change. We have a unique historical
| opportunity to incorporate these open
| elements into the policy framework, but we
| must seize this opportunity now if we are
| to achieve the pace of innovation and
| adoption required to avert the climate
| change crisis. Government spending
| commitments and economic incentives of well
| over $100 billion for green technologies
| provide the necessary commercial leverage
| to drive an open innovation model, much as
| the U.S. Department of Defense's spending
| on computer equipment in the 70s enabled it
| to drive the adoption of the Internet
| Protocol that led to the modern Internet.
| This leverage needs to be exercised now
| while contracts and governance for these
| large taxpayer investments are still being
| put in place and while policy frameworks
| for regulation and market mechanisms are
| being detailed.
`----
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/why-open-source-and-open-standards-are-essential-to-combat-disastrous-globa/
Obama enforces trade embargo against open source
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| The Obama Administration has forced
| Sourceforge to deny service to its anti-
| terrorism sanction list.
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=5698
Sound off: What is open government?
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| Open Source for Americaâs Guidelines for
| Open Government Plans will help inform the
| different agencies about what policies and
| practices should be included in their
| mandated Open Government Plans. OSFA has
| opened this discussion on its website and
| plans to finalize its set of guidelines the
| second week of February, thus providing the
| agencies with sufficient time to take them
| into account before the April 7th deadline.
| Later in the year, the organization will
| issue a report card about the agencies,
| using these Guidelines as part of the
| process of the grading system.
`----
http://opensource.com/government/10/1/sound-what-open-government
Recent:
FBI, Telecoms Teamed to Breach Wiretap Laws
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| But in a surprise buried at the end of the
| 289-page report, the inspector general also
| reveals that the Obama administration issued
| a secret rule almost two weeks ago saying it
| was legal for the FBI to have skirted
| federal privacy protections.
|
| [...]
|
| The telecom employees were supposed to be
| responding to National Security Letters,
| which are essentially FBI-issued subpoenas.
| But those Patriot Act powers say the target
| must be part of an open investigation and
| that a supervisor has to approve it. While
| they require some paperwork, FBI agents have
| been issuing about 40,000 such NSLs a year.
|
| But an AT&T employee provided the unit with
| a way around some of those requirements. The
| employee introduced them to so-called
| 'exigent letters.' Those letters, first used
| immediately following 9/11, asked for
| information by saying that the request was
| an emergency and that prosecutors were
| preparing a grand jury subpoena. The letter
| falsely promised that the subpoena, which
| gives the telecoms legal immunity, would be
| delivered later, the report said.
|
| What's more, the report noted that the cozy
| relationship between the bureau and the
| telecoms made it hard to differentiate
| between the FBI and the nation's phone
| companies.
|
| "The FBI's use of exigent letters became so
| casual, routine and unsupervised that
| employees of all three communication service
| providers told us that they -- the company
| employees-- sometimes generated the exigent
| letters for CAU personnel to sign and
| return," the inspector general reported.
|
| In fact, one AT&T employee even created a
| short cut on his desktop to a form letter
| that he could print out for a requesting FBI
| agent to sign.
|
| Even that became too much. Agents would
| request "sneak peeks," where they'd ask if
| it was worth their time to file a request on
| a given phone number, the inspector general
| noted. The telecom agents complied. Soon it
| graduated to numbers on Post-it notes, in e-
| mails or just oral requests.
`----
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/01/fbi-att-verizon-violated-wiretapping-laws/
EFF Plans Appeal of Jewel v. NSA Warrantless Wiretapping Case
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| A federal judge has dismissed Jewel v. NSA,
| a case from the Electronic Frontier
| Foundation (EFF) on behalf of AT&T customers
| challenging the National Security Agency's
| mass surveillance of millions of ordinary
| Americans' phone calls and emails.
|
| "We're deeply disappointed in the judge's
| ruling," said EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn.
| "This ruling robs innocent telecom customers
| of their privacy rights without due process
| of law. Setting limits on Executive power is
| one of the most important elements of
| America's system of government, and judicial
| oversight is a critical part of that."
`----
http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2010/01/21
Former FBI agent slams defence tactics in McKinnon case
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| Ed Gibson, who moved from his role as the FBIâs
| assistant legal to work as Microsoftâs chief
| security advisor in the UK back in 2005, said
| that if the self-confessed hacker had accepted
| voluntary extradition when he offered it back
| in 2003 then he would have âbeen out of jail
| four years agoâ instead of facing extradition
| now.
|
| [...]
|
| Janis Sharp, McKinnon's mum, gave us a robust
| reaction to Gibson's comments. "Ed Gibson is
| the same man that said to Gary's legal team
| that they'd prosecute Gary to max and state
| wanted to see him fry."
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/21/mckinnon_gibson_reaction/
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