In a court case involving the establishment of a ruling council and set of stringent copyright rules that included a possible penalty of Internet disconnection, a French court has ruled that Internet access is a ‘Basic Human Right’. This ruling stands as a landmark decision in the support and defense of Net Neutrality.  We congratulate the French for their foresight into the information needs of humanity in the twenty-first century.

“The law was supported by the industry and many artists. They saw it as a model for the USA and Europe in the fight to keep earning a living from their music and film. Net libertarians saw it as the creation of a sinister Big Brother. Many called it technically unworkable. Some artists saw it as hostile to the young consumers who are their main customers.

The Socialist opposition appealed to the council on the grounds that the constitution was breached by the creation of an extra-judicial agency with powers to punish internet offenders.

The council, which includes two former presidents and is usually seen as elderly and out-of-touch, gave the Left more than it was hoping for.

Les sages – the wise men – as the council is known, took the teeth out of the law. They ruled that “free access to public communication services online” is a right laid down in the Declaration of Human Rights, which is in the preamble to the French constitution. It also said the law breached privacy by enabling the HADOPI agency to track people’s internet activity.

It agreed that the law reached the separation of powers because if gave an administrative authority power to impose justice. And to boot, it violated the presumption of innocence because alleged pirates would be cut off without being able to defend themselves, the council said.” Top French court rips heart out of Sarkozy internet law [London Times Online].

[Click to read Top French court rips heart out of Sarkozy internet law at timesonline.co.uk]

A new generation of sophisticated young Lebanese are holding their leaders accountable by using the Internet and computer based digital video recorders (the same computer DVR’s that no longer work with subscription television in the US). Danny Moussa (18), and some thirty of his friends spend their time watching 24-hour, subscription cable news and recording examples of politicians they find politically offensive. They then edit the video together with supporting evidence complete with commentary (think Comedy Central’s Daily Show) and upload online. This has made quite a name for Mr. Moussa who’s website ranks 28th in traffic from Lebanon according to Alexa. View the video below, courtesy [Channel 13] via [WorldFocus] via [AlJazerra].

The woman known as “Neda” has now been identified as Neda Agha-Soltan. Attempts to suppress her sacrifice around the world have been futile, but in a final act of brutality a proper burial, headstone and memorial in Iran has was denied by government forces. Her fiance, Caspian Makan has issued a statement to BBC Persian TV regarding Neda’s death. In the statement he describes the events leading up to her murder and the breakup by Basij forces of the planned memorial service.

“She was near the area, a few streets away, from where the main protests were taking place, near the Amir-Abad area. She was with her music teacher, sitting in a car and stuck in traffic.

She was feeling very tired and very hot. She got out of the car for just for a few minutes.

And that’s when it all happened.

That’s when she was shot dead. Eyewitnesses and video footage of the shooting clearly show that probably Basij paramilitaries in civilian clothing deliberately targeted her. Eyewitnesses said they clearly targeted her and she was shot in the chest.

She passed away within a few minutes. People tried to take her to the nearest hospital, the Shariati hospital. But it was too late.

We worked so hard to get the authorities to release her body. She was taken to a morgue outside Tehran. The officials from the morgue asked if they could use parts of her corpse for body transplants for medical patients.

They didn’t specify what exactly they intended to do. Her family agreed because they wanted to bury her as soon as possible.

We buried her in the Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery in southern Tehran. They asked us to bury her in this section where it seemed the authorities had set aside spaces for graves for those killed during the violent clashes in Tehran last week.

On Monday afternoon, we had planned to hold a memorial service at the mosque.

But the authorities there and the paramilitary group, the Basij, wouldn’t allow it because they were worried it would attract unwanted attention and they didn’t want anymore trouble.

The authorities are aware that everybody in Iran and throughout the whole world knows about her story. So that’s why they didn’t want a memorial service. They were afraid that lots people could turn up at the event.

So as things stand now, we are not allowed to hold any gatherings to remember Neda.” Death video girl ‘targeted by militia’ news.bbc.co.uk

A Neda Memorial Facebook page created in her honor states the following:

“Neda Salehi Agha Sultan was born in 1361 (27 years), student philosophy [2] during the popular protests Saturday 30 June 1388 (June 20, 2009) Amirabad in Tehran (North Kargar St.), paramilitary forces shot and was killed. Release Film short moments enliven the Baztabhay lot of the media world Bhdnbal.

«Call» in Iran and outside Iran, as a symbol of protest Iranian Voice and Voice liberal Iranian democracy protests and the symbol of the protests is known.”

As Iranian freedom fighters clashed with the government in violent conflict it is being reported that many are being beaten, stabbed and shot. One case in particular is that of Neda. Neda (Farsi for ‘Voice’ or ‘Call’) and her sister attended the non-violent protests earlier in the week but knew June 20th, 2009 would be different. Here is the original post from Neda’s sister the night before:

“I will participate in the demonstrations tomorrow. Maybe they will turn violent. Maybe I will be one of the people who is going to get killed. I’m listening to all my favorite music. I even want to dance to a few songs. I always wanted to have very narrow eyebrows. Yes, maybe I will go to the salon before I go tomorrow! There are a few great movie scenes that I also have to see. I should drop by the library, too. It’s worth to read the poems of Forough and Shamloo again. All family pictures have to be reviewed, too. I have to call my friends as well to say goodbye. All I have are two bookshelves which I told my family who should receive them. I’m two units away from getting my bachelors degree but who cares about that. My mind is very chaotic. I wrote these random sentences for the next generation so they know we were not just emotional and under peer pressure. So they know that we did everything we could to create a better future for them. So they know that our ancestors surrendered to Arabs and Mongols but did not surrender to despotism. This note is dedicated to tomorrow’s children…” Live-blogging Friday’s Events in Iran [an Iranian blogger] via: Before The Battle theatlantic.com

Neda’s sister survived, unfortunately Neda did not and was murdered on the streets of Iran. View the video courtesy huffingtonpost.com (WARNING: EXPLICIT FOOTAGE):

Here is the statement posted along with the video:

“Basij shots to death a young woman in Tehran’s Saturday June 20th protests At 19:05 June 20th Place: Karekar Ave., at the corner crossing Khosravi St. and Salehi st. A young woman who was standing aside with her father watching the protests was shot by a basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight her heart. I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim’s chest, and she died in less than 2 minutes. The protests were going on about 1 kilometers away in the main street and some of the protesting crowd were running from tear gass used among them, towards Salehi St. The film is shot by my friend who was standing beside me. Please let the world know.” Woman Shot Dead in KareKar Ave – 20 June, 2009 breakfornews.com

Today Neda’s sister wrote this note:

“Yesterday I wrote a note, with the subject line “tomorrow is a great day perhaps tomorrow I’ll be killed.” I’m here to let you know I’m alive but my sister was killed…

I’m here to tell you my sister died while in her father’s hands
I’m here to tell you my sister had big dreams…
I’m here to tell you my sister who died was a decent person… and like me yearned for a day when her hair would be swept by the wind… and like me read “Forough” [Forough Farrokhzad]… and longed to live free and equal… and she longed to hold her head up and announce, “I’m Iranian”… and she longed to one day fall in love to a man with a shaggy hair… and she longed for a daughter to braid her hair and sing lullaby by her crib…

my sister died from not having life… my sister died as injustice has no end… my sister died since she loved life too much… and my sister died since she lovingly cared for people…

my loving sister, I wish you had closed your eyes when your time had come… the very end of your last glance burns my soul….

sister have a short sleep. your last dream be sweet.” Iran Updates (VIDEO): Live-Blogging The Uprising huffingtonpost.com

Our sincerest condolences to Neda’s sister, family and friends. Know that her “last glance” will also burn the soul of millions around the world. She did not die in vein.

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Tags: better future, blogger, demonstrations, despotism, Energy & Humanity, farsi, forough, freedom, freedom fighters, iran view, killed in protests, neda, quote, random sentences, video, violent conflict, violent protests, World

Iran is undergoing a revolution sparked by the sham re-election of it’s dictatorial leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Despite attempting to cut off all sharing of information, word continues to circulate as the resourceful Iranians utilize the Internet.

Sites like Facebook and Twitter have played a critical role in information sharing, organizing and delivering real-time strategic responses to individual clashes. Twitter has been so important that the US Government asked the site not to perform scheduled maintenance as it would cause the service to be unavailable for a few hours.

In what is being called the first “Internet revolution”, Iran’s mostly under-thirty population is using cellphone cameras and wireless internet connections to organize themselves and get videos of demonstrations out to the world. Our hopes are with you and your cries of…

“FREEDOM FOR IRAN”

So thank you IRAN, for reminding the world that all nations (even if they are portrayed as evil) have human populations. We applaud your ingenuity, resistance and fortitude.

Long live the fighters!

Today (June 12th, 2009) the DTV transition takes effect. Analog video signals no longer are available in the United States. Why does this matter?

Not many are aware just how much of our freedom and privacy has been lost to DTV, but the mechanism to control, track and charge you for anything video are now in place. This includes all; news, weather, politics, opinion, scientific, and cultural information we consider critical to our ability to function in the modern world.

ISSUE #01

Today marks the end of our freedom to share ideas with broadcast video.

Every digital signal will now contain DRM or Digital Rights Management embedded into the actual picture brightness (luminance) of the video image using a technology called VEIL (Video Encoded Invisible Light). This mechanism of control is intended to prevent copyright fraud (the duplication of rights managed material for profit), but also prevents sharing for legitimate uses. Combine this protection with legislation that prevents the manufacture of devices lacking support for DRM and you can see the problem. For older videos that may lack VEIL, CGMS-A (Copy Generation Management System – Analog) is available.

Say you are watching a story on local news of an event you attended earlier in the week. To your surprise, you appear in the background! You want to share that 15min of fame with a friend in another state (fair use). You save it on your Tivo, but the friend cannot come over to watch. You record it on a DVD recorder, but all DVD players/recorders have DRM so playing the DVD at the friends’ house will display a blank screen. Any attempt to use a computer-based recorder will result in video that will not display through DRM aware ports. This is a trivial example, but issue extends to serious matters as well.

Over the past decade our television news has disintegrated into nothing more than corporate supported propaganda. Gone is the reputable and independent television journalism we knew only so briefly. Gone is this journalistic watchdog of democracy. It has been replaced with a corporate news perversion that sells lies of shock and awe to promote illegal wars for profit. Corporate news exists only at the behest of it’s corporate sponsors and their interests. Since the fall of television news, the watchdog reigns had been taken up by bloggers with computer based DVR’s (digital video recorders). These new watchdogs used subscription television services to record the hypocrisy and perversion being spewed by corporate cable news in support of shadowy agendas. Using the Internet to post video examples of political/corporate corruption was a literal thorn-in-the-side of corrupt or collusive interests. No more.

Thousands of computer based video recorders have lost their ability to change channels when hooked up to newly encrypted cable or satellite subscription services. Instead of rich capabilities like time-shift television and electronic programming guides (EPG) that automatically record and name programs, users are left with simple video converters.

Those who choose to keep their computer-based recorders will find themselves locked-out of all subscription content (even if they pay for it). Only those with the resources to afford professional equipment (purposefully priced out of the general populations reach) will have access to DRM free recording of DTV. Welcome to a world where all content sharing (if allowed) is monetized, with the ultimate goal of restricting knowledge to those who can afford it. Remember, knowing is half the battle.

ISSUE #02

Today marks the end of our privacy to view broadcast video without being tracked.

The Neilson Ratings company tracks television viewership using “sample families”. These families agree have their viewing tracked in exchange for compensation (many have extremely invasive experiences). This mechanism (and ones like it) provide the industry with a framework to price television advertising (media buys) and track results. The information is also data-mined for ways to generate additional revenue. The holy grail of this mechanism (to track every individual channel change) is now at hand. Corporations then integrate this information with other databases to create accurate profiles of the entire population. How long will it be before those databases are breached and the data falls into criminal hands?

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