Re: a petition by Writers Against Mass Surveillance
I respect the petition , But I have a policy to to not sign any petition hosted in change.org after their reversal of values and hosting petitions from both sides to ensure more winning campaigns. Is there any other way to sign it ? On Sat, Dec 14, 2013 at 5:38 PM, Geert Lovink wrote: > (dear nettimers, not sure everyone has seen this. ciao, geert) > > http://www.change.org/petitions/a-stand-for-democracy-in-the-digital-age-3 > > A STAND FOR DEMOCRACY IN THE DIGITAL AGE > > Petition by Writers Against Mass Surveillance <...> # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
Re: a petition by Writers Against Mass Surveillance
This petition made lots of waves in Germany but seems to have remained
unnoticed elsewhere despite the many international writers who signed it.
In Germany and France, such public interventions are a post-WWII tradition.
They go back to Sartre's concept of "litterature engag??" which the 'Gruppe
47' circle of West-German novelists and poets picked up soon after it had
been coined. Historical precursors are the public inventions of writers
like Zola.
The notion of writers as public figures and moral authorities seems to be
rather typical for countries under authoritarian rule, as well as
post-fascist and post-Stalinist societies. The petition echoes this because
it is mostly written as an appeal to authorities ("STATES AND
CORPORATIONS", "UNITED NATIONS", "GOVERNMENTS") and even addresses
"CITIZENS" in the third person, thus implying some separate space for the
writers (who thus speak, as neither authorities nor citizens, from a bird's
eye view).
Likewise, the wording of the petition remains stuck in old-fashioned and
often problematic humanism. The statement that the "basic pillar of
democracy is the inviolable integrity of the individual" is a literal
translation of a passage from the German constitution ("Die W?rde des
Menschen ist unantastbar"), thus projecting a particular notion of
democracy with priorities that many political thinkers and activists might
not share, onto the rest of the world. The statement that "a society under
surveillance is no longer a democracy" is technically correct but also
naively suggests that society has been democratic before.
>From a media critical point of view, the statement that "democratic rights
must apply in virtual as in real space" is telling, because it shows that
the authors of the petition still think in 1980s/1990s media theory
categories of the "virtual" and the "real" in a world where technological
development (with software control of almost all devices including
Stuxnet-infected nuclear plants) have rendered this distinction moot if not
dangerously naive. The problem is: the people working at the NSA understand
this, the writers apparently don't.
-F
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Re: Snowden and the Future talks by Eben Moglen
Also, Moglen had Bruce Schneier in this last week for a follow up. That was pretty good too. The webcast archive is here. http://livestre.am/4I6VT On Sat, Dec 14, 2013 at 11:05 AM, Nick wrote: > Hi Nettimers, > > I just listened to Eben Moglen's recent talks, "Snowden and the > Future". They're fantastic; I can't recommend them highly enough. > Recordings are available in several good audio and video formats. > > http://snowdenandthefuture.info/ <...> -- --- Joly MacFie 218 565 9365 Skype:punkcast WWWhatsup NYC - http://wwwhatsup.com http://pinstand.com - http://punkcast.com VP (Admin) - ISOC-NY - http://isoc-ny.org -- - # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
Snowden and the Future talks by Eben Moglen
Hi Nettimers, I just listened to Eben Moglen's recent talks, "Snowden and the Future". They're fantastic; I can't recommend them highly enough. Recordings are available in several good audio and video formats. http://snowdenandthefuture.info/ From the About page Please join the Software Freedom Law Center and Columbia Law School for a series of talks by Eben Moglen that will address the following questions: - What has Edward Snowden done to change the course of human history? - How does the evolution of surveillance since World War II threaten democracy? - What does it mean that information can be both so powerful and so easily spread? In a network embracing all of humanity, how does democracy survive our desire for security? # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
a petition by Writers Against Mass Surveillance
(dear nettimers, not sure everyone has seen this. ciao, geert) http://www.change.org/petitions/a-stand-for-democracy-in-the-digital-age-3 A STAND FOR DEMOCRACY IN THE DIGITAL AGE Petition by Writers Against Mass Surveillance On International Human Rights Day, 562 authors, including 5 Nobel Prize laureates, from over 80 countries have joined together to launch an appeal in defense of civil liberties against surveillance by corporations and governments. 5 Nobel Prize Winners have signed: Orhan Pamuk, J.M. Coetzee, Elfriede Jelinek, Günter Grass and Tomas Tranströmer. Also among the signatories are Umberto Eco, Margaret Atwood, Don DeLillo, Daniel Kehlmann, Nawal El Saadawi, Arundhati Roy, Henning Mankell, Richard Ford, Javier Marias, Björk, David Grossman, Arnon Grünberg, Angeles Mastretta, Juan Goytisolo, Nuruddin Farah, João Ribeiro, Victor Erofeyev, Liao Yiwu and David Malouf. This global pledge was organized by an independent international group of authors - Juli Zeh, Ilija Trojanow, Eva Menasse, Janne Teller, Priya Basil, Isabel Cole, and Josef Haslinger. On Dec 10 it is published in 30 news papers all around the world: In recent months, the extent of mass surveillance has become common knowledge. With a few clicks of the mouse the state can access your mobile device, your e-mail, your social networking and Internet searches. It can follow your political leanings and activities and, in partnership with Internet corporations, it collects and stores your data, and thus can predict your consumption and behaviour. The basic pillar of democracy is the inviolable integrity of the individual. Human integrity extends beyond the physical body. In their thoughts and in their personal environments and communications, all humans have the right to remain unobserved and unmolested. This fundamental human right has been rendered null and void through abuse of technological developments by states and corporations for mass surveillance purposes. A person under surveillance is no longer free; a society under surveillance is no longer a democracy. To maintain any validity, our democratic rights must apply in virtual as in real space. * Surveillance violates the private sphere and compromises freedom of thought and opinion. * Mass surveillance treats every citizen as a potential suspect. It overturns one of our historical triumphs, the presumption of innocence. * Surveillance makes the individual transparent, while the state and the corporation operate in secret. As we have seen, this power is being systemically abused. * Surveillance is theft. This data is not public property: it belongs to us. When it is used to predict our behaviour, we are robbed of something else: the principle of free will crucial to democratic liberty. WE DEMAND THE RIGHT for all people to determine, as democratic citizens, to what extent their personal data may be legally collected, stored and processed, and by whom; to obtain information on where their data is stored and how it is being used; to obtain the deletion of their data if it has been illegally collected and stored. WE CALL ON ALL STATES AND CORPORATIONS to respect these rights. WE CALL ON ALL CITIZENS to stand up and defend these rights. WE CALL ON THE UNITED NATIONS to acknowledge the central importance of protecting civil rights in the digital age, and to create an International Bill of Digital Rights. WE CALL ON GOVERNMENTS to sign and adhere to such a convention. Initiators: Juli Zeh Germany Ilija Trojanow Germany Eva Menasse Germany Janne Teller Denmark Priya Basil UK Isabel Fargo Cole USA Josef Haslinger Austria # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
