Monthly Archives: September 2008

Free media and free software help keep you free to run your life

Posted on by

Dave Cross encourages the dependence upon proprietary software by complaining that the Free Software Foundation’s recent 25th birthday video should have been distributed in non-free formats so people could see the video.

A surface analysis would reveal that proprietors support their own video formats exclusively. A deeper more significant analysis would reveal what users are left with after installing free and non-free software.

MacOS X and Microsoft Windows don’t come with all the software needed to play Flash video, Java applet-driven video, Microsoft Video codecs, or Apple’s QuickTime codecs. So when Apple distributes movies in some codec wrapped in QuickTime, only MacOS users have the software to play it. Same for Microsoft Windows users with Microsoft Video codecs. One commonly has to get additional software to play movie files. Users who install these programs are installing proprietary patent-encumbered software. Given Cross’ complaints one can only assume that this kind of onesidedness is okay despite how it leaves users in a lurch unable to play anything they come across and, more importantly, how adding the non-free movie players leaves users with non-free software.

Proprietors leave users with non-free software—software users are not free to inspect, share, or modify. If that software does something that any user doesn’t want (various bugs, failing to run in the user’s native language, spy on the user’s activities, to name a few examples), users have no legal means to alter the software to keep the functionality they like and delete the functionality they don’t like. Proprietary software takes away users’ freedom to run their computers as they wish.

But when the FSF distributes their videos in Ogg Vorbis+Theora licensed to share at least verbatim (licensing which is better than Microsoft or Apple’s licensing) they encourage users to get software to play the videos. VideoLAN Client (VLC for short), and Miro are two such programs. VLC & Miro both run on all the major operating systems (GNU/Linux, Microsoft Windows, MacOS X), both are free software, and both play a lot of audio and video files (VLC also plays DVDs). The Java applet the FSF used is also free software (it’s the same applet Wikipedia uses), so if you have Java installed you can play the video directly on the website. You’re left with free software and a movie you have license to share. The PlayOgg.org campaign can help you if you need more help acquiring or playing free media.

Playing Ogg Vorbis+Theora movie files is about to become a lot easier. Testing versions of Mozilla Firefox come with an Ogg Vorbis+Theora player built-in. Websites using the <video> HTML element will show a movie box without the need to install anything beyond Firefox. Users eager to test that software can get the latest builds and test it out. In time, Firefox’s production release (the version most Firefox users use) will feature these improvements and Firefox will ask users to upgrade to this version. This move adds pressure on other web browser developers to support Ogg Vorbis+Theora, the <video> element, and supporting Ogg Vorbis+Theora increases the chances that we’ll all be able to build our culture around free media.

Cross asks “Java was proprietary (and therefore verboten) until very recently. What did they do before that?” Before Java became free software the FSF advocated for change to eliminate dependence on non-free software and to make a free Java. The FSF wrote an essay about what they called “The Java Trap“—free software programs with non-free software dependencies such as a Java program that relied on the formerly non-free Sun Java runtime. The FSF also encouraged the development of free software Java replacements and hackers had been working on just such a thing. I maintain that it is that hard work which resulted in increased competition for Sun, Sun’s shift in policy, and relicensing their Java software to become free software.

In other words, running proprietary software doesn’t result in the creation of more software freedom. When we run more proprietary software we start to think of the proprietor’s interests as an acceptable state of affairs no matter how much the proprietor restricts our work using our computers. We might even defend their onesidedness which leaves us dependent on their software and with no media to share. When we put in the work to fight for our software freedom we’re left with software that respects our freedom to share, modify, and use.

Finally, Cross notes that “The Free Software Foundation never ever use the term “Open Source Software” as it dilutes their brand.”. The FSF’s objection to the term “open source” stems from the difference in philosophy between the free software and open source movements. Richard Stallman has written two essays on this topic (I linked to the latter but the former is linked from there), spoken about these philosophies at virtually every talk or interview he gives, and answers emails about it any time it comes up. The FSF would like to get people to think of software freedom, not the small subset of programmatic efficiency issues the phrase “open source” was coined for.

RFID: Your privacy is up for grabs

Posted on by

Katherine Albrecht, co-author of “Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID“, has written an article for Scientific American explaining how we inadvertently consent to lose our privacy and what’s being done about it on a federal level in the US and EU.

If you live in a state bordering Canada or Mexico, you may soon be given an opportunity to carry a very high tech item: a remotely readable driver’s license. Designed to identify U.S. citizens as they approach the nation’s borders, the cards are being promoted by the Department of Homeland Security as a way to save time and simplify border crossings. But if you care about your safety and privacy as much as convenience, you might want to think twice before signing up.

The new licenses come equipped with radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags that can be read right through a wallet, pocket or purse from as far away as 30 feet. Each tag incorporates a tiny microchip encoded with a unique identification number. As the bearer approaches a border station, radio energy broadcast by a reader device is picked up by an antenna connected to the chip, causing it to emit the ID number. By the time the license holder reaches the border agent, the number has already been fed into a Homeland Security database, and the traveler’s photograph and other details are displayed on the agent’s screen.

Although such “enhanced” driver’s licenses remain voluntary in the states that offer them, privacy and security experts are concerned that those who sign up for the cards are unaware of the risk: anyone with a readily available reader device””unscrupulous marketers, government agents, stalkers, thieves and just plain snoops””can also access the data on the licenses to remotely track people without their knowledge or consent. What is more, once the tag’s ID number is associated with an individual’s identity””for example, when the person carrying the license makes a credit-card transaction””the radio tag becomes a proxy for that individual. And the driver’s licenses are just the latest addition to a growing array of “tagged” items that consumers might be wearing or carrying around, such as transit and toll passes, office key cards, school IDs, “contactless” credit cards, clothing, phones and even groceries.

Speaking of “contactless” credit cards, the Discovery cable TV channel recently scuttled an episode of “Mythbusters” (where a team of scientists explore the veracity of stories sent in by viewers) which exposes how insecure RFID tags are. Boing Boing describes the clip thusly, “Mythbusters’ Adam Savage told the folks at the HOPE hackercon about how the Discovery Channel was bullied by big credit-card companies out of airing a program about how crappy the security in RFID tags is.”.

Years ago a university research team exposed the same story showing that by merely sitting in close proximity to someone with a Mobil SpeedPass gas keychain fob you can copy the information encoded on that device through the air (the “R” in “RFID” stands for radio) and replay that information at a Mobil gas station to get gas by posing as the SpeedPass owner. It would appear that credit card companies’ lawyers are more sensitive to bad public perception than Mobil is.

Update (2008 September 8): Adam Savage now says that Discovery Channel didn’t kill the RFID episode of “Mythbusters”, the show’s production company did. CNet news quotes a statement from Savage:

“There’s been a lot of talk about this RFID thing, and I have to admit that I got some of my facts wrong, as I wasn’t on that story, and as I said on the video, I wasn’t actually in on the call,” Savage said in the statement. “Texas Instruments’ account of their call with Grant and our producer is factually correct. If I went into the detail of exactly why this story didn’t get filmed, it’s so bizarre and convoluted that no one would believe me, but suffice to say…the decision not to continue on with the RFID story was made by our production company, Beyond Productions, and had nothing to do with Discovery, or their ad sales department.”

But this doesn’t really change the story in a significant way; no matter what group of people decided to kill the RFID Mythbusters episode, it appears that that episode won’t air. Trying to keep the lid on bad decisions about how to deploy RFID technology is futile and in no way benefits the public. The public is no more secure for the silence from Mythbusters and RFID “contactless” credit cards are out there with more on the way. So ask yourself: who does benefit?

Happy 25th Birthday, GNU!

Posted on by

The GNU operating system is 25 years old this year! Stephen Fry has a celebratory video where he explains software freedom in a very non-technical and accessible way. The video is licensed to share and available in multiple free formats, of course. The GNU webpage where you can find copies of the movie already has a French translation and subtitled versions available, no doubt as a result of these freedoms.

I run gNewSense GNU/Linux on my computers and I also run a Fedora GNU/Linux system with a free software kernel. I only install free software on my computers. I hope to write a document to help make it easier for novices to install a completely free software Linux kernel on their Fedora GNU/Linux systems. For now, if you’re interested in installing Fedora GNU/Linux and using a completely free software kernel, write me and I’ll help you get that set up.

gNewSense comes with nothing but free software right out of the box (so to speak), so no modifications are needed to preserve your software freedom. Just boot a live CD (to try the OS before you install it), run the installer program on the desktop, and run your computer in freedom.

If you can’t get the video from any of the mirrors on the GNU website, feel free to grab copies from this website:

Movie files

In English

En Français

Audio-only files

In English