…keeping John’s mass emails out of your inbox since 2008

• ahhh…, silly @bennettk don’t you know that geeks like you aren’t supposed to live above 14th street? #
• goodbye @MarsPhoenix. You have served us well. We will miss you. #
• Anyone know how to unlock a 3G iPhone to use a different carrier and SIM card? #

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Cross posted from FCNYU

Old and New Net Wars over Free Speech, Freedom and Secrecy or….
How to Understand the Hacker and Lulz battle against the C0$

NYU’s very own Gabriella Coleman, Assistant Professor, New York University, will be speaking at Columbia this Thursday at noon. Gabriella is a talented scholar and friend. This is a great opportunity to see her speak. Details below.

Thursday November 13: noon - 2:00pm
Columbia University Communications Colloquium
270B IAB (International Affairs Building:
http://www.columbia.edu/about_columbia/tour/11.html
http://www.iserp.columbia.edu/calendar/

In this talk I present a cultural history and political analysis of one of the oldest Internet wars, often referred to as ?Internet vs Scientology,? which in recent times has witnessed a different incarnation in the form of ?Project Chanology,? which is orchestrated by a group called Anonymous who has led a series of online attacks and real world protests against the Church of Scientology. I argue that to understand the significance of these battles and protests, we must examine the culturally antipodal relationship between Scientology and hacker/geek culture. In so doing I will demonstrate how long-standing liberal ideals take cultural root in unexpected ways in the context of these battles and I will use these two cases to reveal important political transformations in Internet/hacker culture between the mid 1990s and today.

Technorati Tags: event, freeculture, freecultureNYU, GabriellaColeman, Scientology, talk

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(Cross posted from FCNYU– comments there)

FC NYU is proud to be sponsoring this screening with Computers and Society:

Released in December 2007 by the League of Noble Peers (Alan Toner, J.J. King, Jan Gerber, Sebastian Luetgert, Luca Lucarini, and others), Steal This Film 2 tries to go beyond the current discussions around file-sharing to look at what kinds of social change are precipitated by massive changes in our capacity to communicate. The film argues that the changes wrought by networked, peer distribution are historical on the scale of the printing press and tries to explain why.

For many of you these argument will be familiar. These are strange times, in which to many of us the battle already seems to have been won. Yet governments continue to enact harsh laws expanding the scope of copyright protection and increasing sanctions for its infringement, lawsuits are levied against filesharers, fines imposed and arrests made - all intended to destroy or delay what is an inevitable change in how we look at creative work.

At the same time there has developed a burgeoning area of cultural production outside of both the institution of copyright and the historical channels of distribution, be they television, cinema or music stores. Deep beneath the sand the playing field of culture is shifting, in no small part due to the combined actions of millions of peer produsers.

Alan Toner, one of the peers responsible for the film’s production, will be present for a discussion afterwards, during which there will
also be a demonstration of STF’s footage archive.

http://stealthisfilm.com/Part2/
http://footage.stealthisfilm.com/
http://knowfuture.wordpress.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steal_This_Film

Sunday, November 16, 2008
7:00pm - 9:00pm

Room 109 Warren Weaver Hall
251 Mercer Street
New York, NY

RSVP on Facebook

Technorati Tags: screening

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• I’m changing my twitter username. I am now @johntrandall https://twitter.com/johntrandall #
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• Facebook | Lawrence Lessig Lecture @ NYU this Sunday
  http://tinyurl.com/5a6b6t #
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• Heading out to PA to knock on doors for #Obama. Wish me luck. #
• I’m doing an informal study on the impact of user-generated media on the election… could you fill this out? http://snipr.com/4uy9v #

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• Wesley uploaded pics from the free culture conference here– http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwwes/sets/72157608218100786/ #fc2008 #

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• Doing some informal research on new media in the election. Please answer this quick survey: http://www.385no.th8.us #

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Election2008 / Civil Liberties
Reporters claim that the secret service is stopping them from interviewing people in the crowd at McCain/Palin rallies.

Water
Nestle is suing a county for promoting their tap water as cleaner and safer than bottled water. The International Bottled Water Association is considering similar action.

But, Your Bottled Water is Contaminated,
and
Bottled Water No Purer Than Tap Water

some additional info:
reddit.com: search resuls for “bottled water”

Fear
echoing Boing Boing: Lexington, KY - Student Arrested For Terroristic Threatening because he wrote some zombie fiction.

Copyfight
echoing BoingBoing:Selling used CDs is still legal in America even if they are marked “not for resale”. First sale doctrine upheld.

Religion / Games
Wish i had more information on Islamic content in games.

Technorati Tags: civil liberties, copyfight, election2008, terrorism, puppy, puppy, religion, water