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US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

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Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#51

Post by mikegagnon »

When I read those excerpts from this report, I assumed it was written by some extremist lobbying group that doesn't have any real power. Then I read this statement from Congressman Mike Rogers (Chair of CHPSCI, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence):

“It is already clear to me that this report is going to make a very important contribution to the discussion about the grave danger that IP theft poses to our economic well-being. In particular, all should carefully read what the report has to say about Chinese economic espionage. I heartily agree that Congress and the Administration need to act quickly to help American companies defend the hard work and innovation that is the life-blood of our economy. That must begin with getting cyber information sharing legislation signed into law."

https://intelligence.house.gov/press-release/chairman-rogers...

The report and Congressman's statement came out on the same day.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#52

Post by seandhi »

kunai wrote: post #11

I'm sick and tired of being in such a lazy-ass, apathetic society that possesses zero regard to freedom. Stallman may be a nut, but when you think long and hard about what he says, and think about SOPA, PIPA, and this lobby, in horror, your face twists in fear and you watch, helplessly, as your fellow citizens bend over backwards and let the government have their way. I don't even know what to do anymore. Nobody will…

This paper barely even mentions music or movies, and its proposals are for going after foreign entities who steal intellectual property, such as R&D, to develop counterfeit goods.

This is less about going after little Timmy for downloading a movie and more to do with a Chinese firm stealing biotechnology secrets from a U.S. company to produce its own products.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#53

Post by kintamanimatt »

eru wrote: post #41
kintamanimatt wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just about every Linux kernel version has had some root privilege escalation bug. So long as they can get some executable software on your system (perhaps not easy!) it's reasonable any such bug could be exploited, and voila, they can install a rootkit!

But they don't have all the same bug.

Of course not. But it's easy to maintain a list of public bugs for different kernel versions and also a list of 0day bugs that may have been found, and then exploit the appropriate privilege escalation bug depending on the kernel version.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#54

Post by fixxer »

markdown wrote: post #36
obviouslygreen wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And your answer is Stallman ? Yes, he is a nut. In the sense of "no one will ever take him seriously, especially anyone involved in mainstream decision-making, who has ever read anything he has written," which is in this case the most relevant metric. Stallman is never going to be any help here, nor is anyone like him, because any "normal" person -- that is, one that other people won't ignore out of hand -- will igno…

Stallman isn't an activist for the end user, he's an activist for the activists. > Yes, he is a nut. Eccentric is what he is. Must be fun living in a black and white world.

I'm kind of shocked by the extremist label. I don't think Richard Stallman is a nut at all. Eccentric, sure, but only for the unfortunate reality that it is rare for most people to stick with a principle over decades.

EDIT: ok, that foot eating thing is weird.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#55

Post by kintamanimatt »

beedogs wrote: post #45
kintamanimatt wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just about every Linux kernel version has had some root privilege escalation bug. So long as they can get some executable software on your system (perhaps not easy!) it's reasonable any such bug could be exploited, and voila, they can install a rootkit!

For an industry as fucking inept as the MPAA and the rest of the copyright cartel, I'd be absolutely floored if they managed to break into a Linux machine.

They have the money to pay people who can though!

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#56

Post by fixxer »

pyre wrote: post #43
munin wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Then the entertainment industry has enemies actively trying to destroy their systems. so to be fair this is actually where we are today, if you remember the efforts of anonymous and sony, etc...

To be fair: 1) Anonymous/Lulzsec aren't necessarily a best-of-the-best of the 'hacker world.' Do they want to raise the ire of even more skilled people? 2) Anonymous/Lulzsec are/were in it mostly for the publicity, and 'cheap thrills.' I'm sure that they could have done a lot more damage had they been focused on being as malicious as possible.

> mostly for the publicity, and 'cheap thrills.

You mean... for the lulz?

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#57

Post by ISL »

[deleted] wrote: post #49
kunai wrote: post #11

I'm sick and tired of being in such a lazy-ass, apathetic society that possesses zero regard to freedom. Stallman may be a nut, but when you think long and hard about what he says, and think about SOPA, PIPA, and this lobby, in horror, your face twists in fear and you watch, helplessly, as your fellow citizens bend over backwards and let the government have their way. I don't even know what to do anymore. Nobody will…

[deleted]

Since there are few corporations that have a corporate interest in "freedom," then the money and resources have to come from individuals.

I'd disagree. The majority of corporations have a financial interest in freedom. Getting them to commit resources to any lobbying effort is the challenge.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#58

Post by ISL »

markdown wrote: post #36
obviouslygreen wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And your answer is Stallman ? Yes, he is a nut. In the sense of "no one will ever take him seriously, especially anyone involved in mainstream decision-making, who has ever read anything he has written," which is in this case the most relevant metric. Stallman is never going to be any help here, nor is anyone like him, because any "normal" person -- that is, one that other people won't ignore out of hand -- will igno…

Stallman isn't an activist for the end user, he's an activist for the activists. > Yes, he is a nut. Eccentric is what he is. Must be fun living in a black and white world.

If he is a nut, he's our nut.

If advancing a rational cause is nutty, being a nut sounds like a good plan.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#59

Post by kintamanimatt »

ancarda wrote: post #50
kintamanimatt wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best thing Stallman could do is improve his outward image from hippy to something less ... hippy. Appearances matter and his, together with what he says makes him, and therefore his message, unpalatable and unrelatable to most people. We live in a shallow society and the best thing the pro-privacy movement can have are moderately attractive, presentable, glib spokespeople.

I don't see why Stallman doesn't wear something a bit more presentable, like a suit and tie and shave his beard. It looks a little repulsive to be honest.

He was actually a really attractive guy. [1] You can still see he's fairly attractive for a 60 year old under the disheveled hair and beard, and excess weight.

[1] http://en.wikinoticia.com/Technology/linux/33921-the-young-r...

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#60

Post by vy8vWJlco »

kunai wrote: post #11

I'm sick and tired of being in such a lazy-ass, apathetic society that possesses zero regard to freedom. Stallman may be a nut, but when you think long and hard about what he says, and think about SOPA, PIPA, and this lobby, in horror, your face twists in fear and you watch, helplessly, as your fellow citizens bend over backwards and let the government have their way. I don't even know what to do anymore. Nobody will…

"I don't even know what to do anymore."

Code.

People use Skype because there's no clear alternative (maybe work on Jitsi... It still needs a server for the good stuff). People use Facebook because there's no alternative (maybe work on RetroShare). People let their government tell them what to do because they think it's better than anarchy (maybe work on a political Kickstarter). Copyright enforcement against BitTorrent users has gone into high gear because BitTorrent is good at sharing but weak in anonymity. Fix that. Don't make tools to break laws, just make tools. Write software to empower individuals and make institutions unnecessary and you won't have to spend as much time cleaning up after institutions and the egos that run them when they get carried away.

Promoting open-source software as a way to counter spyware, and general activism, is better than nothing, but the best way to change the world is still to invent it IMHO. (Just don't throw yourself on the fire unnecessarily either... Bitcoin's author was wise to keep his identity out of it.)

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