Sheffield Technology Newswire Archive

Sheffield Hallam University computer science student Richard O’Dwyer faces extradition to the United States on copyright infringement charges, where he faces five to ten years imprisonment in a US federal jail.

Tuesday, February 7, 5:30 p.m.

Sheffield Hallam University Students’ Union
The Fishbowl @ The Hubs
Paternoster Row, S1 2QQ

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The Pirate Party UK and I are alarmed at the US's continued efforts to enforce its excessive and unpopular copyright legislation outside of the USA.

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This week we introduce a new author, Jacques Lusseyran. As a teenager, although completely blind, he organised some of the most effective French resistance to the Nazi occupation. We begin with a reading of Steve Talbott's Can Technology Make The Handicapped Whole? about techno-fixing human beings, which focuses on Lusseyran. Next, we read one of Lusseyran's essays, The Blind in Society. Finally, an interview with Laura Fogg, author of "Travelling Blind -- life lessons from unexpected places", on her experience of helping the blind to navigate.

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There could be no better proof of the revolution – care of the internet – occurring in the accessibility of information and informed commentary than the reaction of our mainstream, corporate media.

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This essay originally appeared at The Pirate Bay as the description for the torrent of documents. You can see this message and the torrent here:  http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/6554331

See also Defend Internet Activist Aaron Swartz  http://sheffield.indymedia.org.uk/2011/07/482483.html

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When the former News of the World reporter Sean Hoare was found dead Monday at his home in Watford, north of London, the immediate response of the Hertfordshire police was to issue a public statement declaring his death to be “unexplained but not thought to be suspicious.”

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Aaron Swartz, who has been a life long progressive and highly ethical, internet activist, who founded Demand Progress, has been charged in the US for downloading academic documents and potentially faces up to 35 years in prison and a $1 million fine. A political campaign to support Aaron Swartz has been launched and he deserves the widest support — the charges, threatened sentence and fine are truly outrageous.

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We are Lulz Security, and this is our final release, as today marks something meaningful to us.

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June 30th marks a very considerable mobilisation of industrial action in Britain, in the shape of a large public sector strike. The Trades Unions are making their first tentative steps towards politically motivated action for a generation, with a massive withdrawal of workers labour in response to government plans for pensions reform; whilst the pensions dispute is the legal justification for industrial action (under Britain’s strict, Thatcherite anti-strike legislation), in reality the issue is the tip of the iceberg. The consensus behind the strikes is that of a political fight against the cuts in general. The range of action we will see on June 30th will stretch far beyond those “directly” affected by pensions plans, with a cross-section of those worst hit by the cuts expected to engage with the day of action– the disabled, those who face massive reductions to vital welfare benefits, students, schools pupils and parents and other public-service users.

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According to a Project PM announcement, here are some of the 'classified intelligence' details about Romas/COIN (Odyssey) with capabilities to monitor and automatically analyze millions of conversations, and then secretly store a wide range of personal data. It appears as if even Apple, Google, and Disney's Pixar were trying to be brought aboard to help out in this mass surveillance apparatus.

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In a frightening example of how the state is tightening its grip around the
free Internet, it has emerged that You Tube is complying with thousands of
requests from governments to censor and remove videos that show protests and
other examples of citizens simply asserting their rights, while also
deleting search terms by government mandate.

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There is an interesting article in the WSJ about how documents found in Egypt prove the security services were listening to activists conversations which were conducted via Skype, now owned by Microsoft, extracts follow.

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A celebration of docs made using Open source Software; about open source subjects; or created with an open source ethos.

Friday 10th June 4pm-5pm @ Access Space, 3-7 Sidney St., Sheffield S1 4RG

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An unusually topical show for you this week. We start by adapting an Adam Curtis film on the development of the nuclear industry. Next the scientific secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk, Christopher Busby, explains that the nuclear industry relies on a massive underestimation of the health effects of radiation. We conclude with a compilation of recordings on shutting down nuclear power plants from TUC Radio.

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local residents marked the 25th anniversary of chernobyl with a message to local town council and nuclear research centre

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On 8th April 2011 a public meeting organised by Stop GM  http://www.stopgm.org.uk/ was held in Bramham about the genetically modified potatoe trials being held there. The meeting was chaired by local minister Rev. Menzies and addressed by Dr. Ricarda Steinbrecher, Peter Riley from GM freeze,  http://www.gmfreeze.org/ and Gerald Miles.

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Today, a college meeting of the European Commissioners will take place to decide the future of European copyright policy. This revision takes place in conditions that raise severe concerns from a democratic perspective and put fundamental rights at risk, especially when it comes to the Internet.

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Attached is a recording of a meeting held by Liberal Democrat Voice,  http://www.libdemvoice.org/ on 12th March 2011 in Sheffield at the Liberal Democrat conference titled, Who controls the internet?

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Ecoshock Bulletin #3 The real news about the unfolding nuclear disaster in Japan. A second reactor blows up, while a third may have total melt down. U.S. Navy hit by radiation. European governments re-assess. Stocks in nuclear companies hit hard. And more

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Richard Stallman spoke in Sheffield on 5th March 2011 on Copyright vs Community in the Age of Computer Networks.

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