|
10 Jun 2005 @ 20:21, by Vaxen Var
License To Chill -- Hackers Hamstring Rights Violators
SUMMARY: International hacker organization issues software license that allows the group or its licensees to take human rights violators to court.
CROSSHAIRS: This story is important for anyone interested in hacking, human rights, information security, open-source software, Internet censorship, international law, international politics, or technology transfer.
License To Chill -- Hackers Hamstring Rights Violators
LUBBOCK, TX, November 25, 2002 -- Hacktivismo, an international group of hackers and human rights activists, today issued the Hacktivismo Enhanced-Source Software License Agreement (HESSLA). The license offers open-source transparency, enhanced by legal remedies both for Hacktivismo, as licensor, and for end-users.
"The Hacktivismo Enhanced-Source Software License Agreement marks the first time technology transfer has been linked to protecting human rights," said Oxblood Ruffin, founder of Hacktivismo. "Our clients and end-users aren't building the firewalls to keep democracy out. They're locked inside trying to break free."
In contrast with more-traditional "free" or "open-source" software licenses, The HESSLA contains some novel terms unique to the history of information technology. These enhanced terms are designed to promote a broad range of human rights worldwide, as well as to empower end-users to seek new and additional remedies against human-rights violations by governments and governmental officials.
"Hacktivismo has sought to preserve, to the maximum degree, the primary advantages of 'free' and 'open-source' software," said Eric Grimm, an attorney with CyberBrief, PLC, who assisted Hacktivismo with drafting the license. "These advantages include ease of customization, the ability of any end-user to redistribute the software to friends and colleagues without paying any license fees, transparency, and enabling collaboration among volunteer and commercial developers worldwide."
The license enables both Hacktivismo and its end-users to go to court if someone tries to use the software in a malicious manner, or to introduce harmful changes into the software. It also contains more robust language than has previously been used to maximize enforcement against governments around the world. The HESSLA explicitly prohibits anybody from introducing "spy-ware, surveillance technology, or other undesirable code into modified versions of HESSLA-licensed programs. Additionally, the license prohibits any use of the software by any government that has any policy or practice of violating human rights.
The most novel innovation in the license distributes enforcement power instead of concentrating it in Hacktivismo's hands. If a private citizen happens to violate the license, then Hacktivismo is in charge of enforcement. But the situation is different if the violation is by a government or a governmental official. When Governments subvert human rights, and try to use Hactivismo-licensed software as part of any aspect of such a project, then the license empowers end-users act as enforcers too.
It is not unusual for victims of torture and other human rights abuses in other countries, to seek a remedy for violations of international law in U.S. court. But there's a difference between suing Slobodan Milosevic, and suing Republica Srpska for the official policies and abuses of the Milosevic regime. When victims have tried to name foreign governments as defendants, they have run into a brick wall called sovereign immunity. The Hacktivismo license makes it clear that the act of voluntarily using Hacktivismo software, if it is used by a government as a part of any project that has the effect of violating human rights, explicitly constitutes a waiver by that government of its sovereign immunity in the courts of other countries.
In other words, if Myanmar or China want to keep violating human rights -- then they have no choice but to steer clear from using Hacktivismo's software in connection with any of their wrongful projects. If not, then this software license just may be the victims' long-needed ticket into court; their pathway over the obstacle to justice previously presented by sovereign immunity.
Full text of the Hacktivismo Enhanced-Source Software License Agreement is available at:
[link]
PRESS CONTACT Krass Katt krasskatt@hacktivismo.com
ABOUT HACKTIVISMO Hacktivismo is a group of international hackers, human rights workers, artists and others who seek to further the goals of human rights through technology. They operate under the aegis of the CULT OF THE DEAD COW (cDc). Hacktivismo is committed to developing technologies in support of the highest standards of human rights. For more information, please visit [link] .
ABOUT THE CULT OF THE DEAD COW Based in Lubbock, Texas, the CULT OF THE DEAD COW (cDc) is the most influential hacking group in the world. The cDc alumni reads like a Who1s Who of hacking and includes a former Presidential advisor on Internet security, among others. The group is further distinguished by publishing the longest running e-zine on the Internet [est. 1984], stretching the limits of the First Amendment, and fighting anyone or any government that aspires to limit free speech. For more information, please visit [link] .
ABOUT THE CYBERBRIEF, PLC Based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, CyberBrief, PLC is a law firm specializing in cutting-edge issues at the intersection of law and information technology. CyberBrief, PLC, has represented clients in high-tech cases in federal courthouses all over the United States, and provides legal representation to clients from all over the world. CyberBrief's hallmark and greatest source of pride is its generous and resolute commitment to donate time and resources to public-interest projects and representations involving issues that matter.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT: Hacktivismo would like to express its gratitude to Eric Grimm for his tireless work and personal generosity in drafting the Hacktivismo Enhanced-Source Software License Agreement. Eric was a model of calm and reason throughout the entire project, and we shall forever be in his debt.
|
|
Category: Technology
6 comments
10 Jun 2005 @ 22:34 by astrid : Thanks vax,
I have several friends who will be forever grateful for this (kind of ) Info.... Soooo... I will pass it on to them, like right now! (I my self don't really understand this techno lingo, nor the working of Computers/Cyberworld overall, I just bless it daily... How else could I stay in touch with those I love THOUSANDS of miles away in the geo-mest- world )if it wasn't for CyberSpace,PC's etc )
11 Jun 2005 @ 17:09 by astrid : Good Morning, vax
Me again. I re-read the the whole article. This time I had managed to get over my preconcieved notion that "I will not understand anything what is said under the umbrella of Computers/CyberWorld". And to my surprice the text took on a completely new colour, so to speak, and I UNDERSTOOD IT ALL -it wasn't intimidating anymore!It was like reading a completely new text, where words now fit together to create a (logic ) content, as opposed to just understand each word separate, with no connection to each other!...
I am thrilled about the Good News, this article brings, not to mention the HOPE of an opening that will widen ever more; the famous hair crack in a damm a la Hoover Damm for instance... going un-noticed in its own secret life on ever growing and all of sudden it will burst the whole damm!... I think that HACKTIVISMO (with Eric Grimms help, if I understand correct ) has been able to solidify exactly such a crack in the Legal part of CyberSpace AND more!!!....
When I read the article again, I very deeply got the feeling that THIS indeed is the crack that will eventually take down the whole MORTALLY twisted,( so called ) Judicial System/Institution!... which of course the Good People at cDc, I feel, are -ever so secretly- hoping to achieve!
GOOD GOING!!! THUMBS UP for people like these! And I will keep my thumbs up for these guys and their very noble endevour to protect and even expand the Human Civil Rights. THANKS VAX.
11 Jun 2005 @ 20:48 by : Heh!
Sure, A-d, I'm glad that you see that there is nothing intimidating, just implants, in the computer world at all! Any one can understand once that get to their own core sans 'the conditioning.'
Erics' work is cool but he certainly is NOT the only one working in this vein. It is a rich vein of pure gold with silver trimmings for those who want to wire it themselves. Like us, for instance, I've always loved Copper (Yo, copper!) and it is the metal/medal of Venus whom I adore. ;) heh heh
Government is such a crock! It is 'Government spending, not the budget deficit, which weakens the pool of real savings!' You might as well analog that with 'the gene pool = the pool of real savings!'
Now that makes a whole lot of cents/sense eh? Onwards we go into the thick of the battle knowing that our friends the trees are gretting very, very, pissed!
The day the trees march on Washington is the day all those Federal Reserve Notes, which actually destroy the real wealth of a nation, go into the streets, the people will dance, the 'governors and world banksters'...will hang, and life will go on so much the sweeter for the death of the 'Fed.' FedCorp must go! ;) (RANT!)
Words for today:
Fiduciary media = debt organized into currency.
A: Head Global Enslavers--
1: Front Groups...
a: About a dozen 'international banker' families.
b: Secret Government of Earth.
2: Psychic Warfare--
a: Psychic Spying.
b: Psychic influencing.
Decoy, Distract, Trash!
http://www.buergerwelle.de/
Luv ya...
12 Jun 2005 @ 00:44 by jstarrs : Bummer...
..."The requested URL /hessla.html was not found on this server."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Link in the above article works now starry san. But here it is, again, just to make it easy for you:
http://www.hacktivismo.com/about/hessla.php
12 Jun 2005 @ 07:14 by : hessla?
the link is to buergerwelle, starry san, and it worketh...
Por qua, tell me what you are referring to?
http://www.buergerwelle.de/logo2.gif
12 Jun 2005 @ 07:25 by : Ah...
the Hactivismo Enhanced Source Software License Agreement (HESSLA)! Their bad, starry, and I'll get it for you...
Forgive the tribal error gremlins for the over~sight, puh---lease. ;)
Here is the link to HESSLA, una otra mas, just for the fun of it.
http://www.hacktivismo.com/about/hessla.php
Los Munchkinos forgot the /about/! Oi! Frito bandolero is now, even now, getting on their case but---it is too late for the articulo is all over Le Web! But you got it Freyr san. ;)
Other entries in Technology
3 Jul 2010 @ 07:01: Forms, Archetypes work by Association
19 Jun 2010 @ 23:10: Conversations
9 Feb 2010 @ 20:13: Transmediale - space navigation and interfaces
13 Nov 2007 @ 16:55: Important Security Update
24 Jul 2007 @ 12:45: What exactly is SMN and how does it connect with other technologies?
26 Apr 2007 @ 15:56: OmniWeb
5 Jun 2006 @ 21:41: Reboot8
3 Mar 2006 @ 18:01: 0 to 60 in 4 seconds.
4 Jan 2006 @ 04:39: Books, Books, Books!
30 Sep 2005 @ 11:27: Web Browsers
|
