[Wikimedia-l] Facebook goes turncoat on the "squash internet freedom" battle.

[Jussi-Ville Heiskanen]

On Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 2:44 AM, Kirill Lokshin
<kirill.lokshin at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 8:42 PM, Jussi-Ville Heiskanen <cimonavaro at gmail.com
>> wrote:
>
>> First there were SOPA, PIPA, ACTA and OPEN. Now there is going to be
>> Yet Another Attempt
>> to enact draconian legislation through mislabeling the real purpose of
>> IP legislation by inserting
>> it as a rider to law supposedly intended to help in combatting
>> Cyber-terrorism: CISPA.
>>
>> From the link below:
>>
>> ‎"It's a little piece of Sopa [the Stop Online Piracy Act] wrapped up
>> in a bill that's
>> supposedly designed to facilitate detection of and defence against
>> cyber-security
>> threats. The language is so vague that an ISP could use it to monitor
>> communications of subscribers for potential infringement of
>> intellectual property."
>>
>> In effect this law is directed against file-sharers, not Cyber terrorism.
>>
>> http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-17730266
>
>
> How would CISPA impact Wikimedia?
>

Let me count the ways... no, on second thought, perhaps not.
We would be here all night. I am divided on the question of
whether splitting the wikimedia movement into dozens upon
dozens national organisations would be worse --- if it came
into it without even a discussion --- or the wrenching drama
of whether we follow googles lead and diversivy our
datacenters massively or do something stupid like move
into a dataheven, whether to keep incorporated in SF,
or on the banks of Lake Geneva. I do think US foreign
policy on the Internet issues right now is pretty miserable.

I think honestly that the perception in foreign countries
would be that Wikimedia can take on Mickey Mouse,
but not Maxwell Smart, even when the constitution is
holding Maxwell Smarts hand behind his back.

But all that is really fiddlesticks. A good bustup within
Wikimedia splintering it into hundreds of shards might
arguably be healthy for it in the long run. And diversifying
our datacenter structure internationally would mean that
the SF office could hire US national staff more freely.

The *real* issue though, is that Wikimedia lives on
trust,depends on the integrity of the internet. All
intelligent kids moving onto black nets; tight beam
Line of Sight Only UV-beam connections, means
they are going be much and much less on the "free"
internet, editing Wikimedia projects.

-- 
--
Jussi-Ville Heiskanen, ~ [[User:Cimon Avaro]]