The New York Post is quivering in fear and outrage over a graduate level course for intelligence analysts that requires students to write a fake terrorism plot, complete with methods of execution, sources of funding, number of operatives needed and the target government’s reaction.
Students, who are training for intelligence and counterterrorism careers, must take into account the “goals, capabilities, tactical profile, targeting pattern and operational area,” the syllabus states — according to the Post‘s harrowing story Monday.
The Post‘s crack investigative team uncovered the covert training of terrorists by obtaining the syllabus of the class offered by NYU’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies Center for Global Affairs.
Activism – Wendy Cockcroft: The nightmare scenario of perpetual copyright approaches. The Supreme Court is hearing Kirtsaeng V Wiley, the case of an entrepreneurial Thai student who purchased his textbooks from his native land and imported them into the United States, taking advantage of the price differential. At issue is the question of whether or not you own what you buy. If Wiley wins outright, goods manufactured abroad could actually enjoy copyright protection indefinitely.
Mathematics graduate Supap Kirtsaeng was frustrated that there was such a massive difference between the prices of the textbooks he needed for his course that he arranged to import them from his native Thailand. Relatives purchased the books and sent them over. Then he realised he could make money doing this so he asked them to send more so he could sell them on eBay, making profits of over a million dollars. Wiley found out and sued.
There is a separate provision of U.S. copyright law that prohibits the importation into the United States, “without the authority of the owner of copyright,” of copies of a work “acquired outside the United States.” – Slate
This is what got Kirtsaeng into trouble. He owned what he bought, via his relatives in Thailand. As soon as they entered the country, Wiley had ownership and Kirtsaeng required a license. The law is unambiguous:
(1) Importation.—Importation into the United States, without the authority of the owner of copyright under this title, of copies or phonorecords of a work that have been acquired outside the United States is an infringement of the exclusive right to distribute copies or phonorecords under section 106, actionable under section 501. – Importation and Exportation, US Copyright Law
But so is First Sale Doctrine, which Kirtsaeng used as his defense:
Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software Foundation's monthly news digest and action update — being read by you and 63,183 other activists. That's 1,414 more than last month!
Tunisia: Reacting to wave of violent protests by Islamic fundamentalists, President Moncef Marzouki on Wednesday extended a state of emergency, which grants police special powers of intervention, until 1 February 2013, the official TAP news agency reported.
Comment: The security situation is deteriorating again in Tunisia. President Marzouki is using the same tactics that Ben Ali did to suppress and kill the Islamist opposition. US support of the overthrow of Ben Ali only achieved a delay in the continuing violent internal instability, interrupted by an election that brought the Islamist Ennahda party to power. Ben Ali got out alive, but Marzouki might not.
US diplomatic facilities in Tunisia need more protection.
8th International Forum on Technology Assisted Larning and Training for Defence, Security, and Emergency Services
Berlin, 28-30 November 2012
Innovation and learning in rapidly changing security environments will be two of the most significant, underlying themes in discussions at this year's Security and Defence Learning, according to conference hosts, the New Security Foundation.
We saw the usual spikes in Twitter activity and the typical (reactive) launch of crowdsourced crisis maps. We also saw map mashups combining user-generated content with scientific weather data. Facebook was once again used to inform our social networks: “We are ok” became the most common status update on the site. In addition, thousands of pictures where shared on Instagram (600/minute), documenting both the impending danger & resulting impact of Hurricane Sandy. But was there anything really novel about the use of social media during this latest disaster?
I’m asking not because I claim to know the answer but because I’m genuinely interested and curious. One possible “novelty” that caught my eye was this FrankenFlow experiment to “algorithmically curate” pictures shared on social media. Perhaps another “novelty” was the embedding of webcams within a number of crisis maps, such as those below launched by #HurricaneHacker and Team Rubicon respectively.
