Little Brother

This is a story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside-down. Now I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there, I'll tell you how I stayed up way too late reading an incredible story.

Yesterday, while researching the Digital Economy Bill, I stumbled across mention of an ebook called Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. I knew the author's name, of course; Doctorow is something of a big noise on the interwebs, though I'd never read anything of his before. The Creative Commons license on Little Brother and the price tag (£0.00) intrigued me, so I downloaded the PDF and decided to come back to it later.

That night, I was in Gavin's spare room. Our sleeping patterns are so different (me being a student and all) that I usually bring a book with me to read until I get tired. In the absence of a book, however, I resorted to reading on my phone; PDF wasn't an option, but such is the magic of Creative Commons that it was available in loads of different formats. I ended up reading the HTML version.

For five hours.

I got wrapped up in the story: a teenage boy and his hacker friends. A government that responds to terrorism with shows of force. A prison kept secret from the public. All these elements caught me up and kept me reading, long past the point where it was just 'something to do until I got tired.' For the first three hours, I told myself that when my already-low phone battery died, I'd go to sleep; but when it finally did, I went downstairs and got my phone charger. I endured multiple phone crashes, every time patiently restarting and scrolling to where I'd left off.

At some points, I had to stop reading just to catch my breath and let my heart slow down. At others, I completely forgot where I was - I couldn't have cared less, all that mattered was the story! It's hard to classify, exactly. It's technically a dystopic, futuristic sci-fi, I suppose; but it could be non-fiction within a couple of years. That alone makes it deeply unsettling, and thoroughly in the spirit of Orwell's 1984, for which it was named.

Being the excitable little fellow that I am, I couldn't even wait until I finished it before telling the world. I announced on Twitter: "Head full of thoughts. Too excited to sleep. Damn... You KNOW when you're reading something that will change you." It's been an awfully long time since a book's done that to me.

Obviously, I can't promise that you'll react the way I did, or even that you'll like it. But I feel compelled to share it. There's a lot of information in the book about what you can legally do with it and why, and Doctorow's kindly allowed for the fact that I want EVERYBODY to read it. I have the PDF on my USB key; I will leave a copy on the desktop of everyone I feasibly can. Is he losing money on it? No, I fully intend to buy a copy, something I wouldn't have done previously. Another small victory for the new way of doing things, I think.


Read Little Brother for yourself. The link will go in my 'interesting things' sidebar.

PS I'm listening to a Podcast of the Lib Dem debate on the DE Bill, it makes for very interesting listening.
PPS For something less serious and more noodly, check out Spaghatta Nadle.

I'm free! I'm free!!

At last the curse is lifted!!

Fight for freedom

Right! I've been thinking lately about the state our county is in, and I'm going to lay some truth on you. LAY IT RIGHT ON YOUR FACE.

I will, for the purposes of this blog post, be citing my references.

Now, I'm not one of those people who think that everyone involved in government is inherently evil and wants to oppress me. I have a lot of faith in people; I just also think that large numbers of people in power can make colossally stupid decisions.

The UK is the world leader in CCTV use, with approximately 4.2 million cameras. ref That's about one every 15 people.

Nearly 4 million in the UK have their DNA permanently retained on the NDNAD (the National DNA Database); that's 5.2% of the country's population. Compare this to other countries; the second highest percentage of the population with DNA kept on record is Austria with 1%. ref
See, the thing is, they don't wait for formal charges to be made against you before they take your DNA, they do it the second they've got you. This has lead to black men being hugely overrepresented on the database; something that reflects far more on the bias in the police force than on crime statistics.

Another consequence is that the DNA of approximately 100,000 innocent children has been retained on the NDNAD. And once you're on there, it is really, really hard to get off. ref

See, the most convenient thing is if absolutely everyone has their DNA on there. Until very recently I wouldn't have seen anything wrong with this, and maybe you don't either, but this is something worth thinking about:

---

Do you trust the Government to look after your data? ref
Do they have a right to your DNA?
Are they taking it with your permission?

---

Sadly, the way things are going, it's looking like your permission isn't necessary for them to keep this information. They have been pushing for some time now for a national enforced ID scheme (ref) and have met with a lot of resistance, leading to them trying to sneak it in through teenagers or, worse, implanting subdermal chips in convicts. I've read the leaked government documents on the teenage ID cards, and it really does look like a poor disguise for introducing the system through a side door.

Again, these are all things that I would have once accepted. I can see the practicality in having an easy and conclusive form of ID, but the technology they intend to use is easily cloned, meaning that your identity can be stolen; and since your identity is that card, what can you do about it?
Furthermore, you KNOW how hard it is to get forms filled out properly. Scraping together enough valid identification for a passport was hard enough. I dread to think how many people might fall through the cracks of this system and become officially non-existent.

I think it's important to know your rights, and to fight for them. Everybody thinks that's important, of course, but maybe now's the time to do something about it.

---

Taken from the European Convention on Human Rights

ARTICLE 8

1. Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence.
2. There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as is in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.

ARTICLE 10

1. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. this right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers. This article shall not prevent States from requiring the licensing of broadcasting, television or cinema enterprises.
2. The exercise of these freedoms, since it carries with it duties and responsibilities, may be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or the rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary.

---

Basically... I shouldn't be afraid of taking photos in public. I shouldn't be watched, every second of every day. There are a lot of people out there who know and care a lot more about this than I do, so if you're even vaguely interested in defending these liberties, please check out www.no2id.net.

"He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name." Revelation 13:16-17. Sorry if it's excessively superstitious to bring that up, but it seems worth mentioning.

Found this draft saved on my profile!

From my very limited experience, I get the impression that the kind of person who is anarchistic enough to write on walls, doesn't like being watched while they do it.


They are the rebels, the people willing and able to speak out against this 'Big Brother is watching you' society. I think they have a point.

But every time I get a run-up at feeling revolutionary, someone steps in and gently reminds me to "give to Caesar what is Caesar's." I've clearly missed the point somewhere. Yes, I'm meant to be alive enough to kick against society. I should have the strength to use every last shred of liberty that I have. But at the same time... if someone forces me to walk with them for one mile, I should walk two.

I still can't entirely work it out, but the Bible's point of view seems to be that I should fight for the freedoms of others while being willing to surrender my own.

What makes you free?

If you were snatched up from wherever you are and dropped in an infinite featureless plain, would you technically be imprisoned?

Think about that for a second.

What if there was stuff on this plain, trees and such. Is it still a prison? If so, what makes it so?

Maybe it's prison when you can't get home... but then you can be imprisoned in your home. Maybe it's a prison when you can't get where you want to be. I'd feel trapped if I couldn't travel to my home or to Cardiff. Or to beatboxing events. You know what, the sooner my NUS student card comes through, the better - I'll get rail discounts, which apparently in my head equates to more freedom.

What makes you free? Would would count as a prison to you?

ITOTD: I could spend hours doing this.