Christine Lemmer-Webber
boosted
Debian has a new general resolution to ban LLM use in Debian packaging: www.debian.org/vote/2026/vote_002
Showing activities from people in this circle
That's where the law comes in. In 1998, Bill Clinton signed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Section 1201 of the DMCA makes it a felony to produce a tool that bypasses an "access control." That means that if a computer is designed to block you from modifying it, removing that block is a felony, punishable by five years in prison and a $500k fine.
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DMCA 1201 doesn't distinguish between modifications undertaken for a lawful purpose (changing your printer so it works with generic ink) and unlawful purpose (breaking the locks on a DVD so you can sell infringing copies). DMCA 1201 criminalizes *anything the manufacturer dislikes*. It's what Jay Freeman calls "felony contempt of business model."
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Chip Butty
boosted
RE: https://dair-community.social/@emilymbender/116811128152569506
Some great alternative terms and phrases to communicate about "AI" without adopting all the misleading marketing terms:
"artificial intelligence → probabilistic automation"
"prompt → text input"
"answer → output"
"chatbot / conversational agent → conversation simulator"
"who’s right? → is the machine output correct?"
(& more in the article)
The only computer we know how to make is the "Turing-complete, universal von Neumann machine," defined as a device that can compute ever valid program. If your phone is running a program that disables your apps, then you can install another program that disables *that* program. Same goes for your car's lo-jack; the stereo system emitting ear-splitting complaints about your car note; and the immobilizer hooked up to your ignition.
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That's where the law comes in. In 1998, Bill Clinton signed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Section 1201 of the DMCA makes it a felony to produce a tool that bypasses an "access control." That means that if a computer is designed to block you from modifying it, removing that block is a felony, punishable by five years in prison and a $500k fine.
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After at least six Wildberries logistics centers have been destroyed, Putin's army finally moved some air defence systems in. I do not know the model, but it sure is effective.
A borrower with a broken finger can get to a pawn-broker to sell their wedding-ring; a borrower with two broken legs has a much harder time.
Digital arm-breakers aren't an epiphenomenon of digitization alone. Usury tech only works if the device's owner can't disable it. Remember: a computer is *flexible*.
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The only computer we know how to make is the "Turing-complete, universal von Neumann machine," defined as a device that can compute ever valid program. If your phone is running a program that disables your apps, then you can install another program that disables *that* program. Same goes for your car's lo-jack; the stereo system emitting ear-splitting complaints about your car note; and the immobilizer hooked up to your ignition.
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Big Tech accused of stonewalling European social media researchers
Researchers say TikTok, X, and Meta aren't providing data they're legally required to.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/07/big-tech-accused-of-stonewalling-european-social-media-researchers/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social
Sebastian Gräßl
boosted
Wenn Österreich das Design für neue Euro-Banknoten entscheidet...
When the owner misses a payment, the phone starts disabling the user's favorite apps, working its way up the list to the most indispensable ones:
https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/02/innovation-unlocks-markets/#digital-arm-breakers
It's the digital version of the mob loan-shark who breaks a finger, then your hand, then your arm. The more graduated the threat matrix is, the more payments you can capture.
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A borrower with a broken finger can get to a pawn-broker to sell their wedding-ring; a borrower with two broken legs has a much harder time.
Digital arm-breakers aren't an epiphenomenon of digitization alone. Usury tech only works if the device's owner can't disable it. Remember: a computer is *flexible*.
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Digital tech makes repo much cheaper, so wherever you find digital tech, you find digital arm-breakers coming up with ways to robo-repo the things you buy.
There's India's subprime phone lenders, who pre-install usury-tech on their phones. This is a tool that spies on the phone's owner, building a dossier the owner's most frequently used apps.
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When the owner misses a payment, the phone starts disabling the user's favorite apps, working its way up the list to the most indispensable ones:
https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/02/innovation-unlocks-markets/#digital-arm-breakers
It's the digital version of the mob loan-shark who breaks a finger, then your hand, then your arm. The more graduated the threat matrix is, the more payments you can capture.
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Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦
boosted
@loon Right? I was a little nervous to link it because I don't want it to lead to some particular person getting martyred on social media or whatever, especially since we already have a pretty ethically sound playbook for dealing with pro-LLM people: create spaces where they don't have access to, explain why they're locked out, then don't budge on boundaries. Or, in a word, disassociate. It's not that mean, despite this exact strategy being exactly the thing Armin is complaining about, because the intent is not punishment of bad actors but protection of good ones - the latter is what we should be consistently centering.
manisha
boosted
In #India in May, Chief Justice #SuryaKant compared #unemployed #youth to “cockroaches” and “parasites” in a hearing
Well there's an interesting thing that happens when you use a slur against a group of people:
An insult flipped to a statement of pride
Now mere frustration among young Indians over #education, #jobs and the #economy has morphed into #protests and even a political movement:
https://apnews.com/article/india-cockroach-janata-party-2c74e5597c1a7a4ac5a49ee8ce72f1cd
Chip Butty
boosted
Dunfermline Abbey Church in the heart of Dunfermline in Fife, burial place of King Robert the Bruce. It is also one of Scotland's most unusual places of worship, split into two very distinct churches that have been joined in the middle. More pics and info: https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/dunfermline/abbeychurch/index.html
Still battling bamboo in Mums backyard attempting to make a comeback
@phocks more persistent than John Farnham
Is the #Plushtodon made of marshmallow, or the marshmallow made of #Plushtodon?
@Gargron instructions unclear bit into both
@spla El problema és que si surten pitjors, diran que és culpa de la mala mostra, i la mala mostra precisament exclou tots els casos que encara empitjorarien encara més els resultats (poc domini de la llengua i discapacitats vàries)
@tetebocu han d’amagar la seva lamentable gestió com sigui.
Miss a Tesla payment and your car can do way more than just immobilize itself and tell the dealer where to get the car - it also unlock its doors, flash its lights, honk its horn, and back out of its parking space when the repo man arrives:
The cheaper the repo, the riskier the loan can be; the riskier the loan, the higher the risk premium.
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Digital tech makes repo much cheaper, so wherever you find digital tech, you find digital arm-breakers coming up with ways to robo-repo the things you buy.
There's India's subprime phone lenders, who pre-install usury-tech on their phones. This is a tool that spies on the phone's owner, building a dossier the owner's most frequently used apps.
32/
The next step is remote immobilization: miss too many payments (or violate a lease clause by crossing the county line) and your car just stops working:
But the apex of this usury-tech comes from (where else?) Tesla.
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Miss a Tesla payment and your car can do way more than just immobilize itself and tell the dealer where to get the car - it also unlock its doors, flash its lights, honk its horn, and back out of its parking space when the repo man arrives:
The cheaper the repo, the riskier the loan can be; the riskier the loan, the higher the risk premium.
31/
The next wave of automotive usury-tech was a kind of systematic exploration of the entire space between a car that is repossessed and a car that isn't. Some subprime cars are fitted with an extra stereo system that can only be controlled by the borrower over a wireless connection. Miss a payment and this secondary stereo turns itself on and starts playing earsplitting threats about what will happen to you if you don't pay up. The only way to turn it off is to make the payment.
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The next step is remote immobilization: miss too many payments (or violate a lease clause by crossing the county line) and your car just stops working:
But the apex of this usury-tech comes from (where else?) Tesla.
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