Monthly Archives: August 2015

Akismet Developer Brands KiA a ‘Hate Sub’ on ‘Free Reddit Checker’ Tool – Backs Down When Called on it

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The Witchfinder encounters a supremely poorly coded, ‘comedy’ SJW tool for evaluating levels of Reddit ‘bigotry’. The tool, Free Reddit Check, is made by a developer at Akismet manufacturers Automattic and even labels the phrase, ‘sargon of akkad’ as ‘potentially offensive’.

AkismetBlogPost

The Akismet official blog promotes their employee’s ‘hack’, saying “[…] being obsessed with content analysis, community moderation, and keeping the web’s underbelly in check, we can’t help but think it’s a nifty idea […]”.

Earlier today I was setting up Twitter preview cards for this site when I noticed a blog by Akismet (archive here). Akismet is the name of a commercial anti-spam tool. It can be used for excluding spam from WordPress blogs. I had evaluated it before but found it unsatisfactory.

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Victim of Racist SJW Murder – Is the Tragedy of Allison Parker, Victim of WDBJ Shooter, America’s Wake Up Call?

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Anita Sarkeesian says that "reverse racism" is a "myth". Amy Palamountain calls it, "erasure". Tell that to the family of Ross Andrew Parker, whose life was subject to "erasure" in a killing which even the Guardian called, "racist".

The Ross Andrew Parker murder forced even the British left, such as the BBC and Guardian, to accept the problem of anti-white racism. In an eerie coincidence, today’s racist shooting victim is also called Parker.

A few weeks ago I wrote an article condemning GitHub’s Amy Palamountain for authoring a code of conduct policy that appeared to state complaints of ‘reverse’ racist harassment would not be acted upon. When challenged by numerous complainants GitHub backed down. The code of conduct project has been paused and Palamountain (@ammeep) has been keeping a low profile. The tragic murder earlier today of American journalist Allison Parker and a cameraman underlines my point.

I wrote a follow-up article explaining why expressing such views can be career ending in Britain. Whilst Britain is a pro-equalities nation, even our most left-wing institutions like the Guardian and BBC have long accepted that minority on majority discrimination (e.g. anti-white, anti-straight, anti-male) is real.

The catalyst for this view was the brutal murder of Ross Andrew Parker by an Asian gang in 2001, which led the BBC to say this (archive here) –

“Racism was once defined as ‘prejudice plus power’ – […] However, the ‘racist murders’ of Kriss Donald in Glasgow in 2004 and Ross Parker in Peterborough in 2001, young white men killed by Asians, demonstrate how society has been forced to redefine racism”.

Last year the issue was reinforced by a scandal centred on a town called Rotherham in the UK, where 1,400 underage girls were revealed as having been subject to paedophile rape over a 20 year period. The perpetrators? I quoted feminist Suzanne Moore in the Guardian newspaper (archive here), “men of Pakistani and Kashmiri descent, working in gangs to rape and torture girls”, who “called the girls ‘white trash'”.

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Sargon v Pless – My Legal Opinion

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Margaret Pless (@Idlediletante) has posted a blog accusing Sargon of Akkad of “flabbergasting” copyright infringement. As the Witchfinder did his (4.5K word) GDL final coursework on internet copyright law (and passed), your author decided to analyse her claims. Her most recent article, “Specific Instances of Copyright Infringement by Sargon of Akkad – A Database Approach” is here.

[Disclaimer 22/08/2015] This article is meant as commentary on current events and should not be relied upon as legal advice.

SargonStill

A one frame still from Sargon of Akkad’s 12 minute video, “Old Man Yells at #GamerGate” here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwsPai-0Ov8 , used to illustrate criticism or review pursuant to s30 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

Firstly, I do not want to be mean to Margaret Pless. I actually quite like her. She is a wildly overzealous leftist who often … goes a bit far – just like me at her age. However she is mistaken on her copyright law so I thought I would post this commentary on her recent article. I am secretly hoping that in the fullness of time move to the right. That process however, usually takes years.

In the meantime, I am going to analyse her most recent article –

“Sargon of Akkad is well known for his reliance on heavily sampling video from other sources to make his shows. The justification seems to be that because Sargon hasn’t sought permission to use these videos, his work must qualify as fair use“

Sorry. Basic legal error. ‘Fair Use’ does not exist in English law. Sargon lives in England. Both UK and US law give effect to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, signed in 1886. However, they are not identical.

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Wikimedia UK Response to Shapps – Claims to Have Destroyed the Evidence

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In a recent article I revealed that after being wrongly accused of sock-puppetry and backstabbing colleagues by Richard Symonds, a staffer at Wikimedia UK, British MP Grant Shapps had served a disclosure request under the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA). Shapps has had a response, of sorts. It makes grim reading.

The great thing about data protection requests? They are not litigation correspondence, they are not subject to the implied undertaking / CPR 31.22 and they do not usually engage a duty of confidentiality. Other parties may not ordinarily impose a duty of confidence on documents disclosed under a statutory duty. So we can start by sharing this little gem –

WikimediaDPAResponse

What sort of organisation fails to retain legally sensitive materials like allegations against Cabinet ministers?

According to Wikimedia UK Symonds has deleted his email to the Guardian ‘in the normal course of business’. This is a very concerning statement. Most organisations have clear data retention policies. Does Wikimedia have no such policy or does it not follow it? Does it really manage personal data so poorly? Another concern is that most organisations have email backups. Does Wikimedia or its provider not back up its email server? That is a serious governance concern.

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Epic Gjoni Win – Zoe Quinn Files to Vacate Restraining Order Against Gjoni

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MassachusettsAppealCourtDocket

Gjoni wins. Picture screenshot from Massachusetts public online Court docket system 18-08-2015.

From time to time, as a pro-bono McKenzie Friend here in the UK, I have helped appellants have restraining orders removed. In UK civil procedure, appeals require permission followed by a substantive hearing. Often, where a case is doomed, likely to be excessively costly or embarrassing, a party will cave in. It looks like Zoe Quinn (also known as Chelsea van Valkenburg) did just that on 07/08/2015.

I personally find this incredibly annoying, but when the other side caves in, I am usually forced to advise my client to sip it up because that is in their best interests. What we normally do is negotiate what we want in the form of a consent order in return for letting the other side off without applying for costs against them.

It is theoretically possible to proceed to a hearing for judgement anyway but normally the client is better off just taking the surrender, getting it worded the way they want and avoiding the aggravation and expense of going to a full hearing. It does sometimes happen especially when a public body wants the law clarified but with private clients it is incredibly rare. Continue reading →

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Vicious Racist Murders and Paedophile Rape ‘on an industrial scale’ – the British Tragedies that Prove GitHub’s Amy Palamountain (and Anita Sarkeesian) Horribly Wrong on ‘Reverse Racism’

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RossAndrewParkerCrematoriumPlaque

Anita Sarkeesian says that “reverse racism” is a “myth”. Amy Palamountain calls it, “erasure”. Tell that to the family of Ross Andrew Parker, whose life was subject to “erasure” in a killing which even the Guardian called, “racist”. Picture by Wikipedia user ‘Shakehandsman’, released under CC-BY-SA 3.0 – attribution and license linked here.

Recently GitHub provoked a storm of protest after staffer Amy Palamountain amended a proposed ‘Open Code of Conduct’ such that complaints of harassment arising from ‘reverse-isms’ such as ‘reverse racism’ would not be acted upon. Palamountain is on record as saying, “[…] The intent is deliberate, and I strongly disagree it should be altered to be more lenient to privileged groups […]”. Recent British examples illuminate the terrible folly of that statement.

In my previous article I set out potential legal problems with the TODOGroup Code of Conduct. In this article I want to address the moral and policy arguments around the extreme left belief that ‘reverse racism’ does not exist and cannot do harm. I found this exceptionally offensive as a person living in post-Rotherham Britain.

Consider this extract –

“Racism was once defined as ‘prejudice plus power’ – […] However, the ‘racist murders’ of Kriss Donald in Glasgow in 2004 and Ross Parker in Peterborough in 2001, young white men killed by Asians, demonstrate how society has been forced to redefine racism”.

Is this a Conservative website? A right-wing blog? Nope. I am quoting the BBC (archive here). The brutal killing, in which a 17 year old called Ross Andrew Parker was beaten with a hammer, stabbed and kicked to death before being left in a pool of his own blood caught national news in the UK for its violence and the explicitly racist motives of the killers.

The ideas espoused by controversial activists such as Anita Sarkeesian when she says that “sexism is prejudice + power” (archive here) or when she talks of the “myth” of “reverse racism” (archive here) are ideas that even the BBC admitted were horribly, tragically wrong nearly 10 years ago. The Guardian agreed – no weaselling about ‘reverse-isms’ they called it a ‘racist killing’ (archive here).

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Donation Fund Accounts

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As the claim against the Block Bot has ended the remaining money from the donation fund needs to be accounted for and put to proper use. The original request for funds said it would be used to support a KiA London meet. I wondered if the funds could be relocated to the meet up in Birmingham, another city in the UK but it has been pointed out this is not possible because when I originally asked for donations I specified London. Accordingly I am donating £50 of my own money to GGinBrum. The accounts from the funding campaign can be applied to the next London meetup.

CR DR Balance
Donations £285.00 £285.00
Go Fund Me Fees £23.09 £261.91
Court Issue Fee £60.00 £201.91
Available Funds £201.91
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GitHub Atom Project Drops Open Code of Conduct, Switches to User Contributor Covenant 1/2/0

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Just a quick update. Since my previous article about the TODO Group Open Code of Conduct and its bizarre, extremist left wing content, the GIT Atom project has switched to the Contributor Covenant.

I am quite happy with this. The document is much shorter but reflects reasonable professional expectations. It roughly corresponds with UK and EU law. I am not against inclusion and I think Open Source should have rules.

The document should probably add political belief as a protected characteristic to fully meet the standards of EU law but aside from that it is a vast improvement. A problem with the OCoC is that in the EU even extremist political beliefs are protected. That might trouble some – but in fact it is a good thing because what is considered extreme may … vary … especially if leftists are in charge.

If the extreme right wing is protected by EU law then a moderate consumer movement like GamerGate is also likely to be covered.

 

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‘We Will Not Act’ on Complaints About Racist Harassment – Why Github’s Amy Palamountain is a Liability

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AmyPalamountainRedLeft

Amy Palamountain. GitHub tried to stop her image appearing in this article. Why would she want her picture not to appear by her words? This image is derived from a photo released under CC-BY 2.0 by her fiancé Michael Holman (who goes by Martin Holman also). The license requires I credit him (awkward!) and link to the license – here. He has changed the licensing since then but the grant of the CC-BY 2.0 is irrevocable. Archive linked to show the license granted when I downloaded it – here .

Note – no private details are revealed in this article. All contact details have been put pro-actively and prominently into the public domain by their owners.

As a postgraduate law student who has been praised in Parliament for his pro-bono equalities work, and was asked to give evidence to the House of Lords Committee on the Mental Capacity Act 2005, I am frequently asked questions about equalities law. I am loathe to condemn even people whom I disagree with because of the complex and difficult issues they face.

Nonetheless several people this week have asked me for my legal opinion on the TODO Group ‘Open Code of Conduct’ (archive here) and I do feel some excoriation is in order. The TODO Group is a group of companies who “want to collaborate on practices, tools and other ways to run successful and effective open source projects”. They have recently published a Code of Conduct.

The issue that has attracted controversy is the ‘definition of harassment’ written by Github employee Amy Palamoutain. Much of this is unobjectionable, aside from prolixity. For example, the following are examples of behaviour that is prohibited –

“•Threats of violence, both physical and psychological
[…]
•Deliberate intimidation
•Stalking or following”

However, one passage has caused great offense. It says this –

“[…] We will not act on complaints regarding:

• ‘Reverse’ -isms, including ‘reverse racism,’ ‘reverse sexism,’ and ‘cisphobia’”

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Despite Legal Threats, GitHub Staff Kindly Grant Licenses to Use Their Photos (Thanks Y’all!)

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LicensePicture

A screenshot of a Creative Commons 2.0 License allowing commercial usage with attribution.

Yesterday, your author revealed that GitHub objected to a forthcoming article about controversial passages added by staffer Amy Palamountain in the new TODO Group Open Code of Conduct.

GitHub ‘legal’ told me that usage of photos of their staff from their website would be an unlawful breach of Copyright. I considered their complaints respectfully and determined that could be a problem. UK Copyright law now has very similar exceptions to US Fair Use. It is called ‘Fair Dealing’ – but there is no exception to use photographs for news reporting.

What to do?

  • Use the photos anyway? X Too risky, could be validly sued
  • Photoshop a black armband onto Amy Palamountain and call it a parody? X Clumsy
  • If only, … somehow, I could get them to give me a valid, irrevocable legal license? ✅ YES!

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