The wrong government of The Netherlands

Hello everyone,

I wanted to blog about some recent developments in The Netherlands. It is internationally known that The Netherlands are a quite strong ally of the US. Recently, they've been exceeding limits what most people accept in that.

It started with 9/11. The Netherlands cooperated with the US government like an US pet. They handed out information about Dutch citizens, like bank transactions, travel information, criminal records, and more. This has all been made possible by parties like the CDA, VVD and later on the PVV. These right wing parties (extremist right wing in the case of the PVV), give in to US demands, without getting things back for the Dutch people. I see them as traitors of The Netherlands.

Also, the people of The Netherlands are kept in the dark about all of this. It's important information which we need to judge our government well, but the media has largely been trying to cover things up. In the case of wikileaks, they gave a US-favoring spin towards it. Even the recent releases about the acts of the current and past government members towards several people are given a spin sometimes.

The acts of past and recent government members are despicable. They asked the US to illegally murder people, to put allies in the government under pressure (and even giving advice how to do so!), and so on. Even the prime minister (Balkenende) even asked the US to put the vice prime minister under serious pressure!

As it was said on a certain news outlet: "Politics are all about trust. When you can't trust your own government members any more, the government comes to an end and a new one needs to be formed after elections.". It's good to know that certain former government members could stand up to the extreme pressure put on them by the US. These people, like Wouter Bos, kept their own opinions, even when under alot of pressure. That's also why we were allowed to have new elections.

These elections seem to have been manipulated into a certain direction though. It has been proven that the CDA (Balkenende/Verhagen's party, currently in power)) went to the US and said "If you get us into power, we will make sure that The Netherlands remains a strong ally". There are even rumors that the VVD (currently mostly in power, next to the CDA and PVV) did this too. If this proves to be true, I would like to say that the elections have been 'rigged' then through the media.

Also, the deals which The Netherlands maintains with the US, are even so unfair that even the Chinese are more fair (and that means alot!). Dutch citizens can be extradited towards the US, even when the US has nothing more but a claim (so even no proof!). They even have a law which allows them to bring back US citizens with violence when they are arrested or imprisoned in The Netherlands!

It seems clear to me that the past and current Dutch governments are traitors of The Netherlands. They even are destroying the whole educational system now! This is really outrageous!

What is it to be a Dutch citizens, to feel Dutch? Should we feel like US pets, or should we take up our own direction? It should stop right now. The government should care again about it's people, and place their own people which empower them as a first priority. That's why I vote for the Dutch Pirate Party, since they place the people as first priority. Will you vote for them too?

Minecraft as useful tool - take 2

Hello everyone,

I had posted earlier about why Minecraft is useful for teambuilding. I will expand on this and explain more things about the background.

Games are not toys
Many people are sceptical about using games in a useful way. Games are generally seen as toys, and nothing more. This is mostly seen this way by people who have never played any real educational or teamwork games. They're free to have that opinion, since we're always free to have our opinions.

I have a different opinion. In my eyes, games can be great tools, especially since they're interactive. Not every game is suited for serious purposes though. Still, there are many which are. One of the games which seems like a simple toy, but isn't when used correctly, is Minecraft. I used this way to make a teambuilding environment, which is cheaper and more effective than most teambuilding methods used by corporations.

Several reasons why Minecraft is better than conventional teambuilding
Let me explain this: Minecraft currently costs €15,- per person. Looking up the cheapest teambuilding places in my country, that price is around €20,- to €30,-. That's 25% to 50% cheaper than the cheapest normal teambuilding methods. Even then, it's likely even cheaper, since these conventional teambuilding methods can only be used once. Minecraft can be used infinitely when purchased, in contrary to the conventional teambuilding methods (which include doing various tasks in real life together for an afternoon).

Even if we leave the Minecraft is cheaper argument out of the discussion, you still have several other things to look into. Minecraft is a so called 'Creative Game'. This means that you get dropped in a 'sandbox' (a game which never ends, with no clear goal) and you can let your fantasy and imagination flow freely. This creates a very relaxed environment. Coupled with working together on massive buildings, this makes for very clear positive interaction between the members.

But not only is there clear interaction between members... There's also the advantage that people don't have to travel to a certain place to meet, which also saves on time, cost and effort. Also, Minecraft is a quite 'easy' game in means of controls. The only buttons which you mostly use, are the mouse buttons, the movement keys and the inventory key. Next to an easy-to-use interface, the game also requires hardly any prior knowledge. You need to learn some things about Minecraft though once you play it. It is also available for most platforms, which makes it also not bound with a certain operating system, for instance windows. All this makes Minecraft very accessible.

Rounding stuff up
I think that it is clear now why Minecraft is a very useful tool for teambuilding. I've been pioneering teambuilding in Minecraft together with some others. But many people don't know that they're also pioneers in it. Virtually everyone who has played on an online server, and worked together with people, has been doing this. Many friendships have been created, and many more will be created in Minecraft.

Thanks for reading!

Roberto

Begun the internet wars have

Link to tweet

Welcome to this blogpost! I'm going to tell today about some recent developments. Recently, the internet is becoming an ever more hostile place. First, we'll take a trip back into history.

Back to the future
For many of us (including me), a situation like we currently have in the world has only been described in history books. It was a period of fear against certain population groups, increased violence around the world, and more. This caused the free world to collapse more and more into oppression. This has also been described in the movie V for Vendetta.

Many people don't ever want this to happen, but lets take a look what is happening currently...

The current situation
We currently have alot of violence in the world, alot of fear and hatred against certain minority groups and more. This has allowed the rulers to draw attention away from less-popular measures. This isn't exactly new. What is new though, is that we recently had a period of very extensive liberties, caused by the internet. This has learned groups of people to really form free opinions.

This has endangered certain groups with power, and they have been moving against the internet for some time now. They just needed a reason to start to move against it in public. There have been 3 reasons recently which they have used:
1. Terrorism.
2. Illicit forms of filesharing.
3. Wikileaks.

We'll have a look at what's happening now.

What's happening now
- Currently, governments and certain corporations are slowly making more and more civil rights breaches.
- Civil rights also get gradually eroded.
- Fear and hate is stimulated throughout western countries through various means and entities.
- Outlets for free speech and activism are attacked through various means (bad publicity, DDoS, etc) in increasing intensity.

There's more happening, which I don't know at the moment.

Well, rounding stuff up, this is basically what I wanted to tell.

I would advise everyone to form their own opinions about this, and act accordingly.

Cheers,
Roberto

PS: Expect more about this soon!

Using games as a way to foster cooperation

Hello everyone,

it's been a while since my most recent blog post. This time, I want to tell you about a way to foster cooperation in teams (and outside teams) in a quite unique way.

Introduction

The original project had been set up to serve as a way to foster friendships. The tool which was used? A game called Minecraft.

Minecraft is a very accessible game, which can be played both in casual and hardcore ways. In the game, there are no set goals. You can mine resources, process them into tools and construction materials, and build stuff with those materials. As you can see in the previous 2 links, there have quite alot of things been built in Minecraft so far.

Seeing the relaxed atmosphere this game generally has, I thought that it could be used for fostering friendship. I discovered later on, that this game can be used for many more constructive things.

I will firstly explain the history, and later on how it works.

The first steps

My first inspiration from this project came from a certain server of a big community.



Together with some friends, we started exploring the concept on our own server. Quickly, we discovered that it was a very excellent way. Unfortunately, after a few weeks, the server got griefed (sometimes purposefully) and large areas of the landscape were destroyed.

After this, I started thinking of making this concept really work.

Getting concrete details

The first quest was to look for anti griefing tools. These were quickly found. This was all tested on a private server hosted by Mick 'Micknator' van Rhee, a good friend of me. There, we laid the advanced framework for later stages.

This includes some big structures, finalizing the concept (mostly done by me) and seeking a place for hosting. Eventually, all of these things were done.

The last thing needed was a thorough test of the concept in a real situation. This was achieved at the beginning of November.



Finalizing the concept

The concept was practically fully finalized. It only needed a real test. This was done on the server hosted by the Piratenpartij (which is a continuation of the server hosted by Micknator, with some improvements). The concept was finally tested, and completed successfully by me (Roberto 'Robske' Moretti), a person who goes by the name of 'Squarc' on Minecraft, and last but not least, Remon 'Knudde95' Engels.



The server can be found at minecraft.piratenpartij.nl!

The project fostered friendships indeed, together with providing with further minor adjustments to the plan. I will now explain the 2 ways of how you can run these projects.

The centralized method

The centralized method is way to simulate real project groups with a project leader. The team consists of one or more project leaders, together with at least as many 'workers'. The task of the project leader(s) is to coordinate the project. They have all the blueprints of the object to build. They may not give the workers these blueprints directly. Instead, they must communicate the blueprints verbally or with sketches of parts of the blueprint towards the workers. Each worker is responsible for his part of the blueprint. The project leaders monitor the entire project.

This way of simulating projects works the best for companies or for teams with a clear leadership. The more decentralized organizations have a different way of approaching these things.

The decentralized method

This method is quite exact the opposite of the centralized method. In this method, the blueprints are available to everyone (if there are blueprints!). At the same time, everyone is worker and project leader at the same time. It's the entire team's responsibility to make the project successful. This makes for a very organic way of getting the project finished. It can also make it so that worlds really evolve (as they do on most Minecraft servers).

This way of carrying out the project works the best for organizations with no clear leadership. They train people in taking responsibility.

The advantages of fostering cooperation this way

Both ways of doing projects in Minecraft have similar advantages. I will list these here:

- It is a relaxed environment: There's hardly any stress, hardly any pressure. This makes people more motivated to work on these projects. Together with that, the results are visible in very early stages (Oh this thing is very huge!).
- It's easily accessible: Minecraft doesn't require much learning. You can already construct wonderful things after your first day!
- Big structures do amaze people: If your team has built a big structure (as was the case with the Venator), it will not only surprise your team members if you make it public, but also the entire world! This can be an extra motivation for the team members to cooperate.
- Can promote your organization: Projects like done on the Dutch Pirate Party server, can promote your organization very well. Especially if the world is public.
- Minecraft worlds can communicate messages: You can easily build messages into worlds, sometimes explicit (texts on signs) or implicit (for the case of the Dutch Pirate Party server, it was that content owned by others can easily be replicated by others).
- Minecraft can relax: You can use Minecraft as a way to get your team members relaxed and ready to keep working hard on your project!

Rounding stuff up

This was it for today. I want to thank everyone for reading this article! If you have comments about this article, or want to do suggestions, you can contact me here.

Cheers,
Roberto Moretti

MAFIAA?

Are copyright organisations, with the media giants who support them, the protectors of the artists? Or are they the destroyers of the media?



This is a question which has gone through many peoples' minds the past 15 years. We'll firstly go back to the origins of the copyright law...






In the time before the internet, producing and distributing media was an expensive business. You had to produce the media itself (which was expensive, and still is in certain areas), then produce books/discs/tapes/papers and distribute those to the shops. You also had to advertise the product, which is still expensive today (using conventional methods). All in all, it was an expensive business.



To protect their business, the authors urged for copyright laws already in the 19th century. In the 20th century, copyright laws were finally enacted and strengthened. Firstly, works were protected. Later on, copyright organisations were established by the media industry (which was now a large industry). These copyright organisations pursued stronger copyright laws, to protect the media industry. This led to things like rent seeking.

Once the media industry was mature, and dominated by several giant corporations, the conditions for artists went downwards. The giants decided who would become famous, and who didn't. Still, producing media was expensive, so it was a legitimate reason.



Then came the internet. At first, people saw it as a niche thing. It wasn't worth investing into. This changed when the internet became mainstream during 2000-2010. Many people discovered the power of youtube, filesharing and other things. An entire generation has grown up with these things by now. It's deeply embedded into their culture.

Still, the media industry didn't want to adapt. Yes, there are things like spotify & iTunes, but these are still largely dependent of the large media corporations. Independent media groups and artists, who had trouble before the rise of the internet, could now easily make themselves known to the public. This was a thorn in the eyes of the large media corporations. Their monopoly was broken.

Their answer to losing their monopoly? An even harsher reaction to the people and small artists than before. They even resorted to acts which are on the border of what is allowed within the law, possibly even crossing that border!



This has caused much anger at the masses on the internet. Many organisations have risen up to combat the war being waged by the large media industries. Some do it by the democratic ways (Pirate Parties), some through lobbying, publicity and advising (Bits of Freedom, La Quadrature Du Net, Electronic Frontier Foundation, etc.) and some resort to activism, sometimes in a more harmful way than the other (Anonymous).

This might lead to the downfall of the large media industries, but it isn't too late yet. If they manage to adapt to the realities of the information society, they might still have a chance. Currently, the media giants abuse both the consumers and the artists. It's time that they use more ethical and fair ways to achieve their profits.

The strongest will not survive. It will be the most adaptive to change who will survive. - Darwin.

About the author:
Roberto Moretti is a Dutch IT student, blogger, activist and is active at the Dutch Pirate Party. He blogs often about copyright-related subjects.

Many thanks go to Samir Allioui for writing a blog here and here (in Dutch) which has been the main inspiration for this blog post.

This blog post is licensed under the Creative Commons license. Sharing and using parts of this blog is allowed, as long as you give credit to the original author (Roberto Moretti). Images taken from deviantart. Please keep the filenames, in order to give credits to the original artists.

The dangers

Hello everyone,

this is a follow-up on the blogpost 'The Time is now'. I talked about COICA and related things. The EFF reported a few weeks ago that COICA is delayed.

The danger isn't over yet. ACTA has entered the very final stages of negotiation. The last negotiation round ended, and it will be reviewed now. Once it has been reviewed, countries who want to sign it can sign it.

ACTA has been toned down in harsh voice, but it doesn't make it less dangerous. The treaty is filled with vague descriptions of several things. This leaves it open to the interpretation of outsiders, which will likely benefit the rightsholders.

La Quadrature Du Net reports that ACTA is still a very dangerous treaty. I agree with their conclusions. Also, if they manage to tone it now down a bit, and get it forced through, it can be altered later on by the ACTA board. This can still bring in things like '3-strikes' clauses and things like that.

Even if COICA and ACTA get forced through, downloading can't be stopped most likely. It has become too deeply imprinted in an entire generation of people, to be removed. This will be a serious issue for the media-giants, but artists can also benefit from it. Several artists, who use bittorent and similar technologies to spread their works, have benefitted greatly from alternative business models.

These new business models, and the power which the internet gives to the consumers, is a major thorn in the eye for the media giants. This is the entire reason why they're lobbying for harsher copyright laws. What this will lead to, I don't know, but we will see.

Stay tuned!
Roberto Moretti

A new way of sharing torrents

Hey all,

A friend's computer got a 'cold' sometime ago. It gave me an idea.

Torrent sharing sites are often attacked and shut down by MPAA/RIAA/etc.

To circumvent torrentsites altogether, I combined the way how they spread msn viruses with torrents. This way, you can easily share on almost any site, without anyone noticing it's a torrent file unless they got the instructions.

It works this way:
1. You make your torrent file (or use the one you want to share) and encapsulate it in a .rar/.zip/.7z. Try to make it as small as possible.
2. You pick a random image which you want to use, it must be .png or .jpg.
3. You mix the files with the command prompt (type cmd in start). Browse to the folder containing both the archive and image: copy /b *imagename.extension* + *zip//rar/7zfilename.extension* *filename.imagefileextension*
4. You throw the image which you've created on a image sharing or FTP site. Some sites block hidden data in images.
4a. Check if the file works by doing steps 5-8.
5. Someone downloads the file.
6. The downloader with the instructions (posted on a forum or included in the image) changes the image file extension to the archive extension.
7. Open it with the appropriate archive opener (IE: 7zip/winrar/etc, no winzip!)
8. Torrent on!

I discussed this in an IRC chat, and tested it with several people, it works.

You can do step 5-8 with the image below, which is an innocent Creative Commons file:

http://www.star-apocalypse.info/Files/Images/embeddedpiratepartylogo.jpg

Change it to .rar.

------

How do you like it?

Copy me happy,
Roberto

----notes from Ernesto (torrentfreak.com)----

It seems this technique has been used before, see here: Article on torrentfreak.com