Nominations Open For "Most Likely to be Shut Down By Government"

The corporate overlords at SourceForge asked me to name a Slashdot category for their upcoming Community Choice Awards and to let you guys select the winner. I have named my category "Most Likely to be Shut Down by a Government Agency." We're going to run this like we do an Ask Slashdot call for questions — post your nominations into the comments here. Use moderation to send up good ideas. In the upcoming days we'll post another story where you can vote on the actual winner. Nominations need to include the project name, a link to some sort of official website, and a paragraph of why you think they deserve to win. The project that wins will gain fame, notoriety, and maybe a cease and desist order that they could print out and frame if they had that kind of time.

Truecrypt

Truecrypt [truecrypt.org]

It's basically only a matter of time before the fear-mongers and political demagogues in the U.S. and elsewhere outlaw any form of encryption that doesn't include a backdoor for the NSA and other "trusted" government agencies. There has already been evidence of commercial encrytption (such as Windows encryption [slashdot.org]) including such backdoors. And when the commercial companies all cave, how long do you think it will be before the government comes after the open source projects too?

Re:Truecrypt

Couldn't/wouldn't they just move the project outside of the country to avoid issues? OpenBSD doesn't have to abide by crpyto export rules because they are in Canada, for instance.

Of course, I suppose the argument could be used for pretty much every project that is likely to be mentioned.

Re:Truecrypt

They started trying in the 90s under Clinton's reign, with Al Gore as the point man. Luckily resistance from people and businesses was enough to kill the Clipper Chip and Key Escrow. over 10 years later, I guess it's time for another round of facists to try it again.

Patent Busting

The EFF's Patent Busing Project [eff.org].

Or has it been shut down already?

Re:Patent Busting

Yeah we need to end Patent Busing. Why should a patent have to go all the way across town to the same type of schools I moved to get away from?

Re:Patent Busting

I didn't think the EFF's site needed any explanation but I'll provide it here for Taco since it was asked for in the summary.

I think this site should win because it's very likely to actually shut down if Patent Reform comes through. However, even if patent reform fails, I think it would be interesting to see what the lobbyists and congressional members do to come up with to try and take them down, because this site is one of the few out there that do a damn good job of calling out the patent trolls. In addition, it's one of the few that make the public aware of what all of us on Slashdot have known all along: that the patent system sucks, and these are the people that take advantage of it.

Software radio...

The GNU software radio project

http://www.gnu.org/software/gnuradio/

is a good candidate. It proposes to let you make electromagnetic waves in a manner not subject to prior restraint by the FCC, and without the back-doors intelligence agencies have on many current means of communications.

This is naughty.

ThePirateBay

They're the next allofmp3 -- they're getting named by name in international treaty talks.

wikileaks, followed by cryptome.org

wikileaks, followed by cryptome.org for doing a better job and mirroring the same content

Matt

Re:wikileaks, followed by cryptome.org

I second wikileaks. It's got everything -- anonymity, copyright infringement, and (the ability, at least) classified documents. I'm surprised it's lasted as long as it has.

Slashdot

I would like to nominate Slashdot as being most likely to be shut down. After all, free thought is anathema to government control.

Re:Slashdot

On Slashdot internet, thinking frees you.

Actually, I just mean that there is no free thinking here, just stupid cliched memes.

Re:Slashdot

Yes, but on Slashdot, thought isn't free. It's merely open source: you can look at it, modify it, but if you start treating it as your own, then the thought owns you, Soviet style.

wikileaks

wikileaks - since it already was (sort of) shut down by government.

MediaDefender

Hey, they've actually committed some crimes now, right?

Tor, Freenet, and I2P

Tor, Freenet, and I2P are probably on the top of the list. There is no way that government wants difficult to trace communication to be availble to the general public.

FreeNet

I suspect that FreeNet [freenetproject.org] is something that many, many governments would like to shut down. In the west, pretty much all they have to do is say "klddy pr0n" and it's gone. In China and other such countries, they don't really have to say anything at all.

Anyone notice the diamond sponsor?

If you look to the right, Microsoft is listed as a diamond sponsor of the event. Hopefully the government will shut them down soon.

Freenet

Freenet [freenetproject.org], especially now that its reaching the point of widespread usability [locut.us].

I Save RX

This [i-saverx.net] website, supported by the states, offers its citizens affordable medications from Canada and Europe. I predict the federal government will shut it down, citing "safety issues" with foreign drugs.

GOA

www.gao.gov

Trapster

www.trapster.com [trapster.com]

It's an interactive thingy where you post where cops are hiding in speed traps.

I'm surprised it's still up, honestly.

Our right to know.

We already have loads of censoring going on. for example, the 60 minute interview with Sibel edmunds was immediately gagged and then the studio was told to hand over EVERYTHING. In addition, ALL news org have been warned ahead to not talk about her.

In terms of software, PirateBay/Cryptome/GnuRadio. Anything dealing with encryption will NOT be shutdown, unless it involves a brand new and interesting algo.

Obama

Well, it worked for jfk...

What an extremely useful little competition ...

... this is, for the powers that be.