Data bunkers Personal data are collected, appropriated, processed and used for commercial purposes on a global scale. In order for such a global system to operate smoothly, there a server nodes at which the data streams converge. Among the foremost of these are the data bases of credit card companies, whose operation has long depended on global networking. On top of credit card companies such as Visa, American Express, Master Card, and others. It would be erroneous to believe that the primary purpose of business of these companies is the provision of credit, and the facilitation of credit information for sale transactions. In fact, Information means much more than just credit information. In an advertisement of 1982, American Express described itself in these terms: ""Our product is information ...Information that charges airline tickets, hotel rooms, dining out, the newest fashions ...information that grows money funds buys and sells equities ...information that pays life insurance annuities ...information that schedules entertainment on cable television and electronically guards houses ...information that changes kroners into guilders and figures tax rates in Bermuda ..." Information has become something like the gospel of the New Economy, a doctrine of salvation - the life blood of society, as Bill Gates expresses it. But behind information there are always data that need to be generated and collected. Because of the critical importance of data to the economy, their possession amounts to power and their loss can cause tremendous damage. The data industry therefore locates its data warehouses behind fortifications that bar physical or electronic access. Such structures are somewhat like a digital reconstruction of the medieval fortress Large amounts of data are concentrated in fortress-like structures, in data bunkers. As the Critical Art Ensemble argue in Electronic Civil Disobedience: "The bunker is the foundation of homogeneity, and allows only a singular action within a given situation." All activities within data bunker revolve around the same principle of calculation. Calculation is the predominant mode of thinking in data-driven societies, and it reaches its greatest density inside data bunkers. However, calculation is not a politically neutral activity, as it provides the rational basis - and therefore the formal legitimisation most every decision taken. Data bunkers therefore have an essentially conservative political function, and function to maintain and strengthen the given social structures.

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Legal Protection: WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) Presumably the major player in the field of international intellectual property protection and administrator of various multilateral treaties dealing with the legal and administrative aspects of intellectual property is the WIPO. Information on WIPO administered agreements in the field of industrial property (Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (1883), Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks (1891) etc.) can be found on: http://www.wipo.org/eng/general/index3.htm Information on treaties concerning copyright and neighboring rights (Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (1886) etc.) is published on: http://www.wipo.org/eng/general/index5.htm The most recent multilateral agreement on copyright is the 1996 WIPO Copyright Treaty. Among other things it provides that computer programs are protected as literary works and also introduces the protection of databases, which "... by reason of the selection or arrangement of their content constitute intellectual creations." Furthermore the 1996 WIPO Copyright Treaty contains provisions concerning technological measures, rights management information and establishes a new "right of communication to the public". It is available on: http://www.wipo.org/eng/diplconf/distrib/treaty01.htm

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ECHELON Main Stations Location Country Target/Task Relations MORWENSTOW UK INTELSAT, Atlantic, Europe, Indian Ocean NSA, GCHQ SUGAR GROVE USA INTELSAT, Atlantic, North and South America NSA YAKIMA FIRING CENTER USA INTELSAT, Pacific NSA WAIHOPAI NEW ZEALAND INTELSAT, Pacific NSA, GCSB GERALDTON AUSTRALIA INTELSAT, Pacific NSA, DSD MENWITH HILL UK Sat, Groundstation, Microwave(land based) NSA, GCHQ SHOAL BAY AUSTRALIA Indonesian Sat NSA, DSD LEITRIM CANADA Latin American Sat NSA, CSE BAD AIBLING GERMANY Sat, Groundstation NSA MISAWA JAPAN Sat NSA PINE GAP AUSTRALIA Groundstation CIA FORT MEADE USA Dictionary Processing NSA Headquarters WASHINGTON USA Dictionary Processing NSA OTTAWA CANADA Dictionary Processing CSE CHELTENHAM UK Dictionary Processing GCHQ CANBERRA AUSTRALIA Dictionary Processing DSD WELLINGTON NEW ZEALAND Dictionary Processing GCSB Headquarters

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On-line Advertising and the Internet Content Industry Applied to on-line content the advertising model leads to similar problems like in the traditional media. Dependence on advertising revenue puts pressure on content providers to consider advertising interests. Nevertheless new difficulties caused by the technical structure of online media, missing legal regulation and not yet established ethical rules, appear.

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Waihopai Station Waihopai Station on the South Island of New Zealand was established specifically to target the international satellite traffic carried by Intelsat satellites in the Pacific region and its target in the mid-1990s is the Intelsat 701 that came into service in January 1994, and is the primary satellite for the Pacific region. Source: Nicky Hager, Secret Power, New Zealand's role in the international spy network, (Craig Potton, 1996), Chapter 2

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Intellectual property Intellectual property, very generally, relates to the output that result from intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific, literary and artistic fields. Traditionally intellectual property is divided into two branches: 1) industrial property (inventions, marks, industrial designs, unfair competition and geographical indications), and 2) copyright. The protection of intellectual property is guaranteed through a variety of laws, which grant the creators of intellectual goods, and services certain time-limited rights to control the use made of their products.

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Netiquette Although referred to as a single body of rules, there is not just one Netiquette, but there are several, though overlapping largely. Proposing general guidelines for posting messages to newsgroups and mailing lists and using the World Wide Web and FTP, Netiquettes address civility topics (i.e., avoiding hate speech) and comprise technical advises (i.e., using simple and platform-independent file formats). Well-known Netiquettes are the Request for Comment #1855 and The Net: User Guidelines and Netiquette by Arlene H. Rinaldi. ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc1855.txt http://www.fau.edu/netiquette/net/index.html

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Menwith Hill Station Menwith Hill Station is one of the biggest groundstations in the UKUSA alliance.It is run by the US National Security Agency (NSA), which monitors the world's communication for US intelligence. Menwith Hill employs 1,200 US civilians and servicemen to work around the clock. It went trough different stages of interception technology. First it was established to intercept radio signals, but now the main focus lays on intercepting and monitoring communication satellites with primary targets Europe, northern Africa and western Asia.

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