[Plura-list] Beastie Boy mashups; Educator sued for criticising "invigilation" tool

[Cory Doctorow]

Today's links

* Beastie Boy mashups: Beastles, Beachtie Boys, Ghostbeasties.

* Educator sued for criticising "invigilation" tool: Proctorio has
permanently disqualified itself from being entrusted with learners'
educations.

* This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019

* Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing
projects, current reading

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🩲 Beastie Boy mashups

On Thursday, I posted a fond recollection of djBC's groundbreaking
Beastie Boys/Beatles mashups, "The Beastles," which are in the canon of
Beatles mashups along with The Grey Album.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/15/expect-the-unexpected/#dennis-ball

But there's another canon they belong to: the canon of Beastie Boys
mashups, which goes beyond classics like BC's own "Intergalactic Robots"
(Kraftwerk vs Beasties):

https://soundcloud.com/bootie-dragon-con-mashups/intergalactic-robots-beastie-boys-vs-kraftwerk

It's a canon that's still growing in 2020! There's straight up novelty
tracks like Kevin Miller's Beachstie Boys (multitrack plumbing of the
odd coincidence of rhyme structure between "I Get Around" and "Fight For
Your Right to Party"):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTxGRPGsN2o

And this seasonal gem: Ray Parker Jr's Ghostbusters theme mashed with
Intergalactic, an incredible match with a video to match from William
Maranci:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPIm1NnmVCc

Come for Maranci's virtuoso pitch- and time-matching, stay for the anus
jokes at the end!

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🩲 Educator sued for criticising "invigilation" tool

High-stakes tests are garbage, pedagogically bankrupt assessment tools
that act as a form of empirical facewash for "meritocracy."

They primarily serve as a way for wealthy parents to buy good grades for
their kids, since expensive test-prep services can turn even the
dimmest, inbred plute into a genius-on-paper.

All of this was true before the pandemic. Now it's worse. Most of us
meet the plague and ask, "How can I help my neighbor?" But for
sociopaths, the question is, how can I turn a buck in a way that only
stomps on the faces of poor people who don't get to hit back?

Maybe you hear that and think of the absolute garbage people who ran out
and bought as much hand-san and bleach and TP as they could in the hopes
of selling it at a markup.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/14/technology/coronavirus-purell-wipes-amazon-sellers.html

But those petty grifters quickly disappeared in our rear-view mirrors.
The real scum were the ones with long cons that hit whole swathes of
victims.

Think, in other words, of the "remote invigilation" industry, whose
products spy on kids during useless high-stakes tests.

These are tools that allow teachers to get a 360' view of students'
surroundings (a special hardship for poor kids in close quarters) while
relying on racially biased facial recognition systems and modern
phrenology like facial expression analysis.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/09/just-dont-have-a-face/#algorithmic-bias

These are effectively rfootkits: spyware you are required to install on
your computer that grants remote parties sweeping access to your files
and processes - especially hard on kids who share computers with
siblings or precariously employed parents.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/15/invigilation/#invigilation

Unsurprisingly, people who make these tools are unsavory, immoral bullies.

Take Mike Olsen, CEO of Proctorio, who dumped dox on a child who
criticized his company in a Reddit forum:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/01/bossware/#moral-exemplar

(Proctorio told the Guardian they "take privacy very seriously")

Educators aren't any happier about Proctorio than their students are.
Ian Linkletter is a Learning Technology Specialist at UBC's Faculty of
Education.

He was so aghast at Proctorio's sweeping surveillance capabilities that
he tweeted links to the company's Youtube videos documenting them. These
videos were public, but unlisted.

In response, Proctorio *sued Linkletter*, getting an injunction in an ex
parte court proceeding that LInkletter was not informed of.

Proctorio claims that *linking to its public videos* constitutes a
copyright infringement and a breach of confidentiality.

This is bullshit, but Linkletter is an employee at a public university
while Proctorio is a ruthless profiteer that has raised millions in the
capital markets to peddle surveillance tools:

https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/91448-02#funding

Thankfully, British Columbia has strong SLAPP protections that allow
people victimized by nuisance suits brought by deep-pocketed,
thin-skinned jerks to get them expeditiously dismissed.

Linkletter's colleagues are standing behind him, and he's being
represented by Joseph Arvay of Arvay Finlay LLP. Arvay's SLAPP motion to
the BC Supreme Court is a thing of beauty:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1OjxaRjRfe0BLh_A6rcyc9lCmdfZ5nEm-

Legal threats from wealthy, ruthless corporate bullies are incredibly
stressful, even if you win. Trust me, I speak from experience (ohai,
Bird, Magicjack, Playboy and Ralph Lauren!). And even with SLAPP laws
and liability insurance, the out-of-pockets are severe.

That's why I'm contributing $100 to Linkletter's Gofundme for his legal
fees, which have mounted to tens of thousands of dollars.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/stand-against-proctorio

Linkletter can't really talk about the case, thanks to Proctorio's
sneakily obtained injunction. That means that it's incumbent on *us*,
the people who care about justice for students and whistleblowers, to
spread the word.

Please consider retweeting this and also investigating whether any of
the educational institutions you or your children are involved with use
Proctorio's products and point them at this lawsuit.

Any ed-tech firm that answers academic criticism with lawsuits has
permanently disqualified itself from being entrusted with learners'
educations. When someone tells you who they are, believe them.


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🩲 This day in history

#10yrsago G20 Toronto cop who was afraid of girl blowing soap bubbles
sues YouTube for “ridicule” #10yrsago Furniture made from rusted Soviet
naval mines https://marinemine.com/

#5yrsago 23andme & Ancestry.com aggregated the world’s DNA; the police
obliged them by asking for it
https://splinternews.com/cops-are-asking-ancestry-com-and-23andme-for-their-cust-1793851927

#1yrago Pacifica Radio ignores injunction, continues to play canned
content on NYC’s WBAI
https://brooklyneagle.com/articles/2019/10/15/wbai-supporters-vow-to-keep-fighting-for-local-programming/

#1yrago 6 years after expose revealed docs taking millions from pharma
companies, it’s only getting worse
https://www.propublica.org/article/we-found-over-700-doctors-who-were-paid-more-than-a-million-dollars-by-drug-and-medical-device-companies#169337

#1yrago Leaks reveal how creepy, cultish monopolist Intuit lobbied
Congress and the IRS to kill free tax-filing
https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-fight-to-stop-americans-from-filing-their-taxes-for-free#168905

#1yrago Berkeley city council unanimously votes to ban facial
recognition technology
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/victory-berkeley-city-council-unanimously-votes-ban-face-recognition

#1yrago Yahoo Groups is being prepared for shutdown, with all stored
archives to be deleted on Dec 14 https://help.yahoo.com/kb/SLN31010.html

#1yrago Cable is bullshit, and so is 5G: give me fiber or give me death!
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/why-fiber-vastly-superior-cable-and-5g

#1yrago The first book collecting the new Nancy comic is incredibly,
fantastically, impossibly great
https://memex.craphound.com/2019/10/17/the-first-book-collecting-the-new-nancy-comic-is-incredibly-fantastically-impossibly-great/

Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources: Fipi Lele, Ian Linkletter.

Currently writing: My next novel, "The Lost Cause," a post-GND novel
about truth and reconciliation. Friday's progress: 519 words (73931 total).

Currently reading: Harrow the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir

Latest podcast: Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town (part 17)
https://craphound.com/podcast/2020/10/05/someone-comes-to-town-someone-leaves-town-part-17/

Upcoming appearances:

* The Attack Surface Lectures: 8 nights of bookstore-hosted events in
which I and a massive group of entertaining and knowledgeable experts
discourse on my latest novel's themes, Oct 13-22
https://read.macmillan.com/torforge/cory-doctorow-virtual-lecture-series/

* Milehicon (Guest of Honor!), Oct 23-5, https://milehicon.org/

* Coding Democracy/Toronto International Festival of Authors, Oct 24
https://festivalofauthors.ca/event/maureen-webb-coding-democracy/

Upcoming appearances:

* The Attack Surface Lectures: 8 nights of bookstore-hosted events in
which I and a massive group of entertaining and knowledgeable experts
discourse on my latest novel's themes, Oct 13-22
https://read.macmillan.com/torforge/cory-doctorow-virtual-lecture-series/

* Milehicon (Guest of Honor!), Oct 23-5, https://milehicon.org/

* Coding Democracy/Toronto International Festival of Authors, Oct 24
https://festivalofauthors.ca/event/maureen-webb-coding-democracy/

Recent appearances:

* SRSLY WRONG: Stop Techno Dystopia!
https://srslywrong.com/podcast/220-stop-techno-dystopia-w-cory-doctorow/

* Judge John Hodgman: "The Doctorow Doctrine"
https://maximumfun.org/episodes/judge-john-hodgman/episode-488-the-doctorow-doctrine/

* Savage Lovecast
https://www.savagelovecast.com/episodes/729

Latest book:

* "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism": an anti-monopoly pamphlet
analyzing the true harms of surveillance capitalism and proposing a
solution.
https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59

* "Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new
introduction by Edward Snowden:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583; personalized/signed copies
here:
https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1750/July%3A__Little_Brother_%26_Homeland.html

* "Poesy the Monster Slayer" a picture book about monsters, bedtime,
gender, and kicking ass. Order here:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627. Get a personalized, signed
copy here:
https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1562/_Poesy_the_Monster_Slayer.html.

Upcoming books:

* "Attack Surface": The third Little Brother book, Oct 20, 2020.
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250757531

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When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla -Joey "Accordion Guy"
DeVilla

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