Uncategorized

We have today officially launched our new XMPP (Jabber) server.

Register an account here:

https://jabber-signup.5july.net/

Our old XMPP (Jabber) server will be has been shut down.

If you used the old server, make sure to use a new password when you register on the new server.

Note that the new server has server address jabber.5july.net (the old one had .org in the end).

Security breach

The immediate reason for the switch to the new server is a security breach that occurred this morning. We think that usernames, hashed passwords, and possibly contacts have been leaked. We are still investigating, but bottom line is that there doesn’t seem to be any security patch for this vulnerability (for the version we are running, see below), which means that similar attacks could happen again. We will therefore shut down this server and start using a new one. We have sent an XMPP message about this to all users of our old server.

The switch to a new XMPP server has been in the works for some time already. Our old XMPP server ran on an older version of Prosody, and we had had problems updating to the newest version, possibly because the database had been corrupted after migrating from ejabberd to Prosody earlier on. After several attempts to update Prosody, we simply decided to start a new XMPP server running on the latest version. We tried migrating all accounts from the old to the new server, but without success. (If you noticed downtown in the last few weeks, this was the reason.) We therefore decided that we would have to ask all of you to register new accounts on the new server. Far from ideal, but doable.

Better XMPP compliance

The good news is that running the latest version of Prosody will make it possible to add various extensions that some of you have asked for. The Conversations’ XMPP compliance tester gives us a score of 80 percent currently, up from 60-something for the old server. We’ll implement more features over the next weeks.

The negotiations of the new EU copyright directive are coming to a close. The parliamentary committee for Legal Affairs (JURI) will vote on the directive on 20-21 June 2018. Since JURI is the main committee for this directive, the result of their vote will be the official recommendation for the European Parliament, when they vote about the directive at a later date.

Free Software Foundation (FSFE) and OpenForum Europe (OFE) have researched how the proposed directive may affect free and open source software, and the communities that develop them:

The proposed Copyright Directive has the clear potential to harm Europe’s competitiveness and growth in this area. Importantly, it could also restrict important fundamental rights of developers and internet users, without achieving a proportionate benefit. In particular, the proposed Article 13 could create barriers for the development of source code by imposing liability on platforms used by developers, harming a sector fundamental for the Digital Single Market. Therefore, both OFE and the FSFE consider that the proposed Article 13 should be redrafted in order to be consistent with the existing legal framework around intermediary liability, as established by the e-Commerce Directive.

The 5th of July Foundation has today signed the #SaveCodeShare open letter, which will be handed over to members of the EU parliament before the vote.

Sign the open letter here:

#SaveCodeShare

Read more about the proposed Copyright Directive over at Julia Reda:

EU censorship machines and link tax laws are nearing the finish line

Since January 1, 2018, Karl Andersson is the new Executive Director of the 5th of July Foundation.

Karl comes from the publishing business and has a strong commitment to freedom of expression. He has been part of the foundation’s core associates since the start, but his focus has until now been on the editorial side, as a podcast host, news editor and web designer.

As Executive Director, Karl will focus on the development of new services that enhance security, privacy and liberty for internet users, as well as maintenance, including marketing and further development, of the foundation’s existing services, mainly Integrity VPN.

Karl can be reached at karl (at) 5july.org (Optional public key, fingerprint: 1DC3 5A97 1854 5C89 1B0B 7B8F BD0E 885C 4C4F 7E4D).

It’s the 5th of July 2016 today, and it’s been four years since the UN Human Rights Council adopted the “Resolution on the Promotion, Protection, and Enjoyment of Human Rights on the Internet”.

The 5th of July Foundation took its name from the day that bore those great aspirations:

Let’s promote, protect and enjoy human rights on the internet!

New podcast on internet politics

Our latest project to do this is a podcast, which covers internet politics in a broad sense. It’s in Swedish (so far) and we call it “5 juli-podden”. You can listen on for example Itunes, Soundcloud or Youtube.

Blog anniversary

Today also marks the two year anniversary for our resident blogger HAX, who is also co-host of the podcast. We’re celebrating by giving hax.5july.org a little facelift. As always, it’s somewhat of a challenge to make a blog work smoothly and look tasty without letting third party companies (read: Google) put their code on your pages.

Expanding our services

So far the “promotion” of human rights on the internet. What about the “protection” and the “enjoyment”?

It’s for those purposes that we run our privacy services: A free disposable email service (still beta), a free encrypted Jabber chat server, and our paid VPN service Integrity VPN, which we are now expanding, so that customers of more internet providers will have the choice to enhance the security, privacy and liberty of their everyday communication.

So that’s a brief update on our doings. We look forward to many interesting developments in the coming year. Cheers!