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Mandelson's Power to Censor the Net
,----[ Quote ]
| Hidden away inside the Bill, there's
| unlimited - and arbitrary - censorship of
| any site the Secretary of State takes
| against:
|
| Surely something must limit this power
| you ask? It seems not. The Secretary of
| State may make an order if "he considers
| it appropriate" in view of:
|
| (a) an assessment carried out or steps
| taken by OFCOM under section 124G; or
| (b) any other consideration.
|
| Where "any other consideration" could be
| anything. To their credit the Tories do
| seem to have realised that this
| particular alternative is overly
| permissive. Lord Howard of Rising and
| Lord de Mauley have proposed (in the
| first tranche of amendments proposed
| that the "or" be replaced by an "and".
|
| What astonishes me is that there is no
| obligation for the Secretary of STate to
| even publish such an order, let alone
| subject it to the scrutiny of
| Parliament, yet he could fundamentally
| change the way the internet operates
| using it. Other orders made under other
| parts of the Bill will have to be made
| by statutory instrument and most will
| require Parliamentary approval. Not this
| one.
|
| If this goes through, we are in deep
| trouble, people....
`----
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2009/12/mandelsons-power-to-censor-net.html
Politicians Investigating Leaks Sites... Not Leaks
http://techdirt.com/articles/20091210/1451567301.shtml
Lawmakers Want to Bar Sites From Posting Sensitive Government Docs
,----[ Quote ]
| Three Republican lawmakers have asked the
| Department of Homeland Security what can be
| done to bar or criminally penalize
| whistleblower sites that reposted a
| sensitive airport-screening manual that was
| published on the internet by a government
| worker.
`----
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/12/tsa-leak-2/
Dr Peter Watts, Canadian science fiction writer, beaten and arrested at US border
,----[ Quote ]
| My friend, the wonderful sf writer Peter
| Watts was beaten without provocation and
| arrested by US border guards on Tuesday. I
| heard about it early Wednesday morning in
| London and called Cindy Cohn, the legal
| director of the Electronic Frontier
| Foundation. She worked her contacts to get
| in touch with civil rights lawyers in
| Michigan, and we mobilized with Caitlin
| Sweet (Peter's partner) and David Nickle
| (Peter's friend) and Peter was arraigned and
| bailed out later that day.
|
| But now Peter faces a felony rap for
| "assaulting a federal officer" (Peter and
| the witness in the car say he didn't do a
| thing, and I believe them). Defending this
| charge will cost a fortune, and an
| inadequate defense could cost Peter his
| home, his livelihood and his liberty.
`----
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/12/11/dr-peter-watts-canad.html
Google CEO says privacy doesn't matter. Google blacklists CNet for violating CEO's privacy.
,----[ Quote ]
| But JWZ has the kicker, when he reminds us
| that Eric Schmidt's Google blackballed
| CNet's reporters after CNet published
| personal information about Schmidt's private
| life: ""Google representatives have
| instituted a policy of not talking with CNET
| News reporters until July 2006 in response
| to privacy issues raised by a previous
| story..." "To underscore its point about how
| much personal information is available, the
| CNET report published some personal
| information about Google's CEO Eric Schmidt
| -- his salary; his neighborhood, some of his
| hobbies and political donations -- all
| obtained through Google searches...."
|
| Hey, Eric: if you don't want us to know how
| much money you make, where you live, and
| what you do with your spare time, maybe you
| shouldn't have a house, earn a salary, or
| have any hobbies, right?
`----
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/12/09/google-ceo-says-priv.html
US games company sues British blogger
,----[ Quote ]
| Evony's owners, who boast that the game has
| more than 11 million players worldwide, have
| accused Everiss â a 30-year veteran of the
| computer games industry â of damaging their
| reputation with a series of claims made on
| his blog. Among the allegations that Evony
| is objecting to are claims that the game is
| exploitative and has links to another
| company that is already being sued for fraud
| by Microsoft.
`----
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/dec/11/evony-sues-british-blogger
Tiger Woods gags British media
,----[ Quote ]
| Golfer wins injunction banning reporting of
| new details about personal life that were
| widely available in US
`----
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/dec/11/tiger-woods-gags-english-media
Famous architecture photographer swarmed by multiple police vehicles in London for refusing to tell security guard why he was photographing famous church
,----[ Quote ]
| A crack squad of London cops -- three cars
| and a riot van -- converged on a famous
| architectural photographer who was taking a
| picture of Christopher Wren's 300 year old
| Christ Church spire. Grant Smith, the
| photographer, refused to tell a Bank of
| America security guard what he was doing (he
| wasn't on B of A property) and so the guard
| called in the police. When the police
| arrived, Smith was searched and questioned
| under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act.
`----
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/12/09/famous-architecture.html
Police snapper silliness reaches new heights
,----[ Quote ]
| We were not especially impressed by their
| sending of seven officers in three cars and
| a riot van to deal with architectural
| photographer, Grant Smith, caught filming a
| church in the City of London. This was
| overkill, but alongside Kentâs arrest of a
| photographer for being too tall, as well as
| interference by various forces with assorted
| schoolboys, trainspotters and Austrian
| tourists, it was but small beer.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/11/police_quiz_itn_reporter/
Police stop church photographer under terrorism powers
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/dec/08/police-search-photographer-terrorism-powers
Schneier: Steps to combat file-sharing are misguided
,----[ Quote ]
| Leading security expert Bruce Schneier was
| in London this week on a whirlwind lecture
| tour. ZDNet UK caught up with the ex-NSA
| man, who is now BT's chief security
| technology officer, at lectures in
| parliament and at University College London.
|
| Schneier talked to ZDNet UK about his views
| on behavioural advertising, the efforts of
| various governments to tackle unlawful file-
| sharing, cyber-warfare and vendor lock-in.
`----
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39927707,00.htm?s_cid=260
Forget DVD Rentals for $1 a Day; How About 6 Cents an Hour?
,----[ Quote ]
| If Redbox is set to destroy the Hollywood
| with $1-per-night DVD rentals, whatâll
| happen if Big Box DVD kiosks start appearing
| around the country, charging just 6 cents an
| hour? We could find out if Big Box parent
| Mosquito Productions is able to expand its
| kiosk DVD rental business.
`----
http://www.salon.com/technology/the_gigaom_network/online_video/2009/12/09/forget_dvd_rentals_for_1_a_day_how_about_6_cents_an_hour
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