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China has just blocked Google, Conroy to follow suit?
,----[ Quote ]
| A news report in Forbes says that China has
| blocked Google with its great firewall, now
| the world waits to see if Australiaâs
| Minister for Censorship, Senator Stephen
| Conroy, will do the same following his
| outrageous attacks on Google.
`----
http://www.itwire.com/it-policy-news/government-tech-policy/37999
US reveals concerns over Conroyâs net filter plan
,----[ Quote ]
| The Obama administration has questioned the
| Rudd Governmentâs plan to introduce an
| internet filter on the grounds that it runs
| contrary to stated US foreign policy of
| using an open internet to spread economic
| growth and global security.
`----
http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/us-concerns-on-stephen-conroy-isp-filter/
Facebook prepares for another privacy row with its users
,----[ Quote ]
| Facebook has once again decided to tweak
| its privacy policy, but this time the Mark
| Zuckerberg-run company has told its users
| to expect another overhaul ahead of making
| the changes - presumably in an effort to
| prevent the kind of protest the Web2.0rhea
| site suffered last year.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/29/facebook_privacy_tweaks/
Ottawa joins the war on photography
,----[ Quote ]
| I suppose if terrorists were precision
| bombers who had to place their charges to
| the millimetre in order to succeed, this
| would make sense, but given that no one's
| ever shown that terrorists attacks involve
| carefully photographing the attack-site (as
| opposed to simply walking up to it, finding
| a likely spot, and blowing up), this is
| simply a good way of absorbing
| police/security time that could be spent
| chasing actual bad guys.
`----
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/03/24/ottawa-joins-the-war.html
How the American phone companies used to feel about privacy
,----[ Quote ]
| Back in 2008, Matt Blaze put the push for
| immunity for telcos that participated in GW
| Bush's illegal wiretapping program in
| context: "As someone who began his
| professional career in the Bell System (and
| who stayed around through several of its
| successors), the push for telco immunity
| represents an especially bitter
| disillusionment for me. Say what you will
| about the old Phone Company, but respect
| for customer privacy was once a deeply
| rooted point of pride in the corporate
| ethos.
`----
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/03/26/how-the-american-pho.html
Missing Chinese dissident Gao Zhisheng reappears
,----[ Quote ]
| But now the outspoken activist, feared by
| some to be dead, appears to have re-emerged
| in circumstances as mysterious as his
| disappearance. Reporters and friends said
| he spoke to them by phone today, saying he
| was living at a Buddhist landmark in Shanxi
| province.
`----
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/28/china-dissident-gao-zhisheng-reappears
Wikipedia Founder Praises Google Over China Decision
,----[ Quote ]
| A co-founder of popular online encyclopedia
| Wikipedia praised Google for its decision
| to stop censoring Internet searches in
| China and called on other major U.S.
| companies, including Microsoft and
| Facebook, to follow.
`----
http://www.pcworld.com/article/192111/wikipedia_founder_praises_google_over_china_decision.html?tk=rss_news
Cecilia MalstrÃm filters the net
,----[ Quote ]
| Itâs been a long time but it seems
| Commissioner Cecilia MalstrÃm is the next
| person to pick up the poisoned apple of net
| filtering and apply cynical arguments from
| the proponents of these measures. Feels
| like 1996.
`----
http://arebentisch.wordpress.com/2010/03/29/cecilia-malstrom-filters-the-net/
Surprise: Phorm Resurfaces In Brazil With Five Deals
,----[ Quote ]
| With its roots in software that some
| classed âspywareâ, Phorm proposed helping
| ISPs make more money and advertisers more
| relevant audiences. Installed on ISPsâ
| networks, its technology would monitor
| consenting customersâ every web visit to
| build an anonymised profile of their
| browsing habits against which to target
| ads.
`----
http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-surprise-phorm-resurfaces-in-brazil-with-five-isp-deals/
Is Russia Google's next weak spot?
,----[ Quote ]
| Big news from Russia today: RBK Daily, a
| respected Russian news agency, reports (in
| Russian) that the Russian government might
| soon be launching a "national search
| engine". According to RBK's anonymous
| sources inside Kremlin, it would aim at
| satisfying "state-oriented" needs such as
| "facilitating access to safe information"
| and "filtering web-sites that feature
| banned content." It's going to be an
| ambitious project: the government is
| prepared to invest $100 million in this new
| venture, does not want to allow any foreign
| funding, and intends to build it in
| cooperation with the private sector.
`----
http://neteffect.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/03/26/is_russia_googles_next_weak_spot
A Bill of Rights in Cyberspace
,----[ Quote ]
| In my Media Guardian column this Monday, I
| will suggest that we need a Bill of Rights
| in Cyberspace as a set of amendments to
| John Perry Barlowâs 1996 Declaration of the
| Independence of Cyberspace. Note that I do
| not suggest the establishment a
| Constitution of the Internet; I think that
| would violate the tenets Barlow so
| eloquently if grandiosely sets forth. We
| donât need government in cyberspace; we
| need freedom.
`----
http://www.buzzmachine.com/2010/03/27/a-bill-of-rights-in-cyberspace/
Navigating China's web of censors
,----[ Quote ]
| Googleâs face-off with Beijing over
| censorship may have struck a philosophical
| blow for free speech and encouraged some
| Chinese Netizens by its sheer chutzpah, but
| it doesnât do a thing for Internet users in
| China. It merely hands the job of blocking
| objectionable content back to Beijing.
`----
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36041417/ns/technology_and_science-security/
Child-abuse survivors oppose EU censorwall
,----[ Quote ]
| A recently leaked European Council proposal
| seeks to create a "Great Firewall of
| Europe," instituted to block sites that
| depict the abuse of children. As with other
| censorwalls, it's unlikely that this will
| performed as intended, since paedophiles
| will circumvent it with proxies, or by
| using P2P or email or private websites to
| trade illegal material. But the creation of
| a continent-wide network censorship scheme
| is likely to cause new problems, inviting
| authorities to shoehorn ever-greater slices
| of the net into the "illegal" category --
| this has already happened in Australia and
| other countries that have built Chinese-
| style censorship regimes.
`----
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/03/25/child-abuse-survivor.html
How Internet censorship harms schools
,----[ Quote ]
| The Canadian National History Society was
| forced to change the name of its magazine,
| The Beaver, founded in 1920, because the
| name of the magazine caused it to be
| blocked by Internet filters.
|
| One teacher wanted to show students some
| pictures that would illustrate the effects
| of atomic testing. "However when I went to
| bring the wikipedia page up at school
| during class, it was blocked by our
| internet filter, BESS. The name of the
| islands? 'Bikini Atoll,'" said Doug
| Johnson, quoting the teacher. Johnson, a
| director of media and technology at a
| Minnesota school district, put out a call
| in July for stories about how Internet
| filtering hobbles education, and got an
| earful. ("Censorship by Omission")
`----
http://blogs.computerworld.com/15823/how_internet_censorship_harms_schools
Tech giants criticize Australia plan for Internet filtering
,----[ Quote ]
| The Sydney Morning Herald reported that 147
| comments were submitted to the government
| on its proposal to begin blocking certain
| Web sites â particularly those that present
| harm to children.
`----
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2010/03/tech_giants_criticize_australi.html
U.S. must stop spying on WikiLeaks
,----[ Quote ]
| Over the last few years, WikiLeaks has been
| the subject of hostile acts by security
| organizations. In the developing world,
| these range from the appalling
| assassination of two related human rights
| lawyers in Nairobi last March (an armed
| attack on my compound there in 2007 is
| still unattributed) to an unsuccessful mass
| attack by Chinese computers on our servers
| in Stockholm, after we published photos of
| murders in Tibet. In the West this has
| ranged from the overt, the head of
| Germany's foreign intelligence service, the
| BND, threatening to prosecute us unless we
| removed a report on CIA activity in Kosovo,
| to the covert, to an ambush by a "James
| Bond" character in a Luxembourg car park,
| an event that ended with a mere "we think
| it would be in your interest to...".
`----
http://wikileaks.org/?t=a#spying
Facebook, Google Gear up for Privacy Fight in Europe
,----[ Quote ]
| European privacy regulators are looking
| more closely at whether the Facebook and
| YouTube practice of allowing users to post
| videos, photos or other information about
| others without their consent violates their
| privacy. The Associated Press reports:
|
| The Swiss and German probes go to the
| heart of a debate that has gained
| momentum in Europe amid high-profile
| privacy cases: To what extent are
| social networking platforms responsible
| for the content their members upload?
`----
http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/blogs/bentley/facebook-google-gear-up-for-privacy-fight-in-europe/?cs=40291
World's top domain name service to stop offering Web addresses in China
,----[ Quote ]
| U.S.-based GoDaddy.com, the world's largest
| domain name service, announced Wednesday it
| will no longer register new Web sites in
| China.
`----
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/88843-worlds-top-domain-name-service-to-stop-offering-web-addresses-in-china
China, the Internet and Google: what I planned to say
,----[ Quote ]
| Today, the Congressional Executive China
| Commission conducted a hearing titled
| Google and Internet Control in China: A
| Nexus Between Human Rights and Trade? They
| had originally invited me to testify in a
| similarly titled hearing, "China, the
| Internet and Google," which was postponed
| and rescheduled twice: the first attempt
| was foiled by the Great Snowcalypse; the
| second attempt scheduled for March 1st was
| postponed again at the last minute for some
| reason that isn't entirely clear. Meanwhile
| I had already gone and written my
| testimony, improved by very helpful input
| from the CITP community. Unfortunately,
| when they rescheduled the hearing they said
| I was no longer invited. They wanted the
| hearing to have different witnesses from
| recent related hearings in both the House
| and Senate. Given that I appeared in both
| hearings it seems reasonable that they'd
| want to hear from some other people.
`----
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/rmackinnon/china-internet-and-google-what-i-planned-say
What Chinese Censors Donât Want You to Know
,----[ Quote ]
| Following are excerpts from media
| guidelines that the Communist Party
| propaganda department and the government
| Bureau of Internet Affairs, conveyed to top
| editors before this monthâs annual sessions
| of the National Peopleâs Congress and the
| Chinese Peopleâs Political Consultative
| Conference.
|
| The sessions are often referred to here as
| âthe two meetings.â Such internal
| guidelines are typically circulated weekly,
| and the list issued before this yearâs
| sessions was described as considerably
| lengthier than the norm.
|
| [...]
|
| 10. During the two meetings, do not feature
| or sensationalize news about petitioners.
|
| 11. Do not report on the hunger strike by
| Ai Weiwei and other artists. [There was no
| hunger strike, but Beijing artists are
| protesting being forced to relocate their
| studios without fair compensation.]
`----
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/22/world/asia/22banned.html?src=tptw
Chinese netizens' open letter to the Chinese Government and Google
,----[ Quote ]
| The letter concludes with several
| statements about censorship. "We support
| necessary censorship of Internet content
| and communications, whether it is on Google
| or any other foreign or domestic company,"
| the authors write.
`----
http://rconversation.blogs.com/rconversation/2010/03/chinese-netizens-open-letter-to-the-chinese-government-and-google.html
Google's unwise move to Hong Kong
,----[ Quote ]
| You know things are getting serious when
| Chinese editorial writers start invoking
| the specter of the infamous Brtish East
| India Company in the context of Google's
| decision to withdraw its search engine
| services from China. As a symbol of
| oppressive imperialism, the British East
| India Co. is hard to beat in a nation where
| the scars from the Opium Wars still linger,
| raw and tender.
`----
http://www.salon.com/technology/how_the_world_works/2010/03/22/google_moves_to_hong_kong/index.html
All Your Browsing History Are Belong to Us
,----[ Quote ]
| For several years, it has been a poorly
| kept secret that any Web site you went to
| could secretly search your browserâs
| history file to see what sites you had
| previously visited. All the site owner had
| to do was ask. And while browser history
| âsniffingâ has been around for a long time,
| companies are finally starting to actively
| take advantage of it. The time to act to
| prevent this clear threat to personal
| privacy is now.
`----
http://www.cdt.org/blogs/justin-brookman/all-your-browsing-history-are-belong-us
Google fine for uncensored dirty jokes
,----[ Quote ]
| A BRAZILIAN court today fined US internet
| giant Google for not blocking pages of
| dirty jokes on its social networking site
| Orkut.
`----
http://www.news.com.au/technology/google-fine-for-uncensored-dirty-jokes/story-e6frfro0-1225844583476
Police given powers to enter homes and tear down anti-Olympics posters during 2012 Games
,----[ Quote ]
| Police have been handed 'Chinese-style'
| powers to enter private homes and seize
| political posters during the London 2012
| Olympics.
|
| Little-noticed measures passed by the
| Government will allow officers and Olympics
| officials to enter homes and shops near
| official venues to confiscate any protest
| material.
`----
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1201171/Police-given-powers-enter-homes-tear-anti-Olympics-posters-Games.html
Google co-founder Sergey Brin urges US to act over China web censorship
,----[ Quote ]
| Google co-founder Sergey Brin has called on
| Washington to take a stand against China's
| censorship of the internet, urging the US
| to make the issue a "high priority".
`----
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/mar/24/google-china-sergey-brin-censorship
NCAA games coming to Syracuse, but businesses can't mention it
,----[ Quote ]
| But the NCAA and its trademarks,
| restrictions and sponsor partners are
| putting the lid on any sanctioned events â
| rallies, parties and the like â for the
| Syracuse community and the other three
| cities hosting whatâs come to be known as
| the Sweet 16.
`----
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/03/post_188.html
Attorney-General Michael Atkinson quits front bench
,----[ Quote ]
| TROUBLE-plagued Attorney-General Michael
| Atkinson has fallen on his sword to make
| way for fresh blood in a new Labor
| ministry.
|
| [...]
|
| He has been dogged by a string of
| controversies - think internet censorship,
| stashed cash, Ashbourne-Clarke and the
| senior magistrate defamation case.
|
| He also has attracted national criticism
| over his refusal to allow an R18+ rating
| for video games.
|
| His humiliating backflip over internet
| censorship laws on the night of Februrary 2
| came after a furious reaction on
| AdelaideNow to The Advertiser's exclusive
| report on the new law.
`----
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/in-depth/attorney-general-michael-atkinson-to-quit-front-bench/story-fn2sdwup-1225843341005
Anonymous Comments: Are They Good or Evil?
,----[ Quote ]
| In a nutshell, Howard said that anonymous
| comments were an abomination (Iâm
| paraphrasing somewhat) and were in fact
| unethical, since commenters on a news site
| had a âfundamental rightâ to know the
| identity of the other people commenting. I
| tried to make a number of points, including
| the fact that anonymity is a red herring,
| and that the more important thing in
| encouraging a strong and healthy community
| conversation is standards of behaviour,
| regardless of anonymity. I also tried to
| make the point that anonymity has its
| benefits, and that many people â some of
| whom might have valuable contributions to
| make â would never comment if they had to
| use real names (Howard made the point that
| allowing anonymity excludes other people).
`----
http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2010/03/20/anonymous-comments-are-they-good-or-evil/
Egypt regulator enforces Internet voice call ban
,----[ Quote ]
| Egypt has begun enforcing a ban on
| international calls made through mobile
| internet connections, the head of the
| telcoms regulator told Reuters on Tuesday,
| potentially boosting voice revenues at
| landline monopoly Telecom Egypt.
`----
http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE62F0JJ20100316
DOJ Might Be Facebook-Stalking You
,----[ Quote ]
| With the help of the University of
| California Berkeley's Samuelson Clinic, the
| Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed
| a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request
| for documents from the government about how
| they monitor and use social networking
| sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and
| LinkedIn to gather information for
| investigations. The EFF struck gold with
| this request, as both the IRS and the
| Department of Justice released training
| presentations on social networking sites.
| While this may seem benign, the training
| material from the DOJ suggests that feds go
| undercover on sites such as Facebook to
| gather information on crime.
`----
http://www.prwatch.org/node/8962
City Reaches $33 Million Settlement Over Strip Searches
,----[ Quote ]
| For the third time in a decade, New York
| City has agreed to pay millions of dollars
| to settle a lawsuit stemming from the
| illegal strip searches of thousands of
| nonviolent prisoners.
`----
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/23/nyregion/23strip.html
Oz Internet Censorship gets noticed in China
,----[ Quote ]
| Kevin Rudd's plans to crack down on
| Internet content appear to have drawn the
| attention of no less than the Chinese
| Government. The website of the State
| Council Information Office recently
| featured an article (Google translation
| here) on Rudd's endorsement of an "online
| ombudsman" to deal with inappropriate
| Internet content and discusses the upcoming
| mandatory filtering legislation.
`----
http://www.efa.org.au/2010/03/11/oz-internet-censorship-noticed-in-china/
Court: Cyberbullying Threats Are Not Protected Speech
,----[ Quote ]
| A California appeals court ruled this week
| that threatening posts made by readers of a
| website are not protected free speech,
| allowing a case charging the posters with
| hate crimes and defamation to proceed.
`----
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/03/cyberbullying-not-protected/
Nestle Discovers The Streisand Effect... But Only After Making Things Worse And Worse... And Worse
,----[ Quote ]
| Earlier this week, reader Jorvay sent over
| the news of how food giant Nestle had
| massively overreacted to an (admittedly
| disgusting) anti-Nestle video put together
| by Greenpeace and posted to YouTube. The
| thing was, this video was getting no
| attention. It had less than 1,000 views...
| but someone who should have known better at
| Nestle filed a bogus copyright claim to
| take down the video.
`----
http://techdirt.com/articles/20100318/1237168618.shtml
Kit Kat spat goes viral despite NestlÃ's efforts
,----[ Quote ]
| A global game of Whack-a-Mole broke out
| Wednesday on the Internet when YouTube
| removed a gruesome anti-Nestlà commercial
| by Greenpeace after the multinational food
| giant complained, only to have viewers
| flock to the video-sharing site Vimeo.com,
| where the spot became an instant cause
| cÃlÃbre because of the reputed censorship.
|
| The 60-second video depicts a bored office
| worker enjoying a Kit Kat, which rather
| than being the popular chocolate-hazelnut
| ladyfinger-style confection, appears to be
| a chocolate-covered ape finger. As he
| munches on the treat, it oozes blood over
| his chin and across his keyboard, shocking
| his co-workers. âHave a break?â reads the
| on-screen text. âGive the orangu-tan a
| break.â
`----
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/kit-kat-spat-goes-viral-despite-nestls-efforts/article1503795/?cmpid=1
Weil Wins Injunction Against Fly on the Wall
,----[ Quote ]
| Like our colleague Alison Frankel at The Am
| Law Litigation Daily, we had not before
| heard of the "hot news" tort that places
| some limits on the publication of
| information, even if that information is
| already in the public domain in some form.
| That's the tort three banks represented by
| Weil, Gotshal & Manges used to win an
| injunction against the breaking Wall Street
| news site Theflyonthewall.com, according to
| The Am Law Litigation Daily. The banks
| claimed Fly's practice of publishing pieces
| of research reports almost instantly
| undercut their work by making key nuggets
| meant for exclusive client use available to
| a wider audience immediately. Why would
| clients pay big money those reports--which
| themselves cost the banks money to
| produce--if Fly was going to publish the
| important stuff right away?
`----
http://amlawdaily.typepad.com/amlawdaily/2010/03/flyonthewall.html
FBI using Facebook in fight against crime
,----[ Quote ]
| Agents taught how to extract information
| from social networking sites in US
| government document obtained by advocacy
| group
`----
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/16/fbi-facebook-crime-study
Mafia don suspect tracked down via Facebook
,----[ Quote ]
| Italian police successfully used Facebook
| to track down a Mafia suspect.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/17/mafia_suspect_tracked_via_facebook/
Apple, Facebook Get Into Geolocation
,----[ Quote ]
| Location services, like Foursquare and
| Gowalla, are a hot trend among some mobile
| device users, and are usually based on a
| check-in model. When you get to a
| restaurant, party, concert or museum you
| can choose to broadcast your location,
| using your smartphone's GPS capabilities,
| to other network users as well as to your
| Twitter or Facebook feeds.
`----
http://www.pcworld.com/article/191927/apple_facebook_get_into_geolocation.html?tk=rss_main
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