Archive for 2011/02/03

The Supreme Court of Belgium decided that not just ‘operators of electronic communication networks’, but everyone who provides electronic communication services, like the transmission of communication data, can be an ‘electronic communication service provider’ – Belgium vs Yahoo!

Posted: 2011/02/03 in Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Jurisprudence, Public Policy

Service providers who offer a service to customers with which they can send, receive, or spread information via an electronic network, can also be defined as an ‘electronic communications provider’. According to the Belgium Supreme Court, these service providers can be compelled to provide certain data upon request of a public prosecutor on the basis of article 46bis of the Belgium Criminal Procedure Code. The Court of Gent – who previously ruled differently in this case – therefore must rule again in this case.

Basically, the Belgium Supreme Court ruled indirectly that Yahoo can be considered an ‘electronic communication service provider’ and could be compelled by a Belgium public prosecutor to provide data on its customers. The final outcome of the case is not certain yet, but it seems to me that it might be very difficult for the Court of Gent to rule otherwise.

Much more: http://oerlemansblog.weblog.leidenuniv.nl/2011/02/03/belgium-vs-yahoo

EFF calls upon governments worldwide to repeal the EU Data Retention Directive, and any mandatory data retention regime that requires ISP to preemptively record traffic data about the online activities of millions of citizens who haven’t committed any crime

Posted: 2011/02/03 in Education / Awareness, Legislation, Public Policy

Much more: http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/02/governments-celebrate-international-privacy-day

Do-Not-Track (How about piggybacking on the User-Agent?)

Posted: 2011/02/03 in Education / Awareness, Privacy / Data Protection

http://jeremiahgrossman.blogspot.com/2011/02/do-not-track-how-about-piggybacking-on.html

Five Ways the Android-Powered Google Tablet Is Better than the iPad

Posted: 2011/02/03 in Education / Awareness, Google, New Business Models, Tech Evolution

http://gizmodo.com/5750210/five-ways-the-android+powered-google-tablet-is-better-than-the-ipad

Nearly every movie is somehow a remix

Posted: 2011/02/03 in Education / Awareness

http://vimeo.com/19447662

http://gizmodo.com/5750429/everything-is-a-remix

U.S. State Department talked Google into restoring YouTube video showing torture and murder by Egypt’s state police

Posted: 2011/02/03 in Education / Awareness, Public Policy

Takeaways from Egypt: Kill the kill switch and decentralize the Internet

Posted: 2011/02/03 in Education / Awareness

 Start running drills and setting up groups of government and private workers who are ready to spring into action in the event of a serious attack. If they have to temporarily shut down part of an Internet pipe to stop an attack, so be it. But, shutting down a large swath of the US Internet in order to block all potential attack vectors would spread fear and panic, cut off people who can potentially help, and, arguably, violate the First Amendment rights of Americans.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/takeaways-from-egypt-kill-the-kill-switch-and-decentralize-the-internet/44417

See also:

I’ve changed my mind. America must never allow an Internet “kill switch”. Here’s why.
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/government/ive-changed-my-mind-america-must-never-allow-an-internet-kill-switch-heres-why/9982

Cisco Records Explosion in Mobile Broadband Data Traffic During 2010

Posted: 2011/02/03 in Bandwidth Management, Education / Awareness, Mobile tech, Stats / reports, Tech Evolution

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2011/02/03/cisco-records-explosion-in-mobile-broadband-data-traffic-during-2010.html

750,000 World Libraries Raise Serious Objections to UK Digital Economy Act

Posted: 2011/02/03 in Blocking, Education / Awareness, Legislation

 ”As an ISP, a library can be made responsible for the monitoring of their networks for copyright infringement and incur significant financial obligations as a result. As a subscriber, libraries are likely to receive notifications from their ISP to the effect that a copyright owner has made a report against them for alleged copyright infringement. The financial and time costs of complying with or appealing against this type of situation cannot be underestimated, nor can the types of penalty that could be imposed on libraries as result of an infringement by an individual user, such as the imposition of technical measures (such as reductions in quality of internet service, which ultimately affect library users).

…

The imposition of new restrictions on library networks runs counter to the library’s vital mission of providing freedom of access to information to its users. Not only does the legislation potentially lead to or encourage the adoption of blocking technologies that are valuable for learning and information sharing in an educational context, it also raises fundamental freedom of expression and privacy issues as public bodies inevitably monitor the activities of their users.

The chilling effect of the monitoring of Internet use should not be underestimated, and the electronic recording of library users’ information seeking activities is not consistent with a democratic approach to access to knowledge. Library users should be free to seek information without barriers, and without fear of surveillance.”

More: http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2011/02/03/750000-world-libraries-raise-serious-objections-to-uk-digital-economy-act.html

Perfect 10 Aiming To Lose Yet Again; Sues MegaUpload

Posted: 2011/02/03 in Education / Awareness, Litigation, New Business Models

And the thing is, Perfect 10 seems to lose in court pretty consistently

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110202/04054012923/perfect-10-aiming-to-lose-yet-again-sues-megaupload.shtml

See also:

Is Perfect 10 fighting for another lost cause?
We’re looking forward to review the quality of Perfect 10’s complaint and associated evidence this time. In any event, their actions have helped to define case law concerning copyright.
http://futureofcopyright.com/index.php?page=news&id=1615

Details of passengers on every flight within the European Union will be passed to destination countries under European Commission proposals

Posted: 2011/02/03 in Education / Awareness, Public Policy

http://tinyurl.com/47bkveh

Peter Robbins has stepped down as Chief Executive of the Internet Watch Foundation after almost nine years heading up the occasionally controversial organisation

Posted: 2011/02/03 in Education / Awareness, Enforcement

During his time at the IWF, Robbins led the organisation in its sometimes controversial adoption and roll-out of the URL blocking service Cleanfeed. At the same time, he brought to the IWF an air of dignified calm, perhaps learnt from his days as Borough Commander in Hackney Police, which went well with the IWF’s international prominent role in issues of internet governance

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/03/iwf_chief_steps_down/

A UK-based IT expert has admitted hacking into the servers of game developer Zynga and stealing $12m worth of gaming chips

Posted: 2011/02/03 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness

Mitchell was able to gain unauthorized access Zynga’s system by posing as one of the company’s site administrators. He then transferred 400 billion gaming chips into fake Facebook accounts he set up. The price of the stolen booty would have come to $12m if Zynga had issued it, prosecutors said

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/02/zynga_chip_theft/

Authorities in Manhattan have issued indictments against 27 alleged members of a gang which used filched credit card details to order piles of Apple kit

Posted: 2011/02/03 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Organized Crime

The ring – self-dubbed S3 – bought the financial details and identities of ID theft victims, via online portals

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2011/02/03/apple_scam/

Documents in Assange rape probe leak onto the net

Posted: 2011/02/03 in Privacy / Data Protection

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/03/assange_documents_leaked/

The Heritage Foundation, a top conservative think tank, says Congress should squelch the FCC’s net neutrality rules and curb the Commission’s authority over mergers and media acquisitions

Posted: 2011/02/03 in Education / Awareness, Net Neutrality, Public Policy

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/02/heritage-foundation-says-abolish-key-fcc-powers.ars

Oh pirates, how your habits altered as your connections sped up!

Posted: 2011/02/03 in Education / Awareness, File Sharing, Illegal File Sharing, Tech Evolution

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/02/where-have-all-the-music-pirates-gone.ars

Sen. Ron Wyden has 10 tough questions for Immigration and Customs Enforcement about its year-long seizure of Internet domain names, even for sites based overseas. And he wants to know which US rightsholders are suggesting the takedowns in the first place

Posted: 2011/02/03 in Blocking, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Public Policy

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/02/senator-us-domain-name-seizures-alarmingly-unprecedented.ars