Archive for 2012/05/08

Netherlands Following In Footsteps Of Chile. Now Second Country In The World To Have Implemented Net Neutrality Legislation

Posted: 2012/05/08 in Education / Awareness, Legislation, Net Neutrality, New Business Models, Privacy / Data Protection, Public Policy, Stats / reports

Will Brussels follow suit? Or will economic interests prevail?

Providers (cable operators included) will no longer be allowed to charge more or separately for (for example) VOIP services such as Skype and services such as WhatsApp (or block or throttle them for that matter).

The new law also contains restrictions related to the use of cookies and other tracking technologies which aim to collect information about internet users.

There’s one peculiar exception coming up after several religious political parties complained about this law: the law will be amended to allow for “filtering on the basis of ideology” but only when specific conditions apply. It is as of yet unclear what exactly this will mean in practice.

The law leaves room for measures taken as a result of court orders and jurisprudence. One such example is blocking or filtering of websites.

Dutch language news articles:

http://www.nu.nl/internet/2806228/eerste-kamer-stemt-netneutraliteit.html

http://www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/2694/Internet-Media/article/detail/3252571/2012/05/08/Eerste-Kamer-neemt-Telecomwet-aan-netneutraliteit-gewaarborgd.dhtml

Doctorow challenges us to recognize that we are products of technology ourselves

Posted: 2012/05/08 in Education / Awareness, Future Developments?, Tech Evolution

We cannot oppose progress through technology without irony, because we are products of medical science, information technology and the industrial revolution. (In some sense, I think Doctorow seems to be saying that we are already trans-human.)

According to Doctorow, to use technology to preserve the status quo is to deny something about what we are as human beings and this powerful observation is the thread which ties the novella to the other essays in the book and to the rest of Doctorow’s work. It explains his distaste for DRM technologies — the subject of the address in the book — and guides all his fiction — the subject of the interview which closes the book.

What makes Doctorow’s story so unique is that in almost every science fiction story meat-space is privileged over cyber-space. The hero wins when they successfully resist technology and establish their humanity as an opposing force against the tyranny of the machine. Doctorow and other techno-positive thinkers like him argue forcefully that such thinking can only lead to dystopia and suffering.

Much more:
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/05/cory-doctorow-great-big-beautiful-tomorrow/

If an Air Force drone accidentally spies on an American citizen, the Air Force will have three months to figure out if they were legally allowed to put that person under surveillance in the first place

Posted: 2012/05/08 in Education / Awareness, Public Policy, Stats / reports

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/05/air-force-drones-domestic-spy/

Major Cyberlocker Movie Pirate Faces 5 Years In Prison

Posted: 2012/05/08 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing, Litigation

Later this month an individual who allegedly uploaded thousands of movies and TV shows to cyberlocker services will face trial and a possible 5 year prison sentence. The 29-year-old, who was also the moderator of a warez forum, committed the alleged infringements over a period of more than 4 years. The movie industry claims he cost them nearly $4.2m but the Pirate Party reject the damages calculations as “simply ridiculous.”

Initially Stainless is reported to have used RapidShare and Hotfile, but later used a web service called Multiload to upload to several sites at once. One of the main sites listed by Multiload is Hellshare and Stainless reportedly had around 11,500 files stored there.

More:
http://torrentfreak.com/major-cyberlocker-movie-pirate-faces-5-years-in-prison-120508/

This isn’t the first time that activists who campaign against strong intellectual property protection have discovered that strong intellectual property protection can actually be quite handy

Posted: 2012/05/08 in Copyright, Education / Awareness

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/08/dog_bites_freetard/

Facebook spammers made $1.2 million a month, fined $100,000

Posted: 2012/05/08 in Education / Awareness, Stats / reports

Adscend Media, an ad network accused of spamming Facebook users, made up to $1.2 million a month. The firm has agreed to a $100,000 settlement but has not admitted it is responsible.

More:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/facebook-spammers-made-12-million-a-month-fined-100000/12714

Dutch Government, Facebook, Hyves….Nobody Wants To Disclose User Data Requests By Law Enforcement Anymore

Posted: 2012/05/08 in Education / Awareness, Privacy / Data Protection, Public Policy, Stats / reports

Even Google seems to have stopped reporting those requests:
http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/governmentrequests/

In The Netherlands members of parliament representing The Green political party have tried to convince relevant government officials to disclose just how many times enforcement authorities ask social networks to hand over personal details of suspects or to intercept related data.

No government official wants to answer that question and even social networks such as Hyves and Facebook keep their mouths shut about the issue.

To make matters worse, enforcement authorities are not following up on their duty to notify users of social networks that data about them has been requested, nor are authorities keeping records about their efforts to inform suspects.

Social network Hyves told news website Nu.nl that they won’t inform their users as they feel that that is the responsibility of the Dutch Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Dutch language news article:
http://www.nu.nl/internet/2805991/sociale-media-zwijgen-aftappen.html

“Blocking at the network level is a very blunt instrument. It may help to prevent young people coming across pornography unintentionally, but probably won’t stop those actively seeking it”

Posted: 2012/05/08 in Blocking, Education / Awareness, Filtering, Public Policy, Stats / reports, Tech Evolution

says Richard Moore, Managing Director of Web filtering firm Smoothwall.

No solution will stop those actively seeking pornography, but it may not be what the government is looking for in the first place…only techies are looking for 100% foolproof solutions…and typically never encounter one.

Much more:

Web Filtering Firm Smoothwall Warns UK Not to Force Net Censorship on ISPs
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2012/05/web-filtering-firm-smoothwall-warns-uk-not-to-force-net-censorship-on-isps.html

Dutch provider T-Mobile offers customers discounts on music streaming service Deezer

Posted: 2012/05/08 in Education / Awareness, Mobile tech, New Business Models, Stats / reports

http://www.futureofcopyright.com/home/blog-post/2012/05/08/dutch-provider-t-mobile-offers-customers-discounts-on-deezer.html

U.S., China pledge cooperation on cyberwar

Posted: 2012/05/08 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Public Policy, Stats / reports

The countries say that they want to ensure that a “crisis” doesn’t develop between them in the event important servers are accessed

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57429883-83/u.s-china-pledge-cooperation-on-cyberwar/

If Kim Dotcom goes down, everybody will go down with him. Now targeting NZ Minister John Banks (MegaUpload)

Posted: 2012/05/08 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing, Public Policy, Stats / reports

John Banks is the head of the ACT New Zealand political party and the current minister for Small Business and Regulatory Reform. Kim Dotcom is alleged to have donated NZ$50,000 ($38,000) to the 2010 Banks campaign for mayor of the city of Auckland, keeping it anonymous and under the radar by splitting it in two. Dotcom is now set to be questioned by local authorities over this issue.

Banks has said previously that he “didn’t come up the river in a cabbage boat.” This appears to be a New Zealand English expression meaning that he’s not stupid. Prime Minister John Key is a governing coalition with Banks’ ACT party, and has publicly defended Banks.

Banks, however, has subsequently denied that he broke any elections laws, and then said that he could not remember if he’d taken a helicopter ride to Dotcom’s mansion to meet with him.

More:
http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2012/05/kim-dotcom-lampoons-new-zealand-mp-in-new-rap-song.ars

Government asks: when can we shut down wireless service?

Posted: 2012/05/08 in Blocking, Education / Awareness, Legislation, Mobile tech, Public Policy, Stats / reports

What’s striking about most of this discussion is that it takes place absent any mention of the free speech implications of giving government agencies more power to shut down wireless service in situations that they deem an “emergency.” A slew of advocacy groups want the FCC to nip that kind of power in the bud.

“The Commission’s authority to prevent wireless service interruptions is clear, and we ask that the Commission take this opportunity to issue clear rules confirming that the federal government will not, and that state and local governments cannot, interrupt wireless services as a matter of policy in an emergency, nor can the carriers themselves or any private party,” they write.

Signed—Public Knowledge, the Center for Democracy & Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Benton Foundation, Free Press, Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, and the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute.

“Practically every time someone uses a cell phone, he or she is engaging in First Amendment-protected speech,” they argue.

Much more:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/05/government-asks-when-can-we-shut-down-wireless-service.ars