Let’s see: freedom of information, freedom of speech, freedom of innovation, net neutrality, mere conduit, never deep packet inspection, never ad injection, unlimited downloading, right to privacy, no blocking, no filtering, court orders always…
Archive for the ‘Jurisprudence’ Category
Tech companies are being held to a higher standard. They have only themselves to blame
Posted: 2013/05/22 in Bandwidth Management, Blocking, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Filtering, Jurisprudence, Litigation, Net Neutrality, New Business Models, Privacy / Data Protection, Stats / reports, Tech EvolutionInternet service providers in the UK have today begun blocking one of the world’s largest streaming movie portals
Posted: 2013/05/20 in Jurisprudence, Blocking, File Sharing, New Business Models, Illegal File Sharing, Education / Awareness, Tech Evolution, Stats / reports, Enforcement, Filtering, Litigation, CopyrightIn a follow up to similar actions, the MPAA obtained a High Court order which compels all major ISPs to begin blocking Movie2K, a massive site with millions of visitors each month.
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TorrentFreak can confirm that in the last week of April several of the UK’s leading ISPs including BT, Virgin Media and TalkTalk, and almost certainly O2, EE and Sky, received a copy of a High Court order compelling them to block the sites.
BT have already begun blocking the site in the UK and Virgin Media inform us that they too will initiate a blockade today.
“Virgin Media has received an order from the Courts requiring it to prevent access to Download4All and Movie2K in order to help protect against copyright infringement,” a spokesperson told TorrentFreak.
“As a responsible ISP, Virgin Media complies with court orders addressed to the company, but strongly believes that changing consumer behaviour to tackle copyright infringement also needs compelling legal alternatives to give consumers access to great content at the right price.”
More:
http://torrentfreak.com/uk-isps-block-huge-movie-site-movie2k-proxy-immediately-unblocks-130520/
Banking Privacy More Important than Copyright Enforcement, Court Rules
Posted: 2013/05/17 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Jurisprudence, Privacy / Data Protection, Stats / reports, Tech EvolutionPreviously:
Dutch Judge: ING Bank Cannot Be Forced To Hand Over Personal Details Of Pirate Site Operator To BREIN
http://vrritti.com/2013/05/17/dutch-judge-ing-bank-cannot-be-forced-to-hand-over-personal-details-of-pirate-site-operator-to-brein/
Four Anonymous/Lulzsec hackers handed jail sentences: 20 months suspended, 24 months, 30 months and even 32 months
Posted: 2013/05/16 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Jurisprudence, Litigation, Network Security, Organized Crime, Privacy / Data Protection, Public Policy, Stats / reportsConvicts: Ryan Cleary, Jake Davis, Mustafa al-Bassam and Ryan Ackroyd
Targets included the CIA, the U.S. Air Force, Sony Pictures, games maker EA, News International and the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency
- hacking into the US Air Force’s computers and possession of indecent images of babies and children;
- possession of images showing child abuse;
- stealing emails, credit card details and passwords from their targets’ computer servers and crashing victims’ websites with distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks;
- providing the software to carry out attacks and posting stolen data online;
- stealing data from Sony;
- redirecting visitors trying to visit the Sun newspaper’s site to a fake story about News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch committing suicide;
- an unauthorised act to impair the operation of a computer;
- hacking and launching cyber-attacks against organisations including the CIA and Soca.
German Federal Court: Embedded YouTube videos do not infringe copyright under current German law, but they could violate European rules
Posted: 2013/05/16 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Google, Jurisprudence, Litigation, Public Policy, Stats / reportsThe court said that it has referred a case about YouTube embeds to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Luxembourg for an opinion, and has not reached a final ruling.
The court found that embedded YouTube videos don’t infringe the copyright of the rights holder because an embedded video is a link to content on another website.
This doesn’t violate the German Copyright Act because it is the owner of the website that originally posted the video who has responsibility for making it accessible to the public.
Pirate Bay Domain Registrar(s) Assist(s) Copyright Infringement. Perhaps Not Only In Sweden?
Posted: 2013/05/16 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, File Sharing, Illegal File Sharing, Jurisprudence, Litigation, Stats / reportsThe organization responsible for Sweden’s top-level domain is facing court action after refusing to disable or seize two domains operated by The Pirate Bay. The Internet Infrastructure Foundation, the body that administers the .SE TLD and engages in projects to better the Internet, now faces a court showdown. The prosecution office is claiming that the foundation is guilty of assisting those who assist others to engage in copyright infringement.
UK Student Admits Breaching Sony Copyrights With Leak of PS3 SDK
Posted: 2013/05/15 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, File Sharing, Illegal File Sharing, Jurisprudence, Litigation, Stats / reportsLast year an Internet user known as El Nomeo leaked version 3.70 of Sony’s Playstation3 SDK online. Yesterday the man appeared in a UK court and pleaded guilty to charges of copyright infringement. He’ll be sentenced next month.
More:
http://torrentfreak.com/uk-student-admits-breaching-sony-copyrights-with-leak-of-ps3-sdk-130515/
SONY hacker gets year of house arrest. But not for hacking
Posted: 2013/05/14 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Jurisprudence, Litigation, Network Security, Privacy / Data Protection, Public Policy, Stats / reportsA West Side man suspected of helping crash Sony’s online game servers worldwide in 2008 will spend a year on house arrest. But not for the hacking.
Instead, Todd M. Miller, 23, was sentenced yesterday in federal court for obstructing a federal investigation because he smashed his computers, halting an FBI investigation into his hacking. U.S. District Judge Peter C. Economus said Miller was part of the KCUF clan, a group of hackers who organized an attack on Sony’s computer servers in San Diego in 2008 and beyond. After the FBI interviewed Miller in 2011, they returned with a search warrant and found that his hard drives were missing and he had smashed his computers.
Without the computers, the FBI did not have enough evidence to pursue hacking charges against Miller and another unnamed Columbus man, according to court records. Miller, who has a ninth-grade education, told the judge that he was “immature and ignorant and caught up with the wrong people at the wrong time” when he destroyed the computers. He said he has learned his lesson.
“You will not see me again,” he told Economus.
The judge also sentenced him to three years probation and ordered him to get his high-school equivalence certificate. Miller could have been sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined $250,000. Economus told Miller he could “see no purpose in sentencing you to prison” because Miller has a full-time job and some stability in his life after a tumultuous childhood.
Barrister Barbara Hewson at Hardwicke in London in desperate need of training about effects of sexual abuse on children (and adults)
Posted: 2013/05/12 in Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Jurisprudence, Legislation, Litigation, Organized Crime, Public Policy, Stats / reports…or regarding the atrocities in the Soviet Union for that matter…And by her logic, she would probably not support the persecution of (old) Nazis…
Barbara Hewson writes:
- With its emphasis on outcomes over process, the post-Savile witch-hunting of ageing celebs echoes the Soviet Union.
- I do not support the persecution of old men. The manipulation of the rule of law by the Savile Inquisition – otherwise known as Operation Yewtree – and its attendant zealots poses a far graver threat to society than anything Jimmy Savile ever did.
- What is strikingly different today is how Britain’s law-enforcement apparatus has been infiltrated by moral crusaders, like the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) and the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC). Both groups take part in Operation Yewtree, which looks into alleged offences both by and not by Savile.
- These pressure groups have a vested interest in universalising the notion of abuse, making it almost as prevalent as original sin, but with the modern complication that it carries no possibility of redemption, only ‘survival’. The problem with this approach is that it makes abuse banal, and reduces the sympathy that we should feel for victims of really serious assaults.
- But the most remarkable facet of the Savile scandal is how adult complainants are invited to act like children. Hence we have witnessed the strange spectacle of mature adults calling a children’s charity to complain about the distant past.
- (Is she really suggesting that the following is the only type of conduct displayed by Savile and his friends???) Touching a 17-year-old’s breast, kissing a 13-year-old, or putting one’s hand up a 16-year-old’s skirt, are not remotely comparable to the horrors of the Ealing Vicarage assaults and gang rape, or the Fordingbridge gang rape and murders, both dating from 1986. Anyone suggesting otherwise has lost touch with reality.
- Ordinarily, Hall’s misdemeanors would not be prosecuted, and certainly not decades after the event. What we have here is the manipulation of the British criminal-justice system to produce scapegoats on demand. It is a grotesque spectacle.
- It’s time to end this prurient charade, which has nothing to do with justice or the public interest. Adults and law-enforcement agencies must stop fetishising victimhood. Instead, we should focus on arming today’s youngsters with the savoir-faire and social skills to avoid drifting into compromising situations, and prosecute modern crime. As for law reform, now regrettably necessary, my recommendations are: remove complainant anonymity; introduce a strict statute of limitations for criminal prosecutions and civil actions; and reduce the age of consent to 13. (Ah, what she actually may be after is damage control in relation her group of close friends, by limiting the amount of potential targets and complainants. We have seen that one before…The only thing that Hewson is proving here is that the police in the UK is doing a good job and some people are finally starting to feel threatened).
Google Wins Vertical Search Antitrust Case In Germany
Posted: 2013/05/09 in Education / Awareness, Google, Jurisprudence, Litigation, New Business Models, Online advertising, Stats / reportsIn a German case that could have broader antitrust implications in Europe, Google defeated a petition for an injunction brought by a German online weather trade group, Verband Deutscher Wetterdienstleister. The case is interesting because it involves a private antitrust action against Google and directly addresses the “search bias” argument made by Google critics.
More:
http://searchengineland.com/google-wins-vertical-search-antitrust-case-in-germany-158544
All Your Thoughts/Ideas/Theories Are Belong To Us
Posted: 2013/05/08 in Education / Awareness, Jurisprudence, Litigation, Stats / reportsThe way in which Apple collects and shares personal data (with advertisers) is in conflict with German law
Posted: 2013/05/08 in Education / Awareness, Jurisprudence, Legislation, Privacy / Data Protection, Public Policy, Stats / reportsDutch language news article:
http://webwereld.nl/beveiliging/77689-privacybeleid-apple-in-strijd-met-duitse-wet
German court convicts, sentences BitTorrent site operator to nearly 4 years
Posted: 2013/05/08 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, File Sharing, Illegal File Sharing, Jurisprudence, Litigation, Online advertising, Organized Crime, Public Policy, Stats / reportsA German district court in the western city of Aachen has handed down one of the harshest sentences for abetting copyright infringement: three years and 10 months in prison.
The 33-year-old alleged operator of the Russian-hosted torrent.to, who was named only as “Jens. R” in court documents, remains under investigation for fraudulent bankruptcy filings and embezzlement. Other than pleading not guilty, Jens R. did not offer a defense in the case and is expected to appeal.
Like similar sites, such as the Pirate Bay, the defendant was accused of selling ads against links to torrent files.
Supreme Court rules states can limit FOIA requests to their own citizens
Posted: 2013/04/30 in Education / Awareness, Jurisprudence, New Business Models, Public Policy, Stats / reportsThe unanimous decision is a significant setback to journalists and researchers who use the tool to gather information from public agencies. Ars and dozens of media organizations—including the Associated Press, Bloomberg News, The New Yorker, The New York Times, National Public Radio, The Washington Post, etc.—filed an amicus brief (PDF) in favor of the two men who challenged the restriction.
“Senior MPAA executive” tampered with piracy evidence before handing it to the police
Posted: 2013/04/27 in Jurisprudence, File Sharing, Illegal File Sharing, Education / Awareness, Stats / reports, Enforcement, Litigation, CopyrightEarlier this month Finland’s largest ever Internet piracy case ended with four men being found guilty of copyright infringement and two being exonerated. The case involved a so-called ‘topsite’ called Angel Falls and had an interesting twist. During the trial it was revealed that evidence gathered by a local anti-piracy group and the IFPI was also handed to a “senior MPAA executive” who tampered with the evidence before handing it to the police.
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During the trial an IFPI investigator was called upon as a witness, but during his testimony something unusual came to light.
“After his presentation the defense counsels pointed out how the information shown on the video of his investigations did not match with the printed log files,” Hietanen informs TorrentFreak.
The video, a screencast of the investigation, showed a particular username accessing an Angel Falls FTP server. However, the corresponding text log for the same event showed a completely different username.
“When the IFPI investigator was asked about this he acknowledged that the names did not match. He said that the Finnish anti-piracy people and IFPI had collected the information together, but there was also an MPAA executive in the room while the evidence gathering took place,” Hietanen explains.
The IFPI investigator was then asked to reveal the name of the MPAA executive. He declined, but did offer an explanation for the inconsistencies in the evidence.
In an apparent attempt to hide the identity of one of their spies, the MPAA executive edited the evidence gathered during the session.
“The IFPI investigator handed over the evidence material to the MPAA senior executive who then changed the text file before the anti-piracy organization handed over the evidence to the Finnish police,” Hietanen says.
No one from the MPAA informed the defense that the edits had been made and the tampering was revealed at the worst possible time – during the trial. This resulted in the prosecutor ordering a police investigation into the changes that had been made.
“Police then proceeded by comparing the ‘work copy’ that the IFPI investigator produced with the material that police and the defending counsels had received. Police found out that the material had differences in over 10 files,” Hietanen reveals.
More:
http://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-executive-tampered-with-ifpi-evidence-in-internet-piracy-case-130427/
Supreme Court of Iceland rules firm must process donations for WikiLeaks, whether the firm likes it or not
Posted: 2013/04/25 in Education / Awareness, Jurisprudence, New Business Models, Public Policy, Stats / reportsOn Wednesday, the Icelandic Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling finding that Valitor (formerly VISA Iceland) had illegally terminated a contract with DataCell, WikiLeaks’ Icelandic Web host, thereby stopping processing donations to the embattled site.
Valitor will now be forced to pay 800,000 Icelandic krónur ($6,824) per day if the gateway to WikiLeaks donations is not reopened within 15 days, according to the group.
“This is a victory for free speech,” said Julian Assange, the site’s founder, in an online statement. “This is a victory against the rise of economic censorship to crack down against journalists and publishers. We thank the Icelandic people for showing that they will not be bullied by powerful Washington backed financial services companies like Visa. And we send out a warning to the other companies involved in this blockade: you’re next.”
Brussels Court of Appeal: embedding illegal YouTube content is no copyright breach
Posted: 2013/04/22 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Jurisprudence, Legislation, Litigation, Public Policy, Stats / reportsOn 19 March 2013, the Court of Appeal of Brussels decided that embedding a YouTube video with illegal content doesn’t constitute a copyright infringement. In the underlying case, the Belgian movie Fait d’Hiver was uploaded integrally on YouTube by a user with a IP address that belongs to a Russian website. Thereafter, a Belgian Fait d’Hiver fan embedded the YouTube movie on his website. He placed a banner on his website via Google AdSense and generated a minimal revenue from the advertisements. The right holders sued the Belgian fan in criminal proceedings for copyright infringement.
However, according to the Court, the Belgian fan didn’t infringe the copyrights of the right holders, as he was allowed to assume that the content uploaded on YouTube was legal. After all, YouTube’s terms of use prohibit the uploading of illegal content that infringes copyrights of others. The fact that the Belgian fan earned 2 cents per click with the banner on his website doesn’t prove that he had fraudulent intentions, the Court argues.
This decision provides us some interesting observations on the law in Belgium.
Disguise: isoHunt Verdict Endangers Innovation, Google Tells Court
Posted: 2013/04/19 in Copyright, Enforcement, File Sharing, Google, Illegal File Sharing, Jurisprudence, Litigation, New Business Models, Online advertising, Stats / reports, Tech EvolutionLast month BitTorrent site isoHunt lost its appeal against the MPAA and since then several rightsholders have used this verdict to their advantage in other copyright infringement cases. Google has also been targeted with the ruling in its case against Viacom, and has now asked the court to change its opinion. The Internet giant explains that the verdict against the BitTorrent site is overly broad and endangers the existence of innovative businesses.
More:
http://torrentfreak.com/isohunt-verdict-endangers-innovation-google-tells-court-130418/
Previously:
Disguise: Company that brought you Google Glass warns against facial recognition database
http://vrritti.com/2013/04/13/disguise-company-that-brought-you-google-glass-warns-against-facial-recognition-database/
Disguise, Disrupt, Dough…No Matter The Consequences. Only Change Your Ways When You Get Something In Return Or You Risk Losing Money. Is That Google’s Strategy?
http://vrritti.com/2013/04/13/disguise-disrupt-dough-no-matter-the-consequences-only-change-your-ways-when-you-get-something-in-return-or-you-risk-losing-money-is-that-googles-strategy/
Although they complain extremely loudly about piracy in the United States, the major record labels have never tried to have a domain blocked there
Posted: 2013/04/17 in Blocking, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, File Sharing, Filtering, Illegal File Sharing, Jurisprudence, Litigation, Public Policy, Stats / reportsInstead they’ve focused on countries around Europe and have achieved many of their site blocking successes through the UK High Court.
More:
http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-proxy-now-included-in-secret-isp-blocklist-130417/
Richemont Takes Down 2,700 Counterfeit Sites. It’s only in recent years that courts have allowed brands to move against counterfeit Web sites in such a manner
Posted: 2013/04/15 in Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Jurisprudence, Litigation, New Business Models, Online advertising, Organized Crime, Public Policy, Stats / reportsBetter technology and more accommodating courts are helping brands punch back harder against online counterfeiters. Manhattan federal judge William Pauley signed off on a request from Compagnie Financière Richemont SA to disable more than 2,700 “rogue” Web sites selling counterfeit goods, according to a court order on March 1, which was unsealed Monday and obtained by WWD. The sites sold counterfeit watches, jewelry, sunglasses and handbags bearing a number of Richemont’s brands, including Cartier, A. Lange & Söhne, Officine Panerai, Roger Dubuis and Alfred Dunhill. This isn’t Richemont’s first run-in with the counterfeiters, who previously ran Cartierreplicawatch.us, Replicawatchshop.us and Fakeswatches.com and, according to court papers, had moved their business onto other sites.
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All together, 4,900 domain names linked to the case have been shut down. “The number of sites we’ve identified and successfully locked down in this case is unprecedented in terms of the number in so short a period of time,” said Roxanne Elings of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, who worked with Richemont on the case. “And the injunction we have secured against the defendants applies to all additional domains registered by defendants, as we identify them.”
More:
http://newsletterwoc.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/news-as-we-read-9th-april13.html
