http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/31/australia_to_licence_websites/
Category Archives: Legislation
“Total Power, In One Person’s Hands…NOT The American Way!” (Video)
UK ISP Sky Broadband Blocks Internet Piracy Website The Pirate Bay. Says It Is In Favor Of Copyright Protection
Sky Broadband (BSkyB) yesterday become the latest internet provider to block its UK customers from being able to access The Pirate Bay website, which follows an identical move by both Virgin Media and Orange UK. Several other operators, including O2, TalkTalk and BT, are expected to follow suit within the next couple of weeks.
The move follows an April 2012 ruling by the High Court of Justice in London (here), which imposed a court order upon the ISPs that required them to block the website. The Pirate Bay is one of the world’s largest BitTorrent (P2P / File Sharing) trackers but also allows internet copyright infringement (piracy) to take place.
Sky Statement
We have invested billions of pounds in high-quality entertainment for our customers because we know how much our customers value it. It’s therefore important that companies like ours do what they can, alongside the Government and the rest of the media and technology industries, to help protect their copyright. Such protection makes sure that consumers continue to benefit from TV programmes, movies and music both now and in the future. This means taking effective action against online piracy and copyright infringement.
Increasingly content owners are turning to the courts to present evidence of copyright infringement by websites that offer content illegally to users. When they do so, and the court agrees that copyright infringement has occurred, the content owners can seek a court order which compels the internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to those sites over their broadband networks.
To date Sky has received court orders to block the following websites that were found to have breached copyright laws:
* Newzbin 2, which Sky blocked on 13 December 2011
* The Pirate Bay, which Sky blocked on 30 May 2012
Mayor Bloomberg Moves to Outlaw Sugary Drinks in New York
Reeling ACTA treaty rejected by three European Parliament committees
Dutch Minister of Defense Hans Hillen Admits: Military Intelligence Agency Sometimes Acts In Breach Of The Law When Intercepting Online Data
Minister wants to amend relevant laws to enable the MIVD to legally intercept internet related data. He confirms that there is tension between what is technically possible and what is legally allowed
Dutch language news article:
http://tweakers.net/nieuws/82243/kabinet-mivd-overtreedt-wet-bij-aftappen.html
Previously:
Experts Discover That Nobody Cares Whether International Cybercrime Enforcement Is Based On Any Legal Framework Or Not
http://vrritti.com/2012/04/06/experts-discover-that-nobody-cares-whether-international-cybercrime-enforcement-is-based-on-any-legal-framework-or-not/
Dutch Prosecutor Van Zwieten: Remote Investigations Are Illegal, But Inevitable. Laws Need To Be Modernized
http://vrritti.com/2012/03/10/dutch-prosecutor-van-zwieten-remote-investigations-are-illegal-but-inevitable-laws-need-to-be-modernized/
Dutch Public Prosecutor Lodewijk van Zwieten: Dutch police was allowed to hack systems of botnet victims. Says that police should also be allowed to hack straight into PCs of cybercriminals in foreign countries
http://vrritti.com/2011/11/16/dutch-public-prosecutor-lodewijk-van-zwieten-dutch-police-was-allowed-to-hack-systems-of-botnet-victims-says-that-police-should-also-be-allowed-to-hack-straight-into-pcs-of-cybercriminals-in-foreign/
Dutch Politicians Want To Push Commissioner Kroes To Guarantee Net Neutrality In Europe
The fact that Kroes now only wants Internet Service Providers to be more transparent about their practices and will not take any additional measures probably means that:
1. Kroes realizes that bandwidth management, filtering and blocking measures are needed because the internet infrastructure cannot accommodate just everyone anyway;
2. Differentiation between services and having data distributors pay for access to the infrastructure can be a nice cash cow (content vs infrastructure) much similar to how cable providers are making money.
All of this puts the recent speech of Neelie Kroes in an entirely different perspective:
Now we need to find solutions to make the Internet a place of freedom, openness, and innovation fit for all citizens, not just for the techno avant-garde.
What can freedom online give us?
For one thing, a huge economic boost. An open Internet can power innovation, surge productivity. And can put innovation tools into the hands of ordinary, enterprising people.
That’s why I’m convinced web entrepreneurs are the key to our future growth. And I want to make sure they have the tools to innovate.
Dutch language news article:
http://www.nu.nl/internet/2822881/dwing-netneutraliteit-af-in-europese-regels.html
and:
EU Report Reveals P2P Traffic Interference By ISPs
http://torrentfreak.com/eu-report-reveals-p2p-traffic-interference-by-isps-120530/
White House prepares to convene anti-botnet summit: how to help PC users remove the malware from their computers
The White House is planning to convene a cybersecurity summit Wednesday morning to discuss ways to counter botnets, which have emerged as the leading Internet security threat.
Industry representatives are planning to announce a nine-point plan that includes sharing more information about identifying botnets — and how to help their customers remove the malware from their computers.
Much more:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57443380-83/white-house-prepares-to-convene-anti-botnet-summit/
Canadians darkening their websites in protest of Bill C-38 as part of the ‘Black Out Speak Out’ campaign
Will the Copyright Law Help the Starving Artist?
Dutch Parliament Rejects ACTA. Majority Votes Against Ratification. MP Afke Schaart Feels Treaty Belongs In Trash Can
VVD Member of Parliament Afke Schaart: “The treaty is bad for privacy and disastrous to innovation. As far as we’re concerned it can be thrown into a trash can because that’s were it belongs”
Dutch language news article:
http://www.nu.nl/internet/2821870/kamer-verwerpt-acta.html
Newly unredacted European Commission notes for four of the negotiation rounds for ACTA show that the Commission failed to negotiate effectively on behalf of European citizens and businesses
The notes, which were previously redacted, cover the meetings in Paris during 2008, Rabat and Seoul in 2009 and Guadalajara in 2010. EDRi have conducted their analysis and are disappointed with their findings.
More:
http://torrentfreak.com/acta-unredacted-docs-show-european-commission-negotiation-failures-120528/
China, Russia, Brazil, India and other UN members are backing a proposal to hand over regulation of the internet to the UN’s International Telecommunication Union
The proposal would give the United Nations control over cybersecurity, data privacy, technical standards and the web address system. The present system is operated by a “multi-stakeholder” approach that gives control to nonprofits instead of governments
http://www.infowars.com/house-to-consider-handing-over-internet-regulation-to-united-nations/
UK ‘cookie law’ takes effect: What you need to know
New York wants to outlaw anonymous comments to prevent cyberbullying and other online abuse. This criminologist examines why this plan, despite its controversy, may not be such a bad thing
‘Father of the Internet’ and Googler Vint Cerf calls out U.S. government on CISPA and called hacktivists groups like Anonymous “counterproductive”
Hacker collective becoming more and more ‘loosely-knit’
Oddly enough Cerf did not talk about Google’s silence on these new cybersecurity bills…
http://www.gamepolitics.com/2012/05/22/father-internet-calls-out-us-government-cispa
The Dutch Are Helping Turkish Businesses In Dealing With EU Legislation And Policies Related To Privacy, Cyber Security And Copyright
Dutch Vice-prime Minister Maxime Verhagen:
“Since 2008, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation and the EU have been supporting the Turkish Ministry of Justice with the harmonisation of Turkish law with the European E-commerce Directive and the European rules for privacy and data protection. This exchange of knowledge and experience contributed to a sound legal framework for e-commerce in Turkey (…) E-commerce in Turkey has great potential. To exploit the full potential of the Turkish online market, it is important to create a level playing field with the EU. Also, companies need to invest in creating trust in e-commerce by complying with the rules, respecting privacy of consumers and using adequate security measures. In our experience, sectors that invest in trust marks and dispute resolution mechanisms benefit most in the long run.”
Google may not be willing to comment on how much money it makes from pornography online, but the search giant’s UK public policy head Sarah Hunter has unsurprisingly urged caution when it comes to ISPs filtering content over their networks
Speaking at Google’s annual Big Tent event in Watford this morning, Hunter gently tussled with a panel that included TalkTalk’s executive director Andrew Heaney, the Daily Mail‘s Amanda Platell and Index on Censorship’s Kirsty Hughes over how to protect children from smut on the internet.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/23/google_big_tent_smut_debate/
Previously:
When Porn Is Even More Of A Cash Cow Than Piracy: Survey Finds UK Internet Users Oppose Mandatory ISP Adult Site Blocks
http://vrritti.com/2012/05/21/when-porn-is-even-more-of-a-cash-cow-than-piracy-survey-finds-uk-internet-users-oppose-mandatory-isp-adult-site-blocks/
New York Legislation Would Ban Anonymous Online Speech
MPAA’s Chris Dodd About Piracy: “We’re going to have to be more subtle and consumer-oriented. We’re on the wrong track if we describe this as thievery”
“We’re in a transformative period with an explosion of technology that’s going to need content,” he said.
But Internet companies such as Google, Facebook and Twitter campaigned effectively against the legislation, mobilizing users on grounds that the new rules would impede the free flow of information on the Internet.
“Google chose wisely by making Hollywood the enemy,” Dodd said ruefully.
He said Saturday that the industry will need to take a far more nuanced approach to promoting future antipiracy legislation.
More:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118054314
See also:
MPAA Head Thinks Piracy Shouldn’t Be Called “Theft”
http://gizmodo.com/5912057/mpaa-head-thinks-piracy-shouldnt-be-called-theft
DNA privacy is a fine example of law-making failing to keep up with technology
An explosion in biological understanding and medical engineering makes it extremely easy to obtain genetic profiles, and old codgers in the law haven’t paid attention.
Facebook’s Simon Milner Says The Company Is Considering To Remove The Minimum Age Restrictions In Non-US Territories
Dutch language news article:
http://tweakers.net/nieuws/82064/facebook-overweegt-ook-kinderen-onder-de-13-toegang-te-geven.html
Meet “ACTA plus,” and the people trying to stop it
Indian Supreme Court orders Vimeo, DailyMotion, Pirate Bay, Pastebin blocks, gets DDoSed
An injunction issued by an Indian court in a copyright infringement case has forced Indian Internet service providers to block access to the video-sharing sites Vimeo and DailyMotion, Bittorrent-tracker The Pirate Bay, text-sharing site Pastebin and a number of other websites. In response, members of Anonymous mounted a denial of service attack on the websites of the Indian Supreme Court and the Indian National Congress political party. As of 2pm GMT, both sites are back up.
The temporary restraining order (PDF) was issued by The High Court of Judicature at Madras in response to a lawsuit by the Chennai, India based company Copyrightlabs (whose site appears to have been taken down for maintenance) over the sharing of the movie “3″ online. It orders ISPs to stop sharing of the film “by copying, recording, reproducing, camcording or communicating, or allowing others to to communicate” the contents of the film in any form.
Always The Same Techno Babble: Laws Regulating Tech Are Pointless Because There Are Always Technical Means To Circumvent That Regulation
UK ISP Entanet Calls Governments Revived Internet Snooping Law Pointless
Which means that whenever people in relation to regulation of non-digital or non-technical realms manage to circumvent the law, those laws are pointless too??
No law is foolproof, no law can prevent 100% of the issues it tries to deal with. Same applies to laws regulating internet or technical matters. Same applies to enforcement by technology (anti-spam, anti-phishing et cetera).
But nobody said 100% foolproof solutions are what governments are looking for or even expecting in relation to the internet. Much like providers fighting spam: one simply cannot allow the problems to increase to disastrous levels.
Dutch Advocate-General at Supreme Court Advises Implementation of Both a Ban on Downloading From an Illegal Source AND a Copy Levy
Dutch Supreme Court can choose to follow his advice. Advocate-General Toon Huydecoper is also of the opinion that the European Court of Justice should be the first Court to offer its opinion about matters such as these, including whether the current Dutch Private Copying Levy regime is in accordance with the Berne Three Step Test.
Dutch language news article:
http://webwereld.nl/nieuws/110527/hoge-raad-overweegt-downloadverbod-pl-s-heffing.html
Previously:
Dutch Advocate General proposes to submit prejudicial questions to the ECJ about the private copying levy
http://vrritti.com/2012/05/17/dutch-advocate-general-proposes-to-submit-prejudicial-questions-to-the-ecj-about-the-private-copying-levy/
Dutch Advocate General proposes to submit prejudicial questions to the ECJ about the private copying levy
Advocate General Huydecoper of the Dutch Supreme Court proposes to submit prejudicial questions to the European Court of Justice about private copying levies. If the Supreme Court agrees with this, the ECJ will decide if the private copying exception is in compliance with the Berne three-step test, which is also laid down in the European Copyright Directive (2001/29/EG).
The European Copyright Directive provides a limited list of allowed limitations and exceptions for the use of copyrighted works without consent of the copyright holder. Member states can choose which limitations and exceptions they want to implement in their national laws. The three-step test sets boundaries to those limitations and exceptions. Limitations and exceptions are only allowed in (1) certain special cases (2) that do not conflict with the normal exploitation of the work and (3) do not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the right holder.
In the underlying case, the question arises whether only copies from works obtained from ‘authorized’ sources should be taken into account in the calculation of the private copying levy, or also copies from works obtained from ‘illegal’ sources. If works from illegal sources should be taken into account, the private copying levy will be higher. The Advocate General states that in order to answer these questions, it is necessary to submit a few prejudicial questions to the ECJ.
Rick Falkvinge (aka Dick Greger Augustsson or Dick W. Augustsson) Rallying The Mob Against Copyright Industries
Don’t ever accept the resigned position that the copyright industries determine law. They don’t. They’ve gotten away with wishlists because politicians haven’t cared. They do care when tens of thousands of people make noise, and we can do that. We know absolutely well that we’re capable of that and much more.
If the copyright industry collapses – who cares?
More:
http://torrentfreak.com/why-are-people-resigning-before-the-copyright-industries-will-120513/
California Passes Law Preventing Employers From Demanding Social Media Access
Dutch Provider ZeelandNet Refuses To Block The Pirate Bay Website. Says It Does Not Want To Act Like “Internet Police”
The provider also argues that any issues should be taken up with The Pirate Bay website itself, which is an interesting statement considering the fact that The Pirate Bay website itself has already been declared illegal in The Netherlands and follow up blocking verdicts have been based on that legal assessment. Also, in Sweden, the founders of The Piratebay have been convicted and are now being sanctioned for their crimes.
Dutch copyright enforcer BREIN has decided to now go and sue ZeelandNet. This situation does make one wonder whether complainants in The Netherlands will always have to go and sue each and every internet service provider individually, even if a judge has already decided that a certain website is illegal. Will this require laws to be changed, or will complainants just have to sue all the Dutch ISPs in one go, for any nation-wide blockade to be put in place?
At this point in time Ziggo, Xs4all, KPN, UPC, T-Mobile, Tele2 and Telfort have been ordered by the Dutch courts to block The Pirate Bay website.
Dutch language news articles:
http://www.omroepzeeland.nl/nieuws/2012-05-11/119964/zeelandnet-geen-blokkade-op-pirate-bay
http://www.nu.nl/internet/2809109/zeelandnet-aangeklaagd-weigering-pirate-bay-blokkade.html
http://tweakers.net/nieuws/81929/brein-daagt-zeelandnet-om-the-pirate-bay-ook-te-blokkeren.html
See also:
Dutch Court: Piratebay has to cease activities in The Netherlands
http://vrritti.com/2010/07/16/dutch-court-piratebay-has-to-cease-activities-in-the-netherlands/
Dutch Internet Provider Greenhost Offers WordPress Plug-in To Circumvent Pirate Bay Blockade
http://vrritti.com/2012/01/19/dutch-internet-provider-greenhost-offers-wordpress-plug-in-to-circumvent-pirate-bay-blockade/
European Commission officially referred ACTA to the European Court of Justice
The question the Commission asked to the Court is:
“Is the envisaged Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) compatible with the Treaties and in particular with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union?”
More:
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=799
Israel requires advertisers to disclose Photoshopping of models
The legislation requires all models to maintain a certain BMI, and all designers to disclose when they’ve photoshopped their models. Today, The Atlantic posted a thorough look into the making of the laws, and whether governments can intervene in a creative process that doubles as the root of disease for many teenagers and adults alike.
Dutch Internet Industry: Net Neutrality? Cookies? Do-Not-Track? That Doesn’t Compute
As always, if laws based on fundamental rights demand technical remedies that will probably only COST money and won’t MAKE money, the technical requirements will suddenly be “highly complicated”, “technically not feasible” or they “won’t offer a 100% solution to the problem”
Dutch language news article:
http://webwereld.nl/nieuws/110449/internetbranche–uitvoering-cookiewet-nog-onduidelijk.html
See also:
Dutch Senate approves new Telecom Act: net neutrality and restricted use of cookies codified
http://www.futureofcopyright.com/home/blog-post/2012/05/09/dutch-senate-approves-new-telecom-act-net-neutrality-and-restricted-use-of-cookies-codified.html
The Pirate Bay Partners With Academic Researchers to Counter Entertainment Industry Propaganda
“Our research has shown that tougher legislation actually does have an effect on the amount that people file share copyright protected media. However, this legislation has no effect on the social norms of society”
Among other things, the first study revealed that Pirate Bay users show a great interest in VPN services and other anonymizers. With this second survey the Cybernorms group wants to see how the findings of the first study developed over time.
“We are very curious of how the use of anonymity services has developed during the last year. A survey conducted earlier this year in Sweden indicated a growing use among file sharers of VPN services for anonymization. We think that we have reason to believe that intensified enforcement strategies will accelerate this development,” Svensson said.
In addition, the survey also give the researchers the opportunity to delve deeper in people’s responses to recent Pirate Bay blockades, such as the one that was ordered in the UK last week.
Previously:
The Disadvantages Of Using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) For Illegal Purposes
http://vrritti.com/2012/05/01/the-disadvantages-of-using-virtual-private-networks-vpns-for-illegal-purposes/
Cloud Savvy Pedophiles Rejoice. New York Judge Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick: “Merely viewing Web images of child pornography does not, absent other proof, constitute either possession or procurement”
“Caching” apparently not “storing”. New business opportunities for cloud providers.
Viewing child pornography online isn’t a crime, the New York Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday in the case of a college professor whose work computer was found to have stored more than a hundred illegal images in its Web cache.
The decision rests on whether accessing and viewing something on the Internet is the same as possessing it, and whether possessing it means you had to procure it. In essence, the court said no to the first question and yes to the second.
“Merely viewing Web images of child pornography does not, absent other proof, constitute either possession or procurement within the meaning of our Penal Law,” Senior Judge Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick wrote for a majority of four of the six judges.
“Rather, some affirmative act is required (printing, saving, downloading, etc.) to show that defendant in fact exercised dominion and control over the images that were on his screen,” Ciparick wrote. “To hold otherwise, would extend the reach of (state law) to conduct — viewing — that our Legislature has not deemed criminal.”
Read the full appeals court ruling (.pdf)
In other words, “the purposeful viewing of child pornography on the internet is now legal in New York,” Judge Victoria A. Graffeo wrote in one of two concurring opinions that agreed with the result but not with the majority’s reasoning.
All of the judges agreed that child pornography is an abomination, but they disagreed whether it was necessary to “criminalize all use of child pornography to the maximum extent possible,” as Ciparick wrote in the majority opinion. The majority said that was up to the Legislature, not the courts, to decide.
The court dismissed one of the two counts of promoting a sexual performance of a child and one of the dozens of counts of possession of child pornography on which James D. Kent was convicted. The court upheld the other counts against Kent, an assistant professor of public administration at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
Kent’s convictions on the other counts rested on other evidence, including a folder on his machine that stored about 13,000 saved images of girls whom investigators estimated to be 8 or 9 years old and four messages to an unidentified third party discussing a research project into the regulation of child pornography.
“I don’t even think I can mail the disk to you, or anyone else, without committing a separate crime. So I’ll probably just go ahead and wipe them,” one of the messages said.
