The leader of the project, who would like to remain anonymous, explains that the project is a follow up to the so called Notice And Take Down Code Of Conduct already existing in The Netherlands. It promotes self-regulation in relation to online illegality.

Leaseweb’s Security Officer Alex de Joode is not particularly in favor of this project. He argues that:

1. he feels that the outcome of this project should be a document explaining to hosting providers and access providers how to deal with illegal content

2. he feels that the definition of ‘illegal’ remains problematic as well as proper procedures as to how evidence demonstrating illegal activities should be collected

3. he argues that a series of activities can be declared as illegal, but segments of a process need not be illegal (i.e. an illegal website can also contain legitimate content)

4. he feels that it is up to the judge (quoting article 54a procedures in The Netherlands) whether or not an entire chain of events can be declared as illegal

5. he feels that the discussion should not be aimed at having providers be the ones (solely) dealing with illegality online

De Joode does indicate that the website of the project is running at Leaseweb and that he has attended ‘one or two meetings’ in relation to the topic.

The project leader responds by arguing that the initiative has been launched to find ‘bottom up’ solutions, provided and supported by the industry and not forced on the private sector by government organizations. Therefore it is not a legislative effort. The parties involved limit themselves to the definition of the problem and descriptions of the internet & terrorism phenomenon.

The Clean IT Project, with its slogan ‘Fighting the illegal use of internet‘ (apparently now changed into ‘Limiting terrorist use of internet’), is a joint effort with participation of government organizations in Belgium, the UK, Germany and Spain. Europol is also contributing.

Dutch language news article:
http://webwereld.nl/nieuws/109614/nederland-leidt-project-tegen-internet-extremisme.html

See also:

Alex de Joode aka Usura is well known and oftentimes associated with the vox.hacktic.nl anonymous remailer, the utopia.hacktic.nl bulletin board and the Cypherpunk community discussed previously and appears a couple of times in John Young’s (Cryptome.org) Cypherpunk list while e-mailing from the famous anonymous remailer domain replay.com, and the sabotage.org domain. He has traditionally been associated with crypto repository zedz.net and the dizum anonymous remailer.

In the past he has single-handedly shut down a complaint center for online child abuse images, arguing that the staff of the center didn’t adhere to proper procedures nor the bylaws of the organization.

His favorite tagline appears to be:  “Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes?” – Juvenal, Satires, VI, 347, “Who Watches The Watchmen?”

http://vrritti.com/2010/12/11/leasewebs-alex-de-joode-provides-adittional-details-about-anonops-takedown-in-relation-to-pro-wikileaks-attacks/

and

The Flaws of the Slippery Slope Arguments
http://www.garlikov.com/philosophy/slope.htm

“We want to find the criminals who are behind those attacks”, the Minister stated.

Dutch language news article:
http://www.nu.nl/internet/2747630/nederland-tekent-verdrag-cybercrime.html

Only 215 patients have been asked for permission, only after they had been recorded. 150 people gave permission for the footage to be used for Eyeworks’ TV production.

One father reported that he’d spent ours with his daughter at the E.R. Only after they’d left they were asked for their permission to use the footage. The TV crew even recorded a private conversation between the daughter and the physician, without consulting the father beforehand.

Dutch language news article:
http://nieuwsuur.nl/onderwerp/344079-vu-mc-schendt-beroepsgeheim.html

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/02/22/harperson_google_rocket/

The Business Software Alliance published a Global Cloud Computing Scorecard, which noted that countries including India, China and Brazil would need “significant legal and regulatory reforms” before they could join a global cloud.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/02/22/smut_chat_breach/

The scheme is used by well known copyright holders such as the makers of the Oscar winning movie The Hurt Locker and book publishers John Wiley and Sons. However, the majority of the cases are filed by adult entertainment companies. Many of these companies can make more money from (winning or even losing) lawsuits than selling content and are often described as copyright trolls.

 http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-lawsuits-stopped-over-unlicensed-attorney-120222/

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120217/16322717797/la-la-la-la-la-internet-routes-around-copyright-censorship-to-restore-daria.shtml

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/02/web-privacy-standards-easy-to-break-hard-to-enforce.ars

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/02/t-mobile-seeks-to-block-verizon-spectrum-purchase.ars

Some dude walked away with it. Really, the BBC says: “the briefcase was stolen when a senior Dassault Aviation official buying a Eurostar rail ticket went to the help of a colleague who was being bothered by a young man. When the official returned to retrieve his case, it had disappeared.” Correct—he walked away to deal with a “young man,” leaving the briefcase behind. The briefcase filled with documents marked ‘Defence – Confidential’. Although cops are allegedly calling it a “random” crime, what are the odds this one briefcase—located in Europe’s busiest train station—was targeted by accident?

More:

http://gizmodo.com/5887422/thieves-snatch-briefcase-full-of-secret-drone-documents-in-public

You probably take for granted that you can view videos on your smartphone, tablet, PC, or DVD/Blu-ray player and connect to the Internet without being tied to a cable. That works because the industry came together years ago to define common technical standards that every firm can use to build compatible products for video and Wi-Fi. Motorola and all the other firms that contributed to these standards also made a promise to one another: that if they had any patents essential to the standards, they would make their patents available on fair and reasonable terms, and would not use them to block competitors from shipping their products.

Motorola has broken its promise. Motorola is on a path to use standard essential patents to kill video on the Web, and Google as its new owner doesn’t seem to be willing to change course.

More:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_on_the_issues/archive/2012/02/22/google-please-don-t-kill-video-on-the-web.aspx