CyberLaw Blog

Archive for April, 2008

Declassified NSA Document Reveals the Secret History of TEMPEST: “The secret history of how the nation’s spies discovered that their ace equipment was leaking data into the ether has never been told before. But now a declassified NSA document tells how a Bell Telephone engineer stumbled onto a problem that vexes the agency to this day.

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(Via Wired News.)

Judge Bucks Trend: Music Sharing Not Necessarily Infringement: “

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One of the biggest bones of contention between the RIAA and file-sharing lawsuit defendants has been whether making a file available to others constitutes distribution of the file.

In other words, if I drag a song about a tree falling in the woods into my Kazaa “shared files” folder but there’s no proof that anyone downloaded it, have I committed copyright infringement?

In most cases, the answer has been yes. Judge Neil V. Wake, presiding over Atlantic vs. Pamela and Jeffrey Howell, bucked that trend by denying the RIAA’s motion for summary judgment in that case.

(Via Wired News.)

Internet provokes more complaints than newspapers or magazines: “The internet is now the second most complained-about advertising medium, overtaking newspapers and magazines for the first time.”

The internet is now the second most complained-about advertising medium, overtaking newspapers and magazines for the first time.

Advertising watchdog the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has released its annual report for 2007 which outlines the pattern of complaints about advertising. The internet was the subject of almost 3,000 complaints.

The ASA said, though, that the large majority of internet-related complaints were to do with content on websites and not advertising.

“A total of 2,980 complaints were received about internet advertising,” said the report. “Of those, 2,144 (72%) were about the content of websites and as such fell outside of the ASA’s remit.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

FBI, politicos renew push for ISP data retention laws: FBI director Robert Mueller calls for new federal data retention laws forcing Internet companies to keep records of what their customers are doing, but without providing details. Several politicians endorsed the idea during a hearing on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON–The FBI and multiple members of Congress said …

(Via The Iconoclast.)

FBI’s Net surveillance proposal raises privacy, legal concerns: “

The FBI director and a Republican congressman sketched out a far-reaching plan this week for warrantless surveillance of the Internet.

During a House of Representatives Judiciary Committee hearing, the FBI’s Robert Mueller and Rep. Darrell Issa of California talked about what amounts to a two-step approach. Step 1 involves …

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(Via The Iconoclast.)

US man gets 30 months in prison for ‘warez’ operation: “A U.S. man was sentenced to 30 months in prison for his role in Web sites selling unauthorized copies of movies, music and software.

(Via Macworld.)

Not necessarily CyberLaw related, but I will cover Holocaust Denial cases in this blog as recent EU and CoE policy cover denial of the Holocaust with regards to the Internet, and is interesting to see how countries like Germany and France apply their laws and bring forward prosecutions.

One-Man Right-Wing Circus Act: German Sentenced to 10 Months for Hitler Greeting – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News

One of Germany’s most visible far-right extremists has been sentenced to 10 months in jail for greeting a Jewish interviewer with “Heil Hitler.” A judge called Horst Mahler “utterly incorrigible” after he denied the Holocaust, again, in open court.

Microsoft gives cops COFEE: free computer forensic tools: “

Cops doing computer forensic work already have a ton of tools to choose from, but Microsoft is doing its part to help out as well — the company just revealed that it’s been distributing a special thumb drive to cops in 15 countries to help them identify and extract information from suspects’ computers. The drive, called COFEE for Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor, is in use by more than 2,000 officers, including some in the States, and Microsoft is giving it away for free, saying that its doing it not for profit but to ‘help make ensure the Internet stays safe.’ COFEE contains more than 150 commands that can be used to collect information, decrypt passwords, and poke through network activity, which helps alleviate the problem of having to remove and transport a suspect’s computer for evidence purposes — officers can just plug in the drive. There’s no word on when Microsoft will start widely distributing the drives, but we’d assume it’ll be soon.

(Via Engadget.)

Amendments to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill have been tabled for the 3rd Reading that will take place on 30.04.2008

Clause 62

BARONESS MILLER OF CHILTHORNE DOMER
LORD WALLACE OF TANKERNESS

Page 49, line 31, leave out paragraph (b) and insert—
“(b) is obscene as defined by section 1 of the Obscene Publications Act 1959 (c. 66) (test of obscenity).”

After Clause 64

THE LORD HUNT OF KINGS HEATH

Insert the following new Clause—
“Defence: participation in consensual acts
(1) This section applies where—
(a) a person (“D”) is charged with an offence under section 62, and
(b) the offence relates to an image that portrays an act or acts within paragraphs (a) to (c) (but none within paragraph (d)) of subsection (7) of that section.
(2) It is a defence for D to prove—
(a) that D directly participated in the act or any of the acts portrayed, and
(b) that the act or acts did not involve the infliction of any non-consensual harm on any person, and
(c) if the image portrays an act within section 62(7)(c), that what is portrayed as a human corpse was not in fact a corpse.
(3) For the purposes of this section harm inflicted on a person is “non-consensual” harm if—
(a) the harm is of such a nature that the person cannot, in law, consent to it being inflicted on himself or herself; or
(b) where the person can, in law, consent to it being so inflicted, the person does not in fact consent to it being so inflicted.”

Clause 65

BARONESS MILLER OF CHILTHORNE DOMER
LORD WALLACE OF TANKERNESS

Page 52, line 3, leave out subsections (2) to (4) and insert—
“(2) A person guilty of an offence under section 62 is liable—
(a) on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or both;
(b) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years.”

LORD HUNT OF KINGS HEATH

Page 52, line 8, leave out “depict” and insert “portray”

House of Lords Report Stage 21.04.2008
Clause 63 [Possession of extreme pornographic images]:

Worth reading the whole debate which is re-produced in full by CyberLaw.org.uk.

For further information about the Bill’s progress click here.

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