CyberLaw Blog

Archive for June 15th, 2008

Upcoming Changes in Verizon s Newsgroup Service – Verizon PolicyBlog: “Upcoming Changes in Verizon’s Newsgroup Service
Posted by Eric Rabe in Policy on June 13, 2008, 01:23 PM EST

There has been a lot of reporting about our announcement this week with New York’s Attorney General that we will work to more effectively limit customer access to child pornography over the Internet. We have also seen discussion in online forums about what this means.

Here’s what Verizon will do.

In the case of Web pages on Verizon servers, we have clear terms of service that prohibit posting of child pornography and to do so violates those service agreements. We will review a list of Web pages containing child pornography that is provided to us regularly by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and take down pages from that list that are on Verizon servers. We will report the infraction to law enforcement.

Also beginning June 24, 2008, Verizon will no longer provide access to many of the newsgroups that we had previously provided. We will only offer groups in the Big 8 newsgroups hierarchies, which are listed below. Users will not be able to post or download from any other newsgroups. We have notified customers on the Verizon.net Web site of these changes.

We are not blocking access to either newsgroups or Web sites operated by others. Customers who still want to access newsgroups that are not on this list can do so through commercially available newsgroup services.

Here are the Big-8 newsgroup hierarchies that we will provide access to:

comp.*
humanities.*
misc.*
news.*
rec.*
sci.*
soc.*
talk.*

The 0.verizon.* newsgroup hierarchy will also continue to be available.

Verizon Business, which serves the enterprise market, has a somewhat different solution. Verizon Business is eliminating the ability of newsgroups to carry pictures, limiting the size of the articles distributed through its service, and is eliminating all alt.binaries and alt.binaries hierarchies. In short, Verizon Business will allow access to all newsgroups, but only for text messages.

This change will not affect our customers’ ability to use the Internet or other commercial newsgroup services. Verizon has been a strong proponent of free access for all users to the Internet, and we remain so today.

UK – Minister backs code to tackle online sex and violence: “(Guardian)
The government has signalled its support for a common set of standards for internet content in response to worries about the impact of violent and sexual output online. The culture secretary, Andy Burnham, said he wanted to see online content meet the same standards required for television as the boundaries between the two media continue to blur. Television in the UK is governed by the broadcasting code of Ofcom, the media regulator. There is no overall regulation for the internet. See Secretary of State speech to the Convergence Think Tank 11 June 2008.”

(Via QuickLinks Update.)

The Independent Exclusive: New batch of terror files left on train

IoS returns confidential documents to Treasury as officials promise to tighten procedures

By Simon Evans and Margareta Pagano
Sunday, 15 June 2008″

Secret government documents detailing the UK’s policies towards fighting global terrorist funding, drugs trafficking and money laundering have been found on a London-bound train and handed to ‘The Independent on Sunday’.
(more…)

More secret files found on train: “A further batch of confidential government documents has been found on a train, the Independent on Sunday says.”

The Independent on Sunday says it was handed the documents, which cover fighting global terrorist funding, drugs trafficking and money laundering.

The files were found on the same day as the BBC was handed top secret papers on al-Qaeda. A Treasury spokesman said the government was “extremely concerned”.

The Tories are calling for controls to protect secret official information.

The documents, about a meeting of financial crime experts, apparently include briefing notes for a meeting of the international Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to be held in 11 Downing Street next week.

The Irrawaddy News Magazine [Covering Burma and Southeast Asia] Thursday, May 29, 2008: “Technical changes have been made to prevent Internet users from using proxy servers to get around government controls, according to an announcement from Myanmar Teleport, one of the country’s two Internet service providers (ISPs).

In a notice to customers that was obtained by The Irrawaddy on Thursday, the company, formerly known as Bagan CyberTech, said that it had upgraded its service to remove the need for proxies.

Burma’s Internet laws are among the world’s most restrictive
(Photo: AFP)
‘As part of this upgrade, the use of web proxies is no longer required,’ said the announcement. ‘Myanmar Teleport would like to cordially request you to reconfigure your web browser settings not to use proxies.’

When contacted, a technician at Myanmar Teleport confirmed that the move was intended to tighten control over access to unauthorized Web sites.

Burma has some of the world’s most restrictive Internet policies, banning blogs and exiled news providers critical of the country’s ruling junta. However, access to prohibited Web sites is often possible through use of proxy servers.

The upgrade was described as a measure to improve service with ‘more reliable and robust equipment.’

Burma has two Internet service providers—Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications and Myanmar Teleport. Myanmar Teleport/BaganNet was formerly owned by Ye Naing Win, the son of the ousted Prime Minister Gen Khin Nyunt.”

Censorship call after assault : The Sun, 13 June, 2008: A SENIOR judge today urged Whitehall to investigate ways to censor internet images which are so shocking ‘they should never be seen’.

The call came after four teenagers were jailed for a ’sickening’ assault filmed on a phone.

Paul Vickers, 40, was left paralysed and blind in his right eye after being beaten with a metal wheel brace and having his head stamped on as he slept.

Judge David Rennie said the attack was inspired by violent images said to be easily accessible on the web and itself was intended to be uploaded to the net.

He told the Old Bailey: ‘I believe this was copying and adding to the violent images already in circulation.

‘I am not sure if there is any sufficient censorship of material before it finds its way into the public domain.

‘I would urge the Government to continue to investigate this problem to see if there is anything else that can be done to protect people from images which are so shocking that they should never be seen.’
(more…)

Nadine Strossen resigned as president of the American Civil Liberties Union after serving for more than 17 years.

The Serene Life of a Fighter for Civil Liberties: “Nadine Strossen served as the president of the A.C.L.U. for 18 years.”

(Via NYT > Freedom of Speech and Expression.)