CyberLaw Blog

Archive for July 25th, 2008

Stealing Text is Illegal, Too: “It’s time for the rest of the online adult industry to take a more enlightened approach to all forms of content piracy, and that includes making sure writers and text owners are being properly protected, as well.”

(Via XBIZ.com | News & Articles.)

Who killed Three Strikes for filesharing?: “

National Freetard Register cancelled - but freetards don’t notice

Rejoice! ‘Three strikes and you’re out’ is dead in the UK. Music file sharers will no longer face the threat of seeing the household broadband connection severed. The plague that is currently endemic in France won’t be jumping the English Channel.…

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(Via The Register - Comms.)

Google to face charges over Down syndrome video: “Google is to face criminal charges in Italy over a video which appeared on one of its sites showing a disabled teenager being taunted by his peers.”

(Via Tech and Web from Times Online.)

David Edgar: This muddled terror law limits free speech and wrecks innocent lives: Comment is free, The Guardian: The glorification clause of the Terrorism Act has created a climate where artists and academics must watch their words.

Written by David Edgar, The Guardian, Tuesday July 22 2008″

A student downloads an al-Qaida document from a US government website and is held in custody for six days. A shop assistant writes poems about cutting people’s heads off and is tried for being a terrorist. An opera composer is accused of promoting terrorism, objects, and is bankrupted by a national newspaper.

What do these cases have in common? First, none of these people was successfully convicted of any crime. Second, none of them faced charges under the glorification clause of the Terrorism Act 2006. Third, they would not have been arrested and/or tried and/or bankrupted had it not been a climate of opinion created by that clause.

Under Pressure, ISP Admits Secret Web Snooping in Kansas: “Internet service provider Embarq told Congress today that it monitored some 26,000 of its customers without telling them explicitly in a secret test of a controversial online ad service. The revelation comes just weeks after another ISP canceled its test of the technology under congressional pressure.

(Via Wired News.)