CyberLaw Blog

Archive for August 7th, 2008

Snoop more, share less – Home Office spurns EU advice: “

Databases not safe, says database-loving gov

Government responses to two outwardly unrelated bits of EU policy go a long way to explain what it really thinks about the War on Terror and the rights of individual citizens.…

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(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

(Via Techdirt.)

Andrew Cuomo’s Blueprint For How Gov’t Can Get ISPs To Censor Content: “It looks like NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has put forth a nice blueprint for how politicians can ‘censor’ online content without technically breaking a law themselves: just threaten to publicly humiliate ISPs who won’t censor for you. The process was quite straightforward actually. Cuomo basically threatened that he would sue these ISPs for not agreeing to his own vendetta against ‘objectionable content’ where a third party — with no oversight — gets to determine what’s objectionable. Even though there is no legal reason why these ISPs need to block such content, Cuomo made it clear that the publicity around such a lawsuit, implying that the ISPs weren’t against such objectionable content, would be a public relations nightmare.

So, one by one ISPs have been caving. Broadband Reports notes that at least two more ISPs have agreed to sign Cuomo’s ‘rules’ even if they’re not even sure how they’ll follow through on them. Of course, as we’ve pointed out, this is all about politics anyway, as following the ‘rules’ will do absolutely nothing to stop the production or consumption of objectionable content.

Either way, now other politicians have the blueprint for censorship: simply threaten the ISPs that you’ll sue them and publicly claim that they’re unwilling to be ‘family friendly’ or ‘protect the children’ or any other buzzword.

BT slams bandwidth brakes on all subscribers:

You’re all hogs in their eyes

BT is throttling all of its broadband customers’ bandwidth at peak times, not just heavy users, according to independent monitoring data.…

(Via The Register – Comms.)

Internet chat more likely slander than libel, says High Court: “Defamation on internet bulletin boards is more like slander than libel, a High Court judge has ruled. Mr Justice Eady said that bulletin board discussions are characterised by ‘give and take’ and should be considered in that context.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

UK retailers ‘unprepared’ for TK Maxx-style hack: “UK retailers are woefully unprepared for the kind of attack that was
perpetrated on the US-based owner of the discount clothing chain TK Maxx,
security experts said today.”

(Via Tech and Web from Times Online.)

Chaos aims to crack China’s firewall: “Environment, science & technology: Danny Bradbury on how a group of hackers is working to bypass the Great Firewall of China”

(Via Latest news, sport, business, comment and reviews from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk.)

Social network sites ‘flout their own ban on underage users’: “Hundreds of thousands of children aged between 8 and 12 are using Facebook,
Bebo and other social networking sites in clear breach of their
age-restriction policies.”

(Via Tech and Web from Times Online.)