CyberLaw Blog

Archive for August 31st, 2008

The internet smokescreen | open Democracy News Analysis

By Tim Stevens, 21 – 08 – 2008

Despite the convictions of three British Muslims for accumulating and transmiting terrorist material online, the internet should not become the focus of government regulation

The convictions this week of three men from the north of England on terrorism charges has once again highlighted the role of the internet in facilitating militancy and its ability to speed the radicalisation of young men like 18-year old Hammaad Munshi, the youngest ever Briton found guilty of terrorism crimes.

As the British government seeks to strengthen its stance on stamping out home-grown terrorism, it has zeroed in on the internet as a target for regulation and interdiction. Such an approach suggests both a misunderstanding of the internet itself and of the role that online behaviour plays in radicalisation and, ultimately, the creation of dangerously violent individuals. Wrong moves against wrong targets will eventually prove counter-productive.

Security industry’s biggest worry is data leakage, says survey: “The problem information security professionals are most worried about is preventing data loss by their organisations, a survey has found. It found that 69% of IT security workers put the loss of data at the top of their worry list.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

(Via Techdirt.)

Court Ruling In Veoh Case Could Be A Big Boost To YouTube Over Viacom: “A judge has ruled that online video hosting site Veoh is not guilty of copyright infringement for videos uploaded by its users. The judge made the proper ruling here, noting that the DMCA’s safe harbors protect Veoh. The lawsuit was brought by adult video entertainment firm Io, who was upset that Veoh’s users kept uploading clips from its films. As the judge properly noted, Veoh follows all the rules necessary under the DMCA to avoid liability (this doesn’t mean that the individuals doing the uploading aren’t liable, however).

While this may seem like a small case, it is quite similar to Viacom’s infamous lawsuit against YouTube/Google. Considering that YouTube follows the DMCA’s rules in a similar manner to Veoh, this ruling suggests that YouTube is also protected by the DMCA safe harbors, just as many had stated from the beginning. The key issues raised by Io (and also raised by Viacom) is that these sites lose their DMCA safe harbors because they take action on the content, often transcoding the content from one format into flash. However, the judge in the Veoh case trashed that argument pretty easily:

Here, Veoh has simply established a system whereby software automatically processes user-submitted content and recasts it in a format that is readily accessible to its users. Veoh preselects the software parameters for the process from a range of default values set by the third party software… But Veoh does not itself actively participate or supervise the uploading of files. Nor does it preview or select the files before the upload is completed. Instead, video files are uploaded through an automated process which is initiated entirely at the volition of Veoh’s users

The folks over at Google are, understandably, pretty happy about this ruling, which confirms their position that YouTube is protected: ‘It is great to see the Court confirm that the DMCA protects services like YouTube that follow the law and respect copyrights.’

Data watchdogs did not want to see eBay bank server: “

Watching the watchmen

The man who paid £35 for a server stuffed full of Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest customer details has been left less than impressed with the reaction of UK data regulators.…

“

(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

Spying Court Stays Secret, Rejects ACLU Plea Again: “For the third time in a year, a secret spying court rejects an ACLU request to let some sunshine pierce its dark curtains of secrecy, ruling that national security prohibits publishing even unclassified versions of court documents or allowing non-government lawyers to argue in the court.

(Via Wired News.)

Armando Iannucci: No need to worry, chaps, your top secrets are safe with us: “Armando Iannucci: All this sensitive information going missing is going missing on memory sticks and CDs – the very last things any of us look at”

(Via guardian.co.uk Comment is free.)

Consenting Adult’s space: Beware the kinky porn ban! CAAN action report 22 Aug

Campaigners claim confusing new law lets abusers off the hook.

CAAN REPORT – 22nd August 2008 – Advice seeking mission 2: ACPO visit.

If you own any hardcore kinky erotica which you think could be considered
extreme, you’d better get prepared for January. On January 9th the new crime
of possessing extreme pornography is due to be enforceable – an offence for
which you can get up to three years in jail and listed on the sex offender
register for the rest of your life.

‘I live in a city where I can call the police to my neighbour being
assaulted for the tenth time by their drunken partner and police allow that
violent person to move freely and remain in a house which contains a
toddler,’ says one campaigner, ‘but where the friendly caring neighbour on
the other side could soon be put in jail for being in possession of a kinky
photo or movie of people having consensual adult fun. It seems like
misappropriated concern and resources to me, when you look at the real lives
of people on this estate.’

The Consenting Adult Action Network (CAAN) have been seeking practical
advice about this new law and remain concerned about the government creating
fictional sex offenders by criminalizing millions of law abiding citizens
with a newly created offence hardly anyone seems to know about. Even more
worryingly, nobody seems to be able to advise anyone about what images they
need to dispose of or not – and it’s not for want of people trying.
(more…)

Feds push child-porn cases; penalty can be years in prison – San Jose Mercury News: “Feds push child-porn cases; penalty can be years in prison

By Howard Mintz, Mercury News
Article Launched: 08/24/2008 01:34:28 AM PDT

Just a few mouse clicks into the forbidden world of Internet child porn can transform an apparently upstanding individual into a federal prison inmate – doing a long sentence.

That’s the harsh reality former KGO radio host Bernie Ward will encounter this week. The popular and prominent liberal voice on Bay Area radio for decades is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday in San Francisco federal court for distributing sexual images of young children. The best the 57-year-old Ward can hope for is five years in prison.

Setting aside his celebrity status, Ward’s case is no aberration.

Ward is ensnared in what is becoming one of the U.S. Justice Department’s fastest-growing areas of prosecution. Child-porn crimes have gone from a rarity on federal court dockets to a phenomenon, with prosecutions jumping nationally from a scant 30 in 1995 to more than 2,100 last year, according to a Mercury News analysis of Justice Department data maintained by Syracuse University.”

(more…)