CyberLaw Blog

Archive for August, 2008

Erotic artist urges spanking for Jacqui Smith: “

‘Extreme porn’ definition dithering drags on

Those pesky critters from CAAN (Campaigning Adult Action Network) are at it again, cheekily asking the government what the extreme porn law actually means for Joe Public.…

“

(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

Comcast users get UK-style capping, throttling: “

Is 120 movies a month enough?

The Network Neutrality pigeons are coming home to roost, with Comcast formally announcing a British-style capping regime.…

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(Via The Register – Comms.)

British hacker Gary McKinnon in final appeal to Home Secretary over extradition: “A UFO enthusiast who hacked into top-secret US military computers appealed to
the Home Secretary yesterday to stop his extradition after losing a legal
appeal.”

(Via Tech and Web from Times Online.)

This is to confirm that YouTube is still blocked in Turkey as of 15:23 GMT on 27.08.2008. As I suspected local and worldwide news reports are wrong to report that a court order banning access to YouTube has been lifted. A dubious press release by the Telecommunications Authority (only in Turkish) confirmed this today as well as an interview with the head of the Telecommunications Communication Agency (only in Turkish).

I am not sure why no one bothered to check whether access to YouTube is available from within Turkey or not. As can be seen below access is still denied and the order of Ankara First Criminal Court of Peace dated 05/05/2008 of 2008/402 remains.

What I can confirm is that as of 18 August 853 websites are blocked in Turkey. 241 of these are blocked by Court orders and 612 by administrative blocking orders issued by the Telecommunications Communication Agency. All the administrative orders are to do with the new Internet Law No. 5651 and with regards to the catalogue crimes listed in article 8.

I continue to monitor the YouTube saga in Turkey and despite these reports YouTube is still blocked in Turkey (as of 27.08.2008 13:14 GMT) and I wonder why the reporters who prepare these news items don’t check whether the site is accessible or not before announcing that YouTube can be accessed in Turkey. In any case YouTube won’t stay accessible for long and I am confident that several other court orders to block access to Youtube are imminent (Yaman Akdeniz).

Ban on YouTube removed, updates continue – Turkish Daily News Aug 26, 2008: “Ban on YouTube removed, updates continue
Tuesday, August 26, 2008

ISTANBUL – Turkish Daily News

The ban on the popular video-sharing Web site YouTube has been removed, CNN-Türk television reported yesterday.

Access to the Web site is expected to be restored today after the necessary updates are completed. Access to YouTube has been blocked since May 5 upon the order of an Ankara magistrate, who ruled it was host to videos insulting Atatürk, the founder of the Republic. However, 1.5 million people still visit the site daily despite the blockings as it is possible to access the videos by changing proxy settings.

The blocking of YouTube, which has now happened three times, has become a symbol of the censorship issue in Turkey, where reportedly 853 Web sites are blocked. In fact, the issue reached a point where last week a protest campaign was initiated by several Turkish bloggers and Web site owners. More than 400 Web sites and blogs have blocked themselves temporarily in protest of the censorship.

It is unclear whether or not the protest had any bearing on the decision to reopen the site. It is, however, certain that the censorship debate will continue, as many other Web sites and blogs remain blocked, and the law governing the Internet, Article 5651 of the Penal Code, continues to be criticized both by Internet users and information experts. “

More news that YouTube is back to normal in Turkey. BiaNet is also reporting that dailymotion.com is also unblocked by a Court in Turkey. I can confirm that dailymotion is now (26.08.2008 1545 GMT) is accessible in Turkey but access to youtube.com is still blocked at DNS level.

YouTube Is Back: “YouTube and Dailymotion are accessible again. Youtube was closed for three months and Dailymotion was banned since the beginning of August. Last week many internet sites protested this internet censorship.”

Bia news center – İstanbul, 25-08-2008

YouTube, the biggest video sharing site in the Internet, which was banned by the decision of Ankara’s 1st Criminal Court of Peace on May 5, is accessible again. However, the site will not be available before tomorrow because of the updates.

Likewise, the site of Dailymotion, which was banned in the beginning of August, has just become accessible, too.

Both sites were shut down because of having videos that were found offensive to the memory of Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic.
Protest

Wordpress, geocities, Indymedia Istanbul, Gündem, Fırat News Agency (ANF), Ekşi Sözlük, antoloji.com and many other internet sites have been banned either temporarily or permanently.

Last week many internet sites, including bianet, protested the internet censorship by darkening their sites voluntarily. (EÜ/EZÖ/TB)

(Via Latest Bianet/English News.)

Tories want data loss prosecutions: “

Knowing or reckless heads on spikes, please

The Conservatives have repeated their call for those involved in data losses to face criminal charges, following the Home Office’s loss of data on all prisoners.…

“

(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

Lecturer wins £10,000 email libel payout: “A university which sent a department-wide email accusing a lecturer of expenses fraud has paid him £10,000 in an out-of-court libel settlement.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

Bank customer data sold on eBay: “An inquiry is under way into how a computer containing the personal details of bank customers was sold on eBay.”

(Via BBC News.)

There are several news items which state that the Turkish court lifted the youtube ban but as of today (26.08.2008) YouTube is still not accessible in Turkey.

Turkish court lifts YouTube ban after online censorship protest | World news | The Guardian: “Turkish court lifts YouTube ban after online censorship protest

Robert Tait in Istanbul, The Guardian, Tuesday August 26 2008″

A court in Turkey has lifted a ban on YouTube, the video sharing website, after hundreds of sites voluntarily blocked themselves in protest at growing internet censorship.

Access to YouTube had been blocked since May in the latest of a series of bans triggered by the posting of videos deemed insulting to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the modern Turkish state.

Two previous bans have also been lifted but the latest decision comes after 412 web and blog sites, including the Turkish-English dictionary site, zargan.com, participated last week in an online protest.

They shut themselves temporarily after campaigners revealed that 853 websites in Turkey had been blocked as a result of court orders. Organisers said many of the orders were arbitrary and risked creating a climate of rising censorship.

Users clicking on to many of the protesting sites’ web pages were greeted by a message reading: “The access to this site is denied by its own decision.” This was a reference to the official message greeting those trying to access banned websites, which reads: “The access to this website is prevented by court order.”

The bans on YouTube and other sites have hurt Turkey’s image at a time when its restrictions on free speech are under scrutiny owing to its EU membership bid.

Websites can be blocked under Article 5651 of the Turkish penal code for a range of offences including insulting Atatürk, child pornography and encouraging suicide.

Turkey first banned YouTube in March last year after Greek users posted videos alleging that Atatürk was homosexual.