CyberLaw Blog

Archive for September 19th, 2008

TechDirt’s take on the blocking of Dawkins’ website in Turkey….

(Via Techdirt.)

Turkey Bans Richard Dawkins’ Website, Because It Offends A Creationist: “We already know that Turkish officials have a pretty quick trigger finger when it comes to banning certain websites. They’ve banned YouTube multiple times due to videos they found offensive, and then banned Slide, a multimedia hosting company as well. Still, it’s a bit surprising to discover that now they’ve banned the website of Richard Dawkins after a Turkish creationist complained that the site had insulted him. Apparently, this guy, Adnan Oktar, has become quite successful at getting sites blocked in Turkey. In the past, he also got Wordpress.com and Google Groups blocked after he became upset at content found on both of those sites. And, even better, he claims he’s not against free speech, he’s just against insults. And, apparently, anyone who disagrees with him is insulting.

Post from: TorrentFreak

Linking to P2P Downloads Confirmed Legal in Spain: “

A court has ruled that a site providing links to P2P downloads is operating legally. The Provincial Court of Madrid ruled that Sharemula.com, a site offering eDonkey links to movies, music, software and games does not break the law. The court’s decision is final and cannot be appealed.

Following a Federación Antipiratería (Anti-piracy Federation) investigation in 2006, 15 people were arrested in Spain in connection with the operation of Sharemula.com, an eDonkey (eD2k) indexing site. eD2k links are similar to URLs or .torrent files, in that they contain no copyright material themselves, but may point to such works.

Spain’s Brigade of Technological Investigations claimed that the site was illegal and should be closed. Just under a year ago the case was heard, but sadly for the entertainment industry, the court ruled that the case against Sharemula should be dismissed. It said that neither the site nor administrators had operated illegally by offering links to copyright works, since they had not done so for profit or commercial gain.

However, the entertainment industry – including but not limited to Columbia, Disney Company Iberia, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner, Universal, Paramount, Sony and MGM, did not accept the ruling and appealed the decision.

Yesterday, the Provincial Court of Madrid ruled that the entertainment industry has no case against Sharemula, and since it has broken no laws, the case should be dismissed. This dismissal is final and cannot be appealed.

The court rejected all allegations that were made by the entertainment industry and concluded that indexing eD2k links (or torrent files) can not be seen as copyright infringement (pdf in Spanish). Sharemula’s main purpose is to index links, and they are not responsible for where these links go according to the court decision. Whether or not Sharemula makes profit is irrelevant.

‘The hearing confirms the position of the defense that linking to P2P networks does not constitute a criminal offense,’ wrote David Bravo, a lawyer in the case, noting that Sharemula did not store any copyrighted material. The site simply links to files that are hosted elsewhere, on computers of P2P users.

It is on this same premise that The Pirate Bay claims to operate legally. With upcoming cases against The Pirate Bay and Mininova in Europe, this decision is very welcome for p2p-site administrators.

Data protection watchdogs to hold hearings with Google: “An influential group of European privacy experts said this week that it will lead hearings with Google over the search giant’s claim that EU data protection laws do not apply to it.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

Flaws in YouTube gangster video vetting exposed – Times Online

From The Times, September 18, 2008: Flaws in YouTube gangster video vetting exposed

A Times investigation has exposed failures in the video-sharing website’s monitoring system and prompted action to tighten security

Marcus Leroux, Kaya Burgess and Fran Yeoman

YouTube, the world’s largest video-sharing website, this week removed over two dozen videos glorifying gangs and gang violence which had been on its website in some cases for over 18 months.

Following a Times investigation into harmful and inappropriate material on Youtube, the website took down 30 film clips, most shot in grainy video showing hooded youths brandishing illegal weapons such as machetes, hand guns and even sub-machine guns. Google admitted they were clearly in breach of its own user guidelines which had recently been revised to deal with gang videos.

Google’s Head of Communications in Britain, former Newsnight editor Peter Barron, said that as a result of concern about the use of the website by gangs, it had now introduced new guidelines prohibiting users from showing weapons in their videos in order to intimidate people, but that these had only “gone live” on Friday.

He blamed “teething problems” with the new policy for the fact that its own monitors had failed to removed the material after a Times reporter posing as an ordinary user had flagged them up as inappropriate three days after the new policy had been introduced.
(more…)

Henry Porter: How many more freedoms will we sacrifice in the name of UK security?: “Henry Porter: Every time you travel by road in Britain, your car will be tracked. How many more freedoms will we sacrifice?”

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

Teenager detained in terror trial: “Britain’s youngest Islamist terrorist is sentenced to two years in a young offenders’ institution”

19.09.2008

Britain’s youngest Islamist terrorist has been sentenced to two years in a young offenders’ institution.

Hammaad Munshi, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, was 16 when he was arrested in 2006. Now 18, he was convicted of making a record of information likely to be used for terrorist purposes, but cleared of possessing terrorist material. Sentencing him at the Old Bailey, Judge Timothy Pontius said Munshi “fell under the spell of fanatical extremists”.

“There is no doubt that you knew what you were doing,” the judge told him.

(more…)

UK government responds on Phorm: “A controversial ad-serving system can be rolled out in the UK but only under strict guidelines, says the government.”

(Via BBC News.)

U.N. agency eyes curbs on Internet anonymity | Politics and Law – CNET News: “”

Posted by Declan McCullagh, U.N. agency eyes curbs on Internet anonymity, September 12, 2008 4:00 AM PDT

A United Nations agency is quietly drafting technical standards, proposed by the Chinese government, to define methods of tracing the original source of Internet communications and potentially curbing the ability of users to remain anonymous.
(more…)

YouTube is introducing UK specific rules, and the Turkish media is furious that YouTube is not sensitive to Turkey’s sensitivities and concerns with regards to certain types of content available through YouTube. Other countries and governments will also start complaining following this new announcement. It is not easy to get the balance right with regards to what should be permissible or not but YouTube will be pressured to have more of these “customized community guidelines” for accessing its content.

[Note also The Guardian, YouTube bans violent videos, 12.09.2008]

YouTube bans videos which glamorise guns and knives | Technology | The Guardian

· UK-specific rules follow glorification claims
· Website refuses to change way content is checked

Owen Gibson, media correspondent, The Guardian, Thursday September 18 2008

The Google-owned video sharing website YouTube has moved to counter criticism that it helps fuel gang violence by introducing new rules to ban submissions that glamorise guns and knives.

The UK-specific rule will ban videos ’showing weapons with the aim of intimidation’ after criticism that fierce battles were being fuelled by rival members posting videos.

Last summer the Guardian revealed how videos on YouTube displayed the ‘barely concealed culture of violent gangs glorying in crime’ in the area of Liverpool where 11-year-old Rhys Jones was shot dead.

In July the culture, media and sport select committee criticised the website, on to which 10 hours of video are uploaded every minute, for not protecting users enough from the ‘dark side’ of internet content.

A Google spokesman said: ‘There has been particular concern over videos in the UK that involve showing weapons with the aim of intimidation, and this is one of the areas we are addressing.’

The move comes days after YouTube also introduced new global guidelines to outlaw content that ‘directly incites violence’. In a blog post to users late last week it said: ‘We realise it’s not always obvious where we draw the line on content that’s acceptable to upload. We’ve updated the community guidelines … included in the update are a few new things to steer clear of, like not directly inciting violence.’

Other existing rules relate to the posting of videos that show violence and include ‘hate speech’. But the new rules will not change the internet giant’s stance on the way content is regulated.

It is committed to a policy of user-moderation, arguing it is impractical for it to vet every video before it is posted. Once a video is flagged up as potentially inappropriate YouTube’s staff examine it and remove it if it breaks the guidelines.

The media select committee, chaired by John Whittingdale, the Tory MP for Maldon and East Chelmsford, had called on video sharing sites to undertake a ‘proactive review of content’ to ‘quarantine’ material until it was deemed suitable to be posted.

But Google said such an approach was impractical. ‘YouTube is a community site used by millions of people in very positive ways. Sadly, as with any form of communication, a tiny minority of people will try to break the rules,’ said a spokesman.

‘When users see content they think is inappropriate they can flag it. If the content breaks our terms we aim to remove it quickly and if a user repeatedly breaks the rules we will disable their account.’

The site, bought by Google for $1.65bn (£92m) in 2006 just 18 months after it launched, has faced consistent criticism on both sides of the Atlantic over some of the videos posted by its huge user base.

As well as unsuitable or offensive videos, copyright holders have complained that their material is being posted without their permission. The media giant Viacom and the English Premier League are among those who have launched legal action against what they see as copyright infringement on a grand scale.

Here too, YouTube argues that it takes videos down as soon as they are flagged up by copyright holders.

Rights Group Sues NSA and Cheney for Spying: “The Electronic Frontier Foundation sued the government and top Bush officials over its warrantless wiretapping program Thursday. The suit comes just a day before the government tries using a new and powerful tool to dismiss the group’s surprisingly resilient suit against AT&T for helping with the program.

(Via Wired News.)