CyberLaw Blog

Archive for February 12th, 2009

Bloomberg.com: Facebook Says Italy’s Plan to Block Web Content Goes Too Far

Last Updated: February 12, 2009 08:43 EST
By Steve Scherer and Giovanni Salzano

Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) — Facebook Inc., the world’s largest social-networking site, said that it is concerned about Italy’s proposed law to force Internet providers to block access to Web sites that incite or justify criminal behavior.

‘We have not seen the language of the bill, but reports about it concern us,’ said Debbie Frost, a Facebook spokeswoman, in an e-mail. The legislation is ‘akin to shutting down the country’s entire railroad network because of some objectionable graffiti in one train station.’

The bill, passed in the Senate last week, would give the Interior Ministry the power to order Internet providers including Fastweb SpA, Telecom Italia SpA or Tiscali SpA to remove criminal content within 24 hours or face a fine as high as 250,000 euros ($320,850). Prosecutors would have to verify criminal content before the ministry can act, according to the bill.

Italian Senator Gianpiero D’Alia introduced the measure after the Italian press, including the country’s biggest newspaper Corriere della Sera, reported that there were fan groups on Facebook for convicted Corleone-born mafia bosses Salvatore Riina and Bernardo Provenzano, who have been convicted of dozens of homicides and are serving multiple life prison sentences.

‘We take content that incites violence very seriously and we will work quickly to remove it,’ Frost said. ‘For every piece of controversial content posted to Facebook there are literally thousands of positive interactions fostering communication, fellowship, and commerce.’

Sainthood for a Murderer

While a fan group invoking ‘sainthood’ for Provenzano — with 433 members — was still posted today, Facebook also has a group hailing as heroes Palermo prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, who were assassinated on the orders of Riina after successfully prosecuting hundreds of mobsters. That group has 369,463 fans.

The aim isn’t to block sites like Facebook or YouTube totally if they contain criminal content, D’Alia said yesterday in an interview. Instead, the law is intended to force them to remove individual pages or groups, the senator said. The language of the bill itself doesn’t distinguish between blacking out pages or entire Web sites.

The legislation is flawed because Internet providers aren’t able to eliminate single elements from Web sites, Marco Pancini, European Public Policy Counsel for Google Inc., which owns YouTube, said yesterday in an interview. That will lead to the blocking of entire platforms if the law is passed, Pancini said.

Mediaset, YouTube

YouTube has the ability to eliminate potentially criminal or offensive material, Pancini said, adding that laws regulating criminal content in Italy already exist. An April 2003 law says that material must be removed immediately once a Web site is informed of illicit material in its domain.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose allies in the Senate helped pass the measure, owns Mediaset SpA, the country’s largest private broadcaster. Mediaset in July said it sued YouTube and Google for illegally distributing the television company’s content, seeking ‘at least’ 500 million euros in damages.

Berlusconi has campaigned every weekend for the last month for his candidate, Ugo Cappellacci, against rival Renato Soru in the elections for governor of the island of Sardinia, which are scheduled to be held on Feb. 15 and 16. Soru is the founder and owner of 17.7 percent — through a blind trust — of Internet- service provider Tiscali.

The Internet legislation was inserted as an amendment to a bill aimed at cracking down on crime that the Senate passed on Feb. 5. The measure still must pass in the Chamber of Deputies without being changed to become law.

To contact the reporter on this story: Steve Scherer in Rome at scherer@bloomberg.net.

NSA offering ‘billions’ for Skype eavesdrop solution: “

Business model for P2P firm at last?

Counter Terror Expo News of a possible viable business model for P2P VoIP network Skype emerged today, at the Counter Terror Expo in London. An industry source disclosed that America’s supersecret National Security Agency (NSA) is offering ‘billions’ to any firm which can offer reliable eavesdropping on Skype IM and voice traffic.…

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(Via The Register – Comms.)

Government sites hit by hackers – Times Online

February 11, 2009

Times investigation reveals links to illegal content are being hidden in official websites
Murad Ahmed, Technology Reporter

Thousands of government, NHS, school and police websites have been doctored to include links to pornography, viruses and other inappropriate material.

An investigation by The Times and Trend Micro, the internet security specialists, has revealed that a large number of taxpayer-funded official websites has been hit by a practice known as ‘link spamming’.

This is when a hacker, or a member of the public, adds links to an official website, which then point visitors to other, inappropriate, material.

It means that an unsuspecting parent might click on an innocent-looking link on their child’s school site and be taken to a pornographic internet site instead, or a patient might click on an NHS website link only to download a harmful computer virus without their knowledge. Many government-created websites are potentially unsafe.

(more…)

UK cybercrime unit to meet IT leaders: “

Cleaning up the mean online streets

The newly-established Police Central e-crime unit (PCeU) has scheduled a meeting with UK business later this month.…

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(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

Police bail sysadmin in animal rights extremism probe: “

Colo contract prompts Serious Crime Act arrest

A Sheffield man has been released on police bail after being questioned in connection with comments posted to the activist news website Indymedia, which included the personal details of a prominent High Court judge.…

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(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

Data Retention Directive has sound legal basis, rules ECJ: “

It’s economics, not policing judges say

The European Union’s Data Retention Directive has a sound legal basis because it connects to policing but does not actually cover policing functions, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has said.…

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(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

Kids online: Parents need to regulate, says Ofcom: “

Take some responsibility, would you?

Parents should take greater responsibility for what their children get up to on the internet, according to Jeremy Olivier, Ofcom’s Head of Convergent Media.…

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(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

China preps internet porn snitching awards: “

Ceiling cat wants the washer/dryer set

China’s crackdown on internet pornography and ‘lewd’ content on the web has claimed another 276 websites, the government said on Tuesday, bringing the total number of websites closed to 1,911.…

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(Via The Register – Comms.)

Virgin Media trials longer bandwidth throttling: “

And cutting weekend data allowances

Virgin Media’s heaviest cable broadband users will be hit with tighter bandwidth throttling at peak times, as the firm tries to cope with increasing demand across its network.…

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(Via The Register – Comms.)

Man arrested in Indymedia animal extremism probe: “A man has been arrested in connection with comments posted to the activist news site Indymedia.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)