CyberLaw Blog

Archive for July, 2009

CN – China bans online games which glamorize gangs: “(Reuters)
China has banned websites featuring or publicizing online games which glamorize mafia gangs, saying violators will be ’severely punished’. The Culture Ministry said such games ‘advocate obscenity, gambling, or violence,’ and ‘undermine morality and Chinese traditional culture,’ the official Xinhua news agency said. ‘These games encourage people to deceive, loot and kill, and glorify gangsters’ lives. It has a bad influence on youngsters,’ the report said, citing a ministry circular.

(Via QuickLinks Update.)

The Associated Press: Iran activists work to elude crackdown on Internet: “Iran activists work to elude crackdown on Internet

By REBECCA SANTANA (AP) – 3 days ago

CAIRO — The tweets still fly and the videos hit YouTube whenever protesters take to the streets in Iran — even as the Internet battle there turns more grueling.

Authorities appear to be intensifying their campaign to block Web sites and chase down the opposition online, and the activists search for new ways to elude them.

Sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube remain blocked, as they have been since Iran’s political turmoil began following the disputed June 12 presidential election. Internet experts believe the government is going further — including tracking down computers from which images and videos of Iran’s protests are sent out to the rest of the world. Activists fear their every move online is watched.

‘We are really worried about this. To protect myself, I just limit my posts on social networks, my tweets and also I deleted some parts of my personal blogs and my other notes on the Web,’ one Iranian who regularly sends tweets about the election turmoil said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Another said, ‘Every site where people can gather and stay connected and share news and pics … is blocked.’ Both agreed to e-mail interviews on condition of anonymity, fearing government retaliation.

The government is believed to have been aggressively developing software and technology in recent years to strengthen its filtering and monitoring of Web sites. Since the election, a number of Internet experts are countering by providing Iranians with improved proxy systems and other programs to get around government blocks and escape detection.

‘I think the Iranian government is learning quickly how to control and contain these things,’ said Andrew Lewman, executive director of The Tor Project Inc., based in Boston.

His group’s free downloadable Tor program allows Internet users to work through a network of relays run by volunteers around the world to access blocked sites and hide what they are doing on the Internet. Active sessions using Tor in Iran have jumped from a few hundred before the election to thousands after, the nonprofit group said.

The Internet has been a key tool for Iran’s opposition on two fronts. One is internal — to organize protests and exchange information. The other is external — to let the world know what is going on amid severe government restrictions that bar foreign media from reporting and taking pictures and video on the streets. The government has been actively trying to block online activists on both fronts.

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians held protests denouncing the election as fraudulent until security forces launched a heavy crackdown, arresting hundreds and killing at least 20 protesters. Throughout, activists took to the online messaging site Twitter to relay 140-character posts about what they were seeing and hearing. They furtively recorded video of police and members of the feared Basij militia riding on motorcycles through throngs of protesters, or photos of demonstrators bleeding from battles with government authorities.

One video in particular gripped Iran and the world: Images of 27-year-old Neda Agha Soltan bleeding to death after being shot on a Tehran street were viewed millions of times on YouTube, and her death became a rallying cry for opponents of the regime.

Even after the crackdown crushed the large protests, the Internet has remained key. In two smaller protests organized in recent weeks, constant tweets reported on where the demonstrators were gathering. Despite the restrictions, videos quickly emerged on YouTube showing thousands of protesters clashing with police and Basij. At the same time, Internet news sites have become vital for tracking arrests of opposition politicians and activists, who are often picked up from their homes far from scenes of protests.

During the height of the protests, authorities cut off cell phone service and text messaging — which are all run by state-run firms and through government-owned towers — to break up communications for organizing rallies. Phone service has returned, though it cuts off in parts of Tehran when authorities believe a protest will be held. Texting has been slower to come back and is sporadic at best.

The government has also tried a more traditional route to subdue dissent: arrests. At least 34 journalists and bloggers were detained after the election, joining seven others already in prison, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Around a quarter of Iran’s 65 million people are believed to have Internet access. Iran has long used filtering to restrict certain news and political or pornographic Web sites. But since the election, the number of blocked sites has increased.

Besides Twitter and YouTube, the BBC’s Farsi-language news site is still blocked, and Web sites associated with opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi — who says he won the election — are constantly shut down. In the last week, two new Mousavi sites have been created after others were targeted.

The day after the election, Internet traffic in and out of Iran came to a near total stop, according to research done by Arbor Networks, a Chelmsford, Mass.-based Internet security company.

The cause is not known, but the group says one explanation could be that the state-run Internet company all but shut down the network so all traffic could be run through filtering programs, which can only handle limited volume. In the week after the election — the latest figures available — traffic picked up again to about 70 percent of normal. In Iran, the Internet remains slow because of the brakes on traffic.

Given the secrecy with which the Iranian government operates, it’s difficult to assess exactly what it is doing to monitor the Internet. A number of groups have sprung up to offer Iranians their online expertise, including on called NedaNet, in honor of the woman who died.

Morgan Sennhauser, a project coordinator for NedaNet, published a 31-page paper detailing the strategies and tactics the government is believed to be using.

The methods include blocking data from going to or from certain Internet Protocol addresses — the numeric identifiers for every computer connected to the Web. Another technique used, called packet fingerprinting, allows the government to judge certain characteristics of a packet of data to decide whether to block it or not, so that, for example, a firm’s international transactions can go through but pictures of a protest cannot.

NedaNet, which describes itself as a group of independent ‘computer hackers and computer users,’ aims to set up proxy servers and other technology to enable Iranian users to make themselves anonymous and escape detection. Another proxy system that Iranians often use is Freegate, which was first developed by Chinese dissidents to get around Beijing’s heavy Internet censorship.

‘I do think that we’re going to continue to counteract just about everything they can come up with, it’s just a matter of time,’ Sennhauser said in e-mailed comments to the AP.

Gaurav Mishra, CEO of the social media research and strategy company 20:20 WebTech, said Twitter and Facebook do help get news out of Iran, but he warned against exaggerating their power to enact change.

‘At best, these tools are catalysts, which are very important roles, but should not be overrated,’ he said. ‘To expect Twitter and Facebook on their own to make a fundamental change in that situation is expecting too much.’

There is one method of communication that the government has been unable to stop. Every evening since the election, Iranians climb to their rooftops and scream ‘Allahu akbar,’ — ‘God is great’ — a protest tactic used during the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
On the Net:

* http://www.torproject.org
* http://www.nedanet.org”

Botched judge threat probe downs Fathers 4 Justice website: “

Taxpayers stung for unjust email injunction

Exclusive The government faces accusations of technical incompetence and waste after it went to the High Court and shut down the Fathers 4 Justice website, wrongly claiming campaigners had threatened to publish the home addresses of 237 judges.…

“

(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

Average UK broadband just over half advertised speed: “

Half empty?

The average downstream speed received by UK households is just 57 per cent of the average advertised rate, according to Ofcom research.…

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(Via The Register – Comms.)

Pakistan president Asif Zardari bans jokes ridiculing him – Telegraph: “Pakistan president Asif Zardari bans jokes ridiculing him
Pakistan’s president, Asif Zardari, has been accused of suffering from a sense of humour failure after banning jokes ridiculing him.

By Isambard Wilkinson in Islamabad
Published: 7:04PM BST 21 Jul 2009″

Pakistanis who send jokes about Asif Zardari by text message, email or blog risk being arrested and given a 14-year prison sentence.

The country’s interior minister, Rehman Malik, announced the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had been asked to trace electronically transmitted jokes that “slander the political leadership of the country” under the new Cyber Crimes Act.

Mr Malik, said the move would punish the authors of “ill motivated and concocted stories through emails and text messages against the civilian leadership”.

The step, which was described by human rights groups as “draconian and authoritarian”, came after government was particularly riled by a barrage of caustic jokes being sent to the presidency’s official email.

Critics have accused the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), a party that espouses a liberal agenda, of stooping as low as the former military ruler, Pervez Musharraf, who took television broadcasters off air when he faced political opposition.

Mr Zardari, the widower of the assassinated former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, has long courted controversy.

During his wife’s two tenures he earned the nickname of “Mr 10 per cent” on account of his alleged penchant for demanding kickbacks on government contracts.

A former polo-playing playboy, Mr Zardari has proved to be prickly about what others say of him since he was elected as president by the national parliament a year ago.

Most of the criticism stems from his government’s inability to address problems such as severe power outages and inflation, and his inability to shake off old allegations of corruption.

Mr Zardari’s thin-skin when it comes to jokes has forced Pakistanis to find other ways to refer to the president, with nicknames ranging from “dacu” or “bandit” to chief choor, meaning thief.

The ban has become the focus of intense television debate in Pakistan, as Mr Zardari’s aides have attempted to justify the move using every argument ranging from counter-terrorism concerns to saying that women parliamentarians had received abusive messages.

The prime minister, Yusuf Raza Gilani, with whom Mr Zardari has clashed, has distanced himself from the ban saying that it would not be enforced.

Mr Zardari’s PPP-led government tried to target text messages and emails last month when it levied a new tax on all text messages.

The tax was abandoned after it emerged that it would ruin a major source of revenue for Pakistan’s five mobile phone companies.

As soon as the tax was announced, a text message began making the rounds saying: “The government has imposed a tax on all messages. This means that until now President Zardari was getting abused for free. Now he’ll get paid every time someone abuses him!”

Zardari jokes:

* “Terrorists have kidnapped our beloved Zardari and are demanding $5,000,000 or they will burn him with petrol. Please donate what you can. I have donated five litres.”

* To commemorate the ascension to the Presidency, Pakistan Post has officially launched a new stamp. But the people of Pakistan are confused which side on the stamp to spit on.

* Robber: “Give me all your money!”

Zardari: “Don’t you know who I am? I am Asif Ali Zardari.”

Robber: “OK. Give me all my money”

UK – School computers ‘fail to filter’: “(BBC)
School computer systems in the UK are failing to identify 10% of incoming harmful content, research suggests. Data monitored from 30,000 students found content from items such as mobile phones and cameras which had not been picked up by filter systems. Researchers from online safety firm, E-Safe Education, say children are still able to access inappropriate content.

“

(Via QuickLinks Update.)

UK – Plug pulled on suspected pirates: “(BBC)
Web users suspected of file-sharing are being cut off without warning by internet service provider (ISP) Karoo, based in Hull. Karoo, the only ISP in the area, makes customers sign a document promising not to repeat the offence in order to get their service restored.

“

(Via QuickLinks Update.)

Making YouTube a Safer Place: “
As a host for other people’s content, YouTube aims to be a strong platform for free expression, while respecting individual choice and protecting young people from inappropriate content and exploitation. Over the past year, we’ve bolstered our efforts in four major areas: (1) developing clear policies about what is and is not acceptable on the site; (2) constructing robust mechanisms to enforce these policies; (3) rolling out innovative product features that enable safe behaviour; and (4) upping our educational efforts to increase user awareness of how to stay safe on the site.

We recently completed a tour of London, Amsterdam, and Brussels to discuss these developments with lawmakers, regulators, academics, civil liberties organizations, and journalists.

During the tour, we demonstrated how we deal with troublesome content. With 20 hours of video going up each minute on YouTube, we can’t preview videos to make sure they comply with our rules. Our community steps in and does a great job flagging videos they think are inappropriate. We then conduct a thorough manual review of flagged videos.

In addition, we have put in place strong user controls. Users, for example, can filter out profane language in comments to videos with a new Filter W*rds feature. Currently available only in English, Filter W*rds allows users to replace profanity, lewd language, and racial epithets with ***. Of course, the option remains of leaving comments unfiltered or hiding them altogether by clicking on the arrow beside the ‘Comments’ heading.

While in Europe, we announced the international launch of the YouTube Safety Centre. Localised in 17 languages, the Centre features straightforward safety tips and multimedia resources from experts and prominent safety organizations to help teens and their parents learn about issues such as cyberbullying, media literacy, and hateful content. The Safety Centre can be found via a link at the bottom of any YouTube page. The new Centre makes it easier for visitors to reach our Help and Safety Tool.

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(Via European Public Policy Blog.)

Information Commissioner enjoys new powers to fine from April 2010: “Privacy regulator the Information Commissioner will be handed new powers to issue fines next April. The Commissioner’s office has confirmed for the first time the date on which it will be able to hand out new fines.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

Government changes tune on music piracy promiseBen Bradshaw, the Culture Secretary, has watered down a pledge to cut the volume of internet music piracy by 70 per cent in the next two years in a letter he wrote at the end of last month, a copy of which has been passed to The Times.

(Via Tech and Web from Times Online.)