CyberLaw Blog

Archive for December, 2009

UK – Internet safety for children targeted: “(BBC)
Lessons in using the internet safely are set to become a compulsory part of the curriculum for primary schoolchildren in England from 2011. The lessons are one element of a new government strategy being unveiled called ‘Click Clever, Click Safe’. Children will also be encouraged to follow an online ‘Green Cross Code’ and block and report inappropriate content. The measures have been drawn up by the UK Council on Child Internet Safety, a new body comprising 140 organisations. see Click Clever Click Safe: The First Child Internet Safety Strategy. see also Son’s Rogue Tweet Taught Brown A Lesson (Sky News).

(Via QuickLinks Update.)

CN – China expands porn sting by shutting P2P video sites: “(IDG News Service)
Chinese regulators have taken a wide-ranging war against online porn one step further by closing a series of popular BitTorrent and other video-sharing Web sites in recent days. The move against video-sharing sites comes as efforts grow to stamp out porn elsewhere too. Regulators have cranked up their work to eradicate porn accessed by mobile phone and called for more control of vulgar content in online PC games. Last week state media also criticized Google and local rival Baidu over pornographic search results.

(Via QuickLinks Update.)

CN – China tightens Internet controls in the name of fighting porn, piracy, and cybercrime: “(Rebecca MacKinnon)
China’s blocking of overseas websites – including Facebook, Twitter, and thousands of other websites including this blog – is more extensive and technically more sophisticated than ever. Controls over domestic content have also been tightening. The past few weeks have seen four new moves which are not officially or overtly aimed at political content, but which have implications for the way in which the government controls all conveyors of all kinds of speech. First, late November saw the launch of a mobile porn crackdown. The draconian way in which this crackdown is being implemented involves a great deal of collateral damage for non-pornographic content. Second, Chinese the state-run media is going after the search engines again for turning up smutty results when users search for smutty information. Third, last week the government shut down more than 500 file-sharing websites as part of an anti-porn and anti-piracy crackdown, on the grounds that these websites don’t have proper licenses. Fourth, CNNIC, the organization which runs the .cn top-level domain has announced that it is no longer accepting domain name applications from individuals.

(Via QuickLinks Update.)

US – Study: 15 percent of teens have gotten 'sext' messages: “(CNET)
Sending explicit content, such as naked or near-naked photos, via text message – a phenomenon also known as ’sexting’ – is a familiar phenomenon among some teens, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center. Older teens, especially those who foot their own cell phone bills, are much more likely to send and receive these images. While 8 percent of 17-year-olds with cell phones have sent a sexually provocative image by text, this number goes up to 17 percent among those who pay their bills themselves. In all, 30 percent of 17-year-olds have received explicit images on their phones. The survey also shows that while the exchange of nude images mostly takes place among romantic partners or potential partners of the same age, these images are also forwarded to non-partners or people in different age groups.

(Via QuickLinks Update.)

AU – Australia mulls mandatory ISP filtering: “(ZDNet)
Mandatory ISP filtering legislation is expected to be introduced in Australia around the middle of 2010, after which there will be a one year period to implement and activate the filtering technology. The Federal Government announced it will introduce amendments to the Broadcasting Services Act, which will by 2011 require all ISPs to block refused classification-rated material hosted on overseas servers.

(Via QuickLinks Update.)

Virgin Media to roll out copyright infringement detection tool: “(Computing)
Virgin Media is trialling a copyright infringement tool that could be built into the technology underpinning its upcoming music download subscription service. The Detica-supplied system is now being tested by the internet service provider (ISP) in what is claimed to be a UK first. According to Virgin, the trial is aimed at understanding how consumer behaviour is changing and will also support upcoming government requirements for measurement of copyright infringement levels on ISP’ networks. see also Net piracy: The people vs the entertainment industry (New Scientist) and What does Detica detect? by Richard Clayton.

(Via QuickLinks Update.)

Newspaper thwarts libel claim with E-Commerce Regulations defence: “A newspaper publisher was not liable for user comments posted after an online article and will not have to pay out libel damages, the High Court has ruled.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

9/11 pager messages published online:

Whistleblowing website publishes ‘intercepted’ texts in order officials and witnesses sent them

The unfolding secret story of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon is being told today when more than 500,000 intercepted pager messages, many from US officials, are published online in the order in which they were sent.

The mass live leak began at 8am GMT and will continue for 24 hours until all of the messages are seen as they were sent on September 11.

The experiment by whistleblowing website Wikileaks includes pager messages sent on the day by officials in the Pentagon, the New York police and witnesses to the collapse of the twin towers.

Wikileaks said the messages would show a ‘completely objective record of the defining moment of our time‘.

It added: ‘We hope that its entry into the historical record will lead to a more nuanced understanding of how this tragedy and its aftermath may have been prevented.’

The post said the release of the messages at times corresponding to when they were sent would help ‘foster a deeper understanding’.

A preview of some of the messages to be leaked suggests they show how panic and rumour began to spread on the day, and are likely to fuel conspiracy theories about the attacks.

One message from a New York City official sent just minutes after the first attack said: ‘WTC has been hit by an airplane and a bomb.’ Another says: ‘It’s reported that a US military helicopter circled the building then crashed into or next to the Pentagon.’ Later in the day, a message presciently says: ‘We are bombing Afghanistan.’

One message from a witness reads: ‘Still in my apt, nowhere to go … This is the end of the world as we know it.’

Wikileaks would not reveal the source for the leak, but hinted: ‘It is clear that the information comes from an organisation which has been intercepting and archiving US national telecommunciations since prior to 9/11.

Wikileaks has a good track record in releasing authentic official documents, but its website tends to get overloaded at busy times. It is encouraging readers to follow the leaks on Twitter.

(Via Latest news, sport, business, comment and reviews from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk.)

Yahoo Issues Takedown Notice for Spying Price List: A detailed menu of Yahoo’s spying services for law enforcement agencies leaks onto the web. The company issues a DMCA takedown notice to a site that posted it.

(Via Wired News.)

EU – The Impact of Social Computing on the EU Information Society and Economy: “(IPTS)
This report by the The Institute for Prospective Technological Studies provides a systematic empirical assessment of the creation, use and adoption of specific social computing applications and its impact on industry, personal identity, learning, social inclusion, healthcare and public health, and government services and public governance.

“

(Via QuickLinks Update.)