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Archive for the ‘China’ Category

More on Skype surveillance in China…

Skype spies give pause for thought in China: “Most Chinese who use Skype – or at least its Chinese version TOM-Skype – were
thrilled to find a way to make free phone calls. There were also a few who
were delighted to find a way to chat while circumventing the all-seeing eye
of the state security. But today those few were scurrying to find a new way
to communicate after it emerged that Skype’s Chinese partner had been
archiving politically sensitive words and messages – and possibly even the
identities of those whose conversations could be deemed sensitive.”

(Via Tech and Web from Times Online.)

China Skype service snags and stores users’ messages: “

More than a million messages logged

Human rights advocates have uncovered a huge surveillance system in China that monitors and archives text messages sent with the Tom-Skype chat client when they contain politically charged words.…

“

(Via The Register - Comms.)

Surveillance of Skype Messages Found in China: “A Canadian human rights group has uncovered a system that tracks politically charged text messages sent by customers of Tom-Skype, a joint venture of which eBay’s Skype is a partner.

(Via NYT > Technology.)

Phil Qiu: The Chinese authorities have blacklisted certain words on the internet. But you can’t suppress communication: “Phil Qiu: The Chinese authorities have blacklisted certain words on the internet. But you can’t, ultimately, suppress communication”

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

China blocks iTunes music store: “Protest songs compiled by a US-based Tibetan activist group were downloaded by Olympic athletes”

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

Pirate Bay Renamed Beijing Bay Over Olympics Tracking: “The Pirate Bay, the world’s most notorious and illicit torrent-tracking service allowing millions of users to download copyrighted movies, software, games and other works for free, has tentatively renamed itself The Beijing Bay. The name change was in protest to the International Olympic Committee seeking Sweden’s assistance in stopping the site from tracking footage of the ongoing Olympics in Beijing. The Pirate Bay has no intention of blocking Olympic footage.

(Via Wired News.)

This is an article from: TorrentFreak

IOC Wants Olympic Torrents Off The Pirate Bay:

In an official letter to Swedish Minister of Justice Beatrice Alm, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has asked for ‘assistance’ from the Swedish government with preventing video clips from the Olympic Games in Beijing to be shared on The Pirate Bay. The Pirate Bay, however, does not plan to take anything down, and renamed their tracker to The Beijing Bay.

The IOC wants the Swedish government to help remove torrents with Olympic Material - which they claimed have been downloaded more than 1 million times - from The Pirate Bay and also want the government to assist in preventing clips from the Olympics closing ceremonies to be shared.

Apparently the IOC has been reading the article we wrote last week, which showed that millions of people are downloading the Olympic opening ceremony on BitTorrent. In the meantime, several other Olympic clips have been posted. Although these are not as popular as the opening ceremony, the gymnastics finals and other events get close to 50.000 downloads.

The press secretary of the Minister of Justice has stated that it is primarily clips from the Opening ceremonies that the IOC wants to stop. The Committee also questions the legal situation and wants to be informed on whether they can take measures themselves to prohibit videos of the Olympics to be shared.

It’s interesting that the IOC chose to contact the Swedish government, instead of The Pirate Bay. They probably realize that sending a takedown notice wouldn’t be that effective. Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde told TorrentFreak: ‘I think it’s good that IOC understands that they will get nowhere with sending a legal threat to us. It shows they’re smart and without manners.’

‘We were going to ignore the Olympics, but now we’re loading our cannons. Our weapons of mass distribution is pointed towards China.’ The first action The Pirate Bay took is creating a new logo for the site, and renaming it to The Beijing Bay. In true Pirate Bay style the front page logo now links to the tag ‘give us the gold,’ Peter said.

The tag refers to the incident with the Swedish wrestler last week, who tossed away his bronze medal after he lost his chance on a Gold medal because of an error made by the jury. Peter told us: ‘I also hope that the Swedish government will report back to them and tell them to give us the gold that the IOC stole from the Swedish wrestler. And to tell them to not host the Olympics in a country without any human rights.’

Of course, the solution to IOC’s BitTorrent problem is easy. By not televising the closing ceremonies, the IOC not only hinders filesharers, but also makes sure VHS tapers worldwide won’t be able to steal the Olympic spirit. Sounds like a winner.

Olympic Committee wins gold for foot shooting: “

Free publicity for protest video

YouTube has pulled a video of a Free Tibet protest after receiving a takedown notice from the International Olympics Committee.…

“

(Via The Register - Public Sector.)

Olympic Committee Takedown Shows Risks of Ill-Timed Take-Downs | Electronic Frontier Foundation: “Olympic Committee Takedown Shows Risks of Ill-Timed Take-Downs”

Deeplink by Corynne McSherry

It’s never OK to use improper copyright claims to take down legitimate, non-infringing content, but such takedowns are particularly galling when they are timed to directly interfere with the impact of a political message. That’s what happened this week to the Free Tibet movement, and the situation illustrates the risks of a “shoot first, ask questions later” approach to copyright policing.

The 2008 Olympic Games have been marked by controversy relating to the human rights record of its host, China. Two days ago, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) added to the debate by demanding that YouTube block a video of a protest by Students For A Free Tibet. The demand appeared to be based on a bogus copyright infringement claim: the protesters had projected various images on the wall of the Chinese consulate in New York, and the video of the protest was titled “Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony.”

This is not the first time the IOC has used an intellectual property claim to stomp on speech. Nor is it the first time a content owner has caught a dolphin in its DMCA takedown driftnet. But the political and time-sensitive nature of this video made this “mistake” particularly appalling.

The blogosphere reacted with outrage, and rightly so. EFF made some inquiries of our own (we understand YouTube did so as well) and the IOC ultimately withdrew the complaint. That is a good thing. But this takedown highlights a larger problem. It takes just seconds to have a video taken down, but over two weeks to get a video put back up. And YouTube’s hair-trigger content verification program has made takedown even easier and faster—content owners can rapidly create lists of videos for takedown, and then send a takedown demand with a couple of additional clicks.

If IOC had not withdrawn its notice, here’s what would have happened in this case: the protesters’ DMCA counter-notice would have started the clock running and, if the IOC didn’t sue within 10-14 days—which of course it wouldn’t have, because it didn’t have a claim—the video would be restored. But that wouldn’t happen until after the 2008 games were over, and the delay would inevitably lessen the video’s political impact. As political organizers of all stripes know, timing is everything.

The DMCA was not designed to help content owners silence legitimate speech, even temporarily. But that’s exactly what happens when content owners don’t bother to form a good faith belief that the material they target is actually infringing. Shame on the IOC for failing to meet its minimal obligations.

(Via Techdirt.)

The IOC Joins the DMCA Censorship Club: “The International Olympic Committee is no stranger to overzealous protection of what they perceive to be their intellectual property. We’ve covered their ridiculous attempts to change British law to ‘protect’ the terms ‘Olympics’ and ‘2012′ (the year London hosts the summer games). It seems the folks at the IOC want to control all aspects of their sporting event, even how people discuss it. Knowing this, and the ways in which the DMCA has been abused time and time again, it was hardly surprising when the IOC sent a take-down notice to YouTube for a video posted by Students for a Free Tibet.

The video, which showed a pro-Tibet candle-light vigil in New York City and images from the March protests in Tibet, was dutifully pulled by YouTube. However, it was unclear what infringement the IOC was claiming. Although their famous interlocking rings were briefly shown, that would seem to be a trademark, not covered by the DMCA. Even if they claimed the rings were copyrighted creative content, their creation in 1913 places them firmly in the public domain (on copyright, the trademark remains — but the DMCA isn’t for trademark). Luckily after a number of sites questioned the action, the IOC withdrew their complaint. This remains troubling, though. The DMCA was not meant to silence legitimate speech, but the number of times litigants have suppressed content they don’t like is staggering. This case benefits from external media attention due to existing hot-button political issues, but not all censored YouTube videos are so lucky and, undoubtedly, bogus DMCA requests have censored videos which result not in blogosphere outrage, but silenced expression.

Kevin Donovan is an expert at the Techdirt Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Kevin Donovan and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.