CyberLaw Blog

Archive for the ‘Civil Liberties’ Category

California ban on violent video games killed on appeal: “

Violent material protected. Porn? Not so much

A California federal appeals court on Friday ruled that a state law criminalizing the sale of violent video games to children is a violation of the right to free speech.…

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(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

Alleged Holocaust denier allowed bail – Telegraph

District judge says German extradition warrant ‘not valid’ and must be discharged. Fredrick Töben granted bail pending appeal by Germany but on strict conditions.

By Joshua Rozenberg, 29 October, 2008

Fredrick Töben, the alleged Holocaust denier detained in London a month ago, will be released on bail if he can raise £100,000.

The sum of money is described as ‘security’ rather than a surety because it must be lodged with the court and not merely pledged.

Other bail conditions imposed by District Judge Daphne Wickham are residence at an approved address, daily reporting to the police, surrender of all passports, no participation in public meetings, no media interviews and no use of the internet — even to receive information.

It is difficult to see how this last condition could be enforced.

In any event, it may be some days before arrangements can be made for Dr Töben’s release as the district judge ordered inquiries into other passports that he may have been issued in Australia, where he has citizenship.

Ben Watson, for Dr Töben, applied for bail after the district judge at City of Westminster Court ruled that the warrant under which his client had been arrested was not valid.

This was because it did not say where and when he is alleged to have committed the offence, under German law, of Holocaust denial.

It merely referred to ‘worldwide internet publications’ and alleged that ‘the offender is committing the acts in Australia, Germany and in other countries’.

The court rejected an argument by Melanie Cumberland, for the German authorities, that the required information could be supplied.

The district judge said: ‘Compliance, in my view, cannot be fulfilled by a drip-feed of information as and when the issuing authority provides it.

‘I find that the particulars are vague and imprecise, I find the warrant invalid and therefore discharge the defendant.’

She added that she had not been required to decide at this stage whether the alleged crimes were valid extradition offences.

Miss Cumberland said the German authorities would appeal to the High Court.

As I suggested in earlier reports, the arrest warrant may have been drafted in a deliberately vague manner.

Once the German authorities accept that the material that forms the basis of the charge was published in the United Kingdom as well as in Germany, Dr Töben may have a defence to extradition.

German prosecutors to appeal after Toben’s release (October 30, 2008)

PETER KOHN

ADELAIDE man Fredrick Toben has won at least a temporary reprieve from being sent to Germany to stand trial for Holocaust denial.

In London’s Westminster Magistrates Court, Judge Daphne Wickham ruled yesterday that a European Union arrest warrant under which Toben was picked up at Heathrow Airport on October 1 was invalid as it was not detailed enough.

The AJN understands that the German warrant, which is based on Toben’s alleged violations of Germany’s criminal code between 2000 and 2004, may have deliberately avoided greater detail in order to facilitate his extradition.

Holocaust denial is a crime in Germany, but not in Britain where Toben was arrested or in Australia where the offensive content was posted on his Adelaide Institute website. However, it is prohibited by Australian anti-discrimination laws.

Lawyers for prosecutors from Germany’s Mannheim court are now preparing to appeal the ruling in Britain’s High Court.

Meanwhile, Judge Wickham has granted Toben bail with strict conditions, including a surety of 100,000 pounds, banning him from using the internet and requiring him to report to police daily.

If Toben manages to avoid being sent to Germany and convicted there of Holocaust denial on the internet, he still faces judgement and sentencing in a contempt case now before the Federal Court of Australia.

Jeremy Jones, who was president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry in 2002 when the Federal Court ordered Toben to remove and not replace offensive material denying the Holocaust on his Adelaide Institute website, launched the contempt action in 2006 after repeated violations.

YaGoogleSoft! adopt voluntary ‘code of ethics’: “

No more grassing up Chinese dissidents?

The US’s Center for Democracy & Technology has announced that after two years of negotiations, Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft will in the next few days adopt a voluntary code of ethics ‘intended to safeguard online freedom of speech around the world’.…

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(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

Interesting initiative…

(Via Google Public Policy Blog.)

New steps to protect free expression and privacy around the world: “Posted by Andrew McLaughlin, Director of Public Policy and Government Affairs

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)

In a world where governments all too often censor what their citizens can see and do on the Internet, Google has from the start promoted global free expression and taken the lead in being transparent with our users. We’ve pressed governments around the world to stop limiting free speech and made it possible for dissidents, bloggers and others to have their voices heard.

As part of those ongoing efforts to promote free expression and protect our users’ privacy, today we’re announcing Google’s participation as a founding company member of a new program called the Global Network Initiative. (The site, at globalnetworkinitiative.org, will be live within a day or so.)

This initiative is the result of two years of discussions with other leading technology companies, human rights organizations, socially responsible investors and academic institutions. Thanks to hard work and cooperation from all parties, the Initiative sets the kinds of standards and practices that all companies and groups should use when governments threaten internationally recognized rights to free expression and privacy.

The Global Network Initiative also offers an important commitment from all parties to take action together to promote free expression and protect privacy in the use of all information and communication technologies. We know that common action by these diverse groups is more likely to bring about change in government policies than the efforts of any one company or group acting alone.

Companies that join the Initiative commit to putting into effect procedures that will protect their users by:

• Evaluating against international standards government requests to censor content or access user information
• Providing greater transparency
• Assessing human rights risks when entering new markets or introducing new products
• Instituting employee training and oversight programs

These are things that Google does now, but joining the Initiative will help us refine our methods and maintain our leadership position. Down the road companies will be assessed on how they’re doing in implementing the principles and the Initiative will report those results.

This Initiative is by no means a silver bullet or the last word, but it does represent a concrete step toward promoting freedom of expression and protecting users’ privacy in the 60th anniversary year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Now we’re actively recruiting more companies and groups to join the Initiative and advance these critical human rights around the world.

Holocaust denial accused intended no offence, extradition hearing told: “Australian historian challenges validity of German-issued arrest warrant after being held at Heathrow”

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

Court of Appeal orders men to disclose encryption keys: “Two men have been told that they cannot rely on their right to silence to refuse to give British police a computer password.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

China watches over internet café customers in web crackdown: “All visitors to internet cafés in Beijing are to be required to have their
photographs taken in a stringent new control on the public use of
cyberspace.”

(Via Tech and Web from Times Online.)

Holocaust denier David Irving compares British justice to Nazi Germany in court outburst | Mail Online

By Rebecca Camber, Last updated at 12:58 AM on 04th October 2008

Disgraced historian David Irving yesterday compared British justice to that of the Third Reich.

The Holocaust revisionist launched his outburst as he attended court to support his friend Gerald Toben, 64, who was arrested on a German extradition warrant during a stopover at Heathrow.

Toben is accused of publishing internet material between 2000 and 2004 that ‘denies, approves or plays down’ the Holocaust, which is illegal in Germany.

Outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court, Irving, 70, said: ‘This type of procedure demeans our society in that the Germans and Austrians can dictate to us what we feel and can say and what we read and write. They lost that right in 1939.

‘If the British soldiers in Normandy who went to the beaches in 1944 could see what happened today, they would not have gone 40 yards up the beach.’

Irving, who was jailed in Austria in 2006 for denying the Holocaust, plans to invite Toben to stay at his home in Windsor if he is granted bail next week.

He went on: ‘I disapprove of some of his views but he has the right to express them, just as people disapprove of my views but my books and views are suppressed.

‘It’s like living in Nazi Germany. What we have seen here today is like Nazi Germany, but in pinstripe suits.’

Last night D-Day veteran Roland Jefferson, 83, who landed on Juno Beach in June 4, 1944, said: ‘Irving is a lunatic and I’m not happy with his comments that are bound to make a lot of veterans angry.

‘The Holocaust was dreadful and everyone who bravely fought on D-Day recognises that.’

Nobody is safe from the long arm of EU law – Telegraph

By Philip Johnston, Last Updated: 12:01am BST 06/10/2008

Here is something the Government told us would never happen. When Britain signed up to the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) six years ago, critics pointed out that an individual could be extradited to another EU state to face prosecution for something that is not a crime in Britain and had not even been committed in the requesting country. Ministers dismissed such concerns as fanciful, but it has come to pass.

An Australian teacher is currently in jail in London, following his arrest at Heathrow airport by British police acting on a warrant issued by the German authorities.

Gerald Töben, 64, is wanted in Germany for the offence of “Holocaust denial”. It used to be a fundamental protection in British law that no one would be sent for trial in another jurisdiction for something that is not an offence here. It was called the principle of dual criminality. However, when the EAW was drawn up this principle was removed for a list of 32 offences, which include the crimes of “racism and xenophobia”.

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