CyberLaw Blog

Archive for the ‘MySpace’ Category

Yaman Akdeniz, an Associate Professor of law at the Faculty of Law, Istanbul Bilgi University today (29 September, 2009) made an appeal to the Beyoglu Criminal Court of Peace to overturn the blocking decision involving both myspace.com and Last.fm from Turkey. The blocking decision was enforced by the Turkish ISPs since Friday, 18 September, 2009 by the order of the Beyoglu Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office (order no 2009/45 dated 26.06.2009)

The blocking order was issued subsequent to a request made by Mu-yap, the Turkish Phonographic Industry Society with regards to intellectual property infringements through these two sites.

Akdeniz asked the Court with his lawyer to overturn the blocking decision, and argued that the Supplemental Article 4 of the Turkish Law No. 5846 on Intellectual & Artistic Works which was used as a legal measure to issue the blocking order is unconstitutional. Therefore, Akdeniz asked the Beyoglu Criminal Court of Peace to consider sending his case to the Turkish Constitutional Court for review.

Details of the appeal will be made available once the Court considers the case. [Blog entry by Dr. Yaman Akdeniz - I will update this story as more information is made available - last update on 29.09.2009]

MÜYAP: No Intention to Block Access to Last FM and MySpace: “MÜYAP chairman Forta claimed: ‘Ownership rights are stolen, we fight for our right. Turkish law blocked access to the websites’. Forta argued that MÜYAP agreed with MySpace and that the site can be accessed again within a few days.”

(Via Bianet :: English.)

Copyright Protection Without Harm to Freedom of Speech: “In the course of the discussion of blocked access to the entire contents of MySpace, RSF pointed out that the Turkish Internet legislation violates the European Convention for Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.”

(Via Bianet :: English.)

Reporters Sans Frontières: Prosecutors violate online free expression to protect copyright

Published on 23 September 2009

The social networking website MySpace has been blocked in Turkey since 19 September over a copyright dispute. Anyone trying to visit the site sees a message saying access has been blocked by order 2009/45, issued on 26 June by the prosecutor of the Istanbul district of Beyoglu. Two other sites, Lastfm.com.tr and Akilli.tv, have been blocked by the same order.

“Copyright is often used as grounds for censoring the Internet,” Reporters Without Borders said. “But blocking websites is a disproportionate sanction that violates online free expression. “Withdrawing the content that violates copyright would suffice. Censorship is a common reflex in Turkey and we condemn it strongly.”

Yaman Akdeniz, a law professor at Istanbul’s Bilgi University, told Reporters Without Borders: “Measures are taken against the Internet as if this was still the era of the dinosaurs.”

Disconnecting access to a website on the orders of a prosecutor rather a judge is a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights, which Turkey has signed.

Many European countries, including France, are look at the possibility of suspending the Internet connections of those who illegally download content protected by copyright. While the desire to protect literary and artistic creation is understandable, Reporters Without Borders believes such measures would constitute an unacceptable restriction of online freedom of expression.

The press freedom organisation urges the Turkish government to amend law 5651 governing offenses committed online in order to reconcile it with the need to respect free expression in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights.

The video-sharing website YouTube has been inaccessible since May 2008 in Turkey, which is ranked 102nd out of 173 countries in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.

Since the Law No. 5651 entitled Regulation of Publications on the Internet and Suppression of Crimes Committed by means of Such Publication came into force in November 2007, access to a considerable number of foreign websites including popular websites such as YouTube, Geocities, DailyMotion, WordPress, Google Groups, and Google Sites have been blocked from Turkey under the provisions of this law by court orders and administrative blocking orders issued by the Telecommunications Communication Presidency (TIB). [Blog entry by Dr. Yaman Akdeniz]

Currently, under the provisions of Law No. 5651 access to over 3000 websites is blocked from Turkey. In terms of official statistics, it was revealed by TIB that as of 11 May, 2009, 2601 websites are blocked in Turkey under the provisions of Law No. 5651. While 475 (18%) of the 2601 websites are blocked by court orders, the majority, with 2126 websites (82%), are blocked via administrative blocking orders issued by TIB. In terms of the 475 court orders so far, 121 websites are currently blocked because they were deemed obscene (Article 226 of the Turkish Penal Code), 54 websites are blocked because they involved sexual exploitation and abuse of children (Article 103(1) of the Turkish Penal Code), 19 websites are blocked because of provision of gambling (Article 228 of the Turkish Penal Code), 20 are blocked because they involved betting, and 54 websites were ordered to be blocked in relation to crimes committed against Atatürk (Law No. 5816, dated 25/7/1951). 32 of these 54 blocking orders were recurring orders involving approximately 17 websites (majority involved YouTube) issued by different courts around the country. Furthermore, 5 websites were blocked in relation to prostitution (Article 227, Turkish Criminal Code), and one website was ordered to be blocked in relation to the facilitation of the use of drugs (Article 190 of the Turkish Penal Code).

More interestingly, 197 websites were blocked by courts for reasons outside the scope of Law No. 5651 but the detailed breakdown for these orders was not provided by TIB. It is however understood that TIB executed the blocking orders even though they do not involve the catalogue crimes listed in Article 8. The number of websites blocked outside the scope of Article 8 by the courts was 69 in May 2008 but reached nearly 200 by end of May 2009.

In terms of the 2126 administrative blocking orders issued by TIB, the majority, with 1053 blocking orders involved sexual exploitation and abuse of children (Article 103(1) of the Turkish Penal Code), 846 involved obscenity (Article 226 of the Turkish Penal Code), 117 involved football and other sports betting websites (Law No. 5728, article 256), 74 involved gambling sites (Article 228 of the Turkish Penal Code), 20 involved prostitution websites (Article 227 of the Turkish Penal Code), 11 involved websites facilitating the use of drugs (Article 190 of the Turkish Penal Code), 2 involved crimes committed against Atatürk (Law No. 5816, dated 25/7/1951), and one involved encouragement and incitement of suicide (Article 84 of the Turkish Penal Code).

It should be noted that TIB recently decided NOT to publish and reveal the detailed the official blocking statistics with regards to Law No. 5651, and since May 2009 I have not had access to such statistics. TIB’s decision is a step backwards and in the absence of information, openness, and transparency it will be even more difficult to monitor the current regulatory regime in Turkey.

Furthermore, blocking orders can also be issued by courts and by public prosecutors with regards to intellectual property infringements subject to the supplemental article 4 of the Law No. 5846 on Intellectual & Artistic Works as was witnessed with the blocking of Myspace, Last.fm, and akilli.tv during last few days. Such orders are predominantly issued with regards to websites related to piracy (e.g. The Pirate Bay), and IP infringements (e.g. Justin.TV), and media reports suggest that at least 3,000 websites are blocked under law No. 5846 from Turkey, and majority are blocked indefinitely. The Pirate Bay and MegaUpload are among those websites which are constantly blocked. During 2008, Google owned Blogspot, and Blogger were subjected to blocking under these provisions for a limited period of time because of football streaming piracy.

Therefore, currently, it is alleged that access to at least 6,000 websites is blocked from Turkey, and it could be speculated that the number is even higher than that. Engelliweb. com (http://engelliweb.com/) currently details 4196 blocked websites.

As of Friday, 18 September, 2009 access to popular social networks Myspace and Last.fm are blocked from Turkey. The blocking order is issued by the Beyoğlu Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office (order no 2009/45 dated 26.06.2009). It is suspected that both sites are blocked because of “intellectual property infringements” following a request by Mu-yap, the Turkish Phonographic Industry Society. It is also alleged that Myspace and Last.fm were part of about 100 websites which were subjected to blocking on Friday. [Blog entry by Dr. Yaman Akdeniz - I will update this story as more information is made available - last update on 23.09.2009]

Access blocking is a legal remedy for intellectual property infringements provided under
Supplemental Article 4 of the Turkish Law No. 5846 on Intellectual & Artistic Works. This provision was introduced in March 2004 and provides a two-stage approach:

Initially the law requires the hosting companies, content providers, or access providers to take down the infringing article from their servers upon “notice” given to them by the right holders. The providers need to take action within 72hrs. Currently, no one knows whether Mu-yap or the right holders approached Myspace or Last.fm. Both sites have versions in Turkish and Myspace has recently opened an office in Turkey. Therefore, by law, I would expect the right holders to get in touch with these two companies for the removal of “allegedly infringing content”.

If the allegedly infringing content is not taken down or there is no response from the content providers (Myspace and Last.fm), the right holders can ask the Public Prosecutor to provide for a blocking order, and the blocking order is executed within 72hrs by the Turkish Internet Service Providers.

Currently access to myspace.com as well as lastfm.com.tr is blocked from majority of Turkish ISPs. However, access to last.fm is not currently blocked, and a major ISP, Superonline has not yet executed the blocking order which coincided with a religious holiday. Furthermore, those who have iPhones or Macs can use the relevant Last.fm applications without any restrictions from these devices.

The Turkish website “sansuresansur.org” (‘censor to censorship’) prompted internet users on their website not to accept the bans without a word of protest. Musician Aylin Aslım wrote the following on her facebook site: “Blocking access to myspace.com is serious injustice to independent musicians in Turkey. We do not want to be forced to return to music channels and record companies with their filthy politics. We want our music to be available freely to everybody who wants to listen to it”. Furthermore, Mehmet Tez from Milliyet daily newspaper commented the blockage on his own web page hafifmusik.org (‘light music’): “Well done! A great success. Turkey is proud of you”.(See Bianet: MySpace and Last FM Censored)

Blocking access to popular social networking sites such as YouTube, Myspace, and Last.fm will damage Turkey’s reputation whatever the reasons behind such decisions. Blocking access to any of these Web 2.0 based applications and systems have extreme side effects. Blocking orders not only result in the blocking of access to the allegedly illegal content (usually a single file or page) but they also result in the blocking of millions of legitimate pages, files, and content under the single domain that these systems operate.

These sites are not known to promote illegal content and activity even though their services may contain content which may be deemed undesirable or illegal by Turkish law and any other state laws around the world. The courts, the judges, and the public prosecutors therefore should not issue “domain based blocking orders” and there is no need to “burn the house to roast the pig” as was established by the US Supreme Court in Reno v. ACLU (U.S. Supreme Court majority decision, Reno v. ACLU (26 June, 1997)).

Conviction overturned in MySpace suicide case: “

Good news for net users

A federal judge on Thursday tentatively overturned convictions against a mother accused of using MySpace to bully a 13-year-old girl who went on to hang herself to death.…

“

(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

MySpace removes 90,000 sex offenders

Social networking sites have been urged to do more to protect their young users after MySpace announced it had identified and removed about 90,000 registered sex offenders from its site in the last two years.

The figure was almost double the number the company had originally estimated last year.

Roy Cooper, the North Carolina attorney general who is leading US efforts to improve safety on social networking sites, said the figures came as no surprise.

‘These sites were created for young people to communicate with each other,’ he said. ‘Predators are going to troll in these areas where they know children are going to be. That’s why these social networking sites have the responsibility to make their sites safe for children.’

Cooper said that MySpace and its rival Facebook – which together claim to have more than 280 million users – had to ‘do more to protect children and teenagers’.

He and Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal co-lead a taskforce on social networking. They received assurances last year from MySpace and Facebook about tougher security, and both sites implemented dozens of safeguards, including finding better ways to verify users’ ages, banning convicted sex offenders from the sites and limiting the ability of older users to search members under 18.

Blumenthal, who received MySpace’s updated numbers yesterday through a subpoena, said the information ‘provides compelling proof that social networking sites remain rife with sexual predators’. He added that while Facebook had yet to respond to a recent subpoena, a preliminary search showed the number of sex offenders using the site was ’substantial’.

MySpace executives said they were confident in the technology they use to find, remove and block registered sex offenders. The company uses Sentinel SAFE, a database it created in 2006 with the names, physical descriptions and other identifiable characteristics of sex offenders that cross-references against MySpace members.

‘Sentinel SAFE is the best industry solution to ensure these offenders are removed from social networks,’ said a spokesman yesterday.

MySpace, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, says it has more than 130 million active users worldwide.

A spokesman for Facebook, which claims to have more than 150 million active users, said that protecting them has always been a priority.

‘We have a policy prohibiting registered sex offenders from joining Facebook,’ said a spokesman. ‘We are glad to be able to report that we have not yet had to handle a case of a registered sex offender meeting a minor through Facebook. We are working hard to make sure it never happens.’

According to Cooper, however, much more still needs to be done: ‘Technology moves forward quickly, and it’s important for these companies to stay ahead of the technology. And they’re not moving fast enough for us.’

He and Blumenthal called for tougher restrictions on people joining social networking sites.

The British government is currently looking at how to protect young internet users following a report on the subject last year by psychologist Dr Tanya Byron.

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

Lori Drew guilty in MySpace bully trial: “

Suicide sparked by online abuse

The woman accused of using MySpace to bully a vulnerable teenage girl who subsequently killed herself has been found guilty of three charges.…

“

(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

Lori Drew guilty in MySpace bully trial: “The woman accused of using MySpace to bully a vulnerable teenage girl who subsequently killed herself has been found guilty of three charges.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)