• 'Ceaseless liability' for internet libel is not a barrier to free speech, rules ECHR
    By: Rebekah Heacock
    Date: 12 Mar 2009
    Publishers' indefinite liability for defamatory material in their online archives is not a restriction on their rights to free speech, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled. The decision backs a 160-year-old rule of English law. The Times newspaper had argued that the burden of indefinite liability was so onerous that it would have a 'chilling effect' on archive publishers, but the ECHR has reaffirmed that a new defamation action can be taken every time online defamatory material is accessed.
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  • Reporters sans frontières - ‘Internet monitored and controlled, even in democracies’
    By: Rebekah Heacock
    Date: 12 Mar 2009
    (PNG) Reporters Without Borders today issued a report entitled ‘Enemies of the Internet’ in which it examines Internet censorship and other threats to online free expression in 22 countries. ‘The 12 ‘Enemies of the Internet’ - Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam - have all transformed their Internet into an Intranet in order to prevent their population from accessing ‘undesirable’ online information,’ Reporters Without Borders said.
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  • Freedom on the global Internet still a pipe dream
    By: Rebekah Heacock
    Date: 11 Mar 2009
    "The Internet represents freedom, but not everywhere." So begins the annual "Internet Enemies" report by Reporters Without Borders--and that's probably the cheeriest line in the entire 39-page document. It goes down from there.
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  • YouTube stands by UK video block
    By: Rebekah Heacock
    Date: 11 Mar 2009
    YouTube will not reverse its decision to block music videos to UK users despite a plea from the Performing Rights Society to change its mind. It is removing all premium music videos to UK users after failing to reach a new licensing agreement with the PRS.
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  • Internet at risk from "wiretapping", says web inventor
    By: Rebekah Heacock
    Date: 11 Mar 2009
    The ever-increasing power of computers that is helping the internet to grow is also threatening its future. That was the warning deliver by Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the web, and online security specialists at the Houses of Parliament in London today. Their concerns are centred on deep packet inspection (DPI), a technique that makes it possible to peer inside packets of data transmitted across the internet.
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  • California lawmaker wants to blur Google Earth
    By: Rebekah Heacock
    Date: 11 Mar 2009
    (CNET) -- OK, it's California. So we are quite used to the rest of the country rolling their eyes in knowing exasperation at our fads. But often, they turn out to be harbingers of national trends. And so the question: Will AB-255 (a bill that would "censor" some aspects of Google Earth) number among them as well?
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  • UK's net radicalization plans are 'crude, costly, counter-productive'
    By: Rebekah Heacock
    Date: 11 Mar 2009
    Negative government measures to counter online radicalisation are crude, costly and counter-productive, says a report released yesterday - if it's serious about the issue, it needs to harness the positive. Present measures designed to deny access to radical content on the web or restrict its availability are crude, costly and counter-productive, according to Countering Online Radicalisation. It submits that the way ahead is in positive measures which capitalise on the immense well of goodwill amongst online communities, and in targeting resources widely rather than into a small number of high profile projects.
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  • Maharashtra wants Google Earth censored
    By: Rebekah Heacock
    Date: 10 Mar 2009
    Mumbai (IANS): The Maharashtra government is examining legal options to censor Google Earth and curb it from showing sensitive locations to prevent terror attacks such as what happened in Mumbai, a minister said on Tuesday. "We want Google Earth censored. We shall submit a proposal to the centre and other concerned agencies to implement it as soon as possible," Minister of State for Home Naseem Khan told IANS.
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  • YouTube To Block Music Videos In the UK
    By: Rebekah Heacock
    Date: 10 Mar 2009
    "YouTube is to block all premium music videos to UK users after failing to reach a new licensing agreement with the Performing Rights Society. For many of us in the UK this is great news. The two main music licensing agencies in the UK — Phonographic Performance Limited and PRS — have a stranglehold on music use in this country and are stifling creativity."
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  • South Korea Joins the "Three Strikes" Ranks
    By: Rebekah Heacock
    Date: 10 Mar 2009
    "For years, the content industries having been trying to get laws passed that would stop people sharing files. For years they failed. Then they came up with the 'three strikes and you're out' idea — and it is starting to be put into law around the world. First we had France, followed by countries like Italy, Ireland — and now South Korea: 'On March 3, 2009, the National Assembly's Committee on Culture, Sports, Tourism, Broadcasting & Communications (CCSTB&C) passed a bill to revise the Copyright Law. The bill includes the so called, "three strikes out" or "graduated response" provision.' Why has the 'three strikes' idea caught on where others have failed? And what is the best way to stop it spreading further?"
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