global minilinks for 2008-11-06

• French Senate Votes for Three Strikes
  The bill still has to pass the National Assembly, however — and faces a clash with developing European law.
• No Clean Feed - Stop Internet Censorship in Australia
  The battle against the Australian goverment's plans to install compulsory filters on all Internet traffic grows in strength. Electronic Frontiers Australia offers action items for worried Aussie Net users.
• Circumvention in New Zealand
  Content Agenda summarizes what's been happening in NZ copyright law.
• Join the Public Domain Calculators
  The Open Knowledge Foundation is working on a system to determine whether works are in the public domain in your country or not. Join volunteers in Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Italy, Norway, Philippines, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States and add your country to the calculator.
• Internet and Freedom in Egypt
  Egyptian bloggers talk about how the Net and free speech fare in Turkey.
• UK Net Users Wrongly Accused of File-sharing Infringements
  British games companies are sending threatening letters to Internet users who have never touched a computer game.
• Linking Alone is Not Defamation in Canada, Court Declares
  The British Columbia Supreme Court asserts that websites linking to a document are not "publishing" the document for purposes of libel law. One of the defendants, p2pnet, comments.

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global minilinks for 2008-10-11

• A Contentious Meeting with New Zealand's Copyright Minister
  Colin Jackson hits a brick wall when he and others talk to New Zealand ministers about the new copyright act.
• Former Pink Floyd Manager: End the P2P Lawsuits
  Peter Jenner continues to advocate for collective licensing, this time in Berlin.
• EuroISPA on the Recent "Three Strikes" EU Battle
  The ISP association attempts to unpick what Sarkozy thinks he's doing in the EU.
• The Third COMMUNIA Workshop in Amsterdam, Oct 20-21
  European workshop on fair dealing, fair use and its global equivalents.
• Ad-Powered Surveillance: Okay For Citizens, Too Prying for Parliament?
  Is the UK's House of Commons blocking Phorm's prying eyes?
• Malaysian Blogger Goes On Trial
  A "frail" Raja Petra is charged with sedition.
• Hong Kong Consults on Internet Filtering
  The Chinese administrative region is considering blocking sites under the country's obscenity laws.
• Key US Senators Warn Bush Administration On ACTA
  The Judiciary committee is displeased with the secrecy on the anti-counterfeiting trade agreement, especially on liability for internet intermediaries (like ISPs).
• When Wikipedia Met The Great Firewall
  Jimmy Wales meets with China's censorship body.
• Echo in the Dark
  The New Yorker looks at censorship in Russia.
• Does Web Censorship Affect International Trade?
  Nart Villeneuve sees if the Great Firewall of China messes with connections to Western commerce websites.
• Australian Councils use Google to Monitor Citizens
  Using Google Earth and Google Maps to look for planning violations.

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Freedom Not Fear 2008

Freedom Not Fear is the world's ongoing demonstration against the encroachment of civil liberties by anti-terrorist laws -- particularly in the online world. This year the protests take place this Saturday, October 11th in nearly thirty countries, including the very first events in the Americas.

The origin of the campaign comes from Europeans' anger at the EU's 2006 data retention directive, a pan-European law that requires ISPs to log email and web traffic data for a minimum of six months, and often more. Terabytes of personal data on millions of innocent Europeans are now being collated, paid for by customers and taxpayers, and open for access by any criminal or civil investigation, no matter how trivial.

Freedom Not Fear has since evolved into a more general warning: showing how fundamental freedoms like privacy, freedom of expression, and democratic participation lose when reactionary surveillance systems penetrate our open networks, justified by a hyperbolic rhetoric of fear.

The range of groups and countries that have joined Freedom Not Fear has shown that just how wide the offensive front against your privacy has become, and how many are keen to join the defence. This Sunday, Freedom Not Fear events will take place in 22 European cities, as well as (thanks to the Electronic Privacy Information Center, IP Justice, EFF and others), in Washington, D.C. In South America, protests are planned in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Manta in Ecuador, and other countries are preparing to join.

For those countries without substantial privacy legislation, this year's Freedom Not Fear demonstrations are calling for the adoption of Data Protection laws in their countries. Strong privacy laws should finally affirm freedoms guaranteed by the fundamental rights of privacy in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and in many other international and regional human rights treaties.

If you'd like to join the demonstrations in your own country, reach out to your national contact listed here, and add the banner to your own web page.

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global minilinks for 2008-09-23

• South Korean Government Seeks to End Anonymity, Allow Arbitrary Content Takedown
  All forum and chat room users will be required to make verifiable registrations using their real names; Web sites can be taken down for 30 days if they receive complaints of fraud or slander.
• Confidential Data on Millions of Norwegians Sent to Media
  CD containing all Norway's tax records (which are public) also included ID numbers (which are not).
• France Scales Back Big Brother Database, But Protests Continue
  The "Evige File" will not contain every French citizen active in politics, just those who "pose a security risk."
• ...Has It Killed Three Strikes Too?
  No sign of the Olivennes proposal on the French Senate schedule; rumor is that the Edvige protests have delayed it indefinitely (Google translation).
• British Police Decline to Investigate Phorm
  Says there was no "criminal intent" in unauthorised scanning of British Telecom subscribers' web traffic.
• Is the ITU Undermining Internet Anonymity?
  Declan McCullough reports on a proposal to more directly track the source of IP traffic, edited by, among others, Cisco, a Chinese ministry, and the NSA.
• Turkey bans biologist Richard Dawkins' Website
  Due to "defamatory" review of Turkish creationist book.
• Tech Companies: Why Doesn't US Champion Fair Use Abroad?
  CCIA points out that US trade negotiators are happy to include strong copyright requirements in trade agreements, but never include fair trade or liability protection for intermediaries.

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global minilinks for 2008-09-11

• Bloggers Less Well-Defended than Press in Morocco
  The arrest and two-year sentence of Mohammed Raji marks the first time anyone has been punished for a blog post in Morocco.
• EDVIGE and the Angry French
  Opposition to a massive new "Big Sister" database has been boosted by a member of President Sarkozy's own cabinet.
• Brussels Says Blogs Scuppered Lisbon Treaty
  A secret European Commission report has come out strongly against the "anti-establishment activity" of blogging as part of an analysis of the internet and "its implications for public opinion about the EU".
• Google Says EU Data Laws do not Apply
  Even though Google has data servers in the EU, it is too American a company to have to obey data privacy laws, it claims.
• The End of "the American Internet" and the Future of Content Controls
  Will traffic moving through more countries affect free speech online?
• Xavier Niel, France's ISP Billionaire, Hates the Olivennes Law
  "Will filter everything and listen to all" (Google Translation)
• Feminist Bloggers in Iran Sentenced to Six Months in Jail
  Reporters Without Borders writes on the cases of Parvin Ardalan, Jelveh Javaheri, Maryam Hosseinkhah and Nahid Keshavarz.

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global minilinks for 2008-09-04

• Europe's Privacy Czar Attacks Telecom Amendments in EU
  Says that they could allow over-reaching controls over Internet technology.
• Kremlin Web Critic Shot by Police in Ingushetia
  Magomed Yevloyev, owner of the ingushetiya.ru site, and vocal critic of Ingushetia regional administration, was shot by a police officer, and died from his injuries, after being detained.
• NZ Judge bans Net Naming of Defendants Online
  Worries about "viral nature" of reporting, censors website.
• Wiretapping Comes to Uganda
  New "privacy" bill is slammed by Amnesty International.
• Malaysia Clamping Down on Internet Free Speech
  Rumors of portal site blocked, and a cabinet decision to sue critics of the new government for defamation.
• India's Info-Activism Camp
  Want to use digital advocacy in the developing world? Come to Tactical Tech's Info-Activism Camp - Feb 2009, India.
• Stop Software Patents Petition
  Activists in Europe take the initiative to stop software patents permanently.
• Egyptian Blogger Mohamed Refaat is Arrested
  He had already been detained for a month before being charged under Egypt's emergency laws.
• Britain Plans Mandatory ISP Logging of Internet
  Data retention will enter into British law after consultation, but without parliamentary debate.

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Global minilinks for 2008-06-30

• Tor Project Blocked in China -- Finally
  After years of aiding those seeking anonymity and bypassing censorship, Tor is finally blocked by the Great Firewall of China.
• China's Overeager American Censors
  "Practically every U.S.-owned search engine has caved to the Chinese government's demands that they censor political Web sites in China. But none of them seem to agree on just what sites need censoring."
• Pirate Bay to Fight Swedish Wiretapping Act
  To offer VPN facilities to Swedish nationals and others.
• Dubbing 10: Right Holders Compromise at Last Moment
  DRM proposal for digital TV recording in Japan forced through just prior to Olympics.
• Pressure on Spain to Join France's Three Strikes
  John Kennedy of IFPI, Denis Olivennes push for three strikes in Spain.
• Internet Society France Calls for Withdrawal of Three Strikes
  Calls it "the Middle Ages of the Internet".
• Italian Institute for Privacy Formed
  In the wake of a recent scandal, when the Italian government deliberately placed the tax records of every Italian on a public website, a new pressure group is launched.
• EU Worries about Regulating Blogger Speech
  Bloggers "in a position to considerably pollute cyberspace", says one MEP.
• UK Hacker's Case Before Law Lords
  Alleged hacker takes his threatened extradition to the UK's highest court.

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Global minilinks for 2008-06-16

• British ISP Starts Sending Letters to Customers Accused of File-Sharing
  Virgin Media co-authors the letter with the BPI, which includes threats to terminate service.
• French Council of State Wants ISP Filtering Out of Three Strikes
  Does not like the expansion of non-judicial powers, rumors say.
• Mutualised Schemes
  Meanwhile: a French model for funding creativity, from Squaring the Net
• BT Internal Report Leak on Illegal Secret Phorm Test
  No-one was told; HTML was rewritten, unsuspecting customers data was mined.
• Botswana Considers New IP Laws
  "The copyright office will purchase a security device to authenticate all sound and audio visual recordings."
• Spanish P2P Company MP2P Technologies Sued by Recording Industry
  Defiantly, MP2P says it has been served with a lawsuit from "what remains of the four major record labels."
• Data Retention Challenged In Hungary
  New EU entrant joins Germany and Ireland in seeking a constitutional rejection of the EU directive.
• Yahoo India Faces Copyright Battle Without Safe Harbors
  Sued over a copyrighted video: Ars Technica thinks that Indian law will provide no liability protection.
• Japan Plans "Fair Use" Exemptions for Copyright
  Supported by Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's IP taskforce.

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Sweden and the Borders of the Surveillance State

A proposed new law in Sweden (voted on this week, after much delay) will, if passed, allow a secretive government agency ostensibly concerned with signals intelligence to install technology in twenty public hubs across the country. There it will be permitted to conduct a huge mass data-mining project, processing and analysing the telephony, emails, and web traffic of millions of innocent individuals. Allegedly these monitoring stations will be restricted to data passing across Sweden's borders with other countries for the purposes of monitoring terrorist activity: but there seems few judicial or technical safeguards to prevent domestic communications from being swept up in the dragnet. Sound familiar?

The passing of the FRA law (or "Lex Orwell", as the Swedish are calling it) next week is by no means guaranteed. Many Swedes are up in arms over its provisions (the protest Facebook group has over 5000 members; the chief protest site links to thousands of angry commenters across the Web). With the governing alliance managing the barest of majorities in the Swedish Parliament, it would only take four MPs in the governing coalition opposing this bill to effectively remove it from the government's agenda.

As with the debate over the NSA warrantless wiretapping program in the United States, much of this domestic Swedish debate revolves around how much their own nationals will be caught up with this dragnet surveillance. But as anyone who has sat outside the US debate will know, there is a wider international dimension to such pervasive spying systems. No promise that a dragnet surveillance system will do its best to eliminate domestic traffic removes the fact that it *will* pick up terabytes of the innocent communications of, and with, foreigners - especially those of Sweden's supposed allies and friends.

Sweden is a part of the European Union: a community of states which places a strong emphasis on the values of privacy, proportionality, and the mutual defence of those values by its members. But even as the EU aspires to being a closer, borderless community, it seems Sweden is determined to set its spies on every entry and exit to Sweden. When the citizens of the EU talk to their Swedish colleagues, what happens to their private communications then?

When revelations regarding the United Kingdom's involvement in a UK-US surveillance agreement emerged in 2000, the European Parliament produced a highly critical report (and recommended that EU adopt strong pervasive encryption to protect its citizens' privacy).

Back then, UK's cavalier attitude to European communications, and its willingness to hand that data to the United States and other non-EU countries, greatly concerned Europe's elected legislators. Already questions are being asked in the European Parliament about Sweden's new plans and their effect on European citizen's personal data. Commercial companies like TeliaSonera have moved servers out of Sweden to prevent their customers from being wiretapped by the Swedish Department of Defence. Sweden's own business community have expressed concern that companies may move out of Sweden to protect their private financial data.

Sweden has often led the charge for government openness and consumer advocacy, and has, understandably, much national pride in seeing its past policies exported and reflected in Europe and beyond. Before Sweden's MPs vote next week to allow its government surveillance access to whole Net, they should certainly consider its effect on their Swedish citizens' privacy. But it should also ponder exactly how their vote will be seen by their closest neighbors. If the Lex Orwell passes, Sweden may not need something so sophisticated as a supercomputer to hear what the rest of the world thinks about their new values.

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Global minilinks for 2008-06-01

• DNA Samples at WIPO
  Police entered WIPO headquarters to take saliva swabs from ten employees, after their diplomatic immunity was removed. Reports say the investigation relates to a "smear campaign" against the Deputy Director General.
• Protest British Telecom's Annual General Meeting in London July 16th
  Britons will protest Phorm's use of mass Net surveillance in ISP-hosted behavioral advertising systems.
• Olivennes Wants Three Strikes Exported to World
  ""That's what I hope", says Denis Olivennes, the creator of the French plan to letrightsholders throw users offline.
• Canadian ISP Faces Class Action Lawsuit over Throttling
  A Quebecois consumer group cites privacy issues and impeded service.
• Three Countries Appeal OOXML
  India, Brazil, and South Africa appeal the ISO approval of Microsoft's office format.
• White House Opposition Dooms Global Online Freedom Bill
  The President has come out against a bill that would restrict company's actions in "internet-restricting" countries.
• OECD Looks For Future of Internet In Youtube Videos
  The international org asks for video contributions on how the Net should be run, prior to their conference on the topic in South Korea in June.

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