p2pnet news

p2pnet World Headlines: March 12, 2010: 2

Jon — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:17:01 +0000

Online censorship more sophisticated, report finds Associated Press
Repressive regimes have stepped up efforts to censor the Internet and jail dissidents, Reporters Without Borders said in a study out Thursday. China, Iran and Tunisia, which are on the group’s “Enemies of the Internet” list, got more sophisticated at censorship and overcoming dissidents’ attempts to communicate online, said Reporters Without Borders’ Washington director, Clothilde Le Coz. Meanwhile, Turkey and Russia found themselves on the group’s “Under Surveillance” list of nations in danger of making the main enemies list.

Net clash for web police projects BBC
Social media activists are up in arms over plans by the UK’s police watchdog for a project with the same name as an existing web initiative. MyPolice.org was set up in mid-2009 to funnel feedback from victims of crime and others to police forces. But Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) has unveiled plans for a project based around a site called Mypolice.org.uk. The MyPolice.org founders say they may change their name to avoid confusion.

Security industry faces attacks it cannot stop IDG News Service
At the RSA Conference in San Francisco last week, security vendors pitched their next generation of security products, promising to protect customers from security threats in the cloud and on mobile devices. But what went largely unsaid was that the industry has failed to protect paying customers from some of today’s most pernicious threats. The big news at the show had to do with the takedown of the Mariposa botnet — a massive network of hacked computers that has infected half of the Fortune 100 companies. So-called advanced persistent threat (APT) attacks, such as the one that compromised Google systems in early December, were another hot topic. Both Mariposa and the Google attacks illustrate the same thing, however. Despite billions of dollars in security spending, it’s still surprisingly hard to keep corporate networks safe.

Amazon.com’s 1-Click patent confirmed following re-exam Techflash
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is confirming Amazon.com’s controversial 1-Click patent following a re-examination that lasted more than four years. Amazon’s 1-Click has come under a lot of fire over the years from critics who question whether such a broad technology should be patented at all. It refers to the process by which online shoppers make purchases with a single click, having previously entered their payment and shipping information
The re-examination of Amazon’s 1-Click patent was triggered back in 2006 when a New Zealand actor raised questions about it. At one point in the re-examination process, the U.S. Patent Office rejected many of Amazon’s claims in the patent.

Skype CEO Says UAE Ban “Short-Sighted” Open To Talks Zawya Dow Jones
Skype, the voice-over-Internet phone service, is open to discussions with the United Arab Emirates government over its ban on access to the service, a move that is “short-sighted” for a country built as a trade and immigration hub, its chief executive said Thursday. “I personally feel it’s quite short-sighted of the government. We are always open to discussions,” Josh Silverman said at a media summit in Abu Dhabi. Worldwide, Skype is only officially banned by North Korea but access to its website is blocked in a handful of countries around the world, including the U.A.E., Silverman said.

Ban demand on websites that allow promotion of self-harm among teens Telegraph
Psychiatrists have called for websites to remove images that promote self-harming among teenagers after figures showed a 50% rise in young people being admitted to hospital for deliberately cutting themselves. There were 1,758 admissions for self-harm with a sharp object among people under 25 in 2004/05 – a figure which rose to 2,727 in 2008/09, according to research conducted by the University of Stirling. The Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP) has now called on websites to take down any information which appears to glamorise the activity. Dr Margaret Murphy, chair of its child and adolescent faculty, said: ”The RCP is seriously concerned at the recent growth in the number of internet sites featuring images and video footage of young people engaging in self-harm and, in particular, websites which appear to promote self-harm.

Does HTML5 Really Beat Flash? The Surprising Results of New Tests ReadWriteWeb
With the impending launch of the Apple iPad, the Cupertino-based company’s shunning of Adobe Flash technology has been brought to the forefront of technological discussions. While it was one thing to forgo Flash on a small, mobile device such as the iPhone or iPod Touch, some are questioning whether lack of Flash support is going to be a make-it-or-break it feature for the new slate devices arriving next month – devices which, if you believe Apple CEO Steve Jobs – are “better than netbooks.” On the flip side, Apple supporters echo the company’s sentiments that “Flash is a CPU hog” and including support for the technology in Apple’s mobile line-up would negatively impact battery life. However, recent tests have put Flash up against HTML5, the new web markup language that eliminates the need for the Adobe plugin. The results of these tests show that this is not a simple black-and-white issue. Is Flash really a CPU hog? Yes, in some cases. But, surprisingly, not all the time. In fact, sometimes HTML5 actually performed worse.

Wireless sector at forefront of Tories’ deregulation plans Globe and Mail
Ottawa is preparing new measures that may soon allow foreign companies to buy small Canadian wireless players, part of the Harper government’s ongoing attempts to deregulate the country’s telecommunications sector. In its budget last week, the federal government said it would open the satellite sector to greater investment from non-Canadians. But Industry Minister Tony Clement said he still has broader ambitions for reducing barriers to foreign investment in telecom. This could include allowing outside investors to acquire small players in Canada’s wireless sector.

Researchers use light from LEDs to send data wirelessly Computerworld
Light coming from lamps in your home could eventually be used to encode a wireless broadband signal, according to German researchers. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications at the Heinrich-Hertz Institute in Berlin experimented with using visible light from commercial light-emitting diodes to carry data wirelessly at speeds of up to 230Mbit/sec. Research into wireless data communications using LEDs has been going on for years, but the 230Mbit/sec. speed is considered a record when using a commercial LED, according to the Optical Society of America, an organization for optics professionals.

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March, 2010

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UK Three Strikes rogues gallery

Jon — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:56:50 +0000

p2pnet view P2P | Politics:- The BPI has been caught red-handed tampering with politics of a sovereign nation — No-Longer-Great Britain.

BPI is short for the archaic British Phonographic Industry which, like its masters, Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music, remains locked hopelessly in the 1970s.

Earlier today “TechDirt’s Mike Masnick confirms some of the documentation openly used by the British government in its Digital Ecomy bill comes from the corporate record labels” said p2pnet, referring to the entertainment cartel Three Strikes law Hollywood and Big Music are trying to force through as law of the land.

Now a BPI spokesman says his employers aren’t embarrassed “at the disclosure of the source of the amendment”, says the Guardian going on >>>

“This was a suggestion that we made to the government in 2009, with this wording. This version of the proposal was sent to the government and also to the opposition parties. The government decided it wanted to go a different way. The opposition parties, while not fully agreeing with it, saw it as a good framework for what they wanted to put down,” the spokesman said. “We have consistently said that the digital economy bill should have sensible measures to deal with peer-to-peer file sharing.”

The BPI’s proposed amendment, in a letter dated 8 January, is almost identical to the version put forward by Lord Clement-Jones on 3 March. The key difference is the addition in Clement-Jones’s version of questions about national security, and of tests to see whether the blocking of a site infringes human rights and freedom of speech, and whether an ISP has tried to “facilitate legal access to content”.

Nor are things going well for ACTA elsewhere in Europe.

A staggering 633 European parliamentarians voted against the entertainment cartel business plan.

But 10 miscreants were for it, all of them from Britain, and all from one party, says the Pirate Party UK, naming them (left to right in the pic) as >>>

Nigel Farage (leader, UK Independence Party)
Marta Andreasen ( UKIP)
Stuart Agnew (UKIP)
Gerard Batten (UKIP)
John Bufton (UKIP)
Trevor Colman (UKIP)
The Earl of Dartmouth UKIP)
Mike Nattrass (UKIP)
Paul Nuttall (UKIP)
Nicole Sinclaire (UKIP)

Corporate copyright cops

The Three Strikes law is part of a concerted international campaign called ACTA, the entertainment industry’s Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

Under it, file sharers everywhere could be taken offline on the say-so of the cartels, ISPs would become corporate copyright cops acting against their own customers, and governments would be taxpayer funded copyright agencies.

But ACTA wouldn’t have reached first base without the active cooperation of governments elected to represent the interests of local citizens, but which are instead diligently working as Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music, and Disney, News Corp, Time Warner, Viacom, NBC Universal and Sony Pictures.

That this could be happening seems wildly impossible. But it’s real, and it’s being all but ignored by the traditional print and electronic media.

US president Obama has “reiterated his administration’s commitment to enacting the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement”, says Tech Daily Dose, going on >>>

During remarks at the Export-Import Bank’s annual conference, the president discussed the need to “aggressively protect” U.S. intellectual property.

“There’s nothing wrong with other people using our technologies, we welcome it — we just want to make sure that it’s licensed, and that American businesses are getting paid appropriately,” Obama said. “That’s why [the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative] is using the full arsenal of tools available to crack down on practices that blatantly harm our businesses, and that includes negotiating proper protections and enforcing our existing agreements, and moving forward on new agreements, including the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.”

This will come as no surprise to anyone who’s been following events.

The year is almost over, said p2pnet as long ago as December, 2008 >>>

… and in what has to be the biggest-ever of Big 4 music label PR scams, eclipsing even their sue ‘em all marketing campaign, they say they’ll stop suing their own customers.

Enlisting the major on- and offline print and electronic media as unpaid PR pumps, with Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal as the principal mouthpiece and New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo as coordinator, Vivendi Universal (France), Sony BMG (Japan and Germany), EMI (Britain), and Warner Music(US) are now touting ISPs as corporate copyright cops.

In the WSJ, they say their Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) will, “try an approach that relies on the cooperation of Internet-service providers”.

The newspaper doesn’t say if the RIAA is paying Cuomo for his services, or if New York taxpayers are subsidising him on behalf of the Big $ labels.

Meanwhile, there’s one thing we have yet to see mentioned other than in these pages: the financial costs of this wholly entertainment industry enterprise.

They’re incalculable, costing taxpayers around the world unknown hundreds and millions of dollars, yen, pounds, you name it, not to mention tying up entire government departments.

None of this time can be recovered, and none of the money will ever be reimbursed.

And back in LaLa Land, it’s bidniz as usual …

Jon Newton – p2pnet

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p2pnet – Record labels wrote UK 3 Strikes amendment, March 12, 2010
Guardian – Controversial digital economy bill amendment follows lobbyists’ draft, March 11, 2010
voted against – EU parliament trashes secret ACTA treaty, March 11, 2010
Pirate Party UK – ACTA Supporters – UKIP named and shamed, March 10, 2010
Tech Daily Dose – Obama Reiterates Support For Finishing ACTA, March 11, 2010
p2pnet – New York AG Andrew Cuomo: RIAA coordinator, Dedcember 24, 2008

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US on ACTA: ‘take it or leave it’

Jon — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:57:40 +0000

p2pnet view P2P | Politics:- This has been a remarkable two weeks for those tracking the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, as the proposed treaty has begun to attract attention at the highest political levels” says blogs Michael Geist, going on >>>

The European Union has undergone the greatest change. First, the identification of the transparency holdouts led to a unanimous EU position favouring release of the text. This week, EC Commissioner for Trade Karel De Gucht stated: “I will see to it that at the next negotiating round, in April, the Commission will vigorously push its negotiating partners to agree to release the text.”

This leaves the U.S., South Korea, and Singapore as the remaining barriers to full transparency.

Second, this week’s European Parliament resolution places the European Commission on the defensive with respect to ACTA. The negotiations will continue, but Europe clearly faces internal challenges in the ACTA process.

The U.S. response to the European developments came yesterday, as President Obama reiterated his support for finishing ACTA. In comments on IP enforcement, Obama discussed the need to “aggressively protect” IP, pointing specifically to ACTA. The reference to ACTA was clearly meant to send a strong signal that the U.S. intends to continue its push for a treaty.

Indeed, the U.S. has not changed its position on anything with respect to ACTA – it is one of the lone holdouts on the issue of transparency and its negotiating position on the text itself has not moved much through almost two years of negotiations. Consider the Civil Enforcement chapter, which was first proposed by the U.S. in July 2008 at the second round of ACTA talks in Washington.

The recent leak of the latest version of the chapter “shows that practically nothing has changed”, says Geist, running the point form below >>>

Article 2.1 Availability of Civil Procedures

1. No Change
2. No Change

Article 2.2 Damages

1. No Change
2. No Change
3. Wording Change:

Original	New
Each Party shall provide that the right holders shall have the right to choose the remedy in paragraph 2 as an alternative to the remedy in paragraph 1.	Each Party shall provide that the right holder shall have the right to choose the system in paragraph 2 as an alternative to the damages in paragraph 1.

4. Change – transposed words

Original

New

Each Party shall also provide that its judicial authorities, [Option US: at least in proceedings concerning copyright or related rights infringement or willful trademark counterfeiting] shall have the authority to order, [Option US: except in exceptional circumstances][Option J: in appropriate cases], that the prevailing party be awarded payment by the losing party of reasonable attorney’s fees.

Each Party [US/J:shall] also provide that its [US/J: judicial] authorities, [US/Can/Mor/MX/NZ: except in exceptional circumstances], [US/Can/Aus/Mor: {US/Aus/Mor: at least }in proceedings concerning copyright or related rights infringement or willful trademark counterfeiting,] shall have the authority to order, [J/Can/Aus/NZ: in appropriate cases], that the prevailing party be awarded payment by the losing party of [US/J: reasonable] attorney’s fees

Article 2.3 Other Remedies
1. No Change
2. No Change
3. No Change

Article 2.4 Information related to Infringement

Change – Addition of words

Original	New
Each Party shall provide that in civil judicial proceedings concerning the enforcement of intellectual property rights, its judicial authorities shall have the authority to order the infringer to provide, for the purpose of collecting evidence…	Each Party shall provide that in civil judicial proceedings concerning the enforcement of [US/J: intellectual property rights], its judicial authorities shall have the authority upon a justified request of the right holder, to order the infringer to provide, [US/J; for the purpose of collecting evidence]…

Article 2.5 Provisional Measures
1. No Change
2. No Change
3. No Change

“The U.S. position for the moment appears closer to ‘take it or leave it’ with the bet that many ACTA partners will see little political alternative but to take it”, Geist adds.

Stay tuned.

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Michael Geist – U.S. on ACTA: Full Steam Ahead, March 12, 2010

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p2pnet World Headlines: March 12, 2010: 1

Jon — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:51:23 +0000

Controversial digital economy bill amendment follows lobbyists’ draft Guardian
A controversial amendment to the digital economy bill that could block sites such as YouTube is copied almost word-for-word from a draft written by the BPI, which lobbies on behalf of the British music industry. The BPI confirmed on Thursday that it drafted a letter which was circulated to government and opposition peers containing a suggested draft amendment to the 1988 Copyright, Designs and Patent Act. Earlier this month the Liberal Democrat peer Lord Clement-Jones added the text into the digital economy bill almost exactly as provided as part of amendment 120a. However, the suggested changes – which won approval from peers and will now be considered by the House of Commons – have come under fire from the heads of the four biggest internet service providers in the UK, as well as the UK chiefs of companies including Google, eBay and Yahoo, who said yesterday that they threatened freedom of speech and could lead to British websites being blocked without due judicial process. [Also see Record labels wrote UK 3 Strikes amendment ]

Instant Ads Set the Pace on the Web New York Times
Advertisers have been able to direct online messages based on demographics, income and even location, but one element has been largely missing until recently: immediacy. Advertisers booked slots in advance, and could not make on-the-fly decisions about what ads to show based on what people were doing on the Web. Now, companies like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft let advertisers buy ads in the milliseconds between the time someone enters a site’s Web address and the moment the page appears. The technology, called real-time bidding, allows advertisers to examine site visitors one by one and bid to serve them ads almost instantly.

Cooked ham recall over Listeria fears QMI Agency
News that an Ontario resident has fallen ill after eating something that contained Listeria comes as food safety experts announced a recall of cooked ham sold at deli counters in Ontario, Quebec and Alberta. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Siena Foods Ltd. issued a warning about Siena-brand prosciutto cotto cooked ham, which would have been available for purchase at meat counters in delicatessens, grocery and speciality food stores after Jan. 11. The meat was sliced and repackaged, so consumers might not know if they have the affected product. The CFIA recommends people who do not know the original brand and code check with the store where they purchased the meat to determine if it is affected by the alert.

Microsoft loses appeal in Word patent case BBC
Microsoft has lost an appeal against a court judgement that told it to pay $240m (£160m) in damages. In August 2009, a US court awarded the damages to i4i which claimed Microsoft had infringed its patents. The patents cover the use of XML, a mark-up language that preserves data formats across different programs. The judgement also required Microsoft to remove the i4i technology from its Office software suite and stop selling the infringing programs.

Chinese Consumers Complain About HP’s Products ChinaTechNews
More than 170 consumers from China have jointly filed an appeal, requesting the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of China to conduct an investigation on the laptop computers made by HP and order the company to recall all of its substandard laptop products. According to Laweach, a Chinese website that has helped organize these Chinese consumers, some of HP’s laptop computers sold after 2007 have overheating problems. The website states that these problems are caused by the video card made by Nvidia, a chip manufacturer who once reportedly admitted a similar defect of some of its video card products.

FCC Releases Apps To Independently Test The Speed Of Wireless Networks paidContent
Looking for real-time data of its own, the FCC (yes, the regulatory body in Washington, D.C.) has released a mobile app for iPhone and Android. Don’t worry, the feds aren’t interested in listening to your phone conversations, rather they say the purpose of the app is to provide ‘Americans with additional information about heir mobile data connection and to create awareness about the importance of mobile broadband connection quality.’ Essentially, the app clocks how long it takes to download and upload data to the phone. The release of the two apps come just days before the Commission is set to release its new national broadband plan on March 16, which will heavily stress the need for mobile data networks.

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March, 2010

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Hollywood vs Wellywood

Jon — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:30:09 +0000

p2pnet view Movies | P2P:- Peter Jackson, director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, wants to install a version of the ‘Hollywood’ sign above his studios in Wellington, New Zealand.

‘Wellywood’ would be in almost three-metre-high lettering and an identical typeface to the original, says The Age, going on:

“But the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which owns the trademark of the Hollywood sign, is seeking to block it.”

The Telegraph has the chamber’s chief executive Leron Gubler saying, “The sign is trademarked and we constantly enforce our trademarks. It’s fine for them to put up a sign, just don’t duplicate ours.

“Why not get a local artist to create something that’s unique to your community?”

With that in mind, a reader of the Dominion Post stepped in with the suggestion on the right of the pic.

But local people have branded the Wellywood sign as “tacky” and “visual pollution”, says the story, adding:

“Award-winning film-maker Taika Waititi says the thought of a permanent sign makes people ‘vomit a little in the back of their throats’.”

Will the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce now sue Indian film-makers for their use of the word Bollywood?

No need to stay tuned.

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The Age – Wellywood woes, March 13, 2010
Telegraph – Hollywood angry over New Zealand’s plan for a Wellywood sign, March 11, 2010
Dominion Post – Wellywood sign a no-go – US lawyers, March 12, 2010

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Record labels wrote UK 3 Strikes amendment

Jon — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:52:28 +0000

p2pnet view P2P | Politics:- I’ve been saying since Day One the Three Strikes ‘law’, touted around the world by Hollywood/Big Music shills as individual government ‘iniatives’, is but final shout of the corporate entertainment cartels as they desperately try to bring how content is distributed online, and by whom, under their exclusive control.

And it, in turn, is part of ACTA, the cynical Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement that’s just been dismissed by European parliamentarians.

Now TechDirt’s Mike Masnick confirms some of the documentation openly used by the British government in its Digital Ecomy bill comes from the corporate record labels.

“UK Lords were looking to make the Digital Economy Bill even worse by adding a provision that would allow a judge to block all access to a website if that site was accused of facilitating copyright infringement” said TechDirt last week, going on, “After widespread outcry against the proposal in the UK, the Lords changed the proposal, but came back with an even more ridiculous proposal that would be even more stringent in allowing courts to shut down websites.”

Says a new TechDirt post,”We had already discussed the silly proposal to alter the already ridiculously bad (and also written by the entertainment industry) Digital Economy Bill, to allow the courts to block weblocker type sites, if they were regularly used to infringe on copyrights”, going on:

“Now some leaked documents are showing that it was a pretty blatant copy-and-paste job from the BPI, the UK’s equivalent of the RIAA. The BPI wrote up a draft and the politicians basically proposed it as is.”

But then, “when your role as a politician is to be little more than a sock puppet for the industry, it’s easier just to propose the legislation given to you”.

‘The BPI believes … ‘

Says Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music’s BPI (British Phonographic Industry) in the document, as originally cited by Britain’s Open Rights Group >>>

DIGITAL ECONOMY BILL: CLAUSE 17

Background

The BPI believes it is vital that the Digital Economy Bill makes provision for reducing online copyright infringement taking place in both peer-to-peer (P2P) and non P2P environments. Clauses 4 to 16 of the Bill deal with P2P and Clause 17 tackles non P2P. Clause 17 also makes provision for reducing infringement caused by future technologies. However, the Clause has been criticised in some quarters, notably by the Delegated Powers Committee, and does not command support of the main opposition parties.

Following discussion with the opposition parties and the Bill team, the BPI proposes the following alternative approach for dealing with non P2P and future technologies. We propose a wholly new Clause 17 which would have two component parts:

(1) an amendment to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (the “CDPA”) which would introduce a new Section 97B. This Section would allow the High Court to grant an injunction requiring ISPs to block access to sites where there was a substantial proportion of infringing material. The injunction would be granted only where rightsholders had first requested ISPs to block access to the site, and requested the site operator to take down infringing material. Any concerns regarding Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the right to a fair hearing) are dealt with by the fact that the service provider would be a full and active party in the proceedings; and equally importantly the site operator will also be served with notice of the injunction application. Furthermore, any issues around the E-Commerce Directive and Regulations (regarding limiting accessibility to any online location where legal and illegal content may be available) can be addressed. By analogy with defamation law, a Court can order an injunction of an entire publication in circumstances where as little as one page of the whole work is defamatory. Any infringing party can avoid such an injunction by removing the infringing part of the publication. Equally under the proposed S97B, a partly infringing online location could avoid an injunction by removing the illegal content.

(2) an amendment to the CDPA (new Section 97C) giving the Secretary of State the power to periodically review the operation of S97B (and only 97B), and if necessary amend it in the light of technological developments which have occurred. This provides a further level of “future proofing” to the legislation by allowing the injunctive relief available to the Court to evolve and to keep pace with technology.

Proposed Amendment to Clause 17 of the Digital Economy Bill

(Replace existing Clause 17,with the following:)
In Part 1 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 after section 97A insert–

97B.

(1)The High Court (in Scotland, the Court of Session) shall have power to grant an injunction against a service provider, requiring it to prevent access to online locations specified in the order of the Court.

(2)In determining whether to grant an injunction under subsection (1), the Court shall have regard to the following matters–

(a)whether a substantial proportion of the content accessible at or via each specified online location infringes copyright,

(b)the extent to which the operator of each specified online location has taken reasonable steps to prevent copyright infringing content being accessed at or via that online location and/or taken reasonable steps to remove copyright infringing content from that online location,

(c) whether the service provider has itself taken reasonable steps to prevent access to the specified online location, and

(d)any other matters which appear to the Court to be relevant.

(3)An application for an injunction under subsection (1) shall be made on notice to the service provider and to the operator of each specified online location in relation to which an injunction is sought.

(4)Where–

(a)the Court grants an injunction under subsection (1) upon the application of an owner of copyright whose copyright is infringed by the content accessible at or via each specified online location in the injunction, and

(b)the owner of copyright before making the application made a written request to the service provider giving it a reasonable period of time to take measures to prevent its service being used to access the specified online location in the injunction, and no such steps were taken,

the Court shall order the service provider to pay the copyright owner’s costs of the application unless there were exceptional circumstances justifying the service provider’s failure to prevent access despite notification by the copyright owner.

(5)In this section–

“copyright owner” includes a licensee with an “exclusive licence” within the meaning of section 92 of this Act,

“infringing content” means content which is produced or made available in infringement of copyright,

“online location” means a location on the internet, a mobile data network or other data etwork at or via which copyright infringing content is accessible,

“operator” means a person or persons in joint or sole control of the decisions to make content accessible at or via an online location, and

“service provider” has the meaning given to it by section 97A(3) of this Act1.

97C. Power to amend section 97B following review of technological developments

(1)At the intervals specified in sub-section (9) below, the Secretary of State shall undertake a periodic review of the operation of section 97B of this Act in the light of technological developments which have occurred and which are likely to occur so as to enable copyright infringements by means of the internet, mobile data networks or other data networks in a manner not addressed by section 97B.

(2)Following completion and publication of such review, the Secretary of State may by order amend section 97B insofar as he reasonably considers such action necessary for the purpose of preventing or reducing infringements of copyright undertaken by means of the internet, mobile data networks or other data networks.

(3)The following provisions apply to the power conferred by this section.

(4)The power may be exercised so as to enable the Court to grant injunctive relief against a wider class of persons than service providers as defined in section 97B.

(5)The power does not include a power to create or modify a criminal offence.

(6)An order under this section must be made by statutory instrument.

(7)Before making any order under this section the Secretary of State must consult such persons who the Secretary of State considers are likely to be affected by the order, or who represent any of those persons, as the Secretary of State thinks fit.

(8)A statutory instrument containing an order under this section may not be made unless a draft of the instrument has been laid and approved by a resolution of each House of Parliament.

(9)The first periodic review referred to in sub-section (1) above shall be undertaken by the Secretary of State 18 months following the coming into force of section 97B. Subsequent review shall be undertaken on the completion of each 18 month period following publication of the previous review.

8 January 2010

Now you know.

Jon Newton – p2pnet

(Cheers, RW)

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just been dismissed – EU parliament trashes secret ACTA treaty, March 11, 2010
TechDirt – UK Politicians Keep Getting It Wrong: Now Want To Outlaw Weblockers, March 4, 2010
TechDirt – Leaked Documents Show UK Web Censorship Proposal Written By Record Labels
Open Rights Group – BPI drafted the Lib Dem / Conservative web blocking amendment, March 11, 2010

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Winnipeg media want inquest live-streamed online

Jon — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:14:01 +0000

p2pnet view P2P:- Winnipeg media want the inquest into the death of Brian Sinclair (right), a wheelchair-bound First Nations man who, says the Winnipeg Free Press, waited for 34 hours in the Health Sciences Centre ER unit without being treated, live-streamed online.

“His death made national headlines and raised concerns about the quality of ER care and the treatment of aboriginals in the health-care system”, says the story, quoting lawyer Bill Olson as stating:

“This inquest, and the negative media attention that has been generated, apparently has resulted in staff being yelled at more frequently with threats of being killed, and a discernible increase in racial comments and accusations.”

His submission is part of a motion being argued in provincial court today, says the story.

CTV, CBC, Global and APTN want to record witness testimony during the inquest, which will “also examine emergency-room care in Manitoba”, it says.

The four want a single pool camera to be used, and “They also want to live-stream the proceedings on the Internet, an argument the Free Press is supporting in court”, says the newspaper.

But a camera could “dissuade some nurses from testifying” says the story, quoting an affidavit in which Manitoba Nurses Union president Sandi Mowat says the inquest, if televised, would appear on three large TVs in the hospital’s ER, “forcing distressed staff to turn them off for the duration of the inquest”.

“It would simply be impossible for the department to function in the midst of a live TV broadcast of department staff testifying at the inquest,” she says in the document.

“Conservative critic Kelvin Goertzen says nurses may oppose the camera because they are afraid to openly criticize government policy”, says the Winnipeg Free Press, adding:

” ‘It speaks to a larger problem that nurses are afraid to speak,’ he says.”

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Winnipeg Free Press – Media seek camera in court, March 12, 2010

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Australia on RWB anti-freedom of speech list

Jon — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:45:22 +0000

p2pnet view P2P | Politics:- “Australia as a WHOLE is now considered an ‘Internet Enemy’,” emails p2pnet regular Andrew aka Comeonecomcast from over in the land of Oz.

“Thank you Senator Conroy SO MUCH /sarcasm”, he says.

How come?

Reporters Without Borders is now listing Australia as one of the worst violators of freedom of online expression.

Together with Australia on the RWB freedom violators list are Saudi Arabia, Burma, China, North Korea, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Uzbekistan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam.

Acting in the government’s name is Stephen Conroy (right), and, “Around the world, servants of the people, politicians, continue to completely ignore the wishes of those who put them into power in the first place”, said p2pnet recently, going on:

“In Australia one of the manifestations of this is the way communications minister Stephen Conroy is trying to ride his version of Communist China’s Iron Curtain censorship laws into Australian statute books.

“But, sadly for him, he’s just been caught with his trousers around his ankles.

“The man in charge of the country’s Labour government, he’s been censoring his own website, says news.com.au.”

Some countries on the RYWB list “are determined to use any means necessary to prevent their citizens from having access to the Internet”, it says, adding among those “under surveillance” are several democracies, including Australia, “because of the upcoming implementation of a highly developed Internet filtering system”.

Australians will no doubt be delighted to see their country thus elevated.

Stay tuned.

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worst violators – Web 2.0 versus Control 2.0, March 12, 2010
p2pnet – Stephen ‘Filter’ Conroy filters filter post, February 26, 2010
news.com.au – Conroy’s website removes references to filter, February 25, a 2010

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Gamato shut-down protest: Athens, 17.00

Jon — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:14:17 +0000

p2pnet view P2P | Politics:- The timing of of Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music and their IFPI is immaculate.

With angry Greek citizens rioting over unpopular government “austerity” measures, the IFPI has suborned hard-pressed police resources, funded by local taxpayers, to close down gamato.info, the country’s largest BitTorrent tracker, and arrest six admins.

Yesterday, “In one central square hundreds of protesters threw stones and firebombs at riot police, who used baton-charges and tear gas in a bid to restrain the crowd”, says Deutsche Welle, going on:

“Police say that over 20,000 people lined the streets of Athens for the demonstrations against severe government cost-cutting measures designed to help reduce Greece’s runaway budget deficit.”

Now another demonstration is being organised today in the center of Athens. Slated for 17.00, it’s “protesting the police action”, says a p2pnet Reader’s Write, noting, “Gamato was a free-access sharing service at no cost”.

“The six men detained were site moderators and high-ranking members, the police said in a statement”, according to Agency France-Presse.

“Another five people are being sought in relation to the case”, it says, going on, “Interpol has been notified as two of the suspects live abroad.”

Interpol? For a hard-core corporate commercial action?

Meanwhile, the world largest and most-used indexing site continues to operate openly, freely and with impunity, and at a huge profit.

It’s called Google.

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close down gamato.info – Greek cops nail BitTorrent tracker Gamato, March 11, 2010
Deutsche Welle – Anti-austerity protests in Greece turn violent, March 12, 2010
Agency France-Presse – Largest Greek download site shut down by police, March 11, 2010
at a huge profit – Cartel-proof P2P indexing site, July 29, 2009

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p2pnet World Headlines: March 11, 2010: 2

Jon — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:21:42 +0000

James Murdoch: illegal downloading no different from stealing a handbag Guardian
James Murdoch today called on governments to get tough on illegal downloading, which he said was no different from “going into a store and stealing Pringles or a handbag”. Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of News Corporation’s European and Asian operations, was joined in calling for tougher piracy measures at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit today by other media executives including Ari Emanuel, co-chief executive of William Morris Endeavor, the biggest Hollywood talent agency. But Murdoch, who stressed that future growth would come from original content production, took the toughest line on piracy. “We need enforcement mechanisms and we need governments to play ball?… There is no difference with going into a store and stealing Pringles or a handbag and taking this stuff.”

Groups says tracks must be sold as part of album package MSNBC
In a victory for the concept album, Britain’s High Court on Thursday ordered record company EMI Group Ltd. to stop selling downloads of Pink Floyd tracks individually rather than as part of the band’s original records. The prog-rock group sued the music label, saying its contract prohibited selling the tracks “unbundled” from their original album setting. Pink Floyd lawyer Robert Howe said the band was known for producing “seamless” pieces of music on albums like “Dark Side of the Moon,” “The Division Bell” and “The Wall,” and wanted to retain artistic control.

WhitePages.com halts ad networks over malware CNet News
WhitePages.com has stopped ad networks from delivering ads to its site after they were found to contain fake antivirus malware. “On Monday morning WhitePages received reports from users [about] malware in the form of a fake antivirus upsell program that we believe originated (against our terms) from a third-party advertising network serving ads on our website, in addition to other websites,” a WhitePages spokeswoman said in an e-mail late Tuesday. “We immediately suspended the networks in question at which time the reports from users subsided,” she wrote. “We are working diligently to prevent this from happening in the future.” A representative for the Senate’s Committee on Environment and Public Works said on Tuesday that officials were looking at WhitePages.com and Drudge Report as possible sources of malware that had affected Senate computers the day before. Matt Drudge denied the accusation on his site and accused the committee of politicking. But several CNET readers reported that they too had been hit with the malware when they visited the Drudge Report Web site, a conservative news aggregator that sometimes authors stories too.

Apple Blocking iPhone Security Software Slashdot
Barence writes “Speaking exclusively to PC Pro, Eugene Kaspersky has claimed Apple has repeatedly refused to deliver the software development kit necessary to design security software for the phone. ‘We have been in contact for two years with Apple to develop our anti-theft software, [but] still we do not have permission,’ said Kaspersky. Although he admits the risk of viruses infecting the iPhone is ‘almost zero,’ he claims that securing the data on the handset is critical, especially as iPhones are increasingly being used for business purposes. ‘I don’t want to say Apple’s is the wrong way of behaving, or the right way,’ Kaspersky added. ‘It’s just a corporate culture — it wants to control everything.’”

Asia’s Largest Cloud Security Center Launched In China ChinaTechNews
Chinese anti-virus service provider Rising has announced the launch of its generically-named Cloud Security Center, which is reported to be the largest of its kind in Asia. With a total investment of CNY130 million, the center reportedly has more than 5000 enterprise level severs in various geographic locations in China which can provide security check services for up to one billion users and reduce the time for processing most of the virus files to one second. The center is said to be the first technical project initiated by Rising in 2010. Liu Gang, a chief scientist of Rising, told local media that with the improvement of its hardware and core structure, the center can reduce the time for automatically analyzing and processing most virus files to one second.

Tiger Woods Hires Ari Fleischer as PR Guru Hollywood Gossip
Tiger Woods has summoned Ari Fleischer, former adviser and White House Press Secretary under George W. Bush, to be his PR man as he plots his return to golf. According to the New York Post, Woods is planning to compete at the Arnold Palmer Invitational March 25 in Orlando, and Fleischer is on board with the planning. ‘They were in his living room this week going over strategy in two weeks,’ a source said, noting that ‘I would be shocked if he didn’t play the Arnold Palmer.’ Palmer himself reportedly has told confidants that Tiger Woods is definitely playing. Quietly, the people running the tournament are preparing for a media crush.

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March, 2010

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Greek cops nail BitTorrent tracker Gamato

Jon — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:07:31 +0000

p2pnet view P2P:- Greek police, acting for the corporate entertaimment cartels, have closed BitTorrent tracker Gamato.info, estimated by alexa.com to be the 13th most visited website in Greece.

It’d been used to “facilitate large-scale copyright infringement of music, film, games and books”, whine Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music.

“The closure follows raids in Athens, Salonika, Larissa and Aridaia that led to the arrest of six individuals connected with the administration of the site”, says their IFPI, which initiated the action on behalf of its masters.

“The site had previously closed in January, following the arrests of the administrators of greek-fun.com, another infringing website, but reopened a few weeks later”, says the story.

“The Hellenic Police swiftly recognised this was not a victimless crime and took action against those who sought to shamelessly profit off the back of others’ creative work” says Big 4 factotum Jeremy Banks, adding:

“This skilfully executed action by a highly knowledgeable police force should act as a real deterrent to others in Greece considering engaging in online piracy.”

No really! He said that!

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IFPI – Greek police close website that pirated music, film, games and books, March 11, 2010

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Big 4 labels forced Apple into iTunes LP

Jon — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:50:20 +0000

p2pnet view Music:- Apparently there’s some kind of iTunes LP thingie out there.

Who knew?

But it is/was a non-event and now Apple spinsters are having to make sure it doesn’t get the blame.

It’s all the fault of Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music, says GigaOm .

The Big 4 talked poor old Apple into it, says the story.

Codenamed Cocktail and “introduced at a ‘rock and roll event’ in San Francisco” it “promised to give consumers a new reason to buy albums instead of individual songs”, it says , going on >>>

“Offering expanded cover art, lyrics, videos, animation and other digital goodies, iTunes LP was intended to evoke the feeling of spinning an LP record and holding the jacket in your hands. Especially when paired with a tablet computer (then rumored, now real) that would provide a new way to view large-format art, consumers were promised a digital experience that mimicked a physical one.”

It’s somewhat ironic that the very company that atomized the album in order to sell individual tracks -– one of many causes for the music industry’s decade-long tailspin –- has encouraged the rebundling of songs with iTunes LP. But I’m told by an industry source who preferred to remain anonymous that iTunes LP wasn’t Apple’s idea in the first place. Rather, it’s the result of the same renegotiations between Apple and the major record labels that yielded DRM-free songs and flexible pricing early last year, a concession by Cupertino to make a gesture in favor of album sales as consumers increasingly show a preference for digital singles.

“Neither Apple nor anyone else I spoke with was able to break out sales figures, but sources in various parts of the music industry agreed that the financial impact of iTunes LP on record sales has been tiny, if it’s had any effect at all”, the story adds.

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GigaOm – Apple’s iTunes LP 6 Months Later: LP What?, March 9, 2010

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Dead toddler mistook gun for Wii controller

Jon — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:22:46 +0000

p2pnet view Games:- A toddler in Tennessee is dead after mistaking a loaded gun for a Nintendo Wii video game controller.

Cheyenne Alexis McKeehan accidentally shot herself after her stepfather left his loaded Smith & Wesson within her reach.

Douglas and Ann Cronberger, both 32, were “inside their rural Norene home when the child shot herself Sunday night”, the Tennessean has Wilson County sheriff Terry Ashe saying.

“Her mother was on the computer just a few feet away”, Ashe said in a statement.

Cronberger “usually kept his gun unloaded and in a cabinet”, says the story, adding:

“However, on Saturday night, Cronberger got out his gun, loaded it and went outside to look for what he thought was a prowler. When he came back inside, he put the gun on an end table in the living room and forgot about it, according to a Sheriff’s Department statement.

“The statement also said Cheyenne learned how to use a gun from playing a Nintendo Wii game for days.”

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Tennessean – Wilson County child’s shooting death blamed on gun-Wii mix-up, March 9, 2010

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Google Street View trawls 210,000 UK miles

Jon — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:36:04 +0000

p2pnet view P2P | Advertising:- Almost an entire country is now in thrall to a single US advertising company.

Or put another way, Google has done in most of Britain what it trying to do with books worldwide.

It’s taken over.

Today, Google sneak view Street View went online from Penzance to the Shetland islands, “encompassing nearly a quarter of a million miles of British roads”, says the Telegraph.

The advertising-linked product has been ensconced in 25 cities since last March, says the story, but, “increased coverage makes an additional 210,000 miles of detailed mapping public.”

This means the UK will “catch up with other European countries – such as Spain, France, and Italy – which already boast nationwide coverage” the story gushes.

Not only but also, “Google believes the service will be a boost for UK businesses, which can embed its maps into their own sites for free.”

Google sneaks pictures of people, their homes, the streets where they walk and the places they relax without telling them, or asking if it’s OK, said p2pnet recently, going on, “Then it plasters the results on Street View Snoop-O-Rama sites, claiming the product, an adjunct to its advertising efforts, is a ’service’.”

However, “Campaigner Alex Deane, director of Big Brother Watch, is concerned about the privacy implications of Street View after a number of people contacted him with their concerns”, says the Telegraph, quoting him as stating:

“For many, Google’s Street View cameras are an upsetting invasion of privacy. People tend not to be asked whether they are comfortable with it coming to their town.

“When it arrives somewhere for the first time, those who are concerned about being captured should check it to see if they or their property are now on worldwide public view.”

Nor are individuals the only ones worried about Google Sneak View invasions.

European Union data privacy regulators “are telling Google Inc. to warn people before it sends cameras out into cities to take pictures for its Street View maps, adding to the company’s legal worries in Europe”, said the Associated Press, going on:

“Google should shorten the time it keeps the original photos from one year to six months,” regulators also say, according to the story.

Actually, Gargle shouldn’t be allowed to use even one picture unless it’s had permission in advance, a proposition supported by German consumer affairs minister Ilse Aigner.

However, “Google said its need to retain Street View images for one year is ‘legitimate and justified’,” said AP.

No need to stay tuned. Google trolls are out there in force making sure the appropriate messages are broadcast in- and offline.

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trying to do with books – Google to digitise Dante, Machiavelli, March 11, 2010
Telegraph – Google Street View goes nationwide in Britain, March 11, 2010
p2pnet – EU warns Google over Street View, February 26, 2010
Associated Press – Google warned by EU over Street View map photos, February 25, 2010
permission in advance – Google scoffs at Berlin Street View concerns, February 25, 2010
faces and license plates No Street View! Switzerland tells Google, August 25, 2009

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p2pnet World Headlines: March 11, 2010: 1

Jon — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:47:26 +0000

Australia comes clean on ACTA role IT News
The Australian Government has no intention of changing its domestic laws to harmonise with an international treaty on copyright, according to a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). Questioned by iTnews on Australia’s role in the ACTA (Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement), the DFAT spokesman said Australian negotiators are only participating in the talks in the hope that other parties to the agreement will meet existing Australian standards. Advocates such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Australia’s own Internet Industry Association (IIA) have long held fears that the ACTA will seek to introduce a global system of copyright protection that compels Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to take responsibility for the actions of their subscribers – to the extent of cutting them off after three warnings.

N.Y. Health Insurers To Offer Virtual Doc Visits Slashdot
Two insurance organizations in upstate New York said on Wednesday that they will offer their members and employers virtual physician visits beginning this summer, making New York the fourth state to provide these types of services. BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York, BlueShield of Northeastern New York and technology services provider American Well said the Online Care service will allow members to talk with physicians in real time through a private online chat network or through a voice-over-IP phone call. The service also offers video chat and instant messages. Members can sign on to the insurer’s Web sites and look for physicians who are available online in various specialty areas.

Ontario adds Internet safety to elementary curriculum Globe and Mail
Ontario is changing the school curriculum to include Internet safety lessons. The Liberal government has approved changes to the health and physical education curriculum for elementary schools to help children better protect themselves online. Next fall, there will be specific sections in the curriculum for grades 4 and 7 about Internet safety and the potential risks of online activities. Michelle Despault, a spokeswoman for Ontario Education Minister Leona Dombrowsky, says there will also be ‘age appropriate’ discussions about online dangers in Grades 1 through 8. The changes were announced the same day police forces across Ontario announced charges against 35 people for possession of child pornography. Five youths were among those charged.

Top flight club bans foreign language use The Local
Swedish top flight football club, Brommapojkarna (BP) have introduced a language policy requiring all players to speak Swedish to each other in order to be eligible for selection. “This is a non-issue,” BP chairperson Ola Danhard told The Local on Wednesday. As almost all of BP’s players are home grown talent – with 17 of the 23 first team players from its youth set up – Danhard argued that a language policy was little more than a formality. But Danhard did confirm that the club’s board had voted to establish a policy for the exclusive use of Swedish within the club, both in its changing rooms and on the pitch. “It is important for the collective that everyone in the team speaks the same language,” he said.

Facebook calls for ‘iconic games’ BBC
The world’s largest social network has thrown down the gauntlet to game developers to design an iconic social game like Mario or Halo for Facebook. Research suggests around three quarters of Facebook’s 400m users play social games on the site. The challenge came on the opening day of the Game Developers Conference.

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March, 2010

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The new French revolution

Jon — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:30:05 +0000

p2pnet view P2P | Politics:- France, Canada, the UK and France are among countries united — united in their determination to ram home the Three Strikes element of ACTA, the entertainment industry’s last desperate attempt to gain exclusive control of how, and by whom, content is distributed online.

However, ACTA — Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement — has been effectively countered by the European parliament, at least.

And in France where the Three Strikes law has been officially adopted, thanks to efforts by entertainment cartel representative Nicolas Sarkozy, who’s also the French president, file sharing has increased instead of decreased.

France’s new ‘Hadopi’ law “actively connects the country’s music biz through ISPs to music pirates, and penalizes repeat offending users by severing their Net connection after three warnings”, says Fast Company, going on >>>

Sounds fierce, right? May deter you from downloading that episode of How I Met Your Mother (rather, “La Manière Dont Je Me Suis Rencontreé Avec Ta Mère“) or Mika’s latest album? You may think so.

But, “Mais…Non”,says the story, because “Those French types are actually defying their government, as a frank telephone study of 2,000 Bretons by the University of Rennes shows.

“Comparing user habits before and after the enactment of Hadopi revealed that piracy rates of all types have risen 3%.”

Not only but also, “The manner pirates are using to acquire the illicit data has shifted though — away from peer-to-peer sharing systems like bit torrenting, to ‘file locker’ systems like Megaupload or Rapidshare, or illegal file-streaming systems which aren’t explicitly covered in the Hadopi law. This sort of piracy actually soared by some 27% after Hadopi (and probably actually more than this, assuming survey responders were wary of admitting to it), which demonstrates that the French public are much cannier than the legislators.”

It can, though, be assumed that “before long there’ll be a legal move to fix these loopholes”, Fast Company adds.

But not to worry.

Innovation and change, or anything else which smacks of upsetting the status quo, may be abhorrent to Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music, and Disney, News Corp, Time Warner, Viacom, NBC Universal and Sony Picture.

But together with competition, something else the cartels loathe, they’re what keeps the world turning, despite frantic Hollywood and the Big 4 labels efforts to lock it solidly into one place — their place.

Stay tuned as people not only in France, but everywhere, continue to share with each other online.

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effectively countered – EU parliament trashes secret ACTA treaty, March 11, 2010
Fast Company – Failblog: Following France’s Tough Piracy Law, Piracy Rates Go Up, March 10, 2010

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Goldfish bowl facilitated conversation

Jon — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:42:25 +0000

p2pnet view Off Topic:- ‘Webinar’ surely has to be one of nastiest bits of 21st century jargon. It looks like something dreamed up by a PR hack and there’s just something about it that’s unpleasant.

The same can be said for ‘wellderly’ so it’s not surprising to learn that, together with disbenefits, under-capacitated and clienting, they’re “impenetrable phrases” which are included on the Local Government Association (LGA) list of “banned words”.

Then there’s this — “goldfish bowl facilitated conversation”.

“Just as it would be impossible for two IT professionals to speak to each other without using technical talk, it would be impossible for public sector experts to avoid using a degree of jargon”, says the association, going on:

“However, the LGA Group believes that while there is a place for technical language to be used between experts, jargon must be removed from documents and publications that are aimed at the public.

“Councils up and down the country are working to eradicate from their work as many of these words as possible and to help, the LGA Group has launched a plain English website to help all public bodies remove jargon. This can be found at http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=8021380 ”

Examples include:

Harrow Council announced that it would use the clearest English possible in dealing with phone calls, e-mails and visits from the public. It identified ‘seven sins of jargon’ which it told staff to stop using in conversation with the public, and provided plain English substitutes.
Leeds City Council has launched a ‘How to communicate clearly’ campaign featuring half-day workshops for staff. It includes tips on using plain English. Last year the council ran a ‘Sign of the times’ campaign for residents to identify where they thought there were confusing or out of date signs.
Liverpool City Council is considering changing job titles to help the public understand what staff do, and will ensure documents are written in plain English.
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham leaflets are checked by the Plain English Campaign before being sent out. All other communications are written using plain English guidelines.

(Cheers, catflap)

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LGA – New list published of 250 words the public sector shouldn’t use, March 11, 2010

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Dead girl’s mum wants Facebook panic button

Jon — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:12:55 +0000

p2pnet view Crime:- Peter Chapman, 33, has been jailed for life for the kidnap, rape and murder of Ashleigh Hall, a young girl he met on Fa$ebook.

Her mother, Andrea Hall, wants the social advertising site to add a link to the Child Exploitation Online Protection Unit (CEOP) panic button.

But Facebook, where Chapman “groomed” Ashleigh, 17, has turned her plea down, says The Sun.

“Perhaps you will never stop people creating false profiles but every little helps and the button would act as a deterrent”, it has her saying.

Ceop’s Jim Gamble said the centre had 267 complaints about Facebook last year, 43% about grooming, says the story, adding:

“But he said only ‘one or two’ came from Facebook itself. The majority were from people who had to go to other sites with Ceop’s panic button.”

Fa$ebook, however, is standing by its own system for reporting abuse, acdcording to The Sun, which quotes a spokesperson as saying, “We have reporting buttons on every page and work closely with police in the UK and around the world.”

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The Sun – Add panic buttins to keep kids safe in the Net, March 10, 2010

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Google to digitise Dante, Machiavelli

Jon — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:45:22 +0000

p2pnet view P2P | Advertising:- Giant US advertising congolmerate Google wants to own world literature online. And if it gets its way, “someone else could try something similar for music or photographs”, suggests James Grimmelmann, a professor at New York Law School.

The Italian government says up to one million antiquarian books — including works by Dante, Machiavelli and Galileo — will be scanned and made available free on Google Books, says the BBC, going on:

“There is no copyright issue as all the works were published before 1868.

“The Italian authorities welcomed the scheme as budget pressures have cut the amount that can be spent on preserving the collections in Rome and Florence.”

However, Google Book Search is Machiavellian, say those protesting the company’s efforts to gain control of net literature.

It gives Google “too much control over a priceless store of information”, say scholars, consumer advocates and business competitors, states the San Jose Mercury News.

“Privacy advocates argue that Google could track and retain not only the titles people access through Book Search, but also which pages they view, and the notes they make on the pages” says the story, going on the EFF’s Cindy Cohn told a court hearing the foundation “has repeatedly urged Google to incorporate many of the same privacy standards that public libraries have, such as never turning over library records to police without a warrant”.

The “ability to be able to engage in intellectual inquiry without somebody being tracked — it’s an important piece of free expression” the story has her saying.

Google, however, wants to “make such decisions on a case-by-case basis”, it says.

The company’s efforts to gain posession of literary treasures on behalf of its owners and stockholders has “already spawned a class-action lawsuit, and now, “It really is the most important copyright dispute we’re currently facing,” the story has Grimmelmann saying going on:

“I would say this whole controversy has the potential to really affect how we access all kinds of media, not just old ones, but also new ones.”

If Google is allowed to rewrite “a major area of copyright law through its proposed settlement of the lawsuit, it would be a “really interesting way to break a lot of logjams in copyright law,” Grimmelmann said. “But are we opening a Pandora’s box?”

The Mercury News breaks two other key issues down like this >>>

Orphan Books: Copyright holders would be paid under the plan for the right to scan their books, but what about the vast number of out-of-print books whose rights holders can’t be found? Google would not have to share revenues from these “orphan books.” Google and its partners in the settlement, the Authors Guild and the American Publishers Association, say less than 15 percent of the estimated 5 million to 8 million out-of-print but copyrighted books covered by the settlement will be orphans. The plan establishes a Book Rights Registry, funded with $34.5 million, to find copyright holders.
Competition: If the plan is approved, Google would have exclusive rights to grant access to its millions of digitized books. Opponents and the U.S. Department of Justice say this could give the company a monopoly, able to set prices and control new business models. The vast amount of information would include the bibliographies to millions of books, as well as their text, which could improve the quality of Google search. That could give Google a huge advantage over competitors, opponents say. Google, however, says scanning books to bolster the quality of search is “fair use” under copyright law.

Stay tuned.

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BBC – Google to digitise ancient Italian books, March 10, 2010
San Jose Mercury News – Google’s book project may change copyright law, March 10, 2010

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EU parliament trashes secret ACTA treaty

Jon — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:55:44 +0000

p2pnet view P2P | Politics:- The movie and music cartels have virtual carte blanche in Canada and the US, but the European parliament has told them it, not corporate might, holds sway, voting overwhelmingly 663 to 13 against the entertainment industry inspired Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, aka ACTA.

“This Parliament will not sit back silently while the fundamental rights of millions of citizens are being negotiated away behind closed doors”, said Stavros Lambrinidis (GR, S&D) (right) who, with Zuzana Roithova (CZ, EPP), Alexander Alvaro (DE, ALDE) and Françoise Castex (FR, S&D), made the message clear in their earlier written declaration opposing ACTA.

“We oppose any ‘legislation laundering’ on an international level of what would be very difficult to get through most national legislatures or the European Parliament,” he said.

And “MEPs will go to the Court of Justice if the EU does not reject ACTA rules, including cutting off users from the Internet ‘gradually’ if caught stealing content”, European parliamentarians told Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music, and Disney, News Corp, Time Warner, Viacom, NBC Universal and Sony Picture, says EurActiv.

MEPs can’t take part in the ACTA talks without the consent of the European Parliament, but EU negotiators will now have to “go back to the drawing board and come up with a compromise”, says the report.

If it was accepted, “The secret treaty would turn Europe into an entertainment industries’ dream region”, says The Inquirer, going on, “ISPs would become police for the music and film industries and would have to switch off whoever they suspect of filesharing that infringes copyrights.

“Europe would be forced to adopt laws like America’s DMCA, which is currently being used by the media companies as a legal tool to stifle rivals, censor the press and suppress political dissent.”

However, the victory isn’t total.

“EuroISPA, the Brussels trade body for network providers, says that recent leaks from the European Council indicate the EU is considering US proposals on combating piracy which include ‘criminal sanctions, US-style notice and take-down and monitoring of a user’s Internet traffic and services’,” says EurActiv, continuing >>>

Though EU Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht reassured MEPs at a debate yesterday that the EU was not considering all of the measures in the ACTA text, EuroISPA argues this contradicts the most recent leaks coming from the EU and the US.

“The Commission has provided no reassurance that it will not introduce the penalties outlined in the ACTA leaks,” Andrea d’Inneco from EuroISPA told EurActiv.

Commission officials participating in the talks have signed a non-disclosure agreement and have been reluctant to divulge much information from the talks.

A high-ranking official told EurActiv that rumours saying ACTA would rewrite rules on the liability of Internet service providers for pirated content on their networks were untrue.

EU rules, which were agreed upon after lengthy negotiations last year, say that ISPs are mere conduits of information and are not liable for pirated content if they take measures to remove that content, the official explained.

“The Commission official said this would still be the pretext of EU law and that ACTA would not alter the European safeguards”, the story adds.

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EurActiv – Parliament threatens court action on anti-piracy treaty, March 10, 2010
written declaration – Help the European Parliament fight ACTA, February 24, 2010
The Inquirer – European Parliament gives the US a lesson on freedom, March 11, 2010

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