Threats to the Open Net: April 15, 2011

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* The Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union, Europe's highest court, has issued a legal opinion (PDF) stating that Internet filtering is only acceptable when based on "a national legal basis which was accessible, clear, and predictable," Ars Technica reports. The opinion is related to a Belgian case in which the government ordered an ISP to stop copyright infringement by filtering traffic and blocking sites.

* In response to the opinion, ALTO, the organization of Alternative Operators in the Communications Market in Ireland, has called for the country to establish Internet access as a basic human right.

* Facebook is in talks with Baidu, China's largest search engine, to build a Chinese version of its social networking site. Facebook.com is currently banned in China.