United States of America

ONI Blog: Threats of Censorship Loom with New Internet Copyright Infringement Bill
The “Great Firewall” is something most Americans only associate with Chinese Internet regulation, but they may be able to add their own country to that list soon. On September 20, Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy and Utah Senator Orrin Hatch introduced the...
ONI Blog: Would Censoring the Internet Prevent Cyber-Bullying?
Playing out in the Internet tabloids this week is the story of Jessi Slaughter, an eleven-year-old girl whose YouTube rants have resulted in death threats and unsavory rumors in a classic case of cyber-bullying. In Australia, where a proposal to filter the...
ONI Blog: New Legislation With Hidden Consequences
In U.S. Bill HR 4899 (Full Text Here), there are supplemental appropriations of around $80 Billion towards the troops in Afghanistan, Haiti relief, the Gulf oil spill, employment issues with the recession, and snuck in at the very end, a...
ONI Blog: Is Blocking RapeLay the Solution?
Controversy is brewing over a Japanese video game called RapeLay which, according to Australia's Sydney Morning Herald, allows users to "earn points for acts of sexual violence, including following girls on commuter trains, raping virgins and their mothers, and then forcing...
ONI Blog: Google's China Decision Could Have Far-Reaching Implications
It has now been four years since Google announced its intent to censor search results in China. In January of 2006, after finding Google.com to be down about 10% of the time, Google made the now infamous decision to start...
ONI Blog: United States: Is Filtering in Schools the Answer?
Is filtering in schools the answer? That's the question being asked across the United States. Although it is required by federal law to filter pornographic and other obscene content, many K-12 schools are choosing to also filter social networks, video...
ONI Blog: U.S. software company says China stole Green Dam code
A California-based software company has accused a Chinese company of lifting parts of the Green Dam Youth Escort filtering software directly from its own CyberSitter program. Solid Oak Software Inc. claims that parts of the Green Dam code, including...
ONI Blog: Geofiltering: How to Alienate Business Customers Without Really Trying
Many a DVD collector over the years has been disappointed upon learning that their rare DVD from Taiwan or France can't be played on their American DVD player. Just as DVD region codes limit viewing to a geographic area, the geofiltering...
ONI Blog: Launch of M-Lab as Net Neutrality Tool
The recent launch of Measurement Lab (M-Lab) provides consumers, regulators, and content providers with the details about their network’s performance, according to CNET. Backed by Google, the New America Foundation (affiliated with the Democratic Party), and the PlanetLab consortium, M-Lab...
ONI Blog: SonicWALL Filters Harmless Sites
It is the right of private companies to block access to certain sites for their employees or customers, certainly. But in the United States, some customers of Panera Bread, a popular nationwide chain restaurant that offers free wifi, are frustrated. ...

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