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By: Rebekah Heacock
Date: 15 Jul 2009
Conroy shrugs off Internet Villain award
July 14, 2009 - 11:34PM
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has shrugged off his "Internet Villain of the Year" award for upsetting the internet industry and hampering its development, calling it misguided.
The 11th annual Internet Industry Awards ceremony, held in London this week and hosted by the Internet Service Providers' Association, named Senator Conroy Internet Villain of the Year over the federal government's unpopular plans for an internet filter.
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By: Rebekah Heacock
Date: 15 Jul 2009
A Blackberry update that a United Arab Emirates service provider pushed out to its customers contains U.S.-made spyware that would allow the company or others to siphon and read their e-mail and text messages, according to a researcher who examined it.
The update was billed as a “performance enhancement patch” by the UAE-based phone and internet service provider Etisalat, which issued the patch for its 100,000 subscribers.
The patch only drew attention after numerous users complained that it drained their Blackberry battery and slowed performance, according to local publication ITP.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 14 Jul 2009
ISLAMABAD: The government announced on Sunday that sending indecent, provocative and ill-motivated stories and text messages through e-mails and mobile telephone Short Messaging Service (SMS) was an offence under the Cyber Crime Act (CCA) and its violators could be sent behind bars for 14 years.
An official announcement by the interior ministry said that the government was launching a campaign against circulation of what it called ill-motivated and concocted stories through emails and text messages against civilian leadership and security forces.
The announcement does not elaborate what is meant by ill-motivated e-messages, but it is believed that the ‘civilian leadership’ meant President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, Interior Minister Rehman Malik and other politicians.
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By: Rebekah Heacock
Date: 14 Jul 2009
A heads up for all those traveling to Thailand in the next two weeks: the country's public health minister, Witthaya Kaewparadai, announced plans to close tutorial schools and Internet cafes nationwide in a bid to prevent the spread of the H1N1 virus.
The announcement was made following the death of a Phuket University student last week. Schools and internet cafes are asked to spend the two weeks carefully cleaning equipment to prevent the spread of infection.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 14 Jul 2009
Reporters Without Borders condemns the eight-month jail sentence that a Tunis court has imposed on 69-year-old academic and human rights activist Khedija Arfaoui for posting a message on the social networking website Facebook in May referring to widespread rumours about children being kidnapped in Tunisia for their organs.
She was convicted on 4 July of “disturbing public order” under article 121 of the criminal code, which states that “anyone stirring up rebellion by means of speeches in public places or meetings, or placards, posters or written texts is punishable as if they had participated in the rebellion.”
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By: Rebekah Heacock
Date: 14 Jul 2009
France's controversial "three-strikes" internet law is getting another do-over. Originally rejected by the country's National Assembly, revised then declared unconstitutional, the anti-file sharer bill has yet again been revamped and passed for consideration by the French constitutional court.
The new version of the bill, like its predecessors, is intended to temporarily disconnect individuals from the internet if they are accused of online copyright infringement three times.
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By: Rebekah Heacock
Date: 14 Jul 2009
Qantas has put the kybosh on online activist group GetUp's latest anti-censorship campaign, refusing to run the "Censordyne" ad on its flights.
Simon Sheikh, chief executive of GetUp, said the group had planned to run the parody ad on all Qantas domestic flights into Canberra next month to ensure it was seen by politicians and their staff members around the first sitting week of Parliament.
But Qantas refused to run the ad, which lampoons the Government's forthcoming internet filtering scheme, saying it had a long-standing policy not to run "political advertising".
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By: Rebekah Heacock
Date: 14 Jul 2009
A media rights organisation on Tuesday accused Sri Lankan authorities of blocking access to websites critical of the government and stifling dissent.
The Paris-based Reporters without Borders, RSF, said Sri Lanka most recently blocked a site for reporting alleged incidents inside a camp for civilians displaced by the war with Tamil Tiger rebels.
"The Lankanewsweb.com blocking is the latest evidence of a decline in freedom of expression in Sri Lanka," RSF said in a statement.
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By: Rebekah Heacock
Date: 13 Jul 2009
The French Senate has once again approved a reworked version of the country's controversial 'three strikes' bill designed to appease the Constitutional Council. Instead of a state-appointed agency cutting off those accused of being repeat offenders, judges will have the final say over punishment. The approval comes exactly one month after the country's Constitutional Council ripped apart the previous version of the Création et Internet law.
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By: Rebekah Heacock
Date: 13 Jul 2009
The Ministerial Committee for Legislation voted against a bill proposed by Shas MK Amnon Cohen and supported by the previous Communications Minister, Ariel Atias (also from Shas), which would have made it mandatory for internet service providers (ISPs) to offer filtered internet as a default package to home consumers.
The 17th Knesset passed the bill in its first reading in February 2008, but for the 18th Knesset to vote on it, a decision by the ministerial committee was needed.
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The ministerial committee voted 7:1 against the bill. This means that the government will not sponsor the bill and it is unlikely to be approved by the Knesset.
