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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 27 Feb 2009
Following up on the story about the censorship of the Academy Award acceptance speeches given by Milk's lead actor Sean Penn and screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, there has been an impassioned response.
Speaking to indieWIRE, Black said that “whenever something like that happens, it’s indicative of where a significant problem lies.” He continued, "What I think is great about this is how the gay communities there responded."
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 27 Feb 2009
Throughout Europe, music industry lobbyists have tried to convince ISPs to block file-sharing sites, and not without success. The Irish ISP Eircom is the first to cave in to the pressure of the music industry, and without any argument will block all file-sharing related websites - starting with The Pirate Bay.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 27 Feb 2009
Those living in New Zealand can breathe a bit easier today, as the controversial "three strikes" P2P policy is currently on hold. The measure is designed to intimidate alleged P2P pirates with the threat that their internet connections will be permanently disconnected after three warnings.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 27 Feb 2009
Eircom, Ireland's biggest internet provider, has agreed to block access to any website the music industry says is responsible for illegal music-swapping.
In a letter sent to ISPs across the country last week, the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) disclosed the deal and warned others to follow suit or face legal action.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 27 Feb 2009
ISPs have rejected a call by childrens' charities to implement the government's approved blocklist for images of child sexual abuse, because the list does not stop anyone who wants to accessing such material.
On Monday a coalition including the NSPCC and Barnardo's sounded warnings that 700,000 homes could access websites hosting images of abuse because small ISPs do not filter their networks. The charities aimed to put pressure on the government to force them to implement the Internet Watch Foundation's blocklist, pointing out that in 2006 ministers said all providers should do so by the end of 2007.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 23 Feb 2009
Eleanor Roosevelt never imagined the Internet.
Neither did the other framers of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 60 years ago when they enshrined the right to freedom of expression. Yet they wisely left room for just such a development by declaring in Article 19: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."
Today, the Internet is both the vehicle and the battleground for freedom of expression around the world. The struggle between writers and governments over this free flow of information has escalated this past year and promises to intensify. Those supporting open frontiers for ideas and information need to be on high alert and take steps necessary to protect those silenced and to keep the Internet unencumbered.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 23 Feb 2009
MAJOR inconsistencies have emerged in the way a top-secret blacklist of web pages is managed by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
The content of the list of illegal, prohibited and potential prohibited web pages is meant to be strictly confidential. It is the backbone of the federal Government's internet censorship plan.
The list is of critical importance as it is being used as a basis for internet filtering trials, which involves internet service providers blocking web pages.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 23 Feb 2009
Federal Labor’s proposed internet filtering policy is an attack on freedom of speech and needs to be stopped.
In the last federal election, the ALP ran with a policy of introducing a mandatory internet filtering policy. This policy has received relatively little media coverage and was not prominent in its election material.
The government is determined to go ahead with this scheme despite widespread public opposition. A recent Netspace survey found 80% of its customers disagreed with any internet filtering scheme.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 20 Feb 2009
Republican politicians on Thursday called for a sweeping new federal law that would require all Internet providers and operators of millions of Wi-Fi access points, even hotels, local coffee shops, and home users, to keep records about users for two years to aid police investigations.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, supporter of a bill that would require Internet user records to be saved for police.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, supporter of a bill that would require Internet user records to be saved for police.
The legislation, which echoes a measure proposed by one of their Democratic colleagues three years ago, would impose unprecedented data retention requirements on a broad swath of Internet access providers and is certain to draw fire from businesses and privacy advocates.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 19 Feb 2009
HONG KONG—China's 47 million bloggers are frequently subjected to censorship by their Internet service providers, but politically sensitive material also routinely falls through the cracks as individual companies interpret government guidelines in their own way, a new report shows.
In the first in-depth report to focus on user-generated content on social media and blogging platforms, researchers found that censorship levels across 15 different Chinese blogging platforms varied even more than expected.
