Politics

Bloggers could face high fines for libel under the new Leveson deal with exemplary damages imposed if they don’t sign up to the new regulator, it was claimed on Tuesday.

Under clause 29 introduced to the crime and courts bill in the Commons on Monday night, the definition of relevant bloggers or websites includes any that generate news material where there is an editorial structure giving someone control over publication.

Bloggers would not be at risk of exemplary damages for comments posted by readers. There is also a schedule that excludes certain publishers such as scientific journals, student publications and not-for-profit community newspapers. Websites are guaranteed exclusion from exemplary damages if they can get on this list.

Kirsty Hughes, the chief executive of Index on Censorship, which campaigns for press freedom around the world, said it was a sad day for British democracy. This will undoubtedly have a chilling effect on everyday people’s web use, she said.

She said she feared thousands of websites could fall under the definition of a relevant publisher in clause 29 — via redwolf.newsvine.com

While Congress is working on legislation to re-legalise cellphone unlocking, let’s acknowledge the real issue: The copyright laws that made unlocking illegal in the first place. Who owns our stuff? The answer used to be obvious. Now, with electronics integrated into just about everything we buy, the answer has changed.

We live in a digital age, and even the physical goods we buy are complex. Copyright is impacting more people than ever before because the line between hardware and software, physical and digital has blurred.

The issue goes beyond cellphone unlocking, because once we buy an object — any object — we should own it. We should be able to lift the hood, unlock it, modify it, repair it … without asking for permission from the manufacturer.

But we really don’t own our stuff any more (at least not fully); the manufacturers do. Because modifying modern objects requires access to information: code, service manuals, error codes, and diagnostic tools. Modern cars are part horsepower, part high-powered computer. Microwave ovens are a combination of plastic and microcode. Silicon permeates and powers almost everything we own.

This is a property rights issue, and current copyright law gets it backwards, turning regular people — like students, researchers, and small business owners — into criminals. Fortune 500 telecom manufacturer Avaya, for example, is known for suing service companies, accusing them of violating copyright for simply using a password to log in to their phone systems. That’s right: typing in a password is considered reproducing copyrighted material — via redwolf.newsvine.com

A propaganda video from the North Korean authorities has been removed from YouTube following a copyright claim by games maker Activision.

The clip showed a young man dreaming about a North Korean space shuttle destroying a city that resembles New York.

But the footage of burning buildings was taken from Activision’s top selling game, Call of Duty.

North Korea insists its space programme is for peaceful purposes.

But the country’s intent — particularly towards South Korea — has raised concerns leader Kim Jong-un has plans for a ballistic missile system.

The video was posted on Saturday by North Korea’s official Pyongyang YouTube channel — via redwolf.newsvine.com

A controversial plan to store information about personal internet and telephone usage in Australia has been criticised by the world wide web’s inventor, Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

Internet service providers and telecommunications companies would be asked to store data that passes through their networks for up to two years under plans being considered by the Federal government.

Law enforcement agencies want the data retained to help fight crime.

Speaking in Sydney on Tuesday, Berners-Lee said that although it is important that technology is used to help fight crime, data retention laws could result in a nation where Australians are trapped by their own information — via redwolf.newsvine.com

As of Saturday, unlocking a cellphone is against US law.

The process, which allows you to use your handset with a network other than the one you bought it from, has just become illegal again as part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Unlocking was formerly allowed under an exemption to the act, ABC News explains, but in October 2012 the the US Copyright Office and Library of Congress decided not to renew the clause and it expired on Jan. 26.

Now, you must obtain your carrier’s permission to unlock your phone or face a potential fine of up to $2,500. Anyone found unlocking handsets for profit could be forced to pay up to $500,000 and may even go to jail, according to ABC — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Much of the discussion following the death of Aaron Swartz relates to the issue of disproportionate prosecution.

Legal heavyweights and online activists discuss whether Massachusetts prosecutors were pursuing him overzealously, and the nature of Swartz’s alleged crimes when he downloaded 4 million articles from JSTOR, an archive to which he had legitimate access. Swartz faced up to 35 years in jail for downloading the articles. The prosecutor responsible for the pursuit of Swartz, Carmen Ortiz, last week tried to wash her hands of responsibility for his death.

Whatever the legal and procedural merits of Ortiz’s pursuit of Swartz, aggressive over-prosecution is normally the fate of anyone deemed to be an online activist.

Bradley Manning faces life imprisonment for leaking evidence of US war crimes, should the US military ever cease regularly delaying his trial. Manning was even found by a US military judge to have been systematically mistreated while in custody.

Barrett Brown currently faces 45 years in prison for, inter alia, posting a URL and quoting a Fox News threat to kill Julian Assange in a tweet.

Hacker Jeremy Hammond faces life in prison for allegedly breaking into the emails of self-promoting alternative CIA Stratfor, a global intelligence company. Hammond’s case is in the hands of a judge who is married to one of the hack’s victims.

Then there’s the case of Julian Assange, who is either the victim of an international conspiracy to keep him permanently entangled in criminal prosecution, or who has a strange capacity to induce irrational and obsessive overreactions from governments.

The list goes on and on? — ?there’s the over-the-top raid on Kim Dotcom in New Zealand, which turned out to be illegal, along with the spying on Dotcom by a New Zealand intelligence agency that is now the subject of an inquiry — via redwolf.newsvine.com