A research group in Canada has discovered that Skype and its partner in China TOM Online have been spying on its users, eavesdropping on chat sessions and deploying software that searches for keywords. The revelations, in a report written by Nart Villeneuve at the Citizen Lab unit of the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto, have horrified Skype users and could result in a user backlash against the service
The federal Government says it may be flexible with mobile internet providers in its mandatory ISP filtering policy. The Australian Communications and Media Authority is planning to test internet filtering technology in a live environment after trials by the agency were deemed successful
Two leading dissident Burmese websites have been shut down by a sophisticated cyber attack believed to have been initiated by the military junta a day before the first anniversary of Burma’s so-called Saffron Revolution. The web sites, run by the Democratic Voice of Burma and The Irrawaddy news magazine, are operated by exiles in Norway and Thailand respectively. Both were disabled on Wednesday. Inside Burma, internet services were reportedly running slowly, suggesting an attempt by the regime to stem the flow of information in and out of the country at such a sensitive time
A court has ruled that a site providing links to P2P downloads is operating legally. The Provincial Court of Madrid ruled that Sharemula.com, a site offering eDonkey links to movies, music, software and games does not break the law. The court’s decision is final and cannot be appealed
The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a lawsuit against the National Security Agency and other government agencies today on behalf of AT&T customers to stop the illegal, unconstitutional and ongoing dragnet surveillance of their communications and communications records. The five individual plaintiffs are also suing President George W Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Cheney’s chief of staff David Addington, former Attorney General and White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and other individuals who ordered or participated in the warrantless domestic surveillance
The federal Government’s plan to implement content filters at the internet service provider level is one step closer to reality with live trials set to commence after next month. The Government will seek expressions of interest in the second half of October for ISPs to participate in live trials
Civil libertarians are up in arms over moves to give Queensland Police and the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) police phone-tapping powers
The Pirate Bay has been censored
in Italy following an urgent decree from a deputy public prosecutor. Pirate Bay’s IPs and the domain name are inaccessible, as they are blocked by ISPs all over the country. Whether these blocks will be very effective, however, is doubtful, since The Pirate Bay has already announced several countermeasures
Reporters covering the Beijing Olympics who are frustrated by Chinese Internet censorship can use free software tools developed to help Chinese users circumvent these controls, according to a representative of a group that develops such software
The FBI removed computer records from the C Burr Artz Library this week. Darrell Batson, director of Frederick County Public Libraries, said two FBI employees came to the downtown Frederick library either Wednesday or Thursday. The agents removed two public computers from the library’s second floor. They told him they were taking the units back to their office in Washington, DC
Alaska’s Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator in US history, was indicted yesterday on seven charges of making false statements about more than $250,000 that corporate executives doled out to overhaul his Anchorage area house
The federal Government will embark on the next step of its internet filtering strategy after initial trials proved successful, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said. Senator Conroy today released the findings of a recently concluded ISP-level internet filtering trial conducted in Tasmania by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) in a closed environment
The historic site of Britain’s crucial code-breaking programme during the second world war is so shabby it has become a national disgrace
. Bletchley Park, which helped launch the modern computer, is in a terrible state of disrepair
because of a lack of investment, say professors and heads of science from universities across the country in a letter to the Times
The embarrassing details of Federal MPs listed on a popular online encyclopedia are being systematically removed by public servants. The politicians and their staff have also received editing instructions from Parliamentary Librarian Roxanne Missingham on how to remove “incorrect or biased” information from the Wikipedia site. Outraged members of the volunteer Wikipedia community say they frequently catch politicians trying to censor entries
The Federal Government will abolish certificates that give ministers sweeping powers to keep documents a secret as the first step in reforms to the Freedom of Information law
A federal judge has restored endangered species protections for gray wolves in the Northern Rockies, derailing plans by three states to hold public wolf hunts this fall
UK ISPs will be invited to tender for a British government scheme to monitor all internet communications and telecommunications in the country. But Britain’s information commissioner, Richard Thomas, has raised serious concerns about a government plan for a vast new database holding the telephone numbers and email accounts of everyone in the country
The IFPI and mediocre artists around the world are rubbing their hands in glee, after a proposal to extend copyright in the EU for another 45 years. The proposal, intended to benefit musicians
, comes up for a vote on Wednesday. On the plus side, at the same time collecting societies are going to have their practices scrutinised
When it comes to politicians taking a stand against anti-piracy bills
, such as the three-strikes legislation that’s being backdoored in Europe at the moment, the mind generally goes Swedish, to Rick Falkvinge for example. The mind doesn’t tend to think of North American politicians, but there is an exception, in Canada’s Charlie Angus
It used to be that just the entertainment industries wanted to control your computers — and televisions and iPods and everything else — to ensure that you didn’t violate any copyright rules. But now everyone else wants to get their hooks into your gear. OnStar will soon include the ability for the police to shut off your engine remotely. Buses are getting the same capability, in case terrorists want to re-enact the movie Speed. The Pentagon wants a kill switch installed on airplanes, and is worried about potential enemies installing kill switches on their own equipment
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