The Federal Government has abandoned its controversial plan for an internet filter.
Five years after Labor promised to filter the internet, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is dumping the plan.
Instead he will ask internet service providers to block child abuse websites that Interpol includes in its worst of
list — via redwolf.newsvine.com
IT vendors, already under attack for stonewalling the Australian government’s IT pricing inquiry, have received a blunt warning from the ACCC: don’t lie about why your products are expensive in Australia.
Speaking to the Australian Financial Review, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair Rod Sims says the watchdog is already looking into vendors’ claims that the “Aussie tax” is due to the country’s 10 percent GST, high wages or transport costs.
It’s a move that will probably jolt the vendors far more than the parliamentary inquiry. There’s no practical way to legislate price parity across international markets — but the ACCC has considerable powers to crack down on companies that mislead the public (without needing any new legislation).
Sims told the AFR that while the usual bleating complaints from vendors might account for a 30 percent price differential, if the price difference is 300 percent, then it’s a different matter
— via redwolf.newsvine.com
Nine people have each been told to pay £624 to a woman raped by footballer Ched Evans after they admitted naming her on Twitter and Facebook.
The former Sheffield United and Wales striker was jailed for five years in April for raping the 19-year-old.
Seven men and three women, aged between 18 and 27 from north Wales and Sheffield, have been accused of revealing the victim’s identity.
The law grants victims and alleged victims of rape lifelong anonymit — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Skype illegally distributed a user’s personal information to a private company during a police investigation into Anonymous-sanctioned cyberattacks on PayPal.
It and several other payment companies were attacked out of retribution for blocking donations to Wikileaks in 2011.
Skype handed over the personal information of a 16-year-old to an IT firm, which later informed Dutch authorities.
The police file for Operation Talang
, which has been seen by NU.nl, focussed on two persons. They are alleged to have played a role in attacks on websites belonging to Mastercard, VISA and Paypal by hacker collective Anonymous. They dubbed the attacks Operation Payback
— via redwolf.newsvine.com
After getting caught tracking customer web browsing in June this year, Telstra has brought back the controversial cybersafety program Smart Controls, only this time customers must opt in to the project.
In June, Telstra was caught out tracking its Next G customers’ web browsing, and sending that data to US-based filtering company Netsweeper to build a database of sites for a new cybersafety tool called Smart Controls. Smart Controls is designed to block certain categories of sites from appearing on Telstra mobiles whose owners have signed up for the service.
The company ceased the tracking when it was caught, but claimed that it had been removing customer information from the URL before sending that data to the United States.
Today, the company announced that it has redesigned Smart Controls as an opt-in
product for internet browsing to be tracked for the service — via redwolf.newsvine.com
An international training institute to teach online tactics for human rights campaigners is being set up in the Italian city of Florence.
The first students, starting in the new year, will be drawn from human rights activists around the world — with the aim of arming them with the latest tools for digital dissent.
As the Arab spring showed, protests are as likely to be about individuals using social networking as much as public demonstrations. Street protests have become Tweet protests.
And repressive regimes are as likely to be hunting through Facebook as they are raiding underground meetings.
There is a dangerous, high-stakes, hi-tech game of cat and mouse being played — with protesters needing to balance their secrecy and safety with their need to achieve the maximum public impact.
This training centre, being set up by the European wing of the US-based Robert Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, wants to combine academic study with practical skills and training — via redwolf.newsvine.com
While serial self-publicist Kim Dotcom was re-igniting the submarine cable debate in New Zealand, the Electronic Frontiers Foundation’s (EFF’s) case trying to recover files on behalf of a former Megaupload user Kyle Goodwin took a new twist.
The EFF has been in court trying to gain access to the servers seized by the Feds last year, when the Megaupload saga began. Access to the servers, they have argued, is necessary to help establish Goodwin’s case that his files should be returned.
In a filing that the EFF says should terrify
users of any cloud service, the government is arguing that Goodwin’s property rights aren’t sufficient to demand access to the servers.
The government arguments are that Goodwin cannot demonstrate any ownership
over the servers, since he merely paid for a service. Moreover, while conceding that Goodwin might have the right to assert his copyright, that is not sufficient to establish that he has an ownership interest in the property that is the subject of his motion — the copies of his data, if any, which remain on Carpathia’s servers
— via redwolf.newsvine.com
The Russian government has opened a blacklist of websites that will be blocked from domestic internet users to avoid them harming themselves with too much information.
The new rules mean that ISPs will automatically block websites that the courts have deemed inappropriate. The law was introduced with the usual caveats about it being to protect children from online predators and to stop drug distribution, but political websites that criticise Tsar President Putin have already been blocked by the courts.
The decision on what sites are to be banned will be enacted by the sinister-sounding Roskomnadzor (AKA the Agency for the Supervision of Information Technology, Communications and Mass Media) and enforced with deep-packet inspection of all internet traffic across the country — which must be reassuring for those using Russian cloud providers — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Labor MP-turned-independent Craig Thomson has launched a scathing attack on his former colleagues over the issue of border protection, labelling them hypocrites and accusing them of pandering to the redneck
vote.
Mr Thomson’s outburst has been prompted by the Government’s move to excise the mainland from Australia’s migration zone, something Labor campaigned strongly against when the former Howard government tried to do it in 2006.
The move would strip away any legal advantage asylum seekers get by reaching the mainland, compared with those taken directly to an offshore processing centre.
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen introduced the legislation yesterday, but Mr Thomson has declared he will vote against it — via redwolf.newsvine.com
It’s bad enough that when you buy
an e-book, you’re really only renting it, but now we hear that at least one e-book seller will, it has been alleged, wipe your device if it sees fit.
Norwegian writer Martin Bekkelund tells the story of a chum, called Linn, who claims to have had her Kindle remotely wiped by Amazon UK.
Linn not unreasonably asked Amazon what was up and was told via email by one Michael Murphy, Executive Customer Relations at Amazon.co.uk, that we have found your account is directly related to another which has been previously closed for abuse of our policies. As such, your Amazon.co.uk account has been closed and any open orders have been cancelled
.
As for the remote wipe, Amazons T&Cs say, according to Mr Murphy, that Amazon.co.uk and its affiliates reserve the right to refuse service, terminate accounts, remove or edit content, or cancel orders at their sole discretion
. [our italics]
Bekkelund’s pal maintains she had no Amazon.co.uk account. Instead she says she used Amazon.com. But the British offshoot refused to accept this point — or provide her with any further details that might provide her with a way back to the content she claims she acquired legitimately — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A senior employee at New Zealand’s Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to have been sent on gardening leave, as the Bureau and other government agencies investigate the Kim Dotcom affair.
In recent works it has emerged that the GCSB conducted surveillance of Dotcom under laws that empower it to spy on foreigners. But the ebullient former Megaupload owner is a permanent resident of New Zealand, and spying on him is therefore verbotenunder Kiwi law.
New Zealand media report a man identified as Agent CX
signed off on the surveillance is now undergoing an employment process
, which sounds like bureaucratese for ticking all the boxes to sack a civil servant in a way that makes it hard for them to sue later on
.
Agent CX, who the New Zealand Herald names as Hugh Wolfensohn, is said to have been the GCSB’s senior legal officer — via redwolf.newsvine.com
One of the greatest benefits of 3D printing technology — the ability to make replacements or parts for household objects like toys, utensils and gadgets — may be denied to US citizens thanks to the granting of a sweeping patent that prevents the printing of unauthorised 3D designs. It has all the makings of the much-maligned digital rights management (DRM) system that prevented copying of Apple iTunes tracks — until it was abandoned as a no-hoper in 2009.
US patent 8286236, granted on 9 October to Intellectual Ventures of Bellevue, Washington, lends a 3D printer the ability to assess whether a computer design file it’s reading has an authorisation code appended that grants access for printing. If it does not, the machine simply refuses to print — whether it’s a solid object, a textile or even food that’s being printed — via redwolf.newsvine.com
The Financial Ombudsman Service fairly and independently resolves disputes between consumers — including some small businesses — and member financial services providers. Membership of the Financial Ombudsman Service is open to any financial services provider carrying on business in Australia.
Our independent dispute resolution processes cover financial services disputes including banking, credit, loans, general insurance, life insurance, financial planning, investments, stock broking, managed funds and pooled superannuation trusts. We also cover estate planning, estate management and trustee services
Earlier this week, Apple secured a license from the Swiss Railway to use its iconic Swiss Clock on the iPad. This agreement was lauded by the SBB, but it wasn’t so favorably received by Swiss watch maker Mondaine, according to a report in MacWorld UK. The watchmaker has held an exclusive license to use the design since 1986 and said it was surprised by the SBB’s agreement with Apple.
Mondaine holds a long-term exclusive licensee according to a contract with SBB to produce, distribute and market watches and clocks based on the SBB design since 1986 and got surprised to hear about a license agreement between SBB and Apple.
— via redwolf.newsvine.com
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the nation’s guardian of consumer rights and regulator of competition and consumer law, has commenced legal action against HP over its warranty and repair practices.
The ACCC is upset with HP for five reasons, namely:
— via redwolf.newsvine.com
British computer hacker Gary McKinnon will not be extradited to the US, Home Secretary Theresa May has announced.
Mr McKinnon, 46, who admits accessing US government computers but claims he was looking for evidence of UFOs, has been fighting extradition since 2002.
The home secretary told MPs there was no doubt Mr McKinnon was seriously ill
and the extradition warrant against him should be withdrawn.
Mrs May said the sole issue she had to consider was his human rights.
She said it was now for the Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, to decide whether he should face trial in the UK — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A member of the anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church has been tackled at a military funeral for an openly gay US soldier.
Army Staff Sergeant Donna Johnson was killed along with two others in Afghanistan earlier this month when an insurgent detonated a suicide vest while they were on dismounted patrol, according to the US Department of Defense. She was married to her female partner, Tracy Dice.
At her funeral yesterday, a Westboro member stomped on the American flag which led to a soldier hitting one of the protesters, Guardian of Valor reports.
As he was being arrested, two other soldiers rescued the flag — via redwolf.newsvine.com
It is fallacy that anonymity breeds terrible behaviour — poor community management and poorly designed reputation systems do that.
Being made to use your real
name online does not hold most accountable. If that were the case hundreds of facebook/social media managers around the world would be out of work while people behaved politely online and with civility towards fellow humankind.
Persistent identity
— because real can’t be regulated (yet anyway) — does not stop people from behaving badly, if anything it stifles their ability to say what they really think. Which as a society, is something we should all hold in high regard. And defend.
Most people I meet who are anti-anonymity have never inhabited an online forum because almost everyone who ever has, has a completely different understanding of the issue. (Quite possibly Randy Zuckerberg also falls into this category, and no doubt her anti-anonymity views of indicative of what gets said in the halls of facebook) — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Back in August, I urged people to respond to the consultation on the truly dreadful Draft Communications Bill, aka Snooper’s Charter. Obviously, I wasn’t alone in doing that: many organisations concerned about the impact on civil liberties in this country have done the same. For example, both 38 Degrees and Open Rights Group (ORG) provided suggested texts and asked people to contact the Joint Parliamentary Committee that has been considering the Bill – and doing rather a good job of it, I must say.
Out of 19,000 emails received by the Committee on the subject of the proposed Draft Communications Bill, not a single one was in favour of it, or even agreed with its premise. Has there ever been a bill so universally rejected by the public in a consultation? Clearly, it must be thrown out completely — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Victoria Police has launched a scathing attack on the Catholic Church, accusing it of deliberately impeding its investigations into child abuse.
In a submission to the parliamentary inquiry into the handling of child abuse by churches, signed by Chief Commissioner Ken Lay, police recommend that some of the church’s actions to hinder investigations be criminalised.
The submission lists a number of ways in which the church has hindered the criminal justice process, including dissuading victims of sexual crimes from reporting them to police, failing to engage with police and alerting suspects of allegations against them, which may have resulted in loss of evidence
— via redwolf.newsvine.com
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