Australia’s biggest tobacco companies say the Government’s decision to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes will only provide a boost for the black market trade. But anti-smoking groups and health advocates have backed the move, calling it a groundbreaking policy
Google has been fined $US8500 (AU$9100) in Brazil after an anonymous internet user posted defamatory messages on one of its sites against a priest, calling him a paedophile
, media reported on Sunday. A court in the state of Minas Gerais ruled in favour of the 54-year-old priest, identified by his initials JR, after rejecting Google’s argument that the US web giant was not responsible for what users posted on its Orkut social networking site
Tobacco giants are using Facebook to subvert bans and international conventions against cigarette advertising, a study by University of Sydney researchers published in the British Medical Journal has found
The Government of India has just introduced a major new copyright reform package. Of particular note from a Canadian perspective are the approaches to fair dealing and anti-circumvention. On fair dealing, the provision is expanded to cover private and personal use
. On anti-circumvention, the bill is consistent with implementing the WIPO Internet treaties in a manner that retains equal rights both online and offline. The provision specifically targets circumvention for the purposes of copyright infringement and does not target the distribution or marketing of devices that can be used to circumvent
Sharing your credit card and online purchases with friends on the web sounds risky and it is. We’ve just discovered that several credit card transactions shared on social networking site Blippy have been exposed — with full credit card numbers included — in Google search results
A man on a flight from West Africa to New York City was removed from the plane and detained Thursday after authorities apparently added him to a no-fly list during the trip. Customs and Border Protection agents detained the man while the Delta Air Lines jet stopped to refuel in San Juan, Puerto Rico after an overnight trip from Dakar, Senegal. Passengers said that the captain announced over the intercom that the man had been added to a roster of people banned from travel to the US while the plane was in flight
A drunken street golf game with foam balls has led to a serious civil rights issue, pitting computer geeks against police practices. Eric Rachner, a Seattle cyber security expert and one of the golf players, wasn’t satisfied when the city dismissed charges against him after a possibly illegal arrest for refusing to provide identification. Rachner discovered through sleuthing that police had withheld video-recorded evidence in his case
If Australia signs the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), internet service providers (ISPs) may be obliged to hand over the identity of its users to those defending copyright. The European Commission of Trade has released a draft of the agreement, which aims to establish international standards on how to enforce intellectual property rights, and has involved countries around the world including Australia. Signatories to the ACTA will be required to ensure that copyright holders can sue intermediaries
whose services are used to infringe intellectual property
Telstra has patched a data breach on its business web site that had the potential to reveal personal information, such as date of birth, of 700 customers. Telstra confirmed that the only details that could be sighted without the need to log-in were the name, address and account number of a customer. But afterwards, it was confirmed that a customer account holder’s date of birth (DOB) could also be seen
Google’s services are blocked or censored to some degree in one-fourth of the countries where it operates. China is the most polarising example, but it is not the only one. Google products — from search and Blogger to YouTube and Google Docs — have been blocked in 25 of the 100 countries where we offer our services,
wrote Rachel Whetstone, Google’s vice president of global communications and public affairs, on the company’s European public policy blog. In addition, we regularly receive government requests to restrict or remove content from our properties,
she wrote, adding that Google has argued to narrow the scope of such requests when it believes the request is overly broad
The far-reaching demands of an anti-piracy group working on behalf of the movie industry have been rejected by a judge. Federazione Anti-Pirateria Audiovisiva wanted ISP Telecom Italia to take unprecedented action against file-sharing subscribers, but the court decided that the ISP couldn’t be held responsible for the actions of its customers
Today the costs of running a blacklist were made clear, showing that the filter could be a very expensive operation. When a URL is submitted to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) it will cost between $173 and $685 per item to investigate, regardless of whether it is refused classification
or not. The dollar value was revealed in answer to Greens communications spokesperson Scott Ludlam who had asked ACMA how much it cost to action URLs submitted for the Classification Board to classify
Negotiators on Wednesday will publish the first officially released draft of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a new treaty designed to harmonise copyright enforcement around the world
The Irish government has had extensive private discussions on introducing internet blocking — barring access to websites or domains — according to material obtained under a Freedom of Information (FOI) request. The approach is used by some internet service providers (ISPs) and mobile network operators to block access to child pornography. But increasingly, governments and law enforcement agencies are pushing for much broader use, ranging from blocking filesharing sites to trying to tackle cybercrime and terrorism
The US government is actively trying to figure out how best to handle intellectual property rights, so it has asked the concerned parties to submit all sorts of information in order to better understand what’s going on. The person in charge of this is the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, and what the RIAA and MPAA have submitted borders on the insane. Well, it would border on the insane if it weren’t totally their modus operandi. The most glaring suggestion
? That computer users install software that would scan the contents of their hard drives, looking for examples of infringement
. If the software discovers what it thinks it infringement, bam! Deleted! I’d be surprised if this were the year 2001, but after so many years of insane RIAA/MPAA stories it’s hard to be shocked any more
A former high-ranking National Security Agency employee was indicted on 10 felony charges Thursday for his alleged role in leaking classified information to a news reporter. The federal indictment does not identify the reporter, but several news organizations, citing government sources, named a former national security correspondent for The Baltimore Sun as the recipient of the leaks. Thomas Andrews Drake, a 52-year-old Howard County man who worked as a process improvement
official at NSA from 2001 until he resigned in 2008, is accused of copying and storing classified documents at his home and then destroying the documents and lying to investigators when authorities found out
A new type of malware infects PCs using file-share sites and publishes the user’s net history on a public web site before demanding a fee for its removal. The Japanese trojan virus installs itself on computers using a popular file-share service called Winny, used by up to 200m people. It targets those downloading illegal copies of games in the Hentai genre, an explicit form of anime. Website Yomiuri claims that 5500 people have so far admitted to being infected. The virus, known as Kenzero, is being monitored by web security firm Trend Micro in Japan. Masquerading as a game installation screen, it requests the PC owner’s personal details. It then takes screengrabs of the user’s web history and publishes it online in their name, before sending an e-mail or pop-up screen demanding a credit card payment of ¥1500 (£10) to settle your violation of copyright law
and remove the web page
This Electronic Lodgement System can only be used for complaints under matters covered by the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice. Code Complaints include program classification; accuracy, fairness and respect for privacy in news and current affairs; the amount of non-program matter on television; and placement of commercials and program promotions — via Free TV Australia
The British Chiropractic Association dropped its libel action against the science writer Simon Singh today, filing a notice of discontinuation in the high court. The case had become a cause celebre, with scientists, celebrities and freedom of speech campaigners lining up to condemn the British libel laws and argue that Singh had a right to express his opinion in print. The sudden end to the case will strengthen the campaign for reform of the libel laws, which Jack Straw, the justice secretary, is considering. It is also a specific pledge in the Liberal Democrat manifesto
The National Security Agency has developed a software tool that detects thumb drives or other flash media connected to a network, and any federal agency can get a copy free — no box tops or coupons required. The NSA provided a brief tantalising description of its USBDetect 3.0 Computer Network Defence Tool in the unclassified part of its fiscal 2011 budget request. The software, the NSA said, provides network administrators and system security officials with an automated capability to detect the introduction of USB storage devices into their networks. This tool closes potential security vulnerabilities; a definite success story in the pursuit of the [Defence Department] and NSA protect information technology system strategic goals
RSS – Posts