Lesbian couples who have children through fertility treatment can now register both their names on the birth certificate, following a change in the law. The change, which applies to couples in England and Wales beginning fertility treatment on or after 6 April 2009, confers legal parenthood on a biological mother’s female partner for the first time
Lord Mandelson’s plans to cut off the broadband connections of internet users who illegally download copyrighted music and films were attacked by privacy campaigners, internet service providers and Labour MPs yesterday as unworkable, unnecessary and potentially illegal. TalkTalk, Britain’s largest consumer broadband provider, warned that innocent web users could be disconnected after having their connections hijacked by pirates looking to circumvent the new rules. It added that the move will likely breach fundamental human rights
Only one crime was solved by each 1,000 CCTV cameras in London last year, a report into the city’s surveillance network has claimed. The internal police report found the million-plus cameras in London rarely help catch criminals. In one month CCTV helped capture just eight out of 269 suspected robbers. David Davis MP, the former shadow home secretary, said: It should provoke a long overdue rethink on where the crime prevention budget is being spent
A model who was slammed with derogatory terms by an anonymous blogger has the right to learn the identity of her online heckler, a judge ruled. In August 2008, a user of Blogger.com, Google’s blogging service, created Skanks in NYC
, a site that assailed Liskula Cohen, 37, a Canadian-born onetime cover girl who has appeared in Vogue and other fashion magazines. The blog featured photos of Cohen captioned with terms including psychotic
, ho
, and skank
. On Monday, New York Supreme Court Judge Joan Madden ruled that Google must hand over to Cohen any identifying information it possesses about the blog’s creator
Civil libertarians have questioned the dramatic increase in the number of CCTV cameras operating in Melbourne’s CBD, saying they could potentially invade the privacy of citizens. The Melbourne City Council today released a map of the 54 CCTV cameras placed in city trouble spots in a bid to deter and capture footage of violence. Lord Mayor Robert Doyle said the cameras would be an important part of efforts by the council and Victoria Police to lessen city crime
A campaign has been launched to win a posthumous apology for computer pioneer Alan Turing over his conviction for homosexuality. The brilliant mathematician, who spent his key years at Manchester University, is hailed as one of the founders of modern computing. But a conviction for homosexuality effectively ended his career. Troubled Turing went on to commit suicide in 1954, aged just 41. Now a group of admirers of the scientist — named as one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century by Time Magazine — are lobbying the government to make a posthumous apology
There’s a disturbing new development in Australia. A law proposal was disclosed to the public that would get ISPs to spy on the contents of all communications to monitor for compliance. Presumably, the amendments would get Australian ISPs to monitor their networks for p2p activity and hand all their information to copyright holders
Chinese officials appear to have retreated from their controversial plan to install an internet filtering system on computers in the country. The industry and information technology minister, Li Yizhong, said today that the notion that the Green Dam programme would be required on every new computer was a misunderstanding
spawned by poorly written regulations
A landmark decision in Western Australia’s Supreme Court has given a Perth quadriplegic the right to refuse food from his care provider. Christian Rossiter, 49, was given the approval on the condition he understands the consequences of his actions. Mr Rossiter, who developed spastic quadriplegia after being hit by a car, says he is relieved by the court’s decision
Two people have been successfully prosecuted for refusing to provide authorities with their encryption keys, resulting in landmark convictions that may have carried jail sentences of up to five years. The government said today it does not know their fate
Whistleblower web site Wikileaks has published in full the Vodafone/2degrees story censored earlier this week by the New Zealand Commerce Commission. Wikileaks has provided several links to access the full story, from countries outside New Zealand, including Sweden, US, Finland, the Netherlands and Tonga. The organisation said that the file it had made available for download directly affects the country’s telecommunications regulations
Medical abortion is about to become more widely available across Australia, after not-for-profit sexual health organisation Marie Stopes International won the right to use the so-called abortion pill
RU486 in its clinics. From today the drug, also known as mifepristone, will be offered as an alternative to surgical abortion by 14 doctors at MSI’s nine centres in Victoria, NSW, the ACT, Western Australia and Queensland. It will be used only at less than nine weeks’ gestation, under prescribing and import rights granted by the Therapeutic Goods Administration. Marie Stopes said the TGA had relaxed rules compared with previous prescribing rights
Looking into Iran’s portion of the Internet is not an easy task. But the network security firm Arbor Networks recently released traffic data for both internal and external-facing Internet service providers in the country. This data shows that the country continues to filter Internet traffic and that its ISPs can filter larger quantities of data than before
Malaysia is considering the establishment of an Internet filter, similar to China’s abandoned Green Dam
project, a source familiar with the process told Reuters on Thursday. News of the proposal emerged within days of police arresting nearly 600 opposition supporters at a weekend rally denouncing a government that has ruled this Southeast Asian country for 51 years. A vibrant Internet culture has contributed to political challenges facing the government, which tightly controls mainstream media and has used sedition laws and imprisonment without trial to prosecute a blogger
Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs has been granted release from his prison sentence on compassionate grounds. Biggs, 79, is severely ill in hospital with pneumonia and doctors have said there is not much hope
for him
Chicago resident Amanda Bonnen sent a 16-word tweet on Twitter about mould in her apartment, and now the landlord has sued for $50,000. A spokesperson for the landlord said, We’re a sue first, ask questions later
organisation. Horizon wants Bonnen to pay $3,125 per word for publishing false and defamatory information on Twitter
More than half of the Internet service providers (ISPs) taking part in the Federal Government’s ISP filtering trial have reported minimal speed disruptions or technology problems. Of the nine participating ISPs, iPrimus, Netforce, Webshield, Nelson Bay Online and OMNIconnect told ARN they had seen no slowdowns in Internet speeds or problems with the filtering solutions in place. Of the remaining four ISPs, Tech2U and Highway1 were unable to respond by time of publication while Unwired and Optus refused to comment
The attorney general in Brussels has concluded a three year investigation into the money trails at the the local music royalty collecting agency SABAM. The attorney general concluded that the copyright group is not paying the artists the money owed to them, and will prosecute five managers for forgery of documents and abuse of trust
The identities of more than four million Britons are being offered for sale on the internet. Highly sensitive financial information, including credit card details, bank account numbers, telephone numbers and even PINs are available to the highest bidder. At least a quarter of a million British bank and credit card accounts have been hacked into by cybercriminals, exposing consumers to huge financial losses
They sometimes call national security the third rail of politics. Touch it and, politically, you’re dead. The cliché doesn’t seem far off the mark after reading Mark Klein’s new book, Wiring up the Big Brother Machine … and Fighting It. It’s an account of his experiences as the whistleblower who exposed a secret room at a Folsom Street facility in San Francisco that was apparently used to monitor the Internet communications of ordinary Americans
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