Feeds
Posted on 24/05/2013 From Citizen Media Law Project
In the wake of the Associated Press and James Rosen incidents, the call for statutory protection for journalists and their sources has started anew. The Obama administration has called on Sen. Chuck Schumer to re-introduce a federal media shield law, reviving a concept which floundered in 2009 in the wake of the Wikileaks disclosures and raising questions over the sufficiency of that proposal. Just as in 2009, one of the issues that will inevitably be raised is the question of who will...
Posted on 23/05/2013 From Electronic Frontier Foundation
Once again, we are seeing entrenched interests try to fight the future with scare tactics and misinformation. This time, it's major journal publishers, and their target is open access to taxpayer-funded research.
First things first: The reason the publishers are on the warpath is that state and federal legislators are looking to expand open access. One of the leading bills is California's open access bill (AB 609). This legislation is being discussed in the Assembly's Appropriations...
Posted on 23/05/2013 From Global Voices Advocacy
Omar Qatifaan, a 14-year-old media activist, was killed 21 May, 2013 while covering clashes between the Syrian Army and the rebel Free Army in the southern Daraa al-Ballad area of Syria near the border with Jordan.
Youth media project Syrian Documents reported on his death, and Syrian news blog YALLA SOURIYA called him the “Spirit of Syria”.
The conflict in Syria, as well as other Arab Spring uprisings, has seen a rise in citizen journalists reporting from the ground on the ongoing...
Posted on 23/05/2013 From Electronic Frontier Foundation
In a hearing last week in front of the House Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Eric Holder announced his support for updating the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). ECPA, which was written in 1986, is the main privacy law protecting private electronic messages like email, private Facebook messages, and Twitter direct messages. The law has been used by the government to argue that emails older than 180 days can be obtained without a probable cause warrant.
The current bills...
Posted on 23/05/2013 From Global Voices Advocacy
The Pakistani human rights organisation Bytes for All is challenging the use of invasive surveillance software by the government of Pakistan. FinFisher, produced by Gamma International, a UK-based company named by Reporters Without Borders as one of five “corporate enemies of the internet” and “digital era mercenaries,” is notorious for its advanced spying and surveillance capabilities which are used to target human rights movements all over the world. For example,...
Posted on 23/05/2013 From Global Voices Advocacy
When it comes to controlling information online, the Thai government has had a busy month. In addition to suing Thai Rath cartoonist Chai Rachawat for defamation, the government of Thailand is now threatening to close down websites that insult the Prime Minister.
Chai Rachawat posted a Facebook photo with a controversial caption criticizing Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra:
Please understand that prostitutes are not bad women. Prostitutes only sell their bodies, but a bad woman has been...
Posted on 23/05/2013 From Electronic Frontier Foundation
The patent troll problem is not new. Trolls have been targeting companies large and small for some time, dragging productive businesses into court and extorting licensing fees that have become a nearly unavoidable tax on innovation. This is wrong.
But even worse are the trolls who target end users. These end users are small businesses, startups, and even individuals who find themselves facing lawsuit threats and licensing demands for simply using everyday products. Their stories are...
Posted on 23/05/2013 From New America Foundation
Community members launched two new wireless networks at the end of April in Detroit neighborhoods, with a third one still in the works. Built on the Commotion mesh wireless platform, these networks function as local communications infrastructure: they act as an intranet for community interactions, and connect to the global Internet. Detroiters trained as technologists and community organizers -- “Digital Stewards” -- are building these new networks with support from Detroit’s Allied Media...
Posted on 23/05/2013 From Michael Geist
Privacy Commissioner of Canada Jennifer Stoddart this morning set out her office's goals for PIPEDA reform.
The last attempt to reform the private sector privacy law stalled in
the House of Commons with Bill C-12 still technically alive (having been sitting at
second reading for months) but destined to die once the government hits
the legislative reset button in the summer. The five-year mandatory
review of PIPEDA is now years behind schedule, so Stoddart's attempt to
kick-start the process is...
Posted on 23/05/2013 From Electronic Frontier Foundation
In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing "Talk" platform with a new one called "Hangouts" that sharply diminishes support for the open messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch...