In my most recent post I contrasted the approaches of the UK and Finland towards access to broadband. Whilst reading a little further around the topic, I came across some interesting discussion of the controversy surrounding the Digital Economy Act….
I’m attending the Cybersecurity Workshop at Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. The workshop seeks to help researchers set an agenda for studying cybersecurity policy and issues. Tomorrow, I’m moderating a panel on the role that information law plays in cybersecurity, and I’ll post a precis of my talk here afterwards. There’s a great mix [...]
Professor Richard Epstein (U. Chicago) and I have been debating Internet censorship, and the exchange is posted at the State Department’s America.gov site. This is a rematch of our Legal Affairs debate in 2006. I think the heart of the debate is Epstein’s position that there are universal moral norms that should govern (and, largely, [...]
Rogers Communications appeared before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage and was asked by NDP MP Charlie Angus about their position on ACTA and ISP liability. Ken Englehart, Senior VP Regulatory, left little doubt about the company's concerns with ACTA and the possibility of a three-strikes and you're out model coming to Canada:
We are concerned, as many ISPs are, about the ACTA negotiations. It's supposed to be about counterfeiting, but it seems to have gone way past counterfeiting to talking about issues of ISPs and the downloading activities of our customers. We don't think ISPs should be put in the position of being traffic cops to decide what is legal and what is not. We really hate any idea that we would have to terminate our customers' service on a three-strikes policy. We do not want to do that at all. I have a great deal of sympathy for the copyright holders who feel that their content is being stolen. It's a big problem. But I don't want to see this done by putting ISPs in the position of having to disconnect their customers or aid in the conviction of their customers.
When asked to expand on how ISPs and copyright holders strike the balance, Englehart focused on the effectiveness of the current notice-and-notice system, arguing that "those types of mechanisms should be exhausted before any kind of more Draconian measures are imposed."
TechDirt points to a post at Eric Goldman's blog that reports that Brazil is working on new reforms that reject the U.S. notice-and-takedown approach for Internet intermediaries.
The Government has reintroduced a bill designed to require providers of Internet services to report incidents of child pornography. The bill was introduced as Bill C-58 last year. I discussed the bill here. The new bill is Bill C-22.
An op-ed version of my article Cybersieves is available at The Legal Workshop. It’s a condensed, hopefully snappier version of the piece, and is intended for the general public in addition to cyberlaw geeks like me. Many thanks to Lee Davis and the Duke Law Journal staff for their excellent work!
The Guardian reports that Ofcom, the UK telecom regulator, is considering mandatory regulation to force ISPs to provide more accurate information on the likeley speeds of their service.
Yesterday I wrote about privacy consultations regarding the online tracking of consumers. Privacy advocates want to ensure that consumer choice and privacy are respected. Similarly, pressure is put on ISP’s and search engines to limit the amount of information they retain about their customers, and the length of time they retain it. All laudable objectives.
On [...]
Update (1/14/2010): Verisign’s iDefense Labs traced the cyber-attacks on Google to a “single foreign entity consisting either of agents of the Chinese state or proxies thereof”. In response to Google’s statement and claims of hacking, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said, “China’s internet is open… China administers the internet according to the law. We have an [...]