DNS-Filtering Legislation (USA)

''Internet-security researchers are saying Senate antipiracy legislation that would dramatically increase the government's legal power to disrupt and shutter websites dedicated to infringing activity “raises serious technical and security concerns.”'' [source]

"No Hope for Australian Net Filter"

Plans for web-censorship in Australia

''Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) has launched nocleanfeed.com as part of the campaign against Labors planed compulsory Internet censorship for all Australian homes and schools. The censorship plans are shrouded in secrecy but will involve a massive federal government blacklist of website (both legal and illegal) that Internet Service Providers (eg Telstra, Optus and iiNet) would be forced to block Australian Internet users from accessing. The proposed system has been compared to the Great Firewall of China used by the communist government to track users and prevent them from accessing news site such as bbc news, wikipedia and websites of human rights and religious organisations.''

Source here.

[Thanks limaCAT for the hint]

Blogger is banned in Turkey

Source here.

The Pirate Bay è di nuovo accessibile

''
Gli utenti italiani, grazie ad una nuova sentenza, possono di nuovo accedere al più famoso tracker BitTorrent
''

Source here.

File sharing & RIAA: what is going on?

''It was five years ago Monday the Recording Industry Association of America began its massive litigation campaign that now includes more than 30,000 lawsuits targeting alleged copyright scofflaws on peer-to-peer networks.
...
In two cases, judges have ruled that making songs available on a peer-to-peer network does not constitute copyright infringement -- the RIAA has to show that someone actually downloaded the material from a defendant's open share folder. One of those cases is still mired in pretrial litigation. In the other, an Arizona judge issued a $40,000 judgment last week in favor of the recording industry, after learning the defendant tampered with his hard drive to conceal his downloading.
...''

Article here.

Italy and the web - this time it's PirateBay

Italy is a complex country. For some things it is a modern society, where citizens have a good life-style and with a lot of historical traditions and a great food culture.
In other respects the country (and its inhabitants) is still struggling to embrace change and a more service-oriented, citizen-centered way.
(This is my silly personal opinion of course :D )

Here is a new development in the "Italy governments VS the Internet" saga:

- (source) ''...Giancarlo Mancusi, ordered a shutdown of our domain name and IP in Italy...''. An orrible decision.

And let's not forget other recent attempts to shut the collective mouth of Internet (from the previous, Prodi's, gov):

- (source) ''Ricardo Franco Levi, Prodi’s right hand man , undersecretary to the President of the Council, has written the text to put a stopper in the mouth of the Internet.''

- (source) ''Every Italian's income posted on internet'' (this was even worse, because it showed the potentially terrible big-brother face of the web)

- (source) ''Il Governo vara la Internet Tax''

When will Italians wake up, stop blaming this or that politician, and group-up to solve their everyday problems?
(This is also why I live in DK :D :D )

P2P or not P2P?

Is it legal or not (in Europe) to share files on P2P networks?
If not, should it be?

There are new and unpleasant developments in the discussion on P2P:

• Europe votes on anti-piracy laws


• P2P File Sharing Software Users to be Banned in Europe (2)

From (2):
''
Sarko’s opinion is that “there is no reason that the internet should be a lawless zone”, which is fair enough, but surely obtaining proof of any wrongdoing would be a positive first step in anything other than a police state.
...
''

And even more alarming here:
''
In conclusion, I am worried . Worried at the lack of consideration for what the public wants; the lack of balance between legitimate protection of IPRs, and vital interests such as the access of students and workers to the Net, as well as of the families of alleged filesharers; the apparent disregard for privacy and the personal data safeguards of the data protection laws; the apparent washing away of the E-Commerce Directive immunities; but more than that, aghast at this blatant attempt to sneak through vital changes to the law without proper notice or debate, across Europe, in the Trojan horse of a giant and extraordinarily hard to understand reform exercise.
'' By Lilian Edwards [From this blog]

web censorship

Who is doing it, how and why ;)

In FYI: Tools for Rendering Censorship Firewalls Ineffective they say:
"
... Singapore and China's Firewall Curtains, Germany's ISP Threats ...
"

And other info here: German Threat Raises Infowar Fear



I'm really curious to find more info about which countries have censorship, and how they implement it. I think it is one of the those things that should be explained and discussed in the democratic process, and not imposed without talking about the possible consequences.

And for me it was a shock to discover that it is not only China or North Korea that do this kind of things, but that we have it also in Europe :(