vigilant.tv

freedom and technology

archive : 2002-06

efa: Senate rejects email snooping law - victory for online privacy
Excerpt: Electronic Frontiers Australia notes the government has backed down on its proposed telecommunications interception amendments , which would have allowed electronic surveillance without an...

bbc: India's film censor wants to legalise porn
Excerpt: India's chief censor has proposed legalising the screening of pornographic movies in cinemas, bringing them in line with regulations on pay television. The plan, which must be approved by...

cnet: Publishers sue Gator over pop-ups
Excerpt: A number of large internet publishers have sued spyware company Gator, alleging its "parasitic" pop-up advertisements amount to copyright infringement. The suit was filed Tuesday in...

reuters: Spain Passes Law to Regulate Internet Content
Excerpt: The Spanish parliament has passed an internet regulation law that holds ISPs responsible for content stored on their servers, and requires the retention of customer data. The...

jpost: Political activists denied entry by Interior Ministry
Excerpt: Israel's Interior Minister has been accused of using his powers for political purposes, after 35 Italian political activists were labelled as "supporters of terror" and refused entry to the...

cnn: Tiananmen author warns of HK crackdown
Excerpt: American author Perry Link has suggested censorship is on the rise in Hong Kong under Chinese rule. "In 1989, the [Hong Kong] media was highly critical of events in China and...

bbc: Newspaper 'must name' Brady source
Excerpt: The House of Lords has ordered the Daily Mirror newspaper to name the source that supplied child killer Ian Brady's medical records. The Lords ruled that medical records "must always" be...

zdnet: House restricts computer-generated porn
Excerpt: The US House of Representatives has overwhelmingly approved a new virtual child pornography ban, despite warnings the bill fails to overcome the problems that made the previous attempt...

reuters: Philips: Crack down on CD smugglers
Excerpt: Philips Electronics has filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission in an attempt to block the import of unlicensed blank CD-R and CD-RW disks. Philips, which holds US...

zdnet: Giuliani sees merits in national ID cards
Excerpt: Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani has called for national ID cards, insisting compulsory ID does not result in a loss of freedom. "We need a better way to properly ID people that's...

nytimes: Lawyers Argue Over Rights of Citizen Captured in War
Excerpt: The NY Times reports on legal arguments over the status of detainee Yaser Esam Hamdi . In oral arguments here before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, J....

washingtonpost: U.S. Fears Al Qaeda Cyber Attacks
Excerpt: A long, hysterical Washington Post piece suggests al Qaeda may have developed the skills to exploit security flaws in computer-controlled infrastructure. This seems entirely at odds with...

bbc: Indian website faces crackdown
Excerpt: Indian police have raided the headquarters of Tehelka.com , the news portal that last year published video showing army officials and politicians accepting bribes. The raid occurred just...

guardian: Vietnam to monitor 'reactionary' web use
Excerpt: The Vietnamese government plans to order internet cafes and service providers to monitor their customers, in order to prevent the spread of state secrets and criticism of the government....

theage: Government backs down again on terrorism laws
Excerpt: The Australian government has accepted opposition amendments to the anti-terrorism bill, dropping the proposal to give the Attorney-General the power to ban organisations. During debate...

theregister: MS to eradicate GPL, hence Linux
Excerpt: The Register considers the implications of Microsoft's Palladium for open source. This certification scheme will rip the guts out of the GPL. That is, the minute I begin tinkering with...

cnet: Lawmaker: Let studios hack P2P networks
Excerpt: A proposed US law would allow copyright holders to attack peer-to-peer networks in order to prevent infringement. The bill, which is still being drafted, would provide a shield against...

bbc: UK security details 'listed on web'
Excerpt: UK government and intelligence officials are calling for a ban on radio scanners after "highly restricted information", broadcast over police Special Branch radios, was published on the...

ap: Israel bars journalists
Excerpt: The Israeli government has banned journalists from entering occupied towns, and imposed a curfew on Palestinian reporters. "Anyone walking around is a combatant. You don't want...

afp: Bill bans ETA political wing
Excerpt: The Spanish senate has passed a law, approved earlier this month by the parliament, that allows the supreme court to ban political parties. The Bill, overwhelmingly approved by a 214...

theage: Williams backs down on ASIO plan
Excerpt: The Australian Attorney-General has postponed his controversial ASIO anti-terrorism bill, after being criticized for failing to reveal proposed amendments. [Attorney-General Daryl...

times: Anti-terror laws 'will curb research'
Excerpt: The UK's Export Control Bill , which proposes restrictions on academic publishing and communication, has returned to the House of Commons for review. Via Privacy Digest . The proposed...

australianit: EFA alarm over email snoop law
Excerpt: Australian IT reports on EFA's objections to proposed anti-terrorism legislation, which would allow certain types of surveillance without an interception warrant. EFA has challenged the...

australianit: ISPs want caller ID
Excerpt: The Australian Internet Industry Association is calling for phone companies to prevent users from overriding caller-ID, ostensibly to help track down spammers who use throwaway dialup...

cnet: Russia poised to restrict Net activities
Excerpt: Declan McCullagh reports on forthcoming Russian legislation that would restrict the use of the internet for extremist activities. The Russian measure, which could receive final approval...

wired: Danish Deep-Link Decision Due
Excerpt: A Danish court could rule in the next two days on the Newsbooster deep linking case . The court in Copenhagen could decide on that preliminary motion as early as Monday or Tuesday,...

nytimes: Case Against Seven Tied to Group Labeled Terrorist Is Dismissed
Excerpt: In a ruling that may impact the case against John Lindh, a US federal judge has dismissed charges against seven people accused of funding terrorist groups. After deliberating for...

reuters: S.Africa activists to defy police
Excerpt: South African activists plan to defy a police ban on protests during Earth Summit 2 in August and September. The ban apparently prohibits spontaneous gatherings, and requires all...

bbc: Syrian dissident jailed
Excerpt: A Syrian novelist has been sentenced to three years prison for criticizing the government. Last month a dissident journalist was abducted and torutured in Belgium, while planning to...

theage: Australia spied on PNG, says expelled official
Excerpt: According to a former World Bank official, the Australian government intercepted phone calls to the wife of Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister. The official, Dan Weise, also claimed...

newsweek: The Big Secret
Excerpt: Steven Levy gives a breathless look at Microsoft's TCPA implementation, Palladium. See also Ross Anderson's paper on security in closed systems, which suggests the TCPA is none other...

heraldsun: CD pirates in from the cold
Excerpt: News Limited reports that Little Ripper, the company that recently rolled out CD copying kiosks in Australian convenience stores, has cut a royalty deal with AMCOS. The article repeats...

sfgate: FBI checking out Americans' reading habits
Excerpt: According to the SF Gate, a significant number of US public libraries have received FBI requests for information about visitors. The American Library Association, in guidelines adopted...

anderson: Security in Open versus Closed Systems - The Dance of Boltzmann, Coase and Moore
Excerpt: Ross Anderson's new paper on the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance suggests the TCPA and the CBDTPA are one and the same; or rather, that the CBDTPA is an attempt to make TCPA...

upi: Anglosphere: Bringing in Echelon from cold
Excerpt: A UPI opinion piece by James Bennett proposes that international surveillance and intelligence be made more open and accountable, in order to counter misuse and overuse. Anyone who...

washingtontimes: Security bill bars blowing whistle
Excerpt: According to the Washington Times, the US Homeland Security Department will be exempt from whistleblower protection laws, prompting fears mismanagement and fraud will go unreported....

jpost: CNN: No more air time to suicide bombers' families
Excerpt: CNN has changed its broadcast policy, and will no longer broadcast stories about the families of Palestinian suicide bombers without "a compelling reason", apparently under pressure from...

nytimes: War on Terror Makes for Odd Twists in Justice System
Excerpt: The NY Times reports on the unusual disparity in the prosecution of terrorism suspects, with American citizens held under military rules while foreigners face civilian trials. See also...

nytimes: Mexico's President Opens Up the Files on Decades of Repression
Excerpt: The Mexican government has officially opened public access to secret police files dating from 1952 to 1985, under new freedom of information legislation. This week, scholars and...

independent: Radio ban in South Africa for black star's 'racist song'
Excerpt: South African broadcasting authorities have banned a song that describes Indians as oppressors of blacks. The Broadcasting Complaints Commission ruled that Mbongeni Ngema's song...

nytimes: Fears of Misuse of Encryption System Are Voiced
Excerpt: Security researcher Ross Anderson raises some privacy concerns over the TCPA Trusted Computing Platform Alliance. It's no surprise that the TCPA includes some features intended to benefit...

reuters: Copyright Office Halves 'Webcasting' Rates
Excerpt: The US Copyright Office has released its final rates for CARP internet radio royalties, halving the rejected proposal . The new rates are likely still too high for most internet radio...

washingtonpost: 'Combatants' Lack Rights, U.S. Argues
Excerpt: The US Justice Department has argued that the courts do not have the authority to overturn the determination of a prisoner as an "enemy combatant". The government's position was...

ap: 'Mountain Citizen' Allowed To Keep Name
Excerpt: The Kentucky Mountain Citizen will be allowed to continue publishing under its own name. The publishers faced contempt of court charges after its business name was acquired by a local...

reuters: Hackers, Porn and Pirates Add to ISP Liability Woes
Excerpt: According to Reuters, ISPs are increasingly facing legal action over content published by their customers. See also this recent article discussing liability with respect to data...

nytimes: Agency Is Under Scrutiny for Overlooked Messages
Excerpt: The NY Times again suggests that the NSA is not lacking in surveillance capabilities, but in human analysis of intercepted communications. The critical problem facing the security...

ap: Bush Presses Supremes on Filters
Excerpt: The US Justice Department will appeal last months ruling against the CIPA library filtering act. The Justice Department, acting on behalf of the Federal Communications Commission...

bbc: Tunisian web journalist jailed
Excerpt: The founder of the Tunisian online news site TUNeZINE has been sentenced to 28 months in prison. He was arrested last week on charges of publishing false news and stealing internet...

reuters: House Panel OKs Rewritten 'Virtual' Child-Porn Ban
Excerpt: A US House of Reps panel has approved a new bill banning computer-generated child pornography, despite evidence it suffers the same flaws that made the last attempt unconstitutional ....

dallasnews: Journalists: Panama stifles free speech with 'gag laws'
Excerpt: Dallas News reports on Panama's media laws, under which journalists can be prosecuted for offending the honour of public officials. Further proposed laws would require all reporters to...

securityfocus: U.S. Denies Data Retention Plans
Excerpt: According to SecurityFocus, a draft White House strategy document raises the possibility of requiring ISPs to retain customer data. The Justice Department later denied the document...

salon: Every dial you take
Excerpt: Salon reports on CALEA wiretapping requirements for US carriers, and the conspicuous lack of resistance. Note that objections from the telecommunications companies are on cost grounds,...

australianit: Censor secrecy okay: tribunal
Excerpt: Australian IT reports on the decision to deny a FOI request for information about internet content censored within Australia. Electronic Frontiers executive director Irene Graham...

seattlepi: 'Writer' gets out of jail, but must alter Web site
Excerpt: Paul Trummel has been released from prison on the condition that he removes information from his web site . According to Politech, at least one mirror of the site has been set up....

theregister: UK snoop charter: we're already getting all the data anyway
Excerpt: The British Home Office today postponed its proposal to give a long list of government bodies the power to demand customer records from ISPs and phone companies. But The Register notes...

reason: Cyberspace's Legal Visionary
Excerpt: Reason Online interview Lawrence Lessig, asking for clarification of his creative commons concept, and his thoughts on regulation of infrastructure. [Lessig:] In our culture,...

washingtonpost: U.S. Must Keep Terror Hearings Open, Court Says
Excerpt: A US federal appeals court has denied a government request to continue holding closed immigration hearings, upholding a decision made in April. Yesterday's ruling followed a May 29...

bbc: 'Snoop' climbdown by Blunkett
Excerpt: British Home Secretary David Blunkett has postponed debate on proposals to grant surveillance powers to a range of government departments and local authorities. The proposals are...

bbc: Canadian leader in press freedom row
Excerpt: The BBC suggests government interference in the sacking of a Canadian journalist. Russell Mills says he was sacked as publisher of the Ottawa Citizen at the weekend for printing an...

washingtonpost: Supreme Court Throws Out Law Requiring Permits for Doorstep Sales, Proselytizing
Excerpt: The US Supreme Court has overturned an Ohio law that required a permit for anyone soliciting door-to-door. See also this analysis at How Appealing . The court struck down a local...

riaa: RIAA, NMPA Reach Settlement With Audiogalaxy.com
Excerpt: File sharing service AudioGalaxy follows Napster , cutting a deal with the RIAA. The settlement reached would allow Audiogalaxy to operate a "filter-in" system, which requires...

cryptosavvy: Analysis of Bernstein's Factorization
Excerpt: A paper by Lenstra, Shamir, Tomlinson and Tromer provides a new analysis of Bernstein's number field sieve factoring optimisation . The paper also proposes an improved algorithm. In...

washingtonpost: Lindh's Lawyers Challenge Indictment
Excerpt: Lawyers for John Walker Lindh have challenged charges against him on constitutional grounds. [ update : The judge has rejected the argument and refused to dismiss the indictment] The...

ap: 'Philly Inquirer' Reporters Found In Contempt
Excerpt: Four journalists were found guilty on contempt of court charges for interviewing jurors in a murder trial. The four could get up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine at sentencing...

sfgate: Decrypting is costing the satellite and cable TV industry $6.5 billion a year
Excerpt: The SF Gate reports on the use of DMCA notices and FBI resources to prosecute the providers and users of unauthorised pay TV receivers. DirecTV, for example, has sent about 10,000...

wired: IM'ers Get a Secure Chat Room
Excerpt: Wired reports on a new encryption package for common instant messenger products. It's not the first, of course - a number of PGP plugins are available for various IM products, and at...

washingtonpost: Police Can Search Public Transport Passengers
Excerpt: The US Supreme Court has ruled that police may search and question passengers on public transport, without first informing them of their right to refuse cooperation. An earlier ruling...

bbc: Beijing's web users angry at shutdown
Excerpt: Beijing internet users have reacted angrily to the closure of internet cafes following the weekend fire that killed 24 people. China has closed many internet cafes in the past, but...

bbc: Official site to advise on state snooping
Excerpt: The UK Government has announced a new web site to advise government departments on procedures for obtaining surveillance data under the RIPA act . The site has been launched in...

bbc: 'Snoop' vote stumbles
Excerpt: The British government has postponed debate on a proposal to extend the list of government bodies with the power to issue requests for telephone and internet customer records. The delay...

guardian: Mugabe versus the internet
Excerpt: An opinion piece from Geoffrey Robertson QC on the charges against journalist Andrew Meldrum under Zimbabwe's media laws. Robertson recently made a similar argument about internet...

theaustralian: Sexist billboards face crackdown
Excerpt: The Victorian government has banned the "negative portrayal of women" in billboard advertising. Women's Affairs Minister Mary Delahunty first proposed the regulations in April....

reuters: Record firms sued over anti-piracy CDs
Excerpt: The five major record companies have been hit with a class action lawsuit over copy-protected CDs. The suit alleges infringement of California's consumer protection laws. The suit...

theaustralian: Science fiction closer to fact
Excerpt: An Australian research team has announced what sounds like more quantum cryptography vapourware. Via Kill Your TV . The Australian National University team, partly funded by the...

sduniontribune: Royalties proposed for booming used market as new-CD sales stagnate
Excerpt: Record industry executives are reportedly considering calling for royalty payments to be made on sales of used CDs. One proposed remedy being debated by record label executives is...

bbc: Beijing cyber cafes closed down
Excerpt: Beijing's mayor has closed down all internet cafes, and suspended new licenses, following the recent fire that killed at least 24 cafe patrons. The Chinese government has been tightening...

aap: NSW police accused of exaggerating knife search figures
Excerpt: A NSW police officer has reportedly complained to the Ombudsman over misuse of the 1998 Police and Public Safety Act , which gives police the power to conduct random knife searches....

faz: Lufthansa to Add Video Cameras Inside Planes
Excerpt: German airline Lufthansa plans to install video cameras in aircraft cabins as an anti-terrorism security measure. Last month AirBus announced plans to install concealed cameras above...

reuters: S.African Internet Boss Hides Domain Key Abroad
Excerpt: The current administrator of South Africa's ".za" top level domain has moved its primary server offshore in a bid to prevent the government taking control. "The storage of the primary...

wired: Tunisian Net Dissident Jailed
Excerpt: Tunisian journalist Zouhair Yahyaoui, founder of the online news site TUNeZINE , has been arrested and charged with publishing "false news". Better known under the pseudonym Ettounsi...

nytimes: Critic of Corruption in Rural China Is Arrested
Excerpt: Chinese police have arrested Li Lan, a vocal critic of government corruption, over a newspaper article alleging police misconduct. Ms. Li soon joined with dozens of other aggrieved...

washingtonpost: N.J. Appeals Court Upholds Secret Detentions
Excerpt: A US state appeals court has ruled the Justice Department does not have to release the names of "hundreds of people" detained in its terrorism investigation. The decision overturns an...

aba: ABA welcomes AAT decision on Internet content
Excerpt: The Administrative Appeals Tribunal has turned down a FOI request by the EFA for information regarding web sites censored under Australia's internet censorship laws. The ABA -...

bbc: Hacker watches Nato spy pictures
Excerpt: According to the BBC, video footage from Nato surveillance flights in the Balkans are transmitted in the clear over a satellite link. Military officials say the broadcasts include no...

timesunion: Student's pornographic story brings charge
Excerpt: A student faces criminal charges and a possible jail term after writing a pornographic story and publishing it on a web site. Via Eugene Volokh , who also provides some background on the...

nytimes: Senate Shelves Bill Outlining Hate Crimes More Broadly
Excerpt: The US Senate has postponed a federal bill which would have extended the definition of "hate crime". Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the majority leader, withdrew the bill after...

ap: Internet Wire Again Hit By Fake Press Release
Excerpt: The Internet Wire press release service was tricked into issuing a bogus news release, apparently intended to manipulate stock prices. A similar incident occurred in 2000. The...

washingtonpost: Suspect Held 8 Months Without Seeing Judge
Excerpt: A taxi driver arrested during the US anti-terrorism investigation was detained for 8 months without access to a lawyer or judge, according to the Washington Post. He is now being held on a...

reuters: Rights group slams Iran for blocking torture bill
Excerpt: Iran's Guardian Council has blocked a bill, which was passed by the parliament in May, that would have outlawed the use of torture to extract confessions. The decision would "permit...

guardian: Guardian reporter goes on trial in Zimbabwe
Excerpt: UK Guardian correspondent Andrew Meldrum has pleaded not guilty to charges under Zimbabwe's strict media laws. He is the first journalist to face charges under the new laws, though...

ap: French Group Bashes Italian Writer
Excerpt: A French anti-racist group is seeking a court injunction to stop the publication of a book, saying it incites violence against Muslims. The article quotes two passages from the book -...

reuters: Plugged In: Hong Kong Embraces the Octopus Card
Excerpt: Reuters reports on the Octopus card , a proximity smart card used for payments in Hong Kong. The article points out that it has has succeeded where other smart card trials have failed...

reuters: Music Industry Says Worldwide Piracy Up Sharply
Excerpt: The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has issued a report calling for governments to crack down on CD piracy. This Reuters story suggests the IFPI is calling...

nytimes: Internet Used to Find Man Who Is Charged in 2 of 10 Killings
Excerpt: The NY Times describes a police investigation that tracked an accused murderer's internet use. Web server logs and MSN dialup records were apparently used, though the article doesn't...

nytimes: In Treason Trial, Echoes of Soviet Past
Excerpt: The NY Times reports on a former KGB general charged with treason, under an obsolete criminal code, for divulging state secrets during his testimony in a US espionage trial. Oleg D....

washingtonpost: Court Allows Punishing Sex Offenders Who Won't Confess
Excerpt: The US Supreme Court has turned down an appeal against a Kansas program which imposes sanctions on jailed sex offenders who refuse to confess to crimes. Four of nine judges warned that the...

washingtonpost: Attorney Says Alleged Terror Suspect Held Unconstitutionally
Excerpt: A lawyer for Abdullah al Muhajir, the US citizen accused of planning a "dirty bomb" attack, has argued her client is being held unlawfully. Muhajir is being held in a military prison,...

bbc: 'Snoop' plans raise privacy fears
Excerpt: The BBC reports on plans to extend the power to demand ISP and phone records to minor government bodies . Currently, under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act passed two years...

hmso: RIPA Communications Data: Additional Public Authorities
Excerpt: The British Home Office has proposed an order expanding the list of authorities able to issue demands for access to ISP and telco records, to include a broad list of government bodies....

ap: Canada tries to head off protesters as G-8 meeting nears
Excerpt: Canadian border police plan to refuse entry to activists carrying "tools of civil disobedience" - items which are legal to possess - in the leadup to the June 26-27 G-8 summit. The...

australianit: NSW censor bill in doubt
Excerpt: A government committee has issued a report recommending the NSW internet censorship law be repealed. The report concludes that the bill - passed last year but referred to a standing...

ap: Danish Publishers Continue Deep-link Fight
Excerpt: The Danish deep linking case has been scheduled for hearings in Copenhagen later this month, according to AP. Lassen's Newsbooster service tries to make news stories easier to find...

observer: Police to spy on all emails
Excerpt: According to the UK Observer, the British government was a primary force behind the EU's data retention plans , requred under the Communications Data Protection Directive . 'It does...

washingtonpost: New Repression in Kazakhstan
Excerpt: The Washington Post reports on violence and state harassment of journalists in Kazakhstan, apparently following coverage of the theft of $1 billion of government money by President...

bbc: Egyptian jailed for spying for Israel
Excerpt: An Egyptian man has been convicted of attempting to spy for Israel, under emergency laws which do not allow an appeal. [Anwar Mohamed Tawfiq], who had pleaded not guilty, was tried...

bbc: E-mail blunder reveals royal secrets
Excerpt: The UK Foreign Office accidentally emails a document containing secret details of Prince Charles' visit to Poland to the wrong person. Even the Foreign Office can't be bothered using...

worldtribune: Saudi voyeurs like new cell phone-cameras
Excerpt: Saudi religious police have reportedly confiscated new cellular phones that include a digital camera feature, because it can be used to photograph women. It's not clear on what basis they...

newsweek: Hiding (and Seeking) Messages on the Web
Excerpt: A brief but confused piece from Newsweek claims Al Qaeda is using "hidden" web pages to communicate. The article jumps straight from describing simple symbols embedded in web pages, to...

aap: New laws to allow seizure of suspected crime assets
Excerpt: A proposed new Queensland law would require accused criminals to prove ownership of their assets or have them seized by the state. Attorney-General Rod Welford today said a special...

afp: China jails ship captain for large CD smuggling case
Excerpt: A Chinese court has sentenced a ship's captain to 13 years prison for smuggling pirate CDs. Xu Meizhong, 32, was captain of a ship that was stopped by customs officers from the...

bbc: China loses grip on internet
Excerpt: The BBC reports on China's Ministry of Information Industry, the body that monitors and censors internet access. Via Daily Rotten . In 1998 [Huang Qi] set up a website in the...

zdnet: 'Disturbing' Xbox ads banned in the U.K.
Excerpt: British advertising regulators have banned a "shocking" television advertisement for Microsoft's Xbox game console. The ad will continue to screen in cinemas. The ad begins with a...

ap: CPJ Says Nepalese Journalists Tortured
Excerpt: The Committee to Protect Journalists has accused the Nepalese government of using emergency rule to arrest and torture journalists. "We are alarmed by the arrest of journalists in...

zdnet: FBI wants to track your Web trail
Excerpt: Direct marketing companies are concerned that new FBI surveillance rules will lead to increased law enforcement requests for customer data. Meanwhile, those who compile databases are...

washingtonpost: Former KGB Official To Oversee State TV
Excerpt: A former KGB official and spokesman for its successor the FSB has been appointed to a security post on Russia's RTR televion network, where he will supervise coverage of next year's...

washingtonpost: FBI Chief: 9/11 Surveillance Taxing Bureau
Excerpt: FBI director Robert Mueller has said that so many people suspected of terrorist links are under surveillance that the agency is having trouble keeping up. According to the article, a...

bbc: The hunt for Britain's paedophiles
Excerpt: The producer of a British documentary on pedophilia has claimed the internet "creates pedophiles", and that it "needs policiing". One of the issues raised by the programme is the use...

theage: Magistrate wins $250,000
Excerpt: A Victorian Supreme Court judge has awarded $250,000 damages to a magistrate over a newspaper article calling for her resignation. In his judgment, Justice Bongiorno expressed the...

afp: Zambian journalists arrested for defaming Mwanawasa
Excerpt: Four Zambian journalists have been charged after publishing a story claiming President Levy Mwanawasa has Parkinson's disease. The four newsmen work for the privately-owned weekly...

thesmokinggun: FBI affidavit details Abdel-Rahman's jailhouse pipeline
Excerpt: The Smoking Gun has published a series of documents about the four memebers of a legal team charged with smuggling messages to convicted terrorist Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman. The documents...

cryptome: Expert meeting on cyber crime: Data retention
Excerpt: Cryptome has published what appears to be a confidential Europol document , describing a wish list of information to be retained by ISPs and phone companies under the new data retention...

reuters: Teen Killing Prompts Call for 'Scream' Ban
Excerpt: A left-wing French politician has called for a complete ban on the film Scream, after a 17 year old boy blamed the movie for his murder of a 15 year old girl. A similar reaction occurred...

wired: Dead Men Tell No Passwords
Excerpt: According to Wired, Norway's National Center of Language and Culture has appealed for help in accessing a password-protected database created by an archivist who died several years ago....

haaretz: MKs reject `special means' during Shin Bet interrogations
Excerpt: The Israeli government has voted against a bill which would have allowed the use of torture while interrogating prisoners in order to prevent an impending terrorist attack. Among...

ap: U.S. Prosecutors Withdraw Subpoena Of MSNBC
Excerpt: The US Justice Department reportedly withdrew a subpoena for an MSNBC journalist's notes and email, after it was sent without the necessary approval from the Attorney General's office....

ap: Michigan sex offender registry shut down after judge's ruling
Excerpt: A US district court judge has shut down a government sponsored sex offender registry on constitutional grounds. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a similar case over a Conneticut...

washingtonpost: 'Tiananmen Papers' Provokes Crackdown
Excerpt: The editor of a book on the Tiananmen Square crackdown says the Chinese government has interrogated or detained 23 people in an attempt to discover the source of Communist Party documents...

washingtonpost: Mueller: FBI Has No Plans to Monitor Mosques
Excerpt: FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III has promised the Bureau has no plans to infiltrate mosques, despite new rules that allow the agency to do so. During a luncheon with Washington...

bbc: US to fingerprint more visitors
Excerpt: US Attorney General John Ashcroft has announced a fingerprinting scheme for foreign visitors. Civil liberties groups are concerned the checks will be more likely to be applied to Middle...

a-g: Counter-terrorism package
Excerpt: Australian Attorney-General Daryl Williams has released a summary of his proposed compromises for the anti-terrorism bill, presumably in response to criticism earlier today that the...

reuters: VeriSign to Help Telecoms with Wiretaps
Excerpt: Verisign has launched a new service by which US telecommunications carriers can outsource the operation of their wiretapping services, which are required under the CALEA act. Via...

RSS links fixed
Excerpt: Article links in the RSS feed have been fixed. Users of Radio, Amphetadesk, Newscrawler etc can now follow links to the full articles. We apologise for the inconvenience - the mgt.

washingtonpost: A 'Final Exam' Begins for Security Agencies
Excerpt: A bipartisan panel of Senate and House intelligence committee members is expected to reduce restraints on domestic surveillance by US spy agencies. At issue, said experts, are profound...

ap: Judge eases restrictions on shoe bomb suspect
Excerpt: Lawyers for Richard Reid will no longer be required to keep secret their conversations with the accused bomber. Last month four members of a legal defense team were charged with passing...

ap: Ministers sign terrorism treaty for Americas
Excerpt: 30 of the 34 members of the Organization of American States have signed the Inter-American Convention Against Terrorism. The treaty is meant to prevent financing of terrorism, toughen...

bbc: Top lawyers arrested in Zimbabwe
Excerpt: Two top officials from Zimbabwe's Law Society have been arrested over allegations of encouraging public protests. It's not yet clear what the charge is, but subversion carries a possible...

afp: Spanish parliament passes law banning Basque party
Excerpt: The Spanish parliament has approved a new law which allows the supreme court to ban political parties. The law, which could go into effect in July if it is approved by the Senate, is aimed...

aap: Labor wants more changes to anti-terror laws
Excerpt: Australia's proposed anti-terrorism laws seem unlikely to pass the Senate without further changes. Labor's Senate leader John Faulkner today said more changes were needed. "You...

nytimes: Who's Watching? No, Who's Listening In?
Excerpt: The NY Times reports on the US Courts Administrative Office wiretap report for 2001 . The statistics don't include terrorism investigations, which are issued by the FISA panel. Note...

washingtonpost: In Terror War, Privacy vs. Security
Excerpt: This Washington Post article gives some insight into the implementation of anti money laundering laws, and the resulting increase in transaction surveillance. Via Daily Rotten ....

reuters: Internet Services Restored in Indian Kashmir
Excerpt: Internet and phone services have reportedly been restored in Kashmir, five months after they were withdrawn over accusations public internet cafes were used in the planning of the...

wired: Sonicblue Freed From Monitoring
Excerpt: A US federal district judge has ruled that Sonicblue does not have to record the actions of users of its ReplayTV digital video recorder product. An earlier order required to company to...

washingtonpost: New Orleans Brothel Made a Federal Case
Excerpt: The Washington Post reports on the use of wiretapping resources in a New Orleans prostitution case. It appears the FBI was granted a warrant in order to investigate organised crime, but...

washingtonpost: FBI Search Warrant Policy Changed for Terror Cases
Excerpt: The FBI is set to change its policy on FISA warrants in order to review applications rejected within the Bureau. Note that while the FBI sometimes rejects applications before they are...

smh: Tibet exhibition too hot to handle
Excerpt: The owner of a Sydney gallery hosting a Tibet exhibit claims a representative of the Chinese Embassy attempted to pressure him into closing the exhibition. "Last Wednesday a woman...

seattleweekly: Trummel in solitary
Excerpt: Retired journalist Paul Trummel, jailed in February for refusing to remove comments from his web site , has been placed in solitary confinement for abusing his telephone privileges....

nytimes: Geneva Voters to Take a Practice Run for Internet Elections
Excerpt: Geneva officials are testing an internet voting system for possible use in Swiss referenda. There are few technical details in this article, but it doesn't sound like they're using...

cnn: Justice reviewing Internet screening ruling, may appeal
Excerpt: According to CNN, the Justice Department is considering an appeal over Friday's ruling against the CIPA library filtering act. Attorney General John Ashcroft still wants to defent...

reuters: Classified communication parts sold on eBay
Excerpt: The US air force is investigating an eBay auction of classified aircraft communications parts by an antiques dealer. The dealer, Norb Novocin, said he discovered after buying the...

washingtonpost: Torture, a Ghost in Mexico's Closet
Excerpt: The Washington Post reports on the use of torture by Mexican police, and the willingness of the judiciary to accept confessions obtained under duress. Martin del Campo, a U.S. citizen...

independent: Vice squad may close art gallery showing 'Porn?'
Excerpt: Scotland Yard's Clubs and Vice Unit is investigating a forthcoming photographic exhibition in London, which features explicit pornography. "Porn?", due to open this Thursday at the...

theregister: Royal Mail pulls plug on ViaCode digital certificate
Excerpt: British Royal Mail has dropped its Viacode digital certificate services. The announcement comes just a week after a CIO article proclaimed PKI is dead . A spokesman for Royal Mail...

itworldcanada: First quantum-effect products enter commercial IT
Excerpt: Swiss company id Quantique has announced what it claims are the first commercially available quantum cryptography products - a key distribution system , and random number generator ....

reuters: Judicial Panel Overturns U.S. Library Porn Law
Excerpt: A US federal court has overturned the CIPA act, which withheld subsidies from libraries that refused to install internet censorsing software. Eugene Volokh has some useful analysis of...

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