vigilant.tv

freedom and technology

archive : 2002-12

Australian govt to seize assets of non-criminals
Excerpt:The Australian Government has proudly unveiled a new law extending its powers to confiscate the assets of innocent people. Mere accusation of a crime - with no conviction required - will be...

Briton and American jailed for Indonesian medical help
Excerpt: The Indonesian government has sentenced two Western academics to short prison sentences for violating their visas by possessing maps , taking photographs and providing medical help in South Aceh....

ANU warns of lack of security at universities
Excerpt: Australian National University's director of terrorism studies, Clive Williams, has warned that universities are not taking enough steps towards preventing terrorists from learning dangerous...

Govt, groups push for black box car crash recorders
Excerpt: US trade groups and Government departments are pushing for "black box" crash data recorders to be installed in all new cars. Manufacturers are reluctant to develop a standard interface for the...

China sentences Falun Gong TV hackers
Excerpt: The Chinese government has sentenced eight Falun Gong members to up to 13 years in prison for a pirate TV broadcast in May 2002 . The Hefei Intermediate Court recently upheld a lower court's...

EU to rate violent video games
Excerpt: The EU plans to implement mandatory ratings for computer games, starting in April. Games with no sex or violence will be rated age three plus, and there will be further ratings of seven plus,...

Australians urged to report suspicious behaviour
Excerpt:The Australian government has unveiled a new advertising campaign that encourages people to report "suspicious behaviour" to an anti-terrorism hotline . The national security hotline is staffed...

US teen faces prison over web assassination hoax
Excerpt: A US teen faces a possible 2 year prison sentence for posting anonymous threats against President Bush on the FBI web site - sofar nothing unusual, other than the kid's stupidity. The charge...

British govt considers emergency cordon law
Excerpt: The British government is considering new legislation that would allow police and the military to use live ammunition to prevent people from leaving an area in the event of a terrorist attack....

US Treasury dept threatens fines for advertising Cuban conference
Excerpt:Via Unknown News , the president of the "Seattle/Cuba Friendship Committee" has reportedly been threatened with fines by the US Treasury Department for posting information about a Cuban...

TIA to drown in false positives?
Excerpt: This Mercury News piece provides a skeptical counterpoint to John Markoff's recent NY Times reports on the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness project. Robert Grossman, director of the...

China's net cafe crackdown totals 3,300?
Excerpt: Xinhua says a total of 3300 internet cafes have been permanently shut down by the Chinese government since the fire in June , with an additional 12000 temporarily suspended. There's no saying...

Price controls starve millions as Mugabe blames capitalists
Excerpt: The Washington Post reports on the effect of governmnent price controls and farmland "redistribution" in Zimbabwe. Farmers and producers are now required to sell food for less than what it costs...

Report confirms use of rape by Burmese military
Excerpt: The US State Department has confirmed earlier reports of the widespread use of rape by the Burmese military. The military government continues to deny the rapes have occurred, and has attempted...

US officials claim inaccuracies in WaPo torture story
Excerpt:According to CNN, US officials have denied claims by the Washington Post that the CIA has tortured prisoners in Afghanistan and other locations abroad. CNN quotes unnamed officials as saying the...

Academic and political groups face Turkish espionage trial
Excerpt: Six Turks and nine Germans are on trial in Ankara on charges of conspiring to "[undermine] the unity and political order of Turkey" by setting up local branches of international academic and...

Galway to protect Gaelic language as 'environmental concern'
Excerpt: Scope creep in environmental protection laws: the Connemara city council in Galway plans to prohibit non-Gaelic speakers from building new houses, on the grounds that other languagues will pollute...

CIA accused of torturing terrorism suspects
Excerpt: The Washington Post claims the CIA has tortured prisoners at secret detention centers in Afghanistan and other locations outside the US. Most of the allegations in the article involve prisoners...

Egypt accuses Britons of possessing legal material
Excerpt: Much of the evidence against three British men on trial in Egypt for promoting an outlawed Islamic group involve the possession of legal materials, according to the BBC. Most of the 26 people...

Foreign Office mishandles classified MI6 documents
Excerpt: Our third story in a row about mishandling of secure documents by government departments: the British Foreign Office is investigating allegations its employees routinely downgraded the...

TSA investigates dubious encryption of internal documents
Excerpt: Reuters says the US Transportation Security Administration is investigating its use of Microsoft Word's encryption function to protect documents available on its web site . The documents are...

12 year old finds flaw in British government encrypted email
Excerpt:According to the Telegraph, a 12-year-old boy discovered a security flaw in the British government's encrypted email system that could lead to information leakage. The story isn't technical, but...

EU members miss copyright law deadline
Excerpt:Only two countries have met the EU deadline for implementing new copyright laws, despite pressure from the entertainment industry. Reuters parrots music industry figures that sales are down...

Hague convention to stifle net speech?
Excerpt: Lauren Weinstein speculates on the possible effects of the proposed Hague jurisdiction treaty on the enforcement of international libel laws on the internet. I raised the same issue two weeks...

US cities pass laws forbidding Patriot Act cooperation
Excerpt: The NY Times reports on US cities that have passed laws opposing the enforcement of the USA Patriot Act. They are mostly token efforts, but a few cities explicitly forbid cooperation with federal...

Protesters march in favour of Hong Kong sedition law
Excerpt: Without a hint of irony, trade unions and "grass-roots groups" marched on Sunday in favour of Hong Kong's forthcoming sedition and subversion laws . Contrast with last week's demonstration...

Anti-abortion leader charged with intercepting email
Excerpt: The leader of a Nebraska anti-abortion group has been charged with intercepting the email and voice mail messages of an abortion clinic in Lincoln. The interception was carried out by the...

UK cellphone firms hand over 500,000 customer records a year
Excerpt: British police make around 500,000 requests to mobile phone companies for customer records each year, according to the BBC. The article quotes police as disappointed that cellphone companies...

Bangladesh detains journalists despite bail orders
Excerpt:The Guardian reports on the two Bangladeshi journalists arrested for helping UK journalists make a political documentary . The two UK journalists were released and deported , but reporters...

Billboards detect drivers' listening habits, almost
Excerpt:This did the rounds a few weeks ago, and is back again in the SF Gate: Sacramento firm Alaris Media Network is selling billboards that supposedly detect which radio stations passing drivers are...

Israel shuts down Islamic newspaper
Excerpt: Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai has ordered the closure of Islamic newspaper Sawt Al-Haqq Wal-Hurriya, on the grounds that it incites violence and supports Hamas. The closure was ordered...

Markoff on the precursor to Total Information Awareness
Excerpt:Another day, another big brother article from John Markoff. This time he points out that most of the data mining methods likely to be applied by the Pentagon's TIA project are already in use in...

Vietnam jails net dissident for 12 years
Excerpt: The Vietnamese government has jailed a former teacher for 12 years on espionage charges for collecting anti-government material via the internet. Last month another teacher was jailed for...

Farrakhan skirts British ban with satellite broadcast
Excerpt: Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan has skirted the British government's ban on him entering the UK by addressing an audience by satellite. His speech was delivered to a private audience of...

NY Times accused of contempt of Australian court
Excerpt: The Age hints at a possible Australian contempt of court charge for the New York Times, following its publication of a description of a video tape that is a central piece of evidence in a...

Orion Scientific: the software behind the Denver Spy Files
Excerpt: The New York Times reports on Orion Scientific Systems, an ex-DARPA contractor that developed the software behind the Denver "spy files" . The same software is currently in use by a number of US...

US considering aerial drones for domestic surveillance
Excerpt: The US government is investigating the use of unmanned aerial drones for domestic surveillance, according to this report. The main push is for border protection, but there are several suggestions...

38 false murder confessions in South Florida
Excerpt: The Miami Herald says South Florida police obtained at least 38 false confessions in murder cases since 1990. A federal judge is considering overturning the conviction of Timothy Brown, convicted...

zem.squidly.org/weblog is now vigilant.tv
Excerpt:As you can see, the weblog has moved to a new URL: vigilant.tv . The new tagline is "freedom and technology". This doesn't represent a change in direction - it's the same blog, same author, same...

Infrastructure security report recommends US government monitoring
Excerpt:John Markoff and John Schwartz report on a US Presidential report that makes recommendations on the protection of critical internet infrastructure. One of the recommendations is for ISPs and...

Californian Muslims rounded up, detained
Excerpt:US immigration officials have detained as many as 700 Muslims, mainly Iranians, who turned up to comply with an order requiring them to be registered, fingerprinted and photographed. Reports say...

Secret Service visit following anti-Bush emails?
Excerpt:A retired US Navy Chief claims he was visited by the Secret Service and local sherrifs after he sent emails insulting President Bush to a friend. There's plenty of confusion, but nonetheless it's...

UK data snooping illegal, contradictory
Excerpt: An inquiry into the UK's RIPA internet surveillance legislation has concluded that wiretapping laws are illegal, self-contradicting, and place an excessive technical burden on ISPs. The...

New York passes unenforceable cell phone ban
Excerpt: New York's City Council has passed a law banning the use of cellular phones at public performances. Council members agree that the law is unlikely to be enforceable, saying it will be...

Israeli univesity screens censored Jenin film
Excerpt: An Israeli law lecturer has bypassed the Censorship Board's ban on the film "Jenin Jenin" , screening it as part of a course in politics and human rights. The film was banned on the grounds...

Seven arrested in Malaysian email hoax investigation
Excerpt:Five more people have been arrested and released under Malaysia's ISA anti-terrorism law over a hoax email that was delivered to the Australian High Commission warning of a terrorist attack. The...

UK suspects to be held without charge for 7 days
Excerpt: A British sherrif has granted permission for seven suspected terrorists to be detained without charge and interrogated for an additional 5 days, on top of the usual 48 hours. Suspects held...

Malaysia bans Brad Pitt car ad
Excerpt: Missed this one yesterday: Malaysia's Ministry of Information has banned a car adverisement that features Brad Pitt, on the grounds that it is a "humiliation against Asians". Earlier this year...

Chinese government arrests two web publishers
Excerpt: The Chinese government have arrested two people for publishing pro-democracy articles on the web. Note to future dissidents: use Mixmaster to publish to usenet. Police picked up Li...

Software Defined Radio's incompatibility with the broadcast flag
Excerpt: Salon reports on GNU Radio , the FSF's Software Defined Radio project, and it's implications for proposed legislative restrictions on radio and television receivers. So far, the GNU...

Virginia newspaper sued over FOIA transcript
Excerpt: The family of a man killed by police has sued a Virginia newspaper for publishing a recording and transcript of a related 911 emergency phone call on its web site. The family is arguing that the...

Companies say they will release customer records without court order
Excerpt:Up to 41% of companies say they will hand over customer records to police without requiring a court order, according to a survey by CSO magazine. Another good reason to stop relying on...

FBI raids Texas web hosting company
Excerpt: US authorities have arrested four brothers who work for a Texan web hosting company, InfoCom , on suspicion of financial links to Hamas. The company was the subject of an FBI raid in...

Italian textbook censorship proposal
Excerpt: The Guardian reports on an Italian government proposal to censor history textbooks, to remove alleged Marxist bias. The Freedom and Justice Association is organizing a petition against the...

Defamatory news article protected as free speech
Excerpt: An Australian court has ruled that a news broadcast is protected as "fair comment", despite being false and defamatory. 60 Minutes anchor Richard Carleton sued the ABC's Media Watch program over...

Update on Indian SMS wiretapping
Excerpt: An update on Indian government efforts to expand their already broad wiretapping capabilities to include SMS cellphone text messaging. Indian authorities have been accused several times of...

ElcomSoft cleared of DMCA charges
Excerpt:A jury has found ElcomSoft not guilty of criminal charges under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Now the bad news: the DMCA was upheld as constitutional; ElcomSoft was acquitted only...

Reckless endangerment charge for 'clueless' art project
Excerpt:A first year art student has been charged with reckless endangerment for a "situational" project, in which he placed37 black cardboard boxes labelled "fear" in New York's Union Square station. The...

Copyright lawsuit for watching baseball games from rooftop
Excerpt:The Chicago Cubs football baseball team is suing the owners of businesses around Wrigley Field for selling tickets to watch games from nearby rooftops. The Cubs say the businesses are violating...

Fifty police officers arrested in child porn investigation
Excerpt:Fifty British police officers have been arrested in an ongoing child pornography investigation, according to the BBC. Only 8 have been charged sofar. This won't be a surprise to regular readers;...

Hoax emailers detained under Malaysian security act
Excerpt: Two people have been arrested and detained under Malaysia's ISA anti-terrorism act for sending bomb threat emails to the Australian High Commission. They have not yet been charged. The two...

German court upholds ban on offshore web sites
Excerpt: A German court has overturned an earlier ruling against Nort Rhine Westphalia attempts to force local ISPs to censor offshore web sites . The ban was first announced early this year , but has...

RCMP considers hate crime charges over anti-Semitic interview
Excerpt: Canadian authorities are reportedly considering criminal charges against a former Saskatchewan chief over anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi comments made in a recent interview. David Ahenakew made...

Technological solutions to privacy invasion
Excerpt:An opinion piece by Declan McCullagh outlines technological approaches to privacy that can't be bypassed by changing legislation. It's presumably a response to the recent rant by an anonymous...

Johansen DVD trial ends
Excerpt: The Jon Johansen DeCSS trial has closed in Norway, with the defence arguing that DeCSS was used only to copy legally owned DVDs. A ruling won't be made until next year. The defense...

US court rules web site defamation not local
Excerpt: A Virginia court has thrown out an internet defamation lawsuit, ruling that articles published by out-of-state news sites were not aimed at a Virginia audience. The ruling is the opposite of the...

US considers covert propaganda missions
Excerpt: US defense officials are reportedly considering covert propaganda operations in allied nations to undermine anti-American groups. The short-lived Office of Strategic Influence gets a mention....

Overwhelming response to Hong Kong sedition laws
Excerpt: Asia Times reports on a weekend protest against Hong Kong's forthcoming sedition laws . Police and government officials have apparently seriously underestimated opposition to the legislation....

Commonwealth nations to adopt Victorian defamation decision?
Excerpt: AP suggests other Commonwealth nations may choose to adopt the Australian High Court decision that extends Victorian libel law to overseash publishers. The article is long, but most of the...

CIA has authority to execute terrorists
Excerpt: US President Bush has authorized the execution of approximately 24 people accused of running terrorist organisations. The new order is not called assasination; it is called retirement ....

Poindexter's personal details
Excerpt: Wired reports on the recent publication of John Poindexter personal information on the web, including satellite images of his house at cryptome . Matt Smith, a columnist for SF...

Australia considers ID for ammonium nitrate purchases
Excerpt: The Australian government is considering requiring proof of identity for fertiliser purchases, according to the Herald Sun. The article incorrectly identifies ammonium nitrate as nitric acid ....

Australia requires photo ID for international packages
Excerpt: Australia Post now requires photographic identification for all overseas packages, following a government security order. The AustPost press release on the new regulation is here ....

Edinburgh bans photography at school concerts
Excerpt: The Edinburgh city council has ordered schools to ban parents from videotaping or photographing plays and concerts, over fears pedophiles may gain access to the images. The city council...

Members of banned British organisation arrested
Excerpt: British police have charged six people with membership in a banned organisation. It's not clear what crime they have committed. The three men and three women, suspected of being members of...

Privacy legislation vs. privacy technology
Excerpt:An anonymous author suggests TIA and the Homeland Security Department shows once and for all that trusting the government to protect privacy is doomed. Via Politech . [ed: Usually I'm...

14 arrested after random public searches in Sydney
Excerpt:NSW police have used their random sniffer dog and knife search powers to arrest 14 people and issue more tha 100 fines and infringement notices at railway stations and public spaces in the...

French government to consider ban on anti-Semitic novel
Excerpt: Several organisations have asked the French government to ban a novel on the grounds that it promotes hatred and anti-Semitism. There's no indication yet as to the government's position....

'Last ditch' compromise on ASIO powers
Excerpt:The Australian government has offered a compromise on its proposed new ASIO powers , including a re-evaluation in 3 years time. The Attorney-General still seems unwilling to negotiate on the...

"Overcrowding police" search homes, fine guests in Illinois
Excerpt: This lengthy story describes the actions of police and city inspectors in Belleville, Illinois, who have been issuing fines for overcrowding in rental apartments, and punishing those who refuse...

Update on camera arrest story
Excerpt:Denver police and the Secret Service have issued statements denying anyone named Mike Maginnis was arrested or questioned, despite claims he was interrogated and had his camera confiscated while...

War crimes tribunal drops Washington Post subpoena
Excerpt:Washington Post reported Jonathan Randal has won his appeal against a subpoena that would have forced him to testify at The Hague's war crimes tribunal. The [war crimes] tribunal's appeals...

Bangladesh deports journalists over documentary
Excerpt:Bangladesh has released and deported the two journalists who were arrested last month on sedition charges for attempting to make a political documentary. They will not be permitted to use any of...

FBI obtained "several million" customer records
Excerpt: Alarming information about US domestic surveillance from the New York Times: the FBI obtained records about several million customers from scuba diving shops and schools, issuing a subpoena to...

Government supporters ransack Venezuelan TV stations
Excerpt: Venezuelan government supporters have reportedly attacked several television stations in an attempt to shut them down over their alleged support for a general strike. Reporters are accusing the...

Anti-war protesters arrested for blocking sidewalks
Excerpt: New York police have arrested more than 100 anti-war protesters on charges of blocking sidewalks. There was no violence. In New York, demonstrators marched from U.N. headquarters to the...

Australian Senate debates ASIO changes
Excerpt: The Australian Senate is continuing to debate changes to the government's proposed new ASIO powers . The biggest amendment sofar is a sunset clause of 3 years. Earlier today the...

More analysis of the Gutnick defamation decision
Excerpt:More analysis of the Dow Jones v Joseph Gutnick jurisdiction decision is emerging; excerpts quoted below. The ruling appears to be the first of its kind anywhere in the world: Legal...

Israel bans Palestinian Jenin documentary
Excerpt: Israeli censors have reportedly banned a Palestinian film about the April assault on Jenin, on the grounds that it distorts facts. The film's director plans to appeal to the High Court....

Dow Jones loses appeal against Gutnick's defamation suit
Excerpt:The Australian High Court has dismissed the Dow Jones appeal against Joseph Gutnick's defamation lawsuit , and ordered the company to pay court costs. Gutnick sued Dow Jones in a Victorian...

Anti-Semitic broadcasts on Arab television
Excerpt: The Jerusalem Report describes some of the anti-Semitic television programs currently being broadcast on Syrian, Lebanese and Egyptian television, including "Horseman Without a Horse", which is...

Australian internet censorship updates
Excerpt: Some updates to the NSW and South Australian state internet censorship bills: NSW's legislation now exists in a strange kind of limbo, passed into law but not active; and South Australia's...

Australian govt already monitoring passenger travel patterns
Excerpt: The Australian Customs Service has been monitoring airline reservation systems since November for suspicious passenger data and travel patterns, according to Australian IT. Citing security...

US State Department bans domestic distribution of propaganda
Excerpt:The NY Times reports on a series of essays commissioned and distributed by the US government under a bizarre law that prohibits domestic publication of the material. The booklet is available...

DeCSS author pleads not guilty
Excerpt:DeCSS author Jon Johansen has pleaded not guilty to charges of hacking his own computer . Prosecutor Inger Marie Sunde told an Oslo court that Johansen worked with people in Germany, the...

Iran to fingerprint US journalists
Excerpt: The Iranian government has announced a plan to fingerprint US journalists, apparently in retaliation for an incident in which an Iranian reporter was detained on arriving in the US. The article...

US National Imagery and Mapping Agency
Excerpt: CNN reports on the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, a previously obscure US intelligence group with close links to the CIA. The agency keeps a low profile, with a headquarters tucked...

New Saudi opposition radio station
Excerpt: BBC reports on a new reformist Saudi radio station, which is operating out of an unnamed European country in an effort to avoid censorship by the Saudi regime. Radio stations run by...

France detains three suspected of terrorist links
Excerpt: French police have detained three men, who have apparently not yet been charged, on suspicion of links to a terrorist plot. As usual, the accusations are vague. One of the men was said by...

China licenses journalists, issues propaganda tests
Excerpt: A new Chinese government plan will require journalists to pass tests on Communist Party propaganda. Licenses will be issued ostensibly to ensure journalistic integrity; but revocations will...

Adobe: No evidence of Elcomsoft piracy
Excerpt: As the Elcomsoft trial continues, an Adobe witness has revealed the company has not been able to find a single instance of a book illegally copied with Elcomsoft's eBook Processor software....

Houston police charged with "oppression"
Excerpt: Two Houston police officers have been charged with "official oppression" over the arrest of almost 300 people in a raid on a Kmart parking lot in August. Capt. Mark A. Aguirre, the ranking...

Privacy International meeting on UK ID card plans
Excerpt: The BBC reports on Privacy International's public meeting , to be held on Wednesday, on the government's national ID card plans. "The scheme will form the basis for matching of personal...

Opposition leaders arrested following Bangladesh cinema bombings
Excerpt: Bangladesh police have arrested four political opponents following a series of bombings in Mymensingh. No one has claimed responsibility for the bombings. The nearly simultaneous blasts,...

DeCSS author charged with hacking his own computer
Excerpt: DeCSS author Jon Johansen has been charged with hacking his own computer, three years after releasing the DVD descrambling software. After a request from the Motion Picture Association of...

Photographer arrested, camera confiscated for taking snaps of hotel
Excerpt:A photographer was arrested and his camera and film confiscated for taking photographs of the area near where US Vice President Dick Cheney was staying in a hotel, according to 2600 News. He was...

Hong Kong banks threatened by sedition laws
Excerpt: Foreign banks are threatening to relocate from Hong Kong if proposed sedition and subversion laws are enacted. But the government on Thursday brushed aside the suggestion that foreign...

Australia approves federal handgun restrictions
Excerpt: Australian state governments have approved the Prime Minister's proposed hangun bans . All governments have endorsed the resolution including limits on the calibre and barrel length of...

Sydney bushfires
Excerpt:Today is a slow news day for our usual coverage, so here's some news on the Sydney bushfires instead. Watch this space for regular updates. It was a clear morning in Sydney: blue skies, no...

Adobe investigator says Elcomsoft outside US jurisdiction
Excerpt: Wired details the progress of the Elcomsoft DMCA trial in San Jose. Of note is the testimony of one Adobe investigator, who said he believed the Russian company was not bound by the DMCA....

US court to decide Padilla's combatant status
Excerpt: A US federal judge has ruled that courts have the authority to rule on whether Joseph Padilla is an unlawful combatant. The ruling will have no effect on the appeal for access to the US...

US Supreme Court to consider abortion free speech appeal
Excerpt: The US Supreme Court will consider whether organized crime laws can be used to punish anti-abortion protesters. The court must decide if abortion clinic protesters can be punished for...

China blocks 'Tibet', 'Taiwan', 'democracy'
Excerpt:Harvard Law School's Ben Edelman has released new statistics on China's web censorship, showing the proportion of blocked Google search keywords . Unsurprisingly, "Tibet" and "Taiwan" top the...

Victoria to adopt federal hangun bans
Excerpt: Victorian premier Steve Bracks has announced his approval of John Howard's propsed ban on 400 handguns . New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia remain opposed to the proposal ....

A-G rejects compromise on ASIO powers
Excerpt: Australian Attorney-General Daryl Williams has indicated he is unwilling to consider compromises recommended by a Senate inquriy on the proposed new ASIO powers . For the first time, the...

Constitutional rights suspended in Columbian 'Rehabilitation Zones'
Excerpt: The Washington Post reports on Columbia's "Rehabilitation and Consolidation Zones", where the usual police and military restrictions on wiretapping, searches and detention without charge have...

Rights groups oppose European hate speech bans
Excerpt: Civil liberties groups speak out against the Council of Europe's hate speech rules , which place restrictions on racist material. The agreement defines racist and xenophobic material as...

Guantanamo detainees appeal for access to courts
Excerpt:Lawyers for 16 Guantanamo Bay detainees have appealed the August ruling that they will not be allowed access to the US justice system. The attorneys asked a three-judge panel of the U.S....

Finland court rules cab drivers must pay music royalties
Excerpt: A Finnish court has ruled taxi drivers must pay royalties if they play music on the radio while carrying a fare. The likely result, of course, is that cab drivers simply stop playing music....

PGP 8.0 released
Excerpt: PGP 8.0 has been released. Commercial versions start at $US39 for the "personal" edition. The freeware version, which comes with restrictions on use and does not include add-ons such as PGP...

Securities firms fined $8m over missing email
Excerpt: Five financial firms have been fined over $8 million by US regulators for failing to retain email archives for 3 years. How long before Wall Street gets the hint and starts using crypto and...

Israeli Police Commander faces discipline over wiretap handling
Excerpt: The Israeli Justice Ministry has recommended a disciplinary hearing for Police Commander Moshe Mizrahi, over allegations he misused wiretaps for political gain. The matter involves...

Third trial for Egyptian democracy activist
Excerpt: An Egyptian court has ordered another retrial for US-Egyptian democracy advocate Eddin Ibrahim, who has been twice convicted of "tarnishing Egypt's image" . At least five judges from the...

Australian Senate makes minor compromise on ASIO bill
Excerpt: An Australian Senate committee investigating proposed increases to ASIO surveillance and detention powers has recommended a number of limits be placed on the legislation. The planned laws...

NSW police minister calls for urgent new police powers
Excerpt: NSW police minister Michael Costa has asked the opposition to withdraw its proposed amendments to the proposed anti-terrorism legislation , in order to give police new powers in time for New...

Australian hangun ban proposals expanded
Excerpt: The Australian federal government's proposed ban on handguns has extended from 259 to 400 individual firearm models. The list was initially intended to cover easily concealable pistols,...

Two years old today
Excerpt:The zemblog turns two years old today. That's nearly dead in blog years. In that time, I've published 2,451 articles containing 3,896 external links - an average of around 3.3 articles and 5.3...

Comverse Infosys accused of leaking Dutch wiretaps
Excerpt:A lengthy article accuses Israeli company Comverse Infosys, suppliers of communications interception systems, of gaining access to Dutch police wiretaps during equipment maintenance. The...

Russian DVD pirates turn violent
Excerpt: The head of a Russian anti-piracy task force has accused DVD pirates of attempted murder after shots were fired at his car following recent raids on unlicensed DVD producers. New rules require...

US court to consider file sharing judgement
Excerpt: A US federal court will shortly consider arguments for a summary judgement in an RIAA and MPAA lawsuit against file sharing networks Morpheus and Grokster. Attorneys for movie studios and...

ElcomSoft trial begins
Excerpt:The trial against ElcomSoft , on criminal charges of circumventing Adobe's incompetent document encryption system, has finally begun. After more than a year of courtroom skirmishes, jury...

EU bans tobacco advertising
Excerpt:The EU has approved a directive banning tobacco advertising, including internet ads, starting in 2003. The UK opposed the ban, despite its own forthcoming ban on tobacco ads . [ update : The...

Bangladesh could execute UK journalists
Excerpt: The two UK journalists arrested on sedition charges in Bangladesh could face the death penalty, according to this report. They were arrested while trying to film a political documentary , and...

UK govt details torture and intimidation in Iraq
Excerpt:AP reports on a report issued by the UK Foreign Office about human rights abuses in Iraq (see also the press release ). Amnesty International has accused Foreign Secretary Jack Straw of using...

Homeland Security to skirt domestic spying restrictions?
Excerpt: According to the New York Times, the US Homeland Security department could offer a way around the traditional FBI and CIA restrictions on domestic spying. The government argues that Homeland...

US local police departments pushing for more surveillance powers
Excerpt: The Washington Post reports on attempts by several US police departments to remove barriers to surveillance of political and protest groups, in the name of anti-terrorism. New York police are...

11 years prison for fictional rape
Excerpt: A US man has been sentenced to 11 years jail on attempted rape charges for intending to have sex with a fictional 10 year old girl. The fictional victim was invented as part of an investigation...

US legal status still unclear for terrorism suspects
Excerpt: The Washington Post runs an update on the 'military prosecution of terrorist suspects' story, with reference to the recent expansion of FISA wiretapping powers For example, under...

CIA fails to supply documentation to congress
Excerpt: The CIA has failed to comply with legal requirements to provide documentation to the US congress, according to the Washington Post. Calling the community's record "dismal," the House...

UK journalists in Bangladesh denied access to lawyers
Excerpt: According to the BBC, the two journalists held in Bangladesh on suspicion of sedition have been denied access to their lawyers, and may not be receiving regular food or water. It appears the...

New Australian rules prohibit ads with "risky driving"
Excerpt: An Australian government-organized "code of practice" prohibiting advertisers from showing fast or dangerous driving has come into effect. The Australian Automobile Association (AAA) has...

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