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Archive | February, 2017

Appeals court blocks the Pirate Bay in Sweden

By on February 13, 2017 in Big Entertainment, Censorship, Copyright, File Sharing, Free Information, Intellectual Property, Internet, Sweden

A Swedish appeals court (the court for market and patent related issues) today ruled that the Internet service provider Bredbandsbolaget must block the Pirate Bay and the streaming service Swefilmer.

By definition, this is censorship.

Also, it is a ruling in direct conflict with the EU the eCommerce-directives principle of »mere conduit« stating that net operators can not be held liable for what users are doing in their cables.

However, this is in line with court rulings in other European countries. And the court claims that the decision is based on EU law.

To confuse things further, the ISP has not been subject to any criminal charges or accusations of illegal activities. Nevertheless, the court seems to refer to a general »responsibilty« to stem illegal activities.

Where all of this leave the »mere conduit« principle (in the EU eCommerce directive) is unclear. Apparently, there are two conflicting sets of rules.

To abolish »mere conduit« is like holding the Post Office responsible for what is written and sent by mail. Or to hold road operators responsible for the intentions and actions of people traveling in cars using their infrastructure.

This is not reasonable. The ruling will open up for more censorship and surveillance.

And to top things of, no matter what, this form of blocking is not very effective and quite easy to circumvent.

/ HAX

Torrentfreak: The Pirate Bay Must Be Blocked in Sweden, Court of Appeal Rules »

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Your password or your freedom

By on February 12, 2017 in Civil rights, Cryptography, Data Protection, Privacy, Rule of law, US

Francis Rawls, a former Philadelphia police sergeant, has been in the Philadelphia Federal Detention Center for more than 16 months. His crime: the fired police officer has been found in contempt of court for refusing a judge’s order to unlock two hard drives the authorities believe contain child pornography. Theoretically, Rawls can remain jailed indefinitely until he complies. (…)

He’s not charged with a crime. Judge demands he help prosecutors build their case.

Ars Technica: Man jailed 16 months, and counting, for refusing to decrypt hard drives »

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Not so free speech in Germany

By on February 11, 2017 in Freedom of Speech, Germany

A Hamburg court Friday barred a TV comedian from reciting in full his so-called “defamatory poem” against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan which sparked a diplomatic row last year. (…)

The Hamburg civil court, upholding a ruling from last May, barred Böhmermann from repeating lengthy passages of the poem, objecting to 18 of its 24 lines.

The Local.de: Hamburg court bans large parts of poem insulting Erdogan »

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UK to roll out Big Brother data base

By on February 9, 2017 in Big Brother, Big Data, Data Protection, Privacy, UK

The broadly defined clause 30 of the Digital Economy Bill contains provisions for a “single gateway to enable public authorities, specified by regulation, to share personal information for tightly constrained reasons agreed by parliament, where its purpose is to improve the welfare of the individual in question. To use the gateway, the proposed sharing of information must be for the purpose of one of the specified objectives, which will be set out in regulations.”

Ars Technica: UK government’s huge citizen data grab is go—where are the legal safeguards? »

By the way, this discussion has been going on for decades…

Youtube »

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Big Brother in Austria

By on February 9, 2017 in Big Brother, Civil liberties, Data Retention, Privacy, surveillance, War on Terror

New legislation in Austria:

  • Networked CCTV monitoring
  • Automatic license plate recognition
  • Government spyware
  • Data Retention Directive 2.0
  • Registration of prepaid SIM cards
  • Electronic tags for non-convicted “endangerers”
  • The government wants to establish a criminal offense for the expression of opinions which undermine the authority of the state

EDRi: Proposed surveillance package in Austria sparks resistance »

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Camera surveillance now more advanced – and scarier

By on February 8, 2017 in Anonymity, Big Brother, Civil liberties, Police state, Privacy, surveillance

Smile to pay. Customer recognition. Airport screening. These are some of the functionalities that face recognition brings to camera surveillance nowadays.

It will also allow for tracking people, building sociograms, can be integrated with different databases, behavioral analytics, and mass surveillance networks.

BBC: Smile, you’re on camera, and it knows who you are »

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“EU agency: too soon to regulate Bitcoin”

By on February 7, 2017 in Bitcoin, Blockchain, Economics, EU

EU Observer:

It is too early to regulate the so-called block chain technology that underpins virtual currency Bitcoin, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) said on Tuesday. “At this stage, it is premature to fully assess the changes that the technology could bring and the regulatory response that may be needed,” ESMA said. It added that the new technology may benefit the financial sector by reducing costs and increasing efficiency.

Link 1 » | Link 2 »

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The importance of Separation of Powers

By on February 6, 2017 in Democracy, Rule of law, Trump, US

The drama surrounding the US »travel ban« underlines the importance of separation of powers. Wikipedia:

Separation of powers is a political doctrine originating in the writings of Montesquieu in The Spirit of the Laws where he urged for a constitutional government with three separate branches of government. Each of the three branches would have defined abilities to check the powers of the other branches. This idea was called separation of powers. This philosophy heavily influenced the writing of the United States Constitution, according to which the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches of the United States government are kept distinct in order to prevent abuse of power. This United States form of separation of powers is associated with a system of checks and balances.

This principle will, no doubt, be stress-tested under president Trump.

Donald Trump might be impulsive and be shooting from the hip. This is problematic, as both Democrats and Republicans have granted the President extensive powers. (E.g. killing and detaining people, including US citizens, without due process.)

Those powers ought to be limited. But still, the larger picture is that there is a separation of powers and that the system is working. For now.

And this is where we should be vigilant. President Trump might do stupid and dangerous things. Mainly, these are issues for the everyday political discourse. But if he will try to limit the separation of powers – he will pass a red line. Then, the issue at hand will concern a cornerstone of democracy itself.

This is what is really important, interesting and worrying about the travel ban drama: A new president challenging the separation of powers from start.

/ HAX

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