Blog.Ivacy.com

Over six months have passed since the popular private BitTorrent tracker OiNK was raided in a joint effort by Dutch and British law enforcement. Today, the bail date for OiNK admin Alan Ellis has been extended for the third time, now until the 1st of July.

Savva Terentyev was blowing off some steam about the local police; now he’s a pawn in the nation’s Internet crackdown

SYKTYVKAR, Russia — Savva Terentyev doesn’t hide his disdain for police. The anger threading through a rant he posted on a friend’s blog made that clear. Bad cops, the young Russian songwriter wrote, should be taken to this city’s downtown plaza and burned alive.

Terentyev meant his remarks for a small circle of friends who vent on each other’s blogs. He had no idea local police were watching.

The blog on which Terentyev posted his message was run by Boris Suranov, a Syktyvkar journalist whose newspaper had irked local authorities. Police were regularly checking entries on the blog when they came across Terentyev’s posting.

Logistep, which supplies information on suspected file sharers to law firms around the world for use in copyright violation cases, has until Feb. 9 to respond to charges.

Switzerland has warned a company that tracks file sharers for copyright violations that its tactics violate the country’s telecommunication law.

Logistep, which supplies information on suspected file sharers to law firms around the world for use in copyright violation cases, has until Feb. 9 to respond to the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC), said Marc Schaefer, the agency’s legal advisor.

Under Swiss law, the identity of a subscriber to an ISP can only be revealed during the course of a criminal case, not a civil one, Schaefer said. The IP address of a computer controlled by the subscriber is considered “personal” information.

In order to try to claim damages from people suspected of trading songs or movies, Logistep has asked Swiss prosecutors to open criminal cases, Schaefer said. As the criminal cases progresses, Logistep receives information from prosecutors that identifies the file sharer.

The Saudi authorities have confirmed they are holding an “outspoken” blogger for “purposes of interrogation”, the New York Times reports.

Fouad al-Farhan, 32, was cuffed on 10 December at his offices in Jidda, apparently because he “wrote about the political prisoners here in Saudi Arabia”, according to a letter posted on his blog. It explains that the powers that be “think I’m running an online campaign promoting their issue”, and adds: “All what I did is wrote some pieces and put side banners and asked other bloggers to do the same.”

Farhan says the authorities requested he “sign an apology”, but insists: “I’m not sure if I’m ready to do that. An apology for what? Apologizing because I said the government is liar when they accused those guys to be supporting terrorism?”

Interior Ministry spokesman General Mansour al-Turki told the New York Times that Farhan was “being questioned about specific violations of nonsecurity laws”. He added: “The violation is not a security matter. He is not being jailed. He is being questioned, and I don’t believe he will remain in detention long. They will get the information that they need from him and then they will let him go.”

BigTimOBrien writes to mention the EFF is reporting that self-proclaimed cyberlawyer, Eric Menhart, has decided to trademark use of the term “cyberlaw” and is threatening other lawyers with legal action over the term.

“I wish I could say I was surprised by this one, but such overreaching invocations of IP rights are all too common — even where, as in this case, there are no actual “rights” to speak of. But an IP lawyer should know that courts (and trademark examiners, and many tech companies that might be potential clients) don’t look kindly on efforts to abuse trademark law to control everyday language. Here’s hoping Menhart figures that out fast.”

Shneier wrote:

MySpace has has reached an agreement with the attorneys general of 49 states — Texas sat out — to protect children from sexual predators on the site.

The attorneys general are all congratulating themselves, as is MySpace — and there’s a lot of commentary out there. To me, this all seems like much ado about nothing.

The measures — details here — won’t do anything to stop child predators on MySpace. But, on the other hand, there isn’t really any problem with child predators — just a tiny handful of highly publicized stories — on MySpace. It’s just security theater against a movie-plot threat. But we humans have a well-established cognitive bias that overestimates threats against our children, so it all makes sense.

A five-year-old boy was taken into custody and thoroughly searched at Sea-Tac because his name is similar to a possible terrorist alias.

The New York Times has up an article discussing the trend of employers tracking the ‘free time’ activities of their employees via their web presence.

“When they do go off the clock and off the corporate network, how they spend their private time should be of no concern to their employer, even if the Internet, by its nature, makes some off-the-job activities more visible to more people than was previously possible. In the absence of strong protections for employees, poorly chosen words or even a single photograph posted online in one’s off-hours can have career-altering consequences.”

The piece likens this activity to the ‘Sociological Department’ that the Ford Company ran to monitor the home lives of their workers. Overstatement, or the corp as Big Brother?

SenatorLuddite writes

“From January 20, 2008 new content laws introduced by the Federal Government will force sites to verify the age of users before accessing content intended for mature audiences (MA15+ and R18+). The laws bring internet classification into line with Film and Book classification laws and completely prohibits X18+ and RC content from the internet. ACMA (The Australian Communications and Media Authority) claims that adults will not be affected by the new laws, yet user-generated and even chatrooms are required to be assessed for classification and powers are granted to ACMA to send ‘take down’ notices to offending sites.”

Stony Stevenson writes

“The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) is offering consumers up to $500 for reporting software counterfeiters who sell their goods on online auction sites like eBay. Under the plan, anyone who unwittingly buys fake software from an online fraudster can receive up to $500 if they report the scam. SIIA said the program is a ‘don’t get mad, get even’ approach to stopping software piracy. It’s ‘a way for unsuspecting buyers to get even with auction sellers who rip them off,’ said SIIA VP Keith Kupferschmid. The campaign, launched December 13, is slated to run through January 30, 2008.”