p2pnet news view | P2P:- Hi all:

I have a touch of what I’m praying is a 24-hour-type stomach flu. So I’m packing it in for today in the hope I’ll be fit to go to Vancouver tomorrow.

August 29 is the date set for the summary trial of Wayne Crooke’s defamation allegation against me and obviously, I’d like to be there to hear Dan Burnett argue the case.

In what amounts to a bid to freeze freedom of speech online, Vancouver businessman Wayne Crookes has sued Google.com, Wikipedia.com, Pbwiki.com, Yahoo.com, MySpace.com, Openpolitics.ca, Domains by Proxy, Mike Pilling, Hayley Easto, Kate Holloway, Craig Hubley, Warren De Simone (case dismissed), Frank Cameron, Catharine Johannson, Gareth White and various anonymous persons.

And me.

“In a Web 2.0 world, anyone can be a publisher,” said Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) staff counsel David Fewer when I asked him what he thought of the Crookes lawsuits.

“In this way, the internet acts as a great engine for freedom of expression,” he said, adding, “Unfortunately, we’re seeing this benefit threatened by litigation targeting parties who are more and more removed from allegedly defamatory content.

“Innocent intermediaries, disseminators, and participatory forums like wikis, blogs, and news sites facilitate public discourse, and shouldn’t have to go to court to defend innocuous practices such as merely linking to another website.”

My particular case will result in what could potentially be a landmark ruling on whether or not hyper-linking constitutes actual publication, with all that implies.

For now, below are a few links of some of the stories I had my eye on »»»

FCC, Comcast and Network Neutrality: What Now? - voip-news.com

The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) finally issued its formal ruling on Comcast’s Internet throttling last week without any major surprises. The agency had announced its main points in early August, and its final ruling didn’t stray far. For the most part, the “Memorandum Opinion and Order” reinforced the commission’s long-standing message that it had the network-neutrality situation under control. But the details of the order again drove home how heavily the agency’s handling of the high-profile issue will depend on the political climate of the future. (Thanks, Robb)

»»»

Net mob search for iPhone girl’s identity - The Age

China’s “human flesh search engine” is in hot pursuit of an unnamed Chinese factory worker after photographs of her showed up unexpectedly on a new iPhone 3G purchased recently in Britain. In one of the photos, a young woman dressed in a pink striped factory uniform and wearing a matching white cap and rubber gloves, is seen smiling and flashing a “V” sign as she leans over an iPhone assembly line. The photos were discovered by an iPhone user in Britain who promptly posted his find on the MacRumors forum, setting off a global chain reaction of media interest and culminating in the quest by Chinese internet users to discover her identity. The term “human flesh search engine” refers to this type of mob reaction by China’s so-called netizens (internet citizens) to pool their collective resources in order to track someone down. In China, Apple uses the giant Taiwanese company FoxConn to assemble its iPods and iPhones. The company’s main factories are based in the Bao’an district of Shenzhen, the booming city next door to Hong Kong.

»»»

Target settles suit with Nat’l Federation of Blind - Associated Press

Target Corp. has agreed to pay $6 million in damages to plaintiffs in California unable to use its online site as part of a class action settlement with the National Federation of the Blind, a leading advocacy group for blind people. As part of the settlement, announced Wednesday, Target will place $6 million in an interest-bearing account from which members of the California settlement class can make claims. Furthermore, the settlement requires Target to implement internal guidelines to make its site more accessible to the blind by Feb. 28, 2009, with assistance from the NFB.

»»»

Malaysia Shuts Down an Internet Gadfly - Asia Sentinel

Raja Petra Kamaruddin, the Internet journalist whose Malaysia Today website has been a leading voice in pointing out corruption and crime in Malaysia, has been shut down by all 21 of the country’s Internet Service Providers on the orders of the government. The Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission, an independent commission set up to govern the Internet, issued the order Tuesday on grounds that the website had committed acts that contravene the local laws of the country, according to the Kuala Lumpur-based Star newspaper.  Malaysia Today has tens of thousands of daily readers.  Almost immediately, however, Raja Petra launched a “mirror site,”? http://mt.harapanmalaysia.com/2008/ ? and published Malaysia Today on it.

»»»

Judges consider whether FBI violated free speech - Reuters

A panel of federal appeals court judges pushed a U.S. government lawyer on Wednesday to answer why FBI letters sent out to Internet service providers seeking information should remain secret. A panel of three judges from the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments on whether a provision of the Patriot Act, which requires people who are formally contacted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for information to keep it a secret, is constitutional. The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit in 2004 on behalf of an undisclosed Internet service provider against the U.S. government challenging the so-called National Security Letters (NSL) as well as gag orders placed on the recipients. The appeals courts on Wednesday questioned a lawyer representing the U.S. government on whether the FBI violated free speech rights in placing the gag orders.

»»»

Controversial IRA film will continue with TIFF premiere - National Post

The behind-the-scenes drama surrounding the film Fifty Dead Men Walking, which is scheduled to have its world premiere at next month’s Toronto International Film Festival, is quickly becoming as gripping as the memoir it’s based on. On Tuesday, the film’s producers released a joint statement confirming the film would still be screening next month at TIFF. It stated that “although inspired by the contents” of Martin McGartland’s 1997 memoir of the same name, the film adaptation “is not a representation of Mr. Mc-Gartland’s life.” Furthermore, the statement claimed McGartland — a onetime infiltrator of the Irish Republican Army whose book chronicles his experiences as a British agent, and who threatened legal action against the film’s producers this week — read the script, was given an advance screening and also turned down the chance to have the name of the main character changed.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 at 11:26 am and is filed under P2P. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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