Net service providers now can ’strike out’ pirating surfers China Post

The Legislative Yuan ratified yesterday the latest revision of the Copyright Law to empower Internet service providers (ISPs) to “strike out” Internet surfers who have violated others’ copyrights and posted unauthorized content on any Web sites. The new rules will exempt the ISPs from any responsibility for offenses caused by pirating parties in order to avoid litigation by copyright owners. But the service providers will be obliged to inform the pirating parties about the infringement on the copyrights. They can suspend part or all services to the pirates after giving three warnings. The pirates will still face lawsuits from the copyright owners. Officials at the Intellectual Property Office said piracy is comparatively easier because the new technology makes it convenient for people to duplicate and forward information, pictures, images or audio files via the Internet.

EU states, lawmakers on Internet collision course Reuters

European Union states headed for a collision course with the bloc’s parliament on Tuesday as a spat over how to tackle illegal downloads threatened a wider telecom reform. There is broad agreement over the reform package, authored by EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding, but a last-minute standoff between member countries and parliament has put back final adoption to May at the earliest. The battle over copyright abuse has emerged as a final sticking point between EU states and the European Parliament, which have joint say. The issue was not part of Reding’s reform, which covers infrastructure rather than content. To help crack down on illegal downloading or sharing of copyright material, the two sides agree that an Internet service provider should be able to cut a subscriber’s access if there is approval from “a competent legal authority.”

Government Shuts Down BitTorrent Tracker TorrentFreak

Today the Malaysian government ordered prominent webhosting provider Shinjiru to close down BitTorrent site LeechersLair.com. The order came from the Content, Consumer and Network Security Division of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission.

Mounties back off taser tale Toronto Star

After months of stonewalling and sticking to a now-discredited version of events surrounding the role of its officers in the death of Robert Dziekanski, RCMP Commissioner William Elliott is signalling a change from the national police force. The RCMP, in the closest it has come to acknowledging any mistakes, will tell an inquiry into the actions of its officers in the death of Dziekanski that “there are things that they would do differently,” Elliott says. The head of the Mounties, in his first sit-down newspaper interview after 21 months on the job, made clear he is not condemning the four officers, especially in light of a recent comment by British Columbia’s attorney general, who said charges could still be laid. But it was also clear the RCMP will no longer adhere to the view that the distraught Polish immigrant was “combative” and the officers acted in self-defence a story now contradicted almost daily.

Mayo Clinic backs new personal health record site Associated Press

The Mayo Clinic has combined its medical expertise with Microsoft Corp.’s technology in a free Web site launching Tuesday that will let people store personal health and medical information. The Mayo Clinic Health Manager, as the site is called, is one of many emerging services for so-called personal health records. The sites, from companies such as Microsoft and Google Inc. and major health insurers, are meant to give people an easy way to stash medical information and transfer it to a new clinic, hospital or specialist. But those providers aren’t necessarily ready for such an electronic revolution, which for now means it takes some work on the patient’s part to set up and maintain the records. The Mayo Clinic Health Manager uses Microsoft’s HealthVault system to store medical histories, test results, immunization files and other records from doctors’ offices and hospital visits, along with data from home devices like heart rate monitors. Anyone can sign up for an account, not just Mayo Clinic patients. Users can give access to different slices of their health information to doctors and family members as the need arises. [And anyone who does sign needs to urgently consult his or her psychiatric professional.]

EU forces big mobile price cuts BBC

Euro MPs have voted overwhelmingly to cut the cost of texting and using the internet on mobiles abroad. The cap for a “roaming” text will fall to 11 euro cents (10p; 14 US cents), from about 29 cents on average today. The EU-wide caps, excluding VAT, will take effect in July. They cover text messages and data roaming services, such as checking e-mails while abroad. The current price cap of 46 euro cents per minute for an outgoing voice call will also fall to 43 cents in July. The legislation was passed by 646 votes in favour and 22 against. It has already been approved by EU telecoms ministers.

Kindle Display is Costly Business Week

A teardown analysis of the Kindle 2 by market research firm iSuppli estimates the cost to build the device at $185.49, or about 52% of its retail price of $359.

Lawyers Enter Twitter Tempest New York Times

During her run for vice president, Sarah Palin learned that often the best response to parody is to embrace it. Danyelle Freeman, the restaurant critic for The New York Daily News, is taking the opposite approach. She is calling in the lawyers to reclaim her name. In February, Adam Robb Rucinsky began poking fun at Ms. Freeman online using her byline and Restaurant Girl, which is the name of her Daily News column and her blog. Mr. Rucinsky, a 30-year-old part-time art dealer who uses his middle name as his last name when he writes, sends silly blurbs on Twitter and writes inane blog postings that purport to reflect Ms. Freeman`s musings about New York City restaurants, like ‘Governor of Texas raving about Secession on TV all week. Must be great word of mouth for Bouley!’ His fake Restaurant Girl also ventures into more cosmic concerns: ‘Does anyone know what happens to all the chocolate bunnies no one bought for Easter? Are they put to sleep?’ To try to put a stop to it all, Ms. Freeman had lawyers from a Beverly Hills firm send Mr. Rucinsky a stern letter ordering him to stop using the names Restaurant Girl and Danyelle Freeman by the end of this month.

One third of workers open to bribes for data theft The Register

A somewhat self-serving survey ahead of an information security trade show in London next week reveals a third of workers can potentially be bribed into handing over company data. A poll of 600 workers at busy London railway stations found more than a third (37 per cent), admitted that they would hand over their organisation’s most sensitive data for inducements ranging up to a million pounds. Respondents were asked what it would take to persuade them to download and hand over sensitive company information to a stranger, with suggested incentives ranging from a “slap up meal” to offers of over ten million pounds.

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April, 2009