Six bloggers arrested in Fujian province for reporting gang-rape death Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders calls for the immediate release of six bloggers based in the southeastern province of Fujian who were arrested at the end of last month on charges of defamation and high treason. Lawyers have told the press freedom organisation they are being held for reporting that a young woman died after being gang-raped in February 2008. Reporting a woman`s rape and death is not grounds for arrest, Reporters Without Borders said. The police accuse these bloggers of defamation without saying who was defamed, and accuse them of high treason without offering any credible evidence of this. This is clearly an attempt by the Fujian authorities to cover up a tragic case in order to protect influential people….

Baltimore transit wants to use microphones to record all conversations on trains and buses BoingBoing
The Baltimore public transit system is trying to get the legal go-ahead to use microphones to record the conversations of passengers and drivers on the buses and trains. Shocking, huh? Watch how fast this becomes everyday — just like CCTV. After all, if we can simply ignore the all-seeing, all-spying eye, why not the all-listening ear? Update: Thanks to Jackie31337 in the comments for pointing out that the MTA withdrew the proposal, “Maryland Transportation Administration Acting Secretary Beverly Swaim-Staley said Monday evening that she has withdrawn the following request to the attorney general for a legal opinion, saying the matter should have been reviewed at the department level before the MTA sought legal advice.”

Movie studios try to harness “Twitter effect” Vancouver Sun
Audiences are voicing snap judgments on movies faster and to more people than ever before on Twitter, and their ability to create a box office hit or a flop is forcing major studios to revamp marketing campaigns… Box office watchers say Twitter, a micro-blogging service that allows anyone to post on-the-fly wisecracks for all the world to see, is the latest weapon in an arsenal of cell phones and computers that audiences use to critique films quickly, often when they are still sitting in theaters. Such word-of-mouth publicity from fan to fan can boost, or bomb, ticket sales… Film marketers look at weekly declines in ticket sales to judge fan buzz. In recent years those “drops” have widened significantly as communication has speeded up thanks to the Internet and more recently social networking services like Twitter and Facebook. [Comment: Better suited alternate title: Movie studios admit lagging sales due to word of mouth and not due to P2P]

[Canadian] Copyright Consultation Running On Open Source Software Michael Geist
Joseph Potvin, an economist at the Chief Information Officer Branch, Treasury Board Secretariat, writes to note that the Government’s copyright consultation is running on open source software.

Big Brother Switzerland: real-time internet interception to start on August 1, 2009 WikiLeaks
Summary: These confidential documents detail information on an official program for centralized, real-time, interception of Internet traffic in Switzerland. The interception will start on August 1, 2009.

National Portrait Gallery vs Wikipedia Open Rights Group
National Portrait Gallery`s (NPG) threat to sue a Wikipedia administrator for reposting 3,000 images caused a great deal of discussion on our lists and across the media. It`s absurd to use the law to restrain access to creative works that are no longer protected by copyright. Once copyrights have expired – particularly if it resides in a publicly funded institution – that work should be free for all to reuse and remix. Legal bloggers disagree as to the validity of the claim …

P2P Causing Mobile Network Congestion as Well InternetNews
Mobile data bandwidth usage increased by 30 percent in the second quarter of 2009 and peer-to-peer networks have a lot to do with it. A report by deep packet inspection (DPI) provider Allot also found P2P accounted for congestion in highly utilized nodes. “We had seen similar report on fixed line bandwidth but nothing specific in the mobile space,” Jonathon Gordon, director of marketing for Allot (NASDAQ: ALLT), told InternetNews.com. Allot’s its first-ever Mobile Broadband Traffic report comes as fixed line operators are trying to find a balance between the lower cost per megabit of new equipment and the constant decline in revenue per megabit from existing customers.

How to use your BlackBerry Tour on Rogers’ network IT Business
Research In Motion’s (RIM) latest addition to its smartphone line, the BlackBerry Tour 9630, is a “world phone,” meaning that it’s built to operate on both CDMA networks–like Bell and Telus’–as well as networks that use GSM technology, like Rogers’ network. However, both Bell Mobility and Telus, the two exclusive Tour carriers in Canada, “lock” their branded Tours so you can’t use them on rival networks… Luckily, there are two simple ways to “unlock” BlackBerry Tours so they can be used on GSM, as well as any other compatible networks across the globe… Unlock BlackBerry Tour 9630 via Third Party. …Such services typically require only a payment… Currently, Cellunlock.net’s charging $34.99 for a Tour unlock code while CellfServices.com is running a Tour unlock special for $21.99. …You may also want to enter CrackBerry.com’s free Tour unlock code contest, though you better act fast. It ends this weekend. [Comment: How will the new Canadian copyright consultation handle this? Will you lose your house for unlocking a phone like with the old proposed C-61 copyright Bill?]

RIM fights BlackBerry snoop gaffe The Register
Denies involvement in half-baked Etisalat scheme – RIM, maker of the BlackBerry mobile phone, has told the Reg that Etisalat is talking tosh and the BlackBerry remains a secure platform, after the United Arab Emirates operator “patched” the device with surveillance software. The “patch” which Etisalat sent out last week was actually a surveillance application, designed to make copies of received e-mails, despite the operator’s claims that the software was designed to ease 2G to 3G handoffs. RIM has sent The Register a statement…

Free Alternatives to Photoshop With All the Bells, Whistles, Filters, & Layers ReadWriteWeb
Photoshop, Adobe’s industry standard for image editing, costs a whopping, unforgivable $600; and because there’s no affordable and equivalent option for non-pro users, we’re willing to wager Photoshop places high in the rankings for the most illegally cracked warez of them all…. [W]e’ve rounded up and road-tested seven free resources that pack the punch of Photoshop’s bells and whistles without the price. You just might find your dream freebie below…

Italy Proposes Law To Force Bloggers To Take Down Content Claimed To Be ‘Defamatory’ TechDirt
…The latest, as pointed out by CitMediaLaw is a proposed new law that would potentially fine bloggers as much as $18,000 if they do not remove content called defamatory within in a short period of time. Note that this is not content that a lawsuit finds to be defamatory, but merely content that someone declares to be defamatory.

Debate starting on new French Internet piracy bill CTV
Lawmakers in France’s lower house of parliament are to start debate Tuesday on a new version of a bill aimed at cracking down on online piracy by cutting the Internet connections of those who illegally download movies and music…. Even as the French lawmakers struggle over the legislation, crafty Internet pirates are already hatching strategies to get around it. [Comment: ah, CTV says all those people are "pirates". Crafty ones at that! I see...]

Doctor’s Orders – Want Treatment? Just Sign This No-Complaint Contract Washington Post
Until recently, patients whose doctors kept them waiting for hours without explanation, brushed off their questions or seemed downright incompetent had little recourse, other than complaining to family, friends or, in egregious cases, the state medical board. That was before the Internet gave everyone with an e-mail address the ability to reach a vastly wider audience by posting — often anonymously — critiques of doctors, in much the same way travelers rate hotels on such Web sites as TripAdvisor. In the past five years more than 40 Web sites, among them RateMDs.com, Angie’s List, Yelp, DrScore and Vitals.com (motto: “where doctors are examined”), have begun reviewing physicians, providing information about one of the more difficult and important decisions consumers make routinely. As a defensive measure, some physicians are requiring patients to sign broad agreements that prohibit online postings or commentary in any media outlet “without prior written consent.” Critics call the documents gag orders. Many experts say they are both unethical and unenforceable.

Barnes & Noble launches its own e-bookstore Beta News
It’s an odd time to launch an e-bookstore, in the wake of Amazon’s Orwellian book-deletion shenanigans as we are, but Barnes & Noble is jumping in with both feet. The new Barnes & Noble eBookstore launched Monday with over 700,000 titles, leapfrogging it past Amazon’s efforts. The store allows downloads to readers for the iPhone/iPod Touch and the BlackBerry, along with Windows and Mac machines; whatever the reader, it’s optimized to the .pdb and .prc file formats. (The readers are free and come with free books — including, if you register, a Merriam-Webster dictionary, plus access to half a million public-domain books from Google.)

Marc – p2pnet

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July, 2009

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