The Obama administrations “Internet freedom” agenda — already tarnished — is on the line, and at least this time, officials seem to realize that their actions will have a direct effect on their foreign policy. …. There are signs, however, that the Obama administration is learning that it cant have a “do as I say, not as I do policy” when it comes to Internet freedom. During the SOPA debate, the State Department refused to comment on the bill despite virtually the entire tech industry complaining that it would amount to mass censorship. A spokesperson even released a statement at the time saying, “The Department of State does not provide comment on pending legislation,” despite a provision that would have made much of the circumvention software it is funding — to the tune of tens of millions of dollars — illegal.In stark contrast this time around, Secretary of State Hillary Clintons senior advisor for innovation, Alec Ross, was the first U.S. official to definitively say, “The Obama administration opposes CISPA,” as he matter-of-factly told the Guardian Monday. Prior to that, the administration had only released a broad statement saying that “privacy and civil liberties” should be preserved in any cybersecurity bill.
Controlling the Internet
Ruling in YouTube Appeal is (Mostly) a Win for Internet | Center for Democracy & Technology
The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision today in Viacom’s blockbuster lawsuit against YouTube – a case CDT cited in 2010 as one of the leading “things to watch” that will shape the Internet’s future. Fortunately, the news is mostly good. While the decision is not a complete win for YouTube and indeed sends the matter back to the District Court for further factual determinations, the principal legal rulings appear to represent a “win” for the Internet.
Viacom’s lawsuit represented a full broadside attack on the crucial “safe harbor” that protects companies that host user-generated content from being held liable whenever users upload infringing material. Without this protection, set forth in Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), liability risks would cripple the operation of user-generated content and social networking sites. It would be hard to overstate the negative impact for free expression
via Court Ruling in YouTube Appeal is (Mostly) a Win for Internet | Center for Democracy & Technology.
Does US law have jurisdiction over Megaupload?
Judge O’Grady informed the FBI that Megaupload was never served with criminal charges, which is a requirement to start the trial. The origin of this problem is not merely a matter of oversight. Megaupload’s lawyer Ira Rothken says that unlike people, companies can’t be served outside US jurisdiction.
via Megaupload Trial May Never Happen, Judge Says | TorrentFreak.
History of File-Sharing
A quick overview of the many generations of file sharing tech.
Let’s briefly examine how filesharing has become what it is today in a non-exhaustive overview.
How can the US seize a “Hong Kong site” like Megaupload?
Here’s an article on the subject of cross-nation jurisdiction for Internet activity.
The indictment makes these points repeatedly. Megaupload wasn’t just some Hong Kong enterprise that “happened” to be used by US residents. The site had leased more than 1,000 servers in North America alone; 525 were at Carpathia Hosting and were located in Virginia. Between 2007 and 2010, Carpathia received $13 million from Megaupload. (Cogent Communications in the US supplied a few additional US servers and bandwidth.)
via Explainer: How can the US seize a "Hong Kong site" like Megaupload?.
RapidShare struggles to placate Big Content with anti-piracy plan
Introduction: Cloud-based storage lockers are becoming increasingly important. Most of us probably use Dropbox. But of course they can be used to move any kind of forbidden digital content around. Hence US strong-copyright-interests are suspicious of them.RB
The last year has been a stressful period for online locker sites. Hotfile is currently defending itself from a lawsuit by the Motion Picture Association of America. In January, the federal government shut down Megaupload and indicted its officers. While the courts have yet to decide whether either company is legally responsible for the infringing activities of their users, there’s no serious dispute that copyright infringement accounted for a significant fraction of their business.
RapidShare argues that its service is fundamentally different. The company promotes non-infringing uses of its service and actively polices its site for illegal content. On Wednesday, at an event at the National Press Club, RapidShare formalized its anti-piracy stance with a new document. Its “Responsible Practices for Cloud Storage Services” outlines the steps the company takes to fight infringement on its site.
As we’ll see, these steps go well beyond the minimum enforcement efforts required to qualify for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s safe harbor. Yet even RapidShare’s aggressive anti-piracy approach has not satisfied piracy hawks like the Recording Industry Association of America. Ars talked to RapidShare General Counsel Daniel Raimer following Wednesday’s event.
via RapidShare struggles to placate Big Content with anti-piracy plan.
FBI seizes Italian server used for anonymous speech
The US State Department is pushing devices to allow anonymous use of the Internet in other countries. But anonymity, of course, can be used for a multitude of purposes.
Original press release from the targeted organization is here.
Complex international issues: the main user (owner?) of the server was an Italian group.
The server that was seized belongs to the Italian political activist Internet service European Counter Network, and hosted a node of the Mixmaster anonymous remailer service. It was seized under a search warrant served on a co-location facility in New York shared by Riseup networks (a “technology collective” that provides secure communciations for activists) and May First/People Link (an Internet co-op). The server also provided e-mail and other services to ECN’s users.
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