Opt-In for Sin? Pornography, child-protection and the need for evidence

Posted: October 11, 2011 in censorship, pornography, privacy, surveillance
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Would this work in the UK?

According to The Guardian this morning, the British Government will be announcing that it has concluded an agreement with the four major ISPs in the UK to block explicit pornographic content online, requiring users who wish to see such content to explicitly ‘opt-in’ with their service provider.  The report states that the ISPs BT, TalkTalk, Sky and Virgin will make content inaccessible to those who do not join the opt-in programme.  In comparison, The Telegraph states that ‘that they will in future offer customers “an active choice,” at the point of purchase, of blocking adult content’, although it does not state whether existing customers will have to specifically opt-out from adult content, or specifically opt-in in order to regain access.  The Independent provides little extra information, seeming to echo The Guardian’s statement that the programme will specifically require users to ‘opt-in’, rather than ‘op-out’.  However, further reading indicates that rather than blocking sexual content at the ISP level, these ISPs will instead be offering parents the option of restricting access to adult content such as sexually explicit content, or material relating to suicide, self-harm or other contentious issues through the use of software optionally installed on the computer.  While much less contentious than initial reports suspected, some consideration needs to be given to issues of evidence in assessing harm to children through access to pornography, as well as the effectiveness of filtering regimes.

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Italy’s proposed wire-tapping legislation was a threat to Wikipedia?

Posted: October 6, 2011 in censorship, freedom of expression, Italy, surveillance, wire-tapping
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Courtesy of Wikipedia.org

A story has been circulating amongst my Italian colleagues for a few days now about concerns over the wire-tapping legislation currently being discussed by the Italian Parliament.  The Bill in question, currently called the ‘Rules in Wire-tapping etc’ (in Italian, Norme in materia di intercettazioni telefoniche etc) contains a provision which Wikipedia has expressed concern over.  Paragraph 29 of the Bill read that ‘For computer sites, including newspapers and magazines distributed by electronic means, the statements are published or corrections, within forty-eight hours of a request with the same demographic characteristics, the same methodology and the same access to the site’s visibility news to which they refer.’  In other words, should a complaint be made about content by someone who feels that the information contained harms them, that material should be removed within 48 hours.

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Copyright and terrorism: – when truth is stranger than fiction

Posted: September 20, 2011 in copyright, surveillance, terrorism
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Parody Ad

Click for full-size image

Today’s entry has been inspired by an entry on the excellent technology blog techdirt written by Brady Kriss.  Brady wrote an update regarding an advertisement run by the British Transport Police, in which he commented on the somewhat bizarre anti-terrorism message displayed here.  As was acknowledged by Brady in an update, this image is actually a parody of a real counter-terrorism advertisement being run.  Before going deeper into the issue of piracy and terrorism, which is ridiculous enough on its own, I’d like to talk briefly about the real advertisement.

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Pirate Party weighs anchor in Berlin

Posted: September 19, 2011 in copyright, intellectual property, pirate parties, surveillance
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Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

A surprise result in Berlin’s State Parliament yesterday has seen the Free Democrats, coalition partners with the ruling Christian Democrats Union (or CDU), ousted and replaced by members of the Pirate Party of Germany according to The Guardian.  But is the result really so unexpected?

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Copyright extension like a broken record

Posted: September 18, 2011 in copyright, intellectual property
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Broken CD

Broken CD by Squirmelia, on Flickr

I love seances.  Messages from beyond the grave, telling you exactly what you want to hear.  Apparently, if events last week are to be believed, so does the European Union. As some of you may know, on the 12th of September 2011, the last roadblocks preventing an extension of the duration of copyright protection for phonographic recordings (for example, the copyright over the music produced on a CD, rather than the copyright over the music itself) were removed. With a change of heart by Denmark, who had previously opposed extension of the term of copyright protection, the Council of Ministers had achieved the majority needed for a successful vote for the implementation of a new Directive. With this new Directive, copyright in sound recordings has now been extended from 50 years to 70 years.

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Welcome to Digital Discontent!

Posted: September 16, 2011 in Uncategorized
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Digital Discontent is a blog I have created in order to discuss matters relating to digital technologies, ranging from copyright law to security and surveillance on the Internet.  Analysis on this webpage comes from a critical legal perspective, and updates will cover both current events that may be of interest, as well as pieces dealing with theoretical issues.  Topics that this website will address include (but are not limited to): -

  • Intellectual property law and policy
  • Competition law and policy
  • Censorship online
  • Technological developments
  • Digital culture
  • Crime and security issues

Digital Discontent?

Digital technologies are increasingly used for all our everyday activities, whether it is watching TV, searching for jobs, buying goods or staying in contact with friends.  The extent to which we rely on these technologies, in light of the issues this website will raise, should give us cause to rethink some of our preconceptions.  In some cases, it should cause us serious concern.  Hence the name of the site, ‘Digital Discontent’.  We should be discontent – we should be seeking to understand more about the technology that pervades our lives.  We should question what we are told about these technologies, or about events surrounding these technologies.  This website is my attempt to add to those questions.  These issues will be addressed from a critical perspective, fostered by the belief that it is essential to challenge mainstream assumptions, whether legal or otherwise.  Taking competition law as an example, it is often assumed that the end goal of competition regulation is to ensure pure competition through the maintenance of free and fair markets.  Is this the case?  Is it even possible to have free and fair markets?  Is taking a more economic approach to competition regulation even desirable, and if so, what model of economic thought should be the focus?  Similar questions may be asked of copyright law.  One of the traditional justifications of copyright is based upon the belief that copyright protection is awarded so as to ensure some sort of economic incentive is provided to creative artists, so as to continue to create works which are beneficial to society.  Yet there are significant problems with this belief.  Do we really believe that the possibility that a corporate entity which holds the copyright over a particular work will continue to profit from that work 70 years after the death of the author really creates an incentive for that artist?  Similar arguments can be made (and indeed, will be made on this website in the future) that ‘just reward’ justifications of copyright are also significantly flawed, on the grounds that in actuality, copyright law does not treat creative artists particularly well.

To add context, much of what is written here may be considered as coming from the viewpoint of critical legal studies, which seeks to address law not as a self-contained system, but part of a more complex network.  It is somewhat difficult to distance law from politics, and, even if law is not to be considered as being the ‘mere’ result of political processes, is very much politicised and is subject to conscious and unconscious biases, whether cultural, societal or otherwise.  The purpose of this site, therefore, is to expand upon some of the topics mentioned, to develop some ideas I have on these subjects, and to be able to share them with legal and non-legal audiences.  I hope that this blog is as informative and entertaining to read as it is for me to write.