Facebook has admitted that it failed to apply its policies about offensive content to some disturbingly misogynistic pages. But is this a victory for the social network’s critics, or just another stop on the slippery slope of censorship? Read more »
Proposals are in the works to change the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act in the wake of hacker-activist Aaron Swartz’s untimely death, but those changes are important for reasons that go far beyond just Swartz’s suicide. Read more »
A string of offensive hashtag memes in France has spurred the government to announce a consultation on hate speech with Twitter. It could mark a watershed for the country’s approach to social media — but it’s not just Paris that has a problem. We all do. Read more »
Russia’s new internet blacklist agency is busy naming “illegal” sites ISPs must block. But the government says search engines should not be blocked for pointing to those sites with excerpts of illegal content. Read more at paidContent »
Google exists because, by and large, it is allowed to excerpt web pages without being held liable as a publisher. Now moves in Germany and Australia threaten both of those core facts. Read more at paidContent »
When the man at the center of the ‘Twitter Joke Trial’ had his conviction quashed, it seemed some sanity had returned to the British legal system’s approach to online offensiveness. But that’s not how things worked out. Read more »
Pearl.com, a site that gives people access to one-on-one advice from doctors, lawyers and other professionals, has raised $25.7 million. The new funding comes not even four months after the company raised a $25 million Series A round and changed its name from JustAnswer.com. Read more »
Hadopi, the French body created by former President Nicolas Sarkozy to enforce copyright laws online, has rarely been popular for its three strikes disconnection policy. Now, after hints that the new government may cut its funding, the group’s leader has told politicians to stop meddling. Read more »
The company doesn’t think it’s a great idea for search engines to have to pay to reproduce headlines and story summaries in their results. But that’s nothing on the crazy earlier draft of this proposed law. Read more »
A 38-year-old Englishman becomes the first to be jailed for linking to illegally-hosted movies and TV shows. The method of his prosecution troubles piracy campaigners but delights entertainment owners. Read more at paidContent »
France’s Hadopi piracy agency has warned hundreds of thousands accused of piracy. But it’s become frowned upon by the country’s new government. First step in reform is to cut the agency’s budget. Read more at paidContent »
Twitter’s decision to suspend the account of a British journalist raises a host of questions about the company’s behavior, but one of the important ones is to what extent Twitter’s filtering and curation features could make it legally liable for the content flowing through the network. Read more »
The man who has been given the job of reworking France’s controversial anti-piracy legislation says cutting off the internet connection of filesharers is probably wrong. But don’t expect him to go easy on those of accused of illegal downloads. Read more »
When is a book not a book? When it comes to European tax law. The continent is acting against two countries that reduced e-book tax to physical rates, in a sorry and technocratic action. Read more at paidContent »
The U.S. government continues to try and extradite British college student Richard O’Dwyer for simply linking to copyright-infringing files, on a site located in the UK. If they are successful, it could change the way we think about some of the fundamental underpinnings of the web. Read more »
Under new proposals from the British media regulator Ofcom, internet providers will start sending warning letters to those accused of illegal filesharing in 18 months — and will be forced to handed people’s data over to copyright holders after three successive hits. Read more »
Google is waving its victory in front of French culture makers, after emerging winner from a copyright infringement case brought by France’s largest TV network. Read more at paidContent »
Whether they’re outraged, scrabbling in terror, or simply hoping it goes away, it’s the privacy rule that European startups can’t ignore. But what exactly is the European cookie directive? As the rules come into force in the U.K., we take a look at the details. Read more »
The lawmaker leading Europe’s digital agenda initiatives is hoping France can liberalise its digital copyright regime, after it introduced a policy to warn and disconnect illegal content downloaders. Read more at paidContent »
The UK parliamentary committee’s report into whether it was misled over phone hacking makes conclusions including: “Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company.” Read more at paidContent »
The UK becomes the thirteenth country to compel ISP-level blocking of The Pirate Bay, after record labels won a court case. Read more at paidContent »
The UK’s communications regulator has kicked off a week in which News Corp will again be hauled over the coals, by opening an inquiry in to email hacking at its Sky News channel. Read more at paidContent »
The music industry is battling to stop piracy through Russia’s largest social network so that it can turn the country from a digital backwater in to a top music market. vKontakte, which is often called a Facebook copycat for its similar features and design, includes built-in […] Read more at paidContent »
Plans by the British government to give intelligence agencies access to details of every phone call, email, text and website visit made in the country have drawn plenty of anger from across the spectrum. Here’s what people are saying about the controversy. Read more »
We’ve gotten used to the content industries arguing that what happens when people download or make copies is “theft.” But using that term muddies the waters when it comes to what copyright is supposed to be about, and lends support to irrational laws and court decisions. Read more »
French data watchdog CNIL has sent Google a list of 69 questions about its new privacy policy that it must answer within three weeks. But the poser that Europe really wants to find an answer to is a simple one: why? Read more »
After the Court of Appeal in London told Britain’s two biggest Internet providers they must abide the controversial antipiracy rules brought in by the Digital Economy Act, some experts suggest it could spark a SOPA-style protest. Is it likely? Read more »
The White House announced major privacy initiatives this week amidst a growing hubbub over how technology companies use consumers’ personal data. The news sheds light on both the privacy debate and on how the players involved are attempting to maintain political control of the issue… Read more »
Mobile privacy will still be a murky issue despite a new agreement between the state of California and six leading mobile companies over how best to help app developers comply with a California law requiring them to post a privacy policy. Read more »
Apple has been dealt another blow in its ongoing legal patent war with Samsung. A Dutch appeals court ruled Tuesday that an appeal by Apple against a lower court’s decision from August 2011 is invalid, and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 does not infringe on Apple’s iPad design right. Read more »
In a presentation about SOPA and PIPA, author and media theorist Clay Shirky starts with an anecdote about a mom-and-pop bakery in his old neighborhood that made custom birthday cakes for children. What does that have to do with piracy? More than you might think. Read more »
In the wake of a weekend announcement that the White House wouldn’t support SOPA as written as well as the canceling of the DNS provisions in the bill, the web has shifted attention from the Stop Online Piracy Act to the Protect IP Act. Read more »
The proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) has drawn the ire of many tech industry leaders for its potential to squash innovation. GigaOM talked to O’Reilly Media founder Tim O’Reilly about why SOPA is wrong and what the tech industry can do to stop it. Read more »
A growing problem as the web becomes more central to how we share and work is that an average person doesn’t know how abstract laws can affect their lives and the media doesn’t expose how well (or poorly) politicians understand technology. These questions are a start. Read more »
The case of “investigative blogger” Crystal Cox reinforces that some governments are lagging behind when it comes to extending freedom-of-the-press protections to non-traditional journalists like bloggers. When anyone can be a journalist, how do we decide who gets protection and who doesn’t? Read more »
According to one expert, hacktivism gets a bad rap when it comes to web security, but those sites generate a lot of attack data to feed security systems. However, the proposed SOPA antipiracy legislation could end up playing right into hackers’ hands. Read more »
A new copyright bill proposed in the House would give governments and private corporations unprecedented powers to remove websites from the internet completely, on the flimsiest of grounds, and would also force internet service providers to play the role of copyright police or face penalties. Read more »
Apple has won another victory in the legal battle with Samsung around smartphones and tablets, which spans 12 courts in nine countries. This one comes in California regarding a request for an expedited trial, shortly after another ruling went its way Thursday in a German court. Read more »
Britain’s copyright laws have always been byzantine, but the digital age has put them under more pressure than ever. Now the news that the government plans a major makeover has sent rights holders into a spiral, but could be great news for startups. Read more »
When most people think about Google and Facebook, they think about California’s Silicon Valley. But according to newly filed disclosure documents, the tech industry’s titans are spending increasing amounts of time and money making their voices heard in Washington, D.C. Are they crossing the line? Read more »
