Cyberlaw

Danish Courts Discover Internet Censorship

Denmark has taken up the fight against the freedom of Internet traffic. In a recent court decision (in Danish here) the court has decided that the Internet Service Provider must prevent users carrying out illegal activities.

The background is the controversial Russian site AllOfMp3.com (more info about background controversies on wikipedia). The Russian company claims to follow Russian law while the IFPI claim that they have not paid for any western labels. In addition to this the music is not protected by DRM and can be freely transferred to others.

The Danish court has found that since the music is downloaded is actually copied onto the ISPâ??s equipment then they are guilty of copyright violation. The court has not seen this as aiding someone elseâ??s copyright violation but find that the ISP is directly responsible for carrying out the actions.

ISP liability for the actions of their customers has a long background and basically takes three positions. The ISP is totally innocent in the same way as the post-office is innocent of a blackmail letter it delivers. The ISP is guilty since without their equipment the crime could never have taken place. And thirdly the more complex: it depends. This last case must answer questions such as:

Did the ISP have knowledge of the actions?
Did the ISP take actions to prevent it?
Would it be possible (technically, economically, politically) to take action?

The result of this is that the ISP has been protected by its own strategic ignorance.

But now the Danish court argues that the ISP is not contributing or aiding crime (which in itself is a questionable stance as the questions above indicate) but is guilty of the crime itself.

The court writes

â??Retten finder … at ogsÃ¥ den flyktige og tilfældige fiksering af musikværket i form av elektroniske signaler, som foretages i de forskellige routers under datapakkernes transmission via internettet, er omfattet af ophovsretslovens § 2.â??

Basically: that the consequences of millisecond that it takes for the music to zoom through the companies routers is, in fact, the creation of a copy of digital music. This is done without the permission of the copyright holder.

Wow! The Danes have really begun something here. First of all you can hardly read, listen or see coherent information while it flies through the router. Since information online is mixed up in many packets and mixed together with other packets and all the little packets can take different routes to their final destination.

IF the Danes were right then I should be able to sue the Danish ISP for copying all my emails which happen to go through Denmark without permission.

Another problem is that the Danish court has ordered this whole problem to be resolved by blocking all traffic from the Russian site. This implementation is both unpoductive and dangerous. It is unproductive since those who want can still download – site blocking is a minor impediment. It is dangerous since it shows a lack of understanding of how the Internet works. Faith in blocking only leads to the false impression that something is being done.

(via Oscar Swartz, Copyriot)

Posted on by mklang

Tagging DRM

The Anti-DRM campaign Defective By Design has begun tagging products on Amazon.

The system works on Amazon.com with their system of “tagging” products on its US site. You can look at a product and add a tag that describes it. We have started tagging items that contain DRM (Blu-Ray players, Blu-Ray DVDs, the Zune, the iPod, Amazon Unbox movies etc.) with the “defectivebydesignâ?? tag.

As products get tagged over and over again with a particular tag, that tag surfaces to the top of the list, and displays in larger text in some views. There is also a page for pictures and discussions of the tag. Tag these products and search for similar DRM products to tag now!

All of the international Amazon websites allow customers to review products. Review a DRM product NOW as a way to warn others of the problems they may face because of DRM. Once you have reviewed a product you can post the link as a comment on our site, to encourage other DefectiveByDesign crew members to rate your review. If you see a product review that points out the DRM problems you can also rate that review highly so that others will see it.

Your participation will ensure that thousands of products get tagged and reviewed, and hundreds of thousands of consumers, maybe millions, will be warned about DRM. Nice!

(via Defective by Design)

Posted on by mklang

Cool Job

Looking for a really cool job? How about working for the Electronic Frontier Foundation in Brussels…

EFF Seeks European Affairs Co-ordinator

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is looking for a European
staffer to head up our new Brussels office and round out our
international team. This is a new position focused on European
Community level intellectual property and civil liberties policy
initiatives that impact the digital environment. The position will be
part policy analyst, part activist and part educator.

We are looking for a motivated and dynamic European with:

– excellent written and spoken English language skills, and fluency
in another relevant language (preferably French or German or another
major European language);
– well-developed public speaking and social skills, who can talk with
a wide range of audiences including European MEPs and Commission
staff, consumer rights and public interest groups, computer
programmers and media;
-familiarity with current European Community IP and civil liberties
legislative and policy developments;
– a solid understanding of the European Community’s structure, main
fora, decision-making processes and key personnel and committees that
work in the IP and civil liberties arenas;
– strong policy analysis skills;
– a good strategic sense;
– maturity of judgment;
– demonstrated ability to meet deadlines and work with others
remotely; and
– the ability to travel throughout Europe, and to the United States.

EFF is passionate about our mission, and our ideal candidate will be
too. We work on cutting-edge issues in a fun, fast-paced team
environment. Salary and details of benefits package available on
request.

Applicants: please send a cover letter and resume in TXT, RTF, ODT,
DOC, PDF or html format to eurocoordinator@eff.org

Deadline for applications: Rolling, but not later than December 1, 2006.

No, I am not planning to apply. But it would be a really cool challenge…

Posted on by mklang

File Sharing

This week is university week at the University of Göteborg. This means that we give lots of lectures to the public. It’s fun to do this since the general public is demands a different form of presentation than students.

So in about twenty minutes I shall be holding a short lecture 45 minutes on the technical and legal implications and developments in file sharing.

To ensure that I catch and keep everyones attention I have lots of pictures of playmobile figues, at least 8 different pictures of Mona Lisa and a film of Bush & Blair singing a duet.

It should be fun – and maybe the audience will enjoy themselves…

Posted on by mklang

DRM & Vista

Yesterday at the Internet Days in Stockholm a nice man from Microsoft who was apparantly no more than three steps away from the head developor at Redmond (nice, if you like games like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon)  stopped by the FSFE table to discuss DRM. We were on opposite sides of this issue and we had a very interesting discussion which concluded (predictably) that we were still in disagreement.

Basically his argument was that DRM can be useful and that opponents to DRM were too emotional (and a bit paranoid). My arguments were that DRM limits users rights, regulates in a way that limits legal rights and requires trust in a corporate body (whose goals are, and must be, profit – not user’s rights).

After a move into arguments that nobody is forced to use DRM:ed software we then moved into the realm of philosophy with arguments whether the user can “choose” without facts, or whether the user is aware that choices need to be made, and finally, whether or not the user cares about his/her rights.

We both had an agreeable time.

We also exchanged products. I gave him a copy of my PhD and he gave me a copy of Windows Vista Customer Preview program (Release Candidate 1). This version has ten licenses, which means that it can be installed on ten computers (or ten times on the same computer).

So â?? does anyone want to try Vista?

Posted on by mklang

Spamhaus Wins

Judge Charles Kocoras wisely and bravely found in favour of Spamhaus in his decision, which marks a clear victory for the spam blacklister. The case was brought by e-mail marketer e360Insight whose purpose for sueing was that Spamhaus had included e360Insight on the Spamhaus‘ blacklist.

If e360insight’s proposed order directing ICANN to suspend the spamhaus.org domain had won the spamlist would have gone down – the list is responsible for stopping over 50 billion spam messages per day.

Judge Kocoras wrote that the relief e360insight sought is “too broad to be warranted in this case” and that suspending the domain name would “cut off all lawful online activities of Spamhaus, not just those that are in contravention” of the default judgment. He also called e360insight’s motion one that “does not correspond to the gravity of the offending conduct.”

(via arstechnica)

Posted on by mklang

A Plan

My research has been driven by two things. First I am, and want to be, an academic. This makes me interested in theories, methods and attempting to explore and explain the things I see around me. The second part of my driving force is my passion for what I do. I cannot work unless I feel what I do is important and may eventually bring about positive change. With this I do not mean a passion for academia but a passion for the subject matter.

This latter thing something that many people have pointed out during my thesis defence and the presentations I give. I secretly (not any more?) have difficulty with those who see their research as just another job. I donâ??t mean that they do lesser work â?? they do not. But I donâ??t understand where they find the energy to do things without passion.

Plan of the Parthenon

This leads to the point of my announcement. I know what I want to do with the next part of my career life. I aim to continue working under the umbrella of digital rights and democracy, with a particular focus on the actions and perspectives of users.

As a part of this I have two major projects underway, both in collaboration with smart and exciting people. The first is the development of a base for Free Software research and activity at the IT-University of Göteborg. The second is the development of the Resistance Studies Network at the School of Global Studies. These two are both faculties at the University of Göteborg.

At the FSF I hope to develop my understanding of legal issues and technical limitations. While at the RSN I intend to focus on digital civil disobedience. These are both topics which I had in my thesis â?? so itâ??s more in depth work rather than breaking new ground personally.

Right now both these projects are in the planning phases and will result in lots of work. So I will keep you all informed as it progresses.

It nice to have a plan, so now you knowâ?¦

Oh, and I have a few odd morbid side-projects, not to mention this blog, which I fully intend to persue but they cannot become mainstream to my work…yet.

Posted on by mklang

Software Eco-Systems

Say ecosystem* and most of us will think of something delicate and finely balanced. We have been taught to understand that the environment is made up of systems which hang together and that disturbances in one part will created unintended and in our experience sad consequences.

Say Microsoft, Adobe or General Motors and we tend to think of corporate bohemoths hardly the delicate flowers in need of protection, but more often a cause of some destruction within their particular ecosystem.

A letter (pdf here) to the European Commission has recently come to light (it was leaked). The letter shows the extent which the anti-Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) lobby is prepared to go in order to maintain control of their dominant business model for the production of software.

The letter was sent in response to a recent EU report on the role of open-source software in the European economy. The letter warns of against encouraging the FOSS movement. The letter states that the actions taken by the European Commission could “disrupt the entire software eco-system” and the report itself was biased and looked “more like a marketing document than a serious survey”.

The letter comes from The Initiative for Software Choice (ISC). A name which inspires one to think of openness and freedom. Yet the group is a lobby group funded by proprietary software manufacturers – this, in itself, may be seen as a contradiction in terms.
According to Techworld the ISC was created to oppose government efforts to give preference to open-source or open standards-based systems. According to critics such as Bruce Perens, the ISC largely pursues a pro-Microsoft agenda, though the group itself emphasises that it has more than 300 members.

The letter is full of artful uses of language and leaves the unsuspecting reader with an impression that the writer is concerned about the welfare of the European Union and its development. At the same time the message is hammered home – with the subtly of a rhino with a headache – do not change anything. The system works as it is.

Naturally the concerns of the manufacturers of proprietary software should and must be taken into consideration but this letter is a masterful peice of dubbletalk and rhetoric (in the worst way).

Read the letter and LEARN from it.

—

* An ecosystem refers to the collection of components and processes that comprise, and govern the behavior of, some defined subset of the biosphere. The term is generally understood to refer to all biotic and abiotic components, and their interactions with each other, in some defined area, with no conceptual restrictions on how large or small that area can be. To many, ecosystems, like any other system, are governed by the rules of systems science and cybernetics, as applied specifically to collections of organisms and relevant abiotic components. To others, ecosystems are primarily governed by stochastic events, the reactions they provoke on non-living materials and the corresponding responses by organisms. (Wikipedia)

Posted on by mklang

You Cannot Patent Software

…and yet there are software patents.

In a long draft article entitled “You Canâ??t Patent Software: Patenting Software Is Wrong” – Peter Junger states that which most lawyers fail to see. Maybe because they are blinded by economics?

Computer programs are texts, not machines as some lawyers have confused themselves into believing, and thus they may be copyrighted and protected by the First Amendment, but they are not patentable as machines. Computer programs are indeed processes, but they are not patentable processes because what they process is information and what they produce is information, not some modification of material goods or articles of commerce. The simple fact is—though the reasons for it may be hard for most lawyers to grasp—that, as the title of this article puts it: “You can’t patent software: patenting software is wrong.”

A nice, old school, scholarly legal paper which hammers home it’s point. It’s a good way to start the week with a work like this.

Posted on by mklang