Cyberlaw

Censorship Swedish Style

As I have reported earlier the Danish Muhammad Caricatures scandal led the Swedish foreign office to close down a website which carried the cartoons.

The scandal is growing so its time for an update. Previously the Foreign Minister, Laila Freivalds, claimed that the actions were carried out by a civil servant acting on his own initiative. This has now changed when she admits that she had knowledge of what the Civil Servant was going to do. The act may even have been carried out under the Foreign Ministers initiative.

Much of the “defence” (moral & political not legal) seems to be that the Foreign Ministry did not (and cannot) order the closing of a website. The Foreign Ministry simply contacted the Internet Service Provider (ISP) and informed them that one of their customers (a right wing party) had copies of the cartoons.

The difference, according to the Foreign Minister, is one of coercion and recommendation. While this difference does exist it is interesting to note that the recommendations made by a private individual, an interest group and the office of the Swedish Foreign Minister will be treated differently. The Foreign Minister (or indeed any Minister) knows this and therefore the act of recommendation cannot be one of simple recommendation.

Additionally the Foreign Ministry (or indeed any other Ministry) does not have the mandate to call up private citizens to make recommendations in matters of freedom of the press and speech.

Naturally the ISP has it in its power to tell the Office of the Foreign Minister to sod off. Politely or impolitely. But it comes as no surprise that a small ISP in a cut throat market is not going to risk publicity or political, social or legal reactions on the part of an unsavory customer worth (in the best case) less than 300 USD per annum.
The conclusion? Internet censorship whether in China or in Sweden works.

I dedicate this picture to the Office of the Foreign Minister for not knowing

the difference between influence and coercion.

Posted on by mklang

Public Domain Comic

Law books are traditionally text heavy with little or no pictures. Very rarely including humor or light entertainment. Therefore it is great to see what law professors can do when they want to change this!

The Center for the Public Domain have created a cool comic explaining copyright and the public domain. It takes the form of classic horror comics and describes the adventures (or misadventures) of the hero Akiko, the documentary film maker. I thought it was geat! So go look at “Tales from the Public Domain: Bound by Law” by Aoki, Boyle & Jenkins

Read it online or download it here.

Posted on by mklang

Hickory Dickory Dock

At 1 pm today the senior seminar begins. This means that the senior researchers at my department will give me feedback on my thesis. The result of this meeting will be whether or not I will publicly defend my thesis in June or not. I am supposed to be preparing and thinking great thoughts but all I have in my mind right now is the old nursery rhyme:

Hickory Dickory Dock
The mouse ran up the clock
The clock struck one
and down he run
Hickory Dickory Dock

Hickory Dickory Dock
The mouse ran up the clock
The clock struck two
The mouse said “boo”
Hickory Dickory Dock

Hickory Dickory Dock
The mouse ran up the clock
The clock struck three
The mouse said “wee”
Hickory Dickory Dock

Hickory Dickory Dock
The mouse ran up the clock
The clock struck four
The mouse said “no more”
Hickory Dickory Dock

Posted on by mklang

Censorship of Underground Maps

I wrote about a website that has a collection of adapted maps from the London Underground. These maps include anagrams of the stations, rude versions of the stations, the availabiliyt of toilets, geographically realistic underground maps and more.

Sites such as these are important since they are excellent examples of the will and ability of individuals and groups to comment their own surroundings. This is naturally not always appreciated. Geofftech (the mapsite) has now recieved a legal letter demanding that he remove the maps or be taken to court.

Whether or not Geofftech is right or wrong is unimportant since he cannot afford legal representation. He has to remove the maps. Another victory for corporate censorship of free speech and the chilling effects of trademark law. Read about the legal threat here.

If you want to look at, and download, the maps then be quick – they have to be gone by Monday. www.geofftech.co.uk/tube/sillymaps/

Posted on by mklang

Reading tip

In an chapter entitled “Exploring Creative Commons: A Skeptical View of a Worthy Pursuit” Niva Elkin-Koren writes:

It may well be that there is nothing wrong with copyright per se, but only with the way these rights were exploited by copyright owners in recent years. Changing social practices may have a powerful signalling effect, the importance of which could not be overstated. Yet, establishing a workable and sustainable alternative to the current copyright regime would require enforceable legal measures that would restrain the power of copyright owners to govern their works. To achieve this goal it would not be sufficient to facilitate self-restraint and encourage copyright owners to treat their copyright as guardians, protecting it from any attempt to restrict access and reuse. In the long run, creating an alternative to copyright would require a copyright reform.

The chapter is part of the book The Future of the Public Domain, (P. Bernt Hugenholtz & Lucie Guibault, eds.)
Kluwer Law International, forthcoming 2006. It is also available at SSRN.

Posted on by mklang

Nigerian 419

Most of the time when I get another scam email from the family member of a deceased or deposed head of state, or maybe a criminally minded employee of some bank or oil company telling me they trust me implicitly and are willing to give me a large sum of money if I help them transfer an even larger amount of money from somewhere to somewhere else – I delete them without a glance. Sometimes I read them for amusement and wonder if anyone is ever fooled.

The LA Times has now reported that a Psychiatrist (you think he would have a better knowledge of human nature?) has lost (rather gave it away?) over 1.3 million US dollars to scammers.

So now I know…

(via Consumerist)

Posted on by mklang

Underground maps

Maps of the London underground are cultural artefacts. We rely on them for information and we stare at them in boredom while travelling. The term “mind the gap” has become synonymous with the London Underground. So I guess it wasnt a big leap of imagination to thinkt that someone would create anagrams of all the stations.

With the help of a computer and web-space the new anagram map of the London underground goes online. A perfect comment on our lives. Nothing terribly exciting just a nice idea.

From silly maps at www.geofftech.co.uk

Then all of a sudden the trademark lawyers leap into action. Boing Boing reports that lawyers for London Transport using trademark law are attempting to take down the map.

It is really annoying when the law is used to attempt to limit the individuals (or groups) ability to comment on their surroundings. I realise that trademark law is there for a purpose but like so much other legislation it is often used for the wrong reasons and gains more strength than it was ever intended to have.

Geofftech has collected a whole list of social commentary on London Tube Maps. His collection includes: The realistic map showing the way the tubes really travel, maps where there is no mobile coverage, the useful map showing when it is quicker to walk between stations, maps with travel times and distance and so much more…

Posted on by mklang