Turkey is in news again for continuing with the website censorship, as there seems to be no limit to the censorship. Any complaint to a lower court can get the website blocked in the country, websites including YouTube, DailyMotion, Alibaba, Slide.com, and some Wordpress blogs have already been banned. All started with ban on YouTube in March 2007 due to a particular video that insulted founder of the Turkish republic. The number has grown to nearly 6,000 websites as estimated in September 2009.
Asian countries facing such censorship includes Singapore, Thailand, China and few others. China has been the most affected by net censorship starting with legislation (State Council Order No. 292) in September 2000, which created the first content restrictions for Internet content providers. It said that China-based Web sites cannot link to overseas news Web sites or carry news from overseas media without separate approval. Since then, many of the famous websites like Wikipedia, BBC, Yahoo, Google, Hotmail, Blogspot, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, webshots, imageshack, Technorati, Flickr, Tripod, etc have been blocked on various grounds (though only 3-4 of these sites have now been unblocked)... total of 18,000 sites are inaccessible/blocked from within the China. Online censorship has taken new means with the time.
And now it's India's turn...
With the Amendments to the Information Technology Act 2000 around the corner, Indian netcitizens may have to face some hardship, if some of the most famous websites become inaccessible. Section 69 of the Amended IT Act 2000 intends to provide for the net censorship, "if it is necessary to do so in the interest of the sovereignity or integrity of India, the security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence." And with these amendments coming into force, no doubt the social networking and blogging sites are going to feel most of the heat !!!
1. IB asks govt to block all net telephony services
The Intelligence Bureau has asked the communication ministry to block all internet telephony (VoIP) services to and from the country until the Department of Telecom (DoT) puts in place a mechanism to track such calls.
2. Facebook issued legal notice for violating Indian tobacco control laws
Failure of the social networking website “Facebook” to remove pages and groups relating to various tobacco products, brands and articles is now likely to land the company in legal trouble.
3. This phisher financed his own education
At 19, he was enterprising. But he used his talent in the wrong way. When things went wrong at home, he decided to fund his education
himself. Now, Nikhil Dhingra from Jhansi has been arrested by the cyber crime police for hacking into three accounts in Bangalore by sending phishing mails. He was arrested on September 14 and has been remanded to judicial custody.
4. Cyber crime cell clicks on modernisation drive
If everything goes as planned, the cyber crime cell of the Ahmedabad city crime branch will be able to detect cyber crime with more speed and accuracy. The cell has sought state government's support for buying more software to help detect various kinds of cyber crime, which have become a frequent affair in the city these days.
5. Gullible literate falls prey to cyber cheats
For the police it is easy to catch hardcore criminals involved in murder and other heinous crime, but they are still in nascent stage
where cyber criminals are concerned. Even educated people are falling a victim to this new breed of criminals. And even after realising that they have been cheated, they hesitate to seek police help, which only goes on to embolden the cheats.
1. Man sentenced to 15 years in child-pornography case
A West Side man was sentenced yesterday to 15 years in federal prison in a child-pornography case. Timothy L. Lantz, 57, also was sentenced by U.S. District Judge George C. Smith to a lifetime of supervised release following his prison term.
2. 5 men named in racket that netted $4m in stolen card data
Prosecutors in Manhattan have named five additional men from Eastern Europe in an alleged scheme that pilfered $4m using more than 95,000 stolen credit cards.
3. Former Inmate Pleads Guilty to Hacking Prison Computer
A former prisoner of the Plymouth County Correctional Facility pled guilty today in federal court to intentionally damaging the prison’s computer network while he was an inmate.
4. Alleged International Hacker Indicated for massive attack
Albert Gonzalez, 28, of Miami, Fla., was indicted today for conspiring to hack into computer networks supporting major American retail and financial organizations, and stealing data relating to more than 130 million credit and debit cards.
5. Raymond man pleads guilty in Miss. cyber crime case
A Raymond man has pleaded guilty to exploitation of a child after prosecutors said he attempted to meet a child with whom he had been conversing over the Internet. The case was prosecuted by the attorney general's office.
1. Getty Images wins £2,000 settlement over unauthorised web use of photo
A removals firm has been ordered to pay nearly £2,000 to photographic agency Getty Images for using a copyright-protected photograph on its website. The company had removed the picture when notified by Getty Images but had not paid a requested fee.
2. EU court upholds national restrictions against online gambling
The EU's top court on Tuesday ruled that national governments can uphold domestic restrictions on online gambling and ban foreign websites if the intention is to stop fraud and crime.
3. Syria: Blogger Kareem Arbaji Sentenced to Three Years in prison
On September 13, 2009, the Syrian State Security Supreme Court sentenced the young blogger Kareem Arbaji to three-years prison for “publishing mendacious information liable to weaken the nation’s morale,” under article #286 of the Syrian penal code.
4. France Passes New 3 Strikes Anti-Piracy Bill
After its initial adoption in May, the original version of the “3 strikes” Hadopi anti-piracy legislation was struck down by France’s highest legal authority after declaring the proposals unconstitutional. A modified version of the bill was accepted in July by the Senate and today it was passed in the National Assembly.
5. UK lawyer threatens Facebook, mulls action against ISPs to block defamation
The lawyer who has threatened Facebook with a defamation suit on behalf of boxing promoter Frank Warren has said that he may take action against internet service providers (ISPs) for US-published defamation.
1. Thailand urged to get tough on pirates
The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has identified Thailand as one of nine priority countries in the fight against piracy, and is encouraging the Government to meet international standards in copyright law.
2. Malaysia: McDonald's Continues to Pursue Trademark Case Against McCurry
McDonald's has filed an appeal against a ruling earlier in the year that local restaurant 'McCurry' did not infringe their trademark. A federal court ruling on Monday will decide if the eight year legal battle will be extended.
3. Web hosts face payout as jury says they should have known about the infringement
Two web hosting companies have been ordered to pay $32 million in damages after failing to convince a US jury that they were immune from responsibility for their users' actions.
4. State should pay patent litigation costs, says inventor
The state should pay the litigation costs of inventors trying to protect their patents, inventor Trevor Baylis has said. That is the only way to protect lone inventors from having their ideas stole by major companies, the wind-up radio inventor said.
5. Grand jury indicts four on music piracy charges
A grand jury in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has indicted four alleged members of a music piracy group for conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
1. Thousands of hacked Hotmail passwords posted
More than 10,000 user names and passwords for Hotmail and other Microsoft services were anonymously posted over the weekend at a free site for programmers, it was reported Monday, prompting security experts to recommend that users change their passwords.
2. Hijacking Windows System Restore for cybercrime profits
Cyber crime gangs in China are penetrating the hard disk recovery cards on computers in Internet cafes and using a combination of zero-day flaws, rootkits and ARP spoofing techniques to steal billions of dollars worth of online gaming credentials.
3. Is China Cyber-Stealing Your Secrets?
The US government says China is out to steal your secrets -- and will successfully do so, unless you take extreme precautions. Symantec chief technology officer Mark Bregman told an IT publication this week that he was "advised by people in three-letter agencies in the US Government" to not bring his phone and laptop to China.
4. One in three websites fail security test
NTA Monitor has reported a 10% increase in the total number of web applications found to have at least one high-risk security issue in its 2009 Annual Web Application Security Report.
5. Mozilla Firefox updates to close door on hackers
Mozilla is to release an update of its Firefox browser tomorrow that will check for unpatched versions of Adobe's Flash Player commonly user by hackers to carry out attacks. Users of Firefox 3.0 and 3.5 will be able to install the update to check that the version of Flash Player they are using is up-to-date and secure.
