Category

Legal

Google Acted Illegally in UK

The UK's Information Commissioner today confirmed that Google breached UK's Data Protection Act when the Street View cars captured personal data while collecting wi-fi network information. As a result of this, Google will be required to sign an undertaking to take steps to ensure that breaches of the Act don't re-occur.  Google will then be audited in nine month's time to

13,000 Named in Adult Film Downloads

The names of thousands for BT & Sky broadband customers who had allegedly illegally downloaded adult material have been leaked on-line.  The lists appear to have been obtained from servers of a law firm ACS:Law by the notorious 4chan group. ACS:Law had obtained the lists from ISPs Sky and PlusNet (owned by BT) and had been using the information to

Pick a Name, Any Name

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal recently, Google's Eric Schmidt suggested that teens will automatically change their name in order to disassociate themselves from the indiscretions of youth.  While this might seem to be a somewhat extreme action to take, how easy is it to actually change your name? If you live in the UK, it's actually very easy. 

Google WiFi – Wrong But No Big Deal

The UK's Information Commissioner's Office has issued a press release on Google's collection of WiFi data that was obtained by the StreetView cars as they drove round. In what appears to be a holding statement, the ICO says that it has reviewed samples of collected data at Google premises and confirms that the samples do not include any "meaningful personal details".  Additionally, the

Is CNN Calling For Curbs On Free Speech?

On July 23, 2010, CNN anchors Kyra Phillips and John Roberts discussed on air the idea that bloggers should be somehow “held accountable” or perhaps regulated in some way. Here's the video of that exchange. It’s no secret that CNN and other so-called mainstream media outlets, both broadcast and print, have had for some time now an ongoing loss of

PRS Publishes Paper on Filesharing

The Performing Rights Society (PRS), the approximate equivalent of the US's RIAA, recently published a paper outlining a proposed approach to the compensation of rights holders based on the level of unlicensed material passing through an ISP.  The paper, snappily titled Moving Digital Britain Forward Without Leaving Creative Britain Behind, was written by Will Page, Chief Economist, PRS for Music

Secret Trade Agreement To Criminalise Copyright Infringement

According to La Quadrature du Net and based on both official and  leaked documents, secret trade negotiations for ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) by the EU Presidency includes negotiating criminal penalties for counterfeiters and copyright-infringers, bypassing the normal legislative system and significantly increasing the scope of "trade agreements". My understanding is that within the UK counterfeiting goods and copyright infringment are generally considered to