FC: World net-censorship roundup from Global Internet Liberty Campaign

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

GILC Alert
Volume 7, Issue 3
25 June 2003

Welcome to the Global Internet Liberty Campaign Newsletter.

Welcome to GILC Alert, the newsletter of the Global Internet Liberty
Campaign. We are an international organization of groups working for
cyber-liberties, who are determined to preserve civil liberties and human
rights on the Internet.
We hope you find this newsletter interesting, and we very much hope that you
will avail yourselves of the action items in future issues.
If you are a part of an organization that would be interested in joining
GILC, please contact us at <gilc () gilc org>.
If you are aware of threats to cyber-liberties that we may not know about,
please contact the GILC members in your country, or contact GILC as a whole.
Please feel free to redistribute this newsletter to appropriate forums.

===============================================
Free expression
[1] US high court upholds library Net censor law
[2] China tortures Net dissident, sends 5 to prison
[3] Prosecution of Vietnamese Net dissident provokes anger
[4] New WSIS human rights caucus proposal
[5] Tajikistani gov't censors news site
[6] Iran expands Net blocking
[7] Pakistani press website faces censorship
[8] Hollywood sues other DVD copying equipment makers
[9] Recording trade group Net copyright threat backfires
[10] California high court hearing in DVD program case
[11] Battle over Korean music sharing website continues
[12] Police pressure student over harmless webblog entry
[13] New study of German Internet censor plans

Privacy
[14] US politician, Hollywood push computer sabotage systems
[15] Plan to make US spy laws permanent shelved
[16] Report on TIA datamining scheme provokes alarm
[17] Verizon hands over user data to RIAA
[18] For sale: TiVo interactive television user info
[19] UK gov't forces massive Net user data info disclosures
[20] New study of Gator spyware
[21] Microsoft error exposes 200 million Internet users
[22] Japanese government passes personal info bills
[23] EU data protection chief appointment criticized
[24] Survey suggests tougher online privacy laws are needed

[...]

=====================================================
[2] China tortures Net dissident, sends 5 to prison
=====================================================
The Mainland Chinese government has sentenced 5 web operators and writers to
multi-year prison terms each for posting controversial content on the
Internet.

Four of these people, Xu Wei, Jin Haike, Yang Zili, and Zhang Honghai, were
reportedly part of an Internet-based organization, the New Youth Society,
which was dedicated to exploring democracy and social reform in China. They
have since received jail sentences of 8 to 10 years each after several
articles critical of the Chinese government appeared on their website. All 4
men complained of abusive treatment while in detention.  According to Human
Rights in China, Xu Wei protested in court about being brutally beaten and
tortured with electrical shocks while in custody. He had to be carried out
of the courtroom after being knocked unconscious from striking his head
against the judge's desk, and subsequently began a hunger strike after his
sentencing. Ann Cooper, director of the New York-based Committee to Protect
Journalists (CPJ-a GILC member), stated that "[i]t is ridiculous that the
Chinese Government considers the peaceful expression of one's views a
subversive act."

In addition, Huang Qi has now been sentenced to a 5-year prison term after
visitors to Huang's site posted several allegedly "subversive" articles. He
was the proprietor of a website designed to publicize information about
missing people that attracted postings about alleged human rights abuses,
corruption, and political issues.

These sentences are being seen as just one of a multitude of moves that
mainland Chinese authorities have made to stifle free speech online. A
recently published study commissioned by Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF-a
GILC member) indicates many online avenues for expression, notably Internet
chatboards, are subject to heavy censorship. According to the report,
messages with "banned words" such as "human rights" and "Taiwan
independence" and "SARS" are "systematically blocked," while messages "that
contain no banned words may lead to scrutiny from "volunteers" who "have the
ability to suspend or ban forum visitors considered vulgar or politically
incorrect." Offenders may later be arrested; thus the Chinese government has
arrested 4 people for online discussion of SARS-related issues.

Read Henry Hoenig, "Beijing goes high-tech to block Sars messages," New
Zealand Herald, 16 June 2003 at
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storyprint.cfm?storyID=3507534

To learn more about Xu's hunger strike, see "China Internet dissident 'on
hunger strike'," BBC News Online, 3 June 2003 at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/2961286.stm

To read more about Huang's conviction, see "China Internet operator jailed,"
BBC News Online, 19 May 2003 at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3039041.stm

For information about the sentencing of Xu and his compatriots, see "China
jails web dissidents," BBC News Online, 29 May 2003 at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2946526.stm

See also John Gittings, "China jails Internet dissidents," The Guardian
(UK), 30 May 2003 at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,7369,966696,00.html

The RSF report on Chinese censorship of Net chat boards is posted at
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=6793

See also "Information Control and Self-Censorship in the PRC and the Spread
of SARS," U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China, 7 May 2003 at
http://www.cecc.gov/pages/news/prcControl_SARS.pdf?PHPSESSID=e1cfd1d5f76d1c3
3734ec38ad0026e14

See also "China nabs 4 for spreading SARS rumours on the Internet," The
Financial Gazette, 7 May 2003 at
http://www.fingaz.co.zw/fingaz/2003/May/May7/3774.shtml

============================================================
[3] Prosecution of Vietnamese Net dissident provokes anger
============================================================
A Vietnamese doctor may soon spend more than a decade in prison over his
Internet activities.

Pham Hong Son allegedly wrote and translated several pro-democracy papers
that were then posted on the Information Superhighway. Vietnamese
authorities had initially questioned him on this subject and confiscated
various personal items, including computer equipment and numerous documents.
When the government denied his requests to reclaim his belongings, he posted
an open letter on the Internet to protest their decision. Subsequently,
Vietnamese officials convicted him of spying and using the Information
Superhighway to distribute critiques of the government. He has since been
sentenced to 13 years in jail, plus 3 years of house arrest after he leaves
prison.

His prosecution has drawn heavy protests from free speech advocates. Minky
Worden from Human Rights Watch (HRW-a GILC member) warned: "Vietnam's
crackdown on critics who use the Internet to peacefully disseminate their
ideas or communicate with democracy advocates abroad appears to be
escalating. ... These harsh prison sentences and vaguely worded charges of
spying appear designed to intimidate not only government critics, but
everyone in Vietnam who uses the Internet."

For more information, visit the Digital Freedom Network (DFN-a GILC member)
website under
http://dfn.org/news/vietnam/son-sentenced.htm

An HRW press release on this subject is posted under
http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/06/vietnam061703.htm

Read "Vietnam net dissident jailed," BBC News Online, 18 June 2003 at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/3000278.stm

=========================================================
[4] New WSIS human rights caucus proposal
=========================================================
Controversy continues to surround preparations for an upcoming World Summit
on the Information Society (WSIS).

The WSIS, which is being organized by the International Telecommunications
Union under the auspices of the United Nations, is supposedly meant to
foster discussion regarding the socio-economic impact of new technologies.
Its official goal is "to develop and foster a clear statement of political
will and a concrete plan of action for achieving the goals of the
Information Society, while fully reflecting all the different interests at
stake." The first meeting will be held in Geneva, Switzerland from 10-12
December 2003 and the second in Tunis, Tunisia in November 2005, with
various Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) sessions to take place beforehand.

However, even as plans are being formed for the Summit, questions have
arisen as to whether the WSIS will sufficiently address concerns of civil
society, including issues of human rights. For example, the Association for
Progressive Communications (APC-a GILC member) issued a detailed analysis of
key WSIS documents (including the Draft Declaration of Principles and Draft
Action Plan), and concluded that the papers failed to address "sufficiently"
a number of important subjects. Among other things, APC took the WSIS
committee to task for "lacking awareness on proposals around the
'information security agenda' that threaten to further harm already weakened
human rights in areas such as privacy and data protection" and
insufficiently acknowledging "the negative impact of Intellectual Property
Rights on access to information and knowledge, and on technological
innovation." Furthermore, the Board of the World Association of Newspapers
and the Board of the World Editors Forum have expressed concern "that
concepts that would regulate information and restrict the free flow of news
are emerging in preparatory meetings for the WSIS, which is designed by UN
agencies to produce policies for extending the benefits of information
technologies and bridging the 'digital divide' between rich and poor
societies."

In order to remedy the situation, a number of organizations have banded
together to form a WSIS Human Rights Caucus. The idea, which was proposed
Imaginons un Reseau Internet Solidaire (IRIS-a GILC member), is to put
"Human Rights on the agenda of the WSIS," develop "detailed inputs and
contributions on how Human rights, as broadly defined, can be precisely
translated within the specific framework of information and communication,
in order to build a common vision of this society," and to raise the
"awareness of NGOs [non-governmental organizations] and the public on the
importance of addressing Human rights in the information society." Several
GILC members have joined IRIS in this effort, including APC, Computer
Professionals for Social Responsibility, Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties UK,
Digital Rights Denmark, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, VIBE! AT
and the American Civil Liberties Union.

For more regarding the WSIS Human Rights Caucus, click
http://www.iris.sgdg.org/actions/smsi/hr-wsis/

APC and APC WNSP's critique of the WSIS Draft Declaration and Action Plan
are available via
http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=12235

A World Association of Newspapers press release regarding press freedom on
the Internet and the WSIS is available under
http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/50720

For further information from APC in Spanish (Espanol), at
http://www.apc.org/espanol/news/index.shtml?x=12257
http://lac.derechos.apc.org/wsis/cdocs.shtml?x=12158

An archive of official WSIS documents is located at
http://www.itu.int/wsis/documents/listing-all.asp?lang=en&c_event=pci|1&c_ty
pe=all

=====================================================
[5] Tajikistani gov't censors news site
=====================================================
Authorities in Tajikistan are apparently blocking access to a news website
that includes reports that criticize the government.

Tajikistantimes.ru was launched this past March by opposition journalist
Dododjoin Atovulloev from outside of the country. According to its creator,
the site is the only one "that dares to criticise the president, government
and parliament and say the things the local press does not report." The site
includes quotes from various opposition party leaders as well as political
affairs experts regarding a Tajik constitutional reform referendum that is
scheduled for later this month. Reports now indicate that the country's
security ministry is denying access to the site. Atovulloev, who has now
received numerous death threats, explained that the government was blocking
his site because "they view any form of dissidence as a crime."

Several free press groups have lobbied in support of the embattled news
website. Robert Ménard, the Secretary-General of Reporters Sans Frontieres
(RSF-a GILC member) wrote a letter to Tajik President Imamali Rahmanov,
urging him "to do everything possible to ensure that [Tajikistantimes.ru] is
accessible again and that the independent media can develop without
obstruction."

An RSF press release on this subject is available at
http://www.rsf.org/print.php3?id_article=7011

=====================================================
[6] Iran expands Net blocking
=====================================================
The Iranian government has ordered the blocking of 15 000 sites for
displaying allegedly offensive content.

In addition to banning about 80 newspapers and magazines, Iran's government
has extended its reach to censoring publications online. Toward that end,
Iranian authorities have created a list of "immoral" and "political" sites
that "rudely make fun of religious and political figures in the country."
This list has been sent to Internet service providers (ISPs) for blocking
purposes; reports indicate that ISPs could face court action if they do not
comply.

In addition to the website blacklist, Iranian authorities have arrested Sina
Motallebi, an online journalist and the proprietor of www.rooznegar.com, in
connection with various interviews he had posted on his website, as well as
for defending another journalist who ran a cartoon in a newspaper that
offended the government. The arrest of Motallebi has led to condemnation
from various free speech groups, including Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF-a
GILC member). In addition, an online petition drive for his release has
drawn thousands of signatures.

Read "Iran steps up net censorship," BBC News Online, 12 May 2003 at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3019695.stm

For further information in Italian, see "Iran, censura su 15mila siti
Internet," RAINet News, 13 May 2003 at
http://rai.it/RAInet/news/RNw/pub/articolo/raiRNewsArticolo/0,7605,52749%5Eh
omePageStrilli%5E41%5E,00.html

See also "Bloggers unite to fight," BBC News Online, 2 May 2003 at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2992401.stm

=====================================================
[7] Pakistani press website faces censorship
=====================================================
Pakistani authorities have blocked the country's Internet users from
visiting a prominent news website.

According to the publication's editor, Shaheen Sehbai, the South Asia
Tribune was censored because it had "done a number of stories that exposed
government policies." Among other things, the Tribune had criticized
Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, and had taken the ruling regime to
task for multiple human rights violations. Efforts by Pakistani government
agents to block the website were apparently made easier because one entity,
the Pakistan Internet Exchange, is the predominant Internet provider in the
country, and can thereby act as gatekeeper to prevent regular Pakistani
citizens from reaching various parts of cyberspace. Sehbai also mentioned
that, in addition to harassing his family members, the government has
published an advertisement in Pakistani newspapers asking people not to
visit the website and has warned Pakistani media not to reprint stories
published by the Tribune.

Not surprisingly, many members of the international community have denounced
the Pakistani government's actions. Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF-a GILC
member) issued a statement labeling the blocking of the Tribune "a serious
violation of press freedom and of the right of Pakistanis to diverse
information and news." In the meantime, the website has been moved to a
proxy server in the hopes of circumventing Pakistani government censors.

The relocated Tribune website can be viewed at
http://anon.free.anonymizer.com/http://www.satribune.com/index.htm

An RSF press release on this subject is posted at
http://www.rsf.fr/article.php3?id_article=7051

See Editor's Note, "SA Tribune Blockade Continues," South Asia Tribune, 8-14
June 2003 at
http://www.satribune.com/archives/jun08_14_03/index.htm

For further background information, click
http://www.oneworld.org/ppf

[...]

=============================================================
[11] Battle over Korean music sharing website continues
=============================================================
A Korean music file-sharing service has won the latest round in a
long-running series of court battles.

Soribada, meaning "sea of sound," is Korea's leading peer-to-peer Internet
site, which allows users to swap MP3 music files. Last year, the service had
lost in civil court to the Recording Industry Association of Korea (RIAK),
which convinced a court to order Soribada to prohibit users from uploading
and downloading MP3 files produced by RIAK members. In addition, Soribada's
proprietors, Yang Jung-hwan and Yang Il-hwan, were arrested in 2001 and
charged with aiding and condoning copyright violations. If convicted, they
each could have faced 5 years in prison.

Several weeks ago, a District Court in the nation's capital, Seoul,
dismissed these criminal charges against the Yang brothers, holding that the
government had failed to meet the burden of proof. "When indicting a person
on a charge of abetting, there must be a detailed description of the crimes
of the principal offenders, which is a precondition for any indictment. But
prosecutors failed to give clear examples and specified facts on how and
when Yang brothers helped millions of users to infringe upon copyrights of
music producers in this case, simply listing the Internet identifications of
users of the website as principal offenders." The decision could have
serious free speech implications; Cho Won-hee, who represented the Yangs in
this case, noted that it "is a global trend that the court cannot call the
service operator to account for violation of intellectual property rights by
service users when a website service operator becomes unable to control
copyright infringements by service users." However, Prosecutors have since
said that they will appeal the ruling.

See Kim Sung-jin, "Legal Battle on Online Music File Swapping Enters New
Phase," The Korea Times, 20 May 2003 at
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/tech/200305/kt2003052017052311790.htm

==========================================================================
[12] Police pressure student over harmless webblog entry
==========================================================================
A teenager in the United States recently found herself under heavy police
scrutiny over an innocent note she put in her online journal.

Erin Carter had written in her webblog about rumors that her high school's
computer network had been hacked.  Before the network problems were
determined to be the result of a glitch and not hacking, two local Chapel
Hill police officers, wearing shirts with the insignia of the U.S. Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) questioned her about her webblog entry. One of
the police officers presented her with an unauthorized FBI business card
identifying him as a "task force agent" of an FBI "Cyber Crime Task Force,"
leading her to erroneously believe that they were affiliated with the FBI.

After an internal investigation by the Chapel Hill Police Department, one of
the officers resigned - right before being presented with a termination
notice - and the other was suspended.  The Department also instituted a new
dress code policy to ensure that no one else is misled into believing that
officers represent another law enforcement entity.

See Jon Elliston, "Chapel Hill cop resigns, another is suspended, after Indy
expose," Durham Independent Online, 11 June 2003 at
http://www.indyweek.com/durham/2003-06-11/triangles.html

=====================================================
[13] New study of German Internet censor plans
=====================================================
A new report indicates that a local German government's web content blocking
orders are technically "next to impossible" to implement.

The district government of Dusseldorf had previously ordered Internet
service providers (ISPs) to prevent users from reaching selected foreign
websites.  While Dusseldorf officials tried to justify these efforts as a
way to fight right-wing extremists, many members of the Internet community
objected, saying that the order would, among other things not only prevent
access to neo-Nazi sites, but would also censor political criticism,
entertainment files, and sexual content.

These fears were largely borne out in the report, which analyzing the
engineering issues involved in the content blocking mandates of the
Dusseldorf government, including different techniques used to deploy
blocking at the provider level. The document determines that German ISPs are
confused about which sites to block, create misconfiguations to either over-
or under-block sites mandated by the orders, and that, at best, only 55% of
ISPs are complying with the orders.

See Maximillian Dornseif, "Government mandated blocking of foreign Web
content," reprint of the "Lecture Notes in Informatics" article available at
http://md.hudora.de/publications/200306-gi-blocking/200306-gi-blocking.pdf

[...]


=================================================================
[19] UK government forces massive Net user data info disclosures
=================================================================
Reports indicate that British government officials are routinely demanding
huge quantities of personal online and telephone data, even as they seek
wider powers for Internet snooping.

Under the controversial Regulatory of Investigatory Powers Act, the British
Home Office has been making approximately a million yearly requests for
access to data held by net and telephone companies. According to the
Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR-a GILC member), the list of
government agencies making these demands is not limited to the Metropolitan
Police (127 000 requests), but also includes such bureaus as the Radio
Communications Agency (400 requests), the Financial Services Authority (100
requests). These figures were released at a recent public debate where the
government proposed to increase its ability to obtain personal communication
data. The British government has already running into controversy with net
and telephone companies over the extent of time companies should be forced
to retain such data, with suggestions ranging from six months to seven
years.

Privacy advocates have expressed strong concern over the extent of
government data mining, who have pointed out that large amounts of
communications information, including phone numbers dialed, email addresses
contacted, websites visited and so on are all available with scant judicial
oversight.  "The government can't just say we have the intent to prevent
crime so therefore we can do more or less what we like," says Simon Davies,
the head of lobby group, Privacy International (a GILC member).

Read "Extent of UK snooping revealed," BBC News Online, 16 May 2003 at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3030851.stm

See also Graeme Wearden, "Whistle blown over extent of UK data seizures,"
ZDNet UK, 14 May 2003 at
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2134686,00.html

[...]

===================================================================
[22] Japanese government passes personal info bills
===================================================================
The Japanese parliament has finally passed highly controversial legislation
aimed at guarding personal information.

The proposed legislation was first introduced in 2001 but subsequently
encountered several delays and revisions after the media and public
protested that freedom of expression would be curtailed. Under these rules,
Japanese citizens can ask firms to reveal what personal information is being
kept about them, request companies to stop using personal information about
them, or correct their files. Japanese government regulators are tasked with
prosecuting offenders of the new laws. The legislation also calls for an
information protection council to deal with privacy grievances.  To assuage
fears concerning freedom of speech, the legislation will not apply to the
media or publishing bodies and research institutions.  The bills define
media institutions as those organizations which deliver objective facts to
numerous, unspecified people.

Policymakers predict intense debate in the weeks following the Diet session.
Many worry that the ambiguity and fuzzy guidelines outlined in the
legislation will do little to protect privacy, especially with regard to
government collection and dissemination of personal data.

See "Japan passes information protection bills," Mainichi Shimbun, 23 May
2003, available at
http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/archive/200305/23/20030523p2a00m0dm020000c.ht
ml

Read "Hit and miss: A close look at what the controversial
privacy-protection bills would mean for consumers reveals numerous flaws,"
Asahi Shimbun, 22 May 2003 at
http://www.asahi.com/english/politics/K2003052200343.html

===================================================================
[23] EU data protection chief appointment criticized
===================================================================
Privacy advocates have criticized a European Parliament (EP) committee
recommendation of an unknown Spanish magistrate for the influential post of
European Data Protection chief.

In a secret ballot of the Committee on Citizen's Freedoms and Rights,
Justice and Home Affairs of the EP, Joaquin Bayo Delgado was chosen as
primary candidate for the post of "Data Protection Supervisor" for Europe,
despite being completely unknown to any privacy or data protection advocate
in Europe. The vote came more than three months of intensive lobbying by
Bayo, the Spanish government and Spanish EP members (MEP), as well as heavy
political arm-twisting between major EP parties, many of whom reportedly
were opposed to having a candidate who might have strong pro-privacy
stances.

Not surprisingly, privacy experts are very upset over the Committee's
recommendation of Bayo. Simon Davies from Privacy International (PI-a GILC
member) that his organization simply "cannot understand how a candidate with
no experience or publicly stated interest in Data Protection can be
nominated for this post over many eminently qualified candidates. To the
best of our knowledge Mr Bayo Delgado is unknown to any privacy or data
protection advocate in Europe, nor has he written or spoken about the
subject it in any public presentation."

An open letter from Privacy International regarding Bayo's nomination is
posted at
http://www.privacyinternational.org/intl_orgs/eu/delgado-letter-503.html

To read a PI press release on this subject, click
http://www.privacyinternational.org/intl_orgs/eu/delgado-release-503.html

[...]


=========================================================
     ABOUT THE GILC NEWS ALERT:
=========================================================
The GILC News Alert is the newsletter of the Global Internet Liberty
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New York, New York 10004
USA

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