Information Policy

Latvia and Lithuania join ACTA; Estonia waits on government decision

Lithuania and many other member-states of the European Union, including Latvia, on Jan. 26 in Tokyo, have joined the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). The ACTA is an antipiracy trade agreement designed to protect international intellectual property rights.

The treaty intends to establish an international legal framework for intellectual property protection, including counterfeit goods, generic medicines and copyright infringement on the Internet, reports LETA/ELTA.

However, references of foreign media as if Estonia was planning to sign the controversial ACTA pact on together with other EU member states are not true, LETA/Postimees Online cites Estonian Foreign Ministry.

Mariann Sudakovfrom foreign ministry press service explained that since ACTA is a pact of mixed responsibility, it has to be signed by the EU and member states separately.

Estonia did not sign the agreement, as a government decision is needed for that. "The Estonian government will only start discussing the agreement. The agreement is open for signing till March 31, 2013," she said.

Japanese foreign affairs ministry reports that all in all 22 member-states of the EU have signed the ACTA. The critics of the treaty say that it restricts the freedom of expression online. Many countries saw protests against the initiative, particularly numerous protests have been held in neighbouring Poland.

On Oct. 1 2011 in Tokyo, the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea signed the treaty. Japan is the ACTA depositary.

http://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/30443/

Czech Netflix in the making

The Czech company Topfun Media plans to effectively become what some have already described as the country’s equivalent of Netflix. In a press conference jointly organised with Samsung and other partners, it announced the launch of a new service named Live Pay-TV, which is available on all Topfun’s platforms – www.topfun.tv, Smart TV and mobile devices running Android and iOS, giving access to TV channels offering film, music, sports, kids programming, documentary and adult content. Topfun Media has also introduced a new service giving access to hundreds of movies from Hollywood Classic Entertainment, SPI International, Bonton and others. At the same time, SPI International took the opportunity to introduce two new channels – FightBox and Erox. Topfun Media, which is backed by the financial group J&T, is the leading operator of online video stores in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Thousands march in Poland over Acta internet treaty

Thousands of protesters have taken to Poland's streets over the signing of an international treaty activists say amounts to internet censorship.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk's government signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement in Tokyo on Thursday.

The treaty, known as Acta, aims to establish international standards to enforce intellectual property rights.

But critics say it could curb freedom of expression, and government websites have been hacked in protest.

Later on Thursday, hundreds of people took to the streets of the eastern city of Lublin to express their anger over the treaty.

Several marches had taken place in cities across the nation on Wednesday, says the BBC's Adam Easton in Warsaw.

Crowds of mostly young people held banners with slogans such as "no to censorship" and "a free internet".

After convening a special government meeting to discuss the issue, Mr Tusk said the government would not be blackmailed by the treaty's opponents.

There would be ample time for public discussion about the treaty before it was ratified by the Polish parliament, he said.

Poland was one of several European Union countries, including Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Romania and Greece, to sign the treaty on Thursday but it appeared to be the only place where it caused protest.

The agreement was signed by the US, Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea last year.

Acta shares similarities with America's Stop Online Piracy Act, which US lawmakers set aside last week after Wikipedia and Google blacked out or partially obscured their websites for a day in protest.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16735219

Internet censors pose a threat to freedom

By: Corner Brook Western Star

Finding censorship online is like tracking a snowmobile trail groomer. So where are these elusive groomers? They started grooming last week on the snowmobile trails, but no one seems to have seen one. There are tracks in the snow, stories from riders about sightings and interesting mechanical noises coming from the woods. But attempts to actually find one in its natural environment fell short.

However, if you stay on a main trail long enough, you'll see it.

It's a little like censorship on the Internet. Stay on the web long enough and you'll see it coming.

For almost two decades we have spent an increasing amount of time on the Internet, with our lives revolving more and more around it. We have become accustomed to free news, free music, free movies, free social outlets, free books and free everything. Failure to pay for an art form will cause its demise; that was covered a decade ago with the downfall of Napster, the first online music sharing site.

The real frightening thing about the Stop Online Piracy Act is not that we may have to pay for movies again; it's the fact that it could give governments the ability to shut down certain parts of the Internet in times of war or economic strife.

Joe Lieberman, prominent U.S. politician and former vice-presidential candidate, has said China can already disconnect parts of the Internet and "We need to have that here too."

Did you catch that? Our biggest trading partner which cares so much about freedom is interested in a Chinese-style form of Internet censorship.

The Internet has made the world a smaller place, where borders are less and less noticeable. It is so much easier to feel consequences here for what happens on the other side of the planet. It would be a major crime for countries to start falling like dominoes to limit access to information.

Imagine not being able to access your favourite news site when a major natural disaster hits and the rescue services are botched. Or when we're sending soldiers to a foreign country.

China is already experiencing this. It's one of the reasons they have such a disastrous human rights record.

By all means, start paying for music. Keep reporters working and start paying for news too, but let's work to stop any form of Internet censorship that comes from any country. Because Canada could be next.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/editorials/internet-censors-pose-a-threat-to-freedom-138108423.html

WordPress Plugin Unblocks Censored Sites, Including The Pirate Bay

A new WordPress plugin makes it dead easy to uncensor blocked websites. In just a few clicks people can setup their own proxy site with the popular blogging software. An essential tool for people whose speech is restricted by oppressive regimes, and handy for downloaders in The Netherlands, Italy, Finland and other countries where ISPs are blocking The Pirate Bay. Additionally, the plugin partially defeats the PIPA and SOPA bills in the US.

There’s been a lot of talk about censorship lately. Last week the Internet witnessed the largest protest in its history, against the Internet censorship bills PIPA and SOPA. And earlier this month ISPs in Finland and the Netherlands were ordered to censor The Pirate Bay.

Alongside the millions who protest against these increasing censorship initiatives, there’s also a group of people who come up with ways to route around it. One of these projects is the RePress plugin for WordPress.

The plugin is developed by the hosting company Greenhost and allows everyone with a WordPress blog to start a proxy for sites that are censored elsewhere in the world. As an example, Greenhost have setup a Pirate Bay and Wikileaks proxy.

“By adding this plug-in to your WordPress website it will start functioning as a proxy and uncensor any blocked website you’d like,” Greenhost explains. “The only thing you’ll need is a WordPress website and the ability to install new plug-ins. After that you can maintain a list of websites you’d like to keep open freely available on the web.”

 

Repress Options

One of the main motivations for the plugin’s developers was to provide people in the Netherlands full access to The Pirate Bay when the recent court order is enforced. However, if SOPA or PIPA pass there might also be a need for people in the US to have a tool like this.

“We hope people outside Holland use the plug-in to uncensor piratebay.org, as it is in danger of being blocked in our country after a court-ruling. In the Netherlands we could then uncensor websites for people in oppressive regimes like Iran, Syria or the US after SOPA is passed.”

“[SOPA and PIPA] are said to defend the interests of the Entertainment industry, but will mainly cause grave and undeniable damage to the Open and Free web and all of its users: from the end-consumer to the cutting edge developers and inventors. Our aim is to make this impossible,” the Greenhost team notes.

Although the plugin can’t prevent domain names from being seized, it is indeed a good solution to bypass all of the common blocking measures that are used today.

The RePress initiative is applauded by several politicians, including European Parliament member Marietje Schaake. “This is a fantastic opportunity for human rights activists and a solution for people who face technological censorship and repression,” she told Webwereld.

To those eager to start their own proxy of blocked websites, RePress can be downloaded in the WordPress repository.

http://torrentfreak.com/wordpress-plugin-unblocks-censored-sites-including-the-pirate-bay-120126/

E-gov satisfaction at high levels, report says

Customer satisfaction with e-government exceeded satisfaction with overall government for the seventh year in a row in 2011, according to a new report from ForeSee research firm.

In addition, another new report from GovDelivery ranked the most popular government information shared online in 2011.

A week in e-Democracy: SOPA/PIPA vs lobbying 2.0

SOPA/PIPA vs lobbying 2.0
Have we seen this January 18 the first victory of the web players web against the major traditional pressure groups accustomed to the corridors of power in Washington? Mobilization of key players against anti-piracy law SOPA and PIPA (what you need to know by CBS news), has created the first digital strike of hundreds of websites, including the English version of Wikipedia or the blogging platform Wordpress. It has been successful since a score of members changed their minds. The debate is not only American, and websites like Reporters Without Borders took part in the digital blackout. As emphasized Philippe Aigrain, founding member of the Quadrature du Net (French website on rights and freedom on Internet), "we must consider these two texts as symptomatic of a general trend of legislators around the world to set up tighter control on the Internet in order to enjoy economic interests at the expense of individual liberties. "

Obama Administration Responds to We the People Petitions on SOPA
The White House used the e-petition website, "We The People" to try to defuse a controversy more and more threatening. The petition against SOPA has earned tens of thousands of signatures and the White House took the pole to its position, explaining that the proposal is not satisfactory, and urging users to take direct action to improve "Don’t limit your opinion to what’s the wrong thing to do, ask yourself what’s right. Already, many members of Congress are asking for public input around the issue. We are paying close attention to those opportunities, as well as to public input to the Administration. The organizer of this petition and a random sample of the signers will be invited to a conference call to discuss this issue further with Administration officials and soon after that, we will host an online event to get more input and answer your questions"

In South Korea, the opposition leader elected head of his party by mobile phone
The year 2012 will be an election year in South Korea with general elections in April and presidential election in December. In the country which was the first in the world in 2002 to elect a President with a lot of supporters on Internet, it will be interesting to study new IT uses. It has also started on 15 January. Former South Korean prime minister Han Myeong-sook was elected chairwoman of the liberal main opposition Democratic United Party for a mandate of two years, with 24.5 percent of the vote from a 800,000-strong electoral college. What makes this election unique is that people has been allowed to cast votes through their mobile phones, a method no other political institution in the world has tried before. The leadership election was based on votes cast by party members, party delegates and ordinary citizens who had voluntarily signed up to cast their ballots. Some 90 percent of them voting by mobile phone. The introduction of mobile voting, unprecedented in a party leadership election, has played a "revolutionary" role in encouraging mass participation. Lee Cheol-hee, vice head of the Institute for Democracy and Policies, called the experiment part of the evolution of Korean party politics. He said political parties, criticized for being insular and isolated from the public, are expanding their turf by reaching down to the grass root.

In Canada, Election laws changing to reflect Twitter reality
Faced with new practices, some laws appear increasingly obsolete. This is the case of the law which prohibits to disseminate to the public the result of an election in an electoral district before the close of all polling stations. This is the case of Canada. This rule is "outdated and inapplicable" and will soon disappear. Canada did not actually afford to retain information in a country with no fewer than six time zones. Because when Canadians located west of the country voted, the results are already known on the east. In France, this situation will inevitably resurface during the next presidential election. In a few months, French people - whose millions are on Twitter - will be called to the polls to elect the President of the Republic.

http://www.edemocracy-forum.com/2012/01/lobbying-20.html

Twitter to restrict user content in some countries

SAN FRANCISCO: Twitter announced that it would begin restricting tweets in certain countries, marking a policy shift for the social media platform that helped propel the popular uprisings recently sweeping across the Middle East.

"As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression," Twitter wrote in a blog post published Thursday.

It said even with the possibility of such restrictions, Twitter would not be able to coexist with some countries. "Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there," it said.

Twitter gave as examples of restrictions it might cooperate with "certain types of content, such as France or Germany, which ban pro-Nazi content."

A Twitter spokeswoman declined to elaborate on the blog. "Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country while keeping it available in the rest of the world," the Twitter blog said.

Twitter's decision to begin censoring content represents a significant departure from its policy just one year ago, when anti-government protesters in Tunisia, Egypt and other Arab countries coordinated mass demonstrations through on the social network and, in the process, thrust Twitter's disruptive potential into the global spotlight.

As the revolutions brewed last January, Twitter signaled that it would take a hands-off approach to censoring content in a blog post entitled "The Tweets Must Flow."

"We do not remove Tweets on the basis of their content," the blog post read. "Our position on freedom of expression carries with it a mandate to protect our users' right to speak freely and preserve their ability to contest having their private information revealed."

And last year, Twitter General Counsel Alex Macgillivray declared that the company was "from the free speech wing of the free speech party."

In the interest of transparency, Twitter said Thursday, it has built a mechanism to inform users in the event that a Tweet is being blocked.

Twitter's move comes at a time when internet companies such as Google and Facebook have wrestled with foreign governments over freedom of speech and privacy issues as they expand rapidly overseas.

In 2010 Google relocated its Web search engine to Hong Kong, following a very public spat with the Chinese government over its refusal to bow to Beijing's Web censorship requirements and a hacking episode that Google said it had traced to China.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/news/internet/Twitter-to-restrict-user-content-in-some-countries/articleshow/11647813.cms

Google performance drives mobile estimate to $2.6 billion

Google's "exceptional" mobile advertising and new data has prompted eMarketer to revise its 2012 estimate for mobile advertising spending upward, from $1.8 billion to $2.61 billion. Google has already come to dominate the field, capturing 51.7% of mobile revenue, far ahead of Apple's 6.3% share. The competition is tighter in the area of mobile display, with Google at 24.8%, Apple at 18% and Millennial Media at 17.7%.

http://paidcontent.org/article/419-2012-mobile-ad-spend-revised-up-to-2.6-billion-google-fueling-the-machi/

After SOPA, Anonymous hackers out to get world governments

Amid protests against controversial US bills that allegedly threaten freedom of expression online, the hacktivist group Anonymous is starting to target other governments that it believes are attempting to curtail Internet freedom.

 

The hacktivists have started working with digital activists in other countries to respond to such threats, according to a report on Wired.com.

 

Wired.com cited the group's support for protests in Poland against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which will be voted on soon there.

 

The protests included setting up protests via Facebook with Anonymous mounting DDoS attacks on Polish governmental sites. Anonymous also claimed to have hacked into ministerial computers and stolen documents.

 

"The combination of anonymous attacks and Polish outrage has brought the obscure ACTA treaty back into the light and amplified the conversation in Poland about whether ACTA is  good for Poland and the Polish internet. While the Minister of Administration and Digitization Michał Boni has said the signing of ACTA will go forward regardless of any threats from Anonymous or protestations from the Polish people, the treaty must still be ratified by the Polish Parliament to become law," Wired.com said.

 

It added the DDoS against some EU targets appeared to have dropped as physical protests started in the streets.

 

Wired.com cited reports that on Wednesday, protestors by the thousands clogged streets in several Polish cities, chanting and carrying signs protesting the signing of the treaty.

 

"ACTA is a secretive treaty pushed and quite possibly in part penned by the same interests that just saw their plans for SOPA go up in internet flames — the entertainment industry. It’s never been subject to any public scrutiny, but leaked versions of it revealed a requirement for provisions like a three strikes law that could cut people off from the internet and a reversal of DMCA-style safe harbors that have allowed companies like YouTube, Flickr, Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, and Google to function," Wired.com said.

 

It noted the Obama administration had said the treaty does not require congressional approval in the U.S., and will be implemented with an executive order.

 

“The whole government is basically being bought out in every facet,” said an anon on IRC involved with the anti-ACTA actions.

 

In France, the movement to stop ACTA was joined by more than 1,000 handles in Anonymous IRC servers. DDoS attacks were mounted against French media empire Vivendi.

 

In Brazil, a crackdown on a shanty town called Pinheirinho provoked attacks from Antisec.

 

Brazilian hackers sought help from black-hat anons who claimed to have rooted dozens of boxes in Brazil, looting documents and handing the keys to the Brazilians.

 

“Antisec supported the Brazilians because they asked for help. They consider themselves part of and fans of Lulzsec and Antisec,” one anon told Wired in an online chat.

 

Wired.com said the targets included a website of Organizações Globo, a large Latin American media conglomerate based in Brazil.

 

Threat to net culture?

 

Wired.com quoted Biella Coleman, Professor of Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy in McGill University as saying the phenomenon involves a generation of people whose way of life is "inseparable from the net" see threats to their culture and are willing to fight.

 

“The op was rooted in some core issues that Anonymous and internet enthusiasts care deeply about: free speech, censorship, and intellectual property restrictions,” said Coleman.

 

FTC site defaced

 

The black-hat Antisec wing of Anonymous hacked and defaced OnGuardOnline.gov, a Federal Trade Commission website that distributes computer security information online.

 

Antisec claims to have hundreds of servers rooted, but this one sent a message to so-called “white hats,” the hacker professionals who work for corporations and governments. 

Wired.com said Antisec threatened a "relentless war" against the corporate Internet if SOPA, PIPA and ACTA are passed.

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/245823/scitech/technology/after-sopa-anonymous-hackers-out-to-get-world-governments?ref=section_latest

Washington Times launches news aggregator

The Washington Times has launched a new digital news site, Times247.com, which will provide a continuously updated blend of news, opinion and analysis from The Times combined with selected content from top news sources to an audience who shares conservative values. The news service will be distributed digitally to millions of opted-in readers and available over the Internet on a 24/7 basis. Users can choose the site’s home page or “The Skinny” section featuring breaking news headlines “without the filler.

http://www.ejc.net/media_news/washington_times_launches_news_aggregator/

Poland: Thousands take to streets in protests at internet censorship

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Polish cities Wednesday, some of them hurling stones at police, in protest
at an international copyright treaty criticized as a clampdown on freedom of speech on the internet.

In the city of Kielce around 700 people protested. Some of them threw bottles and stones at police, damaged cars and partially blocked traffic, Polish media reported. Police arrested 24 people. One police officer was taken to hospital for treatment.

In the largest demonstration, in Cracow, 15,000 people took to the streets in a largely peaceful protest.

Demonstrators chanted "Down with censorship" while some had a piece of tape inscribed with "ACTA" glued over their lips.

ACTA is the acronym for the international Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which Poland was to sign in Tokyo on Thursday.

Opponents of the treaty, which aims to protect international intellectual property rights and fight online piracy, launched a string of attacks on Polish government websites earlier this week, jamming the websites of the Polish parliament, the prime minister’s office and the Ministry of Culture.

http://www.warsawvoice.pl/WVpage/pages/article.php/19614/news

The death of online piracy: the end of the Internet as we know it

By Stephen Chapman

Summary: Piracy finds its way into just about every legitimate avenue on the Internet. As such, the death of online piracy via shutting down otherwise legitimate sites and services could mean the end of the Internet as we know it.

The death of online piracy: the U.S. government wants it and copyright holders want it, but at what cost? As we’ve seen from SOPA and PIPA, the government would be willing to completely cripple the Internet to see to the death of online piracy; and now, the shuttering of MegaUpload by the U.S. government (as a result of pressure from copyright holders) has caused waves in the file-sharing business; a business that — amongst perfectly legal profits — is rife with HUGE profits that come as a direct result of the sharing of pirated content. Yes, the death of online piracy as we currently know it is going to happen at some point; but to severely cripple (never mind completely obliterate) online piracy would come at the cost of the current freedoms the Internet enjoys — be it from an end-user perspective, a service provider perspective, or both.

You see, I am more fascinated with piracy than most. It’s a topic that has captivated me for many years and the debates sparked on the subject are absolutely riveting when intelligible people opinionate from either side. Plus, my security consulting endeavors and Google hacking escapades have opened my eyes to more avenues of piracy than are readily apparent to most. As such, to effectively end online piracy, I see that FAR more will have to be done than simply shutting down file-sharing sites. I fear that the most significant changes will be brought forth by legislation, and it WILL happen one day if the piracy war continues as it has thus far.

To give you a small and scary sampling of what obliterating online piracy might mean for the Internet, I present the following points for your consideration:

1 - File-sharing site censorship: Put simply, a complete restructuring and lock-down of file-sharing sites would have to occur for them to even exist. And though it could work just fine in theory, it couldn’t work without handing over a certain amount of freedom and convenience. Every file uploaded to a file-sharing site would have to somehow be guaranteed to either not be copyrighted, or the uploader would have to provide credentials which, under certain guidelines/legislation, show that they can share what they’re sharing — most likely with an intended number of receivers who might also have to provide proper access credentials. As it currently stands, it’s FAR too easy to fly in under the radar of current file-sharing sites that try to auto-detect copyrighted files. Gone would be the days of file-name obfuscation and password-protected 7-zip files.

Ultimately, even if file-sharing sites weren’t as locked down as this scenario suggests, it’s quite clear that the DMCA system is broken. Yes, even sites like Rapidshare and Hotfile — who react promptly to DMCA requests — are still slam-PACKED with copyrighted files that are being furiously downloaded this very second by paying members who can afford $10 a month for a super-fast and convenient way to download copious amounts of copyrighted movies, music, games, and more.

2 - Government-mandated deep packet inspection: Though it wouldn’t matter where you downloaded from, deep packet inspection would massively reduce piracy from torrents, P2P, newsgroups, IRC, and everywhere else. Naturally, it would be easy to circumnavigate this type of thing with a combination of file-name obfuscation (changing the name of a file to something unrelated) and password-protected compressed files, but that simply brings us to the next point…

3 - Tiered Internet access and data plans: Do you have a cell phone with a data plan? Imagine if you had to follow a similar plan with your home ISP. Even worse, what if ALL Internet access was bound by a pay-as-you-go plan? That may sound ridiculous, but after some of the generalizations suggested in SOPA and PIPA, it sounds about par for the course! I could also see an Internet restricted by a type of certification process, whereby a Web site must undergo an inspection to be allowed onto the “freely accessible” Internet — a tier that you could access without getting charged. And if a site that was allowed access failed to abide by the rules after being approved, then the site would be removed and the owner (and possibly even the hosting company) would be severely reprimanded. Again, this all may sound ridiculous, but I’m shooting for some worst-case scenario stuff here to spark debate.

4 - Search engine censorship: If you want to see to the death of online piracy, then you must also consider nixing all the paths that lead one to pirated content. Yes, that means Google, Bing, and every other type of search engine would have to be censored and severely crippled so as to not return results leading one to downloadable copyrighted content they don’t intend on paying for. For someone like me who is absolutely in love with search, I can’t imagine a worse fate than this since it would surely mean severely lacking search results on some level.

Does that all sound crazy to you? Some of it does to me, but I have no doubt that all of the above has been brought to the table as a serious consideration by copyright holders and/or the government at some point. The reason I have no doubt about that is primarily due to China. Just have a look at the details of Internet censorship in the People’s Republic of China and marinate on all of that for a bit.

Now, why am I even bothering to write an article about this? What’s the point? Well, my point is to show that an Internet without at least some amount of piracy is an Internet that lacks some portion of the freedom it currently enjoys: the more piracy is obliterated, the more locked-down the Internet will become. Or so that’s how I see it, at least. The fight against piracy is a full-on war in the eyes of copyright holders, and in war, there are always casualties. Unfortunately, I think the casualties would come in the form of Internet freedom.

And now that I have you feeling like the world as you know it is going to end (it is 2012, after all… *wink, wink* *nudge, nudge*), there is a scenario that very well might play out which I would love to see happen: the influential seats of government and big money corporations being turned over to intelligible, competent Internet lovers who can come to reasonable/logical conclusions. I’m talking about people who use Reddit, understand what a meme is, make usage of Google’s advanced search operators, and — most importantly — know when legislation is presented that seeks to censor or threaten the freedom of the Internet. Hopefully, this would happen long before the Internet was stripped of said freedom.

So, am I saying that online piracy is necessary? Well, no, but if the Internet is to remain free, then accepting that piracy is going to *always* happen in *some* part is something that’s going to have to be done by copyright holders who are seeking legislation as an action to prevent it.

To close, I’d like to note that I understand there are PLENTY of loopholes present and counterpoints to be made to much of what I’ve said above, but it would take a novel to accurately portray the entirety of my opinions and observations on this matter. Not only that, but statistically speaking, only a fraction of you have read this far anyway (this article is just shy of 1500 words — a miracle for most to read through these days) — and besides, I want to see what you all think based on what I’ve said thus far. I want to see some REAL discussion happen on this matter. Also, I understand that the Internet is a global network and not all of the points listed above pertain to all governments, but the battle of piracy extends well beyond the borders of the U.S. government, so discussion is relevant on the topic no matter where you’re reading from.

And now, I turn it over to you! Do you even care about piracy or think that it has the power to cripple the Internet? If you do care about the topic of piracy, then what suggestions would you like to offer that you think would make a difference to those seeking to collect from its supposed damages? Get crazy in the comments below!

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/seo/the-death-of-online-piracy-the-end-of-the-internet-as-we-know-it/4503

UN: Free Speech on the Internet

Washington, D.C., January 20, 2012—The Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Catalina Botero Marino, and the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Frank La Rue, today called on the United States to be vigorous in protecting freedom of speech on the Internet. The Special Rapporteurs recalled that legislation regulating the Internet should take into account the special characteristics of the Internet as a unique and transformative tool that enables billions of individuals to exercise their right to freedom of thought and expression as well as a range of other human rights.

 

The Special Rapporteurs have taken particular note of the discussions surrounding two Internet piracy bills currently pending in the United States Congress, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act. While these bills pursue a legitimate objective in seeking to protect intellectual property rights, serious concerns have been raised regarding their impact on freedom of expression. In particular, versions of the draft legislation have the potential to silence a good deal of entirely lawful speech, for example by creating an extrajudicial ‘notice-and-termination’ procedure, by requiring websites to police their user-generated content for copyright infringement, and by allowing for an entire website to be targeted if even a small portion of its content is deemed to infringe. The Special Rapporteurs note with satisfaction that in recent days, certain Congressional leaders stated their intention to suspend debate on SOPA in order to pursue further discussion and consensus, while the Obama Administration announced that it “will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.”

In June 2011, the UN and IACHR Special Rapporteurs joined with their fellow special mandate holders from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to issue a Joint Declaration on Freedom of Expression and the Internet. This Joint Declaration states that while freedom of expression, including on the Internet, is not absolute, tailored approaches must be developed that respond to illegal content while recognizing the Internet’s unique characteristics and its ability to deliver positive freedom of expression outcomes. The Declaration states that intermediaries should not be required to monitor user-generated content, and stresses the need to protect them from liability unless they specifically intervene in content or disobey a court order to remove such content. The Declaration further states that jurisdiction in legal cases relating to Internet content should be restricted to States to which those cases have a real and substantial connection.

In addition, all restrictions on freedom of expression, including those that affect speech on the Internet, should be clearly and precisely established by law, proportionate to the legitimate aims pursued, and based on a judicial determination in adversarial proceedings. In this regard, legislation regulating the Internet should not contain vague and sweeping definitions or disproportionately affect legitimate websites and services.

The UN and IACHR Special Rapporteurs call on the United States to uphold international free speech norms, including those reflected in the aforementioned Joint Declaration, which seeks to promote universal access to the Internet while preserving its role as a revolutionary medium for participatory information sharing and collaboration in the creation of content. In considering both domestic legislation and international treaties such as the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, States should recall that while freedom of expression may be limited in the pursuit of legitimate objectives such as the prevention of crime or the protection of the rights of others, such limitations should be narrowly tailored and interfere to the least extent possible with the right to freedom of expression. Any measure that affects speech on the Internet should be specifically designed to preserve the Internet’s unique capacity to promote freedom of expression by facilitating the free exchange of information and ideas instantaneously and inexpensively regardless of frontiers.

Source and Picture: UN, Frank La Rue

http://guatemala-times.com/news/world/2878-un-free-speech-on-the-internet.html

New Zealand's Ultra-Fast Broadband Network

by Fernando Beltran [TPRC 2011]

Abstract: The government of New Zealand is currently building a nation-wide fibre-optics network, a project known as the Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) initiative that will lay out an entirely new infrastructure with the capacity to fast track innovation in network-based business models and new applications. Ultra-fast broadband access is defined as a minimum 100 Mbps downlink and 50 Mbps uplink; the UFB network willcover 75 percent of New Zealanders over ten years. Crown Holdings Fibre (CFH), the government agency in charge of UFB deployment, has invested NZD $1.5 billion (or about USD $1.1 billion) and a similar investment is expected from invited private partners with whom CFH has established regional network operators also known as Local Fibre Companies (LFCs).

http://ssrn.com/abstract=1985752

Telco Pay-TV Subscribers Approaching 100 Million

New data from TeleGeography show that at the end of Q3 2011 telcos worldwide had a total of 94 million pay-TV subscribers, giving them a 12% share of the global pay-TV market. Given current growth rates the subscriber total will be passing the 100-million milestone as this article is being written. Leading the telco charge is America Movil with ten million pay-TV subscribers, thanks to a dominant market position in Brazil and Colombia and substantial pay-TV operations in several other Latin American countries. It is followed by China Telecom and Rostelecom, both of which focus solely on their home markets, and France Telecom-Orange which has pay-TV operations in Poland, Spain and Slovakia in addition to being one of the leaders in the French market.

While telcos’ pay-TV activities are commonly equated with IPTV, that is only a part of the story. Many telcos have clearly identified IPTV as being important both strategically and tactically, but it accounts for less than 60% of their pay-TV subscribers. Several telcos are investing heavily in cable TV and satellite DTH operations, while pay-DTT and some residual MMDS services are also part of the mix. As examples, America Movil has achieved its leadership position by developing or acquiring cable and DTH businesses, and it has hardly any IPTV interests; and number three ranked telco Rostelecom can thank cable TV for providing 85% of its pay-TV subscriber base.

However, IPTV remains a crucial factor in the telco sector’s pay-TV growth prospects, as TeleGeography’s John Dinsdale points out: ‘Looking to the future there is no doubt that telcos will further increase their share of the pay-TV market. While telcos will continue to invest in cable and DTH operations, over the next five years it will primarily be strong IPTV growth that enables them to gain market share. We forecast that the IPTV subscriber base will have doubled in size by the end of 2016, which will help telcos gain control of some 16% of the pay-TV market.’

TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Pay-TV Research Service provides data, analysis and forecasts of the rapidly changing pay-TV and IPTV markets. (http://www.telegeography.com/research-services/globalcomms-pay-tv/index.html)

http://www.telegeography.com/products/commsupdate/articles/2012/01/23/telco-pay-tv-subscribers-approaching-100-million/

U.S. online ad spending to surpass print for first time in 2012

U.S. online advertising spending is expected to surpass print for the first time this year, according to a study released Thursday, Jan. 19, by eMarketer, reported AdAge, adding that this would "represent a watershed in the media business." Forbes noted that such a forecast means "digital remains the sole bright spot for newspapers and magazines," as print ad revenue dropped 9.3 percent to USD 20.7bn in 2011, the report said. The report also noted that total U.S. ad spending is expected to increase 6.7 percent to USD 169.5bn in 2012, attributed to campaign ads and mobile advertising, said Mashable. The Mobile Market 2011 Review released Tuesday, Jan. 17, showed mobile advertising skyrocketed in 2011, with tablet ad impressions up 771 percent, reported Tech Crunch. Meanwhile, mobile advertising on tablet computers is "outpacing and outperforming" the printed versions of the ads, reported the site Tab Times. Research from marketing company Affinity shows that iPad and tablet users have better product recall and are more likely to make a purchase after viewing an ad than those who viewed print ads.

http://www.ejc.net/media_news/u.s._online_ad_spending_to_surpass_print_for_first_time_in_2012/

ITU Member States Urged to Guarantee Freedom of Information

As a plenipotentiary conference of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) gets under way today in Geneva, Reporters Without Borders urges this UN agency's  member countries to give clear undertakings to guarantee freedom of information  and the free flow of ideas and opinions, and to sanction countries that use censorship and violate the fundamental right of access to news and information.

Reporters Without Borders also voices its support for a demonstration by Iranian  journalists and activists taking place today outside the ITU's Geneva headquarters.

This conference is an important event at which ITU member states are due to adopt decisions about the agency's future and about the development of information and  communication technologies (ICTs) worldwide.

Many countries flout their obligations as ITU members by committing grave freedom of information violations. According to a Reporters Without Borders tally, some form of Internet censorship occurred in a total of 68 countries in 2011. They included China, Cuba and Libya - ITU member countries that monitor communication networks  in order to identify dissidents and censor online news and information in violation of ITU principles.

The constitution of one of the ITU's three sectors, the standardization sector (called ITU-T), states:

"Telecommunications/ICTs also open new channels for sharing of global knowledge resources and the free flow of ideas and opinions. However, to harness the potential of telecommunications/ICTs, governments and other stakeholders have to provide an enabling policy environment and supporting infrastructure that are robust and responsive to a shifting set of challenges and opportunities."

The ITU goes to recommend that member states facilitate "the unrestricted transmission of news by telecommunication services."

"We call on the ITU, during this decisive conference, to firmly condemn countries that do not respect the fundamental principles of the free flow of information,"
 Reporters Without Borders said. "We also call on the ITU, as part of its work, to set up a commission to monitor freedom of information violations by member states.
The development of ICTs throughout the world should be vehicle of democracy. The  ITU must not be the accomplice of regimes that obstruct the flow of news and information on their telecommunications networks."

Iran, one of the world's most repressive countries, plans to establish a global content filtering system for all of its telecommunications and to create a national Internet that is cut off from the international one. Government officials have described communications satellites and the Internet as electronic weapons being used by the west to wage a "soft war" on Iran.

The signals of radio and TV stations carried by satellite, including the BBC and  Voice of America, have frequently been jammed in Iran since 2000. These stations have repeatedly complained about Iran's jamming but European and US satellite operators have had to yield to political and commercial pressure from a government that constantly violate its citizens' basic rights, starting with the right to be informed.

On the ITU conference's opening day, Reporters Without Borders emphasizes its backing for the protests by Iranian journalists and activists against the repressive policies of a government that obstructs the free flow of information. With a total of 54 journalists and netizens currently detained, Iran is one of the world's biggest prisons for the media.

"Iran uses its position in international bodies to justify its use of repression,"
Reporters Without Borders said. "The government's repressive methods rely on the  assistance provided by foreign companies, especially western ones. Some of these companies, such as Europe's leading satellite operator Eutelsat, directly help the Iranian government to censor independent news and information by transmitting interference on satellite wavebands."

http://en.rsf.org/iran-itu-member-states-urged-to-23-01-2012,41751.html

Ukrtelecom reaches 790,000 3G mobile subscribers at year-end

Ukraine’s Ukrtelecom reports that its 3G mobile subscriber base increased in December 2011 by 4.5% or 34,000 users, to reach 790,200 active SIMs as of 1 January 2012. As reported by CommsUpdate, Ukrtelecom is in the process of selecting a buyer for its W-CDMA/HSPA-based cellular operations, after accepting second-round bid proposals up to a deadline of 25 November 2011. In September Ukrtelecom announced it was transferring all assets of its mobile business from its internal Utel division into a newly formed company, TriMob, for sale, effective from 1 January.

http://www.telegeography.com/products/commsupdate/articles/2012/01/25/ukrtelecom-reaches-790000-3g-mobile-subscribers-at-year-end/

Amazon’s first “Fulfilment Centre” is coming up in India

The world’s largest online retailer, Amazon, is planning to break into world’s second most populous nation, India. Amazon’s first “fulfilment centre” is coming up in India. A fulfilment centre is a giant warehouse that are used by large online retailers like Amazon to store products, which can be handled and shipped quickly.

 

India’s retail market is worth around $550 billion.

Indian Shoppers can buy products from Amazon websites in other countries and have the items shipped to them. But the company does not have a dedicated online retail business in India yet. That has allowed room for e-commerce start-ups, led by Flipkart, to expand quickly in India.

The job listings in Amazon India’s career website indicates that the company’s fulfilment centre is coming up in Mumbai. One recent listing says, Amazon “has an immediate opening for an IT Manager in our first Fulfilment Centre based out in Mumbai, India.”

Another recent Amazon job posting sought a “Stations Operations Manager” to work for the fulfilment centre team in Mumbai.

It has also been reported that Amazon is looking for a financial analyst in Mumbai. The financial analyst would report to a general manager and controller and help the fulfilment centre operate more efficiently and predictably.

Last year Amazon has spent heavily in setting up more than 10 new fulfilment centres in the United States. The company also has fulfilment centres in China, Germany, Japan and the U.K. However, the company’s website does not list any fulfilment centre in India.

http://egov.eletsonline.com/2012/01/amazon’s-first-fulfilment-centre-is-coming-up-in-india/

‘Right to be forgotten’ — EU’s new plan for internet freedom

By Michelle Atagana: Managing Ed.

The European Union is in the process of proposing new laws on how large corporations handle users’ personal data.

Speaking at the Digital Life Design(DLD) conference in Germany on Sunday, EU Justice Commissioner, Viviane Reding, said she thinks governments need to find a balance between policing the internet to protect copyright and upholding freedom of expression.

Reding was reacting to a US crackdown on hundreds of websites accused of offering pirated music or movies or counterfeit goods, as well as calls for new legislation to guard intellectual property.

“The protection of creators must never be used as pretext to intervene in the freedom of the Internet,” Reding told an international Internet conference in the southern German city of Munich, noting the “heated debate” surrounding the issue.

US authorities have seized more than 350 website domain names since launching an anti-online piracy campaign dubbed “Operation In Our Sites” more than 18 months ago, including a spectacular global swoop on file-sharing site Megaupload.com.

But US congressional leaders have put strict anti-online piracy legislation on hold following a wave of protests led by Google and Wikipedia denouncing the bills as a threat to internet freedom.

In her keynote Reding argued that internet users had a “right to be forgotten” — the idea being that anyone should be able to delete all the data they have online at any time, except in cases where there is a legitimate interest in maintaining information in a database.

American journalist and television critic, Jeff Jarvis, commented on Reding’s statement saying: “I fear the implications for free speech. And on a practical level, how can one as a principle tell people to no longer know what they know?”

Though deleting one’s data doesn’t necessarily mean all traces of you online are gone. Twitter mentions and Facebook posts can always be found online.

Reding also warned against an overzealous approach to internet freedom that could have a chilling effect on the industry.

“You’ll never have from Europe a blocking of the Internet — that’s not the European option,” she said.

“Freedom of information and copyright must not be enemies, they are partners… European policy aims at equilibrating the respect of both rights.”

The draft copy of the new EU policy, which was obtained by Reuters shows that the “right to be forgotten” simply “would allow people to request that their information be erased and not disseminated online.”

http://memeburn.com/2012/01/right-to-be-forgotten-eus-new-plan-for-internet-freedom/

In Kamchatka, the Council on the safety of children on the Internet will be created

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY. January 24. VOSTOK MEDIA - Commissioner for Human Rights and Child Protection in the Kamchatka region, Irina Orlova, supported the initiative of the Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption, State Duma deputy Irina Yarovaya from Kamchatka , spoke on the results of the Round Table Meeting on Child Protection in the Russian parliament. On the eve Yarovaya was in favor of tightening of crimes against minors and the formation of rigid social control of children's rights in general and, in particular, for their security on the Internet. MP also believes that community councils should be set up in the Commissioner for Children's Rights in the regions and a single nationwide database on children who find themselves in difficult situations.

http://www.vostokmedia.com/n126929.html

Poles Protest ACTA Online and on the Streets

By VANESSA GERA

Hundreds of people waged a street protest in Warsaw on Tuesday to protest the government's plan to sign an international copyright treaty, while several popular websites also shut down for an hour over the issue.

Poland's support for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA, has sparked days of protest, including attacks on government sites, by groups who fear it could lead to online censorship.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk insisted Tuesday that his government will not give in to the protesters. He vowed that Poland will sign the international agreement, which is aimed at protecting intellectual property — like music and books — and products including pharmaceuticals and designer items. ACTA enjoys widespread support from the producers of music, movies and a range of goods enjoying copyright protections.

"There will be no concessions to brutal blackmail," Tusk said at a news conference.

Several popular websites replaced their normal content with a statement about ACTA, including several that are popular with young people and carry a mix of celebrity news, jokes, funny photographs and other entertaining material.

One site, www.wykop.pl, said that "under the banner of fighting piracy and concerns about intellectual property, ACTA will limit the rights of each of us."

At the street protest, held in front of a European Union office, people carried banners that said "Stop ACTA," while some put tape over their mouths to signify their fears that ACTA will infringe on freedom of expression online.

An extremist right-wing group is planning a separate protest Wednesday to oppose ACTA.

However, an influential group representing authors and composers — known by its Polish acronym ZAiKS — has thrown its support behind ACTA. ZAiKS argued that ACTA will not hurt Internet freedom but protect the rights of creators. It said that Internet piracy is now robbing artists and the state treasury of hundreds of millions of zlotys (many millions of dollars) in income.

ACTA shares some similarities with the hotly debated Stop Online Piracy Act in the U.S., which was shelved by lawmakers last week after Wikipedia and Google blacked out or partially obscured their websites for a day in protest.

In recent days, a group calling itself Anonymous attacked Polish government websites, leaving several paralyzed on Sunday and Monday. On Tuesday, most appeared to be working again, though the prime minister's site was unreachable.

Still, Polish leaders are vowing to stick to plans to sign ACTA in Tokyo on Thursday.

ACTA has been negotiated by a number of industrialized countries that have been struggling for ways to fight counterfeiting and intellectual property theft — crimes that cause huge losses to the movie and music industries and many other sectors.

The far-reaching agreement would cover everything from counterfeit pharmaceuticals to fake designer handbags to online piracy. The United States signed ACTA in October in Tokyo along with seven other countries: Australia, Canada, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Morocco and Singapore.

Critics of ACTA accuse the negotiating countries of hammering out the agreement in secret and failing to consult with the broader societies along the way.

(This version CORRECTS Updates with the websites going dark; corrects style on spelling of group ZAiKS. This story is part of AP's general news and financial services.)

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/polish-websites-dark-protest-acta-15427868

A mega attack on internet freedom

Theresa Clifford

Last Wednesday, hundreds of websites, including Wikipedia and Reddit, shut down their services for 24 hours in protest at the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA). The bills, which were introduced by the US House of Congress and Senate respectively, have now been put on hold.

YouTube uploads hit 60 hours per minute

Writing in a blog post, YouTube’s managers claimed that the amount of video uploaded to the Google-owned site had grown ten-fold since 2007. “Since the dawn of YouTube, we’ve been sharing the hours of video you upload every minute. In 2007 we started at six hours, then in 2010 we were at 24 hours, then 35, then 48, and now...60 hours of video every minute, an increase of more than 30 percent in the last eight months. In other words, you’re uploading one hour of video to YouTube every second.” A new website, onehourpersecond.com, has been built in an attempt to visualise the volume of content uploaded over set periods of time. The site also claimed users were “watching more as well; we’ve now exceeded four billion video views globally every day. That’s up 25 per cent in the last eight months and the equivalent of more than half the world’s population watching a video every day.” YouTube claimed the numbers were continuing to grow.

http://www.ejc.net/media_news/youtube_uploads_hit_60_hours_per_minute/

Citizens’ reports: A guide to crowdsourcing websites in Latin America

From elections in Brazil to mapping power in Chile to a stand-in for Wikipedia in the United States, journalists throughout the Americas are using crowdsourcing to cover the news. The Americas Society/Council of the Americas (AS/COA) noted that crowdsourcing, or turning to a large group of citizens to perform a task that normally would be done by an individual, has "become a popular method for citizen participation" that allows "users to report crimes anonymously...due in part to violence against witnesses and journalists." The AS/COA has compiled a list of crowdsourcing websites across LatinAmerica. The list includes sites from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela. Many of these sites allow users to anonymously report crime and see where crime occurs. For example, the Mapa Delictivo (Crime Map) in Mexico, created by the newspaper El Universal, maps reports of crimes throughout Mexico City; and the Disque Denuncia (Dial To Report a Crime) in Brazil uses phone calls, Twitter and a blog to map crime. Also on the list is Mi Panama Transparente (My Transparent Panama), created by Knight International Journalism Fellow Jorge Luis Sierra, which allows citizens to report crimes via email or text messages.

http://www.ejc.net/media_news/citizens_reports_a_guide_to_crowdsourcing_websites_in_latin_america/

US lobbyists seek to persuade MTN to abandon Iran

Prominent Washington lobby group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) has said that it is preparing a campaign to persuade South African telecoms group MTN to dispose of its stake in MTN Irancell, the country’s second-largest mobile operator. The Wall Street Journal quotes UANI spokesman Nathan Carleton as saying that ‘investment in Iranian telecommunication aids government censorship and efforts by officials to track cellphone users’. When pressed by the business daily, MTN reportedly declined to comment on its Iranian activities.

The WSJ report coincides with news that Angola’s state-owned energy company, Sonangol, is considering pulling out of an Iranian gas deal, whilst Sasol of South Africa says that it is discussing whether or not to divest its 50% stake in a USD900 million Iranian petrochemical project. The moves come as the US government and European Union (EU) continue to expand sanctions against Iran, and try to persuade consumers of Iranian oil to find alternative supplies to choke off Tehran’s revenue and force it to abandon its alleged nuclear weapons development project – a charge Iran itself continues to deny.

http://www.telegeography.com/products/commsupdate/articles/2012/01/24/us-lobbyists-seek-to-persuade-mtn-to-abandon-iran/

Ukrtelecom pleased with broadband growth

Ukrainian fixed network operator Ukrtelecom has announced reaching a total of 1.343 million xDSL internet subscribers at the end of December 2011, an increase of 209,000 during the year and maintaining its position as the country’s largest fixed broadband provider. Marketing high speed services under the ‘OGO!’ banner, Ukrtelecom claims that the growth figure was the highest amongst Ukraine’s broadband operators, which it considers a significant achievement ‘under conditions of increasing competition’. The PSTN operator – privatised last year to Austrian investors – faces growing rivals in the internet segment including cellco Kyivstar (part of the Vimpelcom group) which is rapidly expanding its direct fibre broadband network. Ukrtelecom attributes its subscriber take-up in 2011 to active and ‘carefully thought out’ marketing strategies, in particular, a popular promotional offer of a UAH1 (USD0.12) DSL modem, and, at the end of the year, a ‘free 100 days internet’ campaign.

http://www.telegeography.com/products/commsupdate/articles/2012/01/24/ukrtelecom-pleased-with-broadband-growth/

EU urges balance between Internet freedom and copyright

Governments must strike a balance between policing the Internet to protect copyright and upholding freedom of expression, EU justice commissioner Viviane Reding said on Sunday.

Reding was reacting to a US crackdown on hundreds of websites accused of offering pirated music or movies or counterfeit goods, as well as calls for new legislation to guard intellectual property.

"The protection of creators must never be used as pretext to intervene in the freedom of the Internet," Reding told an international Internet conference in the southern German city of Munich, noting the "heated debate" surrounding the issue.

US authorities have seized more than 350 website domain names since launching an anti-online piracy campaign dubbed "Operation In Our Sites" more than 18 months ago, including a spectacular global swoop on file-sharing site Megaupload.com.

But US congressional leaders put strict anti-online piracy legislation on hold following a wave of protests led by Google and Wikipedia denouncing the bills as a threat to Internet freedom.

Reding warned against an overzealous approach that could have a chilling effect on the industry.

"You'll never have from Europe a blocking of the Internet -- that's not the European option," she said.

"Freedom of information and copyright must not be enemies, they are partners... European policy aims at equilibrating the respect of both rights."

She outlined proposals to protect the online data of European citizens to be presented in the coming days.

The current legal "patchwork will be replaced by one law which will apply to all member states, to all companies which are offering their goods and services to consumers, even if their servers are based outside the EU", she said.

The legislation would restrict Internet giants such as Facebook and Google from collecting the personal data of European web users and getting around European privacy laws by storing it abroad.

Reding said she aimed to have companies obtain the consent of consumers for the use of their data in "clear" terms, explain how it is stored and notify users if it is stolen or lost.

She said web users should also have the "right to be forgotten", or the right to withdraw their consent and have their data erased except in cases where there is a legitimate interest in maintaining information in a database.

http://news.yahoo.com/eu-urges-balance-between-internet-freedom-copyright-152652360.html

Researchers say smart meter technology is privacy intrusive

Two German researchers presented a talk entitled "Smart Hacking for Privacy" at the 28th Chaos Computing Congress that took place between 27 and 30 December 2011, on the privacy implications of "smart" electricity meters. These devices, installed in homes, collect information to determine the power consumption. The researchers had signed up with Discovergy, one of the independent companies providing such smart meters, to check out how secure the devices were and what information could be obtained from the data gathered by them.

According to Discovergy's website, the web interface accessing the consumption data used HTTPS to protect the data and the data sent back to Discovergy was encrypted and signed in order to prevent forged data. The website also stated these facts had been confirmed by independent experts.

Following the presentation of the researchers on 30 December, these statements disappeared from the company's website and as it came out, the SSL certificate of the site was misconfigured and presented an invalid certificate warning, then proceeded to redirect them to an HTTP URL where the data and password were transmitted in clear text across the internet. The researchers found out the traffic was not encrypted and signed and, therefore, easy to intercept. Thus, they were able to demonstrate that data from the entire life of the device was stored on Discovergy's servers.

One of the main concerns was that the smart meters were monitoring the power usage in two-second intervals which implies the devices were able to discern very fine modifications in power consumptions such as differences based on the brightness levels displayed for different scenes in TV shows and movies.

The researchers believe that two seconds measurements are unnecessary for the stated goals of the smart meter companies and too privacy intrusive as the data obtained could be used to establish very fine details.

"Unfortunately, smart meters are able to become surveillance devices that monitor the behaviour of the customers leading to unprecedented invasions of consumer privacy. High-resolution energy consumption data is transmitted to the utility company in principle allowing intrusive identification and monitoring of equipment within consumers' homes (e.g., TV set, refrigerator, toaster, and oven)", said the researchers in a statement prior to the presentation.

Nikolaus Starzacher, CEO of Discovergy, explained that one of the reasons for using the two second polling interval was to provide services such as notifying a customer that he forgot an iron or another house appliance on, when leaving the house.

Also, the researchers claimed that they had been able to send false details about their energy consumption back over the unencrypted Discovergy network meaning that consumers might be able to "potentially fake the amount of consumed power being billed".

In the opinion of Ross Anderson, professor in security engineering at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory, EU and UK plans to install smart meter are "set to become another public sector IT disaster".

In a joint paper with his fellow academic Shailendra Fuloria, Anderson warned over the threat of the vulnerability of the smart meters which might allow hackers to break into a "head-end" hub where smart metering data are collated and thus be able to even cut the supply of energy across "tens of millions of households".

"The introduction of hundreds of millions of these meters in North America and Europe over the next ten years, each containing a remotely commanded off switch, remote software upgrade and complex functionality, creates a shocking vulnerability," Anderson said adding: "An attacker who takes over the control facility or who takes over the meters directly could create widespread blackouts; a software bug could do the same."

In his opinion, regulators have started to be aware of the issue and possible solutions under discussion might be "shared control, as used in nuclear command and control; backup keys as used in Microsoft Windows; rate-limiting mechanisms to bound the scale of an attack; and local-override features to mitigate its effects."

http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number10.1/smart-meters-flawed-ccc