ARIN6902 Internet Cultures and Governance

An original article by David Armano published in the Harward Business Review. Privacy. It's the key word in most Facebook-related headlines these days. But it's not the key idea. For the author it is really about is not the limits of privacy but the notion of agility - the ability of an organization to implement rapid iterations in their products and services for better and/or worse.

PIR = parallel importation restriction. Basically, every country around the world (except a choice few like Hong Kong and New Zealand who did away with it) is a 'territory' so far as publishing is concerned. If you publish a book in Australia, you can't just ship it over to the US and sell it wholesale to the bookstores over there. No, you have to find a publisher over there who will by the licence to reproduce the book for that market. India looks to be thinking about doing away with that. On the plus side for consumers, they'll have access to the entire Amazon e-book range - Hooray! Publishers won't be so happy, as they will lose out on royalties from selling 'local' e-books (hardcopy books will also be affected, but that's not at issue here). Of course, it doesn't work both ways - India will still have to go through the usual channels to publish overseas. the US protects its own. Australia debated this last year, you may remember. Woolworths and Coles were all for PIR abolition, but not really anyone else was ...

As yet it is unspecified, but the Conservative government is to table a bill on copyright that will strike a balance between consumer rights and artist rights. They don't want to stop people who may breach copyright in their day to day life, they just want to go after the baddies who destroy artists royalties. I predict anger from all sides - too weak, too strong ...

Yes, I know you love this - we all do. The regulations have been released! We'll never know if they are a best-seller, as they are free for download by anyone (a little ironic, actually), but the Ofcom, the ACMA of the UK, has released the regulations for the Digital Economies Act. What this does is fills in the details of what the ISPs will be doing exactly, what the processes will be - basically just the fussy details that are too specific for an act. Also, it will have information that may need to be updated regularly (like lists of prohibited sites). Regulations can be made and changed without consulting the government, so Ofcom basically has free rein from hereon in ...

SeeClickFix is a free mobile phone and web app that enables citizens to take care of their neighborhoods by seeing non-emergency issues in their neighborhoods, clicking to create 'tickets' describing the issue and how to resolve it, and fixing the issue or reporting it to whoever can. This article discusses the technology and tools working to help citizens get involved in their communities and their governments. It also discusses the Gov 2.0 Expo held recently in the US. I found the discussion of mobile citizen governance apps particularly interesting, as it would be something that could be rolled out fairly easily.

"One of the big challenges in the debate so far has been combating the myth that the filter is - or ever was - a cyber-safety tool designed to keep kids safe online. It's not. It's designed to "harmonise" censorship laws, not protect children from inappropriate content. It's censorship for its own sake." This is interesting as EFF Australia are running a campaign to educate people not normally involved in debates around the internet - indeed, the campaign targets people who may be inclined to suport the idea of a filter: mums and dads.

Once again tv producers are sueing the bittorent sites for infringing their products. The producer of Hurt Locker had even sued 5000 internat user for distributing the copies of the movie illegally.

A scene from a German movie where the actor impersonated Hitler has been curbed by claims of copyright infringement. (I'm not surprised!) The movie produced in 2004 was asked to remove its scene of humorous Hitler impersonation and rendered the Germans as lacking a sense of humour. Despite the removal, dismay fans has reenacted the scene as new parodies are added over the internet.

Am I being sued? that's the first thing that comes across our minds upon noticing legal notices or letters..This article tells us not to panic but thoroughly analyze what the document says and have an in depth understanding out of the doc. If the situations seems like you are really getting a lawsuit, the next step is to seek immediate assistance from a legal advisor or lawyers. The most important thing to bear in mind is that to ensure our rights are not infringed. I find the article sound and most useful.

Whilst being amusing, this article also raises interesting points around what level of responsibility internet sites and information providers must take for the accuracy and quality of the information they provide.

Blog Submissions - Cyberbullying and online safety

Reporters without boarders has set up the new enemes of the Internet 2010. Australia and South Korea where draconian laws are creating too many specific restrictions on Web users by challenging their anonymity and promoting selfcensorship. they are democratic countries under surveillance and their upcoming implementation of a highly developed Internet filtering system is very controversial.

What do technologies which main function provides a platform for the illegal sharing resort to once the crack down starts? Even though these companies did not directly share the copyrighted sources, they did provide the technology for their users to do so. In the case of Lime Wire, they seem to be choosing plain ignorance of the law to continue their open networks. They have countless years of promises to music executives to create filters, and screening for pirated downloads, but have constantly chose to not follow through. Once again they seem to be choosing the, "we will do it now," stance, but it seems it may just be empty promises once again and the ultimate end to the most popular site for illegal music sharing.

In Jamaica, the new Cybercrimes Act makes directors, managers, secretaries or other similar officers of that body corporate liable. As the author writes "Being a director on any or many boards is no longer sexy." Which may be true, especially when million dollar fines and imprisonment may be at stake. It is hoped that all this will encourage workers to take their roles more seriously, but it may take a few hiccups (ie imprisonings) until this is a shared mentality.

This article discusses the online safety aspects of patients who share their experiences of disorders with others on websites like CureTogether.com and PatientsLikeMe.com, though the privacy does warn not to disclose too much personal detail to ensure online safety. The notion of crowd-sourcing is introduce in regards to shared expereiences can potentitally provide better control of the disorder, as details of the conditions, successes or failures of drug treatments are shared amongst the members. These websites offer early warning signs of drug and health safety problems, the user data is gathered from the member profiles and sold to scientific or marketing research organizations. Much like Facebook, users of any social networking site should enter with caution.

Facebook has apologised for the "Draw Mohammed Day" group and blocked the offending content from being accessed in Pakistan, rather than removing the content. I find it interesting that a company has taken responsibility for content published by users, but since they are a publisher of content they should probably be treated in the same way that a news publisher may be treated when publishing content, regardless of whether that content was developed by them or not. Brings up the issue of content moderation also.

Two Australian bloggers were selected in an online search and will now spend two weeks educating Bangladeshis on how to source content and publish a blog. Working with group ActionAid, their aim is to give poverty a voice.

This article eloquently discusses the importance of the internet in our lives and addresses issues of the digital divide. Internet use has become so woven into everyday life that some technology experts say online access should be legally protected, even to the point of considering it a human right. ''It's a social inclusion question,'' said Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre executive director David Vaile

Following on from the BBC's survey of 27,000 people in 26 countries which resulted in 79% of adults regarding internet access as a human right, David Vaile from the Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre and Brett Solomons, formerly of GetUp and now AccessNow.org, have both put their weight behind this approach. Some countries already include internet access as a consumer legal right and other countries regard it as a human right.

People are taking actions to express their feeling about Facebook privacy issue.

Google and Facebook are both fired under privacy issue. One thing about the Internet is its border less feature, but when it comes to regualtion, this becomes a big problem. American based companies should or should not follow local ligislations? Which country can take the responsible for indivisual interllectual property or private information internationally?