ARIN6902 Internet Cultures and Governance

Blog post number 1

Very interesting article on Hollywood vs. downloads and ISPs. 

Really enjoyed this article and its historical account of Hollywood on the defensive to any new emergence of technology is apt. Unlike the open source software movement, this industry fails to understand that the circulation of its content, whether licensed or not, eventually produces indirect benefits. Hollywood defends its position through laws created in a time when the internet was yet to be conceived. The obvious flow on discussion here is that the law simply can't stay abreast of rapid technology changes.

Manuel Espino, leader of the PAN, Mexico's conservative party, twitted that Diego Fernandez de Ceballos, the politician who is missing, had been killed. He later said sorry and admited the information was not confirmed/true. But was it? Twitter's immediacy can put politicians in the spotlight even if that is not their intention. 

If you missed Abbott on Q&A last night the full transcript is here (http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s2859473.htm?show=transcript) or I've extracted the main bit about ISP filtering on my blog (http://logocopblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/facebook-v-isp-filtering-via-abbott.html). This article from the Oz also provides a good recap of Abbott's comments and some analysis...

In what appears to be a direct warning to the Australian founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange had his passport confiscated for a period of time at Melbourne Airport (on the basis that it looked worn) and then had his bags searched, being questioned on about his 1991 criminal record for hacking offences. Wikileaks published the confidential list of sites that would form the blacklist under the Australian government's proposed net filter. Coincidence? I think not.

Further, Assange was interrviewed on Dateline last night and said that Wikileaks was potentially going to be investigated by the Australian Federal Police over the leak. However, the AFP aren't pursuing it since it's out of their scope. http://www.zdnet.com.au/afp-called-to-investigate-wikileaks-339303208.htm

Julian Assange is hassled and detained by customs entering Melbourne airport. Then a Fed pulls him over again in arrivals and questions him on an old hacking charge. Punishment for the leaking the Black List perhaps? Surely not...

A new paper on Australia's proposed mandatory filtering plan in context of Australia's broader stance on child pornography. It uses the example the consumption of "Japanese Boys Love" manga by people (mainly girls) underage to explore issues around censorship and governance

A university in the U.S. has provided an online reputation management program for all its graduating seniors. Since majority of companies are performing background checks on job applicants, this will allow students to clean up their Facebook and Twitter profiles. This step made by the university seems very beneficial, since for majority of the younger generation who don't know how it is not to have the Internet, the separation between online and real-life identities is a fine line. 

Privacy addressed by Zukerberg. Shall we believe him? Article goes hand in hand with this week's readings. 

First post for blog on Reputation

Rudd will consider Xenaphon's idea of an online ombudsman to help in some unknown way people affected by social media issues such as cyberbullying. 

The Chinese government is planning to engage mothers in an effort to apparently  "protect" children. A genuine concern or just legitimization of censorship?

It seems to be like by-the-book State mechanisms to legitimize policy. Classic propaganda.

Korean government might celebrate by themselves for making perfect panopticon in Korean online environment.

I think the title says it all, really.

This is my blog post on censorhip in south Korea. Korean government says they are protecting people on the internet from propagationg falsehood.But really? Check this out!

A group of independent film producers have initiated court actions against over 20,000 Bit Torrent users, through an organisation of their own design, a group of lawyers known as the U.S Copyright Group. This group are demanding users to either defend themselves in court or alternatively, to settle outside of court for downloading particular movie titles. Most accused will settle to avoid the costs of litigation. Actions such as this are worrying as may give rise to a standard in which large numbers of corporates, not only in film but in all types of media, may start bringing forth unrelenting actions against individual users- holding them personally accountable. This is problematic (amongst a variety of reasons) that in the identification process through IP addresses is not 100% accurate, leaving room to wrongly accuse some users.

Blog which writes about issues relating to open access media and links to actual open/free media. 

Following the government's decision to postpone the internet filtering legislation last week what is the future for this legislation? Post election there is the likelihood of even harsher censorship than that currently proposed. Fitzgerald suggests that the election could be turned in part in to a referendum on the issue? But when it comes down to it which party will actually nominate themselves to lead the charge against the filter in parliament- only the Sex Party??- a party founded on the issue of internet censorship.

This article discusses how a private Labor party polling has indicated that some computer-illterate mums and dads wish to have Conroy make the Internet safer for their children.

How on earth can he guarantee that this will be 100 percent accurate - with no overblocking, and no underblocking!?!?! And in this interview, he advises that this is not a limit on freedom of speech and that the internet should not be considered a special platform.

This article discusses how the Australian Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has dismissed the Internet as a special medium, claiming that it is nothing more than, "just a communication distrbution platform." Which, is quite short sighted, as the notion of open source, crowd sourcing, collective/collecting intelligence, collaborative intelligence is achievable because of the Internet. Conroy also claims that his filter is 100 percent accurate..." which begs to question, according to who? Filtering, content only prevents access, it does not prevent those individuals from crimnimal acts offline, nor does it address how to protect victims from their predators.

This is my blog post on the rise of cyberbullying, with thoughts on who is responsible and what needs to be done to prevent it.