InternetPolicy.net

Korea nixes beheading video on net

According to the Korea Herald's Jin Hyun-joo, South Korea's "government and Internet portal sites said on Wednesday they would take stern measures against the possible spread on the Internet of the video showing the beheading of the Korean hostage [Kim Sun-il, who was recently captured and executed in Iraq]... With its emergency monitoring system running for 24 hours, the Ministry of Information and Communication said it would advise Web sites to get rid of the clips as soon as they discovered them. 'The Web sites that fail to follow through the instructions will be subject to shut-down or police investigation,' an official at the ministry said. 'The current law dictates that the government is allowed to call for the revision of Web sites that have unsound or cruel content. On top of that, we will take strict measures, like prosecuting the operator of the Web site.'"

UPDATE: Today's Digital Chosun Ilbo adds that the videoclip showing Kim Sun-il's decapitation "was spread throughout the world by seven US [Internet] sites, but it has not been found yet how the murderers posted the video on those sites. If the route is tracked, it could lead to arresting the murderers. Al-Jazeera is the only broadcasting company that is officially confirmed to have received the video from the murderers. Spokesman Gihad Ballot, however, said during a conversation with this reporter over the phone, 'We received the video from the group that killed Kim, but we did not sell it anywhere. I think that the group itself may have posted the video on the Internet to spread it.' ...The video even includes the images of the beheading that Al-Jazeera...did not air because they were too gruesome... With the cooperation of the [South Korean] Police Agency, the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) shut down access to those US websites that carry the video. The video, however, has been rapidly disseminated through those who already downloaded it..."

RSF's annual survey and CyberFreedom prize

Reporters sans Frontieres released their annual survey of online repression yesterday - Internet Under Surveillance - and awarded their 2004 CyberFreedom Prize to Huang Qi, who was sentenced last year to 5 years in prison for criticising China's government on his website. (At the time of his sentencing Qi had already been in jail for 3 years so it is not clear when he might be released.)

Introducing the annual survey, Julien Pain, RSF's Internet Freedom Editor, noted that "The rise of terrorism has shaken the world and had a direct impact on the Internet. Democratic countries have chipped away at the liberties of their citizens the better to protect them. Monitoring of e-mail messages, repressive laws and censorship of websites have increased over the past three years in countries that normally respect freedom of expression....Authoritarian regimes have also taken advantage of the focus on fighting terrorism to tighten their grip on the Internet. At a time when bomb attacks are striking at the heart of Western countries, the plight of the Internet in places like the Maldives and Tunisia don't seem very important. A dictator just needs to boast he's fighting terrorism and the eyes of the international community stop seeing his arrests of cyber-dissidents and censorship of websites... On 10 September 2001, the Internet was still a place of hopes and dreams that was going to give everyone access to impartial information and undermine dictatorships. A few days later, it had became a lawless place where Al-Qaeda had managed to plan and coordinate its attacks... 10 September was the last day of a golden age of free online expression. Since then, Big Brother has loomed ever closer..."

New survey: Internet in the Arab World

Earlier this month, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRINFO) released The Internet in the Arab World: A New Space of Repression? This 77-page survey, written by Gamal Eid, HRINFO's executive director and e-published in both English and Arabic, covers Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. "Of the 11 Arab countries included in the study, three countries - Jordan, UAE, and Qatar - provide a relatively higher degree of on-line freedom. The other eight Arab countries impose heavy security restriction on Internet users..."

"Self-discipline pact" for China's Internet

"Chinese websites, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and other Internet-related organizations across the country are being invited to sign a self-discipline pact designed to protect online intellectual property rights as well as prevent cyber crime, the spread of harmful information and unhealthy competition," Xinhua reports today. "The pact, containing four chapters and 31 articles, is initiated and implemented by the Beijing-based China Internet Association, a national self-governing body for the country's Internet sector..."

GSMA embraces content ratings for mobile Internet

From Cellular News: "The GSM Association (GSMA) says that it has joined the Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA). ICRA's Board of Directors has also appointed Tom Phillips, Chief Government & Regulatory Affairs Officer of the GSMA, as Chair of its Board and Executive Committee.

"ICRA is an independent, non-profit, organisation working with Internet content providers and other members of the industry to develop a filtering and labelling system that can be used by parents around the world to protect their children from potentially harmful material on the Internet. 'The new generation of mobile devices mean that it is possible to do almost everything on an Internet-enabled phone that can be done from an Internet enabled computer,' said Tom Phillips. 'Therefore the sharing of experiences on the lessons learned from the fixed Internet will be invaluable to the GSM's global operator community as it strives to create a safer mobile Internet environment."

"ICRA's aim is to make content labelling standard for all internet content, so that the public can reliably expect what kind of content web sites offer. In particular, parents are encouraged to use filtering devices, ultimately making the internet a safer place for children... Stephen Balsam, CO, ICRA, said, 'The GSM Association's support for ICRA is a key development and a boost our efforts to encourage responsible Internet content access and labelling, helping parents to protect their children from potentially harmful material in the evolving world of mobile communications.'"

Dealing with xenophobia online

"Government efforts to regulate bias-motivated speech on the Internet are fundamentally mistaken," said Dan Bryant, assistant attorney general for legal policy at the US Department of Justice, according to Reuters' Joelle Diderich, reporting from OSCE's conference in Paris on the role of xenophobic websites in promoting hate-crimes.

In contrast to the American position, which is based on the First Amendment to the US Constitution, France's parliament wants ISPs to be held accountable for offensive material posted on their servers and transmitted as private email. ISPs say that the person putting the material online should be held responsible.

"If you focus the discussion exclusively on speech, we will never close the divide," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, who was quoted in the Reuters article. But there are other ways to tackle the problem: "Most Internet service providers ask users to sign a terms of service contract, which normally include clauses prohibiting the dissemination of offensive materials. Users who break the rules can be prosecuted for breach of contract," notes Reuters.

An Associated Press article gives more detailed coverage of the debate at the conference.

Chinese govt commissions "100 fine online games"

Xinhua reports that China's State Administration of Press and Publication recently launched a "National Online Game Publishing Project, [in which] the administration would join hands with domestic game software developers to produce 100 fine online games in five years. The first 30 of them will come out by the end of this year... [The] administration encouraged the making of large-scale online games and flash works based on China's traditional culture, noting it would help the youngsters to gain deeper understanding of Chinese heritage..."

US crackdown on online porn?

Wired News' Randy Dotinga warns of a possible crackdown on pornographic websites by the US Justice Department: "At the Cybernet Expo, which concluded on Saturday in San Diego, more than 120 porn webmasters listened closely as several panels explored the threats facing the industry...for prosecutors are trying to stop the online distribution of porn, not just orders sent by mail to one region or state. Any new standards could potentially apply nationwide. And...they might be retroactive.... But abandoning the most controversial material may be easier said than done. Extreme content can be very profitable because customers who find the rare material end up becoming 'committed' to websites that offer it, [said adult industry attorney Frederick Lane III]... There's another option that doesn't require anyone to take a creative writing class. 'You go to the (porn) webmaster chat boards, and they're talking about moving out of the country,' said Giorgio Xo, owner of adult classified websites. But porn purveyors may not necessarily find greener -- and less litigious -- pastures abroad. The US government could extend the long arm of the law into bank accounts there, and other countries are also cracking down on pornography..."

56% shirk blame for illegal content

When a story gets wide coverage on the Internet, we usually try to find the primary source. But in this case, Michael Masnick's commentary on TechDirt tickled our funny-bone while Claire Armitt's original article on NewMediaZero did not, so we'll stick with the former:

"A new study shows that many people feel that they should not be blamed if they put unlawful content online... 30% said the ISP should take the blame for not stopping the user from posting the illegal content. Another 15% blamed the government, who obviously has better things to do than running the country and, instead, should be policing online message boards... Finally, in the ultimate desperation move, 11% say that the blame should fall on those who accessed the content rather than themselves, the posters of the content. That would be a fun court argument: 'Yes, your honor, I did post confidential corporate information publicly on a Yahoo message board - but no harm would have been done if no one had visited it!...' Of course, with so many news articles claiming (incorrectly) that people are being sued for downloading (and not uploading) music files, perhaps we know where this line of thought comes from."

OSCE looking at Internet hate-sites

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is convening a meeting this week to look at the relationship between hate crimes and racist, xenophobic, anti-Semitic propaganda on the Internet. More than 300 participants have already registered for the two-day event, which begins 16 June at at 9 a.m. in le Centre de Conferences Internationales, 23 rue La Perouse, Paris. OSCE's website has more details.