QuickLinks - Content regulation

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Issue no. 192 - 26 March 2001

• USA - Libraries Spearhead Attack on Cyber-Porn Law (Reuters)
  A coalition representing public libraries, library patrons and Web site operators filed a free speech challenge to a U.S. law that is designed to prevent children from being exposed to Internet pornography in public libraries and schools. see also Net-porn filtering hit with lawsuits (ZDNN), Libraries, ACLU Challenge Children's Internet Protection Act (The Legal Intelligencer) and Regulate Smut (Industry Standard / Michael Romano), Libraries: Filter Out Filters (Wired), ALA's CIPA web site, ACLU press release and Family Research Council Press Release.

Issue no. 191 - 19 March 2001

• UK - BBC plan to face criticism (FT)
  Government plans partly to exempt the BBC from regulation by Ofcom, the proposed communications watchdog, are expected to come under fire from MPs. A report by the commons select committee for culture, media and sport is likely to urge Chris Smith, culture secretary, to reduce the corporation's ability to regulate itself.

• UK - Need Net regulation? Don't ask the Government (Daily Telegraph)
  The Government is bamboozled over the question of whether standards of taste and decency should apply to material appearing on the internet.

Issue no. 190 - 12 March 2001

• The Internet's public enema No. 1 (Salon)
  Will Rotten.com - home of the Web's most gruesome, explicit and utterly tasteless photographs - ever be kicked offline?

• Fashion, sex and security in India (FT)
  In the information ministry in Delhi, civil servants are working round the clock to safeguard India's security. Normally, their job is to monitor broadcasts from Pakistan and China, against whom India has gone to war. Now, they have been redeployed to focus on a more insidious enemy. What is this threat to India? It is Fashion TV, a non-stop haute and less haute couture show broadcast from France, that Sushma Swaraj, India's information and broadcasting minister, has decided is "contrary to Indian sensibilities". After negotiations the channel is now under scrutiny to test its assurances that deshabille models will appear only at safe viewing hours.

Issue no. 189 - 5 March 2001

• Censor Bill gets R rating (Australian IT)
  South Australia's internet censorship bill will give authorities wide-ranging powers to silence critics, anti-censorship campaigners have warned.

• L'internet met les démocraties à l'épreuve (Yahoo FR)
  Publié par le magazine Transfert et Reporters sans frontières, le rapport 2000 des « ennemis de l'internet » passe au crible les pratiques, loi ou règlements de 50 pays, dont bon nombre de démocraties. Les nations réputées civilisées adoptent elles aussi des mesures aux tendances liberticides: le Royaume-Uni apparaît en première ligne, la France est donnée comme à surveiller de près

• USA - Govt Asks Supreme Court To Reverse COPA's Death Warrant (Newsbytes)
  The Justice Department has asked the Supreme Court to overturn a federal appeals court ruling that the Child Online Privacy Act (COPA), a law restricting minors' access to "inappropriate" material online, was unconstitutional. see also Online Porn Panel Chairman Sorts Out Finances (Newsbytes).

• ACLU Defends Internet Anonymity (Newsbytes)
  The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) renewed its stance that online critics and other speakers should be allowed to remain anonymous if they so choose. In Washington State, the ACLU filed a motion to quash a subpoena that would force an Internet service provider (ISP) to reveal the identity of a user participating in an online bulletin board discussion. Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, the ACLU moved to block a state Appeals Court Justice from using the courts to ferret out the identity of an online critic.

Issue no. 188 - 24 February 2001

• France - Le «cybermachin», pas encore né, déjà décrié (Libération)
  L'organisme français de régulation du Net sera créé en juin.

• UK - Film censor to stop playing nanny (Observer)
  Britain's most influential arbiter of public taste, the film censor, is predicting the end of legally enforced cinema ratings in the UK. Duval does not expect all forms of film classification to disappear. He envisages a grading scheme in which parents would be able to take children to see films they deem suitable. Existing legislation covering obscenity and child abuse would then become the only statutory public protection.

• USA - $10,000 in Damages for High School Student (ACLU)
  A former high school student who was suspended for posting an Internet parody lampooning the school's assistant principal. on the Internet is getting $10,000 damages from the school district that violated his free speech rights.

• Cuba Not So Libre With the Net (Wired)
  Internet and e-mail access in Cuba is as jealously guarded as Fidel Castro's chokehold on power. But that hasn't stopped enterprising Cubans from finding ways to flout government restrictions. The Cuban government controls the country's only Internet gateway and four national ISPs. Out of 11 million Cubans, only about 40,000 academics and government workers are permitted to have Internet and e-mail accounts.

Issue no. 187 - 17 February 2001

• Chinese website creator goes on trial (BBC)
  China has put a website creator on trial for the first time, in a test case condemned by international rights groups. Huang Qi, 36, went on trial on Tuesday in the south-western city of Chengdu. He is accused of attempting to subvert state power by allowing articles about the 1989 pro-democracy protests to appear on his website.

• Malaysian news site feels government pressure (Reuters)
  The editor of a Malaysian news Web site malaysiakini.com critical of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's government said there was a deliberate campaign to discredit it. Government ministers have kept up sustained attacks on malaysiakini in the local media for the past two weeks, following a report that site received money from a foundation of international financier George Soros.

Issue no. 186 - 3 February 2001

• New software censors Web in Chongqing Net cafes (China Online)
  More than 1,700 Internet cafes in Chongqing have recently begun installing software named the "Internet Cafe Security Management System". The program prevents surfers from accessing the objectionable material.

Issue no. 185 - 27 January 2001

• China and the Internet 2001 (Committee to Protect Journalists)
  Detailed report on development of Internet and Chian and attempts of the régime to control it.

• The regulation of BBS in China People's Daily (Communications Law in Transition - Wenzhao Tao)
  The Qiangguo BBS is the largest BBS in the Chinese language on political issues. It belongs to People's Daily, the China Communist Party official newspaper. Regulation relative to the BBS are strict. No postings are allowed against laws and policies of the Chinese government, with controls by both software and human intervention. The rate of censorship was probably more than 1.5% in 2000. Some subscribers have protested these controls, but this sort of regulation will continue in the near future and only diminish slowly over time.

Issue no. 183 - 14 January 2001

• Beijing opens its airwaves to the BBC (FT)
  When BBC executives checked into their Beijing hotel this week on a trip to thank China for licensing their global news channel, they could have turned on their televisions to watch the BBC World broadcasts that have continued illegally throughout the years-long ban.

• Stop signs on the web (Economist)
  The Internet was supposed to be all about freedom. That is why governments want to regulate it. It is far from certain whether freedom, or government control, will win the day

• The twenty enemies of the Internet (RSF)
  Forty-five countries restrict their citizens' access to the internet - usually by forcing them to subscribe to a state-run Internet Service Provider (ISP). Twenty of these countries may be described as real enemies of this new means of communication.

• USA - High Court Upholds Speech Limits (Reuters)
  The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a free-speech challenge by six university professors to a Virginia law that bars public employees from using state computers to access sexually explicit material on the Internet.

Issue no. 182 - 20 December 2000

• China: the cost of control (NUA)
  According to a recent report from the Economist Intelligence Unit, called 'Who's in Charge.cn,' China is using the Internet as a way of reasserting control over its provinces and linking local authorities throughout the country. In addition, the Government-controlled gateway to the rest of the Web effectively censors all content leaving China and prevents Chinese access to a range of foreign websites.

• Descente de cyberpolice à Pékin (Libération)
  Opération coup de poing contre le plus grand café Internet du monde.

• Malaysia to Prosecute Net Surfers Who Insult Islam (Reuters)
  Malaysia will prosecute Muslim Net surfers who insult Islam via the Internet. Legal action will be taken under Syariah criminal law, which applies only to Muslims and covers family and religious matters. sed contra Net Freedom Uncompromised by Sex Search (Reuters). Malaysians use the Internet to search for sex more than anything else, but the government of this largely Muslim country says its permissive policy toward the web is here to stay.

• USA - Porn goes to court (Upside Counsel)
  This column explores legal developments relating to pornographic online content.

• SafeWeb Doubles Usage, Blocked By Saudis (Silicon Valley)
  SafeWeb, a secure surfing Web site, has garnered some sizeable growth in its first few weeks, doubling its user base despite the competition. Unfortunately, the San Francisco-based company has also garnered some censorship, with reports that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has moved to block its citizens from accessing SafeWeb's secure surfing site.

Issue no. 181 - 10 December 2000

• China To Tighten Web Regulation (AP)
  In its latest effort to place restrictions on Internet usage, China intends to tighten regulation of online bulletin boards, Beijing's top telecommunications official said.

• Cybersex News Report Sparks Outcry in Hong Kong (Reuters)
  A Hong Kong online newspaper has kicked up a fuss with its "investigative" report on the local sex trade which includes a video clip of a naked journalist and a prostitute engaging in sex. The report posted on HKCyber sparked calls from some Hong Kong lawmakers Tuesday for more control over Internet content and access for minors.

• UK - BBC's self-regulatory powers to be watered down (FT)
  The government plans to strip the BBC of much of its self-regulatory power. The BBC governors will lose their direct powers over certain areas of content regulation, including taste and decency, accuracy, quality and diversity, and quotas on niche interests such as religious programming.

Issue no. 180 - 3 December 2000

• Germany Investigates Yahoo's Nazi Auctions (TechWeb)
  German prosecutors are investigating local Yahoo executives over charges the company's online auction service sold copies of Adolf Hitler's autobiography, which is restricted in Germany. see also Germany's Kampf Furor Renews (Wired).

• USA - Judge Protects Identity of Anonymous Message Posters (Newsbytes)
  A New Jersey judge has sided with defendants by refusing to unmask individuals who posted online messages about a software company using anonymous handles. Judge Kenneth MacKenzie upheld the anonymity of two posters but ruled that Dendrite International can subpoena Yahoo for the identities of two other posters who did not challenge the subpoenas. see also Anonymity and the Internet: Privacy to do What? (GigaLaw.com).

Issue no. 179 - 26 November 2000

• France - Yahoo Ordered to Bar French From Nazi Web Sites (Reuters)
  In a landmark ruling with potential implications for Web users around the world, a French court ordered U.S. Internet giant Yahoo to bar French users from sites selling Nazi memorabilia. see also Ruling on Nazi Memorabilia Sparks Legal Debate (New York Times), Internet pioneer Vinton Cerf pans French ruling against Yahoo! (Nando Times), eBay, Amazon avoid French knot (Agence France-Presse), Zentralrat will NS-Internet-Seiten von Yahoo sperren lassen (AP).

Issue no. 178 - 19 November 2000

• Pa. Online Net Criticism Case To Continue (Newsbytes)
  The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) praised a Pennsylvania state court judge's ruling that public officials and others cannot use "frivolous defamation lawsuits" to discover their online critics' identities, but noted that it failed to get the original case against an anonymous online critic dismissed.

• Porn Sites Fear a Crackdown (Wired)
  It may be a lack of scruples or the presidential election that has some webmasters at adult sites fearing an impending government crackdown on the online porn industry. As evidence of the crackdown, adult website operators cited recent action by the FTC against a number of adult websites, including RJB Telecom, one of the largest operators, for allegedly unlawful billing practices.

Issue no. 177 - 12 November 2000

• China publishes rules governing news on Internet (Reuters)
  China published new regulations governing news and chatrooms on the Internet. The rules require Web sites not run by state media to seek approval from the Information Office of the State Council, or cabinet, before they may publish news.

• South Australian government censors Net (ZDNet Australia)
  The South Australia government has announced it will enforce new laws for content on the Internet. Opponents say it could spell jail for anyone who unwittingly uploads material deemed 'offensive'.

• Morocco - Le gouvernement marocain s'apprête à légiférer contre la pornographie dans les cybercafés (AP)
  Le gouvernement marocain devrait légiférer prochainement pour lutter contre ''les phénomènes pervers portant atteinte aux bonnes moeurs'' relevés dans les cybercafés, en raison du libre accès à des sites pornographiques sur Internet.

• USA - No right to be obscene (New York Law Journal)
  An Internet domain name registrar could not be sued for civil rights violations for denying a company domain names that included obscene words, a New York federal judge has ruled.

Issue no. 176 - 5 November 2000

• French court rules email interception illegal (Globe and Mail)
  A French court has ruled that privacy laws cover email interception and monitoring. The court awarded a university student 10,000 francs damages after it found that his university tapped into his email based on the suspicion that he was using his email account for personal uses. Pour la justice française, un e-mail est un courrier secret PARIS (Reuters) - Le tribunal correctionnel de Paris estime qu'un courrier électronique est couvert par la loi sur le secret des correspondances.

• Laos Issues Warnings On Illegal Internet Usage (Newsbytes)
  A government committee in the Lao People's Democratic Republic has put its citizens on notice that certain behavior and publishing on the Internet will not be tolerated. Banned activities include incitement to protest against the government, online data theft or copyright infringement, pornography and publishing national secrets.

• Myanmar's Tangled Web (Wired)
  Unlike neighboring countries India and Thailand, where technology is making inroads, Myanmar's military dictatorship has actively kept Internet access out of bounds from its citizens.

• Germany - Computer sind Waffen (Telepolis)
  Am 25. und 26. Oktober fand in Nürnberg die Jahrestagung der Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Schriften statt. Ein persönlicher Bericht über Deutschlands oberste Moralhüter

• UK - Film censor wants sex shop in every town (Sunday Times)
  Britain's film censor has called for a big increase in the number of sex shops selling pornographic videos to help stem the tide of illicit porn.

Issue no. 174 - 21 October 2000

• eBay set to clean up pornographic auctions (CNET News.com)
  eBay plans to redirect the steamier auction items to a "Mature Audiences" area, ban some pornographic or sexually related items and bar sellers from using graphic sexual pictures in the listings.

• EU - Advertising standards and the regulation of content in European Audiovisual policy (RAPID)
  Mrs Viviane Reding, Member of the European Commissioner responsible for Education and Culture, European Publishers' Council, Stockholm, 19 October 2000

Issue no. 173 - 15 October 2000

• Malaysian Cybercafes Could Be Banned (ZDNet Asia)
  The Malaysian authorities' sudden decision last week to ban all video game arcades has cybercafe owners worried.

• Web inventor denounces net censorship (Guardian)
  On the tenth anniversary of the creation of the internet, Tim Berners-Lee, the British scientist who invented the world wide web has called for the abolition of censorship online. see also Guardian Special Report Free Speech on the Net

Issue no. 172 - 8 October 2000

• Little Anxiety Over China Web Rules (New York Times)
  Chinese Internet entrepreneurs and their foreign backers expressed only mild concern today about the potential impact of new rules that, if enforced, could markedly slow development of the young industry here. The rules require these companies to maintain records of all the information that has been posted on their Web sites and all the users who have connected with their servers for 60 days. If asked, companies must submit those records to government authorities. see also China dotcoms in the dumps (Financial Times), China's Net rules spark concerns (CNET), The Register and Wired. Measuring the ICT Sector (OECD)
  The Measuring the ICT Sector report (pdf) has been prepared by the OECD to provide a statistical picture of the industry that supplies ICT goods and services.

• UK strips BBC governors of regulatory powers (FT)
  The UK government is to strip the governors of the state-owned British Broadcasting Corporation of their regulatory powers after their decision to move the time of the main evening news broadcast in defiance of Chris Smith, the culture secretary.

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