Category «Free Speech»

California Supreme Court Reviews E-Mail Case

On April 2, the California Supreme Court heard oral argument in the appeal of Intel v Hamidi. Hamidi is a former Intel employee who after his termination, on six separate occasions, used the company’s internal e-mail address listing to send messages to 30,000 employees. See also these related articles: Intel e-mail issue divides court and …

Subjects: E-Mail, Free Speech

CDT Opposes Maryland Bill Impacting ISPs

Maryland House Bill 661, Internet Child Pornography – Removal, is opposed by the advocacy group Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT). CDT staff counsel John B. Morris testified before the Judiciary Committee Maryland House of Delegates on March 4 that the bill has “…due process problems under the Fourteenth Amendment, free speech problems under the …

Subjects: Censorship, Free Speech, Internet

EU Protocol on Internet Speech

From Writ, this article, Can Europe Block Racist Websites from its Borders? refers to the Additional Protocol to the Convention on cybercrime, concerning the criminalisation of acts of a racist and xenophobic nature committed through computer systems, ETS No.: 189. This treaty is now open for signature by the States which have signed the Treaty …

Subjects: Cybercrime, Free Speech

Another Internet Libel Suit

From the High Court of Australia, to the Fourth Circuit, and now the Fifth Circuit, jurisdiction issues as they apply to Internet libel cases are in the spotlight. The Fifth Circuit, in Oliver “Buck” Revell v. Lidov and Columbia University, affirmed the United States District Court For the Northern District of Texas decision that Revell, …

Subjects: Censorship, Free Speech, Internet

Net Snooping Here and Abroad

There is evidence of a slow but steady groundswell of citizen concern about, and local government response to, increased online surveillance as a result of the Patriot Act. Wired highlighted the work of a new grassroots organization called the Bill of Rights Defence Committee that is assisting municipalities in the passage of resolutions opposing the …

Subjects: Free Speech, Privacy

Liability on the Internet Goes Global

The High Court of Australia issued a ruling on December 10 in the Internet defamation case Dow Jones and Company v. Gutnick. The case may have global implications for the increasingly wired publishing world. It stipulates that Web publishers of any description (be they huge corporate entities or individual weblogers) can be sued anywhere in …

Subjects: Free Speech, Internet

More On Internet Censorship In China

Jonathan Zittrain and Benjamin Edelman from the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School have published a new report on Web censorship: Empirical Analysis of Internet Filtering in China. From the abstract: “The authors are collecting data on the methods, scope, and depth of selective barriers to Internet access through Chinese networks. …

Subjects: Censorship, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Internet