Getting copyright right

March 12th, 2013

“Digital” means copying. Attempts to defend copyright the old-fashioned way could have unforeseen consequences for the web, says Joe McNamee.

This article was originally published on Open Democracy, as a part of a week-long series on the future digital freedom guest-edited by Index

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Why should Amazon be our taste and decency police?

June 26th, 2012

The online retailer has been criticised for profiting from ebooks featuring terror and violence. No one should tell us what to read, says Jo Glanville
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Amazon cut off Wikileaks

December 2nd, 2010

Amazon yesterday pulled the plug on its hosting of Wikileaks after reported political pressure in the US. The whistleblowing site has since moved to new hosts. Read more here

Pakistan: court orders Google ban

June 24th, 2010

The Lahore High Court has ordered that several websites, including Google, Yahoo, Amazon and YouTube should be blocked by the government. The move came after the court found that the sites carried and promoted “blasphemous” material . Earlier this year, Pakistan blocked Facebook in protest against the “Let’s Draw Mohammed Day” group that appeared on the social networking site. Read more here

Filmmaker ordered to release Amazon footage to oil company

May 11th, 2010

On 6 May, a US federal judge ruled that Chevron could subpoena footage from “Crude”, a documentary about the company’s involvement in the pollution of the Amazonian rainforest in Ecuador. Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled in favour of Chevron’s request to view 600 hours of outtakes from the documentary. Joseph Berlinger, director of the documentary, said turning over footage to the courts would violate journalistic privilege and undermine a lawsuit in Ecuador.