6 Jul 2011 | Index Index, minipost
US-based Cisco Systems Inc and Hewlett-Packard, along with a handful of other Western technology companies, are set to provide crucial network equipment for a massive CCTV surveillance project in the city of Chongqing. Known as “Peaceful Chongqing” the network of about 500,000 cameras will spread over nearly 400 square miles, it will police intersections, neighborhoods and parks. Chinese officials say the added surveillance will prevent crime but human-rights advocates fear it will be used to silence political dissidents.
5 Jul 2011 | Index Index, minipost
The US’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) is shutting down websites based abroad that break US copyrights and and prosecuting their owners. Even if the server is not based in the US, so long as the website’s address ends in .com or .net, it can be closed down or targeted for prosecution because their connections run through Verisign, a company based in Virginia. British student, Richard O’Dwyer, ran the website TVShack, which gave links to other sites that offered pirated downloads. He now faces extradition to and prosecution in the US.
30 Jun 2011 | Index Index, minipost
Ronald Papandrea, a former assistant attorney of Warren, Michigan has dropped a libel case against an anonymous blogger known as ‘Robert’ after the local judge turned down his request to obtain the blogger’s name. Papandrea claimed the blogger had made defamatory comments about him on the Warren Forum website.
24 Jun 2011 | Uncategorized
Famed US film critic Roger Ebert had his Facebook page temporarily taken down earlier this week in a perplexing case of corporate censorship all the more bizarre because it began on Twitter. (more…)
