Новости за 21.12.2016

Over the past few years, we've written about a series of truly nutty court decisions in Australia that have found Google and Yahoo liable for defamation for certain search results. In writing about it, we've seriously angered some of the plaintiffs in those cases, including one who went on a rampage posting a bunch of blatantly made up info about us, apparently thinking they were "proving a point" about how we'd get upset about defamatory material being posted about us. Another, Milorad Trkulja,... Читать дальше...

Over the summer, we noted that the Advocate General for the European Court of Justice had sort of punted on the issue of whether or not the UK's Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Bill (DRIPA) was actually legal. Thankfully, the final ruling is much clearer: "general and indiscriminate retention" of emails and other electronic communications is illegal in the EU according to the court. The only thing that is allowed is targeted interception, used to combat "serious crime."

This is a pretty big deal... Читать дальше...

For many years now we've been covering the ridiculous legal disputes over pre-1972 sound recordings. Without going into all of the history, the short version is that while music compositions have long been covered by copyright, the actual sound recordings were not until the early 1970s, going into effect in early 1972. Under the legal regime at the time, the 1909 Copyright Act, it was widely accepted that sound recordings could not qualify for copyright under federal copyright law until that law... Читать дальше...

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Oh lord. Another porn blocking bill.

A state senator from South Carolina thinks he can save his constituents from a mostly-imaginary parade of horribles by erecting a porn paywall. Only none of this paywall money will go to porn producers or actors. Instead, it will all go to the fine state of South Carolina… you know, theoretically... if there were actually any way to effectively enforce this.

An Upstate legislator is hoping to prevent anyone who buys a computer in South Carolina from accessing pornography. Читать дальше...

The FBI's search warrant for Anthony Weiner's laptop was unsealed and released yesterday. This isn't the warrant the FBI originally used to seize and search the laptop. That one was looking for evidence related to allegations Weiner sexted an underage girl.

We've already noted how large ISPs are licking their chops on reports that the incoming Trump-led FCC plans to not only gut net neutrality, but to defang and defund the FCC also. Most of Trump's telecom advisors have direct ties to telecom; one, former Sprint lobbyist Mark Jamison, doesn't think telecom monopolies are real. Verizon lawyer turned current FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai is rumored to be the most likely candidate for future FCC boss, and just last week proclaimed that net neutrality's days are numbered under Trump. Читать дальше...

More and more entities involved in government work are coming out in support of encryption. (Unfortunately, many governments are still periodically entertaining backdoor legislation...) While recognizing the limits it places on law enforcement and surveillance agencies, they're not quite willing to sacrifice the security of everyone to make work easier for certain areas of the government.

A Florida Court of Appeals has handed down a somewhat surprising ruling [PDF] in a case centering on evidence obtained from a teen's cellphone. (via FourthAmendment.com)

Abbey Dental of Las Vegas doesn't like the number of negative reviews that are piling up at Pissed Consumer. But that's about all it (and its lawyers) know. It seems to understand that taking on Pissed Consumer with a defamation lawsuit would be a complete failure, as would be any effort it made to sue individual reviewers. Nevada has an anti-SLAPP law in place, which would fit Abbey Dental's attempt to artificially resuscitate its reputation to a tee.

The internet of things has been taking plenty of flak ever since the first time someone floated the idea of a connected fridge or some-such in the 90s — but despite the knee-jerk instinct to scoff at such things, the truth is there are all sorts of interesting possibilities emerging from all these "pointless" connected devices. Of course, there are also some serious security concerns... This week, we discuss the IoT and what the ever-increasing presence of such devices means for the future.