Emma Woollacott reports: Britain’s House of Lords has approved a bill allowing the government to shut down illegal file-sharers. Music companies are delighted. But British Telecom, Google and Facebook aren’t: they think illegal file-sharers should be fined, rather than cut off. Last week, in a letter to the Financial Times, they said the proposed amendment…
Category: Non-U.S.
Japan: Internet posts held to libel standards
Daisuke Nakai reports: The Supreme Court has ruled that individuals posting comments on the Internet must be held to the same standards for criminal libel as writers in other forms of media. The unprecedented ruling means that individuals can be held criminally responsible for their Internet postings. In its decision dated Monday, the court’s First…
Privacy Remains a Social Norm
Anne Cavoukian, Information & Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, had an op-ed in yesterday’s Globe and Mail: Recently, a considerable amount of controversy ensued when Mark Zuckerberg, head of the world’s most popular online social network, Facebook, was misquoted as saying, “privacy is no longer a social norm.” What he actually said was: “People have really…
Sweden goes ahead with drug tests for kids
The Swedish government has ignored the advice of Sweden’s Council on Legislation (Lagrådet) and proposed the introduction of drug tests on children below the age of 15. “Early intervention against young abusers is absolutely crucial,” said Beatrice Ask, Sweden’s justice minister. In a previous ruling, the council weighed the invasion of personal integrity occasioned by…