internet filtering

15 May 2017 at 5:09pm

Digital Economy Act 2017

Andrew Cormack
Digital Economy Act
internet filtering
The Digital Economy Act 2017 contains sections relating to content filtering by "Internet Service Providers" (ISPs) and "Internet Access Providers" (IAPs). However both terms are derived from (and subsets of) the European definition of Public Electronic Communications Services, so will not apply to Janet or customer networks that are not available to members of the public.
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6 December 2012 at 10:49am

Law Commission on Contempt of Court and the Internet

Andrew Cormack
Contempt of Court
eCommerce Directive
Twitter
Intermediary Liability
internet filtering
The Law Commission have published an interesting consultation paper on how the law of contempt of court is affected by the internet.
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4 October 2012 at 4:58pm

Responsible ISPs in Latvia

Andrew Cormack
Botnets
Illegal Material
internet filtering
Earlier in the year I wrote about the German ISP Association's scheme to remove the economic disincentive for ISPs to inform their customers of botnet infections on their PCs by providing a centrally-funded helpdesk. In Latvia a different approach has been taken: providing a "responsible ISP" mark that consumer networks can use on their websites and other promotional materials. To be entitled to use the mark an ISP must satisfy three conditions:
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16 August 2012 at 3:16pm

Ofcom report confirms risk of IP address over-blocking

Andrew Cormack
copyright
Digital Economy Act
internet filtering
Ofcom’s 2010 report on “Site Blocking” to reduce online copyright infringement concluded that using IP addresses to block infringing sites “carries a significant risk of over-blocking given that it is common practice for multiple discrete sites to share a single IP address” (page 5).
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27 July 2012 at 2:18pm

Ordering hosts to prevent repeat infringements

Andrew Cormack
Privacy
copyright
eCommerce Directive
internet filtering
Article 15 of the European Ecommerce Directive states that Member States shall not impose a general obligation on providers ... to monitor the information which they transmit or store, nor a general obligation actively to seek facts or circumstances indicating illegal activity.
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29 April 2013 at 11:51am

DNS Filtering: Good or Bad?

Andrew Cormack
internet filtering
Domain Names
With various Governments looking at the Domain Name Service (DNS) as a tool to implement national policy (for example the USA’s SOPA and PIPA proposals) Rod Rasmussen’s talk at the FIRST conference was a timely reminder of the possible problems with this approach.
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10 May 2012 at 3:24pm

Dutch law requires network neutrality

Andrew Cormack
Network Neutrality
Role of ISPs
internet filtering
According to the Dutch digital rights organisation, Bits of Freedom, the Netherlands has just passed a new Network Neutrality law. Their unofficial translation into English suggests that Public Electronic Communications Service Providers will only be permitted to throttle or block traffic on their networks if this is necessary:
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4 May 2012 at 12:04pm

"Blocking" and Anti-blocking

Andrew Cormack
Role of ISPs
copyright
internet filtering
malware
Given the outcome of previous hearings on copyright infringement, the court’s conclusion this week that the UK’s major ISPs should be ordered to block access to The Pirate Bay was no surprise. However the judgment raises an interesting technical issue. In a previous hearing, it had been pointed out that there was a way to get around blocks on individual web pages that would not be possible if the block instead referred to the IP address of the website as a whole.
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6 June 2012 at 11:17am

Copyright blocking - recent UK cases

Andrew Cormack
Copyright Designs and Patents Act
copyright
internet filtering
The latest case brought by rightsholders under the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 has found that bittorrent tracker site The Pirate Bay does infringe copyright according to the Act. Following this decision it seems likely that rightsholders will seek injunctions under s97A of the Act requiring ISPs to “block” access to the site, as they have already done for Newzbin.
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