An image you won't find on Google.cn
In response to Google’s blogpost concerning several attacks which were targeted at human rights activists GMail accounts during december, supposedly by the Chinese government, Chinese officials have this response (Jiang Yu, Chinese Foreight Ministry spokeswoman):
China’s internet is open and the Chinese government encourages development of the internet.
No it isn’t. The government requested Google to block search results for topics it considers as dangerous or subversive. The Great Firewall of China blocks websites without any form of clarification, peer review or international debate. For a country in the midst of rapid economic expansion, this is a tightrope walk which is going to end horribly. People deserve access to all knowledge, unfiltered and uncensored. (updated visualisation of blocked keywords and websites in china)
Don’t be evil now, Google.
Interesting developments in the BREIN vs. The Pirate Bay case, see brokep’s blogpost. It looks like they faked evidence (download PDF) in order to connect Fredrik Neij to Reservella, the company owning The Pirate Bay since a couple of years, in order to direct all the costs and fees to the three protagonists in the #spectrial. (Update: New info on brokep’s blog, documents on Wikileaks now.)
In short, simple whois information might be used to fake the credentials and the company who provided the credit report (Experian) ‘can’t find a copy’. The irony is crushing.
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Sign this petition, it’s vital. France recently accepted a 3-strikes law for internet users, and the UK is about to implement a (washed-down, but still) version of it. This is unacceptable!
1984 was not supposed to be an instruction manual.
- Internet users are entitled to access, send and receive the content of their choice;
- Internet users are entitled to use and run any content, any application and service;
- Internet users are entitled to connect their choice of software or hardware that do not harm the network;
- Internet users are entitled to choice and competition among network providers, application and service providers, and content providers;
- Internet users are entitled to an Internet connection that is free of discrimination with regard to type of application, service or content or based on sender or receiver address. Broadband providers cannot block or degrade traffic over their networks, or pick winners by favoring some content or applications over others in the connection to subscribers’ homes. Nor can they disfavor an Internet service just because it competes with a similar service offered by them.
- Providers of Internet access must be transparent about their network management practices and Internet users are entitled to an Internet connection with a predefined capacity and quality.
Due to a very busy day I didn’t have the time to fully cover today’s episode of the #Spectrial. For excellent coverage of the events, I happily refer to Torrentfreak.
Just some side remarks and thoughts on today’s events behind the cut. I’ll get back to you tomorrow! :)
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The trial against the Pirate Bay kicked off again (see brokep’s Twitter) at 13:00 today. You can find a convenient schedule of the hearings coming up at QbatHQ. The next three days will consist of so called witness hearings (am I the only one thinking witness sounds a bit off in a case like this?). These witnesses are mostly industry CEO’s and police investigators. Scheduled for this afternoon were Magnus Martensson, legal advisor of the IFPI, and Anders Nilsson, representing the AntiPiratByran bureau (an anti-pirate organisation in Sweden).
It were two hours in which I couldn’t help but wondering whether or not the prosecutors learn from past mistakes. Spectacular scoring system and more behind the cut.
*note: Day 6 was a break.
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Today Peter Sunde (brokep) and Carl Lundström were questioned by the prosecutors. In summary, Peter Sunde did a really good job at choosing what and what not to answer. It’s appalling to see how many questions were unrelated to the (remaining) charges in the trial, and how many of these questions were allowed by the jury.
Lundström was next, and they got him cornered a couple of times. It’s very clear that brokep, anakata and TiAMO know the borders of what they can say and can’t say, while Carl – who’s connected with the site through advertising deals and physical support – is not really upto that.
Summary of the most important points behind the cut.
The trial will start again next Tuesday, so three days of rest for the #spectrial live reporting. I’d like to thank all people reading my blog, I’ll try to keep it up next week.
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Of all days in the The Pirate Bay trial, this one was the most difficult to cover. Several of the prosecutors got to talk to TiAMO (Fredrik Neij) and Anakata (Gottfrid Svartholm Warg). A lot of questions and responses were out there, the Twitter feeds translated them live at a whirring speed.
I’m trying to cover the trial as best as I can from this blog, combining other blogs, the audio feed and twitter material. It’s nice to see that UK newspaper The Guardian quoted me on their website.
I’ll try to summarize day 4 behind the cut.
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Today, the trial against torrent-site ThePirateBay started in Stockholm, Sweden. It’s very interesting to see how they manage to globalize this trial. A Pirate Bay Bus is standing outside the courthouse with people (video)blogging. Twitter feeds (tag: #spectrial, that’s spectacle and trial) from in and outside the court get translated live. Looks like it was the right time for me to get on twitter ;)
Some very nice thoughts behind this social experiment from the official press release behind the cut
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The Pirate Bay Trial in Stockholm, Sweden takes a nice flight on the second day of the court hearings. Håkan Roswall, the rather clumsy and quite un-tech-savvy prosecutor brought on some evidence which didn’t prove that the .torrent files (which are appearantly demonstrated using screenshots) actually use TPB trackers. This resulted in the prosecution dropping roughly 50% of the charges brought on. As brokep mentions: 
