Information Policy

Call for blogging code of conduct

The support for a blogger hounded by death threats has intensified with some high profile web experts calling for a code of conduct in the blogosphere.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6502643.stm

Network Neutrality

Alfred E. Kahn

Much of the advocacy of legislatively-mandated network neutrality is based on a simple fallacy - namely, that differing charges to suppliers of content to the Internet for correspondingly differing speeds of delivery are inherently discriminatory. They are not; and an attempt to prohibit them would prevent the Internet's offering a full range of services, with widely diverging tolerances for latency. Preservation of the open end-to-end character of the Internet may well, however, require vigilant prohibition of vertical squeezes and other unfair methods of competition and authority of an antitrust agency to compel interconnections.

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=973513

Bloggers are not journalists, Lithuanian parliament

Bloggers are not journalists, and therefore do not have the rights and protections accorded to them, says the Lithuanian parliament.

http://www.ioltechnology.co.za/article_page.php?iSectionId=2891&iArticleId=3754044

Spamming under the law of Poland

In Poland, some of the main legal aspects of e-commerce are regulated under the Act of July 18, 2002 on Providing Services by Electronic Means (the “E-Commerce Act.”) This Act also contains several provisions addressing the issue of unsolicited commercial communications, often referred to as spamming. Spamming under the law of Poland is regarded as an unfair competition practice.

http://www.ibls.com/internet_law_news_portal_view.aspx?s=articles&id=D62C5C4A-854C-49AB-80C0-F6C11BB9E441

Pakistan's Web of Censorship

The internet has become a critical space for ordinary citizens in Pakistan to speak their minds, and exchange information. These include women who sharpen their information and communication technologies (ICTs) skills and turn to weblogs as a platform for articulation of their concerns and daily lives, and to engage in conversations sometimes blacked out as 'taboo'. But is this relative 'freedom' under threat? This article presents an overview of the country's internet regulation mechanism, and how a recent banning of blogspot has revealed the multiple attempts by the government to control content in cyberspace.

http://www.genderit.org/en/index.shtml?w=a&x=95134