Tag Archives: Topic: Internet

RT.com: Egyptian authorities have arrested a minority Coptic Christian teacher for allegedly posting cartoons on Facebook that insulted Islam – charges that are becoming a common theme in a country ruled by an Islamic majority.

Baptist Press: More than 200,000 people have signed up so far to take part in Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day Aug. 1, despite the fact that Facebook workers may have censored the event page for about 12 hours Tuesday.

Technology Digital: Last month, a Federal District Court Judge in Indianapolis upheld an Indiana law prohibiting sex offenders from accessing social networking websites after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) challenged the law as part of a class action on behalf of sex offenders. The judge reasoned that the law did not violate the constitutional rights of a defendant.

Orin Kerr at the Volokh Conspiracy: Imagine a defendant in a child pornography case has two computers in his home. Each computer contains twenty images of child pornography. Has the defendant committed one single crime of possessing forty images? Or has he committed two crimes of possessing twenty images each?

NY Times: In a recent morning at the main public library here, dozens of people sat and stood at computers, searching job-hunting sites, playing games, watching music videos. And some looked at naked pictures of men and women in full view of passers-by.

Daily Caller: Former Justice Department official Patrick Trueman, who proudly participated in federal pornography prosecutions during their “heyday” in the late 1980s and early 1990s, told The Daily Caller that Mitt Romney’s campaign assured him that Romney would “vigorously” prosecute pornographers if elected president.

AP: A New Zealand judge has stepped down from overseeing the extradition case of Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom after jokingly referring to the United States as “the enemy.”

Reuters: Saudi Arabia is studying new regulations to criminalise insulting Islam, including in social media, and the law could carry heavy penalties, a Saudi paper said on Sunday.

In effect, the pornography purveyors have developed a new business model using the court system to extort money from individuals who are merely identified by IP address and with no proof whatsoever that they downloaded copyrighted materials from the Internet . . .

AP: It’s a common tactic for pornography producers trying to protect their product from online piracy: They sue unknown “John Does” who illegally download movies, then go to Internet providers to learn their true identities and collect.

Computer World: Collapse of Great Firewall of China is inevitable, Google Chairman predicts

LifeSiteNews: Lucas said, “What we have found is that a partnership between corporations and the US government is very powerful. We are working with some NGOs and some corporations on a global LGBT partnership. The corporations are co-funding with the US government these civil society organizations around the world.” USAID is well known for pushing contraception, legalized abortion, and sterilization on developing countries all over the world in its population control programs.

Reuters: A New York man imprisoned for possessing and receiving child pornography cannot argue that he was wrongly convicted because he never stored the images on his computer, a federal appeals court has ruled. In an opinion on Monday, a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York considered for the first time whether viewing forbidden images on the Internet constitutes knowingly receiving and possessing them. | U.S. v. Ramos, No. 10-4802-cr

Advertiser Tribune: Many states have laws intended to limit predators’ ability to use the Internet to victimize children. Indiana’s has the American Civil Liberties Union upset. The Hoosier State bans registered sex offenders from accessing popular online social networking sites such as Facebook.

Christian Concern: A new report has found that children are increasingly being drawn into internet pornography, sending sexual text messages to their friends and even acting out scenes they have seen in pornographic films. The report, released by the charity ‘Family Lives

The Christian Institute: Parents are to be asked whether internet pornography should be automatically blocked on computers, Government ministers have revealed.

USA Today: Delaware became the first state to enter the realm of legal online casino gambling Thursday with the governor’s approval of legislation that allows for full-service betting websites offering slots play and games like roulette, poker and blackjack.

Financial Times: Twitter is preparing to introduce new measures to reduce the visibility of “hate speech” or “trolling” on the site.

AP: Amare Stoudemire has been fined $50,000 by the NBA after the New York Knicks star tweeted a gay slur.

NY Daily News: Amar’e Stoudemire fined $50,000 for using gay slur in tweet (more details on what was actually tweeted)

ABC57.com: Lawyers argue that because sex offenders are not allowed on Twitter and Facebook, they cannot contact political and religious leaders.

Google News (AP): A Tunisian appeals court upheld Monday the 7-year sentence for a man convicted of blasphemy for posting cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad on Facebook.

AP: The organization in charge of creating hundreds of additional Internet address suffixes to rival “.com” has suspended the Web-based system it set up to help decide the order in which it will review new address proposals.

AP: Secret negotiations among dozens of countries preparing for a United Nations summit could lead to changes in a global treaty that would diminish the Internet’s role in economic growth and restrict the free flow of information.

L. Gordon Crovitz at the Wall Street Journal: It’s easy to understand why countries like Russia, China and Iran would want to rewire the Internet, cutting off access to their citizens and undermining the idea of a World Wide Web. What’s more surprising is that U.S. diplomats are letting authoritarian regimes hijack an obscure U.N. agency to undermine how the Internet works, including for Americans.

Guardian: Search engine company has said there has been a troubling increase in requests to remove political content from the internet.

Morality in Media (MIM) said today it will vigorously oppose the expansion of pornography domains on the Internet proposed by ICM Registry, the porn domain company behind the .XXX Domain. Two reasons were given for MIM’s opposition: 1.) More porn domains means more porn on the Internet, and 2.) Non-porn companies, schools, bloggers, and individuals will be scammed into buying “protection” on each new porn registry in order to safeguard their good name.

Religion Clause Blog reports.

AFP: Graphic images posted online showing the bloody corpse of a baby whose mother was allegedly forced to terminate her pregnancy at seven months have caused an uproar in China.

EdWeek.org: The ACLU said the Camdenton R-III School District has agreed to stop blocking the sites, submit to monitoring for 18 months to confirm compliance and pay $125,000 in legal fees and costs.

Christian Today: A petition calling upon the Government to force internet service providers to make accessing pornography an adult only opt-in service has gathered more than 95,000 signatures. The petition’s organisers, SaferMedia and Premier Media Group, are aiming to reach 100,000 signatures before the petition is closed in a few weeks.

CNN: Eighteen victims of child pornography were rescued during a nationwide sweep by federal law enforcement agencies, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Friday.

Boston Globe: Everyone knows that Google is changing the way college kids write their term papers. What’s less obvious is that it’s also changing the way that judges write their opinions — even America’s most august judges, those on the Supreme Court. In an absolutely fascinating article in the Virginia Law Review, “Confronting Supreme Court Fact Finding,” Allison Orr Larsen, a law professor at William & Mary, shows just how prevalent online research is at the Supreme Court.

AP: China plans to stiffen restrictions on Internet service providers as it seeks even greater control over the opinions voiced on the country’s lively microblogs and other web forums.

WIRED: A federal judge pre-emptively blocked a landmark state law that would have required online companies to verify the ages of people in ads offering “adult services,” which range from thinly-veiled ads for prostitution, as well as legal, but kinky services. | Backpage v. McKenna, No. C12-954-RSM (W.D. Wash.)

AP: Google said Wednesday that it has added a feature to warn users whose accounts it believes are targets of “state-sponsored attacks,” but the Internet giant did not cite a specific government.

Rasmussen: Russia, China and several Arab countries are pushing for international control of the Internet through the United Nations, but U.S. voters overwhelmingly oppose the idea.

Religion Clause Blog: As reported by Eurasia Review, the Becket Fund last week launched the HHS Mandate Information Central, an online resource for reporters and the public on the 23 separate lawsuit . . .

Washington Times: US officials, lawmakers and technology leaders offered a resounding “no” Thursday to proposals to bring the Internet under United Nations’ control and said they would lead efforts to stop the move. …

AP: Google has fired a new salvo in a censorship battle with Beijing by adding a feature that warns users in China who enter search keywords that might produce blocked results and suggests they try other terms.

The Telegraph: A generation of youngsters may be developing a skewed view of sex from pornography, a court has heard, after a 12-year-old schoolboy raped and sexually assaulted a younger girl after copying a hardcore film he watched on the internet.

The Hill: A bipartisan group of lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee introduced a resolution on Wednesday urging the Obama administration to oppose efforts to give the United Nations more control over the Internet.

LifeSiteNews: However, a representative of Google said at Google’s Big Tent event recently that the search giant doesn’t support Cameron’s idea, saying that the onus should fall on parents to monitor what their children are viewing.

The Hill: The House Energy and Commerce’s subcommittee on Communications and Technology scheduled a hearing for next Thursday to examine international proposals to regulate the Internet.

Clarion Ledger: A state legislator is asking authorities to investigate death threats allegedly made against him and his family related to his online comments concerning same-sex marriage. “We got several death threats on Saturday left on the answering machine,” said Rep. Andy Gipson, R-Braxton.

Legal Insurrection: This is an update to my post yesterday regarding the protest organized against Eric Holder’s visit to Harvard Law School tomorrow, specifically his stonewalling the Fast and Furious investigations. The protest was organized by a website using the name Harvard Law Unbound which has been operating since early April.

LifeNews: The social media web site took the pictures down (and has since apologized), but Walker was distressed to know that, even though Facebook allows pictures with semi-nudity or profanity, that a picture of her own baby was deemed to graphic to be allowed to stay up on her profile page.

Christian Institute: One of the country’s largest internet service providers is to ask all of its four million customers if they wish to block access to pornographic websites.

Greg Baylor at the Speak Up Movement University Blog: Apple told Manhattan Declaration sponsors that the app’s content was considered “likely to expose a group to harm” and “to be objectionable and potentially harmful to others.” Did Apple violate the principles underlying the First Amendment when it took this extraordinary and unprecedented step? Should the government step in and require private companies to respect free speech values?

Deseret News: The Utah law sought to make website operators or content providers liable for any material that the state deems harmful to minors.

Baptist Press: Reeling from slowed business and smaller coffers in the wake of a 2006 law to clamp down on the illegal practice of online gambling, the gambling lobby is roaring back in an effort to convince the government to license and regulate betting on the niche game of Internet poker; all online games involving wagering are currently illegal.

Christian Science Monitor: California and New Jersey, each seek more revenue, are leading the states toward Internet gambling, starting with online poker. But this all-too-easy form of gaming would come with at a high cost to society – and government . . . Californians should especially worry about the undue influence of money on lawmakers. Six online-gaming operators have spent $7.7 million on political contributions, gifts to officials, and lobbying in Sacramento over the past two years, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Christian Concern: A Christian blog writer, who goes by the pseudonym “Archbishop Cranmer”, is under investigation by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for posting an advert on behalf of the Coalition for Marriage.

Baltimore Sun: A Carroll County commissioner has emailed an invitation to about 850 government employees to attend a monthly prayer session, which she will lead, raising concern among some residents and watchdog groups.

Morality in Media: In response to the ruling of the New York Court of Appeals yesterday decriminalizing the purposeful viewing of child pornography on the Internet, Patrick Trueman, President of Morality in Media issued the following statement . . .

AP: Blind activist Chen Guangcheng has drawn a global media spotlight after setting off tensions between the U.S. and China, but he’s almost unknown at home – and the Chinese government is working to keep it that way

Reuters: Viewing child pornography on the Internet without taking further action such as printing or saving files does not necessarily constitute possession, NewYork’s top court ruled on Tuesday. | People v. Kent

WorldNet Daily reports.

Christian Institute: A poll has found 66 per cent of the public want a default block on online pornography, as Labour MPs join calls to clampdown on children being able to see explicit content.

Brookings Institution: The idea underpinning CISPA—that the government should sit at the center of the cybersecurity universe, collecting all of the information about cyberthreats, analyzing it, and dispensing solutions—will no longer work. There are too many data. The government can be an essential supporting actor in the effort to secure American networks and to prevent intellectual property theft. But it can’t, and shouldn’t try to be, the orchestra conductor.

Courier-Journal: The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services fired a gay employee for sending inappropriate emails, but allowed a heterosexual worker who did the same thing to go unpunished, a federal judge has found. | Stroder v. Commonwealth of Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Service, No. 3:09-CV-00947-H (W.D. Ky Apr. 24, 2012)

LifeNews: Two of Wikipedia’s major donors include the Ford Foundation and the Hewlett Foundation—both population control organizations that have poured cash into the coffers of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and International Planned Parenthood. To add insult to injury, Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood’s president, sits on the board of the Ford Foundation.

Christian Institute: Now is the time for “commonsense solutions” to tackle online pornography, an MP has said, as pressure mounts on internet service providers to act. Claire Perry made the comments in the wake of an inquiry into online child protection. It called for a government consultation on a default block on adult content.

Fox News: The Corps said Sgt. Gary Stein will be given an other-than-honorable discharge for violating Pentagon policy limiting speech of service members.

Daily Mail: Insecure and desperate for male attention, Becky was just 15 when she began meeting strangers for sex via the internet. Sadly, her story is becoming all too common…

Christian Concern: The inquiry, formed of MPs and Peers, found that the high level of children accessing pornography was due to the lack of appropriate filters on home computers.

FoxNews: The National Institutes of Health has spent millions of dollars over the past decade to fund the construction of an HIV-prevention website that, among other sexually explicit features, includes a graphic image of homosexual sex and a Space Invaders-style interactive game that uses a penis-shaped blaster to shoot down gay epithets.

Findlaw: A group of porn-industry folks brought a recent lawsuit before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. The lawsuit raised constitutional issues relating to criminal laws that imposed recordkeeping, labeling and inspection requirements on “producers of sexually explicit depictions.”

Reuters: A U.S. appeals court on Monday revived a lawsuit brought by members of the adult entertainment industry which challenges federal laws requiring pornography producers to report the ages of all performers.
| Free Speech Coalition v Attorney General, No. 10-4085 (3rd Cir. April 16, 2012) (Before SCIRICA, RENDELL, and SMITH, Circuit Judges. )

One News Now: A federal judge has denied a request to block discharge proceedings of a Camp Pendleton Marine who faces being kicked out of the military and loss of benefits for criticizing President Barack Obama on Facebook.

The Republic: A federal judge is giving Utah and free-speech advocates 30 days to work out a settlement over a state law that aims to protect children from harmful online material.

Salt Lake Tribune: A controversial Utah law restricting material deemed “harmful to minors” on the Internet should be barred because it unconstitutionally restricts free speech and interferes with commerce, the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah plans to argue in U.S. District Court today.

Findlaw: Online retailers have been fighting what’s been dubbed as “the Amazon Tax.” Now, a federal court has ruled that a Colorado variation of the Amazon Tax is unconstitutional.

ArsTechnica: The Motion Picture Association of America is squaring off against a coalition of Internet giants and public interest groups over the key question of whether it’s possible to directly infringe copyright by embedding an image or video hosted by a third party. A federal judge took that position last July, prompting a chorus of criticism.

Seattle Times: Judge Edward Shea of the Eastern Washington Federal District Court ruled that the North Central Regional Library (NCRL) is not violating the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by filtering some adult Internet content on library computers. | Related ACLU Information Page

AP: Military prosecutors say a Marine facing dismissal for his Facebook postings shared images with President Barack Obama’s face superimposed on a jackass and sold “Nobama” bumper stickers online.