Is Journalist Barrett Brown a Political Prisoner?

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In Defense of Being Offensive

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Rowan Atkinson on Free Speech in the UK

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Freedom of expression online

A seminar in the European Parliament May 5:th 2011 hosted by Greens/EFA.

Part 1: Jörg Polakiewicz (Council of Europe), Erich Möchel (Austrian investigative journalist), Rafik Dammak (internet activist and blogger via Skype from Tunisia) & Caroline de Cock (N-square consulting).

Freedom of expression online, Part 1 by Henrik Alexandersson

Part 2: Petter Ericson (Telecomix), Gerard de Graaf (EC DG Information Society and Media), Susan Morgan (Global Network Initiative) & Smari McCarthy (Icelandic Modern Media Institute).

Freedom of expression online, Part 2 by Henrik Alexandersson

All is intresting. End of part one extra god. Part 2 = Hot, with interventions by Joe McNamee (EDRi).

Enjoy!

[Direct link] Downloadable. CC=0.

WikiLeaks, The Internet And Democracy

Paul Jay, Daniel Ellsberg, Clay Shirky, Neville Roy Singham, Peter Thiel and Jonathan Zittrain on a panel at the Churchill Club – on WikiLeaks, The Internet And Democracy.

A Must See!

(Self)censorship and freedom of speech

Here you will find some extracts from the seminar on (self)censorship and freedom of speech, that the liberal group in the European Parliament held last week. Among others – the artist Lars Vilks and the spokesperson for Wikileaks Julian Assange.

Traffic roundabout dog... There is some sort of Swedish context, I promise. ;-)

Youtube license also in France?

According to our sources among local journalists, France is now planning to follow Italy - demanding that everyone who would like to upload video on the Internet should have a license to do so.

This is still to be confirmed. But... who would be suprised?

Italy to license uploading to Youtube

In Italy the government has proposed a new law, stating that everyone uploading video on the internet will have to get a permission to do so.

The Italian government really do not understand the internet and the information society. And they have no feeling for the value of freedom of speech.

(Link, in Swedish.)

Update: More, in English, at BoingBoing. (Via Berinder.)

It´s not just about filesharing...

A note on the European Councils draft compromise proposal from last weeks trialogue about the EU Telecoms Package. It discusses cutting of users from the Internet (and other measures) in these terms...

"...authorising the measures to be taken and to adopt urgent measures in order to assure national security, defence, public security and the prevention, investigation, detection and prosecution of criminal offences."

Interesting. So, this fight is not just about filesharing anymore.

Disconnection from the network (and other "measures") can be applyed to a long series of cases. Remember that legality is different, in different EU countries. And that there are a few strange laws. The EU Framework Decision on Racism e.g. says that one may not deny genocide. (It does not, however, apply to all genocides. Just some.) In France it is especially illegal to challenge official historical records on the Turkish genocide of Armenians. In many countries, gambling sites are prohibited. In some places information about medicine is prohibited. In Lithuania, one can not write positive things about gays. The laws about pornography varies between countries. The rules governing the advertising of alcohol and tobacco are also different. And many things that are on public record in countries like Sweden is illegal to publish in other places.

Feel free to fill in with more examples in the comment field. I just listed a few from the top of my head.

Internet might become seriously regulated. People might be disconnected from the Internet for many different reasons. And what other "measures" the Member States and EU have in plan, one can only imagine.

Add to that the European arrest warrant, which allows for pepole to be extradited to other countries for acts that are not criminal in their home country. So what happens if a Swede start a French blog, questioning the Turkish genocide of Armenians? If a Spaniard starts a gay porn site that turns to a Lithuanian audience?

(A few years ago Swedish online gambling company Unibet's CEO Petter Nylander was arrested in Holland, when he was on his way to England - and called for extradition to France. Among other things he was accused of having sponsored a French bike race, which is in violation of French gambling laws.)

And if the "mesures" mentioned are to be deployed, it also mean that the possibility to be anonymous on the net will have to be removed.

So, it is not just filesharers who should defend amendment 138 to the EU Telecoms Package - stating that governments can not decide to cut people of from the Internet (or other similar measures) without a prior ruling by judicial authority.

Not unexpected, in the European Councils draft compromise proposal, quoted above, the word "prior" is deleted...

[In Swedish]

The Democratic Deficit revisited

A few weeks ago the European Parliament voted on the Telecoms Package.

At the last minute the EP managed to stop parts (created by the copyright lobby) of the package aimed to filter the internet and to close down internet access (without judicial process) for people engaged in e.g. file sharing. So far, so good.

Now, it turns out, the European Commission seems to have removed all references to this EP-decision in its working papers – preparing the Telecoms Package for a second reading in the EP or an OK in the Council. This we where not supposed to know. But the document leaked out...

It is not to bold to guess that this is the work of the French EU presidency and its friends in the copyright lobby. They simply will not take no for an answer. Not even a clear no from the EP.

(Personally, I am pro copyright. But I will not accept mass survilance, limitations in citizens rights or give up the freedom of the internet. And I think it is a really bad idea to use laws to save an outdated business model.)

Read more and find the relevant links at icmpecho.com.»

Lex Orwell: Wiretapping Sweden

The web documentary Wiretapping Sweden, about the new Swedish survilande law, is now on the net. See it above or at www.wiretappingsweden.com.

Lex Orwell, part 2

Per Bylund is writing about the new Swedish surveillance law on Lew Rockwell.com.

Lex Orwell

Sorry about the relative silence on this site.

You get kind of paranoid in these days when the government is trying to legally break into your mailbox. The debate on "national security" and integrity has been enourmos the entire summer, in the UK, in Germany and especially in Sweden.

As for myself, well I'm now being investigated for espionage for taking on the government on the new Swedish snoop law – "Lex Orwell".

My doings have resulted in some international media. Please read the full story by Einar Du Rietz at Center for the New Europe and in The Local...

CNE 1 | 2 | 3
The Local 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

Did the Chinese Really Know what they where doing?

Today, protesters took to the streets as the Olympic torch was carried trough the streets of London.

Now there will be months and months of new protests against Chinas policy on Tibet, Burma and Darfur. We will se lots of manifestations against the lack of Freedom of Speech and Democracy in China. And there will be plenty of time to protest against the lack of Human Rights there.

And then the Olympic Games will commence – with lots of opportunities for high profile protests at ceremonial events in front of the worlds media...

I've got a feeling that the Chinese regime did not know what it was doing, when bringing the Olympic Games to their country. And I cannot remember seeing this much international protests against the Chinese leadership ever before.

So, in a way, maybe we should be grateful for the Chinese hosting the Olympic Games...

AP on todays protests in London.