Cryptography
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Betting websites are blocked in Italy
Following a fierce battle between an authority of the Italian State and private european online betting companies over their activity in Italy, a big number of betting websites are officialy blocked for Italian Internet users. Everything began with the 2006 financial law (Law 266/2005) voted by the Parliament under the outgoing Berlusconi government. The law […]
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Former German ruling on liability of forum operators reviewed
A previous ruling of the Hamburg court that made moderators of internet forums liable for content posted on their sites is now contradicted by the Intermediate Court of Appeals in Dusseldorf which has ruled that forum operators are obligated to delete illegal comments made by their users only in case they know about them. The […]
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Frankfurt Appellate Court says online demonstration is not coercion
The collective blockade of a corporate website in the context of a political event is not violence or coercion but legitimate free expression, a German Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt decided on 22 May. The decision came almost five years after the online demonstration took place. The groups “Libertad” and “Kein Mensch ist illegal” (No […]
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Journalistic protection for online journalists and bloggers
The Californian appeal court decided on 26 May that online journalists and bloggers have the same right to protect their sources as all other journalists. The case was brought to court by Apple Computer demanding from a number of news website operators to reveal the source of confidential information posted about some of its products. […]
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Hamburg court rules against forum providers
The first-instance court of Hamburg gave its final ruling on the liability of forum comments, stating that moderators of internet forums are liable for content posted on their sites. Initially, the legislation held forum providers liable for illegal content they had knowledge about and there was no obligation for them to search for such content. […]
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Damages on online defamatory statements in UK
Michael Keith Smith, a former parliamentary candidate for the UK Independence Party has received £10,000 in damages in a defamation case occurred on the internet Smith was a participant in a discussion on the Iraq war held on a discussion board run by Yahoo!. Tracy Williams, another participant in the discussion, posted under pseudonym series […]
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Swedish Foreign Minister resigned following pressure on website
Laila Freivalds, the Swedish Foreign Minister resigned on 21 March after having been cornered by the press on her involvement in the closure on 9 February of a far-right party’s website. The Web site, which was planning to publish caricatures of Muhammad like those that led to deadly protests by Muslims all over the world, […]
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Deep linking is legal in Denmark
In a long awaited ruling, the Maritime and Commercial Court in Copenhagen has decided that so-called deep linking is legal in Denmark. The decision is expected to have a major impact on many Danish online-services and search engines. Controversially, the Maritime and Commercial Court has decided to go against a prior verdict by a lower […]
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French anti-hate groups win case against Yahoo
In a tight decision (6-5) ruled on 12 January 2006, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed Yahoo’s case of sale of Nazi-related books and memorabilia on its French auction site. The majority stated that “First Amendment harm may not exist at all” and that it’s “extremely unlikely” that any penalty could be assessed […]
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NL Supreme court ends 10 year old Scientology case
Freedom of speech won in a battle that lasted for a decade between Karin Spaink, a Dutch writer and XS4ALL, her Internet service provider, on one side, and the Church of Scientology, on the other side, which was claiming copyright infringement. It all began in 1995 when the Church of Scientology attempted to seize the […]
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Follow-up: jurisprudence hyperlinks
In response to the article about the Norwegian Supreme Court decision on hyperlinks in the previous EDRI-gram, subscriber Matthias Spielkamp from Germany pointed to an article he wrote about recent jurisprudence in Germany. Contrasting the Norwegian decision that a hyperlink can not be considered unlawful in a copyright context, irrespective of the legal or illegal […]
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Angry pro software patent company takes down FFII website
The long running legal fight between the German software company Nutzwerk (Leipzig) and the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII, best known for its extensive lobby against software patents) has culminated in the takedown of the FFII.org website on 1 August 2005. Technically, the website itself wasn’t removed, but in a far more radical […]
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