The blog
Writing & notes
Essays, notes and reflections on technology, law and life.
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Bulletproof hosting, cybercrime and botnets
The Register has an interesting piece analysing how cybercrime botnets are connected and why they seem impervious to outside attack. It seems that the botnets are programmed to reconfigure themselves if one upstream provider goes down, and are each strongly interconnected, which creates a whole lot of redundancy: “What they’ve worked really hard to do… Read more →
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Map meme
Hot on the heels of the ever-popular song graph meme, we have cartographorisms: Get your fix of topographical humour over at the New York Times. Read more →
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The Helpdesk
I could use one of these monkeys to write my thesis: More great comics here from the talented penmanship of Mrs Stuart. Read more →
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Eady J on internet defamation: time for international consensus
In a speech delivered at the Centre for Law, Justice and Journalism in London last week, Sir David Eady called for an end to nationalised approaches to litigation arising from internet communications: What is plainly required is an international agreement to govern communications on the web and, in particular, to determine whether they are to… Read more →
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Iran launches cyberattack on human rights websites
According to Iranian news reports, Iranian intelligence forces have hacked into 29 human rights activism websites which they allege are a front for US espionage and intelligence agencies. The attack follows the finding of an Iranian domestic court that the websites were developed to spy on Iran’s nuclear programme, and for the purpose of ‘provoking… Read more →
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Kookaburra sits in the old gum treeee, merrily infringing
With all the fuss over the iiNet decision today, it might be easy to overlook another interesting copyright judgment that was handed down just a few metres away. In Larrikin Music Publishing Pty Ltd v EMI Songs Australia Pty Ltd [2010] FCA 29, the owner of copyright in the children’s song ‘Kookaburra Sits in the… Read more →
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What do you think of the iiNet decision?
Today Justice Cowdroy handed down judgment in the long-running iiNet litigation, completely dismissing the copyright owners’ complaint against the Perth-based ISP and ordering them to pay costs. His Honour held that iiNet did not authorise the P2P infringements simply by providing internet access, even though it may have known about them. See the summary post… Read more →
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iiNet wins: Roadshow Films Pty Ltd v iiNet Ltd [2010] FCA 24
Justice Cowdroy of the Federal Court of Australia has just handed down judgment in Roadshow Films Pty Ltd v iiNet Ltd [2010] FCA 24 (iiNet Case), finding in favour of the respondent. As you’re probably aware, the iiNet Case centres on allegations of copyright infringement in connection with unauthorised downloads of films by iiNet’s subscribers… Read more →
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Secret talks for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement continue
Some interesting comments from Michael Geist concerning the now-infamous Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which is being negotiated in secret by representatives of most developed countries. This piece considers the extent to which states party to ACTA would be required to amend their domestic laws: most [representatives] have sought to dampen fears by implausibly claiming that… Read more →
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Australian government to filter refused classification internet content
Despite widespread public opposition, reasoned technical and policy arguments, and international condemnation by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and others, the Australian government looks set to proceed with its misguided plan to censor prohibited internet content. In December, the government released details of how the censorship (euphemism of choice: ‘filtering’) scheme will work. It’s not pretty,… Read more →