The blog
Writing & notes
Essays, notes and reflections on technology, law and life.
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Business broadband more important than water or gas: UK report
According to a report by English ISP XLN Telecom, access to broadband internet services is more important to small and medium-sized businesses than gas, water and other essential services. The survey, which contacted 657 small UK business owners, found that 77 per cent of respondents listed telephones as ‘essential to the running of their company’,… Read more →
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A summary of the ACS:Law data leak
On 24 September 2010, an archive of emails from London-based law firm ACS:Law was leaked onto the internet. The archive was unencrypted, and had been obtained as part of an ongoing campaign by internet activists to expose the firm’s copyright enforcement practices. The emails contained a great deal of personal information — which I won’t… Read more →
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Fraudulent transfers of title and Nigerian scammers
It looks like the Nigerian 419 scammers are getting more sophisticated. A South African investor found his Australian property sold to third party purchasers without his knowledge after having his email account hacked: Fraudsters swiped Mildenhall’s email login credentials and obtained personal property documents before selling a house and sending funds to Chinese bank accounts.… Read more →
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UK ISPs to pay 25% of copyright enforcement costs
An agreement reached between UK ISPs and rights-holders will see ISPs footing 25 per cent of the bill for implementing the new graduated response regime required under the Digital Economy Act 2010 (UK), the UK Government announced today. Rights-holders, represented by music and film industry associations, will pay the remaining costs. The ISPs are (understandably)… Read more →
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Internet defamation and the ‘age of humiliation’
As many have argued, the internet etches an indelible tattoo upon the reputations of those whom people tag, ridicule and ‘out’ — be they cat women, dog poopers or just obnoxious celebrities. But this is probably nothing new: All of us now live under the threat of easy and instant humiliation. It’s no longer just… Read more →
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Architecture as policy: EFF panel discussion
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has posted video from a great panel discussion on how platform architecture affects the rights and choices available to users. Cindy Cohn chairs the panel, which begins with a basic overview of Lessig’s ideas about code and policies, and moves through various stories which illustrate how decisions made during system design… Read more →
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Sushi Cat
Help the sushi-cat get fatter in this adorably cute sushi-themed timewaster. Flash file: _flashnode (Flash is no longer supported by browsers; kept for the record) Source: http://armorgames.com/play/5379/sushi-cat Read more →
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Defamation law reform in the United Kingdom: Public interest edition
Jack Straw yesterday announced three proposals to reform English defamation law, which has long been considered one of the most plaintiff-friendly in the world. The proposals are designed to curb perceived ‘libel tourism’ by wealthy foreign claimants who have used English courts to stifle criticism in publications whose distribution within the United Kingdom is incidental.… Read more →
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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 →