Failure to act as crime?

Wonder why indeed it is considered as a crime. Criminal law rarely accepts omissions or failure to act as constituing the offence. Plus which offence?


Label Exec Arrested For Not Using Twitter To Disperse Crowd At Mall To See Singer (TechDirt, 23 november 2009)

Facebook again: bad and good uses

Yes, Bad People Use Facebook Too (TechDirt, 17 november 2009)

Identity, prosecution and Facebook

A strange story, the type that always makes me think of the novel The Count of Monte-Christo.
Emprisonment for a theft he has not committed, a man managed to be freed and charges dropped after his lawyer tracked down a message he sent at the precise time when the robbery happened.
Obviously, the alibi has been corroborated by witnesses; hopefully also, when one thinks of the ease it is on facebook to fake identities.

Sauvé de la prison grâce à Facebook (o1net., 13 november 2009)
Facebook As Your Alibi (TechDirt, 12 November 2009)

L'usurpation d'identité, côté juridique (Les Echos, 7 October 2009)

Hadopi 2; the piracy matter in France

As already pointed out, France enacted its legislation after the first censorship by the Constitutional council. Except that the law went back to the Council a second time (22 October 2009)... and Parliament was censored for not having explained in details what the procedure will be (incompetence negative). Hence, a third version of the statute: a future Hadopi 3.

Frankly, given the short comings of the Hadopis, one really wonders whether Parliament should not have just paused and thought a bit, rather than rushing about.



See (all in French) Marinese http://www.juriscom.net/actu/visu.php?ID=1157 (3 november 2009)
Rojinsky, http://www.juriscom.net/actu/visu.php?ID=1155 (28 October 2009)
Thoumyre being interviewed, 3 November 2009 http://www.pcinpact.com/actu/news/53927-claire-chazal-reponsabilite-diffamation-hadopi.htm
And for a longer analysis by V. Benabou, Glose de la loi favorisant la création et la protection de la creation (dite HADOPI) (Juriscom.net. 7 november 2009)

And the link towards the two Acts: http://www.service-public.fr/actualites/001268.html?xtor=EPR-140 that are on Legifrance

Obviously, the UK contemplates introducing similar legislation and does not seem to be put off neither by the peripetieas of French law, nor by the criticism the system attracted/attracts.
UK Gov't Official: Innocent People Won't Get Kicked Off The Internet; Trust Us (TechDirt, 12 November 2009)

On the international dimension of piracy, there is the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Rees, 9 November 2009, http://www.pcinpact.com/actu/news/54030-acta-hadopi-riposte-surveillance-internet.htm)

Due process and Twitter

Due process....

Twitter Banning Satirical 'Fake' Versions Of Politicians? (TechDirt, 28 October 2009)

MySpace and the extent of school discipline

if the facts are accurate, I found it particularly scary. School discipline like for any discipline can only be applied for what happen within the institution. This is a clear breach of the disciplinary powers and an abuse of process.
Teens Sue School After Being Disciplined For MySpace Photos (TechDirt, 2 November 2009)

Forensics tools

Until it withdrew it, Microsoft allowed its COFFEE auditing tools to be shared, allowing whoever uses it to access Windows. It also provided it to law enforcement agencies.
According to comments, the tools are not very good and 'bad guys' use better tools. For the UK, that relates to section 3A of the revised CMA 1990.
Microsoft's COFEE Computer Forensic Tools Leaked (techDirt, 9 November 2009)

China and censorship

Quite a funny one and not about political censorship, but about a Governmental Chinese report on copyrights whose access has been blocked... by the software GOogle used to avoid malwares.
That's Rich: China Accuses Google Of Censorship (TechDirt, 28 October 2009)

Virtual worlds and money makers

well, anybody ready this blog would have guessed that the title of the post attracted me. It's about scams in virtual worlds to get people to sign/buy things they don't really need. It's a technique which builds up on what virtual worlds are made for, earning money, although the technique is in itself quite inadmissible and should be distinguished to the features offered to participants such as additional memberships etc...
But what really is interesting are the comments made after that post. I particularly liked one made by JGM on NOvember 9th, who explained, if I understood him/her well, that virtual goods are a valid business model because it is programmers selling the fruit of their labor in a very competitive market. As such, the sale of virtual goods was completely different from scam/spams which rely on illegal actions to force somebody into spending money (=fraud).

Virtual Goods, Scams, Investigative Reporting And The Media (TechDirt, 9 November 2009)

Another kind of fish?

Well, of course, lawyers are people and can be as silly as others. Although I wonder to which extend they can fall into the trap given that their training should also make them smart(er) .... or shouldn't?

Advance Fee Scams Are Based On Greed, So Their New Favorite Target? Lawyers! (Tech Dirt, 22 October 2009)

Twitter issues

A judge banned the use of Twitter in the courtroom; it is a form of broadcast in the sense that put all together the threads form a good picture of what happened; on the other hand, one does not need to be journalist to tweet.
Judge Says No Twittering From The Courtroom (TechDirt, 10 November 2009)


THis is rather silly and a complete misunderstanding of what Twitter as a company does. Levi Johnston's Lawyers Threaten Twitter, Despite No Legal Basis (TechDirt, 9 November 2009)

And the issue of spam also seems a bit hyped up. It Doesn't Matter How Many Twitter URLs Are Malware... Only If People Are Clicking (TechDirt, 30 October 2009)

Three strikes law in the UK?

France having enacted its legislation after the Constitutional Council's disapproval of the original draft, the UK is thinking of adopting the same law despite the EU's opposition.

Will Three Strikes Ever Really Get Implemented In The UK? (TechDirt, 30 October 2009)

As Expected, Mandelson To Introduce Plan To Kick File Sharers Off The Internet (TechDirt, 28 October 2009)

UK Law Enforcement Tells UK Gov't: Please Don't Kick File Sharers Offline (TechDirt, 27 October 2009)

France Agrees To Kick File Sharers Off The Internet Again; Lobbyists Call It 'Consumer Relief' (TechDirt, 22 October 2009)