rdavison - Slashdot User

Rogers ISP Filtering -- The internet as cable 0

Submitted by rdavison on Monday December 10 2007, @04:39PM

rdavison writes "With the recent flurry of items on ISP filtering, it is interesting to read Michael Geist's piece on How the Internet On Cable Became the Internet as Cable. He points out:
'The re-emergence of geographic borders on the Internet coincides with broadcasters finally jumping on the Internet bandwagon, as they race to make their content freely available online. ... the unmistakable trend is toward free, ad-supported streaming of content mere hours after it first appears on commercial television ... Comedy Central created a new site for the popular Daily Show that features a complete archive of eight years of programming.
Canadians, alas, are generally locked out of these sites due to licensing restrictions. Canadian broadcasters have been scrambling to buy the Internet rights to U.S. programming, both to protect their local broadcasts and to beef up their online presence. U.S. broadcasters may eventually decide it is more profitable to stream their content on a worldwide basis and to remove longstanding geographic restrictions, however, for the moment they are parceling up the Internet as they would a broadcast destined for multiple cable markets.
This geographic bordering extends beyond just blocking streamed content. The new Daily Show site is off-limits for Canadians since the U.S.-based Comedy Central recently took the unprecedented step of redirecting Canadian visitors to the CTV-owned Comedy Network site. '"

Cellphone Tracking Secret Warrants 0

Submitted by rdavison on Friday November 23 2007, @11:31AM

rdavison writes "According to the Washington Post article Cellphone Tracking Powers on Request: Secret Warrants Granted Without Probable Cause 'Federal officials are routinely asking courts to order cellphone companies to furnish real-time tracking data so they can pinpoint the whereabouts of drug traffickers, fugitives and other criminal suspects, according to judges and industry lawyers. In some cases, judges have granted the requests without requiring the government to demonstrate that there is probable cause to believe that a crime is taking place or that the inquiry will yield evidence of a crime. Privacy advocates fear such a practice may expose average Americans to a new level of government scrutiny of their daily lives. Such requests run counter to the Justice Department's internal recommendation that federal prosecutors seek warrants based on probable cause to obtain precise location data in private areas. The requests and orders are sealed at the government's request, so it is difficult to know how often the orders are issued or denied.'"

France: Illegal downloaders to be blocked by govt? 0

Submitted by rdavison on Friday November 23 2007, @08:01AM

rdavison writes "According to a recent aticle in ft.com "Internet users in France who download music and films without paying for them could find their web access shut down by a government body, under a ground-breaking industry agreement backed by Nicolas Sarkozy, the president." The proposal originated with FNAC, you guessed it, an entertainment retailer. According to the article, the proposal has a good chance of being accepted."

Terror watch list swells to more than 755,000-> 0

Submitted by rdavison on Wednesday October 24 2007, @06:45PM

rdavison writes "According to a USA Today story, the terror watch list has swollen to 755,000 with 200,000 people per year being added since 2004. Adding about 548 people daily every day of the year does not seem to lend itself to a manual process with careful deliberation given or double checking being done for each person added. It seems to suggests that data is being mined from somewhere to automatically add names to the list.

So would this data be coming from? Given the recent disclosures such as this Washington Post articleVerizon Says It Turned Over Data Without Court Orders, especially since (according to the article) "The company said it does not determine the requests' legality or necessity because to do so would slow efforts to save lives in criminal investigations" we have to wonder how many other organizations are freely passing over your private information to the government with the same lack of concern for the ultimate use of that data, or that are easily persuaded by "Trust us, we're the government and we need all this private data to save lives."
Link to Original Source

Someone is Redirecting Comedy Central in Canada 0

Submitted by

rdavison

on Friday October 19 2007, @09:41PM

rdavison writes "I'm not sure who is responsible for this, Rogers (my ISP) or Comedy Central or the Comedy Network in Canada or some other third party. When I surfed to Comedy Central tonight (Friday Oct 19), instead of comedy central I got page informing me that "Some jerk blocked comedycentral.com" followed by a promo for the Canadian Comedy Network and a 30 second redirect to their site.

So, I activated tor to mask my Canadian IP address and voila, I managed to get to Comedy Central. I took screenshots of both, but I have no place to post them right now (if anyone wants to offer..they are available).

In the west, we have been wagging our collective fingers at China and others for redirecting (such as in this article from yesterday http://www.searchenginejournal.com/china-netcom-redirecting-google-yahoo-msn-traffic-to-baidu/5844) so I'm not sure how this is any different if this is being done by a third party and not Comedy Central themselves. If it is Comedy Central's doing (and I see them as the only ones that have the right to do this since it is their site), then they did not do it very well at all, with what could only be described as a lame joke instead of advising us clearly of what they were doing and why."