Gamer Says Sony Violated His 1st Amendment Rights By Banning Him

from the that's-not-how-it-works dept

It's amazing how badly some people misunderstand the First Amendment. It only limits the government from passing laws that limit your free expression (with certain exceptions). It has nothing to do with what a private company or individual can do. In other words, it's not a right to say whatever you want with no consequence. So, I doubt that the following lawsuit will get very far. Apparently a video gamer is suing Sony saying it violated his First Amendment rights by banning him from the PlayStation 3 game "Resistance" for something he apparently said while talking to other players (found via Digg). But, of course, as a private company and not the government, Sony has every right to ban whoever they want, for a wide variety of reasons. So, kids, remember, the First Amendment isn't a right to say whatever you want without getting kicked off of a video game system for being annoying.

47 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Norwegian ISP Fights Back Against Pirate Bay Ban

from the democratic-principles dept

The IFPI (the international version of the RIAA) has been working around the clock lately to try to get various ISPs to block access to The Pirate Bay and other file sharing sites. Some have caved in, while others have lost lawsuits. In Norway, however, leading ISP Telenor is fighting back, saying that taking orders from the entertainment industry to block sites it doesn't like goes against democratic principles:

"Instead of demanding that Internet providers censor the Internet and monitor the content that's transferred, Telenor believes that the best way to decrease illegal file sharing is to put more effort into making legally downloadable content available."

But, as we've seen over the years, there are still many in positions of power within the recording industry who believe that the best new business model is to try to stomp out anyone who challenges their old business model. Eventually, they'll realize what a failed plan that is.

21 Comments | Leave a Comment..

German Police Union Leader Adds To Chorus Calling For Video Game Ban

from the fingering-the-blame dept

After the tragic school shooting in Germany a couple of weeks ago, politicians almost immediately (and predictably) called for a ban on the sale of violent video games. Now, a leader of the German police union has also called for a ban, claiming that in "every" violent episode like the school shootings, the shooter has had an "addiction" to violent video games. Proof of the link between violent games and people acting out violence in real life remains tenuous, but the union boss says "when a chance to remove a probable cause exists, it must be used." Okay, sounds good. Violent people probably eat sandwiches, so let's ban them, too. I bet they have all ridden in cars, too, so riding in cars must cause violent behavior -- ban 'em. This correlation/causation thing is easy, isn't it?

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

13 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Bangladesh The Latest To Call Extra Attention To Controversial Video By Banning YouTube

from the axis-of-notube dept

It never fails. Over the past few years, a variety of government officials in different countries have freaked out about a single video on YouTube and gone on to ban the entire site. There was Brazil, which did it first, followed by Turkey which has gone back and forth on the YouTube ban multiple times. Not surprisingly, China has banned the site as well. Then there were Thailand and Pakistan, as well. In the case of Pakistan, the method for blocking YouTube served to break the site across the world by effectively tricking routers across the globe into believing YouTube wasn't where it really is.

Of course, each one of these bans has done the exact opposite of its intended purpose. Every time, it's only served to draw more interest to the video in question. So, you would think, by this point, government officials might think twice before banning an entire site over a single video. No such luck. Jay writes in to let us know that Bangladesh is the latest to ban all of YouTube over a single video of a meeting between the Prime Minister and military officials who were unhappy about some of the Prime Minister's decisions. And, of course, now that it's making news, that video is getting a lot more attention.

4 Comments | Leave a Comment..

NY Politician Demands Ban Of Video Game... Not Available In The US

from the moral-panic dept

There was a flutter of controversy last week, when someone realized that a rather despicable video game, where the goal of gameplay is apparently to rape someone, was available for sale via Amazon's marketplace (where 3rd party sellers offer items, rather than Amazon itself). Amazon was quick to block the sale of the game, but that hasn't stopped a politician in NY from using the story as an opportunity to grandstand. New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is demanding US publishers boycott distributing the game, which seems pretty silly since no US publishers are distributing the game (it's only been released in Japan), and there's no indication anyone wants to distribute the game in the US. But why should that stop a good opportunity to create some moral panic?

29 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Online Watchdog Admits It Goofed On Wikipedia Ban; Reverses Decision

from the a-bit-late-for-that dept

After being subject to widespread ridicule for forcing Wikipedia in the UK to block a page for an album cover graphic from 32 years ago, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) has withdrawn its block on the page and said it's fine. Apparently "given the age and availability of the image," the group no longer thinks it's appropriate to be on the list. Of course, the age and availability of the image was true before. Though, if anything, this attempt at blocking the image only made the image more available.

7 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Court Says Italy Can't Block The Pirate Bay

from the ah,-pesky-laws dept

Lots of people were surprised back in August when a prosecutor in Italy told Italian ISPs they needed to start blocking The Pirate Bay. That was problematic for a variety of reasons -- from why ISPs should be responsible for filtering content to why The Pirate Bay had no chance to tell its side of the story to (the most questionable of all) the fact that ISPs were told to redirect people to a site run by the record labels. But, of course, as with any of these blocks, the attention only served to drive more traffic to The Pirate Bay in Italy.

Still, even ordering the blocks in the first place seemed highly questionable, so The Pirate Bay asked an Italian court to reverse the order -- and that's exactly what's happened. The court has ordered that the bans be lifted. So, it appears that all the Italian prosecutor did was drive a lot more traffic to The Pirate Bay by getting it a lot more attention, without being able to actually ban the site.

5 Comments | Leave a Comment..

As US Looks To Re-legalize Online Poker, Germany Bans It

from the moving-in-opposite-directions dept

Just as the US seems to be moving forward with efforts to relegalize online poker, it appears that Germany is moving in the opposite direction, passing a law to ban online poker -- even to the point of allowing German authorities to put online poker players in jail (though, no one seems to think that's likely to happen).

4 Comments | Leave a Comment..

German Court Bans VoIP On The iPhone; Says It's Unfair

from the felony-interference-with-a-business-model dept

We've pointed to a bunch of stories that involved Apple somewhat arbitrarily forbidding or banning iPhone apps, but now it appears that the courts are getting in on the game as well. A German court has banned a VoIP iPhone app after T-Mobile, the mobile operator who offers the iPhone in Germany, complained. The court says that this VoIP app "makes use of unfair business practices," though it's difficult to see how. VoIP is a perfectly acceptable application, so why is it unfair? The court's explanation here seems a bit stretched as well. Apparently, the only way to run this particular VoIP app is on a jailbroken iPhone, and T-Mobile's contract forbids jailbreaking the phone. Of course, if that's true, isn't it an issue between T-Mobile and its customers who broke the contract? Why should the app maker be blamed? All it did was build a useful app? This seems like yet another case where a company is arguing that interference with a business model should be illegal.

26 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Why Did Italian ISPs Redirect Pirate Bay Traffic To IFPI Site?

from the that-doesn't-seem-right dept

We've already talked about how Italy's plan to have ISPs block all access to The Pirate Bay has failed by getting more people to visit the site. However, TorrentFreak points out another oddity in this whole ordeal. For the sites that did redirect The Pirate Bay, they pointed people to an IFPI-owned website. That seems highly questionable. Why should ISPs direct traffic intended for one private site to another private site -- allowing that second private organization to collect IP address info from folks intending to go to The Pirate Bay? If they really had to block the site, why not point them to a gov't explanation or, at the very least, a neutral site. Handing The Pirate Bay's traffic over to music industry lobbyists makes very little sense.

27 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Once Again, Blocking The Pirate Bay Leads To More Traffic In Italy

from the thanks-for-the-promotion! dept

Earlier this week, when we wrote about attempts by Italian officials to have ISPs block The Pirate Bay, we noted that just about every similar attempt had resulted in giving a lot of free publicity to The Pirate Bay, leading to traffic growth. So, it should come as no surprise that the Pirate Bay has seen a nice boost in traffic coming from Italy this week.

36 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Italy Tries, Fails To Ban The Pirate Bay

from the how-many-examples-do-you-need? dept

A few years back, with the help of some pressure from US gov't officials, Sweden tried to shut down The Pirate Bay. It worked for about a day until the site was back up. And, of course, the resulting publicity from the failed raid only brought The Pirate Bay much more attention. Earlier this year, a court in Denmark tried to get major ISPs to block access to the Pirate Bay. And, once again, all that really did was generate much more interest in the site.

At some point, you might think that officials would recognize that every time they try to shut down or block The Pirate Bay, it just ends up getting the site that much more traffic. But it looks like we still have a long way to go until that day comes. A prosecutor in Italy has told ISPs that they need to start blocking access to The Pirate Bay. Of course, such bans are totally ineffective, as The Pirate Bay has already set up routes around the blocks. So, nice work Italy. You've now helped to promote The Pirate Bay by trying to "ban" access to it.

21 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Thailand Overreacts; Bans Grand Theft Auto Due To Stupid Kid

from the yeah,-blame-the-game-instead-of-the-kid dept

What is it with people wanting to blame technology for crimes rather than the idiots who perpetrate the crimes? The latest is that Thailand has banned the sale of Grand Theft Auto IV after an idiot kid killed a cab driver when he tried to carjack the taxicab. The kid claimed that he was copying a scene from the game, and wanted to see if it was as easy to do as in the game. In other words: "Not my fault! The game made me do it!" And, of course, the government believed this killer, rather than recognizing that it wasn't the game, but this kid's own demented brain that was responsible. If it wasn't GTA IV, it would have been something else. Banning GTA IV isn't going to stop such violence, but it will give anyone caught for murder a nice excuse about why it's not their fault.

43 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Virgin Denies Reports That It Will Kick File Sharers Offline

from the no-sirree dept

Earlier in the week there were reports that even without a government mandate, Virgin Media had come to an agreement with the entertainment industry to start kicking off users accused of file sharing, using a "three strike" rule. However, Virgin has now claimed that no such plan is in place while also noting that it found the concept "draconian." Reading between the lines, it certainly sounds like BPI (the British equivalent of the RIAA) presented Virgin with a plan to do this, and Virgin basically told BPI that it would consider the plan, at which point BPI leaked a report to the press that it was a done deal.

9 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Videos Of Tibetan Protest Get YouTube Banned In China

from the onto-the-list-it-goes dept

We can now add China to the axis of NoTube as it has blocked all of YouTube after videos from news reports concerning the protests in Tibet began to show up on the video hosting site. What's interesting is that this comes just a few months after new rules went into place in China, demanding that all video hosting sites be approved by the government (and also be state-owned or controlled). However, given the uproar from a number of local video hosting sites, the government decided to ignore its own rules for the time being. However, given the itchy trigger finger on taking down any site or content that the government deems questionable, it's no surprise that this has happened again.

22 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Pakistan Lifts YouTube Ban... Hopes Internet Stays In One Piece This Time

from the not-so-quiet-after-all dept

When other countries have decided to ban YouTube, they've done it rather publicly, with a judge or politician stating very publicly that the site was to be banned for offensive videos. However, over the weekend, when Pakistan decided to ban YouTube, it tried to do so quietly, by simply telling various ISPs to block the site and hoping people wouldn't notice. That didn't work so well. As you might have noticed, thanks to the way some ISPs handle information, not only did it take out YouTube in Pakistan, but it ended up knocking it offline throughout much of the world, generating an awful lot of attention. And now, just about a day later, Pakistan has decided not to ban YouTube after all. So for a day's worth of a "quiet" ban on YouTube, Pakistan helped knock YouTube offline around the globe, got tons of attention to the fact that it was banning the site over some mysteriously "offensive" videos, and then didn't end up banning the site very long anyway. How effective was that plan?

5 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Pakistan Joins The Axis Of NoTube; Screws Up The Internet

from the yeah,-that'll-work dept

Some news stories really make you wonder if politicians ever think their actions through. It's as if they don't realize that anything they do might have a reaction that nullifies the point of the action in the first place. An example of this would be the repeated ridiculous attempts by various countries to ban YouTube entirely. We've already seen it happen in Brazil, Turkey, Morocco and Thailand. In every case, it was over some random video that the government (or a judge) found offensive. Yet, in calling for the entire site to be blocked, the effort only called a lot more attention to the offending videos, while also pissing off the much larger population of folks who were using YouTube to look at other content. The latest to join this crowd would be Pakistan, who quietly ordered ISPs to block YouTube without making any kind of public announcement. Of course, in doing so, the ISP PCCW that serves many countries throughout Asia accidentally blocked YouTube in many other countries as well -- and apparently directed a barrage of unwanted traffic at a Pakistani site, basically knocking Pakistan off the internet for a bit. Oops. Given how little previous bans of YouTube succeeded in preventing interest in these "offensive" videos, does Pakistan actually think it will work this time?

30 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Third Time's A Charm For Turkish YouTube Ban? Maybe This Time The Video Will REALLY Disappear

from the definition-of-insanity dept

The Associated Press is reporting that a Turkish court has banned YouTube access from the country for the second time, once again for a video that "insults" the country's founder. It's actually the third (not second) time a court has banned YouTube for the same reason. The first was back in March, though the ban was lifted a few days later. The second time was back in September, though apparently the ban was never implemented. This time, however, the full ban is in place again. You would think, given the earlier experiences with these "bans" that clearly did not stop such videos from getting online the courts might realize what a silly idea it is to ban all of YouTube. You might even think that the Turkish courts would realize that every time they ban YouTube for one of these silly immature videos, those videos suddenly gain a much broader worldwide audience. However, it appears that such things haven't occurred to the judges there. Perhaps they really think that banning YouTube will solve the problem this time and no one will ever speak ill of Turkey's founder ever again.

17 Comments | Leave a Comment..

The University Of Google Needs Better TAs

from the If-Obscurity-Is-Good-Enough-For-Security,-It's-Good-Enough-For-Education dept

Professor Tara Brabazon, a lecturer at the University of Brighton, is fed up with shoddy student research papers and has dubbed the rampant mis-use of Google results as "The University of Google" -- condemning the practice of simply taking the first few search engine results and compiling them for homework assignments. While we've seen several cases of schools banning the use of Wikipedia, Brabazon even goes so far as to forbid students from using Google as well as other online resources. While the criticism that lazy students are relying too much on search engines is probably valid at many universities, the solution to ban the use of search engine tools and online references seems like an unjust punishment, as well as a disservice to the students who will likely need to use search engines after they graduate. Brabazon points out that students don't attend universities to learn how to use Google, but that doesn't mean the use of websites like Wikipedia and Google should be ignored. If anything, there should be a crash course on what Google is (and is not) useful for -- analogous to the math teacher's favorite little guide "Lies My Calculator Told Me" which details the pitfalls of blindly using a calculator. Students should be taught using all the available tools that can help them further their education, along with how to use those tools effectively. On Google's side, however, perhaps the search engine giant should create a knol that describes how to write a respectable research report using Google -- without getting caught.

38 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Is Banning Internet Usage For Sex Offenders Reasonable Or Practical?

from the no-internet-for-you! dept

Over the years, there's been plenty of talk about banning internet usage for criminals who used the internet in the commission of a crime. This has always seemed both excessive and totally impractical as the internet became a bigger and bigger part of our every day lives. Would it mean you couldn't use a VoIP phone service, for example? Would it mean you couldn't book an airplane flight if the only way to book was online? Luckily, courts have been tossing out these lifetime internet bans as unconstitutional. However, New Jersey has now instituted a new law that would ban some sex offenders from using the web. It does seem much more limited than a complete ban. First, it only applies to those sex offenders who used the web to prey on their victims -- and it does appear to allow some exceptions, such as if you need to use the internet for work. However, given how much the internet has become a part of people's lives these days, it still seems a bit extreme to ban all other uses outside of work. As more entertainment options move online, will this law mean you can't download (legally) movies and music? I certainly have little sympathy for those who used the internet to prey on victims, but it still seems a bit excessive to pass laws that involve such widespread blanket bans on internet usage. If they're allowed in this case, they may start to be allowed for other cases involving crimes where the internet was used as a tool. It's always easy for politicians to pass laws "to protect the children" against sex offenders -- because no one wants to vote against such a thing. However, when those laws potentially could lead to excessive punishments for both those offenders and eventually to others, they should be carefully scrutinized.

41 Comments | Leave a Comment..