April 2013

Russians Selectively Blocking Internet

The Russian government in recent weeks has been making use of a new law that gives it the power to block Internet content that it deems illegal or harmful to children.

The country’s communications regulators have required Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to remove material that the officials determined was objectionable, with only YouTube, owned by Google, resisting. The video-sharing site complied with a Russian agency’s order to block a video that officials said promoted suicide. But YouTube filed a lawsuit in Russian court in February saying the video, showing how to make a fake wound with makeup materials and a razor blade, was intended for entertainment and should not be restricted. Supporters of the law, which took effect in November, say it is a narrowly focused way of controlling child pornography and content that promotes drug use and suicide. But opposition leaders have railed against the law as a crack in the doorway to broader Internet censorship. They say they worry that social networks, which have been used to arrange protests against President Vladimir V. Putin, will be stifled.

Talk Talk seeks BT network regulation

The government needs to scrutinize broadband plans and help open up access to the national fiber network being rolled out by BT, according to Sir Charles Dunstone, founder and chairman of telecoms group TalkTalk.

Sir Charles said that Ofcom, the UK telecoms regulator, needed to regulate the cost of wholesale access to BT’s fiber network, which he said would mean lower prices for rivals such as TalkTalk. BT is not required to offer rivals a regulated price for its high speed fiber network in the same way as more traditional copper lines, with BT arguing that it needs to cover the costly rollout of the fiber to parts of the UK.

Saudis Seeking to Regulate Skype, Other Web Services

The government of Saudi Arabia confirmed that it is seeking to regulate local use of Internet-based messaging services such as Skype and Whatsapp, and threatened "suitable measures" if the providers of those services failed to comply with its demands.

The announcement by the Saudi Communications and Information Technology Commission followed local news reports, citing unidentified Saudi authorities, that the kingdom was threatening to block Skype and similar services unless the kingdom was allowed to monitor some users' conversations. The move appears to reflect the government's unease over the embrace of social media and the Internet by the Saudi populace as new avenues of communication and expression. Saudis are some of the world's most-avid users of Twitter and YouTube, in particular, according to those companies and to companies that track online users.

Privately run press returns to Myanmar

For most people in Myanmar, it will be a novelty when privately run daily newspapers hit the streets on April 1. Many were not even born when the late dictator Ne Win imposed a state monopoly on the daily press in the 1960s.

Fearing Chinese Censors, Paramount Changes ‘World War Z’

When executives at Paramount viewed the latest cut of the $175 million Brad Pitt zombie film "World War Z," they were not concerned by the violence or its reengineered ending. They were worried about a minor plot point that involved a sensitive topic: China.

In the offending scene, characters debate the geographic origin of an outbreak that caused a zombie apocalypse and point to China, a Paramount executive told TheWrap. Normally the detail would not have merited discussion at the top echelons of the studio. But given the fast-rising prominence of the Chinese market, state censorship and the quotas for U.S. releases, the studio advised the movie producers to drop the reference to China and cite a different country as a possible source of the pandemic, an executive with knowledge of the film told TheWrap. The change was made in recent days in the hopes of landing a deal for one of Paramount’s biggest summer movies to play in China, the world's fastest-growing film market. "It’s not a huge plot point,” an individual with knowledge of the studio’s plans told TheWrap. “But it’s safe to say [they’re] going to want a release there.”

Introducing Google Fiber Poles

We’ve heard this feedback a few times from our customers in Kansas City; it seems that some folks have become hesitant to leave their home connections. They want to be able to have access to Fiber even when they’re out and about in KC, not just within the confines of their own home. So my team of engineers started thinking about possible solutions. How do you get a Gigabit everywhere in the community? We realized that the answer was all around us — utility poles. Poles already have our Fiber strung to them; all we had to do was come up with a way to make that Fiber accessible. That’s what we’ve done today. I’m happy to announce our newest project: Google Fiber Poles.

Owners of Competing Hollywood Publications Settle Copyright Lawsuit

In the fiercely competitive world of Hollywood trade publications, nobody likes to say they're sorry. But the parent company of the Hollywood Reporter has agreed to do so in order to settle a lawsuit filed against it by the owner of two of its competitors: Variety and Deadline.com.

Penske Media Corp., the Santa Monica (CA) company run by Jay Penske, sued the Hollywood Reporter's parent, Prometheus Global Media, in September of 2011, alleging copyright infringement. The complaint alleged that the Hollywood Reporter's website stole code from TVline.com, a television-news website owned by Penske Media. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, asked for more than $5 million in damages. According to recently filed court documents, Prometheus agreed to pay Penske $162,500 in order to settle the case. In addition, the two sides agreed on a statement reading in part: "Prometheus admits that the Hollywood Reporter copied source code from Penske Media Corporation's website www.tvline.com; Prometheus and the Hollywood Reporter have apologized to Penske Media."

Benton

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