From The Australian:
Hackers temporarily shut down Kevin Rudd’s website last night in an apparent protest at federal government proposals for a mandatory internet filtering system.
The website of the Australian Communications and Media Authority was also taken down by the attack at about 7.20pm, but both sites were reported to be back online an hour later.
There [...]
Archive of posts filed under the International Outlook category.
Australian PM’s website hacked
Vietnamese blogger released after outcry
From The Australian:
A Vietnamese blogger who was arrested in a recent crackdown and who also printed T-shirts to protest a controversial mining project has been released after a week in custody, he said.
Bui Thanh Hieu, 37, was one of three online writers recently arrested in a “mounting crackdown” that drew strong condemnation from a global [...]
European Union Commissioners release Joint-Statement on Digital Books during Google Books Meeting in Brussels
From SLA’s Public Policy blog:
The European Union (EU) Commissioner for Information Society and Media, Viviane Reding, and the EU Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services, Charlie McCreevy, made a joint statement on 7 September 2009 setting out the important cultural and economic stakes of book digitization in Europe.
Google modifies Europe book plans
From the BBC:
Google has offered concessions to European publishers who are concerned about the Internet giant’s plans to put books into a massive online library.
Material which is out of print in the US, but still available for sale elsewhere, will not be added to Google Books, unless consent is granted.
Germany: Google book deal violates copyright law
From Reuters:
Google Inc’s plan to digitize millions of books would violate German copyright law and the country’s privacy protections for Internet users, the German government said in a U.S. court filing.
Germany opposes a proposed settlement, which Google reached with the Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers Inc among others in October 2008, because Google [...]
Europe’s Digital Library doubles in size but also shows EU’s lack of common web copyright solution
Press Release:
4.6 million digitised books, maps, photographs, film clips and newspapers can now be accessed by internet users on Europeana, Europe’s multilingual digital library (www.europeana.eu). The collection of Europeana has more than doubled since it was launched in November 2008 (IP/08/1747). Today the European Commission, in a policy document declared as its target to bring [...]
Europe Seeks to Ease Rules for Putting Books Online
From the New York Times:
The European Commission on Friday will propose drafting rules that would make it easier to put many books and manuscripts online. The move is a part of the commission’s effort to bolster access to information and to encourage online businesses.
The changes would be aimed at allowing Internet users to access out-of-print [...]
China’s website clampdown
From the Guardian:
News websites in China have begun requiring new users to register their true identities before allowing them to post comments – a move rejected by internet companies and users in the past.
AFRICA: Call for digital library and archive
From University World News:
An African digital library and archives programme must be set up urgently as the continent lacks a comprehensive system for accessing and storing information, an international conference held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, heard last month. It suggested that the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) champion the initiative as the continent [...]
Italy antitrust probes Google on coercion claim
From Reuters:
Italy’s anti-trust watchdog said on Thursday it was opening an investigation into Google’s Italian news website after local papers complained that they were forced to appear on the site.
The competition authority said the Italian Federation of Newspaper Editors had complained that any publication refusing to appear on the website “would automatically be excluded from [...]