Iran detains Canadian blogger
Foreign officials have made several requests to contact the detained blogger. Iranian/Canadian blogger Hossein Derakhshan was arrested after landing in Tehran in November. He is the author of popular blog ‘hoder.com’ which has not been updated since his arrest. Canadian officials have requested consular access but have been ignored thus far. A foreign ministry spokesperson vowed to continue to exert diplomatic pressure on the Iran government.
Derakhshan has made comments about several prominent Shiite members as well as supporting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his stance again western influences. He has also criticized Iran’s conservative society, Israel, and the United States. He was arrested and charged with spying for Israel. (link)
Yahoo storing your data less now
Back in the day Google started with the 18 months of data retention. Privacy advocates voiced their concerns over this issue when it first came up. Yahoo now has decided to only keep your web surfing data for 3 months. Possibly for 6 months depending on how security conscious they are feeling that day. Google keeps data for 9 months and Microsoft 6 months. There’s no ‘industry standard’ so each company is free to set whatever limits they deem fit. Will this affect how “related” those flash/java advertisements are? Hopefully I’ll stop getting those damn LavaLife and Match ads on the side bars when I’m surfing my favorite wholesome sites.
Getting ’served’ with the help from social networking
Whether you like it or not social networking site put you in contact with friends old and new. However your profile also makes you easier to find, even the people you’re trying to hide from. A lawyer recently used Facebook to track down defendants and managed to serve them with legal documents, believed to be the first of it’s kind. So loan jumpers and criminals alike should beware. Simply ‘laying low’ won’t keep your MySpace account from getting served or from getting arrested. Be wary if you suddenly get friend requests from lawyers.
Blogger guilty of leaking G’N'R tracks
Kevin Cogill pleaded guilty to leaking songs from the Guns N’ Roses album “Chinese Democracy”. As a part of his plea deal he’s agreed to work with investigators. Looks like some more people are gonna get arrested. The album is the band’s first release since 1993. (wiki)
Blog threats lead to 12 month sentence
Making threats online can result in the same punishment if uttered verbally. A blogger found out the hard way. After making a so called “satirical” post about desires to kill the prime minister (Stephen Harper) on his blog he was arrested and convicted. He claimed he was only joking. The judge was somewhat lenient and handed down a 12 month suspended sentence along with 60 hours of community service. Despite your frustrations with whatever government you’re living under it’s still against the law to make threats, especially the violent ones, to kill anyone.
Just because you’re behind the “Interweb” that doesn’t protect your “rights” to spout off hate speech or any other criminal behaviour. So be careful what you write. If you wouldn’t say it in public, don’t say it on your blog.
So how’s the new wordpress?
Still kinda sucky. But less sucky than before.
Vietnam blogger gets jail
A Vietnamese court upheld a 2.5 year jail sentence for “tax fraud” for blogger Nguyen Hoang Hai. Many are calling this decision politically motivated. After a few hours of “debate” the lawyers confirmed the sentence.
Nguyen Hoang Hai (or web personna “Dieu Cay”) is a member of the online Free Vietnamese Journalists Club. He has also taken part in pro democracy demonstrations with regards to China and Tibet relations. In addition to the sentence sources note that the police have been harassing his family as well.
The Vietnam government is expected to release new rules regarding “information” and “facts” posted online. Bloggers in Vietnam should be worried. (link)
