"Constant Touch: A Global History of the Mobile Phone"

 
I read "Constant Touch: A Global History of the Mobile Phone" over the weekend and, if you are interested in an easy going background on cellular communications, this is not bad.

It is pretty light on detail, as is probably to be expected of a mass-market book, but it does give a good impression of the highly inefficient way in which cellular services came to the fore. It stops around 2002/3, and so does not touch on 3G/UMTS, other than in the context of Japan, and tries to cover a number of different aspects — social and political effects, the drivers behind different countries' approaches, phones and crime and so on.

It is available for download — no licence specified — from the author's homepage.

"Regulating Social Networks: More Harm than Good?"

UCL is running what looks to be an interesting event in London on 31st January, on the regulation of social networks:

The effect of the spread of social media has been dramatic; altering the power dynamic between consumers and providers of goods and services, disrupting traditional business models, undermining intellectual property rights, enabling cultural participation, and facilitating a more democratic flow of information.

On January 31, 2013 UCL Laws will play host to a fascinating exchange between leading thinkers involved in the industry and policy surrounding social media.

I've booked to go — if anyone else is thinking of going, do let me know!

Tor exit nodes and "mere conduit"?

The operator of a Tor exit node has been charged with distributing child pornography / indecent images of children, according to this report on Ars Technica.

For those who have not come across Tor before, it is a system for anonymous communication:

Tor is a network of virtual tunnels that allows people and groups to improve their privacy and security on the Internet. It also enables software developers to create new communication tools with built-in privacy features. Tor provides the foundation for a range of applications that allow organizations and individuals to share information over public networks without compromising their privacy.

I am not familiar with Austrian law, but, were I in this position — and I must confess that I have advised against running Tor exit nodes before, on the basis of the possibility, which I'd actually rated as a likelihood, of law enforcement activity against you as the operator — I would be looking to argue that I was protected by Art. 12, 2000/31/EC:

Where an information society service is provided that consists of the transmission in a communication network of information provided by a recipient of the service, or the provision of access to a communication network, Member States shall ensure that the service provider is not liable for the information transmitted, on condition that the provider:

• does not initiate the transmission; 
• does not select the receiver of the transmission; and 
• does not select or modify the information contained in the transmission.

This the "common carrier" wording which most Internet access providers rely on as a shield from prosecution for exactly this sort of activity — there's a bit of a disjunct around whether the activity is actually the provision of an electronic communications service rather than an information society service, but the underlying principle seems that it should apply here.

Internet access at home a human right

The question whether Internet access is a human right seems to come up pretty frequently. But I'd not seen the construct that Internet access at home was a human right — and that's what the Court of Appeal in the UK appears to have said, according to the Guardian.

In overturning a decision prohibiting a sex offender from going online as part of his sentence, the court ruled that it is "unreasonable nowadays to ban anyone from accessing the internet in their home."

Wow.

Draft Tallinn Manual on cyberwarfare released

NATO's CCD CoE has released what it has called the "Tallinn Manual" — an analysis of the rules of war and international law as they apply to cyberwarfare.

It's interesting to think the extent to which acts in preparation of war, and acts of war themselves, might be conducted against communications infrastructure, or indeed using communications infrastructure. It also puts private companies in an interesting position, where an attack on their assets, their network, is a legitimate in war time.

It's a substantial document — >200 pages — but it is well written, and sets out various points on view on different topics. If cyberwarfare is indeed to grow in prominence, this is probably a most important text to read.

Who controls the Internet?

An interesting story on the BBC web site this morning. There is to be a major ITU conference in Dubai in December at which there may be moves to assert greater control over the Internet. Whether it will come to anything is perhaps doubtful.

The story refers to a Wikileaks style site Wcitleaks.org. Some interesting stuff there also.

Is Internet access now a human right?

The UN has come very close to affirming that Internet access is a human right:

1. Affirms that the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, in particular freedom of expression, which is applicable regardless of frontiers and through any media of one’s choice, in accordance with articles 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;
2. Recognizes the global and open nature of the Internet as a driving force in accelerating progress towards development in its various forms;
3. Calls upon all States to promote and facilitate access to the Internet and international cooperation aimed at the development of media and information and communications facilities in all countries;
4. Encourages special procedures to take these issues into account within their existing mandates, as applicable;
5. Decides to continue its consideration of the promotion, protection and enjoyment of human rights, including the right to freedom of expression, on the Internet and in other technologies, as well as of how the Internet can be an important tool for development and for exercising human rights, in accordance with its programme of work.

You can download the document here.

I'd not wholly convinced by this — the Internet is, without doubt, a hugely powerful tool, but it is just a tool, and who knows what tools will be available tomorrow? There is no human right of access to telephony, for example, or access to locks on doors (for the protection of privacy), so why refer to this particular technology?