In Retrospect 2012

A GLOBAL MULTI-STAKEHOLDER DIALOGUE PROCESS

20142012 IN RETROSPECT INTERNET & JURISDICTION PROJECT CASE COLLECTION VOLUME 3

I N T E R N E T & MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE JURISDICTION INTERNET & JURISDICTIONMore information PROJECT AT about OBSERVATORY www.internetjurisdiction.netthe Internet & Jurisdiction Project at: k eepin g trac k o f trends www.internetjurisdiction.net @IJurisdiction TO S TAY UP-TO-DATE ON THE INTERNET & JURISDICTION PROJECT AND THE LATEST TRENDS W I T H R E G A R D TO T H E TENSION BETWEEN THE CROSS-BORDER INTERNET AND NATIONAL JURISDICTIONS, SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER AT WWW.INTERNETJURISDICTION.NET A N D F OLLOW @IJURISDICTION ON TWITTER. 2014 IN RETROSPECT

The Internet & Jurisdiction Project facilitates an evidence- based global multi-stakeholder dialogue process. To enable cooperation between stakeholders to develop a transnational due process framework for the Internet, it informs its participants about emerging trends and high- level patterns. crowd-curation The Internet & Jurisdiction Project detected, curated and categorized over 300 cases around the world in a dedicated database between January and December 2014. They show the tension between the cross-border nature spotlight of the Internet with its transnational online spaces and I & J DATABASE WITH the patchwork of geographically defined national jurisdic- CATEGORIZED CASES tions.

The Internet & Jurisdiction Observatory supports the In- ternet & Jurisdiction Project team in keeping track of the crowd-ranking latest trends around the globe. This interdisciplinary network of selected international experts crowd-ranks every month all collected cases in the Internet & Jurisdiction database via a progressive filtering process. The 20 most retrospect important cases are showcased in the monthly Internet MONTHLY NEWSLETTER WITH TOP 20 CASES & Jurisdiction Project newsletter Retrospect with concise summaries and links to relevant background information.

The case collection ”2014 in Retrospect“ is a compilation dialogue + analysis of 240 selected cases. It provides a review of crucial dy- namics to identify emerging norms, stimulate discussions and trigger research. synthesis REGULAR REPORTS ON LATEST TRENDS AND INSIGHTS

FACILITATION TEAM ABOUT The Internet & Jurisdiction Project facilitates a global multi-stakeholder dialogue process to address the tension between the cross-border nature of the Internet and Bertrand de geographically defined national jurisdic- LA CHAPELLE tions. It provides a neutral platform for Director states, business, civil society and interna- [email protected] tional organisations to discuss the elaboration of a transnational due process framework to handle the digital coexistence of diverse national laws in shared cross-border online spaces. Since its launch in January Paul 2012, the Internet & Jurisdiction Project FEHLINGER has involved more than 80 entities in its Manager dialogue process. [email protected] INTERNET & JURISDICTION OBSERVATORY

37 selected international experts from 30 different institutions in 16 countries are part of the internet & jurisdiction observatory. the interdisciplinary network is composed of respected senior experts while leaving room for emerging talents.

SEVERINE ARSENE LILIAN EDWARDS CNRS (National Center for Scientific University of Strathclyde, Research), French Center for Research Centre for Internet Law and Policy, UK on China, Hong Kong

CHINMAYI ARUN GIANCARLO FROSIO National Law University New Delhi Stanford University Centre for Communication Center for Internet and Governance, India Society, USA

EDUARDO BERTONI URS GASSER University of Palermo Harvard University Center for Freedom of Expression and Berkman Center for Internet and Society Access to Information, Argentina & Harvard Law School, USA

CATALINA BOTERO MICHAEL GEIST Universidad Externado, Colombia University of Ottawa Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, Canada

IAN BROWN MARTIN HUSOVEC Oxford University Max Planck Institute for Innovation Oxford Internet Institute & Cyber and Competition, Germany Security Center, UK

LEE BYGRAVE MATTHIAS C. KETTEMANN University of Oslo University of Frankfurt/Main Norwegian Research Center for Cluster of Excellence “The Formation of Computers and Law, Norway Normative Orders”, Germany

AGNES CALLAMARD WOLFGANG KLEINWÄCHTER Columbia University University of Aarhus Global Freedom of Department for Media and Information Expression Project, USA Sciences, Denmark

WILLIAM H. DUTTON KONSTANTINOS KOMAITIS University of Michigan Internet Society, Switzerland Quello Center for Telecommunication Management and Law, USA

4 JOANNA KULESZA WOLFGANG SCHULZ OBSERVATORY University of Lodz Humboldt Institute for Internet Department for International Law and Society, Germany and International Relations, Poland

MARILIA MACIEL DAN SVANTESSON Getulio Vargas Foundation Bond University Center for Technology and Centre for Commercial Law, Australia Society, Brazil

TOBIAS MAHLER TATIANA TROPINA University of Oslo, Norwegian Research Max Planck Institute for Foreign Center for Computers and Law, and International Criminal Law, Germany Norway

FRANCESCA MUSIANI JOANA VARON FERRAZ Mines ParisTech Independent Researcher, Center for the Sociology of Brazil Innovation, France

CARLOS AFFONSO PEREIRA DE SOUZA ROLF H. WEBER Rio de Janeiro Institute for Technology University of Zurich, and Society & Rio de Janeiro State Center for Information and University, Brazil Communication Law, Switzerland

THERESA SCASSA NICOLO ZINGALES University of Ottawa University of Tilburg Canada Research Chair in Information Department of European and Law, Canada International Public Law, Netherlands

THOMAS SCHULTZ Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, International Law Department, Switzerland

contributors

ROBERT J. CURRIE FRANCIS AUGUSTO MEDEIROS Dalhousie University (Crowd-Curation Consultant) University of Oslo, Law & Technology Institute, Canada Norwegian Research Center for Computers and Law, Norway NICOLAS JONDET University of Edinburgh NICOLAS VON ZUR MÜHLEN Edinburgh Law School, UK Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law, Germany KATHRYN KLEIMAN Internet Counsel LACHLAN URQUHART Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth PLC, USA University of Nottingham Mixed Reality Lab, UK SARAH LOGAN Australian National University BENDERT ZEVENBERGEN School of International and Political Oxford University Studies, Australia Oxford Internet Institute, UK

CONTENT

JANUARY 8 FEBRUARY 13 MARCH 18 APRIL 23 MAY 28 JUNE 33 JULY 38 AUGUST 43 SEPTEMBER 46 OCTOBER 51 NOVEMBER 56 DECEMBER 61

7 JANUARY

1. Microsoft thinks about 2. Russian Duma could letting users store cloud oblige domestic and foreign data in their jurisdiction of intermediaries to report user choice activities Microsoft1 presented on January 22, 2014 the idea to of- As part of a new package of legislative proposals dis- fer users to choose the location of the servers on which cussed6 in the Russian Duma to update existing anti-ter- their data is stored in the cloud: “People should have the rorism laws, two bills are proposed that would stipulate ability to know whether their data are being subjected new requirements for Internet intermediaries operating in to the laws and access of governments in some other the Russian jurisdiction. The Legislative initiative 428884- country and should have the ability to make an informed 67 targets individuals or legal entities, which enable the choice of where their data resides” said Microsoft’s communication between users or the dissemination of in- General Counsel Brad Smith. The idea should restore trust formation. The bill would oblige operators that are either in clouds and is a response to the Snowden revelations, incorporated in the Russian jurisdiction or that are acces- which demonstrated that the physical location of servers sible by users located in the Russian jurisdiction to “store of cross-border online platform matters. In the meantime, all information about the arrival, transmission, delivery, states like Brazil2 are pushing for data sovereignty provi- and processing of voice data, written text, images, sounds, sions as a response. No concrete plans by Microsoft were or other kinds of action” on their platforms. Moreover, announced. domestic and foreign website operators would have to inform Russian security services the moment users in Read further: Russia start using their sites and every time information Reuters: Microsoft lawyer suggests non-U.S. data storage is exchanged. The Legislative initiative 428896-68 bans the for overseas users: FT3 use of international payment intermediaries in the Rus- Economist: The Snowden effect4 sian jurisdiction to limit anonymous financial transactions Verge: Microsoft offers overseas data storage in response on the Internet. to NSA concerns5 Read further: Global Voices: Russia’s Parliament prepares new “anti- terrorist” laws for Internet9 The Moscow Times: Duma considers anti-terrorism bill for online payments10 RIA Novosti: Russia to tighten “anti-terrorism” Internet rules11

8 3. Bitcloud developers plan to 5. Google ordered to block create a new, decentralized Mosley orgy pictures in Internet German jurisdiction A team of developers announced12 plans for a peer-to- On January 24, 2014 the Hamburg Regional Court or- peer network that would work without centralized serv- dered24 the US-based Google Inc. to block six images from ers. Similar to the TOR network or the mining principle Google’s German website, Google.de, which show former behind the virtual Bitcoin currency, individual computers Formula 1 president Max Mosley in an orgy. The pictures, would serve as nodes that would route network traffic which were initially published by a British tabloid in in a decentralized and encrypted way without ISPs: “We 2008, were deemed to violate Mosley’s privacy. Google is want to replace YouTube, Dropbox, Facebook, Spotify, obliged to prevent the display of the pictures in its search ISPs, and more with decentralised apps based on proof results, as the company is found to be “responsible as a of bandwidth”, announced the initiators, who are looking distributor of the images”25. The company announced its for a means to realize the plans of “a new Internet” based intent to appeal the decision, claiming that the deci- on “distributed autonomous corporation”. Future applica- sion violates EU law and would require intermediaries to tions13 could be apps like “WeTube”, decentralized per- monitor user-generated content. A Paris court previously sonal cloud storage, and decentralized web hosting. The ordered Google to block Mosley’s images in the French infrastructure would be financed through micro-payments jurisdiction26 in November 2013. Google already filters in relation to the traffic managed by individual nodes. A content for copyright infringements and child pornogra- Scottish company claims to have already developed a phy on services such as YouTube. similar network called MaidSafe.14 Read further: Read further: Reuters: German court orders Google to block Max Mos- Bitcloud: White Paper15 ley sex pictures27 BoingBoing: Bitcloud: Bitcoin-like “distributed autono- PC World: German court orders Google to block Max mous corporations” that replace Youtube, Facebook, etc16 Mosley sex party pics28 Wired: Bitcloud wants to replace Internet17 Wall Street Journal: Google ordered to remove private images29 4. New amendments allow content blocks for privacy 6. Pirate Bay to develop violations in Turkish network without domain jurisdiction names, server farms Controversial amendments to the Turkish Law No 5651 After multiple incidents of domain seizures and blocks proposed18 by the Ministry for Family and Social Policy in various jurisdictions, the operators of The Pirate Bay were adopted on January 16, 2014. Turkish authorities are planning30 to develop a new network to circumvent can now order ISPs to block19 entire websites or individu- the enforcement of national copyright laws. In detail, the als URLs without a court order if the content is found to developers plan to build a decentralized peer-to-peer violate personal rights and privacy. Previously, the Law No hosted portal operating under an alternative DNS: “It’s 5651 limited blocking orders to specific types of illegal basically a browser-like app that uses webkit to render content including child pornography, obscene materials, pages, BitTorrent to download the content while storing gambling-related content or encouragement of suicide. everything locally”, says an insider. Further, the new amendments require web hosts to store user data such as IP addresses and activity logs for two 7. Chinese users need to years. The amendments have triggered calls20 for public register real names to upload protests in Turkey. videos in Chinese jurisdiction

Read further: The Chinese State Administration of Press, Publication, 31 Deutsche Welle: Erdogan pushing Internet censorship Radio, Film and Television announced a new rule that forward21 obliges Chinese Internet users to register their real names Huffington Post: Where is controversial Internet censor- prior to uploading videos to online platforms based in ship heading in Turkey?22 the Chinese jurisdiction. The rule is intended to “prevent Washington Post: Turkey debates new law to control web vulgar content, base art forms, exaggerated violence and users23 sexual content in Internet videos having a negative effect on society”.

9 8. Google appeals privacy fine Electronic Documents Act through targeted health-related advertisement offered by AdSense. Google agreed to in French jurisdiction resolve40 the issue by June 2014. On January 3, 2014 the French data protection authority the French National Commission on Computing and 13. Spanish court orders ISP Liberty CNIL fined32 Google for breaching French privacy to disconnect copyright laws with changes Google made to its unified March 2012 infringer Terms of Service. The CNIL ordered the company to pay 150.000 euro and to display the order for 48 hours on For the first time, a Spanish court ordered41 a local ISP to Google.fr . Google appealed33 the ruling at the Conseil disconnect “immediately and permanently” a customer, d’Etat, France’s supreme court for administrative matters. who shared illegally 5.100 copyright-protected music tracks, from the Internet. The decision of the Commercial 9. Snowden revelations: Court 6 of the Provincial Court of Barcelona overturns an British spies can monitor earlier decision of a lower court that came to the conclu- YouTube and Facebook use sion that the filesharer did not infringe copyrights. NBC News revealed34 that according to documents taken 14. Court revokes ISP blocks by Edward Snowden from the NSA, the British govern- of The Pirate Bay in Dutch ment has the capabilities to monitor in real time activities jurisdiction of users on cross-border online platforms incorporated in foreign jurisdictions, such as Google’s YouTube or Face- The torrent library The Pirate Bay is again accessible for book. The data is taken from the physical traffic that is Internet users in the Dutch jurisdiction. The Court of The routed through British jurisdiction. Hague ruled42 in favor of the two ISPs XS4ALL and Ziggo, which appealed the 2010 order to block The Pirate Bay. 10. Google fined in South According to the verdict, the ISP blocks were found to be Korean jurisdiction over disproportionate and not efficient, and thus impacted on Street View the freedom of ISPs to do business. The Korean telecommunications regulator Korea Commu- 15. UK High Court assumes nications Commission (KKC) fined35 Google Inc. on January jurisdiction in Google’s 28, 2014 for its gathering of personal data for its Street Safari tracking case View service in the Korean jurisdiction. The fine of ca. 200.000 USD is “the first of its kind imposed on a global On January 16, 2014 the UK High Court decided43 that company that violated the private information protection Google Inc. can be sued in the British jurisdiction by laws” in Korea. a group of more than 100 British citizens for privacy violation through the tracking of their online behavior 11. US court: IP addresses alone through Apple’s Safari browser. Google is accused of hav- cannot prove copyright ing bypassed security settings in the browser to install advertisement cookies. Google had argued that the forum violations for the lawsuit should be California, where the company In a case involving the filesharing of the movie Elf-Man, a is incorporated. US District Judge in the state of Washington came to the conclusion36 that “simply identifying the account holder 16. Verizon publishes first ISP associated with an IP address tells us very little about transparency report who actually downloaded ‘Elf-Man’ using that IP address” 44 and that “it is also possible that a family member, guest, The US ISP Verizon published a transparency report on or freeloader engaged in the infringing conduct”. A mo- January 22, 2014. According to ArsTechnica, Verizon is the tion to dismiss37 the case filed by the four defendants was first major ISP to provide statistics on received requests. 45 granted. The report shows that Verizon received 321.000 requests in 2013 from US law enforcement agencies. Verizon 12. Canadian DPA: Google received 5.392 requests for user data in other jurisdiction in which it operates, such as Germany, France and the AdSense violates national UK. The ISP does not react46 to direct requests from third privacy laws countries and demands requesters to go through a Mutual On January 15, 2014, the Office of the Privacy Commis- Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) procedure, if one is avail- sioner of Canada published38 the results of an investiga- able. tion into Google AdSense. Google Inc. was found to have violated39 Canada’s Personal Information Protection and

10 17. Porn filters: legitimate 19. Glitch or hack? Chinese websites blocked in UK Internet users redirected to jurisdiction US-based website The default porn filter in the UK jurisdiction renders47 Chinese Internet users were redirected50 for several hours some file-sharing sites with legal purposes inaccessible. on January 21, 2014 to the website of the US-based cen- It is reported that the ISP Sky’s filter “Broadband Shield” sorship circumvention company Dynamic Internet Tech- blocks, for example, download portals that host Linux nology. While official Chinese sources say the redirection software or the news portal Torrentfreak. The filter is was the result of a cyberattack, experts believe51 it was intended to block children’s access to online porn in the a technical glitch in the DNS resolution on China’s root UK. servers caused by the national DNS blocking system.

18. Gambling: UK ISPs refuse 20. Google plans to use to display warnings for encryption to serve users in unlicensed websites Chinese jurisdiction A British regulator called the Gambling Commission Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt announced52 that the company asked48 ISPs based in the UK jurisdiction to show custom- plans to use encryption to enter into markets with strict ers warnings if they access unlicensed gambling websites national content laws, such as in the Chinese jurisdiction. that are often incorporated in foreign jurisdictions. British Since 2010, Google’s search website google.cn redirects ISPs refused to comply and demanded that the legislator queries to the Hong Kong-based, unfiltered search site or a court should decide on such measures. The British google.com.hk. As a coincidence, only days after Schmidt government has already announced plans in November revealed the plans it was reported53 that searches on 2013 to oblige49 ISPs to block “extremist” content. google.cn were possible again in China on January 29, 2014 for several hours.

REFERENCES

1 The New York Times 7 The State Duma Commit- 13 The Guardian (22.01.2014). 19 EurasiaNet (21.01.2014). (23.01.2014). Microsoft sug- tee (15.01.2014). Information, Bitcloud: can hackers use bit- Turkey: what’s behind govern- gests wider options for information technologies and coin to replace Facebook and ment’s troubling proposed foreign data. protection of information. YouTube? Internet law?

2 Reuters (05.11.2013). Bill 8 The State Duma Commit- 14 Wired (27.01.2014). Scot- 20 Hurriyet News (17.01.2014). will allow Brazil to decree lo- tee (15.01.2014). Amendments tish company Maidsafe claims Protesters to march against cal Internet data to certain legislative acts of to have built a Bitcloud-like law curbing Internet. the Russian Federation. system. 3 Reuters (22.01.2014). Mi- 21 Deutsche Welle crosoft lawyer suggests non- 9 GlobalVoices (16.01.2014). 15 Bit Cloud (nd). White (10.01.2014). Erdogan pushing US data storage for overseas Russia’s parliament prepares Paper. Internet censorship forward. users: FT new “anti-terrorist” laws for Internet. 16 BoingBoing (17.1.2014). 22 The Huffington Post 4 The Economist Bitcloud: Bitcoin-like “distrib- (23.01.2014). Where is contro- (24.01.2014). The Snowden ef- 10 The Moscow Times uted autonomous corpora- versial Internet censorship fect. (16.01.2014). Duma considers tions” that replace Youtube, heading in Turkey? anti-terrorism bill for online Facebook, etc. 5 The Verge (22.01.2014). payments. 24 Bloomberg (24.01.2014). Microsoft offers overseas data 17 Wired (27.01.2014). Bit- Google to block 6 photos storage in response to NSA 11 Sputnik News (15.01.2014). cloud wants to replace the showing Mosley sex party. concerns. Russia to tighten ‘anti-terror- Internet. ism’ Internet rules. 25 Justiz Portal (22.01.2014). 6 Euronews (15.01.2014). New 18 Hurriyet News Urteil des Landgerichts Ham- anti-terror laws precede Sochi 12 BBC News (23.01.2014). (08.01.2014). Turkish draft bill burg im Verfahren Max Mosley Olympics. Bitcloud developers plan to to allow limitation of and ./. Google Inc. decentralize Internet. surveillance in Internet.

11 26 IDG News (07.11.2013). 34 NBC News (27.01.2014). 41 TorrentFreak (20.01.2014). 49 GigaOm (28.11.2013). The Google ordered by French Snowden docs reveal British Court orders Spanish UK government wants to court to block Max Mosley sex spies snooped on YouTube block “extremist” content, but party photos. and Facebook. 42 TorrentFreak (28.01.2014). who decides what that is? ISPs no longer have to block 27 Reuters (24.01.2014). 35 The Korea Herald The Pirate Bay, Dutch court 50 Reuters (22.01.2014). Mas- German court orders Google (28.01.2014). Google fined rules. sive Internet mishap sparks to block Max Mosley sex pic- W210m for data gathering. great firewall scrutiny in China. tures. 43 The Guardian (16.01.2014). 36 TorrentFreak (21.01.2014). Google must face UK courts 51 BBC News (22.01.2014). 28 PCWorld (24.01.2014). Ger- Judge: IP –address does not over claims of privacy breach China media: Internet outage. man court orders Google to prove copyright infringement. of iPhone users. block Max Mosley sex party 52 The Wall Street Journal pics. 37 Courthouse News 44 Verizon (22.01.2014). Veri- (23.01.2014). Schmidt says (21.01.2014). Judge lets four zon’s transparency report for encryption will help Google 29 The Wall Street Journal alleged movie pirates skate. the second half of 2014. penetrate China. (24.01.2014). Google ordered to remove private images. 38 Office of the Privacy 45 technica (23.01.2014). 53 South China Morning Post 30 TorrentFreak (05.01.2014). Commissioner of Canada Verizon says it received over (28.01.2014). Reappearance of How the Pirate Bay plans to (14.01.2014). Report of find- 321,000 legal orders for user Google.cn site spurs specula- beat censorship for good. ings: Use of sensitive health data in 2013. tion of Internet giant’s return. information for targeting of 31 Reuters (21.01.2014). China Google ads raises privacy 46 Verizon (22.01.2014). Veri- orders real name register for concerns. zon’s transparency report for online video uploads. the second half of 2014. 39 The Globe and Mail 32 IDG News (15.01.2014). (15.01.2014). Google broke 47 TorrentFreak (03.01.2014). Google appeals €150,000 fine Canada’s privacy laws with UK ‘porn filter’ blocks legiti- from French privacy watchdog targeted health ads, watchdog mate file-sharing services (and over new policies. says. Torrent Freak).

33 Out-law (16.01.2014). 40 Bloomberg (17.01.2014). 48 GigaOm (21.01.2014). Google appeals against fine Google’s targeted health ads British broadband providers imposed by French privacy violate Canada privacy stat- rebuff calls to act as online watchdog. ute, DPA rules. gambling police.

FIND ALL LINKS TO THESE ENDNOTES ON OUR WEBSITE: www.internetjurisdiction.net/ observatory/retrospect/2014-january/

12 FEBRUARY

1. German chancellor 2. European Commission to proposes “European review tension between an communication network” to international Internet and avoid US transit national jurisdiction The German chancellor Merkel proposed during her On February 11, 2014 the European Commission published weekly podcast on February 16, 2014 the creation of a its Communication on Internet Policy and Governance5. “European communication network” to avoid that emails The position paper outlines Europe’s Internet policy pri- and other communication data are routed through the orities and offers a strategic outlook. Next to highlight- US due to the distributed nature of the Internet’s techni- ing a commitment to the multi-stakeholder approach, cal architecture. Merkel announced to talk with French the establishment of “a coherent set of global Internet President Hollande in Paris on February 19, 2014 “about governance principles” and the “globalization of ICANN European providers that offer security for our citizens, and in particular the IANA function”, the Communica- so that one shouldn’t have to send emails and other tion highlights the risks of fragmentation of the Internet information across the Atlantic. Rather, one could build due to the proliferation of conflicts between heteroge- up a communication network inside Europe.” The Elysée neous national laws in shared cross-border online spaces. confirmed that the two governments discussed the mat- The European Commission stresses that “not one single ter in relation to NSA surveillance and said it was in line mechanism” can address the different types of “tensions with Merkel’s proposal. Although France and Germany between an international internet and national jurisdic- agreed to cooperate to develop data storage capacities tions,” and announces its intent to engage with stakehold- and communications infrastructure in Europe, an official ers to “facilitate issue-based multi-stakeholder dialogue report of the bilateral meeting did not mention1 the idea and decision-making across boundaries.” of a “European communication network”. Read further: Read further: Register: EU hunts down online cross-border lawbook Reuters: Merkel, Hollande to discuss European communi- bureaucra-snaggles6 cation network avoiding U.S.2 Internet Policy Review: Cooperation needed to avoid frag- BBC: Data protection: Angela Merkel proposes Europe mentation of the net, says European Commission7 network3 European Commission Press Release: Commission to pur- Gigaom: After US squashes no-spy hopes, European lead- sue role as honest broker in future global negotiations on ers discuss ways to protect citizens’ data4 Internet Governance8

13 3. Russian court orders Read further: TechnoLlama: European court declares that linking does termination of .com domain not infringe copyright16 registered in US jurisdiction Wired: EU court agrees not to break the web17 For the first time, a Russian court has ordered9 the termi- EurActive: European Court of Justice allows free use of nation of a domain under the new 2013 Russian anti-pira- hyperlinks18 cy legislation. The case that was handled by the Moscow Arbitration Court involved a music-streaming site called 5. German court holds TracksFlow, which plays music from third-party websites domain registrar liable for such as YouTube. It operated without permission of copy- registered pirate site right owners, which led a Russian Warner Brothers subsid- 19 iary to file a lawsuit. The court decided that the owner of The German Regional Court of Saarbrücken ruled that TracksFlow has to pay a 44.300 USD fine. Moreover, the the German registrar Key-Systems is liable for copyright court ordered the “termination” of the domain, registered infringements that occurred on the torrent website H33t. under the .com TLD through the registrar Name.com in The website was registered under the TLD .com, operated the US jurisdiction. Unless the operator of TrackFlow by the registry Verisign in the US, and bought through the would voluntarily hand over the domain, it remains un- German registrar via a Seychelles-based shell company. clear how this ruling can be enforced. The data of Tracks- The court issued an injunction which obliged the registrar Flow is stored in Russian territory on servers operated to remove H33T.com’s DNS entry to stop the infringing by Selectel. Under Russia’s copyright law, both ISPs and distribution of a music album. Prior to the ruling, H33t operators of servers can be obliged by a court to block a ignored takedown requests by the registrar Key-Systems. website. TracksFlow’s owner will appeal the decision. According to the verdict, a registrar can be held liable for actions on registered domains if it is notified about spe- Read further: cific allegations and if it is “obvious” that copyrights are TorrentFreak: Court orders domain termination of unau- infringed. If the registrar re-activates the domain it would thorized music site10 face a 250,000 euro fine. Russia beyond the headlines: Russia’s SOPA law claims its first site11 Read further: Complete Music Update: Tracks Flow case could lead to TorrentFreak: Domain registrar liable for torrent site 20 web-blocking in Russia12 infringement, court rules PC Advisor: German court finds domain registrar liable for 4. Websites allowed to link to torrent site’s copyright infringement21 TechDirt: Dangerous ruling in Germany makes domain copyright protected content, registrar liable for copyright infringement on website it rules European Court of 22 Justice registered On February 13, 2014 the European Court of Justice (ECJ) 6. Google held liable for ruled that hyperlinks to copyright protected content copyright infringement for a on other websites do not constitute a legal breach and parody video in Brazilian ju- do not require a prior permission by the owners: “The risdiction owner of a website may, without the authorization of the copyright holders, redirect internet users, via hyperlinks, The Brazilian Superior Tribunal for Justice ruled23 that to protected works available on a freely accessible basis Google is liable for hosting a user-generated video on its on another site”, states the official press release14 of the YouTube platform that parodies a Brazilian commercial. court. The case was forwarded from the Swedish jurisdic- A user altered the video’s soundtrack in 2009. Google tion. A newspaper claimed that a web company which agreed to take down the video, but other “fan-dubs” went published links to its content without permission engaged viral. The plaintiffs claimed that Google did not adopt in an “act of communication to the public”, which would necessary measures to prevent the viral spread of the al- entail due compensation under EU copyright law. The ECJ tered commercial, while Google stated such filters would judgment followed the reasoning that the linked contend be technically impossible. Google was ordered to remove was already freely available, in contrast to content behind the advertisements in question within 24 hours, including a paywall. A different decision by the ECJ could have re- similar or related videos with different titles. quired15 website operators to request permission prior to linking to protected content on other sites.

14 7. Friend Finder: Facebook 11. Megaupload’s former ordered to comply with Dutch-American host sued German data protection law for copyright infringements The Higher Court of Berlin confirmed24 a 2012 judgement25 in US jurisdiction which requires Facebook to respect German jurisdiction LeaseWeb, the former hosting company of Megaup- for its Friend Finder tool. According to the judgment, load, has been sued31 in a federal court in the US state of parts of Facebook’s Terms of Service and privacy policy California. A rightsholder claims that by hosting pirated violate German data protection law, since users were Megaupload pictures and not reacting to DMCA take- insufficiently informed about the tool. The case was filed down requests, LeaseWeb became liable for copyright by a German consumer organization. infringements. LeaseWeb is incorporated in both the US and Dutch jurisdictions and Megaupload’s data was 8. Platforms in US jurisdiction hosted in both countries. The hosting provider states that allowed to publish data on most pictures in question were stored in the Netherlands FISA court requests and questions the US forum for the lawsuit. Following a deal26 with the Department of Justice from 12. YouTube not liable for January 27, 2014, several cross-border online platforms incorporated in the US jurisdiction were allowed to pub- hosting copyright infringing lish27 data on the secret FISA court requests they received videos, Spanish court rules under the NSA PRISM program. Between January and June In an appeal decision, the Spanish court Audiencia Provin- 2013, the companies provided information on the follow- cial Civil de Madrid ruled32 that YouTube is not liable for ing numbers of accounts28: 30.000-30.999 (Yahoo), 15.000- copyright infringements related to videos uploaded on 15.999 (Microsoft), 9.000-9.999 (Google), 5.000-5.999 its hosting platform. The court reasoned that Google has (Facebook) and 0-249 (LinkedIn). no content control over user-generated content. The case involved protected videos that appeared on youtube.es 9. Brazil and EU agree on new and youtube.com. undersea cable to circumvent US transit 13. First Internet-specific The construction of a new undersea cable between For- regulation in Turkish taleza and Lisbon was announced29 during the EU-Brazil jurisdiction increases summit held on February 24, 2014. The cable is intended Internet control to diminish the routing of Brazilian online traffic through On February 18, 2014 the Turkish president approved33 US jurisdiction to “guarantee the neutrality” of the In- amendments to the Law 5651, which will increase the gov- ternet and avoid surveillance. Currently, the majority of ernment’s ability to exercise34 national jurisdiction over Brazilian traffic to Europe is routed through the US. the Internet. Among others, the administrative agency “Presidency of Telecommunications and Communication” 10. Google forced to display will have the power to compel – without a court order35 – privacy violation notice on Turkish ISPs to block websites within 4 hours. French homepage The French Conseil d’Etat rejected30 an appeal by Google 14. Australian government against an order by the French data protection authority might introduce three-strikes CNIL, which fined Google for privacy violations and de- anti-piracy scheme manded the company display a notice about the decision In a speech about the overhaul of the Australian Copy- for 48 hours on the homepage www.google.fr . Google right Act, Australia’s Attorney General announced36 that claimed the order to post CNIL’s notice would damage “[t]he government will be considering37 possible mecha- its reputation. The company displayed the notice from nisms to provide a ‘legal incentive’ for an Internet service February 8-9, 2014. provider to cooperate with copyright owners in preventing infringement on their systems and networks” whereby the merits of a graduated warning system executed by ISPs will be studied “carefully”. Moreover, the government looks at streamlining court procedures to order ISPs to take down websites hosting infringing content.

15 15. US court orders Google 18. Irish headquarters: to remove “Innocence of Facebook can forbid Muslims” clip over copyright pseudonyms for German claim users In 2012, the anti-Islam video “Innocence of Muslims” was The Schleswig-Holstein Administrative Court of Appeals uploaded by a US citizen to YouTube and went viral glob- came to the conclusion41 that Facebook users in the Ger- ally, leading to unrest around the world. Google refused man jurisdiction are subject to Irish and not German data to remove the video, due to its Terms of Service and protection laws. Facebook Germany only engages in ad freedom of speech provisions under the First Amendment sales and marketing, and is therefore a separate entity of the US Constitution. On February 26, 2014 the 9th U.S. from Facebook Ireland, the international branch of Face- Circuit Court of Appeals ordered38 Google to take down book, which is responsible for data processing. Therefore, the video from YouTube for a copyright infringement. a previous order by the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner of Schleswig-Holstein to allow pseud- 16. UK Intellectual onyms on Facebook was repealed. Property Bill might compel intermediaries to tackle 19. UK Home Office wants to online piracy block extremist content stored abroad at the An Intellectual Property Bill that is currently being discussed in the British jurisdiction might require online network level intermediaries to block or filter copyright infringing mate- The UK Home Office is talking42 with Internet compa- rial on the Internet. The relevant clause states39 that “[t] nies in order to make sure that extremist content that is he Secretary of State will, within three months of this hosted outside the UK jurisdiction is blocked by national Act coming into force, report to both Houses of Parlia- ISPs. Currently, British law enforcement can only order ment on proposals that will have the purpose of ensuring the removal of videos posted43 on online platforms incor- technology companies hinder access via the internet to porated in the UK jurisdiction. copyright infringing material”. 20. Twitter transparency 17. Finish cloud provider report shows increase in wants to offer US-based cross-border requests servers under Finnish privacy A new transparency report released by Twitter on Febru- laws ary 6, 2014 shows a rise in requests44 from foreign juris- The Infrastructure-as-a-Service provider UpCloud (in- dictions. Between July and December, Twitter received, corporated in the Finnish jurisdiction) is going to build among others, request for user data from Japan (213), servers on US territory40 with a contractual model that Saudi Arabia (110) France (57) and the UK (56) and content is intended to put users effectively under Finnish and EU takedown requests from France (309), Russia (14), Brazil data protection laws. Under UpCloud’s model, access to (12) and India (8). Most takedown requests were not is- user data under US law would be hindered by storing rel- sued by courts. evant personal information (matching data to its owner) in Finnish jurisdiction. Details on UpCloud’s announced model are still vague.

16 REFERENCES

1 Reuters (19.02.2014). Up- 11 Russia beyond the headlines 23 The Center for Internet copyrighted materials. The date 1-Germany, France back (18.02.2014). Russia’s SOPA law and Society (31.01.2014). Brazil- second chapter of Telecinco v EU tax on derivatives-French claims its first site. ian Supreme Court found YouTube. source. Google liable for videos paro- 12 Complete Music Update dying DAFRA’s commercials. 33 Reuters (18.02.2014). 2 Reuters (15.02.2014). (14.02.2014). Tracks Flow case Turkey’s Gul approves law Merkel, Hollande to discuss could lead to web-blocking in 24 PCWorld (18.02.2014). tightening Internet controls. European communication Russia. Facebook must comply with network avoiding U.S. German data protection law, 34 The Center for Internet 13 European Court of Justice court rules. and Society (14.02.2014). 3 BBC (15.02.2014). Data (13.02.2014). Judgment of the Turkey enlists intermediaries protection: Angela Merkel court (fourth chamber). 25 PCWorld (07.03.2012). Face- to censor and surveil Internet proposes Europe network. book loses German privacy users. 14 European Court of Justice lawsuit over friend finder, 4 GigaOm (17.02.2014). After (13.02.2014). Press release No personal data. 35 Hurriyet Daily News US squashes no-spy hopes, 20/14. (24.02.2014). ‘Turkey’s new European leaders discuss ways 26 The Guardian (27.01.2014). Internet law is the first step to protect citizens’ data 15 BBC News (14.02.2014). Link- Tech giants reach White House toward surveillance society,’ ing to free web content is legal, deal on NSA surveillance of says cyberlaw expert. 5 European Commission says EU Court. customer data. (12.02.2014). Internet Policy 36 ZDNet (14.02.2014). Stop and Governance: Europe’s 16 Techno Llama (15.02.2014). 27 Arstechnica (03.02.2014). the torrents: Australian role in shaping the future of European court declares that Google, Yahoo, Microsoft government eyes copyright Internet Governance. linking does not infringe copy- reveal how many accounts are crackdown. right. snooped by gov’t. 6 The Register (19.02.2014). 17 Wired (14.02.2014). EU court 37 TorrentFreak (14.02.2014). EU hunts down online cross- agrees not to break the web. 28 The Guardian (03.02.2014). Australian government signals border lawbook bureaucra- Microsoft, Facebook, Google online piracy crackdown. snaggles. 18 EurActive (17.02.2014). Euro- and Yahoo release US surveil- pean court of justice allows free lance requests. 38 Reuters (26.02.2014). 7 Internet Policy Review use of hyperlinks. Update 2-Google ordered to (12.02.2014). Cooperation 29 Reuters (24.01.2014). Brazil, remove anti-Islamic film from needed to avoid fragmenta- 19 German Regional Court of Europe plan undersea cable to YouTube. tion of the net, says European Saarbrücken (21.01.2014). LG_ skirt U.S. spying. Commission. Saarbruecken. 39 UK House of Commons 30 CNiL (07.02.2014). The (23.01.2014). Notice of Amend- 8 European Commission 20 TorrentFreak (06.02.2014). Conseil d’Etat rejected ments given on Thursday 23 (13.02.2014). Commission to Domain registrar liable for tor- Google’s request for a suspen- January 2014: Intellectual pursue role as honest broker rent site infringement, court sion of CNIL’s publication Property Bill. in future global negotiations rules. order. on Internet Governance. 40 GigaOm (07.02.2014). Up- 21 PCAdvisor (07.02.2014). 31 TorrentFreak (17.02.2014). Cloud reckons Finnish privacy 9 RAPSI (13.02.2014). First German court finds domain Leaseweb sued for hosting laws can protect data hosted court order to block website registrar liable for torrent site’s Megaupload and other “Pi- in the US. piracy in Russia – report. copyright infringement. rate” Websites.

10 TorrentFreak (13.02.2014). 22 TecDirt (13.02.2014). Danger- 32 Media Laws (02.02.2014). Court orders domain termina- ous ruling in Germany makes News on ISPs liability from tion of unauthorized music domain registrar liable for copy- Spain: YouTube not respon- site. right infringement on website it sible for infringements of registered.

FIND ALL LINKS TO THESE ENDNOTES ON OUR WEBSITE: www.internetjurisdiction.net/ observatory/retrospect/2014-february/

17 MARCH

1. Brazilian Congress approves (IANA) functions. Linked to the invention of the Internet Marco Civil bill in the US jurisdiction, NTIA has contracted ICANN to per- form the IANA function, which includes tasks such as the On March 25, 2014 the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies addition of new top-level domain name strings in the root approved the Marco Civil bill1. Its scope and drafting zone database8. Under the current arrangement, which process attracted international attention: the legislation expires in September 30, 2015, NTIA validates requests was drafted in 2009-10 in a crowd-sourced, public process for changes in the root made by ICANN before VeriSign in which nearly 2000 people participated. Moreover, executes changes and updates the root zone file. NTIA the bill provides a first comprehensive legislative frame- appointed ICANN to lead a global multi-stakeholder work for the Internet in the Brazilian jurisdiction and has consultation process9 to identify a global accountabil- been compared to an Internet bill of rights. The Marco ity mechanism for overseeing the IANA functions. The Civil now needs to be approved2 by the Federal Senate announcement is not linked to the general question of before being signed by President Dilma Rouseff. After ICANNs internationalization10 and jurisdiction over the or- long deliberations in the Congress, a data sovereignty ganization that is headquartered11 in California. US House provision introduced following the Snowden revelations Republicans have introduced the DOTCOM Act12 to stop was dropped3 on March 18, 2014. The provision would any oversight transition. have obliged Internet platforms serving Brazilian citizens to store personal data on servers in Brazil. The bill now Read further: considers that data of Brazilians is under Brazilian jurisdic- Computerworld: US government to end formal relation- tion, regardless of the location of servers where they are ship with ICANN13 stored. Intermediaries would only be liable for user-gen- Gigaom: The US seems ready to give up control of the erated content if they do not comply with a court order. Internet14 The bill also establishes net neutrality and data retention Domain Incite: US to give up control over ICANN15 rules in the Brazilian jurisdiction. 3. Twitter blocked in Turkish Read further: jurisdiction at IP level InfoJustice: Brazilian Chamber of Deputies approves Marco Civil bill4 On March 21, 2014 Turkish ISPs started blocking the US- Reuters: Brazil to drop local data storage rule in Internet based microblogging service Twitter. After addresses of bill5 alternative DNS servers circulated widely in Turkey to 16 Brazilian Congress: House approves Marco Civil for the circumvent the URL ban, the country extended the Twit- Internet6 ter block to the IP address level on March 22, 2014. Even requests to public DNS servers that were used to circum- 2. US Department of Commerce vent the blocks were re-routed17. The Twitter block is based upon the request of a public prosecutor and three intends to give up control court orders. Twitter complied with two court orders and over IANA functions removed the content in question, which also violated its On March 14, 2014 the US Department of Commerce’s global Terms of Service. The company refuses to comply National Telecommunications and Information Adminis- with the third Turkish court order, a takedown request for tration (NTIA) announced7 its intention to relinquish US an account that accused a former minister of corruption oversight over the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority and filed a petition18 with a Turkish court on March 26, 2014. On the same day, the administrative court of Ankara

18 ordered an injunction. The Turkish High Council for Tele- Read further: communication TIB was obliged to restore access to Twit- New York Times: U.S. Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against ter within 30 days19 until a full judgment is pronounced. Chinese Search Engine34 Reuters: China’s Baidu defeats U.S. lawsuit over censored Read further: search results35 Guardian: Turkey blocks use of Twitter after prime minis- IT World: US judge rules Baidu’s censorship is protected as ter attacks social media site20 free speech36 BBC: Court in Turkey moves to suspend ban on Twitter21 Techcrunch: Turkey moves to block Twitter at the IP level22 6. Turkish regulator blocks YouTube without court 4. European Parliament order adopts EU data protection On March 27, 2014 the Turkish High Council for Telecom- reform munications TIB blocked37 access to youtube.com in the On March 12, 2014, the 766 members of the European Par- Turkish jurisdiction without a court order. It was the first liament passed23 the proposed EU data protection reform time that the agency used the new powers conferred package. It formally adopted the text of the EU General upon it by amendments38 to the Law Nr. 5651 that were Data Protection Regulation (621 votes in favor) and adopted adopted in February 2014. TIB reacted to a leaked39 the Police and Criminal Justice Directive24 for personal data recording of a high-level security meeting on Syria that (371 votes in favor). Under the new package, privacy protec- circulated on YouTube. tions would apply extraterritorially, regardless of the jurisdiction in which European personal data is processed. The 7. Google’s YouTube and two documents will now be discussed25 by the EU Council Viacom settle lawsuit in US of Ministers. The European Parliament also supported a res- jurisdiction olution26 by the Civil Liberties Committee that would veto the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership unless On March 18, 2014 Google settled39 a multimillion-dollar US data protection standards are raised and calls for a sus- copyright lawsuit with Viacom after seven years of litiga- pension of the Safe Harbor framework. On March 26, 2014, tion in the US. Viacom sued YouTube for 1 billion US dol- the EU and US announced in a joint statement27 to improve lar in 2007 for hosting 79.000 infringing videos between Safe Harbor privacy standards and create “a meaningful and 2005 and 2008. The settlement was not revealed. The comprehensive data protection umbrella agreement for case was considered40 as a test-bed for the limits of the data exchanges in the field of police and judicial coopera- Safe Harbor protection for intermediaries under the US tion in criminal matters, including terrorism”. Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Read further: 8. ISPs blocks for copyright Gigaom: Web firms face a strict new set of privacy rules in infringements are possible, Europe — here’s what to expect28 says European Court of Hunton Privacy Blog: European Parliament adopts draft gen- Justice eral data protection regulation29 41 BlawBlaw: The European Parliament’s vote on extraterritori- The European Court of Justice (ECJ) decided on March 42 ality in data privacy – one step forward, and one step back30 27, 2014 that ISPs can be ordered to block access to websites that contain content that infringes copyright. The 5. Freedom of Expression case was brought to the ECJ by the Supreme Court of Aus- lawsuit against Chinese Baidu tria. However, such orders must be proportionate43 and dismissed in US jurisdiction balance copyright protections with fundamental rights. On March 28, 2014 a US judge dismissed31 a 2011 lawsuit 9. Google encrypts searches filed in the district court of Manhattan that accused in Chinese jurisdiction the Chinese search engine Baidu of suppressing political 44 speech. The group of eight plaintiffs, all writers from New Google rolled out SSL-encrypted search by default for York, were seeking 16 million US dollar in damages for users located in the Chinese jurisdiction in March 2014. violations of their civil rights. The US judge decided32 that The company will progressively establish encrypted “[t]he First Amendment protects Baidu’s right to advo- search by default worldwide in order to limit the inter- cate for systems of government other than democracy (in ception of online searches in national jurisdictions. China or elsewhere) just as surely as it protects plaintiffs’ rights to advocate for democracy”. The judge moreover argued that blocking content on search engines on political grounds would constitute “in essence editorial judg- ments”, similar to print publications. The plaintiffs plan to appeal the verdict.

19 10. US and British privacy 14. “Sponsored Stories” agencies sign Memorandum lawsuit against Facebook in of Understanding Brazilian jurisdiction The US Federal Trade Commission and the UK Informa- Accusing Facebook of violating the privacy rights of 76 tion Commissioner’s office signed45 on March 6, 2014 a million Brazilian Facebook users, the Brazilian Institute of Memorandum of Understanding46 on “Mutual assistance Computer Law has filed a 24 million euro lawsuit53 against in the enforcement of laws protecting personal informa- Facebook. In 2013 the company settled54 a similar lawsuit tion in the private sector”. This will increase cooperation in the US jurisdiction and announced55 to end domain and between the two agencies for both investigation and open graph sponsored stories on April 9, 2014. enforcement. 15. US Congress considers 11. ECPA reform in US might DMCA takedown regime end access to emails without reform warrants The Judiciary Committee of the US Congress is consider- The US House of Congress is discussing47 a reform of the ing56 changes to the US Digital Millennium Act (DMCA). 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) that During a hearing on March 13, 2014 copyright holders regulates how law enforcement can access private data demanded a reform of the notice and takedown system. such as emails. The Email Privacy Act48 is gaining support. They want that platforms that host user generated con- Currently, US law enforcement can access personal com- tent employ filtering technologies. munication data such as emails if they are stored for more than 180 days without a warrant. 16. French consumer group sues Google, Facebook and 12. French NGO opts for Twitter for Terms of Service priority flagging instead of Google, Facebook and Twitter have been sued57 by the lawsuits against Twitter French consumer protection group UFC-Que Choisir and Since March 2013, the French anti-homophobia NGO SOS have to appear before the High Court of Paris. The group Homophobie has operated49 a Twitter account to flag dis- accuses the online platforms of having unclear Terms of criminatory tweets and hashtags with priority. One year Service that do not comply with French law. A further later, this partnership with Twitter appears to work well criticism is that the Terms of Service contain hypertext and the NGO has not filed lawsuits against the micro- links that link to pages that are not in French. blogging website since August 2013, after an anti-gay hashtag50 became a top trending topic in France. 17. UK court orders ISPs to block infringing streaming 13. Google and Yahoo websites publish new numbers on data The High Court of London has ordered58 six British ISPs to requests block access to four websites that allow the streaming of During the second half of 2013, Google witnessed an copyright protected movies on their platforms or through increase of requests for user data from different national links to third-party websites. jurisdictions, while Yahoo observed a decrease compared to the first six months of 2013. New transparency reports 18. Terms of Service: Facebook show that between July and December 2013, Google51 re- restricts gun sales on its ceived 27,477 requests from 65 different jurisdictions and platform Yahoo52 21,425 requests from 17 jurisdictions. Facebook announced on March 5, 2014 new policies59 that will restrict the sale of guns through its platform. In detail, the platform “will not permit60 people to post offers to sell regulated items that indicate a willingness to evade or help others evade the [US] law”. This new policy will also be enforced on Instagram, which was acquired by Facebook.

20 19. Macedonia blocks 20. Apple bans sale of book foreign gambling sites in its with nude cover in France jurisdiction Apple has decided, based on its Terms of Service, not To prevent the outflow of capital, the Macedonian gov- to sell63 copies of a French novel distributed by a French ernment has announced61 the blocking of gambling sites publisher in France because it features a nude woman on incorporated outside of the Macedonian jurisdiction for the cover. two years starting in March 2014. The blocking measures62 will be administered by the Agency for Electronic Com- munications and the Ministry for Information Society.

REFERENCES

1 Brazilian Chamber of 11 ICANN (30.09.2009). Af- 20 The Guardian (21.03.2014). 27 European Union Deputies (25.03.2014). Marco firmation of commitments by Turkey blocks use of Twitter (26.03.2014). Joint statement: civil bill. the United States department after prime minister attacks EU-US Summit. of commerce and the Internet social media site. 2 Arstechnica (26.03.2014). Corporation for assigned 28 GigaOM (12.03.2014).Web Brazil caves to Google: New names and numbers. 21 BBC News (26.03.2014). firms face a strict new set bill drops local data storage Court in Turkey moves to of privacy rules in Europe — requirement. 12 The Hill (27.03.2014). suspend ban on Twitter. here’s what to expect. House Republicans move to 3 Reuters (25.03.2014). block Internet management 22 TechCrunch (22.03.2014). 29 Hunton Privacy Blog Brazil’s anti-spy Internet bill switch. Turkey moves to block Twitter (12.03.2014). European Parlia- clears lower house vote. at the IP level. ment adopts draft general 13 IDG News (14.03.2014). US data protection regulation; 4 infojustice.org (25.03.2014). government to end formal 23 European Commission Calls for suspension of safe Brazilian chamber of deputies relationship with ICANN. (12.03.2014). Progress on EU harbor. approves Marco Civil Bill. data protection reform now 14 GigaOM (14.03.2014). The irreversible following Euro- 30 Blaw Blaw (23.03.2014). The 5 Reuters (18.03.2014). Brazil U.S. seems ready to give up pean Parliament vote. European Parliament’s vote to drop local data storage rule control of the Internet. on extraterritoriality in data in Internet bill. 24 European Parliament privacy – one step forward, 15 Domain Incite (15.03.2014). (21.01.2012). Directive of the and one step back. 6 Brazilian Congress US to give up control over European parliament and of (25.03.2014). House approves ICANN. the council. 31 GigaOM (28.03.2014). US civil project of the Internet in judge rules Chinese search en- March. 16 Hurriyet (21.03.2014). Tur- 25 Wikipedia (31.01.2015). gine can block pro-democracy key widens Internet censor- European Union legislative websites. 7 NTIA (14.03.2014). NTIA ship. procedure. announces intent to transition 32 The Register (28.03.2014). key Internet domain name 17 Dny Research (30.03.2014). 26 European Parliament Judge rules Baidu political functions. Turkish Internet censorship (21.02.2014). On the US NSA censorship was an editorial takes a new turn. surveillance programme, right. 8 IANA (14.03.2014). Root surveillance bodies in various zone database. 18 Twitter Blog (26.03.2014). Member States and their 33 The New York Times Challenging the access ban in impact on EU citizens’ funda- (28.03.2014). U.S. judge dis- 9 ICANN (14.03.2014). Public Turkey. mental rights and on transat- misses lawsuit against Chinese consultation processes. lantic cooperation in Justice search engine. 19 Reuters (26.03.2014). Tur- and Home Affairs 10 ICANN (14.03.2014). In- key has 30 days to enact ruling (2013/2188(INI)). 34 Reuters (28.03.2014). ternationalization & regional halting Twitter ban: source. China’s Baidu defeats U.S. development. lawsuit over censored search results.

21 35 ITWorld (31.03.2014). 43 TorrentFreak (27.03.2014). 50 The Huffington Post 58 MusicWeek (12.03.2014). Activists to appeal US judge’s EU court: ISPs can be forced to (13.08.2013). French anti-gay High Court blocks 4 more ruling on Baidu’s censorship. block pirate sites. hashtag sparks lawsuit against major pirate sites. Twitter in France. 36 Hurriyet (27.03.2014). 44 PCMag (13.03.2014). Google 59 IDG News Service ‘YouTube in talks with Ankara Expands Search Encryption to 51 Google (01.03.2014). (05.03.2014). Facebook goes to lift the ban’. China, Elsewhere. Google transparency report thumbs-down on illegal gun sales. 37 Reuters (18.02.2014). 45 Hunton Privacy Blog 52 Yahoo (01.03.2014). Yahoo Turkey’s Gul approves law (07.03.2014). U.S. FTC and UK transparency report. 60 Facebook Newsroom tightening Internet controls. ICO sign memorandum of (05.03.2014). Facebook, understanding. 53 ZDNet (21.03.2014). Face- Instagram announce new 38 BBC News (27.03.2014). book hit with $33m “spon- educational and enforcement Turkey moves to block You- 46 US Federal Trade Commis- sored stories” lawsuit in Brazil. measures for commercial Tube access after ‘audio leak’. sion (06.03.2014). Memoran- activity. dum of understanding. 54 Wired (26.03.2013). Judge 39 Reuters (18.03.2014). approves $20m Facebook 61 EDRi (26.03.2014). Macedo- Google, Viacom settle land- 47 The Hill (02.03.2014). An ‘sponsored stories’ settlement. nia bans gambling, raises con- mark YouTube lawsuit. end to warrantless email cern over Internet censorship. searches? 55 PCMag (10.01.2014). 40 IPKat (19.03.2014). The Facebook ditching sponsored 62 GlobalVoices (18.03.2014). seven year itch: Viacom v You- 48 US House of Congress stories in April. Macedonian government to Tube settles, lawyers despair. (07.05.2013). Email privacy act. introduce Internet filtering. leads. 56 IDG News Services 41 The European Court of (13.03.2014). Copyright owners 63 The Local (14.03.2014). Justice (27.03.2014). Press 49 Zoe Lofgren (6.3.2013). call for overhaul of DMCA French ire as Apple bans book release No 38/14. Online Communications and takedown notices. over nude cover. Geolocation Protection Act. 42 EurActive (28.03.2014). 57 IDG News Service EU Court upholds blocking (25.03.2014). French consumer copyright-infringing websites. group sues Google, Facebook and Twitter over privacy policies.

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22 APRIL

1. NETmundial Multi- serving Brazilian customers to establish local data centers Stakeholder Statement inside the country was dropped. However, under the adopted law, Brazilian data is considered to be subject to stresses “jurisdiction issues” Brazilian jurisdiction regardless of physical location of the The topic of jurisdictional issues and how they relate to data centers it is stored in. In detail, Article 11 of Marco Internet governance is highlighted in the Roadmap set Civil states that “[i]n any operation of collection, storage, forth by the “Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the retention and treating of personal data or communica- Future of Internet Governance”, which took place on April tions data by connection providers and internet applica- 23-24, 2014 in Brazil. The NETmundial Roadmap1 outlines tions providers where, at least, one of these acts takes steps for the future evolution of Internet Governance and place in the national territory, the Brazilian law must be its governance frameworks. The need to address chal- mandatorily respected” and §2 adds that “[t]he estab- lenges related to jurisdiction and Internet governance lished in Art. 11 applies even if the activities are carried was stressed next to issue areas such as net neutrality or out by a legal entity placed abroad, provided that it offers benchmarks for Internet governance principles. On this services to the Brazilian public or at least one member occasion, the Internet & Jurisdiction Project released the of the same economic group is established in Brazil.” It contribution “Jurisdiction and Internet Governance: Ele- remains unclear through which cross-border procedures ments for a Roadmap”2 that proposes concrete next steps these provisions will be enacted. to facilitate collaboration between all stakeholders to develop an interoperability framework that fosters due pro- Read further: cess and allows the coexistence of diverse national laws Reuters: Brazilian Congress passes Internet bill of rights7 and norms in these shared cross-border online spaces. CNET: Brazil lays down the law with Internet ‘Bill of Rights’8 Read further: ZDNet: Brazilian Senate approves Internet Bill of Rights9 The Wall Street Journal: Brazil Internet Conference Ends Divided on Key Issues3 3. US can access data of US Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: The daily fight for Net services even on servers in freedom4 foreign jurisdictions Internet Policy Review: World Internet cup in Brazil – a review5 On April 25, 2014 the US Magistrate Judge James Francis in New York decided10 that the US government can access 2. Marco Civil puts Brazilian data of customers of services incorporated in the US jurisdiction regardless of the country in which their data is data stored abroad under physically stored. The case involved data stored by Micro- Brazilian jurisdiction soft in their European data center in Ireland requested by On April 22, 2014, the night before the global NETmundial an unknown US law enforcement or intelligence agency. conference hosted in Sao Paulo began, the Brazilian Con- It is the first time that a US court pronounces a judgment gress unanimously adopted the Marco Civil framework6 on this issue. The court argued11 that requiring US agen- . It was signed by the President Rousseff at the opening cies to coordinate with foreign countries via Mutual Legal ceremony of NETmundial. A controversial provision that Assistance Treaties, which “generally remain[…] slow and would have potentially obliged global Internet companies laborious”, to gain access to servers on their territories

23 would increase the “the burden on the government […] 5. EU Court forces the substantial[ly], and law enforcement efforts would be seriously impeded”. “Even when applied to information Netherlands to declare that is stored in servers abroad, an [U.S. Stored Commu- downloading of copyrighted nications Act] Warrant does not violate the presumption content illegal against extraterritorial application of American law” said On April 10, 2014 the European Court of Justice ruled22 the judge. The ruling will apply to data stored by email that the Dutch levy-based model that allowed the unau- providers, cloud services or social networks on servers thorized downloading of copyrighted works for personal in foreign jurisdictions regardless of local privacy laws. purposes in the Dutch jurisdiction violated the EU Copy- Microsoft is appealing the judgment. right Directive. Since 2003, the Netherlands had adopted a system that did not criminalized downloaders of pro- Read further: tected content and compensated rightsholders through a Register: US judge: Our digital search warrants apply levy attached to the purchase of blank storage media like ANYWHERE12 DVDs or USB sticks in the Dutch jurisdiction. The EU court Reuters: US judge rules search warrants extend to over- decided that a “private copying levy system, which does seas email accounts13 not, as regards the calculation of the fair compensation Engadget: Judge rules US search warrants still apply to payable to its recipients, distinguish between the lawful info stored overseas14 or unlawful nature of the source from which a private re- production has been made, does not respect that fair bal- 4. Twitter is accessible, ance”. The Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice immedi- YouTube still blocked after ately implemented the judgment based on civil law, which court orders in Turkish means that downloaders will not face criminal charges. jurisdiction Read further: 15 On April 2, 2014 the Turkish Constitutional Court ruled TechDirt: Dutch immediately ban unauthorized down- that the ban of Twitter in the Turkish jurisdiction was loads after EU Court Of Justice confirms incompatibility violating Article 26 of the Turkish constitution: “Everyone with copyright law23 has the right to express and disseminate his thoughts and PCWorld: Party’s over for the Dutch: pirated downloads opinion by speech, in writing or in pictures or through now prohibited in the Netherlands24 other media, individually or collectively”. The ban, which TorrentFreak: The Netherlands must outlaw downloading, was installed on March 20, 2014 after tweets accusing EU court rules25 Prime Minster Erdogan of corruption circulated on the platform, was lifted on April 3, 2014. Prime Minister Er- 6. US streaming service Hulu dogan appealed16 the judgment which lead to the blocks of two specific accounts17 by Twitter. On April 4, 2014, a fights cybertravel, bans VPNs lower court in Ankara, citing the Twitter judgment, ruled The US-based media streaming platform Hulu is only ac- that the complete blocking of YouTube since March 27, cessible to residents in the US. It employs a geo-IP based 2014 was violating human rights. Instead, 15 specific ac- blocking tool to prevent people from foreign jurisdictions counts related to a leaked secret military conversation from accessing its content. The service started to block26 were ordered to be blocked. The Turkish Information and IP address ranges used by major VPN services that allowed Communications Technologies Authority refused18 how- many international users to circumvent the IP-based ever on April 10, 2014 to lift the national block. restrictions to watch content by “cybertravelling” through a US-based server. Read further: Hürriyet: Constitutional Court orders authorities to un- 7. Mexico drops public order block Twitter19 Internet blocking legislation New York Times: Turkey lifts Twitter ban after court calls it illegal20 The Mexican government considered, as part of a broader CNET: Turkish court orders partial lifting of YouTube ban21 telecommunications reform package, to introduce legislation that would have allowed it28 to “block, inhibit, or eliminate” communications services “at critical moments for public and national security”. Concerns about Internet censorship led to public protests against the proposal in Mexico. The Senate decided to exclude Internet and signal blocks from the reform package.

24 8. US industry sues 12. Indian government tells Megaupload for copyright Supreme Court it is impossible theft to ban obscene content on The movie association MPAA28 and the records label Internet association RIAA29 have filed two similar lawsuits in the Following a Public Interest Litigation in the Indian juris- District Court of Virginia in the US against the former diction that seeks to ban pornographic websites on the Hong Kong-based file hosting platform Megaupload for Internet, the Secretary of the Indian Department of Tele- copyright theft. The plaintiffs argue that the court in communications explained36 to the Indian Supreme Court Virigina has personal jurisdiction30 over the former team that it is not possible to remove all obscene material from behind Megaupload, all of which are neither US citizens the Internet. Content can be hosted outside the Indian or residents, because the platform was freely accessible jurisdiction and be subject to the respective national law. to Virginia residents and because Megaupload stored Moreover the Secretary responded that it is impossible parts of its data at a hosting company in the US state. to monitor every piece of content before it is accessed in the Indian jurisdiction and that automated filters may 9. Facebook publishes second block legal content. transparency report In its second transparency report31, Facebook reveals for 13. Seizures: Chinese company the first time32 not only statistics about requests for user argues US copyright does not data and account information, but also statistics on the apply internationally number of requests for content takedowns the social A New York federal court has ordered an injunction37 network receives from multiple jurisdictions around the against the Chinese company DVDFab, which offers a world. Most content takedown requests came from India software that can be used to circumvent DVD encryp- (for 4.765 pieces of content) and Turkey (for 2.014 pieces tion. This circumvention of digital rights violates the US of content), while most user data requests were received Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Domains registered from the US jurisdiction (12.598 requests). under .NET and .COM, assets and social media accounts have been seized in the US jurisdiction. Arguing that “[i] 10. 2.500 domains suspended t is well-established that the Copyright Act doesn’t apply following warnings by extra-territorially”, the Chinese company has asked the US London Police court to alter the injunction so that it only applies to the US jurisdiction and does not impede the operations of The City of London Police Intellectual Property Crime the company in other jurisdictions. Unit33 has launched two major campaigns to target websites hosting infringing content, including outside of the British jurisdiction. Both website operators and domain 14. Chinese app shows Chinese name registrars received warning notes with requests to users deleted Sina Weibo posts shutdown sites in question. 2.500 websites linked to the In the Chinese jurisdiction, infringing or unwanted posts sale of counterfeit goods were already suspended34 as a on the micro-blogging service Weibo are deleted highly result. efficiently. A new app38 for Android smartphones seeks to circumvent these content blocks in the Chinese juris- 11. Megaupload sues Hong diction by displaying the deleted items. The software Kong government over uses the Amazon Web Services (AWS) S3 could-hosting unlawful shutdown platform, which the developers believe is sufficiently encrypted and makes it impossible to block individual In January 2012, the Hong Kong based Megaupload pieces of content. Therefore, China would be obliged to platform was shutdown by the US and assets of the block AWS entirely in its jurisdiction. company frozen in Hong Kong, based on a US restraint order. Megaupload has filed an application in Hong Kong to release the assets. The company argues35 the restraint order was issued unlawfully since it was not disclosed how the Hong Kong company was served by a US court. The Hong Kong Department of Justice was ordered by the High Court of Hong Kong to file a response on this question by June 2014.

25 15. Russians interfere with 18. Facebook, Google asked to national ISP blocking remove video with religious through loophole hate speech in India Russian Internet activists have developed a way to poten- A Delhi Court sent notices to Facebook and Google asking tially challenge39 the ISP blacklist system operated by the them to remove42 a video that is deemed to be religious Russian regulator Roskomnadzor. By using a network of hate speech. The platforms have until June 5, 2014 to mirrored versions of blocked websites with code for auto- comply with the judgment. The plaintiff argues that the matic redirects to legal and official sites, the blocking sys- “acts and omissions of the defendants [Google and Face- tem in place would automatically also block these linked book] are promoting communalism in secular India.” sites. On March 17, 2014, a popular Russian website was already blocked through this mechanism, which forced 19. Japan accedes to APEC the ISP to unblock the mirrored site. By exploiting this re- Cross-Border Privacy Rules direct loophole, any website could be initially blocked by system ISPs in the Russian jurisdiction and Roskomnadzor might be forced to introduce a whitelist to prevent unintended On April 30, 2014, the Joint Oversight Panel of the APEC website blocks Cross-Border Privacy Rules (“CPBR”) system confirmed that Japan has met the conditions to join the CPBR 16. Overblocking: Italian framework. Mexico and the US have already joined the court revokes blocking for system, and Canada is also interested in joining. The APEC CBPR system is a “regional, multilateral cross-border data copyright infringement transfer mechanism and enforceable privacy code of The Court of Appeals of Rome overturned40 a court order conduct developed for businesses by the 21 APEC member to block an entire streaming platform called Filmakerz. economies.”43 org for some content that infringes copyrights. In detail, the judges argued that takedown requests should target 20. Texas court rules specific URLs and not entire domains. Italian ISPs were GoDaddy is not responsible told to unblock the site. for hosted revenge porn 17. US Supreme Court to rule A court of appeals in Texas overruled44 a January 2014 on online “speech crime” judgment by a lower court that held GoDaddy responsible for hosting the website Texxan.com, which displayed The US Supreme Court is expected to rule41 on when so-called “revenge porn”. The court decided that, “it is un- online speech constitutes a “true threat” that is not pro- disputed that GoDaddy acted only as a hosting company tected under the First Amendment of the US Constitution and did not create or develop the third party content on and therefore is a criminal offense such as child pornog- the websites”. Therefore, it is exempted from liability un- raphy or obscenity. It would be the first time that the US der Section 230 of the US Communications Decency Act. Supreme Court would pronounce a judgment on this issue in an online context that would define what a verbal or written threat constitutes online.

REFERENCES

1 NETmundial (24.04.2014). 4 Frankfurter Allgemeine 7 Reuters (22.04.2014). Bra- 10 ZDNet (28.04.2014). U.S. NETmundial multistakeholder Zeitung (25.04.2014). The daily zilian congress passes internet search warrant can acquire statement. fight for net freedom. bill of rights. foreign cloud, email data, judge rules. 2 Internet & Jurisdiction 5 Internet Policy Review 8 CNet (23.04.2014). Brazil (24.04.2014). The Internet & Ju- (26.04.2014). World internet lays down the law with inter- 11 The Guardian (29.04.2014). risdiction project NETmundial cup in Brazil – a review net bill of rights’. US court forces Microsoft to contribution. hand over personal data from 6 Brazilian National Con- 9 ZDNet (23.04.2014). Brazil- Irish server. 3 The Wall Street Journal gress (23.04.2014). Marco civil ian senate approves internet (25.04.2014). Brazil Conference framework. bill of rights. Ends Divided on Key Issues.

26 12 The Register (28.04.2014). 21 CNet (04.04.2014). Turkish 28 TorrentFreak (08.04.2014). 37 TorrentFreak (24.04.2014). US judge: Our digital search court orders partial lifting of Movie studios demand mil- US copyright law doesn’t ap- warrants apply anywhere. YouTube ban. lions from Megaupload in new ply worldwide, “DVD ripper” lawsuit. tells court. 13 Reuters (25.04.2014). U.S. 22 Court of Justice of the Eu- judge rules search warrants ropean Union (10.04.2014). The 29 TorrentFreak (11.04.2014). 38 Mashable (28.04.2014). Can extend to overseas email ac- amount of the levy payable Now the RIAA sues Megaup- an Android app defeat China’s counts. for making private copies of a load “for massive copyright Internet censors? protected work may not take theft”. 14 Engadget (25.04.2014). unlawful reproductions into 39 Global Voices Online Judge rules US search warrants account. 30 Scribd (07.04.2014). MPAA (25.03.2014). How Russians are still apply to info stored over- complaint. outsmarting Internet censor- seas. 23 Techdirt (10.04.2014). ship. Dutch immediately ban un- 31 Facebook (01.04.2014). 15 GigaOm (03.04.2014). Turk- authorized downloads after Government requests report. 40 TorrentFreak (03.04.2014). ish government withdraws its EU Court Of Justice confirms Court orders ISPs to unblock ban on Twitter after court says incompatibility with copyright 32 PC Mag (11.04.2014). Face- “pirate” site. it is unconstitutional. law. book adds censorship data to 16 RT (18.04.2014). Turkey’s transparency report. 41 Arctechnica (09.04.2014). Erdogan challenges constitu- 24 European Parliament Supreme Court weighing when tional court that lifted social (21.01.2012). Directive of the 33 City of London Police online speech becomes illegal media ban. European parliament and of (01.04.2014). PIPCU suspends threat. the council. more than 2,500 websites sell- 17 Al Arabiya News ing fake designer goods. 42 The Hindu (27.04.2014). (21.04.2014). Turkey Twitter 25 TorrentFreak (10.04.2014). Notice to sites over hate accounts appear blocked after The Netherlands must outlaw 34 TorrentFreak (28.04.2014). speech video. Erdogan court action. downloading, EU court rules UK police suspend 2,500 (update). “counterfeit” domain names. 43 Hunton Privacy Blog 18 Reuters (10.04.2014). (30.04.2014). Japan joins the Turkey keeps YouTube block 26 TorrentFreak (25.04.2014). 35 TorrentFreak (23.04.2014). APEC cross-border privacy despite court rulings. Hulu blocks VPN users over Megaupload sues Hong Kong rules system. piracy concerns. over unlawful shutdown. 19 Hürriyet (02.04.2014). 44 Technology & Marketing Constitutional Court orders 27 Future Tense (02.04.2014). 36 Indian Express Law Blog (18.04.2014). Revenge authorities to unblock Twitter. Netizen report: Mexico con- (28.04.2014). Can’t ban por- porn is bad, but it’s not Go- siders controversial telecom nography on Internet: Govt to Daddy’s fault (Forbes cross- 20 The New York Times reforms. SC. post). (03.04.2014). Turkey lifts Twit- ter ban after court calls it 45 Wikipedia (31.12.2014). Sec- illegal. tion 230 of the Communica- tions Decency Act.

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27 MAY

1. European Court of Justice 2. Germany considers orders Google to enforce a arbitration mechanisms right to be de-indexed to implement the EU index In a landmark ruling, the European Court of Justice deletion Google judgment decided1 on May 13, 2014 that users have the right to The German Ministry of the Interior announced plans on directly demand2 Google to stop indexing links to per- May 27, 2014 to create “dispute-settlement mechanisms” sonal information that is “inadequate, irrelevant or no for consumers who filed a request to Google for the de- longer relevant, or excessive in relation to the purposes indexing of their personal data, in line with the judgment for which they were processed” and related to the user’s of the European Court of Justice from May 13, 2014. The name. The case started in the Spanish jurisdiction with a German Secretary of State Ole Schröder8 stressed the im- request to delete links to 16-years-old newspaper articles portance of preventing that search engines make arbitrary mentioning unpaid debts on Google’s search engine. The decisions when deleting links to information. The Ministry Court applied existing European data protection law appears not to plan a single authority or arbitration court online. The ruling is not related to the “right to be forgot- or to require mediators to be put under state supervi- ten”3 discussed within the upcoming EU data protection sion. The news outlet SearchEngineLand reports9 that the reform. On May 29, 2014 Google made available a spe- mechanism would potentially be triggered if requesters cific web form4 to collect takedown requests to imple- were unsatisfied with the determination made by Google ment the judgement. The company received quickly over and wanted to appeal decisions. It remains unclear how 12.000 requests and announced it will evaluate each one much the procedure would cost or if lawyers would be on an individual basis internally. It remains unclear on involved in it. which country-specific pages Google will remove the content and to what extent other search engines operated Read further: by Yahoo or Microsoft will be obliged to follow Google’s Bloomberg: Germany mulls arbitration for web ‘Right to example in the EU jurisdiction. Be Forgotten’10 GigaOM: Germany considers “cyber courts” for judging Read further: which Google links should be nixed11 Cambridge Code: Overview of academic articles about Financial Times: Google could face ‘cyber courts” in Ger- the Google/Spain case5 many over privacy rights (paywall)12 New York Times: European Court lets users erase record on web6 Wired: What we can salvage from the ‘right to be forgotten’ ruling7

28 3. Turkish court Read further: The Express Tribune: YouTube ban questioned in Lahore declares YouTube ban High Court21 unconstitutional, Twitter Bytes for All: 20th Hearing of Internet Freedom Case: opens Turkish complaints Petitioner referred to Supreme Court22 service Global Voices: Pakistan High Court demands unblocking 23 On May 29, 2014 the Constitutional Court of Turkey of YouTube ruled13 that the blocking of YouTube in the Turkish jurisdiction since March 27, 2014 violated the freedom of 5. Norwegian Consumer expression provision in Article 26 of the Turkish constitu- Council files complaint tion. Google, the Union of Turkish Bar Associations and a against Apple’s iCloud Terms Turkish scholar appealed the blocking. The Turkish admin- of Service istration refused to implement the judgment by a lower court14 on April 4, 2014 to re-install access to YouTube on On May 14, 2014, the Norwegian Consumer Council, a gov- Turkish territory after Turkish security-sensitive informa- ernmental agency and consumer protection organization, 24 tion was leaked on the platform. On April 2, 2014, the filed a complaint with Norway’s Consumer Ombuds- Constitutional Court declared that the ban of the entire man against Apple’s iCloud Terms of Service. In the unfair Twitter platform for some pieces of infringing content practice complaint, the council accuses Apple of violating was disproportionate15 and violated Article 26. Following Norwegian consumer rights and privacy provisions as well meetings between Twitter and the government on May as the EU Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Directive. 25 21, 2014, Twitter agreed to open a live customer support According to a study by the council on Terms of Service service16 in Turkish to quickly react to takedown requests of seven cloud computing services, Apple is the only from the Turkish jurisdiction. “In some cases even a court provider that reserves the right to “change the terms at order will not be required,” stated a Turkish official. any time, without notice”. Norway is not a EU member, but part of the European Economic Area Agreement and Read further: implements certain EU laws. Hürriyet: Turkey’s top court rules YouTube ban violates freedom of speech17 Read further: Wall Street Journal: Turkey’s top court rules YouTube ban EurActive: Norway accuses Apple of breaching EU con- 26 is unconstitutional18 sumer law Twitter: Turkey says Twitter to be sensitive on court or- ZDNet: Apple’s ‘convoluted and unclear’ iCloud agree- 27 ders, to set up live support19 ments break Norwegian law, says watchdog The Whir: Apple iCloud Terms of Service violates Norwe- 4. Pakistan Supreme Court to gian law28 clarify if YouTube ban over 6. Twitter started using geo- one anti-Islam video was IP based content filtering in proportionate Pakistani jurisdiction On September 13, 2012, the Supreme Court of Pakistan In Pakistan, Twitter has used its Country Withheld Con- ordered to block the entire YouTube platform in the Paki- tent Tool, a geo-IP based content filtering mechanism, stani jurisdiction for hosting the Innocence of Muslims for the first time29 in response to five reported requests video. The Pakistani NGO Bytes for All appealed the deci- by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority regarding sion in January 2013, arguing that the judgment was dis- blasphemous or unethical content, which the US-based proportionate. During the 20th hearing of the appeal case company received between May 5 and May 14, 2014. Twit- at the High Court of Lahore on May 13, the judge agreed ter used the technology for the first time in October 2012 with the technical advise by the Ministry of Information in Germany30. Technology and Bytes for All that warning pages could be displayed on YouTube before controversial videos in the Pakistani jurisdiction. This would allow restoring access 7. Estonia plans to offer cyber to YouTube. Following the subsequent order20 from the citizenship to foreigners High Court, the NGO will now seek clarification from the Estonia’s chief information officer announced31 plans to is- Supreme Court on the granularity of the blocking order sue digital identification cards to non-Estonian residents. from 2012. The cyber passport would allow “e-residents” to open bank accounts or start companies without any physical presence on Estonian territory. First cyber passports could be issued by the end of 2014 if the parliament agrees to necessary legislative changes.

29 8. EU member states adopt 12. After racist tweets, Spain guidelines on freedom of might crack down on hate expression online and offline speech on social networks On May 12, 2014, the Council of the EU adopted the Following a Spanish-Israeli basketball game on May 18, EU Human Rights Guidelines on Freedom of Expression 2014, a wave of anti-Semitic tweets by Spanish users Online and Offline32, which state that “all human rights circulated on Twitter. A specific anti-Semitic hashtag which exist offline must also be protected online, in par- became a trending topic. Jewish groups have filed a ticular the right to freedom of opinion and expression”. complaint in Spain against the Twitter users involved. The guidelines have the purpose33 to “address unjustified The lawsuit is reminiscent of a similar case in France38 in restriction on freedom of expression, promote media 2013. The Spanish Ministries of Justice and Interior are freedom and provide valuable guidance to EU officials now debating how Spanish law on defamatory, racist or and staff across the globe”. discriminatory speech can be enforced on social media such as Twitter. 9. Iran summons Facebook CEO to appear in court over 13. Singapore to introduce privacy complaints ISP blocking amendment for On May 27, 2014 an Iranian court in the southern province copyright infringement of Fars, which opened a privacy case against Facebook’s On May 29, 2014, an amendment to Singapore’s Copy- services WhatsApp and Instagram, summoned34 the “Zion- right Act was introduced39 in the Parliament. If the bill is ist director of the company of Facebook, or his official passed, courts could order the ISP blocking of websites attorney” to appear in court to “defend himself and pay that infringe copyrights. for possible losses“. Both services are also ordered to be blocked35 in the Iranian jurisdiction. 14. Apple publishes details on how it handles user data 10. Canadian police access requests by US authorities servers of Swedish torrent On May 7, 2014, Apple published the “Legal Process site through MLAT request Guidelines – US Law Enforcement”40 that provide details The Swedish torrent website Sparvar is hosted by Netelli- on how the company handles requests by US authori- gent Hosting Services in the Canadian jurisdiction, which ties for user data of its customers. Apple states41 that it did not declare torrent sites illegal. Through an MLAT notifies the user about requests unless a notice would be cooperation request, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police illegal or represents a danger. Apple further specified42 nevertheless requested36 the hosting company to hand what information on which service it can reveal. over the data of the site that is directed to a Swedish audience, since a criminal investigation is underway in the 15. Polish registrar restores Swedish jurisdiction. torrent site previously suspended by UK police 11. Russian draft resolution to block websites in case of On May 26, 2014, the City of London Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit asked a Poland-based registrar to non-compliance with data suspend the domain of torrent website torrentz.eu with- requests out a court order. The registrar initially complied, but re- The Russian regulator Roskomnadzor issued a draft reso- stored43 the domain name on May 27, 2014, after it found lution37 that would allow the blocking of websites located that the British suspension request was unlawful. in foreign jurisdictions if they fail to provide data on their owners within five days when requested by Russian secu- 16. Vimeo blocked in rity services or the police. The provision would replace an Indonesian jurisdiction for initial proposal to require all website operators to provide nudity videos Russian authorities with full details on their identity. On May 21, 2014, Indonesian ISPs were ordered44 to block the video streaming site Vimeo. Indonesia found that Vimeo hosts 15.000 videos that show some form of nudity, which is illegal under the 2008 Anti-Pornography Law. The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology asked Vimeo to introduce stricter content filters in its jurisdiction.

30 17. Russia plans amendment to 19. French Hadopi proposes block “malicious” pirate sites notice and staydown regime entirely The French anti-piracy agency Hadopi proposed in a The Russian Ministry of Communications is working on an recommendation47 to the French government to develop amendment45 that would allow the blocking of “mali- “operational tools” that would not only be designed cious sites” that are entirely directed towards copyright to takedown copyright infringing content, but also to infringements. A court order would be required to make guarantee that content stays down for a certain amount piracy sites inaccessible in the Russian jurisdiction. It re- of time. mains unclear if sites would need to host actual infringing content, or simply link to it to be qualified as “malicious”. 20. Iran announces to use granular filters, blocks two 18. Germany court rules to US-based platforms and Wiki preemptively delete erotic pages pictures to prevent revenge On May 16, 2014 the Iranian Communications Minister porn announced that Iran will develop “smart-filters”48, which Revenge porn online is a new challenge for courts in vari- allow the blocking of “depraved and immoral” websites ous jurisdictions. Now a higher regional court in Germany on a granular level. Meanwhile, the US-based platforms ruled in a case involving an ex-partner having taken Google Sites, Instagram and several Wikipedia pages were nude pictures with full consent from his former partner, blocked49 in May 2014 in the Iranian jurisdiction. to preemptively delete46 this material to prevent any potential online diffusion against the will of the plaintiff. The defendant showed no intention to use the material as revenge porn.

REFERENCES

1 Court of Justice of the 6 The New York Times 12 Financial Times 18 The Wall Street Journal European Union (13.05.2014). (13.05.2014). European Court (01.05.2014). Google could (21.05.2014). Turkey’s top court An Internet search engine lets users erase records on face ‘cyber courts’ in Germany rules YouTube ban is unconsti- operator is responsible for the web. over privacy rights. tutional. processing that it carries out of personal data which appear 7 Wired (15.05.2014). What 13 Reuters (28.05.2014). Tur- 19 Reuters (21.05.2014). Tur- on web pages published by we can salvage from ‘right to key’s top court rules YouTube key says Twitter to be sensi- third parties. be forgotten’ ruling. ban violates rights: media. tive on court orders, to set up live support: official. 2 GigaOm (30.05.2014). 8 Handelsblatt (27.05.2014). 14 CNet (04.04.2014). Turkish Google starts taking European Schlichtungsstelle für „Recht court orders partial lifting of 20 The Express Tribune personal data link removal auf Vergessen“ geplant. YouTube ban. (19.05.2014). Supreme Court to requests after privacy ruling. be consulted on YouTube ban. 9 Search Engine Land 15 Euronews (03.04.2014). 3 GigaOm (12.03.2014). Web (28.05.2014). Google co- Turkey’s Twitter ban ruled un- 21 The Express Tribune firms face a strict new set founder Sergey Brin: I wish I constitutional by the country’s (17.03.2014). YouTube ban of privacy rules in Europe — could forget the “right to be top court. questioned in the Lahore High here’s what to expect. forgotten”. Court. 16 Reuters (21.05.2014). Tur- 4 Search Engine Land 10 Bloomberg (27.05.2014). key says Twitter to be sensi- 22 Bytes for All (13.05.2014). (30.05.2014). How google’s new Germany mulls arbitration for tive on court orders, to set up Update: 20th hearing of Inter- “right to be forgotten” form web ‘right to be forgotten’. live support: official. net freedom case: Petitioner works: An explainer. referred to Supreme Court. 11 GigaOM (27.05.2014). Ger- 17 Hurriyet Daily News 5 Cambridge Code many considers “cyber courts” (21.05.2014). Turkey’s top court 23 GlobalVoices (13.05.2014). (12.05.2014). Academic for judging which Google links rules YouTube ban violates Pakistan High Court demands commentary: Google Spain - should be nixed. freedom of speech. unblocking of YouTube. Compiled by Julia Powles and Rebekah Larsen. 31 24 GigaOM (14.05.2014). 30 TechCrunch (18.12.2012). 35 Market Watch (27.05.2014). 41 The New York Times Apple accused of breaking Twitter uses country-specific Facebook CEO Mark Zucker- (08.05.2014). Apple Publishes Norwegian law with iCloud blocking powers for the first berg summoned to court in Expanded Report on How It terms and conditions. time to restrict Neo-Nazi ac- Iran over privacy. Handles Government Data count in Germany. Requests. 25 Forbrukerradet 36 TorrentFreak (17.05.2014). (27.02.2014). Hazy terms in the 31 ZDNet (19.05.2014). ‘This How Sweden gained access to 42 CNet (07.05.2014). Apple cloud. is so freaking huge man, it’s a Canada-hosted torrent site. releases guidelines for law insane’: The plan to let anyone enforcement data requests. 26 EurActive (14.05.2014). become European – digitally. 37 The Moscow Times Norway accuses Apple of (27.05.2014). Media regulator 43 TorrentFreak (27.05.2014). breaching EU consumer law. 32 Council of the European could block foreign websites Torrentz.eu domain unsus- Union (12.05.2014). EU human for failing to reveal data. pended and back in action. 27 ZDNet (14.05.2014). Apple’s rights guidelines on freedom ‘convoluted and unclear’ of expression online and of- 38 TechPresident (22.07.2013). 44 CNet (13.05.2014). Vimeo iCloud agreements break Nor- fline. Obeying French courts, Twit- banned in Indonesia for alleg- wegian law, says watchdog. ter hands over identities of edly hustling porn. 33 Intellectual Property users who employed Anti- 28 The Whir (15.05.2014). Watch (13.05.2014). New EU Semitic hashtag. 45 MusicWeek (22.05.2014). Apple iCloud terms of service human rights guidelines on Russia copyright law amend- violates Norwegian law. freedom of expression, offline 39 Parliament of Singa- ments could block sites. and online. pore (29.05.2014). Copyright 29 Chilling Effects (Amendment) Bill. 46 The Guardian (22.05.2014). (18.05.2014). Twitter institutes 34 Reuters (27.05.2014). Ira- ‘Revenge porn’ victims receive country withheld content tool nian judge summons Facebook 40 Apple (01.05.2014). Our boost from German court rul- In Pakistan for the first time. CEO for breach of privacy. commitment to customer ing. privacy doesn’t stop because of a government information request.

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32 JUNE

1. US may allow EU citizens 2. Hong Kong DPA wants to to seek judicial redress if US extend European de-index authorities mishandle their right on Google to Asia- data Pacific region The EU and the US are since 2011 negotiating the EU-US Only six weeks after the May 13, 2014 ruling by the EU Data Protection and Privacy Agreement (DPPA) which fo- Court of Justice (ECJ) that allows EU citizens to de-index cuses on police and judicial cooperation. During a Justice certain privacy infringing search results, Google updated and Home Affairs Ministerial Meeting in Greece on June its technical infrastructure on June 27, 2014, to start hid- 25, 2014, US Attorney General Eric Holder announced1 the ing results on its country pages with EU-based ccTLDs. intention of the Obama administration to introduce a bill At the same time, on June 27, 2014, the Commissioner of in the US jurisdiction through which “EU citizens would the Data Protection Authority of Hong Kong evoked that have the same right to seek judicial redress for intentional Google should not limit the right to be de-indexed to or willful disclosures of protected information, and for EU citizens. In detail, the issue of wider adoption of the refusal to grant access or to rectify any errors in that ECJ judgement was on the agenda of the 41st Asia Pacific information, as would a U.S. citizen under the [US] Privacy Privacy Authorities Forum in Seoul, which took place on Act”. In return, EU law enforcement authorities would June 17-18, 2014 and unites 13 privacy authorities. In a blog share2 certain personal data with their US counterparts post, the Hong Kong Privacy Commissioner announced6 for crime and terrorism investigations under the DPPA. to explore to what extent the ECJ judgement could be implemented in the Hong Kong jurisdiction. Read further: US Department of Justice: Attorney General Holder Read further: pledges support for legislation to provide E.U. Citizens Washington Post: Google starts removing search results with judicial redress in cases of wrongful disclosure of under Europe’s ‘Right to be Forgotten’7 their personal data transferred to the U.S. for law en- South China Morning Post: Hong Kong’s privacy chief am- forcement purposes3 plifies call for Google to extend ‘right to be forgotten’8 GigaOM: U.S. may extend some privacy rights to Europe- China Daily Asia: Privacy tsar wants ‘right to be forgotten’ ans4 in HK9 Reuters: U.S. will allow EU citizens to sue over data pri- vacy5

33 3. Canadian court orders 5. EU court will review EU-US Google to remove search Safe Harbor agreement due to results worldwide Irish Facebook case On June 13, 2014 the Supreme Court of British Columbia in The privacy campaign europe-v-facebook filed a case Canada ordered10 Google Inc. and Google Canada Coop- against the Irish Data Protection Commissioner in the Irish eration to remove certain websites from its worldwide jurisdiction, after the agency refused19 to investigate if search databases within 14 days. The temporary injunction Facebook, incorporated in Ireland, has violated EU privacy concerns a pirated product that is sold on the Internet. laws by processing data of EU citizens in the US, where Google voluntarily removed certain results from Google. it was intercepted by the NSA. On June 18, 2014, the Irish ca prior to the ruling. The Canadian judge argued that High Court referred20 the case to the Court of Justice of contrary to Google’s “choice of laws” provision in its the EU to examine if the EU-US Safe Harbor agreement Terms of Service that sets California as its legal forum, for cross-border data transfers is compatible with the EU Canada can assume jurisdiction over the globally available Charter of Fundamental Rights. Moreover, the judge said search engine and its country pages: “I note that Google that Facebook users’ privacy should be respected under objects to British Columbia retaining jurisdiction because the Irish constitution21. the order sought would require Google to take steps in relation to its websites worldwide. That objection is not Read further: resolved by ‘going to California’. If the order involves BBC: Facebook: Irish judge refers internet privacy case to worldwide relief, a California court will be no more ap- European Court of Justice22 propriate a forum than British Columbia to make such an EU Observer: EU judgment on Facebook to take over a year23 order”. Google announced it will appeal11 the decision. Bloomberg BNA: Irish referral of U.S.-EU Safe Harbor to ECJ The court order did not extend the ruling to other search may raise issues on all adequacy regime24 engines, which still display links to the sites in question in Canada. 6. Twitter asked to block twelve extremist accounts in Read further: Russian jurisdiction Michael Geist: Global deletion orders? B.C. Court orders Google to remove websites from its worldwide index12 The Russian regulator Roskomnadzor asked25 Twitter’s TorrentFreak: Court hands google a worldwide site block- global public policy head during a meeting on June 23, ing injunction13 2014 to block twelve accounts deemed to be “extrem- New York Times: Canadian judge says Google must re- ist” in the Russian jurisdiction. The head of the regulator move links worldwide14 stressed in an interview that “it does not matter where the blog has been registered” as long as they are made 4. Twitter restores filtered inaccessible in the Russian jurisdiction. Twitter did not content in Pakistan after comply26 with this demand. second review of requests 7. Google to notify users On May 18, 2014 Twitter complied for the first time with about de-indexed search requests from the Pakistani Telecommunication Authority results in EU jurisdiction and geo-IP blocked “blasphemous” or “unethical” content in the Pakistani jurisdiction. On June 17, 2014 Twitter Implementing the European Court of Justice de-indexing restored15 access to the pieces of content. Twitter argued judgment27, Google began to notify28 all users search- it lacked “additional clarifying information from Pakistani ing for “names” on European country search pages that authorities” and therefore re-determined the compli- some results may have been removed. Moreover, Google ance with the official requests. The tweets in question informs29 operators of websites, which are removed from appeared to be anti-Islamic and showed, for example, European versions of Google Search results, via Google images that mocked the Prophet Muhammad. Webmaster Tools. Concerned websites are still search- able in Europe with terms that do not contain specifically Read further: blocked names. Chilling Effects: Twitter restores access to Pakistani no- tices16 8. LinkedIn filters Tiananmen CNet: Twitter unblocks ‘blasphemous’ accounts in Paki- posts made in Chinese stan17 jurisdiction worldwide TechAdvisor: Twitter unblocks controversial content in Pakistan after review18 The social network LinkedIn is accessible in China and launched a Chinese language version in 2014. Complying with Chinese regulations, LinkedIn blocks30 posts about the anniversary of the Tiananmen protest that were made within the Chinese jurisdiction for both users residing

34 in China and global users. It appears31 that users in Hong 13. Turkish government Kong’s jurisdiction were, by accident32, also subject to the Chinese content posting restrictions on LinkedIn. unblocks YouTube On June 3, 2014 the Turkish Telecommunication Authority 9. Argentinean Supreme Court TIB implemented40 the judgment by the Constitutional to rule on monitoring Court and restored access to YouTube in the Turkish juris- responsibility of Google and diction after a 67 day block. The block of the entire platform due to one leaked recording that circulated on the Yahoo search service was found to be disproportionate and to violate In the absence of prescriptive intermediary liability laws free speech provisions under the Turkish constitution. in the Argentinean jurisdiction, a decisive case is heard by the Supreme Court. The case involves a model who 14. Bahamas-based registrar wants Yahoo and Google to block search results that suspends .pm domain for show pornographic material next to her name or images, copyright violation and to stop the commercial use of her images in Google Image’s thumbnails. The Supreme Court will thus judge33 if A registrar suspended41 the domain of a torrent site intermediaries are liable for linking to content that either after it received complaints that the website does not violates their fundamental rights or infringes copyright. have tools –such as the DCMA mechanism– in place to respond to takedown requests by rightsholders. The case 10. Linking to protected involved a Barbados-based company that operated the content on the web does not torrent link library Bittorrent.pm and bought its domain through the Bahamas-based registrar Internet BS. The infringe copyright, rules EU cc-TLD .pm belongs to the French oversea territory Saint court Pierre and Miquelon and is managed by the French regis- On June 5, 2014 the Court of Justice of the EU decided34 try AFNIC. that under Article 5 of the EU Copyright Directive35, websites that provide links to protected content that is subse- 15. Streaming site moves quently accessed by users do not infringe copyright. The domain from Belize to question was referred to the court by the UK Supreme Iceland’s jurisdiction to Court and involved a news monitoring service36. escape suspension

11. Microsoft objects US The video streaming site putlocker moved42 its cc-TLD court order to disclose data from Belize’s .bz to Iceland’s .is following a temporary suspension by NIC.bz. It rests unclear if rightsholders or law stored on servers in Irish enforcement authorities triggered the suspension. The jurisdiction Icelandic registry ISNIC stated that it would only suspend On June 6, 2014 Microsoft objected37 the decision by a domains with a valid Icelandic court order and not on federal US Court to extend a search warrant for US law grounds of determinations by the registry on illicit use of enforcement to access data stored on servers by Mi- a registered domain. crosoft in Ireland. Other US companies such as Verizon, Apple and Cisco, AT&T, and EFF submitted amicus briefs to 16. LinkedIn faces lawsuit over the District Court for the Southern District of New York advertisement email messages to support Microsoft’s objection against extraterritorial in US jurisdiction search warrants. The professional social network LinkedIn, incorporated in 12. Facebook, Google, Twitter Mountain View, California, is being sued43 by customers in the US jurisdiction for privacy and reputation violations44 blocked in Iraqi jurisdiction for “breaking into its users’ third-party email accounts, to hinder ISIS mobilization downloading email addresses that appear in the account, On June 13, 2014 the Iraqi Ministry of Communications and then sending out multiple reminder emails … advertis- blocked38 social networks and communication services ing LinkedIn to non-members”. The plaintiffs seek class- based in foreign jurisdictions and operating in Iraq. action status for the lawsuit. Facebook, Google, YouTube, Skype and Twitter are inac- cessible39. It remains unclear if the blocks were applied only locally or covered the entire Iraqi jurisdiction. It is believed that the Iraqi government wants to prevent the armed militant organization ISIS to communicate with and mobilize people in Iraq via the Internet.

35 17. UK intelligence service 19. Consultations on Brazilian intercepts British use of Marco Civil implementation platforms located in foreign are crowd-sourced jurisdictions The Marco Civil was passed in the Brazilian jurisdiction on The UK intelligence service asserts45 the right to intercept April 23, 2014. Similar to the drafting phase of the com- communications between British citizens without a war- prehensive Internet rights bill, the Brazilian government rant if data is exchanged on platforms located in foreign decided to launch online consultations49 on its implemen- jurisdictions. This “external communication”46 can occur tation. Under the law, data of Brazilians is considered to on service such as Facebook, Google or web-based email be under Brazilian jurisdiction regardless of its physical platforms such as Hotmail. location. 18. Facebook reveals largest 20. Terms of Service: Facebook search warrant request in US allows breastfeeding pictures jurisdiction Facebook changed50 the nudity content policy on its On June 26, 2014 Facebook disclosed47 details about the platform and began to allow breastfeeding pictures. largest bulk search warrant it ever received in the US juris- In the past, deletions of breastfeeding pictures caused diction. A New York court ordered the network to reveal controversies between the platform and users around the data about 381 users of which only 62 were later charged world. Facebook now states: “We agree that breastfeed- in a case. Facebook wanted to highlight the dispropor- ing is natural and beautiful and we’re glad to know that tionate48 broadness of the search warrant. it’s important for mothers to share their experiences with others on Facebook.”

REFERENCES

1 The Hill (25.06.2014). 6 Office of the Privacy Com- 11 Search Engine Land 17 CNet (17.06.2014). Twitter Holder: US working to give Eu- missioner for Personal Data, (18.06.2014). Canadian court unblocks ‘blasphemous’ ac- ropeans privacy protections. Hong Kong (26.06.2014). Right orders Google to remove sites counts in Pakistan. to be forgotten. worldwide. 2 Out-Law (26.06.2014). US 18 PC Advisor (18.06.2014). commits to recognising EU 7 The Wall Street Journal 12 Michael Geist (17.06.2014). Twitter unblocks controver- citizens’ privacy rights in the (26.06.2014). Google Starts Re- Global deletion orders? sial content in Pakistan after US. moving Search Results Under B.C. court orders Google to review. Europe’s ‘Right to be Forgot- remove websites from its 3 US Department of Justice ten’. worldwide index. 19 Reuters (18.06.2014). Data (25.06.2014). Attorney general sharing deal with U.S. referred holder pledges support for 8 South China Morning 13 TorrentFreak (18.06.2014). to EU’s top court. legislation to provide E.U. Post (27.06.2014). Hong Kong’s Court hands Google a world- Citizens with judicial redress privacy chief amplifies call for wide site blocking injunction. 20 Irish High Court in cases of wrongful disclo- Google to extend ‘right to be (18.06.2014). Europe v Face- sure of their personal data forgotten’. 14 The New York Times book.org. transferred to the U.S. for law (19.06.2014). Canadian judge enforcement purposes. 9 China Daily Asia says Google must remove links 21 BBC News (18.06.2014). (27.06.2014). Privacy tsar wants worldwide. Facebook: Irish judge refers 4 GigaOM (25.06.2014). U.S. ‘right to be forgotten’ in HK. Internet privacy case to Euro- may extend some privacy 15 BBC News (18.06.2014). pean Court of Justice. rights to Europeans. 10 The Supreme Court of Twitter unblocks ‘blasphe- British Coloumbia (13.06.2014). mous’ tweets in Pakistan. 22 BBC News (18.06.2014). 5 Reuters (25.06.2014). U.S. Equustek Solutions Inc. v. Jack. Facebook: Irish judge refers will allow EU citizens to sue 16 Chilling Effects Internet privacy case to Euro- over data privacy. (17.06.2014). Twitter Restores pean Court of Justice. Access to Pakistani Notices.

36 23 EUObserver (12.02.2015). 29 Search Engine Roundtable 36 GigaOM (05.06.2014). 43 Reuters (13.06.2014). EU judgement on Facebook to (02.06.2014). Google web- You can’t break copyright by LinkedIn must face customer take over a year. master tools now notifying looking at something online, lawsuit over email addresses. webmasters of right to be Europe’s top court rules. 24 Bloomberg BNA forgotten removals. 44 PCMag (13.06.2014). Linke- (23.06.2014). Irish referral of 37 The Center for Internet dIn must face lawsuit over U.S.-EU safe harbor to ECJ may 30 The Guardian (04.06.2014). and Society (23.06.2014). spammy e-mails. raise issues on all adequacy LinkedIn under fire for censor- Whose laws control your regimes. ing Tiananmen Square posts. data? The implications of the 45 The New York Times Microsoft search warrant chal- (16.06.2014). British spy agen- 25 Reuters (23.06.2014). 31 Quartz (04.06.2014). Linke- lenge. cies assert power to intercept Russia asks Twitter to block a dIn is censoring posts about web traffic. dozen accounts. Tiananmen Square. 38 International Business Times (13.06.2014). Iraq Crisis: 46 Wired (17.06.2014). The UK 26 Bloomberg Business 32 Al Jazeera (04.06.2014). Twitter, Google, YouTube and government can legally spy on (24.06.2014). Twitter denies LinkedIn blocking Tiananmen Facebook blocked by govern- your offshore data. blocking extremist accounts in Square posts in China. ment to stop Isis plotting. Russia. 47 CNet (27.06.2014). Face- 33 The Center for Internet 39 BBC News (16.06.2014). book reveals search warrant of 27 The European Court of and Society (23.06.2014). Iraq blocks Facebook and hundreds of accounts. Justice (13.05.2014). Judgment Argentine Supreme Court to Twitter in bid to restrict Isis. in case c-131/12 decide whether intermediar- 48 Facebook Newsroom Google Spain SL, Google Inc. v ies must monitor/take down 40 Deutsche Welle (26.06.2014). Fighting Bulk Agencia Española de Protec- search results. (03.06.2014). Turkish govern- Search Warrants In Court. ción de Datos, Mario Costeja ment complies with court González. 34 InfoCuria (05.06.2014). order to unblock YouTube. 49 BN Americas (27.05.2014). Judgment of the court (fourth Marco Civil regulations to 28 Arstechnica (09.06.2014). chamber). 41 TorrentFreak (14.06.2014). receive online feedback. Google will flag search results Registrar suspends torrent erased due to “right to be 35 The IT Law Community domain for DMCA non-com- 50 The Verge (13.06.2014). forgotten”. (06.05.2014). CJEU judgment: pliance. Breastfeeding photos are now No copyright infringement in safe for Facebook. mere web viewing. 42 TorrenFreak (04.06.2014). Putlocker.BZ loses domain name, moves to “safe haven” Iceland.

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37 JULY

1. EU DPAs meet with Google, 2. Russia adopts personal data Microsoft, Yahoo to discuss localization law right to be de-indexed On July 22, 2014, the Russian president Vladimir Putin On July 25, 2014 the EU Data Protection Authorities signed a new law “Bill number 553424-6” that amends (united in the Article 29 Working Party) met1 in Brussels existing Russian privacy laws. It will require domestic and with representatives of Google, Microsoft and Yahoo to foreign websites operating in the Russian jurisdiction and discuss the modalities of the implementation of the May interacting with natural persons to store personal data of 2014 landmark ruling2 by the Court of Justice of the EU Russians locally:8 “while collecting personal data, includ- that established a right of users to be de-indexed from ing by means of the internet, an operator should provide search engines to protect their privacy. During the meet- recording, systematization, storage and update of the Rus- ing, chaired by the French DPA CNIL, the platforms were sian citizen’s personal data using databases located in the asked 26 detailed questions3 on how they apply the ruling. territory of the Russian Federation.” The law was passed A point of contestation was the fact that Google decided by the State Duma on July 5, 2014 and will enter into force to remove results only on European versions of its search on September 1, 2016. Websites that will not comply with engine, and not on google.com, which remains accessible the new regulation will be blocked at the ISP level by the in the EU jurisdiction. Google published4 its responses on Russian regulator Roscomnadzor. July 31, 2014. The Article 29 Working Party announced it will draft guidelines that ensure “the consistent handling Read further: of complaints by European DPAs” and “frame the action The Register: Russian law will force citizens’ personal data of search engines ensuring the consistent and uniform to be stored locally9 implementation of the ruling”. Reports suggest that these Russia Today: New Russian law bans citizens’ personal guidelines could be released in September 2014. data being held on foreign servers10 Deutsche Welle: Russia tightens Internet screws with Read further: ‘server law’11 Reuters: Google under fire from regulators on EU privacy ruling5 Article 29 Working Party: European DPAs meet with search engines on “right to be forgotten”6 PC World: EU, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo meet on ‘right to be forgotten’ but questions remain7

38 3. Microsoft implements EU 5. Canadian court refuses right to be de-indexed on Google’s appeal against Bing global de-indexing order The Court of Justice of the EU “right to be de-indexed” On June 13, 2014, the Supreme Court of British Columbia ruling applies not only to Google, but to search engine ordered Google to remove certain search results relat- operators with a “presence” in Europe in general. Micro- ing to websites selling goods that violate trade secrets soft, the operator of Bing, announced12 already in June online. The order targeted not only google.ca, but applies 2014 the intention to launch a form on its website to globally to Google’s country sites. Google appealed the receive requests by users in the European jurisdiction. ruling. On July 23, 2014, the Court of Appeal for British On July 13, 2014, Microsoft introduced a web form13 that Columbia refused24 the request to stay the enforcement requires the requester to fill in information about “iden- of the injunction, but granted the appeal process. The tity, residence and contact information”, the requester’s judge argued25 that, “the applicant is unable to demon- “role in society or your community”, the “requested pages strate irreparable harm is likely to be incurred pending to block” and to sign the form electronically. Bing did not the hearing of the appeal”. Moreover, the court stated yet release statistics on the requests it has received and that implementing the global de-indexing order would to what extent they were granted. Yahoo14 is still working not affect Google’s reputation since it “acts in accordance on its mechanism to implement the EU court judgment. with the rule of law”. Google started removing results related to the product called “GW-1000″ from its US site Read further: google.com. Washington Post: Bing joins Google in accepting ‘right to be forgotten’ requests from European users15 Read further: PC World: Bing follows Google in offering Europeans the Stanford CIS: British Columbia Court of Appeal refuses to ‘right to be forgotten’16 stay enforcement in Equustek Solutionvs v. Google26 BBC: Microsoft’s Bing launches ‘right to be forgotten’ Barry Sookman: Google ordered by BC court to block form17 websites: Equustek Solutions Inc. v. Jack27 The Register: Google’s Canadian ‘memory hole’ to con- 4. US judge orders Microsoft tinue28 to hand over data stored on servers in Irish jurisdiction 6. Italian court orders ISPs to block Mail.ru without On July 31, 2014, the US District Court for the Southern District of New York upheld18 a previous December 2013 notification decision by a magistrate judge to issue a search and sei- The Tribunal of Rome ordered Italian ISPs to block29 ac- zure warrant and ordered Microsoft to hand over emails cess to 24 websites30, including Kim Dotcom’s new service of a user which are stored in the Irish jurisdiction. The MEGA and Mail.ru, the fifth largest website in the Russian seizure is connected to a criminal drug trafficking case. jurisdiction. The case was brought up by a small inde- Microsoft announced19 it will appeal the judgment, argu- pendent Italian producer and involved the unauthorized ing that US authorities cannot seize data that is stored online diffusion of two movies. According to statements physically outside the US jurisdiction, since this would by Mail.ru, Italian law enforcement did not inform31 the amount to an extraterritorial extension of sovereignty. In platform about the illegal content before or after the a brief filed on July 9, 2014, the US government argued20 blocking order was announced. that data stored on servers in foreign jurisdictions is subject to US jurisdiction according to the US Stored Com- 7. Google reverses decision munications Act from 1986: “Overseas records must be to de-index results linking to disclosed domestically when a valid subpoena, order, or British news article warrant compels their production”. Implementing the EU right to be de-indexed judgment, Read further: Google reversed32 on July 3, 2014 the decisions to delete New York Times: Judge rules that Microsoft must turn search results linking to an article about a soccer scandal over data stored in Ireland21 on the website of The Guardian and an investment news Washington Post: Judge orders Microsoft to turn over story on BBC. As webmasters of their news outlets, both data held overseas22 newsrooms were automatically informed of the de-in- ArsTechnica: Obama administration says the world’s serv- dexing by Google and protested the decisions. It remains ers are ours23 unknown who requested the removals of specific search results.

39 8. British and Irish DPAs 13. Google decides to ban examine Facebook emotion porn advertisement on study without users’ consent AdWords The Data Protection Authorities of the UK and Ireland Google changed the policy40 of its AdWords distribution began33 to examine if Facebook violated national and Eu- network and does not display advertisement on websites ropean privacy laws by manipulating News Feeds to study and its own services that are related to adult entertain- the emotions of its users without their consent. Both ment with “sexually explicit content”. agencies asked Facebook for explanations and details. 14. Blogger must pay damages 9. African Union adopts for bad review on Google Convention on Cyber- Search in French jurisdiction security and Personal Data A Bordeaux judge has ruled during an emergency hearing Protection that a French blogger must pay damages after she pub- During the 23rd Ordinary Session of the Summit of the lished a negative review of a restaurant she visited on her African Union, the Convention on Cybersecurity and Per- blog. The article was ranked highly by Google’s algorithm sonal Data Protection34 was adopted. It provides a legal and displayed on the first page of Google Search, which framework35 for security and privacy issues. Several mem- the court deemed to unfairly hurt41 the restaurant’s busi- ber states of the African Union still do not have specific ness. laws regarding privacy and data protection. 15. Twitter takes down 10. Facebook to discuss EU infringing FIFA profile right to be de-indexed with pictures German DPA Twitter complied42 with a DMCA takedown request43 by The Data Protection Authority of Hamburg is meeting36 the FIFA. The FIFA complained that several accounts use with Facebook to discuss the ramifications of the Court of the “the Official Emblem of the 2014 FIFA World Cup” Justice of the EU ruling on the right to be de-indexed. The without authorization as profile images. Twitter replaced head of the agency stressed that the judgment made clear the images with standard Twitter avatars. that “national regulation on data protection is applicable whenever an Internet provider has an active unit in that 16. British ISPs to send letters country.” to users suspected of copyright infringement 11. Myanmar blocks Facebook In spring 2015, a British coalition of rightsholders and to prevent viral spread of ISPs will start44 “a major multimedia education awareness rumors campaign” and send out warnings to clients of major ISPs The social network Facebook was blocked37 in the night when they are suspected of downloading copyright-pro- from July 3-4, 2014 in the Republic of the Union of Myan- tected content without authorization. No further conse- mar to preserve public order. Conflicts between Muslims quences are planned at the moment. and Buddhist were fueled by rumors about a Buddhist woman having been raped by a Muslim, which circulated 17. New Zealand ISP offers on Facebook. customers a VPN tunnel to the US by default 12. Argentinean Pirate Bay ban The New Zealand ISP Slingshot offers45 subscribers a affects citizens in Paraguay “global mode” to access websites that are geo-IP blocked The 67th District Federal Court of Argentina ordered in New Zealand. By re-routing all traffic through a VPN eleven ISPs to block38 the Pirate Bay for copyright viola- tunnel to servers in the US jurisdiction, customers can use tions. Argentina is thus the first country in Latin America online services such as Netflix without restrictions. to block the website. 256 Pirate Bay IP addresses and 12 domains were targeted by the order. The blocking order also affects39 certain Internet users in Paraguay, who cannot access the Pirate Bay anymore although the website is not blocked in their jurisdiction. Paraguay is landlocked between Brazil and Argentina and is connected to the Internet via these two countries.

40 18. Social media sites 20. Spanish court reverses accessible in Iraqi decision to block copyright jurisdiction again infringing sites On July 1, 2014, Iraqi Telecommunications and Post Com- The Spanish Court of Instruction No.10 reversed an injunc- pany unblocked46 access to social media sites including tion ordered by a court in Zaragoza in 2013 and unblocked Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The ban lasted 17 days six websites that were rendered inaccessible for copy- and was intended to limit the communications abilities right infringements in the Spanish jurisdiction. The judge of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). News argued48 that there were “insufficient grounds” to block outlets such as Al Jazeera remain blocked. the websites for property infringements, “especially when it is not absolutely necessary for the continuation of the 19. Singapore amends law to investigation”. block piracy websites On July 8, 2014, the parliament of Singapore passed47 amendments to the Copyright Act that allow rightsholders to get injunctions from the High Court to oblige local ISPs to block access to websites that “flagrantly infringe” copyrights.

REFERENCES

1 Arstechnica (24.07.2014). 7 PC World (25.07.2014). 13 BBC News (17.07.2014). Mi- 19 Arstechnica (14.07.2014). EU regulators to Google: EU, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo crosoft’s Bing launches ‘right Obama administration says “Right to forget” needs to go meet on ‘right to be forgotten’ to be forgotten’ form. the world’s servers are ours. worldwide. but questions remain. 14 Mashable (31.07.2014). 20 GigaOm (25.07.2014). Ca- 2 The Guardian (13.05.2014). 8 Search Engine Land Judge: Microsoft must turn nadian court forces Google to EU court backs ‘right to be (11.06.2014). Bing says “right over a user’s emails stored remove search results world- forgotten’: Google must to be forgotten” request info overseas. wide, as fears of “memory amend results on request. coming soon. hole” grow. 15 PC World (31.07.2014). 3 Wall Street Journal 9 Bing (01.07.2014). Request Judge rules against Microsoft 21 Supreme Court of Brit- (25.07.2014). 26 questions EU to block Bing search results in in email privacy case. ish Columbia (13.06.2014). regulators want Google to Europe. Equustek Solutions Inc. v. answer. 16 United States district Google Inc. 10 Search Engine Land Court Southern District of 4 Google (31.07.2014). (30.05.2014). How Google’s New York (01.07.2014). Gov- 22 The Center for Internet Questionnaire addressed to new “right to be forgotten” ernment’s brief in support of and Society (28.07.2014). Brit- search engines by the article form works: An explainer. the magistrate judge’s decision ish Columbia Court of appeal 29 working party regarding the to uphold a warrant ordering refuses to stay enforcement in implementation of the CJEU 11 The Washington Post Microsoft to disclose records Equustek Solutions v. Google. judgment on the “right to be (17.07.2014). Bing joins Google within its custody and control. forgotten”. in accepting ‘right to be 23 Barry Sookman forgotten’ requests from Euro- 17 The New York Times (23.07.2014). Google ordered 5 Reuters (24.07.2014). pean users. (31.07.2014). Judge rules that by BC court to block websites: Google under fire from regula- Microsoft must turn over data Equustek Solutions Inc. v. Jack tors on EU privacy ruling. 12 PC World (17.07.2014). Bing stored in Ireland. (Updated). follows Google in offering 6 European Commission Europeans the ‘right to be 18 Washington Post 24 The Register (27.07.2014). (25.07.2014). Issued by the forgotten’. (31.07.2014). Judge orders Mi- Google’s Canadian ‘memory article 29 data protection crosoft to turn over data held hole’ to continue. working party. overseas.

41 25 TorrenFreak (19.07.2014). 30 African Union ( 01.07.2014). 35 PanAm Post (01.07.2014). 40 GigaOm (21.07.2014). UK Dotcom’s MEGA blocked in African Union convention on Argentina First in Latin Ameri- ISPs to alert customers sus- Italy over piracy concerns. cyber security and personal ca to Block the Pirate Bay. pected of unlawfully down- data protection. loading copyrighted material. 26 Osservatorio censu- 36 The Guardian (03.07.2014). ra(01.07.2014). Provvedimenti 31 DataGuidance (27.04.2014). Google introduces block on 41 GigaOm (07.07.2014). New dell’autorità giudiziaria. Africa: AU to promote cyber- porn advertising on AdWords. Zealand ISP allows its custom- security and personal data ers to subscribe to the U.S. 27 The Center for Internet protection. 37 BBC News (16.07.2014). version of Netflix. and Society (22.07.2014). In- French blogger fined over re- termediary liability news from 32 Irish Examiner (23.07.2014). view’s Google search placing. 42 Reuters (01.07.2014). Iraq Italy: Courts block Mega and Facebook will discuss ‘right lifts social media ban, some Mail.ru and force YouTube to to be forgotten’ with German 38 Future of Copyright websites still blocked. proactively monitor its plat- regulators. (07.07.2014). Twitter removes form for copyright infringe- protected FIFA images of its 43 TorrentFreak (08.07.2014). ment. 33 The IRRawaddy users. Singapore passes pirate bay- (04.07.2014). Facebook prob- blocking anti-piracy law. 28 Reuters (03.07.2014). lems coincide with curfew in 39 Chilling Effects Google reverses decision to Burma. (03.04.2014). Re: Websearch 44 TorrentFreak (17.07.2014). delete British newspaper links. infringement notification via ‘Pirate’ site ISP blockades 34 International Business online form complaint. reversed by court. 29 The Register (01.07.2014). Times (01.07.2014). The Pirate British and European data Bay Blocked: Torrent Site cops probe Facebook user- Down After Court In Argen- manipulation scandal. tina Rules Against Piracy.

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42 AUGUST

1. Student launches would not hand over any data as long as it appeals the privacy class action for ruling in the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals. Apple, Cis- co, Verizon, AT&T and the Electronic Frontier Foundation international Facebook users have filed amicus curiae briefs7 to support Microsoft. It in Austrian jurisdiction remains unclear whether the owner of the email account The student Max Schrems of the campaign europe-v- in question is a US citizen or not. facebook filed on August 1, 2014 a de facto class action against Facebook Ireland at the Commercial Court of Read further: Vienna in Austria against privacy breaches of the global ZDNet: Microsoft refuses to comply after judge revives social network under Austrian and EU law. The alleged vi- overseas data search warrant8 olations1 include Facebook’s “privacy policy, participation Reuters: Microsoft will not hand over overseas email, in the PRISM program, Facebook’s graph search, apps on despite order9 Facebook, tracking on other web pages (e.g. via the ‘like Wall Street Journal: Judge Lifts Freeze on Microsoft buttons’), ‘big data’ systems that spy on users or the non- Search Warrant10 compliance with access requests”. Facebook Ireland serves all customers of the platform outside of the USA and 3. Hong Kong court allows Canada, which amount to 80 percent of the platform’s businessman to sue Google users. Over 25.000 international users already signed up for auto-complete libel to join the “class action” at the dedicated website www. fbclaim.com. The plaintiff Schrems sues the company for On August 5, 2014, the High Court of the Hong Kong 500 Euro in damages per user. Special Administrative Region Court of First Instance gave the green light11 for a local entertainment tycoon to sue Read further: Google Inc., incorporated in the US jurisdiction, for auto- Wired: Facebook hit with international class action pri- complete suggestions on Google Search that damage vacy suit2 his reputation. In detail, Albert Yeung Sau-shing’s name 12 BBC: Facebook privacy challenge attracts 25,000 users3 is linked to the term “triad” on both the English and Reuters: Student starts global class action against Face- Chinese version of Google. The judge argued that “Google book4 Inc is the publisher of the Words and liable for their publication” and did not agree with Google’s argument that a Hong Kong court has no jurisdiction over a US-based 2. Microsoft continues to company. The judge cited the European right to be de- refuse compliance with US indexed13 decision and the Canadian Equustek14 Solutions order to hand over Irish decision to delete search results globally. server data On August 29, 2014 a judge at the US District Court of the Read further: Southern District of New York lifted5 the stay in execu- South China Morning Post: Albert Yeung’s court victory 15 tion of the July 31, 2014 order that forces6 Microsoft to over Google shows need for law to adapt hand over data stored on its servers in the Irish jurisdic- Washington Post: Can Google be sued for a mere search 16 tion to US authorities for a criminal investigation. A US suggestion? A Hong Kong judge says yes. search and seizure warrant related to a Microsoft email GigaOM: Tycoon can sue Google over auto-complete, as 17 account was initially issued on December 18, 2013. Risking Hong Kong joins global censorship push repercussions, Microsoft announced that the company

43 4. Twitter and YouTube ban pany is state-owned. Apple stated that all iCloud data will graphic imagery of James be encrypted when stored. Concerns were rising in China about the location of data after the Snowden revelations Foley execution and potential risk to national security. Twitter decided on August 20, 2014 to delete links to the video and screenshots of the execution of the US journal- 7. Russian regulator ist James Foley by Islamic State militants. The video was threatens to block local BBC uploaded on YouTube, shared widely on social media and site related hashtags became trending topics on Twitter. Twit- ter’s CEO Dick Costolo announced18 an unprecedented On August 5, 2014 the Russian telecommunications regu- 28 step of speech-related content control on the micro- lator Roskomnadzor threatened to block the Russian blogging platform in a tweet: “We have been and are BBC Service if the British media outlet refuses to remove actively suspending accounts as we discover them related an interview from their website that is deemed to appeal to this graphic imagery”. YouTube likewise decided19 to “to riots, extremist activities or participation in mass delete the video within one hour after it was first upload- public activities conducted in violation of the legal order”. 29 ed. However, Google encountered problems deleting all BBC announced that it will not comply with takedown newly uploaded versions of the video rapidly enough. demands.

Read further: 8. Twitter receives more Foreign Policy: Social media companies scramble to block requests for content terrorist video of journalist’s murder20 takedowns and access to GigaOM: Should Twitter and YouTube remove images user data of James Foley’s beheading, or do we have a right to see 30 them?21 Twitter published a new transparency report covering NBC: Tragedy on Twitter: James Foley case raises hard the period from January to June 2014. Requests for user social media questions22 data increased by 46 percent. The company received 2.058 direct requests from 40 countries. Concerning 5. Blocking apps: Brazil orders takedowns, Twitter received 14 percent more removal Apple, Google to remove requests, thus 432 direct requests from a total of 31 coun- Secret from stores and tries. devices 9. China requires real name On August 19, 2014, the Fifth Civil Court of Victoria in registration for messaging Brazil issued a preliminary injunction to remove the app apps Secret from Google and Apple app stores in the Brazilian A new rule issued31 on August 7, 2014 by the Chinese State jurisdiction and delete copies of the software on Brazilian Internet Information Office orders operators of mobile smartphones remotely. Microsoft was asked to remove messaging apps such as WhatsApp to require users in the a similar app, Cryptic, from its Brazilian Windows Phone Chinese jurisdiction to register accounts with their real app store. Secret, created by a US start-up, allows users names. Users can still use pseudonyms as handles. to communicate anonymously, whereas the Brazilian 10. British ISP voluntarily forwards US copyright notice constitution23 bans anonymous speech: “the expression The UK ISP TalkTalk forwarded a US copyright infringe- of thought is free, and anonymity is forbidden”. The order ment notice regarding a customer to its reseller Opal So- targets the operators of app stores as intermediaries and lutions. ISPs in the UK are not legally required to forward not the app developer itself to ban the app in Brazil. such notices and TalkTalk does not send notices to its direct customers. It remains unclear if Opal Solutions will Read further: deliver the notice to its customer. SFGate: Brazil wants no Secret on app stores24 9to5 Mac: Brazilian judge orders Apple, Google remove Secret from the app stores, remotely delete from users’ 10. British ISP voluntarily phones25 forwards US copyright Business Insider: Prosecutors Want Apple To Use Its notice 26 iPhone ‘Kill Switch’ The UK ISP TalkTalk forwarded32 a US copyright infringement notice regarding a customer to its reseller Opal 6. Apple stores iCloud data Solutions. ISPs in the UK are not legally required to for- of Chinese users in Chinese ward such notices and TalkTalk does not send notices to jurisdiction its direct customers. It remains unclear33 if Opal Solutions will deliver the notice to its customer. Apple started27 on August 8, 2014 to store data of Chinese iCloud users in data centers of China Telecom. The com-

44 REFERENCES

1 FB Claim (01.08.2014). 10 The Wall Street Journal 19 National Journal 27 The Wall Street Journal Questions regarding the law- (29.08.2014). Judge lifts freeze (19.08.2014). Twitter is strug- (15.08.2014). Apple adds state- suit. on Microsoft search warrant. gling to block video of James controlled China telecom as Foley’s death. data center 2 Wired (01.08.2014). Face- 11 Scribd (05.08.2014). Hong book hit with international Kong Google ruling. 20 Foreign Policy (20.08.2014). 28 GigaOM (05.08.2014). Rus- class action privacy suit. Social Media Companies sian regulator ready to block 12 Business Insider Scramble to Block Terrorist BBC website, reports say. 3 BBC News (01.08.2014). (06.08.2014). Hong Kong Court Video of Journalist’s Murder. Facebook hit with interna- Rules Tycoon Can Sue Google 29 BBC News (08.08.2014). tional class action privacy suit. For Defamation Over Search 21 GigaOM (21.08.2014). BBC World Service statement Results. Should Twitter and YouTube regarding interview with Ar- 4 Reuters (01.08.2014). Stu- remove images of James tem Loskutov. dent starts global class action 13 The Register (19.08.2014). Foley’s beheading, or do we against Facebook. EU justice chief blasts Google have a right to see them? 30 Twitter (01.08.2014). Twit- on ‘right to be forgotten’. ter transparency reports. 5 The Wall Street Journal 22 TNBC News (21.08.2014). (29.08.2014). In the matter of 14 GigaOM (18.08.2014). Tragedy on Twitter: James 31 Global Voices Online a warrant to search a certain Google must remove list of Foley case raises hard social (18.08.2014). China tightens its e-mail account controlled websites around the world, media questions. control of popular messaging and maintained by Microsoft Canadian court rules. app WeChat with real-name Corporation. 23 Global Health Rights Registration. 15 South China Morning Post (19.08.2014). Constitution of 6 TechTimes (03.08.2014). (19.08/2014). Albert Yeung’s the Federative Republic of 32 TorrentFreak (17.08.2014). Microsoft to appeal court or- court victory over Google Brazil. TalkTalk wants resellers to der to hand over data stored shows need for law to adapt. warn pirating customers. in Ireland servers. 24 SFGate (21.08.2014). Brazil 16 Washington Post wants no Secret on app stores. 33 Future of Copyright 7 Bloomberg (01.08.2014). (07.08.2014). Can Google be (18.08.2014). UK ISP voluntarily Ruling against Microsoft adds sued for a mere search sugges- 25 9 to 5 Mac (19.08.2014). forwards American copyright to tech industry’s privacy tion? A Hong Kong judge says Brazilian judge orders Apple, infringement notice. headaches. yes. Google remove Secret from the app stores, remotely de- 8 ZDNet (31.08.2014). Micro- 17 GigaOM (06.08.2014). lete from users’ phones. soft refuses to comply after Tycoon can sue Google over judge revives overseas data auto-complete, as Hong Kong 26 OBusiness Insider search warrant. joins global censorship push. (20.08.2014). Prosecutors want apple to use its iPhone ‘kill 9 Reuters (29.08.2014). 18 Telegraph (20.08.2014). switch’ — a doomsday device Microsoft will not hand over Twitter suspends accounts for apps few know exists. overseas email, despite order. tweeting graphic images of James Foley beheading.

FIND ALL LINKS TO THESE ENDNOTES ON OUR WEBSITE: www.internetjurisdiction.net/ observatory/retrospect/2014-august/

45 SEPTEMBER

1. Russian regulator 2. EU Data Protection demands Facebook, Google, Authorities issue privacy Twitter comply with data guidelines for Google localization law The consolidation of the privacy policies of 60 Google On September 26, 2014, the Federal Russian regulator services under a new Terms of Service on March 1, 2012 Roscomnadzor sent1 notices to globally operating US so- triggered investigations by EU data protection authorities cial media platforms to comply with a set of amendments in Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Britain and the Nether- to the Administrative Code, the Law on Information2 and lands for violations of EU and national privacy laws. On the Law on Communications. The regulation, know as the September 23, 2014, the Article 29 Working Party, a group Russian “Blogger’s law”, was signed in May 2014 by Presi- of all EU Data Protection authorities, issued guidelines dent Putin. During a first reading on September 19, 2014, with 19 suggestions for Google to change its privacy the Russian Duma decided to speed up the implementa- policy in order to comply with the norms of the EU tion of the new law from September 2016 to January 2015. jurisdiction. It is stressed that the recommendations were The new law requires blogs with more than 3.000 readers drafted for “illustrative purposes” to achieve compliance per day to register as “organizers of information distribu- and that they “do not preempt enforcement actions by tion”. Moreover, operators of such websites must store national authorities based on national law”. The Working data of Russian users physically on servers in the Russian Party moreover announced that it “may also consider is- jurisdiction. Platforms that do not comply with these suing guidance on specific issues to the entire industry, at requirements upon a second notice face a fine of 500.000 a later stage”. rubles and can be blocked in Russia by Roscomnadzor. Russian services such as VKontakte, Yandex and Mail.Ru Read further: already registered their activities. EU Article 29 Working Party: List of possible compliance measures5 Read further: PC World: Google gets privacy policy lesson from EU data The Moscow Times: Russia asks Facebook, Google, Twitter protection authorities6 to comply with law on data storage2 BBC: Google urged to change privacy rules by data regula- Quartz: The Kremlin wants more control over Facebook, tors7 Google and Twitter3 ITAR -TASS: Facebook and Twitter asked to register in Rus- sia as organizers of information distribution4

46 3. New bill in US jurisdiction TechCrunch: Europe seeks a common appeals process for on cross-border access to the ‘right to be forgotten’18 user data 5. Digital sovereignty: Russia On September 18, 2014, following an email privacy case8 said to consider separation that involves Microsoft, three US Senators presented of its national Internet the bipartisan Law Enforcement Access to Data Stored segment in emergencies Abroad Act9 (LEADS Act). It would require judicial warrants for law enforcement agencies to access all kinds According to an article19 published by the Russian newspa- of user data and corresponding user notification for per Vedomosti on September 19, 2014, the Russian Secu- such actions. Moreover, it would enshrine10 the territo- rity Council is discussing possible measures to guarantee rial principle that US authorities can access data stored the sovereignty of the Russian Internet segment in emer- by companies incorporated in the US on servers in other gencies. This could include the creation of the ability to jurisdictions if the content is held by a “US person”, i.e. disconnect20 Russia from the global Internet by ordering a US citizen, permanent US resident or US company. To domestic ISPs to install the necessary equipment. Emer- access data of citizens of foreign jurisdictions, US au- gency situations are defined as military actions or serious thorities would need to comply with the requirements public order issues. The Kremlin’s press secretary imme- stipulated by the respective national laws and existing diately denied21 plans to cut off Russia from the global inter-state legal cooperation mechanisms, such as mutual Internet. The Security Council is discussing possibilities to legal assistance treaties (MLATs). Under the proposed bill, gain state control over the Russian ccTLDs .RU, .рф,” and the US Department of Justice would also need to create the former .SU, which are currently administered by the an online portal for MLAT requests from foreign countries non-profit organization Coordination Center for TLD RU. and publish statistics on the processing of such requests. Read further: Read further: International Business Times: Kremlin mulls Internet ‘kill The Hill: Tech firms celebrate ‘milestone’ privacy bill11 switch’ to knock Russia offline during emergencies22 ArsTechnica: Bill would limit reach of US search warrants Moscow Times: Russian Internet faces tighter Kremlin for data stored abroad12 control23 Center for Democracy & Technology: LEADS Act Extends Russia Beyond the Headlines: Kremlin weighs options for Important Privacy Protections, Raises Concerns13 isolating Russian Internet in event of crisis24

4. Right to be de-indexed: EU 6. Microsoft accepts Data Protection Authorities ‘contempt of court’ to appeal develop coordinated case on extra-territorial approach for appeals data access Discussing the implementation of the May 13, 2014 ruling Microsoft refuses25 to hand over email data about a user by the Court of Justice of the EU, the EU Article 29 Work- to US authorities despite a valid US warrant since the ing Party announced14 on September 18, 2014 the creation data is stored on its servers in the Irish jurisdiction. On of a “common tool-box to ensure a coordinated approach September 4, 2014 Microsoft and the US government to the handling of complaints resulting from search en- agreed to a deal26 under which Microsoft will be held in gines’ refusals to ‘de-list’ complainants from their results”. contempt of court in order to be able to appeal the case. The coordination mechanism for appeals will include “a The agreement specifies that, “sanctions need not be network of dedicated contact persons to develop case imposed at this time”. handling criteria”, “a common record of decisions taken on complaints” and a “dashboard to help identify similar 7. Google, Microsoft, cases as well as new or more difficult cases” to ensure Twitter, Yahoo publish new consistency in the implementation of the ruling. The transparency reports tool-box is expected to be finalized by November 2014. While Google received over 120.000 requests in the EU, Four US platforms released new data on requests for user the current number of appeals to DPAs is yet rather low data and content takedowns from January 1 to June 30, 27 according to news reports15: 90 in the UK, 70 in Spain, 20 2014. Google received 31.698 requests for 48.615 ac- 28 in France and 13 in Ireland. counts from 69 jurisdictions. Microsoft received 34.494 requests for 58.562 accounts from 80 jurisdictions. Twit- 29 Read further: ter received 2.058 user data requests for 3.131 requests from 40 jurisdictions and 432 governmental content 30 EU Article 29 Working Party: Press release on ‘common takedown requests from 21 jurisdictions. Yahoo received tool-box’16 18.594 requests for 30.511 accounts from 39 jurisdictions Wired: ‘Right to be forgotten’ appeals process nears17 and five governmental requests for content takedowns from the US, UK and India.

47 8. New Turkish law gives 12. LinkedIn reconsiders regulator powers to block content removal policy in websites Chinese jurisdiction On September 10, 2014, the Turkish parliament adopted31 To date, US-based social network LinkedIn removes a new law that gives the Telecommunications Directorate content posted by users in the Chinese jurisdiction that (TIB), the Turkish regulator, the power to order the block- infringes national laws and rules worldwide for all global ing of websites within four hours for “national security, users. On September 2, 2014 a spokesperson of LinkedIn to protect public order, or to prevent a crime from being said39: “[W]e are strongly considering changing our policy committed”. A court must validate or overturn the ex- so that content from our Chinese members that is not al- ecuted order within 48 hours. On September 15, 2014, the lowed in China will still be viewed globally”. Republican People’s Party appealed32 the new law before the Turkish Constitutional Court. 13. Group of 39 privacy authorities find that apps 9. China blocks Instagram insufficiently protect privacy over Hong Kong protests The Global Privacy Enforcement Network40, a group of 39 On September 28, 2014 China blocked33 the photo-sharing national privacy authorities, published a survey41 of the app Instagram in its jurisdiction to prevent the spread of privacy policies of 1.211 apps and found that 85 percent of pictures from the protests in Hong Kong. The app re- them do not sufficiently42 explain how personal user data mained accessible in Hong Kong. Further, China blocked34 is collected, processed and shared. news articles and searches on platforms such as Sina Weibo for “tear gas”. 14. British ISPs block largest Pirate Bay proxy 10. Netflix pressured to block VPN users Major ISPs in the UK jurisdiction have blocked43 the popular website pirateproxy.in that allows access to the file About 200.000 Australians are using35 the US version of sharing torrent library The Pirate Bay – which is banned in Netflix through a VPN service that allows them to cy- the UK. However, the proxy website added a new domain bertravel and access the US version with a US IP address. registered under Belize’s cc-TLD .bz and was accessible Copyright holders are therefore pressuring the streaming again for UK Internet users. service to ban VPN users. If implemented, a ban would prevent36 worldwide users of Netflix to use VPN ser- 15. Chinese agency cracks vices to access Netflix, both for cybertravel and privacy down on pornography, reasons. The US streaming platform Hulu already imple- closes 1.8M accounts mented similar measures. In an anti-online pornography campaign, the Chinese 11. London police sends Cyberspace Administration has shut down44 almost 1.8 ‘notices of criminality’ to million accounts on Chinese microblogs, social networks domain name registrars and smartphone apps. Most accounts were closed on WeChat and QQ. Since 2013, the City of London Police in an effort to combat online piracy is sending notices to international 16. Reputation: US draft bill to domain registrars informing them about illegal content protect negative consumer on registered sites. To date, only 5 out of 75 letters were reviews of businesses granted37. In a new letter to the Canada-based registrar easyDNS, the London police sends38 a “notice of criminal- The proposed Consumer Review Freedom Act of 201445 ity” with references to UK legislation without demanding in the US Congress would limit46 the possibilities of US specific actions. companies to prohibit or remedy against negative online reviews. A bill47 passed in California already addresses the protection of negative online reviews at the state level.

48 17. Tango, Viber, WhatsApp 19. Russia postpones draft bill to be blocked in Iranian that forces VoIP operators jurisdiction to display “real” telephone Iran’s Prosecutor General demanded48 the Ministry of numbers Communications and Information Technology to block Just before a first reading in the Duma on September 25, within one month the messaging apps Tango, Viber and 2014, Russian legislators postponed50 an amendment that WhatsApp in Iran due to the dissemination of obscene would require VoIP operators such as Skype to display material and offensive content, some of which is managed the “real number” when calling normal phones. Opera- by “governments hostile to the Islamic Republic of Iran tors would otherwise loose their license in the Russian establishment”. jurisdiction. The initiative was deferred due to confusion about the technical feasibility and rumors that Russia 18. Lebanon orders ISPs to would try to block Skype. block porn sites In a communiqué, the Lebanese Minister of Communica- 20. BBC suggests ISPs should tion ordered49 national ISPs to block access to six porno- observe and ban VPN users graphic websites. Producing and distributing pornographic with high data traffic content is illegal in the Lebanese jurisdiction. BBC Worldwide in a submission to the Australian government suggests that in order to act against online piracy, ISPs should monitor51 customers’ activities and especially focus on those using VPN services and consuming high bandwidths. The BBC argues for a graduated response scheme with reduced speeds and educational messages.

REFERENCES

1 The Register (26.09.2014). 7 BBC News (26.09.2014). 13 Center for Democracy 19 Vedomosty (19.09.2014). Putin tells Google, Twitter, Google urged to change pri- & Technology (18.09.2014). Security Council to discuss off Facebook: Have a vodka and vacy rules by data regulators. LEADS Act extends important Russia from the global Inter- censorship on the rocks. privacy protections, raises net. 8 The New York Times concerns. 2 The Moscow Times (18.09.2014). Judge rules that 20 The Guardian (19.09.2014). (26.09.2014). Russia asks Microsoft must turn over data 14 GigaOM (19.09.2014). Euro- Putin considers plan to unplug Facebook, Google, Twitter to stored in Ireland. pean privacy regulators build Russia from the Internet ‘in an comply with law on data stor- mechanisms for handling ‘right emergency’. age. 9 United States Senate to be de-linked’cases. (18.09.2014). Law enforcement 21 GigaOM (19.09.2014). UP- 3 Quartz (26.09.2014). The access to data stored abroad 15 Reuters (18.09.2014). EU DATED: Kremlin denies mulling Kremlin wants more control act. regulators agree on guidelines Russian separation from global over Facebook, Google, and for ‘right to be forgotten’ Internet in ‘emergencies.’ Twitter. 10 Computer World complaints. (18.09.2014). Senate bill would 22 International Business 4 ITAR-TASS (26.09.2014). limit access to emails stored 16 EU Article 29 Working Par- Times (30.09.2014). Kremlin Facebook and Twitter asked to abroad. ty (18.09.2014). Press release mulls Internet ‘kill switch’ to register in Russia as organizers issued by the Article 29 Data knock Russia offline during of information distribution. 11 The Hill (18.09.2014). Protection Working Party. emergencies. Overnight tech: Tech firms 5 EU Article 29 Working celebrate ‘milestone’ privacy 17 Wired (19.09.2014). ‘Right 23 The Moscow Times Party (23.09.2014). Appendix: bill. to be forgotten’ appeals pro- (30.09.2014). Russian Internet List of possible compliance 12 Arstechnica (19.09.2014). cess nears. faces tighter Kremlin control. measures. Bill would limit reach of US search warrants for data 18 TechCrunch (19.09.2014). 24 Russia beyond the head- 6 PCWorld (26.09.2014). stored abroad. Europe seeks a common ap- lines (22.09.2014). Kremlin Google gets privacy policy peals process for the ‘right to weighs options for isolating lesson from EU data protec- be forgotten’. Russian Internet in event of tion authorities. crisis.

49 25 Arctechnica (09.09.2014). 32 Hurriyet Daily News 39 Bloomberg Business 46 Forbes (24.09.2014). Microsoft agrees to contempt (15.09.2014). CHP turns to (03.09.2014). LinkedIn review- Congress may crack down order so e-mail privacy case top court to annul restrictive ing China censorship policy. on businesses’ efforts to ban can be appealed. Internet changes. consumer reviews. 40 Global Privacy Enforce- 26 US District Court for the 33 Reuters (28.09.2014). ment Network (01.09.2014). 47 State Legislature of Cali- Southern District of New York Instagram reportedly blocked Our mission. fornia (09.09.2014). Assembly (04.09.2014). In the Matter of in China amid Hong Kong bill No. 2365. a Warrant to Search a Certain protests. 41 Office of the Privacy E-Mail Account Controlled Commissioner of Canada 48 PressTV (21.09.2014). Iran and Maintained By Microsoft 34 PCWorld (29.09.2014). (10.09.2014). Results of the Judiciary orders blocking of Corporation. China blocks Instagram, ‘tear 2014 global privacy enforce- Viber, Tango, WhatsApp. gas’ searches amid Hong Kong ment network sweep. 27 Google (01.09.2014). Trans- protests. 49 Global Voices (10.09.2014). parency report. 42 GigaOM (10.09.2014). The Lebanon blocks six porn sites, 35 TorrentFreak (17.09.2014). vast majority of apps don’t sparks fears of further censor- 28 Reuters (03.07.2014). Copyright holders want Netf- give clear privacy information, ship. Microsoft (01.09.2014). Law lix to ban VPN users. regulators find. enforcement requests report. 50 GigaOM (24.09.2014). Rus- 36 Forbes (17.09.2014). Netflix 43 TorrentFreak (10.09.2014). sian lawmakers propose then 29 Twitter (01.09.2014). Twit- is under pressure to ban VPN Largest pirate bay proxy & immediately shelve plan that ter transparency report. use. more blocked by UK ISPS. would limit SkypeOut calls.

30 Yahoo (01.09.2014). Trans- 37 TorrentFreak (30.08.2014). 44 Reuters (20.09.2014). China 51 TorrentFreak (08.09.2014). parency report: Overview. UK police accuse domain shuts almost 1.8 mln accounts BBC: ISPS should assume heavy name registrar of facilitating in pornography crackdown VPN users are pirates. 31 Hurriyet Daily News criminal activity. -Xinhua. (15.09.2014). New Turkish In- ternet law to deepen censor- 38 Future of Copyright 45 United States Congress ship and increase surveillance: (01.09.2014). City of Lon- (15.09.2014). Consumer review HRW. don Police sends notices of freedom act 2014. criminality to domain name registrars.

FIND ALL LINKS TO THESE ENDNOTES ON OUR WEBSITE: www.internetjurisdiction.net/ observatory/retrospect/2014-september/

50 OCTOBER

1. Spanish Court orders and FISA letters violate its First Amendment rights to free Google to pay damages in speech. A number of companies including Google, Face- book and Microsoft reached a settlement5 in January 2014 right to be de-indexed case with the US Department of Justice, which allows them to Applying the Court of Justice of the EU ruling on the right only display the number of security requests in groups of to be de-indexed, the Barcelona Court of Appeals or- 1000 in transparency reports. Twitter said it is not bound dered Google Spain to pay damages to a Spanish citizen. by this agreement and wants, among others, to have the A website containing information about the pardoning of right to state if it received zero requests. a drug trafficking crime appeared in search results for the individual’s name. The plaintiff filed a complaint with the Read further: Spanish Data Protection Authority, which ordered Google Reuters: Twitter sues U.S. Justice Department for right to to remove the link. The delay between notification and reveal surveillance requests6 removal was 10 months. The court argued that Google New York Times: Twitter sues US government over data Spain is liable for the search engine operated by Google disclosure rules7 Inc. in the Spanish jurisdiction and that the platform lost Gigaom: Are “warrant canaries” legal? Twitter wants to Safe Harbor protections after it received the removal no- save tech’s warning signal of government spying8 tification. Therefore, Google was sentenced to pay 8.000 Euro for moral damages that occurred during that period 3. Google publishes of time. Damage claims against the two other defendants transparency report on EU Yahoo Spain and Telefonica were dismissed. The case is de-indexing requests now appealed to the Spanish Supreme Court. On October 9, 2014 Google published for the first time Read further: statistics9 on the requests it receives under the Court CIS Stanford: Right to be forgotten – Google sentenced of Justice of the European Union right to be de-indexed to pay damages in Spain1 judgement in its transparency report. Between May 29, Barcelona Court of Appeals: Judgment don Domingo 2014, when Google opened its complaint form, and Oc- contra Google Spain, S.A., Yahoo Iberia, S.L. y contra Tele- tober 31, 2014, the company received 158.626 requests for fonica de España, S.A (in Spanish)2 531.134 URLs. It complied with 41.8 percent of all requests. Cinco Dias: Primera sentencia civil en España contra The top 10 concerned websites only account for six per- Google por el derecho al olvido (in Spanish)3 cent of all requests. Facebook leads the list of de-indexed websites (3.581 removals), followed by profileengine.com 2. Twitter sues US government (3.482) and youtube.com (2.483). over non-disclosure Read further: regulations New York Times: Google provides details on ‘Right to Be On October 7, 2014, Twitter filed a lawsuit4 in the US Dis- Forgotten’ requests in EU10 trict Court of Northern California against the US Depart- Gigaom: Company’s new stats give good insight into “right ment of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in to be forgotten” complexity11 Northern California. The company argues that non-disclo- TechCrunch: Google adds European search de-listing sure regulations applying to National Security Requests requests to its transparency report12

51 4. Turkish Constitutional took down25 the domain voluntarily on October 12, 2014. It is the first time26 that ISNIC shuts down a domain for Court annuls website content reasons. The decision is based27 upon Article 9 of blocking authority of ISNIC’s Rules on Domain Registration, which states: “The regulator registrant is responsible for ensuring that the use of the On October 2, 2014 the Turkish Constitutional Court domain is within the limits of Icelandic law as current at declared13 the power of the national regulator Telecom- any time.” munications Directorate (TIB) to block any website within four hours and without prior court orders for reasons of 7. UK asks Facebook, Google, “national security, the restoration of public order and the Microsoft, Twitter to prevention of crimes” as unconstitutional. In doing so, the automatically hand over court overturned a new law passed by the Turkish parlia- data related to terrorist ment on September 10, 2014 as an amendment to the content national Internet Law #5651. The Turkish Prime Minister criticized14 this judgement. On October 20, 2014, officials of the British Prime Minis- ter’s Office met28 with Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Read further: Twitter to discuss the removal of online content related Hürriyet: Turkish Constitutional Court strips Internet to ISIS and terrorist activities. The government proposes authority of right to close websites15 that the companies automatically hand over personal Reuters: Turkey’s top court annuls part of law tightening data, such as IP addresses, names or messages related to Internet controls16 executed takedown requests. The data would be aggre- EDRi: Turkey: Constitutional Court overturns Internet law gated in a centralized database. amendment17 8. New Google algorithm 5. Embedding content does ranks down copyright- not infringe copyrights, infringing websites rules EU court Announced29 in August 2012, Google launched30 on Oc- On October 21, 2014 the Court of Justice of the EU tober 17, 2014 a new algorithm that will be progressively decided18 in a landmark ruling that embedding videos or rolled out on its search engine. It decreases31 the rank of files on websites without the prior consent of copyright websites alleged of copyright infringement in its results, owners does not infringe the EU Copyright Directive19, based upon the number of valid DMCA takedown notices which does not explicitly mention the legality of embed- the company receives. ding. The content must however remain unaltered and not communicated to a new public20. The case was referred to 9. Leaked TPP draft details the court from the German jurisdiction. The lawsuit20 in- strong ISP liability provisions volves the German water filter producer BestWater, which Wikileaks leaked a May 2014 draft of the Trans-Pacific wanted to prevent a competitor from embedding one of Partnership Agreement negotiated between 12 countries its promotional videos on its website. on October 16, 2014. Specialized media report32 that according to the document, ISPs would have to alert cus- Read further: tomers that download copyright-infringing content. Com- IP Kitten: That BestWater order: it’s up to the rightholders panies as well as individuals providing Internet services to monitor online use of their works22 could moreover be liable for copyright infringements TorrentFreak: Embedding is not copyright infringement, committed by others through their networks. EU court rules23 Register: An ‘embed’ link isn’t a new infringement, says EU Court of Justice24 10. Dutch law enforcement asks hosting providers to 6. Iceland’s cc-TLD operator take down extremist material shuts down Islamic State without court orders domain Hosting providers in the Dutch jurisdiction complain33 The Islamic State (IS) registered the domain “khilafah” about increasing requests by public prosecutors that ask (Caliphate) under Iceland’s cc-TLD .is in September 2014. them to remove “jihadist” material without proper judi- The website is also hosted at a data center near Reykjavik. cial reviews, based only on criminal suspicion. After Iceland’s Ministry of Justice launched investigations on how to shut down the site, ISNIC, the manager of .is,

52 11. UK increase sentences 16. Icelandic ISPs ordered to for “Internet trolls” and block the Pirate Bay criminalizes revenge porn The Reykjavík District Court ordered40 the Icelandic ISPs Amendments to the British Criminal Justice and Courts Vodafone and Hringdu to block domains of the torrent Bill adopted by the UK House of Lords in October 2014 libraries The Pirate Bay and Deildu. Deildu quickly moved41 increase the sentences for online harassment34 includ- its domain to the cc-TLD of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, ing sexually offensive speech, verbal abuse or threats to which remains accessible in Iceland. two years. Moreover, revenge porn35 becomes a criminal offense. The new provisions do not apply in the Scottish 17. Google removes hacked jurisdiction. iCloud pictures to preempt lawsuit in US 12. Russia postpones data Following a series of leaked nude photos from hacked localization law celebrity iCloud accounts, victims in the US jurisdiction According to Russian media reports, proposed amend- threatened42 Google with a 100 million USD lawsuit on ments that would oblige companies to store personal October 2, 2014. The company only removed 49 percent data of Russians in the Russian jurisdiction were “post- of 461 URLs that were flagged through the DMCA proce- poned for an indefinite period“36. The bill already went dure. Hours later, Google removed “tens of thousands of through two readings in the Russian parliament. Lawmak- pictures”43 from its services. ers responded to concerns of domestic companies such as Aeroflot, which feared the rash implementation of the 18. UK police “seizes” .com law envisaged for January 2015 and demanded more time streaming website to prepare. The City of London Police was successful in shutting 13. Putin officially supports down44 the domain of the sports streaming site frombar. com, registered with the US-based registrar eNom. The plans for secure Russian registrar responded to a “warning letter” of the London Internet segment police that asked it to suspend the infringing website. In a speech37 to the Russian National Security Council on Registrars such as Canada-based EasyDNS protest against October 1, 2014, Russian President Putin announced his this practice of “seizure”. support for the idea to create a secure Russian Internet segment. This would include developing capacities for 19. Blocking of entire websites a “kill switch” and creating a back-up system for Russian for copyright infringement domains. President Putin said Russia does not “intend to is disproportionate, Italian limit access to the Internet, to put it under total control, authorities decide to nationalize the Internet”. In July 2014, a court in Rome ordered45 Italian ISPs to 14. Italian Supreme Court to block websites including MEGA and Mail.ru in the Italian decide if copyright infringing jurisdiction for copyright infringements. Some websites successfully appealed the case before the Court of Ap- content can be blocked peals of Rome, while others reached a settlement with without court order the Office of the Prosecutor of Rome. In both cases, The Supreme Court of Italy will rule on the legality38 of authorities decided46 that the blocking order was dis- the Regulation on Online Copyright Infringement, which proportionate. Several websites are therefore accessible came into force in April 2014. It gives the regulator AG- again in Italy. COM the power to order directly the blocking of infringing content in the Italian jurisdiction or to take down 20. Data protection content through an administrative procedure. authorities endorse agreement on cross-border 15. US NGO demands Google enforcement cooperation right to be de-indexed in US During the 36th International Data Protection Com- jurisdiction missioners Conference which took place in Mauritius In an open letter, a US NGO asked39 Google to introduce on October 13-16, 2014, the data protection authorities the right to be de-indexed in the US jurisdiction. The endorsed the Global Cross-Border Enforcement Coopera- company created a mechanism to remove certain search tion Agreement47 that would allow, for example, multiple results for privacy reasons to implement a judgment by agencies to collaborate to handle a major data breach. the Court of Justice of the European Union. The mechanism is currently only employed in Europe.

53 REFERENCES

1 The Center for Internet 8 GigaOM (10.10.2014). Are 15 Hurriyet Daily News 21 GigaOM (24.10.2014). and Society (14.10.2014). Right “warrant canaries” legal? (02.10.2014). Turkish Consti- Good news for Europeans: to be forgotten: Google Twitter wants to save tech’s tutional Court strips Internet embedding YouTube videos is sentenced to pay damages in warning signal of government authority of right to close legal after all. Spain. spying website. 22 IPKat (27.10.2014). That 2 Barcelona Court of Ap- 9 Google (09.10.2014). 16 Reuters (02.10.2014). BestWater order: it’s up to the peals (11.07.2014). Judgment European privacy requests for Turkey’s top court annuls part rightholders to monitor online don Domingo contra Google search removals. of law tightening Internet use of their works. Spain, S.A., Yahoo Iberia, S.L. controls -media. y contra Telefonica de España, 10 The New York Times 23 TorrentFreak (25.10.2014). S.A. (09.10.2014). Google provides 17 EDRi (08.10.2014). Turkey: Embedding is not copyright details on ‘right to be forgot- Constitutional Court over- infringement, EU court rules. 3 Cinco Dia (10.10.2014). ten’ requests in E.U. turns Internet law amend- Primera sentencia civil en ment. 24 The Register (27.10.2014). España contra Google por el 11 GigaOM (10.10.2014). Well An ‘embed’ link isn’t a new derecho al olvido. done, Google: Company’s new 18 Court of Justice of the EU infringement, says EU Court of stats give good insight into (21.10.2014). EC - Information Justice. 4 Wired (07.10.2014). Twitter “right to be forgotten” com- society - the harmonization of lawsuit over transparency. plexity certain aspects of copyright. 25 The Reykjavík Grapevine (12.10.2014). Islamic State using 5 The Washington Post 12 TechCrunch (12.10.2014). 19 European Parliament Icelandic domain name. (07.10.2014). Letter to General Google adds european search (21.10.2014). Directive on the Counsels de-listing requests to its trans- harmonization of certain 26 The Reykjavík Grape- parency report. aspects of copyright and re- vine (20.10.2014). ISNIC cites 6 Reuters (07.10.2014). lated rights in the information business reasons for closing Twitter sues U.S. Justice 13 Yahoo News (02.10.2014). society. Islamic State’s domain. Department for right to reveal Top court overturns law surveillance requests. tightening Turkey’s Internet 20 Music Week (27.10.2014). 27 Domain Incite (13.10.2014). controls. EU Court rules content Iceland yanks Islamic State 7 The New York Times embedding is not copyright domain. (07.10.2014). Twitter sues U.S. 14 Hurriyet Daily News infringement. government over data disclo- (03.10.2014). Top court cannot sure rules. protect my rights, Turkish PM says.

54 28 Mail Online (18.10.2014). 34 BBC News (19.10.2014. 39 ZDNet (17.10.2014). US 44 TorrentFreak (04.10.2014). No 10: Web giants must take Internet trolls face up to two consumer group asks Google Police seize domain of from- down terror videos...and hand years in jail under new laws. to import Europe’s right to be bar sports streaming site. over names of all Jihadis. forgotten. 35 The Register (21.10.2014). 45 The Center for Internet 29 Google (08.10.2012). An Lords take revenge on revenge 40 TorrentFreak (16.10.2014). and Society (22.07.2014). In- update to our search algo- porn publishers. Freedom-friendly Iceland termediary liability news from rithms. blocks the Pirate Bay. Italy: courts block Mega and 36 East-West Digital News Mail.ru and force YouTube to 30 Arstechnica (17.10.2014). (14.10.2014). Lawmakers drop 41 The Reykjavík Grapevine proactively monitor its plat- Google rolling out new anti- Jan. 1 deadline for mandatory (15.10.201). Deildu.net moves form for copyright infringe- piracy search algorithm. personal data storage on Rus- Overseas. ment. sian servers. 31 The Guardian (20.10.2014). 42 The Hollywood Reporter 46 TorrentFreak (09.10.2014). Google says latest search 37 The New York Times (02.10.2014). Celebrities Court lifts overbroad “piracy” changes will ‘visibly affect’ (01.10.2014). Putin supports Threaten Google With $100 blockade of mega and other piracy site rankings. project to ‘secure’ Russia Million Lawsuit for “Facilitat- sites. Internet. ing” Hacked Nude Photos. 32 TorrentFreak (16.10.2014). 47 Office of the Privacy Leaked TPP draft reveals tough 38 The Center for Internet 43 Variety (02.10.2014). Commissioner of Canada anti-piracy measures. and Society (28.09.2014). Google Threatened with $100 (13.10.2014). Global cross bor- Italian constitutional court to Million Lawsuit over Hacked der enforcement cooperation 33 GigaOM (14.10.2014). decide whether administrative Celeb Photos. arrangement. Dutch hosts decry court- enforcement of online copy- order-free “jihadist” material right infringement is constitu- takedown requests. tional.

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55 NOVEMBER

1. Search engines are not 2. EU Data Protection liable for results, rules Authorities want right to be Argentine Supreme Court de-indexed extended to .com The Supreme Court of Argentina decided in a landmark On November 26, 2014, the 29 European Data Protection ruling1 that search engines are not liable for third party Authorities of the Article 29 Working Party agreed5 on content appearing in results they display. In the absence non-binding guidelines regarding the application of the of specific legislation on intermediary liability in Argen- right to be-indexed Court of Justice of the EU ruling. The tina, the case sets new national standards and is likely group came to the conclusion that the application of to have impacts in other jurisdictions in Latin America. the ruling, currently limited to European-based ccTLDs The case goes back to 2006 and involved a model who by Google, has an insufficient geographical reach: “de- sued Google and Yahoo! Argentina for search results that listing of EU domains on the grounds that users tend to linked her name to pornographic websites. The plaintiff access search engines via their national domains cannot argued that the search engines violated her privacy rights, be considered a sufficient mean […] this means that in any damaged her reputation and infringed her image con- case de-listing should also be effective on all relevant trol rights through the unauthorized display of preview domains, including .com”. The document lists 13 points thumbnails. According to the judgment, search engines to balance freedom of expression and privacy. Among do not have to monitor search results, but do need to others, the Working Party does not deem the automatic act upon notifications. Moreover, notices for content informing of webmasters on de-indexed results as an takedowns require generally judicial review and search obligatory practice, as it can have a contradictory impact engines do not have the obligation to install preemptive on the privacy of individuals. filtering mechanisms for future infringing results. The Court also qualified Google Image thumbnails as mere Read further: links. Article 29 Working Party: Guidelines on the implementation of the Court of Justice of the European Union judge- Read further: ment on Google Spain and Inc. v. Agencia Espanola de e-Bertoni: Supreme Court of Argentina rules Google not Preteccion de Datos and Mario Costeja6 liable for search results2 Bloomberg: Google pushed to extend ‘forgotten’ requests Stanford CIS: Argentine Supreme Court decides landmark to US site7 intermediary liability case3 Guardian: EU to Google: expand ‘right to be forgotten’ to Open Society Foundation: Case Watch: Top Argentine Google.com8 Court Blazes a Trail on Online Free Expression4

56 3. Iranian, North Korean and 5. UK wants access to US Syrian ccTLDs cannot be platforms to prevent seized from ICANN, US court terrorism, blames Facebook rules for lack of monitoring The US District Court for the District of Columbia The UK Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee decided9 on November 10, 2014 that the ccTLDs of Iran, released on November 25, 2014 a report20 on the murder North Korea and Syria cannot be seized from ICANN, a of a British soldier with a terrorism background. It ac- non-profit corporation incorporated in California. The cuses21 “communications services providers” as providing a case was rooted10 in a 1997 terrorism attack in Jerusalem “safe haven for terrorists” and states that British authori- following which a US court awarded 109 million USD of ties could have prevented the attack if an unnamed com- damages in 2003 to the victims. Trying to collect the pany – identified later as being Facebook – would have money, the victims wanted to gain control of the ccTLDs. warned intelligence service about a conversation taking The court came to the conclusion11 that a “ccTLD, like a place on its platform. Apple, Facebook Google, Micro- domain name, cannot be conceptualized apart from the soft, Twitter and Yahoo are among the companies cited services provided by these parties”. Being rather an “ongo- by the report as “examples”. The report blames platforms ing contractual arrangement”, the judge ruled that ccTLDs for insufficiently monitoring user-generated content to as contractual rights cannot be seized under District of “take action or notify the authorities when its commu- Columbia law. The judge added to the memorandum nications services appear to be used by terrorists”. Prime opinion that “the conclusion that ccTLDs may not be at- Minister David Cameron announced22 his willingness to tached in satisfaction of a judgement under DC law does introduce new laws to force foreign-based companies to not mean that they cannot be property”. disclose data related to presumed terrorist activities to UK authorities. Read further: ArsTechnica: Judge sides with ICANN: Plaintiffs can’t take Read further: all of Iran’s domain names12 BBC: Facebook hosted Lee Rigby death chat ahead of Washington Post: DC Court rules that Top-Level Domain soldier’s murder23 not subject to seizure13 Guardian: Lee Rigby murder: Facebook could have picked Register: Judge: Terror bomb victims CAN’T seize Iran’s up killer’s message24 domain name as compensation14 Telegraph: David Cameron wants Google and Facebook to monitor terrorist threats25 4. US court to reconsider ban of Innocence of Muslims 6. UN adopts resolution on YouTube video privacy in digital era In February 2014, a US court ordered Google to remove On November 25, 2014, the Human Rights Committee of the controversial Innocence of Muslims YouTube video. the UN General Assembly passed26 by consensus without One actor claimed that her individual copyrights were a vote the resolution on privacy in the digital era that infringed by the short movie. Believing she acted in an was co-sponsored by 65 countries. It demands that states adventure movie, her performance was edited into the provide remedies to citizens if their privacy rights were final movie in a way she did not consent to. The court de- violated by arbitrary surveillance and states that private cided in her favor15. Prior to this ruling, Google refused to companies have a “responsibility to respect human rights”. globally remove the video from YouTube for public order The non-binding resolution was introduced27 by Germany reasons, which sparked global protests. Following court and Brazil and will go to the full General Assembly in papers filed by Netflix, Twitter and the ACLU, among December 2014. others, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals voted16 on November 12, 2014 to re-examine the copyright case. The 7. China and US coordinated hearing is planned for December 15, 2014. take down of extremist online material hosted in US Read further: 28 Reuters: Appeals court will revisit order to remove anti- The Chinese Ministry of Public Security coordinated Islamic film from YouTube17 with US authorities the removal of extremist propaganda Wall Street Journal: Appeals court to take another look at videos and audio files that were hosted on a server based ‘Innocence of Muslims’ copyright ruling18 in the US jurisdiction. The action is part of an enhanced PC World: Appeals court to revisit controversial YouTube bilateral judicial cooperation regime to fight terrorism. 29 video takedown19 China demanded more international cooperation on extremist online material at the UN in September 2014.

57 8. French court orders 13. British ISPs agree to block Google to de-index search extremist content in UK results globally jurisdiction For the first time in Europe, a national court ordered30 a The British ISPs BT, Virgin, Sky and TalkTalk agreed36 to a local Google branch to de-index search results globally, proposal by the UK Prime Minister’s office to establish a based on the May 2014 Court of Justice of the EU judg- public reporting mechanism and a filtering list modeled ment. Ruling a defamation case against Google France, after a national system already used to prevent child ex- the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Paris concluded that ploitation online. The London Police’s Counter Terrorism it was insufficient that Google only removed results from Internet Referral Unit will manage the new system. google.fr. Google was ordered to pay a 1.000 Euro fine per day unless it completely de-indexes the results. 14. Terms of Service: Consumer group brings Netflix in front 9. US First Amendment applies of French court to Google’s search results, The largest consumer organization in France has filed37 a San Francisco court rules lawsuit against Netflix at a Parisian court. The group sues While the Court of Justice of the EU obliged Google Netflix for clauses in its Terms of Service, including for to regulate certain search results, a state court in San provisions that allow the company to modify the contract Francisco ruled31 that Google’s search results and their without prior notification and the fact that the terms of ranking are protected by free speech rights under the use are only available in English and not in French. First Amendment. A US news website tried to argue32 that Google had unfairly ranked down its search position. 15. Little support for Schengen-Internet at German 10. Google settles Hong Kong security summit defamation lawsuit in UK jurisdiction The idea of creating a EU-wide “Schengen Internet”, advanced by the ISP Deutsche Telekom, gained little sup- A Hong Kong-based investor sued Google for defama- port38 at the German Cyber Security Summit that gath- tion as search results pictured him as a murderer and ered leaders from business and government. The proposal pedophile. The case went to the UK High Court. Google of routing data exclusively on EU territory to prevent for- settled33 the lawsuit stating it was not responsible for po- eign surveillance was discussed during a meeting between licing the Internet, but that the company will “continue to the German and French heads of state earlier in 2014. apply its procedures that have been developed to assist with the removal of content which breaches applicable 16. India turns to ISPs to fight local laws”. “problem of porn” 11. Danish court orders British The Indian government is determined to make adult website to block Danish content inaccessible in its jurisdiction. At a meeting39 of the Indian Cyber Regulation Advisory Committee, Internet users the creation of a blocking list of pornographic websites Due to a copyright dispute, a court in Denmark ordered34 that would then be handed down to national ISPs was on November 12, 2014 that the British website volga.com discussed. At the previous committee meeting in August should block visitors with a Danish IP address to prevent 2014, the government still rejected website blocking as an them from accessing its website. Volga sells replicas appropriate solution. of Danish design furniture, which are protected under Danish law. It is however not directly targeted at Danish 17. British High Court sets customers. new blocking record for copyright reasons 12. Swedish ISP offers users free VPN The UK High Court ordered40 the largest six British ISPs to block a total of 53 websites in the country that were Bahnhof, a Swedish ISP, announced35 it will comply with deemed to infringe copyrights. Raising the number of mandatory national data retention laws following a court websites blocked for copyright reasons to 93 in the UK, order. However, the ISP will offer customers the possibil- the ruling has the biggest impact since the first piracy ity of using a free VPN operated by an NGO that would website was blocked in 2012. allow them to circumvent the national data retention legislation as VPN operators are not obliged to store data.

58 18. India accuses US companies 20. China unblocks foreign of copyright infringements Internet platforms for During the India-US Trade Policy Forum, the two countries international meeting for discussed online piracy challenges related to the Hol- the first time 41 lywood and Bollywood industries. India accuses over During a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Coopera- 600 US websites including Google and Amazon to violate tion taking place in Beijing on November 10-12, 2014, the national copyrights. During the meeting, the US officially Chinese administration allowed participants to access acknowledged that India also faces online copyright chal- websites which are currently blocked in the Chinese juris- lenges. diction including Twitter, YouTube or Facebook. It was the first time43 that China offered unfiltered Internet access 19. Europe and US take down during an international conference. illegal TOR marketplaces Sixteen European countries and the US have coordinated42 efforts to take down 410 hidden websites that facilitated “dark markets” for drugs or weapons. The action also targeted Silk Road 2.0 and its alleged operator was arrested.

REFERENCES

1 Supreme Court of Argen- 7 Bloomberg (26.11.2014). 14 The Register (13.11.2014). 21 Business Insider tina (28.11.2014). María Belén Google pushed to extend ‘for- Judge: Terror bomb victims (26.11.2014). Here’s everything Rodriguez c. Google s/daños y gotten’ requests to U.S. site. can’t seize iran’s domain name we know about Facebook’s perjuicios, Case No. 99.613/06. as compensation. links to Lee Rigby’s murder. 8 The Guardian (27.11.2014). 2 e-Bertoni (26.11.2014). EU to Google: expand ‘right to 15 Daily News (26.02.2014). 22 The Telegraph (25.11.2014). Supreme Court of Argentina be forgotten’ to Google.com. YouTube must take down ‘In- David Cameron wants Google rules Google not liable for nocence of Muslims,’ film that and Facebook to monitor ter- search results. 9 United States District sparked outrage: judge. rorist threats. Court for the District of 3 The Center for Internet Columbia (10.11.2014). Shaul 16 Arstechnica (12.11.2014). 23 BBC News (25.11.2014). and Society (05.11.2014). Stern, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Garvia hearing order. Facebook hosted Lee Rigby Argentine Supreme Court de- Civil 0. 00-2602 (RCL) The death chat ahead of soldier’s cides landmark intermediary Islamic Republic of Iran, et 17 Reuters (12.11.2014). Ap- murder. liability case. al.,Defendant. peals court will revisit order to remove anti-Islamic film 24 The Guardian (26.11.2014). 4 Open Society Foundations 10 BBC News (31.07.2014). from YouTube. Lee Rigby murder: Facebook (30.10.2014). Case watch: Top ICANN bids to stop Iran web could have picked up killer’s Argentine court blazes a trail domain seizure. 18 The Wall Street Journal message - report. on online free expression. (12.11.2014). Appeals court to 11 PCWorld (13.11.2014). No, take another look at ‘inno- 25 The Telegraph (26.11.2014). 5 European Commission you can’t seize country TLDs, cence of Muslims’ copyright David Cameron wants Google (26.11.2014). Press Release US court rules. ruling. and Facebook to monitor ter- issued by the article 29 data rorist threats. protection working party. 12 Arctechnica (13.11.2014). 19 EPCWorld (13.10.2014). Judge sides with ICANN: Appeals court to revisit 26 The New York Times 6 Article 29 Working Party Plaintiffs can’t take all of Iran’s controversial YouTube video (25.11.2014). U.N. urges protec- (26.11.2014). Guidelines on the domain names. takedown. tion of privacy in digital era. implementation of the Court of Justice of the European 13 The Washington Post 20 UK Parliament’s Internet 27 The Guardian (26.11.2014). Union judgment on Google (13.11.2014). DC Court rules and Security Committee United Nations human rights Spain and Inc. v. Agencia Espa- that top-level domain not (25.11.2014). Report on the committee resolves to protect nola de Preteccion de Datos subject to seizure. intelligence relating to the privacy. and Mario Costeja. murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby.

59 28 The Times of India 32 Search Engine Land 36 The Guardian (14.11.2014). 40 TBBC News Technology (29.11.2014). China, US team up (17.11.2014). Another court ISPs criticized over deal to fil- (27.11.2014). Blocked piracy site to weed out extremist content affirms Google’s first amend- ter extremist material online. list more than doubles after from internet. ment control of search results. ruling. 37 The Holywood Reporter 29 Reuters (27.09.2014). China 33 The Times of India (24.11.2014). French consumer 41 The Times of India urges global crackdown on (25.11.2014). Google settles group sues Netflix. (26.11.2014). India to US: Tech extremists’ use of Internet. online abuse court case. companies violating copyright 38 Heise Online (04.11.2014). law. 30 AZDNet (17.11.2014). French 34 EDRi (03.12.2014). Danish Cyber Security Summit: Wenig ‘right to be forgotten’ decision court orders a UK company to Unterstützung für Schengen- 42 Europol (07.11.2014). Global takes link removal beyond block Danish IP addresses. Netz. action against dark markets on Europe. Tor networks. 35 GigaOM (17.11.2014). Swed- 39 The Times of India (11.11 31 Arstechnica (18.11.2014). ish ISP protects customers .2014). Porn menace: Indian 43 The Times of India Court agrees that Google’s from surveillance with free telcos asked to tighten screws. (06.11.2014). China lifts ban on search results qualify as free VPN. Facebook, Twitter, Youtube at speech. APEC meet.

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60 DECEMBER

1. Ireland files amicus curiae servers. Until the blocking, users in China were able to brief in US case about access still access Gmail through IMAP and POP3 protocols. to Irish Microsoft servers Read further: The Irish government filed on December 23, 2014 an amic- LA Times: Gmail traffic slowly resumes in China; govern- us curiae brief1 at the US Court of Appeals for the Second ment involvement denied10 Circuit to support Microsoft’s position in a criminal case Computerworld: China blocks Gmail at the IP level11 that involves data stored on Irish Microsoft servers. A US New York Times: Chinese access to Gmail cut, regulators court had ordered2 Microsoft to hand over data related to blamed12 an ongoing investigation to US law enforcement through an extraterritorial warrant. Ireland argues in the friend-of- 3. Facebook faces class action the-court brief that it “does not accept any implication lawsuit in US jurisdiction for that it is required to intervene into foreign court proceed- privacy violations ings to protect its sovereignty” and refers to the US-Irish Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty3 through which the US On December 23, 2014, the US District Court of the could ask for legal cooperation in the criminal case. Northern District of California denied Facebook’s motion to dismiss a class action lawsuit13 for the violation of fed- Read further: eral and California privacy laws in the US jurisdiction. Un- 14 Irish Times: Government files supporting brief for Micro- til October 2012, Facebook scanned private communica- soft in US case4 tions between users on its platforms for links to websites, CNET: Ireland sides with Microsoft in email privacy case5 which were then used for targeted advertisements. The 15 PC Mag: Ireland weighs in on Microsoft’s data fight with judge argued that Facebook’s Terms of Service did “not US6 establish that users consented to the scanning of their messages for advertising purposes, and in fact, makes no 2. Gmail appears to be mention of ‘messages’ whatsoever.” The plaintiffs argue in blocked at IP level in Chinese the lawsuit filed in 2013 that Facebook’s Terms of Service jurisdiction do not exclude the renewed scanning of private messages. Since 2009, Google serves users from mainland China Read further: through servers located in Hong Kong. On December 26, ArsTechnica: Suit over Facebook’s practice of scanning us- 2014, traffic to Gmail from China was disrupted, as visual- ers’ messages to go forward16 ized7 in the Google Transparency Report. Several news Reuters: Facebook must face lawsuit over scanning of us- outlets report8 that Chinese authorities could have decid- ers’ messages: judge17 ed to block Gmail at the level of IP addresses for “security Bloomberg: Facebook fails to dismiss privacy case over reasons”9. This means that backbone routers block the messages18 connection of Chinese users to Google’s Hong Kong-based

61 4. Google shuts down News 7. Israeli Facebook users service in Spain in response to could sue Facebook in local new law jurisdiction Google decided to disable its News service in the Span- An Israeli Facebook user wanted to sue Facebook Inc. and ish jurisdiction on December 16, 2014 in response to Facebook Ireland Inc. in his local jurisdiction after his ac- a copyright law that was passed in October 2014 and count was suspended. Although the Israeli Court for the becomes effective in January 2015. Under the new legisla- District of Jerusalem quashed the lawsuit, it nevertheless tion, online news aggregators are required to pay Spanish stated26 that cases involving Israeli users residing in Israel publishers for the content they display. Moreover, Google with accounts in Hebrew should be adjudicated under the not only shut down its News service in Spain, but also Israeli jurisdiction, despite Facebook’s Californian jurisdic- removed Spanish publishers from other country versions tion provision. of its News aggregator. The implementation modalities of the new Spanish law are yet unclear and will be decided 8. Facebook’s privacy policy through a separate consultation process in 2015. investigated in Dutch jurisdiction Read further: Guardian: Google News says ‘adiós’ to Spain in row over The Dutch data protection authority CBP opened a formal publishing fees19 investigation27 in Facebook’s privacy policy after the social New York Times: Google news to shut down in Spain20 network updated it in November 2014. Facebook plans28 BBC: Google to shut Spanish news service21 to implement the policy in January 2015. CBP asked Facebook delay its new privacy policy until the end of the 5. Netherlands could investigation. fine Google for privacy violations 9. French Court fines Dailymotion for slow The Dutch data protection authority CBP came to the content removal conclusion that Google’s Terms of Service and privacy policy adopted in 2012 violate the Dutch Data Protection The Paris Court of Appeals ordered29 Dailymotion to pay Act. On December 15, 2014, CBP gave Google a deadline 1.3 million euros in damages for not removing copyright until February 2015 to modify its collection of user data. protected videos fast enough after receiving notifications. Google combines data from different services without The court however affirmed that Dailymotion has no obli- “adequately informing the users in advance and without gation30 to proactively monitor user-generated content. […] asking for consent”. In case of non-compliance, Google could be fined up to 15 million euros in the Dutch jurisdic- 10. Pirate Bay moves to tion. Moldova after Swedish server raid Read further: Dutch Data Protection Authority: CBP issues sanction to On December 9, 2014, the Swedish police raided the 31 Google for infringements privacy policy22 facilities of a hosting company in Stockholm and seized ZDNet: Google facing €15m Dutch fine over privacy servers which allegedly belonged to The Pirate Bay. The changes23 torrent site was offline for the first time. On December 21, 32 Guardian: Google faces €15m fines over privacy breaches 2014, the site moved to a new server in Moldova, based in Netherlands24 on its IP-address. 6. Google fined in Brazil for 11. Google could face lawsuit refusing to comply with data by Indian government over request Google Maps borders A federal Brazilian court fined25 Google 200.000 USD for Survey of India (SOI), the official cartographic service of 33 refusing to comply immediately with a court order to the Indian government, has filed a complaint with the hand over data related to an investigation in Petrobas. Indian police against Google Maps for wrongly depicting Google argued that it would only hand over the email disputed territories, which is deemed an offense under data in question if they received a proper US cooperation Section 69A of the Information Technology Act of 2000. 34 request, but eventually complied with the Brazilian order. It is Google’s policy to depict such disputed territories according to the national laws in its local versions.

62 12. French court orders ISPs 17. Australian ISPs requested to block access to the Pirate to develop a code of conduct Bay for copyright infringements France has joined35 the list of countries blocking the Pirate After a consultation process, the Australian Government Bay after a Paris court ordered36 the four major ISPs on gave47 ISPs until April 2015 to develop a code of conduct48 December 4, 2014 to block access to the site itself, its to notify customers about copyright infringements and main mirror or redirection sites, as well as proxies. define sharing of related costs with rightsholders. Right- sholders would obtain customers’ details for action after 13. Microsoft files fresh US an agreed number of notices are sent. Copyright law will appeal against handing over be amended to allow courts to order the blocking of for- emails stored on Irish servers eign websites49 that can be shown to be primarily devoted to copyright infringement. On December 8, 2015 Microsoft filed37 an appeal against a US warrant requiring it to hand over customer emails 18. GitHub starts blocking stored in a Dublin data center, arguing that this would suicide content in Russian constitute inappropriate extra-territorial search38. Several amicus briefs39 were submitted from major tech compa- jurisdiction nies40, civil society groups41 and the Irish government42. After being blocked in Russia50 because of pages referring to methods to commit suicide, GitHub started geo-block- 14. Pakistan maintains ban of ing51 such content in the Russian territory, citing its Terms YouTube of Service that forbid violating the laws of the jurisdiction of the user. It also established a repository52 to publicly After briefly reopening access to YouTube, Pakistani au- post requests received from Russian authorities. thorities have restored43 the ban established in 2012 after the posting of the “Innocence of Muslims” video, justify- 19. Chaos Computer Club sites ing the measure by the receipt of numerous complaints. A parallel trial in the US44 addresses the removal of the blocked by British ISP filters video on copyright grounds. The sites of the Chaos Computer Club and its annual conference became inaccessible53 to many UK citizens 15. Iran to deploy new “smart” after their likely inclusion in the opt-out Internet filter- Internet filtering ing system established by ISPs since 2013. Created at the request of the government to enable blocking of content 45 Iran experiments with new filtering techniques to selec- unsuitable for minors or deemed objectionable, its scope tively prevent access to “criminal and unethical” content, has progressively been expanded, raising concerns of which would potentially allow for the removal of the overblocking54. current blanket ban on entire platforms. A trial under way (allegedly on Instagram) could lead to a full deployment 20. China to fine 11 Internet in June 2015. companies for spreading 16. Facebook and Twitter pornography and violence refuse to block pages for China’s Ministry of Culture has announced55 it will fine Navalny protest in Russia Tencent, Baidu and nine other companies as part of a broad anti-pornographic campaign launched in April 2014, In spite of requests by the Russian regulator, Facebook asking these “major companies to shoulder their social 46 and Twitter have decided not to block the pages related responsibility”. to the demonstration planned by regime critic Alexei Na- valny for January 15, 2015. The US-based platforms might risk being blocked in the Russian jurisdiction as a result.

63 REFERENCES

1 US Court of Appeals 10 LA Times (31.12.2014) Gmail 18 Bloomberg (24.12.2014). 27 ZDNet (16.12.2014). Dutch (23.12.2014). In the matter of traffic slowly resumes in Facebook fails to dismiss watchdog slams brakes on a warrant to search a certain China; government involve- privacy case over messages. Facebook’s new privacy plan. e-mail account controlled ment denied. and maintained by Microsoft 19 The Guardian (11.12.2014). 28 The New York Times Corporation. 11 ComputerWorld Google News Spain to close in (16.12.2014). Dutch regula- (28.12.2014). China blocks response to story links ‘tax’. tor investigates Facebook’s 2 Computer World Gmail at the IP level. privacy policy. (24.12.2014). Ireland wants US 20 The New York Times to use treaty to access Micro- 12 The New York Times (11.12.2014). Google News to 29 The Center for Internet soft held emails. (29.12.2014). Chinese access to Shut Down in Spain. and Society (08.12.2014). Gmail cut, regulators blamed. France: DailyMotion pays 3 TechCrunch (23.12.2014). 21 BBC News (11.12.2014). damages for late removal of Ireland weighs in on Microsoft 13 US District Court of the Google to shut Spanish news infringing materials. v. US Government. Northern District of California service. (23.12.2014). Order granting in 30 IPKat (06.12.2014). TF1 v 4 Irish Times (23.12.2014). part and denying in part mo- 22 Dutch Data Protection Dailymotion: Meet third gen- Government files supporting tion to dismiss. Authority (15.12.2014). CBP eration hosting providers. brief for Microsoft in US case. issues sanction to Google for 14 LA Times (24.12.2014). infringements privacy policy 31 The Guardian (10.12.2014). 5 CNet (24.12.2014). Ireland Facebook will have to face Swedish police raid sinks The sides with Microsoft in email lawsuit over scanning of users’ 23 ZDnet (16.12.2014). Google Pirate Bay. privacy case. messages. facing €15m Dutch fine over privacy changes. 32 TorrentFreak (21.12.2014). 6 PCMag (24.12.2014). Ireland 15 News Week (26.12.2014). Pirate Bay domain back online, Weighs in on Microsoft’s Data Lawsuit claiming Facebook 24 The Guardian (16.12.2014). waving a pirate flag. Fight With U.S. scanned private messages Google faces €15m fines over to better target ads moves privacy breaches in Nether- 33 The Times of India 7 Google Transparency forward. lands. (13.12.2014). Google displaying Report (26.12.2014). Google’s incorrect map of India. Gmail blocked in China. 16 Arstechnica (25.12.2014). 25 The Times of India Suit over Facebook’s practice (16.12.2014). Google fined 34 Google Public Policy Blog 8 Los Angeles Times of scanning users’ messages to $200,000 in Brazil. (0912.2009). When sources (31.12.2014). Gmail traffic go forward. disagree: borders and place slowly resumes in China; gov- 26 Law.court.il (09.12.2014). names in Google Earth and ernment involvement denied. 17 Reuters (24.12.2014). Face- Israeli Court might not let Maps. book must face lawsuit over Facebook off the hook on 9 Global Times (30.12.2014). scanning of users’ messages: litigating in Israel. Gmail glitch fuels unnecessary judge. speculation.

64 35 The Center for Internet 40 The Guardian (15.12.2014). 46 The Wall Street Journal 51 TechCrunch (05.12.2014). and Society (09.12.2014). Tech companies join Microsoft (26.12.2014). U.S. social-media To get off Russia’s blacklist, French High Court orders to in email warrant case against giants are resisting Russia cen- GitHub has blocked access to block The Pirate Bay. US government. sors. pages that highlight suicide.

36 The High Court of 41 Electronic Frontier Foun- 47 The Guardian (10.12.2014). 52 GitHub (01.12.2014). Ros- Paris (04.12.2014). Summary of dation (15.12.2014). The faulty Copyright changes would al- komnadzor. judgement. logic at the heart of Microsoft low courts to block overseas Ireland email dispute. file sharing sites. 53 PCWorld (08.12.2014). 37 eWeek (09.12.2014). Mi- Vodafone blocks Chaos Com- crosoft files appeal in Ireland 42 The Wall Street Journal 48 Communications Alliance puter Club site, fueling ‘Net email case. (24.12.2014). Ireland tells U.S. LTD (10.12.2014). ISP industry censorship concerns in UK. to use treaty in Microsoft moves to create code to com- 38 US Court of Appeals email case. bat online copyright infringe- 54 FreezeNet (11.12.2014). (08.12.2014). In the matter of ment. UK porn filter censors chaos a warrant to search a certain 43 The International News computer club. e-mail account controlled (13.12.2014). YouTube closed 49 ZDNet (10.12.2014). Stop and maintained by Microsoft after trial opening. the torrents: ISPs to block pi- 55 Reuters (02.12.2014). China Corporation. racy websites, send warnings. to fine Internet firms Tencent, 44 The Wall Street Journal Baidu for porn: Xinhua. 39 Microsoft Blog (15.12.2014). (15.12.2014). Court to review 50 TechCrunch (03.12.2014). Business, media and civil so- copyright ruling on ‘innocence Russia blacklists, blocks ciety speak up in key privacy of Muslims’ video. GitHub over pages that refer case. 45 Reuters (26.12.2014). Iran to suicide. expands ‘smart’ Internet censorship.

FIND ALL LINKS TO THESE ENDNOTES ON OUR WEBSITE: www.internetjurisdiction.net/ observatory/retrospect/2014-december/

65 DESIGN: ANDREAS B. KRUEGER – www.andreasbkrueger.com A GLOBAL MULTI-STAKEHOLDER DIALOGUE PROCESS A GLOBAL MULTI-STAKEHOLDER DIALOGUE PROCESS

INTERNET & ABOUT JURISDICTION OBSERVATORY

The Internet & Jurisdiction Project The members of the Internet & Jurisdiction Observatory facilitates a global multi-stakeholder network provide expert input into the global multi- dialogue process to address the tension stakeholder dialogue process and help the Internet between the cross-border nature of the & Jurisdiction Project to detect trends related to the Internet and geographically defined na- tension between the cross-border nature of the Internet tional jurisdictions. It provides a neutral and national jurisdictions around the world. Based on a platform for states, business, civil society progressive crowd-based filtering process, they identify and international organisations to discuss the most relevant cases. This ranking is the backbone the elaboration of a transnational due of the Internet & Jurisdiction Retrospect, our monthly process framework to handle the digital newsletter that informs the different stakeholders coexistence of diverse national laws in who participate in the ongoing dialogue process about shared cross-border online spaces. emerging trends.

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The Internet & Jurisdiction Project is a not-for-profit project. In 2014, it has been made possible thanks to contribu- tions by: AFNIC (France’s cc-TLD .fr), auDA (Australia’s cc-TLD .au), Brazilian Internet Steering Committee CGI.br/NIC. br (Brazil’s cc-TLD .br), CIRA (Canada’s cc-TLD .ca), Facebook, German Federal Foreign Office, Google, Sigrid Rausing Trust, Swiss Federal Office of Communications OFCOM, Walt Disney Company.