Posted 02/03/09 at 08:22:37 AM by Pulkit Chandna

The fate of the Medina report, which propounds several anti-piracy measures, will be soon decided by the European Parliament. MEPs (Member of European Parliament) are supposed to vote on the report authored by Spanish socialist Manuel Medina Ortega in the next few weeks. The regulations proposed by Ortega are a shade hackneyed.

The report has torrent websites and their users in its crosshairs. It seeks to ban all torrent websites like The Pirate Bay – specifically mentioned in the report, as they “allow downloading of protected works or services without the necessary authorization are illegal.” However, the presumption that the illegality of such torrent portals follows from their illegal use is not entirely incontrovertible.

Ortega not only proposes to saddle ISPs with more responsibility, he wants them to be able to be more powerful than before. He suggests that ISPs be allowed to disconnect transgressors.

Image Credit: Moldova.Org

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Posted 06/25/08 at 06:04:09 AM by Pulkit Chandna

The internet’s guardian of sorts ICANN will vote on relaxing rigid norms that currently govern top level domains like the ubiquitous .com domain. ICANN members will cast their vote on Thursday (June 26th, 2008) on a wide array of changes. If the members uphold the proposed steps then there will be sweeping changes that will surely augur well for freedom on the internet.

There are plans for laxer norms for top level domains that are currently assigned only to countries. Under the proposed arrangement, companies would be able to extend their brands to the internet in the best way possible by turning them to a top level domain. To boot, there is a possibility of top level domains in languages other than English, and the .xxx domain might finally be round the corner. Will ICANN vote for a new era of domains – Domain 2.0? Let’s see.

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