The Egyptian Internet shutdown could possibly cost the country $90 million, according to preliminary estimates from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Telecom and Internet services account for 3-4 percent of GDP in Egypt, or a loss of about $18 million per day, OECD said.
It seemed so easy for Egypt. Just order a shutdown of the country's internet connections and -- bam -- it happens. But is such an authoritarian action transferable? Could the U.S. government shut down American internet connections? And is it possible for the global internet to be toppled?
A Canadian regulatory ruling that effectively stops small Internet providers from offering unlimited downloads must be revised, Industry Minister Tony Clement said on the social networking site Twitter. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, or CRTC, ruled last week that BCE Inc., the parent of Bell Canada, could charge wholesalers that lease bandwidth on its network on the same usage basis it charges its own customers, minus a 15 percent discount.
Facebook, whether it likes it or not, has been thrust like never before into a sensitive global political moment that pits the company's need for an open Internet against concerns that autocratic regimes could limit use of the site or shut it down altogether. The recent unrest in Egypt and Tunisia is forcing Facebook officials to grapple with the prospect that other governments will grow more cautious of permitting the company to operate in their countries without restrictions or close monitoring, according to David Kirkpatrick, author of "The Facebook Effect," an authorized biography of the company's history.
A U.S. appeals court has rejected Verizon Communications's request for a specific panel of judges to hear its challenge to the Federal Communications Commission's new Internet traffic rules. Verizon had asked for the same judges who last year decided the FCC lacked the authority to stop Comcast Corp from blocking bandwidth-hogging applications on its broadband network, spurring the agency's most recent rulemaking effort.
The online group Anonymous said that it had paralyzed the Egyptian government's Web sites in support of the antigovernment protests. Anonymous, a loosely defined group of hackers from all over the world, gathered about 500 supporters in online forums and used software tools to bring down the sites of the Ministry of Information and President Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party, said Gregg Housh, a member of the group.
Egypt restored Internet access, after a one-week blackout for Web and cell phone users to try to stem civil unrest. The nation was the second ever to completely shut its citizens off of the Internet. Burma made a similar move in 1997.
The UK government has announced that it is to look again at plans to block websites that infringe copyright. The controversial measures formed part of its crackdown on net pirates, outlined in the Digital Economy Act (DEA).
A California man has filed suit against AT&T for what he says are inflated data charges for Apple's iPhone and iPad. AT&T's billing system for data is like a "rigged gas pump," according to Patrick Hendricks, who filed the suit.
A recently discovered flaw in Internet Explorer could allow criminals to collect passwords and banking information. Microsoft is warning Windows users to be aware of the problem, with a manual work-around available, but there is no downloadable software fix available yet. So far, Microsoft says it "has not seen any indications of active exploitation of the vulnerability."
The arbiters of speech in China sprang into action over the weekend: Sina.com and Netease.com -- two of the nation's biggest online portals -- blocked keyword searches of the word "Egypt," though the mass protests were being discussed on some Internet chat rooms. The use of "Egypt" has also been blocked on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter.
A new Facebook advertising format that turns members' actions into promoted content on their friends' profile pages could be a gold mine for the social-networking company. But, like many new Facebook features, it has stirred unease among privacy advocates and some consumers.
India and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. are in a deadlock over the issue of monitoring corporate emails as the world's fastest growing market for wireless services insists the Canadian smartphone maker provide it access. "We will insist they give us a solution for (the) enterprise service too," Home Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters, citing an earlier agreement reached by the company and the Indian government on the smartphone's messenger service.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that the need to communicate over the Internet and more broadly freedom of speech must be addressed in a substantive way by the Egyptian government going forward, whoever is in power. He said that must be part of any "orderly transition" of government, which the U.S. has been calling for in recent days.
The Federal Communications Commission filed motions to dismiss what it calls "premature" lawsuits from Verizon and, more recently, MetroPCS over net neutrality. The FCC's three filings in the D.C. Circuit note that its December Open Internet order has not yet been filed in the Federal Register, so the telecommunications companies' challenges are premature.
Web activist group Anonymous has criticized the arrest of its members claiming the web attacks they launched were a legitimate form of protest. Five men were arrested in connection with web attacks carried out in support of WikiLeaks.
Connecticut's attorney general says an agreement has been reached with Google allowing negotiations to begin over the company's collection of data from public Wi-Fi networks. Attorney General George Jepsen said it means Connecticut and a 40-state coalition can proceed to negotiate a settlement of privacy issues without a protracted court battle.
iPhone 4 owner Donald LeBuhn filed a class action lawsuit against Apple, claiming the company is misleading customers about the strength of the glass casing on the iPhone 4. LeBuhn is asking that Apple reimburse the plaintiffs in the case for the cost of the phone and any repairs.
Egypt has cut off nearly all Internet traffic into and out of the country in the largest blackout of its kind, according to firms that monitor international data flows. Renesys, a Vermont-based company that tracks Internet traffic, said that just after midnight Cairo time, or 5 p.m. New York time, Egyptian authorities had succeeded in shutting down the country’s international access points.
Government lawyers filed a motion asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit seeking to overturn new rules designed to protect Internet freedom. In documents filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C., lawyers for the Federal Communications Commission call the lawsuit by Verizon and MetroPCS "fatally premature" and argue that the court lacks jurisdiction to hear the case.
About : Legal Services | Doug Isenberg | Cases & Clients | Firm News
Resources : YouTube Channel | Daily News | Blog | Masterclass | Domain Dispute Digest
The GigaLaw Firm helps companies of all sizes protect their brands online, using domain name dispute policies – such as the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) – and other legal tools available to copyright and trademark owners on the Internet.