From Ars Technica:

Deutsche Telekom, the European Union’s largest telecommunications firm and owner of the U.S. wireless carrier T-Mobile, stands accused of snooping on business journalists, members of its supervisory board, and its own executives in an attempt to uncover the source of leaks to the press.

. . .

The case bears a striking resemblance to the 2006 Hewlett Packard pretexting scandal, in which the company hired private investigators who obtained employee phone records under false pretenses.

From Computing magazine:

Two prominent Labour ministers have defended the government’s stance on personal internet security in the face of criticism from the House of Lords that not enough is being done to protect individuals.

Baroness Vadera, parliamentary under-secretary of state for the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) supported the government’s rejection of calls for a data breach notification law.

…

And Vernon Coaker, under-secretary of state for the Home Office, stood by a decision to make banks the first port of call for reporting fraud.

Hat tip: Glyn, via the [ORG-discuss] mailing list.

Via OUT-LAW.COM

Two British newspaper publishers have been fined in French courts because they violated French privacy laws. The publishers were liable because the articles were viewed in France on the internet.

AfterDawn.com reports that:

The Helsinki Court of Appeals has overturned a controversial ruling made last year, which found that CSS copy protection in use on almost all retail movie DVDs was “ineffective”. Finnish copyright law (amended in 2006 by adoption of EUCD) prohibits circumventing “effective technological measures”, but the court original found that CSS cannot be described as an “efficient copy protection mechanism” anymore.

Within days of the ruling, the prosecutor announced plans to appeal the decision and on Monday, the Appeals Court overturned the original ruling. It rejected the District Court’s judgment based on the objectives of DRM regulation.

The legislation in question is based on Articles 6 and 8 of the EU Copyright Directive (EUCD), which was implemented in UK law in 2002.

Via Techdirt.

Via the Canadian Press:

China has ratcheted up surveillance and security in every phase of the Beijing Olympics - even the tickets.

In a move unprecedented for the Olympics, tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies are embedded with a microchip containing the bearer’s photograph, passport details, addresses, e-mail and telephone numbers.

The intent is to keep potential troublemakers from the 91,000-seat National Stadium as billions watch on TV screens around the world. Along with terrorists, Chinese officials fear protesters might wreck the glitzy ceremonies, unfurling Tibet flags, anti-China banners or even T-shirts adorned with strident messages.

Aside from concerns about privacy and identity theft, the high-tech tickets also threaten chaos at the turnstiles.

Will British Olympics-goers be faced with similar measures when the games come to London in 2012?

From the BBC:

Plans to computerise the NHS in England could face further delays after a contract with a key supplier was terminated.

From the Guardian:

A masters student researching terrorist tactics who was arrested and detained for six days after his university informed police about al-Qaida-related material he downloaded has spoken of the “psychological torture” he endured in custody.

. . .

Sabir’s solicitor, Tayab Ali, said: “This could have been dealt with sensibly if the university had discussed the issue with Rizwaan and his tutors. This is the worrying aspect of the extension of detention [under the Terrorism Act]. They can use hugely powerful arrest powers before investigating.”

From the Times

Britain’s artistic community is battling against leading auction houses and dealers to bring in a law forcing the payment of a royalty on artists’ works for 70 years after their deaths — in line with writers and musicians.

From the BBC:

A couple were monitored for nearly three weeks by Poole Borough Council to find out if they were really living in a school catchment area.

. . .

The council said it had carried out surveillance on 17 separate occasions under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) since 2005. The powers had been used in a number of ways, including detecting underage alcohol sales, investigating benefit claims and monitoring suspected drug dealers.

From CJBK.com:

It’s long been standard for website registrars to publicly provide detailed contact information for individuals who own domain names under dot-ca and dot-com through an easy Internet search called a Whois (pronounced who-is).

The Canada Internet Registration Authority says it will buck [this] trend by June 10, instituting new privacy policies that will protect private information from roaming eyes.

Also reported by the Canadian Press and Domain Name Wire.

The detailed information contained in whois databases has long been exploited by spammers and scammers. If successful, this move could attract the attention of other national registrars.