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GLOBAL NEWS MOVES TO ENFORCE INTERNET CENSORSHIP he Australian government is set to impose Chinese-style Internet censorship by enforcing a universal national filter that will block websites deemed "controversial" as part of a wider agenda to regulate the Internet, according to free speech advocates. A provision whereby Internet users could opt out of the filter by contacting their ISP has been stripped from the legislation, meaning the filter will be universal and mandatory. The System Administrators Guild of Australia and Electronic Frontiers Australia have attacked the proposal, saying it will restrict web access, raise prices and slow Internet traffic speeds. The plan was originally created as a way to combat child pornography and adult content, but could be extended to include almost any "controversial" websites. The Australian government will no doubt insist that its filter is in the best interests and is only designed to block child pornography, snuff films and other horrors, yet the system is completely pointless because it will not affect file-sharing networks—the medium through which the vast majority of such material is distributed. Moves to regulate the web have increased over the last two years. ¢ In a display of bipartisanship by US Democrats and Republicans alike, there have been calls for all-out mandatory ISP snooping on all US citizens. ¢ In December 2006, Republican Senator John McCain tabled a proposal to introduce legislation that would fine blogs up to $300,000 for offensive statements, photos and videos posted by visitors on comment boards. ¢ The White House's own declassified strategy for "winning the war on terror" targets Internet conspiracy theory sites as a recruiting ground for terrorists and threatens to "diminish" their influence. ¢ The US Government wants to force bloggers and online grassroots activists to register and regularly report their activities to Congress. Criminal charges including a possible jail term of up to one year could be the punishment for non-compliance. ¢ A landmark November 2006 legal case on behalf of the Recording Industry Association of America and other global trade organisations sought to criminalise all Internet file sharing of any kind as copyright infringement, effectively shutting down the World Wide Web; its argument was supported by the US government. ¢ A landmark legal ruling in Sydney goes further than ever before in setting the trapdoor for the destruction of the Internet as we know it and the end of alternative news websites and blogs by creating the precedent that simply linking to other websites is breach of copyright and piracy. ¢ The European Union (EU) has also vowed to shut down "terrorists" who use the Internet to spread propaganda. The EU Data Retention Bill, passed after much controversy and implemented in 2007, obliges telephone operators and Internet service providers to store information on who called whom and who emailed whom for at least six months. Under this law, investigators in any EU country, and most bizarrely even in the USA, can access EU citizens! data on phone calls, SMSs, emails and instant messaging services. The EU also proposed legislation that would prevent users from uploading any form of video without a licence. Internet censorship is perhaps the most pertinent issue that freedom advocates should rally to combat over the course of the next few years, lest we allow a cyber-gag to be placed over our mouths and say goodbye to our last medium of free and open communication. (Source: Prison Planet, 29 October 2008, www.infowars.com:80/?p=5619) more than just a statistical fluke. Particle physics experimenters sometimes see odd signals in their data, but it is rare that an effect persists long enough to be published by the entire collaboration. The ghostly visitors are appearing at the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF), one of two building-sized experiments at the Tevatron, a proton—antiproton collider located at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois. (Source: Nature, 3 November 2008) WHO OWNS NATURE? he ETC Group has released a 48- page report, "Who Owns Nature?", on corporate concentration in commercial food, farming and health and on the strategic push to commodify the planet's remaining natural resources. An international advocacy organisation based in Canada, ETC Group has been monitoring corporate power in the industrial life-sciences for the past 30 years. The group's report reveals that: ¢ from thousands of seed companies and public breeding institutions three decades ago, 10 companies now control more than two-thirds of global proprietary seed sales; e from dozens of pesticide companies three decades ago, 10 now control almost 90 per cent of agrichemical sales worldwide; ¢ From almost 1,000 biotech start- ups 15 years ago, 10 companies now account for three-quarters of industry revenues; e the top 10 pharmaceutical companies control 55 per cent of the global pharmaceutical market. The report warns that, with engineering of living organisms at the nano-scale (i.e., synthetic biology), industry is setting the stage for a corporate grab that extends to all of nature. (Source: ETC Group, 13 November 2008; to download the full report, go to http://www.etcgroup.org.) NEXUS ¢ 9 DECEMBER 2008 — JANUARY 2009 www.nexusmagazine.com