[Chapter-delegates] Internet censorship in Poland: ISOC Poland joins the debate with the Prime Minister TODAY - watch live at 1400 CET

Fri Feb 5 01:52:43 PST 2010

Dear All,
We have following situation in Armenia:
ISOC.AM council last year  have established a working group, which is 
responsible for making decisions
concerning delegation  of any domain name in AM zone -  if there will be 
a written warning request from any user or company.
According to ISOC policy,  working group  can revoke a domain if it is 
proved that the domain is being used for spreading spam and/or any 
illegal or inappropriate purposes (to stir up an international, ethnic, 
religious discord, to abet in international terrorism, to promote 
violence, to boost up pornography, to support trafficking). WG have 
determined 2 weeks for shifting the situation for domain name owner,
  If during this period the owner will ignore WG requwst, we shall block 
the domain name for 30 days, after that owner will loose his rights
for that name.  It is very important, that WG  has all rights  to keep 
domain name, if WG is not agree with unjust accusations. In that case
the author of warning message can  to  apply to Armenian  court with 
blame for inactivity, and court will make his decision.
In this situation ISOC.AM can describe  his position in court.
For domains not in AM zone  there is not exact policy in our country, 
and there is no special body, which is responsible for
blocking domain names/sites. General idea is that such problems is 
necessary to resolve in frame of international cooperation.
Grigori Saghyan
ISOC.AM

On 05.02.2010 12:31, Tommi Karttaavi wrote:
> Dear Marcin, all,
>
> There has been a similar development in Finland. The police maintains a
> list of banned sites that operators are blocking on DNS-level. So far the
> blocking has been voluntary for the operators. The censorship system was
> set up to prevent access to child porn, but of course there has been talk
> about extending it to block other materials also (e.g. online gambling).
>
> The blacklist has been said to contain also legitimate websites. A Finnish
> Internet activist published a list of blocked sites to express criticism on
> the censorship. His site was added on the blacklist, which is problematic
> because the police should have applied for a court order to confiscate the
> server if the material (links) on it was indeed illegal. So it would seem
> that we have an censorship system that can applied arbitrarily without due
> process or any transparency. Some might consider that unconstitutional.
>
> A more detailed overview can be found from the blog of the Electronic
> Frontier Finland:
> http://www.effi.org/blog/kai-2008-02-18.html
>
> Regards,
>
> Tommi
>
> On Fri, 5 Feb 2010 00:51:51 +0000, Marcin Cieslak<saper at saper.info>  wrote:
>    
>> Today, on Friday Feb the 5th, 14:00 Central European Time, I will take
>> part in the meeting of the Internet and civil society community
>> with the Prime Minister of Poland, Mr Donald Tusk.
>>
>> Following a last week meeting I took part with Minister Boni
>> (responsible for day-to-day operations of the cabinet) where
>> representatives of 7 organisations (including Internet Society
>> Poland represented by myself) have expressed their deepest concern
>> about proposed introduction of the government-run list of banned
>> websites and Internet services that is about to be introduced by
>> the proposed law that regulates gambling in the country. The issue
>> has stirred lots of controversy amount the Internet community in
>> the country, with mainstream media to follow up on the issue.
>>
>> The proposed law introduces a general ban on gambling not
>> lincensed by the government *including* online gambling that
>> might be targeted at the Polish user (being either (a) available
>> in the Polish language (b) operating from Poland or (c) being
>> advertised in Poland). To support the ban, the government
>> proposal that has been approved by the Council of Ministers
>> mid-January 2010 a special register of banned Internet websites
>> and services is about to be introduced. The register will
>> be run by the Polands telecom regulator (UKE) and entries
>> are about to be added by the police and the customs and
>> approved by the circuit court in Warsaw.
>>
>> The register, however, will not only include gambling sites
>> - it is also targeted at the child pornography sites
>> (possession and dissemination of such material have been
>> made illegal in Poland recently) as well as the sites dealing with
>> the fund transfer from bank accounts/credict cards using fradulent
>> information (i.e.  phishing sites). A quasi-judicial procedure is
>> about to be introduced.  All Internet providers need to comply to the
>>      
> court
>    
>> request within 6 hours.
>>
>> Internet Society Poland in a joint letter with 9 other civic society
>> organisations has protested against the proposed change on
>> the constitutional grounds.
>>
>> The meeting is scheduled to take two hours and will be transmitted
>> live on the Internet (as well as being covered by three nationwide
>> TV networks).
>>
>> This will be of course in Polish but the atmosphere may be nevertheless
>> interesting.  In addition to ISOC Poland and other organisations a
>> sample of Internet users, bloggers and online activits has been
>> invited, based on the questions and issues they have raised on the
>> dedicated Internet portal during last week. I have been told that
>> number of participants will be about 50.
>>
>> It can be watched live:
>>
>> http://www.premier.gov.pl/centrum_prasowe/centrum_multimedialne/na_zywo/
>>
>> http://www.onet.tv/zapytaj-premiera-debata-na-zywo,6130793,relacja.html
>>
>> http://www.lookr.tv/
>>
>>
>> Special iPhone version:
>>
>> http://www.premier.gov.pl/iphone
>>
>> Full details of the event:
>>
>> http://www.premier.gov.pl/centrum_prasowe/wydarzenia/id:4129/
>>
>> List of invited organisations:
>>
>>
>>      
> http://www.premier.gov.pl/files/news/download/Organizacje_pozarzadowe_na_spotkanie_z_premierem.pdf
>    
>> More details (in Polish) on the office of the prime minister website:
>>
>> http://www.premier.gov.pl/centrum_prasowe/wydarzenia/id:4129/
>>      
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