Policy

The International Telecommunication Union is "the most failed body in the history of international telecommunications," a former policy chief has told CNET, describing secret talks, Russia's close involvement with the group, and the ITU's Global Cybersecurity Agenda.

Anthony Rutkowski held the position of the ITU's chief of telecommunication regulations and relations between members in the ITU's general secretariat from November 1987 to January 1992. In that capacity, he also served as counselor to the secretary-general, worked for two ITU secretaries-general -- and much more in various capacities for the telecommunications arm of the United … Read more

A Russian-led coalition has withdrawn a controversial proposal to turn Internet governance over to a United Nations agency, a plan opposed by Western governments during ongoing talks over an international communications treaty.

The proposal, supported by China, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and others, would have called on the U.N. to help member states seize control of key Internet engineering assets, including domain names, addresses, and numbering. The United States, Canada, France, Sweden, and others opposed the proposal, fearing that it could do grave harm to the current free and open Internet.

The U.N. agency, called the … Read more

The U.S. and Canada's attempt to limit the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) regulations to telecom operators has been stalled.

The countries, along with much of Europe, had hoped to stop the United Nations arm from attempting to regulate online companies as talks got under way. However, other countries, led by Russia and some countries in the Middle East, have balked, arguing that regulating the Internet should encompass Web companies.

Reuters was first to report on the talks.

ITU discussions kicked off earlier this week as countries around the world determine the extent to which the Internet should … Read more

For those who would have liked to know the value of a Twitter follower, you'll have to wait for another lawsuit.

Last December, the mobile phone site PhoneDog sued former employee Noah Kravitz when he left the company, alleging that he took as many as 17,000 of its Twitter followers with him. PhoneDog estimated each follower was worth $2.50, money it wanted back.

The case drew national attention because it was the first with the potential to put a monetary value on an individual Twitter follower. As an employee, Kravitz had produced video blogs and reviews for … Read more

Today in Dubai, an 11-day meeting begins that may result in an Internet-regulation proposal standstill.

The U.N. conference will be centered on updating telecommunications codes, including global communications cooperation, but concerns are growing within a U.S. delegation that plans to oppose U.N. proposals which may impose further controls on Internet commerce and communication.

However, the 123-member strong U.S. group joins envoys from tech firms including Google and Microsoft, who express concern that potential security oversights could also be exploited by nations -- including Russia and China -- to justify the next step on the Internet control … Read more

Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army private accused of sharing documents with WikiLeaks that were eventually released on the Internet, is now one step closer to handling some of the claims brought against him.

Military judge Col. Denise Lind today accepted the language used to describe seven charges to which Manning could plead guilty. The charges include Manning willfully sending videos, war logs, and other classified materials to WikiLeaks.

The Associated Press was first to report on the ruling.

To be clear, Col. Lind's ruling does not imply that Manning willl offer a guilty plea. Instead, the ruling approves … Read more

Google has kicked off a campaign against a proposed German law that would force search engine providers to pay copyright fees every time they return a news article in their results.

The Leistungsschutzrecht für Presseverleger, or "ancillary copyright for press publishers," would provide an extension of copyright in Germany to cover snippets of articles, such as those that show up in search results so the user can tell what each result is about. It is being proposed by Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition and follows intense lobbying by publishing giant Axel Springer and others.

Google today … Read more

A hoax status update making the rounds on Facebook has some folks thinking a posted copyright statement will keep Facebook from using the content they post. It won't, and it wouldn't matter if it did.

This is because the post -- which urges users to copy and paste a message declaring rights to the material they post to their profiles -- doesn't apply to Facebook. The social network notes in its terms of service agreement that it doesn't own any user content. It does, however, use the data users generate for its business, something users agree … Read more

Irish regulators are seeking "urgent" clarifications from Facebook after the world's largest social network informed users that it plans to change its privacy policy.

Facebook proposed changes on Wednesday to its site governance and privacy policies -- including its data-use policy and its statement of rights and responsibilities -- which may lead to the abolition of user votes on Facebook's practices.

The changes would also give users more detailed information about their own data, including additional features to help users manage their messages and reminders about the visibility of various user's content to other members … Read more