CategoryCopyright and Censorship

A collection of post I’ve written about intellectual property and censorship

Why Apple is really suing Samsung

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I’m not the biggest fan of Apple, I consistently compare my Galaxy S3 (which is great) to my wifes Iphone 4 (which is not so great). So when I first heard the news that Apple was suing Samsung for a ridiculous amount of money because of things like ‘slide to unlock’, ‘pinch to zoom’  and even ‘bouncing effect while scrolling’, I thought it was just a...

Ban Youtube in Malaysia?

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Rais Yatim a Member of Malaysian Parliament and a Minister in Government, has threatened Youtube with legal action over their refusal to remove the video of Innocence of Muslims. Nevermind the fact that Youtube have tried their level best to restrict access to the video from Malaysian users, and also failing to recognize the fact that Youtube is merely a video sharing site. You have...

Censoring Innocence of Muslims in Malaysia

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The Malaysian government has requested that Google take down the video Innocence of Muslims, and Google has since complied. As of today, anyone trying to access the clip from a Malaysian IP address would see a screen that reads “This content is not available in your country due to a legal complaint. Sorry about that.” The clip is most definitely offensive, and demeaning but what is...

Evidence Act Technological Misconceptions: A response to Rocky and Fatimah

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The government has finally ‘relented’ and now wants to ‘discuss’ section 114A of the Evidence act 1950. Now it’s great because it proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that: 1. The internet can be used for fantastic good. 2. The general Malaysian public can make a difference in the governance of the country. My website also had the pop-up banner, and according to Google...

Personal Data Protection Act 2010 Malaysia

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[box icon=”chat”] Data is the natural by-product of every computer mediated interaction.  It stays around forever, unless it’s disposed of.  It is valuable when reused, but it must be done carefully.  Otherwise, its after-effects are toxic. – Bruce Scheneier As society moves towards a ‘knowledge’ based society, data naturally becomes a by product. Every action you...

Apple Launches iTunes Store in Malaysia

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Finally… it’s arrived!! It was a long wait since my first iPod, but finally the iTunes has landed in Malaysia. Apple made a rather quite launch of the iTunes Store in Malaysia, meaning the days of logging into iTunes with US accounts and gift card purchases are over. Malaysians now have access to an entire treasure trove of songs available for the same prices as they are in the US...

Is Dowloading a banned ebook illegal?

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Let’s get straight to the point, the latest case where the Federal Territory Islamic Affairs Department (Jawi) is prosecuting a store manager is both disgusting and without merit. Not only is she just a Manager carrying out here duties–thereby making the bookstore liable instead of her, but the raid on the bookstore was carried out BEFORE the book was banned by the Home Ministry. So...

Internet Privacy with TOR: Should the internet be anonymous

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It’s an irony that while the internet was the first place you could create avatars and split personalities to impersonate others, it has now turned into a free for all buffet for private data. I previously shared on how the ads you see on facebook were inherently tied to the Google searches you perform, and how ad companies have probably gathered so much data on you that they can find out...

Watch Netflix, Hulu and even Euro2012 online from Malaysia

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Malaysians have always been deprived of real-time video content online. We’ve no access to Netflix or Hulu, we can’t watch the full episodes of the Jay Leno show online, we can’t watch the BBC replays of the football matches, we can’t even watch videos from TheOnion for crying out loud. Why? because NBC, FOX, Netflix, Hulu, BBC and even the Onion restrict access to this...

Netflix accounts for 32% of internet traffic : What it means for pirated content in Malaysia

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Maternity leave has long been plaguing womens career, women would usually take an extended leave and risk falling behind their male counterparts. As an extension to this, employers were also hesitant to hire women (particularly pregnant women) since it meant a legally mandated leave of absence that their male colleagues would never take. Governments have tried to stem this discrimination by...