Japanese Lawyer Sues NTT For Voluntarily Blocking 'Pirate Sites'

from the censoring-is-censoring dept

Well, that didn't take long. Over the past few weeks, we have been discussing yet another attempt to introduce a censorious site-blocking program to combat copyright infringement, this time in Japan. While site-blocking is unfortunately now popular in several countries, Japan's attempt at it is interesting in that the Japanese constitution specifically forbids censorship of this kind save for the need to combat very serious, typically deadly instances. What's not arguable is that Japan's constitution intended to allow for a sweeping site-blocking program to combat general copyright infringement. Despite this, and despite the fact that the Japanese government hasn't bothered to actually put any law in place that would institute site-blocking, at least one ISP decided to get a head start and began blocking access to several websites it determined to be "pirate sites." The Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., or NTT, did this while saying the government should still get on crafting an actual law for its actions, despite the obvious unconstitutional nature of the whole enterprise.

Because of its actions, it will be NTT that will face the first legal challenge to site-blocking rather than the government, with a private citizen, who happens to be a lawyer, suing the ISP for invading his privacy in order to censor his access to the internet.

Lawyer Yuichi Nakazawa has now launched legal action against NTT, demanding that the corporation immediately ends its site-blocking operations. The complaint, filed at the Tokyo District Court, notes that the lawyer uses an Internet connection provided by NTT. Crucially, it also states that in order to block access to the sites in question, NTT would need to spy on customers’ Internet connections to find out if they’re trying to access the banned sites.

The lawyer informs TorrentFreak that the ISP’s decision prompted him into action.

“NTT’s decision was made arbitrarily on the site without any legal basis. No matter how legitimate the objective of copyright infringement is, it is very dangerous,” Nakazawa explains.

Regardless of the specific legal arguments in this suit, it's hard to imagine that NTT wouldn't have seen this coming. Operating without a legal framework to unilaterally censor parts of the internet in a country with a commanding federal legal framework hardened against this very thing was putting the ISPs neck out there, to put it mildly. Why NTT wanted to paint a legal target on its own back rather than waiting for the government and courts to sort this out at the federal level is beyond me. One has to imagine that this lawsuit will be the first of many, if NTT decides to carry on blocking websites. Japanese law is quite clear on the matter, after all.

Breaches of privacy could present a significant problem under Japanese law. The Telecommunications Business Act guarantees privacy of communications and prevents censorship, as does Article 21 of the Constitution.

“The secrecy of communications being handled by a telecommunications carrier shall not be violated,” the Telecommunications Business Act states, adding that “no communications being handled by a telecommunications carrier shall be censored.”

The Constitution is also clear, stating that “no censorship shall be maintained, nor shall the secrecy of any means of communication be violated.”

Now, as TorrentFreak notes, how this specific legal action is adjudicated will likely come down to the technical specifics of how NTT is doing its site-blocking. That and, of course, how Japanese courts interpret that technical implementation.

The question of whether site-blocking does indeed represent an invasion of privacy will probably come down to how the ISP implements it and how that is interpreted by the courts.

A source familiar with the situation told TF that spying on user connections is clearly a problem but the deployment of an outer network firewall rule that simply prevents traffic passing through might be viewed differently.

But what is more clear than anything else is that this lawsuit signals that the Japanese public won't simply allow ISPs to unilaterally censoring their internet access. Whatever the technical details, Japanese law would make any introduction of site-blocking a matter of deft attempts at skirting the purpose of the anti-censorship laws on the books rather than fully complying with them.

And if we've already reached the point that it's clear the government and NTT are trying to game the system rather than following the law, the public backlash is likely to be heavy.

Filed Under: censorship, copyright, free speech, japan, site blocking
Companies: ntt

At Least One Japanese ISP Gets A Jump Start On The Government's Unconstitutional Site-Blocking Plans

from the what's-the-rush dept

You will recall that we recently discussed the odd announcement by the Japanese government that it would seek to start a site-blocking policy to prevent copyright infringement. The announcement itself was odd for several reasons. First and foremost, this exact kind of government censorship is specifically forbidden in Japan's constitution except to "avert present danger", the context for which normally applies to real-life violence, the taking of liberty, or the destruction or taking of property. To be clear, the exception has never been used for anything remotely like this. But that's not all. The announcement was also strange because pretty much everyone agrees that the government is looking to subvert its own constitution to protect the anime and manga industries, which is both almost certainly the most Japan sentence ever written and completely unnecessary given the that the anime and manga industries are both massive and growing. None of that sounds like a "present danger."

And, yet, it seems like at least one Japanese ISP has decided to get a head start on all of this.

The government didn’t have to wait long for a response. The Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT) announced yesterday that it will begin blocking access to sites that provide unauthorized access to copyrighted content.

“We have taken short-term emergency measures until legal systems on site-blocking are implemented,” NTT in a statement.

NTT Communications Corp., NTT Docomo Inc. and NTT Plala Inc., will block access to three sites previously identified by the government – Mangamura, AniTube! and MioMio which have a particularly large following in Japan. NTT said that it will also restrict access to other sites if requested to do so by the government. The company added that at least in the short-term, it will prevent access to the sites using DNS blocking.

If nothing else did, this sudden move by NTT ought to demonstrate to everyone in Japan just how dangerous these sorts of ham-fisted government attempts at policy are. This sort of bowing to government pressure, especially when that pressure is of an unconstitutional nature, doesn't typically find a home in democratic nations. That's all the more true when we're discussing a form of censorship. It's also more than a little jarring to watch a private sector industry carry out government aims as an "emergency" with the excuse essentially of "legislating democratically takes too long."

And, while we made this point in our original post on this topic, let's reiterate that cracking this censorious door open an inch will lead to the government barging straight through it.

To date, just three sites have been named by the government as particularly problematic but it’s now promising to set up a consultation on a further response. A bill will also be submitted to parliament to target sites that promote links to content hosted elsewhere, an activity which is not illegal under current law.

Read that last bit again and understand what it means: the Japanese government will target websites for censorship that are not breaking Japanese law. If that doesn't terrify Japan's public, then it damn well should.

Meanwhile, other ISPs in the country have taken a slightly more measured approach, stating that they will consult with experts on what to do. That's certainly better than NTT's approach, except that it still falls short of what every ISP ought to be saying: "No, this is against the law."

Filed Under: censorship, copyright, free speech, isps, japan, site blocking
Companies: ntt

Payments By Touch Reaching Out For You

from the touchy-feely dept

The promises of contactless payments consistently seem to fall a bit short. The hardware costs for merchants sound hard to justify, and the benefits to the consumer are usually minimal -- since credit cards aren't exactly a painful process to begin with. However, wireless technologies are cool, so NTT DoCoMo has demonstrated a prototype phone that uses human conductivity to transmit data for services such as payment-by-touch -- so that you can keep the phone in your pocket and simply touch other devices to transmit your personal information. But if the irrational fears of cell phone radiation weren't enough for you, then imagine the possibilities of using skin conductivity. How will users fill up at the gas station? And consider how many more stories about high-tech pickpockets there will be... when thieves just have to touch you briefly in order to get your payment information. NTT DoCoMo admits that it'll be several years before this payment-by-touch system will be "ready, reliable and safe" for Japan -- but phone makers may also want to anticipate the FUD and weigh it against the existing payment methods before releasing a new plot device for Michael Crichton.

Filed Under: contactless, payments, touch
Companies: docomo, ntt

Washington Post Notices That Japanese Broadband Is Pretty Damn Fast (And Competitive)

from the in-case-you-hadn't-been-paying-attention dept

While there isn't that much new there if you've been paying attention, the Washington Post has an article about how Japan reached the point where it has a highly competitive broadband market that is cheaper and many times faster than US broadband offerings. The Washington Post version does a pretty good job highlighting how opening up access to the core lines was a big part of it (as was newer infrastructure and the much smaller geographic footprint in Japan). It's a pretty balanced piece, and good background if you weren't familiar with the situation in Japan. There is one very interesting point, however, that doesn't get very much attention in this debate and deserves to be highlighted.

Whenever the debate comes up in the US about unbundling broadband networks and requiring network providers to offer their wholesale pricing to competitive providers, people say that it will kill those network providers and take away all of the incentive to invest in new network technologies. In Japan, it seems the exact opposite happened. When the gov't required DSL wholesaling to competitors, it certainly increased competition and lowered prices for consumers -- but it also opened up new uses for the network that increased demand for bandwidth. That became an opportunity for former monopoly provider NTT who was pushed (thanks to the competition which drove the increased usage) to invest heavily in a new fiber optic network that provided even better speeds and services. And what's happened? NTT is doing great: "NTT is becoming dominant again in the fiber broadband kingdom," according to a Japanese professor of telecom economics. This is a point we've tried to make repeatedly, but sometimes doesn't get through clearly: while many people fear that competition hurts innovation by making it tougher to profit, the opposite is usually true. Competition drives innovation as the competitors look for some edge that differentiates them and allows them to profit. That edge pushes the innovation train faster and faster, opening up new opportunities to earn even greater profits. The new things that people can do on fiber networks are going to help NTT (and others) make a lot more money than if it had remained offering pokey DSL without any competition.

Filed Under: broadband, dsl, japan
Companies: ntt, softbank, yahoo bb