An update on cybersecurity legal maneuvers.
MOST internet entrepreneurs dream of transforming an industry. On January 13th, one who may have done just that went on trial in federal court in Manhattan, accused of drug-trafficking, money-laundering and operating a criminal enterprise. Ross Ulbricht, a 30-year-old Texan physics graduate, is accused of being “Dread Pirate Roberts”, the founder and administrator of the Silk Road.
Mr Ulbricht says he was framed: the real Dread Pirates remain at large. His lawyers also claim that the FBI may have used illegal methods to identify and seize the Icelandic server on which the Silk Road was hosted, and from which much of the evidence comes. The FBI says the site contained a vulnerability which revealed where it really was, despite Tor. But several technical specialists think this implausible. Sadly for Mr Ulbricht, it may not matter much. In a ruling in October, a judge concluded that since he has not admitted any legal interest in the Silk Road server, he is unable to claim under the Fourth Amendment that it was illegally searched, and so the evidence from the server is admissible however it was found. This, the judge admitted, “might appear to place Ulbricht in a catch-22”. If he admits to an interest in the server, he would weaken his defence at his trial; if he doesn’t, he has no chance of getting the evidence against him dismissed.
Mr Ulbricht’s defence, which has been generously funded by online donations, is thus likely to focus on the strength of the evidence linking him to the online activities of Dread Pirate Roberts. Nonetheless, cyber-criminals—as well as other users of the dark web—will be watching closely. Since the Silk Road was taken offline, several similar market-places have been started, and many closed by the authorities. But it is still far from clear whether police forces can crack the anonymity given by technology such as Tor, or how deeply they can legitimately snoop on the web to uncloak the hosts of criminal networks.
From the Economist http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21639525-one-dread-pirate-trial-what-about-others-bitcoin-buccaneers
From http://www.canadianenergylaw.com/
On November 25, 2014, the California Air Resources Board and Quebec’s Ministry of Sustainable Development, Environment and the Fight against Climate Change held the first joint auction of greenhouse gas allowances since the two governments linked carbon markets on January 1, 2014 (the Auction). The joint Quebec-California program allows companies to trade carbon allowances across jurisdictions to comply with greenhouse gas emission limits. For example, a Quebec company could purchase allowances from a certified greenhouse gas emissions reduction project in California to comply with provincial targets, and vice versa. Supporters of the program expect the linkage will improve trade liquidity in both markets.
The Auction, which was oversubscribed, sold out of all 23,070,987 2014 vintage allowances for $12.10 per allowance, an increase of $0.76 over this year’s $11.34 floor price. Another 10,787,000 2017 vintage allowances also sold out at $11.86 per allowance. Each allowance permits the release of 1 metric ton of carbon dioxide. The vintage year refers to the year in which the carbon reduction takes place by the certified greenhouse gas emissions reduction project.
During the Auction, companies submit confidential bids for a specified number of allowances. The highest bidder is awarded permits first, then the second-highest, and so on until all allowances for sale have been accounted for. All bidders then pay the price of the lowest winning bidder. Proponents are optimistic that the Quebec-California program is paving the way for a North American market-based solution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, with hopes that it will serve as a model for other provinces, states and countries in the future.
http://www.canadianenergylaw.com/2014/12/articles/climate-change/quebec-and-california-hold-first-joint-auction-of-greenhouse-gas-allowances/
LONDON — Google News is saying goodbye to Spain.
The website, which compiles headlines and summaries of news articles from various sources, will go dark in Spain on Dec. 16. Google plans to shut the site there in protest of a new law that would force the company and other news aggregators to pay Spanish publishers for the use of their content.The rules, which come into force in January, do not specify how much Google and others like Yahoo News would have to pay per article. But they carry a potential one-time $750,000 fine if companies do not comply with the law.
The legislation follows similar rules in other countries, including France and Germany, that allow publishers to charge when parts of their articles are included in Google’s news aggregation. In those countries, the company has tended to come to terms with the publishers, rather than withdraw from the field. But the Spanish rule will not allow local publishers to forgo such payments.
And in the case of Spain, it is not clear what parties, if any, will benefit from the new rules.
While the law is aimed at providing much-needed revenue to Spanish publishers, which are struggling to generate income from their online offerings, the loss of Google News and the traffic that it sends to local newspapers may end up hurting publishers that often rely on the company’s service to direct people to their websites. In Germany, some publishers have opted to waive their right to demand fees, rather than lose the traffic Google sends their way.
But Google’s dominance of Europe’s online world — its search business holds a market share of about 85 percent, bigger than in the United States — has European officials trying to rein it in.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/12/11/google-to-drop-its-news-site-in-spain/?_r=0
According to BBC Tech Tent http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02dk0t5 broadcast 12 Dec 2014 the proponents of the law in Spain, following Google's withdrawal started to suggest the law should be reversed because they have seen that the lack of traffic will be more costly that the income potential from Google.
