BBC - An Italian court has convicted three Google executives in a trial over a video showing an autistic teenager being bullied. The Google employees were accused of breaking Italian law by allowing the video to be posted online.

Judge Oscar Magi absolved the three of defamation but convicted them of privacy violations. The UK’s former Information Commissioner Richard Thomas said the case gave privacy laws a “bad name”. The three employees, Peter Fleischer, David Drummond and George De Los Reyes, received suspended six-month sentences, while a fourth defendant, product manager Arvind Desikan, was acquitted.

David Drummond, chief legal officer at Google and one of those convicted, said he was “outraged” by the decision.

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When American and European Ideas of Privacy Collide
New York Times – “On the Internet, the First Amendment is a local ordinance,” said Fred H. Cate, a law professor at Indiana University. He was talking about last week’s ruling from an Italian court that Google executives had violated Italian privacy law by allowing users to post a video on one of its services. Sunday, 28 February, 2010. Full commentary here.

AllAfrica - The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has reaffirmed support for the Nigeria Digital Sense Forum following the Commission's endorsement of the 2010 edition.

The Nigeria Digital Sense Forum is an annual public engagement and enlightenment forum of Digital Sense Africa (DSA), an initiative of Remnek Kommunications Ventures in affiliation with some continental media.

Announcing this development in Lagos, the Executive Director, Operations for Digital Sense Africa, Mrs Nkemdilim Nweke, said the news of the support by NCC came in good time and would encourage the organization and intending corporate participation.
She said that the news was broken by the Assistant Director, Public Relations at NCC, Mr Reuben Muoka.

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BBC - Microsoft has won court approval to shut down a global network of computers which it says is responsible for more than 1.5 billion spam messages every day. A US judge granted the firm’s request to shut down 277 internet domains, which it said were used to “command and control” the so-called Waledac botnet.

A botnet is a network of infected computers under the control of hackers. The firm said that closing the domains would mean that up to 90,000 PCs would stop receiving orders to send out spam. A recent analysis by the firm found that between 3-21 December “approximately 651 million spam e-mails attributable to Waledac were directed to Hotmail accounts alone”.

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BBC - Consumers are confused by copyright laws that mean it is still illegal to copy a CD onto their computer, a UK watchdog says. Consumer Focus said that copyright law was outdated and millions of people were unaware they were breaking laws.

But a legal expert has said that there was no danger of individual consumers being prosecuted for copying music and films for their own use. Instead commercial operations are the focus of law enforcement. 

Read full story here.

The Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation will hold its Cybersecurity Conference, aimed at raising awareness and building capacity to help reduce the risk of Cyber Threats, in London from 17–18 June 2010.

The Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation’s Cybersecurity Conference will be hosted by the UK’s Department of Business, Innovation and Skills at the BIS Conference Centre at 1, Victoria Street, London. Join the stakeholders from public sector, private sector and civil society to discuss, debate and find ways to protect the critical information infrastructures, assure data integrity, preserve confidentiality of personal information, minimise dangers to children and ensure freedom of expression on the internet.

More information please visit http://www.events.cto.int/CyberSecurity2010 or contact Lasantha De Alwis on l.dealwis@cto.int or 44(0)208 600 3814.