TORONTO, ONT -- For years we have been following the exploits of University of Toronto Political Science Professor Ron Deibert and his Internet commando hacker unit, called the Citizen Lab, and their valiant efforts to subvert authoritarian censorship around the world. Now the group has designed perhaps the most advanced tool yet in allowing Internet users to circumvent government censorship of the Web.

The program, called psiphon (pronounced “SY-fon”), is slated to be released this week. As described in a New York Times story by Christopher Mason, Psiphon is downloaded by a person in an uncensored country (psiphon.civisec.org), turning that person’s computer into an access point. Someone in a restricted-access country can then log into that computer through an encrypted connection and, using it as a proxy, gain access to censored sites. The program’s designers say there is no evidence on the user’s computer of having viewed censored material once they erase their Internet history after each use.

Professor Deibert and his group say existing anticensorship programs are too complicated for everyday computer users, leave evidence on the user’s computer and lack security in part because they have to be advertised publicly, making it easy for censors to detect and block access to them.

“Now you will have potentially thousands, even tens of thousands, of private proxies that are almost impossible for censors to follow one by one,” said Qiang Xiao, director of the China Internet Project at the University of California, Berkeley.

Information is from Christopher Mason, The New York Times, 11/27/06

CHILD PORN INDICTMENTS FOR MODELING SITES

ALABAMA -- The DOJ has announced a child pornography indictment on photographer Jeff Pierson stemming from an FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigation of so-called child modeling sites, which have been under scrutiny recently in congressional hearings and news reports. The federal prosecutors acknowledge there's no evidence Pierson has ever taken a single photograph of an unclothed minor. However, they argue, his models struck poses that were illegally provocative. "The images charged are not legitimate child modeling, but rather lascivious poses one would expect to see in an adult magazine," Alice Martin, U.S. attorney for the northern district of Alabama, said in a statement.In addition to Pierson, the U.S. attorney also announced indictments against Marc Greenberg, 42, and Jeffrey Libman, 39, partners who ran the now-defunct ChildSuperModels.com site. The site featured photographs of child models, allegedly taken by Pierson.

First Amendment scholars interviewed by CNET commentator Declan McCullah raised questions about the Justice Department's attack on Internet child modeling. They warned that any legal precedent might endanger the mainstream use of child models in advertising and suggested that prosecutors' budgets might be better spent investigating actual cases of child molestation.

"I don't know what the DOJ's trying," said Lee Tien, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "The best I can say is that it's puzzling that they would devote investigative and law enforcement resources to something (like this). This is a far cry from what folks normally think of as child pornography."

The Web sites that prompted the indictments are now offline, according to McCullah, who says copies saved in Google's cache and through Archive.org show girls wearing everything from sweaters to, more frequently, swimsuits and midriff-baring attire. Parents appear to have given their consent.

Information and quotes are from Declan McCullah, CNET news, 11/30/06

OTHER NEWS OF THE WEEK...

District Court Judge Gary Lancaster has granted a joint motion for a three month extension on pretrial filings in the Extreme Associates obscenity trial.

A Florida appeals court has upheld the constitutionality of a “harmful to minors” law on the Internet despite a history of rulings to the contrary by other courts.

The Chicago City Council Zoning Committee has proposed that the rules be changed so that male and female impersonator shows will not need a special permit as adult entertainment.

An enterprising Danish group of topless women called the Speed Bandits has found a novel way to curb speeding on city streets. See video.

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