Product Description

This work includes a study of Internet blocking and filtering around the world: analyses by leading researchers and survey results that document filtering practices in dozens of countries.Many countries around the world block or filter Internet content, denying access to information that they deem too sensitive for ordinary citizens - most often about politics, but sometimes relating to sexuality, culture, or religion. "Access Denied" documents and analyzes Internet filtering practices in more than three dozen countries, offering the first rigorously conducted study of an accelerating trend.Internet filtering takes place in more than three dozen states worldwide, including many countries in Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. Related Internet content-control mechanisms are also in place in Canada, the United States and a cluster of countries in Europe. Drawing on a just-completed survey of global Internet filtering undertaken by the OpenNet Initiative (a collaboration of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, and the University of Cambridge) and relying on work by regional experts and an extensive network of researchers, "Access Denied" examines the political, legal, social, and cultural contexts of Internet filtering in these states from a variety of perspectives.Chapters discuss the mechanisms and politics of Internet filtering, the strengths and limitations of the technology that powers it, the relevance of international law, ethical considerations for corporations that supply states with the tools for blocking and filtering, and the implications of Internet filtering for activist communities that increasingly rely on Internet technologies for communicating their missions.Reports on Internet content regulation in forty different countries follow, with each two-page country profile outline the types of content blocked by category and documenting key findings.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #232910 in Books
• Published on: 2007-12-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

About the Author
Ronald Deibert is Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Citizen Lab at Munk Centre for Internet Studies, the University of Toronto. John Palfrey is Executive Director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society and Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Rafal Rohozinski is a Research Fellow of the Cambridge Security Program and Director of the Advanced Network Research Group at Cambridge University. Jonathan Zittrain is Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at Oxford University and Jack N. and Lillian R. Berkman Visiting Professor for Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard Law School.

Customer Reviews

Recommended
This book reports on an extensive effort undertaken by the OpenNet Initiative (an alliance of academics from universities of Toronto, Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge) to study global internet filtering practices. With contributions from a variety of experts the book covers political, social and technical aspects of such filtering, along with a country-by-country analysis of how the internet is being controlled in various parts of the world.

The first chapter sets the scene on internet filtering with an overview of the data gathered during the study, to serve as evidence of the level and scale of such operation. A majority of countries of the world execute filtering in one form or another for a variety of reasons. The following chapter highlights some of the political motivations behind this and considers the implications on human rights.

Chapter three provides a good overview of the technical means of achieving filtering. Accuracy and circumventability are two of the most important concerns for any mechanism used for this purpose. Along with assessing other technological challenges, this section is an excellent resource for novices and professionals alike who are interested in cutting-edge filtering technology.

Chapter four looks at the legal mechanisms employed by countries to filter and restrict access to the internet. More importantly, it considers the issue from an international view point on how international agreements to support people's freedom are used and abused. Chapter five highlights some challenges faced by corporations that are made to abide by local legal controls in providing unrestricted content to users.

Chapter six has to be the most interesting as it delves into how the internet provides an opportunity for the civil (and the not so civil) society for 'organisation, communication, mobilisation and action'. It brings to light the civil and criminal 'hacktivisim' that has emerged over the years with particular emphasis on the role of blogs.

The remainder of this book presents commentary and analysis of the various countries surveyed. It is a useful resource on the nature of internet surveillance and filtering the world over, and has to be the most extensive examination of this global phenomenon.

This book is a must read for all those who realise the influence that the internet has over our societies, and how our freedom and liberty is being controlled, restricted and grossly violated. Unleashing a whole new exciting topic, I highly recommend this book.

Quite interesting for what concerns its focus
It seems to be a quite comprehensive review of those practices that are clearly banned, at least officially in western countries, with an interesting analysis of different points of views in the first part.

The book doesn't consider much issues which are more relevant in western-style (officially) democratic countries, and I would suggest this for another complementary publication.

Examples of such issues are: the fight against the P2P and the attempts to forbid it even for legitimate uses; the pressure of private content producers (such as music majors) over the ISPs for illegal user filtering and censoring; the illegal monitoring of Internet traffic, especially the one done with the excuse of national security and ending up in industrial espionage; the spreading technologies that allow to seriously limit the access to user-provided contents and limit the control the authors themselves have on them, as it happens for youtube videos, which officially are not downloadable and many IPRs are transferred to the service provider.