Blogjam today, blogjam tomorrow
The internet blocking continues. There is an amazing lack of hard information, and a lot of speculation. I know Woojay wrote about its legal basis in but Kevin hasn't got around to translating it yet.
The block is operated by individual ISPs, and can be patchy. Rebecca Mackinnon clearly took a sound decision to move NKzone away from TypePad.
I suppose it all appears rather trivial in comparison with the grosser sorts of human rights abuses north of the border. (Though judging by what some of the more paranoid Americans say, one would think it's no longer permissible in Seoul to criticise N Korea. Conspiracy theories abound.)
As for the internet blogjam, apparently the MIC are shifting blame for the blanket ban onto the domains. The ICEC declared the Kim Sun-il video illegal. Therefore websites linking to it are also illegal. It's up to the ISPs to make sure they aren't letting any illegal websites through. Filtering tools are allegedly too blunt to select all the individual offenders. MIC presumably expect blogging hosts themselves to crack down on unsavoury material.
Meanwhile, among the bloggers there is great disquiet about the unconstitutionality, uneven-handedness and sheer ineffectiveness of the ban.
It's not clear that MIC have given specific orders to the ISPs in relation to the blogging domains, but the press reports that the public have been registering complaints about sites on Internet 119. (The open letter of request to US Bloggers quoted in OhmyNews was "signed by staff" of the ICEC, which strikes me as odd, though it could just be a translation glitch.)
I gather it's not usually necessary for the Minister to issue a formal order, as the ISPs usually jump when ICEC pronounce. This would enable MIC to hide behind the fiction that they haven't actually done anything, and so there is nothing for them to undo.
I don't speak Korean. I suspect the actual words used are important, and that they need to be separated out from the spin. Was there actually a decree?
Though in practical terms, none of this probably makes much difference. There seems to be public support for the ban and little sympathy for the collateral damage. It could go on indefinitely.
This sort of thing has happened before, though not quite on this scale. In 1997 Geocities was banned in its entirety, on account of a single page saying something complimentary about Kim Il-sung. I'm told that that ban has never been formally lifted, but that some ISPs now allow access.
Joel has handed in his petition. Last I saw, it had 154 signaures.
The block is operated by individual ISPs, and can be patchy. Rebecca Mackinnon clearly took a sound decision to move NKzone away from TypePad.
I suppose it all appears rather trivial in comparison with the grosser sorts of human rights abuses north of the border. (Though judging by what some of the more paranoid Americans say, one would think it's no longer permissible in Seoul to criticise N Korea. Conspiracy theories abound.)
As for the internet blogjam, apparently the MIC are shifting blame for the blanket ban onto the domains. The ICEC declared the Kim Sun-il video illegal. Therefore websites linking to it are also illegal. It's up to the ISPs to make sure they aren't letting any illegal websites through. Filtering tools are allegedly too blunt to select all the individual offenders. MIC presumably expect blogging hosts themselves to crack down on unsavoury material.
Meanwhile, among the bloggers there is great disquiet about the unconstitutionality, uneven-handedness and sheer ineffectiveness of the ban.
It's not clear that MIC have given specific orders to the ISPs in relation to the blogging domains, but the press reports that the public have been registering complaints about sites on Internet 119. (The open letter of request to US Bloggers quoted in OhmyNews was "signed by staff" of the ICEC, which strikes me as odd, though it could just be a translation glitch.)
I gather it's not usually necessary for the Minister to issue a formal order, as the ISPs usually jump when ICEC pronounce. This would enable MIC to hide behind the fiction that they haven't actually done anything, and so there is nothing for them to undo.
I don't speak Korean. I suspect the actual words used are important, and that they need to be separated out from the spin. Was there actually a decree?
Though in practical terms, none of this probably makes much difference. There seems to be public support for the ban and little sympathy for the collateral damage. It could go on indefinitely.
This sort of thing has happened before, though not quite on this scale. In 1997 Geocities was banned in its entirety, on account of a single page saying something complimentary about Kim Il-sung. I'm told that that ban has never been formally lifted, but that some ISPs now allow access.
Joel has handed in his petition. Last I saw, it had 154 signaures.
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