Fifty internet cafes in Kuwait are reported to have had their licences temporarily withdrawn.

The internet cafes are accused by the Kuwaiti authorities of offering access to pornographic sites.

Pornography is strictly forbidden in Kuwait.

Kuwait's ministry of communication began random checks of internet cafes last week.

An official from the communication ministry has said that the random checks will continue to ensure that the cafes are using filtering systems to prevent access to pornographic sites required under Kuwaiti law.

A Kuwaiti newspaper, al-Rai al-Aam, has reported that some internet cafes have been offering sexual services in closed booths - including lessons on the use of the internet from Asian female attendants.

Slashdot | Your Rights Online - The Great Firewall of .... Kuwait?.

Slashdot | Your Rights Online - Security, Due Process and Convenience.

ZDNet - News: Cingular phones block smut.

Customers of Cingular Wireless are being prevented from viewing Web pages containing "objectionable material," such as pornography, on their cell phones, according to two sources inside the company.

Not that wireless Internet customers are missing much; porn images viewed on a cell phone are so pixelated it's tough to tell a nude from a smudge.

Sites can be blocked using a Web filter, software that scours Web pages requested by customers of the company's wireless Internet service. With filters, if certain words are found, the page will be blocked from view.

[ ... ]

A Cingular Wireless spokesman said that to his knowledge, the company was not filtering any Web sites. But two employees familiar with the situation said Cingular Wireless customers are blocked from viewing pornographic Web pages on their cell phones. When people try to access the pages, they get an error message instead, the sources said.

[ ... ]

For example, the WAP address wap.sex.com can be viewed on cell phones using Verizon Wireless, Nextel Communications and Sprint PCS wireless Internet services. But the same URL entered into a Cingular Wireless device returns the message "your client is not allowed to access the requested object."

Filters intended to keep people from seeing pornographic pages have drawn strong objections from civil libertarians, often because they unintentionally block other Web pages. Some frequently cited examples are filters meant to screen porn pages but that are also blocking medical Web sites.

Slashdot | Your Rights Online - Cingular Filtering Porn From Wireless Web?

Slashdot | Kazaa, Verizon Propose Compulsory Music Licensing.

CNN.com - ISPs seek to void ruling on police searches.

SAN FRANCISCO, California (Reuters) -- Web giant Yahoo! Inc. and several Internet trade associations filed papers Monday seeking to overturn a court ruling which they said could fill the offices of Internet companies with police officers overseeing the execution of search warrants.

In an amici curiae brief filed with the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, the Internet group said a Minnesota court ruling requiring police officers to be physically present for search warrants would threaten client privacy, slow the searches and disrupt business.

[ ... ]

The defendant in the case subsequently sought to have that evidence suppressed, arguing that his Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure was violated because it was conducted by civilians.

The judge in the case agreed, saying that a law enforcement officer should have been present at Yahoo! while the search was being conducted. His ruling directed all future such searches to be supervised by law enforcement personnel.

[ ... ]

"The police officer waiting in the lobby while the technician works away on the computer does not in any way safeguard anyone's Fourth Amendment rights," the brief said.

The group's lawyer, Jonathan Band, said the Minnesota ruling would also disrupt normal business operations at Yahoo! and other companies while having a "chilling effect" on their subscribers, who could be concerned that a constant police presence would impinge on their privacy rights.

USATODAY.com - Kazaa, Verizon propose to pay artists directly.

Jim Guerinot, a board member of Don Henley's and Sheryl Crow's Recording Artists Coalition and the manager of No Doubt, Beck and The Offspring, is such a fan of digital music that he has ripped his CD collection into MP3s and listens to them on his portable Apple iPod on his daily bicycle commute to work.

But you won't find any of his artists' work posted on Pressplay, the Net subscription service backed by their record labels. He removed them, he says, because the acts weren't getting paid.

The record industry has responded to the immense popularity of file-sharing -- and trading of copyrighted material -- by suing to close the operations down. But as one swap site shuts, others take its place, and more people are downloading now than ever.

An unlikely alliance of swap-service Kazaa and telephone and Internet giant Verizon is floating a proposal to break the logjam of lawsuits: Computer manufacturers, blank CD makers, ISPs and software firms such as Kazaa will pool funds and pay artists directly.

"Historically, there's been a clash between the content community and new technology, back to the player piano," says Verizon vice president Sarah Deutsch. "We're proposing the idea of a copyright compulsory license for the Internet, so peer-to-peer distribution would be legitimate and the copyright community would get compensation. It's hard to get the genie back in the bottle."

I am going to have to look at this closely. I must be missing something. I have never seen Verizon (disclaimer - Verizon is my local phone company) voluntarily promote something that I could support. I just want to make sure there isn't a catch someplace.

Slashdot | Kazaa, Verizon Propose Compulsory Music Licensing.