YouTube & Censorship

The WSJ has a good article on Youtube and censorship. The article discusses the various countries that have acted to have Youtube blocked for political reasons, or petitioned to have content removed and Youtube's response of blocking specific content for users in specific countries. While I don't expect such an article to go into depth with regard to the mechanism it would have been interesting to note that the same mechanism is used to block based on geographic location for what appear to be reasons of copyright: NBA videos in China and BBC videos in the UK.

Youtube & Tibet

Since all of Youtube is currently blocked in China, I wondered if Youtube might start tagging videos of the protests in Tibet in order to have Youtube unblocked with the specific videos being blocked for users in China. But after running a few (definitely not comprehensive) Tibet related search terms all I found so far was that it appears that BBC videos are blocked for users in Great Britain:

GB,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEkyrDdepBc
GB,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4637Ez3-as
GB,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vg8AYs56RAY
GB,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GzyfTOACDs
GB,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ew8oLFVVcc
GB,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7R3J0NvfgE
GB,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLg4aMDadYo
GB,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4E1Rsaq3yc
GB,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS_jvYTEhkQ
GB,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLy6DkrjyHg
GB,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUcIxq4hBuc
GB,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1CTaq9sQM0
GB,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dviGSn5Wq0s
GB,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T3LwA2mA4I
GB,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8-eBuGsh-4
GB,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS1FOSQCA3k
GB,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR_NNGpWku4
GB,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEQmJBINYj4
GB,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geJ9lRhSRdQ
GB,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwRIzNyArRY
GB,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPIKkf5w9TY
GB,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NB91D-Da50
GB,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUaX3Mw8qvg
GB,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaJQip6bt7w
GB,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7lDTuBhb2Y

YouTube,Geolocation & China

After reading this great post on the ONI blog, did a bit of testing myself. As Youtomb discovered There is a tag available through the YouTube API the indicates the country (or countries in some cases) to which YouTube will restrict access to the video. These videos are not (necessarily) blocked by the country itself, but by Youtube.

<media :restriction type="country" relationship="deny">
TH
</media>

I've updated blockpage.com and started a new album for geolocation blockpages. In this case there is a pink line near the top which states "This video is not available in your country."

As ONI and Youtomb note, there a variety of videos that have this tag. I've been able to confirm that the same behavior reported from Thailand occurs when flagged video as accessed from Germany and France. One of the videos about Thailand is marked:

"PL TH DE FR","http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU9iT3vEdWo"

I checked it from Thailand, Germany and France all experienced the same blocking behaviour. Here's what I've found blocked so far based on the info in the ONI blog:

"TH","http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1USDXkaJFM"
"TH","http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4RX2cIDa4E"
"PL TH DE FR","http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU9iT3vEdWo"
"TH","http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVbUx4TPkVs"
"TH","http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70m1ncXQjXA"
"TH","http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dFjO4ZJNDE"
"PF TF YT GP DE RE FR GF MQ PM PL","http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt2Zsr9bwlE"
"CN","http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Roy0BFaUtc"
"CN","http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ffw4-OMmchY"
"CN","http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzz9rZwFENA"
"CN","http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1oBcPtH5aU"
"CN","http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liwgfyc1Im4"
"CN","http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeXZY4eVLlo"
"CN","http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnIuu73X8es"
"CN","http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmlDqPtHV-E"
"CN","http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPg1yvj7thA"
"CN","http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0D_oGgAGmI"
"CN","http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53QwPeImmAA"
"CN","http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XThGzqBYrh0"
"CN","http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FnwTj0OuFE"
"CN","http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdEULgZYxK8"

I've been unable to check out China because China is currently blocking all of Youtube. In short the 3 YouTube IP's are blocked and "www.youtube.com" has been added as a "keyword".

Although the detailed reference guide for the API does not contain information about the blocking tag, another section of the API has some information about the restrictions:

The restriction parameter identifies the IP address that should be used to filter videos that can only be played in specific countries. By default, the API filters out videos that cannot be played in the country from which you send API requests. This restriction is based on your client application's IP address.

To request videos playable from a specific computer, include the restriction parameter in your request and set the parameter value to the IP address of the computer where the videos will be played – e.g. restriction=255.255.255.255.

To request videos that are playable in a specific country, include the restriction parameter in your request and set the parameter value to the ISO 3166 two-letter country code of the country where the videos will be played – e.g. restriction=DE.

Google Removes Streetview of US Army Bases

The Register reports that Google removed the streetview component of US army bases from Google Earth. AP reports:

Citing security risks, the Pentagon banned Google teams from making detailed street-level video maps of U.S. military bases after images of a Texas base ended up on the popular Internet site.

US: Airforce Blocks Blogs

Wired reports that the USAF is blocking any URLs with "blog" in them.

AFNOC has imposed bans on all sites with "blog" in their URLs, thus cutting off any sites hosted by Blogspot. Other blogs, and sites in general, are blocked based on content reviews performed at the base, command and AFNOC level ...

The idea isn't to keep airmen in the dark -- they can still access news sources that are "primary, official-use sources," said Maj. Henry Schott, A5 for Air Force Network Operations. "Basically ... if it's a place like The New York Times, an established, reputable media outlet, then it's fairly cut and dry that that's a good source, an authorized source," he said ...

AFNOC blocks sites by using Blue Coat software, which categorizes sites based on their content and allows users to block sub-categories as they choose.

"Often, we block first and then review exceptions," said Tech. Sgt. Christopher DeWitt, a Cyber Command spokesman.

As a result, airmen posting online have cited instances of seemingly innocuous sites -- such as educational databases and some work-related sites -- getting wrapped up in broad proxy filters.

Wow.

ISP Filtering

After reading this great enumeration of various efforts to block accidental access to images of child sexual abuse I updated updated blockpage.com to include the blockpages from Sweden, Switzerland and Denmark.

This document notes many of the unintended consequences of filtering, especially overblocking, and it challenges the wisdom of making the blocking look like an error, as opposed to presenting the user with a blockpage:

Providing such a notice seems far more likely to achieve the intended objective of discouraging access to material that is illegal to possess, and raising public awareness of the fact that such a law exists, than merely providing a 'page not found' notice.

In the context of Sweden it also discusses threats to block the bit torrent tracker Pirate Bay by adding it to the child pornography blocklist. Mission creep is always present.

I've updated blockpage.com with the blockpage that users in Denmark see when they try to access Pirate Bay.

Filtering for the reason of copyright violation is reportedly gaining in Europe:

To recap, the Commission saw great merit in an anti-piracy system where Internet Service Providers ("ISPs") would voluntarily agree to monitor their users and report the infringers to the industry reps or to the authorities, as well as possibly cut off their internet connection. From what we have heard from our sources at the Commission, a lot of the feedback they have currently received has been very supportive of the idea of filtering and monitoring. This has now emboldened some officials to push forward with plans to implement such voluntary EU-wide proposals, although nothing has yet been firmly decided. EU law clearly states that ISPs have no obligation to monitor and filter content, but the carrot they get from participating is that they are less likely to be sued by IFPI and others.

This is something that the Copyright Lobby has been slowly moving toward here in Canada.