An investigation on the generative mechanisms of Dark Net markets

In this paper we investigate the Dark Net which is the part of Internet accessible only via special browsers such as Tor. The Dark Net is the home of black-markets for illegal goods and services such as drugs, weapons and fake identities. In this study we investigate the Dark Net as a digital infrastructure over time to address the following research question: what are the forces underlying Dark Net markets? Our empirical approach is based on a set of techniques for accessing Dark Net marketplaces (DNM) and collecting various types of information on sites, transactions and users. We draw also on secondary sources such as reports of police interventions and interviews. Our analysis follows the tradition of critical realism to shed light on the generative mechanisms enabling Dark Net markets to operate and survive

e-Government and the Cameroon cybersecurity legislation 2010: Opportunities and challenges

The EGOV.CM programme, led by the National Agency for ICT (ANTIC) aims to promote access to government information and services, provide IT support to the public administration reform programme, promote the objectives of national policies and provide an appropriate legal and regulatory environment. However, government and citizen reliance on ICTs presents a security challenge, given the emergence of cybercrime across the globe. This requires changes tolegislation drafted before the electronic age. Outdated laws result in impunity, with the country a safe haven for cybercriminals, while e-government transactions may be unprotected and may therefore be discouraged. Cameroon's e-laws of 2010 (cybersecurity and electronic communications) provide a legal framework for the protection of ICT networks and critical infrastructures, creating an enabling environment for e-government services. These research notes highlight the importance of the e-laws for effective Cameroonian public administration, and discuss the challenges for implementation of e-governmen

Enforceability of digital copyright on the darknet?

This dissertation seeks to comparatively analyse different emerging jurisprudence of pioneering jurisdictions on the operability of enforcing digital copyright in light of the growing use of the Darknet. It addresses the legal lacuna in the existing copyright laws with regards to enforcement against the illegal distribution of infringing copies of online digital content. It also seeks to illustrate how the concept of digital copyright protection has been compromised by the inoperability of enforcement laws on illegal distribution via the Darknet. It thereby advocates for a 'digital use' exemption and or free access as a recommendation. Although the advancement of technology created new and advanced forms of distribution or availing copyrighted works to the public, these new advanced channels of distribution have been compromised by rogue online clandestine file sharing networks. Digital copyright protection laws have been advanced so as to respond to illegal online file sharing, however, they have had limited impact due to the vast, flexible and unregulated nature of the internet which transcends the territorial nature of any single state's copyright laws. Currently, online file sharing is effected through peer to peer networks due to their operational convenience. This dissertation suggests that the need to control distribution, legally or technological, is driven by the urge to enable digital copyright owners to benefit financially from their works and get a return on their investment. Technologically, this has been effected through the adoption of Digital Rights Management (DRMs) measures that control access to these works through the use of paywalls on commercial websites that require online consumers to pay/ subscribe first before they gain access to the copyrighted works. (eg Netflix, Showmax, itunes e.t.c) However, since absolute control over one's digital works, online, is impossible, the success of these access-control mechanisms remains debatable and remain vulnerable to technologically sophisticated users who could easily circumvent them and make the protected works available to millions of other users in Darknets. This, in effect, creates a parallel and free market for digital content. Darknets have grown as the new preferred channel of distribution due to their unique features which have rendered any judicial or legislative threat of sanctions, merely academic and detached from practical application. The Darknet essentially provides for user privacy, in anonymity, and security from monitoring and detection. These two primary features have exacerbated online piracy as various Darknets ISPs have now developed more user-friendly Darknet versions for the average mainstream user. This dissertation will highlight how the digital creative industry faces an existential threat with the growing use of Darknets. Darknets have created a virtual environment where illegal digital content distribution continues with impunity, since the burden of the enforceability of copyright rests squarely on the individual copyright holder and the pursuit of liability only begins upon detection of any such infringement of copyright. In effect, copyright owners, most often than not, lack the technological expertise to monitor and detect and thereby cannot enforce their copyright. As such, this dissertation postulates that the legal/ technological effort to maintain any form of monopoly over digital content online is an unattainable objective. As a solution, to end both online piracy and safeguarding the financial interests of copyright owners, a change in the approach to digital copyright is needed. This will be achieved through creating a 'digital use' exemption and or free access. Rather than copyright owners trying to control access, they should provide free access and profit on alternative revenue business models. Free access to digital content will do away with the need of online users to pirate and also save copyright owners the effort and resource to keep monitoring the virtual world for infringement. It will also counter-react to the Darknet's parallel market since users will have free access to digital content from the official distribution websites. This dissertation will interrogate the viability of this option

Computing for democracy: the Asociación de Técnicos de Informática and the professionalization of computing in Spain

© 2017 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes,creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.The professionalization of computing in Spain had a key player in the Association of Information Technology Technicians (ATI), that fought for better working conditions, promotion of academic programs in computer science, and lobbying for the regulation of computing.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Materiality in the future of history: things, practices, and politics

Frank Trentmann is professor of history at Birkbeck College, University of London. From 2002 to 2007, he was director of the £5 million Cultures of Consumption research program, cofunded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). He is working on a book for Penguin, The Consuming Passion: How Things Came to Seduce, Enrich, and Define Our Lives, from the Seventeenth Century to the Twenty‐First. This article is one of a pair seeking to facilitate greater exchange between history and the social sciences. Its twin—“Crossing Divides: Globalization and Consumption in History” (forthcoming in the Handbook of Globalization Studies, ed. Bryan Turner)—shows what social scientists (and contemporary historians) might learn from earlier histories. The piece here follows the flow in the other direction. Many thanks to the ESRC for grant number RES‐052‐27‐002 and, for their comments, to Heather Chappells, Steve Pincus, Elizabeth Shove, and the editor and the reviewer