Denver International Airport officials are erring on the side of caution in blocking access to certain sites through the free Internet browser offered to fliers.

They say they're using prudent judgement in a public, family-friendly atmosphere.

But others see it as cyber-censorship that taints Denver's self-portrayal as a progressive economy.

"Give people some credit," said David Byrne, founder of the legendary art-rock band Talking Heads, who was blocked from boingboing.net. while connecting through DIA to an Aspen workshop last month. "And the more credit you give them, the more they respond. It's just trusting people's discretion."

Critics, like boingboing.net. editor Xeni Jardin and others, point out that DIA uses the same kinds of software filters employed by the repressive regimes of Sudan and Kuwait. Jardin is tired of her tech-update site getting blocked by private and government filters just because it occasionally posts respected artworks that might include nudity.

"This gets to the heart of what the Internet is all about and whose responsibility it is," said Jardin, who is based in California. "It seems particularly unfortunate that something as symbolic as the city's airport, a gateway to culture, commerce and the flow of ideas, would be blocked in such a fundamental way.

A man will become the first person in the UK to stand trial next month accused of harassing a woman on Facebook.

Michael Hurst has pleaded not guilty to harassing ex-girlfriend Sophie Sladden via the popular social networking website.

Hurst, 33, of Edgbaston, Birmingham, is accused of contacting Ms Sladden via the webpage in January.

Neither Hurst nor Ms Sladden now have a page on the website, which allows people to post pictures and personal details of themselves, accessible to self-approved lists of friends.

A spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service said: "We have prosecuted alleged harassment cases before where people have sent letters, made phone calls and even text messages in recent years, but to my knowledge this is the first case where a website like Facebook has been involved.

"The man has pleaded not guilty and the trial is due to start in March."

Facebook says it reserves the right to shut down offensive profiles with hateful or harmful behaviour.

Its terms of use say members may not post material which could "intimidate or harass another".

The case is the latest controversy to hit the popular networking site, which has 34 million active users worldwide.

Concerns have also been expressed that personal details on the site could be used by online fraudsters, and some employers are believed to have checked out details of potential employees on Facebook.

Marcus reports

"They [Pakistan's telecommunications authority] asked us to ban it immediately... and the order says the ban will continue until further notice," said Wahaj-us-Siraj, convener of the Association of Pakistan Internet Service Providers.

Other countries that have temporarily blocked access to YouTube include Turkey and Thailand.

"Broadband companies face legal sanctions unless they crack down on the millions of people who illegally download music and films from the internet, the Government has warned.

Andy Burnham, the culture secretary, told internet service providers (ISPs) that he would not hesitate to introduce legislation in April next year if they did not take concrete steps to curb rampant internet piracy.......

Better watch what your readers say!

February 21, 2008 (2:13 P.M., CET): "It is reported today that Imbera, a Norwegian firm that hosts the website of Human Rights Service, removed three items from that site without notice because two of them were illustrated with Kurt Westergaard's famous Muhammed cartoon from Jyllands-Posten and one was illustrated with a Muhammed drawing by Lars Vilks. Imbera claimed to be acting in accordance with the EU directive on electronic commerce, and law professor Jon Bing says that Imbera had not only a right but a legal obligation to do what it did. But Nils Øy of the Association of Norwegian Editors disagrees, while Per Edgar Kokkvold, head of the Norwegian Press Association, calls Imbera's action "unacceptable," noting that if Internet hosting services can do this to HRS they can do it to newspapers, too.

The good news is that HRS has already received an offer from Linpro AS, which hosts Jyllands-Posten, to take over its site for three years free of charge. ("Freedom of speech is important to us," writes Linpro head Per Andreas Buer.) The bad news is that Imbera's action is just one more sign of the ongoing erosion of free expression in Europe. As HRS observes today on its site, Norwegians are now living in a "threat culture....The government, bishops, and others don't see that they have capitulated to this threat culture, but prefer to define it as a dialogue. But where the threats begin, the dialogue stops."