Planet Business

THE QUESTION:– Are governments making a concerted effort to restrict internet freedoms?

With the contortions of logic involved in the injunction/super-injunction debacle reaching new levels this week, British prime minister David Cameron has signalled that a UK parliamentary committee will investigate the overlapping issues of privacy law, injunctions, press regulation and internet regulation.

Even though Twitter was merely the vehicle used by a source within traditional media to identify the “unnamed Premiership footballer”, it is the information-dissemination platform being blamed for highlighting the nonsensical permutations of rich men’s gagging orders.

Norwich Pharmacals – the name of the court orders that could be used to force Twitter to hand over the details of people who (gleefully and purposefully) broke injunctions – now beckon. But they are not the only means by which governments and the judiciary are undermining online freedoms.

This week saw e-G8 – a two-day forum on control of the internet arranged by French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who was keen to lecture internet users (and the bosses of Google, Facebook and Wikipedia) that they did not operate in a moral-free parallel universe.

Characterising himself as the defender of intellectual property, Sarkozy also described the internet as “a territory to conquer” and said governments could not remain neutral.

Web libertarians face several threats to their philosophy, but government crackdowns are unlikely to be unopposed.

The European Commission is keen to follow the example of Spain, which in February adopted legislation allowing judges to close down websites that link to copyright-protected material. But there was a backlash to the so-called Sinde law – a #nolesvotes Twitter hashtag implored internet users not to vote for any of the three parties who supported the legislation and Spain’s youth were last seen taking to the streets in their thousands and establishing a “tent city” in Madrid’s central square.

PRODUCT WATCH: BABYNES

Described by the company as “a potential game-changer”, Nestlé has launched a baby milk equivalent of the Nespresso coffee machine: the BabyNes. The world’s biggest food company is clearly not afraid of controversy. Its history of marketing powdered milk in developing countries has put it directly in the line of fire from the International Baby Food Action Network, which has repeated charges that it violated the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes. The network added that BabyNes was “a product for the rich”. And indeed, for the moment, it’s a product only for the Swiss. Let’s just hope that coffee-drinkers seeking Nespresso capsules don’t pick up BabyNes ones by mistake.

PAY DAY

The FTSE 100 debut of Swiss-based commodities trader Glencore has made billionaires of several of its executives, among them chief executive Ivan Glasenberg, an Australian who lives in Switzerland and is now worth 8.8 billion Australian dollars. That’s enough to make him the wealthiest man in Australia, according to a rich list by Australian magazine BRW, but not enough to make him the wealthiest Australian person. That title falls to mining magnate Gina Rinehart, the first woman to top the nation’s rich list. Surging iron ore prices have more than doubled her fortune to A$10.3 billion over the past year.

€2.25bn- shock losses announced by Sony for the year to the end of March, following the Japanese earthquake and hacker attack on the PlayStation network.

"Being a European shouldn't necessarily be a plus, but it shouldn't be a minus either" - Christine Lagarde announces her bid to become the first person to have both national synchronised swimming competitor and head of the International Monetary Fund on her CV

STATUS UPDATE

Baseline bonds:Six-time Grand Slam-winning tennis champion Stefan Edberg has reinvented himself as part-owner of Stockholm investment firm Case Asset Management.

Drumstick economy:US chicken producer Tyson Foods is diverting more dark chicken meat to domestic markets, as strapped consumers opt for cheaper drumsticks and thighs.

Foxconn deaths:An explosion at a Chinese factory owned by Foxconn, manufacturing contractor for Apple's iPad, has killed two people and injured 16, three of them seriously.