internet news - 5/2

[David Goldstein <goldstein_david@yahoo.com.au>]

Domain Name News
ICANN At-Large Membership Survey
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is
considering how to structure participation and representation of
individuals from throughout the global Internet user community
("At-Large members") within ICANN.  To provide ICANN's Board with
additional information on the level of interest in a self-sustaining
At-Large membership, we are asking all interested individuals to
complete the survey posted on the At-Large Study Committee website at
<http://atlargestudy.org/survey.shtml> by February 28, 2002.  (The
survey is in English, but will soon be available in additional
languages.)

Dot-Pro Deal Expected Before March - ICANN (Newsbytes)
Internet addressing authorities hope to finalize a contract
authorizing the creation of the "dot-pro" Internet domain before the
end of February, a spokeswoman for the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) said 
 http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174205.html

Ford appeals court ruling on domain name spoof (Computer User)
Ford Motor Company intends to appeal a federal judge's ruling that an
ongoing Internet prank involving Ford's main Web site does not
violate trademark law.
 http://www.computeruser.com/news/02/02/04/news8.html

Register.com Makes a Bid for Virtual Internet 
Register.com, Inc. and Virtual Internet plc announced a recommended
cash offer by a wholly-owned Register.com subsidiary for Virtual
Internet. The offer values Virtual Internet at approximately
(pound)11.99 million. The offer is subject to a number of conditions,
including acceptance by holders of not less than 90 per cent of
Virtual Internet shares. 
 http://www.datacenterwire.com/wmview.php?ArtID=146

From BNA Internet Law News...
INDIAN COURT RULES MAN CAN'T USE OWN NAME FOR DOMAIN NAME
A Delhi High Court has barred entrepreneur Vijay Bharti from
using the domain names Bharti.com and Bharti.net after a
suit was launched by Indian company Bharti Televentures.
The court did say the man can use his full name -- Vijay
Kumar Bharti - for a domain name if he likes.
<http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=1010636431>

FEBRUARY THE MONTH TO SPEAK OUT ON ICANN ISSUES
This would appear to be the month to speak out on ICANN
related issues with several public solicitations for comment
currently underway.  These include a survey on at-large
membership, a solicitation on roles for organizations in an
at-large supporting organization, and comments on the ICANN
UDRP. Survey on At-large membership at
http://atlargestudy.org/survey.shtml
Role for organizations in a proposed ICANN At-Large
Supporting Organization at
http://atlargestudy.org/solicitation.shtml
UDRP survey, with the deadline for submission tomorrow, at
http://www.icann.org/dnso/udrp-survey-en-06jan02.htm

Other Internet news
Go regional to fight cyber crime (Fairfax IT)
A confidential database should be established across the Asia Pacific
region for businesses and government to report
Internet fraud and help police fight cyber crime, a regional study
has recommended. 
 http://it.mycareer.com.au/news/2002/02/05/FFXDE3959XC.html

Broadband use set to rocket (South China Morning Post)
Hong Kong is expected to rank third in broadband penetration within
the Asia region with 38 per cent of Internet subscribers using
high-speed Internet access by 2004.  
 http://technology.scmp.com/techmain/ZZZK0O1H5XC.html

WCIT opens debate through online forum (ZDNet)
In a world first, the upcoming World Congress on IT (WCIT), to be
held in Adelaide in late February, will invite members of the public
to participate in discussions traditionally limited to congress
delegates.  

http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/communications/story/0,2000024993,20262730,00.htm

Court Orders Kazaa Closed, But It Stays Open (Newsbytes)
An Amsterdam district court has ordered Kazaa to stop offering its
free Kazaa Media Desktop music-downloading software through its Web
site, according to a communique issued by the court.
 http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174160.html
 http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,50165,00.html
 
US mulls Linux for world's biggest computer (Register)
Linux is in the running to power the world's biggest computer, we
learned this week at LinuxWorld Expo. A bid is being prepared to
provide the computing power behind the US government sponsored
Project Purple, which will pool a vast server farm to the three
leading US research labs, which is scheduled to come on stream by the
end of 2004.
 http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/53/23905.html
 http://news.com.com/2100-1001-828152.html

The Most Advanced City in France (Wired)
Information technology is Mayor Santini's badge of distinction -- and
one he wears with pride. Back in the mid-1990s, when most other
French politicians and business leaders were studiously ignoring the
then largely Anglophone Internet, Santini was spearheading a campaign
to turn Issy-les-Moulineaux into a "digital city" par excellence.
 http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,49996,00.html

Peacefire Accuses CyberPatrol Of 'Overblocking' (Newsbytes)
Anti-Internet-filtering Web site Peacefire.org today released a
scathing review of the CyberPatrol Internet-blocking software. The
software is released by SurfControl.
 http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174172.html

Oz Censor Law Still Confuses (Wired)
Two years after online censorship laws took effect here, no one -
apart from the censors themselves - has much of an idea what's being
taken offline. 
 http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,50177,00.html

The Lolita Problem (Red Herring)
Illegal child pornography is booming, thanks to the Internet--and the
unwitting support of corporate America.
 http://redherring.com/insider/2002/0118/1249.html

SurfControl rides web filtering wave to profits (Financial Times)
SurfControl, the internet filtering software group, on Tuesday
confirmed it had recorded its first quarterly operating profit six
months ahead of target and said it looked forward to a successful
2002. 

http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3W9MDIBXC

Voluntary Singapore web codes to protect privacy (MSNBC)
A Singapore Internet advisory body has launched two voluntary
industry codes to protect the privacy of consumers and regulate
online content in the hopes of offering consumers greater peace of
mind when online.  
 http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters02-04-220510.asp

The Increase in Chip Speed Is Accelerating, Not Slowing (New York
Times)
In the world of computer chips, Moore's Law is becoming less of an
axiom and more of a drag race.
At the world's premier chip design conference, which begins here
today, the spotlight will be on blinding computer speed. That
emphasis suggests that the trajectory of desktop PC performance
increases of the last two years will not slow in the near future, but
actually accelerate. 
 http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/04/technology/04CHIP.html

Internet revolution far from over: Gates (ABC)
The Internet revolution is far from over, despite the bursting of the
high-tech bubble which saw waves of companies collapse, Microsoft
boss Bill Gates said. 
 http://www.abc.net.au/news/scitech/2002/02/item20020205081956_1.htm

Hole in chat software fixed (BBC)
People who like to talk on the internet have been advised to download
the latest version of one of the most popular chat programs. 
The upgrade of the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) software, mIRC, plugs a
security hole which could let someone take control of your computer. 
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1801000/1801015.stm

Census may unlock e-government's potential, says MP (Guardian)
The unprecedented popularity of the online 1901 census could be the
"killer application" which finally allows e-government to take off, a
senior MP claimed.
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/internetnews/story/0,7369,644896,00.html

Six emails of separation (Guardian)
A team of sociologists at Columbia University in New York has set up
an online research project to discover if everyone with computer
access really is only six emails away from everyone else. 
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/internetnews/story/0,7369,643414,00.html

BT fights to boost broadband service (Guardian)
BT will this week attempt to revitalise Britain's attempt to become
one of the European leaders in the provision of broadband internet
services.
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/internetnews/story/0,7369,644535,00.html

Growing fears over text-messaging scams (Daily Telegraph)
A recent wave of premium-rate text messages has left many phone users
wondering who is going to protect them from the impending assault of
mobile junk mail.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2002/02/05/ecntext05.xml&sSheet=/connected/2002/02/05/ixconn020205.html

Total Asia-Pacific Broadband Market Will Experience Robust Growth
with a CAGR of 44% from 2000 - 2004 (Yankee Group news release)
Research firm projects Korea will maintain its leading position in
the region with 13.2 million broadband subscribers; Japan and Taiwan
will have 12.0 million and 3.4 million broadband subscribers by 2004,
respectively. 
Despite precipitous drops in basic telephony, Asian carriers have
experienced strong growth in data and Internet traffic. As the amount
of data running over the Internet escalates, Asian carriers have
finally recognized the importance of implementing broadband
strategies. 

http://www.yankeegroup.com/webfolder/yg21a.nsf/press/773A891567E0BF1385256B45006B4A4F

Use web to evangelise, says Pope (Australian IT)
Pope John Paul II has officially embraced the internet, urging the
Roman Catholic Church to navigate the web with evangelising zeal
"armed with the Gospel of Christ". 
 http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,3701554%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html

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