internet news - 15/2

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

Domain Name News
Weird escort/temp service 'cybersquats' UK estate agents (Register)
Here's a blast from the past: a cybersquatter is leveraging off the
names of other companies to generate online traffic for its own
service. At least that's what we think temptations@work is trying to
do. 
 http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/24070.html

Domain Decline (Mercury News)
The market value has slipped for many simple-to-remember Web site
names once worth millions of dollars. Here are some:
 http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/business/2669394.htm

From BNA Internet Law News
U.S. Government Agency Says Dot-US Procurement Unlawful
The Small Business Administration's independent Office of Advocacy
has written a letter to NTIA chief Nancy Victory challenging the
legality of the recent dot-us procurement. The SBA argues that both
the sunrise and UDRP provisions amount to legislative rulemaking that
will affect the legal rights of millions of small businesses and
individuals. It claims that since the NTIA did not submit these rules
for notice and comment as required by the Administrative Procedure
Act nor conduct a regulatory flexibility analysis as required by the
Regulatory Flexibility Act, the contract for managing the dot-us
domain is unlawful.  Letter at
 http://www.sba.gov/advo/laws/comments/doc02_0205.html
Coverage at
 http://www.icannwatch.org/article.php?sid=546

From BNA Internet Law News
ICANN Clarifies Ghana Meeting Webcasting Plans
Yesterday ILN reported that ICANN would not be using the Berkman
Center to webcast the upcoming meeting in Ghana. ICANN has responded
by noting that it will broadcast the event, though it may only
broadcast audio, rather than both audio and video as has been the
custom at past events. The organization attributes the change to cost
and technology issues.

Internet News
Internet faces shut down, warns US watchdog (Sydney Morning Herald)
Australia's computer systems are at risk of being completely wiped
out by a serious flaw in the internet and networking infrastructure,
warns a US watchdog, and authorities have yet to develop an action
plan. 
 http://www.smh.com.au/news/0202/15/world/world101.html

Fixing Net flaw could hit systems, warn experts (Sydney Morning
Herald)
Computer security experts have warned that steps needed to correct a
major flaw discovered in the Internet may also have a significant
adverse impact on networks.
 http://www.smh.com.au/news/0202/15/national/national106.html

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,3781410%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html

Georgia targets violent video games (CNET)
State lawmakers this week introduced a bill that would make it a
crime in Georgia to provide games that depict graphic violence to
minors.
 http://news.com.com/2100-1040-838722.html

The security risks of SNMP (ZDNet)
COMMENTARY--Enterprises must act quickly to head off the hacker
attacks that will almost certainly result from the revelation that
there are many more security holes in the Simple Network Management
Protocol than previously realized. 
 http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1107-837353.html

Free Software to Schools Still Carries a Price Tag (allAfrica.com)
The announcement last week that Microsoft plans to donate free
software to 32 000 schools in SA has caused a fair degree of debate
in both industry and open source circles. Particularly considering
the announcement followed just days after the National Advisory
Council on Innovation (Naci), a state body, released a document
warning against the threats of proprietary software and urging
government to adopt open standards and open source software.
 http://allafrica.com/stories/200202140788.html

New African Media Portal Launched (allAfrica.com)
Media placement solutions company The African Extension and marketing
and communications company Exp.Momentum have joined forces to launch
the African Media Portal - a marketing and communications placement
system for all forms of media in all African countries.
 http://allafrica.com/stories/200202130662.html

Developing countries bridge the digital divide (ZDNet)
Assistance is being provided to delegates from developing countries
to attend the World Congress on Information Technology, being held in
Adelaide from February 27-March 1.  

http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/enterprise/story/0,2000025001,20263452,00.htm

Net snooping laws 'too costly' (BBC)
New legislation requiring businesses to keep customer data for up to
seven years could prove very costly for internet firms, say experts.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1820000/1820199.stm

Sony's PS2 mod chip battle heats up (ZDNet)
Sony Corporation Entertainment has accused the Australian Competition
and Consumer Commission of using rhetoric and misleading information
in a courtroom dispute between the two over the use modification
chips in PlayStation 2 consoles. 
 http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-837410.html

Is it time to bail from Internet Explorer? (ZDNet)
The upside of having one software company design all your
applications is that it's easy to make them all interoperate. The
problem is that if one program breaks, it might break another
seemingly unrelated program as well. Take, for instance, Internet
Explorer. You wouldn't think a problem in Internet Explorer 6 could
compromise your privacy in MSN Messenger 4.x, but up until recently,
it could. And unfortunately, a new patch from Microsoft does not plug
all of the browser's security holes.  
 http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1107-836264.html

FCC approves new wireless technology (CNET)
The Federal Communications Commission in a controversial decision on
Thursday approved the commercial use of "ultrawideband" technology.
 http://news.com.com/2100-1033-837683.html

Free Internet ride is over (Age)
The great free Internet ride ended yesterday with a decision by the
largest local website, Ninemsn, to introduce fees. 
Hotmail, the popular free e-mail service regularly used by 3.7million
Australians, will be among the first Ninemsn products to start
charging for an enhanced, premium version.
 http://www.it.mycareer.com.au/breaking/2002/02/15/FFX5WF3VOXC.html

Web Users Choose Bookmarks Over Search Surfing (Newsbytes)
The Internet apparently is becoming more like television, where
people go directly to their favorite stations rather than looking
around randomly for entertainment.
 http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174523.html

La efectividad de las campañas publicitarias se multiplica en
Internet (ZDNet)
En el primer estudio sobre la efectividad de las campañas de
publicidad on-line basado en un caso real presentado por MSN, IAB y
ARF, se constata que el incremento de la inversión en campañas de
marketing en Internet supera la relación coste/efectividad de las
campañas off-line. 
 http://www.zdnet-es.com/canales/zdnn/mostrarnoticias_i.html?id=3763

From BNA Internet Law News
EC Issues Privacy Safe Harbour Report
The European Commission has issued its 2001 report on the privacy
Safe Harbour agreement with the U.S. The report concludes that while
all elements are in place, a substantial number of U.S. organizations
that have self-certified adherence to the Safe Harbour agreement do
not have the expected degree of transparency with regard to their
commitment or contents of their privacy policies. The report also
expresses concern about the privacy practices of some of the Safe
Harbour dispute resolution providers.
Report at
http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/en/dataprot/news/02-196_en.pdf

Porn law proposal targets Internet (The Star)
Online crusaders and software firms working to eradicate child
pornography on the Internet could soon find themselves breaking the
law. 

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1013727703498


See http://www.alfa-redi.com/noticia/ for the web version of the
news, along with an archive.

http://greetings.yahoo.com.au - Yahoo! Greetings
- Send your Valentines love online.
* APPLe: To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe" to apple-request@apnic.net *