general internet news - 16 October

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

Hello all

I take it you are all avidly following the *real* world cup
that's happening down under now? :)

Cheers
David

Pedofilia e internet
Importaría una medida de censura responsabilizar a priori a
los proveedores de acceso a internet, como si éstos
pudieran controlar directamente la totalidad de los
contenidos de información multimedial.

http://diario.elmercurio.com/editorial/tribuna/noticias/2003/10/13/382346.htm?id=382346

.au - Family Court email crackdown
ONE Family Court employee has been forced to quit and up to
10 others have been disciplined because of pornographic
emails circulating among staff.

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,7566421%5e16123%5e%5enbv%5e,00.html

Court to Hear Case on Web Porn
The Supreme Court announced yesterday that it will decide
whether a 1998 law designed to shield children from
Internet pornography violates the First Amendment,
propelling a six-year-old legal battle over free speech in
cyberspace into what might be a conclusive phase.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26735-2003Oct14.html
 http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,60811,00.html
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3191676.stm
 http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5090816.html

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2003-10-14-porn-ruling_x.htm

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=3610996

Supreme Court to Revisit Child Porn Law
The Supreme Court today said it would revisit the
constitutionality of a law intended to protect children
from exposure to pornography on the Internet. The case
involves a challenge to the 1998 Child Online Protection
Act, which would penalize Web site operators who allow
children to view pornography, whether or not the content in
question is legally protected free speech. Ann Beeson,
Associate Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties
Union, was online to discuss her organization's objections
to the law. She argued the ACLU's original challenge before
the Supreme Court in 2001. An edited transcript follows.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24167-2003Oct14.html

Microsoft chatrooms close
MSN's free unmoderated chatrooms are shutting down in the
UK, Europe, Middle East, Latin America and most of Asia.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3189362.stm

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/0,39020369,39117156,00.htm
 http://www.news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=1136802003
 http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;?storyID=3612772

.uk - Paedophile's sentence increased
A paedophile, who sexually abused two 13-year-old girls he
met through internet chat rooms, has had his sentence
increased to seven years by the Appeal Court.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/cambridgeshire/3193246.stm
 http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/33407.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/child/story/0,7369,1063420,00.html

.uk - IT staff need audit trails to protect them from child
pornography law
Police have urged IT departments to ensure they have proper
audit systems in place when they are investigating whether
illegal obscene material may have been downloaded onto
company networks.

http://www.cw360.com/articles/article.asp?liArticleID=125622

.th - No easy answer to the delicate balancing act of Net
censorship
Late at night a couple of weeks ago, I was tinkering on my
web site. I received a call from a friend that the web site
was no longer accessible, so I pressed reload. Instead of
seeing my little blog in all its glory, I encountered a
page saying that my web site had been taken down in
accordance with a request from the Communications Authority
of Thailand as it had offensive or inappropriate content or
images. Now, that was news to me _ all the more so because
it had only one page accessible to the public _ the
standard Mandrake Linux/ Apache welcome page!
 http://www.bangkokpost.com/Database/15Oct2003_data11.html

.zw - Daily News targets SA web return
The Zimbabwe newspaper shut down last month is planning to
relaunch an online version from neighbouring South Africa.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3186926.stm

Internet betting scandal sparks ATP investigation
The men's professional tennis tour has launched an
investigation into alleged match-fixing by players.

http://news.independent.co.uk/digital/news/story.jsp?story=452716

Kafelnikov rages over betting claims
Yevgeney Kafelnikov has denied allegations that he may have
been involved in match-fixing.

http://sport.guardian.co.uk/tennis/story/0,10069,1063151,00.html

Web guru fights info pollution
E-mail, the net, weblogs, instant messaging, text
messaging, multi-media messaging... the list of ways to
communicate electronically in the 21st Century is growing.
To some, all these tools which are only a couple of clicks
and screen flicks away have transformed the way they work
and run their lives. To web guru Jakob Nielsen, it is
computers which are starting to control us, and it is time
to "rule the computer and put it back in its place".
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3171376.stm

Ireland's Poor Clares reach out to cyberspace
Catholic mysticism and cyberspace have come together in the
west of Ireland, where an enclosed order of nuns have taken
to the internet to disseminate their message.

http://news.independent.co.uk/digital/news/story.jsp?story=452683

.us - Rules for Internet telephony challenge regulators
In a case that could have far-reaching implications for
businesses and consumers, Washington state regulators for
the first time will address whether a blooming technology —
Internet telephony — falls under their authority.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2001764668_btvoip130.html

Personalised websites are driving customers away
Companies trying to get personal with their website
visitors in hopes of increasing sales are wasting more
money than they're earning, warns an upcoming report.

http://www.silicon.com/news/500019/1/6394.html?nl=d20031015

Study: People more canny at coping with spam
The number of consumers deleting junk e-mail without
reading it has climbed to 65 percent from last year's 60
percent. Only 4 percent bothered to read spam to see if it
was of any use, compared with 5 percent in 2002, and 18
percent the year before, according to a study.
 http://news.com.com/2100-1024-5090187.html

.au - Democrats to seek changes in anti-spam bill
The Democrats will seek changes in the Federal anti-spam
bill when it comes up in the Senate, the party's IT
spokesman Senator Brian Greig says. The bill was passed by
the lower house last week.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/13/1065917315601.html

AU white-lists used to spam US ISPs
Offshore spammers are targeting Australian broadband users
in order to exploit their ISPs' white-list arrangements
with large U.S.-based ISPs.

http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/security/story/0,2000048600,20279598,00.htm

.au - Law update to deal with cyber-crime
Hackers, cyber-vandals and computer virus spreaders will
face up to 10 years' jail under legislation to be
introduced in South Australia.
 http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s967706.htm

Study: Internet fraud and attacks rise in tandem
Internet use is still growing fast but so is Internet-based
fraud, according to security vendor Verisign, which
examined data from its own infrastructure services between
August 2002 and August 2003.

http://www.arnnet.com.au/index.php?id=1424632698&fp=2&fpid=1
 http://security.itworld.com/4337/031014fraudstudy/

Japanese Cellular Giant Planning British Net Service
NTT DoCoMo is negotiating with several companies to bring
its i-mode mobile phone Internet service to Britain.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/14/business/worldbusiness/14doco.html

.uk - Digital divide 'hits black families'
Black people living in deprived areas have less access to
home computers than their white neighbours, a study
suggests.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/3193512.stm

REBEL NETWORK
While big corporations fight to squeeze cash from punters
who seem reluctant to pay for wireless internet access, Jon
Anderson, a self-employed programmer, wants to give the
internet back to the people. His ambition is to provide
dirt-cheap, wireless broadband internet access, wherever
people need it, by combining two existing technologies --
mesh networking and Wi-Fi. The result? A network with
virtually no size limit that can grow organically as
required.

http://archive.newscientist.com/secure/article/article.jsp?id=mg18024164.100

Legislation shuts down first WiFi nation
It seems that the tiny Pacific island-nation of Niue,
lauded less than six months ago as the world's first true
wireless nation, is suffering from the same legislative
hang-ups that affect countries the world over.

http://www.sabcnews.com/sci_tech/computers/0,2172,67400,00.html

http://www.itechnology.co.za/index.php?click_id=115&art_id=qw1066039921133B255&set_id=1

Wi-Fi newcomer offers cheaper, but riskier, fast Internet
connection
The competition to provide faster Internet connection
heated up last week when newly created company WideNet
launched its unique Wi-Fi service package. WideNet gives
its customers cheaper connection by letting them share the
broadband connection of other users—and some of them are
customers of other Internet service providers.
 http://www.pbj.cz/user/article.asp?ArticleID=186336

Forgot Your Computer Password Again? Press Here
Attention confounded consumers: there's a high-tech
solution that could render obsolete your growing jumble of
credit card pin numbers and computer passwords -- and it's
as plain as the nose on your face or fingerprint.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=3617615

UK to crackdown on Net scams
The UK has forged closer ties with Canada, Australia and
New Zealand in a crackdown on Internet scams.
 http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/33408.html

Fiber optics in Europe: the frenzy that fizzled
Installing billions of dollars' worth of fiber-optic cable
in Europe seemed like a good idea in 1999, what with wild
predictions of huge growth in data traffic and revenue.
 http://www.iht.com/articles/113825.html

Neil Postman, 72; Author Warned of Technology Threats (reg
req'd)
Neil Postman, an author, educator and social critic whose
warnings about the pernicious effects of technology in
American society were a constant theme in the 20 books and
scores of essays he wrote over a four-decade career, died
last Sunday at a hospital in Flushing, N.Y. He was 72.

http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-me-postman12oct12,1,5364788.story

And now for the trivia...
Coffee makes sperm speed up
Caffeine improves sperm speed and could help with
infertility, suggests new research, but cannabis causes
'burn-out'.
 http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994267


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=====
David Goldstein
 address: 2/4 Dundas Street
             COOGEE NSW 2034
             AUSTRALIA
 email: Goldstein_David@yahoo.com.au
 phone: +61 418 228 605 - mobile; +61 2 9665 0015 - home

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