general internet news - 4 November

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

.CN - The right to know
“YOU can make people follow a course of action, but you
can't let them know why.” So said Confucius 2,500 years
ago, or at least so it was interpreted by secretive Chinese
imperial governments. Their communist successors, though
scornful of Confucius, turned opacity into a cult. But
demands for change are growing. China is now preparing a
freedom of information act that supposedly will make
secrecy the exception.

http://economist.com/World/asia/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2156648

Microsoft and Google: Partners or Rivals?
Google recently began meeting with bankers to prepare for
its initial public offering as it was still exploring a
merger with Microsoft.
 http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/31/technology/31net.html

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=3730942

Google float may make it a target of Net activists
A proposed flotation of the internet search engine, Google,
could see the company face tough questions about privacy
issues troubling some web activists.

http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml;$sessionid$ABQXYYHRJBJY5QFIQMFCFFOAVCBQYIV0?xml=/connected/2003/10/29/ecngoogl25.xml&sSheet=/connected/2003/10/29/ixconnrite.html

How good is Google?
Google is now more than a business: it is a cultural
phenomenon. But where will it be in a few years?

http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=2173573

What's Google Really Worth?
Some on the Street say the search engine's IPO might fetch
$25 billion. Use a different yardstick, and that sum seems
way too high.

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2003/tc20031030_7074_tc024.htm

Microsoft to buy Google? Joking aside…
Why that deal won’t be happening
 http://www.silicon.com/comment/0,39024711,39116724,00.htm

.au - Pensioner 'ripped off $5m in Nigerian net scam':
court told
An Australian pensioner managed to defraud $5 million from
unsuspecting victims, including a Saudi Arabian sheik, in a
global internet scam, using aliases such as Tim Webster and
Alan Jones, a NSW court heard today.
 http://smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/31/1067566067718.html
 http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s979483.htm

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,7718835%5e16123%5e%5enbv%5e,00.html

http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/security/story/0,2000048600,20280385,00.htm

http://www.silicon.com/networks/webwatch/0,39024667,39116709,00.htm

More child-sex charges filed after Australian information
Child-porn images found on a computer in Australia have led
to more charges being filed against a man in the United
States.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/31/1067233357876.html

STATEMENT FROM VISA INTERNATIONAL REGARDING SAT1
INVESTIGATION INTO CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
Visa deplores child pornography and does not allow the use
of our products in association with this activity in any
way. We take all allegations of the misuse of our products
very seriously and will investigate thoroughly where
required.
 http://www.sat1.de/akte/format/thema.hbs?id=414516&skip=2

Porn website spells trouble for Polish girls
Two Polish schoolgirls are facing a family court and
disciplinary action at school after they owned up to having
launched a pornographic website featuring the faces of
schoolmates.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=24&art_id=qw1066832102167B214&set_id=1

'Matrix' spammers had porn dialler on site
Spammers, who tried to lure people to a website by
promising them a download of the latest film in the Matrix
series, aimed to get people to download a porn dialler,
according to Canberra-based sysadmin Daniel McNamara who
brought it to the attention of this newspaper.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/03/1067708123670.html

India plans Internet push into regions
The Indian Government plans to spend more than $2.5 billion
to spread access to the Internet across the country.
 http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s980935.htm

.us - A Crucial Case for the Supreme Court
In an alarming ruling earlier this year, a closely divided
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals refused to dismiss a
patently unmeritorious libel action against Consumer
Reports for a 1988 review that rated the Suzuki Samurai
sports utility vehicle "not acceptable." It said the car,
since discontinued, had a life-endangering tendency to tip
and roll over. The court's refusal to reject this flimsy
libel case and avoid an expensive jury trial has set an
awful First Amendment precedent that threatens to chill
reporting about important public issues, especially health
and safety. Dozens of media organizations, including The
Times, are calling upon the Supreme Court to add the case
to this term's docket and undo the damage.
 http://nytimes.com/2003/10/31/opinion/31FRI2.html

.uk - Tough new copyright measures become UK law
The UK has now implemented the EU Copyright Directive,
which aims to protect online content from 'organised
crime'.

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/legal/0,39020651,39117542,00.htm

.uk - Flirting, pornography and bad language – how staff
use IM
Workers admit to using instant messaging (IM) in the office
for sharing pornography, gossiping and flirting, using
abusive language and swapping music and video files.

http://www.silicon.com/software/applications/0,39024653,10006004,00.htm

At home with the Führer
Simon Waldman came across a 1938 Homes and Gardens feature
on Hitler's house, and posted it on his weblog. The rest is
internet history.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1076455,00.html

.uk - How will the other half live?
Last week Oftel announced that half the population are now
plugged into the internet. But what are the politicians and
ISPs going to do about the rest?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1076288,00.html

OECD Report Indicates Toughening Competition in
Knowledge-based Economic Sectors
Despite economic slowdown and talk of the death of the "new
economy," the knowledge-intensity of OECD economies
continues to increase. This is reflected not only in
productivity patterns but also in a wide range of
indicators contained in a new OECD publication, OECD
Science, Technology and Industry - 2003 Scoreboard.

http://www.oecd.org/document/36/0,2340,en_2649_37409_17191460_1_1_1_37409,00.html

China Locks Up Net Dissident
Chinese security agents have detained civil servant Du
Daobin, whose essays are banned by Beijing on the Internet,
for "subverting state power." It's all part of China's
intensified crackdown on online dissent.
 http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,61046,00.html
 http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;?storyID=3729964

Camera Phones, Privacy Concerns Not Clicking
"You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it." That was the
famous advice given by Scott McNealy, chief executive of
Sun Microsystems Inc., to people worried about the
implications of new technology in 1999.

http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-ft-cameraphones3nov03,1,3734703.story

Copyright law changes today in the UK
A new copyright regime is in force today in the UK,
implementing a European Directive that, among other things,
adds new protections for anti-copying technologies and
digital rights management. Inevitably, it's controversial.

http://www.out-law.com/php/page.php?page_id=copyrightlawchange1067603633

British Library archives websites
The British Library is now able to store web pages and
e-mails in its archive after a legal change.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3231483.stm

Man charged over anti-war email
AN Auckland peace activist who sent an email to the US
Embassy objecting to the war on Iraq has been charged with
misuse of a telephone.

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,7724431%5E15319%5E%5Enbv%5E15306,00.html

.US - Senate Delays Internet Tax Ban Vote
The U.S. Senate will vote next week on a bill to
permanently bar state governments from taxing Internet
access.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47997-2003Oct31.html

THE WINNERS OF THE APC BETINHO COMMUNICATIONS PRIZE 2003
Recognising people-centred technology initiatives in Latin
America and the Caribbean.
At a ceremony held in Colombia last night, APC announced
the winners of the 2003 Betinho Prize - three remarkable
information and communication technology (ICT) initiatives
that are improving the lives of people and communities in
Latin America.
 http://www.apc.org/english/betinho <English>
 http://www.apc.org/espanol/betinho <Español>
 http://www.apc.org/portugues/betinho <Português>

World drowning in oceans of data
Growing net, computer and phone use is driving a huge rise
in the amount of information people generate and use. US
researchers estimate that every year 800MB of information
is produced for every person on the planet. 
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3227467.stm
 http://www.internet-magazine.com/news/view.asp?id=3783

Vietnam gov't opts for open source
Vietnamese authorities have ruled that all government
desktop computers must run open source operating systems by
2005.

http://asia.cnet.com/newstech/applications/0,39001094,39156556,00.htm

http://www.silicon.com/management/government/0,39024677,39116719,00.htm

Cyberpiracy north of the border
CNET News.com spoke to Michael Geist, the Canada research
chair in Internet and e-commerce law at the University of
Ottawa, about copyrights, spam and other topics. Geist is
also technology counsel to Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt, and he
writes a newspaper column on cyberlaw.
 http://news.com.com/2008-1028-5097180.html

Internet prices in Africa. A comparative study
 http://www.africt.org/images/Internet_prices.pdf

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