general internet news - 30 April

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

au: Authorities struggle to regulate mobile content
Australian telecommunications legislators and statutory
bodies are not keeping pace with the industry when it comes
to personal mobile phone content services.

http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/0,2000061791,39146139,00.htm

au: Church and TAB join to fight net betting
THE Uniting Church has turned up the pressure on the
Federal Government to wind up its review of the Interactive
Gambling Act, joining with gaming operator TAB Limited to
condemn foreign betting exchanges.

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,9395818%5E15342%5E%5Enbv%5E15306-15319,00.html

au: ATO posts fraud email warning
The Australian Tax Office has posted a warning on its web
site alerting the public to an increase in forged emails
claiming to be official ATO correspondence.

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,9423066%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html

us: FBI Steps Up Watching Web Hate Groups
The FBI has increased its monitoring of hate groups' Web
sites since the conviction of a white supremacist on
charges he sought to have a judge murdered, agency
officials said.

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WHITE_SUPREMACIST_TRIAL?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

us: ACLU challenges FBI use of secret letters to obtain ISP
records
The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging the FBI's
use of expanded powers to compel Internet service providers
to turn over information about their customers or
subscribers.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2004-04-28-isp-letters_x.htm

cn: New system to monitor Net surfing
A new supervision system will operate at all internet cafes
by the end of the year as the government tightens its grip
on web surfers.
 http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=10742

China shuts down 8,600 Internet cafes in two months
China has shut down 8,600 Internet cafes in the last two
months as part of an ongoing crackdown on the media, state
press said Tuesday.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/82025/1/.html

ie: Dáil may remove porn case judge from office
Judge Brian Curtin could be removed from office by the
Dáil, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said today.

http://212.2.162.45/news/story.asp?j=102246450&p=yxzz47y56&n=102247210

us: Operation Predator targets child molesters
As head of immigration and customs enforcement in San
Diego, Mike Turner has seen it all.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/terror/20040426-1504-cnspredator.html

us: Sex E-Mails to Minors Not Shielded by First Amendment
In a victory for child protection advocates and law
enforcement, a state appeals court rejected a first-ever
constitutional challenge to the Florida Computer
Pornography and Child Exploitation Prevention Act of 1986.
 http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1082923341121

http://www.1dca.org/opinion/opinions2004/4-26-04/02-4638.pdf

us: Governor Signs Bill Outlawing Internet Stalking
Gov. Mark Sanford signed into law Monday a bill that makes
it illegal to entice or stalk children on the Internet.

http://www.fox21.com/Global/story.asp?S=1816750&nav=2KPpMc5e

us: Preying by phone
While parents have heard of the hazards of teens entering
Internet chat rooms, most are probably unaware of the
dangers -- or even the existence -- of telephone lines that
operate similarly.

http://www.nola.com/living/t-p/index.ssf?/base/living-2/1083142529300570.xml

us: FBI steps up watching Web hate groups
The FBI has increased its monitoring of hate groups' Web
sites since the conviction of a white supremacist on
charges he sought to have a judge murdered, agency
officials said.

http://business.bostonherald.com/technologyNews/view.bg?articleid=454

us: Ex-Headmaster Pleads Guilty in Smut Case
The former headmaster of the Trevor Day School in Manhattan
pleaded guilty on Wednesday to two felony counts in
connection with an Internet pedophile investigation last
fall, the Westchester County district attorney's office
said.
 http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/29/education/29trevor.html

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-bc-ny--headmaster-sexsti0428apr28,0,3789886.story

us: Man admits pornography charge
A 27-year-old Kalispell man pleaded guilty in federal court
Tuesday to sexual exploitation and possession of child
pornography in what U.S. Attorney for Montana Bill Mercer
calls "an important case."

http://www.dailyinterlake.com/NewsEngine/SelectStory_AD.tpl?command=search&db=news.db&eqskudata=98-817150-86

us: Elite prep school headmaster admits kiddie porn rap
The former headmaster of a Manhattan prep school admitted
in court Wednesday that he had indecent online
conversations with people he thought were young girls and
had kept child pornography on a portable computer disk.

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/breaking_news/story/188247p-162958c.html

us: Encinitas teacher arrested on child porn charges
A sixth-grade math teacher from Ada Harris School has been
arrested on suspicion of possession of child pornography,
officials said Wednesday.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/04/29/news/coastal/22_21_494_28_04.txt

us:  Utahns in trouble for online child porn
Authorities know of 163 Utahns who viewed online child
pornography with the help of Site-Key, a California company
that provided credit card services for several illegal
sites.
 http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Apr/04282004/utah/161393.asp

uk:  UK to review cybercrime law
Britain is to update its lone cybercrime law, a 1990
pre-Web relic widely regarded as inadequate to deal with
growing computer criminality.

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/news_story_skin/423201%3fformat=html

uk: How email became a diplomatic incident
The letter signed by the 52 former British diplomats
originated a long way from the London dinner circuit, far
from the Arab embassies, the Travellers Club in Pall Mall
and other haunts of the ex-Foreign Office establishment.
Instead, it can be traced to Tripoli, to an internet cafe
near the Katib (Grand) Hotel.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1204971,00.html

Global Forum on Internet Governance: Not everyone agrees on
what is broken nor on what fixing might involve
A global forum on internet governance organised under the
auspices of the United Nations Information and
Communication Technologies Task Force (UNICTTF) was held at
the UN Headquarters in New York, March 25-27, to bring
together leading actors and all relevant stakeholders,
including Member States, civil society and the private
sector, interested in internet governance issues. APC was
involved in planning the forum in its capacity as
coordinator of the UNICTTF working group on ICT policy.
 http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=18720

ITU: ‘Africa's future is mobile'
In the ITU's latest publication, African Telecommunication
Indicators 2004, the ITU examines the reasons behind the
continent's rapid mobile sector expansion and explores the
sector's future avenues for growth.

http://www.sabcnews.com/sci_tech/internet/0,2172,78793,00.html

Copyright and Internet Music Transmissions: Existing Law,
Major Controversies, Possible Solutions by Anthony Reese
Part I of this Article explains current copyright law
governing music transmissions over the Internet. Part II
examines how applying copyright law to downloading and
streaming audio—the two major types of Internet music
transmissions today—makes it extremely difficult for
Internet transmitters to make such transmissions legally,
even if their activities come within a copyright exemption
or compulsory license. Part III suggests and evaluates
possible solutions to these problems that would continue to
protect copyright owners’ ability to exploit their works,
yet make legitimate Internet music transmissions more
feasible for users of those works. One final note—this
Article does not address the currently-debated questions of
whether current copyright law gives music copyright owners
too much control over uses of their works or whether
digital network technologies (such as peer-to-peer sharing
software including Napster, Gnutella, and Freenet) will, as
a practical matter, effectively undermine whatever degree
of legal control the law gives to copyright owners.
Instead, the Article takes current copyright law as a
given, assesses how difficult that law makes legitimate
Internet exploitation of music under current conditions,
and considers how adjustments to current law might
facilitate such legitimate exploitation.
 http://www.cbeji.com.br/br/downloads/secao/Miami_Fi.pdf

European anti-spam laws lack bite
European laws on spam are "meaningless" finds a study by
Dutch academics.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3666585.stm

eu: Employers could be sued for porn spam
E-mail porn spam in the workplace could land European
employers in court for fostering a hostile work
environment, a Dutch researcher says.

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=4955018

ITU WSIS Thematic Meeting on Countering Spam
 http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/spam/meeting7-9-04/index.html

uk: Bank's failure to explain staff policy makes dismissal
unfair
The Royal Bank of Scotland has lost an unfair dismissal
appeal because it did not disclose to its employee, who was
fired for sending porn by e-mail, how offensiveness of the
material was graded and sanctions applying to each grade.

http://www.out-law.com/php/page.php?page_id=banksfailuretoe1083237702

SurfControl hits record revenues
SurfControl hit a record quarterly turnover of £22m, up 19
per cent on last year with a record 20 per cent pre-tax
profit.

http://www.silicon.com/software/security/0,39024655,39120291,00.htm

us: RIAA files new round of file-swapping suits
The Recording Industry Association of America filed a new
round of copyright lawsuits against 477 anonymous music
file swappers Wednesday, bringing the total number of
people sued to nearly 2,500 in eight months.
 http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5201637.html

us: Four Charged Under Spam Law
Federal authorities say they managed to pierce the murky
underworld of Internet spam e-mails, filing the first
criminal charges under the government's new "can spam"
legislation.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50999-2004Apr28.html

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-04-28-spam-charges-filed_x.htm


Australia lags in innovation: report
Australia has a relatively poor record in innovation and
that is unlikely to change any time soon, the Committee for
Economic Development of Australia, a business think-tank,
says in a report.
 http://smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/29/1083103605566.html

NZ still lagging in broadband uptake says new report
New Zealand's broadband uptake rate with other countries
has again been slammed, this time by UK-based broadband
analyst Point Topic.

http://www.computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/UNID/94643600C1DE8D5BCC256E85000CC139

uk: Internet "phisher" arrested
Police have made one of the first arrests in connection
with an Internet scam known as "phishing", which is
plaguing the fast-growing Web banking business.

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=4985079

kr: We Will Not Obey the Internet Real Name Law
The Internet Real Name Law, which was passed at the plenary
session of Parliament on March 9, 2004, requires Internet
media and press websites to verify all names and
identification numbers of authors who post messages on
bulletin boards or chat rooms regarding elections.

http://www.base21.org/show/show.php?p_cd=0&p_dv=0&p_docnbr=30205

Internet Banking: Developments and Prospects
Economic and Policy Analysis Working Paper 2000-9
We develop logit models to explain why banks choose to
adopt Internet banking, and why some choose to offer a
relatively wider array of Internet banking products and
services. Among the key factors explaining which banks have
chosen to offer Internet banking are membership in a bank
holding company, physical location of the bank in an urban
area, relatively higher premises and other fixed expenses
to net operating revenue, and higher noninterest income,
and efficiency than non-Internet banks. More profitable
banks were more likely to adopt Internet banking after Q2
1998, but more profitable institutions were less likely to
be among the “first movers” - i.e. banks adopting Internet
banking as of Q2 1998. Among banks that offer Internet
banking, larger banks and banks that offered the service
for a longer time were significantly more likely to offer a
wider range of services on the Internet.

http://www.cbeji.com.br/br/downloads/secao/WPSept2000FurstNolleLang.pdf

Microsoft Position Paper Criticizes EU's Antitrust
Sanctions
The European Commission has published a lengthy and
carefully written Decision concluding its review of the
Microsoft case after more than five years. This 300-page
analysis obscures, however, a critically important fact –
the Commission is seeking to make new law that will have an
adverse impact on intellectual property rights and the
ability of dominant firms to innovate. This adverse impact
will not be confined to the software industry or to Europe.
As the case now heads for the Court of First Instance, the
novel legal standards announced in the Decision will affect
all industries, altering market dynamics and reducing
incentives for research and development that are essential
to global economic growth. The Commission’s Decision puts
in bold relief two important questions:
First, when does a firm with a dominant position have a
legal duty to license its pro-prietary technology and
intellectual property rights to its competitors so that
they can incorporate that very same technology into their
own directly competing products?
Second, when is it unlawful for a dominant firm to
incorporate new components or features that demonstrably
improve its finished product?
 http://www.cbeji.com.br/br/downloads/secao/Microsoft.pdf

Net more important than morning coffee?
Given the choice at work between personal use of the Net or
a morning cup o' joe, employees say the joe can go, a
survey says. The study also looks at security issues.
 http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5201726.html
 http://news.com.com/2100-7355_3-5201726.html

UK Makes One of First Internet 'Phishing' Arrests
British police have made one of the first arrests in a
relatively new Internet scam known as "phishing" in which
crafty programers create bogus e-mails and Web sites to
dupe Internet customers out of their bank details.
 http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;?storyID=4982632

Aussie bank scales up against 'phishing'
The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group has reinforced
its commitment to fighting online fraud and beefed up its
scrutiny of large and high-risk technology projects.
 http://news.com.com/2100-7355_3-5201041.html

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=====
David Goldstein
 address: 2/4 Dundas Street
             COOGEE NSW 2034
             AUSTRALIA
 email: Goldstein_David@yahoo.com.au
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