general internet news - 25 June

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

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CENSORSHIP & CONTENT REGULATION
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us: Groups call state's effort to block Internet child
porn a failure
A Pennsylvania law requiring Internet service
providers to stop customers from viewing Web sites
containing child pornography has been a failure and
should be declared unconstitutional, a lawyer for a
civil liberties group argued Wednesday.

http://www.detnews.com/2004/technology/0406/24/technology-193369.htm

http://wcco.com/national/InternetBlocking-aa/resources_news_html

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/computing/20040623-1656-internetblocking.html

us: Judge Blocks Utah Law Banning Spyware
A judge has agreed to temporarily block enforcement of
a Utah law that aims to ban so-called spyware.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64124-2004Jun23.html

http://news.com.com/Utah+judge+freezes+anti-spyware+law/2100-1024_3-5244151.html

uk: Harvey Nichols casts safety net
Retailer Harvey Nichols has implemented software to
control employee use of the internet to help protect
its brand and reputation.
 http://www.vnunet.com/news/1156126

Report hits out at Internet repression, hypocrisy
Media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
has launched a scathing attack on the repression
pervading some countries in their treatment of
Internet cybernauts.

http://smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/23/1087844973682.html

Progress Report for Net Censors 
For voicing his opinion online, 40-year-old activist
Du Daobin was charged with subversion earlier this
month and sentenced to four years of house arrest,
becoming one of more than 60 cyberdissidents currently
detained by the Chinese government.
 http://wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,63940,00.html

cn: Huang Qi awarded 2004 Cyberfreedom Prize
Reporters Without Borders on 22 June awarded its 2004
Cyberfreedom Prize to Huang Qi, who has been
imprisoned for four years for criticising the Chinese
government on his Internet site. The international
press freedom organisation also released its report
'Internet Under Surveillance 2004' - full version
available online - that monitors press freedom on the
Internet in nearly 60 countries.
 http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=20
Le chinois Huang Qi lauréat du prix Cyberliberté 2004
 http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=10809

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ONLINE CRIME & ILLEGAL CONTENT
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au: Turnbull accused of electronic stalking
The Liberal Party's high profile candidate for the
Sydney seat of Wentworth has been accused of
electronic stalking.
 http://abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200406/s1137224.htm

us: 9th Circuit Snaps at Gator's Argument
An Internet company asked a skeptical 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals on Tuesday for the right to sue an
East Coast business rival in Northern California, even
though the rival has no physical presence here.
 http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1087855518747

CONFERENCE: IV World Congress of Computer Law
Alfa-Redi
"Policies and regulatory framework for everyone’s
information society" 11 to 15 October 2004; Cuzco -
Peru
 http://www.alfa-redi.org/congreso/ivmundiali.asp

ca/uk: U.K. tests child-porn blocker
Canada's major Internet service providers are prepared
to work with law enforcement agencies to help combat
online child pornography, but they won't commit to the
large-scale blocking of known child-porn sites.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1087855810178&call_pageid=968332188854&col=968705899037

uk: High-tech cops probe premium-rate Internet fraud
Are Trojans behind a surge in complaints from Web
users billed for accessing premium-rate sites that
they say they never visited?
 http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39158412,00.htm

Spanish Police Bust Internet Dialup Fraud Group
Spain's civil guard on Wednesday arrested five people
suspected of defrauding Internet users by using hidden
software to divert their dialup calls to premium
high-cost phone numbers.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;?storyID=5495849

92 million email addresses stolen
Authorities in the US have charged two people with the
theft of data on 30 million AOL customers.
 http://afr.com/articles/2004/06/24/1087845040343.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A860-2004Jun23.html

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-06-23-aol_x.htm

nz: Texting bullies face ban
Most school children use mobile phone text messaging
to chat with family and friends but an increasing
number of kids are using it to bully others.

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/news_national_story_skin/432388%3fformat=html

uk: Concern over internet phone fraud
UK police are looking into complaints about excessive
phone bills, allegedly caused by PC software that
secretly dials up premium rate numbers.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3836203.stm
 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/24/bt_norfolk/

us: Morpheus p2p testimony
US lawmakers should turn their backs on "ceaseless and
baseless misinformation" being spread by "powerful and
parochial interests" against p2p and p2p technologies,
says Michael Weiss, ceo of Morpheus owner StreamCast
Networks.
 http://p2pnet.net/story/1745

A journey into depraved cyberspace
The simplicity of getting material . . . it's close to
mind-boggling. For me, I have never understood how
come the whole thing wasn't shut down, just because of
the nature of it. You search for the word ''baby,''
and it will find stuff there. --from the videotaped
statement of Michael Briere, who pleaded guilty on
Thursday to the murder of 10-year-old Holly Jones.

http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040621.gttchildporn21/BNStory/Technology/

*****
SPAM
*****
Big guns turn their sights on spammers
Putting aside usually heated rivalries, internet
giants Yahoo!, Microsoft, EarthLink and America
Online, have come together in the US to issue a broad
set of industry recommendations for fighting spam.
 http://afr.com/articles/2004/06/23/1087844974719.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/23/technology/23spam.html

Internet providers take a step forward in spam fight
Many specialists in the field suggest that a system
that can identify and discard falsely addressed
messages is one of the most potent weapons against
spam.
 http://iht.com/articles/526284.html

************
INTERNET USE
************
US hardcore not interested in the Net
The US has a hardcore group of people who simply
aren't interested in using the Internet. Around a
third of US adults have rejected the Net, causing
researchers to split them into two distinct groups.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/22/us_online_penetration/

de: Studie: 53 Prozent der Deutschen sind online
Jeder zweite Deutsche über 14 Jahren nutzt das
Internet. Vor allem das West-Ost-Gefälle der
Internet-Nutzung löst sich zunehmend auf, ergab eine
Studie des Meinungsforschungsinstituts TNS Emnid unter
30.300 Befragten. Dem (N)Onliner Atlas 2004 zufolge
sind 33,9 Millionen oder 53 Prozent der Deutschen
online, 1,8 Millionen mehr als 2003. Weitere 6,6
Prozent der Deutschen planen in naher Zukunft das
Internet zu nutzen.
 http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/48526

*****
WSIS
*****
Africa: Civil Society Participation at Tunisia
PrepCom1 Critically Low
Civil Society Organizations (CSO) attending the First
Preparatory Committee (PrepCom1) meeting of the Tunis
Phase of the World Summit on Information Society
(WSIS) expressed today a deep concern over the low
level of African participation in the meeting.
 http://allafrica.com/stories/200406230870.html

WSIS Prep Com And Pan African Postal Meetings Hosted
By Tunisia This Week
A high number of participants representing
governments, international organizations, civil
society and the private sector of 125 countries is
expected at the first preparatory meeting (PrepCom1)
of the second phase of the World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS), said Monday Tunisian
minister of communication technologies and
transportation Sodok Rabah.
 http://allafrica.com/stories/200406211322.html

Internet Governance -- What Does it Mean and What Can
We Do?
Eighteen experts from various fields gathered at the
Berkman Center last week for a summit on the thorny
and elusive subject of International Internet
Governance. Led by Berkman Fellow Colin Maclay
(pictured right), discussion included a wide range of
perspectives about the role of the United Nations, the
private sector, and national governments. But there
was consensus around several themes: education and
dialogue are essential. To that end, Susan Crawford,
Professor at Cardozo School of Law, will host a
conference -- The FCC Takes On the Internet -- to
promote debate on governance issues. A report on the
summit's decisions will follow in the coming weeks.

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/home?wid=10&func=viewSubmission&sid=374

UN favours change in Internet governance
Moves are afoot at the United Nations (UN) that could
decide the way the Internet is run worldwide in the
future. The secretary of the UN's new working group on
Internet governance, Markus Kummer, made a
presentation during the International
Telecommunications Union (ITU) Telecom Africa 2004
conference in Cairo earlier this month detailing its
progress.

http://www.computerworld.com.sg/pcwsg.nsf/unidlookup/7328AA0536E611A148256EBB0032DD9F

WSIS II: Verbreiterung oder Vertiefung?
Schon vor dem Beginn der Vorbereitungskonfernz in
Tunesien für den Weltgipfel zur
Informationsgesellschaft II gibt es Uneinigkeit, wie
weiter verfahren werden soll; die Bundesregierung will
sich stärker beim WSIS-Prozess engagieren.
 http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/te/17696/1.html

ITU-T and Internet Governance
The Address on Internet Governance, Telecom
Africa-2004, given by Houlin Zhao, ITU Standardization
Bureau Director at ITU Telecom Africa is available on
the ITU website.

http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/tsb-director/itut-wsis/igovern.html

ITU and Republic of Korea Build Digital Bridges
ITU and MIC Korea have formed a new partnership to
help achieve the internationally agreed upon goals of
the first phase of the World Summit on the Information
Society (WSIS).

http://www.itu.int/newsroom/press_releases/2004/NP10.html

PrepCom 1: Expectations
Improved access to Information Communication
Technologies (ICTs), more discussion on Internet
governance, financing, and strengthening of African
civil society are some of the objectives that
organisations attending WSIS preparatory committee are
hoping to achieve.

http://www.sabcnews.com/sci_tech/computers/0,2172,82293,00.html

African civil society participation at PrepComl low
Civil Society Organisations (CSO) attending the First
Preparatory Committee (PrepCom1) meeting of the Tunis
Phase of the World Summit on Information Society
(WSIS) expressed today a deep concern over the low
level of African participation in the meeting.

http://www.sabcnews.com/sci_tech/computers/0,2172,82285,00.html

Opening session of civil society at PreCom1
Civil society appears to be upbeat, if slightly
disorganised ahead of tomorrow's preparatory meeting
(Prepcom) for the second phase of the World Summit on
the Information Society (WSIS). The loose grouping of
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) is meeting at
the Yasmine Hamamet conference centre to decide on
strategies and positions to adopt during the official
meeting on the Tunisian coast.

http://www.sabcnews.com/sci_tech/computers/0,2172,82286,00.html

************************
MICROSOFT & DEVELOPMENTS
************************
Berners-Lee wins €1m prize
Sir Tim has been awarded a cash prize for his work on
the development of the Web - and has hit out at the
ease with which software patents are awarded.

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/developer/0,39020387,39158270,00.htm

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/news_technology_story_skin/431905?format=html

Sprint and Sweden claim Internet speed record
The world record for the transfer of data across the
Internet has reportedly been broken by telecoms
operator Sprint and the Swedish National Research and
Education Network (SUNET).

http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/0,2000061791,39151148,00.htm

Wi-fi finds the way
Deep in the concrete canyons of city centres, GPS
often fails because high buildings block the signals
they rely on. But an unlikely back-up for GPS is
emerging that works best in cities and inside
cavernous complexes like shopping malls: Wi-Fi. New
software uses the signals from Wi-Fi base stations to
calculate a user's position. Its developers predict
that Wi-Fi could become central to new location-based
applications, and that the emergency services in
particular could find the system an essential back-up.

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996058

Biggest computer fair cancelled
Comdex, once the biggest event in the technology
calendar, is cancelled after falling attendance.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3834803.stm
Comdex abgesagt
 http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/48543

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CHILD PROTECTION ARRESTS
************************
au:  Charge over child-abuse images
INFORMATION from a British police unit specialising in
Internet crime led to a former Queensland police
officer being charged with possession of child
pornography.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,9922016%255E1702,00.html

ca: McGuinty government helps Ontario provincial
police to combat child pornography (news release)
The McGuinty government is making real, positive
change by strengthening the Ontario Provincial
Police's ability to fight child pornography and
Internet luring, Monte Kwinter, Minister of Community
Safety and Correctional Services, announced today.

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/June2004/21/c7162.html

ca: P.E.I. child porn offender faces further charges
A confessed P.E.I. child pornography offender awaiting
sentencing was charged with further offences on
Tuesday.

http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/06/22/canada/kidpornpei040622

us: Child-porn conviction reversed
A former Apple Valley elementary school teacher's
conviction of possessing child pornography on a school
computer was reversed Tuesday by the Minnesota Court
of Appeals on the grounds that someone else could have
downloaded the images.

http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/news/local/8988820.htm?1c

us: Former Iao teacher pleads guilty to child
pornography charge
A former Iao School teacher has pleaded guilty to a
federal charge of possessing child pornography that he
obtained using computers both at his home and at the
school.

http://www.mauinews.com/news/story/0623202004_new05Iao0623.asp

us: Ex-Teacher Sent To Prison On Child Porn Conviction
A former Avon schoolteacher caught with child
pornography on his school computer was sentenced to 18
months in prison Wednesday.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/wkmg/20040624/lo_wrtv/2260672

http://www.theindychannel.com/education/3452442/detail.html

us: Man enters guilty plea to child pornography
A San Jose man pleaded guilty Monday to one count of
federal felony child pornography after authorities
discovered hundreds of computer links to sexually
explicit images.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/8984128.htm?1c

us: Former constable pleads guilty to child
pornography charges
Prosecutors say a former Franklin County constable
pleaded guilty in federal court today to 19 counts of
child pornography charges.
 http://www.fox19.com/Global/story.asp?S=1958178
 http://www.wkyt.com/Global/story.asp?S=1959054

Court adds 102 child porn charges to drug, gun charges
against Palm Desert man
A Palm Desert business man arrested for illegally
stashing guns and drugs at his auto shop has now also
been charged with possessing child pornography. At a
hearing this morning the DA's office said they've
charged Steven Vonstein with more than 100 child porn
counts.
 http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=1965236

us: Child porn suspect arrested after chase through
Aliquippa
Usually, when federal agents close in on a child
pornography suspect for an arrest, things go smoothly.
Sometimes a guy will even confess right on the spot.
Not on Monday.
 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04175/336256.stm

us: Prison Guard Charged With Distributing Child
Pornography
A guard at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility has
been charged with producing and distributing child
pornography and sexually exploiting a minor on the
Internet.

http://www.theindychannel.com/news/3439817/detail.html

us: Charges added in child sex-abuse case
The number of child sex-abuse charges against an East
Bradford Township man climbed yesterday to include two
counts of rape, 250 counts of possession of child
pornography, and a single count of disseminating child
pornography.

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/8981148.htm?1c

us: Man gets probation for having child porn
A former Catawba Nuclear Station supervisor and
scoutmaster received five years probation Monday after
admitting he downloaded 14 child pornography videos to
his work computer.

http://www.heraldonline.com/local/story/3655405p-3257724c.html

us: Stoner Sentenced To 37 Years For Child Pornography
A man who once ran a day care out of his house, will
now call prison home after trading kiddie porn. At 34,
Patrick Stoner is at least three decades older than
the preschoolers, toddlers and infants in the
pornographic pictures he downloaded and then traded
online. But for doing that, Monday a judge sentenced
the one-time day care owner to 37 years in prison.

http://www.keloland.com/NewsDetail2817.cfm?Id=22,32805
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Check out http://www.auda.org.au/domain-news/dn-news
for the latest domain news. Within 24 hours of this
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domain name news is supported by auDA.

Also see
http://greta.electric.gen.nz/mailman/listinfo/internet-news
for an archive or to subscribe to the general news.

Sources include Quicklinks (www.qlinks.net) and BNA
Internet Law News (www.bna.com/ilaw)".

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

(c) David Goldstein 2004

=====
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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