general internet news - 29 March

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

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CENSORSHIP, FILTERING & CONTENT REGULATION
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au: Pressure builds for censorship
THE federal Government is planning to bolster
NetAlert, its online safety agency, and give the media
regulator greater powers as pressure builds from Labor
and its own backbench to curb online pornography.
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,18623702%5e15302%5e%5enbv%5e15306,00.html

au: Bully Busters making playground a safer place
MEET the twins who are helping to stamp out bullying
in schools. Amelia Suckling and Carla Temple run the
three-pronged Bully Busters program in schools around
Australia, enlisting teachers, parents and students.
http://smh.com.au/news/national/bully-busters-making-playground-a-safer-place/2006/03/25/1143084046290.html

au: Porn pause for Vodafone
VODAFONE has put its plan for 3G porn on temporary
hold, but is still expected to open the door to
"access controlled" services before the end of the
year.
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,18623700%5e16123%5e%5enbv%5e,00.html

au: ISP filters 'not effective'
FILTERING all internet traffic in a bid to stop
children viewing pornography does not work and
dramatically reduces the speed of information
superhighway for all uses.
http://theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,18627243%255E2702,00.html

nz: Mean girls wreak school misery
EARLIER this month a group of New Zealand teenagers
were blamed for the suicide of a girl they were
reportedly "texting to death". The bullies sent
hundreds of threatening text messages and, not seeing
a way out, Alex Teka, 12, of Putaruru, killed herself.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18605945-1244,00.html

iq: Kurdish-born Austrian jailed for 18 months for
online ?defamation?
Austrian national of Kurdish origin, Kamal Sayid
Qadir, who was arrested five months ago for posting
?defamatory? articles about the authorities in Iraqi
Kurdistan, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.
At an earlier hearing he had been handed down a
sentence, since cancelled, of 30 years imprisonment on
exactly the same charge.
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=16862
http://iht.com/articles/2006/03/28/news/data.php

il: Police to Betar Web site managers: Do not publish
racist comments
The State Prosecution told police on Sunday to warn
the managers of Israeli soccer team Betar Jerusalem's
fan Website to refrain from publishing readers'
responses that are of a racist nature.
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/698768.html

China closes dozens of websites for online smut,
product piracy
Chinese authorities have shut down dozens of websites
that carried pornographic material or offered pirated
movies or online games, the government announced
http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/news/gizmos/story.html?id=528520cf-943f-4762-a46e-fd8c7ca0099d

Yang defends support for 'firewall of China'
Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang has defended the Internet
search engine's co-operation with Chinese censorship
of the Web, saying it is necessary to reach out to new
users.
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=115&art_id=qw1143581582510B215

Iran Hard-Line Regime Cracks Down on Blogs
On his last visit to Iran, Canadian-based blogger
Hossein Derakhshan was detained and interrogated, then
forced to sign a letter of apology for his blog
writings before being allowed to leave the country.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAN_CRACKING_DOWN_ON_BLOGS
http://news.findlaw.com/ap/p/56/03-28-2006/3eff004770db97c3.html

us: The Growing Problem of Pornography
Internet pornography is not just viewed by strange men
in the corner; it is a growing industry spreading in
the world and in the LDS community. It is being viewed
by those least expected - average, every-day good
people.
http://nn.byu.edu/story.cfm/59070

us: Cyber Dangers: Prowling for prey online - First in
a six-part series
The naked old man in your 13-year-old daughter's
bedroom wasn't exactly uninvited. Neither was the
bully in the school gym, nor the harassing
text-messenger at the coffee shop.
http://www.delcotimes.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1675&dept_id=18171&newsid=16381817&PAG=461&rfi=9

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CYBERCRIME, CYBERSECURITY AND PRIVACY
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au: Women warned: cyber groping on the rise
TECHNOLOGY has made women more vulnerable to sexual
harassment in the workplace, with raunchy emails and
text messages now common in Australian offices, an
academic says.
http://smh.com.au/articles/2006/03/28/1143441148690.html

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GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC POLICY
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us: FEC Rules Exempt Blogs From Internet Political
Limits
In a unanimous vote yesterday, the Federal Election
Commission left unregulated almost all political
activity on the Internet except for paid political
advertisements. Campaigns buying such ads will have to
use money raised under the limits of current federal
campaign law.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/27/AR2006032701474.html
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FEC_INTERNET

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SPAM
*****
International spam-busting agreement needed (news
release)
An international anti-spam agreement could strengthen
spam-busting laws in individual countries, says
Communications Minister David Cunliffe. 
http://www.beehive.govt.nz/ViewDocument.aspx?DocumentID=25281

Australian ISPs to step up spam fight
A new code requiring Internet and e-mail service
providers to undertake a range of spam-fighting
measures will come into force in July.
http://zdnet.com.au/news/security/soa/Australian_ISPs_to_step_up_spam_fight/0,2000061744,39248409,00.htm
http://finance.news.com.au/story/0,10166,18632635-31037,00.html
http://smh.com.au/news//australian-internet-authorities-beef-up-fight-against-spam-with-newcode-of-practice/2006/03/28/1143441139831.html
http://www.acma.gov.au/ACMAINTER.65654:STANDARD::pc=PC_100488
(news release)

MIT antispam confab looks beyond filters to source
Leaders in the fight against spam, phishing and e-mail
fraud gathered at MIT's 2006 Spam Conference this week
to compare notes.
http://news.com.com/MIT+antispam+confab+looks+beyond+filters+to+source/2100-7348_3-6055171.html

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INTERNET & NEW TECHNOLOGY USE
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nz: 1.24m internet subscibers in NZ
New Zealand had about 1.24 million internet
subscribers by September last year, according to a
Statistics New Zealand survey.
http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3620207a28,00.html
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10375029

uk: Internet abuse follows viruses in work security
stakes, says survey
The misuse of the internet by staff accessing
inappropriate websites or spending too long online is
second only to viruses as a cause of reported security
incidents, according to a biannual survey by the
Department of Trade and Industry and PwC.
http://www.out-law.com/page-6783

Google's market gap widens
Google is increasing its lead over Yahoo and Microsoft
in the US Web search market while a rebranded Ask.com
is inching up, according to the latest statistics from
ComScore Networks.
http://zdnet.com.au/news/software/soa/Google_s_market_gap_widens/0,2000061733,39248647,00.htm

US takes lead in global IT ranking, says WEF
The United States has taken over from Singapore as the
top country for the development of information and
communications technology, according to a ranking by
the World Economic Forum.
http://asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=41586
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/a75c5b56-be37-11da-b10f-0000779e2340.html

Britannica hits back in Wikipedia row
The Encyclopaedia Britannica has released an
extraordinary 20-page rebuttal of a report that said
it had been matched in accuracy by Wikipedia
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9075-2100017,00.html

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DIGITAL DIVIDE
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Africa: Continental Body Calls for a Paradigm Shift to
Stimulate Internet Growth
On Thursday 23rd of March 2006 at the keynote session
of the Digital Africa Summit in Arebella Sheraton
Grand Hotel, Cape Town, the African Internet Service
Providers Association (AfrISPA @ www.afrispa.org)
launched it's first position paper in a series,
focused on strategies for increased Internet growth.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200603280669.html

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FILE SHARING
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Denmark joins France in Apple-kicking
Denmark could be the latest country to join France in
forcing Apple to open up its iTunes system to rivals -
but only if market forces don't sort out the problem
first.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/27/danes_eye_apple/

BitTorrent search site hits back
The Torrentspy search engine is seeking to dismiss a
US film industry lawsuit accusing it of breaching
copyright. 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4853674.stm
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COMMENT, MICROSOFT & DEVELOPMENTS
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Cerf wary of biased broadband business models
Vint Cerf says New Zealand needs to look to "open
access" to the internet rather than a business model
that allows domination by any one party.
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/UNID/6362A837E8D92997CC25713E000FD3E5


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(c) David Goldstein 2006

David Goldstein
 address: 4/3 Abbott Street
             COOGEE NSW 2034
             AUSTRALIA
 email: Goldstein_David @yahoo.com.au
 phone: +61 418 228 605 - mobile; +61 2 9665 5773 - home


	

	
		
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