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general internet news - 20 July
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us: 14 human rights organisations express support for
a US draft law on free expression online (GOFA)
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=18304
Hong Kong asks kids to police Internet
http://www.ioltechnology.co.za/article_page.php?from=rss_IOLTechHome&iSectionId=2883&iArticleId=3345987
in: Bloggers' fury as India blocks sites
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/online/weblogs/story/0,,1824162,00.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/18/AR2006071801369.html
uk: Paedophiles face cancelled cards
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5194150.stm
nz: Police to patrol internet
http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3734447a28,00.html
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/UNID/D4AE3C128EF8ACFDCC2571AB0002B443
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10391656
uk/us: UK gambling boss arrested in Dallas
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/18/betonsports_arrested/
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,19509-2276369,00.html
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1823791,00.html
jm: Government of Jamaica to draft child porn law
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20060719/lead/lead6.html
nz: Site to introduce more safety features
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/488120/787717
nl: Dutch court lets paedophile party contest
country's general election
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1822972,00.html
il: Proposed laws take aim at porn in Israel
http://www.upi.com/Hi-Tech/view.php?StoryID=20060712-033907-8876r
uk: Parents ignorant of children's net use
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1822478,00.html
Active Home Web Use by Country, June 2006
http://www.clickz.com/stats/sectors/geographics/article.php/3620921
China Says Number of Web Users Hits 123M
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/07/19/1153166450826.html
http://newsinfo.inq7.net/breakingnews/infotech/view_article.php?article_id=10669
nz: Commissioner to miss unbundling challenges
http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3733793a13,00.html
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CENSORSHIP, FILTERING & CONTENT REGULATION
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us: 14 human rights organisations express support for
a US draft law on free expression online (GOFA)
Fourteen human rights organisations, including
Reporters Without Borders, signed a statement on 18
July in support of the Global Online Freedom Act
(GOFA) which is currently under debate in the US House
of Representatives. The signatories said the law would
prevent Internet sector companies helping governments
of authoritarian countries, particularly the Chinese,
from cracking down on freedom of expression.
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=18304
Age verification at social-network sites could prove
difficult
At MySpace.com and many other popular online hangouts,
a 30-something woman can celebrate her Sweet 16 over
and over with just a click of the mouse.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/internetprivacy/2006-07-17-age-check-proves-difficult_x.htm
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/business/technology/15058432.htm
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AGE_VERIFICATION_ONLINE
Making Porn Filtering Effective
FILTERING porn material on the Internet has never been
an easy task. With the rising number of porn sites and
new techniques used to render porn- filtering software
ineffective, efforts to contain such sites have most
times proven futile.
http://redorbit.com/news/technology/574864/making_porn_filtering_effective/index.html
Hong Kong asks kids to police Internet
The government of Hong Kong has unveiled its latest
weapon in the fight against illegal online file
sharers - the humble Boy Scout and his counterpart the
Girl Guide.
http://www.ioltechnology.co.za/article_page.php?from=rss_IOLTechHome&iSectionId=2883&iArticleId=3345987
in: Bloggers' fury as India blocks sites
Indian censors have blocked access to a number of
popular blogging sites on grounds of national
security, causing outrage to thousands of bloggers.
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/online/weblogs/story/0,,1824162,00.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/18/AR2006071801369.html
http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/jul/17blog.htm
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115324795254910050.html
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CYBERCRIME, CYBERSECURITY AND PRIVACY
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uk: Paedophiles face cancelled cards
Credit and debit card firms will find it easier to
cancel the cards of online paedophiles under a planned
new law.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5194150.stm
nz: Police to patrol internet
Police are planning to patrol internet sites to target
organised crime, violence and sexual crimes. The move
is part of a new police strategy that pressure groups
say is long overdue.
http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3734447a28,00.html
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/UNID/D4AE3C128EF8ACFDCC2571AB0002B443
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10391656
au: CSIRO loses a round in WiFi case
THE CSIRO has suffered a setback in its battle against
Intel, Microsoft and other hi-tech heavyweights over a
wireless local area network patent, with a US court
ruling against it in an early skirmish.
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,19822440%5e16123%5e%5enbv%5e,00.html
VPN service provides secure, anonymous web surfing
Internet users at home and on the go can surf and
exchange data securely and anonymously using a VPN
(virtual private network) service by Germany-based
security software developer Steganos called Internet
Anonym VPN.
http://dmeurope.com/default.asp?ArticleID=16166
us: To Insiders, Cyber Thefts Are No Surprise
Experts say frequency of recent security incidents at
government agencies is not unusual, and more work
needs to be done to implement effective cybersecurity
policies.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/17/AR2006071701170.html
uk/us: UK gambling boss arrested in Dallas
Shares in online gaming firm Betonsports have been
suspended this morning to allow markets to digest news
that David Carruthers, the outspoken chief executive
of Betonsports, has been arrested in Dallas.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/18/betonsports_arrested/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/19/betonsports_stops_taking_bets/
uk/us: Bet firms fear widening of US investigators'
net
BRITISH-based internet gambling companies were
urgently consulting their lawyers yesterday about the
risk of being targeted by US prosecutors in the wake
of the arrest in America of the chief executive of
BetOnSports.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,19509-2276369,00.html
US lawyers deal online body blow
BetonSports, the London-listed online gambling group,
has been accused of being at the hub of a
multibillion-dollar illegal gambling operation.
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1823791,00.html
jm: Government of Jamaica to draft child porn law
JUSTICE MINISTER and Attorney-General, Senator A.J.
Nicholson, has given instruction for the drafting of
child pornography legislation. According to Canute
Brown, director of justice reform in the Ministry of
Justice, he has been mandated to oversee the drafting
of the law.
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20060719/lead/lead6.html
Phish-Hooked - Thieves Find Easy Pickings on Social
Sites
Rob Newland is a pro at dodging spam e-mails and
suspicious pop-up windows as he surfs the Web. But he
lets his guard down when he is checking friends'
profiles and clicking through blog posts on the social
networking Web site MySpace.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/15/AR2006071500119.html
us: Phish-Hooked: Thieves Find Easy Pickings on Social
Sites
Internet thieves are banking that the millions of
users who log on to social networking sites, such as
MySpace, Facebook and Friendster, are just as
trusting, leaving them vulnerable to financial fraud
and identity theft.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/15/AR2006071500119.html
Site to introduce more safety features
A website that's drawn criticism for allowing school
age users to post personal information that could put
them at risk, says it is working to make the site
safer.
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/488120/787717
us: Judge: Google News lawsuit can proceed
A federal judge has postponed a key ruling in a
lawsuit against Google brought by Agence France-Presse
that alleges Google's popular news search feature
violates copyright laws.
http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-6095656.html
'Internet is helping crime syndicates expand'
Sophisticated crime syndicates could be behind the
recent wave of Internet crimes. As cyber crime becomes
a lucrative business, organised crime bosses are
looking increasingly at the Internet to expand their
criminal empires.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_News&set_id=1&click_id=&art_id=vn20060719013512551C237985
us: YouTube sued over copyright infringement
A journalist and well-known helicopter pilot in Los
Angeles has filed suit against video-sharing site
YouTube, claiming that it encouraged users to violate
copyright law.
http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-6095736.html
http://www.out-law.com/page-7114
China Blacklists Wireless Firms
China's telecoms regulator has released a list of 102
companies engaged in illegal behaviour in the
country's wireless value-added services industry in
its latest effort to clean up the unruly sector.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1990583,00.asp
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GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC POLICY
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nl: Dutch court lets paedophile party contest
country's general election
The Netherlands cemented its reputation as Europe's
most socially liberal country today when a new
political party formed by paedophiles was told it
could contest this year's general election with
policies include legalising sex at 12 and child porn.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1822972,00.html
il: Proposed laws take aim at porn in Israel
Lawmakers from Israel's ultra-Orthodox Shas party have
proposed two laws restricting access to Internet
pornography, it was reported.
http://www.upi.com/Hi-Tech/view.php?StoryID=20060712-033907-8876r
us: Protecting a Senator? Or Just Enforcing Copyright
Law?
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), chairman of the Senate
Commerce Committee, delivered a long, rambling
expostulation on net neutrality on June 22. The speech
offered, it's safe to say, highly novel explanations
of how the Internet works. Something about a series of
tubes and dump trucks. It was widely lampooned,
chiefly on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/15/AR2006071500093.html
http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6094698.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1823061,00.html
uk: Ofcom abolishes retail price control on BT line
rental and calls
Ofcom has abolished retail price controls on BT line
rental and calls, a measure taken 22 years after the
price controls were first imposed.
http://dmeurope.com/default.asp?ArticleID=16835
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INTERNET & NEW TECHNOLOGY USE
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uk: Parents ignorant of children's net use
Parents need to brush up on their technology knowledge
if they are to keep their IT-savvy children safe,
according to a new report.
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1822478,00.html
Active Home Web Use by Country, June 2006
After growth in May, the number of active home
Internet users fell a quarter of a percent in a
combined 10 countries.
http://www.clickz.com/stats/sectors/geographics/article.php/3620921
China Says Number of Web Users Hits 123M
China's population of Internet users, already the
world's second-biggest after the U.S., has jumped by
nearly 20 percent over the past year to 123 million,
with broadband access soaring, the government said.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/07/19/1153166450826.html
http://newsinfo.inq7.net/breakingnews/infotech/view_article.php?article_id=10669
us: Google's U.S. search market share still climbing,
study says
Google Inc. gained in search market share in June for
the 11th consecutive month and maintained its status
as market leader, according to a study by comScore
Networks Inc. Google's sites were used for 44.7% of
all online searches in the U.S. Yahoo Inc. remained in
second place with a market share of 28.5%, and
Microsoft Corp.'s MSN Search ranked third, with a
12.8% share, according to comScore.
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9001851
'E-mail has become the new snail mail' as younger set
goes with text messaging
E-mail is so last millennium. Young people see it as a
good way to reach an elder ? a parent, teacher or a
boss ? or to receive an attached file. But
increasingly, the former darling of high-tech
communication is losing favor to instant and text
messaging, and to the chatter generated on blogs and
social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-07-18-snail-e-mail_x.htm
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/07/19/1153166432480.html
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SNAIL_E_MAIL
Chinese black helicopters circle Google Earth
Those among you who like your skies darkened by black
helicopters are invited to mosey on down to the remote
Chinese village of Huangyangtan which hosts what must
be the strangest military installation ever spotted by
the Google Earth Community:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/19/huangyangtan_mystery/
UK 'Europe's top online shopper'
The UK has become Europe's biggest online shopping
market, overtaking Germany, research firm Mintel has
said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5193560.stm
YouTube hits 100m videos per day
Internet video site YouTube has said its users are now
watching more than 100 million videos per day.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5186618.stm
Whirlpool tests 'smart' washers and dryers
Appliance giant Whirlpool is looking to speed up the
day when most consumers will be able to monitor and
control appliances from their computers and cell
phones.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10391984
4.2bln page views reported on FIFAworldcup.com
FIFAworldcup.com, the official web site of the 2006
World Cup football event in Germany, received 4.2bln
page views, reported Yahoo, an online service provider
and the host of the FIFA website.
http://dmeurope.com/default.asp?ArticleID=16732
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FILE SHARING
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eu: Broadcasting from your iPod to be legalised
FM transmitters commonly used to send audio from iPods
and other MP3 players to car stereos and home
entertainment systems could be legal by autumn. Though
widely used, the low power transmitters are actually
illegal across Europe.
http://www.out-law.com/page-7112
nl: File-swappers' identities protected by Dutch court
A Dutch appeals court has thwarted attempts by the
Dutch anti-piracy organisation BREIN to get the
identities of file-sharers from five ISPs, including
Wanadoo and Tiscali.
http://www.theregister.com/2006/07/14/fileswappers_protected/
Nordic file sharers form pressure group
Following the raid against the popular Swedish file
sharing website The Pirate Bay (Piratbyråns), several
Nordic organisations have launched an international
pressure group The Pro Piracy Lobby, which is seeking
"common ground for further discussion and
cooperation".
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/19/nordics_form_pressuregroup/
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COMMENT, MICROSOFT & DEVELOPMENTS
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Away from public gaze, world?s porn webmasters meet in
Malta
Just like the filming of The Da Vinci Code, the event
went by totally unnoticed, but for Catholic Malta it
is bound to make some people wince in disgust: the
world?s major porn website administrators were
convened here for their annual conference about their
hardcore business at the end of last month, grouping
all kinds of virtual sex sellers operating on the
internet.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/2006/07/16/t14.html
BSkyB joins 'free' broadband race
BSkyB commits £400m to signing up 3 million broadband
subscribers by 2010.
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1823847,00.html
BSkyB stock falls after Internet bet
British Sky Broadcasting is placing a big bet on
high-speed Internet access, announcing plans to invest
£400 million in a plan to include broadband with its
satellite television offering.
http://iht.com/articles/2006/07/18/business/bskyb.php
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TELECOMMUNICATIONS
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nz: Commissioner to miss unbundling challenges
Departing telecommunications commissioner Douglas
Webb, sidelined by the government's Telecom regulation
bombshell, admits to one regret. When Telecom's local
loop is finally unbundled there will be a big scrap
over the prices it can charge for access.
http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3733793a13,00.html
au: Broadband: the next generation
With Australia's broadband future hanging in the
balance, an industry gathering seeks some solid
solutions.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/wireless--broadband/broadband-the-next-generation/2006/07/19/1153166425164.html
pl: 370,000 Polish homes get IP TV service with triple
play package
Polish operator Multimedia Polska has employed
Minerva's iTV Manager to power its recent IP TV
service in Kutno, Mielec, Brzesko and Debica.
http://dmeurope.com/default.asp?ArticleID=16775
*****
VoIP
*****
Microsoft in new web phone drive
Microsoft and Nortel link up in a deal aimed at
getting firms to use internet technology for their
phone calls.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/default.stm
VoIP goes wireless
Innovative Jajah uses PCs for internet phone calls -
but only to set up the calls. They then connect two
landline or mobile phones together to chat over the IP
network. Now, the company has revealed it's going one
step further, and will use a Java applet on the phone
itself to set up the call.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/17/voip_goes_wireless/
uk: Criminals exploit net phone calls
Hi-tech criminals are turning to net telephony systems
to make scams look more legitimate
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5187518.stm
VoIP: Quality is still a big concern
As Internet phone service heads toward the mainstream,
the industry still has quality issues it needs to
address, say experts.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1035_22-6094939.html
http://news.com.com/VoIP+Quality+is+still+a+big+concern/2100-7352_3-6094939.html
The full promise of VOIP edges nearer
VOIP is slowly but surely making strides at
organisations far and wide. According to Infonetics
Research, 36 per cent of large organisations were
already using VOIP products and services in 2005.
http://www.computerworld.com.sg/ShowPage.aspx?pagetype=2&articleid=3939&pubid=3&tab=Home&issueid=93
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ARRESTS/COURT CASES FOR CHILD PORN
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us: Va. man gets 150 years in child porn case
A Virginia man who helped run a child pornography
business that has been the focus of federal and state
investigations as well as Congressional hearings was
sentenced on Friday to 150 years in prison.
http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-6094679.html
http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/07/17/porn.sentence.ap/index.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/16/technology/16kids.html
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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
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