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general internet news - 24 July
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Amnesty International launches global campaign against
internet repression (news release)
http://news.amnesty.org/index/ENGACT300162006
in: After 2 days, India calls blog block an "error"
http://iht.com/articles/2006/07/20/asia/web.0720blogs.php
sg: Government drops charges against blogger who
posted Jesus cartoons
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=18106
us: Trial Looms in Web Porn Law Fight
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1153213527606
nz: Telecom chief's big disconnect
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/07/21/1153166582931.html
eu: Launch of a study on ICT standardisation
http://www.ictstandardisation.eu/
eu: Content online: Europe?s strategy to foster
content creation and distribution in the multiplatform
media business
http://ec.europa.eu/comm/commission_barroso/reding/docs/speeches/helsinki_content_online_20060714.pdf
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CENSORSHIP, FILTERING & CONTENT REGULATION
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Amnesty International launches global campaign against
internet repression (news release)
Following the success of the launch of its internet
freedom campaign in the UK, Amnesty International is
today going global with irrepressible.info.
http://news.amnesty.org/index/ENGACT300162006
cn/us: Internet freedom: Pressure growing
A new online campaign from Amnesty International and a
far-reaching bill in Congress are increasing the
pressure on American companies to stop assisting
China's massive efforts to censor Internet use.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/15099237.htm
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/20/amnesty_china_campaign/
http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6096249.html
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/0,39020645,39279229,00.htm
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/15083226.htm
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CHINA_INTERNET
http://go.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=12902253
in: After 2 days, India calls blog block an "error"
After two days of angry inquiries and charges of
government censorship, the Indian government took a
step towards explaining a mysterious block to personal
blogs, calling it "a technological error" that would
be repaired soon.
http://iht.com/articles/2006/07/20/asia/web.0720blogs.php
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/22/world/asia/22blogs.html
http://www.rediff.com/money/2006/jul/21isp.htm
uk: Paedophiles to lose credit cards
Paedophiles who use credit cards to purchase child
abuse images online may have them confiscated.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Money/creditanddebt/creditcards/story/0,,1824690,00.html
IWF reveals latest figures on child abuse content
online (news release)
New half year figures, released today, from the
Internet Watch Foundation reveal that just 0.2 per
cent of child abuse images on the internet are hosted
in the UK, down from 18 per cent in 1997. However, new
IWF intelligence reveals that some websites containing
child abuse content hosted abroad remain accessible
for up to five years despite being reported to the
relevant authorities.
http://iwf.org.uk/media/news.173.htm
uk: Record figures for online child porn
A UK-based Internet monitoring group said it had
received a record number of reports of online child
pornography in the first six months of 2006, with half
of all content traced back to the United States.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/07/21/1153166563601.html
uk: Evil websites continue to peddle filth
SHOCKING images of child abuse are being allowed to
remain on websites for up to five years in the full
knowledge of the relevant authorities. That is one of
the findings in a report by Internet Watch Foundation.
http://cambridge-news.co.uk/news/newmarket/2006/07/20/6e8cb148-610a-47a9-93a8-f5705b6d85a8.lpf
Internet Porn Isn't Hurting Anybody... Is It?
A good story has the power to make us understand
things in a way that even the most graphic facts
cannot. With The Venus Fix, the third book in her
compelling Butterfield Institute series, M.J. Rose has
done something remarkable. She's written a thriller
which gives us not only a momentary scare--an intake
of breath--but a lasting one.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/t-myers/internet-porn-isnt-hurti_b_25474.html
On Wall Street: Dominic Rushe: Outsourced porn gives
more bang for its buck
THE porn industry can be counted on to lead from the
cutting edge of business. It has been instrumental in
making a fortune for its purveyors in the print media
and where would the internet be without it? Secure
online payments, streaming video, pay-per-view,
amateur content sent in by viewers ? porn has blazed a
trail others have slavishly followed.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2095-2281135,00.html
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
us: POLL: FLORIDA PARENTS FEEL THE WORLD IS GETTING
RISKIER FOR THEIR CHILDREN (news release)
A new poll finds Florida parents perceive their
children to be at greater risk than ever before ? a
problem a new educational initiative hopes to remedy
by arming parents and guardians with potent new tools
to help keep children safer as they go out in the
community, rove the World Wide Web, or participate in
after school programs and summer camps.
http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/NewsEventServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=2489
ro: Government closes down foreign ministry spoof
website
Reporters Without Borders voiced surprise today that a
foreign ministry spoof website launched by two
journalists of the daily newspaper Ziua (The Day) was
closed down at the government?s request on 15 June by
the privately-owned host company CHML, which also gave
the authorities information about the journalists in
violation of personal confidentiality laws.
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=18337
sg: Government drops charges against blogger who
posted Jesus cartoons
Reporters Without Borders today hailed a decision by
the Singaporean authorities to drop all charges
against a 21-year-old blogger who had been accused of
violating the Sedition Act by posting cartoons of
Jesus on his blog. The authorities said they let him
off with a warning.
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=18106
uz: Editor closes website in response to harassment
Reporters Without Borders said it suspected the Uzbek
authorities of being behind threats that forced a
website editor to close his online publication and
that he and his family had suffered years of
harassment.
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=18310
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CYBERCRIME, CYBERSECURITY AND PRIVACY
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us: Trial Looms in Web Porn Law Fight
A court battle over Congress' attempts to protect
children from pornography on the Internet will soon be
ripe for trial. After nearly eight years of litigation
challenging the constitutionality of the Child Online
Protection Act -- including two trips to the U.S.
Supreme Court -- the plaintiffs have won a handful of
significant rulings on key discovery disputes.
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1153213527606
us: Congress investigates child porn purchasers
A US Congressional sub-committee investigating the
growth of online child pornography has referred the
names of hundreds of people who purchased illegal
images to state prosecutors around the US.
http://www.legalbrief.co.za/article.php?story=20060719085316758
MySpace faces security problems
More than one million MySpace users could have been
caught out by a banner advert that installs spyware
via a Windows bug.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5202452.stm
us: Justice Gambles on Net Crackdown
News that the Feds are after Internet gambling execs
sent industry stocks tumbling?and a strong message
about the U.S.'s intent
http://businessweek.com/technology/content/jul2006/tc20060718_273024.htm
us: Phishing Filter Prevents E-Mail Identity Theft
Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University, working with
federal grant monies, have discovered that phishing
e-mails are decidedly different from most other spam
-- so much so that the fraudulent messages can almost
entirely be detected and filtered out.
http://www.internetnews.com/commentary/article.php/3621836
ch: Authorities clamp down on child porn sites
Police and crime prevention experts have asked
internet service providers (ISPs) in Switzerland to
block access to child pornography websites abroad.
http://www.nzz.ch/2006/07/22/eng/article6914982.html
U.K. Webmaster accused of aiding terrorists
British police have arrested a U.K. citizen on charges
that he operated Islamic fundamentalist Web sites that
preached "violent jihad."
http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6096818.html
uk/fr: Blogger gets the chop
A 33-year-old British secretary has launched a test
case before a French employment tribunal after being
sacked for writing a blog about her day-to-day life in
Paris.
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,19840229%5e16123%5e%5enbv%5e,00.html
us: Top-Secret World Loses Blogger
Christine Axsmith, a software contractor for the CIA,
considered her blog a success within the select circle
of people who could actually access it.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/20/AR2006072001816.html
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INTERNET & NEW TECHNOLOGY USE
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nz: Marketers drool over MySpace generation
Teenagers' love of social networking websites,
blogging and use of media channels is growing, but so
is their false sense of control over the technology.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10392243
Survey of the Blogosphere Finds 12 Million Voices
A mostly young, racially diverse group of people,
bloggers use the Web as an echoless chamber for their
personal stories.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/20/arts/20blog.html
Friendster's Patent Possibilities
Social-networking upstarts have stolen its lead, but
the site now may have a potent legal weapon at its
command
http://businessweek.com/technology/content/jul2006/tc20060713_163728.htm
The MySpace Ecosystem
There's no question that the social networking site
MySpace has grown into a monster. It had 17 million
unique monthly visitors when News Corp. acquired it
last year. Now the site, where people communicate via
home pages laden with messages, photos, blogs, music,
and more, has 54 million unique monthly users,
according to researcher comScore Media Metrix.
http://businessweek.com/technology/content/jul2006/tc20060721_833338.htm
MySpace: The Young And The Vicious
You've heard that MySpace is dangerous for your kids,
but what about for your business? Behold the summer of
talking smack. Lots of interns and other summer
employees have been logging on and dishing out on
blogs and social networking sites about incompetent
co-workers, negligent managers, and annoying customers
like, uh, you. Others use the sites to gossip or
defend the companies against negative comments. A
number of companies have banned interns from blogging.
But so far social networking sites have escaped most
employee conduct codes. With more than 25,000 groups
on MySpace's companies and co-workers section alone --
including Publix Pimps, T.J. Maxx needs to die, and
The Abercrombie is Evil Awareness Foundation -- no
company is immune. Here's a taste of what's out there
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_31/b3995060.htm
uk: Britain is home to nearly 7 million bloggers
One in four British internet users keeps a blog and
more than half of that number share their online
musings with the public, according to a report
released
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1824769,00.html
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COMMENT, MICROSOFT & DEVELOPMENTS
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VI Computer Law World Conference
The 2006 Conference will be hosted by the AHRC
Research Centre for studies in Intellectual Property
and Technology Law, located in the School of Law at
the University of Edinburgh. The conference brings
together legal academics and practitioners from around
the world to consider and debate all aspects of
information technology law. Previous years?
conferences have fostered links between educational
institutions and legal practices across the globe,
reaching out to a wider international audience each
year.
http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/ahrb/complaw/index.asp
Memory chip threat to hard discs
BBC Click explains why a new magnetic microchip could
mean the end of the road for hard discs and flash
memory.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/5202486.stm
Google Search for way to tackle Google
Yahoo!'s shares suffer biggest one-day fall on fears
that delays to new online search ad system will allow
Google to increase dominance.
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1825740,00.html
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TELECOMMUNICATIONS
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uk: Convergence requires the complete vision
When British Sky Broadcasting, the satellite
pay-television group, bought Easynet, the broadband
provider in October last year, Nick Bertolotti, media
analyst at Credit Suisse, went straight to his
colleague David George, the telecommunications
analyst.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/8baf5596-9e6d-11da-b641-0000779e2340.html
nz: Telecom chief's big disconnect
Telecom NZ's Theresa Gattung is in trouble after
angering her PM. Matt O'Sullivan talks to a woman on
the outer. AT HER office just 10 minutes' walk from
Parliament in central Wellington where her likely
nemesis keeps court in The Beehive, Theresa Gattung
exudes a frankness that sets her apart from most
execs.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/07/21/1153166582931.html
ITU IPTV Group Completes Essential Output
ITU-T?s work on IPTV took a significant step forward
following a meeting held at ITU Headquarters in in
Geneva, Switzerland, 10-14 July 2006. IPTV is being
explored by media companies and service providers
around the world as a way to add value to their
existing offerings, and globally accepted standards
are seen as essential in order that ? for example ? a
broadcaster in one part of the world can easily
distribute content in another. The meeting of the IPTV
Focus Group (FG IPTV) attracted over 150 delegates
from the world?s key ICT companies, over 100 input
documents were considered, and the first drafts of
various output documents agreed. All documents can be
viewed on the group?s webpage.
http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/newslog/ITU+IPTV+Group+Completes+Essential+Output.aspx
Cost of International Internet Connectivity (IIC) Too
High
The high cost for developing countries in accessing
the Internet backbone was a hot-topic at a recent,
Geneva held meeting of ITU-T?s Study Group 3 focusing
on tariff and accounting principles including related
telecommunication economic and policy issues.
http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/newslog/Cost+Of+International+Internet+Connectivity+IIC+Too+High.aspx
eu: Launch of a study on ICT standardisation
The European Commission has launched a study to
prepare recommendations that will ensure the EU's
standardisation policy for the information and
communication technology sector meets the challenges
of today's fast moving markets. The analysis is being
conducted against the background of major changes in
the ICT sector. The combination of liberalisation and
globalisation has brought competition within and
between sectors, strategic partnerships between
companies and a decreasing role for governments. The
most striking development is the shift from hardware
to software and the impact this has on traditional
standardisation policy. The results of the study, and
its proposals, will be presented at an open workshop
in spring 2007.
http://www.ictstandardisation.eu/
eu: Content online: Europe?s strategy to foster
content creation and distribution in the multiplatform
media business
In launching the Communication on Content Online, the
European Commission is pursuing a major objective set
out in the i2010 Strategy: completing the internal
market for ICT networks and devices and value-added
content. All my proposals over the last few months ?
the modernisation of the Television without Frontiers
Directive, the review of the regulatory framework for
electronic communications, spectrum policy, roaming,
networks and information security - and the
forthcoming initiatives such as the 2007 Communication
on mobile TV are all internal market oriented. To a
large extent, I believe that the completion of the
internal market now largely depends on sector specific
initiatives such as the ones I have delivered so far.
http://ec.europa.eu/comm/commission_barroso/reding/docs/speeches/helsinki_content_online_20060714.pdf
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VoIP
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VoIP new target for financial fraudsters
Online scammers have found a new way of tricking
computer users into handing over their secure banking
details, this time by using internet telephone
networks.
http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3738214a28,00.html
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ARRESTS/COURT CASES FOR CHILD PORN
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au: Jailed over teen text harassment
A Melbourne man has become the first person sentenced
under new sexual predator laws, after he showered a
15-year-old girl with emails and text messages to try
to lure her to have sex with him.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/07/21/1153166564557.html
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/07/21/1153166591343.html
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2006/s1693718.htm
(print & audio)
us: Predator lured victims via vampire Web site, say
police
A man who prosecutors say lured underage girls he met
on a vampire-related Internet site to suburban
cemeteries was ordered held on $350,000 bail after
pleading not guilty to rape and sodomy charges.
http://news.findlaw.com/ap/o/51/07-21-2006/bdb80006c3880ff6.html
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(c) David Goldstein 2006
David Goldstein
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AUSTRALIA
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