general internet news - 1 October

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

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Sponsored by the Singapore Internet Research Centre
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
http://www.ntu.edu.sg/sci/sirc/

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Don't forget to check out my website - http://technewsreview.com.au/ - for daily updates in between postings.


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The Internet News is brought to you with the support of auDA

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Burma: Hundreds may be dead, as junta tries to keep brutality unseen
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article3010196.ece

Bloggers who risked all to reveal the junta?s brutal crackdown in Burma
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2563937.ece

'Internet cut' as Burma troops move into monasteries [AP]
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article3008095.ece

Expert: World misunderstands China's Web controls [Reuters]
http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKPEK9306120070927

Why China shut down 18,401 websites: A fresh censorship wave is linked to next month's Party Congress.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0925/p01s06-woap.html

au: Internet latest battle ground for smoking ads
http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/28/2046752.htm

NZ animated dolphin teaches preschoolers cyber-safety
http://m-net.net.nz/1954/latest-news/latest-news/nz-animated-dolphin-teaches-preschoolers-cyber-sa.php

nz: Website used by teens to get drugs
http://stuff.co.nz/4218173a11.html

US Senate Searches Google
http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/09/27/google-doubleclick-antitrust-tech-internet-cx_ag_0927techgoogle.html

Cybercriminals shrinking botnets to foil detection
http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/security/0,39044215,62032788,00.htm

Google looking at privacy protections for users [Reuters]
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=137&objectid=10466450

NZ police let public write laws
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7015024.stm

Internet killing off art of telling jokes [Reuters]
http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKL2779608320070928

NZ junk war rages on despite spam act
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10467032

Dell Jumps on Green Horse to Lead Carbon-Neutral Charge
http://ecommercetimes.com/story/Ak16YRslzuf7Yk/Dell-Jumps-on-Green-Horse-to-Lead-Carbon-Neutral-Charge.xhtml

Green IT strategies stifled by inertia
http://hardware.silicon.com/servers/0,39024647,39168579,00.htm


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RESEARCH PAPERS
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Catching up in broadband: What will it take?
Can governments elevate their broadband performance rankings? This paper aims to identify the factors that are significant in driving broadband penetration.
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/34/34/39360525.pdf

Silencing The Blogosphere: A First Amendment Caution To Legislators Considering Using Blogs To Communicate Directly With Constituents by Wes Sullenger [Richmond Journal of Law & Technology]
This article considers the First Amendment implications of employing this technological growth in the political arena. Analyzing the initial experiments with direct democracy in colonial America provides a framework to explain the effect the Internet could have on the democratic system. Direct democracy started with the town meeting style of government in New England. A brief examination of the Founders? reaction to that system, however, shows they created a representative democracy as a buffer to direct citizen control. This article will then consider the modern calls for direct democracy, including a discussion of the nature of direct democracy and modern experiments in direct democracy. This article also analyzes the societal changes forged by the Internet, as well as the belief by some that these changes justify a contemporary transformation to a direct democracy. Lastly, the evolution of the political system, in an effort to adapt to the
 development of the Internet, must be evaluated in order to complete the roadmap for the discussion. This examination includes a discussion of the contemporary formation of blogs and the effect of their invasion into America?s democratic system.
http://law.richmond.edu/jolt/v13i4/article15.pdf

Stumbling Forward into the Connected Future by Jim Miller [Miramontes Computing]
Christmas came a little early in the Miller household this year, and we got some new toys. In particular, a DirecTV HD digital video recorder (DVR), a Panasonic plasma HD television, a TomTom GPS navigator, and an Apple iPhone. This has been techno overload, even for someone like me. In addition, it gives me, as an interaction designer, lots of opportunities to whine about these devices? interfaces?what they got right, and (of course) what they got wrong. But, for now, I?ll focus my recent experiences with them on the larger question about what?s happening as the Internet grows beyond its initial bounds of things we would all recognize as computers and into the broader world of consumer products.
http://www.computer.org/portal/site/dsonline/menuitem.9ed3d9924aeb0dcd82ccc6716bbe36ec/index.jsp?&pName=dso_level1&path=dsonline/2007/10&file=w5int.xml

Virtual Child Pornography - A United States Update by Susan Hanley Kosse [Tolley?s Communication Law Journal]
Abstract: This article summarizes United States' legislation up to 2004 which sought to regulate child pornography.
http://ssrn.com/abstract=1015139

The Internet and Online Political Communities in Singapore by Carol Soon & Randolph Kluver [sub req'd]
Abstract: The emergence and the widespread adoption of the Internet have brought about many dramatic changes on different levels. Due to its inherent characteristics, the Internet has become an engine of political mobilization and participation, and has led to the proliferation of online communities. Few studies examine how political groups use the Internet to build communities and forge alliances in cyberspace, and this study attempts to bridge this gap. Registered political parties and political expression groups in Singapore were selected for this study. Through hyperlink analysis, the study shows that reciprocity and similarity, two main characteristics observed in online communities, were found in the groupings formed by these political groups. Interestingly, most of the online affiliations that exist among these groups reflect those offline.
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a780859942~db=all

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CENSORSHIP
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Burma: Hundreds may be dead, as junta tries to keep brutality unseen
Yesterday [Friday], authorities shut Burma's only internet server and blocked all text and picture messaging on mobiles, in an effort to stem the violent images leaving the country, including pictures of a Japanese photographer shot in front of the Sule Pagoda. Though foreign journalists are banned, the regime ordered soldiers to go door-to-door at some hotels looking for foreigners.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article3010196.ece

Internet access restored briefly in Myanmar [Reuters]
Internet access was restored briefly in military-ruled Myanmar on Saturday, a day after a Web blackout believed to have been imposed to stop reports and pictures of a major crackdown reaching the outside world.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKBKK28455820070929

Bloggers who risked all to reveal the junta?s brutal crackdown in Burma
Internet geeks share a common style, and Ko Latt and his four friends would not be out of place in cyber cafés across the world. They have the skinny arms and the long hair, the dark T-shirts and the jokey nicknames. But few such figures have ever taken the risks that they have in the past few weeks, or achieved so much in a noble and dangerous cause.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2563937.ece

Myanmar appears to cut public Internet access [Reuters]
Myanmar's generals appeared to have cut public Internet access on Friday to prevent more videos, photographs and information getting out about their crackdown on the biggest protests against military rule in nearly 20 years.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKBKK30431520070928
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/BKK304315.htm
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070928.wmyanint0928/BNStory/International/

Myanmar's main Internet link not working: official [AFP]
After two days of unrest in Yangon's streets, Myanmar's main link to the Internet has stopped working, according to a telecom official who blamed the problem on a damaged cable
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/09/28/1190486558170.html

'Internet cut' as Burma troops move into monasteries [AP]
Burmese troops occupied key Buddhist monasteries today to confine monks who have spearheaded anti-government protests.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article3008095.ece

Internet access 'cut off' in attempt to silence Burma
Burma's military regime is suspected of cutting public internet access today to prevent news and images of its violent repression of pro-democracy protests leaking out.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2549404.ece

Myanmar Blackout
... Even before the Myanmar government?s most recent dismantling of the country?s Internet access, a Web connection was hardly easy to come by. Less than one percent of individuals have home access, according to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency?s World Factbook. Burmese who do subscribe to Internet service must reach it through a state-sponsored Intranet, which monitors e-mails, according to a study conducted by the Open Net Initiative. Cyber-cafes in Rangoon and Mandalay can only connect to a heavily edited version of the Web. Free e-mail sites, including Google's Gmail, are inaccessible. And shop owners are required by law to capture frequent screenshots of sites citizens visit and to send those images to companies that review them on behalf of the government.
http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/09/28/internet-burma-speech-tech-cx_ag_0928myanmar.html

Internet Blackout in Myanmar Stalls Reports, Oversight
The loss of Internet access in Myanmar has slowed the tide of photos and videos shared with the rest of the world but people outside of the troubled country continue to use new media sites and other technologies to protest military activity in the Southeast Asia country.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,137863-c,currentevents/article.html

Expert: World misunderstands China's Web controls [Reuters]
The Internet in China is not as restricted as sometimes believed in the West, with most controls actually coming from sites practicing self-censorship, an academic who studies the Chinese Web said on Thursday. But the government has also effectively stopped online dissent, defying expectations that the Communist Party would never survive broadband, said Rebecca MacKinnon, assistant professor of new media at Hong Kong University's Journalism and Media Studies Centre.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKPEK9306120070927
http://www.news.com/2100-1028_3-6210299.html
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10466487
http://networks.silicon.com/webwatch/0,39024667,39168584,00.htm

Why China shut down 18,401 websites: A fresh censorship wave is linked to next month's Party Congress.
The Chinese authorities are in the midst of an unusually harsh crackdown on the Internet, closing tens of thousands of websites that had allowed visitors to post their opinions, according to bloggers and Internet monitors in China.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0925/p01s06-woap.html

us: Verizon Reverses Itself on Abortion Messages
Saying it had the right to block ?controversial or unsavory? text messages, Verizon Wireless last week rejected a request from Naral Pro-Choice America, the abortion rights group, to make Verizon?s mobile network available for a text-message program. ... The dispute over the Naral messages was a skirmish in the larger battle over the question of ?net neutrality? ? whether carriers or Internet service providers should have a voice in the content they provide to customers.
http://nytimes.com/2007/09/27/business/27cnd-verizon.html
http://iht.com/articles/2007/09/28/technology/28verizon.php

Burmese junta tightens media screw
As Burmese soldiers fire bullets and tear gas to disperse anti-government protests in Rangoon, the military rulers have taken the offensive in the battle to control the flow of information in the country. Websites and internet blogs posting information and photographs of the government's action have been blocked. Telephone lines and mobile phone signals to monasteries, opposition politicians and student leaders have been cut.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7016238.stm

au: Internet latest battle ground for smoking ads
Tobacco advertising is banned from radio and television but health experts say that has not stopped cigarettes from being marketed to kids and they warn the internet is being used to promote smoking to teenagers.
http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/28/2046752.htm

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CHILD PROTECTION, FILTERING & CONTENT REGULATION
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uk: IWF intelligence leads to rescue and arrest [news release]
IWF intelligence lead to rescue of three prepubescent children being sexually abused and their abuser being sentenced to 60 years in prison. On February 26, 2006, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) provided intelligence to Cybertipline, its sister Hotline in the US, regarding a website which appeared to be hosted in the US and contained images of children being sexually abused.
http://iwf.org.uk/media/news.208.htm

INHOPE Members? Collaboration Leads to Arrest [news release]
The CyberTipline received a report from the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), the United Kingdom-based hotline for reporting illegal content on the Internet, on February 26, 2006, regarding a Web site reportedly featuring sexually abusive images of children.
http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PageServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=376

au: The Legalities Of Cyber-Bullying Probed By Study
A research team led by Queensland University of Technology wants to help stop today's school cyber bullies from becoming tomorrow's boardroom bullies. The three-year study into cyber bullying is one of 13 QUT projects awarded a total of $3.19 million by the Australian Research Council in its latest funding round of Linkage Project grants.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/83861.php

au: Cowardly acts of the cyberbully
A new breed of bully appears to be emerging, hiding behind the relatively safe confines of technology. The finding comes from an anonymous survey of 518 girls aged 11 to 15 years old by the Queensland University of Technology. It found that 70 per cent of cyber bullies did not indulge in face-to-face bullying.
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,20797,22492519-3102,00.html

NZ animated dolphin teaches preschoolers cyber-safety
In our increasingly wired and interconnected world, children as young as three are learning not only how to surf the net, but how to connect using devices such as mobile phones, digital cameras, games consoles and toys. So how do parents ensure this is safe when many do not understand these devices themselves?
http://m-net.net.nz/1954/latest-news/latest-news/nz-animated-dolphin-teaches-preschoolers-cyber-sa.php

nz: Website used by teens to get drugs
Nelson teenagers are using the social networking Internet site Bebo to find drug dealers and offer sexual favours in exchange for alcohol and drugs, police say.
http://stuff.co.nz/4218173a11.html

ph: Caution: Porn on the Internet
This week the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect had its annual meeting in Manila with the Philippine General Hospital-Child Protection Unit as overall host. There were almost 700 delegates from Asia, Europe and the USA for workshops, papers and video presentations.
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2007/sept/28/yehey/opinion/20070928opi6.html

us: Rockefeller seeking child protection in use of Internet
Angered by what he has labeled as crude and violent content, Sen. Jay Rockefeller has been a strong critic of television programming on grounds it is saturated with too much sex and violence, and the effect on American children is detrimental. Now, he?s turning to another medium for congressional action ? the Internet.
http://www.register-herald.com/local/local_story_271212152.html

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ONLINE CRIME, SECURITY & LEGAL
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us: A Prosecution Tests the Definition of Obscenity
Sometime early next year, Karen Fletcher, a 56-year-old recluse living on disability payments, will go on trial in federal court here on obscenity charges for writings distributed on the Internet to about two dozen subscribers. In an era when pornography has exploded on the Web almost beyond measure, Ms. Fletcher is one of only a handful of people to have been singled out for prosecution on obscenity charges by the Bush administration. She faces six felony counts for operating a Web site called Red Rose, which featured detailed fictional accounts of the molesting, torture and sometimes gruesome murders of children under the age of 10, mostly girls.
http://nytimes.com/2007/09/28/us/28obscene.html

Mouse click could plunge city into darkness, experts say
Researchers who launched an experimental cyber attack caused a generator to self-destruct, alarming the government and electrical industry about what might happen if such an attack were carried out on a larger scale, CNN has learned.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/27/power.at.risk/index.html

German security laws - Times of terror: Trying to cope with future threats but burdened by the past
... What Mr Jung and Mr Schäuble are really trying to do, their critics fear, is to replace Germany's ?legal state? with a ?preventive state?. Mr Schäuble, the supposed ringleader, sees the distinction between foreign and domestic security as false and is given to provocative suggestions (perhaps known terrorists should be targeted for assassination, he mused recently). His security wish-list includes such controversial proposals as letting the security services install spy software on suspects' computers. Although Mr Hartmann supports on-line snooping, he worries that ?step by step Germany could become an only security-oriented state.?
http://economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9867246

German court overturns eBay shopper's conviction [Reuters]
A German court on Friday overturned the conviction of a man who was found guilty of purchasing stolen goods over eBay, in a case which may have hurt the online auctioneer's business in its top market after the United States.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKL289661020070928
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-6210864.html
http://www.news.com/2100-1014_3-6210864.html

us: Microsoft, others protest Google's DoubleClick deal [IDG]
Google Inc.'s proposed merger with online advertising server DoubleClick Inc. would create a giant that would control a huge portion of online advertising and hurt the Internet, opponents of the deal told U.S. lawmakers today.
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9039539

Google-DoubleClick Deal Gets Chilly Reception on Capitol Hill
Google and Microsoft squared off as usual Thursday, but this time instead of the competitive battlefield, they met on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are weighing the question of whether Google's purchase of DoubleClick will create an unfair online advertising monopoly. Representatives of both companies testified before a subcommittee of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary -- which reviews antitrust cases -- examining the deal and its implications for consumers, both in terms of antimonopoly laws and potential risks to consumer privacy.
http://ecommercetimes.com/story/Y66t85I4pEmGI6/Google-DoubleClick-Deal-Gets-Chilly-Reception-on-Capitol-Hill.xhtml

Are privacy, competition at stake? [AP]
The chairman of a Senate antitrust panel yesterday said Google Inc.'s proposed $3.1 billion acquisition of the online advertising firm DoubleClick Inc. "warrants close examination" by federal regulators. At the same time, Microsoft Corp., which sought to acquire DoubleClick but lost out to Google, argued that the deal should be blocked because it is bad for competition and consumer privacy.
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2007/09/28/are_privacy_competition_at_stake/

US Senate Searches Google
On Thursday, U.S. senators asked the question that's rattled the online ad industry for months: Is Google becoming too powerful? Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.) led a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee to explore whether the proposed acquisition by Google of the online display ad broker DoubleClick will stifle competition in the explosively growing Web advertising market and pose a threat to consumer privacy. The hearing, which may influence the Federal Trade Commission's decision on whether to block the deal, gave rise to a sharp debate among representatives of Google, Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) and third-party agencies lining up on either side of the growing schism.
http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/09/27/google-doubleclick-antitrust-tech-internet-cx_ag_0927techgoogle.html

us: Judge rejects restrictive Internet law
U.S. Senior District Judge Walter H. Rice struck down a state law Monday that restricts the dissemination of sexually oriented material over the Internet. The law specifically targeted material that would be illegal for children, but not adults. The lawsuit was filed in 2002 by numerous organizations representing booksellers, book publishers, music and video retailers and newspapers.
http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2007/09/25/ddn092607ruling.html

us: N.J. Judge Hears Challenge to Online Gambling Restrictions [AP]
An association of online gambling groups is challenging a federal law that seeks to choke off electronic payments from gamblers to Internet companies operating in other countries.
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1190797378380

Cybercriminals shrinking botnets to foil detection
Cybercriminals are downsizing their botnets to try and trick software security companies. Criminally-controlled botnets are typically controlled remotely with their creators usually trying to build the largest possible network of compromised computers, which are then rented out to gangs for as little as US$100 for a couple of hours.
http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/security/0,39044215,62032788,00.htm

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PRIVACY
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Anonymity & the Net [reg req'd]
Question this right of Net anonymity and you risk an unmitigated thrashing (anonymously, of course). So maybe we are asking for trouble when we dare to say that Internet anonymity is out of control. Today the Net still protects the abused and the disenfranchised, people who go online for help because they can do so in secret. But it also shields creeps, criminals and pedophiles. It emboldens the mean-spirited and offers them a huge audience for spewing hatred and libel. Caustic cowards are free to one-up one another in invective and vitriol--haters who would tone it down if they had to identify themselves.
http://members.forbes.com/forbes/2007/1015/074.html

Google looking at privacy protections for users [Reuters]
Google  told U.S. Senate lawmakers on Thursday the company is pursuing new technologies to protect the privacy of Internet users as it seeks to acquire advertising company DoubleClick Inc.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUKWBT00764520070927
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=137&objectid=10466450

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GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC POLICY
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us: Senators OK triple fines for ignoring Net child porn
A bill just approved by a U.S. Senate committee would slap steeper fines on Internet service providers that fail to alert authorities when they obtain knowledge of child pornography on their servers.
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9787515-7.html

CoE: Meeting of the Steering Committee on the Media and New Communication Services (CDMC) (12 to 15 June 2007)
During its last meeting, the Council of Europe body entrusted with developing standards on freedom of expression, media and new communication services finalised draft texts on protecting and promoting investigative journalism, freedom of expression and information in times of crisis and in the new information and communications environment, and on media coverage of election campaigns. These texts will be examined by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in the coming weeks.

Other issues considered by the CDMC during its meeting included the questions of internet governance and the public service value of the internet. It also pursued discussion on a possible future mechanism for promoting respect of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. When resuming consideration of this issue at its next meeting (to be held from 27 to 30 November 2007) the CDMC will take account of the views of member states, observer states and organisations, and other interested parties (e.g. media and civil society organisations). For the report of the meeting, see:
http://www.coe.int/t/e/human_rights/media/1_Intergovernmental_Co-operation/CDMC/CDMC(2007)009_en.asp#TopOfPage

eu: Consumer guarantee law may extend to software under EU plans
Buying software or other digital goods as a consumer does not entitle an individual to the same rights under EU law that he or she enjoys when buying tangible products. But that could change following a Resolution of the European Parliament on Thursday.
http://out-law.com/page-8458

eu: CALL FOR TENDERS: Assessment of the economic and social impact of the public domain in the information society
The envisaged purpose of the assessment is to analyse the economic and social impact of the public domain and to gauge its potential to contribute for the benefit of the citizens and the economy. More specifically its objective is to have a first and general overview of what is the situation in Europe with regard to public domain material and to assess the economic and social potential of the accessibility to this material.
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/digital_libraries/index_en.htm

eu: CONFERENCE: on RFID: The next step to the Internet of Things
RFID is perceived as the trigger of a new phase of development of the Information Society, often referred to as the "Internet of Things" in which the net potentially interlinks any of our daily surrounding objects to other identifiers, context data and business processes. It is expected that the impact on several value chains will be considerable and a multitude of new applications will emerge. This Conference is to present real implementation cases in different sectors, as well as cutting edge innovation and research on RFID. Also, critical issues that are related to a wider dissemination of the technology, such as Privacy and Security and the Governance of the Internet of Things, will be addressed and debated. 
http://rfid-outlook.pt/

NZ police let public write laws
New Zealanders have been given the chance to write their own laws, with a new online tool launched by police.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7015024.stm

Brazil's minister of culture calls for free digital society
Free culture advocate and Brazilian Minister Gilberto Gil said that digital technology offers a rare opportunity to bring knowledge to under-privileged people around the world and to include them in the political process.
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9786370-7.html

Malaysian defamation laws must keep up
Legal experts are urging Malaysia to take a cue from countries such as United States and Britain, and amend its defamation laws to keep pace with the Internet revolution.
http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/internet/0,39044908,62032776,00.htm

Canadian Court Opens Up eBay Data to Tax Agency
A Canadian court has ruled that tax collectors can demand and review data from eBay to see how much money individual sellers make on the online auction site.
http://nytimes.com/2007/10/01/technology/01ebay.html

CONFERENCE: VII World Congress of Computer Law
The VII World Congress of Computer Law will be held in San Juan de Puerto Rico, between December 3rd and 7th of 2007.
http://www.alfa-redi.com/viicongress/

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INTERNET USE
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Monasteries enter the internet age [Reuters]
A monk's life is still a simple one of prayer and austerity, yet many monasteries have moved online for business, communication and even headhunting purposes. Brother Luke Armour of the Abbey of Gethsemani in central Kentucky says the Trappist houses in the United States are communicating more effectively than ever before.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUKN0923261120070927
http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/28/2045952.htm

Most Taiwanese Internet users easily give up other media, according to poll
Almost half of Taiwan's adults surfed the Internet on a daily basis in 2007, up from three in ten in 2006, according to a new study published yesterday. ... For the whole of Taiwan, media exposure rates were 95 percent for television, 75 percent for newspapers and 70 percent for the Internet.
http://chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/2007/09/27/124243/Most-Internet.htm
http://asiamedia.ucla.edu/article-eastasia.asp?parentid=78786

Internet killing off art of telling jokes [Reuters]
The Internet is killing off the art of telling jokes and now the average Briton only remembers and recycles the same two jokes, a new survey showed on Friday.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKL2779608320070928

Clicks and links will bring all the walls tumbling down
The New York Times has just abandoned its two-year effort to charge for content online, taking down TimesSelect, the pay wall around its columnists and much of its archives. So content is now and forever free. That isn't because people won't pay for content - some did. It's because there is a new economy of content online that isn't built on scarcity and control but instead relies on the idea that content must be public and permanent to realise its value in the wider conversation.
http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,2175369,00.html

comScore Releases Top Japanese Web Rankings for August [news release]
In August, nearly 54 million people in Japan age 15 or older went online from either home or work locations, averaging 19 hours online during the month. Yahoo! Sites remained the top-ranked property in Japan with more than 41 million visitors, drawing almost the same number of visitors as July. Google Sites ranked second with 30.8 million visitors, while Microsoft Sites ranked third with 29.7 million visitors.
http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1769

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SOCIAL NETWORKING
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Revealing Identities
Second Life is a place where you go to live out fantasies. The virtual world lets you pick your body shape, eye color, age and gender. But now Second Life wants to know the real you. In August, it began testing technology that verifies people's identity and age. "Trust is the foundation of any community," blogged marketing chief Robin Harper. "And one cornerstone of trust is identity. You've got to know something about the person you are dealing with before you can trust them."
http://www.forbes.com/2007/09/27/news-corp-symantec-tech-cz_vb_0927anonymity.html

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NEW TECHNOLOGIES
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Apple iPhone warning proves true
An Apple software update is disabling iPhones that have been unlocked by owners who wanted to choose which mobile network to use. Earlier this week Apple said a planned update would leave the device "permanently inoperable". 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7017660.stm

Altered iPhones Freeze Up
Since the iPhone hit the market in June, tech-savvy owners of the phone have been busy messing with its insides, figuring out how to add unauthorized software and even ?unlock? it for use on networks other than AT&T?s.
http://nytimes.com/2007/09/29/technology/29iphone.html

Navigating to Nowhere on the iPhone
In less than two weeks, people downloaded 80,000 copies of the Navizon location software for the iPhone. It's now useless after Apple's phone software upgrade.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/28/navigating-to-nowhere-on-the-iphone/

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SPAM
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NZ junk war rages on despite spam act
While some email marketeers were last week labelling the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act a failure, ISPs and a major security specialist have a very different take on New Zealand's spam situation.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10467032

Number of malicious e-mails bearing bad links balloons tenfold
The percentage of threats arriving in e-mails that rely on links to malicious sites -- rather than arriving as file attachments -- has ballooned tenfold since the first quarter of the year, a security company said today.
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9039459

MessageLabs Intelligence: Virus and Phishing Levels Sky-rocket in September [news release]
MessageLabs announced the results of its MessageLabs Intelligence Report for September and 3rd quarter of 2007. The new data reveals that virus and phishing levels have significantly increased, reaching levels not seen since early 2006. In addition, MessageLabs exposes a second wave of highly targeted C-level and senior management email attacks with increased sophistication and outreach.
http://www.messagelabs.co.uk/resources/press/4927

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DIGITAL DIVIDE
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A PC for peasant farmers? China targets digital divide.
Reporter Peter Ford says the goal of putting a computer into tens-of-millions of Chinese households is a grand goal, but not such a far-fetched one.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0928/p01s04-woap.html

Broadband Connectivity: Intel's Big Goal in India
Developing countries -- virgin markets without the historical load of copper landlines -- are the perfect places for experimenting. That's why Craig Barrett, chairman of Intel, has added India to the list of more than 250 trials and commercial deployments in more than 12 countries worldwide, where he's running pilot WiMAX projects in schools and hospitals.
http://ecommercetimes.com/story/c2nQnkCbRUAPQp/Broadband-Connectivity-Intels-Big-Goal-in-India.xhtml

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FILE SHARING
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Music downloads for personal use remain legal in Switzerland
One of the most important points of the new Copyright Act is that downloads of works of art from the Internet for personal use remain legal (PDF file) without restriction. At the same time the law upholds the legal principle whereby technical means such as access and copy-protection measures must not be circumvented.
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/96732

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COMMENT, MICROSOFT & DEVELOPMENTS
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Stand up for Tila, an unlikely web warrior
Both a Playboy model and a Tory MP have shown the need for uncensored public spaces on the web ... Then, earlier this year, [Tila Tequila and MySpace] fell out briefly. The site's owners asked her to remove a link that let visitors buy songs from a rival music service instead of MySpace's approved partner. To idealists who hoped the net would be the common land of the 21st century, the confrontation was ominous. Cynics had predicted that big businesses would one day dominate the new medium, but didn't understand how the supremacy would be achieved.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2180165,00.html

Dell Jumps on Green Horse to Lead Carbon-Neutral Charge
Hoping to burnish its image as an eco-friendly company, Dell said Thursday it would strive to become the first carbon-neutral maker of personal computers and other technology gear. Dell plans to become carbon neutral in 2008, a year earlier than it had previously forecast, it said.
http://ecommercetimes.com/story/Ak16YRslzuf7Yk/Dell-Jumps-on-Green-Horse-to-Lead-Carbon-Neutral-Charge.xhtml

Green IT strategies stifled by inertia
Nearly half of IT executives ? 42 percent ? admit their company does not monitor IT-related energy spending.
http://hardware.silicon.com/servers/0,39024647,39168579,00.htm
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/itmanagement/0,1000000308,39289704,00.htm

Recycling batteries and phones for free
The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation helps organisations recycle rechargeable batteries and old mobile phones free of charge
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/0,1000000091,39289719,00.htm

Fees are cut for access to Financial Times online
The Financial Times, preparing for a fierce battle with The Wall Street Journal over business readers and online advertising revenue, will give casual readers free access to its Web site this month, according to executives at The Financial Times.
http://iht.com/articles/2007/10/01/business/paper01web.php
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/4733dd3e-6f76-11dc-b66c-0000779fd2ac.html

Microsoft steps up battle with Google
Microsoft is to open a new front in its battle with Google on Monday as it takes the first cautious step towards extending its widely used Office software to the internet. The move is a response to a rival set of online applications developed by Google to handle things such as word processing and spreadsheets. Though they do not yet represent a complete alternative for Office customers, Google?s applications could pose a long-term threat to one of Microsoft?s more profitable businesses, according to analysts.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c0dee3e8-6f7d-11dc-b66c-0000779fd2ac.html

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TELECOMMUNICATIONS
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Fibre investment is a priority [news release]
InternetNZ commends the draft report released by The New Zealand Institute "Defining a Broadband Aspiration: How much does broadband matter and what does New Zealand need??.
http://www.internetnz.net.nz/media/mediareleases/fibrereportsupport

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ARRESTS/COURT CASES FOR CHILD PORN
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au: Teacher's aid on child porn charges
A 60-year-old man working as a teacher's aide and a computer technician has appeared in Townsville Magistrates Court charged with possessing a large amount of child pornography.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/articles/2007/09/28/1190486515525.html
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22496840-5001028,00.html

au: Grooming underage girl for sex 'a lapse in judgement'
A United States sailor who has pleaded guilty to using the internet to groom an underage girl for sex has told a Sydney court he did not try to meet her.
http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/28/2046793.htm

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Sources include Quicklinks <http://qlinks.net/> and BNA Internet Law News <http://www.bna.com/ilaw/>.

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(c) David Goldstein 2007

 
--------- 
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)
 
"Every time you use fossil fuels, you're adding to the problem. Every time you forgo fossil fuels, you're being part of the solution" - Dr Tim Flannery





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