[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
general internet news - 25 October
Don't forget to check out my website - http://technewsreview.com.au/ - for daily updates in between postings.
**********************************************************
Sponsored by the Singapore Internet Research Centre
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
http://www.ntu.edu.sg/sci/sirc/
**********************************************************
US Congress To Google: Don't Sell Out To Censors
http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/10/23/china-google-censorship-technology-security_cx_ag_1023chinahouse.html
U.S. panel endorses bill to stop online repression [Reuters]
http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKN2335804120071023
Brutality on show as Burma lifts ban
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22624191-25837,00.html
Kazakhstan shuts down opposition Web sites [Reuters]
http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKL2470624120071024
uk: How you can help to halt online child abuse
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article2726517.ece
Web giants aid child porn hotline
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7059290.stm
Making the internet safer [news release]
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/about-us/news/iwf-awareness
Industry giants join forces to back IWF Awareness Day [news release]
http://iwf.org.uk/media/news.212.htm
uk: Anti-cyberbullying programme launches
http://society.guardian.co.uk/children/story/0,,2197487,00.html
nz: Parents Face Real Bills for Virtual Real Estate
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/59973.html
http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/59973.html
Study: US Parents More Ambivalent About Net [AP]
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/10/25/1192941185885.html
us: NSA cooperation: OK for e-mail, IM companies?
http://www.news.com/2100-7348_3-6214609.html
uk: Government to police virtual worlds
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/gadgets_and_gaming/virtual_worlds/article2731497.ece
Mobile advertising: The next big thing
http://economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9912455
Newspapers down but definitely not out [Fortune]
http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/22/magazines/fortune/siklos_newspapers.fortune/index.htm
Australian whiz speeds up broadband by 200 times
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22639169-421,00.html
Comcast Traffic Jamming Heats Net Neutrality Debate [AP]
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/ebiz/59914.html
Police shut down website after two-year music piracy inquiry
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/oct/24/piracy.crime
In Foray Into TV, Google Is to Track Ad Audiences
http://nytimes.com/2007/10/24/business/media/24adco.html
Microsoft Buys Stake in Facebook
http://nytimes.com/2007/10/25/technology/25facebook.html
China telecom sector eyes 4G technology
http://chinaknowledge.com/news/news-detail.aspx?id=11126
**********************
RESEARCH PAPERS
**********************
Parent and Teen Internet Use
Parents today are less likely to say that the internet has been a good thing for their children than they were in 2004. However, this does not mean there was a corresponding increase in the amount of parents who think the internet has been harmful to their children. Instead, the biggest increase has been in the amount of parents who do not think the internet has had an effect on their children one way or the other. Fully, 87% of parents of teenagers are online -- at least 17% more than average adults.
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/225/report_display.asp
Broadband: What's All the Fuss About?
Today, with nearly half of all Americans having high-speed internet connections at home, online interactivity means something different for a lot of Americans than it did when it was mainly about email. Many-to-many communication is now buttressed by many-to-many participation in the online world through user-created media. Still, questions remain about the use of advanced communications networks. Among them: Why does access to a high-speed connection at home matter? The fuss about broadband extends beyond access to information to active participation in the online commons as people with shared interests or problems gather at various online forums to chat or collaborate.
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/224/report_display.asp
Teens and Online Stranger Contact
Fully 32% of online teens have been contacted by someone with no connection to them or any of their friends, and 7% of online teens say they have felt scared or uncomfortable as a result of contact by an online stranger. Several behaviors are associated with high levels of online stranger contact, including social networking profile ownership, posting photos online and using social networking sites to flirt. Although several factors are linked with increased levels of stranger contact in general, gender is the only variable with a consistent association with contact that is scary or uncomfortable--girls are much more likely to report scary or uncomfortable contact than boys.
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/223/report_display.asp
What Google Knows: Privacy and Internet Search Engines by Omer Tene [College of Management - School of Law]
Abstract: Search engines are the most important phenomenon on the Internet today and Google is the gold standard of search. Google evokes ambivalent feelings. It is adored for its ingenuity, simple, modest-looking interface and superb services offered at no (evident) cost. Yet increasingly, it is feared by privacy advocates who view it as a private sector big brother posing perhaps the biggest privacy problem of all times. Google is an informational gatekeeper harboring previously unimaginable riches of personal data. Billions of search queries stream across Google's servers each month, the aggregate thoughtstream of humankind, online. Google compiles individual search logs, containing information about users' fears and expectations, interests and passions, and ripe with information that is financial, medical, sexual, political, in short ? personal in nature. How did Google evolve from being a benevolent giant seeking to do no evil into a privacy
menace reviled by human rights advocates worldwide? Are the fears of Google's omniscient presence justified or overstated? What personal data should Google be allowed to retain and for how long? What rules should govern access to Google's database? What are the legal protections currently in place and are they sufficient to quell the emerging privacy crisis? These are the main issues addressed in this article.
http://ssrn.com/abstract=1021490
Google's Law by Greg Lastowka [Rutgers School of Law]
Abstract: Google has become, for the majority of Americans, the index of choice for online information. Through dynamically generated results pages keyed to a near-infinite variety of search terms, Google steers our thoughts and our learning online. It tells us what words mean, what things look like, where to buy things, and who and what is most important to us. Google's control over "results" constitutes an awesome ability to set the course of human knowledge. As this paper will explain, fortunes are won and lost based on Google's results pages, including the fortunes of Google itself. Because Google's results are so significant to e-commerce activities today, they have already been the subject of substantial litigation.
http://ssrn.com/abstract=1017536
Net Neutrality on the Internet: A Two-Sided Market Analysis by Nicholas Economides & Joacim Tåg [NYU Law and Economics Research Paper]
Abstract: We discuss the benefits of net neutrality regulation in the context of a two-sided market model in which platforms sell Internet access services to consumers and may set fees to content and applications providers "on the other side" of the Internet. When access is monopolized, we find that generally net neutrality regulation (that imposes zero fees "on the other side" of the market) increases total industry surplus compared to the fully private optimum at which the monopoly platform imposes positive fees on content and applications providers. Similarly, we find that imposing net neutrality in duopoly increases total surplus compared to duopoly competition between platforms that charge positive fees on content providers. We also discuss the incentives of duopolists to collude in setting the fees "on the other side" of the Internet while competing for Internet access customers. Additionally, we discuss how price and non-price discrimination
strategies may be used once net neutrality is abolished. Finally, we discuss how the results generalize to other two-sided markets.
http://ssrn.com/abstract=1019121
net neutrality, two-sided markets, Internet, monopoly, duopoly, regulation, discrimination
**********************
CENSORSHIP
**********************
US Congress To Google: Don't Sell Out To Censors
For global tech companies like Google and Yahoo!, cooperating with repressive states like China has been a public relations nightmare. Now that ethical dilemma may be slowly widening into a legal morass. The House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs voted Tuesday to pass the Global Online Freedom Act, a bill designed to penalize U.S. companies up to $2 million if they cooperate with the technological surveillance of political dissidents or share technology and information used for "Internet-restricting" purposes.
http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/10/23/china-google-censorship-technology-security_cx_ag_1023chinahouse.html
U.S. panel endorses bill to stop online repression [Reuters]
A key congressional panel endorsed legislation on Tuesday that would bar U.S. Internet companies from cooperating with authorities in China and other repressive regimes.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKN2335804120071023
Brutality on show as Burma lifts ban
Graphic digital photos of the Burmese regime's brutal crackdown on monks and democracy activists have started to appear in the West, after the junta restored access to the internet last week.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22624191-25837,00.html
Kazakhstan shuts down opposition Web sites [Reuters]
Kazakhstan has blocked access to a number of opposition Web sites in a move Internet users condemned on Wednesday as a crackdown on freedom of speech.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKL2470624120071024
http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/24/2069572.htm
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2007/10/24/kazakhstan_shuts_down_opposition_web_sites/
Kazakhstan blocks opposition websites
Kazakhstan yesterday blocked access to several websites critical of the government, including the "main opposition outlets", kub.kz and geo.kz, Reuters reports.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/24/kazakh_websites_blocked/
How to Do It: Circumventing the Censors
Most Internet censorship regimes?including those in Burma, China, and North Korea?rely on list-based software that flags and then blocks access to certain keywords, domain names, and URL addresses. Such technology can be highly effective. But it is also possible for ordinary citizens to get around it using some simple techniques. Here?s how to do it.
http://foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4022
Daily reality of net censorship
Bill Thompson asks how far repressive regimes will go to control what their citizens do online. "The military regime in Burma has controlled access to the internet for many years, but when information about the recent protests appeared all over the web, from YouTube videos to personal testimony on blogs, the generals showed that there were other options available to them and effectively cut the country off from the worldwide network."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7047592.stm
************************************************
CHILD PROTECTION, FILTERING & CONTENT REGULATION
************************************************
uk: How you can help to halt online child abuse
As many as one in twenty people stumble across child sexual abuse images while surfing the internet, with more than a third of all sites showing the most extreme images, according to a report published today. Three in ten of the victims appear to be aged under 6 ? with 5 per cent apparently younger than 2, according to the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), which shuts down illegal internet content. More than three quarters of the children are girls.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article2726517.ece
Web giants aid child porn hotline
Top internet companies have joined forces to publicise a hotline to report online child pornography.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7059290.stm
Making the internet safer [news release]
The Internet Watch Foundation has made Wednesday 24 October IWF Awareness Day, to focus attention on issues of child safety on the internet. The Home Office supports the foundation's work to make the internet safer.
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/about-us/news/iwf-awareness
Industry giants join forces to back IWF Awareness Day [news release]
The UK?s major online brands are joining forces today to publicise the existence of the ?Hotline? operated by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) so all UK internet users know what to do if they accidentally stumble across online images of children being sexually abused. The first national IWF Awareness Day, supported by the IWF?s members companies, is reaching out to the UK?s vast online population to make them aware that the IWF is dedicated to getting this abusive content removed.
http://iwf.org.uk/media/news.212.htm
uk: Anti-cyberbullying programme launches
A nationwide initiative teaching eight- to 11-year-olds about the dangers of cyberbullying on social networking websites launched today. The digital initiative, launched by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, the national body given the task of tackling child sex abuse online, features a cybercafe that aims to teach children about internet safety.
http://society.guardian.co.uk/children/story/0,,2197487,00.html
nz: Parents Face Real Bills for Virtual Real Estate
Teenagers are using their parents' credit cards to buy thousands of dollars' worth of virtual property, including real estate, on Web sites such as Second Life. NetSafe chief executive Martin Cocker says parents are shocked because they don't realize it's possible to buy something that doesn't exist in the real world -- and they don't know how fast it's possible to spend. Members of sites such as Second Life create an animated persona called an "avatar," which can run, jump, fly, dance and express emotions. They can also build fantasy locations for socializing.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/59973.html
http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/59973.html
au: Bullies who leave no bruises
The real dangers of the internet lie in what our children are doing to each other. "Imagine Chloe, 14, coming home from school ... Her bedroom door shuts and her parents don't see her until she is called downstairs for her evening meal. Like hundreds of thousands of parents across Australia, Chloe's parents are blissfully unaware of what is transpiring behind her door. They may assume that she is deeply absorbed in reading this year's set text for English or labouring over a hot computer in preparation for tomorrow's French test.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/10/25/1192941199459.html
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/10/25/1192941199459.html
Study: US Parents More Ambivalent About Net [AP]
Parents have become more ambivalent about the Internet, with a new study finding fewer of them considering it good for their children. The Pew Internet and American Life Project said Wednesday that about 59 percent of Americans with children ages 12-17 consider the Internet a positive influence on their kids. That is based on a 2006 survey, the latest available on the topic, and represents a drop from 67 percent in 2004.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/10/25/1192941185885.html
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/10/25/1192941185885.html
http://www.thestate.com/technology-wire/story/210015.html
**************************
ONLINE CRIME, SECURITY & LEGAL
**************************
au: Website pitch too good to be true
Local jobseekers are being targeted with seemingly genuine online job offers, backed by professional-looking corporate websites aimed at trapping unsuspecting mules, who then conduct illegal money transfers on behalf of criminals.
http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,22629039-24169,00.html
Russian Company Outed as Mother of all Cybercrime
A Russian company named the Russian Business Network, or RBN has been identified as a "Conduit for Cybercrime" by the Washington Post and blasted by the anti-spam organization Spamhaus for being " ...among the world's worst spammer, child-pornography, malware, phishing and cybercrime-hosting networks." The security vendor iDefense advises clients to block all traffic from RBN. Recently, the Bank of India was cyber-attacked, with much of the activity emanating from RBN servers. Yet, the company founder claims it is all just a case of mistaken identity. Russian officials have shown no interest in shuttering this leviathan of Internet cyber-crime.
http://www.ibls.com/internet_law_news_portal_view.aspx?s=latestnews&id=1887
us: You and YouPorn are now free to make porn
In a major First Amendment victory, a federal court strikes down regulations covering anyone who produces adult images.
http://www.salon.com/tech/machinist/blog/2007/10/24/porn_law/
Russians behind attack PDFs, security researcher says
A notorious Russian hacker gang is responsible for ongoing attacks using malicious PDF documents, a researcher said Wednesday. Users can thank the Russian Business Network, a well-known collective of cybercriminals, for the malware-armed PDF attachments that began appearing in in-boxes Tuesday, said Ken Dunham, director of response for iSight Partners. If the rigged PDFs succeed in infecting the target Windows system, the attack code installs a pair of rootkit files that "sniff and steal financial and other valuable data," said Dunham via e-mail.
http://pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;1535329574;fp;2;fpid;1
uk: Why was someone arrested over the TV Links website?
As reported in the Guardian, last Thursday a 26-year-old Cheltenham man was arrested and the site, tv-links.co.uk, was closed . According to the Gloucester police, the arrest was carried out for alleged violations of Section 92 of the Trade Marks Act.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/oct/25/piracy.intellectualproperty
uk: Student jailed for promoting terrorism
A British-born Muslim student was jailed for eight years today for distributing material that glorified terrorism and suicide bombing. Mohammed Atif Siddique, 21, was found guilty last month of providing training material on bomb-making and of threatening to become a suicide bomber. Siddique was also convicted of distributing a range of terrorist material via the internet.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,2197529,00.html
How Big is the Storm Botnet? by John Levine
The Storm worm has gotten a lot of press this year, with a lot of the coverage tending toward the apocalyptic. There?s no question that it?s one of the most successful pieces of malware to date, but just how successful is it?
http://www.circleid.com/posts/7102410_how_big_is_storm_botnet/
**************************
GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC POLICY
**************************
au: Secrecy impedes informed discourse by Ken McKinnon, chairman of the Australian Press Council
The Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader need to do much more to remove impediments to the free flow of information to the public. It is not the media that John Howard's proposals and those of Kevin Rudd will have to satisfy. Citizens are entitled to know details of what the federal government claims to be doing in their name.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22642863-7583,00.html
us: NSA cooperation: OK for e-mail, IM companies?
A new Senate bill would protect not only telephone companies from lawsuits claiming illegal cooperation with the National Security Agency. It would retroactively immunize e-mail providers, search engines, Internet service providers and instant-messaging services too.
http://www.news.com/2100-7348_3-6214609.html
uk: Government to police virtual worlds
The Government is to take a firmer hand in policing activities within virtual worlds such as Second Life, in an acknowledgement of their increasing popularity.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/gadgets_and_gaming/virtual_worlds/article2731497.ece
UK anti file-sharing laws considered
The UK government could legislate to crack down on illegal file-sharers, a senior official has told the BBC's iPM programme. Lord Triesman, the parliamentary Under Secretary for Innovation, Universities and Skills, said intellectual property theft would not be tolerated.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7059881.stm
Italy proposes 'anti-blogger' law
Italian bloggers are protesting at a proposed law that would force them to register with the government in order to write a blog, even a personal one with no commercial purpose.
http://out-law.com/page-8570
U.S. government considers mandating Internet service providers to forward customers' e-mails [AP]
... There is no mandate in the U.S. governing e-mail forwarding, and industry officials say imposing one would be costly and unnecessary. But federal regulators are looking at the issue more closely following a complaint from a former America Online customer who claims an abrupt termination of service devastated her business.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/10/24/1192941105018.html
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/10/24/1192941105018.html
Microsoft gives up three-year battle to keep Windows closed to rivals
Microsoft yesterday caved in to the European commission and agreed to comply with a landmark anti-trust ruling more than three years after it began a rearguard action against the decision and a record ?497m (£347m) fine.
http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2197106,00.html
Microsoft Is Yielding in European Antitrust Fight
The European competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes, negotiated the terms for Microsoft to share information with rivals.
http://nytimes.com/2007/10/23/technology/23soft.html
Why a Net Neutrality Law is Not Enough by David Isenberg
Once we decide that Network Neutrality is a good thing to (re)enshrine in law, then we need to ask how to do that effectively. One way would be to pass a law saying, ?Thou shalt not discriminate.? That?s the current approach. But network operators will say that they must manage their network, and if, in the course of network management, they were to disadvantage some source, destination, application, service or content, they might be accused of violating the law.
http://www.circleid.com/posts/net_neutrality_law_not_enough/
Austria OKs terror snooping Trojan plan
Austria has become one of the first countries to officially sanction the use of Trojan Horse malware as a tactic for monitoring the PCs of suspected terrorists and criminals.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/23/teutonic_trojan/
**********************
INTERNET USE
**********************
Mobile advertising: The next big thing
Advertising on mobile phones is a tiny business. Last year spending on mobile ads was US$871m worldwide according to Informa Telecoms & Media, a research firm, compared with $24 billion spent on internet advertising and $450 billion spent on all advertising. But marketing wizards are beginning to talk about it with the sort of hyperbole they normally reserve for products they are paid to sell. It is destined, some say, to supplant not only internet advertising, the latest fad, but also television, radio, print and billboards, the four traditional pillars of the business.
http://economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9912455
uk: Shoppers predicted to spend £500 each online this Christmas
Shoppers are expected to spend more than £500 each online this Christmas as Britons turn from the cold and bustling high street to buy presents on the internet, leaving e-tailers celebrating a record year.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article3090327.ece
Newspapers down but definitely not out [Fortune]
Last week could hardly have been grimmer for the newspaper industry. First off, Gannett and McClatchy - the two biggest newspapers publishers in the U.S., respectively - reported diminished revenues and profits. Meanwhile, following the lead of Belo, publisher of the Dallas Morning News, Scripps announced it was splitting its growing television and interactive businesses off from the company's newspaper business so that investors could get excited about the company's slumping stock price.
http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/22/magazines/fortune/siklos_newspapers.fortune/index.htm
Why I miss the dead-tree newspaper
I can skim the print version of the the New York Times in a half-hour. You can't do that online!
http://machinist.salon.com/feature/2007/10/24/newspapers/index.html
**********************
NEW TECHNOLOGIES
**********************
Australian whiz speeds up broadband by 200 times
A Melbourne PhD student has developed technology to make broadband internet up to 200 times faster without having to install expensive fibre optic cables. Harnessing the potential power of telephone lines and DSL broadband, the technology will deliver internet speeds up to 250 megabits per second, compared with current typical speeds of between one and 20 megabits per second.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22639169-421,00.html
**********************
FILE SHARING
**********************
Comcast Traffic Jamming Heats Net Neutrality Debate [AP]
Comcast Corp. actively interferes with attempts by some of its high-speed Internet subscribers to share files online, a move that runs counter to the tradition of treating all types of Net traffic equally. The interference, which the Associated Press confirmed through nationwide tests, is the most drastic example yet of data discrimination by a U.S. Internet service provider. It involves company computers masquerading as those of its users.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/ebiz/59914.html
http://www.thestate.com/technology-wire/story/205323.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/10/19/financial/f061526D54.DTL
Police shut down website after two-year music piracy inquiry
British police have closed down what they claim is one of the world's largest music piracy websites after a two-year pan-European operation. A series of raids in Middlesbrough and Amsterdam resulted in the arrest of a 24-year-old man and the closure of Oink, a private website that allowed users to locate and download music, movies and other files.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/oct/24/piracy.crime
http://www.ibls.com/internet_law_news_portal_view.aspx?s=latestnews&id=1891
Huge pirate music site shut down
British and Dutch police have shut down a "widely-used" source of illegally-downloaded music. A flat on Teesside and several properties in Amsterdam were raided as part of an Interpol investigation into the members-only website OiNK.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/tees/7057812.stm
British, Dutch Police Close Pirate Site [AP]
British and Dutch police shut down what they say is one the world's biggest online sources of pirated music Tuesday and arrested the website's 24-year-old suspected operator. The invitation-only OiNK website specialized in distributing albums leaked before their official release by record companies, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/10/24/1192941088233.html
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/10/24/1192941088233.html
*********************************
COMMENT, MICROSOFT & DEVELOPMENTS
*********************************
How Apple Can Keep Its Value
With a market value of $162 billion, Apple is now the most valuable computer maker in the world, and it is the fourth most valuable technology company, after Microsoft, Google and Cisco. It will have to battle all of them to stay on top of the tech world.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/how-apple-can-keep-its-value/
How the world learned to love Apple and its Macs
Apple produced a stunning set of financial results on Monday, with one big surprise. In a quarter that has been dominated by talk of the iPhone and new iPods, the Macintosh computers were the stars of the show. Apple sold 2.16m units, which is more than in any other quarter in its history.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/oct/25/it.apple
In Foray Into TV, Google Is to Track Ad Audiences
Google, which dominates the market for advertising on the Internet, seems to be hoping to do the same thing on television. The company is set to announce a partnership with the Nielsen Company, the voice of authority in measuring television audiences, that will give advertisers a more vivid and accurate snapshot than ever before of how many people are viewing commercials on a second-by-second basis, and who those people are.
http://nytimes.com/2007/10/24/business/media/24adco.html
http://iht.com/articles/2007/10/24/business/google.php
Microsoft Buys Stake in Facebook
Microsoft has won a high-profile technology industry battle with Google and Yahoo to invest in the social networking upstart Facebook. The two companies said on Wednesday that Microsoft would pay $240 million for a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook. The investment values Facebook, which is three and a half years old and will bring in about $150 million in revenue this year, at $15 billion.
http://nytimes.com/2007/10/25/technology/25facebook.html
Microsoft Buys Facebook Stake for $240M [AP]
Rapidly rising Internet star Facebook Inc. has sold a 1.6 percent stake to Microsoft Corp. for $240 million, spurning a competing offer from online search leader Google Inc.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/24/AR2007102401910.html
Facebook picks Microsoft over Google for minority stake [IDG]
Facebook Inc. will sell a $240 million minority stake to Microsoft Corp., which as part of the deal will also expand the advertising services it provides to the social networking Web site, the companies said today.
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9044001
**********************
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
**********************
au: How to cut the cord with the phone company
When an animal gnawed through the phone line under Di Keller's house, Optus fixed it but warned that any future repairs would cost her $100. "Basically the line wasn't installed to my satisfaction so I just got rid it," she says. Although Ms Keller represents only a small percentage of people who have chosen to dump their landline, she is far from being alone in her wish to cut the cord with her telephone operator.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/10/23/1192941047563.html
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/10/23/1192941047563.html
au: UN backs Govt's broadband plan
A United Nations telecommunications body has endorsed the broadband technology being offered as part of the federal Coalition's election campaign.
http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/25/2070306.htm
China telecom sector eyes 4G technology
China's telecom sector may adopt more advanced wireless technologies by restraining investments in third-generation (3G) services for mobile phones, and channel efforts into fourth generation (4G) services instead, according to ABN Amro Holdings NV.
http://chinaknowledge.com/news/news-detail.aspx?id=11126
ng: NCC holds workshop on numbering and convergence
THE Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in collaboration with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) is organizing a four-day workshop on Numbering and Convergence from 22nd to 25th October 2007 at the Sheraton Hotel Ikeja, Lagos . Registration is between 7a.m ? 8.45am daily, while the Workshop starts 9a.m. prompt.
http://tribune.com.ng/24102007/infosys2.html
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Check out http://auda.org.au/domain-news/ for the most recent edition of the domain news, including an RSS feed - already online!
The domain name news is supported by auDA
For information on subscriptions to the domain name and/or general internet news please contact me. For archives of postings to the list, see http://lists.technewsreview.com.au/pipermail/technewsreview/. Also see http://technewsreview.com.au/ for recent updates.
Sources include Quicklinks <http://qlinks.net/> and BNA Internet Law News <http://www.bna.com/ilaw/>.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
(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
Sick of deleting your inbox? Yahoo!7 Mail has free unlimited storage.
http://au.docs.yahoo.com/mail/unlimitedstorage.html
