[APPLe list] general internet news - July 24

[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 www.auda.org.au/domain-news/ for today's edition of the complete domain news, already online!


And see my website - http://technewsreview.com.au/ - for daily updates in between postings.


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The domain name news is supported by auDA

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Global internet users reach 1.4 billion
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2222120/quarter-world-regular-internet-users

Broadband users overtake dial-up in Australia
http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24064868-15306,00.html

'Spam King' Robert Soloway gets nearly four years in prison
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/371772_spamking23.html

American Airlines drops trademark lawsuit against Google
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9110478

Privacy on the Web: Is It a Losing Battle?
http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=11067

Momentum builds for U.S. privacy policy, but passage of a privacy law is unlikely until 2009 [IDG]
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9110483

Piracy: Look for the silver lining
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11750492

Internet piracy: Thanks, me hearties - Media firms find that statistics on internet piracy can be rather useful
http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11751035

Online Safety, Privacy Tops Parents' Concerns
http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/client/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=209400624

World at the fingertips of NZ's young and lucky geek
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/feature/story.cfm?c_id=1501832&objectid=10522457

nz: The cyber star left to shine
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10522449

Activist Carl Icahn wins Yahoo! seats in boardroom battle
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article4372809.ece

Wireless telecoms: Culture clash-As “third generation” (3G) networks proliferate, the focus shifts to 4G
http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11751174


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INTERNET USE
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Global internet users reach 1.4 billion
A quarter of the global population will regularly use the internet during 2008, according to IDC's Digital Marketplace Model and Forecast. The figure of 1.4 billion people is set to jump to 1.9 billion over the next four years, bringing internet access to roughly 30 per cent of the world's population.
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2222120/quarter-world-regular-internet-users

Google knocks Microsoft off top of Britain's biggest brands
The internet search engine Google has been named as Britain's top "superbrand", after it beat Microsoft for the premier spot, according to a YouGov survey published today.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jul/21/google.google

Broadband users overtake dial-up in Australia
Broadband has for the first time outstripped dial-up as the main gateway to the internet for households, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said. In 2006-07, 43 per cent of Australian homes had a broadband connection compared with 20 per cent with dial-up during the same period.
http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24064868-15306,00.html

ABS figures show fourfold jump in Internet connections
Broadband surpassed dial-up for the first time last year, with twice as many homes connected via broadband than via dial-up, according to recent figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
http://computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;732016969

Internet access at home in Australia [report]
Abstract: The Internet has become increasingly important in recent years as a way of accessing information, communicating and buying goods and services. A growing proportion of Australians have access to the Internet at home. The rate of access has quadrupled in recent years, from 16% of Australian households in 1998 to 64% in 2006–07. The rate of Broadband Internet uptake has also increased. This article examines geographical and socioeconomic factors that determine who has access to the Internet and who is missing out.
http://abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4102.0Chapter10002008

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SOCIAL NETWORKING
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au: Networking sites to raise missing persons awareness
Internet networking websites including Facebook and MySpace will be used this year to promote National Missing Persons Week.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/22/2311396.htm

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NEW TECHNOLOGIES
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Smaller PCs Cause Worry for Industry
The personal computer industry is poised to sell tens of millions of small, energy-efficient Internet-centric devices. Curiously, some of the biggest companies in the business consider this bad news.
http://nytimes.com/2008/07/21/technology/21pc.html

In the US, Phone Giants Fight to Keep Subscribers
With millions of people snapping up the iPhone, AT&T, the exclusive carrier for the popular phone, should be quite pleased with the stream of revenue it can expect from customers. But AT&T, the biggest telecommunications company in the United States, has a problem: analysts say consumers are dropping traditional landlines faster than expected.
http://nytimes.com/2008/07/23/technology/23phone.html

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SPAM
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'Spam King' Robert Soloway gets nearly four years in prison
U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman ended the reign of the so-called "Spam King," who earned his title by sending out millions of unwanted e-mails, by sentencing the Seattle man to nearly fours years in prison on Tuesday.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/371772_spamking23.html

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ONLINE CRIME, SECURITY & LEGAL
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Cybersecurity Will Take A Big Bite of the US Budget
President Bush's single largest request for funds and "most important initiative" in the fiscal 2009 intelligence budget is for the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative, a little publicized but massive program whose details "remain vague and thus open to question," according to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/20/AR2008072001641.html

American Airlines drops trademark lawsuit against Google
American Airlines Inc. has dropped its trademark-infringement lawsuit against Google Inc. that claimed the Internet company used the airline's trademark to trigger paid advertisements for other companies.
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9110478

American Airlines and Google settle lawsuit [AP]
American Airlines has dropped its lawsuit against Google Inc. over its search engine directing some users to advertisements for the airline's competitors.
http://news.smh.com.au/technology/american-airlines-and-google-settle-lawsuit-20080722-3iz9.html
http://news.theage.com.au/technology/american-airlines-and-google-settle-lawsuit-20080722-3iz9.html

Facebook challenges German rival
The German company that is the subject of an intellectual property lawsuit from social networking firm Facebook has said the case is without merit.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7516821.stm

German site sued by Facebook says claims without merit
The German company sued by Facebook for running a "knockoff" of the social networking Web site said on Sunday it asked a German court to declare that Facebook's claims are without merit.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKN2034220420080721

eBay not responsible for policing counterfeits, says US court
A US court has said that eBay cannot be held liable by jewellery store Tiffany & Co for direct or contributory trade mark infringement, a ruling which contradicts a French court’s recent holding in a similar dispute
http://managingip.com/Article/1975998/eBay-not-responsible-for-policing-counterfeits-says-US-court.html

us: Efforts to rein in online fight videos
The images played out in shocking detail this spring: a group of Florida teens beating a girl and videotaping it to allegedly post online at YouTube and MySpace. Some of them face felony charges and the possibility of life in prison.
http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2008/07/22/efforts-to-rein-in-online-fight-videos/

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PRIVACY
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Privacy on the Web: Is It a Losing Battle?
Visit the Amazon.com site to buy a book online and your welcome page will include recommendations for other books you might enjoy, including the latest from your favorite authors, all based on your history of purchases. Most customers appreciate these suggestions, much the way they would recommendations by a local librarian.
http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=11067

uk: 'Spying' requests exceed 500,000
More than 500,000 official "spying" requests for private communications data such as telephone records were made last year, a report says. Police, security services and other public bodies made requests for billing details and other information.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7520371.stm

The F.T.C.’s Bully Pulpit on Privacy
I recently had a chance to sit down with Lydia B. Parnes, the director of the Federal Trade Commission’s bureau of consumer protection. She is the top government regulator who looks after Internet advertising and privacy issues, among many other concerns.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/the-ftcs-bully-pulpit-on-privacy/

Momentum builds for U.S. privacy policy, but passage of a privacy law is unlikely until 2009 [IDG]
Privacy advocates in Washington have been busy in recent months. Groups such as the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) have sounded alarms on several privacy-related issues before the U.S. Congress and federal agencies.
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9110483

ISP responds to lawmaker concerns about ad tracking [IDG]
Embarq Corp., an Internet service provider based in Overland, Kan., has suspended its test of a targeted advertising service that tracks subscribers' Web habits as a way to deliver relevant ads.
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9110481
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/148766/isp_responds_to_lawmaker_concerns_about_ad_tracking.html
http://nytimes.com/idg/IDG_852573C4006938808525748E0055CC93.html

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ONLINE TV & MUSIC
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Piracy: Look for the silver lining
"Merchant and pirate were for a long period one and the same person,” wrote Friedrich Nietzsche. “Even today mercantile morality is really nothing but a refinement of piratical morality.” Companies, of course, would strongly disagree with this suggestion. Piracy is generally bad for business. It can undermine sales of legitimate products, deprive a company of its valuable intellectual property and tarnish its brand. Commercial piracy may not be as horrific as the seaborne version off the Horn of Africa. But stealing other people’s R&D, artistic endeavour or even journalism is still theft.
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11750492

Internet piracy: Thanks, me hearties - Media firms find that statistics on internet piracy can be rather useful
Global sales of recorded music fell by 8% in 2007, according to figures released in June by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, a trade group. It blamed 70% of the decline on “file-sharing” software, which allows internet users to exchange music and video without paying for it. Industry groups have sued thousands of users of such software, and have supported legislation to criminalise it. But file-sharing has so far proved impossible to stop. And it is not all bad news for the industry, because it can provide helpful insights into music-lovers’ interests.
http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11751035

UK net firms in music pirates deal
Six of the UK's biggest net providers are believed to be backing a government plan to tackle music piracy online. The plan commits the firms to working towards a "significant reduction" in the illegal sharing of music.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7522334.stm

Net TV technology seeks testers
Testers are being sought for technology that may help TV migrate to the net. The P2P Next project has created a trial, or beta, version of software that can stream video across a file-sharing network.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7517114.stm

BSkyB to launch online subscription music service
Pay-TV firm BSkyB is to launch an online subscription music service and has signed the world's largest music group Universal as its first partner, in a deal that could challenge Apple.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUKWLA666520080722

BSkyB and Universal to launch digital music service
BSkyB is to break into the digital music market with a new business, launched in conjunction with Universal Music, that aims to take on Apple's iTunes in the UK.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jul/22/bskyb.digitalmedia

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CENSORSHIP
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Chinese Websites Shamed On CIIIRC's Blacklist
The China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Centre has released its "No.1 Report", which exposes the illegal spread of risque information of some Chinese websites and combines the names of those websites onto a blacklist.
http://www.chinatechnews.com/2008/07/23/7046-chinese-websites-shamed-on-ciiircs-blacklist/

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CHILD PROTECTION, FILTERING & CONTENT REGULATION
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US Government strikes out on COPA—ruled unconstitutional again
A federal court once again struck down the 1998 Child Online Protection Act (COPA) today, ruling it unconstitutional, overbroad, and vague. It has been 10 years since the law's introduction and it has yet to be enforced thanks to the courts ruling repeatedly against it, despite the government's continued appeals.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080722-government-strikes-out-on-copa-ruled-unconstitutional-again.html

COPA anti-Net porn law: Down but not out
The U.S. Department of Justice has been fighting an extended legal battle since 1998 to enforce a federal law that targets Web sites deemed "harmful to minors." On Tuesday, it lost again.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-9997314-38.html

US Appeals Court Strikes Down Federal Internet Porn Law [Dow Jones]
In the latest setback to congressional efforts to police pornography on the Internet, a federal appeals court has invalidated the federal Child Online Protection Act, a law designed to keep children from viewing sexually explicit material on the Web.
http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20080722\ACQDJON200807221438DOWJONESDJONLINE000565.htm

Online Safety, Privacy Tops Parents' Concerns
The survey of 1,035 adults, as well as 260 pairs of parents and teens, highlighted how little parents know about their teens' activities online.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/client/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=209400624

N.Y. AG pushes Comcast to block child-porn access [AP]
New York's attorney general notified Comcast Corp. on Monday that the state will take legal action if the company - the nation's second-largest Internet service provider - doesn't agree to eliminate access to child pornography.
http://www.thestate.com/technology-wire/story/467061.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/07/21/national/a120558D19.DTL

New York Threatens Comcast Over Child Porn
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has threatened legal action against Comcast if it doesn't move quickly to block known child porn sites.
http://news.digitaltrends.com/news-article/17350/new-york-threatens-comcast-over-child-porn

US ISPs sign nationwide deal to ban child porn
The majority of internet service providers in the US have signed a pact to ban child pornography from being viewed online. All cable providers in the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) have vowed to block sites listed as carrying child pornography held by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2222066/isps-sign-nationwide-deal-ban

Kenyan Parents Must Act Now to Control Cyber Culture Among Children
The pendulum of opinion on the impact of computers and the Internet on children will always swing. Is the technology good or bad for our kids? Should the State control access or should it be left to parental guidance and "filter" software?
http://allafrica.com/stories/200807210093.html

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GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC POLICY
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au: Watchdog sniffs at mobile excess usage fees
The rise of fast web browsing on 3G mobiles such as the iPhone has prompted the competition regulator to investigate whether carriers are misleading consumers into a trap of high excess usage fees.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/07/21/1216492331116.html
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/07/21/1216492331116.html

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COMMENT, MICROSOFT & DEVELOPMENTS
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World at the fingertips of NZ's young and lucky geek
The Whitianga computer whiz kid who masterminded an international network of computer hacking has become something of a local hero, flooded with international job offers and celebrated by fellow geeks.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/feature/story.cfm?c_id=1501832&objectid=10522457

nz: The cyber star left to shine
There's little sign that Owen Walker, the teenager, even exists in his home town of Whitianga. Ask around the small seaside township about the 19-year-old hacker involved in a multi-million-dollar internet cyber-crime, and it's as though Walker lived in a separate world. Effectively he did.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10522449

Icahn and allies get 3 Yahoo board seats
Yahoo, the Internet portal, has averted a bruising proxy contest with the billionaire investor Carl Icahn, by agreeing to appoint him and two others to its board, which the company will expand from 9 to 11.
http://nytimes.com/2008/07/22/technology/22yahoo.html
http://iht.com/articles/2008/07/21/business/yahoo.php

Carl Icahn joins Yahoo board
Dissident investor Carl Icahn has forced his way onto the Yahoo board, along with two of his alternative slate of directors, after agreeing to drop his proxy battle to oust the internet company's existing board.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jul/21/yahoo.mediabusiness

Activist Carl Icahn wins Yahoo! seats in boardroom battle
Yahoo! today settled its acrimonious battle with billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn, who will join the US internet search giant as a director.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article4372809.ece

Yahoo, Icahn reach deal on board members [IDG]
Yahoo Inc. has reached an agreement to end a proxy fight with investor Carl Icahn, who will take a seat on the company's board after the annual stockholders' meeting, Yahoo said on Monday.
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9110381

Yahoo makes agreement with Icahn
Yahoo has reached an agreement with the activist investor Carl Icahn that will stop him trying to replace its board. Mr Icahn was annoyed that Yahoo had resisted Microsoft's attempts to take it over.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7517511.stm

Yahoo, Icahn Reach Deal on Board
Yahoo Inc. announced today that it has agreed to give up three seats on its board to billionaire investor Carl Icahn, in a pact intended to head off a high stakes battle for control of the giant Internet company.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/21/AR2008072100640.html

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MOBILE/WIRELESS
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Wireless telecoms: Culture clash-As “third generation” (3G) networks proliferate, the focus shifts to 4G
What would the technology industry be without standards wars? Like a city without sex, some might argue. But not all fights are winner-take-all battles like the one between VHS and Betamax in videotapes, or Blu-ray and HD DVD in high-definition video discs. Sometimes there need not be a loser, and the din of battle may drown out the real issues—as in the fight between WiMAX and LTE.
http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11751174

eu: Mobile firms get more time on data roaming
Mobile network operators have another few months' grace on the question of roaming data prices, before the decision about regulation is made, the European telecoms commissioner says.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/mobile-firms-get-more-time-on-data-roaming-872917.html

WiMAX at sea, the journey begins [IDG]
Ships that call on Singapore can now use WiMAX instead of satellite to connect to the Internet. Already 70% complete, Singapore's maritime WiMAX network will eventually extend 15 kilometers offshore, covering its southern coastline and port -- one of the world's busiest with 140,000 ship calls every year. The government-led project, called WisePort, is run by local operator QMax Communications and uses the same version of WiMAX found in South Korea, called WiBro, that uses the 2.3GHz spectrum band.
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/072108-wimax-at-sea-the-journey.html


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The domain name news is supported by auDA

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(c) David Goldstein 2008

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David Goldstein
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email: Goldstein_David @yahoo.com.au
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