**********************************************************
Sponsored by the Singapore Internet Research Centre
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
http://www.ntu.edu.sg
/sci/sirc/
**********************************************************
Don't forget to check out http://auda.org.au/do
main-news/ for today's edition of the complete domain
news, including an RSS feed - already online!
And see my website - http://technewsreview.c
om.au/ - for daily updates in between postings.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Addiction to internet 'is an illness'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/mar/23/n
ews.internet
EU Links New Broadband Target to Economic Prosperity
http:/
/www.ecommercetimes.com/story/62218.html
Internet jewellers - A boy's best friend: Gentlemen prefer
buying diamonds online
http://www.economist.com/business/displaysto
ry.cfm?story_id=10881758
Google's Search-Within-Search Draws Scrutiny
http://ecommercetimes.com/
story/Googles-Search-Within-Search-Draws-Scrutiny-62270.html
Latin America's ECommerce Leader
http://ww
w.forbes.com/technology/2008/03/21/mitra-entrepreneur-argent
ina-tech-ebiz-cx_sm_0321mitra.html
For the young, TV's passivity is passé next to the Internet
http://arste
chnica.com/news.ars/post/20080324-report-kids-use-internet-t
o-enhance-tv-experience.html
Internet communities: Break down these walls
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory
.cfm?story_id=10880516
Online social networks: Everywhere and nowhere
http://www.economist.com/business/displaysto
ry.cfm?story_id=10880936
German Jewish Group Takes YouTube to Court
http://
www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,542842,00.ht
ml
au: Phone manufacturers' features a turn-off
http://ww
w.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,23407023-16123,
00.html
China Looks Into The Case Of The Mobile Spam
http://www.f
orbes.com/ebusiness/2008/03/24/china-mobile-spam-markets-equ
ity-cx_vk_0324markets04.html
CMS Cameron McKenna Technology Annual Review [reg req'd]
http://www.law-now.com/law-now/2008/technolo
gyannualreview170308.htm
http://technewsreview.com.au/article.php?article=4345
Germany's Top Court Curtails Disputed Data Storage Law
http://www.dw-wor
ld.de/dw/article/0,2144,3203058,00.html
Google loses bid for EU-wide trademark on Gmail name
[Bloomberg]
http://w
ww.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_8622621
us: A Push to Limit the Tracking of Web Surfers’ Clicks
http://iht.com/articles/2008/03/20/technology/adco.php
Phorm tracks every Web move in Britain
http://iht.com/articles/2008/03/20/technology/adcoside
.php
Schmidt: Google may share user info with US gov't
http://news.zdnet.
co.uk/internet/0,1000000097,39369897,00.htm
Business in the Hotseat over Net Censorship by Michael Geist
htt
p://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2761/159/
Tibet: how can we get at the truth when China bans
journalists and blocks the net? by Roy Greenslade
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/gr
eenslade/2008/03/hong_kong_reporters_ordered_fr.html
FBI posts fake hyperlinks to snare child porn suspects
http
://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9899151-38.html
UK outrage at Miss Bimbo website
http://technology.timesonlin
e.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article3613881.ece
We'll regulate until we have an open EU market, says Reding
http://www.eupolitix.com/EN/News
/200803/7739aea5-3c66-4894-b9ff-07bfd6042efc.htm
Google proposes using unused U.S. airwaves for wireless
Internet services
http://iht.com/articles/2008/03/24/technology/google.php
**********************
INTERNET USE
**********************
Addiction to internet 'is an illness'
Tense? Angry? Can't get online? Internet addiction is now a
serious public health issue that should be officially
recognised as a clinical disorder, according to a leading
psychiatrist. Excessive gaming, viewing online pornography,
emailing and text messaging have been identified as causes
of a compulsive-impulsive disorder by Dr Jerald Block,
author of an editorial for the respected American Journal of
Psychiatry.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/mar/23/n
ews.internet
EU Links New Broadband Target to Economic Prosperity
In Europe, broadband Internet access is seen as a ticket to
economic freedom and prosperity. That's one of the key ideas
behind the European Commission's announcement Wednesday of
its intention to increase broadband penetration from the
current 20 percent to 30 percent across the bloc by 2010.
The EC unveiled this goal in its 13th Progress Report on the
Single Telecoms Market.
http:/
/www.ecommercetimes.com/story/62218.html
Free TV heading way of vinyl
The rise of internet television (IPTV) - and in particular,
user-generated websites such as YouTube - will soon see
free-to-air networks "simply disappear", along the
lines of how vinyl records were superceded, according to one
of the world's most senior media consultants.
http://w
ww.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23420452-7582
,00.html
Internet jewellers - A boy's best friend: Gentlemen prefer
buying diamonds online
“Men are intimidated when they go into a jewellery store
to buy their first diamond,” says Diane Irvine, the chief
executive of Blue Nile. Creating a website that looks good
and makes it easy for men to learn about diamonds before
buying has turned Blue Nile into the leading online seller
of jewellery, confounding predictions that luxury and
e-commerce would never mix. With revenues of $319m in 2007,
70% of which is from sales of engagement rings, it is now
the biggest online specialist jeweller, and has a 4% share
of the engagement-ring market in America. It is also gaining
sales in Britain and Canada, where it has operated for a few
years, and last month it opened in 12 new countries
including Singapore and Japan.
http://www.economist.com/business/displaysto
ry.cfm?story_id=10881758
A New Tool From Google Alarms Sites
Retailers and publishers have fought hard to work their way
up in the ranking of Google’s search results and refine
the search features of their own Web sites to help users
once they arrive. Now, Google is taking a greater role in
helping users search within particular sites. And some of
the same retailers and publishers are not happy about it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/24/business/media/24e
com.html
http://iht.com/articles/2008/03/24/technology/ecom.php
Google's Search-Within-Search Draws Scrutiny
Google has quietly unveiled a search-within-a-site feature
on its main Web search engine, giving users the ability to
refine searches before going to a merchant or publisher's
page. The company launched search-within-a-site on March 5
after several days of testing, according to a posting to the
official Google blog.
http://ecommercetimes.com/
story/Googles-Search-Within-Search-Draws-Scrutiny-62270.html
Latin America's ECommerce Leader
There is a market of 500 million people--about 8.6% of the
world's population--that the business media all too often
neglects as it serves up story after story about China and
India. That would be Latin America. Between 2000 and 2007,
the number of Internet users in Latin America grew from 18.1
million to 122.4 million, a compounded annual growth rate of
32% compared with only 12% in North America during the same
period.
http://ww
w.forbes.com/technology/2008/03/21/mitra-entrepreneur-argent
ina-tech-ebiz-cx_sm_0321mitra.html
For the young, TV's passivity is passé next to the Internet
A study conducted by Grunwald Associates on kids' use of
social networks found 64 percent of people between the ages
of 9 and 17 aren't just glued to the couch while the TV is
on -- they're going online at the same time. In fact, the TV
is what's driving them to go online while watching their
favorite shows, sometimes by offering interactive activities
to go along with what they're watching.
http://arste
chnica.com/news.ars/post/20080324-report-kids-use-internet-t
o-enhance-tv-experience.html
UK online newspaper readers fall after bumper January
The UK's leading newspaper websites bumped back to Earth
after record visitor numbers in January, with all the five
groups that publish officially audited figures posting
traffic declines last month.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/mar/20/abcs.di
gitalmedia
uk: Funerals to be shown live on the web
Grieving relatives will be able to watch their loved one's
funeral via the internet as a crematorium goes hi-tech.
Services at Cambridge Crematorium can be webcast so mourners
thousands of miles away can feel they are part of the
service.
http://cambridge-news.co.uk/cn%5Fn
ews%5Fcambridge/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=300433
**********************
SOCIAL NETWORKING
**********************
Internet communities: Break down these walls
History suggests that open standards will once again trump
“walled gardens” on the internet: “The farther back
you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.”
Apply Winston Churchill's aphorism to the internet, and
about the farthest back you can look is 1994, when the
previously obscure computer network first became known to a
wider public. Many people first ventured onto the internet
from AOL, CompuServe and Prodigy, which were
subscription-based online services that offered e-mail,
chatrooms, discussion boards and so on. Having provided
their users with access to the internet, however, these
venerable digital communities were undermined by it.
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory
.cfm?story_id=10880516
Online social networks: Everywhere and nowhere
Social networking will become a ubiquitous feature of online
life. That does not mean it is a business: A large but
long-in-the-tooth technology company hoping to become a
bigger force in online advertising buys a small start-up in
a sector that everybody agrees is the next big thing. A
decade ago, this was Microsoft buying Hotmail—the firm
that established web-based e-mail as a must-have service for
internet users, and promised to drive up page views, and
thus advertising inventory, on the software giant's
websites. This month it was AOL, a struggling web portal
that is part of Time Warner, an old-media giant, buying
Bebo, a small but up-and-coming online social network, for
$850m.
http://www.economist.com/business/displaysto
ry.cfm?story_id=10880936
uk: Plea to ban employers trawling Facebook
A powerful coalition of children’s charities is urging
ministers to make it illegal for companies to trawl Facebook
and other social networking websites for information on
prospective recruits. They say that employers and
educational establishments are known to be browsing the
internet looking for “digital dirt” on young people who
have applied for positions.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/
tol/news/tech_and_web/article3613896.ece
MySpace, Facebook Need To Be Useful To Make Money [Reuters]
If people do more things on social networks, and reveal more
about their tastes and habits, advertisers can better focus
their messages, Web analysis groups suggest. Virtual beer
and vampires may no longer be enough to keep members of
social networks like Facebook and News Corp's MySpace
riveted to their computers.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/sho
wArticle.jhtml?articleID=206905467
German Jewish Group Takes YouTube to Court
Germany's leading Jewish group has accused Google and
YouTube of hosting anti-Semitic content on its globally
popular video site. The group alleges the videos incite
racial hatred and discrimination.
http://
www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,542842,00.ht
ml
Israel-Palestine dispute moves on to Facebook
The conflict over land in the Middle East is fought out not
only on the ground in Israel and the Palestinian
territories. Now the pages of social networking site
Facebook have become the latest scene of dispute.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/200
8/mar/20/israelandthepalestinians.facebook
**********************
NEW TECHNOLOGIES
**********************
Why Old Technologies Are Still Kicking
In 1991, Stewart Alsop, the editor of InfoWorld and a
thoughtful observer of industry trends, predicted that the
last mainframe computer would be unplugged by 1996. Last
month, I.B.M. introduced the latest version of its
mainframe, the aged yet remarkably resilient warhorse of
computing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/technology/23digi.html
http://w
ww.news.com/2100-1008_3-6235344.html
au: Phone manufacturers' features a turn-off
Mobile phones keep adding whiz-bang features, but research
released this week suggests fewer people than makers would
like are bothering to use them.
http://ww
w.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,23407023-16123,
00.html
Andrew Keen on New Media: Has the prophet Steve Jobs found
the secret of our digital futures?
... The most lucid explanation of life after TV I've ever
heard came from a nine-year-old. "After TV," the
boy said, "comes bedtime." You may laugh, but life
after television may well mean bedtime for the careers of
many TV executives. And that's why there is such a frenzied
rush to create product that will become the standard – the
platform, if you like – for the post-television age. This
is the new new-media gold rush. Everyone – from Apple's
Steve Jobs to News Corp's Rupert Murdoch to NBC's Jeff
Zucker to the BBC's Mark Thompson – is scrambling to
ascend this summit first and get their hands on the digital
holy grail.
http://www.independent.co.uk
/news/media/comment/andrew-keen-on-new-media-799783.html
Aussie Linux head: Microsoft more open than iPhone
The world has been turned upside down for Linux developers,
thanks to Microsoft's approach to its mobile platform--today
it's the most open functioning platform on the market, says
new Linux Australia president Stewart Smith. The star of
application-rich mobile phones, Apple's iPhone, has been met
with criticism from the open source community and even
confusion by major software developers like Adobe.
http://www.z
dnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,62039219,00.htm
http://www.zdnet.co
m.au/news/software/soa/Aussie-Linux-head-Microsoft-more-open
-than-iPhone/0,130061733,339287392,00.htm
**********************
SPAM
**********************
China Looks Into The Case Of The Mobile Spam
Beijing vowed to quell mobile phone spam messages on Sunday
after seven advertising companies including Nasdaq-traded
Focus Media were discovered to have sent commercial messages
to practically half of China's population of cell phone
users without their consent.
http://www.f
orbes.com/ebusiness/2008/03/24/china-mobile-spam-markets-equ
ity-cx_vk_0324markets04.html
Beijing investigates spam attack
China is investigating a spam attack after almost half of
China's mobile phone users received unwanted text messages
from advertisers.
http:
//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7311242.stm
us: Adult Web site company wins spam case
A Renton-based adult Web site operator won a unanimous jury
verdict Monday in a case brought by the Federal Trade
Commission under U.S. anti-spam law. The jury in U.S.
District Court in Seattle said Impulse Media Group Inc. was
not responsible for hundreds of unsolicited, sexually
explicit commercial e-mails sent by some of its affiliates
to bring traffic to its sites. During the trial, the company
cited its policies against spam, and said it terminated
relationships with affiliates who broke its rules.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/356247_spam25.ht
ml
**********************
DIGITAL DIVIDE
**********************
Intel: Classmate PC appeals beyond kids in developed
countries [IDG]
Intel Corp.'s Classmate PC isn't just for students in
emerging markets anymore. The low-cost laptop will be made
available to companies that want to sell it to consumers, an
Intel executive said Wednesday.
http://computerworld.co
m/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9
070018
"Digital Skills Divide" Emerging [news release]
A new study from Tufts University shows that while the
"digital divide" may be narrowing in terms of
access to the Internet, a significant "digital skills
divide" is emerging. "Parents' access to
childrearing information appears to be on the rise, in large
measure because of the Web," said Professor Fred
Rothbaum from the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child
Development at Tufts University.
http://technewsreview.com.au/article.php?article=4346
http://
www.newswise.com/articles/view/538960/
'Digital Skills Divide' Emerging
"Parents' access to childrearing information appears to
be on the rise, in large measure because of the Web,"
said Professor Fred Rothbaum from the Eliot-Pearson
Department of Child Development at Tufts University.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080324
201319.htm
**************************
ONLINE CRIME, SECURITY & LEGAL
**************************
CMS Cameron McKenna Technology Annual Review [reg req'd]
The CMS Cameron McKenna Technology Annual Review is now
available to download. The Technology Annual Review contains
short, easy to read articles on topics of interest over the
last year, presented on a month-by-month basis. Topics in
this year's Review include: selling spam lists, illegal
spyware, software copyright, VoIP, the i-Gasm, CD-WOW, the
Fresh Prince, E-Commerce defences, data retention, digital
downloads, domain name decisions, patent ambushes, the
smiley  , Bluetooth
spam, and much, much more.
http://www.law-now.com/law-now/2008/technolo
gyannualreview170308.htm
http://technewsreview.com.au/article.php?article=4345
Germany's Top Court Curtails Disputed Data Storage Law
Germany's constitutional court on Wednesday severely curbed
parts of a wide-reaching and highly controversial data
collection law that requires telecom companies to store
telephone and Internet data for up to six months, dealing a
setback to government efforts to fight terrorism.
http://www.dw-wor
ld.de/dw/article/0,2144,3203058,00.html
German court tightens up ISP, phone data retention rules
Germany's highest court apparently had memories of Nazi and
Stasi abuses in mind when it ruled on a series of
surveillance and data privacy cases this year. In the most
recent ruling, made today in Karlsruhe, the Constitutional
Court found that Germany's recent data retention directive
targeting ISPs and telephone companies was problematic;
going forward, the data retention will still be mandatory,
but the information can only be accessed with a warrant and
only for serious crimes.
http:/
/arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080319-german-court-tighten
s-up-isp-phone-data-retention-rules.html
Google loses bid for EU-wide trademark on Gmail name
[Bloomberg]
Google lost its bid to get European Union-wide trademark
protection for "Gmail," the name of its Web-based
e-mail service. The Gmail name is too similar to an existing
German trademark, according to a ruling by the EU's
trademark agency published on its Web site.
http://w
ww.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_8622621
The Web as al-Qaida's safety net
With the world focused on the war in Iraq, it is easy to
forget about al-Qaida. But al-Qaida has not forgotten about
the war. Even before the first U.S. missiles hit Baghdad,
the terrorist network and its sympathizers were posting
calls for vengeance on Web sites that have taken the
anti-American jihad into cyberspace.
http:/
/www.vagazette.com/bal-te.journal28mar28,0,3493796.colum
n
Anti-Virus Firms Scrambling to Keep Up
The sheer volume and complexity of computer viruses being
released on the Internet today has the anti-virus industry
on the defensive, experts say, underscoring the need for
consumers to avoid relying on anti-virus software alone to
keep their home computers safe and secure.
http://www.washingtonpost.co
m/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/19/AR2008031901439.html
Infected Australian computers fetch top dollar
Hackers are paying top dollar on international blackmarkets
for computers from Australia that have been unknowingly
hijacked and infected with spyware. A Russian malware
distribution site offers $US100 for a haul of 1000
spyware-infected Australian machines, double the price
offered for US machines and 30 times more than those from
Asia.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/03/20/1205
602560478.html
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/03/20/1205602560
478.html
uk: Civil Serf blogger faces disciplinary action
A senior civil servant who detailed the inner workings of
Government has reportedly been suspended pending an
investigation into her conduct. The author of the popular
Civil Serf blog is reported to have confessed to a
Government investigating team.
http://out-law.com/page-
8963
uk: Cyber crime stays one step ahead
Computer crime is not only exploding in volume but is
mutating faster than it can be contained, a new report to be
published next week will warn. Some 2.5 million new types of
malicious programme have been launched in the past two
months alone – more than the previous 15 years put
together, according to the latest data from the security
firm Trend Micro. The UK now has around 1.25 million
"infected" computers. And the average number of
PCs across the world sending out spam emails every month
shot up to 10 million last year, more than double the 4.2
million in 2006, which was double the 2.1 million in 2005.
htt
p://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-feature
s/cyber-crime-stays-one-step-ahead-799395.html
**************************
PRIVACY
**************************
us: A Push to Limit the Tracking of Web Surfers’ Clicks
After reading about how Internet companies like Google,
Microsoft and Yahoo collect information about people online
and use it for targeted advertising, one New York
assemblyman said there ought to be a law. So he drafted a
bill, now gathering support in Albany, that would make it a
crime — punishable by a fine to be determined — for
certain Web companies to use personal information about
consumers for advertising without their consent. And because
it would be extraordinarily difficult for the companies that
collect such data to adhere to stricter rules for people in
New York alone, these companies would probably have to
adjust their rules everywhere, effectively turning the New
York legislation into national law.
http://nytimes.com/2008/03/20/business/media/20adco.html
http://iht.com/articles/2008/03/20/technology/adco.php
Phorm tracks every Web move in Britain
As the debate continues over how much data should be
gathered by companies like Google and Yahoo about people who
surf the Web, one new company is drawing attention and
controversy by boasting that it will collect the most
complete information of all.
http://iht.com/articles/2008/03/20/technology/adcoside
.php
Schmidt: Google may share user info with US gov't
Google chief executive Eric Schmidt has revealed that the US
government has made "requests" for the search
giant to share information about its users, and that Google
would comply if the requests were legal. During his flying
visit to Sydney, ZDNet.com.au asked Schmidt whether, if
Google was sharing information with the US government, the
company would admit to it.
http://news.zdnet.
co.uk/internet/0,1000000097,39369897,00.htm
**********************
FILE SHARING
**********************
Billy Bragg: Let us decide how to exploit our own music
Sometimes there are words that really reverberate with
people. What Thomas Jefferson wrote in the preamble to the
U.S. Constitution is one. I think Barack Obama's
disquisition on race in America is another. I'm curious to
know how the smackdown Billy Bragg delivered to the
social-networking moguls is going to be received. If
history's any guide, his New York Times op-ed on Saturday
called "The Royalty Scam" will fall on deaf ears.
Still, it's worth a serious hearing.
http
://www.news.com/8301-10787_3-9901352-60.html
Taking on the Godzilla of video-sharing sites: Dailymotion
takes on YouTube
In a gray bunker of a building with a graveyard as its
neighbor, a freshly hired strike force of Internet
executives, programmers and advertising representatives is
mounting a grand mission to take on a global behemoth:
Google's YouTube.
http://iht.com/articles/2008/03/21/business/motion24.php
Breaking the Law To Get a Break: Social Site Partners With
Music Label That Sued It
For many music-oriented Web start-ups, a copyright lawsuit
can be a death sentence. But for Imeem, getting sued by one
of the biggest record labels played a pivotal role in its
success.
http://www.washingtonpost.co
m/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/20/AR2008032003729.html
us: MPAA to Congress: Filtering is in colleges’ best
interests
The MPAA has a bee in its collective bonnet about collegiate
piracy, and the group isn't about to let anything so banal
as "facts" get in the way of some cathartic
outrage. How else to explain the fact that the group
continues to petition members of Congress for special favors
that would force colleges to make plans for offering up
legal music services to students and for implementing
copyright filters after the MPAA's own data shows that
schools have little to do with the overall problem? In a new
letter this week, the MPAA continued to push its agenda in
Congress, arguing that filters aren't just good for the
movie business, they're good for the schools.
http:
//arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080320-mpaa-to-congress-fi
ltering-is-in-colleges-best-interests.html
China releases video website 'blacklist' [Reuters]
A Chinese video-sharing website has received an official
government warning under new rules to curb pornographic,
violent and political content. Industry insiders said the
move could scare away future investors in the sector.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/21/2196224.h
tm
China publishes 'blacklist' of video Web [Reuters]
Chinese authorities ordered 25 video-sharing Web sites to
halt operations and issued warnings to dozens of others on
Thursday, tightening their grip on online content in a move
which could scare away future investment in the sector.
Among the Web sites to be warned was Tudou.com, which is
backed by a unit of venture capital heavyweight IDG and
received an official warning under new rules to curb
pornographic, violent and political content.
http://w
ww.news.com/2100-1028_3-6235072.html
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-chiweb21mar21,1
,2919256.story
http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/i
dUKL2084401020080320
Madonna to release new album via mobile
Madonna, the singer who famously refused to make her music
available on iTunes, will become the first artist to release
an album via mobile phone prior to its release in store.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/
tol/news/tech_and_web/article3575836.ece
**********************
CENSORSHIP
**********************
Business in the Hotseat over Net Censorship by Michael Geist
Michael Geist's weekly technology law column focuses on the
growth of Internet censorship and the accompanying pressure
on the business community to do something about it. He
begins by noting that as the Internet moved into the
mainstream in the mid-1990s, John Gilmore, one of the
founders of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, coined the
phrase "the Internet interprets censorship as damage
and routes around it. "Gilmore's comments were a
reference to the architecture of the Internet, which was
designed to ensure that information was delivered by the
most efficient means possible and render attempts to block
content nearly impossible. Yet years later, a growing number
of countries seem determined to challenge Gilmore's maxim.
China is the best known (as evidenced by recent events in
Tibet), having implemented both a massive content filtering
system that exerts control over external content and
demanded that foreign Internet firms establish
Chinese-versions of their services that abide by the
government's requirements.
htt
p://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2761/159/
htt
p://www.thestar.com/sciencetech/article/346695
http://www.circleid.com/posts/832072_business_
internet_censorship/
Wikileaks defies 'great firewall of China'
Whistleblower website Wikileaks has made 35 censored videos
of civil unrest in Tibet available in a bid to get round the
"great firewall of China". Wikileaks said that
posting the videos was a "response to the Chinese
Public Security Bureau's carte-blanche censorship of
YouTube, the BBC, CNN, the Guardian and other sites"
that had carried sensitive video footage about Tibet.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/mar/19/digita
lmedia.tibet
China sidesteps internet criticism
A senior Chinese government official has said that he
welcomes closer international ties to develop the country's
burgeoning digital media sector, but also delivered a stark
warning to foreigners not to use "internet issues"
to meddle in China's "internal affairs".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/mar/20/china.inte
rnet
YouTube Unplugged
As Foreign Governments Block Sensitive Content, Video Site
Must Pick Between Bending to Censorship, Doing Business: On
Sunday, access to Google Inc.'s YouTube inside China was cut
off after the Web site was flooded with graphic images from
Tibet, including videos of burning trucks and monks being
dragged through the streets by Chinese soldiers.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120605651500353307.html
Tibet: how can we get at the truth when China bans
journalists and blocks the net? by Roy Greenslade
Journalists are doing their best to report from inside
Tibet. But the Chinese authorities are doing their worst to
stop them from filing copy or from transmitting film and
pictures. Internet access is restricted too. But, as the
Daily Telegraph's China correspondent Richard Spencer
reports, some bloggers are managing to put up material on
the net. For example, EastSouthWestNorth carries video clips
- though one has been taken down - plus analysis which calls
into question claims by the Chinese authorities that the
revolt is merely a "race riot." It also alleges
that film purporting to show Tibetans attacking Chinese may
in fact be examples of Chinese assaulting Tibetans (it
points out that Han Chinese outnumber ethnic Tibetans in
Lhasa).
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/gr
eenslade/2008/03/hong_kong_reporters_ordered_fr.html
Rusbridger attacks Chinese 'censorship'
The Guardian editor, Alan Rusbridger, has accused the
Chinese authorities of committing an "act of deliberate
and wholly unacceptable censorship" by blocking access
to news websites covering the unrest in Tibet.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/mar/17
/chinathemedia.theguardian
State TV switches to non-stop footage of Chinese under
attack
China has begun to fight back against criticism of its
handling of the Tibetan protests, launching a sustained
publicity offensive as well as blocking foreign broadcasters
and websites and denying journalists access to areas of
unrest.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/18/tibet.china1
The great firewall of China
Imagine living in a country where bird flu is a constant
danger, yet you can't look it up on Google. You're diagnosed
with HIV AIDS but you can't search for a Facebook support
network. You're trying to research a school project on
religion but Wikipedia's content on the subject is blocked.
You're in the mood for some distraction but can't access
YouTube. Even worse, imaging living in a country where
trying to find this information online could land you in
trouble. This is the everyday reality for people in China,
where online censorship is carried out by 30,000 internet
police and state-owned internet service providers. And China
is far from the only country in which controlling
information and opinion in cyberspace is pervasive.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/03/18/1205602389
513.html
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/03/18/1205
602389513.html
http://www.bri
sbanetimes.com.au/news/web/the-great-firewall-of-china/2008/
03/18/1205602389513.html
************************************************
CHILD PROTECTION, FILTERING & CONTENT REGULATION
************************************************
FBI posts fake hyperlinks to snare child porn suspects
The FBI has recently adopted a novel investigative
technique: posting hyperlinks that purport to be illegal
videos of minors having sex, and then raiding the homes of
anyone willing to click on them.
http
://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9899151-38.html
UK outrage at Miss Bimbo website
A website that encourages girls as young as 9 to embrace
plastic surgery and extreme dieting in the search for the
perfect figure was condemned as lethal by parents’ groups
and healthcare experts yesterday. The Miss Bimbo internet
game has attracted prepubescent girls who are told to buy
their virtual characters breast enlargement surgery and to
keep them “waif thin” with diet pills.
http://technology.timesonlin
e.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article3613881.ece
How Australian police broke net pedophile ring
Australian police have played a leading role in smashing an
international pedophile internet network. More than 22
pedophiles who thought their super encryption code was
unbreakable have been arrested in the US, Canada, Europe and
Australia.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/03/22/1206
206971557.html
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/03/22/1206206971
557.html
au: Fight footage on web
Footage of local students involved in a fight as at least 10
schoolmates form a circle to watch was posted on the
internet on Saturday.
http://bendigo.yourguide.com
.au/news/local/general/fight-footage-on-web/1206538.html
ph: Fighting online child porn then and now
There is visible disgust when Alex Ramos, computer forensics
specialist of the Philippine National Police, talks about
the rising incidence of online child pornography in the
Philippines.
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=112593
uk: Parents urged to ban computers from their children's
bedrooms.
Parents will this week be urged to ban computers from their
children's bedrooms. A report by TV psychologist Tanya Byron
into the damaging impact of video games and the internet
will point out that parents have little idea what their
youngsters do online.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2008
/03/24/parents-urged-to-ban-computers-from-their-children-s-
bedrooms-89520-20361030/
uk: Game ratings under more scrutiny
Game ratings are under increased scrutiny following the
decision to give Manhunt 2 an 18 certificate in the UK.
htt
p://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7302407.stm
us: Cyber bullies could face penalties
Responding to the October 2006 suicide of Dardenne Prairie
teen Megan Meier, Illinois and Missouri lawmakers have
introduced bills aimed at keeping teens safe from cyber
bullies. One proposal could put cyber bullies in prison for
up to five years.
http://www.pantagraph.com/articl
es/2008/03/24/news/doc47e82cb6a2b78764276707.txt
Internet Fuels Child Exploitation
The advent of the World Wide Web has provided child
predators a new way to connect with children—and with
other abusers. With approximately 20 per cent of all
Internet pornography involving children, law enforcement
agencies are hard-pressed to respond effectively.
http:
//en.epochtimes.com/news/8-3-20/67825.html
**************************
GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC POLICY
**************************
We'll regulate until we have an open EU market, says Reding
Europe’s market in telecommunications is still not fully
opened or competitive, information society chief Viviane
Reding has said. Speaking at the launch of a progress report
on the market in electronic communications on Wednesday,
Reding said that she would continue to push through her
reforms until the market was opened.
http://www.eupolitix.com/EN/News
/200803/7739aea5-3c66-4894-b9ff-07bfd6042efc.htm
ru: Medvedev saves internet providers from deputies
Amendments will be made to the draft law on strategic
sectors. A source in the State Duma reports that the newly
elected Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has disapproved of
the intension to include internet providers into the list of
strategic companies. Leonid Reiman, RF Minister of IT and
communications, warned earlier that introducing investment
restrictions in telecommunications might result in the
internet drain away from Russia.
http://eng.cnews.ru/news/top/indexEn.shtml?2008/03/1
7/292434
SARFT Punishes Illegal Chinese Internet Video Service
Providers
China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television
has published the results of online audio and video service
provider checks it has recently completed and it has
punished websites that have been involved in illegal
operations.
htt
p://www.chinatechnews.com/2008/03/21/6527-sarft-punishes-ill
egal-chinese-internet-video-service-providers/
*********************************
COMMENT, MICROSOFT & DEVELOPMENTS
*********************************
Microsoft NZ head warns of OOXML no vote
InternetNZ has waded into the divisive OOXML debate urging
Standards New Zealand to reject Microsoft's document
standard on March 29, the deadline nations have to accept
modifications proposed late last month and allow the
standard to proceed to publication.
http://m-net.net
.nz/2254/latest-news/latest-news/microsoft-nz-head-warns-of-
ooxml-no-vote-17.php
**********************
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
**********************
ACMA appoints specialist industry advisor to its spectrum
consultation group as a “public interest advocate” [news
release]
The Australian Communications and Media Authority has
appointed Geoff Luther as Specialist Industry Advisor to its
new spectrum consultation body, the Radiocommunications
Consultative Committee (RCC). The RCC held its first meeting
earlier this week.
http
://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD/pc=PC_311018
It's Too Darn Hot: The huge cost of powering—and
cooling—data centers has the tech industry scrambling for
energy efficiency
A 35-minute drive south of Iceland's capital of Reykjavik
lies the tiny fishing village of Grindavik. One January day,
Kristinn Haflioason steers his car a few minutes out of town
to a vast, snow-swept expanse of volcanic rock that juts out
into the Atlantic Ocean. He climbs out and launches into an
unlikely sales pitch that he hopes will persuade
corporations from the U.S. and Europe to locate operations
there. "Dozens of companies have expressed
interest," he says.
http://businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_13/
b4077060400752.htm
Real World 2.0
In a new book, Here Comes Everybody, author and academic
Clay Shirky argues the future is here; it's time to get on
with it: "Our principal challenge is not to decide
where we want to go, but to stay upright as we go
there." In his book, Here Comes Everybody: The Power of
Organizing Without Organizations, author and NYU faculty
member Clay Shirky describes the profound impact of social
technological tools on contemporary culture—from e-mail
and blogs to Twitter and wikis.
http://businessweek.com/innovate/content/m
ar2008/id20080321_825786.htm
nz: Broadband top telco election issue
Telecommunications lobby group Tuanz is promoting broadband
internet and telecoms political policy as an election issue
this year, as it was in Australia's November poll.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.
cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10499834
**********************
MOBILE/WIRELESS
**********************
Google proposes using unused U.S. airwaves for wireless
Internet services
Google gave U.S. regulators a proposal Monday seeking
permission to use the airwaves between television broadcast
channels for mobile broadband services.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/24/technology/24goo
gle-web.html
http://iht.com/articles/2008/03/24/technology/google.php
Google outlines proposal for 'Wi-Fi on steroids'
Google on Monday said it has a plan to have American
consumers from Manhattan to rural North Dakota surfing the
Web on handheld gadgets at gigabits-per-second speeds by the
2009 holiday season.
http:
//www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9901747-7.html
Google revives push to get free airwaves
Google Inc.'s wireless strategy could be summed up this way:
Why pay for something you can get for nothing?
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-google25mar25,1
,5208434.story
**********************
VoIP
**********************
US court reminds states that VoIP is exempt from service
fees
Late last year, VoIP provider Vonage sued the state of
Nebraska over the Nebraska Public Service Commission's
attempts to force it to pay into the state's Universal
Service Fund. A federal court has rebuffed the Cornhusker
State's attempts, barring the PSC from collecting USF fees
from Vonage and, by extension, any other VoIP provider
operating within the state.
htt
p://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080324-court-reminds-sta
tes-that-voip-is-exempt-from-service-fees.html
**********************************
ARRESTS/COURT CASES FOR CHILD PORN
**********************************
nz: Man jailed for possessing child porn
One of the country's worst child porn offenders has been
jailed for five years after he was found with thousands of
child porn photographs and movies.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cf
m?c_id=137&objectid=10499373
nz: Sentence reduction `not justified' for child porn
offender
A district court judge has been slammed for giving a
recidivist child porn sex offender a 2-1/2-year discount on
his prison sentence.
http://nz
.news.yahoo.com/080320/3/4jl6.html
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
(c) David Goldstein 2008
---------
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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