internet news - 21/2

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

Domain Name News
NAIS Statement: "A Defining Moment for the At-Large and ICANN"
NAIS has issued a statement detailing some possible implementation
scenarios for the At-Large membership for the Board's consideration
at its upcoming meeting in Accra, Ghana. In particular, the statement
offers advice on how ICANN could implement such controversial (and,
in the opinion of NAIS, imperfect) policies as a membership fee for
voting rights and a reduction in the number of At-Large Board seats.
 http://www.naisproject.org
 http://www.naisproject.org/020220statement.pdf

ICANN Warns Against Key Words Using 'Dots' (Newsbytes)
An Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) panel
this week urged private addressing companies not to sell Internet
keywords that mimic standard Internet addresses by using "dots" to
separate text.
 http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174642.html

ICANN Board Members Plan Washington Retreat (Newsbytes)
Directors of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN) may discuss key upcoming policy decisions when they convene
here Saturday for a closed-door brainstorming "retreat," according to
ICANN officials.
 http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174640.html
 http://www.washtech.com/news/regulation/15261-1.html

Claim for the Domain Name alcoholicsanonymous.org (Mondaq)
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. v. Friends of Bill W and
Jimmy K 
Some surprise has been expressed in the media at the decision of a
panel of the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center on 28th December
2001 to deny the claim brought by AA for the transfer of the domain
name alcoholicsanonymous.org under the ICANN Uniform Domain Name
Dispute Resolution Policy. The panel came to this decision in spite
of the offer by the Respondent to sell the domain name via the third
party (www.greatdomains.com) website and evidence to the effect that
the Respondent was attempting to hide his true identity. However, a
reading of the decision reveals the particular (and peculiar) facts
of the case that led the panel to its surprising conclusion. 
 http://www.mondaq.com/default2.asp

AIM Drops 'iMarketing.org' Domain Name at Request of Courtenay
Communications (iMarketing News)
The Association for Interactive Marketing has dropped the domain name
"iMarketing.org" at the request of Adrian Courtenay, president of
Courtenay Communications, who was concerned that the name was too
similar to that of "iMarketingNews.com" affiliated with the
Courtenay-owned newspaper iMarketing News.  
 http://www.dmnews.com/cgi-bin/artprevbot.cgi?article_id=19201

Internet news
Iran nets another revolt (Guardian)
The Iranian government may be draconian, but the internet remains
uncensored, writes Ben Hammersley 
Meeting girls is easy this way," said Amir, as he continued typing,
"You can be relaxed no worries." Amir, manager of my guesthouse, and
local scoundrel, is one of the 1.3m internet users in Iran. This
figure has risen from just 2,000 users five years ago. 
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/internetnews/story/0,7369,653311,00.html

Thailand to impose curfew on Internet cafes (Yahoo)
The Thai government, waging a moral crusade against commercial and
underage sex, says it will impose a curfew on Internet cafes because
they are a bad influence on young people.
 http://uk.news.yahoo.com/020221/80/csoqx.html

Internet users near half billion (ABC)
Some 445 million people were using the Internet at the end of 2001,
with 27 per cent of those in the United States, according to a market
research group. 
 http://www.abc.net.au/news/scitech/2002/02/item20020221194358_1.htm

Child porn surfer walks free (Australian IT)
A senior Victorian justice department official has walked free on a
suspended jail sentence after pleading guilty to child porn charges,
some involving internet images of children as young as
six-months-old. 

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,3816804%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html

Web rage hits the internet (BBC)
We have all heard of road rage and air rage. Now we have web rage.
More than half of all internet users admit to losing their rag with
the net at least once a week, according to a Mori study. 
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1829000/1829944.stm

From Quicklinks
Council of Europe - racism and xenophobia (CoE) 
Publication of Preliminary draft of the First Additional Protocol to
the Convention on Cybercrime on the criminalisation of acts of a
racist or xenophobic nature committed through computer systems and
its Explanatory Report.

http://www.legal.coe.int/economiccrime/Default.asp?fd=cybercrime&fn=IntroProtE.htm
 http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,50529,00.html

EU unveils new software patent proposal (CNET)
The European Commission on Wednesday unveiled a new approach to
software patents, which a top Commission official said would draw
U.S. criticism as it would mean tougher criteria in Europe to grant a
patent. 
 http://news.com.com/2100-1023-841672.html

Australia plans tough laws on IT industry standards (CW360)
Penalties for insecure systems and fines for poorly performing
products form the linchpin of a submission to the Australian
government seeking new laws to lift IT industry standards.
Companies that do not secure their systems, and vendors who sell
products that are not up to scratch are targeted under the proposed
laws. 

http://www.cw360.com/bin/bladerunner?REQUNIQ=1014286646&REQSESS=Kz026DG4&REQHOST=site1&690REQEVENT=&CARTI=110116&CARTT=14&CCAT=2&CCHAN=28&CFLAV=1&CPAGEN=Article%20Page&CPAGET=-99999&CSEARCH=&CSESS=4105517&CTOPIC=

Nigerian Money Scams Thrive On The Internet (Newsbytes)
The arrival of Internet cafes in Nigeria a few years ago has given
new life to an old scam that's been bleeding millions of dollars
annually from gullible Americans and Europeans, experts say.
 http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174646.html

Copyright Panel Splits Differences On Fees For Internet Radio
(Newsbytes)
The end appears near for a three-sided dispute among record
companies, Internet Webcasters and traditional radio stations over
royalty fees for recorded music streamed online. 
 http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174644.html

Judges Cleared In New Zealand Net Porn Flap (Newsbytes)
An Internet porn controversy in New Zealand involving five judges has
ended with the attorney general deciding that no further action will
be taken in the matter. 
 http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174611.html

British Internet users may get cheaper access (Times)
BRITISH Internet users could benefit from lower access charges after
Oftel, the telecoms industry regulator, proposed a 7 per cent cut in
the price BT charges other carriers for wholesale flat-rate Internet
services.  
 http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,5-214239,00.html

Google introducing 'pay-for-placement' program (Nando Times)
Online search engine maker Google Inc. is introducing a program that
allows Web sites to be displayed more prominently if sponsors pay
more money - an advertising-driven system critics deride as an
invitation to deceptive business practices.
 http://www.nando.com/technology/story/260561p-2427830c.html

High court to decide on Web sex offender lists (Nando Times)
Accepting an appeal from Alaska, the Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to
consider the constitutionality of Internet registries listing the
names of convicted sex offenders who long ago completed their
punishment.
 http://www.nando.com/technology/story/258754p-2418383c.html

Movie studio launches trial of online movie delivery (Nando Times)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. on Wednesday launched an online movie
delivery pilot, marking the first time a major Hollywood studio has
offered consumers feature film downloads over the Internet.
 http://www.nando.com/technology/story/262318p-2436230c.html

Taiwan shuts down Web site showing movies (Nando Times)
Taiwanese police have confiscated the servers of a Web site that
violated U.S. copyright laws by allowing customers worldwide to watch
Hollywood movies on the Internet
 http://www.nando.com/technology/story/261047p-2430219c.html

Software lets users manipulate TV (Nando Times)
The digital crowd is fast losing patience with the television. It's a
dumb terminal, a 20th century anachronism. It sits in a corner,
waiting to be lit. The death of the party.
 http://www.nando.com/technology/story/261301p-2431510c.html

Government cyber security chief warns of threats to infrastructure
(Nando Times)
Much like the airline industry before Sept. 11, high-tech companies,
customers and government agencies are well aware of security
vulnerabilities but are reluctant to pay to fix them, President
Bush's top computer security adviser said 
 http://www.nando.com/technology/story/259284p-2421519c.html

Need to Protect Networks Becomes High Priority After September 11th
(Cahners In-stat news release)
According to high-tech research firm, Cahners In-Stat/MDR, the events
of September 11th may have caused the biggest catastrophe ever to hit
the United States’ telecommunications infrastructure. This event,
coupled with additional threats from cyber attacks, have heightened
the need in the eyes of service providers, enterprises, and the
federal government to protect networks from future possible attacks
or disasters.
 http://www.instat.com/press.asp?ID=75&sku=IN020121TX

Peekabooty aims to banish internet censorship (New Scientist)
A long-awaited computer program that can circumvent government
censorship of the internet has debuted at a computer conference in
the US.
 http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991948

Grid Project to Wed Web Services (New York Times)
A worldwide computing project known as grid, whose long-term vision
is to bring the power of supercomputing to individuals, is taking a
step out of the laboratory and into the commercial mainstream. 
In a paper that was presented yesterday at a conference in Toronto,
four computer scientists laid out a plan for marrying their grid
technology for distributed computing with so-called Web services —
the technical standards that major computer companies are betting on
to deliver a new generation of offerings on the Internet.
 http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/19/technology/19GRID.html
 http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,50538,00.html
 http://news.com.com/2100-1001-841789.html

Setting Boundaries on Copyrights (Wired)
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would hear a
challenge to the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act, in which Congress
extended the term of existing and future copyrights by 20 years.
 http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,50527,00.html

States Renew Attack on Microsoft (Wired)
Microsoft has already used its proposed settlement with the Justice
Department to impose harsher terms on computer manufacturers that buy
its software, the states still pursuing the antitrust case against
the company alleged 
 http://www.wired.com/news/antitrust/0,1551,50536,00.html

Firms train employees to tackle cybercrime (South China Morning Post)
Corporations victimised by cybercrime are increasingly taking the law
into their own hands to track down the criminal perpetrators, a
computer expert said  
 http://technology.scmp.com/techinternet/ZZZY0TR3GXC.html

Europe Offers a Patent Law for Software (New York Times)
The European Commission today proposed a law for software patents
that is more limited than laws in the United States and Japan.
 http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/21/technology/21PATE.html

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