general internet news - 27 July

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

***********************
CENSORSHIP & CONTENT REGULATION
***********************
eu: Status Report for MPs - Current Internet
Regulation Issues
Over 10% of the world’s population, including half the
population of western nations such as the UK - and
even the odd MP - now use the Internet.  In little
more than a decade it has evolved from a tool used
mainly by academic researchers and technical
enthusiasts to being part of everyday life.  What the
Internet offers us is the world at our screens – news,
entertainment, comment and opinion, and the chance to
communicate with people from vastly different cultures
and backgrounds to our own.
 http://www.eurim.org/briefings/IWF_eurim2.htm

au: Obscene websites move offshore
CONTROLS on extreme pornography and other prohibited
content on the internet have virtually ceased with
just four sites ordered off the web last year.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,10243642%255E421,00.html

http://smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/26/1090693867941.html
 http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=17427

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,10243642%255E421,00.html

au: Safety net for young web surfers
Australian teachers will now be able to educate
students in the safe and responsible use of the
Internet using a new program launched recently by
NetAlert.

http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,10221859%255E21669,00.html

nz: Random Cybersafety checks for schools
A scheme of random audits to be performed on school
computers will not only identify any questionable
material downloaded by staff and students; it is also
intended to finger any security breaches or
vulnerabilities, says Claire Balfour of the Internet
Safety Group.

http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/UNID/20FBD11BAAF4E901CC256EDA0011A600

us: Censored
Ever since Janet Jackson bared her breast on network
TV, US popular culture has been under siege from the
sweeping forces of the Christian Right. With the
Presidential election looming, a bitter war is being
waged in the Land of the Free to decide what people
should be allowed to watch and hear.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,6903,1268410,00.html

kr: Millions of Web users still affected by government
ban
Exactly a month ago, the Ministry of Information and
Communication said it was blocking from viewers some
40 Web sites that could possibly contain footage of
the beheading of hostage Kim Sun-il.
 http://asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=13006

kr: College Student Fined for Spreading Parodies Over
the Internet
The Seoul Central District Court on Thursday fined a
college student W1.5 million for spreading parodies
through the Internet that criticized a particular
party ahead of the April 15 general elections in
violation of the election law.

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200407/200407220040.html

China's war on internet porn
Transvestite sex videos, secret webcams and nude
profiles have been banned as part of a 'people's war'
against Internet pornography being driven by parents
and teachers, and launched by the Chinese government.

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/asia/story/0,4386,262542-1090447140,00.html?

China blocks porn websites
Beijing has blocked 988 overseas websites and shut
down 67 local ones as part of a nationwide campaign to
weed out pornographic content on the internet, Chinese
media reported.

http://smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/26/1090693877719.html

China blockiert ausländische Websites
In ihrem Kampf gegen Pornographie im Internet sperrt
die chinesische Regierung ausländische Websites,
darunter die Suchmaschine Google. Insgesamt sollen
knapp 1000 ausländische Websites betroffen sein, heißt
es in Medienberichten. Im Zuge dieser Kampagne hat die
eigens dafür gegründete Behörde bereits über 500
chinesische Websites geschlossen, nachdem mehr als
22.000 Hinweise aus der Bevölkerung eingegangen sein
sollen.
 http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/49381

Vietnam keeps eye on internet
Vietnam has stepped up efforts to control the
internet, instructing internet service providers to
terminate contracts with cyber-cafes that allow
customers to access pornographic or anti-government
websites.

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1560730,00.html

us: Parents Reconsider Technology for Kids
Amanda Cunningham started her daughter on computers at
2 1/2 with "Reader Rabbit" software and Web sites like
Sesame Street. Like any parent, she was proud Madeline
could master the mouse so young. But Cunningham soon
realized Madeline, now 4, wasn't really learning
anything. She just kept clicking, dragging and playing
the same games over and over. Now, she's in no rush to
get her 1-year-old son, Liam, on computers or the
Internet.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12792-2004Jul25.html

kr: Student fined for making fun of politicians on a
website
A student, Shin Sang-min, was fined 1.5 million won
(1,000 euros) on 22 July for posting cartoons of
national politicians on the Internet in violation of
the electoral law. Reporters Without Borders deplores
this punishment.
 http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=9667
Un étudiant condamné pour avoir brocadé des
personnalités politiques sur le Net
 http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=9666

uk: Should Your Internet Service Provider Block Child
Pornography Websites?
British Telecom (BT), the largest telecom operator in
the UK, announced on Tuesday that it is using software
to block visits to websites that contain child
pornography. The software called Clean Feed, blocks
access to illegal websites that are listed by the
Internet Watch Foundation . Clean Feed prevents BTs
2.5 million Internet customers from viewing child
pornography websites.
 http://crime-research.org/news/26.07.2004/508/

****************************
ONLINE CRIME & ILLEGAL CONTENT
****************************
Innocent users told: "Pay up or we tell the police
about your child porn"
While criminal gangs are more widely associated with
threatening denial of service attacks unless they get
a kickback of thousands of pounds, it seems some are
taking a more small-scale approach to extortion: now
average PC users are being targeted.

http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39122517,00.htm

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39161410,00.htm

Fake Sites Snagging Child Porners: U.K. Law
Enforcement
Faking them out is working wonders for Britain's child
porn battle, with the National Crime Squad saying fake
police-generated Websites have begun appearing in the
wake of a telecommunications report saying as many as
250,000 attempts to see child porn online were
discovered.

http://www.avn.com/index.php?Primary_Navigation=Articles&Action=View_Article&Content_ID=131896

Piracy passions
More than 36% of software installed in computers
worldwide are pirated, it gave the piracy revenues of
$29 billion of dollars in 2003, a survey conducted by
International Data Corporation for the Business
Software Alliance.
 http://crime-research.org/news/24.07.2004/516/

New Virginia strike force to prosecute cybercrime
Federal, state and local law-enforcement authorities
are linking up in a new operation that will
investigate and prosecute child pornography, fraud and
other crimes perpetrated through use of computers and
the Internet.
 http://www.crime-research.org/news/23.07.2004/514/

Senate Committee Seeks More Information on FBI
Problems Intercepting Internet Communications
In passing a bill (S. 2281) that would impose a
three-year moratorium on state regulation of Voice
Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) services, the Senate
Commerce Committee added an amendment that would
require the GAO and the FCC to conduct studies
analyzing law enforcement agencies' capabilities for
intercepting VOIP and other Internet communications.
The Committee specified that its action had no effect
on CALEA, indicating that there was not a sufficient
factual record to determine how any law enforcement
needs for Internet surveillance should be addressed.
# S. 2281, as passed by the Senate Commerce Committee 
[PDF] , July 22, 2004
 http://www.cdt.org/digi_tele/20040722s2281.pdf
# CDT Executive Director Jim Dempsey's Testimony to
the Senate Commerce Committee
 http://www.cdt.org/testimony/20040616dempsey.shtml

*****
SPAM
*****
2nd OECD Workshop on Spam, Busan, Korea from
08-Sep-2004 to 09-Sep-2004	
The OECD's 2nd Workshop on Spam is being hosted by the
Ministry of Information and Communication, Korea. It
will be held in Busan, Korea on 8-9 September 2004.
Click here for the most recent Draft Programme and
more information concerning the workshop.

http://www.oecd.org/document/13/0,2340,en_2649_37409_32270285_1_1_1_37409,00.html

Aust code of practice to shut down spam
A spam taskforce operating under the auspices of the
Australian Internet Industry Association (IIA) has
released a draft industry code of practice designed to
block the spam epidemic.

http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/0,2000061791,39154438,00.htm

************
INTERNET USE
************
au: Study investigates gay net users (reg req'd)
Gay men who used online chat sites were more likely to
be HIV-positive and have unprotected sex with a casual
partner than gay men who don't, a study has found.

http://smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/23/1090464848182.html

China Internet users top 87 million
A report released Tuesday by a Chinese
government-funded Internet industry monitoring group
indicates the country has surpassed the 87 million
user mark.

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040721-043604-9913r.htm

uk: Kids watch too much TV
Children are putting their health at risk by regularly
watching more than four times the recommended daily
limit of television, according to a survey of TV
viewing habits.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/25/ntv25.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/07/25/ixhome.html

*****
WSIS
*****
Research project - Papers towards WSIS II
APC member, the Third World Institute (Instituto del
Tercer Mundo, ITeM) is seeking scholars and activists
to participate in a research project intended to
contribute to the second phase of the World Summit on
the Information (WSIS) decision-making process.
 http://www.apc.org/english/news/index.shtml?x=22260

WSIS _ Declaración de la Sociedad Civil
Los representantes oficiales de la Sociedad Civil en
la Cumbre Mundial de la Sociedad de la Información se
desmarcaron críticamenet de la línea oficial, y
emitieron una declaración alternativa que aquí se
introduce. Enlace adicional al texto completo en pdf.
 http://madiaq.indymedia.org/news/2003/12/2630.php

******************
ONLINE MUSIC & P2P
******************
File-Sharing Over Peer-to-Peer Networks Growing Fast
in Europe, Says OECD  	
The number of people logged on simultaneously to
popular file sharing networks approached close to 10
million in April 2004, a rise of 30% from the same
period a year earlier, according to a new OECD report.
Peer-to-peer (or P2P) networks are used to download
music, movies, images, games and software from the
Internet.

http://www.oecd.org/document/39/0,2340,en_2649_37409_32928423_1_1_1_37409,00.html

WSIS? We Seize! [Anti]cumbre mundial de la sociedad de
la información / 7 al 12 de dic
¡Okupemos el aire y ahoguemos la cumbre de Ginebra en
nubes wi-fi! ¡Civilicemos el cielo y ocupemos los
satélites para los medios comunitarios! ¡Inundemos las
redes de fibra óptica con contribuciones procedentes
de todo el mundo! ¡Convirtamos el bla-bla-bla de los
ONGs en jam sessions de tecnologías liberadas!
¡Contagiemos el virus de los tactical media y hagamos
circular las imágenes y narrativas de un movimiento de
movimientos global! ¡Celebremos la libertad de las
comunicaciones independeintes con un festival de
conferencias y talleres, eventos locales y remotos,
fiestas y pasacalles! ¡Abramos mil bazares mediáticos
y celebremos los canales no domesticados!
 http://madiaq.indymedia.org/news/2003/11/2067.php

us: Senator wants to ban P2P networks
The chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on the
Judiciary said Thursday that a ban on file-trading
networks is urgently required but agreed to work with
tech companies concerned that devices like Apple
Computer's iPod would be imperiled.
 http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5280384.html
 http://wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,64315,00.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6843-2004Jul22.html

Bono Moves to Preempt Thieves 
Irish rockers U2 will release their recently stolen
album on Apple's iTunes music store if it shows up
online, according to a report in the London Daily
Telegraph.
 http://wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,64310,00.html

************************
MICROSOFT & DEVELOPMENTS
************************
Bin Laden 'suicide' virus on net
A virus purporting to show images of Osama Bin Laden's
suicide has been unleashed on the internet, experts
warn.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3923705.stm

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/07/24/virus.binladen.reut/index.html

http://reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=5761558

uk: High Court to rule on credit card liability
The issue of whether consumer safeguards on credit
card purchases are valid for overseas purchases could
be decided by the end of the summer.
 http://www.vnunet.com/news/1156863

Faster, cheaper, better
SUPERCOMPUTING had its heyday in the 1980s. The field
attracted many of the best minds in computer science,
as start-ups and established companies vied for the
prestige of creating the fastest computer in the
world. Interest in these high-powered beasts waned in
the 1990s, as computing talent was drawn to the
internet. This has been changing in recent years. The
ability to build powerful computers cheaply, combined
with growing commercial demand for high-end computing
power, is creating a renaissance in the field of
supercomputing.

http://economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=2941251

What the Net Phone Revolution Means for You
Meet VOIP, the hot new technology that promises to cut
your phone bill and change the way you communicate
(never mind the geeky name).

http://www.fortune.com/fortune/technology/articles/0,15114,662375,00.html

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's Memo to Employees
This year's edition of the annual letter discusses the
challenge from Linux, the progress in software
security, and how to cope with 'big company' ills.

http://www.fortune.com/fortune/technology/articles/0,15114,661919,00.html

Microsoft Is Dead. Long Live Microsoft.
Microsoft's decision to return $32 billion to its
shareholders may be a wise business move, but it is
also an admission of defeat. With its announcement
this week that it will pay a special one-time dividend
of $3 a share, the company is confessing that despite
years of trying, it has not found an attractive way to
invest its cash reserves. After decades of spectacular
growth, the world's most famous software company seems
resigned to a more sedate middle age.
 http://nytimes.com/2004/07/23/opinion/23carr.html

Giving $75 billion back, with lots to spare 
Microsoft is to return $75 billion to its owners in
the biggest-ever disbursement of its kind

http://economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2940879

Real 'frees' Apple's iPod player
Software firm RealNetworks says it has found a way for
tunes from its store to be played on devices like
Apple iPods.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3925897.stm
RealNetworks will Musik für Apples iPod liefern
 http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/49406

************************
CHILD PROTECTION ARRESTS
************************
uk: Child-sex photos man faces jail
A Coventry man has pleaded guilty to a string of child
sex offences including making nearly 9,000 indecent
photographs of children.

http://iccoventry.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100localnews/tm_objectid=14458169%26method=full%26siteid=50003%26headline=child%2dsex%2dphotos%2dman%2dfaces%2djail-name_page.html

uk: Police child porn swoop
POLICE have arrested seven people in south Manchester
on suspicion of accessing child pornography on the
internet.

http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk/news/index/articles/article_id=14943.html

ca: Cries for help were ignored: ex-soldier
A former JTF 2 soldier says the military ignored his
cries for help a year before he was charged with
sexually assaulting two teenage girls and trafficking
kiddie porn. M-Cpl. Denis Morisset, a former signals
operator for the elite commando unit, said he
repeatedly asked his superiors for help as he sank
deeper into depression in 2000.

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/WinnipegSun/News/2004/07/25/556091.html

mt: Pleads guilty to obtaining child pornography
online
An 18-year-old youth was given an eight-month jail
term suspended for 18 months after he pleaded guilty
to obtaining child pornography through Internet on
January 27, 2004 and in the previous months.

http://www.di-ve.com/dive/portal/portal.jhtml?id=144761&pid=23

us: Church meets on child safety
Myers Park Presbyterian in Charlotte is holding a
series of meetings with church youth and parents
following the arrest of an adult volunteer in
connection with state and federal child-pornography
investigations.

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/9243673.htm?1c

us: Milwaukee Man Sentenced To 23 Years On Child Porn
Charges
A Milwaukee man will spend 23 years behind bars after
being convicted in connection with a Beaver Dam child
pornography ring.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ibsys/20040723/lo_wisn/2301582

us: Man Faces 800 Charges For Child Porn
A Richland County man faces charges of child
pornography in what a prosecutor calls the county's
largest indictment, according to the Mansfield
News-Journal.
 http://www.nbc4columbus.com/news/3565485/detail.html

us: Suspected Mall Rapist Gets Life for Child
Pornography
A man dubbed the "mall rapist" in Madison may have
committed a number of sex crimes here in Northeast
Wisconsin.

http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S=2071644&nav=51s7P2mD

us: 'Sex addict' sentenced on child porn charges
A self-described sex addict already serving time for
sexually assaulting a Monroe County teenager has been
sentenced in federal court on child pornography
charges.
 http://www.poconorecord.com/local/mxh24742.htm

us: Camp counselor arrested for having child
pornography
A 22-year-old camp counselor at a Maine boys camp will
be arraigned Monday on charges of having child
pornography on his computer.

http://www.capitalnews9.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=86052

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/3576352/detail.html

us: Waianae man sentenced to month in jail for
Internet crime
A Waianae man was sentenced to one month in jail and
five years on probation for using the Internet to try
and arrange a sexual encounter with a minor.
 http://crime-research.org/news/26.07.2004/517/

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Check out http://www.auda.org.au/domain-news/dn-news
for the latest domain news. Within 24 hours of this
news being posted, a more recent edition of the news
will normally be posted to the auDA web site. The
domain name news is supported by auDA.

Also see
http://greta.electric.gen.nz/mailman/listinfo/internet-news
for an archive or to subscribe to the general news.

Sources include Quicklinks (www.qlinks.net) and BNA
Internet Law News (www.bna.com/ilaw)".

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

(c) David Goldstein 2004


=====
David Goldstein
 address: 2/4 Dundas Street
             COOGEE NSW 2034
             AUSTRALIA
 email: Goldstein_David@yahoo.com.au
 phone: +61 418 228 605 - mobile; +61 2 9665 0015 - home

Find local movie times and trailers on Yahoo! Movies.
http://au.movies.yahoo.com