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general internet news - 6 February
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Sponsored by the Singapore Internet Research Centre
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
http://www.ntu.edu.sg/sci/sirc/
Internet in Asia blog:
http://internetinasia.typepad.com/
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Gates: Web site censorship doesn't work
http://news.com.com/Gates+Web+site+censorship+doesnt+work/2100-1028_3-6034069.html
ie: ISPs ordered to disclose customer details
http://enn.ie/news.html?code=9665363
us: Privacy advocates, politicians decry Bush's
snooping
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_3449263
uk: Lords defeat terror internet plan
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4671566.stm
uk: Internet kills Smash Hits
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/02/03/adios_smash_hits/
http://go.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=11080086
Rumours mount over Google's internet plan with
Recruitment ads for tech specialists in dark fibre and
more
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9075-2023600,00.html
France's legal file-sharing plan advancing
http://go.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=11093859
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CENSORSHIP, FILTERING & CONTENT REGULATION
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int: Combating Racism on Internet
A High Level Seminar on Racism and the Internet - the
4th Session of the Intergovernmental Working Group on
the Effective Implementation of the Durban Declaration
and Programme of Action took place in Geneva, during
16-17 January 2006.
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.2/internetracism
uk: Children 'can access mobile porn'
Children can access internet porn via mobile phones
due to a loophole in phone safeguards, Which? magazine
says.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4671334.stm
uk: Tall girl 'bullied' in chatroom
The parents of a 6ft 4in 13-year-old girl from Rutland
have called in the police after bullies used an
internet chat room to threaten her.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/leicestershire/4679190.stm
uk: IWF in first global ?blogathon? for Safer Internet
Day
Safer Internet Day will take place on 7 February 2006.
Among the host of events taking place, Insafe, the EU
network for internet safety awareness, will organise a
global ?blogathon? which the Internet Watch Foundation
(IWF) will participate in.
http://iwf.org.uk/media/news.152.htm
uk: Childnet And Cisco Systems Teach Primary School
Children To Use The Internet Safely
Childnet International, the children?s internet
charity and Cisco Systems have successfully completed
the pilot phase of their ?Kidsmart? volunteering
project, designed to help pupils in primary schools
use the Internet safely. Childnet International
employees and volunteers from Cisco Systems worked in
partnership to teach over 1,000 pupils, across nine
primary schools in the Tower Hamlets region of London.
http://www.childnet-int.org/news/articles/310106.html
Gates: Web site censorship doesn't work
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said on Wednesday that
government attempts to censor Web sites or blogs would
fail since the banned information could get out in
defiance of official efforts.
http://news.com.com/Gates+Web+site+censorship+doesnt+work/2100-1028_3-6034069.html
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,18015050%5e16123%5e%5enbv%5e,00.html
http://go.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=11070620
http://smh.com.au/news/breaking/gates-on-censorship-resistance-is-futile/2006/02/02/1138836344001.html
us: Schools grapple with policing students' online
journals
This winter, teenagers at a Chicago high school used
their Xanga websites to post obscene and threatening
comments about a teacher, in one case suggesting her
neck be "slit like a ... chicken." Last spring, a girl
at a different Chicago high school outraged students
when she posted derogatory comments about gay marriage
and blacks on her Web log.
http://csmonitor.com/2006/0202/p01s04-stct.html
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2006-02-01-policed-blogs_x.htm
us: MySpace.com Subject of Sex Assault Probe
Police are investigating whether as many as seven
teenage girls have been sexually assaulted by men they
met through the popular Web site MySpace.com.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MYSPACE_ASSAULTS
http://globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060203.gtmyspace0203/BNStory/Technology/
us: Children Can Learn Internet Safety From
Preventative Programs, Say UNH Researchers (news
release)
Preventative Internet safety programs may be helpful
in increasing awareness among elementary and middle
school students about Internet dangers, according to
preliminary research from the University of New
Hampshire. The findings come at a time of heightened
concern for the online safety of children, who
currently use the Internet more than any other age
group (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2002). Research
suggests that approximately one in five youth (10 ? 17
years) experience a sexual solicitation while online
within a one-year time frame.
http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/NewsEventServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=2259
cn/us: Bid to stop Net providers agreeing to
censorship
U.S. congressman drafting law against overseas
censorship after American Internet service firms allow
China to impose curbs
http://asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=38360
China's firewall on the internet (by Berkman fellow
Rebecca MacKinnon)
Writing from 1930's Shanghai, China's great essayist
Lu Xun once observed: "Today there are all kinds of
weeklies. Although their distribution is not very
wide, they are shining in the darkness like daggers,
letting their comrades know who is attacking the old,
strong castles." Muckraking broadsheets in the first
half of the last century played cat-and-mouse games
with Chinese government censors, ultimately helping to
expose the corruption and moral bankruptcy of the
Nationalist government and contributing to the
Communist victory in 1949.
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2006/02/04/200602040003.asp
Microsoft opens up censored blogs
Microsoft has changed how it reacts to government
calls to censor blogs.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4671284.stm
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LEGAL, SECURITY AND PRIVACY
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Internet jihad: tackling terror on the Web
A British citizen faces US charges for running a
militant site hosted in Connecticut. ... Charged with
running websites hosted in the US that promoted and
supported Islamic militancy, Mr. Ahmad is still in
British custody. He has appealed the extradition order
and Britain's High Court will hear the case on Feb.
20. The proceedings will test the ability of Western
governments to put on trial Islamic radicals who use
the Internet as a key recruiting and organizational
tool.
http://csmonitor.com/2006/0203/p06s02-woeu.html
us: Blogger at Center of Lawsuit Is Identified
The identity of the author in a defamation suit that
led to a Delaware state court ruling protecting the
anonymity of Internet authors was revealed Thursday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/04/technology/04blog.html
ie: ISPs ordered to disclose customer details
Digital Rights Ireland says that a new ruling by the
courts could undermine people who have a genuine need
for online anonymity and could deter whistleblowers.
http://enn.ie/news.html?code=9665363
Big brother isn't watching - Google is
Several years ago, while researching a story about
Internet pornography, I did a few Web searches that
took me to some websites that I would never want my
children to stumble across. Although my editor (and my
wife) knew what I was doing, the thought crossed my
mind more than once about the potential damage to my
reputation if someone found out about the sites I'd
visited without knowing why.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0201/p16s01-cogn.html
us: Congressional Human Rights Caucus - Human Rights
and the Internet
Yesterday Prof. John Palfrey testified before the
Congressional Human Rights Caucus in Washington, DC
regarding "Human Rights and the Internet -- The
People's Republic of China." Chaired by Congressman
Tim Ryan, the purpose of the briefing was to inform
lawmakers as they deliberate over relevant legislative
measures:
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/home?wid=10&func=viewSubmission&sid=918
fr: A CD should work on any device, says French court
Two French companies, Warner Music France and the
FNAC, were condemned on 10 January by the Paris
District Court to pay fines and damages of 5.000 and
59,50 euros respectively, to the consumer protection
association UFC - Que Choisir and to a consumer
complaining for not having been able to read a Phil
Collins CD on a Macintosh computer. The CD had a copy
proof system that prevented the duplication but which
also made it impossible to read the CD on certain
devices.
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.2/privatecopy
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POLICY
******
nz: TelstraClear puts the boot in over Telecom
broadband
TelstraClear chief executive Allan Freeth has added
his voice to the general chorus of catcalls over
yesterday's claim by Telecom that New Zealand
broadband was a success story
http://nbr.co.nz/home/column_article.asp?id=14266&cid=3&cname=Technology
http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3560107a28,00.html
nz: Telecom slammed over broadband duplicity
It may have been an exercise in spin designed to make
a positive case to the Commerce Commission, but the
extraordinarily rosy picture painted today by
Telecom's chief exectutive, Teresa Gattung, about the
state of broadband in New Zealand has generated howls
of protest from competitors and consumer groups.
http://nbr.co.nz/home/column_article.asp?id=14259&cid=3&cname=Technology
http://internetnz.net.nz/news/2006-02-02.htm
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/UNID/FF34227A399FAF4BCC2571090026C0A0
us: Privacy advocates, politicians decry Bush's
snooping
Privacy has sunk to a low priority for the Bush
administration. From warrantless domestic surveillance
to the pursuit of records from online search engines,
the administration's actions have privacy advocates
across the political spectrum wailing. They accuse the
government of snooping on a wide range of Americans'
activities, including international telephone calls,
e-mails, airline flights and library usage.
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_3449263
uk: Lords defeat terror internet plan
Plans for new anti-terrorism controls on websites have
led to a government defeat in the Lords - by just one
vote.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4671566.stm
http://news.com.com/U.K.+proposal+to+police+the+Web+hits+hurdles/2100-7348_3-6034284.html
http://www.out-law.com/page-6602
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SPAM
*****
Challenges in Anti-Spam Efforts by Dave Crocker,
Brandenburg InternetWorking
It is said that the Internet teaches us one lesson.
That lesson is ?scaling.? The Internet comprises
perhaps one billion users, millions of machines and
many tens or hundreds of thousands of independent
service operators. It operates in, and between,
virtually every country on the planet. It is used for
personal, organizational and governmental services.
Therefore, it must be compatible with many different
cultures, many different styles of communication and
many different methods of administration. The Internet
has no central point of control and operates according
to no set schedule. Hence, changes must be gradual and
voluntary?when we agree on what those changes should
be.
http://cisco.com/web/about/ac123/ac147/archived_issues/ipj_8-4/anti-spam_efforts.html
Taking Another Look at the Spam Problem by John C.
Klensin
The problem of unsolicited bulk e-mail on the Internet
has been widely discussed, and many classes of
solutions have been proposed. Dave Crocker?s article
discusses some of the background for the solutions
generally, points to a semi-humorous list of ways in
which proposed approaches fail, and compares several
approaches based on source authentication. This
article takes a somewhat contrarian view. It argues
specifically that the traditional models for defining
technological solutions and then letting the policy
and legal communities work out the details of how to
utilize them are seriously wrong in this particular
case and that partially-effective methods of fighting
spam actually cause more spam.
http://cisco.com/web/about/ac123/ac147/archived_issues/ipj_8-4/another_look.html
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INTERNET & NEW TECHNOLOGY USE
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au/nz: Google takes complete control of Australasian
search
Google has 75 per cent of Kiwi mindshare when it comes
to internet searches, a new survey says, making its
nearest competitors into niche players. In Australia,
Google is the engine of choice for 65 per cent of
searchers.
http://nbr.co.nz/home/column_article.asp?id=14232&cid=3&cname=Technology
Netcraft February 2006 Web Server Survey
In the February 2006 survey we received responses from
76,184,000 sites, an increase of 933K from January's
total. This month's survey finds different trends
emerging in hostnames and active sites. Apache
continues its strong growth with an increase of 1.3
million hostnames for the month, adding nearly a full
point to its commanding market share lead. The active
sites data shows a very different result, with Windows
servers gaining 185K active sites, while Apache adds
just 14K.
http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2006/02/02/february_2006_web_server_survey.html
Towards an African e-Index: Household and Individual
ICT Access and Usage across 10 African Countries
Based on the 2004 e-Access & Usage Household survey
that was completed during the course of 2004 and 2005
by members of the researchICTafrica! network under the
direction of Prof Gillwald, this report is the result
of a demand study of individuals and households and
how ICT's are used across 10 African countries. This
ground-breaking research report is now available.
http://link.wits.ac.za/research/e-index.html
Everyone wants a word in your ear
Podcasting has become the 'next big thing' in media,
seized on by traditional publishers and broadcasters
looking for new ways to attract audiences.
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1699442,00.html
uk: Internet kills Smash Hits
Poptastic teen music mag Smash Hits will publish its
last edition on February 13 - killed by a mass
reader-migration to the internet which has caused
sales to slump from a 500k high to 120,000.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/02/03/adios_smash_hits/
http://go.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=11080086
uk: Libraries fear digital lockdown
Libraries have warned that the rise of digital
publishing may make it harder or even impossible to
access items in their collections in the future.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4675280.stm
OECD Conference on the Future Digital Economy
The OECD held a two day conference ( 30-31 Juanuary
2006) in Rome on "The Future of Digital Economy -
Digital Content Creation, Distribution and Access"
with over 350 participants from companies, lobby
groups, NGOs and governments. These stakeholders
debated the issue and discussed how government policy
should respond to the change in content production,
delivery and use.
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.2/digitaleconomy
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FILE SHARING
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France's legal file-sharing plan advancing
The French government is moving ahead with plans for a
controversial law that would legalise file-sharing of
music and films, a move that could undo years of
anti-piracy work by the entertainment industry.
http://go.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=11093859
Memo to music industry: Fans say cut prices, make
better music
While one-quarter of the nation's music fans say
they've downloaded songs onto their computers --
legally or otherwise -- a new nationwide poll suggests
music executives should look elsewhere to explain
their business woes.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/13776684.htm
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COMMENT, MICROSOFT & DEVELOPMENTS
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Rumours mount over Google's internet plan
Recruitment ads for tech specialists in dark fibre,
plus negotiations with content providers, are fuelling
speculation that Google is planning to launch its own
version of the internet
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9075-2023600,00.html
http://p2pnet.net/story/7816
Has Britain fallen out of love with Google?
After shares in the internet company fall sharply on
missed targets, Rhys Blakely asks: have the Brits
spoilt the Google party? ... At the request of Times
Online, Heather Hopkins, the director of research at
the internet market research firm Hitwise, crunched
the numbers and found that retailers relied on search
engines to deliver 11 per cent fewer of their visitors
in 2005 than in 2004. The drop was even more
pronounced for department stores, at 16 per cent, as
shoppers became less reliant on sites such as Google
to navigate the web.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9075-2020309,00.html
Vodafone: Calling for a rethink - The world's biggest
mobile operator hints at tweaks to its strategy (reg
req'd)
The second pillar of Vodafone's strategy, its
mobile-only approach, also looks wobbly. Around the
world, telecoms operators are starting to integrate
their fixed and mobile networks, offering special
deals to customers who buy both services together.
Beyond that, many operators are also gearing up to
offer ?quadruple play? bundles of fixed and mobile
telephony, broadband and television services. If such
?converged? bundles prove popular, Vodafone's
mobile-only strategy will leave it isolated. Its voice
revenues could also be undermined as cheap
voice-over-internet technologies, such as Skype,
spread from fixed to mobile networks. ?Vodafone
continues to reiterate its ?mobile-only? strategy when
internet standards are rapidly blurring any
distinction between fixed and mobile pipes,? says
Cyrus Mewawalla, an analyst at Westhall Capital, a
stockbroker. ?Vodafone management has no strategy for
convergence.?
http://economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=5444969
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ARRESTS/COURT CASES FOR CHILD PORN
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uk: Child porn legal challenge fails
A man who claimed he had child porn images on his
computer because he was planning to complain about
them has been jailed by appeal court judges.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4677882.stm
us: Man pleads guilty to 242 federal child pornography
counts
A 64-year-old man pleads guilty to more than 200
federal counts in a child pornography case.
http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=4455192
us: Tip leads police to child pornography cache
WHITBY -- A man who claimed to be raising funds to
combat child abuse has been arrested on child
pornography charges, police said.
http://www.durhamregion.com/dr/regions/top_stories/story/3300509p-3821281c.html
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Sources include Quicklinks <http://qlinks.net/> and
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(c) David Goldstein 2006
David Goldstein
address: 4/3 Abbott Street
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AUSTRALIA
email: Goldstein_David @yahoo.com.au
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