general internet news - 20 February

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

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eu: Bits and Bytes to Fight Child Pornography
 http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,1906159,00.html

us: Combatting crimes against children a top priority
for the U.S. Department of Justice (news release)

http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/NewsEventServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=2263

jp: Three arrested for posting comic books on Web

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20060215a2.html

UN targets tobacco advertising on Internet

http://go.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=11257746

us: Poll finds 30 percent use Net just for fun
 http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6040301.html

Net firms criticised over China
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4699242.stm

The worst of the Net - human rights abuses, but what
about child abuses online?

http://rogerdarlington.co.uk/commswatch/comments.php?id=2408_0_2_0_C

Testimony of Reporters Without Borders before the US
House of Representatives
 http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=16471

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CENSORSHIP, FILTERING & CONTENT REGULATION
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Net firms criticised over China
Four leading US technology companies have been accused
of helping China to subdue political strife in return
for access to its internet market.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4699242.stm

http://news.com.com/The+China+Internet+debates+going+nowhere/2010-1028_3-6040715.html

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9075-2042473,00.html

The worst of the Net
This week, a US Congressional body - the House
subcommittee on global human rights - held a hearing
on the involvement of American companies in the
controlling of Internet access by Chinese users. The
Republican Chairman of the subcommittee declared:
"Cooperation with tyranny should not be embraced for
the sake of profits." Hear, hear. We need to sort out
those commie Chinese. But there is a more serious
issue that American politicians and industry are not
adequately addressing. The UK?s Internet Watch
Foundation found last year that 40% of all reports of
child abuse images on the Net were hosted in the
United States. Why are there no hearings on this?

http://rogerdarlington.co.uk/commswatch/comments.php?id=2408_0_2_0_C

Testimony of Reporters Without Borders before the US
House of Representatives
Reporters Without Borders? representative in
Washington, Lucie Morillon, testified on 15 February
before the US House of Representatives Committee for
International relations and Humanitarian Affairs.
During the hearing, the major US Internet companies
such as Yahoo !, Microsoft, Google and Cisco systems,
were required to explain their collaboration with the
Chinese authorities on web censorship.
 http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=16471

Chinese Censors of Internet Face ?Hacktivists? in US
(Wall Street Journal)
Surfing the Web last fall, a Chinese high-school
student who calls himself Zivn noticed something
missing. It was Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia that
accepts contributions or edits from users, and that he
himself had contributed to.
 http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=6981

us/cn: Congress accuses Google of collusion
The giants of the internet were hauled before Congress
yesterday, accused of colluding with China's secret
police and censors.

http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1710617,00.html

Tech's China Policy a 'Disgrace'
Lawmakers blasted four U.S. tech giants Wednesday,
accusing them of willingly helping China suppress
dissent in return for access to a booming internet
market.
 http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,70224-0.html

Google may have to fight second subpoena
Google may be about to face a second round of
subpoenas for search-related information.
 http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6041223.html

Internet muck-raker challenges China's censors
Chinese Communist Party elders and U.S. lawmakers
fired shots at China's powerful censors this week, but
Li Xinde says muck-raking campaigners like himself are
undermining the country's barriers to free speech
every day.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/16/AR2006021602445.html

Congress's dilemma: When Yahoo in China's not Yahoo
A House panel will look into tech firms that cooperate
with China to restrict access and reveal identities.
 http://csmonitor.com/2006/0214/p01s04-usfp.html

Companies, Groups Must Cooperate on Net Freedom Issues
Internet companies must work together with the
government, civil liberties advocates, human rights
leaders and each other to address the concerns that
arise when American companies do business in
totalitarian regimes like China. In a written
statement submitted for the House International
Relations Joint Subcommittee Hearing, "The Internet in
China: A Tool for Freedom or Suppression?" Center for
Democracy and Technology called on public and private
sector groups to develop a set of common principles
that will help to support privacy and free expression
for China's Internet users. For CDT's China Statement
see:
 http://cdt.org/headlines/859

Internet Companies Need Code of Conduct in
Authoritarian Regimes
As Congressional hearings about how U.S. Internet
companies do business in China are set to begin, the
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is calling for
the industry and government to work together to
develop simple guidelines to decrease the harm done by
participating in authoritarian regimes.
 http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2006_02.php#004411

us: Department of Justice Project Safe Childhood
Initiative: Fact Sheet
The growing threat of sexual exploitation crimes
committed against children through the Internet is a
disturbing and unacceptable trend. Today, Attorney
General Alberto R. Gonzales announced the creation of
Project Safe Childhood, an initiative designed to
protect our children as they navigate the Internet.

http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2006/February/06_opa_081.html

pk: SC moved to block ?blasphemous? websites
A constitutional petition was filed in the Supreme
Court on Wednesday seeking orders to block all
material ?defamatory and blasphemous? against Islam on
the Internet and other communication services.

http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006%5C02%5C16%5Cstory_16-2-2006_pg7_31

cn: Chinese Government bans teenagers from Internet
cafés
Teenagers are to be banned from Internet cafes in
China as part of a Government-led initiative to
prevent young people from being exposed to "immoral
and harmful content."
 http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=62930

ca: Internet bullying on the rise, says expert
A traumatic stress expert says cyber-bullying is
growing at an alarming rate. The issue was raised
after a stabbing in a school in Saint-Louis-de-Kent
that's allegedly connected to internet bullying
incidents.
 http://www.cbc.ca/nb/story/nb_bullying20060217.html

us: Cyberspace new realm for bullies' fear tactics
Two freshman girls from a school in Palm Beach County
logged onto Match.com and created a profile for a
teacher they didn't like. Under interests they wrote
"hard core porn."

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/local_news/epaper/2006/02/16/s1b_SKBULLY_0215.html

us: Internet presents new dangers for teens
The picture on Judy Cajuste?s MySpace.com Web page is
one of her posing inside a classroom with tight jeans,
cocked hips and flowing black hair that reaches the
shoulder straps of her white ?Baby girl?

http://localsource.com/articles/2006/02/15/the_progress/news/local/doc43ea4290520a0299371107.txt

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CYBERCRIME, CYBERSECURITY AND PRIVACY
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eu: Bits and Bytes to Fight Child Pornography
European forensic scientists have developed a
state-of-the-art computer program to help track down
child victims of sexual exploitation on the Internet.
 http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,1906159,00.html

us: Combatting crimes against children a top priority
for the U.S. Department of Justice (news release)
Fighting cybercrime will be a top priority for the
U.S. Department of Justice, according to U.S. Attorney
General Alberto R. Gonzales. In his remarks to address
the Department?s areas of focus for the coming year,
Attorney General Gonzales announced the Project Safe
Childhood Initiative to combat crimes against children
facilitated by computers. 

http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/NewsEventServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=2263

ca/us: Supreme Court libel decision victory for media
companies
Man claimed he was damaged by articles available to
Ontario readers of The Washington Post's website

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060217.gtlibel17/BNStory/Technology/home

The Protection of Consumers on Online Auction Sites -
An International Survey
The project aims to Provide a clear picture of how
consumers are efficiently protected by existing
e-commerce or auction laws; Develop reliable doctrinal
work to help and guide in the area; and Provide
in-depth and trans-jurisdictional information.

http://www.brunel.ac.uk/about/acad/sssl/ssslstaff/lawstaff/christineriefa/cyberconsumers/

us: Preventing Internet abduction begins with
supervision
Recently news reports have portrayed gruesome accounts
of Internet predators stalking children online. This
fact has local authorities, as well as parents, on
high alert.
 http://zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16144669

us: Policing Porn Is Not Part of Job Description
Two uniformed men strolled into the main room of the
Little Falls library in Bethesda one day last week and
demanded the attention of all patrons using the
computers. Then they made their announcement: The
viewing of Internet pornography was forbidden.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/16/AR2006021602066.html

jp: Three arrested for posting comic books on Web
An Internet cafe owner in Tokyo and two other people
were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of violating the
Copyright Law by posting comics on a Web site without
the consent of the authors and publishers, police
said.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20060215a2.html

http://nytimes.com/2006/02/16/technology/16online.html

World's first OS X virus hits Apple
Apple?s Mac OS X software has been hit by a
mischievous instant messaging virus - the first ever
to target the platform.

http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/UNID/81DCE8A182EBE5ACCC25711700647B71

http://news.com.com/New+worm+targets+Apple+chat+users/2100-7349_3-6040681.html

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GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC POLICY
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Australia bans graffiti game
Multimillionaire US fashion designer Marc Ecko has
slammed the decision to ban the sale of his video game
in Australia.

http://smh.com.au/news/breaking/australia-bans-graffiti-game/2006/02/15/1139890798010.html

UN targets tobacco advertising on Internet
Health officials from more than 100 countries have
agreed to study widening a global tobacco control
treaty to target advertising over the Internet and
satellite television, the World Health Organisation
said on Friday.

http://go.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=11257746

Italian Gov't Declares War on Illegal Online Gambling
The Italian government's crackdown on illegal gambling
websites is now in full swing. So far, the government
has banned a few sites that were not complying with
domestic laws and only allowed those with formal
authorization to operate online. Italian ISP's
(Internet Service Providers) were ordered to deny
access to several Chinese Web sites showing "Serie A"
soccer games.

http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=274617&rel_no=1

ca: Internet Gambling Advertising Bill Introduced in
Ontario
A private member's bill was introduced into the
Ontario legislature that seeks to prohibit advertising
of unregulated Internet gambling.  If enacted, the
Bill C-60 would amend the Consumer Protection Act by
adding the following provision: "No person shall
print, publish, distribute, broadcast or telecast an
advertisement or representation that includes an
Internet gaming business website address unless the
person believes in good faith that the Internet gaming
business has been licensed or otherwise granted
permission to operate in Ontario or Canada by the
appropriate authority and is operated in accordance
with the applicable laws of Ontario and Canada."

http://michaelgeist.ca/component/option,com_content/task,view/id,1107/Itemid,113/nsub,/

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SPAM
*****
Leading mobile communications companies found
initiative against mobile spam
At the behest of the GSM Association (GSMA), fifteen
network operators have founded a joint initiative
against the spread of spam via mobile communications
networks and published a "Code of Practice". All of
the network operators in Germany except E-Plus and its
parent company KPN have signed the agreement. The
signatories include US mobile communications giant
Cingular Wireless, the Hutchison Group, Turkcell and
Indian mobile communications Group Bharti. According
to GSMA, the fifteen mobile communications companies
serve a total of around 500 million customers in more
than 50 countries.
 http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/69684

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INTERNET & NEW TECHNOLOGY USE
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Worldwide Internet Users Top 1 Billion in 2005.
The worldwide number of Internet users surpassed 1
billion in 2005?up from only 45M in 1995 and 420M in
2000.
 http://c-i-a.com/pr0106.htm

us: Poll finds 30 percent use Net just for fun
Nearly one-third of American Internet users go online
just for fun rather than to check e-mail, read news or
use a search engine, a sharp increase from a year ago,
according to a survey released Wednesday.
 http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6040301.html

http://go.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=11232934

Surfing for Fun (Pew Internet & American Life Project)
About 40 million Americans were browsing the web just
for fun or to pass the time on a typical day in
December 2005.

http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/175/report_display.asp

Mobile operators set sights on last frontier
Anyone who considers travel to remote parts of the
globe or in a plane as a refuge from mobile phone
calls should enjoy it while it lasts, because areas
until now out of reach are set to get connected.

http://go.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=11256213

au: Ring tones drain kids' pockets
CHILDREN continue to be sucked into signing up for
costly ring tone subscriptions despite moves to crack
down on the industry.

http://smh.com.au/news/national/ring-tones-drain-kids-pockets/2006/02/18/1140151850839.html

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(c) David Goldstein 2006

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


		
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