general internet news - 30 October

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

For anyone interested in the latest on the Internet Governance Forum
I'll be keeping my website up-to-date with the latest news as it
happens as well - see http://technewsreview.com.au/

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Sponsored by the Singapore Internet Research Centre
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
http://www.ntu.edu.sg/sci/sirc/

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The Sunday Times Leading article: A curb on free speech
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-2426869,00.html

Free speech online 'under threat'
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6090448.stm
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/26/amnesty_internet_campaign/

Amnesty calls for action on internet freedom
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/26/amnesty_internet_campaign/

Google defiant over censorship in China
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1934297,00.html

U.S. seen balking at challenge by Islamist Web (Reuters)
http://go.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=13941976

Small is beautiful for the net giants - 'Web 2.0'
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1934021,00.html

Is Google legal?
http://out-law.com/page-7427

us: Judge mulls if site demoted by Google was defamed (Reuters)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/27/AR2006102701497.html

Child Pornography Link To Abuse Of Children Unclear, Forensic Psychiatrist Says
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/10/061027153001.htm

nz: Google accused of harbouring NZ racists
http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3840797a28,00.html

nz: Internet users told to up security
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411419/871082

nz: YouTube a new battle for schools
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411366/872738

NZ schoolkids put fights on website
http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3841512a11275,00.html
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10407859

U.K. pushes global rules on gambling
http://iht.com/articles/2006/10/27/business/gamble.php

au: $5.5m fine puts spammers on notice
http://theaustralian.news.com.au/index/0,,2702,00.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/27/oz_spam_fine/

au: ACMA extends Zombie catching service to more ISPs
http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/6636/127/

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RESEARCH PAPERS
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The importance of convergence in the ICT policy environment By Kate Wild
This paper looks at the meaning and importance of convergence and considers some of the challenges to implementing it, along with strategies for overcoming them. It also provides a global perspective on regulating convergence and broadband from ITU and then it looks at experiences in North America and Europe as well as regional and country approaches in Africa.
http://rights.apc.org/documents/convergence_EN.pdf 

The Federal Election Commission and Individual Internet Sites After Shays and Meehan v. FEC by Matthew Fagan
This paper looks at a recent spate of legislation, rulemaking and litigation that has thrown a shadown over the use of the internet by private individuals during political campaigns. The US Federal Electoral Commission is currently debating whether to regulate political commentary on the internet or maintain a hands-off approach. If Congress and the FEC choose to exempt the internet from regulation, bloggers and other commentators will continue their participation unfettered. But if the FEC promulgates any rule governing political speech online, no matter how unobtrusive, everyone who posts an opinion about an election on a website will have to first consider whether that speech falls within the FEC's rules, and second whether it complies with their regulations.
http://www.bu.edu/law/central/jd/organizations/journals/scitech/volume121/documents/Fagan_EIC_WEBformat.pdf

Costar v. Loopnet: Protection of the Internet at the Expense of Copyright Protection? by Wes Barger (Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property)
Under the Copyright Act, any infringement of a copyright, either intentional or otherwise, makes one liable to the copyright holder. However, courts were split on how to deal with this issue in regards to ISPs. Some courts favored a strict liability approach while others leaned towards finding no liability for purely passive actions that led to infringement. To remedy this split, Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, (“DMCA”) which provided a safe haven for ISPs under particular circumstances. While the split over the approaches to liability was resolved, the general question of whether liability existed was not, and new questions arose; such as were the traditional infringement defenses rendered useless with the passing of the DMCA and would active steps to prevent infringement actually increase an ISP’s exposure to copyright liability? This note discusses the Fourth Circuit’s answers to these questions, in CoStar Group, Inc. v. LoopNet, Inc., and forecasts how the CoStar decision will be applied to future decisions.

Update to "Do Internet Stings Directed at Pedophiles Capture Offenders or Create Offenders? And Allied Questions" by JOSEPH S. FULDA (Sexuality & Culture)
http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=936792

Capital punishment and virtual protest: A case study of Singapore by Yasmin Ibrahim (First Monday)
Abstract: This paper analyses how the online community in Singapore protested against the hanging of a Vietnamese drug trafficker in December 2005. Singapore has upheld capital punishment in the island state despite pressure from local and global civil society organisations and diplomatic channels. This paper traces how the online medium was used by the public to protest against capital punishment in the quasi–authoritarian state. The virtual community protested against the hanging by maintaining a rigorous discursive protest on the Internet. These sustained discourses became enmeshed with those of the offline media in Singapore. This confluence of the online and offline media discourses is important in building a two–tier public sphere in Singapore. The first–tier public sphere is one dominated by the government-controlled media and the ruling party while the second–tier public sphere is a space where civil society organisations and social movements express viewpoints marginalised in the offline society. The confluence of these two tiers has a material significance for the political landscape of Singapore. This paper explores this phenomenon through the case study of online protests against capital punishment in Singapore.
http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_10/ibrahim/index.html

A HISTORY OF ONLINE GATEKEEPING by Jonathan Zittrain (Harvard Journal of Law & Technology)
The bulk of this Article puts together the pieces of that history most relevant to an understanding of the law’s historical forbearance, describing a trajectory of gatekeeping beginning with defamation and continuing to copyright infringement, including shifts in technology toward peer-topeer networks, that has so far failed to provoke a significant regulatory intrusion. I argue that the U.S. Supreme Court’s Grokster decision upholds this tradition of light-touch regulation that has allowed the Internet to thrive. The decision thus is not a landmark so much as a milestone, ratifying a continuing détente between those who build on the Internet and those in a position to regulate the builders.
http://jolt.law.harvard.edu/articles/pdf/v19/19HarvJLTech253.pdf

Treason, Technology, and Freedom of Expression by TOM W. BELL (Chapman University School of Law/Arizona State Law Journal)
This paper details the scope of the law of treasonous expression, explains why technology threatens to bring that law into conflict with the First Amendment, and suggests a way to safely separate the power to punish treason from our freedoms of expression.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=936889

ICT Use in the Developing World: An Analysis of Differences in Computer and Internet Penetration by MENZIE DAVID CHINN University of Wisconsin and ROBERT W. FAIRLIE University of California (NET Institute Working Paper)
Abstract: Computer and Internet use, especially in developing countries, has expanded rapidly in recent years. Even in light of this expansion in technology adoption rates, penetration rates differ markedly between developed and developing countries and across developing countries. To identify the determinants of cross-country disparities in personal computer and Internet penetration, both currently and over time, we examine panel data for 161 countries over the 1999-2004 period. We explore the role of a comprehensive set of economic, demographic, infrastructure, institutional and financial factors in contributing to the global digital divide. We find evidence indicating that income, human capital, the youth dependency ratio, telephone density, legal quality and banking sector development are associated with technology penetration rates. Overall, the factors associated with computer and Internet penetration do not differ substantially between developed and developing countries. Estimates from Blinder-Oaxaca decompositions reveal that the main factors responsible for low rates of technology penetration rates in developing countries are disparities in income, telephone density, legal quality and human capital. In terms of dynamics, our results indicate fairly rapid reversion to long run equilibrium for Internet use, and somewhat slower reversion for computer use, particularly in developed economies. Financial development, either measured as bank lending or the value of stocks traded, is also important to the growth rate of Internet use.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=936474

Principles of Internet Privacy by FRED H. CATE Indiana University School of Law (Bloomington Connecticut Law Review/Indiana Legal Studies Research Paper)
This article identifies principles that should undergird the government's efforts to protect privacy and craft privacy norms, and then contrast the application of those principles in particular settings identified by Professor Paul Schwartz in his article Internet Privacy and the State.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=933087

The Copyright Web: Networks, Law and the Internet by ANDRES GUADAMUZ University of Edinburgh - School of Law (NEW DIRECTIONS IN COPYRIGHT LAW)
Abstract: This paper explores the possible implication of these theories to copyright law. The study of the architecture of networks has opened new avenues of research about the way in which scale-free topologies present in the Web may provide new strategies for copyright enforcement. Similarly, a better understanding of how websites link to one another could provide better tools to allocate liability and to distribute royalties in a more efficient manner. The paper asks the following questions. How should we regulate networks if we can find certain deterministic characteristics to them? Is enforcement of infringing behaviour easier to regulate because we understand the technology better?
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=939753

IP addressing in China and the Myth of Address Shortage
In recent years, various sources have repeated a myth that the IPv4 address pool is close to exhaustion. Many of these stories also falsely claim that there are fewer IPv4 addresses allocated to China than to some individual US universities. The Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) is committed to countering this myth and has published an article in its newsletter Apster on this topic.
http://www.apnic.net/news/hot-topics/internet-gov/ip-china.html

Bigger Phish To Fry: California's Anti-Phishing Statute And Its Potential Imposition Of Secondary Liability On Internet Service Provider by Camille Calman
This paper explores whether California’s statute will lead to imposition of secondary liability for phishing, and whether this would have the effect of decreasing phishing. Part I explains how phishers operate and why criminal law has been largely ineffective in deterring phishers. Part II studies the California anti-phishing statute and its legislative history, as well as judicial precedents that suggest secondary liability may be available in California. Finally, part III discusses whether imposing secondary liability on ISPs is likely to be a practical tool in the war against phishing.
http://law.richmond.edu/jolt/v13i1/article2.pdf

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CENSORSHIP, FILTERING & CONTENT REGULATION
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The Sunday Times Leading article: A curb on free speech
It is reassuring to learn that Richard Thomas, the information commissioner, is fighting on the side of the angels against the “surveillance society”. These are the state agencies that hold a growing body of personal and possibly inaccurate information on even the most inoffensive members of the public. It is comforting, too, to hear him lambast the high street banks, as he did in an interview yesterday, for leaving their customers’ financial records in bin bags on the pavement, vulnerable to identity thieves. One can but applaud his horror that a father was on police records as a suspected paedophile for five years after a dinner lady overheard his daughter say, “My dad bonked me last night”, when she meant that he had tapped her on the head with an inflatable hammer.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-2426869,00.html

Free speech online 'under threat'
Bloggers are being asked to show their support for freedom of expression by Amnesty International.
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6090448.stm
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/26/amnesty_internet_campaign/

Amnesty calls for action on internet freedom
Amnesty International is calling on the bloggers of the world to unite to defend the freedoms of their brother bloggers in countries such as China, Iran, and Tunisia.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/26/amnesty_internet_campaign/
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article1932723.ece

Reporters without borders urges internet users to join in 24-hour online demo against internet censorship (news release)
No one should ever be prevented from posting news online or writing a blog, but they are in the 13 countries singled out by Reporters Without Borders for a 24-hour online protest against Internet censorship.
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19459

Google defiant over censorship in China
Google is to enter the political arena in earnest this week when it debates freedom of speech, intellectual property rights and how to connect Africa to the internet at a special UN conference.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1934297,00.html

U.S. seen balking at challenge by Islamist Web (Reuters)
The Bush administration is failing to counter Islamist online propaganda that could propel militancy into the next generation, experts say. From the Middle East, Asia and Europe, Islamists have built an expansive Internet library of sophisticated texts on the ideology that underpins violence against the West and other enemies, analysts and intelligence officials said.
http://go.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=13941976

uk: Cyberbullying: how to protect the children
Cyberbullying and grooming by paedophiles are nightmares of the internet age. But, reports Amy McLellan, there are hi-tech solutions
http://education.independent.co.uk/schools/article1928149.ece

China jails Internet dissident for three years (Reuters)
A Chinese court on Wednesday jailed a dissident for three years for inciting subversion with an Internet essay praising pro-rights protests in Hong Kong, a human rights group said.
http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6129698.html

In China's Net Cafés, Intel Pours It On
Some 11 million PCs in over 110,000 Internet cafés. If you're Xu (Ian) Yang and your job is to sell Chinese on using computers with Intel chips, those numbers will surely grab your attention. In late 2003, Yang, the Beijing co-general manager of Asia-Pacific for Intel Corp. (INTC), was in the northeastern city of Harbin to speak to university students. It was a typically frigid northern day, and since Yang had a little time to spare, a staffer suggested they warm up in an Internet café.
http://businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/oct2006/gb20061026_475353.htm

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CYBERCRIME, CYBERSECURITY AND PRIVACY
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Is Google legal?
A Belgian court ruled against Google’s use of newspaper stories in early September. If you believe Google, it did nothing wrong and failed to defend itself because it was unaware of the publishers’ lawsuit. If you believe the publishers, Google is lying and infringes copyright on a colossal scale. The parties return to court on 23rd November in a case that finds legal uncertainty looming over the world’s leading search engines.
http://out-law.com/page-7427

us: Judge mulls if site demoted by Google was defamed (Reuters)
A federal judge on Friday questioned whether Google defamed a small company by cutting it from its Web search ranking system or whether Google is free to choose which sites it features.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/27/AR2006102701497.html

Child Pornography Link To Abuse Of Children Unclear, Forensic Psychiatrist Says
If someone downloads child pornography onto their computer, is that an indication they're a pedophile, or might become one in the future? That question is gaining the attention of forensic psychiatrists as never before, thanks to recent legislation making possession of Internet child pornography a federal crime constituting an unlawful transmission of information across state lines.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/10/061027153001.htm
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-10/uocd-cpl102706.php

OECD Policy Brief: Protecting Consumers from Cyberfraud      
E-mail and online shopping and banking have become a fact of life.  How does cyberfraud impact the digital economy and what can governments do to protect e-commerce and use of the Net?
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/4/9/37577658.pdf

OECD Cross-border Enforcement of Privacy Laws      
The OECD has undertaken an examination of challenges posed by cross-border aspects of privacy law enforcement. As a first step, a Report on the Cross-border Enforcement of Privacy Laws has been released. It examines the law enforcement authorities and mechanisms that have been established with a particular focus on how they operate in the cross-border context. It describes existing arrangements to address the challenges and identifies a number of issues that require further consideration.
http://www.oecd.org/document/25/0,2340,en_2649_37441_37571993_1_1_1_37441,00.html

au: Google 'harbouring racists'
Racist blogs targeting minority groups in Australia are springing up on the web, but Google's Blogger, the service some are hosted on, refuses to take them offline, says an anti racism lobby group.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/10/25/1161749182901.html

nz: Google accused of harbouring NZ racists
Racist blogs targeting minority groups in New Zealand and Australia are springing up on the web, but Google's Blogger, the service some are hosted on, refuses to take them offline, says an anti-racism lobby group.
http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3840797a28,00.html

au: Police warn Werribee DVD will be treated as child pornography
In Melbourne, police have been questioning a number of young men over an alleged assault on a teenage girl, which was filmed and then sold on DVD. The DVD reportedly shows the girl's hair being set on fire after she'd been allegedly sexually assaulted and urinated on.
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2006/s1775589.htm

nz: Internet users told to up security
Home internet users are being advised to increase the security of their computers, which can now be infected faster than ever before.
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411419/871082

nz: YouTube a new battle for schools
Students from some of our top colleges have posted horrific videos of school yard violence and bullying on the internet.
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411366/872738

NZ schoolkids put fights on website
New Zealand school students are posting video clips of their peers fighting and beating others on the YouTube internet site.
http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3841512a11275,00.html
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10407859

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GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC POLICY
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U.K. pushes global rules on gambling
The British government plans next week to seek international support for legalized, regulated online gambling, emphasizing a trans-Atlantic difference on the issue after the Bush administration's recent move to outlaw transactions with Internet gambling services.
http://iht.com/articles/2006/10/27/business/gamble.php

uk: US gambling law flawed - Jowell
The US crackdown on online gambling is a "new prohibition", which is likely to fuel a rise in fraud and exploitation, the UK culture secretary has said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6090358.stm

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SPAM
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au: $5.5m fine puts spammers on notice
THE landmark conviction of a Perth business seminar promoter and his company for sending 280 million unsolicited emails will do little to reduce the amount of spam Australians receive daily.
http://theaustralian.news.com.au/index/0,,2702,00.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/27/oz_spam_fine/

au: ACMA welcomes Federal Court spam decision (news release)
http://www.acma.gov.au/ACMAINTER.852114:STANDARD::pc=PC_100888

au: ACMA extends Zombie catching service to more ISPs
The Australian Communications and Media Authority is to extend to additional ISPs a trial service that detects zombie infected PCs connected to the Internet and alerts their owners.
http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/6636/127/

au: ACMA and ISPs combine to fight ‘zombies’ and improve internet e-security (news release)
The Australian Communications and Media Authority is further stepping up the fight in combating spam by extending the rollout of its Australian internet security initiative, following completion of a successful trial.
http://www.acma.gov.au/ACMAINTER.852114:STANDARD::pc=PC_100882

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INTERNET & NEW TECHNOLOGY USE
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cn: China looking to stop Internet addiction (AP)
China's government wants to develop technology to stop children from becoming addicted to the Internet. Chinese officials encourage Internet use for education and business but express growing worry about its effect on children and the possibility that it could be addictive.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/business/technology/15868512.htm
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CHINA_INTERNET_CHILDREN

China to develop technology to check Internet addiction
China is considering a law to encourage the research and development of technology to stop minors from becoming Internet addicts.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1830834,00040006.htm

Britain has 1m internet gamblers
BRITAIN has become a nation of online gamblers, with 1m regular users logging on to betting websites and spending at least £1,000 a year each.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-2426771,00.html

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DIGITAL DIVIDE
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uk: Digital divide could be deepening
The number of people in the UK who have no intention of getting internet access has risen, research firm Point Topic has found.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6085412.stm

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FILE SHARING
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da: AllofMP3 hit by Danish court ruling
Much reviled Russian music site allofmp3.com has been hit by a Danish court ruling which forces internet service provider Tele2 to block access to the site.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/26/itnueski_banned/

da: Court orders ISP to block music website (AP)
A court in Denmark has ordered Swedish telecom operator Tele2 AB to block its Internet service subscribers from connecting to a Russian website accused by recording companies of selling their music illegally.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/services/2006-10-27-web-music-isp_x.htm

us: BitTorrent man jailed for five months
A US man has been jailed for five months and sentenced to a further five months of home detention for his role as a leading participant in the BitTorrent tracker site Elitetorrents.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/27/bittorrent_sentencing/
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061027.gtpiracy30/BNStory/Technology/home

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COMMENT, MICROSOFT & DEVELOPMENTS
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Riding the Waves of "Web 2.0"
“Web 2.0” has become a catch-all buzzword; the Pew Internet Project and Hitwise provide data to put it in perspective.
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/189/report_display.asp

Small is beautiful for the net giants
'Web 2.0' highlights how the online world is changing: amateurs come up with the ideas, then the big boys open their wallets: What exactly is the difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0? In essence, Web 1.0 was all about creating simple but effective internet versions of real-world businesses where selling could happen on the web, whereas Web 2.0 really uses the internet as a completely new way to market to people; 'selling' has shifted to 'buying' because the user is in control. He or she broadcasts his or her profile, tendencies and preferences in a way that is picked up by Web 2.0 technology infrastructure and marketing tools.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1934021,00.html

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Sources include Quicklinks <http://qlinks.net/> and BNA Internet Law News <http://www.bna.com/ilaw/>.

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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
 phone: +61 418 228 605 (mobile); +61 2 9665 5773 (home)
 
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