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general internet news - 4 June
Don't forget to check out http://auda.org.au/domain-news/ for a more recent edition of the complete domain news, including an RSS feed - already online!
And see my website - http://technewsreview.com.au/ - for regular updates in between postings.
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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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nz: Dolphin and friends help protect children from internet sharks
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=35&objectid=10443226
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/488120/1162137
au: Private schoolboys in 'fight clubs'
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21842716-2,00.html
uk: Child protection chief slated in paedophile treatment row
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article2606475.ece
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2093769,00.html
uk: Paedophiles 'need treatment, not prison'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2093251,00.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article1870152.ece
us: Spying on the home front - in a permanent war against a hidden enemy, PBS examines how far has the US government gone in hunting terrorists by watching its citizens?
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/homefront/
Newly nasty: Defences against cyberwarfare are still rudimentary. That's scary
http://economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9228757
Analysis: Russian Gov't Not Behind Estonia DDOS Attacks
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,132469-c,legalissues/article.html
Ever been cyber-vetted?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/career_and_jobs/secretarial/article1758122.ece
New Zealanders most likely to hunt bomb recipes
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10443518
Spammers' use of AI only just begun
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/05/31/Spammers-use-of-AI-only-just-begun_1.html
Does digital file sharing render copyright obsolete?
http://iht.com/articles/2007/06/03/business/rights04.php
Google strikes at Microsoft
http://iht.com/articles/2007/05/31/business/google.1-65268.php
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CENSORSHIP
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Freed Syrian dissident hails net campaign
A tortured blogger in Syria says he owes his release to a pressure group which marks its first birthday this week. Ali Sayed al-Shihabi, now released by the Syrian government, paid tribute last week to Irrepressible.info, the joint campaign run by Amnesty International and The Observer which calls for an end to the persecution of bloggers by repressive regimes.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2094194,00.html
Concern about Microsoft research in China into "profiling" Internet users
Reporters Without Borders is worried about a report in the British magazine The New Scientist that a Microsoft laboratory based in China is carrying out research on software that can analyse the behaviour of Internet users with precision and draw up a profile of them (their age, sex, geographic origin and so on). The US software corporation’s aim is get to know its users better in order to deliver targeted advertising.
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=22379
uk: RSPB website bans use of the word 'cock'
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has banned the use of the word "cock" when applied to the male of the species, in case it causes offence. In a move condemned for "taking political correctness too far", a correspondent on an RSPB online forum was surprised to find that his use of the word "cock", when referring to a male blackbird, was replaced with four asterisks.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/01/nrspb01.xml
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CHILD PROTECTION, FILTERING & CONTENT REGULATION
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nz: Dolphin and friends help protect children from internet sharks
Sprat the fish has a serious role despite looking cute. The cartoon character is part of the online cartoon series Hector's World, launched yesterday, which aims to educate children as young as 2 about internet safety. Figures from internet safety group NetSafe show that four out of five New Zealand children use the web to help with their homework.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=35&objectid=10443226
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/488120/1162137
nz: Hector's World - Business, Governement and Charity Connect to Keep Very Young Kids Safe Online (news release)
In a unique alliance, Microsoft New Zealand, the Government1 and charity Hector's World, joined forces to produce a valuable new resource designed to keep very young children safer while using the internet and other information and communication technology.
http://netsafe.org.nz/isgnews/news_hector_business_government.aspx
nz: Hector's World - Protecting Our Youngest and Most Vulnerable Online (news release)
In Auckland, a new resource was launched to help teach under 10 year olds how to be safer while using the internet and mobile phones.
http://netsafe.org.nz/isgnews/release_hectors_world_protecting.aspx
au: Private schoolboys in 'fight clubs'
Students from some of Australia's most exclusive private schools are organising "fight clubs" in which teenagers ruthlessly beat one another while others capture the violence on video before posting it on the internet. Footage recently posted on the web shows two Melbourne school students fighting while more than 20 others watch the brawl and scream "fight" and "get the terrorist".
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21842716-2,00.html
uk: Child protection chief slated in paedophile treatment row
A police child protection chief at the centre of a row about how paedophiles should be dealt with yesterday stressed that child sex abuse will not be tolerated. Jim Gamble of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre was criticised by a children's charity for arguing that paedophiles convicted of looking at child pornography should not necessarily go to prison. He argued that the offender could receive a caution and be managed within the community. He was praised elsewhere for saying that prison alone was not the answer to the problem.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article2606475.ece
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2093769,00.html
uk: Paedophiles 'need treatment, not prison'
"Viewing" paedophiles should be treated in the community rather than be sent to jail, the head of the national police child protection unit said today.
Jim Gamble, head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), said too many people were being convicted of child sex offences to be dealt with in the criminal justice system.
He proposed that lower risk offenders, such as those convicted of downloading abusive images of children, should receive a police caution and then be managed in the community.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2093251,00.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article1870152.ece
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=KQXLJBXV00Q2BQFIQMFCFFOAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2007/06/01/npaedo201.xml
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article2602644.ece
uk: Child sex offender plan condemned
Britain's child protection chief has been criticised for arguing that not all child sex offenders should be sent to prison.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6713455.stm
uk: Treatment of child porn voyeurs
A police child protection chief has argued that paedophiles who look at child pornography on the internet should not necessarily go to prison. But just how should they be dealt with? Child abuse experts and the police in Britain were shocked by the scale of internet child porn revealed by an inquiry known as Operation Ore. Around 2,300 people were found guilty of offences earlier this year following a four-year inquiry into images accessed from a US website.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6711363.stm
uk: Pupils crack schools' internet safety filters
Thousands of schoolchildren have made it their mission to break through internet filters in schools meant to stop them surfing 'social network' websites such as Bebo, MySpace and Facebook. Head teachers are increasingly banning access to the web pages, which allow pupils to post pictures, share music and make new friends, amid fears that they are being targeted by bullies and paedophiles. But children, addicted to popular sites, are determined to thwart their efforts and crack the security.
http://education.guardian.co.uk/students/news/story/0,,2094356,00.html
uk: Teenagers lured into meeting virtual strangers
One in five teenagers has met someone face-to-face whom they first encountered on the internet, according to research into the risks taken by young people online. The study found that teenagers also freely hand out personal information to strangers. Details divulged include full name (30 per cent), address (12 per cent), mobile number (20 per cent) and where they go to school (46 per cent), while 9 per cent had posted family photos. Other surveys have found the number of teenagers meeting up offline ranges from 7 per cent to 14 per cent.
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article1862533.ece
http://out-law.com/page-8101
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/01/children_internet_survey/
uk: Bullies stalking the world of cyberspace
People who are bullied at work or school may not be able to escape their tormentors in the virtual world, researchers said yesterday. Millions of people have logged on to Second Life, an internet craze that allows a user to create an online alter ego. But researchers from the University of Nottingham claim that bullying, known in cyberspace as griefing, is as big a problem in the virtual world as is in the real world.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/31/nbully31.xml
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/science_technology/cyberbullying+on+the+increase/538057
International Missing Children's Day- Commission steps up efforts to better protect children in EU (news release)
For the third consecutive year, the European Commission is supporting the International Missing Children's Day on 25 May, organised by the European Federation for Missing and Sexually Exploited Children of which the main purpose is to spread a message of hope and solidarity at the international level. To strengthen its actions in favour of children and young people, the Commission adopted a Communication “Towards an EU strategy on the rights of the child” on 4 July 2006 which advocated the setting up of a "European Forum for the Rights of the Child" as an instrument for promoting the effective exchange of information and good practices and establishing a network of stakeholders in this field. The first meeting of the Forum will be held on 4 June in Berlin.
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/07/707&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
ph: Battling child pornography
With but a few days left to accomplish the job, both Senators Jamby Madrigal and Pia Cayetano are set to do battle against the scourge of child pornography that is corroding the fundamental human rights of Filipino children and the family as society’s basic social unit. However, they may have differing views on certain aspects of the problem.
http://manilatimes.net/national/2007/june/04/yehey/opinion/20070604opi6.html
How to find a safe space on the internet
Children can avoid danger on sites shared with millions of people - if they are protected.
The rise of social networking sites such as MySpace among office workers looks set to become responsible for more lost working hours than the flu. For schools, the sites pose more serious problems. Stories of paedophiles grooming children terrify parents and teachers, and anyone logging on to the sites can easily find examples of bullying. Despite the dangers, they are dizzyingly popular. MySpace alone lays claim to 180 million members worldwide, most of them young people. Popular, yes, but not always pleasant. This month an NSPCC poll on one site, Habbo, found that half of the 11 to 16 year olds polled have had an "unwanted experience" online.
http://education.independent.co.uk/schools/article2595658.ece
Kids socialize in a virtual world as avatars (Reuters)
Children have always enjoyed make-believe. Now, some new Web sites are letting them live out their fantasies in virtual worlds using self-designed avatars.
http://news.com.com/2100-1026_3-6188349.html
http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUKN3118618120070601
We bonded over the goths and the punks
This story by Observer journalist Ed Vulliamy is mostly about how when he returned from America four years ago, he wanted to nurture his relationship with his London-based daughter. A shared love of music proved crucial as he began taking Elsa, then aged 11, to see her favourite bands - obscure goths discovered on the internet. It was the start of an 18-month voyage of discovery that brought them closer than ever. This voyage of discovery includes Elsa subtly but effectively being bullied at primary school, which had awakened her interest in pop music. As Elsa’s musical tastes developed, she has bloomed says her father. She asserted herself and found company she enjoys - some of it on the internet, but mostly in the flesh - and which appreciates her in return. The article includes some background on how she made friends using the internet, discovering “friends” with similar tastes around the world. It’s inclusion is an antidote to the regular stories of kids meeting
strangers that should be avoided. It’s a good news story of a developing relationship between father and daughter and includes some detail on the role of the internet in a girl’s life, how it helps her develop.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2088833,00.html
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CYBERCRIME, CYBERSECURITY AND PRIVACY
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us: Spying on the home front - in a permanent war against a hidden enemy, PBS examines how far has the US government gone in hunting terrorists by watching its citizens?
"So many people in America think this does not affect them. They've been convinced that these programs are only targeted at suspected terrorists. … I think that's wrong. … Our programs are not perfect, and it is inevitable that totally innocent Americans are going to be affected by these programs," former CIA Assistant General Counsel Suzanne Spaulding tells FRONTLINE correspondent Hedrick Smith in Spying on the Home Front.
9/11 has indelibly altered America in ways that people are now starting to earnestly question: not only perpetual orange alerts, barricades and body frisks at the airport, but greater government scrutiny of people's records and electronic surveillance of their communications. The watershed, officials tell FRONTLINE, was the government's shift after 9/11 to a strategy of pre-emption at home -- not just prosecuting terrorists for breaking the law, but trying to find and stop them before they strike.
President Bush described his anti-terrorist measures as narrow and targeted, but a FRONTLINE investigation has found that the National Security Agency (NSA) has engaged in wiretapping and sifting Internet communications of millions of Americans; the FBI conducted a data sweep on 250,000 Las Vegas vacationers, and along with more than 50 other agencies, they are mining commercial-sector data banks to an unprecedented degree.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/homefront/
Newly nasty: Defences against cyberwarfare are still rudimentary. That's scary
Imagine that agents of a hostile power, working in conjunction with organised crime, could cause huge traffic jams in your country's biggest cities—big enough to paralyse business, the media, government and public services, and to cut you off from the world. That would be seen as a grave risk to national security, surely?
Yes—unless the attacks came over the internet. For most governments, defending their national security against cyberwarfare means keeping hackers out of important government computers. Much less thought has been given to the risks posed by large-scale disruption of the public internet. Modern life depends on it, yet it is open to all comers. That is why the world's richest countries and their military planners are now studying intensively the attacks on Estonia that started four weeks ago, amid that country's row with Russia about moving a Soviet-era war memorial.
http://economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9228757
The Economist also has a list of the internet's greatest hits - Milestones in the history of information warfare:
http://economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9228794
Analysis: Russian Gov't Not Behind Estonia DDOS Attacks
The string of crippling DDOS (distributed denial-of-service) attacks against Estonia didn't appear to be a coordinated attack by one entity within Russia, wrote Jose Nazario, senior security engineer with Arbor Networks Inc., in a commentary. Although Russia was quickly accused, Russian government officials denied involvement. Difficulties in tracing the source of the DDOS attacks left more suspicions than facts. But further analysis throws doubt on whether a single agency alone was involved, given that the attacks came from computers around the world, Nazario wrote.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,132469-c,legalissues/article.html
Estonia: Under Siege on the Web
The siege of Estonia highlighted a major worry for governments, corporations and network administrators everywhere. "As familiarity with these technologies grows, and more and more actors get involved in information technology," this kind of attack will "become more of an issue," warned U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1626744,00.html
Ever been cyber-vetted?
Black marks on your web profile could mean that you miss out on a lucrative job opportunity
It can seem a laugh at the time, but be careful. That excruciating clip filmed by your drunken mates can return to haunt you. British firms are increasingly following American companies in using the internet to dig up “digital dirt” on potential future employees. In March, in a poll of 500 employers by Poolia, recruitment agency two thirds admitted regularly carrying out internet searches, including checking social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and YouTube. An even larger poll, of 2,000 workers and 600 employers, by the social networking site Viadeo suggested that one organisation in five carries out such checks — and that a quarter of those that did had rejected applicants as a result.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/career_and_jobs/secretarial/article1758122.ece
New Zealanders most likely to hunt bomb recipes
Internet users in New Plymouth and Auckland are the keenest in the world to find recipes for making bombs, according to a leading counter-terrorism expert. Nicholas O'Brien, a former Scotland Yard terrorism expert, told a security conference in Sydney yesterday that the popular internet search engine Google had recorded an extraordinary number of NZ-based searches for bomb-making techniques, the West Australian newspaper reported.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10443518
us: Porn director faces charges for online distribution
A well-known director and producer of adult films has been indicted on obscenity charges for distributing his movies online and through the mail, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida, in Tampa, handed down a 10-count obscenity indictment against Paul F. Little, age 50, of Altadena, California, and MaxWorld Entertainment on May 17. The charges against Little, known as Max Hardcore, were unsealed Wednesday.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/05/31/Porn-director-faces-charges-for-online-distribution_1.html
All-seeing Google Street View prompts privacy fears
The latest phase in Google's mission to organise the world's information — thousands of street-level photographs of major American cities — has raised questions that the search engine is invading people's privacy. The new feature on Google's map service, called "Street View", was unveiled this week at the Where 2.0 conference in San Jose, California, but within hours of the photographs of downtown San Francisco and New York hitting the internet, bloggers were posting images of people, their faces visible, being arrested, sunbathing and urinating in public.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article1870995.ece
http://nytimes.com/2007/06/01/technology/01private.html
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GOOGLE_CANDID_CAMERA?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-06-03-17-25-49
EU decision on Google data privacy months away (Reuters)
The European Union's data watchdog will take months to decide whether Google may be violating European privacy laws, a spokeswoman for the group said on Thursday.
http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSL3169475320070531
http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKL3169475320070531
Google privacy policy 'is vague'
Elements of Google's privacy policy are "vague" and need to be made more precise, the firm's global privacy counsel has told BBC News.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6704013.stm
The US pole vaulter and her unwanted internet fans
Of all the clips you might expect to become a YouTube phenomenon, an interview with a student pole vaulter - in which she outlines her training and talks of her plans for the future - probably isn't one of them. In the past month, though, a three-minute interview with 18-year-old Californian athlete Alison Stokke has racked up almost 260,000 viewings. At the same time, an unofficial MySpace site called "Alison Stokke fans" has attracted 1,015 "friends". Countless blogs have run photographs of her, and she has been the subject of a fake Facebook entry in her name (which has been taken down).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2091654,00.html
uk: Duo fined for dating website joke
Two teenagers have been fined £80 by police for posting a friend's details on a dating website as a joke.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/hereford/worcs/6709091.stm
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GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC POLICY
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Treating Different Types of Communications Differently by David Isenberg
A friend who read my Creating Sustainable Network Neutrality paper wrote to say, "Help me understand what is so bad about treating different types of communications differently." That's a really good question! If you want to offer vertically integrated services on special purpose networks, such as video entertainment or pager service or telephony, I do not have a problem with that, provided you don't use your market power to impede Internet applications that offer competing services.
http://www.circleid.com/posts/network_neutrality_communication_types/
au: ACMA publishes Media Diversity Report (news release)
Comprehensive information on media groups and operations across Australia is now available following the publication today of the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s Media Diversity Report. ‘The Media Diversity Report is a supplementary report to the Register of Controlled Media Groups and was foreshadowed when the Register was launched on 27 March 2007,’ said Chris Chapman, ACMA Chairman.
http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD//pc=PC_310264
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SPAM
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Spammers' use of AI only just begun
Though security industry experts were openly referring to the death of spam several years ago, the arrival of image-based attacks has resulted in a stunning renaissance in the volumes of unwanted e-mail reaching end-users' inboxes. And while filtering technologies have improved significantly and can thwart the ability of most image spam to force its way onto corporate networks today, some experts believe that the fight against the use of such AI (artificial intelligence) tactics on the part of spammers is only just getting underway.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/05/31/Spammers-use-of-AI-only-just-begun_1.html
The New Hong Kong Anti-Spam Law, and a Small Fly in the Ointment by Suresh Ramasubramanian
Well, it has been quite a while since first the Hong Kong OFTA (in 2004) and then CITB (in 2006) issued requests for public comment about a proposed UEM (Unsolicited Electronic Messaging) bill to be introduced in Hong Kong, for the purpose of regulating unsolicited email, telephone and fax solicitations. We're a large (worldwide) provider of email and spam filtering - but we're based in Hong Kong, and any regulation there naturally gets tracked by us rather more actively than laws elsewhere. We sent in our responses to both these agencies... The bill is becoming law now - and most of it looks good... There's one major fly in the ointment though.
http://www.circleid.com/posts/hong_kong_anti_spam_law/
'Spam King' pleads not guilty to charges in e-mail case
The 27-year-old businessman pleaded not guilty in Seattle to charges that he had sent millions of unsolicited junk e-mails.
http://iht.com/articles/2007/06/01/business/spam.php
Arrest of 'spam king' no relief for inboxes
The arrest of one of the world's most persistent spammers has failed to halt the growing deluge of junk e-mail
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article1870548.ece
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article1873105.ece
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INTERNET & NEW TECHNOLOGY USE
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Watch out Second Life: China launches virtual universe with seven million souls
This week may mark a coming of age for virtual worlds - the three-dimensional spaces on the internet where people have their own avatars, or on-screen characters. Last night BBC2's The Money Programme was screened in Second Life, the best known of the dozens of virtual realities that are springing up. This week Sky News opened a replica of its studio in Second Life and IBM sponsored a ballet. Yesterday the Swedish virtual world Entropia Universe announced that it was teaming up with CRD, an offshoot of the Beijing municipality, to build a virtual universe able to handle 7 million users at any one moment. David Liu, chief executive of CRD, claimed that virtual worlds would generate about 10,000 jobs in China.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2093757,00.html
uk: Worried families ditch their Wi-Fi after watchdog voices health concerns
Schools and families are rushing to remove Wi-Fi systems after the Government's chief health protection watchdog voiced concerns over their safety. Sir William Stewart's call for a "timely" review of the possible effects of the technology - originally reported by The Independent on Sunday in April and featured by the BBC's Panorama programme last month - has led to an unprecedented reaction from the public, according to one large dealer.
http://news.independent.co.uk/health/article2609317.ece
For pornographers, Internet's virtues turn to vice
The Internet was supposed to be a tremendous boon for the pornography industry, creating a global market of images and videos accessible from the privacy of a home computer. For a time it worked, with wider distribution and social acceptance driving a steady increase in sales.
http://news.com.com/2100-1026_3-6188341.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/02/technology/02porn.html
Growth in exhibitionism traced to porn (AP)
Porn used to be relegated to a video hidden in the bottom drawer, or a magazine under the mattress. Today, it's part of everyday life. Hugh Hefner's girlfriends have become TV's "girls next door." Porn stars have MySpace pages and do voiceovers for video games. And while "porn on demand" is standard for hotel TVs and upgraded cable packages, it's even easier to find it with a few clicks on the computer.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/06/04/1180809354953.html
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-06-03-porneffect_N.htm
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/THE_PORN_EFFECT?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-06-03-17-12-47
Getting Naked on the Internet Is Risky, but Rewarding
"You know you spend way too much time looking at internet porn when you Google 'cream pies' and are surprised when the top results are all recipes for banana-and-chocolate cream pies," writes Audacia Ray, whose book Naked on the Internet: Hookups, Downloads and Cashing In on Internet Sexploration hits stores Friday.
http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/commentary/sexdrive/2007/06/sexdrive_0601
AP seeks to track story use on Net
The Associated Press signed a deal Thursday with a Redwood City start-up to track how news stories get spread around the Internet.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_6035617
BBC to broadcast in 'Second Life'
In the Second Life economy, more than $600,000 changes hands every day. Now the virtual world is about to play host to a BBC show about that economy and how people have made real money from it.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6187705.html
Microsoft's table-style computer with touch screen tipped as next big thing
In an era when computers get ever smaller and more portable, it seems almost a throwback; but software giant Microsoft hopes a £5,000 coffee table bristling with technology could be the next big step forward. Surface, a table-style PC with a touch-sensitive screen which replaces a traditional mouse and keyboard, was unveiled in California yesterday. Using a so-called "multi-touch" interface, people can move items around in front of them with their fingers or write on the table using a pen.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/microsoft/Story/0,,2091771,00.html
au: No ban on Virginia Tech game
Australian authorities are powerless to ban a computer game inspired by the Virginia Tech massacre. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) investigated the game, "V-Tech Rampage", after receiving a complaint about it last month.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/06/02/1180809312077.html
cn: Power of the text sees off factory for now
Residents of the city of Xiamen fired off nearly a million text messages to protest against plans to build a chemical plant
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/china/article1873510.ece
us: Children Not Seeing More Food Ads on Television: FTC Releases Research on Children’s Exposure to Television Advertising (news release)
Today’s children see more promotional ads for other programming, but fewer paid ads and fewer minutes of advertising on television, according to a report released today by the staff of the Federal Trade Commission.
http://ftc.gov/opa/2007/06/childrenadsstudy.shtm
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FILE SHARING
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Does digital file sharing render copyright obsolete?
The youth craze for making and posting digitized audio and video on the Internet - their own creations and those of others, without regard to ownership - is driving a wedge between the traditional "commercial" economy and the upstart "sharing" market, analysts say.
http://iht.com/articles/2007/06/03/business/rights04.php
Anger over DRM-free iTunes tracks
The launch of music tracks free of digital locks on iTunes has been overshadowed by the discovery that they contain data about who bought them. Some fear this data could be used to identify the owner of the tracks if they turn up on file-sharing sites.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6711215.stm
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article1871173.ece
New RealPlayer will let you download Internet video
On Thursday afternoon at the D: All Things Digital show, RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser demoed a new version of RealPlayer, to be released as a beta in June, that adds the ability to download video that's normally available only as a stream from Web sites and save it to your hard drive for later playback in RealPlayer.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/06/01/New-RealPlayer-will-let-you-download-Internet-video_1.html
EMI joins other majors on YouTube
The last of the big four record labels has signed up to Google's YouTube to allow its music to be used on the video sharing website. The decision comes as private equity groups and rival Warner mull bids for the company.
http://out-law.com/page-8113
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,132466-c,onlineentertainment/article.html
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COMMENT, MICROSOFT & DEVELOPMENTS
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Google strikes at Microsoft
No longer just a search engine giant, Google is offering hybrid software that works offline and is encouraging developers to join in.
http://iht.com/articles/2007/05/31/business/google.1-65268.php
Google Gears churns toward Microsoft
Google just accelerated its rivalry with Microsoft, though Google executives still deny there is a competition over who will dominate in an increasingly Web-based computing world.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6187942.html
Google Gears up for MS fight
Google has launched software that allows people to use its services even when they are not connected to the internet.
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2093029,00.html
Jobs and Gates bury the hatchet
Billed as a clash of the tech titans, the meeting between the bosses of Microsoft and Apple turned out to be more of a love-in
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article1864599.ece
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/05/31/1180205412334.html
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/industry/2007-05-30-jobs-gates_N.htm
Will Microsoft beat Apple with its 'giant iPhone'?
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled a product this week called Surface at the Wall Street Journal's D: All Things Digital conference. Surface is a Windows Vista "coffee table" computer that features multitouch -- the ability to respond to more than one input at a time. Surface needs no mouse or keyboard. On-screen objects move like real 3-D objects and are manipulated directly by touching the screen.
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9022418
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TELECOMMUNICATIONS
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au: Telstra slams G9 net claim
TELSTRA'S chief executive yesterday dismissed a plan by rivals to build a high-speed broadband network as a "folly", lacking the detail to back up their claim of being able to provide 24Mbps connections for $50 per month.
http://australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,21829520-16123,00.html
au: Top speed for $50
TELSTRA's rivals yesterday offered consumers broadband speeds of 24 megabits per second for less than $50 a month, stepping up pressure on the carrier to reveal its plans for Australia's next high-speed broadband network.
http://australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,21823297-16123,00.html
au: Seven makes TiVo plans
THE Seven Media Group is taking on pay-TV group Foxtel's dominance of the digital video recorder market with a new alliance to introduce the TiVo digital recorder to Australia by 2008, even though it enables faster forwarding of ads.
http://australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,21823393-16123,00.html
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(c) David Goldstein 2007
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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)
"Every time you use fossil fuels, you're adding to the problem. Every time you forgo fossil fuels, you're being part of the solution" - Dr Tim Flannery
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