[APPLe list] general internet news - 2 March

[David Goldstein <goldstein_david@yahoo.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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Don't forget to check out http://www.auda.org.au/domain-news/ for today's edition of the complete domain news, already online!


And see my website - http://technewsreview.com.au/ - for daily updates in between postings.


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The domain name news is supported by auDA

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Vint Cerf: We Still Have 80 Per Cent of the World to Connect
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/vint_cerf_we_still_have_80_per.php

NZ net surfers turning off TV, switching off radio
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/nz-net-surfers-turning-tv-switching-radio-64585

Broadband Users Young And Urban: NZ Research Highlights Differences Between Broadband And Dial Up Users
http://www.voxy.co.nz/national/broadband-users-young-and-urban-nz-research-highlights-differences-between-broad/5/9646

Rogue code led to Gmail shutdown
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c5dd4574-06a3-11de-ab0f-000077b07658.html

Facebook opens up with 'bill of rights'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/feb/26/facebook-facebook

Facebook Tries to Become a Democracy
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/26/facebook-remakes-itself-as-a-democracy/

Australian web censorship plan heads towards a dead end
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/02/26/1235237810486.html
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4862704a28.html

'Appalled' opposition hits back at Conroy’s Internet censorship
http://computerworld.com.au/article/264974/

The Pirate Bay trial is the collision of 'can I?' and 'should I?' cultures
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/feb/26/read-me-first-pirate-bay

Music industry takes stand in Pirate Bay torrent case [AP]
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10558865

TPB trial witness: file-sharing not bad for music business
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/02/tpb-trial-witness-file-sharing-not-bad-for-music-business.ars

New Zealand pulls back from guilt-by-accusation piracy law
http://out-law.com/page-9831

Online scams costing Kiwis dearly
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4865240a28.html


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INTERNET USE
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Vint Cerf: We Still Have 80 Per Cent of the World to Connect
"By 2010 we will have run out of IP addresses if we don't do something about it," Vint Cerf, Google's chief Internet evangelist and the man commonly referred to as "the father of the Internet," told ReadWriteWeb last month.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/vint_cerf_we_still_have_80_per.php
http://nytimes.com/external/readwriteweb/2009/02/21/21readwriteweb-vint_cerf_we_still_have_80_per.html

NZ net surfers turning off TV, switching off radio
Latest data from the World Internet Project finds New Zealand is number one in education, in the middle of the pack for abandoning broadcast TV, and second-to-bottom in broadband penetration.
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/nz-net-surfers-turning-tv-switching-radio-64585

Broadband Users Young And Urban: NZ Research Highlights Differences Between Broadband And Dial Up Users
New Zealand broadband users perceive the Internet as more important in their daily life compared with those who use a dialup service according to the latest findings from the World Internet Project.
http://www.voxy.co.nz/national/broadband-users-young-and-urban-nz-research-highlights-differences-between-broad/5/9646

Rogue code led to Gmail shutdown
A rogue piece of software, which triggered a cascading failure through Google’s data centres around the world, led to the shutdown of its Gmail system last week.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c5dd4574-06a3-11de-ab0f-000077b07658.html

Bloggers Can't Fill the Gap Left by Shrinking Press Corps
Packs of lobbyists fill two rooms outside the House and Senate chambers in Richmond every afternoon, watching the proceedings on big video screens, zapping legislators with e-mails the instant the lobbyists sense that one of their bills might be in trouble. The interest groups that hire lobbyists can rest easy; they've got the legislature covered.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/28/AR2009022801889.html

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SOCIAL NETWORKING
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Social networks: Primates on Facebook
That Facebook, Twitter and other online social networks will increase the size of human social groups is an obvious hypothesis, given that they reduce a lot of the friction and cost involved in keeping in touch with other people. Once you join and gather your “friends” online, you can share in their lives as recorded by photographs, “status updates” and other titbits, and, with your permission, they can share in yours. Additional friends are free, so why not say the more the merrier?
http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13176775

Facebook’s “In-House Sociologist” Shares Stats on Users’ Social Behavior
The famous Dunbar number, or “theoretical cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships”, is generally accepted to be about 150. However, in a recent interview with The Economist, Cameron Marlow, a research scientist at Facebook, shared some interesting stats on Facebook users’ social behavior patterns.
http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/02/27/facebooks-in-house-sociologist-shares-stats-on-users-social-behavior/

Facebook opens up with 'bill of rights'
Faced with a user revolt over changes to its terms of service, social networking Facebook has decided to take the nuclear option: open itself up to public scrutiny.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/feb/26/facebook-facebook

Facebook Tries to Become a Democracy
A week after its community erupted in protest over changes to its terms of service that appeared to give it control over its users’ information, Facebook announced on Thursday that all significant policy changes on the site will be subject to comments from members and, if they prove controversial, a popular vote.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/26/facebook-remakes-itself-as-a-democracy/

Facebook asks users to determine its policies
Facebook sought to recover from the controversy over its terms of use by today allowing users to help decide the site's policies.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article5812049.ece

Facebook opens up to user debate and vote
Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg held a press conference Thursday to discuss the uproar over the social network's failed attempt earlier this month to revise its privacy policy. But instead of simply releasing yet another terms-of-service document, he revealed a new, community-driven process for governing Facebook .
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10172787-2.html

Facebook offers control to users
Facebook has responded to criticism over the way it handles user data by handing over control to its users. Members of the social network will have comment and voting rights over the firm's future policies regarding how the site is governed. Founder Mark Zuckerberg said the aim was to "open up Facebook so that users can participate meaningfully in our policies and our future".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7913289.stm

Dawn of a Facebook Democracy? Users Invited to Shape Site's Policies
Facebook announced a new approach to how the company would create future policies that impact user privacy. During a press conference on Thursday Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg said the move was in direct response to a user backlash earlier this month when Facebook changed its terms of service claiming ownership of user content. It later reverted to an earlier terms of service.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/160314/.html

Facebook Opens Site Rules To User Voting
In an effort to turn a black eye into an appealing new look, Facebook on Thursday agreed to let its users have a say in the site's rules.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/social_network/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=214600366

A Facebook Democracy? Users Invited to Shape Site's Policies
Facebook announced a new approach to how the company would create future policies that impact user privacy. During a press conference on Thursday Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg said the move was in direct response to a user backlash earlier this month when Facebook changed its terms of service claiming ownership of user content. It later reverted to an earlier terms of service.
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/022609-a-facebook-democracy-users-invited.html

Facebook lets users comment on new terms of service
Facebook Inc is asking its members to help shape its governance policies after drawing their ire for a policy change that many perceived as being overbearing and potentially compromising privacy.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUKTRE51P7PE20090226
http://in.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idINIndia-38237420090226

Facebook to let users give input on policies [AP]
Facebook is trying its hand at democracy. The fast-growing online hangout, whose more than 175 million worldwide users could form the world's sixth-largest country behind Brazil, said Thursday that those users will play a "meaningful role" in deciding the site's policies and voting on changes.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10559056

Facebook and MySpace are 'most popular places to find love'
Social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Friends Reunited have taken over from pubs and nightclubs as the most popular place to find love, it has emerged.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/facebook/4805298/Facebook-and-MySpace-are-most-popular-places-to-find-love.html

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CHILD PROTECTION, FILTERING & CONTENT REGULATION
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Australian web censorship plan heads towards a dead end
The Government's plan to introduce mandatory internet censorship has effectively been scuttled, following an independent senator's decision to join the Greens and Opposition in blocking any legislation required to get the scheme started.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/02/26/1235237810486.html
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2009/02/26/1235237810486.html
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/articles/2009/02/26/1235237821660.html
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/dominionpost/4862704a27483.html
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4862704a28.html

Senate poses tough hurdle for internet filtering plan
The Federal Government's plan for an internet filter is running into increasing difficulties in Canberra. Independent Senator Nick Xenophon has said that he will not support the Government's current proposal and he is not sure that the trials of the technology should go ahead.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/27/2503830.htm

'Appalled' opposition hits back at Conroy’s Internet censorship
The newly appointed shadow broadband minister, Senator Nick Minchin, has voiced his appall that a member of Senator Conroy’s office had tried to curb severely critical comments made by Internode network engineer Mark Newton regarding the government’s Internet content filtering scheme.
http://computerworld.com.au/article/264974/

Xenophon speaks out against Internet content filtering
Independent South Australian senator, Nick Xenophon, has spoken out against the Government’s Internet content filtering plan saying “there are better ways to deal with the problem”.
http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/278285/
http://computerworld.com.au/article/278285/
http://pcworld.idg.com.au/article/278285/

au: Spying will help stop cyber-bullying: specialist
Parents need to openly spy more on their children using the internet to help stop cyber-bullying, according to Western Australian child specialist Donna Cross.
http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/spying-will-help-stop-cyberbullying-specialist-20090226-8iuf.html

au: Survey suggests no mandate for Internet filter
Only a tiny minority of Labor voters support the federal government's proposals for mandatory Internet filtering, according to a survey.
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/23539/53/

Key backer's change of heart endangers Aussie 'Net filtering
Australia's controversial plan to implement a mandatory ISP filtering system may crash into a big brick wall after a backer effectively changed teams. Senator Nick Xenophon was previously in favor of a system that would run all citizens' Internet connections through a filter for "illegal" content because it might have also blocked access to online gambling sites. As more and more concerns about the workability of the ambitious plan have been raised, however, he has decided that there are too many unanswered questions and now says he will move to block any legislation that comes through.
http://arstechnica.com/telecom/news/2009/02/key-backers-change-of-heart-endangers-aussie-net-filtering.ars

Australian Gambling Foe Rejects Online Casino Censorship
Xenophon, while an ardent foe of gambling, found the technical difficulties, philosophical questions, and public resistance of the proposed censorship more than he could stomach.
http://www.onlinecasinoadvisory.com/casino-news/online/austalian-senator-opposes-online-casino-censorship-42590.htm

Senator Xenophon withdraws his support to censor the Internet
One of Australia's most vociferous opponents of online gambling, Senator Nick Xenophon has withdrawn his support from Aussie government moves to censor the Internet and says he will oppose any legislation that seeks to do so. Xenophon's change of heart from supporter to opposition could generate more problems for the already troubled and highly controversial government initiative to introduce ISP filtering of whatever it deems to be undesirable.
http://www.recentpoker.com/news/nick-xenophon2177.html

Aussie Internet Censorship Plans Scuttled
Independent anti-gambling Senator Nick Xenophon joins the Greens and Opposition, saying that "I commend their intentions but I think the implementation of this could almost be counter-productive and I think the money could be better spent."
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/10033/Aussie+Internet+Censorship+Plans+Scuttled

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ONLINE TV & MUSIC
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The Pirate Bay trial is the collision of 'can I?' and 'should I?' cultures
People who don't speak Swedish are missing almost all the interest of the Pirate Bay trial, which is supplied by the frankly unsavoury nature of the defendants. The money man, Carl Lundström, on whose servers The Pirate Bay was housed, is straight out of the crime novels of Stieg Larsson. He inherited a fortune built on crispbread, and has a long history of involvement with extreme rightwing politics. In the 1980s, he was a member of "Keep Sweden Swedish", an anti-immigrant fringe group; he has financially backed the Sweden Democrats, a would-be populist and anti-immigrant party; and only this month the managing director of one of his companies was charged with a robbery in a small west-coast town, part of a feud within a neo-Nazi group. Lundström told the Metro news­paper (http://bit.ly/metro) after he sacked the man that he had known he was a party member, but not that he had gone to collect another member's computer with a submachine gun.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/feb/26/read-me-first-pirate-bay

Music industry takes stand in Pirate Bay torrent case [AP]
The music industry has lost more than 30 per cent in sales since 2001 because of illegal downloading, a top industry official said, giving evidence in a Swedish trial.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10558865

TPB trial witness: file-sharing not bad for music business
The Pirate Bay trial settled into something (sort of) approaching normality today as two professors took the stand. One explained more about how BitTorrent functions; the other got into a fight with prosecutors, suggested that file-sharing wasn't bad for the music business in general and that it has led to a huge transfer of wealth to artists, and sarcastically asked the court to send flowers to his wife.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/02/tpb-trial-witness-file-sharing-not-bad-for-music-business.ars

Pirate Bay 'not directly linked' to industry damage
Lawyers acting for BitTorrent tracker The Pirate Bay have argued that there is no connection between illicit downloads and lost sales to the music industry.
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2237391/pirate-bay-directly-linked

South Koreans want their sub-TV
In South Korea, subway riders are becoming addicted to free TV on their cellphones. But declining ad revenue and mounting debt may force cellular operators to pull the plug.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-korea-cellphone-tv27-2009feb27,0,6155826.story

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MOBILE/WIRELESS
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Why Are iPhone Users Willing to Pay for Content?
It may be no surprise that the bestselling computer book so far this year is “iPhone: The Missing Manual,” by my colleague David Pogue (O’Reilly, 2007).
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/26/why-are-iphone-users-willing-to-pay-for-content/

Battle Joined Over Next-Generation Telecom Networks
The economic downturn has pushed the next-generation WiMax wireless system to the sidetrack of the mobile world and set up a battle between network gear makers for a share of future technology upgrades.
http://in.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idINIndia-38255220090227
http://www.informationweek.com/news/mobility/wifiwimax/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=215300041

Mobile phones more visible in North Korean capital [AP]
Mobile phones are becoming more visible in reclusive North Korea following the launch of a new network by an Egyptian telecommunications company.
http://news.ino.com/headlines/?newsid=6896748366881
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Mobile-phones-more-visible-in-apf-14489518.html

comScore: Light PC Internet Users Are 30 Percent More Likely than Heavy PC Internet Users to Access Mobile Internet Content [news release]
comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today reported the results of the first study of its cross-media panel of PC and mobile Internet users in the U.S., finding that light PC Internet users are 30 percent more likely than heavy PC Internet users to use their mobile devices to access Internet content. In total, 42 million people used their mobile devices in October 2008 to access news and information content on the Internet, an increase of 57 percent from October 2007.
http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2739

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ONLINE CRIME, SECURITY & LEGAL
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Online scams costing Kiwis dearly
Unsuspecting Kiwis are losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in online scams, says Westpac fraud head Terry Mortensen. One victim paid $300,000 to secure a multi- million-dollar inheritance that never arrived.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4865240a28.html

EU agency backtracks on Skype crime claims
Eurojust, an EU agency that co-ordinates judicial co-operation across member states, has significally altered a statement in which it said criminals were using Skype to avoid detection by the authorities.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/0,1000000085,39619901,00.htm

Copyright Holders Challenge Sites That Scrape Content
When the popular New York business blog Silicon Alley Insider quoted a quarter of Peggy Noonan’s Wall Street Journal column in mid-February, the editor added a caveat at the end: “We thank Dow Jones in advance for allowing us to bring it to you.”
http://nytimes.com/2009/03/02/business/media/02scrape.html

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PRIVACY
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Liberty groups unite to defend UK rights
The government and the courts are collaborating in slicing away freedoms and pushing Britain to the brink of becoming a "database" police state, a series of sold-out conferences in eight British cities heard yesterday.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/mar/01/civil-liberties-conference

British 'careless' with liberties
British people have been "careless" with their civil liberties, but that is beginning to change, former shadow home affairs minister David Davis has said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7915479.stm

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GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC POLICY
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MPs call for tighter controls on Google
Politicians have urged the Government to put an end to Google’s dominance of the online search advertising market, calling for the matter to be referred to the Competition Commission.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/google/4840212/MPs-call-for-tighter-controls-on-Google.html

UK has 'uphill struggle to 2Mbps'
The government faces a "massive challenge" in its pledge to bring UK broadband up to a minimum of 2Mbps (megabits per second) say experts. Broadband thinktank PointTopic has produced a regional breakdown of areas that currently do not have much net speed.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7910679.stm

New Zealand pulls back from guilt-by-accusation piracy law
The New Zealand government has delayed by a month a controversial plan that critics say will allow internet users to be cut off just because they have been accused of copyright infringement.
http://out-law.com/page-9831

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TELECOMMUNICATIONS
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Have time and tide run away from internet phone services already?
Free phone calls to anywhere in the world? And no landline phone bills? The future should have been bright for broadband phone services, but it seems that making telephone calls over the internet has remained merely a niche interest.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/telecoms/article5826796.ece

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COMMENT, MICROSOFT & DEVELOPMENTS
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U.S. Internet firms defend tighter Web management
Internet service providers like AT&T Inc are making greater efforts to manage traffic on their networks as they seek ways to avoid congestion caused by bandwidth-hogging services like video, industry officials said on Thursday.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKTRE51P6ZR20090226

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ARRESTS/COURT CASES FOR CHILD PORN
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uk: Porn stash neared million images
A photographer found with almost one million pornographic images on his home computer has avoided a jail sentence. James Hibbert-Hingston, 49, of Newcastleton in the Borders, admitted possessing 798 indecent pictures of children between 2004 and 2007.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/7913119.stm

au: Seven arrested in internet child grooming sting
Seven Brisbane men have been arrested after an undercover police operation which involved officers pretending to be young girls online.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/27/2503717.htm

nz: Man jailed for child porn and neglect [NZPA]
A judge sentencing a man for collecting child pornography today took the rare step of releasing the impact report for one of the child victims depicted in the images.
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/man-jailed-child-porn-and-neglect-2507150

Paying Dearly For Child Porn Possession
When Stonington resident and former Pfizer executive Alan J. Hesketh was convicted of distributing child pornography, the one punishment he probably didn’t expect was paying restitution.
http://www.ctlawtribune.com/getarticle.aspx?ID=32908

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The domain name news is supported by auDA

For information on subscriptions to the domain name and/or general internet news please contact me. For archives of postings to the list, see http://lists.technewsreview.com.au/pipermail/technewsreview/. Also see http://technewsreview.com.au/ for recent updates.

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(c) David Goldstein 2009



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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)


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