Don't forget to check out http://auda.org.au/domain-news/ for today's edition of the complete domain news, including an RSS feed - already online! Headlines from the January 22 edition of the news include: Confusing .au.com domain threatens Aussie users | European Parliament resolution on the second IGF in Rio | uk: Can broadband keep up with Postman Pat on demand? | EU Official: IP Is Personal | ICANN Kill Two Birds with One Stone by Larry Seltzer | ICANN: Possible ?Next Steps? in Dispute Resolution | 210 million Internet users in China; 11.93 million domain names | Nominet to hand out ?5m to online charity cases | The Internet Is Down -- Now What? | CIA Admits Cyberattacks Blacked Out Cities | FBI warns of rise in phone-based 'vishing' attacks | Sport.co.uk sells for ?135,000, Casino.co.uk ?3.0M And see my website - http://technewsreview.com.au/ - for daily updates in between postings. *************************************************** The domain name news is supported by auDA *************************************************** Domain Name Law and Regulation Seminar & Book Launch http://technewsreview.com.au/article.php?article=3740 Open consultation on the forthcoming launch of IDNs under the .eu TLD - Eurid survey http://survey.eurid.eu/en/IDN nz: InternetNZ paper on Liability of ISPs for Thid Party Content by Mauricio Freitas http://www.geekzone.co.nz/freitasm/4408 Another Estonia Cyberattack [IDG] http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/01/16/With-trials-beginning-another-Estonia-cyberattack_1.html .ca domain name disputes on the rise http://www.itworldcanada.com/a/News/825a59d3-d590-4d8d-b8ad-8ae5e0a41bae.html Report reveals two thirds top online retailers cybersquatted http://technewsreview.com.au/article.php?article=3748 Was Network Solutions front running, or just bad PR? http://technewsreview.com.au/article.php?article=3724 Network Solutions is getting better by Jay Westerdal http://blog.domaintools.com/2008/01/network-solutions-is-getting-better/ ********************** DOMAIN NAMES ********************** Domain Name Law and Regulation Seminar & Book Launch There will be a seminar on domain name law and regulation, and launch of the book "International Domain Name Law: ICANN and the UDRP" in Melbourne on Wednesday 20 February for my Australian readers. http://technewsreview.com.au/article.php?article=3740 http://www.domainnews.com/icann/2008012211/domain-name-law-and-regulation-seminar-book-launch/ http://www.domainpulse.com/2008/01/16/domain-name-law-and-regulation-seminar-book-launch/ ********************** - ICANN ********************** PTC '08: Return of the R-word - Regulation of NGN unavoidable even if undesirable, say experts Telecom visions for the future of the market used to be very simple, says Eli Noam, telecom guru at the Columbia Business School. ?When we thought about the future in telecom, we thought there would be competition and then more competition, and regulation would eventually become unnecessary and then fade away, ? he says, but adds: ?I would argue none of this has happened or will happen, and if anything regulation will become more important than ever.? ... The prospect of more regulation does not fill everyone will unalloyed optimism, however. Visionaries in the net community, such as ICANN?s President and CEO, Paul Twomey, fears that regulation will take the form of ?classical? approaches, more suited to tradional telecom networks rather than acknowledge the fundamental differences that the Internet means. http://www.telecommagazine.com/newsglobe/article.asp?HH_ID=AR_3863 ********************** - (cc)TLD NEWS ********************** az: Azerbaijan approves regulations of Coordination Council for Internet Development Azerbaijan?s Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies has approved regulations of the Coordination Council for Development of Internet. ... Ali Abbasov, Minister of Communications and Information Technologies, noted ... the Coordination Council for Internet Development was set up after concerns aroused over management of domain names ending in .az, spread of websites against Azerbaijan, and increasing interest in the Internet. http://www.today.az/news/society/42387.html Spain offers free domain names to under 30s [reg reg'd] http://telecom.paper.nl/news/article.aspx?id=199564 Open consultation on the forthcoming launch of IDNs under the .eu Top Level Domain - Eurid survey A multilingual Internet is a key tool in allowing European citizens to express themselves in their own language. Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs), represent the Internet?s capacity to address people?s needs, expectations and wishes, using their own scripts. Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) are domain names represented by local language characters. Such domain names could contain letters with accents or could be names in non-ASCII scripts (for example, Greek). http://survey.eurid.eu/en/IDN France has 1 million .fr domain names [sub req'd] http://www.telecom.paper.nl/news/article.aspx?id=199276 in: ?LAND RUSH?: A Goldmine For Cyber Squatters "Internet domains are like real estate on the web. You never know what price it can fetch you later. But in the end it?s illegal", the truth of the statement from the Chairman of a domain name registrar can be gauged from the fact that cyber squatters are having a field day taking the advantage of opportunities like land rush. Land rush is a phase for registration in which individuals can apply for domain names, which companies have not registered. During a land rush, domains can be procured real cheap such as even at $ 100. Post land rush, domains can even be procured but are later sold at astronomical prices. http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=53678 dotMobi gets the great ball rolling Dublin-based firm dotMobi, the global registry for the mobile phone web domain ?.mobi?, recently had a joint meeting with Enterprise Ireland and the Chinese Ministry of Information to discuss the possibility of creating an infrastructure for the mobile internet all across China. The mobile phone market in China has a subscriber base of over 500m and this opportunity would offer huge potential to the company. http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single9996 .MOBI Auction Postponed The scheduled .MOBI auction for January 23rd has been postponed for a future date. Once the details are finalized we will alert the Sedo community The scheduled .MOBI auction for January 23rd has been postponed for a future date. Once the details are finalized we will alert the Sedo community to the time and date the auction will take place. http://www.sedo.com/links/showhtml.php3?Id=1630 nz: InternetNZ paper on Liability of ISPs for Thid Party Content by Mauricio Freitas Yesterday, during my weekly coffee meetings in town, I had the opportunity to meet a fellow Geekzoner and two friends from the InternetNZ, Richard Wood and Campbell Gardiner. By coincidence, today I received in the mail the InternetNZ Business Plan 2008 - 2009 and a booklet "Liability of Internet Service Providers for Third Party Content", by Dr Judith Bayer, InternetNZ Senior Research Fellow in Cyberlaw: "Dr Bayer's research considers ISP liability within a variety of different fields of the New Zealand law, including defamation, copyright, hate speech and related freedom of expression issues. She draws on overseas experience of ISP liability schemes and evaluates thepros and cons of those schemes." http://www.geekzone.co.nz/freitasm/4408 ********************** - DNS SECURITY ********************** Bank phishing scam 'nearly undetectable' Netcraft has warned of an "extremely convincing" scam on an Italian banking website that shows the way cross-site scripting vulnerabilities can make phishing attacks nearly impossible to spot. http://www.techworld.com/security/news/index.cfm?NewsID=11119 New Trojan Intercepts Online Banking Information A new Trojan program is targeting unwitting users' bank data by intercepting account information before it is encrypted and sending it to a central attacker database. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/011408-silentbanker-trojan.html http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,141364-c,trojanhorses/article.html http://www.channelweb.co.uk/vnunet/news/2207264/two-thirds-online-retailers Another Estonia Cyberattack [IDG] With the trial starting for four ethnic Russians charged in connection with rioting last year, the Estonian news site Delfi.ee has weathered a two-week-long denial of service attack. The attack, which ended Tuesday, was minimally disruptive, according to Hillar Aarelaid, manager of Estonia's Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT). http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,141438-c,cybercrime/article.html http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/01/16/With-trials-beginning-another-Estonia-cyberattack_1.html Cybercrime in Belarus in the beginning of 2008 On Saturday, January 5, Belarusian internet portal TUT.BY and hosting provider HOSTER.BY (some Hoster.by servers are located in Moscow) underwent the most powerful hacker attack in the whole history of Belarusian internet. The attack led to download retardation of e-mail, of other TUT.BY services pages and of 3000 websites hosted at HOSTER.BY Moscow servers . While sites hosted by HOSTER.BY servers located at Beltelecom data center (Minsk) remained safe and intact. http://www.e-belarus.org/news/200801111.html http://technewsreview.com.au/article.php?article=3738 ********************** - DOMAIN DISPUTES ********************** .ca domain name disputes on the rise Statistics released by industry groups show an increase in disputes over Web domain names -- something industry watchers attribute to the number of companies discovering the advantages of having a Web presence and the difficulty some face in finding an unused Web moniker that describes their business. http://www.itworldcanada.com/a/News/825a59d3-d590-4d8d-b8ad-8ae5e0a41bae.html Report reveals two thirds top online retailers cybersquatted Top US retailers are leaving themselves at major risk of brand damage online because of poor domain registration practices, the American E-commerce Brands report from NetNames reveals. The report reveals more than two thirds of leading online retailers in the US currently have at least one domain suffix related to their brand name that is held by a cybersquatter. http://technewsreview.com.au/article.php?article=3748 http://www.domainpulse.com/2008/01/17/netnames-report-reveals-two-thirds-top-online-retailers-cybersquatted/ http://www.domainnews.com/aftermarket/2008012220/netnames-report-reveals-two-thirds-top-online-retailers-cybersquatted/ Web retailers expose cyber-squatting epidemic More than two thirds of leading online retailers in the US have at least one domain suffix related to their brand name held by a cyber-squatter, new research has claimed. http://www.infomaticsonline.co.uk/vnunet/news/2207264/two-thirds-online-retailers http://www.pcw.co.uk/vnunet/news/2207264/two-thirds-online-retailers Mere advertisement without something more does not provide jurisdiction basis for foreign defendants What did the court determine?: The court determined that this website was merely passive in nature and that the advertising of the defendant?s service was not sufficient to exert general or specific jurisdiction over them. The court determined that upon reviewing recent cases on whether a forum can exercise specific jurisdiction over a foreign defendant based on the fact that their website or domain name infringes upon a resident plaintiff, a principle exists. The court stated, ?Simply registering someone else's trademark as a domain name and posting a web site on the Internet is not sufficient to subject a party domiciled in one state to jurisdiction in another . . . There must be ?something more? to demonstrate that the defendant directed his activity towards the forum state.? The court determined that this something more factor was not found in this case. The ?something more? factor was not found in the fact that users could communicate with the defendant by email or by ftp. This fact was not enough to justify a finding of jurisdiction. The court dismissed the suit for lack of personal jurisdiction over the non-resident defendant. http://www.ibls.com/internet_law_news_portal_view.aspx?s=articles&id=8E0A6E7C-6CAA-4FD1-9B56-886CB7231689 ca: Stelmach's legal threats against blogger spawn backlash [The Canadian Press] Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach's legal case against a blogger with the domain name edstelmach.ca appears to have spawned a cyber-backlash. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080115.waltablogger0115/BNStory/National/ Will the real Ed please stand up Premier Ed Stelmach is experiencing multiple-personality disorder -- in cyberspace, at least. Following a legal challenge last week when a University of Alberta student who owned the domain name edstelmach.ca was accused of misappropriating the premier's personality for his own gain, at least a half-dozen Facebook users are now either posing as the premier online or taking pot-shots at him. http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Alberta/2008/01/15/4773656-sun.html What?s in a Name? Domain Names and Trademark Infringement Selecting your business's domain name was easy. You chose a short, memorable name that gives your target consumer some indication of the nature of the goods or services provided on your Web site. Business is booming until you receive a cease and desist letter from an attorney alleging that a client of the attorney owns all of the right, title, and interest in and to a trademark that is essentially identical to your domain name. The attorney claims that your registration and use of the domain name constitute trademark infringement of the client's trademark rights. http://www.localtechwire.com/business/local_tech_wire/opinion/story/2309856/ us: Go Daddy gives up on 'beaver' ad for Super Bowl Go Daddy Group Inc. has given up trying to get its Super Bowl "beaver" ad past Fox TV censors, and was waiting Wednesday for approval on an alternative. http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0116sr-godaddy0117-ON.html ********************** - IPv4/IPv6 ********************** Examining Actual State of IPv6 Deployment by Thomas Kuehne There have been quite a number of recent articles about various IPv6 issues. Thus the question: how far along is the actual IPv6 deployment? This is a quick-and-dirty survey that focuses mainly on the content provider side. http://www.circleid.com/posts/81166_actual_state_ipv6_deployment/ ********************** - MISCELLANEOUS ********************** Was Network Solutions front running, or just bad PR? Now that the dust is settling on the domain name front running story, what is the true story away from the hyperbole? Well, to me it seems that, for whatever reason, Network Solutions deemed it a fabulous idea to reserve for a set period of time domain names people search for on their registration site. However it turned out to be a PR disaster. http://technewsreview.com.au/article.php?article=3724 http://www.domainpulse.com/2008/01/15/was-network-solutions-front-running-or-just-bad-pr/ http://www.domainnews.com/general/2008012199/was-network-solutions-front-running-or-just-bad-pr/ Network Solutions is getting better by Jay Westerdal After a horrible launch last week of reserving all domain names on Network Solutions before a customer even ordered them, Network Solution started making improvements to the forward reservation service. I privately offered 4 unsolicited suggestions to a few Vice Presidents at Network Solutions. 1) Don?t register Name Servers with the domain (Avoid leaking the ideas); 2) Ask the consumer IF they intend on register a domain and IF they can guarantee payment; 3) Allow them to Opt in before searching and 4) Allow the consumer the ability to delete the domain being held in the AGP. http://blog.domaintools.com/2008/01/network-solutions-is-getting-better/ Network Solutions' Flack-Producing Moves Leading domain registrar Network Solutions is under fire for a controversial practice under which it briefly reserves domain names after it notices search activity on the names. Network Solutions describes the technique as a way to protect legitimate interest in domains from modern-day cyber-squatters. Word of the approach spread quickly last week after it was revealed that the company was using its servers to automatically reserve domains temporarily after it recorded a search on the term or name in question. http://ecommercetimes.com/story/Network-Solutions-Flack-Producing-Moves-61179.html Network Solutions plans to reserve domain names for individual searchers Network Solutions is developing a way to hold a domain name exclusively for a person who has searched for that name's availability. The registrar has come under fire for policies to combat domain name scams that critics have said make the situation worse. http://out-law.com/page-8795 Watching the registrars: Network Solutions dodgy domain name dealings ... In the IT world a great example of a lack of oversight of an authority is the situation that we have with Network Solutions (NSI). NSI is the domain name registrar that was allowed to have sole control over the .com, .net, and .org top-level domains up until 1999, and for which it gouged the public with the permission and support of ICANN. In the last few days, NSI was found to be doing something completely and unequivocally unethical: Holding unregistered domain names hostage and, once again, gouging the public. http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;712578009;fp;4194304;fpid;1 http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;712578009 Network Solutions Draws Domain Flak [sub req'd] Network Solutions LLC, one of the biggest sellers of Internet domain names, has come under criticism in the past week for what it called an attempt to stop a practice akin to insider trading in domain names. Yesterday, responding to charges it was making matters worse, it said it had made changes to its new policy. The controversy has heightened attention on "front-running," a practice some believe is plaguing the domain-name business. Front-runners learn about someone's interest in a not-yet-created domain name and buy the name before the would-be customer can, allowing them to sell the name at an inflated price to the customer who originally showed interest. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120035979165090009.html?mod=googlenews_wsj VeriSign's Behavior Continues It's official: Network Solutions, a subsidiary of VeriSign, is holding on to domains searched in its whois database. And we thought the company had solved its problems. http://blog.isp-planet.com/blog/archives/2008/01/verisigns_behav_1.html ********************** - DOMAINING ********************** Oversee.net Receives $150 Million Investment [news release] Oversee.net, an online marketing solutions provider, announced today that it has executed a definitive agreement with Oak Hill Capital Partners, a private equity firm, for an investment of $150 million in Oversee.net's holding company. Specific terms of the transaction were not disclosed. http://www.oversee.net/news_details.php?id=353 ********************** - AFTERMARKET ********************** First GreatDomains Auction of '08 Sedo?s first GreatDomains auction of 2008 kicks off this Thursday, January 17, and will feature such highly sought after domains as flats.com, Indian.com, latest.com, test.net and other one-word premium domains. This will be Sedo?s first GreatDomains auction since December?s record-shattering auction that featured 308 bidders from 42 different countries who bid on such premium domains as via.com, which closed at $157,500, and click.net, which closed at $56,000. The total dollar amount of the auction neared the $1.7 million mark thanks in part to other domains such as chica.com ($41,000) and fattuesday.com ($16,500). http://www.sedo.com/links/showhtml.php3?Id=1631 Domain Roundtable registration opens The next Domain Roundtable Conference is happening in San Francisco from April 18 to 21, 2008. Registration is now open! To date there isn?t a lot of information on what?s going on, apart from the opening cocktail party, a Grassroots.org Casino Fundraiser Party, a DomainTools Live Auction and a Name Intelligence Party to close the conference. http://www.domainpulse.com/2008/01/16/domain-roundtable-registration-opens/ ********************** INTERNET USE ********************** Google white bread for young minds, says university professor Google is ?white bread for the mind?, and the internet is producing a generation of students who survive on a diet of unreliable information, a professor of media studies will claim this week. In her inaugural lecture at the University of Brighton, Tara Brabazon will urge teachers at all levels of the education system to equip students with the skills they need to interpret and sift through information gleaned from the internet. http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article3182091.ece Life through a lens: how Britain's children eat, sleep and breathe TV A generation of "multitasking" children are living their daily lives - including eating and falling asleep - to the accompaniment of television, according to a survey of youngsters' media habits. ... Internet use - now that the social networking bug is biting younger than ever - is also continuing to grow at a far greater rate than the brief fall-off in TV viewing. That means British children spend an average of five hours and 20 minutes in front of a screen a day, up from four hours and 40 minutes five years ago. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jan/16/television.socialnetworking Broadband uptake slows along with progress on speeds The global growth in broadband connections has begun to slow - indicating that richer countries have almost reached saturation point with the present generation of the technology, while China and India have yet to see a comparable explosion in always-on users. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/17/broadband Employers back Web 2.0 for the workplace, says KPMG Most corporate executives believe that blogs, wikis and social networks will help employees to work more efficiently. But widespread adoption of Web 2.0 is being thwarted by security and governance concerns, according to research by KPMG. http://out-law.com/page-8805 Amazon Beat eBay in Holiday Traffic For years, eBay ruled the e-commerce roost. Each holiday season, more visitors spent more time and looked at more pages on eBay.com than on any of its rivals, including Amazon.com. It made sense; eBay is a wide open forum for every kind of seller and item, while Amazon has traditionally pushed a selection of products through its network of physical warehouses. But all that is now slowly changing. Amazon has opened its site to independent sellers, while eBay?s auction model is running into problems with fee-fatigued sellers and buyers wary of fraud and counterfeit items. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/14/amazon-beat-ebay-in-holiday-traffic/index.html uk: One million viewers use iPlayer More than 3.5 million programmes have been watched by more than a million people using the BBC's online video service iPlayer since 25 December. On average, 250,000 programmes were either streamed or downloaded each day following the Christmas Day launch. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7187967.stm BBC iPlayer bursts through user target More than 3.5 million programmes were viewed on the BBC's iPlayer catch-up TV service over the Christmas period, according to the first figures released by the corporation. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jan/15/bbc.digitalmedia za: Internet use in SA on the rise Internet usage in South Africa is rapidly increasing, according to statistics released by the Online Publishers Association (OPA) recently. The latest figures reflect Internet usage for the third quarter (July, August and September) of last year, and reveal that the number of online users has increased by about three million. In 2006, 4,8 million unique online users were recorded. Last year saw a growth of nearly 163 percent, with 7,8 million online users recorded. http://www.ioltechnology.co.za/article_page.php?iSectionId=2884&iArticleId=4208486 Advertisers' direct cellphone connection Mobile phone operators have been searching for years for the best way to put advertising onto handsets. With no clear consensus, the market has been slow to develop and most people have yet to see an ad pop up on their phone. http://iht.com/articles/2008/01/16/technology/wireless17.php ********************** SOCIAL NETWORKING ********************** Brazil's Orkut rule ... As has been well-documented, Google's early entrant into the social networking wars fizzled in the United States but exploded in Brazil. As of late 2007, Brazil boasted 40 million registered Orkut accounts, offering equal room for skate-punks and samba lovers to construct their intentional online communities and chat away. Brazil, writes McCann, "has the largest and most sophisticated electronic communications and entertainment industry in Latin America," with "more Internet users than any other Latin American nation, more cable TV subscribers, more cellphones." http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2008/01/14/brazil_s_orkut_rule/ Social networking may help us stay healthy [AAP] Australian researchers believe online social networking could be used to improve the nation's health. Researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) have begun a project that will combine social networking techniques with search engine technology specifically tailored to Australians. http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/business/soa/Social-networking-may-help-us-stay-healthy/0,139023166,339285191,00.htm Facebook: With friends like these ... Facebook has 59 million users - and 2 million new ones join each week. But you won't catch Tom Hodgkinson volunteering his personal information - not now that he knows the politics of the people behind the social networking site: I despise Facebook. This enormously successful American business describes itself as "a social utility that connects you with the people around you". But hang on. Why on God's earth would I need a computer to connect with the people around me? Why should my relationships be mediated through the imagination of a bunch of supergeeks in California? What was wrong with the pub? http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/14/facebook 'Social networking to get even bigger' The social networking phenomenon is set to intensify this year with the launch of new specialist communities and the further commercialisation of services, according to a report from analysts at Experian. The report, The Impact of Social Networking, says companies will want to tap the trend for social networking but will tailor services for niche audiences that will attract advertisers. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jan/15/facebook.myspace Is Facebook's Scrabble game going to disappear? It might, because Hasbro, the toymaker which owns the rights to the famous board game in the US and Canada, has served a shutdown notice on the site which provides the Scrabulous feature to Facebook (though you can also LYAP - sorry, play - on the eponymous Scrabulous site alone). http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/17/facebook.technology Facebook asked to pull Scrabulous Facebook has been asked to remove the Scrabulous game from its website by the makers of Scrabble. The Facebook add-on has proved hugely popular on the social network site and regularly racks up more than 500,000 daily users. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7191264.stm The end of Scrabulous on Facebook? The campaign starts here. Scrabble has asked Facebook to remove Scrabulous from the site because of trademark infringement. I'm quite surprised, because I thought Scrabble had gone all Web 2.0 and come up with the application in the first place. Apparently not. http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/digitalcontent/2008/01/the_end_of_scrabulous_on_faceb.html Makers of Scrabble want to shut down online game Scrabulous [AP] The companies that make the board game Scrabble are trying to shut down Scrabulous, an online version that is one of the most popular applications on the social networking site Facebook. http://iht.com/articles/ap/2008/01/16/america/NA-GEN-US-Scrabble-Scrabulous.php Facebook Asked to Remove ?Scrabulous? [Reuters] The makers of word game Scrabble have asked Facebook to remove its popular online version ?Scrabulous,? which they say infringes their copyright. http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/technology/tech-britain-facebook.html http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUKL1669220720080116 http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6226405.html ********************** NEW TECHNOLOGIES ********************** Apple's iPhone Fight In Japan ... Signing an Asian partner is key for Jobs, who has set a sales goal of 10 million iPhones by the end of the year. DoCoMo, which holds about 54% of the country's cellphone market, is keeping the door open. The company confirmed that Chief Executive Masao Nakamura recently met with Steve Jobs. Shuichiro Ichikoshi, senior manager of DoCoMo's international public relations group, also said DoCoMo is considering buying handsets "from diverse manufacturers both domestically and abroad," but declined to comment more specifically on the iPhone. Even if Japanese carriers are intrigued by the iPhone, Japanese consumers may prove elusive. Japan's cellphone market is full of unique challenges that make it difficult for foreign companies to succeed. What's more, Japanese customers already have a fuller and more intriguing set of cellphone alternatives than consumers in many other countries. http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/01/15/iphone-apple-japan-tech-wireless-cx_ew_0115appljap.html Microsoft seeks patent for office 'spy' software Microsoft is developing Big Brother-style software capable of remotely monitoring a worker?s productivity, physical wellbeing and competence. The Times has seen a patent application filed by the company for a computer system that links workers to their computers via wireless sensors that measure their metabolism. The system would allow managers to monitor employees? performance by measuring their heart rate, body temperature, movement, facial expression and blood pressure. Unions said they fear that employees could be dismissed on the basis of a computer?s assessment of their physiological state. http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3193480.ece Researchers claim battery-life breakthrough Stanford University researchers have made a discovery that could signal the arrival of laptop batteries that last more than a day on a single charge. The researchers have found a way to use silicon nanowires to give rechargeable lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, used in laptops, iPods, video cameras and mobile phones, as much as 10 times more charge. This potentially could give a conventional Li-ion battery-powered laptop 40 hours of battery life, rather than four. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/0,1000000091,39292139,00.htm au/us: Ultrafast data link thrills researchers World-best collaborative research between Australian and United States universities has taken a giant leap forward with the successful launch today of a 1Gigabit per second data connection between the two countries. The ultrabroadband optical-fibre link - roughly 250 times faster than the standard broadband connection offered in metropolitan Melbourne - was demonstrated at the University of California San Diego and at the University of Melbourne today. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/01/16/1200419846497.html http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/01/16/1200419846497.html Aust needs super fast broadband to compete: expert Imagine looking at a video clip on YouTube at a speed 3,000 times faster than what you can currently get. Forget waiting around for the file to load and grainy images and drop outs. It's not entirely a dream. Researchers at California and Melbourne universities have collaborated to build a link between the institutions that moves data at a rate of one gigabit per second. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/16/2139567.htm ********************** DIGITAL DIVIDE ********************** Cellphones bring a :-) to remotest Africa If your cellphone breaks in remote northern Namibia, your best hope rests in the decapitated flatbed of a long-dead Toyota pickup, not far from the only tarred road in the dusty town of Opuwo. On the flatbed sits an aluminum-sided shack, identified by a hand-painted sign: Okau Cell Part & Repair Shop. Inside you'll see a generator, a car battery, a smattering of dusty pink phone jackets, and a dozen different chargers hanging like sausage in a butcher shop. This is where Jack Nendongo works his magic. http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0115/p20s01-woaf.html ************************** ONLINE CRIME, SECURITY & LEGAL ************************** Paedophiles can find it all online - except help to stop ... Langham's internet activity was investigated under Operation Ore, Britain's longest-running crackdown on web-sourced child pornography. But in many ways his case is atypical. The attendant publicity gave a human and, some would argue, sympathetic face to an impulse that the majority find incomprehensible. Langham did not fit the popular profile of a paedophile. And few have recourse to his defence - the confrontation of past trauma, the writer's responsibility to research. It does not, however, answer questions about this specific area of offending: the viewing of indecent images where there is no evidence of hands-on abuse. What is the correlation between looking and doing? What role should the state take in policing private fantasies? Where does complicity in actual abuse begin and end, particularly when the images viewed are pseudo or artificial? http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2241395,00.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2241243,00.html Malware Quietly Reaching 'Epidemic' Levels Everybody knew it was bad, but few knew it was this bad. In separate studies released yesterday, two research firms now say that malware increased between 500 percent and 1,000 percent in 2007, and it shows no signs of slowing down. http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=143424 Cybercrime in Belarus in the beginning of 2008 On Saturday, January 5, Belarusian internet portal TUT.BY and hosting provider HOSTER.BY (some Hoster.by servers are located in Moscow) underwent the most powerful hacker attack in the whole history of Belarusian internet. The attack led to download retardation of e-mail, of other TUT.BY services pages and of 3000 websites hosted at HOSTER.BY Moscow servers . While sites hosted by HOSTER.BY servers located at Beltelecom data center (Minsk) remained safe and intact. http://www.e-belarus.org/news/200801111.html http://technewsreview.com.au/article.php?article=3738 Amazon.com is challenging French competition law The online retailer Amazon.com said Monday that it would pay ?1,000 a day in fines, rather than comply with a court ruling upholding French limits on price discounts for books. http://iht.com/articles/2008/01/14/technology/amazon.php NZ police warn of internet dating after rape claims Police want to hear from women who have met a man calling himself "Houndman" on internet dating websites. The 40-year-old Huntly man has been charged with rape and sexual violation of two women he met on separate occasions through a New Zealand dating website. http://nz.news.yahoo.com/080115/3/3lix.html http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10486983 nz: Second internet dater arrested for sexual assault Waikato police have arrested a second man for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman he met on the internet. Waikato police spokesman Andrew McAlley said a 36-year-old Te Kauwhata farmer allegedly sexually violated a 31-year-old Fijian woman who had come to New Zealand after developing a relationship with the man over the internet. http://stuff.co.nz/4359068a11.html nz: Huntly arrest a warning to net daters Netsafe says the arrest of a Huntly man is a timely reminder for women to take precautions when meeting men on internet dating sites. http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411365/1546175 http://home.nzcity.co.nz/news/article.aspx?id=80499 http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/latest/200801161446/rape_accused_may_have_committed_more_crimes_police nz: Police say internet sex suspect may have more victims Police believe a Huntly man, who allegedly lured two women to his home through an internet dating site before sexually attacking them, may have other victims. http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/waikatotimes/4359112a6579.html nz: Cyber daters advised to take a friend Internet daters should ask friends to watch their first face-to-face encounters in case they want to bale out, safety group NetSafe says. http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/dominionpost/4360267a6479.html au: Brisbane widow tricked by online beaus A BRISBANE widow is on the verge of bankruptcy after being seduced out of $60,000 in successive online romance scams. http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,23048632-5013044,00.html ************************** PRIVACY ************************** Personal data is as hot as nuclear waste We should treat personal electronic data with the same care and respect as weapons-grade plutonium - it is dangerous, long-lasting and once it has leaked there's no getting it back http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/15/data.security US study finds increase in concerns about Internet privacy after years of decline [AP] Privacy concerns stemming from online shopping rose in 2007, a new study finds, as the loss or theft of credit card information and other personal data soared to unprecedented levels. Sixty-one percent of adult Americans said they were very or extremely concerned about the privacy of personal information when buying online, an increase from 47 percent in 2006. Before last year, that figure had largely been dropping since 2001. http://news.smh.com.au/us-study-finds-increase-in-concerns-about-internet-privacy-after-years-of-decline/20080117-1mfd.html http://news.theage.com.au/us-study-finds-increase-in-concerns-about-internet-privacy-after-years-of-decline/20080117-1mfd.html ********************** CENSORSHIP ********************** Scientology fails to delete crazy Tom Cruise video As Gawker head Nick Denton notes, the crazy nine-minute video of Tom Cruise preaching about Scientology has been floating around the electronic tubes for a few days now, popping up on YouTube, Google Video and other sharing sites, and then on blogs linking to those sites, for a few hours at a time before it gets pulled down at the request of the Church of Scientology. http://machinist.salon.com/blog/2008/01/16/scientology/ Cruise lauds Scientology in Web video [Reuters] A video of actor Tom Cruise touting himself and fellow Scientologists as "authorities on the mind" has appeared on the Internet, coinciding with a new biography that examines his role in the movement. http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKN1554617420080116 China: Information ?no through road? When the internet first arrived in China in the 1990s, it was hoped a free and uncontrolled world wide web would help transform the world's most populous country into a more open society. Today, China is widely recognised as having developed the most advanced system of internet repression in the world, and instead of the internet transforming China, many are now in fact wondering if it is not China that is going to transform the internet. http://action.amnesty.org.au/china/comments/7264/ The Internet: Freedom of Speech Once upon a time, the world was made up of many, many communities that each had different opinions about free speech. Some allowed it, some prohibited it, and some operated in vast grey areas depending on what their particular dictionaries defined as freedom of speech. It really only mattered what a county?s particular constitution said about free speech, and most of them had something that ended up being somewhere in the middle regarding free speech. http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/49004 uk: Watchdog puts stranglehold on ad for violent computer game A TV advertisement for a computer game showing a shoot-out between four men was banned yesterday by the advertising watchdog for being too violent. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jan/16/advertising uk: Watchdog bans violent advert for computer game [Reuters] The Advertising Standards Authority said on Wednesday it had banned an advert for a computer game because it was too violent for broadcast. The TV advert for the 18-rated game "Stranglehold" showed a prolonged shoot-out between four men with a voiceover that said: "Honour is his code. Vengeance is his mission. Violence is his only option." http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKL1564074820080116 Violent video game ad banned from TV An advert for a computer game has been banned from television. The advert for 'Stranglehold' had realistic violence, constant gunfire and condoned violence, according to ad watchdog the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). http://out-law.com/page-8807 ************************************************ CHILD PROTECTION, FILTERING & CONTENT REGULATION ************************************************ uk: Advertisers 'sticking to junk food rules' UK advertisers are sticking to tougher rules that govern the way they market junk food to children, according to the first compliance report published by the Advertising Standards Authority. The ASA monitored 759 ads - across TV, cinema, online, posters and direct mail - to see whether advertisers were complying with rules introduced in July last year designed to help tackle the childhood obesity problem. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jan/15/advertising.marketingandpr us: In Child Porn Case, a Digital Dilemma The federal government is asking a U.S. District Court in Vermont to order a man to type a password that would unlock files on his computer, despite his claim that doing so would constitute self-incrimination. The case, believed to be the first of its kind to reach this level, raises a uniquely digital-age question about how to balance privacy and civil liberties against the government's responsibility to protect the public. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/15/AR2008011503663.html au: No sex please, we're Labor Speaking of rubbish, I note that our newly appointed minister for telecommunications etc., Stephen Conroy, has decided to begin his first year in the position by doing a bit of dumpster-diving himself. Plans to mandate ISP-level content filtering have revived a debate that I thought had long ago been relegated to the dustbin of history, if only because the Coalition government had accepted that it was an utter waste of time and energy. http://www.zdnet.com.au/blogs/fullduplex/soa/Blog-No-sex-please-we-re-Labor/0,139033349,339285217,00.htm MySpace Agrees to Lead Fight to Stop Sex Predators MySpace, the country?s largest social-networking Web site, has agreed with attorneys general of 49 states to take new steps to protect children from sexual predators on its site. It also agreed to lead a nationwide effort to develop technology to verify the ages and identities of Internet users, officials announced Monday. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/us/15myspace.html MySpace's Shaky Safety Balance MySpace wants to be the model citizen of the social networking world. And that role, it turns out, may be trickier than it seems. Monday, News Corp.'s social networking site teamed up with attorneys general from 49 states to announce a set of industry guidelines for keeping kids safe on social networking sites. The Multi-State Working Group on Social Networking outlined changes on MySpace to protect children from sexual predators and obscene content, including clearer methods of reporting abusive content and safer default privacy settings for users below the age of 18. http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/01/14/myspace-porn-children-tech-security-cx_ag_0114myspace.html MySpace Creates Guidelines For Social Networking MySpace on Monday announced its participation in a task force designed to increase safety on social networking sites as part of a partnership with 49 state governments. http://informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205604574 MySpace, States Team Up for Children's Safety [IDG] An agreement between MySpace and most U.S. state attorneys general will significantly increase the safety of minors on the popular social network and boost the ability of police to catch and prosecute sexual predators who use the Web, MySpace and several participating attorneys general said today. http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,141366-c,onlinesafety/article.html MySpace in U.S. deal to deter child predators [AP] MySpace has reached an agreement with 49 U.S. states to prevent sexual predators and others from preying on the site's users, state officials said Monday. http://iht.com/articles/2008/01/14/technology/myspace.php http://news.smh.com.au/myspace-agrees-to-new-safety-measures/20080115-1lz2.html http://news.theage.com.au/myspace-agrees-to-new-safety-measures/20080115-1lz2.html http://ecommercetimes.com/story/MySpace-State-AGs-to-Join-in-New-Child-Protection-Campaign-61192.html http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/01/14/myspace.agreement.ap/index.html MySpace makes child online safety pact with US prosecutors [AFP] MySpace and top US state attorneys have announced a pact to make the popular social networking website and its rivals safer for children. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/15/2139057.htm MySpace agrees to security measures MySpace, the News Corp-owned social-networking site, will implement several security measures to protect users from sexual predators as part of a new agreement that state regulators in the US hailed as a potential model for the burgeoning industry http://www.ft.com/cms/s/202773aa-c2db-11dc-b617-0000779fd2ac.html ISPs in Australia oppose internet filtering legislation The internet service providers in Australia have shown their protest against the internet filtering legislation, which was created by the Australian Labor party to crack down on internet pornography targeting children. http://www.cbronline.com/article_news.asp?guid=4627C0D2-3CB3-4D10-B791-A649ADBF1BFF http://www.net4now.com/isp_news/news_article.asp?News_ID=6217 Australian Labor government threatens to censor Internet Under the guise of ?protecting children? from pornography and X-rated violence, the Australian Labor government has announced that it will attempt to censor local internet access. Labor?s plans, which were mooted by Minister for Communications Stephen Conroy on December 31, constitute a direct attack on freedom of expression. http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jan2008/cens-j14.shtml http://www.westender.com.au/stories.php?s_id=813 http://www.net4now.com/isp_news/news_article.asp?News_ID=6223 Aussie Internet control issues generate industry doubts - Online Bingo News The new Australian Labour government?s bid to restrict access to pornographic and gambling sites under a plan called ?Clean Feed? would greatly hinder and strain the coutry?s internet performance, according to some Australian IT specialists. http://bingostreet.com/news-20080114/aussie-internet-control-issues-generate-industry-doubts-online-bingo-news ************************** GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC POLICY ************************** EU moves toward ruling on German gambling law The European Commission plans to decide within weeks whether to step up legal action against Germany over that country's recent move to ban online gambling, a spokesman for the commission in Brussels said Tuesday. http://iht.com/articles/2008/01/15/technology/gamble.php Betting industry urges EU action vs. German ban [Reuters] Europe's online gaming industry filed a complaint with the European Commission on Tuesday, saying Germany's ban on online gambling breaks EU law on the free movement of services. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6226161.html Israeli Committee approves talkback libel bill Israeli website editors could find themselves bearing a new responsibility. The ministerial legislative committee yesterday approved a private members bill by MK Israel Hasson (Yisrael Beiteinu) that imposes legal and criminal liability on talkback writers and on the talkback website editors. The bill only applies to websites with a daily average of more than 50,000 hits during a month. http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000297930&fid=942 us: NSA Must Examine All Internet Traffic to Prevent Cyber Nine-Eleven, Top Spy Says The nation's top spy, Michael McConnell, thinks the threat of cyberarmageddon! is so great that the U.S. government should have unfettered and warrantless access to U.S. citizens' Google search histories, private e-mails and file transfers, in order to spot the cyberterrorists in our midst. That's according to a sprawling 18-page story on the Director of National Intelligence by Lawrence Wright in the January 21 edition of the New Yorker. http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/01/feds-must-exami.html Europe takes on Microsoft again after rivals? attacks The European Commission said yesterday that there would be two further investigations into Microsoft?s commercial practices, only weeks after the American software giant had conceded defeat in a battle with regulators in Brussels. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article3187718.ece EU launches new Microsoft probes The European Commission is launching two new anti-competition investigations against US computer giant Microsoft. The first will look at whether Microsoft unfairly ties its Explorer internet browser to its Windows operating system. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7187750.stm EU launches two new antitrust probes against Microsoft The European Union's antitrust agency announced today that it has opened two new investigations into illegal business practices by Microsoft Corp., one of which was at least partly the result of a complaint filed in 2007 by Norwegian browser maker Opera Software ASA. Office is the primary focus of the second investigation, according to Jonathan Todd, the spokesman for the EU's competition commission. http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9057180 Microsoft faces two new European antitrust cases [IDG] The European Commission has opened two new antitrust investigations of Microsoft's activities. The first case is in response to a complaint from the European Committee for Interoperable Systems, a Brussels-based trade group of which Opera Software is a member, and concerns the interoperability of Windows with other software, the Commission said Monday. The second investigation is looking into Microsoft's tactic of bundling software products with its Windows operating system. This follows a complaint to the Commission by Opera, a Norwegian browser developer. http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/01/14/Microsoft-faces-two-new-European-antitrust-cases_1.html EU regulator and Microsoft face off anew After the briefest of truces, Europe's antitrust regulator resumed its battle with Microsoft on Monday, opening two new investigations into claims that the largest software maker had abused its dominant position to squeeze competitors out of the market. http://iht.com/articles/2008/01/14/technology/msft.php http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/technology/15soft.html EU Renews Pressure on Microsoft With Word, IE Probe Just months after it decided to stop its legal battles against a landmark European Union antitrust finding, Microsoft now finds itself facing two new inquiries into claims that it abused its market dominance in Europe. http://ecommercetimes.com/story/EU-Renews-Pressure-on-Microsoft-With-Word-IE-Probe-61201.html EU launches new Microsoft antitrust probe The European Commission opened its first new anti-trust campaign against Microsoft since the late 1990s, in the process challenging parts of the company?s core technology strategy http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2ce90532-c2c1-11dc-b617-0000779fd2ac.html us: FCC Wades Into Net Neutrality Swamp With Comcast Probe A group of public policy organizations has filed a petition and complaint with the Federal Communications Commission Latest News about Federal Communications Commission against Comcast over the way the Internet service provider has managed its Internet traffic. http://ecommercetimes.com/story/FCC-Wades-Into-Net-Neutrality-Swamp-With-Comcast-Probe-61223.html ********************** FILE SHARING ********************** AT&T may filter illegal file-sharing One of the largest telecoms firms in the US is contemplating the introduction of a filter to block copyright-infringing traffic in its internet service. The company said that network-level filtering was the "optimal" way to deal with piracy. http://out-law.com/page-8804 ********************** VoIP ********************** VoIP scores with triple play The introduction of triple play strategies--bundling of voice, broadband and pay television services--is the key to VoIP growth in the Asia Pacific region, but will also reduce its importance as a selling point for telcos. According to research firm Ovum, triple play strategies are ripe for adoption by small telcos: "VoIP is giving smaller fixed challengers the opportunity to build up true triple play offers without having to rely on resale of incumbent wholesale services, and to exploit IP technology to do so at lower cost," Ovum research director David Kennedy said in a statement. http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/VoIP-scores-with-triple-play/0,130061791,339285106,00.htm http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/communications/0,39044192,62036580,00.htm ********************************** ARRESTS/COURT CASES FOR CHILD PORN ********************************** au: Man arrested after officer poses as young girl A MAN has been arrested at a Melbourne city train station after a police sting operation involving an officer posing as a teenage girl in an internet chatroom. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23053906-421,00.html Nine Canadians arrested in child porn case [Reuters] Nine Canadians, including social workers and people involved with children's organizations, have been arrested on charges of possessing child pornography purchased from a European Web site, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said on Tuesday. http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN1551308020080115 http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKN1551308020080115 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ (c) David Goldstein 2008 --------- 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 Make the switch to the world's best email. Get the new Yahoo!7 Mail now. www.yahoo7.com.au/worldsbestemailReceived on Tue Jan 22 2008 - 10:15:21 UTC
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