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The domain name news is supported by auDA

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Plan to End U.S. Control of ICANN Submitted to Brazil Meeting on Future of Internet Governance
<http://news.syr.edu/plan-to-end-u-s-control-of-icann-submitted-to-brazil-meeting-on-future-of-internet-governance-38834/>

Publication of One World Trust Report on ICANN Accountability Benchmarks and Metrics
<http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-04mar14-en.htm>

au: Older Australians encouraged to have say on online news
<http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/news/older-australians-encouraged-have-say-online-news/2186401/>

TMCH sends out 17,500 Trademark Claims notices in a month
<http://domainincite.com/15947-tmch-sends-out-17500-trademark-claims-notices-in-a-month>

Rolling Average For TLD Sunrises ? Will This Trend Continue?
<http://calzone.org/tld/calzonenews/2014/03/04/rolling-average-for-tld-sunrises-will-this-trend-continue/>

New gTLDs pass 200,000 registrations
<http://domainincite.com/15969-new-gtlds-pass-200000-registrations>


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GOVERNANCE
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Plan to End U.S. Control of ICANN Submitted to Brazil Meeting on Future of Internet Governance
Researchers at the School of Information Studies (iSchool) have released an innovative proposal to resolve the 15-year controversy over the U.S. government?s special relationship to ICANN.
<http://news.syr.edu/plan-to-end-u-s-control-of-icann-submitted-to-brazil-meeting-on-future-of-internet-governance-38834/>

Best Practices in the Global Internet by Christian Dawson
In an increasingly global environment, the Internet infrastructure industry faces a diverse set of serious issues that we as an industry need to address together. To look at these concerns, an area of focus for the Internet Infrastructure Coalition (i2Coalition) has been best practices for our industry. Our approach to developing best practices encapsulates three areas, always with the goal of striking the right balance between security, safety and privacy: working with experts and industry professionals; identifying like-minded partners; and fostering the growth of the Internet economy.
<http://www.circleid.com/posts/20140303_best_practices_in_the_global_internet/>

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DOMAIN NAMES
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 - ICANN
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Publication of One World Trust Report on ICANN Accountability Benchmarks and Metrics
One World Trust (OWT) has submitted an independent assessment and measurement recommendations to ICANN. OWT was contracted to assist with developing a means to measure ICANN's accountability performance over time, as well as relative to other (broadly) similar organizations. This effort is part of ICANN's commitment to accountability and continuous improvement, and also responds to Accountability and Transparency Review Team advice. These measures also will:
<http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-04mar14-en.htm>

IDN Variant TLDs ? LGR Procedure Implementation ? Maximal Starting Repertoire Version 1 is Now Open for Public Comment
Purpose (Brief): ICANN is releasing for public comment version 1 of the Maximal Starting Repertoire (MSR-1). The MSR is the first deliverable under the "Procedure to Develop and Maintain Label Generation Rules for the Root Zone With Respect to IDN Labels" (the Procedure). Community members and specifically those working on Internationalized Domain Names, including IDN ccTLD and new gTLD applicants, as well as experts working on the development of Label Generation Rules are kindly asked to provide feedback.
<http://www.icann.org/en/news/public-comment/msr-03mar14-en.htm>

New Global Domains Division Portal ? Coming Soon!
ICANN is pleased to announce the upcoming launch of the new Global Domains Division (GDD) Portal, which is anticipated to go live in mid-March 2014.
<http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/announcements-and-media/announcement-04mar14-en>

IRTP Part D PDP WG Initial Report Public Comment Opened
This Public Forum invites comments on the Initial Report on the IRTP Part D PDP. The Report provides 12 preliminary recommendations to the six questions that this PDP Working Group (WG) was charted with. Please note that the WG is seeking public comment especially on Charter questions B and C to help inform its final recommendation.
<http://www.icann.org/en/news/public-comment/irtp-d-initial-03mar14-en.htm>

Keeping Africa?s e-Traffic in Africa: A Look at On-Going Initiatives by Bob Ochieng
In most African countries, if you send an email across town it makes a long and circuitous journey to North America or Europe or even Japan before arriving in the inbox of the intended recipient. That costs money in international connection charges and also results in a myriad of latency issues. This structural problem mirrors similar difficulties with Africa?s telecommunications infrastructure: calls between two African countries must first get routed through other continents.
<http://blog.icann.org/2014/03/keeping-africas-e-traffic-in-africa-a-look-at-on-going-initiatives/>

Ashwin Rangan to Join ICANN as New Chief Innovation and Information Officer
Veteran business leader Ashwin Rangan has joined ICANN as its first Chief Innovation and Information Officer. Rangan assumes the new role on March 3, 2014 and will report directly to President and CEO Fadi Chehad?.
<http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-03mar14-en.htm>

ICANN hires Walmart alum as CIO
Ashwin Rangan started today as chief innovation and information officer, meaning he?s going to be in charge of ICANN?s oft-criticized IT systems.
<http://domainincite.com/15958-icann-hires-walmart-alum-as-cio>

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 - ccTLD & gTLD NEWS
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au: Older Australians encouraged to have say on online news
NEW University of the Sunshine Coast research aims to ensure older people stay connected with the news in a digital era. ... "I've received $10,000 in funding from the auDA Foundation to investigate how older Australians are engaging with online news," said Dr Barnes, who has worked for media organisations including the ABC, The Age in Melbourne and Australian Associated Press.
<http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/news/older-australians-encouraged-have-say-online-news/2186401/>

Neustar Remains Committed To Providing Reliable, Stable And Efficient .US TLD Service [news release]
Today (5 March), Neustar Inc. announced that the U.S. Department of Commerce has awarded the company the contract to continue administering the .US TLD, the official country code domain of the United States. Neustar has successfully administered this critical domain since 2001, when the Department of Commerce first selected the company to build and manage the new domain.
<http://www.domainpulse.com/2014/03/05/neustar-us/>
<http://www.domainnews.com/neustar-us.html>

US revives .kids.us in new Neustrar contract
Neustar has been awarded a new three-to-five-year contract to manage the .us ccTLD, under a deal with the US Department of Commerce announced today.
<http://domainincite.com/15960-us-revives-kids-us-in-new-neustrar-contract>

Neustar keeps .us domain deal
As the pool of Internet domain names expands dramatically, the Department of Commerce will continue to use Neustar to administer the .us country code under a three-year contract announced March 4.
<http://fcw.com/articles/2014/03/05/neustar-domains.aspx>

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 - NEW TLDS
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Jeff Schmidt to Present Name Collision Management Framework at Research Workshop by Burt Kaliski
I?m delighted to announce that the name collisions workshop this weekend will include Jeff Schmidt, CEO of JAS Global Advisors, presenting the Name Collision Occurrence Management Framework that his firm just released for public review.
<http://blogs.verisigninc.com/blog/entry/jeff_schmidt_to_present_name>

TMCH sends out 17,500 Trademark Claims notices in a month
Just four weeks after the first new gTLDs went into general availability, the Trademark Clearinghouse has already sent out over 17,500 Trademark Claims notices to trademark owners.
<http://domainincite.com/15947-tmch-sends-out-17500-trademark-claims-notices-in-a-month>

Rolling Average For TLD Sunrises ? Will This Trend Continue?
After several months and 33 completed TLD Sunrise Periods, there are 4,008 domain sunrise registrations, for an average of 115 domains per TLD Sunrise. This is a slow start. But what is the trend? If these trends hold up, what does it mean?
<http://calzone.org/tld/calzonenews/2014/03/04/rolling-average-for-tld-sunrises-will-this-trend-continue/>

New gTLDs pass 200,000 registrations
The number of domain names in new gTLDs passed 200,000 last night, according to zone files. The exact number, according to the DI PRO database, is 201,184.
<http://domainincite.com/15969-new-gtlds-pass-200000-registrations>

New TLD registries need to forget about sunrise revenue
I think many observers are surprised by the low number of trademark sunrise registrations in new TLDs so far.
<http://domainnamewire.com/2014/03/04/new-tld-registries-need-to-forget-about-sunrise-revenue/>

Delays still dog many new gTLD applicants
With dozens of new gTLDs currently live and on sale, it?s easy to forget that many applicants are still in ICANN limbo due to several still-unresolved issues with the evaluation process.
<http://domainincite.com/15944-delays-still-dog-many-new-gtld-applicants>

Vienna first city to be granted personal domain name
Vienna is the first city in the world to be granted it's own URL domain suffix. Businesses and organisations associated with Vienna now have the chance to register websites with the ending '.wien', where you usually might have '.at' or '.com'.
<http://www.wienerzeitung.at/nachrichten/english_news/612874_Vienna-first-city-to-be-granted-personal-domain-name.html>
<http://austriantimes.at/news/General_News/2014-03-04/50556/Vienna_first_city_to_be_granted_personal_domain_name>
<http://www.austria.com/vienna-first-city-to-be-granted-personal-domain-name/3882380>

.CLUB Sunrise Registrations Please Registry Operator
While not revealing numbers, the operators of the .club gTLD are particularly pleased with the number of Sunrise registrations since the Sunrise period began on 28 January.
<http://www.domainpulse.com/2014/03/04/club-sunrise-registrations-please-registry-operator/>
<http://www.domainnews.com/club-sunrise-registrations-please-registry-operator.html>

.club ?will overtake .guru? in week one
Now that we?ve seen how many domain names are actually being sold in new gTLDs, you might reasonably expect some registries to rein in their more ambitious sales targets.
<http://domainincite.com/15965-club-will-overtake-guru-in-week-one>

.XYZ Sunrise Launches 20 March
It?s one of the more generic of the generic TLDs to launch. So it will be interesting to see how successful it is when General Availability commences. For now though .xyz is launching into a 60 day end-date Sunrise on 20 March and is inviting brands registered with the TMCH to exclusively register their trademarks before General Availability.
<http://www.domainnews.com/xyz-sunrise-launches-20-march.html>
<http://www.domainpulse.com/2014/03/04/xyz-sunrise-launches-20-march/>

TLDH: Board Appointment
Further to the announcement of 31 January 2014, the Board is pleased to announce the formal appointment of Mr Elliot Noss as a non-executive director of TLDH with immediate effect.
<http://www.tldh.org/2014/03/board-appointment-4/>

New domain .domains comes out tomorrow
Starting tomorrow you?ll be able to register .domains domains. Seriously: anything.domains will be up for grabs.
<http://domainnamewire.com/2014/03/04/new-domain-domains-comes-out-tomorrow/>

Tim Switzer joins .Build
A familiar face in the domain name registry business is joining the .Build team.
<http://domainnamewire.com/2014/03/04/tim-switzer-joins-build/>

Afilias wins .green auction
Rightside withdrew its application for the string in the last few days, according to the ICANN web site, leaving Afilias the only remaining applicant in the four-way contention set.
<http://domainincite.com/15956-afilias-wins-green-auction>

Et Tu, ICANN? ICANN Board's Recent Decision on the .Islam and .Halal TLD Applications Is Wrong by Katim S. Touray
On Feb. 7, 2014 Dr. Stephen Crocker, the Chair of the ICANN Board of Directors, wrote to Asia Green IT System (AGIT), a Turkish company which applied for .Islam and .Halal, conveying ICANN's latest position on these two applications. The letter is deeply flawed, and shows how ICANN's handling of the .Islam and .Halal applications is at once an egregious assault on the new gTLD program rules, and a betrayal of whatever trust Muslims around the world might have had in ICANN.
<http://www.circleid.com/posts/20140303_icann_boards_decision_on_islam_and_halal_tld_applications_wrong/>

Level of gTLD notices issued to trademark holders revealed
In its latest bulletin, the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) has revealed that almost 17,500 notifications had been sent to trademark holders to date, while brand owners themselves had submitted 26,802 marks to the TMCH.
<http://www.worldtrademarkreview.com/daily/Detail.aspx?g=69d7b7dd-3cbc-41d5-8e64-a9d7bf7e88b1>

Donuts pitches photography related domain names at tradeshow
Donuts is exhibiting at the The Photography Show 2014 in Birmingham, England. The show began Saturday and runs through tomorrow.
<http://domainnamewire.com/2014/03/03/donuts-pitches-photography-related-domain-names-at-tradeshow/>

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 - DNS SECURITY
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Report Calls for Better Backstops to Protect Power Grid From Cyberattacks
Despite rising anxiety over the possibility of a cyberattack on the power grid, the industry and government are not set up well to counter the threat, according to a report produced by leading energy security experts. Companies are reluctant to share information with one other, a critical step in reducing vulnerability, because they are afraid of being accused of failing to comply with cybersecurity rules, committing antitrust violations or giving away proprietary information, the report found.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/03/business/energy-environment/report-calls-for-better-backstops-to-protect-power-grid-from-cyberattacks.html>

Report Urges Protection of Electric Grid from Cyberattacks
Critical infrastructure policymakers are calling for the formation of a new group to better protect the North American electric grid from cyber-attacks.
<http://threatpost.com/report-urges-protection-of-electric-grid-from-cyberattacks/104608>

DDoS cyber attacks get bigger, smarter, more damaging
Crashing websites and overwhelming data centres, a new generation of cyber attacks is costing millions and straining the structure of the Internet.
<http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/03/05/uk-cyber-ddos-idUKBREA240YF20140305>

Australian credentials ?almost certainly? part of 360m hacked accounts
Australians are ?almost certainly? among owners of 360 million account/password combinations that are available for sale to cyber criminals, security experts warn.
<http://www.theaustralian.com.au/technology/australian-credentials-almost-certainly-part-of-360m-hacked-accounts/story-e6frgakx-1226845471468>

Malware-Lobbing Hackers Seize 300,000 Routers
More than 300,000 home and small-office (SOHO) routers have been compromised by hackers and are being used to distribute massive quantities of spam and malware.
<http://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/malware-lobbing-hackers-seize-300000-rou/240166405>

Widespread Compromised Routers Discovered With Altered DNS Configurations
A widespread compromise of consumer-grade small office/home office (SOHO) routers has been discovered by threat intelligence group Team Cymru. According to the report, "attackers are altering the DNS configuration on these devices in order to redirect victims DNS requests and subsequently replace the intended answers with IP addresses and domains controlled by the attackers, effectively conducting a Man-in-the-Middle attack."
<http://www.circleid.com/posts/widespread_compromised_routers_discovered_with_altered_dns_configurations/>

Cyberattacks Rise as Ukraine Crisis Spills to Internet
The crisis in Ukraine has spread to the Internet, where hackers from both sides are launching large cyberattacks against opposing news organizations.
<http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/04/cyberattacks-rise-as-ukraine-crisis-spills-on-the-internet/>

Ukraine hit by cyberattacks - head of Ukraine security service
Ukraine's telecommunications system has come under attack, with equipment installed in Russian-controlled Crimea used to interfere with the mobile phones of members of parliament, the head of Ukraine's SBU security service said on Tuesday.
<http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/03/04/ukraine-crisis-telecoms-idINDEEA2309A20140304>

Russia and Ukraine in cyber 'stand-off'
As diplomatic efforts are stepped up to ease tensions in Ukraine, security experts have warned that Kiev and Moscow are locked in a cyber stand-off.
<http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-26447200>

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 - DOMAIN DISPUTES
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Supreme Court decision represents significant defeat for cybersquatters [registration]
In a case involving the domain name ?nca.com?, the Supreme Court has confirmed that the lack of fame of a trademark in Korea could no longer be used as an excuse by cybersquatters in cases involving TLDs. The case shows that the fame of the mark abroad may be sufficient, especially if the registrant?s bad faith can clearly be established.
<http://www.worldtrademarkreview.com/daily/Detail.aspx?g=9520cc64-a951-42d3-b2be-626991047c1b>

Yahoo Ad: We?ve helped 1,000s of domain squatters
Nat Cohen sent me some screenshots of an ad Yahoo! is running to promote its webhosting services. I think domainers will get a rise out of the message.
<http://domainnamewire.com/2014/03/05/yahoo-ad-weve-helped-1000s-of-domain-squatters/>

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 - IPv4/IPv6
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How Managers Can Support their Engineers Deploy IPv6? by Mukom Akong Tamon
After interacting with over 1000 network engineers during training sessions about what they think could help drive IPv6 deployment in Africa, I have come to the realisation that a three prong approach is required... Many training courses focus on the first issue, and quite logically, that's where the real work lies. I've developed such a course that has been delivered in over 45 countries, and there are lots of other great training available, both free and paid.
<http://www.circleid.com/posts/20140305_how_managers_can_support_their_engineers_deploy_ipv6/>

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 - MISCELLANEOUS
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GoDaddy looks to go global after appointing Bite for PR
GoDaddy has appointed Bite to handle PR for EMEA, as the company looks to expand its brand. The brief initially covers the UK market and pan-EMEA Hub coordination and includes strategic planning, campaign management, content creation and influencer relations.
<http://www.thedrum.com/news/2014/03/05/godaddy-looks-go-global-after-appointing-bite-pr>

ECJ upholds General Court decision rejecting application for PHOTOS.COM [registration]
In Getty Images (US) Inc v OHIM, the ECJ has upheld a decision of the General Court rejecting a CTM application for PHOTOS.COM on the basis that it lacked distinctiveness. Among other things, the ECJ dismissed the argument that, by failing to explain why it had treated this mark differently from already registered PHOTOS.COM marks, the General Court had not correctly balanced the principles of equal treatment against the need to ensure that the law was observed.
<http://www.worldtrademarkreview.com/daily/Detail.aspx?g=2c9d7c43-fb92-4bce-b1ef-87395cf2aa90>

Van Gelder rebrands to Milathan
Domain name consultant Stephane Van Gelder has changed the name of his company from Stephane Van Gelder Consulting to Milathan.
<http://domainincite.com/15962-van-gelder-rebrands-to-milathan>

SnapNames acquired by Web.com
Web.com has acquired domain name dropcatcher SnapNames for an undisclosed sum, according to press releases from it and former owner KeyDrive, confirming reports from Friday.
<http://domainincite.com/15954-snapnames-acquired-by-web-com>

NameJet to retain Web.com expired domain inventory despite SnapNames acquisition
News broke over the weekend that Web.com had acquired expired domain name service and domain marketplace SnapNames from KeyDrive.
<http://domainnamewire.com/2014/03/03/namejet-snapnames-web/>

Meet Andy Linton: one of 14 people holding a key to the internet
A modest, independent internet veteran of 30 years, who once lived in Australia and now teaches IT network engineering at a New Zealand university, is the bearer of one of only 14 keys holding the internet secure.
<http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/it-pro/security-it/meet-andy-linton-one-of-the-few-people-holding-a-key-to-the-internet-20140303-hvfxn.html>
<http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/30020522/kiwi-holding-a-key-to-the-internet>

The 2014 SXSW Interactive Festival Begins Friday - Sedo's Jeremiah Johnston Set to Speak About New gTLDs on Monday
The huge SXSW Interactive Festival begins its five-day 2014 run Friday (March 7) at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas. Sedo's long time General Counsel Jeremiah Johnston will be in Austin to talk about new gTLDs in a session titled The Discussion?s Over: New Domains Are Here that will be held at 12:30pm CST Monday, March 10 in Ballroom E.
<http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2014/dailyposts/20140304.htm>

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 - WEBHOSTING
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Netcraft March 2014 Web Server Survey
In the March 2014 survey we received responses from 919,533,715 sites ? around half a million fewer than last month.
<http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2014/03/03/march-2014-web-server-survey.html>

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 - DOMAINING & AFTERMARKET
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The High End of the Domain Market Took a Breather This Week But Two Older 7-Figure Sales Came to Light
After producing a long string of six-figure sales in recent weeks the high end of the domain market finally took a breather this week with no sales reported at that lofty level. That left the door open for Go Daddy/Afternic to claim the top spot on this week's all extension Top 20 Sales Chart with their $25,000 sale of GoodNeighbors.com. Go Daddy/Afternic went on to pile up 10 of the 20 chart entries, including the biggest non .com gTLD sale - #4 (tie) Diamonds.info at $20,000.
<http://dnjournal.com/archive/domainsales/2014/20140226.htm>

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INTERNET USE
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Mobile Represents 30% of Ecommerce Site Traffic in 2013 [Study]
If you're curious about what the state of ecommerce looked like last year, ShopVisible recently released a report that highlights mobile benchmarks, payment methods, shopping channels and more for 2013. What it found was 30 percent of site traffic came from something other than a traditional desktop/laptop, and up to 7 percent of total online revenue came from comparison shopping engines.
<http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2332227/mobile-represents-30-of-ecommerce-site-traffic-in-2013-study>

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CHILD PROTECTION & ONLINE SAFETY
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au: Parents warned about privacy dangers of data mining on students
The Australian Council of State School Organisations wants schools to ban technology companies from accessing data about what students do on school computers.
<http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-05/parents-warned-about-privacy-dangers-of-data/5299200>

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PRIVACY & SURVEILLANCE
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Edward Snowden's revelations made it clear: security oversight must be fit for the internet age by Nick Clegg
Until this week, the revelations published by the Guardian about the nature and extent of internet surveillance had provoked little reaction from British politicians. The quality of the debate in the US provides an unflattering contrast to the muted debate this side of the Atlantic.
<http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/03/nick-clegg-snowden-security-oversight-internet-age>

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GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC POLICY
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Australian govt departments want to keep power to censor websites
The Australian Federal Police (AFP), the Australian Securities Investment Commission (ASIC), and one unnamed agency have indicated to the government that they would likely seek to keep using powers in the Telecommunications Act to force ISPs to block websites.
<http://www.zdnet.com/au/australian-govt-departments-want-to-keep-power-to-censor-websites-7000026960/>

----------------------------
David Goldstein

 email: david at goldsteinreport.com

 web:   http://goldsteinreport.com / http://davidgoldstein.tel/
 phone: +61 418 228 605 ? mobile / +61 2 9663 3430 - office/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