general internet news - 15 December

For those interested in news on WSIS conference in Geneva,
there are stories at the end, but there are more stories in
the domain news with references to domain names. For more
recent WSIS news on domain issues, see the auda site
<http://auda.org.au/about/news> on Monday afternoon
Australian time.

David
.de - "Bored" teens rack up £80 million Internet bill
Three German teenagers are under investigation for fraud
after they spent 130 million euros (80 million pounds) in a
two-hour Internet shopping spree, claiming they were
"bored," authorities say.

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=3984757

Canadian Ruling on Web Music
Downloading copyrighted music from peer-to-peer networks is
legal in Canada, although uploading files is not, Canadian
copyright regulators said on Friday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/13/business/worldbusiness/13music.html
 http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-5121479.html

Iran's president defends web control
Iran's policy of blocking access to certain websites has
been defended by the country's authorities at the UN
digital summit.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3312841.stm
 http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/34506.html

Iranian bloggers rally against censorship
Iranian internet users have been venting their frustration
at online censorship on a website devoted to the UN's
digital summit in Geneva.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3310493.stm

.us - GAO: P2P Porn no Worse Than on Web
Contradicting lurid testimony at several congressional
hearings earlier this year, the U.S. General Accounting
Office (GAO) insists that pornography available on
peer-to-peer (P2P) networks is "not necessarily" more
dangerous than what is readily available on Web sites.
 http://dc.internet.com/news/article.php/3288481

Cable & Wireless extends support for internet safety (news
release)
Cable & Wireless, the international telecommunications
group, today further strengthened its commitment to
internet safety by announcing additional support for the
Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA). Cable &
Wireless has made available £84,000 to help ICRA develop
its content labelling system and promote such labelling
around the world.
 http://www.icra.org/press/cableandwireless

European Project Empowers Internet Users with the Release
of ICRAplus (news release)
The multi national Project SIFT, funded by the European
Commission under the Safer Internet Action Plan unveiled
today the result of its 18 month research and development
effort, ICRAplus. This new platform for content filtering
is firmly rooted in self-labelling and user empowerment,
whilst delivering unparalleled flexibility and choice.
 http://www.icra.org/press/icraplus

Patenting Air or Protecting Property?
Universities, corporations and tens of thousands of Web
site providers across the country probably never imagined
they would be rooting for the pornography industry. But
millions of their dollars could be riding on a court fight
between a coalition of Internet video-porn providers and a
small California research firm, which early this year began
enforcing the eye-opening claim that it owns the patents on
how most audio and video is sent over the Internet.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54548-2003Dec10.html
 http://www.bizreport.com/article.php?art_id=5736

.uk - Talk not court advocated for net paedophiles
In a bid to encourage internet paedophiles to hand over
their collections of abusive images, people who download
child pornography should be offered counselling rather than
automatically facing prosecution, according to a children's
charity.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1104103,00.html

.zw - Mugabe plans Internet gag - reports
President Robert Mugabe's embattled regime is planning
shock new measures to control all broadcast and
Internet-based information, reports said on Friday.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=115&art_id=ct20031212215622710I5365316

Kenya's cyber-walk on the wild side
Just half a percent of Kenya's population has access to the
Internet, and pornography seems to be the main drawcard.

http://www.itechnology.co.za/index.php?click_id=115&art_id=ct20031212211205236K500642&set_id=1
Pornography fuels Kenya's Internet bang
Florence was momentarily flustered when she was interrupted
while downloading blue movies in one of Nairobi's Internet
cafes, but she quickly regained her composure, and even
admitted what she was up to. She is one of a growing number
of Kenyans logging on to the world wide web.

http://www.itechnology.co.za/index.php?click_id=115&art_id=qw1071202684980B255

Heavy pruning stunting growth of Vietnam Web
Internet use in Vietnam is growing at a very slow rate
because the authorities - fearful that dissidents may use
the resource to try to destabilise the government - have
reined it in tightly.

http://www.itechnology.co.za/index.php?click_id=115&art_id=qw1071210781322B213

Porn In The U.S.A.
Selling sex is one of the oldest businesses in the world,
and right now, business has never been better. One of the
biggest cultural changes in the United States over the past
25 years has been the widespread acceptance of sexuality
explicit material - pornography.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/21/60minutes/main585049.shtml

.uk - Government urged to step up fight against cybercrime
The government has been urged to create one-stop shops to
allow businesses to report computer crimes and share
confidential intelligence about cyberattacks with other
organisations.

http://www.cw360.com/articles/article.asp?liArticleID=127197

.uk - Cybercrime: education not legislation the answer
Legislating against electronic crimes such as spam and ID
fraud will not reduce the problem; instead, education for
small businesses and consumers and cooperation between
countries is the answer, according to two major industry
groups, who launched a consultation paper on the subject on
Thursday.

http://www.silicon.com/management/government/0,39024677,39117322,00.htm

.au - SA teachers honing Internet skills
South Australian teachers are learning how to help students
recognise dubious and improper material on the Internet.
 http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1009412.htm

Cyber-dissident sentenced to eight years in prison
Li Zhi was found guilty on 10 December of "inciting
subversion of the state authority" and was sentenced to
eight years in prison. The imposition of this particularly
harsh sentence by the Dazhou Intermediate People's Court in
southwestern Sichuan province coincided with the arrival of
Prime Minister Wen Jiabao on a visit to Canada. Frank Lu of
the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and
Democracy said Li intended to appeal.
 http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=8078 (English)
 http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=8076 (Francais)

China jails cyber dissident
A FORMER government worker in southwest China was jailed
for eight years for posting essays and comments online
criticising official corruption, a human rights group said.

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,8141817%5e16123%5e%5enbv%5e,00.html

Sex sells, especially to Web surfers
Gone are the furtive visits to seedy theaters and the fear
of being outed as some perverted purchaser of porn. Now,
all you need to indulge anonymously in the "XXX" world is
your trusty personal computer and a good connection to the
Internet.

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/12/10/porn.business/index.html

.us - Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary: The Pornography Crisis: A Time for Candor
Christians must respond to this rising tide of pornography
with a clear word of moral witness and stern calls for
effective legislation which would restrict or eliminate
these abuses of computer networks.

http://www.crosswalk.com/news/weblogs/mohler/?adate=12/2/2003#1233766

.nz - Censors ban computer game
A computer video game that encourages players to kill
everyone in sight in ever more gruesome ways has become the
first such product to be banned in New Zealand.
 http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2756885a28,00.html

http://onenews.nzoom.com/onenews_detail/0,1227,242510-1-454,00.html

Microsoft to Remove Swastikas from Software Fonts
Microsoft Corp. said on Friday that its latest version of
Office software inadvertently contained a font featuring
two swastikas, and said it would offer tools to remove and
replace the offending characters from the program.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=3983806
 http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1009272.htm

.au - ACT passes open source law
The Australian Capital Territory has become the first
Australian jurisdiction to mandate the consideration of
open source software for government entities after a bill
proposed by ACT Democrats leader Roslyn Dundas was passed
into law overnight.

http://www.arnnet.com.au/index.php?id=792934018&fp=2&fpid=1

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,8131082%5e16123%5e%5enbv%5e,00.html

.us - Virginia files felony spam charges
Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore announced Thursday
that his office had made its first felony indictment under
the state's antispam law.
 http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5120673.html
 http://www.iht.com/articles/121293.html

Antispammer rocked by porn attack
Antispam organization Spamhaus is the victim of a devious
spam e-mail doing the rounds, which makes it a target of
floods of angry e-mails.
 http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5112487.html

The Taming of the Internet
A deluge of spam is forcing new rules and controls on the
once wide-open Web. Will it lead to online gated
communities?

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_50/b3862091_mz063.htm

Sites Slowly See Need to Make Web Accessible to Blind Users
Software that dictates text gets tangled up in design
features and unlabeled images. But enterprising news sites
are designing their sites with blind readers in mind.
 http://www.ojr.org/ojr/technology/1071101847.php

European court upholds German ban on Internet pharmacies
selling prescription drugs
Europe's top court Thursday gave countries the right to ban
sales of prescription drugs by Internet pharmacies because
of safety concerns, but said the restrictions could not
apply to sales of over-the-counter medications.

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/7468904.htm
 http://shorl.com/diprutyprydega (decision)

Berlin Unveils Plan for Greater Net Access  	 
Though more than 50 percent of all Germans use the
Internet, Berlin would like to have three-quarters of the
population online by 2005. Earlier this week, Chancellor
Gerhard Schröder’s cabinet approved its “Information
Society Germany 2006” action plan, which calls for 75
percent of Germans over the age of 14 to become Internet
users within the next three years.

http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1446_A_1051062_1_A,00.html

Federal Law Allows Employer's Search of Worker's E-Mails
An employer's decision to dig through an employee's e-mails
in computer storage does not violate any provisions of the
Electronic Communications Privacy Act since the law bans an
"interception" only if it occurs at the time of
transmission and exempts the owner of an e-mail system from
any claim alleging an illegal "seizure" of stored e-mails,
a federal appeals court has ruled.
 http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1071091317140
 http://caselaw.findlaw.com/data2/circs/3rd/012921p.pdf
(decision)

Swedish court blocks Lindows
A Swedish court has temporarily blocked the distribution of
Lindows software in the country, pending a ruling on
Microsoft's claim that the company's name violates its
Windows trademark. Magistrate Ulrika Carlehall of Stockholm
City Court said in her ruling that Microsoft has shown
probable cause for trademark infringement and therefore may
suffer further damage if products with the Lindows name
continue to be sold in Sweden. She set a fine of $3 million
(3 million kroner) if Lindows fails to comply with the
injunction.
 http://news.com.com/2110-7344_3-5120228.html

.us - AT&T Joins Fray for Cheaper Calls Through the Web
AT&T plans to offer unlimited long distance and local
calling using Internet technology at a significantly lower
cost.
 http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/11/technology/11PHON.html

Making calls over the Net
Not long ago, the business traffic of Interconnect was
contraband as far as regulators were concerned. The problem
cargo was the human voice.
 http://www.iht.com/articles/113355.html

Hold It Right There, and Drop That Camera
Seeing a threat to privacy, several municipalities have
restricted the use of cellphone-cameras.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/11/technology/circuits/11shoo.html

UWB contenders take their fight to the market
The market, not IEEE standards bodies or government
regulators, will have to sort out a standard for
ultrawideband technology, said backers of competing
approaches at the Bluetooth Americas conference here
Thursday (Dec. 11).
 http://www.commsdesign.com/story/OEG20031212S0013

Beyond Wi-Fi: A New Wireless Age
Three technologies will boost the capacity of our airwaves
-- and innovation, too.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_50/b3862098.htm

Faster, More-Secure WiFi
If you want the most options for configuring your network,
Linksys's WRT54G is the way to go.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61569-2003Dec13.html

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WSIS news
OECD Observer briefs: Information society Promise and risks
- By Markus Kummer, eEnvoy, Federal Department of Foreign
Affairs, Switzerland
Switzerland is hosting the first phase of the World Summit
on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva from 10–12
December 2003 and is committed to making this summit work.
But what is it all about? Will it be yet another summit
with political statements and resolutions of limited
relevance or will it really make a difference?

http://www.oecdobserver.org/news/fullstory.php/aid/1144/Information_society.html

UN adopts Net "constitution"
Some 175 countries have endorsed the first "constitution"
for the information age, which aims to use the internet and
other forms of technology as a tool to improve life for
billions of people.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/12/14/1071336796643.html

Internet Summit Makes Call to 'Wire Up' the World
More than 170 countries approved an ambitious call to
extend the Internet and the benefits of information
technology to the poorest corners of the world Friday, but
dodged some of the difficulties of doing so.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=3985144

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/12/13/tech.summit.reut/index.html
 http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,61588,00.html

Mission accomplished for Switzerland
The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) wrapped
up in Geneva on Friday with 176 countries pledging to
bridge the digital divide.
 http://www.nzz.ch/2003/12/13/english/page-synd4542778.html

Summit fails to bridge digital divide
Delegates from the developing world have slated the World
Summit on the Information Society for failing to come up
with funds to achieve its aims.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1105849,00.html

UN summit pledges net for all
A UN summit designed to shrink the technology gap between
rich and poor nations has ended with agreement on lofty
principles, but no commitments to practical measures.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3314921.stm

U.N. Summit Ends With Net Expansion Plans
Delegates to a U.N. summit approved an ambitious plan
Friday to deliver Internet and other technologies to the
world's poorest regions but it lacked definition and
monetary muscle.
 http://www.bizreport.com/article.php?art_id=5739

U.N. Summit Calls for Wired World
The first World Summit on the Information Society wraps up
with a plan for extending the Internet and other modern
wonders to the planet's poorest countries. No word yet on
who will pay.
 http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,61588,00.html

Globalizing Internet Brings Unexpected Problems
The United Nations' push to transform the developing world
into tech-ready nations could partly backfire, delegates to
an IT summit aimed at bridging the "digital divide" said on
Thursday.
 http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=3977779

Telecoms surge in third world
One issue that could not get resolved at the UN's World
Summit on the Information Society this week was whether
governments should create a "digital solidarity fund" to
help poor areas of the world connect to communications
networks.
 http://www.iht.com/articles/121344.html 	 	 	

Civil Society Angry At Being Sidelined At WSIS
Disappointed that initial promises of equal partnerships
between governments and civil societies in the WSIS
processes have been empty ones, over 300 Civil Society
Organizations (CSOs) gathered in Geneva have decided to
come up with their own separate Civil Society Declaration
to WSIS.
 http://allafrica.com/stories/200312090816.html

Summit Agrees On Critical Issues
World leaders have endorsed a plan under which modern
communication technologies will be extended to the poor,
and other efforts undertaken to bridge the digital divide
between poor and rich countries.
 http://allafrica.com/stories/200312120591.html

Local content key for digitally divided
Development groups are adapting technology to help with
local concerns that are relevant to them.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3314171.stm

UN summit pledges net for all
Delegates at UN's digital divide summit agree on principles
of web equality, but fail to commit on who pays for them.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3314921.stm

PanAfrica: All Villages Can Have Internet By 2015, Experts
Say
An ambitious plan to ensure that every village in the world
has Internet connection 10 years from now has been unveiled
at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).
 http://allafrica.com/stories/200312120598.html

Internet Summit Makes Call to 'Wire Up' the World
More than 170 countries approved an ambitious call to
extend the Internet and the benefits of information
technology to the poorest corners of the world Friday, but
dodged some of the difficulties of doing so.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=3985144

Mali, Mozambique, Senegal Get Chf1 Million Each From Swiss
Government
The Swiss government has pledged one million Swiss francs
each to Mali, Mozambique and Senegal in efforts to upgrade
their Community Multimedia Centres (CMC). This was
announced today at a media briefing on the progress made by
governments attending the World Summit on the Information
Society (WSIS).
 http://allafrica.com/stories/200312120118.html

Political leaders trumpet need to bridge digital divide
Political leaders trumpeted the need to close the global
technology gap at the world's first information summit
yesterday, with Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe warning
the North against using its technological might to further
suppress the South. 

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/11/1071086170062.html

African Leaders Declare International Day of Digital
Solidarity
African leaders have declared 12 December to be the
International Day of Digital Solidarity as a tribute to the
consensus reached by world leaders to adopt the Digital
Solidarity Agenda and the Digital Solidarity Fund in the
two documents of the World Summit on Information Society
(WSIS), which closed today.
 http://allafrica.com/stories/200312120590.html

Next Conference in Tunisia More Than Symbolic
Tunisian Foreign Affairs minister Habib Ben Yahia said
Tunisia's hosting of the next phase of the World Summit on
the Information Society (WSIS) showed that developed
countries accepted the importance of providing useful
technology to all, especially the poor.
 http://allafrica.com/stories/200312120110.html

Sommet information: la régulation de l'internet reviendra
sur la table à Tunis
Le dossier de la régulation de l'internet, effleuré à
Genève lors de la première phase du Sommet mondial sur la
société de l'information (SMSI), reviendra sur la table des
négociations pour la deuxième phase du SMSI, en novembre
2005, à Tunis.

http://www.courrierinternational.com/afp/resultatDepeche.asp?id=031213080949.3mj8nwob


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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Sources include Quicklinks (www.qlinks.net) and BNA
Internet Law News (www.bna.com/ilaw)".

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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