general internet news - 16 February

Who Controls the Internet? - Andrew Starling
Pretty much every other communication medium has somebody
in control. Telephone systems are run by telephone
companies and regulated by governments; postal services are
a mixture of national monopolies and enterprise, usually
regulated by governments; newspapers, TV and radio are run
by corporations and regulated by - guess who? - governments
yet again.

http://www.cbeji.com.br/br/novidades/artigos/index.asp?id=2350

http://www.webdevelopersjournal.com/columns/ajs_who_controls_internet.html

cn: Cyber-dissident Du Daobin's case sent back to police
for lack of evidence
The Xiaogan prosecutor's office told police on 10 February
there was not enough evidence to charge Du Daobin with
"inciting subversion". The case was sent back to the Bureau
of Public Security (police).
 http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=9185
Reenvíado a la policía el dossier del ciberdisidente Du
Daobin, por falta de pruebas
 http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=9188
Le dossier du cyberdissident Du Daobin renvoyé à la police
pour manque de preuves
 http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=9184

au: Man jailed for luring 'girl' on net 
A man who used cyberspace to flirt with someone he thought
was a 13-year-old girl yesterday became the first person in
the country convicted under new laws designed to combat
pedophiles using internet chat rooms.

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,8670060%5E15330%5E%5Enbv%5E15306-15319,00.html
 http://smh.com.au/articles/2004/02/13/1076548206338.html

au: Safety for young explorers
Pre-school children need to learn about Internet safety at
the same time as they are learning to cross the road
safely, says Australian Internet safety advisory body
NetAlert.

http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,8670479%255E21669,00.html

nz: Pornography warning for teachers
The secondary teachers union is warning its members there
is no public tolerance for pornography in schools.

http://onenews.nzoom.com/onenews_subcategory/0,1234,1-454,00.html

de: Police uncover international child porn ring
Around 200 German police officers have raided premises
nationwide and detained some 50 suspects in investigations
into a suspected child pornography ring encompassing five
other European countries.

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=456575
 http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2812601a12,00.html

de: Internet-Ring zum Kinderporno-Tausch aufgeflogen
Die Polizei hat einen international organisierten
Kinderporno-Ring auffliegen lassen. Rund 100 Beschuldigte
aus dem In- und Ausland sollen kinderpornografische Bilder
im Internet ausgetauscht haben. Am frühen Mittwochmorgen
seien zeitgleich die Wohnungen der Verdächtigen in elf
Bundesländern sowie einigen europäischen Ländern durchsucht
worden, teilte das Landeskriminalamt in Hannover mit. Dabei
stellten die Ermittler unter anderem Computer und Dateien
sicher.
 http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/44515

German State Regulatory Authorities for Broadcasting
welcome “Safer Internet Day”.
The institutions responsible for the protection of youth on
the Internet in Germany welcome 06 February 2004 as
Europe’s “Safer Internet Day”. The Direktorenkonferenz der
Landesmedienanstalten – DLM (Directors Conference of the
German Regulatory Authorities for Broadcasting) and the
Kommission für Jugendmedienschutz – KJM (Commission for the
Protection of Youth from Harmful Content) of the State
Regulatory Authorities for Broadcasting view the “Safer
Internet” public service campaign (www.safer-internet.net)
as an important foundation for the protection of youth from
harmful content.
 http://www.alm.de/aktuelles/presse/DLM/040204english.htm
 http://www.alm.de/aktuelles/presse/DLM/040204.htm
(Deutsch)

ph: Lack of cybercrime laws stifle enforcement agencies
The LACK of stronger laws penalizing Internet-related
crimes is making it more difficult for Philippine law
enforcement agencies to go after cyber criminals, law
enforcement officials admitted.

http://beta.inq7.net/infotech/index.php?index=1&story_id=3936

us/uk: Ex-marine admits abduction
A former US marine admits abducting a 12-year-old girl who
he met in an internet chatroom.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/manchester/3481219.stm

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/story.jsp?story=490867

How he lured a girl of 12 to fly away with him
The summer holidays were imminent and the "quiet,
thoughtful" 12-year-old girl should have been looking
forward to visiting the Camelot theme park with the rest of
her Year 7 class.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/02/13/wstud113.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/02/13/ixnewstop.html

Office computers used for porn, romance: US poll
America's office-cubicle dwellers may be burning up the
keyboards, but it's not necessarily a paycheck they're
chasing. Nearly one in four US workers with internet access
at work has used company computers to visit sexually
explicit web sites, participate in steamy chat rooms or
swap romantic messages, according to a poll released on
Tuesday by employment and labour law lawyers.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/02/11/1076388399840.html
 http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;?storyID=4328652

us: Dallas Billboards Take on Internet Porn
Chocolates are always nice, and a diamond necklace would be
delightful. But a Dallas-based ministry thinks it has a
better idea for Valentine's Day.
 http://www.bizreport.com/article.php?art_id=6167

us: Rell seeks to strengthen Web child safety laws
Lt. Governor M. Jodi Rell is seeking passage of a new law
that would crack down on criminals who use the Internet to
illegally solicit sex from minors or acquire child
pornography.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1379&dept_id=162912&newsid=10952807

us: Clifton Park couple in porn case sentenced
A Clifton Park couple began serving federal prison time
Tuesday, four years after a raid on their home-based
international online child pornography business.

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=217861&category=SARATOGA&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=2/11/2004

us: University of Texas employees investigated for child
porography viewing
The University of Texas Police Department and the Federal
Bureau of Investigation are investigating whether 10
employees at the University of Texas Health Science Center
at Houston accessed child pornography on university
computers.

http://www.badgerherald.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/02/11/4029bf0a64ebd

us: Arrest made in Internet sex case
A Carrollton man's laptop computer was seized Thursday
afternoon by Parker County officials, two days after the
man was arrested for soliciting a minor over the Internet.

http://www.weatherforddemocrat.com/articles/2004/02/13/news/local_news/story01.txt

us: List of child porn suspects grows
A 39-year-old Pinconning man and a 31-year-old Riverside,
Calif., police officer are the latest suspects added to a
growing list of individuals facing charges in an
international online group whose members shared child
pornography.

http://www.mlive.com/news/sanews/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1076687437254710.xml

us: Two caught in underage sex sting
Two men who drove to Alton, allegedly intending to have sex
with a 15-year-old "girl" they met online, found they were
looking for love in the wrong place just before Valentine’s
Day.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10948513&BRD=1719&PAG=461&dept_id=25271

us: MC Warns Member Institutions Against "Illegal"
E-Activity
Saying "strict adherence" to standards is "increasingly
important as the use of the Internet and e-commerce has
grown," MasterCard is warning member financial institutions
to comply with "all MasterCard standards" and prevent using
MasterCard for "any illegal activities" – including online
gambling, porn, and prescription medications.

http://www.avn.com/index.php?Primary_Navigation=Articles&Action=View_Article&Content_ID=74450

us: Child porn charges piling up
An additional 39 child pornography charges were filed
Tuesday against a Scranton man arrested last month.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10949075&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=416046&rfi=6

us: Pornography charge filed
A man with a history of working with area children's sports
teams, including the basketball team at St. Domitilla
Church, has been charged with possession of child
pornography.

http://www.pioneerlocal.com/cgi-bin/ppo-story/localnews/current/wp/02-11-04-222933.html

gr: Man finds wife's sex video on website
A Greek man has found a video of his wife having sex with
her lover, while he surfed an internet pornography site.
 http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_865408.html

http://www.silicon.com/networks/webwatch/0,39024667,39118389,00.htm

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=4344152
 http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/35566.html

China may release high-profile Internet dissident soon:
rights group
A high-profile Chinese Internet dissident, who has been in
custody for nearly four months, may soon be released, a New
York-based rights group said.
 http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040212/323/elwrz.html

au: SA Police warn of phishing
Police today warned people not to confirm bank account
details over the internet, following a spate of fraudulent
bank emails.

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,8670307%5e16123%5e%5enbv%5e,00.html

nz: Kiwis 'have weakness for internet scams'
New Zealand has joined an international internet crackdown
designed to combat the growing number of online scams.
 http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2811488a28,00.html

ng: 419 Case: Bribes Won't Help You, Judge Tells Suspects
Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Justice
Lawal Gumi, yesterday warned parties involved in the $242
million (about N33.3 billion) advance fee fraud (aka 419)
against bribery even as the five prominent suspects headed
back to cell.
 http://allafrica.com/stories/200402120702.html

ng: Police Smash 419 Syndicate in Lagos
A 419 syndicate which kidnapped and attempted to murder a
former member of the group has been smashed by detectives
at the anti-crime squad, Area 'G' Police Command, Ogba,
Lagos.
 http://allafrica.com/stories/200402110650.html
 
Nigeria's prosecution of e-mail con-artists becomes the
target of bribery attempts
Nigeria is notorious for the advance-fee fraud, like the
one above, in which individuals are offered huge rewards
for facilitating a shady business deal or financial
transfer by handing over bank details.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?story=490815

People lie more on the phone than by email
The first study to compare honesty across communications
media surprises psychologists - being held to account may
be the key.
 http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994663

South Europe Net population soars
The French, Italians and Spanish are the fastest growing
segment of Western Europe's Internet population, a march
that largely excludes the nations' senior citizens,
according to new research.

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=4333804

http://www.sabcnews.com/sci_tech/internet/0,2172,73891,00.html

South Korea Tops Internet Usage
About two-thirds of South Koreans use the Internet
regularly, meaning the nation has the world’s top Internet
usage rate.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200402/kt2004021115051612070.htm

fr: Porno et violence sur Internet : des mesures pour
protéger les enfants
Le gouvernement prend des mesures pour protéger les mineurs
contre les sites douteux. En un an, le nombre de sites
pédophiles dans le monde a augmenté de 70 %.

http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,[email protected],36-352622,0.html

fr: Surveillance des sites web: Fontaine temporise
Nouvel épisode dans le débat sur la surveillance des
contenus illicites sur l'Internet. Nicole Fontaine,
ministre déléguée à l'Industrie, ne souhaite pas que ce
sujet sensible soit abordé cette semaine, lors de l'examen
de la loi sur les communications électroniques. Elle sera
bien obligée, pourtant, notamment lorsque viendra sur le
tapis un amendement déposé par le député UMP Patrice
Martin-Lalande dégageant les fournisseurs d'accès d'une
surveillance généralisée des contenus illicites. Cette
obligation avait été votée il y a trois semaines par les
députés. Néanmoins, la position du gouvernement est en
train d'évoluer. La ministre a par ailleurs évoqué le
développement de logiciels de contrôle parental et le
renforcement du site Internet de signalement des abus.
 http://www.liberation.fr/page.php?Article=177524&AG

fr: La protection de l'enfance sur Internet en question
Comment protéger les enfants et adolescents des sites Web
interdits aux mineurs ? La solution technique idéale
n'existant pas, le Forum des droits sur l'Internet
préconise le dialogue avec les principaux intéressés.

http://www.vnunet.fr/actu/article.htm?numero=11918&date=2004-02-11

de: Liability for internet advertisements (Deutsch)

http://www.cbeji.com.br/br/downloads/secao/German-ISP-liable.pdf

us: Website for Canadian Drugs Urged
Californians could go to a state-sponsored website to shop
for cheaper prescription drugs from Canada under a bill
introduced Thursday in the state Assembly.

http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-me-drugs13feb13,1,2926123.story

http://news.findlaw.com/news/s/20040213/healthimportsdc.html

us: Online tobacco retailer agrees to halt shipments to
California
An electronic commerce company agreed Tuesday to stop
shipping cigarettes to California, settling a lawsuit filed
by Attorney General Bill Lockyer that accused it of selling
to minors and failing to report tobacco sales to state tax
authorities.

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/7927986.htm

Aust websites beware: Privacy Commissioner
Australian businesses are being warned to ensure
confidential customer information submitted online is kept
safe from prying eyes, after ticketing company
Ticketmaster7 was investigated by the Federal Privacy
Commissioner.

http://www.itnews.com.au/storycontent.asp?ID=12&Art_ID=18312

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,8660706%5e16123%5e%5enbv%5e,00.html

Is Cyberspace Getting Safer?
The cybersecurity branch of the federal Homeland Security
Department is taking stock not quite a year after its
inception, pointing to some education programs and urging
more partnerships with private industry.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/pcworld/20040212/tc_pcworld/114749

FBI ties Internet scam increase to organized crime,
terrorist sympathizers
Sitting at his home in Virginia Beach, Va., Joe Yuhasz
almost reached for his wallet when an e-mail message popped
into his inbox and told him America Online needed to verify
his credit card information.

http://www.detnews.com/2004/technology/0402/14/technology-63815.htm

us: F.C.C. Begins Rewriting Rules on Delivery of the
Internet
The F.C.C. is preparing rules that would allow delivery of
the Internet through power lines and make online phone
calls cheaper.
 http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/13/technology/13net.html
 http://news.com.com/2100-7352_3-5156819.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37745-2004Feb12.html

us: The FCC Faces The Future
In proceedings opening today and set to last several
months, the commission is expected to write rules that
could revolutionize the U.S. phone system. By determining
which access fees and taxes, if any, Internet-based phone
calls should be subject to, the FCC has the potential to
crack open the door to telecom deregulation. It should
seize the opportunity.

http://www.forbes.com/networks/2004/02/12/cx_al_0212fcc.html

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2004/tc20040213_1268_tc024.htm

OECD: Communication Age
Supermarket bills may seem to be getting ever higher, but
OECD people devote a great deal less of their income to
buying food, and a huge amount more to transport and
communications, than your 17th century ancestors, a new
historical look at statistics shows.
 http://www.oecdobserver.org/news/fullstory.php/aid/1169

au: Copyright raids fail to rattle net boss
She drives a silver Porsche Boxster, lives in a luxury $1
million home in exclusive Castle Cove and runs her own
company.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/02/14/1076548274284.html

Finn ordered to pay Alanis Morissette for Internet bootleg
spreading
A Finnish court ordered a 24-year-old man to pay Canadian
rock star Alanis Morissette 7,000 euros (8,965 dollars) for
spreading unauthorized recordings of her concerts on the
Internet.
 http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040211/323/elt7j.html

Canadian recording industry hopes to inspire fear over file
swapping
Jeremy Brzozowski is spooked. The 22-year-old Ottawa
student stopped grabbing music off the Internet last fall
after he heard the big music companies were taking file
swappers to court in the United States.

http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040213.winmus14/BNStory/Business
   	

New paper clears up confusion over Internet governance
With the express aim of clearing up the confusion over
Internet governance, ICC has written a new paper clarifying
how the internet functions, enumerating the different
technical bodies which help to run it and listing the
public policy issues it currently affects.

http://www.iccwbo.org/home/news_archives/2004/internet_governance.asp

us: Toru Iiyoshi: Take Advantage of Technology for Teaching
and Learning
Toru Iiyoshi, Senior Scholar and Director of the Knowledge
Media Laboratory at the Carnegie Foundation, shared with
the Berkman Center today the Knowledge Media Laboratory's
experiences with building software with which to showcase
and share teachers' work. The goal of the Laboratory is to
take advantage of the growing power of emerging
technologies and new media in teaching and learning. They
have created a "snapshot tool" now known as the KEEP
toolkit, available to all educators, originally built as an
aid to their Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of
Teaching and Learning (CASTL) fellows to meet the goal of
sharing their knowledge.

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/home?wid=10&func=viewSubmission&sid=215

us: Google Bans Environmental Group's Ads
Oceana, a 2 1/2-year-old nonprofit group, said Google
dropped the text-based ads displayed in shaded boxes along
the right side of its Web page because they were critical
of Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines.
 http://www.bizreport.com/article.php?art_id=6176

http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040213.gtgooglefeb13/BNStory/Technology/
 http://smh.com.au/articles/2004/02/13/1076548205108.html

us: Study: Spammers turning blind eye to the law
Only a fraction of the unsolicited e-mail slipping into
in-boxes complies with a federal antispam law, according to
new research.
 http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5156629.html

us: FTC Issues Warning About Fake Anti-Spam Site
Consumers should not submit their e-mail addresses to a Web
site that promises to reduce unwanted "spam" because it is
fraudulent, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said
Thursday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37291-2004Feb12.html

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=4358052

us: Dean Backers Debate Internet 'Echo Chamber'
The near eclipse of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's
presidential campaign is prompting some painful
self-examination by a cadre of Internet intellectuals whose
early enthusiasm helped attract tens of thousands of
volunteers.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-deaniacs7feb07,1,4231420.story

Net File-Swappers Snap Up Windows Source Code
Internet users on Friday were ferociously downloading
pirate versions of Microsoft Corp's Windows source code,
stoking concerns hackers and virus writers could use it for
a new wave of cyber attacks.

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=4357663

uk: Workplace data theft runs rampant
Many staff are happy to steal key information from the
firms they work for, a study has found.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3486397.stm

Internet New Zealand calls for unbundling of Telecom’s
local loop network (news release)
Internet New Zealand today filed a submission with the
Minister of Communications, the Hon Paul Swain, urging him
to ensure residential users, and small to medium sized
businesses, have access to genuine and competitive high
speed internet services from a choice of providers.
 http://internetnz.net.nz/llu040209.pdf

Leaked Code Is Traced to Microsoft Partner Firm
Nothing is more sacred to Microsoft Corp. than the millions
of lines of programming code that make up its flagship
Windows operating system. It's the computer world's
equivalent of Coca-Cola's secret formula or the Colonel's
11 herbs and spices. It's the crown jewels that make
Microsoft among the most powerful companies on the planet.

http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-micro14feb14,1,1357848.story

Ghost plagues Microsoft machine
It was another bad day at the office for Microsoft
yesterday. Seventy-two hours after being forced to explain
yet another serious hole in its Windows operating system,
the software giant was hit by the most embarrassing
security breach so far when portions of the secret
blueprint for Windows were leaked over the internet.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1148153,00.html
 http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/14/technology/14soft.html

http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,8670305%255E15306,00.html

Release of Windows Coding Is a New Worry for Microsoft
The distribution of the secret programmer's instructions
for the Windows operating system poses legal and security
challenges for Microsoft.
 http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/14/technology/14soft.html

Microsoft probes secret code leak
The software giant is working with the FBI to find out how
parts of Windows source code were leaked online.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3486011.stm

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1075982521796&p=1057562182635
 http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5159130.html

Microsoft takes aim at pop-up ads
Those mosquito-like "pop-up" and "pop-under" Web
advertisements could be headed for rapid extinction after
Microsoft Corp decided to phase them out across its MSN
Internet units around the globe by summer.

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=4354262

de: Linux: 'So easy even a woman could use it'
A local council in Germany may have found the secret to
overcoming user reluctance to Linux handing out stuffed
penguins and showing users that even a woman can find her
way around open source software.

http://www.silicon.com/hardware/desktops/0,39024645,39118341,00.htm

Paris to dump Microsoft for Linux desktops?
Systems integrator Unilog is to carry out a feasibility
study on the installation of open-source software systems
for the city of Paris, the company has said. On the
strength of an earlier Unilog study, Munich agreed to
migrate thousands of desktops from Windows to the
open-source operating system Linux.

http://www.silicon.com/hardware/desktops/0,39024645,39118350,00.htm

How the Open-Source World Plans to Smack Down Microsoft,
and Oracle, and ...
Open-source software is popping up everywhere, from PCs and
cellphones to giant corporate and government systems.

http://www.fortune.com/fortune/technology/articles/0,15114,588422,00.html

us: Senators propose two-year ban on Net access tax
Senate opponents of a permanent ban on taxing Internet
access proposed extending a moratorium two years, saying
their plan would soothe state and local officials worried
about losing a tax base to new technology.

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/7930434.htm

China launches Web site on copyrights, patents
Chinese inventors have a new, electronic option for
registering and advertising patents.
 http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/7927945.htm

=====
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