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And see my website - http://technewsreview.com.au/ - for regular updates in between postings. ********************************************************** Sponsored by the Singapore Internet Research Centre Nanyang Technological University, Singapore http://www.ntu.edu.sg/sci/sirc/ ********************************************************** uk: Worst child abuse images quadruple online in three years, says watchdog http://www.guardian.co.uk/Society/children/story/0,,2058878,00.html us: FTC Issues Report on Marketing Violent Entertainment to Children (news release) http://ftc.gov/opa/2007/04/marketingviolence.shtm au: Child porn unlikely to trigger act: doctor http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/04/16/1176696757630.html au: Net sex depravity a danger for young, says expert http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/04/16/1176696757645.html Google Shifts Gears to Avoid Copyright Challenges Overseas http://www.ibls.com/internet_law_news_portal_view.aspx?s=latestnews&id=1732 uk: Blog bullies propel state of the internet into the spotlight http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article2450383.ece Chinese spammers go quiet http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,21544514%5e15306%5e%5enbv%5e15306,00.html Image spam and how to fight it http://out-law.com/page-7952 The Coming Virtual Web - BusinessWeek Tech Special Report http://businessweek.com/technology/special_reports/20070416virtuallife.htm Invention: All-knowing browser http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn11570 Are mobile phones wiping out our bees? http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/wildlife/article2449968.ece Google deal raises competition concerns http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/04/16/1176696761507.html *************** RESEARCH PAPERS *************** Participative Web: User-Created Content The concept of the "participative web" is based on an Internet increasingly influenced by intelligent web services that empower the user to contribute to developing, rating, collaborating on and distributing Internet content and customising Internet applications. As the Internet is more embedded in people's lives "users" draw on new Internet applications to express themselves through "user-created content" (UCC). This study describes the rapid growth of UCC, its increasing role in worldwide communication and draws out implications for policy. Questions addressed include: What is user-created content? What are its key drivers, its scope and different forms? What are new value chains and business models? What are the extent and form of social, cultural and economic opportunities and impacts? What are associated challenges? Is there a government role and what form could it take? http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/57/14/38393115.pdf *********** CENSORSHIP *********** China targets porn and rumours The Chinese Government has launched a six-month campaign against online pornography, rumours and slander as it tries to tighten its grip on the internet. Chinese web controls are already among the world’s tightest, with internet traffic subject to automatic filters and manual monitoring. The Government encourages web use for education and business but tries to block access to material considered obscene or subversive. http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article1650532.ece http://ecommercetimes.com/story/82BuTT3dadTx1m/China-Launches-Online-Porn-Purge.xhtml http://asiamedia.ucla.edu/article-eastasia.asp?parentid=67608 Bloggers' search for anonymity The internet has given the individual unprecedented power to reach out to millions but some governments are cautious, even hostile, to giving their citizens free access to ideas they deem too democratic and dangerous. Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia: they are all popular with holiday makers but they also censor and even lock up journalists and bloggers. This is why the media rights group, Reporters Without Borders, has published The Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/6548555.stm ************************************************ CHILD PROTECTION, FILTERING & CONTENT REGULATION ************************************************ uk: Worst child abuse images quadruple online in three years, says watchdog The number of images of serious child abuse online has quadrupled over three years, according to figures from Britain's internet watchdog published today. The Internet Watch Foundation says the most distressing grade of images account for nearly a third of all reports of child pornography it receives. http://www.guardian.co.uk/Society/children/story/0,,2058878,00.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6549717.stm http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKROB68383720070416 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041601372.html IWF reports increased severity of online child abuse content New figures from the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) 2006 Annual Report, launched today, show the severity of online child abuse content is increasing, with a four-fold rise in images depicting the most severe abuse, such as penetrative and sadistic sexual activity. This trend reflects an apparent growing demand for purchasing more severe images with nearly 60 per cent of commercial child abuse websites selling child rape images. 29 per cent of all potentially illegal child abuse URLs known to the IWF contain level four and five images. http://iwf.org.uk/media/news.196.htm US Senators propose labels for adult Web sites Operators of Web sites with racy content must label their sites and register in a national directory or be fined, according to a new U.S. Senate proposal titled the Cyber Safety for Kids Act of 2007. The proposal includes the requirement for “embedding a new tag--such as <L18>--in all Web pages that the government deems unsuitable for minors.” Web sites with "harmful to minors" content on pages that are initially viewable to visitors must use the tag to be devised by the U.S. Department of Commerce or face civil fines. The federal government would be able to "shut down" noncompliant sites, but that portion is not actually in the bill. Another section of the Act would require the owner of any web site with adult content to say so when registering the domain with ICANN. The owner must also give ICANN the web site's Internet Protocol address and other information. Naturally the proposal is going to run into problems with the ACLU stating "The labeling part of it is going to be constitutionally problematic." http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6175549.html us: Senators Want Porn Site Owners To Clean Up Home Pages, Label Content A new bill is latest in a long string of attempts by federal lawmakers to pass protections that would help protect minors from obscenity and pornography. http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199001010 us: FTC Issues Report on Marketing Violent Entertainment to Children (news release) The Federal Trade Commission gave a mixed review of the movie, music, and video-game industries’ self-regulatory programs and their marketing of violent entertainment products to children in its latest report to Congress. http://ftc.gov/opa/2007/04/marketingviolence.shtm 18 Tips for Safe Surfing on the Net In response to recent national and local headlines concerning child online safety, PCPandora.com launches "18 Tips For Safe Surfing" and Pandora's Blog. Both serve as resources to parents looking for ideas and effective ways to keep their kids safe on the Internet. http://www.prweb.com/releases/online_safety/pcpandora/prweb518843.htm http://pcpandora.com/children/18tips.php us: Parents taught safety with 'Net Law enforcement officials and representatives from Manatee County and its school system touched on everything from identity theft to child pornography during an Internet safety program Tuesday evening at Braden River Library. http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/17058232.htm *************************************** CYBERCRIME, CYBERSECURITY AND PRIVACY *************************************** au: Child porn unlikely to trigger act: doctor The Australian men arrested in a police crackdown on internet child pornography were unlikely to commit offences against children, the psychiatrist who has interviewed many of them says. Olav Nielssen, a psychiatrist at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, said giving the men access to "virtual" child pornography, in which computer-generated images rather than real children were used, would do no harm to society. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/04/16/1176696757630.html au: Net sex depravity a danger for young, says expert Young people regularly exposed to depraved or violent internet pornography are at risk of becoming sexual deviants with incurable problems, a sex therapist and educator said yesterday. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/04/16/1176696757645.html http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/4029240a28.html Is Web 2.0 Inherently Insecure? Many Web 2.0 apps pass data as a JavaScript object or as code that can be evaluated in JavaScript. This approach leaves users vulnerable, in particular, to cross-site request forgery attacks. http://networkcomputing.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=199000154 A World Wide Web of terrorist plotting The Internet has become a virtual operations center replacing the Al Qaeda bases in Afghanistan and Bosnia: They never met face to face, but the two young zealots became brother warriors in the new land of jihad: the Internet. Investigators say their bond made them central figures in a terrorism network that spanned eight countries, involved more than 30 suspects and hatched plots in Washington, Toronto, London and Sarajevo. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/la-fg-net16apr16,1,545128.story http://upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2007/04/16/internet_becomes_virtual_training_camp/ us: Judges Reject Appeals From Webcasters (AP) Internet radio broadcasters were dealt a setback Monday when a panel of copyright judges threw out requests to reconsider a ruling that hiked the royalties they must pay to record companies and artists http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/INTERNET_RADIO Google Shifts Gears to Avoid Copyright Challenges Overseas Google is taking measures overseas to avoid the legal battles on alleged copyright infringement faced at home. The company recently settled a lawsuit with Paris-based news agency Agence France-Presse, struck deals with the British Broadcasting Corporation and the Chelsea Football Club as well as with Spanish TV channel Antena 3, and sat down to negotiate with executives of Spanish TV channels Telecinco and Cuatro on the use of their content. http://www.ibls.com/internet_law_news_portal_view.aspx?s=latestnews&id=1732 E-mail monitoring may violate European laws Monitoring employees' Internet and telephone use at work may contravene human rights laws in Europe, according to a ruling in a landmark case in the European Court of Human Rights last week. http://news.com.com/2100-7348_3-6175495.html cn/jp: Baidu CEO Deals With Porn Question Editorial Summary: Baidu CEO Robin Li told Phoenix TV talk show "Lu Yu You Yue" that visiting porn sites is part of his job, reports Ce.cn. According to Alexa.com statistics, 76 percent of the searches on Baidu (Nasdaq:BIDU) Japan are for pictures, reports eNet. http://pacificepoch.com/newsstories/94896_0_5_0_M/ us: Stalkers use Internet to intimidate victims The case had the makings of an eerie cyber-mystery: A young Alexandria, Va., woman told police that she suspected that her former boyfriend was tapping into her e-mail inbox from thousands of miles away, reading messages before she could and harassing the senders. http://boston.com/business/personaltech/articles/2007/04/15/stalkers_use_internet_to_intimidate_victims/ us: California bill targets internet predators California may join Kentucky and Virginia in passing a law that gives the identities of registered sex offenders to social Internet groups such as MySpace. http://upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2007/04/16/california_bill_targets_internet_predators/ ************************** GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC POLICY ************************** uk: Blog bullies propel state of the internet into the spotlight Teachers are mocked on YouTube. Internet commentators receive death threats. But the UK press watchdog's Tim Toulmin says that you can trust UK web journalists ... The case for a form of non-statutory independent regulation for print and digital media, which protects freedom of expression, promotes good journalistic practice and provides redress for individuals when things go wrong is stronger than ever. The development of such a system through the Press Complaints Commission is perhaps one reason why the online journalism of UK newspapers and magazines - with its global audience of tens of millions of people - has not provoked the ethical questions raised by Alan Johnson and Jimmy Wales about You Tube and blogging. Because the PCC - while independent - involves the industry in its decision making, no one considers circumventing its advice and rulings. The same cannot be said for imposed restrictions and injunctions, which are a clumsy and sometimes counterproductive alternative. In the online environment, the Commission's non-statutory framework enables it to act quickly to resolve disputes in hours or days when things do go wrong - particularly important considering one of the main concerns people have concerns the speed of dissemination of inaccurate or intrusive information. This is not a complete answer to the challenges thrown up by the revolution in information provision. But, while the rows over social-networking sites and blogging continue to simmer, it is at least worth highlighting that the British press has taken the lead in voluntarily subjecting its online written and audio-visual journalism to independently-policed professional standards. http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article2450383.ece FTA likely to limit freedom for South Korean Web users: lawmaker An opposition lawmaker on Monday warned that the free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States will greatly limit the Internet use of South Koreans due to excessive protection of the intellectual property rights of online contents. http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/Engnews/20070416/640000000020070416180753E4.html Malaysia jams mobiles Malaysia has banned mobile phones and installed electronic jamming devices in key parts of its administrative capital to block spying on official discussions, a newspaper has reported. http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,21564661%5E16123%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/04/16/1176696745105.html http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUKSP20461020070416 Thai sex claims shut diplomatic blog The Foreign Office says it will review rules on staff weblogs after salacious claims were posted on diplomat's blog http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article1649795.ece ***** SPAM ***** Chinese spammers go quiet THE amount of spam originating from China dropped dramatically in the first three months of the year, an IT security firm says. http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,21544514%5e15306%5e%5enbv%5e15306,00.html http://www.todayonline.com/articles/182784.asp Image spam and how to fight it Spammers have become much better at slipping through spam filters, sending colourful promotions as images rather than text. Diego d’Ambra, CTO of SoftScan, gives OUT-LAW readers the full picture. http://out-law.com/page-7952 ***************************** INTERNET & NEW TECHNOLOGY USE ***************************** The Coming Virtual Web - BusinessWeek Tech Special Report In the future, the Internet is almost certain to look more realistic, interactive, and social—a lot like a virtual world http://businessweek.com/technology/special_reports/20070416virtuallife.htm Invention: All-knowing browser Ever given false information when prompted for personal details by a website? Don't worry, the US copying and computing company Xerox hopes to eliminate that kind of questioning because it believes it can get the information without even asking. Even if you choose not to reveal who you are, Xerox says it can determine demographic information such as your age, sex and perhaps even your income by analysing the pattern of pages you choose to access on the web and comparing them to a database of surfing patterns from other users with a known background. http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn11570 Internet child Death in cyburbia Our celebration of life online needs to be balanced with serious social investigation of why we spend so much time there, and what it says about us http://technology.guardian.co.uk/opinion/story/0,,2057975,00.html Are mobile phones wiping out our bees? It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail. They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well. http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/wildlife/article2449968.ece Women dominate US web use (AFP) A study released on Thursday indicates that more women than men go online in the United States, defying the perception of the internet as a male-dominated realm. Approximately 97.2 million women use the internet in the United States, compared to 90.9 million men, according to research by eMarketer. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/04/13/1175971307436.html Americans mixed about constant Net access, poll finds Americans are enthusiastic about new tech like mobile video and high-definition broadband but at the same time express trepidation about nonstop access to the Net, according to a new poll. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6176319.html Broadband challenge faces Britain The UK must act quickly to ensure it is in shape to cope with growing net use, warns a report. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6552823.stm http://www.guardian.co.uk/Technology/news/story/0,,2057864,00.html A golden age for gadgets Nowadays, there is a profusion of gadgets that harness the latest micro technologies and the wackiest thinking of garage inventors. Whether the problem is how to one-up the office practical joker or brew a hot cup of espresso while driving to work, there's a gadget for it, and a cottage industry furiously bent on delivering more. http://iht.com/articles/2007/04/15/technology/gadgets.php Calif. grandmother blogs from Baghdad Jane Stillwater is an unlikely war correspondent. She's 64, a self-described Berkeley "flower child, 40 years later" and broke. So how did this mother of four grown children end up in Baghdad, churning out commentary ranging from shock at Thursday's bombing of the Iraqi parliament cafeteria, to the weirdness of touring Saddam Hussein's bathroom? http://businessweek.com/ap/tech/D8OG93HG0.htm uk: MySpace party invite leads to £20,000 repair bill Up to 200 teenagers caused £20,000 worth of damage to a family home after a teenage girl advertised a party on the MySpace internet site while her parents were away. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2444491.ece http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2056154,00.html uk: Hey Rachael, that was some great teenage bash We've all been there haven't we? Virtually anyone who has ever been a teenager has done one, or all, of the following: been to a party where the carpets have ended up covered in beer/vomit/cigarette burns/all three (delete as appropriate); thrown a party which has spiralled into something rather different and much harder to tidy up than the beer-and-pizza evening begrudgingly allowed by the parents; fallen around at the age of sixteenish in a room where other 'guests' happen to be having sex; stained the parquet floors with bong water and singed the sofa after attempting to give some vaguely known, semi-conscious 'new best friend' a joint. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2057476,00.html How to avoid being an email laughing stock A guide to the rules of emailing, with helpful tips on how to avoid the pitfalls of the mis-sent message or the love note that didn't quite work, has shot straight to the top of the American bestseller lists. Such is the thirst for guidance on such a tricky area that Send: The How, Why, When - and When Not - of E-Mail shot into the top 10 of the New York Times bestseller books list within 48 hours of its publication last week. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2057482,00.html us: Stalkers Go High Tech to Intimidate Victims The case had the makings of an eerie cyber-mystery: A young Alexandria woman told local police she suspected that her ex-boyfriend was tapping into her e-mail inbox from thousands of miles away, reading messages before she could and harassing the senders. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/13/AR2007041302392.html *************** DIGITAL DIVIDE *************** in: DoT draws up plan to bridge digital gap The Department of Telecommunications has mooted a proposal to set up seven telecom centres of excellence to nurture the sector and reduce the rural-urban digital divide. http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/apr/16dot.htm us: African-Americans facing 'digital dimmer switch' in Internet usage While the number of African-Americans who frequent the Internet continues to grow, White Web users maintain a good lead amidst the so-called digital divide, according to a recent Pew Internet and American Life Project study. http://louisianaweekly.com/weekly/news/articlegate.pl?20070416i ************ FILE SHARING ************ Schmidt says YouTube 'very close' to filtering system Google is very near enacting a filtering service that would prevent copyright content from being uploaded to video-sharing site YouTube, CEO Eric Schmidt said Monday. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6176601.html http://news.com.com/2100-1026_3-6176601.html Mexican drug gangs take their turf wars onto YouTube Dozens of gang-related videos are being posted on YouTube in a propaganda war to recruit members and intimidate rivals http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article1654897.ece Speed boost plan for file-sharing Movies and music could be shared faster over the net thanks to a system pioneered by researchers in the US. Similarity-Enhanced Transfer (SET) works by spotting chunks of identical data in files that are an exact or near match to the one needed. Using SET the researchers have seen speed increases of up to 500%. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6544919.stm au: Boy dupes YouTube to delete videos A 15-year-old West Australian pretending to represent ABC TV succeeded in having more than 200 clips removed from the video-sharing website YouTube. The boy signed a form claiming, "under penalty of perjury", that he represented the clips' copyright owners. The removal of the clips was in direct contrast to ABC's policy on content sharing. "[ABC wishes] to get our content out there on as many platforms as possible, run by as many different operators as possible." http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/04/13/1175971361981.html au: CD sales rise despite downloads As digital music hogs the headlines, the humble CD has made a comeback at the cash register. However, music retailers may still be feeling the pinch. Figures released by the Australian Recording Industry Association yesterday show an increase of almost 8 per cent in the volume of wholesale physical music products, such as CDs, in 2006 compared with 2005, despite a decrease of more than 5 per cent in overall revenue. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/04/12/1175971303268.html Beatles to release tracks online The Beatles have reportedly settled their long-running royalties dispute with EMI. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/04/12/1175971242257.html ********************************* COMMENT, MICROSOFT & DEVELOPMENTS ********************************* Google buys DoubleClick in $3.1bn deal Google has bought online advertising group DoubleClick for $3.1bn, the largest acquisition in its history. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2057182,00.html http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article1654179.ece Google extends internet dominance Google's $3.1bn acquisition of the online advertising pioneer DoubleClick was being hailed over the weekend as another significant - but expensive - victory in the company's battle against Microsoft for commercial domination of the internet. http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article2452462.ece Google's DoubleClick Strategic Move With its $3.1 billion acquisition, the Internet giant secures entry into the promising business of display advertising and thwarts Microsoft in online search http://businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2007/tc20070414_675511.htm Google deal raises competition concerns Google rivals say the deal to buy DoubleClick will lead to an unprecedented consolidation of power in the online advertising market. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/04/16/1176696761507.html Windows XP to be retired in 2008 Windows XP will stop being available on new PCs from the end of January 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6551429.stm BBC to put one million hours of its past online Thousands of hours of broadcasting history are to be made available to the public online as part of a plan to open up the BBC's entire archive to licence-fee payers free of charge. http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2057506,00.html Phone rivals threaten to spoil iPod’s party Apple has sold 100m of its music players but Nokia and others are already outselling it with song-playing mobiles http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article1654249.ece ******************* TELECOMMUNICATIONS ******************* nz: Time to act on telecommunications report Telecommunications lobby group TUANZ wants action on a Commerce Commission report which the government has been sitting on for a year. http://home.nzcity.co.nz/news/default.aspx?id=72223 ***** VoIP ***** uk: 93% of UK businesses think security is not keeping up with VoIP and IM Technology A survey by Infosecurity Europe of 291 companies has found that 93% of companies believe that instant messaging (IM) and Voice over IP (VoIP) usage is moving faster than corresponding security. http://onrec.com/newsstories/16215.asp ********************************** ARRESTS/COURT CASES FOR CHILD PORN ********************************** au: Man handed daughter over to online pedophile A FATHER allowed a central figure in a pedophile ring, whom he met in an internet chat room, to indecently deal with his five-year-old daughter. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21551648-2,00.html +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Check out http://auda.org.au/domain-news/ for the most recent edition of the domain news, including an RSS feed - already online! The domain name news is supported by auDA. For information on subscriptions to the domain name and/or general internet news please contact me. For archives of postings to the list, see http://lists.technewsreview.com.au/pipermail/technewsreview/. Also see http://technewsreview.com.au/ for recent updates. Sources include Quicklinks <http://qlinks.net/> and BNA Internet Law News <http://www.bna.com/ilaw/>. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ (c) David Goldstein 2007 --------- 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 Send instant messages to your online friends http://au.messenger.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ APPLe mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.apnic.net/mailman/listinfo/apple
