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********************************************************** Sponsored by the Singapore Internet Research Centre Nanyang Technological University, Singapore http://www.ntu.edu.sg/sci/sirc/ ********************************************************** il: Government supports Internet censorship bill http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/879659.html China City Tightens Internet Control After Protest http://informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=RSPSOKOY3DQUGQSNDLOSKH0CJUNN2JVN?articleID=200900872 Web search groups to yield on privacy http://www.ft.com/cms/s/23e0931c-2b20-11dc-85f9-000b5df10621.html Downed Electronic Jihad Site Flew Under The Radar http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=200900590 Estonia calls for international convention to fight cybercrimes http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/07/06/1183351392921.html uk: Three jailed for engaging in 'cyber jihad' for al-Qaida http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,2120099,00.html U.K. jails trio who incited terrorism over Web (Reuters) http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/07/04/1183351293920.html uk: Terrorism's Hook Into Your Inbox http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/05/AR2007070501153.html Court holds Belgian ISP responsible for file-sharing http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/07/05/ISP-responsible-for-file-sharing_1.html us: Court orders dismissal of U.S. wiretapping lawsuit http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9026379 uk: New law will criminalise possession of extreme porn http://out-law.com/page-8190 comScore Publishes the First Comprehensive Review of Asia-Pacific Internet Usage (news release) http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1520 Facebook Sees Flood Of New Traffic From Teenagers And Adults (news release) http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1519 us: Blocking and Filtering and Lockdowns, Oh, My! http://www.edutopia.org/blocking-filtering-lockdowns-oh-my BOOK REVIEW: YouTube if you want to ... Andrew Keen's The Culture of the Amateur http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2121075,00.html ********************** CENSORSHIP ********************** il: Government supports Internet censorship bill The Ministerial Committee on Legislation yesterday approved a proposed bill that would only allow access to adult-content Internet sites for users who agree in advance to identify themselves. They will likely be required to state year of birth and I.D. number, and access would would be denied to any surfers who did not specifically sign up to receive it. http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/879659.html China City Tightens Internet Control After Protest A Chinese city planned to censor online chatroom exchanges and ban anonymous postings after residents used the Internet to organize a mass protest against a chemical plant. http://informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=RSPSOKOY3DQUGQSNDLOSKH0CJUNN2JVN?articleID=200900872 http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0790fcb6-2d7c-11dc-939b-0000779fd2ac.html http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKPEK4156920070706 ************************************************ CHILD PROTECTION, FILTERING & CONTENT REGULATION ************************************************ ca: Teachers rule out cyber bullying Teachers across Canada have expressed serious concerns about online bullying and will develop a national policy to protect the nation's students and educators when they gather this week in Toronto. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070708.wbullying0708/BNStory/National/ http://680news.com/news/local/article.jsp?content=20070708_151419_1172 us: Blocking and Filtering and Lockdowns, Oh, My! This past year, I've been working with school districts and schools in many places, and it's been such a great learning experience as I've had the opportunity to see teachers everywhere doing incredible things, sometimes in spite of very tough testing schedules, complex accountability guidelines, and rigid pacing guides. Still, they carry on, forging ahead, trying out project-based learning, extended multimedia learning units, technology-rich lessons, and so on. One issue that I'm finding proves difficult, however, regardless of where I go, is the Internet-filtering systems in place in some districts. http://www.edutopia.org/blocking-filtering-lockdowns-oh-my us: Safer Internet launches in Hillsborough schools An age-specific Internet resource for teachers, students and parents was launched Monday in the Hillsborough City School District to test the new technology. http://smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=77189 nz: Kindergartens Tackle Technology Risks For Under 5s (news release) This week 350 Auckland Kindergarten Association (AKA) teachers will be trained about keeping their kindergartens safer when using ICT. http://scoop.co.nz/stories/ED0707/S00036.htm *************************************** CYBERCRIME, CYBERSECURITY AND PRIVACY *************************************** Web search groups to yield on privacy Yahoo and Microsoft are preparing to announce concessions in their privacy policies in the next few weeks, as pressure mounts in Europe over the length of time internet search companies should be allowed to hold personal data. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/23e0931c-2b20-11dc-85f9-000b5df10621.html Downed Electronic Jihad Site Flew Under The Radar Although the "electronic jihad" Web site Al-jinan.org was offline for part of Thursday, the site has been able to survive for about four-and-a-half years for a number of reasons. While its domain name server registration features a number of contradictions that make tracing its origins difficult, the capabilities of the site's Electronic Jihad application are also limited. http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=200900590 http://itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNID=55691 Estonia calls for international convention to fight cybercrimes Estonia's government on Thursday called for an international convention on combatting computer-based attacks like those directed against the Baltic state in late April-early May. Global ratification of the convention would establish "a strong legal basis to fight cyber crimes," the Economic Affairs Ministry said in a statement. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/07/06/1183351392921.html Faces of terror suspects: Breaking the rules? ... Britain has some of the tightest reporting restrictions in the Western world, limiting the ability of news organizations to publish pictures or articles about the subjects of criminal investigations. The rules are intended to ensure fair trials by keeping potentially prejudicial information out of the hands of would-be jurors. But critics say the restrictions seem increasingly out of step in an era of around-the-clock, global news flows, when Britons can turn to the Internet or other sources for unfiltered information on high-profile stories like terrorism. And, based on their coverage of the latest alleged bomb plot, news organizations seem unclear about how to apply the rules. http://iht.com/articles/2007/07/08/business/media09.php Diagnosing the Health of the Internet Real-time maps showing the "health" of the Internet, including its speed, traffic numbers and the rate of attacks, are now freely available to the public from Akamai, which operates a distributed computing platform that handles much of the world's Web traffic. http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,134226-c,techindustrytrends/article.html uk: Three jailed for engaging in 'cyber jihad' for al-Qaida Three men, including the top computer expert for al-Qaida in Iraq, were sent to prison yesterday for spreading extremist jihadi material through their websites. It was the first UK prosecution for inciting terrorist murder on the internet. http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,2120099,00.html http://ecommercetimes.com/story/58198.html U.K. jails trio who incited terrorism over Web (Reuters) Three men have been sentenced to a total of 24 years in prison after admitting to inciting terrorism over the Internet in the first case of its kind in Britain, police said on Thursday. http://news.com.com/2100-7348_3-6195015.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/itmanagement/0,1000000308,39287873,00.htm http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/07/04/1183351293920.html uk: Terrorism's Hook Into Your Inbox U.K. investigation reveals a significant link between Islamic terrorist groups and cyber crime, and experts say security officials must do more to understand and confront cyber crime as part of any overall strategy for combatting terrorism. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/05/AR2007070501153.html Court holds Belgian ISP responsible for file-sharing A court has ruled that the Belgian ISP Scarlet Extended is responsible for blocking illegal file-sharing on its network, setting a precedent that could affect other ISPs in Europe, according to a recording industry group. One legal expert doubted that claim, however. http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/07/05/ISP-responsible-for-file-sharing_1.html http://futurezone.orf.at/it/stories/205123/ (German) Belgium judge orders ISP to clean up network A Belgian legal victory by authors and composers means that the country's third-largest ISP has six months to clean up its networks of copyright infringing material distributed by P2P. The long-running case was brought by the Belgian Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers (SABAM) against ISP Scarlet, formerly Tiscali and the third largest operator in Belgium. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/07/05/belgium_p2p_isp/ Belgian ISP told to block file-sharing in landmark case An internet service provider in Belgium must screen traffic for music piracy, a court has ruled in a decision which overturns conventional thinking on how two major European directives relate to one another. http://out-law.com/page-8239 us: Court orders dismissal of U.S. wiretapping lawsuit A U.S. appeals court has ordered the dismissal of a lawsuit against the U.S. National Security Agency for a wiretapping program because it said the plaintiffs haven't been hurt by the agency's actions. http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9026379 Judge In U.S. Options Trial Questions Government's Case A U.S. judge Friday expressed doubts about the options-backdating case against the former chief executive of Brocade Communications in a setback for what the government has viewed as a precedent-setting criminal trial. http://informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=RSPSOKOY3DQUGQSNDLOSKH0CJUNN2JVN?articleID=200900871 German Firm's Reputation Takes Deep Hit Damage caused by inappropriate employee actions at one of the German software giant's divisions won't be easy to undo. SAP took pains to blunt the impact of its admission of inappropriate behavior by employees at one of its divisions: The German software giant demoted the head of a U.S. unit and said further action against the executive could come. But the moves, outlined in a March lawsuit filed by archrival Oracle, may already have dulled the edge of a key weapon against SAP's biggest competitor -- damage that won't be easy to undo. http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,492564,00.html au: Police concern over HoonTube SOUTH Australian police are considering appealing to the American hosts of video-sharing website YouTube to ban users posting footage of dangerous hoon driving. http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,22036073-5006301,00.html nz: Porn site teacher earns slap on wrist An art teacher who posted hard-core pornographic pictures of himself and two women on internet sex sites - with messages for girls "the younger the better" to contact him - has been allowed to continue teaching. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=35&objectid=10450272 ************************** GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC POLICY ************************** uk: New law will criminalise possession of extreme porn The Government has published a new law which will criminalise extreme pornography. The Government first indicated that it would criminalise the possession of violent pornography two years ago. A new Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill has had its first reading in Parliament, which means that it has been published and awaits debate and committee scrutiny. http://out-law.com/page-8190 uk: Government porn bill faces Backlash The UK government is facing calls to drop its proposed ban on pornography featuring bondage and sadomasochism. New proposals contained in the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill would make it a crime to view any image classed as "extreme". http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2193662/trouble-looms-government-porn Canadian Cultural Policy Must Adapt to the Internet World by Michael Geist Given our easy access to Hollywood movies and U.S. television programming, it is unsurprising that Canadians have long placed great emphasis on cultural policies. To avoid marginalizing homegrown talent, Canada has set Canadian content as a key objective in the Broadcasting Act, established foreign ownership restrictions within the cultural industries, and safeguarded cultural policies in its international trade agreements. http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2076/159/ http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/business/story.html?id=8d0a0a8b-3cca-4df9-8b3f-51f294a596b1 ***************************** INTERNET & NEW TECHNOLOGY USE ***************************** Wikipedia remains go-to site for online news (Reuters) Wikipedia has added about 20 million unique monthly visitors in the past year, making it the top online news and information destination, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. In May, Wikipedia had 46.8 million unique visitors, up 72 percent from June 2006, NetRatings said. Wikipedia also has finished on top of the news and information category every month this year. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6195367.html comScore Publishes the First Comprehensive Review of Asia-Pacific Internet Usage (news release) comScore released the first comprehensive review of Internet behavior covering 10 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The comScore World Metrix study reveals that in May there were nearly 284 million people age 15 or older who accessed the Internet from either a home or work computer in the region. This represents 10 percent of the Asian-Pacific population 15 years of age and older. The average person in the Asia-Pacific region visited the Internet on 13.8 days in the month and spent 20.2 hours viewing 2,171 pages. This compares to the global averages of 17.1 usage days per month, 25.2 hours per month, and 2,519 pages per month, indicating that the Asia-Pacific region’s PC-based Internet usage is somewhat lower than the rest of the world. http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1520 China Set To Be Broadband King, Fueling Business For Net Firms China is on pace to pass the U.S. to become the largest broadband market later this year as video, e-commerce and online gaming fuel demand. And the country has just scratched the surface. China added 4.5 million high-speed connections in the first three months of 2007 to 56.3 million, says research firm point 15pic. The U.S. ended the first quarter with 60.4 million. http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/newstex/IBD-0001-17973011.htm MySpace, Facebook: A Tale of Two Cultures Emerging data suggest the two may not be direct competitors after all. Businesses that want to reach these audiences have more to learn: The blogosphere is buzzing about a provocative June 24 essay by U.C. Berkeley researcher Danah Boyd suggesting that MySpace and Facebook users are dividing along race and class lines. Even as her timely ethnographic observations touch off debate among users and Web developers, they underscore a question businesses have been asking since MySpace first launched: Who really uses these sites and what are they doing there? What can businesses learn from the emerging information about growing audiences on MySpace and Facebook, the largest of the online social-networking sites? We took a look at current data to ascertain who's doing what, where, and how. http://businessweek.com/innovate/content/jul2007/id2007072_502208.htm Facebook Sees Flood Of New Traffic From Teenagers And Adults (news release) comScore released the results of a study on the visitation to Facebook.com, which showed the site grew to 26.6 million unique visitors in the U.S. in May 2007, marking an 89-percent increase versus the same month last year. The dramatic growth comes on the heels of Facebook.com’s decision in September 2006 to open up registration to the general public, a change from the previous policy requiring a valid email address from a university or a selected group of secondary schools and businesses. http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1519 Facebook grows by 89 per cent The number of people using Facebook has nearly doubled in the past year, confirming the site's position as the social network du jour. In May 26.6 million Americans visited Facebook, an increase of 89 per cent on the same month last year. Among users aged 25 to 34, the increase was 181 per cent, according to research conducted by comScore. http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article2036442.ece http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/07/07/cnface107.xml Social networking shows explosive growth in Australia New research shows that the use of social media such as YouTube in Australia is soaring pushing Australians onto international sites at the expense of local destinations. The findings were released this week at a press briefing held by Future Exploration Network and Nielsen/NetRatings, in the lead-up to the Future of Media Summit 2007 being staged in Sydney on 18 July. http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/13345/53/ MySpace's Slow Start in China The social-networking site's new Chinese version faces tough challenges trying to appeal to local tastes and grab market share from many rivals http://businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jun2007/gb20070625_607135.htm Live Earth streaming sets record: MSN MSN declared itself the new record holder for the biggest online entertainment audience, reporting more than 10 million streams on Saturday for its coverage of Live Earth. http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/09/1973541.htm http://ioltechnology.co.za/article_page.php?iSectionId=2883&iArticleId=5018074 Urban India Web Users Urban areas of India are home to 30.32 million Internet users according to a report by JuxtConsult. The Internet population rose 28 percent from April 2006 to April of this year. http://clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3626341 Time Magazine's 50 Best Websites 2007 Our 2007 picks for the best of what's new and exciting on the Web today — sites with exceptional style and smarts that offer new ways to enrich the on- and off-line experience http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1633488_1633458,00.html ********************** DIGITAL DIVIDE ********************** Awaiting Internet Access, Remote Brazilian Tribes Debate Its Promise, Peril When the sun sinks behind the palm and mango trees, candlelight flickers throughout a tiny village of thatched huts where about 100 Xavante Indians live. The villagers here lack electricity, but not technical ambition. Just beyond the semicircle of huts sits a new one-room school building, and a place inside has already been reserved for an eagerly anticipated local milestone: the village's first computer. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/05/AR2007070501866.html ********************************* COMMENT, MICROSOFT & DEVELOPMENTS ********************************* BOOK REVIEW: YouTube if you want to ... Andrew Keen's The Culture of the Amateur The internet is overrated and even harmful according to Andrew Keen's The Culture of the Amateur, says Killian Fox The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is Killing Our Culture and Assaulting Our Economy by Andrew Keen: Bloggers are notoriously touchy so it's unlikely they'll respond with restraint to the comparison that opens Andrew Keen's polemic. Adapting the 'infinite monkey theorem', Keen, a British media commentator based in California, updates the typewriting primates to internet users. These 'monkeys' are not producing Shakespeare, they're deluging us with 'everything from uninformed political commentary, to unseemly home videos, to embarrassingly amateurish music, to unreadable poems, reviews, essays, and novels'. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2121075,00.html >From the web to the White House - the web's role in the US presidential >campaign Since the 1960 face-offs between Kennedy and Nixon, televsion has been the dominant medium in US presidential election campaigns. But the advent of YouTube has changed all that. Now it's the internet that has become the key political battleground for 2008. But is this the birth of a new democraticatising medium - or just a passing fad? http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2121069,00.html You've got mail - all you need is a way to get rid of it 'You can', my mother used to say, 'have too much of a good thing'. Since she was generally not in favour of good things (which she equated with self-indulgence), I habitually disregarded this advice. But I am now beginning to wonder if she may have been right after all. This thought is sparked by an inspection of my email system. I have 852 messages in my 'office' inbox. ... The problem is not with email as such, but with the way organisations have subverted - or perverted - it for bureaucratic purposes. And they have done it for the same reason that spammers have perverted personal email: because it's cheap and easy to do. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2121185,00.html Apple Issues Battery Program for IPhone (AP) A consumer advocacy group has expressed outrage over Apple Inc.'s battery replacement program for the iPhone, while developers and hackers are trying to figure out ways they could expand the capabilities of the hot new gadget. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/APPLE_IPHONE?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-07-05-19-47-51 Apple's iPhone faces uncertain future in Europe, analysts say Despite a tsunami of hype following the rollout of Apple's iPhone in the United States last week, analysts and market experts say the device will face greater obstacles in the fragmented European mobile phone market. http://iht.com/articles/2007/07/05/business/iphone.php Apple's iPhone faces uncertain future in Europe, analysts say "[The iPhone] isn't going to have a chance with regular businessmen. It's just not a Blackberry. It's difficult to write SMSs, there's no push e-mail functionality, and you can't synchronize your Outlook telephone contacts." Despite a tsunami of hype following the rollout of Apple's iPhone in the United States last week, analysts and market experts say the device will face greater obstacles in the fragmented European mobile phone market, which is dominated by pay-as-you-go customers and operators with their own designs on the download music market. "I think that Apple will do with the iPhone what it has done in the personal computer arena - take about 5 percent of the total market," said Frank Rothauge, a telecom analyst in Frankfurt at Bankhaus Sal. Oppenheim. "That's still significant, but it's not going to change the world." http://iht.com/articles/2007/07/05/business/iphone.php uk: Sony says sorry in cathedral computer game row Sony apologised "unreservedly" yesterday for featuring Manchester Cathedral in a violent computer game. The computer giant acknowledged it had offended worshippers by using the cathedral as a backdrop for Resistance: Fall of Man. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2742831.ece uk: Manchester Cathedral says Sony apology not enough and issues new digital rules Manchester Cathedral is calling for all video games manufacturers to sign up to a new set of “sacred digital guidelines” to prevent future “virtual desecration” of religious buildings. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2036423.ece ********************** TELECOMMUNICATIONS ********************** ISPs scramble to tackle net choke AUSTRALIA'S key internet companies have responded rapidly to a call by the industry's peak body to ease costs for international network capacity. http://australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,22027837-16123,00.html ********************** VoIP ********************** IT chiefs see mobile VoIP boom The use of mobile VoIP phones will grow dramatically in the next two years, but many IT chiefs may be left struggling to cope with the management challenges this poses. A survey of executives has revealed that 27 percent worked for businesses that already used mobile VoIP phones and 70 percent said they expected their companies to be regularly using the devices within two years. http://techworld.com/news/index.cfm?NewsID=9380 ********************************** ARRESTS/COURT CASES FOR CHILD PORN ********************************** au: North Shore man faces child porn charge Police have charged a 34-year-old man with possessing child pornography after seizing a computer from a home unit on Sydney's north shore. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/07/06/1183351409282.html http://australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,22027433-16123,00.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 ____________________________________________________________________________________ Yahoo!7 Mail has just got even bigger and better with unlimited storage on all webmail accounts. http://au.docs.yahoo.com/mail/unlimitedstorage.html _______________________________________________ APPLe mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.apnic.net/mailman/listinfo/apple
