Don't forget to check out my website - http://technewsreview.com.au/ - for daily updates in between postings.
********************************************************** Sponsored by the Singapore Internet Research Centre Nanyang Technological University, Singapore http://www.ntu.edu.sg/sci/sirc/ ********************************************************** US Justices Hear Arguments on Internet Pornography Law http://nytimes.com/2007/10/31/washington/31scotus.html US Court rejects Google's motion to dismiss American Airlines' lawsuit http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9044539 us: Privacy Groups Seek 'Do Not Track' List http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2210389,00.asp The new urgency to fix online privacy by Eric J. Sinrod http://www.news.com/2010-1029_3-6216061.html Germany seeks expansion of computer spying http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fg-security30oct30,1,6676940,full.story Australia regulator clears Google-DoubleClick deal [Reuters] http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKSYD631020071030 uk: Ofcom warns of telecoms shake-up http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5538d06e-8719-11dc-a3ff-0000779fd2ac.html Google leads group assault on Facebook http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article2779026.ece Over-50s get networking website http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/kent/7070667.stm Spammers hide messages in MP3 files to avoid detection http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=137748 Fake FTC e-mails contain malware payload [IDG] http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9044598 Hong Kong Ordinance To Control Spam Implemented Soon http://www.chinatechnews.com/2007/10/30/6030-hong-kong-ordinance-to-control-spam-implemented-soon/ Upwardly mobile Africa: key to development lies in their hands http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2200919,00.html Africa: Continent Ready for Information Technology Investment, UN Summit Told http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=24477 africa: Address Electricity Shortfall to Achieve Connectivity - Experts http://allafrica.com/stories/200710290121.html European police launch vast crackdown on pedophiles http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/11/01/1193619008744.html ************************************************ CHILD PROTECTION, FILTERING & CONTENT REGULATION ************************************************ US Justices Hear Arguments on Internet Pornography Law Ever since it unanimously overturned the Communications Decency Act a decade ago, the Supreme Court has pushed back against Congressional efforts to regulate Internet content. http://nytimes.com/2007/10/31/washington/31scotus.html us: Child porn law at center of free-speech case The US Supreme Court today will take up a First Amendment test of Congress' ability to tackle child pornography in the digital age. Justice Department lawyers defending a 2003 law that criminalizes the advertising of purported child porn say such Internet ads fuel the market for smut and hurt children even when the advertised pictures are fake. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-10-29-supremecourt_N.htm us: Pornography law in dock The administration of US President George W. Bush on Tuesday faced tough questions from the Supreme Court as it tried to defend a federal law aimed at catching those who advertise or solicit child pornography, especially online. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21550494/ Is child-porn law too broad? US Supreme Court takes up the case of a man convicted of trying to distribute make-believe porn. Congress has long been concerned about the use of the Internet as an anonymous medium for the sale or exchange of child pornography. In response, law-enforcement officials have maintained an aggressive posture through undercover operations to shut down a thriving illicit market that victimizes children. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1030/p03s04-usju.html Italian police join international task force against online child pornography [AP] Italian police have joined law enforcement officials from countries including the United States and Britain in an international task force aimed at fighting online child pornography, officials said Wednesday. http://iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/31/europe/EU-GEN-Italy-Child-Pornography.php Maltese Government to e-enable every child and make it safe Minister Gatt The government is planning on making computer labs obsolete, by e-enabling every child at school and keeping in mind childrens safety, stated IT Minister Austin Gatt yesterday, after signing a cooperation agreement with non-profit organisation Childnet International. http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=59791 mt: Sharp rise in reports of child abuse over internet Between January and September, 115 reports of child abuse over the internet were submitted to the Appogg Hotline service. This represents an average of 12.8 per month, marking a "drastic" increase over the two per month between October and December last year, the agency said. http://www.timesofmalta.com/core/article.php?id=6064 uk: Bullying.com [BBC Radio 4 audio programme] Penny Marshall presents a series investigating the rise in cyber bullying where children are harassed online and via their mobile phones. Penny hears from children and their parents, and questions the experts about how it came to be that one in five children has been the victim of cyber bullying. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/bullyingcom/ Safer Internet Day Safer Internet Day takes place each year in February and is an opportunity to dedicate some time in schools to reflect on some of the issues and more importantly to raise awareness of them. Each year there is a competition for schools and details of the forthcoming events will be explained and included here. The pages also provide information about previous events and showcase some of the work done by schools and young people. The winners of the previous years competition are highlighted and all of the entries can be found using a searchable database. http://saferinternet.org/ww/en/pub/insafe/sid.htm Insafe October Newsletter! The October edition of the Safer Internet newsletter is now available covering the following issues: When Moblogger met Littlebrother - or how new communication technologies influence behaviour; the Norwegian model reaching telecom providers in Norway 2006 - 2007 - Norwegian internet safety awareness node; think you know how 8 to 10 year olds use the internet? Ofcom research; Self-regulation in Spain; EU Kids Online celebrates its first year with three new reports; new types of Spam defy filters and threaten your computer; self-regulation among internet users in Germany - Eine Forderung an die Verantwortung des Einzelnen im Web. http://saferinternet.org/ww/en/pub/insafe/news/newsletter.htm ************************** ONLINE CRIME, SECURITY & LEGAL ************************** US Court rejects Google's motion to dismiss American Airlines' lawsuit A federal court judge last week denied a motion by Google Inc. to dismiss a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by American Airlines Inc. American filed the lawsuit in August in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division, saying it wants to stop competitors from using its trademarks to trigger their own advertising on Google. http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9044539 Zombie Storm Rising The greatest threat to global cyber security today, according to Internet Security Systems researcher Josh Corman, may be your mother's computer. Or more precisely, the collected computers of all the world's mothers. Along with millions of other out-of-date and unsecured PCs strung together by the Internet--what Corman calls "the leper colony"--those machines represent a combined mass of computing power responsible for most of the Net's spam e-mails, much of its click fraud, and the vicious "denial of service" attacks that can knock sites offline and even destroy online businesses altogether. http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/10/29/zombies-cybercrime-viruses-tech-security-cx_ag_1030zombies.html Policing the net will never work >From YouTube's promise to find and stamp out copyright infringing uploads to >the counterproposal from the motion picture studios and Microsoft to find and >stamp out infringing uploads, everyone is getting in on the act. The problem >is, it's all lies, wishful thinking and irresponsible promises. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/oct/30/copyright ************************** PRIVACY ************************** us: Privacy Groups Seek 'Do Not Track' List Nine privacy groups asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Oct. 31 to implement a Do Not Track list to prevent consumers from having their online activities unknowingly tracked, stored and used by marketers and advertising networks. Based on the FTC's popular Do Not Call list, the Do Not Track list would require advertising firms that place persistent tracking technologies on consumers' computers to register with the FTC all domain names of the servers involved in such activities. Developers of browser applications would be encouraged to create plug-ins allowing users to download the list onto their computers. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2210389,00.asp The new urgency to fix online privacy by Eric J. Sinrod A decade ago, I started writing about online privacy issues. At the time, legal colleagues told me that while they found the topic interesting from an academic standpoint, it had no real world applications. They encouraged me instead to focus on "real" upcoming problems, like Y2K. http://www.news.com/2010-1029_3-6216061.html http://news.zdnet.com/2010-1009_22-6216061.html ************************** GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC POLICY ************************** Germany seeks expansion of computer spying ... To the unease of many in a country with a history of government spying through the era of the Gestapo and communist rule in East Germany, law enforcement authorities are using the suitcase bomb case to argue for measures that would significantly expand their ability to spy on the once-private realm of My Documents. http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fg-security30oct30,1,6676940,full.story Australia regulator clears Google-DoubleClick deal [Reuters] The Australian competition regulator said on Tuesday it would not block the $3.1 billion (1.5 billion pounds) acquisition by Google of DoubleClick Inc, a U.S. Web advertising supplier. http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKSYD631020071030 http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/10/30/1193618874828.html http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/10/30/1193618874828.html ACCC gives Google-DoubleClick the nod THE Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has given the green light to Google's proposed acquisition of advertising software developer DoubleClick. http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,22673768-16123,00.html African nations urged to harmonize telecoms laws [Reuters] African countries working jointly to construct an undersea telecoms cable should harmonize laws governing the sector if they are to land the much-awaited communications link, a senior U.N. official said on Monday. http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUKL2905554920071029 http://mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/&articleid=323437 uk: Ofcom warns of telecoms shake-up A shake-up of European Union telecoms regulation risks undermining national watchdogs and creating an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy in Brussels, says the UK telecoms regulator. Ed Richards, chief executive of Ofcom, the media and telecoms watchdog, has warned against a European Commission proposal to expand its powers over the telecoms industry. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5538d06e-8719-11dc-a3ff-0000779fd2ac.html ********************** INTERNET USE ********************** Google shows ITV a vision of the future Googles headline advertising revenues surpassed ITV1s in the third quarter as the search engine demonstrated it could generate more money from sponsored links than 30-second commercials in Coronation Street. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article2767087.ece Visitors to U.S. newspaper Web sites rise -- study [Reuters] The number of people visiting U.S. newspaper Web sites rose 3.7 percent during the third quarter, according to an industry group, even as their print editions reported lower advertising sales. http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUKN3053797620071030 ********************** SOCIAL NETWORKING ********************** Spurned Google rolls out its Facebook killer [Reuters] Google will offer internet developers an open system to create applications across websites, a move that could challenge the features behind the explosive popularity of social network Facebook. http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKN3043165520071031 http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/10/31/1193618954350.html http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/10/31/1193618954350.html Google leads group assault on Facebook Google and some of the world's largest social networks have launched their most aggressive attack yet on Facebook, their young rival. http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article2779026.ece Google opens up social networking Google has launched a system that will allow developers to create applications for a variety of social networks. Developers currently have to customise their designs for a particular site with many partnering with the hugely popular Facebook. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7070815.stm Over-50s get networking website An internet social networking site, in the style of Facebook and MySpace, has been launched aimed at people over 50. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/kent/7070667.stm ********************** NEW TECHNOLOGIES ********************** Free calls on the web as 3 launches Skype phone Mobile phone company 3 today unveiled its Skype phone, which supports free calls over the internet. The phone goes on sale in the UK on Friday, November 2. It will allow Skype users to make free calls and send texts, and will also work as a normal mobile phone. http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2201304,00.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7066271.stm ********************** SPAM ********************** Spammers hide messages in MP3 files to avoid detection Even your iPod is no longer safe from spam. Security firm MessageLabs today reports that it has spotted a massive run of spam sent out in the form of MP3 files and masquerading as music clips from popular artists. This is the first instance of a large distribution of spam hiding inside sound files, the researchers say. http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=137748 Fake FTC e-mails contain malware payload [IDG] Scammers are sending out virus-laden e-mails claiming to have information on complaints filed with the Federal Trade Commission, the FTC warned Monday. http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9044598 http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/10/29/Fake-FTC-emails-contain-virus-attack_1.html Hong Kong Ordinance To Control Spam Implemented Soon Hong Kong is ready to implement the second phase of the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Ordinance, as well as the supporting Unsolicited Electronic Messages Regulation, on December 22, 2007. http://www.chinatechnews.com/2007/10/30/6030-hong-kong-ordinance-to-control-spam-implemented-soon/ ********************** DIGITAL DIVIDE ********************** Upwardly mobile Africa: key to development lies in their hands In the barren surroundings of Kwa Phake in the north-east of South Africa, students from the town used to have to leave the families they often support and travel many miles to attend the University of South Africa. They can now study from home, even receiving exam results, using their mobile phones. Fishermen in Tanzania, meanwhile, use mobiles to get weather reports, and a service has been set up in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, that alerts jobseekers to potential work via text messages. http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2200919,00.html Africa: Continent Ready for Information Technology Investment, UN Summit Told As a two-day summit on improving Africa's information technology infrastructure wrapped up today in Rwanda, the head of the United Nations telecommunications agency reminded investors that Africa is "open for business and looking for partnerships." The Connect Africa Summit, held in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, brought together some 1,000 participants, including political leaders, executives of information and communication technology (ICT) companies and heads of development banks. http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=24477 http://allafrica.com/stories/200710310055.html Intel backs wireless Africa plan Africa needs to embrace wireless broadband as a potential solution to the digital divide, the chairman of Intel Craig Barrett has said. "It's cheaper, easier and more efficient to communicate wirelessly," he told the BBC News website. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7070859.stm africa: Address Electricity Shortfall to Achieve Connectivity - Experts The lack of access to electricity must be addressed comprehensively by African governments if any meaningful improvements in ICT connectivity are to occur, the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) has pointed out. http://allafrica.com/stories/200710290121.html Africa: Small Countries Easier to Connect to ICTs - NSN Official Countries that span over a small geographical area such as Rwanda can easily be wired up using the latest technologies compared to larger ones - probably explaining why Rwanda is catching up the information age fastest, a Nokia Siemens Networks senior executive said on Tuesday. http://allafrica.com/stories/200710300975.html Uruguay buys first $100 laptops The first official order for the so-called "$100 laptop" has been placed by the government of Uruguay. The South American country has bought 100,000 of the machines for schoolchildren aged six to 12. A further 300,000 may be purchased to provide a machine for every child in the country by 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7068084.stm '$100 laptop' hits $200 [Reuters] A computer developed for poor children around the world, dubbed "the $100 laptop," has reached a milestone: its price tag is now $200. http://www.news.com/2100-1005_3-6215892.html Negroponte: Windows key to OLPC philosophy While the news that Microsoft is developing a version of Windows for the so-called "$100 laptop" has caused some consternation, One Laptop Per Child Chairman Nicholas Negroponte has said the project could not promote openness if it blocked Windows. http://www.news.com/2100-1016_3-6215837.html ********************************* COMMENT, MICROSOFT & DEVELOPMENTS ********************************* Google joins the corporate super-league The world's favourite internet search engine, Google, has joined the corporate super-league with a market value which ranks among America's top five companies. Just a decade after its creation in a Stanford University dormitory, the Silicon Valley firm's capitalisation reached $219bn on Tuesday - overtaking healthcare titan Proctor & Gamble to place it fifth on the US stockmarket. http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2202520,00.html ********************** VoIP ********************** VoIP is Dead. It's just another feature, now Business-wise, Skype is a basketcase. But that's just one of the things that makes it one of the most emblematic companies of our time - a real, Ur-Web 2.0 company. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/29/skype_3_analysis/ ********************************** ARRESTS/COURT CASES FOR CHILD PORN ********************************** European police launch vast crackdown on pedophiles The European Union has launched a vast crackdown on suspected pedophiles, following up on leads discovered during a swoop on suspected pedophiles in Australia last year. Some 2500 people across the 27-member bloc are being targeted in the operation, codenamed Koala, which began on Monday, police said. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/11/01/1193619008744.html au: Lawyer urges suspended sentence for chat room cop The District Court in Adelaide has heard that a former Northern Territory police officer was 'seeking refuge in a virtual world' when he was caught by police trying to lure a child for sex. http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/31/2077786.htm +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 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 National Bingo Night. Play along for the chance to win $10,000 every week. Download your gamecard now at Yahoo!7 TV. http://au.blogs.yahoo.com/national-bingo-night/ _______________________________________________ APPLe mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.apnic.net/mailman/listinfo/apple
