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********************************************************** Don't forget to check out www.auda.org.au/domain-news/ for today's edition of the complete domain news, already online! And see my website - http://technewsreview.com.au/ - for daily updates in between postings. *************************************************** The domain name news is supported by auDA *************************************************** The world's most wired countries http://iht.com/articles/2008/07/01/business/1Forbes-WorldWired.php AP took it to the wire but needs to rethink its role http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jun/30/digitalmedia Asia Pacific internet audience soars http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2220395/asia-pacific-internet-audience India and China Propel Internet Audience Growth in Asia-Pacific Region, According to comScore [news release] http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2295 Report: Fiber Internet growth overtakes cable http://news.theage.com.au/technology/report-fiber-internet-growth-overtakes-cable-20080703-30t5.html 40% of surfers don't bother with browser security updates http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080701-40-of-surfers-dont-bother-with-browser-security-updates.html Firefox sets new record, cracks 19% market share http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/CA9C3237ADB185CFCC25747A0070F919 Spam experiment overloads inboxes http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7482991.stm Spammers poised to target BlackBerry and iPhone owners http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/telecoms/article4237358.ece EBay: pirate bazaar or legitimate marketplace? http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/01/2291074.htm EBay braced for copycat lawsuits over fakes http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/retailing/article4251692.ece eBay hit with €38.6m fine for sales of fake luxuries http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jul/01/ebay.hitechcrime Belgian publishers, fresh from victory against Google, turn on EU http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080701-belgian-publishers-fresh-from-victory-against-google-turn-on-eu.html Civil liberties groups sue U.S. over mobile phone tracking [IDG] http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9106078 Google in deal with Brazil to fight child porn [Reuters] http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKN0237672120080702 us: Cyberbullying becomes a crime after MySpace suicide http://www.nzherald.co.nz/feature/story.cfm?c_id=1501833&objectid=10519354 eBay assailed over Australian PayPal plans http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/06/30/1214677929933.html Swedes e-mail lawmakers, protest eavesdropping law http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/06/30/financial/f105523D09.DTL Google Ad Deal Is Under Antitrust Scrutiny http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/01/AR2008070102622.html ********************** INTERNET USE ********************** The world's most wired countries Sweden may be better known for cars and couches than computers, but when it comes to access to broadband and cellular networks, it's tops. The Scandinavian country leads the world in "technological readiness," according to the World Economic Forum. http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/06/25/computers-sweden-wef-tech-bizcountries08-cx_ew_0626wiredcountries.html http://iht.com/articles/2008/07/01/business/1Forbes-WorldWired.php AP took it to the wire but needs to rethink its role The Associated Press didn't know what it stepped in when it sent a lawyer's letter to the blog Drudge Retort (a Drudge Report parody) demanding that it take down headlines and excerpts from wire-service stories as short as 33 words long. This set off a blogstorm as many bloggers - me included - accused AP of the highest web crime: not getting it. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jun/30/digitalmedia Bhutan MPs in computer game ban Parliament in Bhutan has banned its members from bringing laptops to work - to stop them playing computer games. ... Sales of desktops and laptops have gone up by about 50%-60% over the past five years, according to electronic retailers. One reason for that is the growing popularity of the internet, which came to Bhutan just nine years ago - around the same time as television. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7483643.stm Google Enters ComScore's Turf Suddenly having Google as a competitor could quickly spell death for a smaller firm. When the search giant last week unveiled a tool that measures audiences for various Web sites, Reston-based ComScore saw its stock drop by 23 percent in one day. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/29/AR2008062901694.html?hpid=sec-tech Asia Pacific internet audience soars Some 318 million people in Asia Pacific visited internet sites in April 2008, an increase of 14 per cent from 280 million in the same month one year earlier, according to a new survey. The total internet audience grew faster in the Far East region than in any other part of the world. http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2220395/asia-pacific-internet-audience India and China Propel Internet Audience Growth in Asia-Pacific Region, According to comScore [news release] ... During the past year, the Asia-Pacific Internet audience (at home and work locations among users age 15 and older) grew 14 percent to 319 million visitors in April 2008, outpacing the growth of all other worldwide regions. The strongest growth occurred in India, which surged 27 percent to more than 28 million Internet users, followed by China which grew 14 percent to more than 102 million visitors. Taiwan, Malaysia and New Zealand also achieved double-digit growth. Meanwhile, more developed Internet markets such as Japan (3 percent) and Singapore (4 percent) experienced modest gains. http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2295 Report: Fiber Internet growth overtakes cable For the first time, more people around the world are signing up for fiber-optic broadband service than for cable Internet service, according to a British research firm. Fiber providers added 4.2 million customers in the first quarter, while 2.5 million customers signed up for cable modems, according to a report released Wednesday by Point Topic. http://news.smh.com.au/technology/report-fiber-internet-growth-overtakes-cable-20080703-30t5.html http://news.theage.com.au/technology/report-fiber-internet-growth-overtakes-cable-20080703-30t5.html 40% of surfers don't bother with browser security updates A new collaborative study between Google, IBM, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology suggests that users are slower to move between product updates than they should be—especially those using Internet Explorer. The researchers believe that browsers could learn from the food industry, of all things. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080701-40-of-surfers-dont-bother-with-browser-security-updates.html Researchers: 637 million browser users at risk A group of researches on Tuesday said 637 million Web users are surfing with outdated Internet browsers and therefore at greater risk of Web-based attacks. http://news.cnet.com/8301-10789_3-9981954-57.html http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/security/0,39044215,62043356,00.htm Browsers still going unpatched, says study [IDG] Only 59 percent of people use fully patched web browsers, putting the remainder at risk from growing threats from diligent hackers, according to a study by Swiss researchers. http://techworld.com/security/news/index.cfm?newsID=102061 Google in brouhaha with anti-Obama bloggers Google Inc. has found itself immersed in a blogger brouhaha after its Blogger subsidiary shut down the postings of several political bloggers opposing the election of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president. http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9105418 Bloggers take aim at Google Was Google's network of online services manipulated to silence critics of Barack Obama? That was the question buzzing on a corner of the blogosphere over the past few days, after several anti-Obama bloggers were unable to update their sites, which are hosted on Google's Blogger service. http://iht.com/articles/2008/07/01/business/google.php Firefox sets new record, cracks 19% market share Mozilla Corp. used the launch of Firefox 3.0 last month to boost its browser market share to over 19%, an Internet measurement company said today. http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9106058 http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/CA9C3237ADB185CFCC25747A0070F919 Mozilla's Firefox 3 Sets Geeky World Record [IDG] It's official: Mozilla has set possibly the geekiest world record ever with the release of Firefox 3. The open-source company said Wednesday that the browser's 8,002,530 downloads in its first 24 hours of release set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloads in that period of time. http://www.pcworld.com/article/147875/mozillas_firefox_3_sets_geeky_world_record.html Mozilla sets Guinness World Record with Firefox 3 launch Mozilla has been awarded a coveted spot in the Guinness World Records for the launch of Firefox 3, which was downloaded over 8 million times in only 24 hours. Our own statistics show that Firefox 3 is also extremely popular among Ars users. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080702-mozilla-sets-guinness-world-record-with-firefox-3-launch.html Guinness bestows download record on Firefox The de facto registrar of superlative achievements has credited Mozilla for officially setting a record for downloads in a 24-hour period: 8,002,530 copies of Firefox. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-9983245-92.html World of Warcraft: the WoW factor With millions of players, the online game world of warcraft is becoming a big force in our culture. Some of its most dedicated fans met at a convention in Paris http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/gadgets_and_gaming/article4251048.ece Mobile users make same errors as disabled PC users Mobile-device users find they have the same usability problems that some disabled users encounter with PCs, according to researchers from the University of Manchester. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/0,1000000085,39442145,00.htm ********************** SPAM ********************** Spam experiment overloads inboxes Surfing the web unprotected will leave the average web user with 70 spam messages each day, according to an experiment by security firm McAfee. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7482991.stm Super Spam Me: a month of living by your inbox Spam is a modern nuisance, but have you ever wondered how clogged your inbox would get if you clicked on all those offers for breast enlargements, penis enhancements and the chance to share in the obscene wealth of an African prince? http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article4249602.ece UK the favourite target for Nigerian spam UK web users are the most likely to be targeted by fraudulent spam emails from Nigeria, according to a survey by McAfee. http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2220385/nigerian-spammers-target-uk A month of spam: no help for sex life, but it enlarges the inbox Back in April, McAfee launched an experiment designed as a tribute to Morgan Spurlock's Super-Size Me documentary on eating nothing but McDonald's food for 30 days. Instead of fast food, however, McAfee gathered a group of some 50 volunteers from Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands, Spain, the US, and the UK. Once this elite group of sacrificial goats brave souls had been assembled, McAfee put them on a diet of pure spam. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080701-amonth-of-spam-no-help-for-sex-life-but-enlarges-the-inbox.html Spammers poised to target BlackBerry and iPhone owners The rising popularity of smartphones such as the BlackBerry and the iPhone will make them targets for viruses and spam, security experts believe. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/telecoms/article4237358.ece ************************** ONLINE CRIME, SECURITY & LEGAL ************************** EBay: pirate bazaar or legitimate marketplace? The decision by a French court to make the online auction site eBay pay €38.6m (A$65 million) to a luxury brands group for allowing the sale of fake goods online raises the question of what responsibility auction sites should have to assume. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/01/2291074.htm EBay braced for copycat lawsuits over fakes One of America’s leading intellectual property lawyers predicted yesterday that the ruling against eBay this week would trigger a series of lawsuits from designers seeking to block the sale of fake goods on the internet. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/retailing/article4251692.ece eBay hit with €38.6m fine for sales of fake luxuries The world's biggest online auctioneer, eBay, was ordered by a French court yesterday to pay €38.6m in damages to the luxury goods group LVMH for negligence in allowing the sale of fake bags, lipsticks and designer clothes. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jul/01/ebay.hitechcrime EBay Ordered to Pay $61 Million in Sale of Counterfeit Goods EBay said it would appeal a French court’s order that it pay €38.6m in damages to the French luxury goods company LVMH, the latest round in a long-running legal battle over the sale of counterfeit goods on the Internet. http://nytimes.com/2008/07/01/technology/01ebay.html French court fines eBay over fake goods A French court has ordered eBay to pay 40m euros ($63m) in damages to luxury goods group LVMH for allowing online auctions of fake copies of its goods. LVMH had claimed the damages because it said eBay's French site had not done enough to stop the sale of counterfeit bags, perfumes and other items. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7481241.stm LVMH wins €40m fight with eBay over fakes EBay is likely to face a barrage of lawsuits after it was ordered yesterday to pay €40 million (£31.5 million) in damages to LVMH, the French luxury goods group, for selling fake handbags, perfumes and haute couture. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/corporate_law/article4244291.ece EBay to pay out millions over French counterfeit sales Online auction site eBay has been fined £31.5 million and ordered to forbid the sale of some luxury perfumes in a French court order designed to battle the sale of counterfeit luxury goods. http://out-law.com/page-9225 France Faults eBay Over Fake Goods A French court on Monday ordered eBay to pay more than $61 million to luxury goods group LVMH for letting counterfeit products and its branded perfumes be sold on the auction site. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/30/AR2008063001899.html Porn billing firm lures customers with promises of Hollywood movies If you enjoy watching films online, then the front page of getfilmsnow.com might look an attractive place: the images there recently included X-Men: The Last Stand and Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror. In the weeks the Guardian has investigated it, the front page has boasted images from The Matrix, The Assassination of Jesse James , The Simpsons, Seinfeld and the 1942 classic Casablanca - overall, the sort of films that may draw in young teens. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jun/26/digitalvideo.consumeraffairs Malware is Getting Smarter, F-Secure Warns Watch out for the newest generation of malware that is difficult to crack and efficient, warns antivirus firm F-Secure. The Finnish firm has warned that today's malware is characterized by the packing, encryption, and obfuscation of existing families of Trojans, backdoors, exploits, and other threats, which is now done with industrial efficiency. http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/147732/malware_is_getting_smarter_fsecure_warns.html au: Bada-boom spam: hitman SMS alert Transnational organised crime groups are responsible for death-threat text messages that have been circulating in Australia, West Australian police say. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/07/01/1214678021156.html http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/07/01/1214678021156.html Belgian publishers, fresh from victory against Google, turn on EU In early 2007, the Belgian press trade group Copiepresse won a court victory over Google News, which it accused of copyright violations because of the text excerpts and headlines used there by the search service. Although these excerpts fall under fair use in the US, copyright violation statutes differ elsewhere, and Google's actions were deemed to run afoul of those in Belgium. Feeling confident, Copiepresse apparently filed a similar suit against against a news aggregator run by the European Union itself. Despite the similarities in the cases, however, that suit has been tossed. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080701-belgian-publishers-fresh-from-victory-against-google-turn-on-eu.html ************************** PRIVACY ************************** Civil liberties groups sue U.S. over mobile phone tracking [IDG] The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are asking a federal court to order the U.S. Department of Justice to turn over records about the agency's tracking of mobile phone users. http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9106078 Our Paradoxical Attitudes Toward Privacy We all cherish our privacy. Then we go and divulge everything about ourselves on Facebook, sprinkle our Social Security number like pixie dust across the Web and happily load up on tracking devices like GPS navigators and cellphones. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/02/our-paradoxical-attitudes-towards-privacy/ Security: UK phonetap laws breach privacy Government phone-tapping practices have violated the right to privacy, the European court of human rights ruled yesterday. It described the legal discretion granted to the government for intercepting communications as "virtually unfettered". Procedures covering the use and storage of intercepted material should be set out in a form which is open to public scrutiny and knowledge, it said. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/jul/02/privacy.humanrights ********************** CENSORSHIP ********************** Net Effect: Filtering on the Fly It used to be that when a country wanted to block the Internet, it faced an all-or-nothing choice. Pick something offensive, and block it all. The worst offenders—think China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia—spent years building broad, permanent filtering systems. But that kind of wholesale approach might be falling from favor. Eager to avoid the label of Internet pariah, as well as the economic and political costs of sustained blocking, many authoritarian countries are turning to more subtle solutions. This shift may give the appearance that less of the Internet is being filtered. But, experts warn, it really just means that filtering is becoming increasingly difficult to detect—and perhaps even more effective. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4358 ************************************************ CHILD PROTECTION, FILTERING & CONTENT REGULATION ************************************************ Google in deal with Brazil to fight child porn [Reuters] Internet search company Google signed an agreement with Brazilian public prosecutors on Wednesday to help combat child pornography on its social networking site Orkut, an accord that the company believes is the first of its kind internationally. http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKN0237672120080702 http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080702/wr_nm/brazil_google_pornography_dc_1 us: Cyberbullying becomes a crime after MySpace suicide Missouri Governor Matt Blunt has signed a bill outlawing cyberbullying, just miles from where 13-year-old girl committed suicide nearly two years ago after being harassed on the internet. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/feature/story.cfm?c_id=1501833&objectid=10519354 http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/07/01/1214677994885.html http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/us/01brfs-CYBERBULLYIN_BRF.html au: Porn block trial complete THE federal government has completed a trial of blocking pornography and other online content deemed inappropriate for children at the internet service provider level. http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,23952283-15306,00.html au: FBI called in over teen sex clip Victorian police and the FBI are investigating sexually explicit images of a teenage girl posted on popular social networking site MySpace. The investigation centres around sexually explicit self-portraits taken by the girl, 13, who sent them to her then boyfriend, 17. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/07/02/1214950818171.html au: Teens main producers of child pornography TEENAGERS are becoming major makers of child pornography in Victoria. Statistics reveal adolescents last year outnumbered middle-aged men two to one as the main offenders in child porn production. http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23956258-5005941,00.html Rock spiders be warned THEIR symbol is the scorpion, the natural enemy of the rock spider, which in the lingua franca of the prison system means pedophile. http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23953207-27197,00.html What Are Signs That Your Child Might Be At Risk On-line? Your child spends large amounts of time on-line, especially at night. Most children that fall victim to computer-sex offenders spend large amounts of time on-line, particularly in chat rooms. They may go on-line after dinner and on the weekends. They may be latchkey kids whose parents have told them to stay at home after school. They go on-line to chat with friends, make new friends, pass time, and sometimes look for sexually explicit information. While much of the knowledge and experience gained may be valuable, parents should consider monitoring the amount of time spent on-line. http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977385346 za: New Website to Expose Child Pornography Members of the public can now anonymously report any images of sexual abuse discovered on the internet through a newly launched website. The website, www.fpbprochild.org.za, which is available 24 hours, seven days a week was launched in Johannesburg on Tuesday by Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba. http://allafrica.com/stories/200807010921.html ************************** GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC POLICY ************************** eBay assailed over Australian PayPal plans Angry eBay sellers labelled the auction site "monolithic and dictatorial" at a conference convened today to help the competition regulator decide whether to allow eBay to force all sellers to use only PayPal for accepting electronic payments. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/06/30/1214677929933.html http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/06/30/1214677929933.html Swedes e-mail lawmakers, protest eavesdropping law Swedes have bombarded lawmakers with more than 1 million e-mails protesting the country's new eavesdropping law, adding to the growing public outcry over the measure, an official said Monday. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/06/30/financial/f105523D09.DTL http://www.thestate.com/technology-wire/story/448002.html http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SWEDEN_E_MAIL_SPYING http://ecommercetimes.com/story/Swedish-Eavesdropping-Law-Ignites-Uproar-63637.html Obama Voters Protest His Switch on Telecom Immunity Senator Barack Obama’s decision to support legislation granting legal immunity to telecommunications companies that cooperated with the Bush administration’s program of wiretapping without warrants has led to an intense backlash among some of his most ardent supporters. http://nytimes.com/2008/07/02/us/politics/02fisa.html European mobile firms hit roaming deadline Mobile phone firms have reached a deadline to cut the price customers are charged for sending text messages in member countries of the European Union. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7482794.stm ********************************* COMMENT, MICROSOFT & DEVELOPMENTS ********************************* Google Ad Deal Is Under Antitrust Scrutiny The Justice Department has opened a formal antitrust investigation into a deal struck last month that would allow Internet titan Google to provide some search advertising for Yahoo, according to sources familiar with the inquiry. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/01/AR2008070102622.html Yahoo/Google deal under investigation US anti-trust regulators have opened an investigation into Yahoo's search advertising partnership with Google to examine if the $800m (£403m) a year deal restricts competition in the market. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jul/02/googlethemedia.yahoo Microsoft held talks to find Yahoo buy-up partner Microsoft has held discussions with companies including News Corporation and Time Warner about a joint deal to buy and split Yahoo, according to a US media report. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jul/02/microsoft.yahoo ********************** TELECOMMUNICATIONS ********************** Australia shows US how a real broadband strategy works Australia's government is backing an ambitious plan to build a new fiber-to-the-node network that will reach 98 percent of Australians and offer a minimum 12Mbps to all. But just how open will it be? Google has some thoughts. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080702-australia-shows-us-how-a-real-broadband-strategy-works.html ********************** MOBILE/WIRELESS ********************** Land grab on the airwaves As the 21st century began, the buzzword in the extended world of media was convergence. Then, a couple of years ago, the focus shifted to mobility. Now, suddenly, it's all about spectrum. There's a land grab going on. Everyone wants a slice of new spectrum, the airwaves that surround us. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,23959508-7582,00.html ********************** VoIP ********************** VoIP key to mobile WiMax in Korea After a slow start, mobile WiMax could attract more than 2.5 million users in South Korea by 2011, but analysts warn that the lack of a voice call service is holding the technology back. http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2220404/voip-key-mobile-wimax-korea ********************************** ARRESTS/COURT CASES FOR CHILD PORN ********************************** au: Second Tasmanian on porn charges Police say a second Tasmanian man has been charged in relation to an international investigation into child pornography on the internet. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/01/2291350.htm au: Adelaide man to stand trial on child porn charges AN ELIZABETH Downs man has been committed to stand trial on charges of producing and possessing child pornography. http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,23957349-2682,00.html +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 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. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ (c) David Goldstein 2008 --------- 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 Get the name you always wanted with the new y7mail email address. www.yahoo7.com.au/mail _______________________________________________ APPLe mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.apnic.net/mailman/listinfo/apple
