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Don't forget to check out my website - http://technewsreview.com.au/ - for regular updates. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Privacy for Internet names moves forward (AP) http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/03/21/1174153102728.html What Happened at RegisterFly and How to Protect Your Domains http://isedb.com/db/articles/1623/ Registerfly gets terminated http://www.cbronline.com/article_news.asp?guid=BD3E79FC-6579-4FD3-B05D-63FB67F72D79 Registrar Accreditation Agreement Process To be Reformed - Registrants Input Needed. http://blog.icann.org/?p=65 .INFO now supports over 1 million dedicated Web sites after passing 5 year anniversary (news release) http://afilias.info/news/press_releases/pr_articles/2007-03-20-01 Battle brews over the .nu domain http://pcworld.co.nz/pcworld/pcw.nsf/feature/34326848DADB5465CC2572A5007821E3 Online squatters kicked off .sg sites http://asiamedia.ucla.edu/article-southeastasia.asp?parentid=66049 Those who profit from typos, may face legal challenges http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=sci_tech&id=5134946 How to Get Started as a Domainer: 28 Tips, Techniques and Resources http://www.avivadirectory.com/domain/ Domain Sniffing: Fact or Fiction? http://domainnamewire.com/2007/03/19/domain-sniffing-fact-or-fiction/ Vietnam adds tonal marks to website names http://thanhniennews.com/education/?catid=4&newsid=26256 ********************** DOMAIN NAMES ********************** Privacy for Internet names moves forward (AP) Many owners of Internet addresses face this quandary: Provide your real contact information when you register a domain name and subject yourself to junk or harassment. Or enter fake data and risk losing it outright. Help may be on the way as a key task force last week endorsed a proposal that would give more privacy options to small businesses, individuals with personal Web sites and other domain name owners. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/03/21/1174153102728.html http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17708550/ http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2007-03-21-domain-name-privacy_N.htm http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/56422.html http://sharewatch.com/story.php?storynumber=363227 http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/D/DOMAIN_NAME_PRIVACY http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=50889 ICANN proposal would shield contact info in Whois record An ICANN Task Force has recommended some changes to the domain registration process that would allow registrants to more easily shield their identities. A report released by the Task Force on Whois Services suggests that registrars make it easier for domain name owners to shield their identities. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070321-icann-proposal-would-shield-contact-info-in-whois-record.html http://domainnamewire.com/2007/03/19/whois-taskforce-new-rules-for-maintaining-whois-data/ What Happened at RegisterFly and How to Protect Your Domains On March 16 ICANN publicly de-accredited the domain registrar RegisterFly.com for fundamental contractual breaches. BusinessWeek Online appropriately called the RegisterFly.com debacle a "Train wreck". Perhaps this article will help you protect your domain(s) and ultimately your livelihoods from future train wrecks. To that end, I have outlined some tips at the end of this post that will serve as a checklist to help protect you. http://isedb.com/db/articles/1623/ ICANN: Final Task Force Report on Whois Services The Whois Task Force completed its work and sent its Final Task Force Report on Whois Services to the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Council on 12 March, 2007. The report concludes the task force phase of the GNSO policy development process (PDP) on Whois, and sets out the key findings of the Whois Task Force, since it was convened in February 2005 and began work on its terms of reference. The GNSO Council will now consider the Task Force Report and deliberate on making a policy recommendation to the ICANN Board. http://icann.org/announcements/announcement-16mar07.htm Registerfly gets terminated ICANN is to terminate Registerfly's license to sell domain names, cutting off its main revenue stream and leaving its customers victorious but nervous, after months of scandal which have rocked the company. http://www.cbronline.com/article_news.asp?guid=BD3E79FC-6579-4FD3-B05D-63FB67F72D79 http://computerwire.com/industries/research/?pid=A121A30A%2DE693%2D4272%2D9928%2DB62215AB9C13 http://www.pcmag.co.uk/vnunet/news/2185865/icann-pulls-registerfly-licence http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2185865/icann-pulls-registerfly-licence http://www.kyrgyzstannews.net/story/234887 http://story.cambodiantimes.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/3a8a80d6f705f8cc/id/234887/cs/1/ http://itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNID=48177 Registrar Accreditation Agreement Process To be Reformed - Registrants Input Needed. ICANN’s President and CEO, Dr Paul Twomey has called for major review of ICANN’s Registrar Accreditation Agreements (RAA) and the Accreditation process. He made the following statement and posed some questions. “What has happened to registrants with RegisterFly.com has made it clear there must be comprehensive review of the registrar accreditation process and the content of the RAA” he said. “This is going to be a key debate at our Lisbon meeting scheduled for 26 - 30 March 2007. There must be clear decisions made on changes. As a community we cannot put this off.” http://blog.icann.org/?p=65 http://icann.org/announcements/announcement-21mar07.htm .INFO now supports over 1 million dedicated Web sites after passing 5 year anniversary (news release) Afilias announced that the .INFO gTLD has reached over 4 million domain names under management, just months after crossing its fifth anniversary of real time registrations available to the public. The four millionth name was registered in the United Kingdom by the registrar MelbourneIT. http://afilias.info/news/press_releases/pr_articles/2007-03-20-01 Battle brews over the .nu domain Niue is wrestling with a US businessman for control of the .nu internet top domain. Niue’s government say its domain was stolen. Toke Talagi, the travelling ambassador of Niue, does not mince words: “This is digital colonialism. The domain is not used by our nation, and it hasn’t given us anything, except for an internet connection. Also, Niue gets the blame for all the bad things done from .nu domains.” http://pcworld.co.nz/pcworld/pcw.nsf/feature/34326848DADB5465CC2572A5007821E3 Online squatters kicked off .sg sites Cybersquatting in Singapore, like the rest of the world, is a problem as this AsiaMedia story notes. Google, McDonalds and Samsung have all had their .sg domain names registered by cybersquatters, but these were eventually handed back to the rightful owners. Over the past five years, 10 cases of cybersquatting have been handled by the Singapore Domain Name Dispute Resolution Service. http://asiamedia.ucla.edu/article-southeastasia.asp?parentid=66049 Those who profit from typos, may face legal challenges One of the newest risks on the electronic road - "brandits." They're companies looking to steal your eyeballs from some of the hottest sites on the Web. And all they need to take money from people is a typo and few seconds. How Does It Work: The practice is most commonly known as "cybersquatting" and involves a company or individual buying a domain name that is similar to a popular brand name. http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=sci_tech&id=5134946 http://abcnews.go.com/Business/FunMoney/story?id=2958608 How to Get Started as a Domainer: 28 Tips, Techniques and Resources How does a salary of $10,000 per day sound to you? Aviva have a guide to earning a living from domain names, suggesting that you to could be like webmaster and marketing extraordinaire Marcus Frind who reportedly pulls in $10,000 per day in Google AdSense from his dating website PlentyofFish.com. However that’s nothing compared to the $100,000 per day domainer Yun Ye was pulling in before he sold his domain portfolio for about $164M in 2004 and subsequently disappeared under the radar. The guide suggests domaining is a lot like stock investing, the very best in the field have moved beyond basic strategies and have developed their own specific formulas for success. They discuss Trademark Typo Domains, Keyword Typo Domains, Automated Volume Buying, Trendwatching, Brute Force using Automated Domain Research Tools, how to financing your domaining, Important Practices such as don’t fall in love with a domain name, Techniques for Monetizing and Tools for the Trade such as automation and resource tools. http://www.avivadirectory.com/domain/ How to Reduce the Pain of Switching Domains Transferring traffic and popularity to a new domain is a painstaking process that no one on the web appears to be immune to, or so Topix.net has realized. Topix.net is a leading news aggregation resource that has been in the news lately because they are planning to move their site from Topix.net to Topix.com after purchasing the .com for a cool million from a Canadian animation company. http://isedb.com/db/articles/1621/1/How-to-Reduce-the-Pain-of-Switching-Domains/How-to-Reduce-the-Pain-of-Switching-Domains.html Domain Sniffing: Fact or Fiction? Does “domain sniffing”, in which a third party registers domains you’ve searched for, really happen? I’ve always been skeptical that domain sniffing happens on a wide scale. Here’s what domain sniffing is about: you query a whois site or domain registrar for a domain to check its availability. You wait a few days and then go back to register the domain. To your surprise, it has been registered by someone else. Domain sniffing means that someone was able to view (”sniff”) your domain queries and use this information to register the domains. http://domainnamewire.com/2007/03/19/domain-sniffing-fact-or-fiction/ Domain Management Strategies: Hosted by Managing Intellectual Property Magazine and featuring American Apparel MarkMonitor is holding a complimentary webinar entitled, "Domain Management Strategies." During this live one-hour event, attendees will hear about the latest trends and best practices in domain management on the Internet. The webinar will be moderated by James Nurton, editor of Managing Intellectual Property Magazine, and will conclude with a highly-collaborative Q&A session. For more information see: http://markmonitor.com/seminars/070327.html Domain Scammers Start Calling Just about anyone who has registered a domain has probably gotten one of those phony renewal notices from scammers who try to trick you into sending them a check. And perhaps everyone's gotten wise to those letters, because one reader reports he just got a phone call from someone trying to pull a similar stunt. http://weblog.infoworld.com/gripeline/archives/2007/03/domain_scammers.html Vietnam adds tonal marks to website names Vietnamese organizations and companies with websites ending in ‘.vn’ can get fresh domain names in Vietnamese with tonal and spelling marks added to the original names. http://thanhniennews.com/education/?catid=4&newsid=26256 Love and kisses, .XXX Have you heard? There’s naughty pictures on the web. Sssh. It’s a secret. But don’t worry, Richard Cobbett has a plan to stop caring! Really, it’s surprising it’s taken this long for a dedicated .xxx domain to slip its way onto the web - a central holding place for all the filth and depravity that everyone looks down on, but always seems just that little bit too well informed about to get away with it. It’s surprising, because they’ve been talking about it for as long as I’ve been on the web (these two things, I should point out, have nothing to do with each other), but mostly because it’s such a stupid idea. http://www.maxpc.co.uk/opinion/default.asp?pagetypeid=2&articleid=37481&subsectionid=732 What about BillGates.com? Given that Microsoft this week launched another round of lawsuits to combat cybersquatting, and says it has reclaimed 1,100 trademark-infringing domain names in the past six months, wouldn't you think the company would be going after the owner of BillGates.com? Not sure who owns the domain, but it's parked with Sedo, which has loaded it with highly relevant ads from bill consolidators and a companies selling folding gates. http://blogs.business2.com/sloan/2007/03/but_what_about_.html .Pro Domain Names Hit Record Prices Four .pro domain names have sold at Afternic for at least $11,000 each. All of the domains are related to video: Movie.pro ($22,000), Video.pro ($35,000), Stream.pro ($11,000) and Streaming.pro ($18,000). http://domainnamewire.com/2007/03/21/pro-domain-names-hit-record-prices/ us: Iowa buys domain names that could criticize coaches (AP) If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em. The University of Iowa has come up with a proactive method for fighting Web sites built to criticize its coaches by buying domain names. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=2806234 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17710325/ http://dailyitem.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070321/SPORTS/70320007 University of Iowa buys negative domain names Firekirkferentz.com? Notonyour.life. The University of Iowa last fall purchased rights to seven Web sites that school officials hope will head off or curtail negative Internet chatter regarding prominent athletic department employees - Ferentz, the football coach; basketball coaches Steve Alford and Lisa Bluder and athletic director Gary Barta. http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070320/SPORTS0205/703200391 ICA Leveling Playing Field: Combats Registry/Registrar Insider "Tasting" Advantage In a letter to ICANN, the Internet Commerce Association issues including ICA supporting adoption of the Excess Deletions Fee proposed by the Public Interest Registry for .org domain names; domain tasting with ICA supporting experimentation by the registries and registrars with various approaches to this issue; and that ICA members do not support trademark infringement, but they resent having a senior executive of the lead arbitrator of UDRP cases characterising domain tasting as one of “speculative gain”. http://internetcommerce.org/news/ica_leveling_playing_field_combats_registry_registrar_insider_tasting_advantage Secure64 taunts hackers with 'DNS immunity' Like most vendors in the Itanium realm, Secure64 has come to market slowly and with scaled back ambitions. Nonetheless, the start-up’s initial play - a super-fast, super-secure DNS (domain name service) server - looks promising. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/19/secure64_dns_itanium/ Register.com and Web.com Form Strategic Partnership Register.com and Web.com announced that the two companies have entered into a strategic partnership to exclusively offer website design tools, hosting and domain services to their respective customer bases. The two companies have also agreed to a licensing arrangement covering all existing and pending patents for both companies. http://www.hostreview.com/news/press/070320Register.html Ellis bows out of Montco race Montgomery County Commissioner Chairman Thomas Ellis announced Tuesday that he is dropping his bid for re-election and called for the other unendorsed GOP candidates in the race to follow his lead. ... One thing that's already happened in the campaign is that a Republican committeeman acquired Internet domain names that include the names Hoeffel and Damsker. Damsker said she and Hoeffel would like to see all the candidates renounce the practice. She said she'd also like to see the committeeman relinquish the domain names, something Hoeffel said Davis, the GOP chairman, ''has some obligation'' to encourage. http://www.mcall.com/news/local/quakertown/all-b1_2montcomar21,0,4942047.story Hot Market in Virtual Real Estate Puts Venerable Domain Name In Play (news release) One of the oldest 'dot com' domain names on the web, cobb.com, is now for sale, prompted by a hot market in virtual real estate that has seen several seven figure transactions already this year. Examples include tandberg.com and topix.com, which sold for $1.5 million and $1 million respectively. http://prweb.com/releases/2007/3/prweb512810.htm Usability & Domain Names One of the things I like about usability is that it touches upon literally every aspect of a web business–it’s as much a school of thought as it is a discipline. There are many little offshoots of that fact–tiny parts of your business which are partly governed by usability (which you may often not even realize right away). And before your eyes glaze over, let me remind you that usability always affects profits. http://www.webpronews.com/blogtalk/2007/03/20/usability-domain-names ICANN Pulls The Plug On RegisterFly; Issues Letter Ordering Them To Transfer Accounts ICANN has terminated RegisterFly.com's Registration Accreditation Agreement, ordering it to cease operating as an internet domain name registrar by March 31. http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7006805050 ICANN: Anycast and Communication foiled February's root server attack ICANN's evaluation analyzes what happened during the attack on the root servers, which ones were hit the hardest, and what kept them running. http://itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNID=47925 ********************** OTHER INTERNET NEWS ********************** au: Keep eye on kids surfing net: Coonan Parents must do their bit to protect their children from internet pornography even after a government-sponsored filter comes on line late this year, says federal Communications Minister Helen Coonan. http://au.news.yahoo.com/070215/2/12fej.html Protecting Australian Families Online A speech by Senator the Hon Helen Coonan Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts to the Australian Personal Computer Awards Night http://www.minister.dcita.gov.au/media/speeches/protecting_australian_families_online Surge' in hijacked PC networks The number of computers hijacked by malicious hackers to send out spam and viruses has grown almost 30% in the last year, with more than six million computers world wide now part of a "bot network", according to a survey by Symantec. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6465833.stm Symantec Reports Rise in Data Theft, Data Leakage, and Targeted Attacks Leading to Hackers’ Financial Gain (news release) The latest Internet Security Threat Report released by Symantec reveals that the current Internet threat environment is characterized by an increase in data theft, data leakage, and the creation of targeted, malicious code for the purpose of stealing confidential information that can be used for financial gain. Cyber criminals continue to refine their attack methods in an attempt to remain undetected and to create global, cooperative networks to support the ongoing growth of criminal activity. http://www.symantec.com/about/news/release/article.jsp?prid=20070319_01 United States 'is top source of online crime' The United States generates more malicious computer activity than any other country, and sophisticated hackers worldwide are banding together in highly efficient crime rings, according to a new report by researchers at Symantec. http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article1536335.ece uk: Be careful not to surf into the phishers' nets Organised gangs of criminals believed to be operating from eastern Europe and west Africa sent out 14,146 bogus emails last year, posing as Britain's biggest banks in an attempt to lure customers into divulging their secret security data. This figure is up from 1,713 the previous year. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/03/19/cmphish19.xml Google's privacy policy is clearer, not tougher The change Google announced last week in its privacy policy was not to protect your searches but to make clearer how long they will be recorded. http://iht.com/articles/2007/03/21/business/ptend22.php Swedish Internet surveillance law stalled The Swedish Social Democratic Party said Monday that it will block a bill authorizing extensive surveillance of e-mail and other Internet communications. http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=privacy&articleId=9013725 Judge tosses out Google PageRank lawsuit A US judge has thrown out a lawsuit challenging the fairness of how web search leader Google calculates the popularity of websites in determining search results, court papers show. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/03/21/1174153120422.html MySpace Restrictions Upset Some Users Some users of MySpace feel as if their space is being invaded. MySpace, the Web’s largest social network, has gradually been imposing limits on the software tools that users can embed in their pages, like music and video players that also deliver advertising or enable transactions. At stake is the ability of MySpace, which is owned by the News Corporation, to ensure that it alone can commercially capitalize on its 90 million visitors each month. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/technology/20myspace.html Viacom lawyer: YouTube knows it violates copyrights There's no doubt that YouTube is committing copyright infringement, so the central question is who must police its content, an attorney for Viacom said Friday. http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-6168058.html us: U.S. Congress looks at identity theft Is the identity theft scourge getting better or growing worse? There is little consensus in the United States on whether financial institutions and law enforcement agencies are making headway in combating identity theft. But Congress is nonetheless taking aim at the crime as a major consumer protection problem. http://iht.com/articles/2007/03/21/business/identity.php au: eBay trials anti-fraud security device Up to 30,000 Australian members of payments website PayPal and auction site eBay will be able to trial security keys for their accounts. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/03/20/1174153037902.html au: IIA Urges Users - 'Be On Your Guard Against Scammers' (news release) The Australian Internet Industry Association launched a consumer empowerment program to complement ACCC’s the national anti-scam campaign. The ‘Protect Your Computer’ campaign directs users to information and tools to overcome the problem of poorly secured computers, a key element of identity theft – a precursor to scams and more serious cybercrimes. http://iia.net.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=540 EU studying e-commerce law (Reuters) The European Commission is studying whether existing rules on electronic commerce have been applied evenly in the 27-nation European Union and may seek to clarify the law, a senior official said on Tuesday. http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSL205188120070320 UK regulators 'relaxed' on net neutrality Ofcom and the Department for Trade and Industry argue against net neutrality legislation as the debate reaches Westminster http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/0,1000000085,39286400,00.htm Internet Epidemiology The recent New York Times Article “Research Tracks Down a Plague of Fake Web Pages” considers research by Microsoft and the University of California, Davis tracking down some of the roots of spam on the World Wide Web and Internet. Conclusions included: The two top non-commercial TLD spam sources are .edu and .gov. Additional TLD spam sources are as follows: .com (4%), .org (11%), .net (12%), .biz (53%) and .info (68%). http://blog.icann.org/?p=63 uk: The Digital Age We live in an increasingly connected society, with the rapid advance of ICT in business and in the home. But by no means has everyone joined in the digital age. There is a clear divide between small and large businesses, while in the home, ICT ownership and use is closely linked to household income. Focus On the Digital Age gives an overview of ICT use in the UK, showing the extent to which people, education, business and government have taken up the new technology and how ICT is changing working and business practices. It also looks at how the UK compares with other countries and describes some of the problems associated with the digital age. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/focuson/digitalage/ (report) http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/fda0307.pdf (news release) Use of ICT at Home: over half of homes have a computer Digital technology is relatively new, yet it is already approaching the near universal ownership levels of older technologies. In January to April 2006, 56 per cent of households in Great Britain had a desktop computer, 30 per cent had a portable or laptop computer, and 7 per cent had a handheld computer. During this period, 87 per cent of people aged 16 to 30 had used a computer in the previous three months compared with 45 per cent of those aged 50 and over. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=1710 uk: Use of the Internet: 6 in 10 Internet users go online daily Between 2001/02 and 2006 the proportion of adults in Great Britain who had used the Internet in the last three months increased by one-quarter, from 48 per cent to 60 per cent. Almost six in ten (59 per cent) Internet users aged 16 and over went online every day or almost every day in 2006, while 4 per cent went online less than once a month. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=1711 YouTube porn rival scores 2 million members One of YouTube's most famous policies is that the site is "not for pornography or sexually explicit content". That's a situation which has helped rival XTube, which is happy to display adult movies, to grow rapidly. http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/10676/53/ Laptops set to out sell desktops Laptops will overtake desktop PCs as the dominant form of computer in 2011, according to a report by analysts IDC. http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6474581.stm Computer car-racing games can help cause accidents, study shows Computer games featuring the thrills and spills of car racing could be helping cause of real-life road accidents, a study suggests. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/transport/article2371640.ece uk: The stubborn few holding out against mobile phones Britain now has more mobile phones than people. But more surprising is that, according to Ofcom, 4% of adults aged 25-44 still don't have one. This suggests there exists a small cabal of mobile-phone refuseniks, for whom shunning the mobile is nothing to do with being very old, very young or very hard up, but a lifestyle choice. And it's a theory borne out by my inquiries. http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2037081,00.html Kenya sets world first with money transfers by mobile The ping of a text message has never sounded so sweet. In what is being touted as a world first, Kenya's biggest mobile operator is allowing subscribers to send cash to other phone users by SMS. http://www.guardian.co.uk/kenya/story/0,,2038061,00.html Yahoo jumps ahead of Google on mobile search (Reuters) Yahoo introduced on Monday a new Internet search system for mobile phone users that delivers locally relevant answers, a move that vaults it ahead of what rival Google now offers. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1035_22-6168745.html French mobile users get the best deals -study (Reuters) French consumers are getting better mobile communication deals than their Spanish, British and German counterparts partly thanks to fierce competition and regulatory pressure, according to a study published on Tuesday. http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKL202009320070320 au: Broadband support for disadvantaged kids needed Australia may be a developed nation but the digital divide is still prevalent in certain communities. With this in mind, the IT Fund for Kids hopes to narrow the gap by introducing sick children to the Internet. http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/Broadband_support_for_disadvantaged_kids_needed/0,130061791,339274373,00.htm Digital lock's rights and wrongs In the 80s, according to record companies, home taping was killing music. Fast forward some 20 years and the devices we use to listen to music may have changed, but the recording industry is still claiming that the illegal copying of their product harms future production. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/6457369.stm Does MySpace really help artists? The Long Tail theory posits that the infinite shelf space made possible by the internet enhances the market value for "niche products". In the case of the music, that means indie artists. Unfortunately, the real benefit of the Long Tail flows to the distributor, not the artist. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/21/steve_gordon_myspace_maths/ YouTube blasted over ban on cancer videos One of Britain's best-known doctors has accused YouTube, the popular video website, of censoring scenes that show people how to examine their bodies for early signs of cancer. http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2036780,00.html Can filesharers be made to pay? The music industry is beginning to understand that lawsuits don't deter pirates and that it must find ways to make money from P2P sharing http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,2039102,00.html The fat lady is clearing her throat and getting ready to sing for Opera Two months ago I stopped using Opera - the smallest, once the fastest, and often the best browser ever built. Opera had all the good ideas years before everyone else. It had tabbed browsing in 1997, and proper CSS support in the same year, long before there was any proper CSS to decode. Early this century it had a tiny chat client built in that would work across all the main networks. The Opera email client worked the same magic as Gmail, sorting and searching the mail without you needing to do so yourself, but more quickly, and it worked offline as well; its junk filter is very nearly as good Gmail's, and much better than Thunderbird's. http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,2039107,00.html Google quashes mobile phone talk Google has poured cold water on claims it is developing a mobile phone. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/03/21/1174153139660.html Web TV's viewing revolution Joost and Babelgum want to liberate popular programmes from the TV schedulers, offering full-screen, on-demand video at no cost http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article1524823.ece Google tests new way of charging advertisers Google is experimenting with a new proposition for advertisers: If you don't get results, you don't pay. http://iht.com/articles/2007/03/21/business/google.php http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/03/22/1174153213574.html au: Rudd raids Telstra fund for supernet KEVIN RUDD has put internet broadband firmly on the agenda in an election year, pledging to build a new high-speed network as part of an $8 billion plan that has forced Labor to dump its decade-long policy support of public ownership of Telstra. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/03/21/1174153161817.html http://theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21425145-601,00.html au: Telstra, Optus welcome Labor's broadband plan The nation's largest telcos, Telstra and Optus, have welcomed the Australian Labor Party's election promise to facilitate a new national fibre broadband network with up to AU$4.7 billion in funding, and key telecommunications reforms. http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/Telstra_Optus_welcome_Labor_s_broadband_plan/0,130061791,339274416,00.htm us: Appeals court: VoIP to stay free of state regulation The FCC's decision to exempt VoIP services from most state regulation was upheld today by a federal appeals court — good news for VoIP operators like Vonage but a disappointment to states that want to exert greater control over the technology. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070321-appeals-court-voip-to-stay-free-of-state-regulation.html Court Backs FCC Over States in VoIP Case A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld a decision by the Federal Communications Commission that barred states, including Minnesota, from regulating Internet-based phone services. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/INTERNET_PHONES http://www.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idUSN2141909320070321 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- List policy, unsubscribing and archives => http://dotau.org/
