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U.S. House bill clarifies ban on Web names resembling those of U.S. agencies http://iht.com/articles/2007/04/17/news/domain.php us: House Passes Bill to Protect Taxpayers (AP) http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6565963,00.html In Wake of Tragedy, Speculators Snatch Up Profitable Web Names http://www.wired.com/culture/education/news/2007/04/vt_domainname GoDaddy Registers Dozens of Questionable Virginia Tech Names http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/04/godaddy_registe.html Owner of Virginiatechkiller.com Cancels Registration http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/04/owner_of_virgin.html Fee for '.org,' '.info' Names to Jump (AP) http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,21583133%5E15306,00.html Founding father of the Internet, Vint Cerf, surveys his domain http://scrippsnews.com/node/21455 ********************** DOMAIN NAMES ********************** U.S. House bill clarifies ban on Web names resembling those of U.S. agencies A 1994 law that bars "any" use of a name of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service and their initials, logos and other symbols to solicit business by for-profit organisations is to be clarified in a House vote by specifying that the prohibition against "any" includes domain names. The law also states that a disclaimer is not a defense against either civil or criminal action. The change follows warnings twice in the last three weeks by the Internal Revenue Service commissioner about confusion over the official Web site of his agency and commercial firms playing off that confusion. http://iht.com/articles/2007/04/17/news/domain.php http://nytimes.com/2007/04/17/technology/17web.html http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6176994.html us: House Passes Bill to Protect Taxpayers (AP) The House marked Tax Day on Tuesday by approving new protections against some of the modern-day dangers facing taxpayers, including identity theft, deceptive Web sites and loan sharks. ... It clarifies rules prohibiting the use of domain names, such as IRS.org instead of the government's IRS.gov, that could be used to deceive taxpayers. http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6565963,00.html http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18161408/ http://businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8OIL0KG0.htm us: Sale of IRS.com stirs Congress into action on domain names When Intersearch.com paid $12.5 million for the domain name irs.com ("We're not the Internal Revenue Service, we're the #1 INDEPENDENT resource for tax information"), some in Congress had had enough. http://government.zdnet.com/?p=3082 us: Evil and its profiteers following the Virginia Tech shooting To show some people have no remorse or morals, a number of mindnumbingly awful people have registered domain names relating to the recent shootings in Virginia, just like was done following other disasters around the world in recent times such as the tsunmai and hurricanes. For example, a resident of Virginia has registered vtmurders.com, vtmurders.info, vtkillings.com, and choseung-hui.com (the name of the suspected killer). The first three domains are available for $250K and the last one for $1 million. A number of domains are available on eBay, while other domain names have been registered to look like they're charities attempting to raise money to assist the victims. For a list of at least some of the domains registered, see: http://www.secondcityceo.com/2007/04/16/breaking-news-people-already-profiting-from-virginia-tech-shooting/ In Wake of Tragedy, Speculators Snatch Up Profitable Web Names People respond to tragedy in different ways. Some pray. Some watch the news. Some try to get rich. Just hours after a student at Virginia Tech went on a killing spree that claimed 33 lives Monday, speculators began snatching up domain names related to the shooting. Dozens of people registered sites like vatechbloodbath.com, virginiatechmurders.com and blacksburgmassacre.com through companies like GoDaddy.com and Enom, Inc. Several of the names went up for sale on eBay later that day. http://www.wired.com/culture/education/news/2007/04/vt_domainname http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2187983/security-firms-brace-virgina http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/04/papers_warns_of.html Virginia Tech massacre may spawn phishing scams Information security experts warned users today to be on the lookout for legitimate-looking websites exploiting Monday's massacre at Virginia Tech. The US SANS Internet Storm Center reported late Tuesday that at least 28 domain names have been registered that relate to the shootings, including www.vatechshooting.com and www.hokiemassacre.com. http://securecomputing.net.au/news/50106,virginia-tech-massacre-may-spawn-phishing-scams.aspx 'Ismail Ax' sparks web frenzy All at once, the world went searching for the meaning of "Ismail Ax". ... There were other reactions. A TV repair shop owner in Corpus Christi, Texas, registered the domain name http://www.ismailax.com the morning after the shootings. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/04/18/1176696889800.html GoDaddy Registers Dozens of Questionable Virginia Tech Names After seeing a post on the Second City CEO blog today about some rather graphic domain names being snatched up mere minutes after the Virginia Tech shootings this morning, we ran a few of the more sanguinary titles through a Whois search. GoDaddy came back on most of the results. http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/04/godaddy_registe.html Owner of Virginiatechkiller.com Cancels Registration Lewis Dennison, aka groovybluedragon, sent Wired an email on Wednesday saying that he'd cancelled his registration of virginiatechkiller.com, a domain name Dennison put up for sale on eBay a day after the campus massacre. http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/04/owner_of_virgin.html Fee for '.org,' '.info' Names to Jump (AP) Wholesale prices for internet addresses ending in ".org" and ".info" are going up 2.5 per cent in mid-October, about the same time fees for ".com" and ".net" are increasing. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/18/AR2007041801835.html http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,21583133%5E15306,00.html http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18175936 http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/04/18/ap3627677.html .info domains to get expensive as well Afilias Ltd. have now announced that the wholesale rates for these domains would increase 2.5 percent on Oct. 15. http://business.techwhack.com/2328/info-domains/ Notification to ICANN of increase in price of .org domain names http://icann.org/correspondence/frolich-to-twomey-18apr07.pdf Founding father of the Internet, Vint Cerf, surveys his domain When the man known as a "founding father of the Internet" looks back on its 30-plus years of existence, Vinton Cerf sees a reflection of our best and worst instincts. What has most surprised and pleased the renowned Internet pioneer has been the continuing avalanche of free information that's become available since the advent of the worldwide Web in the mid-1990s. http://scrippsnews.com/node/21455 http://www.kitsapsun.com/bsun/bu_business/article/0,2403,BSUN_19060_5491067,00.html Political pressure on porn? by Stephen Balkam What does this somewhat obscure international organization (ICANN) have to do with how the Internet will be managed and how governments around the world will view their role in regulating content? Quite a lot - and not necessarily all good. ... So, where does all this leave ICANN? While some will be cheering the decision, many more will be left wondering how this body can retain whatever semblance of transparency, objectivity and independence of government interference it claims to possess. The decision by ICANN, influenced as it has been by political pressures, chips away at the fundamental value of the Internet. For all of us involved in the online world - and that is virtually all of us - this is a worrying trend. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.porn17apr17,0,4471608.story British Islamists’ Cyber Camouflage Partly due to the pressure of new terror laws in Britain and partly because of the effectiveness of Destroyers of jihadi websites like Internet Haganah, British-based radical Islamists have sought more imaginative online solutions both to maintain an online presence (even when they are banned) and to keep on recruiting (something they are increasingly desperate to do in a climate justifiably increasingly hostile towards them). ... Look at the WHOIS data behind domain names used by the radical Islamists in their online operations and more often than not they fall for using anonymous registration services – just as the less lazy Islamists use software to hide their IP addresses when they communicate with their extremist brothers. http://globalpolitician.com/articledes.asp?ID=2649&cid=3&sid=74 us: Our view: Abuse of cyberspace demands corrective action ... And there's a new tactic in politics known as "cybersquatting." Someone's political opponents purchase his or her domain name, either preventing its use by the person whose name is attached to it; or, worse, using it to spread malicious information about that person. http://salemnews.com/puopinion/local_story_106115809 ICANN gets restraining order against RegisterFly In a welcome victory for RegisterFly customers, ICANN announced yesterday that it had been granted a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against RegisterFly, the ICANN-accredited domain registrar accused of allowing tens of thousands of domains to lapse unlawfully. The TRO orders RegisterFly to provide copies of all current registrant data within 48 hours, and provide weekly data updates to ICANN. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/18/icann_tro_registerfly/ http://webhosting.info/news/1/registerfly-submits-domain-names-data-to-icann_0418071827.htm ICANN's Application for Temporary Restraining Order Against RegisterFly Has Been Granted RegisterFly has been ordered by US Federal Court Judge, Manuel J. Real, to hand over to ICANN current and accurate data for all of its domain names now that ICANN's application for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against RegisterFly was granted yesterday. Under the TRO, RegisterFly is also obliged to provide this data every seven days, plus immediately allow ICANN staff access to the company's records and books in order to perform an audit. http://icann.org/announcements/announcement-17apr07.htm http://blog.icann.org/?p=104 Phishing fraud emails target domain name owners Domain name owners are the target of a sophisticated scam disclosed by the US SANS Internet Storm Center late last week. According to a report received by the nonprofit organisation, scammers initially sent victims an email with an offer to purchase a domain name. http://securecomputing.net.au/news/76700,phishing-fraud-emails-target-domain-name-owners.aspx WARNING: This Label Is Worthless Lawmakers are again reaching for their favorite panacea in their futile campaign against online pornography: Web site labeling. It's good politics but bad policy. For a politician, child safety trumps free speech every day -- at least on the campaign trail. ... If the proposal sounds vaguely familiar, it should. Last year, Baucus and Pryor led an unsuccessful effort to force ICANN to quarantine adult material into an .XXX domain. ICANN said it wasn't in the censorship business. http://www.internetnews.com/commentary/article.php/3672586 Microsoft: DNS patch to come by May 8... maybe Microsoft hopes to fix by May 8 a critical flaw in Windows Domain Name System (DNS) servers that is being exploited by online criminals, the company said late Tuesday. http://infoworld.com/article/07/04/18/HNmsdnspatch_1.html http://www.arnnet.com.au/index.php/id;1856063324;fp;4194304;fpid;1 http://www.techworld.com/news/index.cfm?NewsID=8586 IPv6 – Ready for Prime Time? Part IV: Vendor Support In our previous tutorial, we looked at the various IPv6 test networks that have been established around the world to gather deployment experience with the new protocol. But test networks are just that – testing – and if it’s your bonus on the line, you want to make sure that the key vendors that support your network are also tuned in with the latest IPv6 enhancements. http://www.enterpriseitplanet.com/networking/features/article.php/3672641 Getting WHOIS Server Address Directly from Registry by Jay Daley If you want to find out the WHOIS server for a particular TLD then in many cases you can do it with a simple DNS lookup. Just query for an SRV record for the domain _nicname._tcp.tld, like this... Many other TLDs follow this convention including .au .at .dk .fr .de .hu .ie .li .lu .nl .no .re .si .se and .ch. http://www.circleid.com/posts/whois_server_address_registry/ CNNIC Urges Websites To Use CN Domain Name With the support of China's Ministry of Information Industry, the Information Office of the State Council, the State Commission Office for Public Sector Reform and China Academy of Sciences, the China Internet Network Information Center has formally launched a "One Million Websites Using Chinese Domain Names" program. http://www.chinatechnews.com/2007/04/13/5248-cnnic-urges-websites-to-use-cn-domain-name/ Amazon sues Alexaholic…everyone loses! ... Flash forward to March of this year and Alexa's attitude had cooled towards Alexaholic. Trouble in paradise became apparent to many on the web when Alexa filed a URDP complaint with ICANN to get the domain taken away from Hornbaker because it contained the word "alexa" in it. Thinking he could resolve this problem with a simple domain name change, Hornbaker changed the site to Statsaholic. This didn't seem to appease Alexa, who began to disrupt Statsaholic services by blocking Alexa graphs from appearing on the site. http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/?p=350 Dutch state sues owner of 112.nl domain (sub req'd) http://www.telecom.paper.nl/news/article.aspx?id=164747&nr= 123-Reg - No News is Bad News Last week we reported that we received notification from Pipex's 123-Reg that a new support system had been put in place. As a 123-Reg client we decided to put this to the test as by coincidence, one of our .EU domain names had not been renewed despite 123-Reg happily taking payment from our credit card account. Now, 10 days after the domain was supposed to have been renewed it has been suspended by the .EU registrar. http://net4now.com/isp_news/news_article.asp?News_ID=3849 ET.com sells for $225,000 Domain Name Journal reports et.com was the biggest sale in domain names last week, selling for US$225,000. http://dnjournal.com/archive/domainsales/2007/domainsales04-17-07.htm Internet Prospectors Find Gold In Domain Names Using a combination of memorable domain names and strategically placed paid ads savvy internet website owners are mining gold from the internet. There is a new two-step going and it has nothing to do with dancing. This two-step is being done on the Internet by domainers who are cashing in on the hot paid click advertising market and whistling a happy tune all the way to the bank. http://addpr.com/articles/domain_names/16749.html What is a Domain Name Worth to an End User? A couple weeks ago Domain Name Wire more than quadrupled my money on a domain name sale. The domain was purchased less than a year ago at a reseller market. A broker was used to market the domain to companies that sold the related product, bringing in a five-figure sale. (The domain nor the actual sales price is not disclosed for confidentiality reasons.) While the domain name didn't get many clicks, it is the title of an entire software category dominated by large companies such as Sun and Oracle; the term receives 5,000-10,000 searches per month and advertisers are paying $5-$10 per click for this term. http://domainnamewire.com/2007/04/18/what-is-a-domain-name-worth-to-an-end-user/ Spam Fighters Turn To Profiling As Tax Deadline Looms Profiling tactics from Barracuda and other companies are designed to block e-mails that smell fishy but whose IP addresses or domain names haven't been blacklisted. http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199100220 Descriptive Domain Names Key to Successful Online Advertising (news release) ... How important is it? According to Jason Brook, President of Domain Name Venture Capital. ”Click through traffic appears analagous to direct navigation or “type-in” traffic. Whether they type a domain into a web browser or click on a hyperlink, it is clear that web surfers assume the most credible and direct path to what they are looking for is via a generic term domain." http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=32819 us: Schuylkill controller candidate admits to Web trick The Republican candidate for Schuylkill County controller admits buying all combinations of his Democratic opponent's Internet domain names, preventing her from establishing her own Web site and redirecting people to his site. http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-b1_1votemail.5804394apr17,0,3361930.story in: Govt plans vernacular domain names The government is planning to have domain names in Indian languages. This means that ‘dot in’ domain names that link to the vernacular website can also be in vernacular languages. http://andhracafe.com/index.php?m=show&id=21798 Anna Nicole Smith's baby's domain name up for grabs on eBay for $1m The domain name of Dannielynn Birkhead, Dannielynnbirkhead.com is being sold for a million dollars on eBay. http://in.news.yahoo.com/070417/139/6enos.html http://www.metro.co.uk/fame/article.html?in_article_id=45597&in_page_id=7 http://www.dailyindia.com/show/134170.php/Anna-Nicoles-babys-domain-name-up-for-grabs-on-eBay-for-$1m ******************** OTHER INTERNET NEWS ******************** Teens, Privacy and Online Social Networks The majority of teens actively manage their online profiles to keep the information they believe is most sensitive away from the unwanted gaze of strangers, parents and other adults. http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/211/report_display.asp Internet censorship gathers steam More than a decade ago -- as the Cold War ended and the technological revolution begun -- many predicted that globalization would usher in a new era of freedom of expression across the planet. ... Now time has passed. Globalization has continued apace, spreading throughout former Soviet states and China, to the great profit of local economies and Western multinational companies. But those predictions about a worldwide end to censorship? Never happened. In fact, Internet censorship is picking up steam around the world. Thailand banned YouTube after a video was posted belittling the king. In Malaysia, the government is increasing the heat on bloggers, telling mainstream media outlets not to publish information from Web logs. http://edition.cnn.com/2007/BUSINESS/04/18/online.censorship/ Group Sues Yahoo for Helping China (AP) The human rights group The World Organization for Human Rights USA sued Yahoo Inc. Wednesday on grounds the U.S. search company assisted China's communist government with torture by revealing information that led to the arrest of dissidents. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/Y/YAHOO_CHINA http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKN1822649120070419 China fails to ban nude web chats The Chinese have dismally failed to clamp down on nude web chats after discovering "there was no basis in law to bring charges" against a housewife who arranged such online fleshfests, Reuters reports. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/18/chat_ruling/ http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKBOM29069920070418 us: Senator plans to revise Web labeling bill The U.S. senator behind a controversial proposal requiring labels on racy Web sites and limiting access to social-networking sites appears to be backing away from the idea. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) on Tuesday said he is working with his staff and meeting with interested parties to rewrite his bill, introduced earlier this year and called Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act. He did not indicate when it would be complete, and an aide said the rewrite process remains in the early stages. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-6176950.html http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6176950.html au: Post sexy images at your peril, teens told A world authority on cybersex has warned teenagers against posting rude or sexually explicit images of themselves on internet chat sites because of their potential to be used by people who view child pornography. Images that children and teenagers believed would remain with their friends found their way on to the internet and became fodder for men who viewed child pornography. "Self-produced material is a huge concern," Dr Ethel Quayle, a consultant with the research organisation COPINE (Combating Pedophile Information Networks in Europe) said. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/04/17/1176696838714.html http://police.nsw.gov.au/news/recent_media_unit_information?sq_content_src=%2BdXJsPWh0dHAlM0ElMkYlMkZjdXN0b21zY3JpcHRzLnBvbGljZS5uc3cuZ292LmF1JTJGbmV3cyUyRmRldGFpbHNfbWVkaWEucGhwJTNGTWVkaWFJRCUzRDkyMDUmYWxsPTE%3D nz: Assault 'pre-planned for posting on YouTube' Police say an assault on a teenage boy that was filmed and posted on YouTube was planned to give the perpetrators "street cred". They say the assault, which lasted about 10 minutes and was watched by up to 30 teens - some filming on cellphones - appeared to be a copycat of similar crimes overseas. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=93&objectid=10434949 nz: Teens arrested over 'trophy' assault video Two New Zealand teenagers have been arrested after allegedly beating a 16-year-old so they had footage to post on the internet as a "trophy". http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/04/18/1176696893862.html http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/4029527a28.html nz: Pupils knew of Youtube attack plan Pupils at a Hastings high school say it was common knowledge a 16-year-old would be attacked by schoolmates, with the footage to be posted on the internet, and most students viewed it before police laid charges. http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/4030811a28.html nz: More emphasis wanted on internet safety Netsafe wants as much emphasis placed on internet education as it is on water safety and road sense. http://nz.news.yahoo.com/070418/2/c0d.html au: Chat site fears for missing girls Police are likely to search the internet records of the two Belgrave girls that have been missing since last Sunday morning in the hope it will shed some light on their disappearance. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/04/18/1176696877115.html uk: Consumers 'shun' hacked stores Customers of companies which lose credit card data to hackers are voting with their wallets and taking their business elsewhere, suggests a survey. A majority of those questioned said they would stop spending in shops and on websites hit by criminal hackers. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6559509.stm uk: Employers warned on email spying A new ruling, which said a college had breached a woman's privacy by secretly monitoring her emails, means employers cannot spy on staff, say legal experts. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/6559873.stm uk: Wi-Fi leechers arrested Two people have been arrested in the UK for using another person's wireless internet access without permission. Neither was charged but both were cautioned for dishonestly obtaining electronic communications services with intent to avoid payment. http://out-law.com/page-7969 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hereford/worcs/6565079.stm Is Britain falling behind with broadband? Yes, we are lagging behind in high-speed broadband, the revolutionary tool that is turning media industries inside out and empowering consumers to create their own content. With 50% of homes connected, the UK is currently top of the table for broadband take-up among industrialised nations. The problem is the future. We need to install the almost unlimited capacity of optic fibres to the home to replace copper wires - the same phone lines that have served us for over 50 years. While BT is planning speeds of 24Mbps on those old wires by 2012, France Telecom is already trialling 100Mbps, as are other countries. http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2058680,00.html Religious websites ape MySpace, YouTube (AP) A number of religious websites are aping the names and styles of some of the Web's most popular sites. Chief among them are GodTube.com, a video-sharing site for Christians, and MyChurch.org, a social networking realm. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2007-04-18-religious-websites_N.htm Ultra violent games are 'no threat' Research into violent computer games finds players convinced they know difference between screen brutality and real-life http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/gadgets_and_gaming/article1668540.ece http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/4030915a28.html http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUKL1840949320070418 uk: Gamers affected by violence... on the telly and the big screen, that is The British Board of Film Classification isn't the first place that gamers expect to find research on video games and the reasons that people play them, but the BBFC has just released such a report as part of its attempt to better understand the attitudes of gamers and those who don't play them. The BBFC's even-handed report also delves into the question of game violence, but always with an eye to understanding rather than judgment. Their findings? Despite some parental fears, gamers consistently understand the distinction between the real-world and an onscreen fantasy, and don't confuse the two. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070417-gamers-affected-by-violence-on-the-telly-and-the-big-screen-that-is.html http://www.bbfc.co.uk/downloads/pub/Policy%20and%20Research/BBFC%20Video%20Games%20Report.pdf Top 10 Search Terms in 10 Categories, March 2007 A look at the month's top search terms in 10 categories. http://clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3625597 Europe Not Pushing Enough Fiber to Home The Continent doesn't match North America or Asia in fiber-to-the-home delivery of broadband services, which could lead to slower innovation http://businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/apr2007/gb20070418_118494.htm Web counting tools 'need change' The way web audiences are measured could be ripe for an overhaul, according to two separate reports. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6564671.stm au: Labor broadband blowout A LABOR government is likely to face a huge cost blowout if it goes ahead with plans to partner the private sector in a broadband fibre network delivering a 12Mbps internet service to 98 per cent of Australians, networking companies and analysts say. http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,21568539%5E16123%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html VoIP can make firms vulnerable to hackers The growing use of Web telephony in the commercial sector has created a range of new vulnerabilities for corporate computer networks, say U.S. experts. http://upi.com/Security_Terrorism/Briefing/2007/04/18/voip_can_make_firms_vulnerable_to_hackers/ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 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/
