Check out http://auda.org.au/domain-news/ for today's edition of the domain news, including an RSS feed - already online!
Headlines from today's edition of the news include: ICANN goes native, as new TLDs proliferate | ICANN Mulls Registrar Changes | After Registerfly meltdown, ICANN mulls registrar contract changes | InternetNZ’s Farrar steps down from Council The domain name news is supported by auDA. Don't forget to check out my website - http://technewsreview.com.au/ - for daily updates in between postings. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Business.com Could Hit Jackpot on Auction Block http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118248076104444461.html Helping the web become world wide http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6230426.stm Hackers to hit Internet core, Wi-Fi and digital homes http://www.techworld.com/security/news/index.cfm?newsid=9235 Austrian domain registrar 'aids' phishers http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/21/austrian_registrar_phishing_row/ Elections bring new blood to InternetNZ http://m-net.net.nz/1714/latest-news/latest-news/elections-bring-new-blood-to-internetnz.php Informed opinion says IT screens are not glowing green http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article1974975.ece Web Traffic Overtakes P2P as Largest Bandwidth on the Network http://www.circleid.com/posts/web_traffic_overtakes_p2p_bandwidth/ ***************** GOVERNANCE ***************** Drezner Muffs Internet Governance by Milton Mueller Tufts political scientist Daniel Drezner has produced an appealingly simple model to explain the typology of global economic governance. You can get a quick summary of his position at Cato Unbound. His basic thesis is that global governance is still driven by the power of states -- well, not states exactly, but "Great Powers." There are at the moment only two Great Powers, the US and the EU. From this, he derives a useful typology. When the US and EU interests are congruent, and the rest of the world isn't adamantly opposed, we will get harmonized and effective global governance. When the EU and US agree, but the rest of the world won't go along, the Great Powers will avoid universal institutions and forum shop, and we will get "club" standards. http://blog.internetgovernance.org/blog/_archives/2007/6/19/3031995.html Meeting of High-Level Experts on "Competitive Platforms for the Delivery of Digital Content" The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) are jointly organizing a meeting of high-level experts to identify key trends and to address the new technological and policy challenges in the digital content delivery environment. This meeting is being held under the "Shaping Tomorrow's Networks Initiative" and in line with the stated objectives of the WSIS Geneva Declaration of Principles (Dec 2003), which affirms “…the common desire and commitment to build a people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society, where everyone can create, access, utilize and share information and knowledge, enabling individuals, communities and peoples to achieve their full potential in promoting their sustainable development and improving their quality of life...”. http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/stn/digitalcontent/ ********************** DOMAIN NAMES ********************** Business.com Could Hit Jackpot on Auction Block Entrepreneurs Jake Winebaum and Sky Dayton were widely mocked for lavishing US$7.5 million on a single domain name -- business.com -- back in 1999. It was the single highest price paid for a domain name at the time. Now look who is having the last laugh. The company that grew out of business.com -- a search engine used by businesses to find products and services -- is now on the auction block, and could fetch anywhere between $300 million and $400 million, according to people familiar with the matter. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118248076104444461.html http://www.reuters.com/article/mergersNews/idUSN2241706220070622 http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=5475 Helping the web become world wide Although the web has permeated almost 250 nations, everywhere from Ascension Island to Zimbabwe, the language of online life is by no means as diverse. ... China has been at the forefront of the efforts to use international domain names. In 2006 it started seriously promoting three Chinese language domain names: gongsi (.com), wangluo (.net) and zhongguo (China). "China has a long term vision for the project, they are very persistent and they know what they want," said Subramanian Subbiah, co-founder of I-DNS.net, who has worked with China on the native language domains. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6230426.stm McAfee: attacks coming for infrastructure, digital home Online criminals looking for new areas to attack in the next few years will find green fields in the internet infrastructure and the digital home, researchers with McAfee's AVERT labs said last week. McAfee offered its take on the top security trends for 2007, at a press event in San Francisco, saying that well-known problems like phishing, spam, bots and rootkits are on the rise. http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/scrt/64B07B0E689B9D39CC25730400796D28 http://www.techworld.com/security/news/index.cfm?newsid=9235 http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=9811 Austrian domain registrar 'aids' phishers Anti-spam organisation Spamhaus has taken the unusual step of putting an entry for Austrian Domain Registrar Nic.at on its Spamhaus Block List (SBL). http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/21/austrian_registrar_phishing_row/ Squeegee Domains by John Levine When I was growing up, one of the annoyances of life in New York City was squeegee men. When your car was stopped at a light, these guys would run up, make a few swipes at your windshield with a squeegee, then look menacing until you gave them a tip. It occurs to me that domain “monetizers’’ are the Internet’s squeegee men. If I make a minor typing error entering a domain name, they run up and offer to sell a link to the place I wanted to go (well, they sell the place I wanted to go a click from me, but close enough.) http://www.circleid.com/posts/squeegee_domain_monetization/ .berlin TLD Awarded the German Internet Award 2007 Just to inform the people who are interested in news about the prospective TLD candidate dotBERLIN: At the ceremonial awards for the eco Internet Awards, dotBERLIN GmbH & Co. KG won the special award of the German Internet industry. dotBERLIN aims to create a new domain ending .berlin (a top-level domain), which will result in a local identity for Berliners in the Internet, providing an alternative to addresses such as .de and .com. .berlin has become a trailblazer, setting a trend which has since been followed by other large cities such as New York and Paris. http://www.circleid.com/posts/berlin_german_internet_award_eco/ ISPs, Universities Struggle from Social-Networking Sites Using High DNS Queries and Bandwidth Increasingly popular social-networking sites such as MySpace, YouTube and Facebook are accounting for such huge volumes of DNS queries and bandwidth consumption that carriers, universities and corporations are scrambling to keep pace. The trend is prompting some network operators to upgrade their DNS systems, while others are blocking the sites altogether. http://www.circleid.com/posts/social_networking_using_high_dns_bandwidth/ nz: Cyber storm warning! In March next year, New Zealand will be the target of an unprecedented cyber security attack on the country's critical infrastructure including utilities, central government and telecommunications networks. Experts say it will be unprecedented in terms of the severity, prolonged duration, co-ordination of minds behind it, and international collaboration surrounding the attack. Thankfully, it will just be a simulation. http://m-net.net.nz/1715/latest-news/latest-news/cyber-storm-warning.php Hundreds Take Stand on YouChoose.net Against Domain Name Parking Domain name parking, also known as cybersquatting, prevents millions of the top-quality website domain names from being used by businesses who can best benefit from them. Instead, individuals or companies with no association with the domain names use sophisticated software to grab all available names, and keep those deemed most valuable with the intent of reselling them to the highest bidder. http://ag-ip-news.com/GetArticle.asp?Art_ID=4557 http://www.circleid.com/posts/youchoose_against_domain_name_parking/ http://blog.clickz.com/070621-171233.html ICANN RegisterFly update: 24 June 2007 The last update on the RegisterFly situation covered the deal struck between RegisterFly and GoDaddy that saw all the registrar’s domains transferred over to GoDaddy. That deal has seen the vast majority of domain issues sorted out. However, as far as ICANN is concerned, RegisterFly and Kevin Medina were in breach of their contract and ICANN has continued to prosecute its case against the company. http://blog.icann.org/?p=150 ICANN Posts Draft Management Operating Principles for Community Consultation In conjunction with the Joint Project Agreement between the U.S. Department of Commerce and ICANN, the ICANN Board of Directors approved an Affirmation of Responsibilities for ICANN's Private Sector Management. http://icann.org/announcements/announcement-23jun07.htm cNSO Regions Working Group Report of the ICANN Geographical Regions Posted for Public Comments Based on the feedback received, the draft report and its recommendations have been further amended. As the next step in the process, the Working Group would appreciate input from ccTLD managers and other stakeholders, including the GAC, on the report generally and on the following questions in particular: 1. Do the concerns as described in Section B of the report adequately represent the concerns? If not, please indicate what needs to change; and 2. Do you support the recommendations (Section D) of the Working Group? http://icann.org/announcements/announcement-22jun07.htm Direct navigation a boon for owners Why are generic domain names such as such as Wine.com, Weddings.com, Catering.com, Greetings.com or LowCarbs.com so hot? It has to do with direct navigation where users can skip searching well-known engines such as Google or Yahoo and find things on the Internet directly. Thus sites with easy-to-find and easy-to-remember domain names will draw large numbers of Internet users and attract advertisers. http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_6218716 'Squatters' cash in on human error There's still money to be made in mistyping. Internet surfers who stumble when typing an address into their browser can find themselves at sites that look vaguely like their intended destination but are actually the domain of "typo squatters." http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070624/BUSINESS/706240316 Introducing Premium Domain Names by Adam Eisner In my last blog entry, I wrote that a domain name suggestion tool was the “tip of the iceberg” in re-thinking the domain name search process. Today we’re pleased to introduce what we think is another important step in the evolution of domain name search: Premium Domain Names. http://blog.tucows.com/blog/_archives/2007/6/19/3032776.html Real journalism hard to find on Iraqi websites This article concludes "And of course there has to be a prize for the most terrible Iraqi website - if we can make sure Iraqis made it. This is a problem in Iraq because no one seems to trust the National Communication and Media Commission that has the legal right to distribute domain names and should have a decent server. There is not one Iraqi news website ending with iq." http://www.newsabah.com/look/english.tpl?IdLanguage=17&IdPublication=2&NrIssue=886&NrSection=26 Elections bring new blood to InternetNZ Nominees for the 2007 InternetNZ Council elections are already beginning to role in, with just over three weeks until entries close on July 6th. http://m-net.net.nz/1714/latest-news/latest-news/elections-bring-new-blood-to-internetnz.php au: auDA Foundation opens second round of grants (news release) The auDA Foundation is calling for submissions from eligible applicants to receive funding in the second round of grants http://auda.org.au/news-archive/auda-20062007/ New rules on the assignment, registration and administration of .dk names Effective July 1, Danish Registry will be able to suspend typosquatted domain names (new paragraph 8.3.6 of its rules). The registrant of a domain name which is subject to active public use who discovers that a nearly identical domain name has been subsequently put into active use may notify DK Hostmaster. http://domaine.blogspot.com/2007/06/new-rules-on-assignment-registration.html A new 'initiative' carried out by "Registro Italiano in Internet per le imprese (Italian Registry in Internet for businesses)" (news release) The ccTLD .it Registry has received numerous reports regarding a group that is posing as a "Registro Italiano in Internet per le imprese (Italian Registry in Internet for businesses)". This group is sending letters to assignors of Italian domains asking the recipient to "verify the correctness" of some data relating to the domain name itself. http://www.nic.it/en/novita/comunicazioni.html Nic LC Launches SUNRISE Period (news release) Nic LC announces a SUNRISE period designed to allow Trademark Owners and Intellectual Property (IP) owners to register their domain names. The SUNRISE period, which will extend until June 30, 2007, will allow all Trademark owners and IP owners to reserve and/or register their marks and Intellectual property in the .lc registry prior to the full opening up of the registry to worldwide registrations. http://www.nic.lc/news-05282007-1.htm Nic.LC re-opens the .LC Internet registry (news release) After being essentially closed for the past two (2) years, on 21 May 2007 Nic LC re-opened the .LC Internet registry. http://www.nic.lc/news-05212007-1.htm .my Price Promotion In conjunction with the 50 years Merdeka Celebration, MYNIC will be having 3 months price promotion for customers starting from 5th June 2007 to 5th September 2007. During this period, the maximum cap for registration and renewal fees of .com.my, .net.my, org.my, .gov.my, .edu.my and mil.my will be RM80 and RM32 for .name.my. http://mynic.net.my/newhp/announcements/mynic-30may07.html no: Smooth transition to numerical domains As from Tuesday June 19th at 10am the application system was reopened after the transition to a domain name policy which includes numerical domain names. The transition has been carried out without problems. http://www.norid.no/nytt/nummerovergang-status.en.html Live Domain Auction Sells over $10M in Domains Domain Name Wire lists most/all of the domain names that were sold at the recent Moniker auction in New York. Sales totalled over US$10m. The article notes "Many .mobi domains didn’t sell due to very high reserve prices." There are 218 domains listed, some of which did not sell. http://domainnamewire.com/2007/06/21/live-domain-name-auction-results-seniorscom-18m/ Sedo Acquires Industry Pioneer, GreatDomains (news release) Sedo’s top executives have just completed a three- Sedo announced that it has purchased GreatDomains from VeriSign, Inc. Sedo.com is the leading online marketplace for the buying and selling of domain names, and GreatDomains is an established marketplace focused exclusively on the trading of high-quality, generic domain names. The acquisition provides a tremendous opportunity to capitalize on the growth of the secondary domain name market. http://www.sedo.com/presse/presse_1_220607.php4?tracked=1&partnerid=21172&language=us A name with high net worth What's in a name? Big bucks, if you're talking about tags like 1800cocaine.com, BeautifulHookers.com and AirplaneCrashLawyer.com. Those Internet domain names and a lot more will be up for sale Thursday at a Manhattan auction that promoters hope will bring in a fortune. http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2007/06/18/2007-06-18_a_name_with_high_net_worth.html LeaseThis.com and NameMedia's AfternicDLS Partner to Make Additional 700,000 Premium Domains Available for Leasing (news release) NameMedia’s Afternic Domain Listing Service (DLS) and LeaseThis.com announced a strategic marketing partnership that will expand LeaseThis.com inventory by 700,000 premium domains names. http://domaininformer.com/news/press/070621LeaseThis.html Websites with short names score higher - study (sub req'd) http://telecom.paper.nl/news/article.aspx?id=172901 ********************** OTHER INTERNET NEWS ********************** Survey of Government Internet Filtering Practices Indicates Increasing Internet Censorship Twenty-five countries around the world out of 41 countries surveyed block or filter Internet content, indicating a global trend towards Internet censorship, according to the first year of a global survey of Internet filtering techniques by governments released today by the OpenNet Initiative, a partnership among groups at four leading global universities: Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard, and Toronto, funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=9302 au: No ban on Virginia Tech game Australian authorities are powerless to ban a computer game inspired by the Virginia Tech massacre. http://portmacquarie.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?story_id=592508 au: Backing for porn industry The adult industry's key lobby group, the Eros Foundation, has criticised calls by the Australian Christian Lobby for a ban on pornography in the Northern Territory to be extended to Canberra. http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/06/25/1960603.htm us: Google Renews Call For Govt. To Stand Up To Censorship In a post on Google's Public Policy Blog on Friday, Andrew McLaughlin, Director of Public Policy and Government Affairs, revisits his company's efforts to encourage the U.S. government to address censorship as a trade barrier. "To industries that depend upon free flows of information to deliver their services across borders, censorship is a fundamental barrier to trade," said McLaughlin. "For Google, it is fair to say that censorship constitutes the single greatest trade barrier we currently face." http://informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=JSUIWRAQ0N5FCQSNDLOSKH0CJUNN2JVN?articleID=200000230 http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2007-06-22-google-censorship-fight_N.htm au: How a Sydney journalist drew pedophiles into my internet trap by Martin Foley As an experienced investigative journalist I admit to a feeling of disgust when dealing with any form of child abuse. It is not news that the internet is the favoured medium of pedophiles and sexual predators to target children and communicate among themselves. But the reality of the ease and sinister grooming techniques I discovered among pedophiles was shocking. Among those who fell into my online trap were people trying to have cyber sex with someone they believed to be a teenage Sydney school girl, and a man who identified himself as a Sydney architect. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/06/22/1182019367379.html au: Urgent call to tame cyber delinquents Children as young as eight are being bullied in internet chat rooms and primary schoolers are sending pornographic pictures on their mobiles as the menace of cyber bullying reaches a new legion of younger victims. Experts are calling for radical action to try to halt the increase in "shocking" behaviour by some children and teenagers in chat rooms and on mobile phones and websites such as YouTube and MySpace. http://theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21961419-2702,00.html The MySpace dilemma The anonymity and anything-goes nature of the Internet is a lure for sexual predators. We need to reconcile this with our children's growing passion for online social networking. http://informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=JSUIWRAQ0N5FCQSNDLOSKH0CJUNN2JVN?articleID=199901284 http://itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNID=54809 au: ACMA issues content filtering tender for ISPs The Australian Communications and Media Authority has released a request for tender to conduct a trial of content filtering products in Tasmania at the ISP level. http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;795187057;fp;16;fpid;1 http://infoworld.nl/idgns/bericht.phtml?id=002570DE00740E1800257302001E2968 ACMA releases tender to conduct trial of content filtering products at the internet service provider level (news release) The Australian Communications and Media Authority has released a request for tender to conduct a trial of content filtering products in Tasmania, at the internet service provider level. http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD//pc=PC_310393 Paedophilia in Britain: the victim's story The smashing of an internet ring sheds new light on a dark secret. ... Take Timothy Cox, who last week was convicted for running a global internet ring which traded horrific images of child abuse. It was the first time police had broken into a peer-to-peer site, a secret area on the web run by a host that can be accessed only after a strict vetting process by his "lieutenants". http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article2701068.ece We know what you clicked last night Personal identity has taken on a new meaning in the digital age, where basic facts like your name, address or age are far less important to some people than the collected records of what you were looking at online. Technologies for monitoring and interpreting internet habits as a predictor of future behavior cropped up at the start of this century, but only now are gaining momentum as the newest gold mine for websites and their advertisers. Known as behavioral targeting, the premise is to follow the sites you visit and build a picture of what products may interest you, then deliver related advertising in time for you to choose your purchase. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/06/20/1182019175799.html Google Is Watching You Kevin Bankston didn't think anyone would notice his little cigarette break. His family didn't know he sometimes snuck a smoke. So Bankston was surprised when a photo of him smoking outside his San Francisco office appeared online several years ago on Amazon.com's now-defunct A9.com map service. He was even more shocked when, in May, he found out he was caught again on candid camera—possibly smoking—this time by Google's new "Street View" map service. http://businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2007/tc20070622_338015.htm Smoking gun of internet privacy No man is a hero to his search engine. Viagra, hair loss, busty European blondes, garden gnomes, the list of search terms we freely pump in to Google and its rivals says an awful lot about us. And often an awful lot we don’t want to say. Take the case of Kevin Bankston. Bankston, a lawyer for the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, was a secret smoker, hiding his habit from his family until a photo of him appeared on the web showing him smoking outside his San Francisco office. The picture appeared on Amazon.com's now-defunct A9.com map service. Then, in May, Bankston was outed again, this time by Google's new "Street View" map service. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article1977868.ece Swiss trial convicts two Muslims accused of supporting terror on Internet A Swiss court on Thursday convicted two Muslims for supporting a criminal organisation by running websites that posted statements from al-Qaida-linked groups and showed executions. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/06/22/1182019295846.html BP: Cyberterrorism threat is increasing BP has warned of an increasing terrorist threat to the critical national infrastructure: As businesses move away from proprietary networks onto increasingly web-based systems, they are increasingly becoming targets for terrorist attacks, according to security chiefs at the oil company. Rob Martin, manager of digital security services, said: "Terrorism will increase. There's been a lot of hype about cyberterrorism, and, in a sense, it's been dismissed as a threat — but we have to look at how society has changed. Young terrorists have grown up with computers, and we've seen society become reliant on technology. They will use this against us." http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39287647,00.htm us: Cyber attack on Pentagon e-mail A hacker has managed to penetrate one of the Pentagon's e-mail systems, leading officials to take up to 1,500 accounts offline. The e-mail system did not contain classified information relating to military operations, a spokesman said. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6229188.stm http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/06/22/1182019315625.html us: US general laments Google Earth capability The head of US Air Force intelligence and surveillance says data available commercially through online mapping software such as Google Earth poses a danger to security but cannot be rolled back. http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/06/22/1958740.htm?section=justin au: US jails Aussie internet pirate Australian Hew Raymond Griffiths, leader of the world's largest international internet piracy group, gets a 15-month jail term. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/06/23/1182623714013.html au: Sydney host cuts Perez Hilton Sydney web host parts ways with the popular perezhilton.com celebrity gossip website after receiving a flood of copyright complaints. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/06/22/1182019330623.html http://ecommercetimes.com/story/57986.html nz: Internal Affairs probes paedophile, porn and spam company with Wellington links A Wellington company has been duped into providing cover for an internet spam, fraud and pornography ring that is likely to also be involved in paedophile websites. http://m-net.net.nz/1711/latest-news/latest-news/internal-affairs-probes-paedophile-porn-and-spam-company-with-wellington-li.php EU Probe to Look at All Search Engines (AP) A European Union probe triggered by concerns over how long Google Inc. stores user information has widened to include all Internet search engines. The EU's panel of national data protection officers said it's now concerned over the retention of data that the companies use to deliver more relevant search results and advertising. Some fear the data could be targeted by hackers and governments. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/06/14/1181414391048.html E-vote 'threat' to UK democracy British democracy could be undermined by moves to use electronic voting in elections, warns a report. The risks involved in swapping paper ballots for touch screens far outweigh any benefits they may have, says the Open Rights Group report. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6229640.stm http://news.zdnet.co.uk/itmanagement/0,1000000308,39287669,00.htm Informed opinion says IT screens are not glowing green For all the talk of a paperless offices and workers ditching cars to work from home, the IT revolution’s green credentials are actually rather poor. IT accounts for about 2 per cent of CO2 emissions, according to Gartner, the analysts – the same proportion as the aviation industry. PCs account for 40 per cent of that. “Always-on” computing has made for a snappy IT industry sales phrase, but it does little for the planet or for companies’ bottom lines. Fujitsu Siemens, the IT group, estimates that Britain’s 200 largest companies collectively could save £123 million a year if they turned computers off at night. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article1974975.ece uk: Teenagers prefer mobiles to sex One in three people would want £1m to give up their mobile, and those aged between 16 and 24 would prefer to give up sex for a month than do without their handset, according to Carphone Warehouse's Mobile Life survey. Mobile Life, a six monthly survey, this time also convinced 24 people to give up their mobile phones for a month. Unsurprisingly, most of them found life more relaxing, they got more done, but they also had to be more organised about it. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/21/digital_life/ http://www.mobilelife2007.co.uk/ Web Traffic Overtakes P2P as Largest Bandwidth on the Network After more than four years during which peer-to-peer (P2P) applications have overwhelmingly consumed the largest percentage of bandwidth on the network, HTTP (Web) traffic has overtaken P2P and continues to grow says a report released by Ellacoya Networks. These findings are based on usage data of approximately one million broadband subscribers in North America. http://www.circleid.com/posts/web_traffic_overtakes_p2p_bandwidth/ Irish internet users living secret lives online As many as 17 per cent of Irish males and 13 per cent of females claim to be secretly ashamed of things they have done online, a new study indicates. According to research carried out by BT Ireland, 56 per cent of Irish adults now use the internet each day, with a further 30 per cent of males and 26 per cent of females going online every second day, or twice weekly. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/22/internet_use_survey/ Is game addiction a mental disorder? (AP) The telltale signs are ominous: teens holing up in their rooms, ignoring friends, family, even food and a shower, while grades plummet and belligerence soars. The culprit is not alcohol or drugs. It is video games, which for certain kids can be as powerfully addictive as heroin, some doctors contend. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/06/22/1182019344317.html Hello stranger, are you sick enough for me? Australian lonely hearts with health conditions such as cancer, herpes, irritable bowel syndrome and allergies are turning to a specialised online dating service in their quest to find love. The website Prescription4Love is the brainchild of American Ricky Durham, 46, who was inspired by his late brother Keith's struggle to meet new people while he suffered from Crohn's disease. Keith died in 2004. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/06/23/1182623782226.html http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/4107528a28.html au: Watchdog hits local spammers ACMA has imposed its heaviest fine for beaches of the Spam Act, dishing out over $15,000 in penalties. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) said Pitch Entertainment Group, which trades as Splash Mobile in Australia, was fined $11,000 for sending out over one million commercial text messages without a functional unsubscribe facility. http://australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,21949015-15306,00.html Apple Now Third-Largest U.S. Music Retailer iTunes is now the third-largest music retailer in the United States with 10 percent market share, overtaking Amazon.com in the first quarter, according to a new survey. http://informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=JSUIWRAQ0N5FCQSNDLOSKH0CJUNN2JVN?articleID=200000273 The Vista Problem: Can Microsoft Fend Off Another Legal Onslaught? Earlier this month, it looked for a while as though there might be another wave of multi-jurisdictional investigations against Microsoft reminiscent of the antitrust saga that began in 1998. Google had been complaining -- first behind the scenes, then publicly -- about the lack of access for third-party search engines in Microsoft's latest operating system, Vista. Antitrust authorities on the state level were starting to sniff around. On Wednesday, though, Microsoft announced it would make changes to Vista that would satisfy Google's concerns. http://ecommercetimes.com/story/57975.html au: Tick for 'gold-plated' Labor broadband scheme With broadband speed turning into an election issue, Telstra's head of public policy, Phil Burgess, has put his seal of approval on Kevin Rudd's approach to telecommunications over the Government's. Mr Burgess said Labor's plans to invest $4.7 billion in fibre networks delivering minimum speeds of 12 megabits a second was superior to the Federal Government's $1.9 billion rural broadband plan. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/06/24/1182623742076.html au/nz BlackBerry certification not what it seems French concerns about the use of BlackBerry devices in government, which erupted this week, are shared in Australia and New Zealand. http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/netw/46A62C34FBD539EFCC257301001BEF6D au: Man arrested for online 'grooming' An American man accused of grooming an Australian child for sex over the internet has been arrested upon arriving at Sydney's international airport. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/06/24/1182623714851.html au: Turf war as US sailor arrested on cybersex charge NSW police will fight an attempt by the US military to take control of the prosecution of an American sailor arrested after a police sting caught him trying to procure a teenage girl for sex on the internet. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/06/24/1182623748441.html http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/06/24/1182623714851.html +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Sources include Quicklinks <http://qlinks.net/> and BNA Internet Law News <http://www.bna.com/ilaw/>. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ (c) David Goldstein 2007 --------- David Goldstein address: 4/3 Abbott Street COOGEE NSW 2034 AUSTRALIA email: Goldstein_David @yahoo.com.au phone: +61 418 228 605 (mobile); +61 2 9665 5773 (home) "Every time you use fossil fuels, you're adding to the problem. Every time you forgo fossil fuels, you're being part of the solution" - Dr Tim Flannery ____________________________________________________________________________________ Yahoo!7 Mail has just got even bigger and better with unlimited storage on all webmail accounts. http://au.docs.yahoo.com/mail/unlimitedstorage.html --------------------------------------------------------------------------- List policy, unsubscribing and archives => http://dotau.org/
