Don't forget to check out http://auda.org.au/domain-news/ for today's edition of the complete domain news, including an RSS feed - already online!
Headlines from today's news, now on the auDA website, include: ICANN moves ahead with international domain names | ICANN faces major transition with Cerf's departure | American trademark attorneys to consume own young | ICANN wrestles with changes after Registerfly melt-down | TLD Or Not TLD For Cities? Berlin Senate Wants Out | uk: Google sued over defamatory postings found on web search | Attack on Estonia puts cyber security on EU agenda | Speculators grab iPhone domain names | Try out ICANN's new IANA site by Kim Davies | The End of the (IPv4) World is Nigher! by Geoff Huston | Dot-Asia domain applications to begin in October | Spamhaus.org changes nic.at listing | CENTR backs APTLD position on Top Level Internationalised Domain Names And see my website - http://technewsreview.com.au/ - for daily updates in between postings. The domain name news is supported by auDA. *************** RESEARCH PAPERS *************** Typosquatting and the .eu Top Level Domain by Kristof Neefs Part I of the paper outlines the origins of typosquatting and it identifies the benefits of registering a domain similar to a well-known trademark or name to typosquatters. It also briefly evaluates potential detrimental effects of typosquatting for consumers and legitimate businesses. Part II then adresses how the launch of the .eu top-level domain anticipated cybersquatting by allowing the holders of a prior right to a name to register the matching .eu domain during phased registration. I assess whether the phased registration also permitted preventive registering of domains likely to be subject of typosquatting. Part III goes on to describe the alternative dispute resolution mechanism in EC Regulation 874/2004. In conclusion, I argue that typosquatting is sufficiently remedied by the EU regulations on the .eu domain, and I suggest a diligent and pro-active domain registering approach to holders of valuable trademark portfolios. http://www.droit-technologie.org/actuality/details.asp?id=1049 ********************** ICANN IN SAN JUAN ********************** DAY THREE ICANN goes native, as new TLDs proliferate Tuesday brought more on the expansion of the TLD landscape - namely a discussion of what are referred to somewhat jokingly as geoTLDs. These are really two distinct kinds of TLDs - one for information about cities or purely geographic regions, and another for linguistic and cultural preservation. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/27/icann_tld_regional/ ICANN Puerto Rico - of Tortuous Tutorials by Adam Strong Adam Strong wasn’t at the ICANN meetings but after reading the transcript of the “tutorial” on domain tasting, he was pretty disappointed by what’s going on. It’s pretty clear at least one presenter got things off track. Representing the Business Constituency (BC), Maryiln Cade focused on what she called “the harmful aspect, the dark side, . . . a scheme that is involving the abusive registration and exploitation of the rights of others.” http://domainnamenews.com/legal-issues/icann-puerto-rico-of-torturous-tutorials/ ICANN Formalizes Relationship with ccTLD Managers for Puerto Rico, Fiji ICANN announced today that it has signed accountability frameworks with the ccTLD managers for .pr-- Puerto Rico, Gauss Research Laboratory Inc. and .fj-- Fiji, University of the South Pacific, Information Technology Services. http://icann.org/announcements/announcement-2-26jun07.htm DAY TWO ICANN Mulls Registrar Changes (IDG) ICANN is seeking ideas and opinions on ways to modify the agreement terms it enters into with Internet registrars to protect individuals and organizations that do business with them. http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,133399-pg,1/article.html http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/06/26/ICANN-mulls-registrar-changes_1.html http://www.infoworld.nl/idgns/bericht.phtml?id=002570DE00740E1800257305007457A2 RegisterFly: the name not to be spoken The afternoon brought meatier fare - something a correspondent can sink his teeth into, so to speak. The RegisterFly debacle has forced ICANN into a bout of soul-searching, and the potential reform of the Registrar Accreditation Agreement provoked wide-ranging debate about ICANN's purpose and the rights of registrants to their domains. It also raised the specter of how to respond to the failure of an actual registry, rather than a registrar. Susan Crawford, ICANN board member and moderator of the discussion, broached the question of whether an entire TLD could be allowed to fail, or rather should be maintained somehow in perpetuity. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/26/icann_raa_san_juan/ After Registerfly meltdown, ICANN mulls registrar contract changes ICANN is revamping its registrar agreement in order to better protect its customers from registrar disasters that could indefinitely hold up their domains. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070626-after-registerfly-meltdown-icann-mulls-registrar-contract-changes.html New Domains in Works at ICANN Meet (AP) ICANN has scheduled workshops this week to discuss procedures for additional domain suffixes in English; it would be the third major round and the first beyond a pilot since the domain name system was created in the 1980s. For straightforward strings in which no objection is raised, approval would come within three months. http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=53322 Domains in Cyrillic symbols may appear in one year ICANN announced in a Tuesday opened its 29th International Public Meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico on June 25, 2007. New Internet addresses, including those entirely in foreign languages, are under review by the corporation, RBC reported. http://english.newslab.ru/news/225540 DAY ONE ICANN to Tackle new Top Level Domains (IDG) ICANN opened a week-long meeting on Monday where it will address critical issues like new gTLDs, IDNs and the organization's efforts to become more accountable and transparent. The meeting, the second of three of its kind ICANN has planned for this year, will also include discussions about a major expansion of available Internet Protocol addresses, as well as about the process for accrediting registrars. Taking advantage of the meeting's venue in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the agenda also includes the first General Assembly of the Latin American and Caribbean Regional At Large Organization, formed in March. http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,133397-pg,1/article.html http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/06/25/ICANN-tackle-transparency_1.html http://linuxworld.com.au/index.php/id;466026688;fp;2;fpid;1 http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;466026688 Internet agency to discuss domain name expansion (AP) New Internet addresses, including those entirely in foreign languages, are under review by a key oversight agency, although meetings this week in Puerto Rico are likely to conclude with more questions. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/06/26/1182623849118.html http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/06/26/1182623849118.html http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au/articles/20070527-4dp.html http://australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,21969437-15306,00.html http://australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,21969437-15318,00.html ICANN goes to the Caribbean The ICANN Puerto Rico meeting kicked off this morning with the usual platitudes and words of gratitude for the host nation and sponsors, but it did give us an overview of what to expect from ICANN in the next few months. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/25/icann_san_juan_2007/ ICANN promises to tighten up domain name administration ICANN has promised to tighten up its procedures and processes to better protect registrants and domain names. http://itwire.com.au/content/view/13168/53/ http://www.e-consultancy.com/news-blog/363661/international-domains-on-icann-agenda.html http://techworld.com/networking/news/index.cfm?newsid=9279 http://telecomseurope.net/article.php?type=article&id_article=4202 http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2007/06/26/icann-to-address-domain-name-expansion http://turks.us/article~story~InternetMeetingAimsforNewDomainson~mode~print.htm ICANN's 29th International Meeting Opens Monday in San Juan The future of the Internet will be front and center as ICANN opens its 29th International Public Meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Monday, 25 June 2007. "If you are interested in the domain names that can be used on the Internet, if you want to make sure there are enough numbers to allow the Internet to expand, if you care about how the Internet evolves and want to have a say, ICANN meetings are the place for you," said Dr Paul Twomey, President and CEO of ICANN. "The San Juan meeting gives us an opportunity to talk face to face within the global Internet community, listen to ideas and input, and make sure policies promote the Internet's security and stability. Even if you can't be here in person, you can be part of the meeting with our remote participation website, meeting blogs, and webcasts." http://icann.org/announcements/announcement-25jun07.htm Protecting Registrants Focus of ICANN Workshop Strengthening the protection of registrants and their domain names was the focus of a key workshop at the 29th International Public Meeting of ICANN in San Juan. http://icann.org/announcements/announcement-3-25jun07.htm ICANN Maps In further improvements to transparency and accountability, ICANN has commenced the process of illustrating some basic data in geographical maps. The data includes: the number of accredited registrars there are and the countries in which they are located; board and staff representation by nationality; ccTLD agreements; ccTLD financial contributions; the countries in which the 29 ICANN meetings have been held so far; the global areas that the Regional Internet Registries cover; the general location of root servers based on publicly available information; root zone Whois information; support for IDNs at TLD registries; registrations for the current San Juan meeting. http://icann.org/announcements/announcement-2-25jun07.htm ********************** DOMAIN NAMES ********************** Did you know there are 150 ways to spell iPhone? And that's just based on the number of Websites now set up with names like iphoen.com and i0hone.com (I know, I shouldn't publicize 'em) as a way to make money from the hype surrounding the launch of Apple's (AAPL) iPhone. The practice is called typosquatting, and its become a huge, albeit legally risky, cash cow due to the popularity of pay-per-click advertising. Sloppy typists land on a page, click on an ad (possibly even for the Apple store or for Cingular, the exclusive carrier of the iPhone), and cha-ching, the domain holder makes a cut. http://blogs.business2.com/sloan/2007/06/did-you-know-th.html More Than Just Squatting (on Domain Names) One of the less reputable sectors of the Internet economy that has been growing rapidly is domain name parking. Entrepreneurs register names that are either misspellings of common domains, like amazo.com or generic titles like www.chicagodoctors.com. They fill these sites with ads from Google or Yahoo, getting paid for every click. This game has morphed into what is know as Google arbitrage, filling the page also with just enough content that it will actually be found by search engines, and in turn attract users who simply see ads and click again to get somewhere useful. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/more-than-just-squatting-on-domain-names/ InternetNZ’s Farrar steps down from Council Outgoing InternetNZ vice president David Farrar says he plans to leave the organisation’s Council, after almost nine years onboard. Farrar joined the INZ Council in 1998, and has served the last four years as vice-president. http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/46824D9DFE5510E8CC2573020015A2DC mx: All the new IP addresses will be allocated on IPv6 According to forecasts of some investigators, in the next three years the central pool of Internet Protocol addresses of the present version 4, IPv4 will be depleted, so from January 1st, of 2011, NIC Mexico will not be able to allocate anymore IPv4 addresses and will only assign IP addresses in version 6 of the Internet Protocol (IPv6). http://www.nic.mx/es/Noticias_2?NEWS=220 http://www.nic.mx/es/Noticias_2?NEWS=217 (Spanish) IEDR opens up market for personalised .ie domains The IE Domain Registry (IEDR) has confirmed that it is hoping to introduce personalised .ie domain names this summer. This will allow people to register domains like www.johnmurphy.ie or www.marysmith.ie. http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single8615 za: Call for New Domain Name Authority Directors Nominations for directors to serve on the board of the ".za" Domain Name Authority has been opened by the Communications Minister Dr Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, Tuesday. http://allafrica.com/stories/200706260692.html http://www.citizen.co.za/index/article.aspx?pDesc=42103,1,22 http://mybroadband.co.za/news/General/414.html za: Have a little faith, .za administrator told The Inkatha Freedom Party on Friday called on the administrator of the .za Internet domain name, Mike Lawrie, to "show some faith" in the South African government and its ability to administer the address in the best interests of all South Africans. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?South%20Africa&set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=qw1024047002303B253 Direct Navigation: Maximizing Traffic to Drive ROI (cost - US$750) Direct navigation is the largest untapped market for paid search advertisers and agencies. With Google having increasingly become a gateway to the Internet and a navigation tool, Internet users have become accustomed to typing domain names into the address bar, creating a new source of traffic for marketers. http://jupiterresearch.com/bin/item.pl/research:concept/1091/id=99431 ANRT opens consultation on .ma domain name administrator (sub req'd) http://telecom.paper.nl/news/article.aspx?id=173439 Bush on cyber war: 'a subject I can learn a lot about' When the presidents of the USA and Estonia met on Monday, cyber warfare was still very much on the Estonian agenda. Estonia has recently cooled its jets somewhat on the issue of the serious DDoS attacks it suffered in recent months. Initially, the Estonian Government suggested that the Russian Government had mounted a purposeful digital assault, leading to a wave of wide-eyed "cyber-war!" headlines in the Western media. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/26/bush_soothes_estonians_on_cyber_war/ How MySpace is hurting your network 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. http://computerworld.com.sg/ShowPage.aspx?pagetype=2&articleid=5546&pubid=3&tab=Home&issueid=114 What Is Cybersquatting and What Can Be Done About It? ACPA or UDRP? Have you ever had a third party register a domain name that is either exactly the same or very similar to your trademark? If so, it may be a Cybersquatting issue. Cybersquatting is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with a bad-faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else. To address this issue, Congress enacted what is known as the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act ("ACPA"). The ACPA amended the Lanham Act by providing trademark owners with a civil remedy against cybersquatting. http://domaininformer.com/guides/Legal/articles/070625whatiscybersquatting.html Domain name industry booming with multimillion-dollar sales, but is it sustainable? If hefty domain name prices are any indication, the dot-com resurgence may be headed for another bust. Just take a look at last week’s live auction sale by domain name broker Moniker. On Friday at the Traffic conference in New York, Moniker beat its record for the largest sale of a single domain name at live auction. That sale went to Creditcheck.com, which took in a cool $3 million. When the day was done, Pompano Beach, Florida-based Moniker had raked in $10.9 million for brokering 115 names. http://redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=22712 Domain Names Market Remains Hot...A Bubble Waiting To Burst? In April, Pablo Palatnik wrote a blog post, "Domain Names Have Become True Commodities". Pablo writes "[i]t's now June and the market for Domain names is still rising in prices. It's much like the housing market two years ago, not quite as hot and profitable yet, but there are a lot of people making serious money from domain names." http://searchenginejournal.com/domain-names-market-remains-hota-bubble-waiting-to-burst/5179/ Communicate.com Stock Nearly Doubles in June Individual domain name prices aren’t the only signs that the domain name market is white hot. Shares of domain name company Communicate.com (CMNN.ob) have soared from $1.14 at open on June 1 to close at $2.10 last Friday, June 22. (Shares fell 8 cents on Monday). http://domainnamewire.com/2007/06/26/communicatecom-stock-nearly-doubles-in-june/ Moniker.com Brokers Two Multi-Million Dollar Domain Name Sales at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. NYC More than 300 individuals packed the ballroom at the Hyatt Grand Central in NYC to bid on some of the world's most premium domain names at the culmination of T.R.A.F.F.I.C NYC. The auction was hosted by Moniker.com. During intense live bidding, CreditCheck.com and its associated Web site FreeCreditCheck.com sold for U.S. $3 million combined while Seniors.com sold for $1.8 million. http://domaininformer.com/news/press/070625Moniker.html Rick Latona Lights Up the Top 20 With Three Charted Domains Including Iran.com at US$400,000 Rick Latona of DigiPawn.com went on a spending spree this week and more than half a million dollars later he was the proud new owner of Iran.com ($400,000), TrackAndField.com ($57,000), Territory.com ($30,000) and Gutter.com ($12,500). http://dnjournal.com/archive/domainsales/2007/domainsales06-19-07.htm Apple iPhone Promoting .com TLD? One of the key features of the soon-to-launch iPhone is its advanced web browser capabilities. "The iPhone is the first smart phone we've tested with a real, computer-grade Web browser, a version of Apple's Safari," say the Wall Street Journal. To make the user's browsing experience even more efficient, the phone even comes with a top-level domain (TLD) button labeled ".com". Rather interesting given that today there are over two hundred TLDs in existence including .mobi. http://www.circleid.com/posts/apple_iphone_buttons_com_domain/ What's in a domain name? Commentary: Web start-ups scraping bottom of brand barrel Internet start-ups seem to be having as much trouble acquiring names as they do venture financing. Nowadays, these start-ups are built on the cheap, employing shoestring budgets by leasing inexpensive computer servers and using low-cost software. The last thing they want to spend big money on is a name. A Web identity is imperative, but these firms don't have tens of thousands of dollars to hire a naming specialist, to say nothing of the cost of acquiring a cybersquatted domain. http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/story.aspx?guid=%7BF9C03C2F%2D15F1%2D4F9F%2DA791%2D8BB8851EFEB0%7D ICANN opens consultation on operating principles (sub req'd) http://telecom.paper.nl/news/article.aspx?id=173235 *************** RESEARCH PAPERS *************** Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace by Danah Boyd Over the last six months, I've noticed an increasing number of press articles about how high school teens are leaving MySpace for Facebook. That's only partially true. There is indeed a change taking place, but it's not a shift so much as a fragmentation. Until recently, American teenagers were flocking to MySpace. The picture is now being blurred. Some teens are flocking to MySpace. And some teens are flocking to Facebook. Who goes where gets kinda sticky... probably because it seems to primarily have to do with socio-economic class. http://www.danah.org/papers/essays/ClassDivisions.html us: Cyberbullying and Online Teens About one third (32%) of all teenagers who use the internet say they have been targets of a range of annoying and potentially menacing online activities – such as receiving threatening messages; having their private emails or text messages forwarded without consent; having an embarrassing picture posted without permission; or having rumors about them spread online. http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/216/report_display.asp ********************** OTHER INTERNET NEWS ********************** The public and the private portrayal of Iran Internet censorship in Iran is one of the issues in this article by Antony Loewenstein in The Guardian. Antony looks at the real Iran, not the one that's regularly portrayed in the western media. He finds many Iranians shun the views of their leaders - but they won't say so openly. http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/antony_loewenstein/2007/06/spending_time_in_iran_inevitab.html Google Fights Global Internet Censorship (AP) Once relatively indifferent to government affairs, Google is seeking help inside the Beltway to fight the rise of Web censorship worldwide. The online search giant is taking a novel approach to the problem by asking U.S. trade officials to treat Internet restrictions as international trade barriers, similar to other hurdles to global commerce, such as tariffs. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/06/23/1182019391954.html au: Net closes on predators with 'virtual girl' trap The net is closing on pedophiles in Sydney and elsewhere who have been using the Skype internet chat tool to prey on teenage girls. A "virtual girl" set up to help investigate the actions of people wanting to have cybersex with minors was launched from London yesterday. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/06/25/1182623820428.html au: Gothic fan groomed teen for sex, court told Daniel William Peckham decided to create his own Gothic appreciation club on the internet, based on Rookwood cemetery. The membership fee he demanded from under-age teenage girls seeking to join was sexual intercourse or for them to email naked photographs of themselves to him, federal police alleged in Central Local Court yesterday. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/06/25/1182623820425.html us: Study: 'Cyberbullying' hits one third of teens One in three teenagers say they've been bullied in some way online, but two-thirds of teens still believe they're more likely to be harassed offline, according to a new study. http://news.com.com/2100-1038_3-6193723.html http://informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=200001167 http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/06/28/1182624023645.html Google gestures German pullout on privacy principles Google is threatening to close the German version of Gmail if the Bundestag goes through with new laws to ban anonymous email accounts. The federal internet surveillance legislation, which comes into force next year, could compel email providers to verify real names and physical addresses in the name of fighting terrorism. Google reckons the regulations are anti-privacy and that volk will just turn to servers outside the country. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/25/google_german_gmail/ au: Leader of net piracy gang jailed A Briton has been jailed for 51 months after pleading guilty to software piracy charges in the US. From his Australia home Hew Griffiths led the DrinkOrDie piracy group which specialised in cracking protection codes on software, music and movies. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6237610.stm Phishing the net for the gullible Carl Robertson still shudders when he remembers it. "You have to live through it to understand the damage that can happen, not only emotionally, but financially." A death? An assault? No. The 63-year-old California-based estate agent is talking about phishing, the stealing of personal credentials using spoof emails. Robertson had been a casual internet user for three years when he followed a link in an email purporting to come from eBay. It led him to enter personal details into what he thought was an account confirmation page. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/06/27/1182623916665.html us: Dangerous Ruling Forces Search Engine to Log Users Public Interest Groups Urge Court to Block Radical Expansion of Discovery Rules San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) urged a California court Friday to overturn a dangerous ruling that would require an Internet search engine to create and store logs of its users' activities as part of electronic discovery obligations in a civil lawsuit. The ruling came in a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by motion picture studios against TorrentSpy, a popular search engine that indexes materials made publicly available via the Bit Torrent file sharing protocol. TorrentSpy has never logged its visitors' Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. Notwithstanding this explicit privacy policy, a federal magistrate judge has now ordered TorrentSpy to activate logging and turn the logged data over to the studios. http://www.ibls.com/internet_law_news_portal_view.aspx?s=latestnews&id=1790 Israeli Court Holds Forum Manager Liable For User Content In C 032986/03 Moshe Boshmitz v. Anat Aronowitz, Magistrates Court of Tel-Aviv Jaffa, Israeli Judge Shoshana Almagor held that the manager of an online forum may be liable for the content published by the forum users on a theory of negligence. The defendant, Ms. Aronowitz, was the manager of a forum dealing with the welfare of animals in the popular Israeli website “Walla!” The Claimant, Dr. Boshmitz, a veterinarian and an owner of a farm that breeds monkeys and sells them for research purposes, filed suit against the defendant regarding libelous statements she made against him in the forum as well as statements made by users of the forum. http://www.ibls.com/internet_law_news_portal_view.aspx?s=latestnews&id=1789 us: Judge Rebuffs Google's Request To Extend Oversight of Microsoft A U.S. District Court judge yesterday declined to address a petition by Google that asked the government to extend its antitrust oversight of Microsoft. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/26/AR2007062602062.html Does Google Have Another Move in Vista Chess Game? Google has been ratcheting up its campaign to compel Microsoft to further open its Vista operating system to third-party search engines. Its latest tactic entailed petitioning the judge overseeing Microsoft's antitrust agreement with federal and state governments to extend it past November, when most of the terms are set to expire. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly declined to consider the petition, saying that she would rely on information from government lawyers and state attorneys general on whether to proceed against Microsoft. http://ecommercetimes.com/story/58055.html eBay ends tiff with Google The auction site says it will again buy ads through Google's AdWords platform - though not as many as before http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article1983126.ece au: Joint report released into communications infrastructure The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) today released a joint report titled Communications Infrastructure and Services Availability in Australia 2006-07. The report addresses the availability of broadband, fixed voice, mobile voice, mobile data, and broadcasting infrastructure and services. http://arnnet.com.au/index.php/id;1157405506;fp;4194304;fpid;1 uk: Two-tiered net could be coming ISPs may start charging some websites for faster access to customers, a report has predicted: It could create a "two-tiered internet" which, while making money for providers would risk alienating consumers, Jupiter Research said. Charging both customers and websites for access could prove too tempting for ISPs to resist, said analyst Ian Fogg. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6241386.stm kr: Popular portals to ban false names A limited real-name system for online portals is set to be implemented today with the popular websites Naver and Daum taking the lead, Ministry of Information and Communication said yesterday. http://asiamedia.ucla.edu/article-eastasia.asp?parentid=72616 EU search engine probe expands beyond Google European privacy regulators will expand their investigation into Google's privacy practices to all search engine companies, it has said. http://out-law.com/page-8179 us: FTC is Neutral on Net Neutrality The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is taking the middle ground in the net neutrality debate. http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,133544-c,legalissues/article.html http://informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=200001185 uk: Computers 'can raise attainment' High levels of computer technology in schools can improve attainment to an extent, a four-year study has found. The £34m ICT Test Bed project by computer agency Becta in three deprived areas of England showed gains in some GCSE and primary school test scores. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/6231704.stm http://news.zdnet.co.uk/itmanagement/0,1000000308,39287717,00.htm Truth first casualty of the internet? More people are tuning into what bloggers have to say, but should we trust them? When his site reached 1 billion hits in 2002, American blogger Matt Drudge - the self-styled Walter Cronkite of online journalism - fired off a potshot at old media. Online grassroots voices, he claimed, could offer something corporate-owned media couldn't: full freedom in reporting. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/06/27/1182623916608.html http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/06/27/1182623916608.html More than half of Australian homes online More than half of all Australian households are surfing the web, according to the first conclusive snapshot of internet access across the nation. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/06/27/1182623963575.html au: Is your broadband better than average? Ever wondered if your ISP's coverage is exactly what they promised? The government has released its latest state of the nation report into Australia's broadband -- and consumers can see exactly what they're getting. http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/Is-your-broadband-better-than-average-/0,130061791,339279163,00.htm YouTube visits larger than rivals combined: survey (Reuters) YouTube, which has had to pull copyrighted videos off its site after legal attacks by some big media franchises, has enjoyed a surge in U.S. audience share that leaves it far larger than the next 64 video-sharing sites combined, a survey found. http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKN2742598120070627 Report: U.S. lags behind other nations in broadband speeds The U.S. is lagging behind other industrialized nations in the availability and use of high-speed broadband connections, according to a report released today by the Washington-based Communications Workers of America. http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9025726 http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/06/25/US-lags-behind-other-countries-in-broadband-speed_1.html http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-speed26jun26,1,2625971.story Welcome to the world's largest supercomputing grid With 20 petabytes of storage, and more than 280 teraflops of computing power, TeraGrid combines the processing power of supercomputers across the continent. http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9025254 http://iht.com/articles/2007/06/26/business/genius.php us: I am a video game junkie: boy, 14 The American Medical Association has backed off calling excessive video-game playing a formal psychiatric addiction, saying instead that more research is needed. A report prepared for the AMA's annual policy meeting had sought to strongly encourage that video-game addiction be included in a widely used diagnostic manual of psychiatric illnesses. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/06/28/1182624036453.html http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/488120/1205469 The iPhone matches most of its hype Apple's new phone does so many things so well, and so pleasurably, that you tend to forgive its foibles. http://iht.com/articles/2007/06/27/technology/web.0627pogue.php iPhone gets glowing reviews from key duo They are the titans of tech reviewing, whose opinions can make or break a product in a couple of taps of their keyboard, and today Apple breathed a sigh of relief after they cast their blessing on the iPhone. Walt Mossberg, the chief technology writer at The Wall Street Journal and David Pogue, who holds a similar post at The New York Times, today posted largely glowing reviews of the company's new phone/iPod/handheld computer, which goes on sale at 6pm on Friday. http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article1993923.ece Global mobile phone use to pass 3 billion (Reuters) Global mobile phone use will pass the 3 billion mark -- equivalent to half the world's population -- for the first time in 2007 as mobile phone demand booms in China, India and Africa, a survey said on Wednesday. http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUKL2712199720070627 Social sites reveal class divide Fans of MySpace and Facebook are divided by much more than which music they like, suggests a study. A six-month research project has revealed a sharp division along class lines among the American teenagers flocking to the social network sites. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6236628.stm http://time-blog.com/curious_capitalist/ http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2111488,00.html http://www.danah.org/papers/essays/ClassDivisions.html TorrentSpy begins weeding out copyright content TorrentSpy, the torrent-file search engine accused by Hollywood of aiding copyright violators, plans to remove links from its search results to pirated content using a new filtering system. http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9734127-7.html YouTube copyright fight hinges on whether it controls its content, says US court The first stage in the first copyright infringement suit against video sharing giant YouTube has ended in stalemate. Both sides in the fight applied for an initial judgment against the other, but neither was granted and the case will now proceed further. http://out-law.com/page-8180 au: Behind the bullying on broadband by Paul Budde The interesting thing about the bickering between the Government and Opposition on broadband is that they are both right. From my position as an independent observer, it really doesn't matter who gets the broadband ball rolling, as long as we do get that ball rolling. http://australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,21969346-5013046,00.html au: Coonan's 'equal opportunity' broadband The details of a scheme that promises the most far-flung Aussies a chance to get the same broadband that their city-dwelling cousins have had for some time have been unveiled. http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/Coonan-s-equal-opportunity-broadband/0,130061791,339279025,00.htm au: Labor whips up anger over broadband deal Labor is encouraging losing bidders for the federal Government's now $1billion rural and regional broadband subsidy to consider a complaint to the Auditor-General over the tenders for the grants. http://theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21968351-2702,00.html au: Broadband spectrum stoush looms Wireless internet service providers are preparing to push back against the federal Government's $1.9 billion broadband plan, as static builds over the proposal's impact on spectrum around the country. http://australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,21967054-15306,00.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/
