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TOP STORIES FOR WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2003 California Passes Tough Anti-Spam Law VoIP at Dartmouth Microsoft to Shutter Most Chat Rooms Judge Blocks Federal Do-Not-Call List BMG's Experiment in Legal File Sharing CALIFORNIA PASSES TOUGH ANTI-SPAM LAW California has passed the nation's toughest anti-spam law, though critics called the law flawed and said it would do little to address the problem. Under the new law, all unsolicited commercial e-mail to recipients in California is banned (the so-called opt-in approach to e-mail marketing), and violators risk fines of $1,000 per message and $1 million per campaign. The law also allows individuals--not just state prosecutors--to file suits against alleged spammers. Legal challenges are expected to the law. Critics said that because many spam e-mails either come from or are routed through computers outside the United States, the law will do little to limit spam. David Sorkin of the John Marshall Law School noted that the law will likely pass Constitutional tests for freedom of speech but could run into difficulty if the courts rule that it interferes with interstate commerce. "If you can't tell where the recipient of an e-mail is," said Sorkin, "and still have to comply with different state regulations, it is a burden on interstate commerce." International Herald Tribune, 24 September 2003 http://www.iht.com/articles/111100.html VOIP AT DARTMOUTH Entering freshmen at Dartmouth College this fall can use their computers as telephones using the institution's voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) system, which runs on the campus wireless network. The program will be expanded to cover 13,000 students, faculty, and staff on campus. Officials from Dartmouth believe theirs is the first wireless VoIP implementation of such a size. Students will be able to make local or long-distance calls for free, an arrangement that results from the college's recent decision not to charge for long-distance calls. Dartmouth had come to the conclusion that costs for billing long-distance calls were higher than the calls themselves, and tracking such calls in the new system would be unrealistic. "Imagine the complexities of trying to track down who made what call when on a large, mobile, campus voice-over-IP network," said Bob Johnson, director of network services. New York Times, 23 September 2003 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/23/technology/23DART.html MICROSOFT TO SHUTTER MOST CHAT ROOMS Saying that "free, unmoderated chat isn't safe," Microsoft has announced it will close Internet chat rooms in most countries around the world and will limit access to subscribers to other Microsoft services in those countries where chat rooms will still be available--the United States, Canada, and Japan. Chat rooms have earned a reputation as havens for pedophiles and other child predators. Leaving the service available to subscribers is seen as significantly less risky because personally identifiable information about those users is kept as part of billing records. Geoff Sutton, European general manager of Microsoft MSN, said the free and open days of the Internet are over because a "small minority have changed that for everyone." Those who supported the company's decision--and urge that other companies follow suit--pointed to a sharp rise in the past year in the incidence of online child predation. Critics of the move, including free-speech advocates and some children's rights groups, wondered whether eliminating chat rooms will simply force predators underground rather than address the root problem. Wired News, 23 September 2003 http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,60567,00.html JUDGE BLOCKS FEDERAL DO-NOT-CALL LIST Federal Judge Lee R. West in Oklahoma has ruled that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) does not have the authority to establish and implement a federal do-not-call list. West's opinion said that although eliminating "telemarketing fraud" and "deceptive and abusive telemarketing acts or practices" is a worthy goal, Congress had not expressly granted authority to the FTC for the do-not-call list. Lawmakers supporting the list said they were confident the ruling would be overturned and promised to "take whatever legislative action is necessary." The list was to go into effect October 1. Telemarketers have said the list could have cost the industry $50 billion annually. The Direct Marketing Association, which acknowledged that the millions of names on the do-not-call list indicate "their preferences not to receive telephone-marketing solicitations," praised the judge's ruling against implementing the list. Wall Street Journal, 24 September 2003 (sub. req'd) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106441898488092700,00.html BMG'S EXPERIMENT IN LEGAL FILE SHARING A new type of CD from BMG Entertainment works differently on computers and other devices, allowing users a limited range of copying and sharing options. In home or car stereos, portable players, and the like, the CD will play like any other CD. When the CD is used in a computer, however, in addition to playing the songs, users will be able to save the songs to the hard drive and subsequently copy them to a maximum of three other CDs. The songs can also be e-mailed to others who will be able to listen to them for 10 days, at which point they expire and stop working. The new CDs represent the latest attempt by record companies to develop technology that balances user demands for reasonable use of legally purchased music with the need to protect intellectual property of artists and the recording industry. Other record companies are reportedly watching the BMG experiment to see if it satisfies consumers and is secure from hackers. Washington Post, 23 September 2003 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49456-2003Sep22.html ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change your settings, visit http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/edupage.html Or, you can subscribe or unsubscribe by sending e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To SUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName To UNSUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SIGNOFF Edupage If you have subscription problems, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For past issues of Edupage or information about translations of Edupage into other languages, visit http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/edupage.html ***************************************************** OTHER EDUCAUSE PUBLICATIONS EDUCAUSE publishes periodicals, including "EQ" and "EDUCAUSE Review," books, and other materials dealing with the impacts and implications of information technology in higher education. 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