.us - Court ponders Web site-blocking law
A federal judge in Philadelphia on Tuesday heard a
challenge to a controversial state law that has led to more
than 1 million innocuous Web sites being accidentally
blocked.
 http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5135850.html
 http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5135850.html

.us - Pennsylvania Porn Law Blocks Too Much?
A Washington nonprofit group was scheduled on Tuesday to
argue against a Pennsylvania child-pornography law that has
unintentionally cordoned off wide swaths of the Internet
for users in and out of the state.
...
Internet providers can use a variety of techniques to
reduce overblocking, the attorney general said, such as
filtering out specific pages rather than entire numerical
addresses such as 209.25.162.15 that underpin domain names
likewww.example.com.

http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=4081408

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58862-2004Jan6.html

ICANN GNSO Council Teleconference Agenda 22 January 2004
 http://gnso.icann.org/meetings/agenda-gnso-22jan04.shtml

ICANN GNSO Council Teleconference 18 December 2003 Minutes
 http://gnso.icann.org/meetings/minutes-gnso-18dec03.shtml

WHOIS Historical Presentations (Posted 5 January 2004)
* Whois Task Force Interim Report Shanghai, China October,
2002

http://gnso.icann.org/issues/whois-privacy/whois-shanghai-oct02.pdf
* Whois Task Force Report June 2002

http://gnso.icann.org/issues/whois-privacy/whois-bucharest-final-jun02.pdf
* Registrar Constituency Briefing: Whois Task Force Report
Ghana February 16, 2002

http://gnso.icann.org/issues/whois-privacy/whois-registrar-16feb02.pdf

Court bars Canadian domain slammer
On December 23, The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has
requested that a federal district court instruct an
Internet domain name reseller from making
misrepresentations in the marketing of its domain name
registration services. Domain Registry of America (DROA)
told consumers that their domain registrations were
expiring, leading many consumers to switch their domain
name registrar.
 http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/34716.html
 http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2003/12/domainreg.htm

.tv - False Hopes on Fantasy Island
Of all the dreams fueled by dotcom hype, few were more
irrationally exuberant than those of Tuvalu, a dirt-poor
nation of 11,300 citizens living on nine South Pacific
atolls. When Internet architects assigned two-letter
country codes for foreign Internet sites, Tuvalu was
assigned .tv. By 1998 its government was receiving
lucrative proposals to arrange the sale of domain names
like abc.tv and m.tv. Bikenibeu Paeniu, prime minister at
that time, predicted that ".tv will bring Tuvalu $100
million over 10 years" -- big money for a country with a
gross national product of just $20 million, much of it from
foreign aid. Reality didn't quite live up to the
prediction.

http://www.business2.com/b2/web/articles/0,17863,548853,00.html

.es - Spanish bubbly celebrates turn of year domain
decision
The well known sparkling wines company Freixenet SA is
toasting its win in a domain dispute against a German
national.
 http://www.demys.net/news/2004/01/05_bubbly.htm

"www.freixe.net" pasa a manos de Freixenet tras una
resoluci�n de la OMPI
La Organizaci�n Mundial de la Propiedad Intelectual (OMPI)
ha resuelto que el nombre de dominio "www.freixe.net" pase
a manos de la compa��a Freixenet.

http://delitosinformaticos.com/noticias/107323623133892.shtml

Misunderstanding ICANN
Harvard Law School's distinguished Berkman Center for
Internet & Society has published a preliminary study,
"Public Participation In ICANN." ...The problem with the
preliminary study is that it fundamentally misunderstands
the role of ICANN in Internet governance. Specifically,
ICANN's duty is not and should not be to simply carry out
the will of the "Internet user community." Instead, ICANN's
duty is to carry out the responsibilities the organization
agreed to in its Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and
contract with the Department of Commerce. This does not
mean that ICANN should exclude stakeholder views.
 http://www.circleid.com/article/419_0_1_0_C

Talk Radio Network Drops Suit That Aimed to Shut Down Web
Sites Critical of Right-Wing Radio Host
The Talk Radio Network today dropped a suit aimed at
shutting down Web sites that urge people to boycott
companies that advertise on a nationally syndicated
right-wing radio show. The suit was filed against four
people who operate three Web sites critical of right-wing
radio host Michael Savage. Public Citizen, which has a
history of defending speech on the Internet, is
representing two of those Web site operators, Thomas and
Gunilla Leavitt of Santa Cruz, Calif., who created
www.savagestupidity.com.
 http://www.publiccitizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=1609

.us - Political adviser accused of piracy
You might think that such Internet Web sites as
"DonnellyforCongress.com," "joedonnelly2004.com" and
"donnelly 2004.com" would belong to, well, Democratic
congressional candidate Joe Donnelly. You would think
wrong. The sites belong to Nicholas Tyszka, a political
consultant whose firm, T. Nicholas & Co., registered the
domain names last month.

http://www.southbendtribune.com/stories/2004/01/06/local.20040106-sbt-MARS-A1-Political_adviser_ac.sto

Avoiding the ID theft bait
Netcraft, a UK-based Internet services company, offers a
service to track Web-based occurrences of customers'
brands, “helping to identify sites that may pretend to be
the customer [usually banks] or to have a relationship with
it when none exists”.

http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/internet/2004/0401061155.asp

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/01/05/1073267946280.html

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/01/05/1073267946280.html

Web service to pre-empt 'phishing' scams
A service designed to trawl for fraudulent web sites before
they can be used to trick people into handing over
financial information has been launched.
 http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994531

Choosing a Domain Name for Optimization Purposes
A web site's URL can serve many purposes. One of those
purposes is to improve the site's visibility and rankings
on the search engines. This worksheet focuses exclusively
on choosing a domain name for optimization purposes.
Remember that a URL can serve other purposes, therefore,
these suggestions will not and should not be followed
exactly in all cases. After all, there are many factors in
developing a online business in addition to its search
engine rankings.
 http://www.topsitelistings.com/news/choosing-domain.php

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Check out http://www.auda.org.au/about/news for the latest
domain news. Within 24 hours of this news being posted to
the list, a more recent edition of the news will normally
be posted to the auDA web site. The domain name news is
supported by auDA.

Also see
http://greta.electric.gen.nz/mailman/listinfo/internet-news
or http://www.alfa-redi.org/noticia for an archive or to
subscribe to the general news.

Sources include Quicklinks (www.qlinks.net) and BNA
Internet Law News (www.bna.com/ilaw)".



=====
David Goldstein
 address: 2/4 Dundas Street
             COOGEE NSW 2034
             AUSTRALIA
 email: Goldstein_David§yahoo.com.au
 phone: +61 418 228 605 - mobile; +61 2 9665 0015 - home

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