[DNS] domain name & governance news - 23 April

[DNS] domain name & governance news - 23 April

From: David Goldstein <goldstein_david§yahoo.com.au>
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 01:37:12 -0700 (PDT)
Check out http://auda.org.au/domain-news/ for the most recent edition
of the domain news, including an RSS feed - already online! Stories include "Tina Arena evicts cybersquatters" and "Aussies lose domains in RegisterFly scandal".



The domain name news is supported by auDA.


And don't forget to check out my website - http://technewsreview.com.au/ - for regular updates in between postings.


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Interview: Paul Mockapetris on DNS developments
http://www.itweek.co.uk/itweek/analysis/2188234/interview-paul-mockapetris-dns

VA Tech-related domain names blow in
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9710857-7.html

us: Speculators snap up Virginia Tech-related domains
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=protocols_and_standards&articleId=9017118

ICANN to RegisterFly: We Really REALLY Mean It This Time by John Levine
http://www.circleid.com/posts/icann_registerfly_really_it/

More Domain Names Sell than you Think - ?unreported? domain name market dwarfs reported sales
http://domainnamewire.com/2007/04/19/more-domain-names-sell-than-you-think/

What is a Domain Name Worth to an End User? - Forget pay-per-click multiples. Domains are most valuable to end users.
http://domainnamewire.com/2007/04/18/what-is-a-domain-name-worth-to-an-end-user/

nz: Persuasion first step in typosquatting cases
http://reseller.co.nz/reseller.nsf/news/243A716C233171B6CC2572C3000DB783

nz: Suspected 'typosquatter' irks Datastor
http://reseller.co.nz/reseller.nsf/news/41302AD6F671E45ACC2572C3000A1551

nz: Typo websites abound on world wild web
http://reseller.co.nz/reseller.nsf/news/1D6C54395EA8936CCC2572C3000E63CA

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GOVERNANCE
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Cluster of WSIS-related events, 14-25 May 2007, Geneva, Switzerland
The tenth session of the Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) will take place in Geneva from 21-25 May 2007. In parallel, a  cluster of WSIS-related events, such as Action Line Facilitation meetings, will take place from 15-25 May 2007 in Geneva.
http://www.itu.int/wsis/implementation/cluster.asp?year=2007&month=0&type='alf'&subtype=0

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DOMAIN NAMES
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Interview: Paul Mockapetris on DNS developments
The creator of the Domain Name System says DNS services have a pivotal role in the Web 2.0 revolution
http://www.itweek.co.uk/itweek/analysis/2188234/interview-paul-mockapetris-dns
http://www.vnunet.com/itweek/analysis/2188234/interview-paul-mockapetris-dns

VA Tech-related domain names blow in
In the past five days, hundreds of Virginia Tech-related domain names have been registered that appear to be suspect, security experts warn. And they further note that these potentially malicious sites have been registered at a quicker clip than those for Hurricane Katrina.
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9710857-7.html

us: Speculators snap up Virginia Tech-related domains
Speculators have registered Web domains related to the Virginia Tech killings, including URLs such as vatechshooting.com and vtmurders.com. Some are for sale for as much as $1 million. Numerous domains have been registered at GoDaddy.com since Monday's shootings, according to searches at the discount registrar. They include vatechshooting.com, vtmurders.com, vtkillings.com, vatechshooting.net, vtrampage.com and vatechmassacre.com.
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=protocols_and_standards&articleId=9017118
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4732455.html

ICANN to RegisterFly: We Really REALLY Mean It This Time by John Levine
ICANN?s web site has a press release saying that the were granted a temporary restraining order on Monday requiring that Registerfly cough up all the info on their registrants, or else. My assumption all along has been that the reason that Registerfly hasn?t provided full info is because they don?t have it.
http://www.circleid.com/posts/icann_registerfly_really_it/
http://internetcommerce.org/news/icanns_gets_restraining_order_against_registerfly

Looking for Feedback on Registry Failover
As part of ICANN?s Registry Failover project, Patrick JOnes has been informally asking questions outside ICANN on what types of information the community, users and the public would want to receive in the event of a registry failure. So far the response has been: when will the TLD be operational again?; what caused the event?; how can that event be prevented in the future?; what are my options?; who is the point of contact at ICANN for questions and what is their availability?; is there a resource available to post updates on the event or failure?
http://blog.icann.org/?p=105

ICANN wins court order against rogue registrar
Controversial US domain registrar RegisterFly has been ordered by a US court to hand all its customer and domain name data to the internet's governing body for domain names so that they can be transferred to other registrars.
http://out-law.com/page-7982

kr: Registration Opens for Shorter Domain Names
Starting Thursday the public can register for so-called "Quick Doms" which are Internet domain names without the co or or. So instead of korea-dot-co-dot-kr, the public can have the shorter korea-dot-kr.
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200704/200704200004.html

More Domain Names Sell than you Think - ?unreported? domain name market dwarfs reported sales
Each week Ron Jackson publishes the week?s highest reported domain name sales for the week at DNJournal.com. But DNJournal?s reported sales are just the tip of the iceberg. Jackson is aware of a number of other domain sales but isn?t allowed to disclose them. Beyond even what he knows about, more domain sales occur that never get announced to the public. Many of these are purchased by large corporations or trade hands between people that would rather not announce it to the world.
http://domainnamewire.com/2007/04/19/more-domain-names-sell-than-you-think/

What is a Domain Name Worth to an End User? - Forget pay-per-click multiples. Domains are most valuable to end users.
A couple weeks ago I more than quadrupled my money on a domain name sale. I purchased the domain less than a year ago at a reseller market. I used a broker to market the domain to companies that sold the related product, and he brought in a nice five-figure sale. (I?m not disclosing the domain nor the actual sales price for confidentiality reasons.)
http://domainnamewire.com/2007/04/18/what-is-a-domain-name-worth-to-an-end-user/

nz: Persuasion first step in typosquatting cases
Typosquatting is not a common problem for companies operating .co.nz websites, but when it does occur, persuading the alleged assailant to play fair is the first step a domain registrant should take, according to an internet law expert.
http://reseller.co.nz/reseller.nsf/news/243A716C233171B6CC2572C3000DB783

nz: Suspected 'typosquatter' irks Datastor
An apparent incident of ?typo-squatting? has riled distributor Datastor. The company has taken action to shut down a website using the domain name www.datastore.co.nz, claiming the portal is a deliberate attempt to lure web users who may misspell Datastor.
http://reseller.co.nz/reseller.nsf/news/41302AD6F671E45ACC2572C3000A1551

nz: Typo websites abound on world wild web
Intrigued by the apparent Datastor ?typo-squatting? incident, Reseller News trawled the internet to find similar cases relating to other technology companies. One of the most interesting local finds was www.trdeme.co.nz, which redirects to www.trademeonline.co.nz, containing links to a range of websites in several categories. Ironically, one of these leads to the website for the Consumers? Institute.
http://reseller.co.nz/reseller.nsf/news/1D6C54395EA8936CCC2572C3000E63CA

ICANN Formalizes Relationships with ccTLD Manager for Armenia
ICANN announced today that it has signed an exchange of letters with the ccTLD manager for .am?Armenia, Internet Society (Armenia).
http://icann.org/announcements/announcement-19apr07.htm

Proposed .COOP Sponsored TLD Agreement Posted for Public Comment
The proposed .COOP Sponsored TLD agreement is posted for public comment and can be viewed. The proposed .COOP agreement substantially follows the format of other recent sTLD registry agreements negotiated by ICANN.
http://icann.org/announcements/announcement-20apr07.htm

Icann formalises relationship with ccTLD manager for Armenia (sub req'd)
http://www.telecom.paper.nl/news/article.aspx?id=165272

Epic.org domain renewal comes at a bad time
There's never a good time to lose control of your Internet domain name, but for advocacy group the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), there could have been better times. The group's Epic.org domain name expired the day before it filed a legal challenge to Google's plan to buy DoubleClick.
http://infoworld.com/article/07/04/20/HNepicdomainrenewal_1.html
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,131018-pg,1/article.html

Google looses in googles.eu case!
A Spanish man registered googles.eu, used it for a web page where a search feature was available, with this disclaimer "This website does not have affiliation or relation with Google Inc. all the results are property of Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain Vew CA 94043, the USA)". One need not be used to domain name lawsuits to know what would happen next... But Google lost its ADR case!
http://domaine.blogspot.com/2007/04/google-looses-in-googleseu-case.html

uk: Nominet governance consultation update (news release)
Nominet is updating its Articles of Association, the document that describes how the company interacts with its members, and the way in which it is governed.
http://www.nominet.org.uk/news/latest/?contentId=3582

ca: Simple typo brings x-rated info
A simple typo when looking for information about life insurance on the Internet could get you some unwanted bare facts. An adult-only website is using a similar domain name to the industry's consumer protection fund, Assuris.
http://edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2007/04/21/4091071-sun.html

Microsoft preps 133 patches for Windows DNS hole
Microsoft plans to have a fix for the recently disclosed Windows Domain Name System service flaw available by its May 8 patch day at the latest.
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9710490-7.html

Governing body of the Internet votes down recent proposal
Among others, this article quotes Radic Davydov, the administrator of a Web hosting company and domain registrar, who "feels the same as those board members who voted against it. 'There would, without a doubt, be an enormous amount of pressure from many governments and organizations to force adult sites to use this new extension,' he said. 'ICANN has proven to be a very powerful entity in the Internet world, but even then I believe it would be fairly hard to control Internet content from their end.'"
http://media.www.thedailyaztec.com/media/storage/paper741/news/2007/04/19/ScienceTechnology/Icann.Wants.To.Let.You.Decide.Whats.XRated-2851942.shtml>

Maintain reign over your domain - tips to help keep tight control of your domain
Whether it serves as your business's indispensable catalog of services or simply announces you to the universe, your Web site is important. Its content and design are likely paramount in your thoughts, but the single most telling element of any Web site for visitors is its domain name. These tips will help you keep tight control of your domain.
http://pcworld.ca/news/article/0f3eee3a0a01040801fdf17ca9648d62/pg0.htm

Goatse.cx domain is for sale
The notorious domain goatse.cx is being sold through an online auction. The minimum bid is $4000
http://addict3d.org/news/98970/Goatse.cx%20domain%20is%20for%20sale

.aero- aviation's internet space (news release)
Now aviation has its own alternative to traditional domain names such as.com and country specific domain names: the aero-domain. The aero-domain is much more than a domain name ? it?s an Internet territory staked out by aviation for aviation. A aero-domain will set you apart from todays crowded online environment and reinforce your identity as a key player in the global aviation community
http://www.businessportal24.com/en/_175801.html

Speculators Buying Virginia Domains
A number of individuals have registered domain names related to the Virginia Tech massacre, including URLs such as vatechshooting.com and vtmurders.com, with some of the domains selling upwards of $US1 million.
http://thewhir.com/marketwatch/042007_Speculators_Buying_Virginia_Domains.cfm

Odimo sells domain name
Sunrise-based Odimo, the one-time online retailer of jewelry and luxury goods, has sold the Ashford.com domain name for $400,000 to private holding company Luxi Group of New York. The deal follows Odimo's sales last year of the domain names Diamond.com and WorldofWatches.com in separate transactions valued at almost $10 million.
http://www.miamiherald.com/416/story/81036.html
http://www.miamiherald.com/103/story/81819.html

China makes great efforts to popularize Chinese domain names
On April 10, the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) announced that it will register one million Chinese character domains names to help those unfamiliar with Roman characters to visit the websites they are looking for.
http://english.people.com.cn/200704/19/eng20070419_368013.html

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://itmanagement.earthweb.com/netsys/article.php/3673156

cat-domain is not for cats (news release)
The cat-domains have been established to serve the needs of the Catalan Linguistic and Cultural Community on the Internet.
http://verivox.de/News/ArticleDetails.asp?aid=49437&pm=1
http://www.businessportal24.com/en/_176185.html

NetNames Selected by Provident
NetNames announced it has been selected by financial services company Provident Financial to manage its domain name portfolio and protect its brands online, including Provident and Yes Insurance.
http://thewhir.com/marketwatch/041907_NetNames_Selected_by_Provident.cfm

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OTHER INTERNET NEWS
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Robert Fisk: Caught in the deadly web of the internet: Any political filth or personal libel can be hurled at the innocent
Taner Akcam is the distinguished Turkish scholar at the University of Minnesota who, with immense courage, proved the facts of the Armenian genocide - the deliberate mass murder of up to a million and a half Armenians by the Ottoman Turkish authorities in 1915 - from Turkish documents and archives. His book A Shameful Act was published to great critical acclaim in Britain and the United States.
He is now, needless to say, being threatened with legal action in Turkey under the infamous Law 301 - which makes a crime of insulting "Turkishness" - but it's probably par for the course for a man who was granted political asylum in Germany after receiving an eight-year prison sentence in his own country for articles he had written in a student journal; Amnesty International had already named him a prisoner of conscience.
But Mr Akcam has now become a different kind of prisoner: an inmate of the internet hate machine, the circle of hell in which any political filth or personal libel can be hurled at the innocent without any recourse to the law, to libel lawyers or to common decency. The Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink was misquoted on the internet for allegedly claiming that Turkish blood was "poisonous"; this total lie - Dink never said such a thing - prompted a young man to murder him in an Istanbul street.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article2469270.ece

When YouTube is a threat
As YouTube, the Internet video-sharing service, generates millions of new fans in far-flung countries, it is making enemies of some of their governments. Many are putting pressure on the company to tailor, or self-censor, its site to take account of local sensibilities, analysts say. So far, YouTube, which Google acquired in November for $1.6 billion, has refused to back down in its standoff with the military-appointed government of Thailand, which recently cut off access to YouTube over a video that denigrated the country's king, Bhumibol Adulyadej. But Thailand is only one of a growing number of countries that are worried about the power of Internet video, which cuts across linguistic borders and allows individuals anywhere to publish dissident tracts, sexually risqu? films or other undesirable "user-generated content."
http://iht.com/articles/2007/04/22/news/youtube.php

New book untangles web of Internet child porn
As Julian Sher found while researching his new book "One Child at a Time: The Global Fight to Rescue Children from Online Predators," today's child porn is so much more than creepy guys hunched over computers in their basements, staring at pictures of undressed girls. Sher calls the trade in child porn the new face of crime in the 21st century. "It's a crime that lives and breathes on the Internet, in the wires in your computer," Sher told Canada AM.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070419/Sher_book_070419/20070420

ca: Majority of Canadian teens in survey report being bullied online
Cyber-bullying is disturbingly common among Canadian teens, with a majority who responded to an online survey saying they have been bullied online, according to a report released Wednesday.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/04/18/cyber-bullying.html

The Marshal Of MySpace
Just like the Real world, MySpace.com needs an enforcer. The man trying to bring order to the planet's biggest social networking site is a former federal prosecutor named Hemanshu "Hemu" Nigam. He was hired a year ago to keep MySpace's largely youthful denizens safe from predatory grown-ups--and from one another. For MySpace owner, News Corp. (NWS ), patrolling the virtual streets is not simply a matter of keeping kids safe, it's also crucial if the company is to attract sufficient advertising to help boost profits. "I am humbled by the sense of responsibility," says Nigam, who spent three and a half years at the Justice Dept. helping put child molesters behind bars. "As a company, we have to forge the way for an entire industry."
http://businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_17/b4031092.htm

us: Principal sues ex-students over MySpace profiles
A Pennsylvania school principal has filed a lawsuit against four former students, claiming they falsely portrayed him as a pot smoker, beer guzzler and pornography lover and sullied his reputation through mock MySpace profiles.
http://news.com.com/2100-1030-6174506.html

nz: NetSafe Newsletter - first issue for 2007
This issue celebrates the release of the 2007 NetSafe Kit for Schools and takes a look at the new NetSafe research which is uncovering exactly how young people use technology in New Zealand. It introduces NetSafe?s newest staff member, and the training he is taking around New Zealand in 2007. There is also a range of columns and tips to keep you up to date with the latest in cyberspace including a new Spam and Scams column.
http://cybersafety.org.nz/newsletter/current_newsletter.php

au: MySpace clues to teen death pact
At just 16 Jodie Gater and Stephanie Gestier appear to have made an unimaginable pact. On her MySpace web page Jodie had written: "let Steph and me b free." Yesterday, a week after they disappeared, the bodies of the two girls were found in bushland on the outskirts of Melbourne. It is understood Jodie and Stephanie had hanged themselves, after first posting apparent farewell messages on the internet.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/04/23/1177180493150.html
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21603808-2,00.html
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/04/23/1177180529637.html

us: ISPs blamed for child porn
Anti-Linux SCO boss Ralph Yarro is leaning on Utah lawmakers trying to get Wireless Service Providers to be held responsible for child porn on the Internet.
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=39054

uk: Net firms 'could do more' to fight viruses
Internet providers could be held responsible for the spread of viruses on private computers, one of Britain's leading experts has claimed. Giving evidence to the House of Lords science and technology committee, Jonathan Zittrain, professor of internet governance and regulation at Oxford, said that holding broadband companies accountable for dangerous online traffic could help solve some security problems.
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2060511,00.html

Yahoo! sued over torture of Chinese dissident
A Chinese political prisoner sued Yahoo! in a US federal court, accusing the internet company of helping the Chinese government torture him by providing information that led to his arrest. The suit, filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act and the Torture Victims Protection Act, is believed to be the first of its kind made against an American internet company.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article1678306.ece
http://ecommercetimes.com/story/57011.html

uk/it: In London, a Trial Over an Anonymous Blog
Mr. Martin Sorrell, chief executive of the WPP Group, the advertising and marketing company based in London, is suing two Italian advertising executives, Marco Benatti and Marco Tinelli, for libel, contending that they are the authors of an anonymous blog that refers to Mr. Sorrell as a Godfather-style figure nicknamed Don Martino. Mr. Benatti and Mr. Tinelli are also accused of distributing an e-mailed image of Mr. Sorrell and Daniela Weber, the chief operating officer of WPP Italy, that their legal team described as ?grossly offensive.?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/27/business/media/27adco.html?ex=1332648000&en=e325357310edb4b4&ei=5088
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070328/wpp_ceo_libel.html

UK businesses flooded with porn
Twenty-six percent of 10,000 business PCs scanned in a recent UK-based test were found to contain ?inappropriate images?, porn-filtering company PixAlert reported.
http://www.techworld.com/news/index.cfm?NewsID=8609

us: Google DoubleClick buyout attacked in complaint filed with FTC
Three privacy groups have filed a complaint with the US Federal Trade Commission saying the acquisition of DoubleClick by Google will injure consumers by invading their privacy and harm the public interest. Google and DoubleClick, however, claim that their respective data sets cannot be combined to gain more information on consumers.
http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/11490/53/
http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKN2040687820070421
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6177819.html

us: Microsoft to Shell Out $180M to Iowa Consumers
Microsoft agreed Wednesday to pay Iowans up to $180 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that claimed the company had a monopoly that cost the state's citizens millions of dollars extra for software products. The $179.5 million settlement means individuals in Iowa who bought certain Microsoft products between 1994 and 2006 will be eligible for cash.
http://ecommercetimes.com/story/56967.html

ca: Conservative MP Introduces 'Clean Internet Act' by Michael Geist
Conservative MP Joy Smith yesterday introduced the Clean Internet Act. The private member's bill would establish an Internet service provider licensing system to be administered by the CRTC along with "know your subscriber" requirements and content blocking powers. Just about everything associated with this bill is (to be charitable) rather odd. Smith introduced it by warning against the use of the Internet to support human trafficking and added that "the bill would address the fact that child pornography is not okay to put on the Internet throughout our nation," though the Criminal Code already does that.
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/1884/125/

us: FTC To Host ?Spam Summit: The Next Generation of Threats and Solutions?
The Federal Trade Commission will host a two-day public event, ?Spam Summit: The Next Generation of Threats and Solutions,? in Washington, DC on July 11 and 12, 2007. The summit will bring together experts from the business, government, and technology sectors, consumer advocates, and academics to explore consumer protection issues surrounding spam, phishing, and malware.
http://ftc.gov/opa/2007/04/spamsummit.shtm

The web is dead; long live the web:As the internet evolves, the backlash begins. But is it really going to destroy our civilisation?
The web is dead; long live the web. The dead web is Web 1.0. It had dial-up connections, dot-com crashes and some of the worst business plans since Napoleon marched on Moscow. The live web is Web 2.0. It has broadband, enormous interactivity ? or ?user-generated content? ? and Google, a faith-based operation whose employees proclaim ?Thank Google it?s Friday? at the end of the working week. Web 2.0 makes money and owns the future. The downside is that Web 2.0 may be destroying civilisation. That, at least, is the view of Andrew Keen, a Silicon Valley-based British entrepreneur and author. He has written The Cult of the Amateur: How Today?s Internet Is Killing Our Culture (due out in June), which argues that the web is an antienlightenment phenomenon, a destroyer of wisdom and culture and an infantile, Rousseau-esque fantasy. ?It?s the cult of the child,? he says. ?The more you know, the less you know. It?s all about digital narcissism, shameless self-promotion. I find it
 offensive.?
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article1673425.ece

Devices and desires: Is lascivious online content, traditionally on top, losing its lustre?
When the internet took off in the 1990s, it was demonised as a steaming cauldron of porn. It has certainly made pornography more widely and easily available than ever before. The online porn industry is difficult to measure, but was valued at $1 billion in 2002 by America's National Research Council. Google, which publishes its ?zeitgeist? list of top search queries, redacts sex-related terms from the rankings for fear of causing offence. But the popularity of pornography is clear from figures compiled by companies that track user ?clickstreams?. Last year about 13% of website visits in America were pornographic in nature, according to Hitwise, a market-research firm. For comparison, search engines account for about 7% of site visits. Yet the Hitwise data suggest that sex sites are now being dethroned.
http://economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9040354

Staff use of social media is an unseen threat, says security firm
Over one third of businesses do not monitor their employees' internet use, according to a survey carried out by an information security firm. The research found that companies are underestimating the data risk posed by so-called Web 2.0 sites.
http://out-law.com/page-7972

uk: Wi-Fi: Children at risk from 'electronic smog'
Britain's top health protection watchdog is pressing for a formal investigation into the hazards of using wireless communication networks in schools amid mounting concern that they may be damaging children's health. Sir William Stewart, the chairman of the Health Protection Agency, wants pupils to be monitored for ill effects from the networks - known as Wi-Fi - which emit radiation and are being installed in classrooms across the nation.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article2472133.ece

uk: Danger on the airwaves: Is the Wi-Fi revolution a health time bomb?
It's on every high street and in every coffee shop and school. But experts have serious concerns about the effects of electronic smog from wireless networks linking our laptops and mobiles: So far only a few, faint warnings have been raised, mainly by people who are so sensitised to the electromagnetic radiation emitted by mobiles, their masts and Wi-Fi that they become ill in its presence. The World Health Organisation estimates that up to three out of every hundred people are "electrosensitive" to some extent. But scientists and doctors - and some European governments - are adding their voices to the alarm as it becomes clear that the almost universal use of mobile phones may be storing up medical catastrophe for the future.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article2472140.ece

Participation on Web 2.0 sites remains weak
Web 2.0, a catchphrase for the latest generation of Web sites where users contribute their own text, pictures and video content, is far less participatory than commonly assumed, a study showed on Tuesday.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUKN1743638820070419

Stop the press: the internet is now the first draft of history
Blogs and mobile phones captured the drama of the Virginia massacre. James Robinson writes on how the power of the citizen journalist can enhance the role of the 'old media'
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2062568,00.html

Wireless: Case of the disappearing bees creates a buzz about cellphones
The headlines were catchy, the subject compelling and, in some cases, the newspapers well respected. "Cellphones linked to honeybee deaths." "To bee or not to be near mobile phones." "German study links cellphones to drop in honey bee population; Radiation said to interfere with homing ability." "Are mobile phones wiping out our bees? Scientists claim radiation from handsets are to blame for mysterious 'colony collapse' of bees."
http://iht.com/articles/2007/04/22/news/wireless23.php

Microsoft aims to double PC base
Microsoft software will sell for just US$3 in some parts of the world in an attempt to double the number of global PC users. The firm wants to bring computing to a further one billion people by 2015.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6571139.stm

Microsoft aims to bridge global digital divide
Microsoft said Thursday that it would build on existing efforts to bridge the digital divide worldwide and announced several new ventures, including a $3 software package for governments that subsidize student computers.
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-micro20apr20,1,4503592.story

From GooTube to GoogleClick - Is Google's latest string of deals a sign of strength or weakness?
Another month, another string of victories for Google, the internet's emerging superpower. With the most popular search engine and the most efficient system for placing text advertisements alongside the results, Google already dominates the lucrative market for ?paid search? advertising (where advertisers pay only for mouse clicks). On April 13th Google announced that it would pay $3.1 billion?making this its biggest acquisition ever?for DoubleClick, the web's largest independent broker between online publishers and advertisers in the market for ?branded? or ?display? advertisements (where advertisers pay each time the ad is displayed). According to some estimates, this market segment, although smaller, is now growing faster than paid search.
http://economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9040227

Mobile phones represent next frontier for search
"Mobile, mobile, mobile" were the words of Google chief executive Eric Schmidt this week when asked what technologies are most intriguing to the computer Web search leader.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10435683
http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUKN2025896920070420

Google: Still Going Gangbusters
First-quarter profits sailed over most analysts' optimistic predictions, and not much is likely to slow the search giant down
http://businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2007/tc20070420_545044.htm

Google - How Much More Should It Be Allowed to Grab?
Google is the quintessential business success story. Two bright young guys started with an idea, built a company around it and grew it into a $150 billion juggernaut that now dominates the Internet. It nudged aside rival Yahoo, challenged traditional media giants and frustrated the Web strategy of the once-invincible Microsoft. And it did it all fair and square.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/21/AR2007042100115.html

Why the world has lost interest in IPTV services
Comment: While doing the research for the very first issue of Faultline, one IPTV specialist (who shall remain nameless) told us "you can't send video across the web", and proceeded to lecture us on the finer points of Quality of Service protocols. In a way he was right, but what he was saying lacked vision. The very next day at Faultline we were watching US made video over the internet, streamed from a German website to us in the UK. It seemed to work fine back then in 2002, and it's working better and better as people apply tiny improvements in technology to make it easier and cheaper to do.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/22/iptv_services/
 
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Sources include Quicklinks <http://qlinks.net/> and BNA Internet Law News <http://www.bna.com/ilaw/>.

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(c) David Goldstein 2007


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David Goldstein
 address: 4/3 Abbott Street
           COOGEE NSW 2034
           AUSTRALIA
 email: Goldstein_David &#167;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



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Received on Thu Apr 26 2007 - 08:37:12 UTC

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