Check out http://auda.org.au/domain-news/ for the most recent edition of the domain news, including an RSS feed - already online! The domain name news is supported by auDA. Don't forget to check out my website - http://technewsreview.com.au/ - for regular updates in between postings. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ No LDN in .co.uk http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2007/04/20/domain_name_feature.shtml us: The Best and Worst Internet Laws by Eric Goldman http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=717374&rl=1 au: Tina Arena evicts cybersquatters http://thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=376309 de: Report on the state of .de ("Modern Communication is spelled with .de") http://www.denic.de/en/denic/presse/press_81.html (news release) http://www.denic.de/media/pdf/broschueren/DENIC-Image.pdf (report) Munich has the most .de domains per resident http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/88799 RegisterFly fire sale at hand? http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/25/cogit_registerfly_purchase/ uk: Nominet and Oxford Brookes team up to fight domain name fraud http://www.itpro.co.uk/news/111425/nominet-and-oxford-brookes-team-up-to-fight-domain-name-fraud.html ***************** GOVERNANCE ***************** The best way to give the poor a real voice is through a world parliament [This article doesn't deal with internet governance, but for those interested in governance, this article could be interesting.] Global governance as it stands is tyranny speaking the language of democracy. We need a directly elected assembly says George Monbiot. It was first proposed, as far as I can discover, in 1842, by Alfred Tennyson. Since then the idea has broken the surface and sunk again at least a dozen times. But this time it could start to swim. The demand for a world parliament is at last acquiring some serious political muscle. The campaign for a UN parliamentary assembly is being launched this week on five continents. It is backed by nearly 400 MPs from 70 countries, a long and eclectic list of artists and intellectuals. http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2063921,00.html ********************** DOMAIN NAMES ********************** No LDN in .co.uk London can feel like a country in its own right. Our city could stake a claim for being the global capitals of finance, media, the arts, retail, sport, fashion... the list could go on and on. So why not have our own domain name? www.good-idea.ldn? ... So what about London getting its own TLD name, '.ldn'? As the global city par excellence, the idea surely merits serious consideration. After all, you do not need to be British to call yourself a fully-fledged Londoner, so using '.co.uk', may not have the same appeal that '.ldn' could have. http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2007/04/20/domain_name_feature.shtml us: The Best and Worst Internet Laws by Eric Goldman Over the past dozen years, the lure of regulating the Internet has proven irresistible to legislators. For example, in the 109th Congress, almost 1,100 introduced bills referenced the word Internet, and hundreds of Internet laws have been passed by Congress and the states. This legislative activity is now large enough to identify some winners and losers. In the spirit of good fun, Eric Goldman offers an opinionated list of personal votes for the best and worst Internet statutes in the United States. One of the "Effective but Questionable Internet Laws" Goldman mentioned is the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. One of the "Worst Internet Laws" was the Dot Kids Implementation and Efficiency Act of 2002. http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=717374&rl=1 au: Tina Arena evicts cybersquatters Australian songstress Tina Arena has wrested an internet domain bearing her name from cyber-squatters in a decision that could help other entertainers assert their presence online. ... Presiding panelist Sara Delpopolo said the respondent's domain name was identical to Arena's trade name, that Enigmatic had no legitimate interest in the domain and that the company had registered the site in bad faith. http://thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=376309 http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,10221,21617015-7484,00.html Aussies lose domains in Web host scandal An unknown number of Australian companies and consumers have lost their Web sites -- and renewal fees -- hosted by RegisterFly. http://zdnet.com.au/news/software/soa/Aussies-lose-domains-in-Web-host-scandal/0,130061733,339275006,00.htm de: Denic report on the state of .de ("Modern Communication is spelled with .de") Denic have released a report on the state of domain names for .de up to the end of 2006. The report is very comprehensive. On the distribution of domain names, this varies widely throughout Germany. Munich city has the highest density of domain names, closely followed by N?rnberg, Bonn, Munich State and D?sseldorf. In centres of industry there are higher registrations than in rural areas, and registrations are higher in the western than in the eastern part of Germany. Comparing Bundesland (states), more domains are registered in Hamburg per capita, followed by Berlin, Hessen and Bayern. On a city-by-city comparison, the most domain names are registered in Berlin, followed by Hamburg and Munich. Approximately 80% of domains are registered to individuals and 580,000 (around 6%) registered outside of Germany as of end 2006. http://www.denic.de/en/denic/presse/press_81.html (news release) http://www.denic.de/media/pdf/broschueren/DENIC-Image.pdf (report) Munich has the most .de domains per resident According to the annual statistics published by the DeNIC registry, Munich has the most domains per inhabitant of any German city. The 1.26 million inhabitants of the capital of Bavaria owned 355,737.de domains at the end of 2006, 282 per 1000 residents. Nuremberg and Bonn came in second and third. Of all towns and counties, the County of Saale-Holzland in the State of Th?ringen had the greatest increase in the number of domains from 2005 to 2006. At the end of 2006, the county had registered 9,195 .de domains, almost 72 percent more than at the end of 2005. http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/88799 http://www.telecom.paper.nl/news/article.aspx?id=165656&nr= (reg req'd) RegisterFly fire sale at hand? Could troubled domain registrar RegisterFly be up for sale? The Register has seen a copy of a letter of intent from Cogit, a technology-focused consulting group based in New Jersey, offering to buy out RegisterFly?s CEO and sole shareholder Kevin Medina for $1.15 mil. Whether or not Medina has indicated any interest in selling is another matter, and there is a continuing cloud of litigation over the struggling company that could hamper any attempted sale. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/25/cogit_registerfly_purchase/ uk: Nominet and Oxford Brookes team up to fight domain name fraud UK domain name registrar Nominet and Oxford Brookes University have teamed up to develop technology designed to stamp out fraudulent abuse of domain names in the UK. The UK registrar will use advanced data mining and visualisation techniques researched by the university to develop algorithms and software tools that can help detect fraudulent use of the .uk. http://www.itpro.co.uk/news/111425/nominet-and-oxford-brookes-team-up-to-fight-domain-name-fraud.html http://theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=39169 Another domain name, '.biz,' raises fees (AP) Another week, another price increase in Internet addresses. This time, it's ".biz" whose fees are going up. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/04/26/1177459798572.html http://www.circleid.com/posts/top_level_domain_price_rise_biz/ Telnic Registry-Level Fee Amendment Letter to ICANN requesting the Sponsored TLD Registry Operator Agreement between ICANN and Telnic be amended to provide for the identical Registry-Level Fee terms as were recently approved for mTLD. http://icann.org/correspondence/price-to-pritz-13apr07.pdf NeuStar Notice of Price Increase A customer advice notifying that as of October 19, 2007 at 00:00:00 GMT, all transactions processed in .BIZ will incur a $6.42 fee per domain year with the exception of the Redemption Grace Period (RGP) fees, which will remain unchanged. This amount includes all registry fees due to ICANN. http://icann.org/correspondence/tindal-to-schwartz-17apr07.pdf A More Corporate Clean Slate A growing number of college researchers, worried that the Internet?s underlying architecture will hamstring its development, are arguing that the ?Net is in need of a fresh start. It?s not always clear precisely what such a ?clean slate? approach would entail, but institutions like Carnegie Mellon and Stanford Universities are embarking on efforts to find out. http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=2017 Legal: Your Domain Is At Risk The lawyers at my firm represent registrars. We also represent domain name owners. And we sometimes represent domain name thieves (yes, everyone is entitled to an attorney). Here is an insider's perspective on the new dynamics at play in domain name cybersquatting. Most domain owners think their registrar is licensed by some governmental agency with oversight responsibilities. That's not really the case. The due diligence of ICANN and registries in approving registrars is virtually nonexistent. All it takes to become a registrar is payment of the $10,000 fee. Yet my impression is that consumers take from the registrars a false sense of comfort ? as if their mere existence ensures domain names will be protected. http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/466/Legal-Your-Domain-Is-At-Risk/ Protecting Your Domain Name: Get your .com and addresses that are similar (Nov 06) Domain names are addresses. But, of course, a domain name generates traffic, which means it is also a major sales source. The traffic could result from those typing in your name in the address bar of the browser, or it could be from search engines grading your website higher because of the close relationship between a search and your domain name. The value is self-evident. Yet, rarely do we find clients with a clear understanding of how to protect this asset. There are state and federal laws that protect a domain name if you are using it to identify your goods or services. But there are some common sense, easy and inexpensive steps you can take to protect this asset: Make sure you ?own? the name; Make sure you get the .com; Buy the common misspellings; Monitor the web and Buy domain names. http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/341/Protecting-Your-Domain-Name/ Protecting Your Trademark From Web Thieves: How trademark infringement happens, and how to stop it How valuable is your business or product name? Most small and mid-size businesses aren?t aware of the value of protecting trademarks. When the focus is on making payroll, monitoring sales, providing quality customer service and reaching financial projections, it might not seem like a top priority to police the web for thieves. However, it ought to be. Others steal your name to hurt you. Such theft has an immediate impact on your sales, retentions and service costs ? which pounds your bottom line. So, as someone who represents both the infringed and the infringers on a regular basis, I offer the following comments. http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/450/Protecting-Your-Trademark-From-Web-Thieves/ Maintain reign over 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. The tips are headed Avoid shady registrars; Get a registrar with a spine; Own your domain; Lock your domain; Block squatters and Who's who on the Web: Make the most of WhoIs tools. http://pcworld.ca//news/article/0f3eee3a0a01040801fdf17ca9648d62/pg1.htm Domaining & Subdomaining In The Local Space - Part 1 Locals Only - A Column From Search Engine Land The practices of domaining and subdomaining have steadily grown into increasingly hot topics in the local search marketing space for the past few years. "Domaining" is the practice of buying domains mainly for their potential keyword value. Speculators purchase keyword domains with a view towards selling those properties at considerable markup, and/or using those domains to host relevant affiliate content links and/or contextual ads to derive profit from the traffic, clicks, and purchases resulting from the users who arrive at the sites by typing their URLs directly into browser address fields. Subdomaining is the practice of delivering sections of content on sites under third-level domain names. http://searchengineland.com/070423-154346.php Domain "type ins" represent more eyeballs than American Idol Daily visitor count for all combined domain names DWARFS American Idol and the buying power is off the chart. This does not even include type ins to brands like Microsoft.com, Dell.com, Amazon.com, Costco.com and millions of other companies. These are just generic, keyword domain names from visitors looking for something specific. You have their UNDIVIDED attention. Why is that important? Read on! http://www.ricksblog.com/my_weblog/2007/04/domain_type_ins.html ICANN is the USSR of the internet - Karl Auerbach speaks out Interview: Karl Auerbach, the last publicly elected board member at ICANN, has been involved with internet development almost since the inception of the internet itself, and served as North America's direct representative on ICANN's Board of Directors. Always the iconoclast on the ICANN Board of Directors - and with the Lisbon meeting now squarely in the rear view mirror - we thought Auerbach would have some interesting things to say about recent developments at the controversial group that runs the internet we all know and love. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/24/icann_auerbach_interview_lisbon/ Recovering Our Web Address Yesterday American Thinker suffered a temporary loss of control of our internet domain. As a result, readers were unable to reach us, and we were unable to post new content to the site. The disruption lasted close to 24 hours, but has now been ended. Readers around the world will be able to find us as the change is propagated through the world's network of servers. We were victims of a company operating under the name registerfly.com which took our money to register the domain for two years, but only paid for one year. http://americanthinker.com/2007/04/recovering_our_web_address.html Verizon hits tiny iREIT with cybersquatting suit One of the country's largest cellphone service providers has filed a federal trademark lawsuit against a small Houston company over what is known in the online industry as "cybersquatting." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18304082/ uk: BNP attacks right wing from left field This is hardly BNP Paribas' finest hour. Back in January, the French banking giant got itself into a right flap about a disaffected British National Party supporter running a website at the address www.bnp.net. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/04/12/ccdiary12.xml The EU weaves itself a fantastically tangled web Viviane Reding, the EU's media commissioner, was last week trumpeting the success, since it was launched last year, of the EU's own internet "top-level domain name" ".eu". "After just one year," she crowed, ".eu has become a well-established part of Europe's cyberspace." She announced that since last April its 2.5 million registrations have been exceeded in Europe only by our ".uk" and Germany's ".de", ranking it as the seventh most popular web address on the planet. What Miss Reding did not reveal was that up to four-fifths of these registrations are, in effect, something of a sham; and that the new address has thrown large parts of the European Commission's own Europa website, one of the biggest in the world, into chaos. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/15/nbook15.xml Looking to Profit From a Tragedy Before the world even knew Seung-Hui Cho's name Monday, someone had already registered the Web site domain name vtechkilling.com. http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/VATech/story?id=3060386 ICANN Formalizes Relationships with .am Manager Proposes an Accountability Framework document and signs an exchange of letters to formalise the relationship with ICANN. http://webhosting.info/news/1/icann-formalizes-relationships-with-.am-manager_0420079221.htm Create .xxx domain - It makes sense to corral pornography sites on the Internet ICANN has missed a chance to deal with the messy stream of pornography that, for many, fouls the online experience. http://democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070423/OPINION04/704230307/1041/OPINION us: Schumacher Furs goes to court over protests As Schumacher Furs readies to move out of downtown Portland, its owners have filed for a preliminary injunction to keep raucous anti-fur demonstrators from interfering with their customers, doorway and Web site. ... The motion also seeks to prevent protesters from sending death threats or other threats of physical harm to the Schumachers or their employees or customers. And they have asked the court to prohibit protesters from interfering with schumacherfurs.com, the company's domain name, including misleading derivations of that site. http://www.oregonlive.com/metro/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/117738154163450.xml&coll=7 us: Hub Mansion gets heat from Fla. hot spot The owners of Mansion, the celebrity-soaked nightclub in Miami Beach, have slapped a trademark infringement suit on the owners of a new Boylston Street hot spot with the same name. ... Not only does Boston?s Mansion use a similar domain name - mansionboston.com - its description on its Web site is similar. http://thetrack.bostonherald.com/moreTrack/view.bg?articleid=196841 us: Guard Your Domain Today church security is about more than locking doors and background-checking workers. You also have to guard your website's domain name. Hope Community in Dover, New Hampshire, learned this lesson the hard way. In late 2006, the church switched Internet service providers, and intended to keep its decidedly religious website name. However, due to an error by the ISP, the church's domain name was placed for sale and purchased by a pornographic website. http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2007/002/2.13.html Sas.Mobi flys high with easy access to travel information on mobile phones To meet the needs of its millions of international passengers, Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) ? the Scandinavian carrier ? has continued with its tradition of innovation in air travel by launching SAS.mobi, the first .mobi site from a major airline. http://www.irishdev.com/NewsArticle.aspx?id=5338 http://mybroadband.co.za/nephp/?m=show&id=6195 Domain Market Keeps Motoring Along With Trio of Six-Figure Sales at Moniker/DomainSystems Most of the biggest sales you've seen charted the past few weeks have been finalized transactions from last month's Moniker.com live and silent auctions at the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West conference in Las Vegas. There are more of those this week, but the three biggest deals come from the Moniker Marketplace that is open year round. Their power trio included #1 Jewelers.com at $150,755 and a pair of two-letter .coms, VD.com and XD.com at $105,574 each. http://dnjournal.com/archive/domainsales/2007/domainsales04-24-07.htm Patents.com Auction Grabs Attention Patents.com and Patents.net have a high bid of $350,000. http://domainnamewire.com/2007/04/24/patentscom-auction-grabs-attention/ American Customers To Get Free Domain Names (news release) Dot TK, the only online service to offer free Web domain names, today announced one-of-a-kind service to customers in the United States. Dot TK will make its official debut at ad:tech San Francisco from April 25 to 26. Since its inception in 2005, Dot TK has added more than 1.6 million registered domain names and become one of the largest publishers' networks in the world, adding an average of 8,000 new domain names daily. ... With the Dot TK service, customers register domain names at no cost or for a nominal fee for special ad-free service. The paid domain names grant the users full license rights and enable them to run their own Domain Name System (DNS). With Dot TK's free offering, a customer's Web site displays third-party advertising. http://sys-con.com/read/366464.htm mobi-domains now cheaper At .mobi there is now the phase of general registration, which made the mobi-domains cheaper - except premium domain names which are auctioned for much money. http://www.businessportal24.com/en/_176618.html http://www.verivox.de/News/ArticleDetails.asp?aid=49449&pm=1 21 Solutions to Save the World: Masters of Their Domain by Mikko Hypponen Online banking fraud is rampant because it?s easy. Here?s a fix that will mean money in the bank. ... Why do banks and other financial institutions operate under the public top-level domains, like .com? ICANN should create a new, secure domain just for this reason?something like ?.bank,? for example. http://foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3798 'Internet Solutions to Register Domains directly with ICANN' (news release) Internet Solutions (IS) has been awarded the ability to register domains directly with ICANN, making IS the only network service provider in Africa to be able to do so. http://www.is.co.za/news/access/Internet+Solutions+to+Register+Domains+directly+with+ICANN.htm http://networktimes.co.za/article.aspx?pklArticleId=4403&pklIssueId=622&pklCategoryId=204 NeuStar Launches Chinese and Japanese Language Domain Names In .BIZ TLD (news release) NeuStar announced it has deployed IDNs for both the Chinese and the Japanese languages in the .BIZ top-level Internet domain. http://neustar.biz/pressroom/announcements/press_release.cfm?press_id=1152 *************** RESEARCH PAPERS *************** OECD Broadband Statistics to December 2006 Over the past year, the number of broadband subscribers in the OECD increased 26% from 157 million in December 2005 to 197 million in December 2006. This growth increased broadband penetration rates in the OECD from 13.5 in December 2005 to 16.9 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants one year later. http://www.oecd.org/document/7/0,2340,en_2649_37441_38446855_1_1_1_37441,00.html Internet traffic prioritisation Internet traffic prioritisation is an increasingly important policy issue as bandwidth demands increase and Internet applications require higher levels of quality of service to function well. Debates about traffic prioritisation, particularly in the context of ?network neutrality? discussions, have been divisive. The study provides background for national debates by examining the role of traffic prioritisation in networks and highlighting associated policy and regulatory issues. http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/43/63/38405781.pdf ********************* OTHER INTERNET NEWS ********************* Chinese tighten internet grip Chinese officials have been told to make the internet more civilised and less decadent, state media reported yesterday. At a meeting of Communist Party leaders chaired by the President, Hu Jintao, officials were told to build ?an internet culture with Chinese characteristics? and to ?curb the spread of decadent and backward ideological and cultural material online?. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article1695591.ece http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/04/24/1177180634230.html China aims to tame Internet (Reuters) Chinese President Hu Jintao on Monday launched a campaign to rid the country's sprawling Internet of "unhealthy" content and make it a springboard for Communist Party doctrine, state television reported. http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKPEK8130920070425 2,300 items of porn online information blocked in 2 months China detected and blocked more than 2,300 items of porn on the internet and filtered nearly one hundred million other hazardous bits of online information during the first two months of 2007. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-04/25/content_860092.htm A lone voice fights Chinese censorship As China?s censors pronounce ever more draconian edicts against writers, newspapers and even amateur pop singers, one middle-aged woman has staged a vociferous fight-back. Zhang Yihe, a historian whose latest banned book was a collection of biographies of Peking Opera singers, has sent a flood of open letters and petitions to the government demanding a change to censorship laws. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/25/wcensor125.xml cn: Beijing's chief censor sidelined in reshuffle The deputy director of the mainland's press watchdog, Liu Binjie, will be elevated to the post of chief censor, replacing his sidelined boss, authorities announced yesterday. http://asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=68478 au: Parents should monitor children's web use: PM Monitoring children's internet use is the responsibility of their parents, Prime Minister John Howard said following the deaths of two girls who discussed suicide on their websites. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/04/24/1177180631795.html au: National Youth Week 2007 - Launch Yourself (news release) NetAlert is proud to support National Youth Week (NYW). NYW is the largest celebration of young people in Australia and takes place from 14-22 April 2007. http://netalert.net.au/03859-National-Youth-Week-2007---Launch-Yourself.asp nz: Teens expelled over YouTube video Four students charged for the filming of an attack on a schoolmate in Hastings and posting it on YouTube have been expelled. http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/488120/1082714 us: Reports to National CyberTipline Exceed 475,000 Child Pornography Tops the List (news release) The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) today announced that it has just received its 475,000th report to its CyberTipline. These leads and tips have led to the arrest and successful prosecution of thousands of offenders. An estimated 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 10 boys will be sexually victimized in someway before they reach the age of 18. The CyberTipline provides a vital reporting mechanism to get leads into the hands of law enforcement. http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/NewsEventServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=3142 uk: Is Operation Ore the UK's worst-ever policing scandal? The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) didn't like The Guardian's lead story last week exposing the faults that run through the Operation Ore investigations - namely, that the police didn't investigate sufficiently whether credit card transactions on a pornography site were really made by the owners of the credit card, or just by website owners operating fraudulently with stolen details. The CPS wrote a letter for publication claiming Duncan Campbell's investigation was "wrong", but offered no statistics or detail. http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,2065090,00.html Cutting edge security technology on show From criminal gangs intend on stealing credit card details to zombie computers, innocently sending out spam and viruses, the world of computer security has hit the headlines in recent times. The BBC News website has been on the ground at the InfoSecurity Europe conference, walking the miles of stands on your behalf in order, to track down some of the interesting products and companies touting their wares in an effort to counter the bad guys. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6592673.stm Malicious code rise driven by web The number of new pieces of malicious software has doubled in the last year with the web being used increasingly to distribute the code, a report says. In the first quarter of 2007, security firm Sophos identified 23,864 threats, up from 9,450 on this time last year. In the same period the firm said it was identifying 5,000 web pages per day infected with so-called malware. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6591183.stm uk: Telegraph versus Google: the key debate Is the Telegraph group about to follow Belgian media companies into the lists against Google? That certainly seems to be the implication of remarks by Daily Telegraph editor Will Lewis while delivering a speech on behalf of his ceo, Murdoch MacLennan, at the Ifra newsroom conference in Paris. http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/greenslade/2007/04/telegraph_versus_google_the_ke.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/24/google_vs_telegraph/ Protecting Intellectual Property: How copyrights and patents affect your ebusiness You may not realize it, but you deal with intellectual property (IP) every day. If you own a website, that website is your intellectual property. The way you deal with IP - yours and others - can directly impact the success of your business. http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/377/Protecting-Intellectual-Property/ us: The Best and Worst Internet Laws by Eric Goldman Over the past dozen years, the lure of regulating the Internet has proven irresistible to legislators. For example, in the 109th Congress, almost 1,100 introduced bills referenced the word Internet, and hundreds of Internet laws have been passed by Congress and the states. This legislative activity is now large enough to identify some winners and losers. In the spirit of good fun, Eric Goldman offers an opinionated list of personal votes for the best and worst Internet statutes in the United States. http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=717374&rl=1 NZ govt spends $1.7 billion on ICT The New Zealand government spent $1.7 billion on ICT in the 2006 financial year, according to a Statistics New Zealand survey. http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/AC88A9BDCC9EF0CECC2572C70002A25C Experts: U.S. Vulnerable to Major Cyberattacks The U.S. government needs to take action now to avoid crippling cyberattacks that could shut down major communications systems nationwide, a group of cybersecurity experts told U.S. lawmakers Wednesday. http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,131217-page,1/article.html us: Major Anti-Spam Lawsuit to Be Filed in Virginia A company representing Internet users in more than 100 countries is expected to file a lawsuit in Virginia on Thursday seeking the identity of individuals responsible for harvesting millions of e-mail addresses on behalf of spammers. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/25/AR2007042503098.html Search Engine Shoot-Out PC World's verdict: Google is indeed the best search engine, even though two other services (AlltheWeb - my personal favourite too - and AltaVista, both owned by Yahoo) topped it--barely--in our text-search tests. Google's index proved to be the most accurate, comprehensive, and timely of the bunch. It also bested the majority of the specialty-search sites we tried, meaning those that focus on a category or file type, such as videos, images, news, blogs, or local info delivered on a mobile phone. http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,130979/article.html Maturing British cheese becomes Internet star (Reuters) A large English cheddar cheese has become a star of the Internet, attracting more than 1 million viewers to sit and stare at it as it slowly ripens. http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKL2523249820070425 jp: Researchers set net speed record A group of researchers led by the University of Tokyo has broken two internet speed records in as many days. Operators of the high-speed Internet2 network announced that the researchers sent data at 7.67 gigabits per second, using standard communications protocols. http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,21619026%5E16123%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/04/25/1177459749183.html Broadband Subscriptions Continue to Rise Worldwide The number of subscribers to broadband services increased by 26 percent in year-over-year growth from December '05 to December '06. The growth rate describes the subscriber base in the 30 countries tracked by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). http://clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3625675 NZ nudges up rank in uptake of broadband New Zealand has edged up one place to 21st in the OECD table for broadband uptake. http://stuff.co.nz/4037183a13.html New Zealanders keen on frequent internet use A study released today shows New Zealanders have taken to the world wide web in a big way. If you're an "average" user, according to the survey by comScore, you went online about every other day, spending a total of 20 and a half hours on the internet during the month. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10436211 Nearly 2 Million New Zealanders Spent an Average of 20 Hours per Person on the Internet in March (news release) In March 2007, 1.9 million New Zealanders age 15 or older used the Internet, viewing 3.6 billion pages of content. The average Internet user went online every other day and spent a total of 20.4 hours online during the month. http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1406 au: International sting in tail for free Qantas wireless service Telstra's recent decision to drop usage charges for its wireless network for Qantas Club members has been welcome news for business travellers, but international flyers aren't quite so lucky. http://itwire.com.au/content/view/11572/1101/ Are mobile phones and Wi-Fi to blame for the world's ills? Sure, say Kate Bevan and Charles Arthur, if you believe the world's crops are going to fail because, allegedly, mobiles kill bees, and Wi-Fi will make people ill. http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,2065074,00.html uk: Switch on for Square Mile wi-fi The City of London has fired up its first mesh wi-fi network, promising net access from just about anywhere in the Square Mile. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6577307.stm The question: Is Wi-Fi bad for you? No one knows. And that, say some groups, is the problem. The near-ubiquity of wireless networks has led to concerns over an "electronic smog" of radio waves that stretches from the home to Starbucks and the classroom; anywhere, in fact, that a computer can connect to the internet without wires. The rapid spread of the networks has been accompanied by negligible research into the potential risks. Last night, the Professional Association of Teachers wrote to Alan Johnson, the education secretary, requesting a scientific inquiry into the potential health risks of Wi-Fi networks, and recommended that schools stop installing them until research declares them safe. Eight out of 10 secondary schools and half of primary schools have the equipment. http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2063977,00.html News analysis: Deadly games - They're bloody. But can they make you a killer? No, says a major new report, but one mother still blames them for the murder of her son. So what does virtual slaughter do to the brain? The article goes on to say "'Some research in the US appears to support the hypothesis that playing video games can make people more aggressive,' says the BBFC, whose job it is to evaluate and certify the goriest. But while players may lose track of time and become 'zombie-like' after hours in a fantasy world, the BBFC believes they are unlikely to want to kill anyone for real." http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article2472070.ece Google search service tracks your online habits Google has introduced a new service which critics say allows the company to more easily collect data on its users' web surfing habits. The new feature, called Web History, allows users to look back in time at the websites they have browsed and search them for specific lines of text. Ostensibly, Google's goal was to provide greater personalisation for its users and deliver more targeted search results. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/04/23/1177180549441.html Irish kids' literacy hit by txts The fatal attraction between Irish young 'uns and mobile phones poses "a significant threat to writing standards in English", according to the chief examiner of Eire's Department of Education. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/25/txt_threat/ http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/04/26/1177459813270.html Wii have a problem with injuries: British experts Nintendo's Wii console is as effective as more traditional videogames for burning calories, but players are running the risk of injury by not warming-up properly, according to British experts. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/04/26/1177459838854.html Yahoo! China loses case over illegal music downloads Yahoo! China lost a lawsuit filed by music industry giants including Warner Music for allegedly playing and providing links to unlicensed music, state media reported Wednesday. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/04/26/1177459838846.html http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_5740481 http://edition.cnn.com/2007/BUSINESS/04/24/yahoo.china.reut/ us: Activist groups drop lawsuit against Viacom over removal of parody on YouTube (AP) Activist groups dropped a federal lawsuit against Viacom Inc. on Monday after the parent of Comedy Central acknowledged it made a mistake by asking YouTube to yank a parody of the cable network's "The Colbert Report." http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_5733218 'Google is the world's top brand' Google is the most powerful brand in the world, according to a survey that takes financial muscle and consumer sentiment into account. Google overtook Microsoft, formerly the world's top brand and which fell to third, and General Electric moving into second position. http://media.guardian.co.uk/marketingandpr/story/0,,2062362,00.html http://www.globeinvestor.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070423.wbrands0423/GIStory/ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/24/wbrands24.xml Yes, it's real: Blogger & Podcaster magazine Technology blog: The bubble could be about to burst, if the arrival of a print magazine for aspiring new media titans is any indication. http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/archives/2007/04/24/blogger_podcaster_magazine_its_not_a_joke.html au: Telstra fires up $1.5b network TELSTRA has switched on its new $1.5 billion internet protocol network for businesses but has refused to reveal a timetable for when it will shutdown the mass of legacy systems the Next IP platform is intended to replace. http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,21624186%5E16123%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html The dial-through fraudsters using VoIP to outwit detectives Telephone switchboard hacking is not new, but criminals are now using the latest technology to cover their trails. http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,2065092,00.html Can VoIP Help My Business? Many businesses making the switch, but questions remain Major telecommunication companies and start-ups alike are trying to establish themselves in the rapidly expanding VoIP marketplace. That hasn't escaped the notice of many people within the Internet telephone business, who anticipate 2007 could be a banner year for the technology. http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/398/Can-VoIP-Help-My-Business/ au: Prosecutor's hoard of child porn exposed The double life of Dr Patrick Power, SC - the former deputy senior crown prosecutor caught with thousands of images of gay and child pornography - was exposed by a glitch in his computer. It had crashed, so he took it to work to ask a technician to look at it. When the technician at the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions backed up files, one caught his eye. Its title explicitly and profanely described a 10-year-old boy in a sexual act with his father. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/04/24/1177180652779.html http://theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21617389-2702,00.html http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,21622219-5001021,00.html uk: Open Wi-Fi proves no defence in child porn case A man has been found guilty of possessing child pornography despite arguing that his open wireless internet network meant the case against him could not be proved. The case was triggered by an explicit image of a child which was sent over Yahoo!'s instant messaging network. http://out-law.com/page-7991 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/25/open_wi-fi_child_porn_case/ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 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 Send instant messages to your online friends http://au.messenger.yahoo.comReceived on Mon Apr 30 2007 - 06:22:37 UTC
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