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The domain name news is supported by auDA

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Trademark Clearinghouse for Registries and Registrars: Sunrise Services, Testing and Support Materials
<http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/announcements-and-media/announcement-2-29aug13-en>

ICANN Announces Conclusion of New gTLD Initial Evaluations - Major Milestone Reached in New Domain Program [ICANN news release]
<http://www.domainpulse.com/2013/08/30/conclusion-new-gtld-initial-evaluations/>

Gimme Shelter: With Hackers Hitting Domain Providers, Brands May Rely Heavily on New gTLDs
<http://www.gtldstrategy.com/brand-protection-strategies/gimme-shelter-with-hackers-hitting-domain-providers-brands-may-rely-heavily-on-new-gtlds>

Name collisions comments call for more gTLD delay
<http://domainincite.com/14334-name-collisions-comments-call-for-more-gtld-delay>

The Great Internet Land Grab
<http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/08/web-domains-great-internet-land-grab.html>

How to protect your .au domain name from being hijacked like the New York Times by George Pongas
<http://www.ausregistry.com.au/news/how-to-protect-your-au-domain-name-from-being-hijacked-like-the-new-york-times>


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 - ICANN
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Trademark Clearinghouse for Registries and Registrars: Sunrise Services, Testing and Support Materials
ICANN has been working with IBM and the community to ensure that the Trademark Clearinghouse will function efficiently for new gTLD Registries and Registrars in anticipation of upcoming new gTLD launches. Here are the results of these efforts:
<http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/announcements-and-media/announcement-2-29aug13-en>

New gTLD Dotless Domain Names Prohibited
At its meeting on 13 August 2013, the ICANN Board New gTLD Program Committee (NGPC) adopted a resolution affirming that "dotless domain names" are prohibited.
<http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-30aug13-en.htm>

ICANN Announces Conclusion of New gTLD Initial Evaluations - Major Milestone Reached in New Domain Program [ICANN news release]
ICANN?s Generic Domains Division announced today the conclusion of the Initial Evaluation (IE) phase of the new gTLDs program. More than 1,700 applications have now moved to the next steps in the program.
<http://www.domainpulse.com/2013/08/30/conclusion-new-gtld-initial-evaluations/>
<http://www.domainnews.com/icann-announces-conclusion-of-new-gtld-initial-evaluations-major-milestone-reached-in-new-domain-program.html>

Milestone: Initial Evaluation Comes to a Close
Today, ICANN released Initial Evaluation Results for the final batch of active applications ? those holding priority numbers 1801 to 1930 ? marking the end of the Initial Evaluation ("IE") phase of the New gTLD Program.
<http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/announcements-and-media/announcement-30aug13-en>

New Contracting Statistics Released 
CIRs Sent Through Priority 600
<http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/announcements-and-media/announcement-3-30aug13-en>

Dan Jaffe, Group Executive Vice President, Government Relations | Association of National Advertisers, to Cyrus Namazi
Deadline Extension Request for the Solicitation of Community Comments on the Proposal to Mitigate Name Collision Risks
<http://www.icann.org/en/news/correspondence/jaffe-to-namazi-27aug13-en>

Promoting the Digital Development of Haiti
On August 12, 2013 in Port au Prince, we had the opportunity to participate in AYITIC, a capacity building project specifically designed for Haiti and geared to the country?s needs. LACNIC, the Internet Address Registry for Latin America and the Caribbean, launched this activity that was sponsored by ICANN, among other supporters.
<http://blog.icann.org/2013/08/promoting-the-digital-development-of-haiti/>

Webinar: Digital Engagement Project
ICANN is engaged in a strategic development and incubation process for new digital engagement tools and services that will result in a reconceptualization of ICANN.org.
<http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-29aug13-en.htm>

Podcasts & Teleconferences: Community Priority Evaluation (CPE) - Date: 10 September 2013
A discussion on the current status of CPE, next steps and timeline. We'll also review community feedback on the CPE Guidelines. Submit your questions now to gtld-communications at icann.org.
<http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/announcements-and-media/podcasts>

ICANN?s Accountability Meltdown: A four-part series by Milton Mueller
In October 2013 Fadi Chehadi will have been President and CEO of ICANN for one year. (Yes, it does seem longer than that, doesn?t it?) His apparent sincerity, his enthusiasm, his cosmopolitan perspective and his talk of equality among stakeholders initially gave many people hope that the corporation would be improved and invigorated during his tenure.
<http://www.internetgovernance.org/2013/08/31/icanns-accountability-meltdown-a-four-part-series/>

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 - ccTLD & gTLD NEWS
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URS is MIA in ICANN Board Renewals of .Biz, .Info, and .Org Contracts by Philip Corwin
During its August 22nd meeting the ICANN Board approved renewal of the registry agreements for the incumbent .Biz, .Info, and .Org gTLD registries. All three contracts were adopted in the identical form to the drafts published for public comment earlier this year[1].
<http://internetcommerce.org/URS_MIA_BIZINFOORG>

org: Internet Society Announces Appointment of Roberto Gaetano, Amitabh Singhal, and Erik Huizer to Public Interest Registry Board of Directors
The Internet Society today announced that Roberto Gaetano, Amitabh Singhal, and Erik Huizer have been appointed to the Public Interest Registry Board of Directors. New to the Board, Roberto Gaetano was appointed to a three-year term. Amitabh Singhal was re-appointed to a three-year term and Erik Huizer was re-appointed to a two-year term.
<http://www.internetsociety.org/news/internet-society-announces-appointment-roberto-gaetano-amitabh-singhal-and-erik-huizer-public>

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 - NEW TLDS
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Gimme Shelter: With Hackers Hitting Domain Providers, Brands May Rely Heavily on New gTLDs
Most of us are pretty familiar with the concept of a hacker attacking a website ? and, in fact, downloadable tools to help hackers break into a site and steal information are readily available. But what happens when a TLD registry is hacked, as appears to have been the case for Google?s Palestinian domain earlier this week?
<http://www.gtldstrategy.com/brand-protection-strategies/gimme-shelter-with-hackers-hitting-domain-providers-brands-may-rely-heavily-on-new-gtlds>

New gTLDs: A Wug Test For The Internet Age?
In the 1950s, a psychologist invented the ?wug? test to determine when children understand how language indicates and distinguishes between singular, versus plural, items. The children were shown a picture of a single creature and told that it was a wug. Then the children were shown a picture with two of the creatures and were asked to finish the sentence ?There are two ____.? Children as young as three were able to answer with ?wugs?.
<http://www.gtldstrategy.com/policy-updates/new-gtlds-a-wug-test-for-the-internet-age>

What About Baidu?
Google?s been up to a lot lately: It recently signed on to an intellectual property best practices document aimed at cutting off ad revenue to cybersquatters. Its investment in new gTLDs will (or won?t) come to bear soon. It announced the launch of Chromecast. And it continues to generate privacy issue buzz with Google Glass.
<http://www.gtldstrategy.com/ongoing-strategies/what-about-baidu>

Name collisions comments call for more gTLD delay
The first tranche of responses to Interisle Consulting?s study into the security risks of new gTLDs, and ICANN?s proposal to delay a few hundred strings pending more study, is in.
<http://domainincite.com/14334-name-collisions-comments-call-for-more-gtld-delay>

What Are New gTLD Governance Councils? by Jean Guillon
Many generic, community and other geographic new domain name extensions (also called "gTLDs" ... ) will soon become a focal point for the industry or sector they represent. These simple denominators which define a vertical sector, profession, geographic, ethnic or other delineated group on the Internet have not existed on the Internet until now. These new domain name extensions are moving from the realm of science fiction to science fact: in fact a domain name ending in ".science" will soon exist on the Internet and will clearly contain web sites with a relationship to science.
<http://www.circleid.com/posts/20130829_what_are_new_gtld_governance_councils/>

The Great Internet Land Grab
It?s not easy to get a short, crisp Web address. In the twenty-eight years since the now-extinct computer maker Symbolics registered the first .com address, symbolics.com, the most economical and memorable Internet addresses have mostly been claimed. Even longer addresses, or domains, like a person?s full name, might not be available?or, more likely, there will be some cyber squatter waiting to ask you for two hundred dollars if you want to develop that virtual vacant lot.
<http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/08/web-domains-great-internet-land-grab.html>

Neustar?s Proposal for New gTLD Collision Risk Mitigation
Neustar has a vested interest in ensuring that the domain name system is as secure and stable as possible. We have been operating TLDs for more than a decade, and we intend to provide the same level of service as the back-end registry provider for more than 350 applicants for the new generic TLDs that we hope will become available in the coming months.
<http://www.dotyou.biz/neustars-proposal-for-new-gtld-collision-risk-mitigation/>

Only 29 gTLD applications still in IE as 101 pass and nine fail
ICANN has published what was scheduled to be its final week of Initial Evaluation results for new gTLD applications.
<http://domainincite.com/14354-only-29-gtld-applications-still-in-ie-as-101-pass-and-nine-fail>

For The Limited, ?The? comes back to haunt it in another domain case
There were many reasons that new TLD applicant Donuts prevailed in a legal rights objection filed by fashion retailer Limited over .limited.
<http://domainnamewire.com/2013/08/30/the-limited-domain/>

Sina tops Tencent in battle over Weibo top level domain names
In a heavyweight battle of Chinese internet stars, Sina Corporation has won two objections it lodged against Tencent for the TLDs .?? and .weibo.
<http://domainnamewire.com/2013/08/30/sina-tops-tencent-in-battle-over-weibo-top-level-domain-names/>

Donuts signs 12 more new gTLD registry contracts
Donuts today announced that it has signed 12 more new gTLD Registry Agreements with ICANN.
<http://domainincite.com/14352-donuts-signs-12-more-new-gtld-registry-contracts>

Lawsuit against new TLD applicant Famous Four is dismissed
A group of investors in a failed TLD bid have dropped their lawsuit against Famous Four Media, Domain Venture Partners, and some of the company?s principals.
<http://domainnamewire.com/2013/08/30/lawsuit-against-new-tld-applicant-famous-four-is-dismissed/>

ICANN finally signs more new TLD contracts; Donuts signs a dozen
Since ICANN signed four new TLD registry contracts at its meeting in Durban in mid-July, no more have been signed.
<http://domainnamewire.com/2013/08/30/icann-finally-signs-more-new-tld-contracts-donuts-signs-a-dozen/>

The Next Internet Revolution Will Not Be in English by John Yunker
Imagine if, every time you wanted to visit a website, you were expected to type in letters from a foreign language, or worse, an entirely foreign script, such as Arabic, Cyrillic, or Chinese.
<http://www.circleid.com/posts/2013081_the_next_internet_revolution_will_not_be_in_english/>

Trademarks for TLDs by Mary Iqbal
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has recently circulated proposed examination guidelines to allow the USPTO to begin providing Trademark Protection for TLDs. This is an important new development. TLDs today are currently ineligible for Trademark protection on the basis that they do not constitute a source-identifying mark. The USPTO is currently in the process of rectifying this situation by extending Trademark protection to Registry Service providers and has released its proposed examination procedures for that purpose. However, there are some very concerning elements to their proposed examination guidelines.
<http://www.circleid.com/posts/20130901_trademarks_for_tlds/>

ICANN Explores Viability of Dotless Domains Will new gTLDs create Name Collisions on the Web?
On August 5, ICANN released two studies addressing concerns that certain new gTLDs may have the potential to create technical issues within the current web framework. In one study, Dotless Domain Name Security and Stability Study Report, IT security firm Carve Systems was tasked with researching the viability of using a domain extension in a browsing context without use of subdomains to the left of an unused dot.
<https://sedo.com/us/news/3334/ICANN-Explores-Viability-of-Dotless-Domains/>

Google hiring for new top level domain name initiative
Google has posted two job openings related to its new TLD plans.
<http://domainnamewire.com/2013/08/30/google-jobs-new-tlds/>

Here are the missing Amazon and .Pets new TLD documents
This morning I read Amazon.com?s spirited response to the Governmental Advisory Committee?s advice to kill .amazon.
<http://domainnamewire.com/2013/08/29/here-are-the-missing-amazon-and-pets-new-tld-documents/>

Analyzing new TLD string objection panelists
I?ve called String Confusion Objections a clusterf at ck based on seemingly conflicting opinions by different panelists.
<http://domainnamewire.com/2013/08/29/analyzing-new-tld-string-objection-panelists/>

What is this new domain name scam?
I just received a scam phone call and I?m trying to figure out what the perpetrator?s goal is. I have an idea, but I figure some readers might know more.
<http://domainnamewire.com/2013/08/29/what-is-this-new-domain-name-scam/>

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 - DNS SECURITY
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No Proof Of Malware In New York Times DNS Hijacking Attack
Dropping malware isn't the usual M.O. for the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA): The pro-Assad hacktivist group is best-known for loudly spreading its message -- or even fake news -- via hijacked high-profile websites and Twitter accounts of media and other organizations, not for amassing bots or infecting machines.
<http://www.darkreading.com/vulnerability/no-proof-of-malware-in-new-york-times-dn/240160636>

How to protect your .au domain name from being hijacked like the New York Times by George Pongas
Yesterday, the .com domain name of the New York Times? website was maliciously hijacked to redirect visitors to websites controlled by the attackers.
<http://www.ausregistry.com.au/news/how-to-protect-your-au-domain-name-from-being-hijacked-like-the-new-york-times>
<http://www.techworld.com.au/article/525045/how_protect_your_au_domain_name_from_being_hijacked_like_new_york_times/>

How the Syrian Electronic Army and other hacker groups are attacking news Web sites
The hack of the New York Times? Web operations this week has drawn renewed attention to a cyberattack that takes aim at a core function of the Internet: the Web address.
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/how-the-syrian-electronic-army-and-other-hacker-groups-are-attacking-news-web-sites/2013/08/28/bda8f464-1032-11e3-8cdd-bcdc09410972_story.html>

Inside the Response to the New York Times Attack
Late Tuesday morning, one of the engineers in CloudFlare?s San Francisco office saw a message on Twitter saying that the New York Times Web site was down. Minutes later, more messages appeared, as security researchers and others began looking into the situation and realized that someone may have compromised the site?s DNS records. Understanding the ramifications of that sort of attack, if that?s in fact what it was, Matthew Prince, CloudFlare?s CEO sent an email to Rajiv Pant, the CTO of the Times, saying that the company?s engineers would be available if Pant needed some help figuring out the situation. He did.
<http://threatpost.com/inside-the-response-to-the-new-york-times-attack/102135>

Syrian Electronic Army Denies New Data Leaks
The high-profile Web site defacement and hacker group known as the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) continues to deny that its own Web server was hacked, even as gigabytes of data apparently seized during the compromise leaked onto the Deep Web this weekend.
<http://krebsonsecurity.com/2013/08/syrian-electronic-army-denies-new-data-leaks/>

Who Built the Syrian Electronic Army?
A hacking group calling itself the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) has been getting an unusual amount of press lately, most recently after hijacking the Web sites of The New York Times and The Washington Post, among others. But surprisingly little light has been shed on the individuals behind these headline-grabbing attacks. Beginning today, I?ll be taking a closer look at this organization, starting with one of the group?s core architects.
<http://krebsonsecurity.com/2013/08/who-built-the-syrian-electronic-army/>

NIST Subjects Draft Cybersecurity Framework to More Public Scrutiny [IDG]
Following through on an order earlier this year from U.S. President Barack Obama, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is rapidly developing a set of guidelines and best practices to help organizations better secure their IT systems.
<http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/082913-nist-subjects-draft-cybersecurity-framework-273358.html>
<http://www.computerworld.co.nz/article/525120/nist_subjects_draft_cybersecurity_framework_more_public_scrutiny/>
<http://www.cio.com/article/738954/NIST_Subjects_Draft_Cybersecurity_Framework_to_More_Public_Scrutiny>

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 - IPv4/IPv6
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IPv6 To Complicate Threat-Intelligence Landscape
A common type of Internet-based threat intelligence is the assigning of reputation scores to the source of traffic, usually expressed as a certain Internet address or domain.
<http://www.darkreading.com/threat-intelligence/ipv6-to-complicate-threat-intelligence-l/240160628>

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 - MISCELLANEOUS
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Customer Growth Spikes 86% as GoDaddy Hits 1-Year Mark in India
GoDaddy today announced its India customer base has increased by 86 percent since opening a customer care center here in India last summer. The local support team is based in Hyderabad and is now assisting customers around the clock, every day of the year, even on holidays.
<http://godaddy.com/news/article/customer-growth-spikes-86-as-godaddy-hits-1-year-mark-in-india.aspx>

Go Daddy selling domains door-to-door in India
Door-to-door sales have helped Go Daddy grow its Indian business by 86%, according to a company press release.
<http://domainincite.com/14349-go-daddy-selling-domains-door-to-door-in-india>

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 - WEBHOSTING
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Estimating the value of hosting companies by counting computers
Is it possible to estimate the revenue of a hosting company based on its public presence ? that is, is the number of websites it hosts directly proportional to its market value? By using the market capitalisation (or acquisition purchase price, where appropriate) as a valuation and examining the number of web-facing computers, a striking patterns emerges.
<http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2013/08/22/estimating-the-value-of-hosting-companies-by-counting-computers.html>

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SOCIAL MEDIA
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Facebook's New Face Recognition Policy Astonishes German Privacy Regulator [IDG]
A German privacy regulator is astonished that Facebook has added facial recognition to a proposed new privacy policy it published on Thursday.
<http://www.pcworld.com/article/2047804/facebooks-new-face-recognition-policy-astonishes-german-privacy-regulator.html>
<http://www.cio.com/article/738980/Facebook_s_New_Face_Recognition_Policy_Astonishes_German_Privacy_Regulator>

Facebook spammers make $200m just posting links, researchers say
Spammers posting links on Facebook fan pages to send people to third-party scam sites are earning $200m every year, according to calculations by a team of Italian security researchers who have investigated hundreds of thousands of posts on the social network.
<http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/28/facebook-spam-202-million-italian-research>

Facebook to Update Privacy Policy, but Adjusting Settings Is No Easier
Facebook announced Thursday that it planned to enact changes to its privacy policies on Sept. 5.
<http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/29/facebook-to-update-privacy-policy-but-adjusting-settings-is-no-easier/>

Under legal pressure, Facebook clarifies how it uses your data [IDG]
Facebook wants to be clear: It can use the names, profile pictures and other data of its members to deliver ads on the site.
<http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9242008/Under_legal_pressure_Facebook_clarifies_how_it_uses_your_data>

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NEW TECHNOLOGIES
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Skype confirms 3D video calls are under development
Skype has confirmed it has developed 3D video calls.
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23866593>

Skype confirms it is working on 3D video calls
Skype has confirmed it is developing 3D video calls ? but said it could be many years before we can use the technology.
<http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/29/skype-developing-3d-video-calls>

PC boom is over as tablets and smartphones take over, says IDC
The PC boom is over, and the business will never regain the peaks that it saw in 2011 when more than 359m were shipped worldwide, says research company IDC.
<http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/30/pc-boom-over-tablets-smartphones>

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ONLINE CRIME & LEGAL
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US shops and restaurants fight patent trolls
The Internet Association is among a group of US trade bodies behind a new campaign calling for politicians to take action over patent trolls.
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23898080>

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PRIVACY & SURVEILLANCE
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Britain Cites Grave Risks in Leaked Data It Seized
A standoff between the British government and The Guardian over national security and press freedom entered its latest round on Friday when the high court extended police powers to analyze encrypted material seized from the partner of one of the newspaper?s journalists this month.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/31/world/europe/britain-cites-grave-risks-in-leaked-data-it-seized.html>

The web giants pumping us for data
Should you be looking for an example of hucksterish cynicism, then the mantra that "data is the new oil" is as good as they come. Although its first recorded utterance goes as far back as 2006, in recent times it has achieved the status of an approved corporate cliche, though nowadays "data" is generally qualified by the adjective "big". And if you want a measure of how deeply the cliche has penetrated the collective unconscious, ponder this: a Google search for "big data" turns up more than 1.5bn results. And a search for "data mining" turns up 167m results.
<http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/01/big-data-corporations-information>

U.S. plans reports on secret court orders to telecom providers
The U.S. intelligence community has pledged to disclose more data about government surveillance programs by reporting annually how many secret court orders are issued to telecommunications companies under certain legal rules.
<http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/08/30/usa-security-transparency-idINDEE97T03M20130830>
<http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/08/30/uk-usa-security-transparency-idUKBRE97T03E20130830>

NSA paying U.S. companies for access to communications networks
The National Security Agency is paying hundreds of millions of dollars a year to U.S. companies for clandestine access to their communications networks, filtering vast traffic flows for foreign targets in a process that also sweeps in large volumes of American telephone calls, e-mails and instant messages.
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-paying-us-companies-for-access-to-communications-networks/2013/08/29/5641a4b6-10c2-11e3-bdf6-e4fc677d94a1_story.html>

Microsoft and Google to sue over US surveillance requests
Microsoft and Google are to sue the US government to win the right to reveal more information about official requests for user data. The companies announced the lawsuit on Friday, escalating a legal battle over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa), the mechanism used by the National Security Agency (NSA) and other US government agencies to gather data about foreign internet users.
<http://www.theguardian.com/law/2013/aug/31/microsoft-google-sue-us-fisa>

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GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC POLICY
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nz: New software patent law could spark tech boom
Last week was a milestone moment for New Zealand's fledgling software industry, with the passing into law of a new patents bill, which exempts software from patentability.
<http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11118087>
------
David Goldstein

 email: david at goldsteinreport.com

 web:   http://goldsteinreport.com/ / http://davidgoldstein.tel/
 phone: +61 418 228 605 - mobile; +61 2 9663 3430 - office/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