Articles by date
28 July 2007
Call for Domain Owner Code of Rights and Responsibilities by Robert A. Connor (Circle ID)
Robert A Connor’s article on Circle ID “discusses grassroots progress toward the development of a ‘Domain Registrant’s Code of Rights and Responsibilities.’” He says the “Code is an effort to create a balanced combination of the rights that domain name registrants should enjoy and the responsibilities that domain name registrants should fulfill.” Further, he says there’s a demand for such a code going by surveys on domain-related forums that “show far greater grassroots consensus than one might think between what might be called the “domainer” and “intellectual property” communities.” Such a code would improve the internet for everyone. While there are limits, such a Code “should say that registrants should not infringe trademarks by cybersquatting domains and trademark holders should not try to hijack domains by over-reaching trademarks.”
Phishing gets between a rock and an easy place (Banking Business Review)
For those without strong technology skills who want to set up in the identity theft marketplace, phishing represents a great opportunity. There is even a plug-and-play kit that enables non-technical users to launch phishing attacks. At the other end of the technology skills scale, it appears that this year's most successful phishing attacks are being launched by one particular group.
Huge Chinese piracy ring tackled (BBC)
Pirated software worth US$500m (£250m) has been seized as the FBI shuts down a world-spanning piracy outfit.
BBC online video service launches (BBC)
The BBC's flagship online TV service is being launched, offering viewers the chance to download their favourite programmes from the last seven days.
For SMS, the days are numbered (Sydney Morning Herald)
The days of SMS are numbered now that mobile email access is becoming a commodity, research firm Gartner says.
MySpace Backlash Builds Heat (eCommerce Times)
If executives at MySpace expected to win praise as good corporate citizens for ridding their Web site of 29,000 registered sexual offenders, those hopes have vanished by now. Since the news came out, criticism of the social networking site only seems to have grown among public officials, parent and watchdog groups, and the general public. To be sure, there are grounds for discontent. A few months ago, in response to inquiries from several attorney generals, MySpace gave the impression that there were only 7,000 registered sex offenders on the Web site and that it had shut them out.
The Internet and the Law: Work in Progress (eCommerce Times)
New laws and regulations inevitably follow massive technological changes as societies come to grips with new technologies. Given the extent of changes the Internet has fostered across nearly every aspect of modern life, innovations dealing with Internet-related technologies are proving fertile ground for innovation in the form of new laws, regulations, legal precedents and interpretations of existing law.
uk: Research fails to detect short-term harm from mobile phone masts (The Guardian)
Mobile phone masts do not cause harmful short-term health effects, according to a study of people who say they experience symptoms when they are close to them. The study deals another blow to the notion that low-level electromagnetic fields from cellphones or base stations are dangerous.
Mozilla, Thunderbird Facing Trial Separation (PC World)
Mozilla's CEO says the Firefox browser is the priority over its standalone email client.
uk: VoIP services must offer 999, says Ofcom (The Register)
Ofcom today proposed that all VoIP phone services allowing users to make calls to ordinary phone numbers must also offer access to make 999 emergency calls.
27 July 2007
WIPO rules The Simpsons can go home to Fox
The Simpson's have won their domain name back, or rather WIPO ruled thesimpsonsmovie.com must be handed to News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox, which owns the rights to the film and TV series.
UK/Oz police won't share sex offender info
Both Australian and British police have said they will not be sharing information on convicted sex offenders with social networking sites such as MySpace, a significant difference to their American colleagues.
Don't be alarmed: 29,000 sex offenders on MySpace (Salon)
... Does this mean it's impossible that your child will be contacted by a sex offender over the site? No. But the odds are quite, quite low. How do we know this? Because if MySpace truly had made it easier for predators to find and attack children, we'd have noticed a huge spike in such crimes. And we haven't. Take a look at North Carolina's statistics on rapes committed against young people. In 1997, there were 665 rape convictions in the state in which the victim was younger than 15. In 2006, there were 615. MySpace made no difference at all.
U.S. Communication Decency Act & liability of ISPs (Internet Business Law Services)
ISPs provide a wide variety of Internet related services to millions of users. This huge spectrum of services undoubtedly subjects ISPs to potential tort liability. ISPs' tort liability have a chilling effect on the vibrancy of Internet communication because it would be impossible for ISPs to screen all Internet content posted by millions of third parties using their services. Thus, in the Communication Decency Act of 1996, the U.S. Congress introduced Section 230 to protect ISP from liability and to maintain the robust nature of Internet communications. Even though a significant part of the CDA was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1997, Section 230 of the CDA remains intact to protect ISPs from tort liability. This article illustrates on the specific protection offered by Section 230 of the CDA to ISPs, its limits, and immunities.
FBI Seeks To Pay Telecoms For Data (Washington Post)
The FBI wants to pay the major telecommunications companies to retain their customers' Internet and phone call information for at least two years for the agency's use in counterterrorism investigations and is asking Congress for $5 million a year to defray the cost, according to FBI officials and budget documents.
Facebook judge unimpressed by ConnectU's case (CNet)
The judge's message Wednesday to ConnectU over its intellectual property lawsuit against fellow social-networking site Facebook was clear: show us the evidence.
Online Video: 57% of internet users have watched videos online; most share what they find (Pew Internet & American Life Project)
The growing adoption of broadband combined with a dramatic push by content providers to promote online video has helped to pave the way for mainstream audiences to embrace online video viewing. Fifty-seven percent of online adults have used the internet to watch or download video, and 19% do so on a typical day. Three-quarters of broadband users (74%) who enjoy high-speed connections at both home and work watch or download video online.
Study: 19% of Americans Watch Online Video a Day (Sydney Morning Herald)
One in five online Americans view video over the Internet on any given day, thanks to speedier Internet connections and a wider selection of clips, a Pew Internet & American Life Project study finds.
Nine million now live in World of Warcraft (New Zealand Herald)
World of Warcraft has hit yet another milestone - this time clocking up a massive nine million subscribed players worldwide.
Taiwan helps APEC partners bridge digital divide with ADOC initiative (Taiwan Central News Agency)
The APEC Digital Opportunity Center, an initiative submitted by Taiwan in 2003 at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, has been helping bridge the digital divide in APEC countries, representatives from seven APEC economies said Tuesday at the 2007 ADOC Plenary. The plenary is a part of "ADOC Week, " which is taking place in Taipei from July 24-27. Delegations from Chile, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam will also attend an ADOC forum and an ADOC award ceremony.
EFF Takes Universal To Court Over DMCA Issues (Wired)
Not since that annoying Ally McBeal baby has a dancing toddler caused so much commotion. All it took was Stephanie Lenz uploading a 29 second clip of her son rocking out to Prince's "Let's Go Crazy" on YouTube and now Universal Music Publishing Group is up in arms. The worst of it came last month as YouTube removed the clip in compliance with their own DMCA policy after Universal's official request.
US Congress: P2P networks harm national security (CNet)
Politicians charged on Tuesday that peer-to-peer networks can pose a "national security threat" because they enable federal employees to share sensitive or classified documents accidentally from their computers.
UK Government backs private copying but ignores compensation (Out-Law.com)
The Government will launch a public consultation this autumn on an exemption from copyright law for people who are moving music on to MP3 players. But the plan for a private copying exemption does not address the controversial question of compensation.
'Shooting the Messenger': Myth vs. Reality: U.S. Broadband Policy and International Broadband Rankings (Free Press)
This paper exposes the myths put forward to excuse the shortcomings of the U.S. broadband market. The facts speak for themselves: More than 10 million U.S. households remain unserved, and nearly 50 million homes could subscribe but choose not to because the connection available is too expensive or too slow. The 50 million homes that do have broadband face, at best, a duopoly choice between the local phone or local cable company.
New Report Busts Telco Myths about U.S. Internet by Timothy Karr (The Huffington Post)
A report released today decisively shoots down many of the myths that telecommunications lobbyists and shills have manufactured about the health of America's Internet. The report, "Shooting the Messenger," urges policymakers to focus on the real problems that have caused America to fall dangerously behind the rest of the world in Internet adoption -- competition and availability. The report's authors at Free Press believe the root of the problem to be the "cozy duopoly" of cable and broadband providers that stifle competition and innovation while driving costs to consumers through the roof.
