- EU / FR - Commission approves privatisation and restructuring plan for Société Française de Production Expand
(RAPID) The European Commission today decided not to raise any objections to the privatisation and restructuring plan for Société Française de Production (SFP). The plan provides for state financing of social measures for the workers laid off. Such measures, which are designed to reduce the adverse effect of redundancies without relieving the undertaking of its usual costs, are part of the social policy of the Member States and do not constitute aid within the meaning of the EC Treaty. SFP, which is wholly owned by the State, is a public undertaking in the audiovisual production sector (sets and studios, machinery, vision and sound, special effects, etc.)
- US - FTC Workshop to Explore Possible Anticompetitive Efforts to Restrict Competition on the Internet Expand
(FTC) On October 8-10, 2002, the Federal Trade Commission will host a three-day public workshop to explore how certain state regulations and private business practices may be having significantly anticompetitive effects on e-commerce. Some private estimates suggest that the potential costs to consumers of these anticompetitive restrictions "may exceed $15 billion annually." some states prohibit online sales of certain products or require that e-businesses maintain a physical office in their state. Industries in which significant restrictions on Internet commerce have been alleged include retailing, the sale of automobiles, cyber-charter schools, real estate and mortgages, health care, pharmaceuticals, telemedicine, the sale of wine, auction services, the sale of contact lenses, and the sale of caskets. All of these restrictions may contribute to sound public policy, or they may constitute attempts by existing industries to forestall the entry of Internet competitors and impede new forms of competition.
- FR - Le traitement judiciaire de la cybercriminalité Expand
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(justice.gouv.fr) Guide méthodologique du ministère de la Justice (au format PDF).
- NZ - Calls to arrest porn principal Expand
(vnunet.com) A principal in New Zealand has caused a national storm after he was caught hoarding porn on his school's computer for more than 15 months. While Northcote Intermediate principal Michael Wilks's school network was protected by filtering software, his machine was not because of his status. The 66-year-old was dismissed by his board of trustees after an examination of pornographic material found on his computer during maintenance.
- Teenage paedophiles are victims too Expand
(Guardian) Equating young people caught in possession of child pornography with adult paedophiles is just not helpful, writes Professor Max Taylor. see also Caught in the net.
- UK - Man jailed over 'record' child porn haul Expand
(BBC) A former print worker has been jailed for seven years after he admitted distributing more than 300,000 indecent images of children. Detectives believe it is the biggest-ever case of its kind in the UK.
- UK - Official sacked over porn at work Expand
(BBC) A civil servant from south Wales has been sacked for using official Patent Office paper to print off pornography. Gareth Roache, 31, was sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court for downloading the indecent images from the internet. Judge Elgan Edwards said he would have liked to have jailed him, but could not because of changes in the Court of Appeal rules.
- UK - Porn photos found in freight Expand
(Birmingham Evening Mail) A Midland man who has campaigned to legalise child sex has been found guilty of smuggling indecent photographs. Thomas O'Carroll, 56, of Leamington Spa, was convicted of three charges of being knowingly concerned in the importation of indecent material by a jury at London's Southwark Crown Court. O'Carroll, a founding member and chairman of the Paedophile Information Exchange claimed the photographs were art and were "traditional street photography". The court heard how the pictures were discovered by Customs officers at Heathrow Airport last year in a random search of air freight.
- UK at the forefront of the fight against online paedophiles Expand
(Press Release) The UK is taking a leading role in tackling the international problem of child abuse on the Internet, Home Office Minister Hilary Benn told a policing conference. In a speech to the Policing Child Abuse on the Internet conference at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College, Mr Benn praised the police for their response to the challenges posed by online paedophile activity and said recent operations had set a benchmark for other countries to follow.
- UK's growing crimes - Guns, crack and child porn Expand
(Reuters) The growing use of guns, hi-tech crime and online child pornography are among the most significant criminal trends in Britain today, the National Crime Intelligence Service (NCIS) said unveiling the report UK Threat Assessment of Serious and Organised Crime 2002 . see Chapter 9 Paedophile crime, including online child abuse
- AU - Net censorship laws in limbo Expand
(Australian IT) The NSW Government will consult with its interstate counterparts before deciding whether to repeal controversial internet censorship legislation.
- FR - Le CSA lance une croisade anti-porno à l'issue incertaine Expand
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(AFP) Le Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (CSA) a appelé à l'interdiction pure et simple des films pornos à la télévision, auxquels de plus en plus de mineurs ont accès, mais rien ne dit encore que le gouvernement le suivra sur ce terrain radical.
- FR - Weitere Dachorganisation für den Datenschutz im Internet gegründet Expand
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(Heise) In Frankreich hat sich erneut eine Dachorganisation für Bürgerrechte und den Datenschutz im Internet konstituiert. Die Federation Informatique et Libertes (La FIL) will sich künftig für den Schutz der Privatsphäre der Bürger einsetzen und gegen eine Zensur in der digitalen Welt kämpfen. Gegründet wurde La FIL von Vertretern der Bürgerrechtsorganisationen Reporter ohne Grenzen, Stop1984 und Privacy International.
- Israel Blocks Palestinian ISP Expand
(Wired) Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) troops took over the offices of Palnet, the leading Palestinian Internet service provider, shutting down the firm's operations. The move -- part of Israel's 3-week-old "Operation Determined Path," which has kept seven of the eight major Palestinian cities under strict curfew -- reduced Internet access to a trickle in the West Bank and Gaza.
- TN - Pas de miracle pour le cyberdissident tunisien Expand
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(Yahoo FR) Les avocats du militant tunisien, arrêté le 4 juin dernier puis condamné pour avoir édité un site internet critiquant le régime en place, n'ont obtenu qu'une réduction de peine de quatre mois en appel.
- Why Countries Make Sites Unseen Expand
(CNet news.com) If you're reading this from Saudi Arabia, don't bother clicking here. Here. Or here. The Saudi government is keeping its subjects from viewing sites about drugs, women and rock and roll, according to a new Harvard Law School study. see also Can the Internet survive filtering?
- A "music for free" mentality is challenging the future of the European recording industry Expand
(IFPI) Europe's recording industry, however, is facing one of the greatest challenges in its history. A "Music for Free" mentality is undermining the success of the European recording sector and having a serious impact on music sales across the continent. Music is being taken without the permission of artists. This situation is damaging the interests of songwriters, performers, record producers and everyone whose livelihood depends on music.
- UK - Homer says hack your DVD player Expand
(BBC) Homer Simpson, cartoon character and a role model for millions, has been caught telling consumers to hack their DVD players. On the UK website of Simpsons' distributor Fox, Homer advises visitors to get around the copyright restrictions that limit where DVDs can be played.
- US - Broadcast Flag - Frequently Asked Questions Expand
(MPAA) What is a broadcast flag? The broadcast flag is a sequence of digital bits embedded in a television program that signals that the program must be protected from unauthorized redistribution. see also Consensus at Lawyerpoint comments, Text of Hollings letter to Powell and Tauzin letter to Powell.
- US - Hollywood heads up anti-piracy charge Expand
(CNET News.com) Hollywood's lobbyists are readying a new legislative push on Capitol Hill. On Monday, a lawyer for the Motion Picture Association of America said to expect new bills soon to assail illicit peer-to-peer file trading and curtail the piracy of digital TV broadcasts.
- US - Remote control Expand
(CNET News.com) Far from Hollywood and Silicon Valley, a key battle over the future of digital entertainment is looming at a federal courthouse in Georgia. There, a judge will decide on a patent infringement lawsuit filed by Gemstar-TV Guide International against its rivals in the market for "interactive programming guides" used in TV set-top boxes that provide cable and satellite services. As obscure as the case may sound, its outcome could have profound consequences for the computer, television and entertainment industries.
- US - Tinkerers' champion Expand
(Economist) It is not just libertarians who are concerned about the restrictions caused by America's latest copyright law. Edward Felten, a professor at Princeton University, argues that the "freedom to tinker" - the right to understand, repair and modify one's own equipment - is crucial to innovation, and as valuable to society as the freedom of speech.
- US - Tough talk on Web radio copying Expand
(CNet news.com) The Recording Industry Association of America has begun pressing for anti-copying technology in future digital radio standards. The idea is straightforward: Future hardware and software would treat music differently if it were designated as broadcast-only, preventing users from saving it or uploading it.
- CH - Surveillance catches up with email Expand
(Swissinfo) A record of almost every email sent to and from Switzerland is to be logged and stored for at least six months, under a new Swiss surveillance law. Since the beginning of 2002, all Swiss Internet service providers (ISPs) have been legally obliged to record the time, date, sender ID and receiver ID of all emails.
- FR - Le ministère de l'Intérieur souhaite ménager un accès direct et "à distance" aux données de connexion Expand
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(Forum des droits sur l'Internet) Le projet de loi d'Orientation et de programmation de la sécurité intérieure (LOPSI), présenté le 10 juillet par le ministre de la Sécurité intérieure et des libertés locales et discuté les 16 et 17 juillet à l'Assemblée nationale, comporte une proposition de disposition devant faciliter l'accès direct et la consultation "à distance" par les autorités judiciaires des données de connexion conservées notamment par les opérateurs de télécommunications.
- IT - Antipedofilia, la risposta nei log italiani? Expand
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(Punto informatico) I provider conservino per cinque anni almeno i log del traffico che si svolge sulle proprie reti, e dunque i dati relativi ai movimenti online dei propri clienti. Questa è una delle misure che la Commissione Bicamerale per l'infanzia propone tra quelle necessarie ad arginare e reprimere il fenomeno pedofilia, dentro e fuori dalla rete.
- UK - Police can intercept emails, high court rules Expand
(Guardian) Lord Woolf, the Lord Chief Justice, ruled that internet service providers can lawfully intercept emails at the request of the police once they have received notification that a special production order is being sought from the courts. The company said its system automatically destroyed emails once the user had accessed them. To prevent that from happening it would have to intercept the emails in a way that amounted to an offence.
- UK - Switch on for state snooping Expand
(BBC) From August net service providers in the UK will be obliged to carry out surveillance of some customers' web habits on behalf of the police. Controversial laws passed in 2000 oblige large communications companies to install technology that allows one in 10,000 of their customers to be watched. The information gathered about what people look at on the web, the content of e-mail messages and their phone conversations will be passed to the police or a government monitoring station.
- DE - Widersprüche gegen Internet-Sperrverfügungen zurückgewiesen Expand
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(Heise) Die Bezirksregierung Düsseldorf hat die ersten Widersprüche von 38 nordrhein-westfälischen Internet-Zugangsprovidern gegen die Sperrungsverfügung vom Februar abgelehnt. Am 6. Februar hatte die Bezirksregierung in ihrer Funktion als Aufsichtsbehörde für Mediendienste insgesamt 76 Provider in Nordrhein-Westfalen dazu aufgefordert, den Zugang zu zwei in den USA gehosteten Websites mit Nazipropaganda zu sperren. Die eine Hälfte der Anbieter folgte der Verfügung, die andere legte Widerspruch ein.
- DE - Beleidigungen auch im Netz rechtswidrig Expand
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(Heise) Eine Entscheidung des Landgerichts Köln (AZ: 28 T 8/01) sorgt für Furore: Danach sei es "keine Beleidigung", einen anderen in einem Internetforum als "Arschloch" oder als "Hanswurschtschwuchtel" zu bezeichnen. Ein Blick in die Verfahrensakte zeigt allerdings, dass diese Darstellung stark verkürzt und irreführend ist. Grundsätzlich gilt auch im Netz, dass Beleidigungen Unterlassungsansprüche nach sich ziehen und strafbar sein können.
- DE - Holtzbrinck-Tochter verklagt News-Suchmaschine Expand
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(Heise) Newsclub.de - Metanachrichtendienst und News-Suchmaschine - befindet sich derzeit im Rechtsstreit mit der Verlagsgruppe Mainpost, einem Tochterunternehmen der Verlagsruppe Holtzbrinck. Der Verlag hat den Dienst wegen Verletzung von Urheberrechten durch "Deep Linking" gemäß §87b UrhG verklagt. Newsclub verweist auf die aktuellen Nachrichten von über 100 Quellen, sortiert nach Nachrichtenquellen. Der Nutzer kann Schlagworte anklicken, der Link führt ihn auf die Hompage der Nachrichtenquelle -- das heißt Inhalte werden nicht aus ihrem Kontext gezogen und in der Originalumgebung gezeigt.
- UK - Scotland - Jurisdiction over website Expand
(Times Law Reports) Court of Session, Outer House. Bonnier Media Ltd v Greg Lloyd Smith and Another. before Lord Drummond Young. Where a threatened wrong complained of related to the infringement of a trade mark by use of a domain name on the internet, it was sufficient to establish jurisdiction if it could be demonstrated that the infringer’s website was intended to be of significant interest in the country in which jurisdiction was claimed. Full text of opinion.
- Can the Internet survive filtering? Expand
(CNET news.com) The Net is increasingly getting broken into cantons. The digital chain connecting one's laptop to a Web site thousands of miles away can be traversed by a single click--so long as no link within the chain refuses to carry the signal. Such refusals, though still rare, are on the rise. see also Why Countries Make Sites Unseen
- Saudi Arabia - Documentation of Internet Filtering Expand
(Harvard Law School) by Jonathan Zittrain and Benjamin Edelman, Berkman Center for Internet & Society. The authors connected to the Internet through proxy servers in Saudi Arabia and attempted to access approximately 60,000 Web pages as a means of empirically determining the scope and pervasiveness of Internet filtering there. Saudi-installed filtering systems prevented access to certain requested Web pages; the authors tracked 2,038 blocked pages. Such pages contained information about religion, health, education, reference, humor, and entertainment. The authors conclude (1) that the Saudi government maintains an active interest in filtering non-sexually explicit Web content for users within the Kingdom; (2) that substantial amounts of non-sexually explicit Web content is in fact effectively inaccessible to most Saudi Arabians; and (3) that much of this content consists of sites that are popular elsewhere in the world. see also Documentation of Internet Filtering Worldwide.
- Yahoo filters coffee by e-mail Expand
(CNET News.com) What does Yahoo Mail have against mocha? That's what users of the company's free e-mail service may be wondering if they try to send a message using the word "mocha" and discover that while in transit, "mocha" mysteriously changes to "espresso." To protect users from malicious code, Yahoo uses an automated filter to swap out a handful of words such as "mocha" that pertain to Web code known as JavaScript. The reason is that e-mail sent in a form known as "Web enhanced" can contain JavaScript instructions that can run programs on the recipient's PC. JavaScript is a Web language that can issue commands such as telling the browser to open up other windows or to prompt a service to change a password, for example.
- DE - Approximately half of internet users bank online Expand
(Europemedia) 45 per cent of German internet users conduct their banking online, according to a telephone survey of close to 3,900 people above 18 carried out by the agency Wahlen.
- DE - IT-Krise: "Arbeitsamt" überholt "Sex" bei Suchmaschinen Expand
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(ZDNet DE) Die IT-Krise treibt immer seltsamere Blüten: Nun ist das Stichwort "Arbeitsamt" noch vor "Sex" der am häufigsten verwendete Suchbegriff beim Online-Dienst Freenet.de geworden.
- Experts: Personal e-mail gets best reply Expand
(Reuters) When it comes to sending e-mails, the personal touch is best because the more people the message is copied to, the less likely the recipients will reply. E-mailing individuals separately, instead of in groups, is much more effective, according to scientists at the Technion technology institute in Haifa, Israel.
- FR - 10 % of active internet subscriptions high-speed Expand
(Europemedia) The number of high-speed internet subscriptions has increased from 200,000 to 600,000 in one year. Thus, 10 per cent of the active internet subscriptions are now high-speed connections according to the 2001 annual report of the French telecom regulator ART.
- Korea reaching Internet saturation point Expand
(NUA) Korea Times reports that 25.65 million South Koreans regularly access the Internet, up by 1.27 million on December 2001. Around 58 percent of the entire population goes online on a regular basis, according to the Korean Ministry of Information and Communication. However, the Ministry now warns that domestic Internet penetration is now reaching saturation. 93 percent of those aged between six and 19 years of age are online
- UK - Broadband take-up doubles in six months Expand
(ZDNEt UK) Broadband take-up in the UK has more than doubled since the start of 2002, leading to optimism that the vision of Broadband Britain is finally becoming a reality. Figures released by Oftel show that at the end of June 2002 a total of 709,000 consumers and small and medium-sized businesses had signed up for a broadband connection. This is an increase of some 113 percent compared to the start of the year, when there were only 332,000 broadband subscribers. see Oftel's Internet and Broadband Brief - July 2002 (OFTEL). see also Local Loop Unbundling Fact Sheet - July 2002 and ADSL Factsheet - July 2002
- UK - Net becomes British way of life Expand
(BBC) The internet has become a part of everyday life for most Britons, says a report. Just over 70% of people questioned for the survey for consumer magazine Which? Online said the net had become essential. The survey provides some insights into what people get up on the internet, with the favourite activity being e-mail. It found people spent an average of seven hours online a week, visiting 13 different websites in seven days.
- Hacker group targets Net censorship Expand
(Reuters) An international hacker group calling itself Hacktivismo has released a program called Camera/Shy that allows Internet users to conceal messages inside photos posted on the Web, bypassing most known police monitoring methods. In addition, "Mixter," an internationally known German hacker, said Hacktivismo was preparing in coming weeks to launch technology, which if adopted widely could allow anyone to create grassroots, anonymous networks where Internet users worldwide could access and share information without a trace. Mixter's software--known as a "protocol" in technical terms--would allow ordinary computer users to set up a decentralized version of virtual private networks (VPNs). Hacktivismo, or hacker activism, is just one of several grassroots software projects--including Peekabooty and Privaterra--launched recently by computer activists that seek to enable human rights workers to access censored Web sites or communicate securely.
- Mit Peekabooty gegen Zensur Expand
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(Heise) Nachdem im Frühjahr bereits Falschmeldungen über eine Veröffentlichung von Peekabooty kursierten, steht es jetzt tatsächlich zum Download bereit. Das Tool richtet sich gegen die Zensur des Internet in Ländern, "in denen Meinungs- und Pressefreiheit nicht als Menschenrechte geachtet werden".
- The War For Your TV Expand
(MSNBC) Digital video recorders like TiVo let you watch shows when you want to rather than when the programmers decide. The new Replay DVR even lets you automatically skip ads and allows you to trade shows online. Now the nets are striking back.
- US - AOL not sold on IM sharing Expand
(ZDNet) America Online is backing away from opening its instant messaging servers to let them communicate with rival networks, according to a government regulatory filing.