Legal and regulatory issues

Competition

• US - Second state to fight Microsoft deal  +/-

  (Reuters) West Virginia will join Massachusetts in appealing a judge's decision to endorse a settlement of the Microsoft antitrust case. The state will join the appeal because the settlement, negotiated between Microsoft and the U.S. Justice Department last year, does not go far enough to end all of Microsoft's illegal practices.

Computer crime

• RU - 'Lawless Russia a huge source for child porn'  +/-

  (AFP) Russia has become a major source of child pornography because the country has no laws governing the production or dissemination of such material, and corrupt officials help cover it up, a top police official said. He accused foreign criminal groups of using Russian Internet sites to broadcast child pornography around the world, taking advantage of the fact that Russia has no specific laws on child porn. Since March his department had discovered more than 3,000 Russian Internet sites with pornographic photos or films involving children, but less than one percent of the content was produced in Russia.

• FR - France Arrests Close to 30 in Child Porno Probe  +/-

  (Reuters) French police arrested close to 30 people nationwide as part of an investigation into Internet distribution of child pornography, judicial sources said.

Consumer protection

• EU - Thinking of shopping cross border for Christmas presents? 10 tips for consumers  +/-

  (RAPID) December 2002 is likely to see a record number of consumers taking advantage of the Internal Market and shopping cross border for their Christmas presents. To help guarantee a Happy Christmas for all Europe's consumers, Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner David Byrne has published a list of the top 10 tips for cross border Christmas shopping.

• Japan halts mobile porn scam  +/-

  (BBC) Japan's parliament has outlawed a scam where unsuspecting callers are tricked into calling sex lines, and then charged vast amounts for the call. Con artists have used computers to call at random up to 3,000 mobile phone users per minute, only to hang up after just one ring. Curious phone users who ring back to try to identify the caller are played a pornographic message, or they are given information about pornographic services.

Copyright, trademarks and patents

• EU - Collective management and licensing of copyright and EU competition law  +/-

  (Boletin Latino Americano de Competencia) by Miguel Mendes Pereira. The article focuses on the differences, both economic and legal, underlying the competition assessment of the off-line environment and the online world in particular as regards the horizontal relationship between collecting societies and the vertical relationship between societies and users. A brief overview is given of the intervention by the European Commission and of the case law as developed by the Court of Justice in respect of traditional (off-line) copyright management and licensing, followed by an analysis of the decision of the Commission in the Simulcasting case.

• UK - government minister joins pirate raids  +/-

  (GameSpot.com) UK culture minister Kim Howells has joined a dawn raid by Trading Standards on a suspected distributor of pirated games software.

Domain names

• ccTLD Governance Project  +/-

  (Michael Geist) This project reviews the relationship between country code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) and governments in 45 countries. Included are 1) tables which highlight the main relationships, and 2) country-specific information.

• ICANN - Keep ICANN open  +/-

  (National Law Journal) by Miriam Sapiro. Last month, the international body that regulates critical components of the Internet met for the first time in China. The Shanghai meeting offered a historic opportunity to resolve questions surrounding international governance of the Internet and to focus attention on the tight controls China still exercises over the Internet within its borders.

• US - Bush signs child Net safety law  +/-

  (AP) President George W. Bush signed into law legislation to create a new kids-safe "dot-kids" domain on the Internet. "Every site designated 'dot-kids' will be a safe zone for children," Bush said.

Health

• EU - Byrne welcomes political agreement on cigarettes advertising ban and smoking prevention measures  +/-

  (RAPID) The Council has reached political agreement on a new tobacco advertising directive and adopted a recommendation on the prevention of smoking and on initiatives to improve tobacco control. Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner David Byrne called it a "double-blow against Big Tobacco".

Information society and Internet policy

• EU - MODINIS programme  +/-

  (Eur-Lex) Proposal for a Council Decision adopting a multi-annual programme (2003-2005) for the monitoring of eEurope, dissemination of good practices and the improvement of network and information security (MODINIS) COM(2002) 425 OJ C 291 26/11/2002 p. 243 PDF.

• EU - Telecommunications Council, Brussels, 5th December 2002  +/-

  (RAPID) On December 4-5, the Council of Telecommunications Ministers will meet in Brussels. Commissioner Erkki Liikanen will represent the European Commission. On December 4, a Council dinner will take place in Brussels. An exchange of views will take place on various issues like the current situation of the telecom sector, broadband and the new regulatory framework, eEurope and its applications in areas such as eGovernment and eHealth as well as on 3G.

Interception

• DE - Wirtschaftsministerium will Telekommunikationsüberwachung ausweiten  +/- Translate

  (Heise) Die Wirtschaft ist empört über einen neuen Entwurf des Bundeswirtschaftsministeriums zur Novelle des seit Jahren umstrittenen Telekommunikationsgesetzes (TKG). Stein des Anstoßes ist vor allem die überarbeitete Fassung der berühmt-berüchtigten Überwachungsparagraphen 88 und 90, die von der Industrie und von Medienpolitikern seit langem kritisiert werden. Die neue Version, die heise online vorliegt, soll deutlich ausgeweitete Verpflichtungen bringen und bürdet Telekommunikationsanbietern pauschal die Übernahme aller Kosten für staatliche Überwachungsmaßnahmen auf.

• ICC - says 'Don't play Big Brother' to governments  +/-

  (Europemedia) Business users and providers of communications services have called on the European Union and governments to scale down their storage requirements for traffic data to the minimum necessary to fight crime and terrorism. They have also warned governments that differing national data retention policies will make it impossible for communication service providers to operate effectively. ICC statement on storage of traffic data for law enforcement purposes.

Internet access and use

• EU - The eEurope Broadband Strategy  +/-

  (RAPID) Mr Erkki Liikanen Member of the European Commission, responsible for Enterprise and the Information Society, The European Telecommmunications Network Operators' Association (ETNO) Conference 'Making Broadband Happen in Europe' Brussels, 3 December 2002.

Junk mail (spam)

• FR - La loi antispam ne se fait pas que des amis  +/- Translate

  (Libération) Une dizaine d'associations professionnelles se liguent aujourd'hui pour adoucir l'interdiction de ces e-mails commerciaux non sollicités. Le spam, appelé encore «pourriel», est une plaie pour l'internaute. Mais la loi s'apprête à faire le ménage. Voila pourquoi les professionnels de la vente à distance, de la publicité et des services en ligne ne sont pas du tout satisfaits du sort que le gouvernement s'apprête à faire aux e-mails commerciaux. Dans leur collimateur, l'article 12 de l'avant-projet de loi relative à l'économie numérique. Ce texte reprend, en l'aménageant un peu, la directive européenne antispam de juillet 2001.

• The Spam Battle 2002: A Tactical Update  +/-

  (Karl A. Krueger) The past two years have been a watershed in the fight against spam, with many changes in the tactics used both by spammers seeking to abuse networks and by administrators seeking to protect them. Many of these changes have notable policy implications. As the cost of spam has increased for ISPs, businesses, and end users alike, keeping up with these methods has become increasingly essential to protect the usefulness of email.

Liability, jurisdiction and applicable law

• ES - El web de Batasuna vuelve a estar accesible tres meses después de la prohibición  +/- Translate

  (Europa Press) El sitio web oficial de Batasuna (www.batasuna.org) vuelve a estar accesible en Internet desde España, tres meses despues de que el juez de la Audiencia Nacional Baltasar Garzón acordara tramitar sendas comisiones rogatorias a Estados Unidos y Australia para pedir la suspensión del dominio de los sitios web del partizo 'abertzale' e impedir que abriera otros nuevos. Los otros dominios que utilizaba la formación política antes de su suspensión de actividad, 'www.euskal-herritarrok.org' y 'www.batasuna-barakaldo.org', permanecen inactivos - en cumplimiento de la orden del 10 de octubre del Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología (MCYT) que obliga a los proveedores españoles de servicios de Internet (ISP) a bloquear su acceso mediante filtros.

• US - French Order Is Greek to 9th Circuit  +/-

  (The Recorder) An order barring the cross-Atlantic enforcement of a French court's order against Yahoo Inc. hit rough waters at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A three-judge panel was clearly uncomfortable with several issues stemming from Yahoo's decision to challenge -- in the United States rather than France -- a French judge's order that the Internet company block French citizens' access to online auctions of Nazi memorabilia.

Rating and filtering

• CN - China blocks news not porn online  +/-

  (BBC) Chinese internet surfers have almost unfettered access to pornography, but news, health and education sites are routinely blocked, US researchers have found. Professors Jonathan Zittrain and Benjamin Edelman, of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard, spent eight months investigating how China controls the net. They found that Beijing actively polices content on the web, intermittently blocking some general-interest high-profile sites whose content changes frequently, such as the tech website Slashdot.

• CN - Searching Through The Great Firewall Of China  +/-

  (Seth Finkelstein) An anticensorware investigation. This report describes a simple technique which can be used with some search engines to bypass censorware bans on searching for forbidden words. Particular emphasis is placed on the situation of the Great Firewall Of China.

• TH - Move to block teen access to porn sites  +/-

  (Bangkok Post) The Thai Information and Communications Minister supports a police proposal that internet service providers (ISPs) block access to obscene websites through a ratings system. He voiced support during a meeting with all 18 ISPs to discuss websites deemed inappropriate for teenagers. Internet Thailand's chief executive said all ISPs were already trying to block access to these websites, but admitted this was not easy as ISPs were not content providers and had no authority to supervise content and rating for others. The Minister said he would classify imported websites into three ratings: X, R and PG, with the first having content rated obscene and/or having content considered in contempt of the monarchy.

Safer Internet awareness

• UK - Government campaign to flag paedophile activity on Web  +/-

  (newmediazero) The Government is preparing to launch its biggest ever awareness campaign to highlight the dangers of paedophiles on the Internet. NMA has learned that the multi-million-pound campaign will run across all major media. It will contain a hard-hitting message warning parents about paedophile activity on the Internet

• UK - Getting literate about the media  +/-

  (BBC) Remember the phrase "media literacy". You may soon be hearing it rather a lot - especially when the hand-wringing starts about protecting our children from the perils of the internet or mobile telephones. Media literacy means teaching people how the media work and what to do about stuff they don't like, and the government thinks there should be a lot more of it. Clause 10 of the Communications Bill gives the new super-regulator, Ofcom, a duty to encourage "a better public understanding of the nature and characteristics of material published by means of electronic media".

Self-regulation / codes of conduct

• ES - Sistema de Autorregulación Integral para el Comercio Electrónico y la Publicidad Interactiva  +/- Translate

  (Confianza Online) A este proyecto de autorregulación integral para la publicidad y el comercio electrónico se han adherido un grupo de asociaciones relevantes en los sectores de las comunicaciones comerciales y los nuevos medios electrónicos de comunicación a distancia, tales como la Asociación Española de Anunciantes (AEA), la Asociación Española de Agencias de Publicidad (AEAP), la Asociación de Centrales de Medios (ACM), la Asociación de Medios Publicitarios (AMPE), la Federación española de Comercio Electrónico y Marketing Directo (FECEMD), la Federación Nacional de Empresas de Publicidad (FNEP), la Asociación de Agencias de Marketing Directo e Interactivo (AGEMDI), y la Asociación Multisectorial de Empresas Españolas de Electrónica y Comunicaciones (ASIMELEC). Código Ético de Comercio Electrónico y Publicidad Interactiva. ver tambien Viejas prácticas y nuevos Códigos: ¿autorregular sin los usuarios? (IurisLex) y ES - La Asociación de Internautas rechaza el Código Ético de la Red (Europa Press).

Telecommunications

• DE - EU verklagt Deutschland wegen Call-by-Call im Ortsnetz  +/- Translate

  (Heise) Die Bundesregierung hat sich wegen der Aussetzung von Call-by-Call-Gesprächen im Ortsnetz eine Klage der EU-Kommission eingehandelt. Diese sei bereits vergangene Woche beim Europäischen Gerichtshof eingereicht worden.

Market & Technology

Market

• Authors turn to video games  +/-

  (BBC) Look along the shelves of video games this Christmas and you will see a name normally found in most libraries and book shelves. Thriller writer Tom Clancy has his name above at least three blockbuster titles - Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six.

Statistics

• UK accelerates broadband take-up  +/-

  (Guardian) Households and businesses in the UK are signing up for broadband services at a faster rate than other comparable countries, telecoms regulator Oftel claimed. However, broadband take-up in Britain - around 4% - though growing fast, is still the lowest out of all the G7 countries. see International benchmarking study of Internet access (dial-up and broadband) and International benchmarking study of mobile services (both OFTEL).

Forthcoming events

• 2003-02-06 UK,Oxford - The Politics of Code: Shaping the Future of the Next Internet  +/-

  (PCMLP) A one day public conference organised by the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy, University of Oxford. High profile speakers - among them Prof. Larry Lessig, renowned thinker on Cyberlaw and Esther Dyson, celebrated digerati and founding chairman of ICANN - will discuss the key choices that need to be made on privacy, security, access, openness and control in the design of Internet technology and Internet Governance.

• 2003-02-12 CH, Lausanne - Law of Internet Gambling: From National Regulation to Global Solutions  +/-

  (Swiss Institute of Comparative Law) International Conference, Lausanne, Switzerland 12th and 13th February 2003 . The first international conference to deal exclusively with the legal and regulatory issues arising out of internet gambling! A team of experts in the field will be joined by speakers representing a number of jurisdictions which have already taken or are in the process of adopting a clear legislative stance on internet gambling. They will lead the discussion of questions of law that currently need to be addressed in all European countries and indeed around the world.

• 2003-09-17 UK, Oxford - Information, Communication, Society  +/-

  (OII) Call for Papers. A Research Symposium for the international journal Information, Communication & Society (iCS) to be held at Balliol College and the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, 17th-20th September 2003. This will be a multi-disciplinary research symposium. Original papers are sought from researchers in all subject areas of the iCS journal. However, papers are encouraged that address one or more of the five broad tracks around which the symposium will be organised: governance; the household, community, and workplace; learning and education; science and networks; and issues of policy and regulation that cut across all these social settings. Deadline for abstracts: 31st January 2003.

QuickLinks consists of

• a free newsletter appearing approximately once a week. The newsletter is distributed by electronic mail through an "announcement only" mailing list. To be included on the mailing list, send a blank email to quicklinkshtml-subscribe@yahoogroups.com (HTML) or quicklinks-subscribe@yahoogroups.com (Text)
• a Web site with frequent updates, an events page, news items organised by category as well as chronologically by issue and full text search.