Legal and regulatory issues

Computer crime

• US - 9th Circuit: Feds Can't Try Child Porn Case  +/-

  (The Recorder) The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a federal child pornography law - at least for those who don't intend to take the material across state lines. A divided panel overturned the conviction of a woman arrested after employees at a U.S. Navy photo-developing studio reported a single picture of Rhoda McCoy and her 10-year-old daughter with their genitals exposed. The court held that under the Supreme Court's recent Commerce Clause decisions, the federal government cannot prosecute McCoy. USA v. McCoy.

Consumer protection

• US - Watchdogs: Cable gouges broadband users  +/-

  (Reuters) U.S. consumer groups charged that cable companies were gouging customers who subscribe only to high-speed Internet service but not to cable television, and asked antitrust enforcers to investigate. The Consumer Federation of America and the Consumers Union asked the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether the steep discounts offered when customers purchased both services constituted anticompetitive tying or predatory pricing.

Content regulation

• DE - Germany restricts game it says glorifies war  +/-

  (New York Times) Electronic Arts, the nation's largest maker of video games, says it is caught in the crossfire between the German and United States governments over the Iraq war. The German government listed a new game produced by Electronic Arts on an index of games the government considers violent. Such games may not be advertised or displayed on shelves in Germany, although they may be kept under store counters and sold to adults. The director of the German federal bureau that reviews media products for the youth market said the game had been restricted because it glorified war.

• Minneapolis librarians sue over Internet porn  +/-

  (Star Tribune) A dozen Minneapolis librarians who say they were exposed to a barrage of sexually explicit Internet material in the downtown library are seeking their day in court. The 12 sued the library system in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, alleging they endured an intimidating, hostile and offensive workplace that violated state and federal law. The suit seeks damages of at least $400,000 each, plus workplace changes.

• UK - RSPCA in censorship crusade against humour site  +/-

  (Register) The RSPCA is rallying support for a campaign to have the Bonsai Kitten Web site shut down, even though it knows the site is a hoax. Bonsaikitten.com, a site "dedicated to preserving the long lost art of body modification in housepets", has raised the ire of members of the RSPCA, which campaigns against cruelty to animals.

• US - House votes to curtail Net porn  +/-

  (CNET News.com) The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to ban pornographic Internet sites with misleading addresses and computer-generated child pornography. During a debate over a bill to create a notification network for child kidnapping cases, House members added two technology-related amendments to the legislation. The first measure, which was approved by voice vote, says anyone who knowingly uses an innocent-sounding domain name to drive traffic to a sex site could be fined and imprisoned for two to four years. The second amendment, which the House agreed to by a 406-15 vote, represents Congress' second attempt to outlaw "morphed" or virtual child pornography. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court slapped down Congress' first law banning nude images of computer-generated minors and underage teens, saying the 1996 measure violated the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of expression.

Convergence of telecommunications, media and information technology

• Peers warn of 'fatal flaws' in media bill  +/-

  (FT) Peers have warned the government that its communications bill for overhauling the media industry goes too far in deregulating ownership laws. Lord Puttnam, the Labour peer who is leading a House of Lords rebellion against certain provisions of the bill, said the bill could lead to a concentration of power in commercial broadcasting - specifically in Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation empire. Speaking ahead of the bill's second reading in the upper house, Lord Puttnam said the bill threatened plurality, diversity and Britain's reputation for having "the best free broadcast media in the world" because it contained "possibly fatal flaws".

Copyright, trademarks and patents

• UK - Universities to be sued over music downloads  +/-

  (Times) Every university in Britain will receive a letter from the British Phonographic Industry and its sister organisation, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, reminding them that unlicensed internet copying is a breach of legislation. The federation quotes studies conducted at universities showing that 50 to 100 per cent of the institutions’ internet capability had been taken over by illegal file-sharing traffic. Academic institutions now face legal action. The federation said: "he legal risks include injunctions, damages, costs and possible criminal sanctions against the institutions and their heads where systems are used for copyright theft"

Data Protection (privacy)

• US - Scanning the future of privacy  +/-

  (CNET News.com) Engineers who design biometric technologies and Internet authentication mechanisms should take more aggressive steps to preserve privacy, a new government report says. The 177-page report by the National Research Council suggests specific guidelines for authentication technologies, such as passwords, identification cards and key cards, and the use of biometrics to verify physical characteristics like the shape of a retina or fingerprint. This report represents the most detailed analysis to date of the tension between authentication--which requires the disclosure of information to confirm a person's identity or access--and the perils such systems may pose to the privacy and anonymity of people who use them.

Domain names

• ICANN - New chief open to change  +/-

  (CNET News.com) The Internet address authority has been criticized as secretive, but new president Paul Twomey says the organization is set to turn over a new leaf. Paul Twomey, the recently elected president of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), believes the organization's next step is to look beyond nations that are part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) - an international group composed primarily of developed countries - to accommodate the interests of the global Internet community.

e-Government

• EU - Council says access to documents on the rise  +/-

  (Euractiv) The Council has released figures according to which the request for access to meeting papers has doubled since the entry into force of the 'access to documents' Directive in 2001. 80 per cent of these demands have resulted in full disclosure.

• EU - e-Government and the European Union - Speech by Mr Liikanen  +/-

  (RAPID) Mr Erkki Liikanen, Member of the European Commission, responsible for Enterprise and the Information Society, The Internet and the City Conference "Local eGovernment in the Information Society", Barcelona, 21 March 2003

• FR - Guide pratique 'Téléprocédures et familles'  +/- Translate

  (Forum des droits sur l'internet) Le Forum des droits sur l'internet a réalisé, en partenariat avec le secrétariat d'Etat à la réforme de l'Etat, le ministère délégué à la Famille, l'Union nationale des associations familiales et le Service d'information du Gouvernement, ce guide pratique relatif aux téléprocédures et à destination des familles et distribué dans les espaces publics numériques.

Junk mail (spam)

• UK - Government crackdown on spam  +/-

  (BBC) The UK government is determined to crack down on the menace of unwanted and unsolicited e-mail. From October, a European Union directive will make unsolicited e-mails illegal across member states and the UK government is planning to have its legal framework in place at the same time. see also DTI Press Release and Public Consultation (closes 19 June 2003) on how to implement the Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications (DPEC) in the UK.

Liability, jurisdiction and applicable law

• DE - Bundesweites Vorgehen gegen rechtsextreme Webseiten angemahnt  +/- Translate

  (Heise) Die Bezirksregierung Düsseldorf, in Nordrhein-Westfalen als Wächter über die Mediendienste-Anbieter auch für das Internet zuständig, hat ein bundesweit einheitliches Vorgehen gegen rechtsextreme Internetseiten aus dem Ausland angemahnt. Jürgen Büssow, Chef der nordrhein-westfälischen Aufsichtsbehörde, sieht sich in seinen Maßnahmen durch den bisherigen Erfolg im Eilverfahren gegen Internet-Zugangsanbieter bestätigt. Nun könnten die anderen Bundesländer nicht mehr untätig bleiben, sagte Büssow. Mit dem Fall werde sich voraussichtlich bald die Ministerpräsidenten-Konferenz beschäftigen. Büssow nannte namentlich Hamburg und Hessen als Sitze der größten deutschen Zugangsanbieter AOL und T-Online.

Mobile and wireless

• Erotik-Angebote fürs MMS-Handy  +/- Translate

  (Xonio) Hätte es noch eines Beweises bedurft, der CeBIT-Auftritt der Mobilfunkanbieter brachte endgültige Klarheit: bunte Bilder, starke Töne, satte Sound- und flotte Videostreams - schon vor dem UMTS-Start in Deutschland stehen die Zeichen ganz auf Mobile Multimedia. Neben News, Games, Musik und Sport kommt dabei auch dem Thema Erotik eine nicht vom Handy zu weisende Bedeutung zu. Schließlich gilt immer und überall: Sex sells - und dank hoch auflösender Farb-Displays kommen die Pixel-Orgien in ganz neuer Qualität aufs Endgerät.

• Opportunities and Dangers of 3G Mobile Services for Children  +/-

  (Childnet International) An international experts meeting held in Tokyo, Japan on the 6th and 7th March considered the implications of new mobile phone services for children. For the first time international experts from the mobile industry, broadcasting, universities, child welfare groups, consumer organisations, law enforcement and regulators met to consider the positive opportunities and safety issues that this new technology raises for young people. The meeting was jointly organised by the UK based Childnet International and the Japanese Internet Industry Association. see proceedings and further details of the programme and powerpoint presentations.

• UK - Mobiles to monitor children  +/-

  (BBC) Parents could soon keep a much closer eye on what children are up on their way to and from school thanks to a mobile monitoring system. Guardian Angel is a product which allows parents to map out the exact route a child takes to school. It will send text alerts to their mobile phone if the child deviates too far from that route or takes too long getting there. Made by French mobile firm Alcatel, the system takes advantage of the existing mobile phone network to locate a child's whereabouts rather than using global positioning systems like some location-based services.

• US - Iraq war sparks wireless row  +/-

  (BBC) A band of US politicians are angered over plans to build a communication system in post-war Iraq based upon European wireless standards. Members of the US Congress are adding their names to a letter drafted by Californian republican Darrell Issa objecting to the use of US funds to build a GSM network in Iraq after Saddam has gone.

Protection of minors

• DE - Niedrige Anforderungen an Altersschutzsysteme für Erotik-Webseiten  +/- Translate

  (Heise) In dem Strafverfahren über die Verbreitung von nur mit der Abfrage von Personalausweisnummern gesicherten pornografischen Inhalten im Internet liegt nunmehr die schriftliche Urteilsbegründung des Landgericht Düsseldorf vor. Der Angeklagte des Verfahrens betrieb eine Erotik-Website mit jugendgefährdenden Angeboten, die per 0190er-Dialer abrufbar ist und durch ein Adult Verification System (AVS) geschützt war, das lediglich die Ausweisnummern abfragt. Die Ausführungen des Gerichtes gelten allerdings nur für Sachverhalte bis zum 1. April 2003. An diesem Tag tritt der neue Jugendmedienschutz-Staatsvertrag in Kraft, der erhöhte Anforderungen an AV-Systeme stellt.

• Oberste Jugendmedienschützer benannt  +/- Translate

  (Heise) Knapp eine Woche vor Inkrafttreten des Jugendmedienschutzstaatsvertrags haben die obersten Jugendschützer der Länder ihre Vertreter für die neue Kommission für den Jugendmedienschutz (KJM) benannt. Nachdem in der ersten Runde Behördenleiter der Ministerien vorgeschlagen worden waren, habe man sich nun auf Fachleute von Universitäten und nachgeordneten Behörden geeinigt, hieß es dazu aus der Geschäftsstelle der Jugendschutzbehörden der Länder in Stuttgart. Zunächst sollten Behördenleiter aus den Ministerien in die KJM. Doch weil das der Idee von der Staatsfreiheit der Medien widersprochen hätte, hat man nun eilig eine neue Liste nachgeschoben. Diese soll nun von der Ministerkonferenz der Länder Ende der Woche verabschiedet werden.

Racism and xenophobia

• Racism caught in the Net  +/-

  (Sydney Morning Herald) Courtesy of the website www.tolerance.org, it is now possible for anyone with access to a computer to test discreetly whether they harbour negative feelings towards Arab Muslims. You can also test online your attitude to black people versus white, old versus young, fat versus thin, male versus female, and straight versus gay. Literate people who can find their way around the internet and consider themselves bias-free might be surprised. The website warns the results may disturb: more than a million people have so far taken implicit association tests, and more often the tests reveal some sort of unconscious bias.

Rating and filtering

• AU - EFA Comments on Mandatory and Blocking by ISPs  +/-

  (EFA) A counterblast to the Australia Institute's campaigning for mandatory filtering of all Internet access by Australian Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

• Smut searchers  +/-

  (Orange County Register) Some workers at 8e6 - an Internet filtering firm - are paid to look for online pornography.

Telecommunications

• UK - OFTEL proposes new regulatory regime  +/-

  (Press Release) Oftel has set out proposals to replace existing regulation with new measures under the new EC Directives on electronic communications. Wholesale services - wholesale charges for access, call origination and transit of calls across fixed networks; Retail markets - the prices paid by consumers for line rental and calls; Fixed geographic call termination - the wholesale charges paid by operators for terminating calls onto individual fixed networks; Wholesale international services - the level of competition in 242 wholesale international call routes; and Unmetered Internet call termination - wholesale charges for unmetered narrowband Internet termination

War reporting

• Conflict of interest: the sites you need to see  +/-

  (Guardian) For the first time, war has outstripped sex as the most frequent web search term according to internet service Freeserve. This thirst for information has been matched by increased traffic on news sites. Yahoo! said traffic levels were three times higher in the hour after George Bush told Americans that war had started, while hits at Guardian Unlimited and BBC News Online have increased by at least 30%. The second Gulf war has also seen the acceptance of the weblog by the mainstream media. see also Blogging the War: A Guide (Washington Post).

• Improved Tools Turn Journalists Into a Quick Strike Force  +/-

  (New York Times) Reporters covering the war in Iraq are at one with their technology as never before. Television reporters are toting hand-held video cameras and print journalists have traded the 70-pound satellite phones of the 1991 Gulf War for svelte models that can be held up to their ear. High-speed Internet lines in the desert and more satellites in the sky mean journalists can make a connection almost anywhere. As the conflict unfolds, they are tapping into the global communications grid regularly.

• US - Net Censorship Debate Rages as POW Pictures Pulled  +/-

  (Reuters) A Florida-based Web hosting company knocked a small news site off-line after it posted controversial photos of captured American soldiers, stoking accusations that private firms are censoring free speech. For several hours, www.YellowTimes.org was dark, carrying the message "Account for domain YellowTimes.org has been suspended." Later in the day there was sporadic access.

Market & Technology

Junk mail (spam)

• Fighting spam for a good cause  +/-

  (CNET News.com) Two IBM researchers are proposing a new method of fighting spam that would force unfamiliar senders to donate to charity if they want to reach you.

• Hotmail takes steps to freeze spam  +/-

  (vnunet.com) Hotmail, the free web-based email service run by Microsoft, has introduced measures to crack down on spam. Over the past two weeks the company has been implanting a rule limiting to 100 the number of email addresses a sender can target in any 24-hour period.

Mobile and wireless

• Italians pick up first 3G mobile phones  +/-

  (BBC) Italy is among the first countries in the world to use commercially available 3G phones. Most people in Italy have at least two - one for business and one for pleasure - which they update more often than their wardrobes. So it seems entirely appropriate that they should be among the first consumers in the world to actually get their hands on the new third-generation mobile phones.

Portals, browsers and search engines

• The changing face of search engines  +/-

  (CNET News.com) Once the primary road signs to navigating the Internet, directories have moved to the shoulder. They are being displaced by algorithmic search tools and commercial services that many people now believe do a better job in satisfying Web surfers and advertisers.

Forthcoming events

• 2003-04-04 BE, Namur - you've got mail - utilisation du email en entreprise  +/- Translate

  (e-Consult et Iccom) Conférence "You've Got Mail!" Namur - 4 avril 2003 au Palais des expositions de Namur, à l'occasion du salon Business Exchange SESSION 1 - Le courrier électronique à l'extérieur de l'entreprise : l'e-mail marketing SESSION 2 - Le courrier électronique dans l'entreprise : une cohabitation difficile entre employeurs et employés ?

Useful addresses

• Deutsches und Europäisches Telekommunikations- und Medienrecht  +/- Translate

  (tkrecht.de) Informationen zum deutschen und europäischen Telekommunikations- und Medienrecht. Dies umfasst u. a.: eine "Virtuelle Bibliothek" mit Verweisen auf im Volltext abrufbare juristische Publikationen, eine Übersicht über die wichtigsten deutschen und europäischen Rechtsnormen, Zugang zu einer speziell (tele-)kommunikations-rechtlichen Mailingliste, eine Sonderseite zur Novellierung des Telekommunikations-gesetzes, kommunikationspolitische Positions-papiere sowie ein Archiv mit Vortragsunterlagen.

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