Legal and regulatory issues

Competition

• EU - Commission clears merger between Stream and Telepiù  +/-

  (RAPID) The European Commission has cleared the proposed acquisition by Australian media group Newscorp of Italian pay-television company Telepiù from Vivendi Universal. Telepiú will be merged with Stream, the other pay-TV company in Italy, currently a 50/50 joint venture of Newscorp and Telecom Italia. Newscorp will hold control of the new company . Telecom Italia will hold a minority stake not exceeding 19,9%. The operation results in a near-monopoly in the Italian pay-TV market. But the Commission has taken the view that authorising the merger, subject to appropriate conditions, would be more beneficial to consumers than the disruption that would have been caused by the likely closure of Stream, the smaller and weaker of the two existing operators.

• US - AOL asks FCC to lift IM restriction  +/-

  (CNET News.com) AOL Time Warner has submitted a petition asking to be excused from the instant messaging interoperability requirements imposed by the Federal Communications Commission. The petition asks the regulatory agency to remove a restriction forbidding America Online from offering video streaming through its popular instant messaging services.

Computer crime

• AU - New laws for net child porn  +/-

  (Australia) People who use the internet for child pornography will face up to 10 years jail under new laws to be introduced by the federal government. Downloading or transmitting child pornography would become a federal offence;

• DE - BKA ermittelt gegen Tausch von Kinderpornografie über KaZaA  +/- Translate

  (Heise) Bundesweit 57 mutmaßlichen Besitzern von Kinderpornografie ist das Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) über das Internet auf die Spur gekommen. Bei anschließenden Durchsuchungen von Wohnungen und Geschäftsräumen im Rahmen der Aktion Herakles stellten die Beamten in der vergangenen Woche 72 Computer, 5144 Datenträger und 405 Videos sicher, wie die Behörde am heutigen Mittwoch mitteilt. Die Verdächtigen sollen über die Internet-Tauschbörse KaZaA kinderpornografische Dateien angeboten haben. Das BKA unterstreicht in diesem Zusammenhang ausdrücklich, dass auch Tauschbörsen kein rechtsfreier Raum seien.

• UK - Cambridge - Computer programme jailed  +/-

  (Cambridge News) A computer programmer who downloaded more than 2,500 images of child pornography from the internet has begun a nine month jail sentence.

• US - 3 get prison sentences in online child porn case  +/-

  (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) A couple and man who raped little children and took photos of the crimes that were traded on the Internet were given federal prison sentences ranging from 15 to 27 years.

Consumer protection

• Warning on web travel deals  +/-

  (BBC) A co-ordinated international world-wide internet search has identified more than 50 UK travel websites which make potentially misleading claims. The OFT and 55 local trading standards offices were among 87 enforcement agencies in 24 countries who surfed the internet looking for potentially misleading claims about travel deals. The sweeps are organised by the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network (ICPEN), a network of consumer protection authorities in 31 countries.

Content regulation

• The only auto company in the world that peddles porn  +/-

  (Cincinatti Enquirer) General Motors is the only auto company in the world that peddles porn. GM owns Hughes Electronics, which owns DirecTV, which offers hard-core porn that could be prosecuted in court, according to the Religious Alliance Against Pornography and the National Coalition for the Protection of Families and Children.

• UK - ITC faces court action in CNBC funding row  +/-

  (BBC) CNBC Europe is threatening to take the television watchdog to court after a row over European Union funding for its programmes. The broadcaster said it would seek a judicial review of the independent television commission's decision that it was wrong to accept almost £200,000 from the EU for a series of programmes about the euro. see ITC News Release

• UK - Minister rules out controls on press freedom  +/-

  (Times) Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, rejected calls from MPs to put newspapers under statutory controls, saying that any such restrictions would be unacceptable in a democratic society.

Copyright, trademarks and patents

• CA - Technical Protection Measures  +/-

  (Canadian Heritage) Part I - Trends in Technical Protection Measures and Circumvention Technologies. This is the first of two companion Studies prepared for the Copyright Policy Branch of the Department of Canadian Heritage by the law firm of Nelligan O'Brien Payne LLP. These Studies address a range of policy considerations associated with the use of technological protection measures (TPMs) as a means of applying the law of copyright in digital environments.

• EU - Moving towards Consensus on Digital Rights Management - Speech by Mr Liikanen  +/-

  (RAPID) Mr Erkki Liikanen, Member of the European Commission, responsible for Enterprise and the Information Society, Workshop on Digital Rights Management, Brussels, 25 March 2003. see Information Society DG Digital Rights Management and Events.

• US - DMCA critics decry state-level proposals  +/-

  (CNET News.com) Critics of the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act are disturbed by proposals for similar laws at the state level. Quietly, opponents said, with few people paying close attention, state legislators are considering bills that would be even broader than the controversial DMCA, which restricts bypassing copy-protection measures.

• US - Record Industry and Webcasters Agree on Royalty Rates for Online Music  +/-

  (Washington Post) The recording industry and Internet music broadcasters have agreed on how much big webcasters like Yahoo!, America Online, Microsoft and RealNetworks must pay to broadcast songs over the Internet during 2003 and 2004. The new deal, if approved by the U.S. Copyright Office, will allow the two industries to avoid a lengthy arbitration process to set the royalty rates.

• US - RIAA sues campus file-swappers  +/-

  (CNET News.com) The recording industry has stepped up its campaign against campus music swapping, filing suit against four university students who operated file-search services on their school's internal networks. The lawsuits, filed against two students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), and one each at Princeton University and Michigan Technological University, ratchet up the pressure that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) recently has been putting on universities to block campus file-trading. see also comments by Michigan Tech and Princeton (Chronicle of Higher Education).

Data Protection (privacy)

• Traveling? Take Big Brother Along  +/-

  (Wired) Travel industry databases contain a wealth of information, including but not limited to whom travelers have shared a room with, what movies they watched, what they ate, and even whether they are grumpy or easy to get along with. Passenger name records (PNRs) are maintained by airlines, computerized reservations systems and travel agencies. see Computer-Assisted Passenger Prescreening 2 (CAPPS-II) presentation by Edward Hasbrouck at CFP 2003.

• US - ACLU cyberchief worried about privacy  +/-

  (AP) Barry Steinhardt is paid to be paranoid. The American Civil Liberties Union's cyberchief holds up his Handspring Treo, a combination organizer, phone and e-mail gadget, as he describes the many ways his government might spy on him.

Digital divide

• Is Africa ready for 3G?  +/-

  (CNET News.com) Next-generation cell phone networks are arriving in Africa, a region some carriers view as an enormous business opportunity, despite widespread poverty.

e-Government

• EU - Political agreement on Directive on re-use and commercial exploitation of public sector documents  +/-

  (RAPID) Results of the Telecom Council of Ministers, 27 March 2003. The Council reached unanimous political agreement on a future common position on the proposal for a Directive on re-use and commercial exploitation of public sector documents.

Electronic commerce

• FR - Avant-projet de loi relatif aux communications électroniques  +/- Translate

  (DDM) Après une consultation publique au cours de laquelle l´ensemble des acteurs concernés ont pu faire valoir leurs préoccupations, le ministère de la culture et de la communication et le ministère délégué à l´industrie ont élaboré un avant-projet de loi relatif aux communications électroniques, destiné à assurer la transposition en droit français des directives communautaires en la matière (communément désignées comme « paquet télécoms »). Soumis à consultation publique, cet avant-projet de loi est susceptible d'être modifié à l'issue de la consultation . voir aussi l'exposé des motifs.

• US - Gambling Sites Adjust to Scrutiny  +/-

  (New York Times) Congress took substantial action against Internet betting, with a House committee passing a bill to curb online gambling and a nearly identical bill being introduced in the Senate. Similar bills have been introduced in Congress before, but none passed both houses in the same session. With increased Congressional interest now, the legislation may well reach the president's desk this year.

Information society and Internet policy

• US - UCLA Internet Report - "Surveying the Digital Future"  +/-

  (UCLA Center for Communication Policy) UCLA Internet Report -Year Three. The UCLA Internet Project is a comprehensive, year-to-year examination of the impact of online technology on America. This work is part of the World Internet Project.

• WSIS - Draft declaration of principles and action plan  +/-

  (WSIS) World Summit on the Information Society. An information society for all and an opportunity for all to comment. Draft declaration of principles and Draft action plan

Interception

• US - Online Phone Monitoring Sticky for FBI  +/-

  (AP) Wiretapping takes on a whole new meaning now that phone calls are being made over the Internet, posing legal and technical hurdles for the FBI. The FBI wants regulators to affirm that such services fall under a 1994 law requiring phone companies to build in surveillance capabilities. It is also pushing the industry to create technical standards to make wiretapping easier and cheaper.

Internet access and use

• UK - Oftel pushes for cheaper narrowband Internet  +/-

  (ZDNet) Oftel is pushing for the cost of BT's wholesale unmetered narrowband Internet access products to be cut by 17 percent. The telecoms regulator said that some of the charges that BT levies on the service providers that use its network to offer dial-up services are no longer fair. Oftel wants these costs to be dropped by BT, and claims that this would be good news for consumers. see Intelligent Network (IN) Charge for DLE and ST FRIACO.

Junk mail (spam)

• US - Spam suits seek poetic justice  +/-

  (CNET News.com) Habeas is suing bulk e-mailers, accusing them of using its poetry without permission in an unusual use of trademark law to clamp down on spammers. Habeas puts a new twist on spam prevention by inserting some trademarked haiku lines into the header of an e-mail. When it launched, Habeas promised to closely track how its haikus were used and threatened to sue those who ran afoul of its trademarks and copyrights.

Mobile and wireless

• UK - Pre-paying Brits won't flock to 3G  +/-

  (ZDNet Uk) Many mobile phone users are too cost-conscious to make the leap to 3G. A new study from independent research group The Work Foundation casts doubt on the ability of third-generation network operators to build successful mass-market services in the near term.

Protection of minors

• DE - „Wir betreten Neuland“  +/- Translate

  (Süddeutsche Zeitung) Knapp ein Jahr nach dem Schulmassaker in Erfurt haben Bund und Länder Neuregelungen getroffen, um Kinder und Jugendliche besser vor Gewaltdarstellungen in Fernsehen und Internet zu schützen. Am 1 April ist der neue Jugendmedienschutz-Staatsvertrag in Kraft getreten, der Gesetze und Staatsverträge zusammenfasst und vereinheitlicht; Herzstück ist die Kommission für Jugendmedienschutz (KJM) in Erfurt. Eine Schlüsselrolle spielt Wolf-Dieter Ring, 61, Präsident der Bayerischen Landeszentrale für Neue Medien. siehe dazu auch das Statement des Vorsitzenden der Kommission für Jugendmedienschutz (KJM), Prof. Dr. Wolf-Dieter Ring. Bitkom begrüßt neuen Jugendschutz (Yahoo)

• DE - Computerspiele - Die Schwachstellen eines Gesetzes  +/- Translate

  (manager-magazin.de) Seit einigen Tagen ist das neue deutsche Jugendschutzgesetz in Kraft. Hermann Achilles, Geschäftsführer vom Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware, sieht Probleme auf seine Branche zukommen.

• DE - Das neue Gesetz stellt digitale Kultur unter Generalverdacht  +/- Translate

  (Heise) Am 1. April 2003 tritt in Deutschland die Neufassung des Jugendschutzgesetzes in Kraft. Im Wesentlichen fordert das neue Gesetz, dass prinzipiell ALLE Video- und Computerspiele von der USK, der Unterhaltungssoftware SelbstKontrolle, zu prüfen sind. Spiele ohne USK-Kennzeichnung (genauso wie jene, die von der USK das neue Prädikat "Keine Jugendfreigabe" erhalten) dürfen an Minderjährigen nicht mehr verkauft und nicht mehr über Versandhandel vertrieben werden. Über das neue Jugendschutzgesetz und seine Auswirkungen auf die deutsche Videospielszene befragte Thomas Willmann den Leiter der USK, K.-Peter Gerstenberger.

• DE - jugendschutz.net beanstandete mehr als 819 deutsche Online-Anbieter  +/- Translate

  (Heise) Die Länder-Organisation jugendschutz.net hat im vergangenen Jahr 819 Internet-Anbieter wegen jugendgefährdender Online-Seiten beanstandet. In 75 Prozent dieser Fälle hätten die Betreiber die Seiten anschließend ausreichend geändert.

• DE - Neue Jugendschutzgesetz - MSN schließt Erwachsenengruppen  +/- Translate

  (internet.com) Microsoft schließt mit sofortiger Wirkung sämtliche Erwachsenengruppen innerhalb seines Dienstes MSN Groups. Man will damit prophylaktisch dem neuen Jugendmedienschutz-Staatsvertrag (JMStV) Rechnung tragen, der am 1. April in Kraft getreten ist. Der JMStV verpflichtet unter anderem Dienste-Anbieter (Host-, Access-, Content-Provider), Kindern und Jugendlichen den Zugang zu jugendgefährdenden Inhalten durch Altersverifizierung zu erschweren bzw. die Verbreitung jugendgefährdender Inhalte auf Nachtzeiten zu beschränken.

• DE - Neue Kommission will Jugendschutz in Medien verstärken  +/- Translate

  (Heise) Die Landesmedienanstalten wollen mit der neuen Kommission für Jugendmedienschutz (KJM) stärker gegen Gewalt in Privatfernsehen und Internet vorgehen. Damit gebe es erstmals eine gemeinsame Aufsicht für Rundfunk und Internet, sagte der Vorsitzende Wolf-Dieter Ring heute nach der ersten Sitzung der Kommission in Erfurt. Die Anbieter sollten sich selbst regulieren, wenn sie dafür von der Kommission anerkannt seien. Die rechtliche Grundlage dafür ist der neue Jugendmedienschutz-Staatsvertrag.

• DE - Neues Jugendschutzrecht wird nicht weiter verschärft  +/- Translate

  (Heise) Die erst am 1. April in Kraft getretenen neuen Jugendschutzbestimmungen werden kurzfristig nicht weiter verschärft. Ein Gesetzentwurf der unionsregierten Länder aus dem Bundesrat wurde im Bundestag von SPD, Grünen und FDP abgelehnt. Nach den Vorschlägen von CDU/CSU sollte der Umgang mit Videofilmen, die Gewalt zeigen, und mit derartigen Computer- und Videospielen noch weiter eingeschränkt werden.

Racism and xenophobia

• DE - Überflüssiges gegen rechts  +/- Translate

  (taz) Der Bundesrechnungshof sagt: Die Regierungsprogramme gegen "Rechtsextremismus" sind ineffektiv. Kosten und Nutzen stünden in keinem vernünftigen Verhältnis zueinander, darum sollten sie gestoppt werden.

Rating and filtering

• DE - Gutachten: Unzureichender Jugendschutz durch Filtersysteme  +/- Translate

  (Heise) Pünktlich zum heutigen Inkrafttreten des neuen Jugendmedienschutzsstaatsvertrages (JMStV) legt Jugendschutz.net die Ergebnisse eines im Auftrag des Landes Niedersachsen vorgenommenen Vergleichs verschiedener Filterprogramme vor. Während man mit Verbesserungen von Filtern für Pornographie ingesamt zufrieden ist, sieht man noch große Lücken bei der Filterung von Gewalt und rechtsextremen Seiten. Ein geradezu vernichtendes Urteil fällt jugendschutz.net über ICRASafe. Im Test waren daneben die AOL-Kindersicherung und speziell gepflegte Kinderangebote von AOL, Arcor-Juniornet, Cobion Orangebox, Surfcontrol, Symantec und Webwasher.

• US - Child Porn Law Creates Catch-22  +/-

  (Wired) Pennsylvania's attorney general is citing laws against distributing child pornography in refusing to identify any of hundreds of websites his office has forced the nation's largest Internet providers to block under a unique state law. The Center for Democracy and Technology had sought the list of sites to buttress its assertions that the Pennsylvania law blocks Web surfers visiting innocent sites located in the same electronic neighborhoods as those peddling illegal porn. The attorney general's office said disclosing the list of blocked websites would itself be disseminating such pornography, which is illegal.

Telecommunications

• EU - European Regulators' Group agrees steps towards implementation of Electronic Communications Package  +/-

  (RAPID) The European Regulators Group (ERG) which is comprised of the Member States' National Regulatory Authorities in the field of telecoms, held its third meeting on 28 March 2003 in Brussels. The Group is established by the New Electronic Communications Package that is due to be implemented by the Member States by end of July this year.

Market & Technology

Internet access and use

• Streaming video hits prime time  +/-

  (CNET News.com) Streaming video is coming of age as numerous Internet news and entertainment outlets tout new programming and combined subscription services geared toward broadband audiences.

• UK - Broadband price drop is fix, say ISPs  +/-

  (Guardian) Internet service providers have reacted angrily to BT's latest broadband price cuts, claiming they will be unable to pass on savings to consumers and calling on regulators to step in. An AOL spokesman said while BT has dropped the monthly wholesale price it has doubled the price it charges to ISPs to activate a new account from £25 to £50. see also BT cuts price of broadband;

Market

• AOL touts new broadband pacts  +/-

  (CNET News.com) America Online unveiled new broadband partnerships in the campaign to entice its dial-up subscribers to high-speed Internet access. The online subsidiary of AOL Time Warner announced a new agreement with Major League Baseball's MLB Advanced Media that will provide AOL broadband subscribers with access to a variety of video and audio programs. AOL's strategy now emphasizes offering new features geared toward broadband users, in a quest to harness Internet users' growing enthusiasm for high-speed services that enable streaming audio and video over the Web.

• US - AOL's shrinking dial-up base  +/-

  (Reuters) America Online expects to see its dial-up subscriber base contract, extending a trend seen in the last quarter, according to a regulatory filing the Internet division of AOL Time Warner. The remark reflects a quandary many Internet service providers face and underscores the importance of making strides in the high-speed, or broadband, world.

• US - Will broadband providers control Net content?  +/-

  (IDG) As the U.S.' Internet architecture moves from dial-up access to broadband, some speakers at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy (CFP) conference in New York expressed concern that the major cable operators that provide the high-speed networks will control users' access to content. The Center for Digital Democracy's fear is of a broadband world where cable operators steer users to content, services and applications that they or their partners own, and impede access to competitors' offerings, by slowing down users' connection rates to those sites or blocking them altogether. They argue for either allowing ISPs (Internet service providers) open access to the high-speed networks, or drafting regulations preventing broadband providers from limiting users' access to Web content and services.

Rating and filtering

• Net Porn  +/-

  (Observer) Millions of men log on to adult sex sites every day. With unlimited porn just a click away, cybersex is changing the way men view real women. But what happens to their emotions when the screen shuts down?

Standards

• W3C - Microsoft leaves standards group  +/-

  (CNET News.com) Microsoft has pulled out of a working group within the Web's leading standards organisation, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) focused on establishing rules for how businesses will send and receive data to one another via Web services. The company withdrew from the W3C's so-called choreography group because it determined that the scope of the group did not align well with the work of two Microsoft researchers.

Statistics

• Net users flock to news websites  +/-

  (NUA) Traffic to major news websites soared during the week ending March 23rd as large numbers of people went online to find out about developments in the war against Iraq. According to new data from Nielsen-Netratings, CNN.com broke the 10 million mark at work, with traffic rising by 58 percent compared to the previous week.

• Sweden top Web-savvy nation  +/-

  (Reuters) Sweden has overtaken the United States as the Web-savviest nation on the planet. Denmark, was also more aggressive in taking advantage of the Internet than the United States, according to research carried out by U.S. computer company International Business Machines and the intelligence unit of British magazine The Economist.

• US - More high-speed Net subscribers  +/-

  (NUA) America’s leading cable and DSL providers added a combined 6.4 million high-speed Internet subscribers during 2002, according to new data from Leichtman Research Group. At the end of 2002, the leading providers had accumulated a total of over 17.4 million high-speed Internet subscribers in the US.

Forthcoming events

• 2003-07-31 US, Orlando - Pista '03  +/-

  (IIS) Politics and Information Systems: Technologies and Applications: July 31, August 1-2, 2003 - Orlando, Florida, USA Jointly with The International Conference On Computer, Communication And Control Technologies: CCCT '03

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.