Legal and regulatory issues

Computer crime

• International child porn ring smashed  +/-

  (The Register) Two UK members of a worldwide child porn ring, were arrested in an "International Day of Action". Others arrested or questioned include ten Americans, seven Germans, one Canadian and one Norwegian.

• UK - Townshend placed on sex offenders register  +/-

  (The Guardian) The rock star Pete Townshend was cautioned by police and placed on the sex offenders register for five years following his admission that he accessed child pornography on the internet. Townshend, 57, received the caution at Kingston police station in south-west London for "accessing a website containing child abuse images".

• US - Cybercrime's Scope: Interpreting "Access" and "Authorization" in Computer Misuse Statutes  +/-

  (New York University Law Review) by Orin S. Kerr, George Washington University Law School. In the last twenty-five years, the federal government and all fifty states have enacted new criminal laws that prohibit unauthorized access to computers. These new laws attempt to draw a line between criminality and free conduct in cyberspace. No one knows what it means to "access" a computer, however, nor when access becomes "unauthorized." This Article presents a comprehensive inquiry into the meaning of unauthorized access statutes. Full text.

Content regulation

• FR - Deux étudiants exclus pour avoir téléchargé des images pornos  +/- Translate

  (Transfert) A Poitiers, on ne badine pas avec le sexe. Deux étudiants ont été exclus de l'université de Poitiers pour avoir téléchargé des images à caractère pornographique en utilisant le matériel mis à leur disposition par les services universitaires. L'un des étudiants a été exclu de l'établissement pour un an, l'autre s'est vu interdire définitivement toute inscription dans l'enseignement supérieur public français.

Copyright, trademarks and patents

• Public Domain - Conference proceedings  +/-

  (Law and Contemporary Problems) Volume 66 Winter/Spring 2003 Numbers 1 & 2. Papers from a Conference organized at Duke University School of Law in November 2001. see Foreword: The Opposite Of Property? by James Boyle.

• US - Why Grokster and Morpheus Won  +/-

  (FindLaw) Why Napster Lost, and What the Future of Peer-to-Peer File Sharing Looks Like Now, by Chris Sprigman. On April 25, in M-G-M v. Grokster , U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson dismissed a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by a group of movie studios and record companies against Grokster and Morpheus. (Grokster and Morpheus are peer-to-peer services that enable users to share copyrighted music, movies, and other content over the Internet without paying a dime to the copyright owners). Many observers were surprised. They had assumed that Grokster and Morpheus would - like Napster in A&M Records v. Napster - be shut down for facilitating individual file sharers' copyright infringement. But Judge Wilson, after carefully examining the underlying technology, found that though users' infringement was occurring, Grokster and Morpheus were not contributing to or authorizing it. Thus, they could not be held liable.

e-Government

• UK - Web Antidote for Political Apathy  +/-

  (Wired) In October, the BBC plans to flick the switch on an ambitious website designed to help Britons organize and run grassroots political campaigns. The site, dubbed iCan, is designed to help citizens investigate issues that concern them, find others who share those concerns and provide advice and tools for organizing and engaging in the political process. [ed: in this story for "gas" read petrol]

Hotlines

• AU - NetAlert gets a lifeline  +/-

  (Australian IT) Internet porn watchdog NetAlert has been thrown a $500,000 lifeline in industry support and the prospect of further federal funding, according to executive director Alan Tayt.

Junk mail (spam)

• US - Advocacy groups back antispam proposal  +/-

  (CNET News.com) Three consumer advocacy groups said they are backing a proposed e-mail standard that aims to help consumers and Internet service providers separate legitimate e-mail from unsolicited bulk e-mail, known as spam. The groups, the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email (CAUCE), CAUCE Canada and the SpamCon Foundation, endorsed the Trusted E-mail Open Standard (TEOS), which was proposed in April. The approach is based on the work of a privacy consultancy, ePrivacy Group, which created the Trusted Sender technology--an industry self-regulation program that tries to distinguish between legitimate e-mail and spam, and prevent marketers from setting up fraudulent e-mail accounts.

Liability, jurisdiction and applicable law

• Should The U.N. Intervene In A Transnational Internet Defamation Case?  +/-

  (FindLaw) University of Washington law professor Anita Ramasastry discusses an unusual move by a defendant in a landmark Internet defamation case. The case has been brought in Australia against an American journalist and his American publisher, on the ground that Australians could download the allegedly defamatory article. The journalist has sought the U.N.'s help, arguing that the Australian court's finding of jurisdiction violates a treaty, to which Australia is a signatory, guaranteeing his free speech rights.

• US - Court dismisses libel claim against eBay  +/-

  (AP) A California court has dismissed a libel claim against eBay by a shopper (an attorney) who was criticized by a merchant on the auction site - a key ruling that further limits eBay's responsibility for the actions of its users. see Grace v. Neeley (PDF).

Safer Internet awareness

• US - Play It Cyber Safe  +/-

  (BSA) While the Internet can be a unique educational and recreational resource for children, it's important that kids learn how to use this powerful tool safely and responsibly. The goal of this Web site is to empower children, parents and teachers to prevent cyber crime through knowledge of the law, their rights and how to avoid misuse of the Internet. The Cyber-Crime and Intellectual Property Theft Prevention and Education Project is a United States Department of Justice funded initiative to educate the public on cyber-crime and intellectual property theft. One of the key initiatives of this project is to develop educational tools designed to reach school-age children. The Business Software Alliance, in partnership with the Hamilton Fish Institute at the George Washington University, is the executor of the project.

Security and encryption

• Microsoft: flaw left millions at risk  +/-

  (AP) Microsoft acknowledged a security flaw in its popular Internet Passport service that left 200 million consumer accounts vulnerable to hackers and thieves -- an admission that could expose the company to a hefty fine from U.S. regulators.

Self-regulation / codes of conduct

• EU - Website Quality Labelling  +/-

  (PCMLP) Support for Cooperation and Coordination Projects in Europe. Stimulating the development of trustmarks for websites and enhancing trust in e-business and internet is a noble goal, but not an easy one. Trustmarks for websites to be successful need to have a strong basis, a strong, well recognised brand and a financially sustainable business model. In other words: a successful trustmark requires a lot of money and support. Without good marketing and a strong brand trustmarks will not be recognised and have little effect in practice. A paper written for the IAPCODE project funded by the Safer Internet Action Plan, administered by the European Commission.

• UK - Meyer outlines PCC reforms  +/-

  (Guardian) Sir Christopher Meyer has set out an eight-step plan to improve the press complaints commission, admitting self-regulation of newspapers had "jagged edges and imperfections".

Taxation and tariffs

• LU - AOL Europe sets up Luxembourg base for tax reasons  +/-

  (Reuters) AOL Europe, the Internet division of AOL Time Warner, is establishing a Luxembourg operations base to comply with new EU tax legislation.

Telecommunications

• OECD - Study Urges Governments to Maintain Competition Rules as Telecoms Sector Restructures  +/-

  (Press Release) Confidence is slowly returning to the telecommunications sector after the "boom and bust" years of the 1990s. Although the necessary restructuring now underway in the industry is painful, a new OECD study says governments and regulators should resist the temptation to provide relief to companies by easing competition requirements or by providing financial help. The study, After the Telecommunications Bubble, says that the current state of the industry in OECD countries does not justify a major shift in telecommunications regulatory policy as a way of encouraging new investment. Indeed, competition is still hampered in some market segments, particularly high-speed internet access, which deprives consumers and businesses of some of the benefits of technological innovation.

Market & Technology

Rating and filtering

• IRE - Irish firm launches 3G porn blocker  +/-

  (Electric news) Irish mobile technology company Telcotec has launched a new product designed to protect 2.5G and 3G mobile phone users from unsolicited and pornographic content. Telcotec's Content Guardian is a content filtering product that enables operators to filter pornographic images and block a limited amount of spam.

Standards

• eBusiness Standards Issues - Results from the Open Meeting  +/-

  (CEN) The Draft Report on key strategic aspects for e-business standardization in the framework of eEurope 2005 - prepared at the request of the European Commission DG Enterprise in the framework of eEurope 2005 - has been produced by the CEN/ISSS eBusiness Standards Focus Group. An open meeting to discuss this draft Report and draft Recommendations was held on 28 April 2003. The draft notes and presentations from this open meeting are now available. Comments on the draft report and the draft Recommendations should be sent before 15 May 2003.

Technology

• Program Lets P2P Users Roam Free  +/-

  (Wired) A new "cloaking" application that protects individuals from network snooping is making the rounds among file traders, marking the latest salvo in the increasingly volatile battle between music labels and file traders. Free software called PeerGuardian creates a personal firewall that blocks the IP addresses of snoops. They can see the names of files being traded, but they can't download the file to tell whether it's a copyrighted file.

Forthcoming events

• 2003-06-11 EU, Brussels - Consumer Complaints Form for Online Resolution Mechanisms  +/-

  (CCform) Public Plenary Meeting. The CCform project has been working to improve the standards of complaint management to the benefit of consumers and business customers, as well as product and service suppliers. We are developing an online, multilingual complaint form and a best practice business process that will enable consumers to complain in their own language and track its progress and, if necessary, escalate their grievance to a dispute resolution service or regulator. Over the last six months members of the project representing large companies, SMEs, consumer organisations, regulators, legal experts or software researchers have met in topic panels in order to discuss and reach a consensus on the various components that will ultimately make up a standardised complaint form and process. We have looked into such areas as legal and consumer affairs, standards for SMEs, alternative dispute resolution systems, ontology/technology/multilinguism & extensibility and vertical markets. On 11 June, in Brussels, we will hold a final workshop to present the findings of each groups.

• 2003-07-09 EU, Brussels - Content for broadband and digital tv beyond national borders  +/-

  (Puntoit) Puntoit is organizing a Workshop at the European Parliament in Brussels, on "Content for broadband and digital tv beyond national borders. At EU level, the most critical issue concerns content distribution rights. Do we need new rules to give unrestricted access to consumers at European level?" This unique event will bring together representatives from content, providers, broadcasters, telecom operators, manufacturers, and EU Institutions. Italian version: Accesso ai contenuti nell'era della larga banda, 3G e tv digitale E' ormai evidente che, nell'era della larga banda, del 3G e della tv digitale, la questione chiave per il settore dell'ICT riguarda l'accesso ai ai contenuti. Il Workshop tratterà due tematiche in due sessioni separate: i) Come è possibile massimizzare la disponibilità del contenuto nel quadro del mercato unico? ii) Quale può essere il ruolo delle regole della concorrenza per risolvere i problemi di accesso al contenuto e per affrontare la questione della protezione dei diritti di proprietà intellettuale in un contesto di capacità tecnologiche in continua evoluzione?

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