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(Reuters) Failing to recognize that child abusers may be other than dirty old men in raincoats means some abusers can commit crimes without being caught, a children's rights group said. In a new report, Save the Children also highlighted the potential threats to children posed by the Internet, where child pornography is widely distributed and one in five children under 18 years are solicited for sex by adults in chatrooms.
(Guardian) There was growing pressure last night to close a legal loophole that saw a paedophile yesterday get a three-year jail sentence for sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl he had met in an internet chatroom by posing as a 19-year-old. The maximum sentence for unlawful sex with a girl under 13 is life imprisonment, but only two years for a child of 13 or over.
(BBC) A former vice-chancellor of Loughborough University has been jailed for nine months after police found thousands of indecent pictures of children on his computer. Professor Ian Coates Morison admitted he was addicted to child porn and surfed the internet at home and at work in search of pictures. see also UK - Surveyor jailed for child porn (BBC) and UK - Pair jailed in child porn case (Shropshire Star) .
(Washington Post) As undercover assignments go, posing as a teenage girl online to catch pedophiles has its share of challenges for the typical FBI agent, so that is why three Maryland girls are teaching the FBI their lingo.
(Heise) Der Bundestag hat einstimmig ein Gesetz beschlossen, mit dem Verbraucher vor dem Missbrauch von 0190- und 0900-Nummern geschützt werden sollen. Die Anrufkosten für 0190- und 0900-Nummern werden auf maximal 2 Euro pro Minute begrenzt. Außerdem werden solche teuren Verbindungen künftig nach einer Stunde automatisch getrennt. Das Gesetz bedarf noch der Zustimmung des Bundesrates, es soll im Juli in Kraft treten.
(Chine Economy) China's Ministry of Culture has launched regulations to strengthen the management of online games and products to be sold or used on the Internet, including the approval for import of such products and for the launch of such websites.
(Council of Europe) The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted a CoE - Declaration on freedom of communication on the Internet. The main objective is to strike a balance between freedom of expression and information on the Internet and other rights guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights, such as the protection of children against unsuitable online content. In response to the risk of over-regulation of Internet access, the text underlines the principle of freedom of expression and the free circulation of information on the Internet, in accordance with the requirements of Article 10 (freedom of expression and information) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The Declaration condemns practices aimed at restricting or controlling Internet access, especially for political reasons. The Declaration also deals with the freedom to provide services via the Internet, the responsibility of intermediaries and the anonymity of Internet communications.
(Washington Post) An ideologically fractured Federal Communications Commission voted 3 to 2 along party lines to relax or eliminate some key media ownership rules, allowing a newspaper to own a television station in the same city and broadcast networks to buy more stations at the national and local levels. see FCC Press Release. See also US - Media regulators get a roasting (Guardian). The US regulators responsible for the relaxation of media ownership rules that could benefit media giants such as Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation were given a roasting by senators at a committee hearing in Washington.
(CNET News.com) A U.S.-based software antipiracy group has begun to target Asia-Pacific Web sites and users of peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, looking for those who trade in illegal software. The Business Software Alliance (BSA), whose members include large companies such as Adobe and Microsoft, has recently aimed its software-sniffing Web crawler specifically at Asia-Pacific sites. The action was prompted by the high rates of Internet-based piracy in the region, which is beginning to rival more traditional methods such as illegal discs.
(BSA) 2002 marks the eighth year of the annual Business Software Alliance Global Software Piracy Study and, since the inception of the study in 1994, significant success in combating software piracy is evident. Aided by considerable decreases in the piracy rates of each of the six regions defined by the study, the 2002 world piracy rate of 39% is 10 points below the piracy rate measured in 1994. 2002 also marks the first decline in the world software piracy rate since 1999, the year in which the piracy rate hit an all-time low of 36%.
(Bakgkok Post) Deputy Commerce Minister Watana Muangsook lashed out at the European Commission over its report on the high piracy rate of sound recording products in Thailand, saying the data used were out-of-date and distorted by Thai distributors.
(Press Release) Oftel has set out proposals to continue with the current arrangements for the provision of conditional access services under the new EC regulatory regime. Oftel's proposals are subject to a consultation which runs until 7 July 2003.
(CNET News.com) Foes of federal copyright law are launching a public campaign to create a policy that they see as better in step with the Internet age. Lawrence Lessig is leading the charge. The goal of the petition is to convince Congress to require copyright holders to pay a $1 fee every 50 years in order to extend their copyrights. The way it is now, copyrights are automatically extended whether or not their owners are alive or want their work protected by copyright.
(Euroap) Art 29 Data Protection Working Party - Working Document on Transfers of personal data to third countries: Applying Article 26 (2) of the EU Data Protection Directive to Binding Corporate Rules for International Data Transfers.
(FindLaw) by Anita Ramasastry. When - if ever - can third parties legally monitor your Internet activity? The answer is still unclear. However, a recent ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit provides at least some guidance. In provisions of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA), which expanded anti-wiretapping protections to include electronic communications. Under the ECPA, it is unlawful to intercept communications between two parties intentionally if neither consents to the interception. The Pharmatrak ruling shows that the ECPA has potential to protect privacy on the Internet, when privacy is violated by third party data collection. But the ECPA's limitations suggest that protection is far from complete.
(Washington Post) Verizon Communications gave a music-industry trade group the names of four customers suspected of illegally downloading digital copies of songs, but promised to keep fighting the law that forced it to do so. The nation's largest telephone company was ordered to surrender the names to the Recording Industry Association of America by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia after the court rejected Verizon's request for a stay of the decision until Sept. 16, when Verizon is to challenge the law used by the RIAA to get the names.
(CNET News.com) A federal judge granted Google's motion to dismiss a suit brought by SearchKing that alleged the company manipulated search results in its powerful Web index. The judge dismissed the case on the grounds that Google's formula for calculating the popularity of a Web page, or "PageRank," constitutes opinions protected by the First Amendment.
(EESC) Is industry responding to the challenges? Is co-regulation, as advocated by the Committee, preferable to self-regulation as advocated by the European Commission? These are two key questions that 70 participants, attending a hearing organised by the European Economic and Social Committee at its headquarters in Brussels, will be answering on 5th June between 14:30 and 17:30. The hearing, organised by the TEN (Transport, Energy, Infrastructure and Information Society) Section of the Committee will be opened by its President Mr Graf von Schwerin, followed by Mrs Ann Davison, EESC rapporteur on the subject of Internet child safety. Approximately 70 participants have been invited, including representatives of industry and major European associations that are involved in protecting children. The European Commission will also be represented.
(CLUSIT) Milano, 13 maggio 2003. Convegno eAware. Atti degli interventi. Principi della tutela dei minori in rete secondo quanto previsto dal Progetto Onde del 1996 Gigi Tagliapietra ed Il ruolo delle scuole per la creazione di ambienti positivi e sicuri nel territorio Alessandro Musumeci.
(New York Times) Being a parent has never been easy, and armfuls of literature on the topic of video games aren't making it any easier. Sorting out the debate about the effects of electronic games on children and deciding on a set of guidelines can be an endless, and thankless, task. Even experts disagree. In the face of contradictory, inconclusive or just plain confusing evidence, some parents, like Ms. Taplin, agonize over what limits to set. Others agonize less, but are not always comfortable with what their children are doing or might be doing. Many parents rely on their own instincts and their knowledge of their children to set limits and construct rules.
(CNET News.com) A federal appeals court panel has struck down a law that restricted children's access to violent video games, giving the software the same free-speech protection as that for works of art. A panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a St. Louis County, Mo., ordinance that bans the rentals or sales of graphically violent video games to minors violates free-speech rights. In doing so, the panel reversed a ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri and ordered the lower court to craft an injunction that would prohibit the ordinance from taking effect.
(Reuters) A Washington state law that seeks to curb the sale of violent video games to minors has been challenged by the gaming industry's main trade group, which filed a lawsuit to strike down the law. The Videogame Violence Bill, which is slated to go into effect from July 27, would fine retail employees in Washington $500 if they sell violent video games depicting the killing of a police officer to anyone under 17. But the Interactive Digital Software Association, opposed the law, saying that it infringed the First Amendment free speech rights of game publishers.
(Lernen aus der Geschichte) Wo sich Rechtsextremisten mehr und mehr über das Internet vernetzten, tun dies auch ihre Gegner im Kampf gegen Internetseiten mit rechtsextremistischen Inhalten. In Amsterdam wurde im Dezember 2002 das "International Network Against Cyber Hate" (INACH) gegründet. Dieses Projekt soll insbesondere den Verfolgungsdruck auf Rechtsextremisten erhöhen, die ihre Seiten ins Ausland verlagern. Mitmachen können Initiativen und Einrichtungen, die sich gegen Rechtsextremismus im Internet wenden.
(Federal Communications Commission) New technologies are changing the landscape of our communications arena almost daily. With an increasing number and variety of communications entering our homes each day, it can be hard for parents and caregivers to monitor, or even track, what children are watching and hearing. While technology has great potential to teach the nation's children, it also has the power to shape their lives and opinions. The FCC has an array of information to help parents deal with, decipher, and monitor the communications that their children can access.
(EurActiv.com) The Telecommunications Council agreed on 5 June to set up a European Network and Information Security Agency. The EU's telecommunications ministers endorsed in principle on 5 June plans to create the European Network and Information Security Agency. The UK and Germany abstained in the voting. The new body would function as an advisory body on how to combat hacking, virus attacks and threats to information networks, and it would also formulate pan-EU guidelines. The text of the general approach includes the following changes in relation to the Commission's initial proposal: Limitation of the Agency's activities to an advisory role and deletion of provisions concerning an advisory board; Modification of the composition of the Management Board to include one representative of each Member State, three representatives appointed by the Commission and one representative each (without the right to vote) of the information and consumer technologies industry, consumer groups and academic experts in network and information security; Extension of the Management Board's functions and of its involvement in the day-to-day operation of the Agency.
(New York Times) A study, by the National Cyber Security Alliance highlights the gap between the assumptions of consumers make about the security of their broadband Internet connection and the reality. The result is a high risk of hacking, viruses and identity theft. Although nearly half of broadband users have young children who use a computer, only 3 percent have parental controls to shield their children from pornography. More than 40 percent of the users lack a firewall to protect their computers from intrusion. see also NCSA Press Release and Stay Safe Online.
(CNET News.com) The Department of Homeland Security has created a new division to address threats to the nation's technological infrastructure. Called the National Cyber Security Division (NCSD), the 60-person unit is charged with addressing potential security breaches to private-sector and government computer systems.
(Guardian) Sara Cox, the Radio 1 disc jockey, has won a landmark human rights case against the tabloid press for invading her privacy by publishing naked pictures of her and her husband on their honeymoon. The legal victory is bound to embarrass the press complaints commission (PCC) because it illustrates that the law can now prove more effective than self-regulation in punishing newspapers. It may inspire other celebrities who are upset by an intrusive press to launch similar actions. Toothless tiger (Guardian) by Roy Greenslade. A cloud hangs over press self-regulation this weekend. The importance of Sara Cox's legal triumph over the Sunday People and the collapse of the Victoria Beckham kidnap trial due to the News of the World's payment to a witness illustrate the hollowness of the PCC's claim to have tamed tabloid excesses, and demonstrate its inability to deal with blatant abuses of the editors' code of practice. The Cox case alone exposes the inadequacies of a system which is predicated on the subjective vagaries of conciliation rather than the more objective methods of adjudication.
(Heise) Die Regulierungsbehörde für Telekommunikation und Post kündigte an, dass die Deutsche Telekom in diesem Jahr und 2004 im Anschlussbereich die Preise in einem oder mehreren Schritten bis maximal 10 Prozent anheben darf. Hierdurch könnte die monatliche Grundgebühr um zwei Euro steigen. Hintergrund ist der Vorwurf der EU-Kommission, dass der Ex-Monopolist durch eine zu enge Kosten-Preis-Schere den Wettbewerb im Ortsnetz verhindere. Gegen das Unternehmen verhängte die Kommission vor wenigen Wochen ein Bußgeld in Höhe von 12,6 Millionen Euro. Dabei rügte Brüssel den geringen Abstand zwischen Vorleistungs- und Endkundenpreis.
(AP) Consumers should be allowed to keep their phone numbers when they switch cellular providers, a federal court ruled in rejecting an appeal by wireless companies. Consumer advocates say the inability to retain numbers is one of the biggest barriers preventing more cell phone users from switching in search of better service and prices. The Federal Communications Commission is requiring wireless carriers to provide "number portability" by Nov. 24. Verizon Wireless and the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, an industry group, told a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that the FCC overstepped its authority by imposing the requirement. They said it will raise costs while doing little to increase competition. The court rejected that challenge, calling the FCC's action "permissible and reasonable."
(Guardian) It's all very well having a camera in your mobile phone, but what do you do with it? And who can you send pictures to when none of your friends has a similar phone or use a picture messaging network? Last week, a new European venture was launched with the aim of creating a use for all that technology, as well as hitching itself to the latest online bandwagon - blogging. The site, 20six.co.uk, allows mobile phone users to post pictures and text to personal journals or "blogs". It's a process that has come to be known as "mobloggling" or "photo-logging". With the addition of mobile video, it is now even possible to "video-blog" or "vlog".
(Reuters) Halt! Who goes there? Friend or foe? Internet users frustrated by a rising deluge of spam, or junk e-mail, are resorting to a new arsenal of software tools that block or quarantine mail of unknown origin. The anti-spam options range from address-book based systems that redirect mail from unknown senders, to image-blocking software, to collaborative reporting tools that allow users to report bulk e-mails with a single button click. In general, Internet users are resorting to the tactics of the medieval castle guard who barred all strangers at the gate.
(CNET News.com) The local government in Munich, Germany, has voted to move 14,000 computers from Microsoft's Windows to the rival Linux operating system, despite efforts by the software giant to hang onto the multimillion-dollar contract. Microsoft had fought hard to retain the business, offering deals and discounts, with CEO Steve Ballmer interrupting a ski vacation in Switzerland to pay a personal visit to Munich's mayor about the issue.
(BBC) Shares in mobile phone operators MMO2, Orange and Vodafone were among the heaviest fallers of leading London shares after Hutchison 3G, the UK's first third-generation mobile phone operator, said it was slashing prices in an attempt to poach customers from rival networks. Hutchison 3G - whose brand name is 3 - will launch two pricing packages aimed at attracting users of traditional voice services to its new network.
(Washington Post) America Online has lost more than 1 million dial-up customers since the dramatic decline in its subscriber base began late last year, sources familiar with the figures said. The Dulles-based firm is rapidly losing customers to NetZero and other lower-priced bare-bones Internet services, as well as to higher-priced high-speed cable and telephone providers. see also Web users desert AOL (Guardian).
(CNET News.com) Spam has officially overtaken legitimate e-mail in the workplace, and there’s little relief in sight. The month of May marked the first time that commercial e-mail comprised 51 percent of all messages received by workers, according to MessageLabs, a provider of managed e-mail security services. MessageLabs only analyzed 133.9 million messages sent to its global network of business customers.
(BBC) High-speed net access in Europe is growing fast, boosted by demand for porn and music, a study Broadband Revolutionizing Europe’s Internet Behaviour finds. The numbers of European surfers using high-speed net connections grew by 136% in the last year, according to internet measurement firm Nielsen/NetRatings. File-sharing sites and adult content pull the biggest audiences among broadband surfers
(CyberAtlas) Asians, like their European counterparts, are ready to adopt next generation wireless and its enhanced services - and pay extra for them - with the largest group (48 percent) interested in downloading and playing music clips. 25 percent of mobile phone owners in the 11 Asian countries surveyed are using, or likely to start using, 2.5 and 3G services within the next six months.
(OII) 5.00 - 6.00pm Mon 9th June 2003, Saïd Business School, Oxford. Within the past few years, scholarly attention has begun to focus on the issue of electronic government, or e-government. Defined as the electronic provision of information and services by governments 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, in theory e-government expands and extends the ability of governmental organizations to serve their constituencies. This presentation will use data from two nationwide surveys of US local governments (2000 and 2002) and focus groups of local government CIOs and top administrative officials from 37 US city and county governments to examine the adoption and sophistication of e-government.
(OII) 12.00 - 13.30pm, Wed 18th June 2003, Saïd Business School, Oxford. Ben Edelman, Berkman Center, Harvard Law School. Attempts to filter unsolicited bulk e-mail ("spam") tend to present two kinds of errors. Some unobjectionable messages are mistakenly flagged as spam (false positives), while some spam is not flagged (false negatives). This seminar will start with discussion of the reasons why this problem is fundamental and why it has proven difficult to solve. It will also cover research methods aimed at quantifying the scope of the errors and at comparing their prevalence in competing email filtering systems. The seminar will conclude by comparing e-mail filtering errors with the mistakes made by web filtering systems, with a view towards identifying and adopting best practices in web filtering to make e-mail filtering more accurate.
(OII) 17.00 - 19.00 Mon 23 June 2003, Oxford Union. Motion: 'This House has confidence in voting via the Internet'. Speaking for: Jim Adler, CEO and President of VoteHere. Speaking against: Jason Kitkat. Expert panel will include Richard Allan MP and Professor Stephen Coleman, Cisco Visiting Professor of e-Democracy, Oxford Internet Institute. The debate will be webcast with live questions taken from around the world.
(Bertelsmann Stiftung) Am 24. Juni 2003 von 14:00 - 16:15 Uhr. Das Panel im Rahmen des Medienforums NRW in Köln analysiert die Funktionen und Defizite von Suchmaschinen als Gatekeeper im Medium Internet. Die Bertelsmann Stiftung will als medienpolitischer Think Tank die Entwicklung eines Code of Conduct für Suchmaschinenbetreiber und Portalanbieter in Deutschland vorantreiben und als neutrales Forum dessen Etablierung befördern. Podium: Stefan Fischerländer, Fachautor (Suchmaschinentricks.de) ; Prof. Dr. Miriam Meckel, Staatssekretärin Europa, Internationales und Medien NRW; Dr. Norbert Schneider, Direktor Landesanstalt für Medien NRW; Dr. Manfred Stegger, Vorstand, allesklar.com; Christian Vollmert, Geschäftsführer luna-park (PG Suchmaschinen, dmmv). Moderation: Prof. Dr. Marcel Machill, Berater der Bertelsmann Stiftung, Universität Leipzig. Prof. Dr. Werner Wirth, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, wird die Ergebnisse der Studie "Wegweiser im Netz" zum Suchverhalten von Internetnutzern und zur Qualität und Nutzerfreundlichkeit von Suchmaschinen zusammenfassen und präsentieren.
(Europa) European Commission, Internal Market Directorate General, Brussels, 16 September 2003. This Conference aims to improve information on the security of modern payment products and systems in the Internal Market, and to discuss the security approach to enhance public trust and confidence in electronic payments. The Conference is a priority action under the Fraud Prevention Action Plan. About 450-500 participants will attend representing stakeholders from different EU institutions, national authorities and central banks, payment providers, retailers and consumer organisations.
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