Legal and regulatory issues

Competition

• EU - Rivals want Microsoft punished  +/-

  (Guardian) Microsoft's rivals claimed that the software company has a stranglehold on the digital media and server markets, and urged the European Commission to act. The plea came at the end of a three-day hearing in Brussels that Microsoft hopes will persuade the commission not to throw the book at it for allegedly abusing its dominant position in Europe. It has robustly defended its commercial behaviour. see also Microsoft, EU square off behind closed doors (Reuters), It's the Critics' Turn as Microsoft/EU Case Unwinds (Internet News), Windows of opportunity (Economist), Microsoft upbeat on EU hearings (BBC), Microsoft legal defense is familiar one to EU (New York Times), Microsoft to conclude defence in antitrust case (EurActiv.com) and Microsoft set for Brussels battle (BBC).

• UK - 'Inappropriate' BBC web services under fire  +/-

  (Guardian) The managing director of the Telegraph Group has called for the BBC to scrap fantasy football, celebrity gossip and search engines from its internet services.And in a three-pronged attack on the BBC's burgeoning online activities, influential think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research said it was 'unacceptable' for the BBC services just to 'spring up' without any regulation. In a forthright assault on the BBC, Hugo Drayton, the former Telegraph internet boss who heads the British Internet Publishers' Alliance, accused the BBC of 'distorting the market' by providing a huge range of online content that does not necessarily fall within its public service remit.

Computer crime

• JN - Cops break huge yakuza kiddy porn ring  +/-

  (Mainichi) A massive crackdown on a yakuza-run kiddy porn ring in Japan has resulted in the arrest of eight men and seizure of tens of thousands of pedophile videos. Toyozo Kawamura, 53, was one of the two Yamaguchi-gumi gangsters among the eight arrested for breaking the Child Pornography Prohibition Law. Authorities claimed the raid was the biggest ever seizure of pornography in Japanese history.

• Torino, due arresti per aborti clandestini  +/- Translate

  (Corriere della Sera) La Polizia Postale di Torino ha arrestato un medico di Torino e una infermiera che, in cambio di grosse somme di denaro, praticavano aborti clandestini. Le indagini, svolte anche utilizzando intercettazioni telefoniche, hanno permesso di accertare che il medico, titolare di uno studio professionale, pubblicizzava l?attività illecita su un sito web dedicato alla salute della donna.

• US - Internet service provider sentenced to 40 years in child porn case  +/-

  (AP) The owner of an Internet service provider in Waco, Texas, was sentenced to 40 years in prison for violating his felony probation by possessing child pornography. He had been on deferred probation since pleading guilty in August 2000 to two counts of indecency with a child in the molestation of an 11-year-old girl. After authorities caught him with child pornography at his home, prosecutors filed a motion to revoke his deferred probation.

• Zombie machines fuel new cyber crime wave  +/-

  (Reuters) The rapid growth of broadband home computer connections may be inadvertently fuelling what police suspect could be the start of a new crime wave - cyber-blackmail. As more homes connect to faster delivery systems, their computers are becoming vulnerable to hackers and virus writers who can turn them into 'zombie' machines, ready to carry out any malevolent command. Favourite targets for the extortionists - many thought to come from eastern Europe - have been casinos and retailers, but one recent high-profile victim was the Port of Houston.

Copyright, trademarks and patents

• FR - Internet et droits d'auteur: le projet de loi adopté en Conseil des ministres  +/- Translate

  (ZDNet France) Le ministre de la Culture a présenté son projet de loi qui doit transposer la directive européenne sur le copyright (EUCD). S’il maintient l'exception à la copie privée, il prévoit de lourdes sanctions pénales en cas de contournement des mesures anticopie. Le très attendu «projet de loi sur le droit d'auteur et les droits voisins dans la société de l'information» (LDASI) a été présenté en Conseil des ministres. Ce projet de loi est censé transposer une directive européenne du 22 mai 2001. Voir aussi l'exposé des motifs.

Data Protection (privacy)

• BEEP! You're on Korean Candid Camera  +/-

  (Reuters) Alarmed at the use of camera phones to catch individuals in compromising situations, South Korea has ordered manufacturers to ensure that all new handsets emit a beep whenever a picture is taken. In one notable case, a woman used her camera phone to snap naked women in one of the country's popular public sauna baths, and then sold the photographs to an Internet Web site.

• UK - Blunkett outlines ID card plans  +/-

  (BBC) All UK citizens could be compelled to have some form of identity card by 2013, David Blunkett has said. From 2007/8 all new passports and driving licences will include details such as eye recognition and fingerprints, said the home secretary. A voluntary ID card would also be introduced, with 80% of people having one or other of the documents by 2013. Mr Blunkett said he hoped ministers could then decide to bring in a compulsory scheme.

• US - Holes Found in Online Job Search Privacy  +/-

  (AP) Some career Web sites, recruitment services and automated job-application kiosks offer flimsy privacy protections and might even violate employment and credit laws, a report asserts. Many job sites still let too much information from resumes posted online get into the hands of third parties through online 'cookies' that monitor Web surfing, according to the report, led by Pam Dixon, formerly of the University of Denver's Privacy Foundation and now head of her own group, the World Privacy Forum. Executive Summary.

e-Government

• UK - A portal for the people?  +/-

  (Guardian) A new BBC site hopes to transform politically apathetic members of the public into single-issue activists. But will it just be a magnet for net heads and moaning nimbys?

Employment and social issues

• UK - Porn surfing a big employers' headache  +/-

  (Reuters) Misuse of e-mails and the Internet in the workplace has become a big headache for employers, and UK companies are increasingly disciplining staff for accessing racy Web sites or sending porn to colleagues. Nearly one in three companies have disciplined staff for breaking company Internet and e-mail rules in the past year, according to a survey released by LexisNexis Industrial Relations Services, a publication that covers human resources issues.

Information society and Internet policy

• WSIS - Rich and poor states split before Internet summit  +/-

  (Reuters) Developed and developing nations were wide apart on managing the Internet and closing the digital divide between rich and poor at the end of what was meant as a final meeting before a world summit. The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) is to be held in Geneva December 10-12. A further previously unscheduled session has been called for December 5-6 in a bid to clear the way for 60 heads of state and government to agree a declaration of principles and a plan of action. The summit has broadened to embrace many facets of the information society, including questions of press freedom and Net management. Some developing states such as Brazil and India would like to see greater national or even supranational involvement in administering the Net, while many rich states are happy to see it left to the private sector. The summit, being held under the auspices of the United Nations, is the first of two. A second will be held in Tunis in 2005. see Latest versions of the Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action (WSIS). voir aussi Le futur Sommet de l'information bute sur le contrôle de l'internet (AFP)

• Laying Down the Virtual Law  +/-

  (Wired) A collection of the brightest thinkers and best designers of games like EverQuest, and metaverses like There and Second Life, are gathering for the first State of Play: Law, Games and Virtual Worlds conference in New York. A host of questions are on everyone's minds: Are virtual worlds the new Wild West or a legitimate province of the courts? Is game play equivalent to speech as defined in the First Amendment? Is there such a thing as fraud in a metaverse? "As the game universe becomes intricate, as transactions start to cross the boundary between the game world and the real world, it becomes more complicated as to what you're going to call defamation," says Jack Balkin, a professor at Yale Law School and an organizer of the conference. Beth Noveck, a professor at New York Law School and another organizer of the conference, says those arriving for the three days of panels, discussion and networking are coming to intellectualize about where games and virtual worlds fit into the fabric of their lives.

Internet access and use

• ITU - Results of Meeting on international Internet connectivity  +/-

  (ITU) The European Commission has published the results of the ITU Joint Rapporteurs' Group meeing on international Internet connectivity discussions held in Brussels on 20-21 October 2003. There is a proposed modification of ITU-T Recommendation D.50 as well as interesting presentations from Ed Rushton, Cable and Wireless: Internet Interconnection (PowerPoint), Marilyn Cade, AT&T: Global International Internet Capacity and Traffic Data (PDF) and Corporate Maps Showing Global Networks and Connectivity (PDF), Russell Southwood, Balancing Act: Africa - Local IXPs and Regional Carriers (PowerPoint), and Nguyen Xuan Quong, Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Corporation: Scenario of Internet in Vietnam (PowerPoint). The conclusions will be presented to ITU-T Study Group 3 during its forthcoming meeting on 17-21 November 2003 in Geneva.

• UK - Red tape 'stopping broadband coverage'  +/-

  (Guardian) E-commerce minister Stephen Timms has called on broadband internet providers to hasten its introduction across the country. His plea coincided with an industry demand for lighter regulation. BT submitted evidence to a Commons trade and industry select committee hearing on broadband, asking for less red tape.

Junk mail (spam)

• EU - Member States slow in adopting new 'anti-spam' regime  +/-

  (EurActiv.com) As from 1 November, the Member States must comply with the EU's new strict digital privacy rules. In practice, only Austria, Denmark, Italy and Sweden have met the deadline. The EU's Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications entered into force on 1 November 2003. Popularly known as the EU's 'ban on spam' directive, the technology-neutral regulations include provisions on security of networks and services, confidentiality of communications, access to information stored on terminal equipment, processing of traffic and location data, calling line identification, public subscriber directories and unsolicited commercial communications. Enforcement of the new laws is left to the individual Member States. Several EU Members are running behind schedule with the new regime's implementation. Only Austria, Denmark, Italy and Sweden had brought their national legislation up to the new standards by the Commission's 1 November deadline.

• US - AT&T's Anti-Anti-Spam Patent  +/-

  (Dan Gillmor) Via Greg Aharonian's Internet Patent News Service comes the news that AT&T has received this patent for - I kid you not - a way to defeat anti-spam measures: "A system and method for circumventing schemes that use duplication detection to detect and block unsolicited e-mail (spam). An address on a list is assigned to one of m sublists, where m is an integer that is greater than one. A set of m different messages are created. A different message from the set of m different messages is sent to the addresses on each sublist. In this way, spam countermeasures based upon duplicate detection schemes are foiled." Right. And the other thing being foiled is Internet users' desire to be free of the spam plague. AT&T should be ashamed of itself. Is this truly an original "invention"? If not, as I suspect, it's just more evidence of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office's tendency to grant patents willy-nilly, and let the courts settle everything later on.

Multilingual content and software

• Netd@ys 2002  +/-

  (DG Education and Culture) NetD@ys is an initiative of the European Commission to promote the use of new media in education and culture. This year Netd@ys concentrates on 'Dialogue between cultures' with an emphasis on Image. There are three themes : Discover it, Understand it, Appreciate it. It runs from 17 to 23 November 2003. see also FAQ.

Protection of minors

• SG - Singapore calls for global Internet chatroom crackdown  +/-

  (AFP) Singapore urged Internet access providers to follow Microsoft's lead in clamping down on unregulated chatrooms to prevent them from becoming havens for sex predators. Information and Communications Minister Lee Boon Yang told parliament the government was concerned over the impact the abuse of Internet chatrooms was having on the high-tech city-state.

Safer Internet awareness

• SAFT - An experiment in Internet self-regulation  +/-

  (CNET News.com) by Declan McCullagh. As an employee of the Norwegian government, Elisabeth Staksrud's job title used to be official film censor. Now, the 30-year-old social scientist has an additional job description: project coordinator for the SAFT program, a government-managed Internet project funded by the European Commission. SAFT, which stands for Safety Awareness Facts and Tools, is something of an experiment in Internet self-regulation and comes as European national governments and the commission itself are weighing whether additional laws are necessary.

• SAFT Future Kids Online - Conference Documentation  +/-

  (SAFT) Politicians, researchers, experts, industry representatives and kids themselves gathered in Stockholm at the end of October for the SAFT conference Future Kids Online - How to Provide Safety Awareness, Facts and Tools. It turned out to be two eventful days with speakers and guests from Europe, Asia, Australia and America debating possibilities and risks concerning children's online life. Below you will find links to the presentations as well as some pictures from the event. [Ed: including one of QuickLink's editor in serious mood, supervised by the SAFT detective].

Security and encryption

• Hackers crack Nokia's game gadget  +/-

  (BBC) Nokia has admitted hackers have cracked security codes on the N-Gage device, allowing its games to be played on other mobile phones. The protection system was supposed to stop games being copied and downloaded over the web.

• SG - Singapore tackles 'cyber terror'  +/-

  (BBC) Singapore has passed strict new legislation to protect the country's computer systems from attack. The government has said the legislation was necessary because of the damage that computer hacking can cause. The laws allow the monitoring of all computer activity and 'pre-emptive' action, though an official said they would be used 'sparingly'. Some members of parliament said the measures could be open to abuse, with threats to individual liberty.

Taxation and tariffs

• EU - Allemagne: Bruxelles appelé à trancher sur la validité d’une taxe sur les PC et les imprimantes  +/- Translate

  (ZDNet France) Les taxes sur les PC et les imprimantes provoquent à nouveau des remous en Allemagne. L’association Bitkom, qui rassemble quelque 700 entreprises du secteur des télécommunications et des nouvelles technologies, en appelle à l’arbitrage de la Commission européenne. Elle s’insurge contre «le comportement monopolistique abusif des sociétés de gestion des droits d’auteur, qui essaient d’imposer des taxes sur les PC et les imprimantes».

Telecommunications

• EU - Major telecoms company spells out plan for pushing the deregulation agenda  +/-

  (EurActiv.com) Swedish telecom company Tele2 presented a Monopoly Challenger report to Commissioner Liikanen pushing for a quicker implementation of the EU's telecom deregulation agenda. See Press Release.

• US - Gearing Up for the Big Mobile Phone Switch  +/-

  (New York Times) The nation's 148 million wireless cellphone customers will no longer be locked in after Nov. 24, yet the question is whether freedom can be achieved without chaos. Moving a phone number to a new provider may sound simple, but it is anything but. Wireless companies and industry analysts question whether the carriers will be able to accommodate those who choose to make the switch. Studies predict more customer turnover in an industry already rife with it.

• US - Home numbers get OK to roam  +/-

  (MSNBC) The days of having more than one phone number may be, well, numbered for many people. Federal regulators approved rules making it easier for consumers to go totally wireless by allowing them to transfer their home number to their cell phone. For those who favor traditional phones, the Federal Communications Commission also plans to allow people to transfer their cell number to their home phone, though initially only a few will have this option.

Market & Technology

e-Government

• UK - Website perils of ancestor worship  +/-

  (Guardian) Worldwide interest in tracing ancestors is becoming so popular that no website releasing new census information can possibly cope with the demand from millions of people without crashing, the National Audit Office concludes.

Internet access and use

• Europe leads U.S. in linking PC 'grids'  +/-

  (New York Times) When Novartis, the Swiss-based pharmaceutical company, needed a new supercomputer for designing drugs, it found that it already had one - hidden in the unused computing power in the thousands of personal computers in its offices. Novartis used American software technology to harness the power of its office PC's, but European and American scientists and government officials said Europe was moving faster than the United States to capitalize on the approach, which is called grid computing.

Junk mail (spam)

• UK - Spam set to soar this Christmas  +/-

  (BBC) Christmas is coming and spammers want to fill your inbox with more messages than ever. Net filtering firms report that senders of spam are already starting to change the messages they send in an attempt to cash in on the festive season.

Mobile and wireless

• Nokia pushes N-Gage gaming mobile  +/-

  (BBC) Nokia has been talking up the prospects for its mobile gaming phone, the N-Gage, as it goes on sale. The Finnish handset manufacturer said it was hoping to sell several million copies in the coming year. The N-Gage is designed to compete with Nintendo's GameBoy, which dominates the portable gaming market.

Standards

• EU - IPv6 task force puts forward action for wireless Internet  +/-

  (EurActiv.com) The IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) task force set up by the Commission issued a report on progress made in the completion of this new Internet protocol.

Statistics

• US - Broadband net user numbers boom  +/-

  (BBC) The move to high speed net access shows no sign of slowing down in the US. Figures show that cable and broadband net service suppliers have had their best three months ever. More than two million Americans bought broadband in the three months to October according to Leichtman Research. But analysts warned that the level of growth was unlikely to continue as there was little room left to cut prices and so tempt more customers.

• US - Women visit "adult" Web sites  +/-

  (Religion News Service) In recent years the accessibility, affordability and anonymity of the Internet has made pornography undeniably attractive to millions of women. While some women simply find it exciting, others have battled addictions and other problems. Nearly one in three visitors to adult Web sites is a woman, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, the industry standard for measuring online audiences. Studying the Internet use of 40,000 panelists at home and work, Nielsen/NetRatings estimates that 9.4 million women in the United States accessed such sites in September. see also Women beware Web-based porn (Daily Aztec).

Voice over IP

• Operator calls time - voice over IP  +/-

  (Guardian) Much cheaper telephone calls, cool added services and numbers that can follow you around, no matter where you are in the world. Technology called voice over IP (VoIP) can give us all of this, and after seven years in development, it's about to hit the mainstream.

Forthcoming events

• 2003-12-11 NL, Utrecht - JURIX-03 - The 16th Annual Conference on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems  +/-

  (Utrecht University) 11 and 12 December, 2003. Faculty of Law & Institute of Information and Computing Sciences. The Foundation for Legal Knowledge Based Systems (Jurix) is a forum for researcher in the field of Law and Artificial Intelligence in the Netherlands and Flanders. Its members are research groups from most Dutch universities and a Flemish university, KU Leuven. Since 1988, Jurix has held annual international conferences on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems. see also Question Answering for Interrogating Legal Documents and First JURIX Master Thesis Award.

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