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(RAPID) The Council of Ministers responsible for EU competitiveness gave its unanimous political agreement to the amended text of the Merger Regulation, which is due to enter into force on 1 May 2004, the date for enlargement of the Union. This clarification of the substantive test creates an improved legal security given that the new text (significant impediment of effective competition) clearly defines the assessment criteria by, on the one hand, covering all forms of concentration that could be harmful for the consumer and, on the other hand, by clearly defining the limits of the Commission's scope for intervention.
(London Free Press) A half-naked man found driving on a city street was arrested and charged with child porn offences in the first Canadian case involving wireless Internet signal piracy. The bizarre case began when a Toronto police officer spotted a motorist going the wrong way down a one-way street in a residential neighbourhood. After pulling the man over, Sgt. Don Woods discovered the man was naked from the waist down as he downloaded images on a laptop computer of a young girl involved in a sex act with an adult. Investigation showed the man had hooked into a wireless computer network at a nearby house to gain access to a resident's Internet connection and download images from child pornography websites. The scheme, known as 'war driving,' allows a computer with wireless Internet capability to tap into a wireless home network and access the World Wide Web, usually without fear of discovery.
(Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK)) This advocacy handbook for the NGOs provides a policy analysis of the Cyber-Crime Convention 2001 and its first additional protocol from a human rights perspective for policy specialists, NGOs, and human rights activists within the 45 member states of the Council of Europe. Compatibility problems with the European Convention on Human Rights and implications for freedom of expression, privacy of communications and data protection will be the main focus of this critical analysis. The appendices include other useful information that could be relied upon while NGOs and policy activists lobby their individual governments in relation to the implementation of the Convention.
(Heise) Der Kampf gegen die Computer-Kriminalität in Deutschland wird nach Expertenansicht durch eine unklare und teils widersprüchliche Rechtslage behindert. Oberstaatsanwalt Ralf Günther aus Celle kritisierte, Gesetze und Verordnungen beispielsweise zur Erhebung, Speicherung und Weitergabe von Daten seien schlecht koordiniert. Die Regelungen weisen Lücken auf, manche Bestimmungen widersprächen sich. Immer wieder verweigerten Unternehmen ihre Mitwirkung bei der Fahndung nach Computer- Kriminellen und bei der Beweissicherung, weil sie für die Zusammenarbeit keine Rechtsgrundlage sähen. siehe auch Schily fordert mehr Hinweise über Computerkriminelle.
(Reuters) A Norwegian hacker who has angered Hollywood by cracking a DVD copy protection code is a cyberspace version of a burglar, plaintiffs told an Oslo appeals court.
(Stuff) It all started innocently enough. A flirtatious email sent to her work computer suggesting they spark up a relationship over the internet. But after a barrage of emails over two weeks, a New Zealand man was arrested for criminal harassment, leaving his female victim drained and feeling 'emotionally raped'.
(The Register) Ebay has taken action following allegations that its online auction house was being used to trade in child pornography. One of its users - who has now been suspended from the service - bought and sold hundreds of items, many of which included pictures of naked children and babies. Although many of the items were old or "antique" photos, the sheer quantity and recurring nature of the "suspicious" images caused alarm among those who stumbled across the images and reported it to eBay. The incident was also reported to the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) but officials there concluded that while some people might find the content distasteful, it was not illegal.
(ZDNet UK) Six men were sentenced to a total of 15 and a half years in jail at Wood Green Crown Court, after pleading guilty to using the Internet to defraud UK banks to the tune of £350,000. The six men, aged between 21 and 39, obtained false identities over the Internet and used them to open bank accounts, arrange overdrafts and apply for credit cards.
(BBC) A bricklayer who had more than 400,000 images of 'unimaginable evil and depravity' on his computer has been warned he faces a lengthy jail term. Sheriff Norrie Stein told 37-year-old Steven Perrie that he faced prison after 403,000 indecent images of children and 16,000 video clips were found at his home in Forfar, Angus. Police who had to sift through the images described it as the worst material they had ever seen. Perrie's name was uncovered by FBI officers investigating a Texas company called Landslide Productions during the world-wide child porn crackdown. The depute fiscal told the court that Landslide Productions acted as brokers for webmasters in Russia and Indonesia that provided child porn pictures. Sentence was deferred until next month for the preparation of full reports. Perrie was remanded in custody.
(Guardian) The UK television watchdog is investigating an advert for computer giant Intel showing mountaineers on Everest accessing the internet via a wireless laptop after almost 100 viewers complained it was misleading. he advert shows a climber watching heart-warming footage of loved ones on his Centrino computer. The viewers complained wireless internet connection is sometimes tricky in the UK, let alone halfway towards the world's highest peak. The Independent Television Commission has already received 92 complaints.
(AFP) Prominent internet activist Jiang Lijun has been jailed for four years after being convicted of subverting state power by planning to set up a pro-democracy party. Jiang was detained in November last year, suspected of being a ringleader of online pro-democracy activism. He was convicted for advocating democracy on the Internet and for intending to organise a political party known as the China Freedom Democracy Party.
(AI) Amnesty International is increasingly concerned about human rights in cyberspace for people in Viet Nam, in particular the fundamental rights to freedom of expression, information, peaceful assembly and the right to privacy. The Internet has provided people critical of the government with more opportunities to peacefully express their opinions. However, the relative ease with which dissenting voices can be traced in cyberspace, combined with the absence of privacy protection, has increased their risk of arrest and prosecution
(CNET News.com) The Federal Communications Commission filed a petition requesting a rehearing in a case that could bring new federal regulations to the cable broadband industry. The agency submitted the 19-page document to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the hope that the court would grant a new hearing of its October ruling, which declared that the FCC was wrong to classify cable broadband services as "information services." Cable broadband actually has qualities of both information and "telecommunications" services, that ruling said.
(Guardian) The US congress has settled its row with the White House over sweeping changes to the country's media ownership laws that will allow giants such as Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, Time Warner and Viacom to tighten their grip on local broadcasters. According to congressional negotiators, both sides have settled for a 39% limit on the proportion of audience reached nationally by any network of local stations. US lawmakers had originally wanted to bar the federal communications commission from raising the limit to 45%. Under the compromise, media companies including News Corp, which owns the Fox network and the DirecTV satellite operation, and NBC and MTV owner Viacom, will be able to keep the assets that they built up in anticipation of the change in the law.
(Findlaw) Brooklyn law professor Anthony Sebok discusses an unusual - and, he argues, troubling - recent ruling by Germany's highest court. The ruling means that Bertelsmann's German office cannot be properly served with the complaint in a U.S. class action suit brought by various music copyright holders against Bertelsmann. The suit arises from Bertelsmann's provision of tens of millions of loans to Napster, which the plaintiffs say aided and abetted Napster's copyright infringement.
(Wired) Diebold Election Systems is withdrawing legal threats against voting activists and Internet service providers for publishing copies of internal staff e-mails that the company says were stolen from its servers. The documents pointed to security flaws with Diebold's computerized voting machines and suggested the company knew about those flaws long before it sold machines to several states, including California, Maryland and Georgia.
(CNET News.com) Several proposals to collect money from Internet service subscribers to pay for online music swapping are bubbling to public attention in the United States and Canada.
(Economist) After years of false starts, security systems based on biometric - human characteristics such as faces, hand shapes and fingerprints - are finally taking off. Proponents have long argued that because biometrics cannot be forgotten, like a password, or lost or stolen, like a key or an identity card, they are an ideal way to control access to computer networks, airport service-areas and bank vaults. But biometrics have not yet spread beyond such niche markets, for two main reasons. The first is the unease they can inspire among users. Many people would prefer not to have to submit their eyes for scanning in order to withdraw money from a cash dispenser. The second reason is cost: biometric systems are expensive compared with other security measures, such as passwords and personal identification numbers. So while biometrics may provide extra security, the costs currently outweigh the benefits in most cases. [Ed: Recommended] see also Biometrics Hold Key to Next Hi-Tech Revolution.
(RAPID) Following the expiry on 31 October 2003 of the deadline to transpose the Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications (e-Privacy Directive),, the Commission has opened infringement proceedings for failure to notify transposition measures against Belgium, Germany, Greece, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Finland and Sweden. The Directive was adopted by the European Parliament and the Council in July 2002, and completes the new regulatory framework for electronic communications. It sets EU-wide rules for the protection of privacy and personal data in mobile and fixed communications, including the Internet. For instance, the Directive introduces a 'ban on spam' throughout the EU; it also determines specific conditions for using location data generated by mobile phones, or for installing so-called 'cookies' on users' personal computers.
(Heise) Vor 'gravierenden Verschlechterungen des Datenschutzes' warnt die Konferenz der Datenschutzbeauftragten des Bundes und der Länder in einer Entschließung zu dem umstrittenen Entwurf eines neuen Telekommunikationsgesetzes. Den Entwurf hatte die Bundesregierung am 15. Oktober beschlossen. So gebe der Gesetzentwurf mit der Berechtigung für die Diensteanbieter, grundsätzlich alle entstehenden Verkehrsdaten (also auch alle Zielrufnummern) unverkürzt bis zu sechs Monate nach Versendung der Rechnung zu speichern, ohne Not und ohne überzeugende Begründung eine bewährte Regelung auf. Auch die mit der TKG-Novelle geplante Einführung einer Identifikationspflicht beim Kauf von Prepaid-Handys kritisierten die Datenschutzbeauftragten, da sie zu einer verdachtslosen Datenspeicherung auf Vorrat führen würde, ohne dass ein nennenswerter Erkenntnisgewinn der Sicherheitsbehörden erkennbar sei. Wer ein solches Handy kaufe, sei nicht automatisch identisch mit der Person, die das Handy nutzt.
(Reuters) Germany is floating the idea of easing its cherished privacy laws, designed in part to banish its Nazi and Communist past, in order to combat rising Internet crime. The government and the police say new rules are needed so that online connection data - in other words, who is accessing which Web sites - is automatically stored in case it is eventually needed as evidence in criminal investigations. But that idea worries both telecommunications companies and officials charged with data protection, in a country which experienced Nazi and East German communist dictatorship and whose privacy laws were designed to prevent an all-knowing totalitarian state from ever emerging again.
(Europa) The public sector is the single biggest producer of information in Europe. Examples are geographic information, business information, statistics and traffic information. This information resource has a considerable social and economic potential which is largely untapped. For example, the digitization and availability of 'raw' geographic data can allow private companies to develop new added-value services and products. Within the context of its policies on digital content and the eEurope action-plan, the Commission stimulates the access to and the re-use of public sector information through a number of actions, ranging from legislation to the exchange of good practices. Directive on the re-use of public sector information.
(ITU) According to a recent United Nations study, about 91 per cent of UN Member States are installing and using Internet services, but 'online government' has raised questions of cost-effectiveness in developed and developing countries. The study UN World Public Sector Report 2003: E-Government at the Crossroads[pdf] was released at the Fifth Global Forum on Reinventing Government in Mexico City, Mexico.
(RAPID) Directive 2000/31/EC on electronic commerce is already 'having a substantial and positive effect' by applying to e-commerce the Internal Market principle of the freedom to provide services, according to a European Commission report COM(2003) 702. The report concludes that the objectives of the Directive have been met and that it has provided a sound legal framework for information society services in the Internal Market. It has also led to modernisation of existing national legislation, for example in contract law, to ensure the full validity of online transactions. The deadline for Member States to implement the Directive into national law was 17 January 2002. The Directive has now been implemented in 12 Member States. In the remaining three (France, the Netherlands and Portugal) work appears to be well advanced. Five of the ten future Member States have already written the Directive into national law. An important tool in ensuring that national rules incompatible with the Directive are not adopted will be the notification procedure under Directive 98/34/EC, under which the Member States give prior notification of any draft national regulations governing on-line services (see IP/03/739). In addition, on 17 November 2003 the Council approved EU accession to Council of Europe Convention 180, the first truly international system (open to more than 50 countries, including the US, Japan and Canada) of regulatory dialogue on information society services (see IP/03/955).
(Washington Post) Google, the popular search engine, will stop accepting advertising from unlicensed pharmacies that have used the Internet to sell millions of doses of narcotics and prescription drugs without medical supervision, company officials said. Google's move follows decisions last month by Yahoo and by Microsoft's MSN site to stop accepting similar advertising.
(ITU) The Research Centre for Social Sciences of the University of Edinburgh has published the results of a major two-year European study on public and private initiatives to include and attract women to information and communication technology (ICT) use, employment and education. The research project entitled Strategies of Inclusion: Gender and the Information Society, has published a collection of case studies and analyses for policy makers, product designers and service developers. The cases cover education, training, and support networks for professional women in ICT sectors; training and empowerment of the socially excluded; design of new products, including mobile phones, web publications and games for female audiences; and experiences of ICTs and the meanings that they have for men and women in everyday contexts.
(BBC) Legal experts are warning companies to do more to stop pornographic spam reaching employees. Firms that do not take steps to stop sexually explicit spam could face lawsuits from employees suffering distress because of exposure to offensive images. The experts urge companies to deploy anti-spam tools and curb offensive messages before they reach workers' desktops.
(Le Soir) Trop peu de Bruxellois font appel à un généraliste. Une campagne d'information démarre le 1er décembre et s'articulera autour de plusieurs outils. Le premier, c'est un site internet, qui identifie les médecins généralistes exerçant à Bruxelles.
(CircleID) First part of a two-part series interview by Geert Lovink with Milton Mueller discussing ICANN, World Summit on the Information Society, and the escalating debates over Internet Governance. Second part of interview. see also ICANN - At the Moment, No One Governs the Internet (CircleID) by Susan Crawford. ICANN was designed to keep other governments at bay. ICANN has, however, no particular delegated power beyond that accorded to it by the contracts it has signed with registries and registrars. At the moment, no one governs the Internet. ICANN isn't about Internet governance (whatever that means). ICANN worries about registries and number allocation. That's it. If the world wants to make rules about content and identity and intellectual property and cybercrime, the world will have to find another vessel. ICANN cannot bear that burden. see also What is WSIS Getting At?.
(BBC) The aim of the World Summit on the Information Society is to come up with a global plan to ensure everyone has access to information and communications technologies. With the summit due to kick off on 10 December, last ditch efforts are continuing to reach agreement on key issues such as the role of the media in the digital age and who should run the internet. see also U.N. confab to see tussle over Net control (Reuters). A controversial plan to grant governments broad controls over the Internet has stolen the spotlight of a United Nations conference on IT, where China and Cuba will be among its strongest supporters.
(Toronto Star) by Michael Geist. Coverage of the results of a global study jointly conducted by the ITU and myself on the role of national governments and their national domains. The study, which covered 56 countries from every global region and a broad cross-section of developed and developing countries, finds that virtually every government that responded to the survey either manages, retains direct control, or is contemplating formalizing its relationship with its ccTLD. The column concludes that the debate at next week's World Summit on the Information Society is not whether governments should be involved in "Internet governance", but rather how they will be involved in the issue.
(Heise) von Monika Ermert. Bundeskanzler Gerhard Schröder nimmt nicht am Weltgipfel der Informationsgesellschaft (WSIS ) im Dezember in Genf teil. Ein Regierungssprecher betonte gegenüber heise online, das sei keinesfalls als 'Absage an die Informationsgesellschaft' zu verstehen. Der Termindruck mache die Teilnahme des Kanzlers schlicht unmöglich.
(Markle Foundation) A two-year study of Internet use and its impact in China, Surveying Internet Usage and Impact in Twelve Chinese Cities, reveals that the key drivers behind its growth are market forces, including people's increasing desire to go online and competition among service providers, and the government's view of the information technology sector as an engine for economic growth. The study also examines the demographics and attitudes of Internet users in China, finding that a majority of them expect the Internet will bring more freedom of speech and create more opportunities to express their political views.
(ZDNet UK) BT wants the younger generation to encourage their technology-fearing elders to embrace technology and the Web, so closing the digital divide and boosting e-commerce in the UK. The telco has started a campaign to encourage children to get their families onto the Web. The initiative, called Internet Rangers, gives advice and encouragement on how to get parents and grandparents to swallow the Net bug.
(Wired) by Lawrence Lessig. When customers own the network, everyone wins. Burlington, Vermont, like many municipalities across North America, it has decided to construct an advanced fiber network on its own. The AFN is being deployed first to support city services. Then, as part of the four-phase project, this municipality of just 40,000 will extend blazingly fast Internet service to businesses and residences. To many, this just looks like more socialism from Vermont. Why should government be in the business of providing high-speed networks? The answer, as Cornell economist Alan McAdams argues, has nothing to do with Karl Marx and everything to do with basic economics. AFNs are natural monopolies. Most economists would leap from the premise of a natural monopoly to the conclusion that such a monopoly must be regulated. But regulation is not the end that McAdams seeks. Ownership is.
(BBC) Congress in the United States has approved legislation intended to stop the flow of unwanted e-mails, or spam. US Senators adopted the Can-Spam Act following a vote by the House of Representatives. The measures - including fines and jail terms for offenders - are seen as vital in the US, from where most spam comes. But activists warn the legislation does not go far enough and could even make matters worse by approving spam that follows key guidelines. The legislation brings in penalties for individuals and companies that send out junk e-mails to recipients who have said they wish to unsubscribe. But it will not stop mass e-mail sendings entirely. The bill now goes to President George W Bush for signing and the new law is expected to come into effect in January. see also US - Why the New Federal "CAN Spam" Law Probably Won't (FindLaw). U. Washington law professor Anita Ramasastry assesses the new Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003, also referred to as the "CAN Spam Act." Ramasastry explains the Act's provisions, and also explains why she and others believe it may not be effective in actually eliminating spam.
(Heise) Die österreichischen Internetprovider haben eine Vereinbarung über das Verhalten gegenüber Spam und Spammern geschlossen. Wie der Providerverband ISPA in Wien mitteilte, ist der "Spam Code of Conduct" sofort in Kraft getreten. Die Maßnahmen reichen von Änderungen in den AGB über Scans im eigenen Netz bis zu Whitelists. Spam wird dabei als "vom Empfänger unverlangte und unerwünschte, vom Verursacher massenweise oder zum Zwecke der Direktwerbung versandte E-Mail" definiert. Dies muss sich nicht notwendiger Weise mit der gesetzlichen Definition decken, die bei der letzten Novelle des TKG zum Missfallen der Provider stark aufgeweicht wurde.
(Business Times) In a fresh bid to curb spam - or the unwanted, unsolicited nuisance e-mail and SMS messages that clog computers and mobile phones - the Direct Marketing Association of Singapore (DMAS) is setting up an 'opt-out' list, much like the 'Do Not Call' list being adopted in the US.
(Cyberatals) The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) 2003 e-commerce and development report identifies the U.S. as the top perpetrator, responsible for more than half of the spam received in the world. The majority of spam victims are in the U.S. as well, the report finds. The U.S. is the largest marketplace in the world, making it an attractive target.
(Transfert.net) Lundi 24 novembre ont eu lieu au tribunal des référés de Paris des audiences de deux affaires judicaires visant des hébergeurs associatifs: RAS et Ouvaton. Dans la première affaire, les deux sociétés de télémarketing qui attaquaient l'hébergeur et le syndicat SUD-PTT pour «diffamation» et «injure» ont été déboutées, mais pour des raisons techniques. De plus, le juge les a condamnées à rembourser des frais de justice aux défendeurs.
(Reuters) A Los Angeles judge dismissed a $10 million lawsuit filed by Barbra Streisand against a multimillionaire who posted photos of her Malibu estate on a Web site documenting erosion along the California coast.
(ZDNet France) L´association de consommateurs porte plainte devant le Conseil de la concurrence pour stigmatiser les marges exorbitantes que réalisent les opérateurs de téléphonie mobile sur le marché des SMS. Selon son estimation, elles dépassent les 80%. Principales «victimes» de ces pratiques: les jeunes, fervents utilisateurs de ce type de service; 75% des SMS sont envoyés par les 8-24 ans, d´après l'UFC-Que Choisir. Elle a mené sa propre étude pour mettre à jour le coût réel de l´envoi d´un SMS pour un opérateur. Selon l´association, en France, ils reviennent au total à 2,21 centimes d´euros. Parallèlement, les trois opérateurs ont fixé un prix unique pour l´envoi de SMS, à 15 centimes d´euros. Au final, Bouygues, SFR et Orange enregistrent une marge supérieure de 80,2% sur ce service, relève l´UFC.
(Sydney Morning Herald) Internet pornography was helping to spawn a new generation of sexual predators as young as six, child protection experts warned. There had been an alarming increase in children under 10 sexually abusing other children over the past few years, most of whom had used the internet specifically to browse porn sites. Cassandra Tinning presented research on the issue of child protection and the internet on behalf of the the Child At Risk Assessment Unit based at Canberra Hospital, with Dr Janet Stanley and Katie Kovacs from the National Child Protection Clearing House, at the Ninth Australasian Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect. Ms Kovacs said internet pornography was worse than X-rated videos, for example, because it was "a lot more deviant and extreme, violent and showing rape and other other non-consensual sex".
(Heise) Der im April eingeführte Jugendmedienschutzstaatsvertrag (JMStV) widerspricht in Teilen dem Zensurverbot des Artikels 5 Grundgesetz: Diese harte Kritik an dem neuen Gesetzeswerk übte bei einer Veranstaltung der Saarländischen Landesmedienanstalt (LMS) und des Europäischen Instituts für Medienrecht (EMR) zu Pornografie im Pocketformat der Leipziger Juraprofessor Heribert Schumann.
(Heise) Bayerische Schulen sind angewiesen, ihre Räumlichkeiten, wie beispielsweise Turnhallen, nicht mehr für LAN-Partys zur Verfügung zu stellen. Staatsministerin Monika Hohlmeier hat alle bayerischen Schulleiterinnen und Schulleiter 'eindringlich darum gebeten', keine LAN-Parties in schulischen Räumen mehr durchführen zu lassen. Die Ministerin habe 'insbesondere darauf hingewiesen, dass es im Rahmen von LAN-Parties generell zu gesundheitlichen Beeinträchtigungen bei einem stundenlangen Verweilen vor Bildschirmen und permanenter Beschallung sowie zu anderen, den schulischen Bildungs- und Erziehungsauftrag negativ beeinflussenden Begleiterscheinungen' kommen könne. Ausdrücklich festgestellt habe die Ministerin zudem, dass 'Gewalt verherrlichende, aber auch die Menschenwürde verletzende oder das Geschlecht betonende Computerspiele in den Schulen oder bei schulischen Veranstaltungen innerhalb wie außerhalb der schulischen Räumlichkeiten' verboten seien.
(NetAlert) The rise of mobile capabilities has increased the need for parents to speak with their children about appropriate and safe Internet use, according to Karyn Hart, Chair of Australia's Internet safety body, NetAlert. More information about teaching children to use the Internet safely and appropriately is available on the new NetAlert web site
(Heise) Jugendliche gehen mit dem Thema Sicherheit sorglos und ignorant um. Das ist das Ergebnis der Studie Man weiß nicht, dass man nichts weiß des Bundesamtes für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI). "Obwohl die Hälfte der 12- bis 18-Jährigen das Thema Sicherheit im Internet als wichtig einschätzt, weiß jeder dritte Jugendliche nichts über die Gefahren im Internet", heißt es. Der Unterschied zwischen Mädchen und Jungen sei dabei gravierend: während sich jedes zweite Mädchen nicht auskennt, ist es bei den Jungen jeder Vierte.
(Europa) The Commission has adopted a communication (COM)2003 653 on the evaluation of the Safer Internet programme 1999 - 2002. DE FR (PDF). The evaluation was carried out by a team of external consultants, who recognised the positive impact of the current programme, particularly in fostering networking and providing a wealth of information about the problems of safer use of the Internet and their solutions and who recommended the continuation of the Community efforts in this area through a follow up programme.
(Economist) Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft, once made a habit of using his keynote speech at Comdex, the computer industry's top annual trade show, to launch his company's "next big thing". Times have changed. Mr Gates began his speech at the Las Vegas show by unveiling a dull bit of software that manages the distribution of security patches on a network. He followed this with an almost equally dreary firewall and a new spam-filtering initiative. These, rather than glitzy product announcements, are the industry's new priorities. [Ed: Recommended]
(vnunet.com) Hundreds of reports are coming in of a new Trojan spreading around the globe by posing as home made pornographic pictures. The email arrives with the subject line 'Re[2] Mary' . But once the 'Private.zip' attachment is opened, a Trojan called Sysbug copies a file to the hard drive and alters the registry settings to ensure that it is activated on start-up. The Trojan allows remote access to the PC, but is not a virus as it does not mail itself on to other computers.
(Heise) Verbraucherschützer und Medienwissenschaftler haben einen Verhaltenskodex für Betreiber von Internet-Suchmaschinen gefordert. Am 16. Dezember soll nun ein erstes, von der Bertelsmann-Stiftung initiiertes Treffen stattfinden, auf dem unter anderem AOL, MSN und Allesklar.com, die bereits Unterstützung signalisiert hatten, über Verhaltensmaßregeln diskutieren wollen. Ende Oktober hatte die Bertelsmann-Stiftung einen Code of Conduct vorgestellt, nach dem die Suchmaschinenbetreiber vor allem für mehr Transparenz bei den Kriterien für das Ranking sorgen sollten.
(Heise) Gemeinsam gegen Kriminelle im Internet vorzugehen, das ist einmal mehr das erklärte Ziel der beiden Verbände Association of Internet Hotline Providers (INHOPE) und der European Internet Service Provider Association (EuroISPA). Dies sieht ein gemeinsames Memorandum der beiden Verbände vor, das INHOPE-Präsident Thomas Rickert und EuroISPA-Präsident Michael Rotert anlässlich der ersten internationalen Konferenz INTERNET 2004: Safe or Just Safer? in Berlin unterzeichnet haben.
(RAPID) The Commission has adopted a Communication underlining the successes achieved for Europe at the World Radiocommunications Conference, which completed its work in July 2003 (the WRC-03). The Communication provides an analysis of the impact of WRC decisions on underlying EU policies and identifies necessary implementation actions, based on the outcomes of this regulatory conference that agreed Radio Spectrum access at a global level.
(RAPID) Speech by Mr Erkki Liikanen, Member of the European Commission, responsible for Enterprise and the Information Society Technology, Media and Telecoms Conference. Morgan Stanley Barcelona, 21 November 2003.
(Guardian) Can porn really be acceptable? A new website thinks it can.
(Expatica) Following the lead of commercial television broadcaster SBS, competitor RTL 5 will also abandon its "erotica" programmes, signalling the end to the soft porn era on Dutch free-to-air TV.
(CBS) Selling sex is one of the oldest businesses in the world, and right now, business has never been better. One of the biggest cultural changes in the United States over the past 25 years has been the widespread acceptance of sexuality explicit material - pornography. In the space of a generation, a product that once was available in the back alleys of big cities has gone corporate, delivered now directly into homes and hotel rooms by some of the biggest companies in the U.S.
(Guardian) Internet terminals offering instant access to more than two million songs are to be installed in pubs across the country as part of a plan to stop jukeboxes becoming obsolete. Each year pubs scrap more than 1,000 jukeboxes as they become less popular with customers.
(San Franciso Chronicle) Yahoo, which removed adult products and banner ads from its U.S. Web portal in 2001 after protests by conservative groups, is back in the pornography business. With the acquisition of Overture Services, Yahoo is now selling ads to a range of hard-core Web sites. Those ads appear on two search engines Yahoo acquired as part of the Overture deal - AltaVista and AlltheWeb.com.
(Economist) Mobile phones may be portable, but in America it is only this week that the same can be said of their numbers. On November 24th, wireless number portability - the ability to keep your mobile number when switching from one network operator to another - became a legal right in most of America. There has been much speculation about portability's likely impact. There were predictions that throngs of customers would switch operators. But this deluge has yet to materialise. Portability will probably make little difference in a market as fiercely competitive as America's. see also Mobile Users Look But Don't Leap on New Rules (Reuters).
(Seth Finkelstein) This report describes a possible explanation for recent changes in Google search results, where long-time high-ranking sites have disappeared. It is hypothesized that the changes are a result of the implementation of a "Bayesian spam filtering" algorithm, which is producing unintended consequences.
(BBC) Many businesses are angry that changes to the Google search engine have made it difficult for customers to find them. For internet businesses - or any company trading online - it's vital that they can be found easily through web search engines. The search engine operators want users to get the most accurate results, so websites must often comply with exacting rules.
(ACM Queue) Instant messaging (IM) may represent our brave new world of communications, just as e-mail did a few short years ago. Many IM players are vying to establish the dominant standard in this new world, as well as introducing new applications to take advantage of all IM has to offer. Among them, hardly surprising, is Microsoft.
(Guardian) Consumer spending on the internet during November and December will hit £4.2bn, a 46% increase on the £3.15bn spent during the same period last year, figures from internet research group Jupiter Media show. The UK continues to lead the way, according to the report, with shoppers expected to spend £1.3bn on gifts, food and drink over the internet this Christmas. The research, which excludes travel websites, shows German internet users will spend £1.2bn while French online shoppers will spend £500m.
(ITU) The First Phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), hosted by the Government of Switzerland, will take place in Geneva from 10 to 12 December 2003. Some side events of interest which will be taking place alongside the Summit include Global Symposium for Regulators, The WSIS global challenge: making the information society a reality for all, The future evolution of ICTs, Monitoring the Information Society: Data, Measurements and Methods, ICT for Development Forum, Building Knowledge Societies - from vision to action, Ubiquitous information society workshop, Role of Science in the Information Society (RSIS) For a full list of all side events, visit the WSIS events website
(NIST) The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will hold a spam technology workshop on February 17, 2004 to examine technical topics related to spam including filtering at the Internet/network and client sides (e.g., how to detect spam and how to reduce it), input from standards bodies on relevant current activities, Internet service providers' current and future plans to deal with spam, and technical issues regarding the efficacy of proposals to create "do not spam" lists. NIST is also interested in hearing about research challenges to developing and measuring improvements in spam control and reduction technology.
(Yale Information Society Project) The Information Society Project at Yale Law School is pleased to announce its upcoming conference on Cybercrime and Digital Law Enforcement entitled: "Digital Cops in Virtual Environment," which will take place on March 26-28, 2004 at Yale Law School. The conference will question both the efficacy of fighting cybercrime and the civil liberties implications arising from innovations in law enforcement methods of operation. see also Writing Competition and Call for Papers. Deadlines for the writing competition: February 15th, 2004, for publication: May 1st, 2004.
(Living in China) The whole Chinese internet is crazy about Muzimei! Blogcn.com, a major Chinese weblog hosting system, was brought down due to a sudden surge of traffic that was directed to Muzimei's blog on Blogcn.com. Many Chinese bloggers who had mentioned Muzimei in their blogs witnessed similar increase of traffic to their sites. Who is Muzimei? How did she shake the Chinese Internet and society with her personal blog? 'Love Letters Left' is where Muzimei, a columnist writer at Guangzhou City Pictorial Magazine, documents her private life. Sex is the theme of her blog and love making is what motivates her blog. see Sex diaries trigger Internet gossip and Sex diaries arouse concern (Shenzhen Daily).
(BBC) Singer Michael Jackson has launched a website to protest his innocence and speak directly to the world about the child abuse accusations he faces. Mr Jackson has been charged with abusing a 12-year-old boy. On the site he said the charges were based on 'a big lie' and he wanted to end 'this horrible time' by proving they were false in court. See also Trial by mouse (Guardian) .
(ITU) A link to ITU SPU pages on the Future Ubiquitous or Pervasive Mobile Information Society has been added to our Ubiquitous Networks Resources page. The site provides links to resources related to 'ubiquitous' or 'pervasive' mobile, developments in the miniaturization of mobile wireless devices, and the proliferation of always-on, everywhere communications. This phenomenon is referred to by a number of different terms, including pervasive communications, invisible mobile (Forrester), silent commerce (Accenture), ambient computing, ubiquitous computing (USA) and/or ubiquitous networking (Japan).
(Modern Practice) Open Source lawyering has taken another step into the established order with the launch of The Blogbook, a guide to legal blogging. The Blogbook is an "Open Source" project started by three legal professionals who saw the need to address and establish agreed upon standards within the world of legal blogs.
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