Legal and regulatory issues

Computer crime

• UK - Three arrested over 'drugs website'  +/-

  (BBC) Police believe they have uncovered the first website in the UK designed to sell illegal drugs over the internet. Two men and a woman were arrested and were being interviewed following claims they had run an internet site supplying cannabis through the post. Customers could order drugs through a password-protected website and were then posted their orders.

Content regulation

• Ukraine tightens control of Internet, moves to stamp out porn  +/-

  (AFP) Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma passed a law banning publication, including on the Internet of material promoting terrorism, the overthrow of the state or depicting pornography. The law makes it illegal to publish calls to overthrow the state or forcibly change the country's constitution, material that is pornographic or promotes terrorism, violence or discrimination. It also outlaws the dissemination of information that "could harm the honour or business reputation of individuals". Under the government-proposed legislation, adopted in parliament on November 20, a state commission will be formed to identify materials of a violent or pornographic nature and ban them from all media including the Internet.

• US - Nebraska woman ticketed for being nude on Internet  +/-

  (Associated Press) Police in Nebraska have ticketed a woman for posting nude pictures of herself on the Web that were taken in a downtown bar. Melissa J. Harrington, 21, was ticketed for violating Lincoln's public nudity ordinance by posting pictures on her Web site melissalincoln.com "showing her naked at one of our downtown bars and in several other locations around the city".

Copyright, trademarks and patents

• BE - Belgian consumer watchdog sues music giants over copy protection  +/-

  (Register) Belgian consumer watchdog Test-Achats (Test Aankoop), known for its crusade against Nokia's "unsafe batteries", starts the new year with a fresh assault on the music industry. It is taking the music giants EMI, Sony, BMG Music and Universal Music to court for installing anti-piracy systems on their audio CDs. voir aussi Test-Achats défie les « majors » (Le Soir).

• CN - China to Crack Down on Online Game Piracy  +/-

  (Associated Press) China is launching a crackdown on piracy of Internet-based games, saying violators are threatening to ruin a promising $250 million-a-year industry. The effort is aimed at shutting down Web sites that offer games without paying their creators or offer software to cheat at popular multiplayer games, the official Xinhua News Agency and the China Daily newspaper reported. The three-month crackdown is to start Jan. 1. Online games that can involve hundreds of players in different cities are a thriving industry in China. Competitors without home computers often spend hours in Internet cafes.

• Copy protection: Consumers vs. copyright holders  +/-

  (CNET News.com) Digital rights management took significant strides toward being accepted by mainstream consumers and businesses in 2003, but hackers and critics maintained their attacks on the technology in the name of fair use and information freedom.

• NO - Norwegian cleared of DVD piracy charges  +/-

  (Reuters) An Oslo appeal court cleared a 20-year-old Norwegian man of DVD piracy charges in a new setback for Hollywood studios which say unauthorized copying costs them billions of dollars a year. Upholding a verdict by a lower court in January, the court said that Jon Johansen had broken no laws by helping to unlock a code and distribute a computer program on the Internet enabling unauthorized copying of DVD movies.

Data Protection (privacy)

• Disney shares customer Web data  +/-

  (CNET News.com) Walt Disney has revised its online privacy policy to allow the sharing of user information to third parties. Disney's policy change applies to information that people submit when registering for its family of Web sites, including Disney.com, ESPN.com and Movies.com. Collecting personal information during registration is a common practice among most major Web sites, providing a way to learn more about users. In Disney's case, the entertainment giant asks people to enter their email address, home address and date of birth.

• EU / US - Travel Privacy Battle Heats Up  +/-

  (Wired) Some European politicians are trying to stop an agreement between Europe and the United States to share travelers' personal information in an effort to screen for terrorists and drug smugglers, announced by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Two European Parliament members are already calling for the European Union's highest court to examine the legality of the announced compromise, which was negotiated by the European Commission.

• UK - Government may clarify data law  +/-

  (BBC) The government has responded to rising pressure for reform of the Data Protection Act by announcing that it may clarify guidance over the law. It follows the revelation that police deleted computer records about Soham killer Ian Huntley because of the act. In a second case an elderly couple died after their gas supply was cut off without social services being told. Health Secretary John Reid said the act was meant 'to protect people's privacy... not to put their lives in danger'. see also Q&A: Data Protection Act

• US - Airports to Fingerprint Foreign Visitors  +/-

  (AP) Foreigners entering U.S. airports and seaports will soon have their fingerprints scanned and their photographs snapped as part of a new program designed to enhance border security. The only exceptions will be visitors from 28 countries - mostly European nations whose citizens are allowed to come to the United States for up to 90 days without visas. Inkless fingerprints will be taken and checked instantly against a national digital database for criminal backgrounds and any terrorist lists. The process will be repeated when the foreigners leave the country as an extra security measure and to ensure they complied with visa limitations.

Domain names

• ICANN - New 'At-Large Structures' certified  +/-

  (Press Annoucnment) In an important step towards fulfilling the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers' (ICANN's) objective to have informed, structured participation of the individual Internet user community ('At-Large'), six organizations in three geographic regions have received 'At-Large Structure' certification. Certification recognizes that the following groups meet ICANN's criteria for involving individual Internet users at the local or issue level in ICANN activities and for promoting individuals' understanding of, and participation in, ICANN: Societa' Internet (Region: Europe), Arab Knowledge Management Society (AKMS) (Region: Asia/Australia/Pacific) , Alfa-Redi (Region: Latin America/Caribbean Islands) , Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft e.V (FITUG) (Region: Europe) , Internet Society (ISOC) Luxembourg A.S.B.L. (Region: Europe) and Internet Society Bulgaria (Region: Europe).

• US - Domain names once again fetch top dollar  +/-

  (AP) One more sign the technology sector is rebounding: An Internet domain name is again commanding seven figures. Last week, a Florida man sold men.com for $1.3 million, a healthy profit over the $15,000 he paid for it in 1997. The buyers, largely entertainment industry folks who have opted to remain anonymous behind the acquiring company, men.com LLC, want to create a portal for men.

e-Government

• E-Democracy  +/-

  (BBC) Among the many claims made about the internet in its early days was the idea that it would transform politics. It boldly promised to defeat despots, free people from their slavish reliance on official sources of information and to ultimately deliver power back to the people. So far it hasn't happened. So will the 'net ever become a powerful political force?

• E-governance to e-democracy: examining the evolution  +/-

  (Commonwealth Centre for e-Governance) This is the Final paper in a series of five reports assessing international developments in the policies and public administration issues now driving e-government, e-governance and e-democracy. As e-government principles and practices have been applied in the past few years it has been clear that fundamental governance issues determine the workability of the application of e-services delivery and e-programs. This fifth report addresses the evolution of e-governance to e-democracy in our growing global information society. see CCEG Research Papers.

Electronic commerce

• DE - Online-Apotheken jetzt legal  +/- Translate

  (Heise) Seit dem 1. Januar können die Bundesbürger alle hierzulande zugelassenen Medikamente auch per Post oder Internet bestellen. Zugleich wurde die Preisbindung für nicht verschreibungspflichtige Arzneien aufgehoben.

Information society and Internet policy

• Caution over 'computerised world'  +/-

  (ITU) In a BBC news article: Caution over 'computerised world', researchers argue that more discussion is needed about the idea of putting microchips (e.g. RFIDs) in everyday objects. The actual study is The Precautionary Principle in the Information Society - Impacts of Pervasive Computing on Health and the Environment performed by the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (EMPA). The entire report is currently only available in German (PDF) but a summary is available in several other languages (PDF). "Looking at the Information Society, the precautionary principle requires that the propagation of technologies which could possibly cause great damage should not be nonreversible." The study echoes the concerns about rapid RFID deployment expressed by Professor Ken Sakamura of Tokyo University (see Visions of Ubiquitous Networks from ITU TELECOM World 2003) in his paper Ubiquitous Computing: Making It a Reality (PDF).

• US - Internet Law Year in Review 2003  +/-

  (GigaLaw.com) by Doug Isenberg. Internet law in 2003 was full of surprises, with Congress passing an anti-spam bill, the courts blessing pop-up advertising, the music industry losing lawsuits, and the Supreme Court finally upholding an Internet law. And those are just a few of the highlights from a year in which technology and the law saw their biggest clashes yet.

• What the net did next  +/-

  (BBC) The internet is set to become the basis for just about every form of communication, according to net pioneer Vint Cerf, and he should know what he is talking about.

Internet access and use

• FR - Tarifs de gros dans l'ADSL: Club-Internet saisit le Conseil d'État  +/- Translate

  (ZDNet France) Le FAI a saisi la plus haute autorité administrative pour faire suspendre la dernière baisse des prix de gros de France Télécom. Une réduction validée par le gouvernement mais trop précipitée, estime Club Internet. Les fournisseurs d´accès français grognent depuis l'annonce de la baisse des tarifs de gros de France Télécom sur l'accès des FAI à son réseau internet haut débit. Après AOL France, qui attaque Wanadoo devant le Conseil de la concurrence, Club-Internet réclame à présent l'arbitrage du Conseil d'Eacute;tat. voir aussi Le dégroupage au coeur de la bataille de l´ADSL en 2003.

Junk mail (spam)

• US - Do-Not-Spam Proves Popular Concept  +/-

  (Internetnews.com) The majority of Americans would sign up for a do-not-spam list were the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to launch one, a new study has found. Eighty-three percent of Americans are either extremely or very likely to register for the list, making it more popular than the telemarketing do-not-call list. Synovate, a marketing research firm, conducted the study by surveying 1,000 adult Americans.

Liability, jurisdiction and applicable law

• DE - Sperrverfügungen gegen Internet-Provider als äußerstes Mittel  +/- Translate

  (Heise) von Monika Ermert. Sperrverfügungen gegen Zugangsprovider seien als Ultima ratio denkbar, so Prof. Dr. Wolf-Dieter Ring, Vorsitzender der Kommission für Jugendmedienschutz (KJM), im c't-aktuell-Interview. In ihrer letzten Sitzung des laufenden Jahres hat die Kommission, die seit 2. April für den Jugendschutz in Fernsehen, Rundfunk und Internet zuständig ist, sich erstmals ausführlich mit der Frage der Verantwortlichkeit von Internet-Service-Providern (ISPs) beschäftigt.

Market

• US - A wary eye on sites for music sharing  +/-

  (New York Times) The last year has seen an explosion of pay music-downloading services. Some have been successes, like Apple's iTunes Music Store, with 1.5 million downloads a week. Others, like BuyMusic, are plagued by complaints from users. But there is another site that has iTunes Music Store and BuyMusic beat: Easy Music Download, which has a greater profit margin than iTunes Music Store and probably a greater percentage of dissatisfied users than BuyMusic.

Mobile and wireless

• DE - Mobilcom to return German 3G licence  +/-

  (Reuters) Germany's mobilcom, will return its licence to run new third-generation mobile-phone services to the country's telecommunications regulator. Mobilcom, bankrolled by its key shareholder France Télécom, was one of six phone concerns that bought a German 3G license for 8.4 billion euros each during the telecom bubble in 2000. But its founder and former boss, Gerhard Schmid, fell out with the French carrier in an argument that left mobilcom with 7 billion euros in debt last year, and the company eventually had to freeze plans to build the 3G network. France Télécom still holds a 28.5 percent stake in mobilcom. Mobilcom has now decided to return the permit so that it would be free to offer 3G services as a reseller - piggybacking on other operators' networks - which would not be possible if it still held a license as an operator. In any event, the regulatory agency would have had the right to withdraw the license from the end of this year if mobilcom did not have its own network by then. The regulator, called RegTP, is widely expected to recall the German license given to Spain's Telefónica Móviles, which has frozen its rollout.

• UK - Scotland - Paedophile fear over phone photos  +/-

  (BBC) The Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association has called for a ban on mobile phone cameras in schools, amid fears that the images could be used by paedophiles. The teachers' union is worried the technology could have serious implications for the safety of pupils and staff. It warned that mobile pictures could also be used to cheat in examinations.

Racism and xenophobia

• US - Haitian groups bring video-game lawsuit  +/-

  (Associated Press) A lawsuit that claims a top-selling video game is dangerous to society and asks that it be removed from store shelves will be decided in federal court. Haitian civil rights groups filed the lawsuit because the game, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, instructs players to 'kill the Haitians' and awards points for each kill. The New York-based Rockstar Games has agreed to remove the offensive line from future versions of the award-winning video that has sold 11 million copies. The lawsuit takes on heavyweights in the video game industry, including Rockstar Games, its parent company Take-Two Interactive Software, Sony Computer Entertainment, Microsoft and retailers Target, Wal-Mart and Best Buy.

Self-regulation / codes of conduct

• DE - FSM wird Anerkennungsantrag gemäß Jugendmedienstaatsvertrag stellen  +/- Translate

  (Heise) von Monika Ermert. Die Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle Multimedia (FSM) hat eine lange diskutierte Satzungsänderung vorgenommen, um den Weg für die Anerkennung durch die KJM frei zu machen. Der Umbau von einer rein freiwilligen zu einer gewissermaßen regulierten Selbstregulierung war auf erhebliche Kritik vor allem von Seiten der Verleger gestoßen. Die neugefasste Satzung lässt den Mitglieder die Wahl, ob sie sich der Koregulierung verpflichtet fühlen oder nicht. Anfang 2004 werde die FSM nun einen Antrag auf Anerkennung durch die KJM stellen, sagte die neue FSM-Vorstandsvorsitzende und T-Online-Jugendschutzbeauftragte Gabriele Schmeichel.

Telecommunications

• EU - Spectrum trading workshop  +/-

  (Analysys) A workshop was held on 11 December 2003 for all parties interested in the use of radio spectrum and its management. Those taking part included industry players, non-profit organisations, military and public authorities in charge of radio spectrum policy. During the workshop, the initial findings of the first phase of the spectrum trading study were discussed, and members of the audience gave their views on spectrum trading. Summary of the workshop: a resumé of the issues discussed. Main presentations by Analysys, DotEcon and Hogan & Hartson. Stakeholder presentations by guest speakers.

• FR - France Télécom et l'ART à nouveau en désaccord sur une baisse de tarifs  +/- Translate

  (ZDNet France) L'opérateur historique et le régulateur en chef des télécoms poursuivent leur guerre des nerfs. Cette fois la polémique porte sur le calcul exact d'une baisse de prix sur des appels passés d'un téléphone fixe vers les mobiles d'Orange et SFR.

• Report on the telecommunications services sector in EU candidate countries  +/-

  (Europa) The ten accession countries (which are scheduled to join the EU on 1/5/2004) and the three remaining candidate countries are all committed to liberalising their telecommunications markets. IBM Business Consulting Services (formerly PwC Consulting) was commissioned by the Directorate General Information Society of the European Commission to prepare four reports tracking the development of the telecommunications services markets in the EU candidate countries (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey). The 4th and final report of the series has just been released.

Market & Technology

Junk mail (spam)

• Microsoft aims to make spammers pay  +/-

  (BBC) A group of researchers at Microsoft think they may have come up with a solution that could, at least, slow down and deter the spammers. The development has been called the Penny Black project, because it works on the idea that revolutionised the British postage system in the 1830s - that senders of mail should have to pay for it, not whoever is on the receiving end. The payment is not made in the currency of money, but in the memory and the computer power required to work out cryptographic puzzles. Once senders have proved they have solved the required "puzzle", they can be added to a "safe list" of senders. All this clever puzzle-solving is done without the recipient of the e-mail being affected. It uses memory latency- the time it takes for the computer's processor to get information from its memory chip - rather than CPU power. That way, it does not matter how old or new a computer is because the system does not rely on processor chip speeds, which can improve at rapid rates.

• War on spam turns to open proxies  +/-

  (ZDNet UK) Anti-spam site Spamhaus has added a new feature to its services which should, it says, help ISPs and companies cut out more spam from arriving at their servers. The Exploits Block List (XBL) is a database of IP addresses that originate 'illegal' third party exploits, according to Spamhaus, such as open proxies. The term 'open proxy' refers to the situation when a server allows network connections from anyone, to anywhere, on arbitrary ports and with arbitrary protocols. It means that spammers, for instance, can use that server to send spam without it being traced back to them.

Market

• UK - Digital radios are Christmas hit  +/-

  (BBC) Tens of thousands of digital radios have been sold in the UK in the last few weeks, as retailers find them one of their biggest Christmas hits. The Digital Radio Development Bureau (DRDB) said they were 'absolutely astounded' at sales. A spokeswoman said many retailers were reporting the radios to be their most popular gift, and some could not keep up with demand.

• UK - Family history gets online boost  +/-

  (BBC) The full register of every birth, death and marriage in England and Wales since 1837 has been put online to help genealogists trace family ties. The searchable online register brings together data that was previously spread across several different offices and family record centres.

• US - For the Ex-Buccaneer, a Pillage-Free Playlist  +/-

  (New York Times) It was time to go legit. No more pirated music for us. We decided to test two services: the iTunes Music Store from Apple Computer, and Rhapsody, from RealNetworks.

Mobile and wireless

• UK - Pope txts thought 4 the day  +/-

  (vnunet.com) Mobile phone users in the UK will soon be able to receive the Pope's Thought of the Day direct to their handsets via SMS. The pontiff's Thought of the Day is derived from his homilies, messages and speeches. The service was made available in Italy and Ireland earlier this year, and has launched in the UK through Vodafone, 02, Orange and T-Mobile.

Statistics

• ES - El 43,3 por ciento de las viviendas disponen de ordenador  +/- Translate

  (Andalucía24Horas) El equipamiento de las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación continúa extendiéndose en las viviendas españolas. Según datos del segundo trimestre de 2003, el 43,3% de las viviendas dispone de algún tipo de ordenador, frente al 36,1% de hogares en el mismo periodo de 2002. En España existen 3.599.054 viviendas con acceso a Internet, lo que representa el 25,2% del total (17,4% en el segundo trimestre de 2002.

• Mobiles 'narrow information gap'  +/-

  (BBC) Mobile phones are helping to bridge the communications divide between the world's rich and poor, a report says. The Washington-based Worldwatch Institute says that in developing countries, the proportion of people with access to a phone has grown over the past 10 years by more than 25%. One in five of the world's population had used a mobile phone by 2002, it reports - up from one in 237 in 1992.

• Music sharing tops net searches  +/-

  (BBC) More people looked for information about the file-swapping program Kazaa than anything else on the net in 2003, according to search site Yahoo. It beat Harry Potter, Britney Spears and Eminem to top the list of the year's most popular searched-for terms. It shows that despite legal moves by the recording industry to clamp down on illegal music swapping, surfers are still interested in such software.

• Net users bypass browser  +/-

  (ZDNet UK) The Web may have popularised the Internet, but most users now connect to the Net using non-browser applications. Media players and instant-messaging applications are now by far the most popular Internet applications, dwarfing the Web browser, according to December figures from Nielsen//NetRatings. Seventy-six percent of active Internet users access the Net using a non-browser application.

• UK - 59 Million SMSs per day in November  +/-

  (ITU) According to the Mobile Data Association (MDA), the total number of chargeable person-to-person text messages sent per day across the four UK GSM networks during November reached 59 million. This figure represents the highest daily average the MDA have reported since they began collating data on behalf of the UK network operators in 1998.

• US broadband net continues growth  +/-

  (BBC) More US homes and businesses are switching on to high-speed net access that ever before. In the first six months of 2003, broadband connections via cable and phone lines, leapt 18% to 23.6m, said the Federal Communications Commission. Overall, there has been a 45% growth in US broadband connections, but unlike the UK, many more get it through cable access than phone lines. The US has about 170 million net users in total. FCC Press Release (PDF) and Full report (PDF, 3.7 MB).

Technology

• Double-layer DVD heats up standards battle  +/-

  (CNET News.com) The competition between recordable DVD formats will only increase when the first 'plus' dual-layer disc is released, say industry observers One side of the ongoing recordable DVD format battle is expected to be first with products that nearly double the amount of data held on one disc. But that victory may not put an end to the feud. The DVD+RW camp, which includes Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Philips, plans to put so-called "double-layer" DVD recording devices on the market by next spring. Discs on these systems are expected to hold 8.5GB, or four hours of DVD-quality video (16 hours of VHS-quality video). That's about the same amount as the DVDs studios use to issue movies.

• FR - Awards DVD will 'self-destruct'  +/-

  (BBC) A DVD which 'self-destructs' will be sent to voters of the Cesar Awards in France, it has been reported. The move follows a row in the US over the use of preview discs, which the industry says can prompt piracy. The US film industry banned the sending of preview discs to award voters, but this was later challenged in court. The DVD of Gus Van Sant's film Elephant turns black and becomes unusable with two days of being played, reports industry website Screen Daily. The DVDs, which are designed to be disposable, will be sent to members of France's Academie des Arts et Techniques du Cinema.

Forthcoming events

• 2004-01-13 UK, Oxford - Competition, Regulation and Renewal  +/-

  (Guardian) Tuesday 13 January 2004, Said Business School, Oxford. Organised by IPPR in association with MediaGuardian and PCMLP, Oxford University. Keynote speakers: Phillip Lowe, Director General, Competition Directorate, European Commission, Rt. Hon. Tessa Jowell MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport, Stephen Carter, Chief executive, OFCOM. The Oxford Media Convention is the major broadcasting and communications conference for the UK media industry. The event is organised by MediaGuardian and the Institute for Public Policy Research and attended by leading executives from British broadcasting, telecommunications, regulators, advertising, academics and senior government advisers. see also The end of public service TV? by Damian Tambini.

Who's who

• UK - Web's inventor gets a knighthood  +/-

  (BBC) The inventor of the world wide web, Tim Berners-Lee, has been awarded a knighthood for his pioneering work. Dubbed the 'Father of the Web', he came up with a system over 10 years ago to organise, link and browse net pages. The famously modest man said he was 'quite an ordinary person', and although it felt strange, he was 'honoured'. The physicist created his hypertext program, which was to revolutionise the net, while he was at the particle physics institute, Cern, in Geneva.

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