Legal and regulatory issues

Competition

• JN - Microsoft faces antitrust probe in Japan  +/-

  (Reuters) Microsoft's Japan unit is being investigated by the country's Fair Trade Commission on suspicion of violating antitrust laws, at a time the U.S. software giant faces similar accusations in Europe. The commission said Thursday that it believed Microsoft imposed unfair conditions on computer manufacturers wanting to license its Windows XP operating system software.

Computer crime

• UK - E-Crime Study - Protecting the Vulnerable  +/-

  (EURIM/IPPR) Computer assisted crime is no longer "special". It is part of the mainstream of criminal activity. Like other forms of crime it can be split into that which is opportunistic (and can be readily deterred or deflected) and that which is planned and organised (and much harder to handle). The EURIM-IPPR E-Crime Study is a comprehensive exercise to look at the actions needed to reduce the consequent cost to UK-based residents and business. Tthe first discussion paper was Partnership Policing for the Information Society - Separating myth from reality and snake-oil from practicality. This second paper is focussed on the needs of small firms and those with "always on" connections.

• Worldwide porn networks 'smashed'  +/-

  (BBC) Police say they have cracked a number of worldwide networks offering child pornography. Operation Odysseus saw simultaneous raids in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Spain, Sweden and the UK. It focused on people using internet boards to exchange child porn and followed a long intelligence operation. Europol say several people have been arrested and several computers and videos have been seized.

Consumer protection

• UK - ICSTIS imposes £75,000 fine for X-rated spam scam  +/-

  (BBC) A US-based firm has landed a hefty fine for sending XXX junk e-mails to thousands in the UK. The unsolicited messages came with a sexually explicit attachment. When opened, users thought a 'click me' button would close it. Instead it led them to a site accessed through a premium rate phone number. The UK's premium rate watchdog, Icstis, had more than 1,000 complaints about the e-mails and said the company breached a number of regulations. Users were charged £1.50, but continued to be billed even if they went to another website. The call only disconnected after users logged off net. The £75,000 fine equals the largest ever handed out by Icstis, the Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services.

Data Protection (privacy)

• EU - Commission proposes inclusion of biometric identifiers in citizens' passports  +/-

  (RAPID) The European Commission has adopted a proposal for a Regulation harmonising security standards, including biometrics, for EU citizens' passports. There is a need for a coherent approach on the introduction of biometric identifiers into visas, residence permits and passports. The proposals for visas and residence permits provide for two mandatory biometric identifiers: the facial image and fingerprints. Only the facial image has been chosen as a mandatory biometric identifier for passports. Fingerprints can be added as an option at the discretion of Member States. The proposal will now be considered by the Council and the European Parliament.

• UK - New police data guidance proposed  +/-

  (BBC) New guidelines on the Data Protection Act are set to be given to police to ensure information on suspects is stored and used properly. The move follows revelations that murderer Ian Huntley got a caretaker job at Soham school despite police knowing about sex allegations. Humberside Police said data protection laws required them to delete computer records of the sex allegations.

• US - FTC Fines COPPA Violators  +/-

  (Internetnews.com) The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) collected its largest fine to date for a privacy violation of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) when UMG Recordings agreed to pay $400,000 to settle civil charges brought by the watchdog agency. In a separate civil settlement, Bonzi Software, distributor of the BonziBuddy software, agreed to pay $75,000 in the first COPPA case to challenge the information collection practices of an online service in connection with a software product. Previous COPPA cases have addressed only Web site operators' information collection practices. The FTC alleged the two firms knowingly collecting personal information from children online without first obtaining parental consent. In addition to the fines, the settlements prohibit future COPPA violations, require that the companies delete any information collected in violation of COPPA, and contain certain record-keeping requirements to allow the FTC to monitor the companies' future compliance.

Domain names

• UK - Verisign sues net oversight body  +/-

  (BBC) Domain name giant Verisign is suing the body that oversees the net, claiming it had no authority to stop it from offering its site finder service. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) shut down the controversial service in 2003. The site offered alternatives to web users who mistyped net addresses.

• US - Firms Ignore Kids-Only Internet Domain  +/-

  (Washington Post) A little more than 1,500 people have plunked down $100 to $160 to buy a dot-kids address since the addresses went on sale last June, but only eight are attached to live Web sites. Twelve sites have been submitted for a mandatory content review. To date there are no dot-kids Web sites dedicated to soccer, dinosaurs, cartoons or other topics dear to kids' hearts.

Junk mail (spam)

• US - Spam: A Reality Check  +/-

  (PC Magazine) The CAN-SPAM (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing) act recently became law in the United States, and people are already passing judgment on this broad and, some might say, groundbreaking law. On the surface, the verdict hasn't been positive.

Mobile and wireless

• 3GSM: Social responsibility - mobile's next big challenge  +/-

  (silicon.com) One of the main industry bodies in mobile communications has called on the industry to fight handset crime more strongly and in general take better care of end users. The GSM Association (GSMA) has announced widespread backing for a centralised scheme that can uniquely identify each phone and keep track of and disable those reported as stolen. Vendors Alcatel, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Panasonic, Sagem, Siemens and Sony Ericsson have agreed to make more secure each handset's IMEI tag, which stands for International Mobile Equipment Identity. These will then be linked to an enhanced Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) when reported stolen anywhere in the world. The GSMA went on to support measures to tackle other issues for end users, such as inappropriate content for minors as well as potential viruses and spam.

• Salon 3GSM 2004: union sacrée des fabricants contre le vol de combinés  +/- Translate

  (Silicon) Les principaux fabricants de téléphones mobiles se sont entendus à Cannes sur la constitution d'une base de données centrale, qui recense les identifiants des téléphones. Le but est de pouvoir désactiver à distance les appareils volés.

Racism and xenophobia

• EU urged to tackle anti-Semitism  +/-

  (BBC) Jewish leaders are calling on Europe to take a tougher stand against what they see as a rising tide of anti-Semitism. They are making their plea at a Brussels seminar which the European Commission is co-hosting with the European Jewish Congress and the Congress of European Rabbis. The unprecedented meeting follows Jewish accusations of inaction on the part of European governments. see EU - Against anti-Semitism, For a Union of Diversity (RAPID) Romano Prodi, President of the European Commission. see also Closing remarks by António Vitorino European Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs. European Commission's Seminar on Anti-Semitism Brussels, 19 February 2004.

Security and encryption

• US - Online security vendor club seeks to lead government  +/-

  (silicon.com) A collection of technology providers working in the online security sector announced the formation of a new industry oversight organisation, in the name of establishing common ground among vendors, legislators and users to discuss threats to internet safety. The group has been christened the Cyber Security Industry Alliance (CSIA) and will be headed by Paul Kurtz, a former special assistant to the president who has worked on technology issues for the White House's Homeland Security Council. Among the 12 companies represented in the organisation are security specialists such as Check Point Software, Computer Associates International, Entrust, Internet Security Systems, Network Associates, Symantec and RSA. CSIA would focus primarily on four topics related to Internet security: policy, education, standards and increasing public awareness of web safety issues.

Telecommunications

• DE - Vorstellung des Jahresberichts der Reg TP  +/- Translate

  (Pressemitteilung) Aus Anlass der Vorstellung des Jahresberichts 2003 der Regulierungsbehörde für Telekommunikation und Post (Reg TP) äußerte Präsident Matthias Kurth, dass sich der Breitbandmarkt in Deutschland in einem dynamischen Wandel hin zu mehr Wettbewerb befindet.

Market & Technology

Internet access and use

• Internet access in hotels is fast becoming a standard amenity  +/-

  (Economist) Just as they take for granted air-conditioning and cable TV, business travellers increasingly expect to find broadband-internet access in their hotel rooms. Nearly 500,000 hotel rooms around the world will have high-speed internet access by the end of the year.

Junk mail (spam)

• Make 'em pay - The dismal science takes on spam  +/-

  (Economist) The short history of society's fight against spam - usually defined as unwanted commercial e-mail - may be about to pass into a significant third phase. In the first phase, it was geeks who led the resistance, using techie weapons such as e-mail filters with fancy Bayesian mathematics. In the second phase, politicians joined in, eager to get their names on to new legislation - in America, for instance, 36 states and Congress have passed laws of some sort against spam. Now, in the third phase, the economists are taking over.

• Row over how to junk spam  +/-

  (BBC) Microsoft is proposing to stop spam by checking that messages are being sent by the person they claim to come from. The Caller-ID for e-mail idea is one of several proposals floated as a way to stem the rising tide of junk mail. The Internet's engineering body has set up an emergency meeting to sift through the different proposals and draw up a network-wide solution. But some fear the competing proposals could cause confusion and spell the end of some widely-used net features. see also US - Microsoft Announces Anti-Spam Initiative (Washington Post) Microsoft is launching a system to make it harder for spammers to disguise their locations. Dubbed "Caller ID for E-mail," the system would allow computers to recognize whether incoming e-mail is from a legitimate Internet address. The project is intended to foil spammers who routinely falsify their sending location in order to fool recipients and hide their identities, a trick known as spoofing.

• US - Yahoo, Sendmail to test antispam system  +/-

  (CNET News.com) by Stefanie Olsen. Yahoo and software provider Sendmail will jointly develop a system for authenticating e-mail, with the goal of mitigating spam. The two companies announced support of DomainKeys, a proposed system for verifying the identity of an e-mail sender and reducing e-mail forgeries. Yahoo - which runs a Web-based e-mail service used by more than 39 million people in the United States, according to Nielsen/NetRatings - plans to develop and test the system by March. Sendmail's open-source technology, which routes the bulk of corporate e-mail to and from the Internet, will be integral to the experiment. see also New Spam Filters Cut the Noise (Wired) Open-source spam filter developers are claiming that their software can now block 99.97 percent or more of incoming spam on a network, thanks to new techniques.

Market

• US - Women Tailor Sex Industry to Their Eyes  +/-

  (New York Times) Experts say demand by women - both heterosexual and lesbian - is driving the growth of all sorts of sex-related ventures, from stores, catalogs and sex toy companies to adult Web sites, pornographic films and cable television shows. At the same time, many women, they say, see the sex industry as a legitimate place to make a living.

Mobile and wireless

• 3GSM: Carphone Warehouse CEO: Nokia 3G phones flying  +/-

  (>(silicon.com) Nokia handsets for use on the first 3G networks in Europe provided by 3 are in very strong demand, according to comments from the boss of the continent's largest mobile retailer. Charles Dunstone, Carphone Warehouse CEO, this morning said his company cannot satisfy demand for Nokia 7600 terminals on 3 networks in the UK. However, he criticised mobile content offerings, often in the form of services such as Active from O2, Live! From Vodafone, OrangeWorld and T-Mobile's T-Zones, saying content is often not exclusive or just too expensive. Speaking about channels such as CNN trying to charge for their news, he said: "Everyone is too greedy. News is too freely available for people to think they can charge ?5 per month [for it]." He added ringtones and games shouldn't be priced above ?0.99 and MMS photo messages not more than twice that of SMS.

• 'Content' becomes crucial for 3G phones  +/-

  (International Herald Tribune) Back in the 1990s, Internet companies bragged that "content is king." A decade later, the mobile phone industry is saying the same for phones that operate at broadband speeds. Alongside shiny new handsets, scores of new multimedia services de- signed for third-generation, or 3G, cell-phone technology were demonstrated at an industry gathering in Cannes.

• New-wave cell phones arriving in Europe  +/-

  (AP) Now that a new wave of "3G" cell phones equipped for streaming video and multimedia content is finally arriving in Europe, the industry is focusing on the next big unknown: what services users will pay for, and how.

• UK - Mobile 999 callers 'pinpointed'  +/-

  (BBC) The London Ambulance Service has become the first in the UK to use new technology to pinpoint the location of mobile phone callers. Officials say it will help them to respond to 999 calls much more quickly.

Statistics

• UK - Britons embark on computer love affair  +/-

  (Press Association) People in Britain are spending so much time with their computers that they have developed a personal attachment to them, according to research. The survey, which was carried out by pollsters MORI, found that 28% of adult users and 60% of children were extremely fond of their computer. One in three adults and 44% of youngsters even went so far as to class their machine as a 'trusted friend', while 16% of adults and 13% of 11 to 16-year-olds said: 'I often talk to my computer.'

• UK - Cyber-crime costs business billions  +/-

  (Guardian) Cyber-crime cost the UK billions of pounds last year, according to Britain's top internet policeman. Of 201 companies questioned by the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU), 83%, or 167 firms, said they had suffered some sort of computer crime in the past year, costing them £195m, with 62% losing a total of £121m to internet fraud.

Forthcoming events

• 2004-05-10 DE, Berlin - Suchmaschinen - Neue Herausforderungen für die Medienpolitik  +/- Translate

  (Bertelsmann Stifting) Eine Konferenz, die von der Bertelsmann Stiftung und der Landesanstalt für Medien Nordrhein-Westfalen gemeinsam am 10. und 11. Mai in der Berliner Repräsentanz der Bertelsmann Stiftung Unter den Linden 1 veranstaltet wird. Im Fokus wird ein "Code of Conduct" für Suchmaschinenbetreiber stehen, der als Selbstregulierungsinstrument Internet-Nutzern Qualitätskriterien und Sicherheitsstandards bei ihrer Suche nach Information und Unterhaltung im Netz garantiert. Dieser Verhaltenskodex soll Transparenzdefizite im Suchmaschinenbereich entgegenwirken. Suchmaschinen arbeiten nicht, wie von vielen Nutzern angenommen, als gänzlich neutrale Informationssortierer - Rankingkriterien, Finanzierungsstrukturen, Maßnahmen zum Jugendschutz oder gegen Manipulationen, die sich negativ auf die Relevanz der Treffer auswirken, sind höchst unterschiedlich und werden für den Nutzer kaum transparent gemacht.

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