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(PublicTechnology.net) Department for Culture, Media and Sport Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell has appointed an independent panel of experts to help with the review of the BBC's Royal Charter - a document that shapes the BBC, setting out its aims, objectives and functions. The current charter - the seventh in the BBC's history - runs out on 31 December 2006. The panel's appointment was agreed with Terry Burns, Tessa Jowell's independent advisor on the review of the charter.
(CDT) A Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) and Heritage Foundation paper suggests that while biometrics are not a panacea, they also should not be demonized as unacceptable technology. It is critical that the right type of technology is chosen to meet the purpose and privacy requirements of a specific use. CDT and the Heritage Foundation offer the beginnings of a code of principles for the acceptable use of biometric technology for security purposes.
(Register) The US House of Representatives has voted for a year-long extension to the deadline for countries to introduce biometric passports for their citizens. This is a year less than Colin Powell asked for, and many countries (including the UK) will be unable to meet it.
(Associated Press) The European Union's antitrust chief approved a merger between Sony Music Entertainment Inc. and Bertelsmann AG's BMG Entertainment after a review failed to support charges that the deal would harm consumers by raising CD prices, according to people familiar with the negotiations.
(ZDNet UK) Are Trojans behind a surge in complaints from Web users billed for accessing premium-rate sites that they say they never visited. The number of Internet users claiming to have fallen victim to premium-rate phone charge fraud has risen sharply, according to industry regulator ICSTIS. ICSTIS has been forced to call in the National Hi-tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) after being hit with a surge in complaints. According to ICSTIS, some of these complaints may be due to software programs called diallers that have been secretly downloaded onto their machines.
(BBC) An America Online employee has been arrested after he allegedly sold 90m customer e-mail addresses to providers of unsolicited adverts. Prosecutors say the list was later used to send massive amounts of spam.
(RAPID) Speech by David Byrne, European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, Association of German Newspaper Publishers, Media Forum North-Rhine Westphalia Cologne, 21 June 2004. [Ed: worth reading - the Commissioner used the platform to make some fairly pointed remarks about German press coverage of Commission consumer protction proposals]
(AFP) A French court has fined Internet provider America Online for 'abusive and illegal' clauses in customer's contracts, the French Consumers Union (UFC) has said. The UFC, along with its magazine Que Choisir, sued AOL-France over 38 clauses it alleged were unsustainable under French law. The court found that 21 clauses were abusive and 11 illegal. UFC Que Choisir / AOL Bertelsmann Online France Tribunal de grande instance de Nanterre 1ère chambre A Jugement du 2 juin 2004.
(Wired) Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based watchdog group that defends press freedom has publsishd its annual report on Internet censorship. The report, Internet Under Surveillance, examines the status of online speech around the world, including governmental measures to squelch information and countermeasures used by citizens to bypass censorship.
(Wired) The landmark federal prosecution of an infamous porn producer is putting the fear of John Ashcroft into the owners of countless adult websites, even those whose content is far milder than the material under attack. Experts told an audience of porn webmasters that they indeed have reason to worry. A variety of X-rated photos and videos could become illegal nationwide if the Bush administration scores an important victory in its war on obscenity. But the online adult industry is divided over exactly what to do about the threat from Attorney General Ashcroft and his crew.
(Wizards of OS) * DRM and mass-prosecution of filesharers are not solutions acceptable to an open and equitable society. * Primary goal of copyright lawmaking must be a balance between the rights of creators and those of the public. * Collecting societies need to become more democratic, transparent and flexible, allowing their members to release their works under open-access, non-commercial licenses. * With the collecting societies suitably reformed, the successful European experience with exceptions and limitations compensated by levies should be reviewed for possible application to the on-line realm. * We urge the European Commission to consider a content flatrate to ensure compensation of rightsholders without control over users.
(RAPID) The European Community is submitting its instrument of accession to the Madrid Protocol on the international registration of trademarks to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva. It is the first time that the EC as such accedes to a WIPO treaty. This link will allow businesses to benefit from the advantages of the Community Trademark through the Madrid Protocol system and vice-versa, which will simplify procedures, reduce the costs for international protection and make administration easier.
(Heise) Was an Strafandrohungen gegen "Urheberrechts-Piraten" aus der umstrittenen Intellectual Property Enforcement Direktive im Februar herausgenommen wurde, soll voraussichtlich bis Ende des Jahres im EU-Rat erneut auf den Tisch kommen. "Die Vorschläge dafür liegen längst in den Schubladen", sagte Andreas Dietl, Direktor für Europaangelegenheiten bei der Electronic Digital Rights Initiative (EDRI), am Wochenende auf der Konferenz Wizards of OS. Daniel Fontanaud von der Generaldirektion Justiz und Inneres der EU-Kommission bestätigte dies heute gegenüber heise online.
(Harvard Law School) Since its U.S. launch in 2003, iTunes, Apple's Online Music Store, has become the pacesetter in the digital media marketplace. In light of the recent launch of iTunes in Europe, the Digital Media Project has released its newly updated iTunes Case Study to provide an in-depth look at this service from the perspective of comparative law. The report examines different legal and regulatory regimes from a range of countries in Europe and Asia-Pacific and considers how iTunes and services like it are likely to fare under different sets of legal and cultural norms.
(RAPID) Speech by Pascal Lamy, EU Trade Commissioner. International Conference on the 10th Anniversary of the WTO TRIPs Agreement, Brussels, 23 June 2004. see also WTO agreement on intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).
(EUpolitix) The European Parliament's legal affairs committee has voted to take a Trans-Atlantic anti-terror agreement to the EU courts. MEPs voted 21 to ten to challenge a European Commission ruling that the transfer of EU air passenger data to US security agencies is adequate within Europe's privacy laws. A second case recommended by the committee, 19 to 14 votes, will seek to overturn a signed deal between national governments and the EU.
(ZDNet France) En présentant le bilan 2003 (PDF 3,5 MO) de la Commission nationale de l´informatique et des libertés (Cnil), son président fraîchement élu, Alex Türk, a surtout voulu marquer son empreinte pour l'avenir: celle du changement et de la nouveauté. Avec une équipe quasiment renouvelée à ses côtés, il a fixé les objectifs de l´institution, en tenant compte de la refonte de sa loi fondatrice, informatique et libertés de 1978. Elle devrait être examinée au Sénat, en seconde lecture, dans les jours à venir.
(CNIL) La CNIL considère que l´utilisation du nouveau service de suivi de courrier électronique « Did they read it ?» (L´ont-ils lu ?) serait illégale en France. Ce service permet à un internaute de savoir si les destinataires de ses messages électroniques les ont lus, à quel moment, combien de fois, pendant combien de temps, s´ils les ont transmis à d´autres personnes et depuis quel serveur de messagerie. Le processus se déroule entièrement à l´insu des destinataires des messages électroniques.
(OECD) A new document on online privacy and practice. The document is the work of its Working Party on Information Security and Privacy.
(RAPID) Speech by Mr Erkki Liikanen, Member of the European Commission, responsible for Enterprise and the Information Society. eGovernment Conference, Dublin, 17 June 2004.
(Expatica,) A court banned a journalist from selling his review copies of books online, saying the discounts breached German price-fixing arrangements that forbid price competition. A bookseller had sued for a court order after the Berlin journalist posted 48 books on the Ebay auction site in a space of six weeks. The journalist said at trial he had been sent the books free by various publishers and he was only earning a little on the side.
(ITU) The Anti-Spam Technical Alliance (ASTA), whose participants include Yahoo!, Microsoft, EarthLink and America Online, have unveiled the result of more than a year of close collaboration by presenting a host of detailed best practices and technical recommendations for the entire industry in an effort to fight the scourge of spam. The proposal provides recommended actions and policies for Internet service providers (ISPs) and e-mail service providers (ESPs) as well as large senders of e-mail including governments, private corporations and online marketing organizations. These recommendations primarily focus on two key issues: helping solve the e-mail forgery problem by eliminating domain spoofing through Internet Protocol (IP)-based and signature-based solutions; and best practices to help prevent ISPs and their customers from being sources of spam."
(BBC) The European Commission has urged the computer industry to sort out its anti-spam strategy. Lack of co-operation between all those tackling spam was holding back efforts to stem unwanted commercial messages, said EC official Philippe Gerard. At an anti-spam meeting in London, he said it was up to industry to do its part now that laws were in place to prosecute spammers.
(LawMeme) by Rebecca Bolin. Many people have been watching how the UK's December 2003 spam legislation has developed. Though there was little hope for it at the time, it seems the situation is now out of control, and no one believes the UK legislation (though based on the strong EC Directive) will do much at all. Section 32 offers the preferred method of enforcement. Persons or the Office of Communications can request that the Information Commissioner enforce the regulations. Even before the regulations, the Commissioner warned that it did not have enough funding to carry out responsibilities under the new laws. These predictions were correct. Though the law threatens fines for non-compliance, seven months later, none have been issued.
(Wired) A national 'do not e-mail' registry would do little to prevent the proliferation of junk e-mail and could even make the spam problem worse, said the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC was required to produce the report for Congress under a provision of the federal Can-Spam Act. The 'do not e-mail' registry would have functioned much like the national 'do not call' registry, allowing consumers to protect themselves from unwanted marketing. However, technical oversights in the e-mail system would make such a registry impossible in practice, concluded the report.
(The Register) by Thomas C Greene. The recent US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report on the futility of establishing a national 'do not email' registry contains a number of interesting observations related to spam control and to the so-called CAN-SPAM Act. In a nutshell, the FTC rejects the registry because it would become a weapon that spammers could use to fortify their ever-growing lists of victims. But there are a number of related points in the report that deserve attention. One is an indirect critique of the CAN-SPAM Act, recent legislation that promises lawsuits and even jail time for incontinent spammers. The Act is meant as a deterrent, and in order for it to work as such, it will obviously have to be used, and spammers will have to be made examples. Unfortunately this is an expensive and often futile business,
(legalis.net) Le projet de loi pour la confiance dans l´économie numérique, dite LEN, n´a quasiment pas été censuré par le Conseil constitutionnel. Dans sa décision du 15 juin 2004, il se contente de retoucher les dispositions relatives au droit de réponse et à la prescription des contenus en ligne.
(IDG) The UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) called on ISP Freeserve (now known by the brand name Wanadoo) to make clearer to users which of its web search results are paid advertisements. The ISP, owned by France Télécom, uses pay-for-placement listings from paid search service provider Overture, which the ASA said is set up in a manner that consumers may find confusing. Overture, based in Pasadena, California, is owned by Yahoo. In its adjudication, the ASA wrote: 'Because sponsored links were not clearly identified by a headline or title, and the search page did not contain an explanation of the purpose of the hyperlink, the Authority considered that consumers were unlikely to realize that the Overture hyperlink indicated that results were sponsored and concluded that consumers could be misled. It asked Freeserve to ensure that sponsored links were clearly identified in future.'
(RAPID) The European Commission has adopted the Annual Plan of Work 2004 of the Daphne II programme (2004-2008) to prevent or to combat all types of violence against children, young people and women and to protect the victims and groups at-risk. It resumes the actions carried out for seven years, 1997-2003, where 303 projects were funded for a total of EUR 33 million. Two different calls for proposals will be published each year : one for specific projects (as in the previous Daphne programme) and one for projects aiming at the dissemination and the use of existing results.
(Wired) While most consumers see third-generation mobile phones as a boon, the Irish government sees them as tools of pedophiles and is taking steps to track purchases of the new phones. The Irish government will establish a National Register for 3G mobile phones in a bid to protect minors. Critics say the plan is a lot of work for little effect, and that it erodes civil liberties.
(Forum sur les droits de l'internet) A la suite de la réunion de Paris de l'OSCE sur la relation entre propagande raciste, antisémite et xénophobe sur l'internet et crimes de haine, et en vue de la conférence de Sofia de décembre 2004, le Forum des droits sur l'internet ouvre un forum de discussion sur le thème: "Racisme, antisémitisme et xénophobie sur internet: que faire?". A partir du 18 juin et pour une durée de 4 mois, nous vous invitons à y échanger vos idées sur ce thème et à réagir aux conclusions de la réunion de Paris. voir aussi: dossier de référence.
(BBC) (BBC)
Officials from more than 60 countries have been meeting in France to discuss ways of combating racism on the internet. Divisions have emerged between France and the United States over how to tackle the problem. France wants tougher regulations, and believes there is a direct link between racist propaganda on the web and a surge in hate crimes in recent years. But the US says it is against any restrictions on freedom of speech. see OSCE Meeting on the relationship between racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic propaganda on the Internet and hate crimes (OSCE). Paris, 16 - 17 June 2004. A two-day international meeting in Paris with several countries calling on the 55 States of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to take measures against hate. see also US and Europe clash over online hate (Register) Europe and the US clashed head-on over how to tackle xenophobic material found online, with the European tendency towards tough regulations at odds with US constitutional protection of free speech. After a two-day conference in Paris, the group of international delegates failed to reach the strong consensus people had been hoping for. Instead, they called for greater co-operation between governments and industry to fight the material.
(Press Release) The GSM Association (GSMA), the global trade association representing more than 630 GSM mobile network operators across 200 countries has joined the Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA). ICRA's Board of Directors has also appointed Tom Phillips, Chief Government & Regulatory Affairs Officer of the GSMA as Chair of its Board and Executive Committee. ICRA is an independent, non-profit, organization working with Internet content providers and other members of the industry to develop a filtering and labelling system that can be used by parents around the world to protect their children from potentially harmful material on the Internet. The GSMA's commitment to ICRA reflects its growing focus on the challenges and issues surrounding inappropriate content that can be potentially accessed by, or delivered to mobile devices.
(OpenNet Initiative) India is among a handful of democratic states that has recently implemented some form of nationwide Internet content filtering regulation. In September 2003, the Indian Ministry of Communications & Information Technology ordered Indian Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block the Yahoo! Group kynhun. In response, many ISPs blocked access to the entire groups.yahoo.com domain, resulting in the collateral blocking of thousands of newsgroups. More recently, the Mumbai Police Commissioner's Office had ordered ISPs in India to block the website HinduUnity.org because of inflammatory anti-Islamic material contained on the website. Tests by OpenNet Initiative suggest that the ISPs are complying with the order by denying access to the IP address of HinduUnity.org, filtering at least eight other domains, because they share the same IP address. We also tested the groups.yahoo.com domain as well as the specific Yahoo! Group kynhun to test compliance with the previously issued Ministry of Communications blocking order. Of the three ISPs tested, only VSNL - the largest ISP in India - continues to block the Yahoo! Group kynhun.
(OECD) This report sets out the results of responses received from 21 member countries to the Survey on the Implementation of the OECD Guidelines for the Security of Information Systems and Networks: Towards a Culture of Security, which was issued in July 2003. It is intended to provide an understanding of the implementation initiatives in place within member countries.
(The New York Times) Google has created what is the electronic equivalent of a television network's standards and practices department to determine which e-mail messages are suitable for ads and which are not. Google will not display ads on e-mail messages with words related to sex, guns, drugs and other topics it considers off limits. Google will not show any ads on Gmail for dating sites, one of the most lucrative categories for other Web-based e-mail services. And it will not even show ads related to squirt guns. It also tries not to display ads next to messages that contain disparaging language about the products of its advertisers. So if your mother complains that her digital camera is a dud, the recipient is not likely to see a camera ad on that message.
(RAPID) For a variety of reasons, the Commission will not conduct a review of its Recommendation on relevant markets and services, which was adopted on 12 February 2003 (the "Recommendation"). This Recommendation comprises a list of electronic communications markets designated to be subject to so-called ex ante regulation by national regulatory authorities. The Commission considers that the end of 2005 would be a more realistic date for conducting a more meaningful review of the relevant markets.
(5RAPID) The Commission lodged proceedings against France before the European Court of Justice. The proceedings concern France's failure to comply with the "Cable" and "Full Competition" Directives. Contrary to the obligations set forth in these directives, France maintains burdensome arrangements for the provision of telecommunications services by cable. Such arrangements do not apply to telecommunications services provided by any other public network. Previously, on 8 April 2003, the Commission had launched the initial phase of the Court action by sending France a reasoned opinion setting forth its concerns, but France has failed to amend its national legislation.
(ITU) Ovum Consulting analyst Jan Dawson warns that offering naked DSL services has the potential to seriously dent incumbents' revenues - and not just in the US. 'The phrase 'naked DSL' is used to refer to the situation where DSL is provided to an end user without a PSTN voice service running over the same copper wire. Both Verizon and Qwest have begun offering it because customers resent having to pay for a voice line they don't need just in order to have DSL service. Cable operators providing broadband, by contrast, make no such requirement, and it is precisely to fend off this threat that Verizon and Qwest are quietly acceding to their customers' requests.
(CNET News.com) America Online will no longer offer its instant-messenger software for businesses, t as the so-called enterprise IM segment appears better suited to more established applications vendors.
(BBC) Apple's pioneering online music service iTunes has launched in the UK, Germany and France, offering more than 700,000 songs for 79p or 0.99 euros each. ITunes has proved enormously popular in the US, with about 85 million songs downloaded since launch in April 2003. see also Coke song site reacts to iTunes and Online 'penny jukebox' launched.
(CNN) Internet giant Yahoo! is fortifying its free e-mail service with 25 times more storage and freeing up millions of previously claimed e-mail addresses in an effort to thwart a looming threat from its increasingly disruptive rival Google. All of Yahoo's free e-mail accounts will be upgraded to 100 megabytes, a move spurred by Google's plans to offer 1,000 megabytes of free storage through its Gmail service.
(International Herald Tribune) Executives of some of the world's largest telecommunications companies came to Amsterdam late last month and hobnobbed with sex shop owners, publishers of pornographic images and producers of hard-core videos. The thrill they were seeking, of course, was economic.
(BBC) Mobiles with built-in cameras have sparked fears of industrial espionage. And schools, health clubs and strip joints have also banned the devices. Is the lens cap being put on phone snappers?
(Guardian) New breakthroughs aimed at boosting phones' power and storage capacity could herald the technology's next great leap forward. In Japan, JP Morgan analyst Kazuyo Katsuma confirmed what industry insiders had known for months, that the first phone with integrated hard disk storage was on its way. Meanwhile in Helsinki Nokia announced it was testing fuel cells powered by tiny hydrogen-based energy sources. The company claimed the cells could triple the life of existing mobile phone batteries.
(BBC) A new generation of mobile users are becoming so emotionally attached to their phones that they cannot live without them. This is one of the key findings of a study into how people use their mobile phones entitled Me, My Mobile and I. The annual study from research firm Teleconomy reveals that 10 to 14-year-olds - dubbed M-Agers - are rapidly becoming the most sophisticated users of phones.
(CommsWatch) This study looks at how wireless networking (WLAN) in London has developed over the last three years from hacktivist pastime to mainstream pursuit. Comparing networks built by freenetwork groups, commercial hotspot providers, and public sector initiatives the study also examines the sales and uptake of WLAN equipment and makes some direct measurements of wireless activity in the Greater London area. Finally the study looks at the development of WLAN in the home and makes a recommendation for a Wireless Festival for London in 2004/2005.
(BBC) The first ever computer virus spread by mobile phones has been sent to anti-virus firms. No infections have been reported and the worm is harmless but it is proof that mobiles are at risk from virus writers. The worm, known as Cabir, infects phones and devices running the Symbian operating system.
(BBC) The number of people connected to broadband in the UK has almost doubled in a year, official figures show. Office of National Statistics (ONS) figures show 27% of UK net connections are broadband, while dial-up is down to 73% from 85% in April last year. Recent fervent competition between broadband net providers has seen prices fall, making broadband more attractive.
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