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(BBC) A unit to protect children in the UK from internet paedophiles is being set up by the Home Office. About 100 staff, including police and child welfare experts will join the Centre for Child Protection on the Internet next April. The centre will take on work being done by the National Crime Squad and will target those who distribute child porn images or 'groom' children for abuse. It will be open 24 hours a day so people can report suspicious activity. see also Internet Watch Foundation press release.
(Heise Online) Die Verbraucherschützer von der Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband (vzbv) haben das Online-Portal bild.de der BILD-Zeitung wegen Schleichwerbung verklagt. Nach Ansicht der Organisation hat BILD auf der Webseite für Autos geworben, ohne dass dies explizit als Werbung kenntlich gemacht wurde.
(AP) China has ordered criminal punishments for people caught operating Web sites teaching suicide methods. Operators of sites offering instruction in how to commit suicide would be charged under Chinese criminal law.
(Michael Geist) The Canadian government has reversed policy on copyright in an official response to a parliamentary committee report. Setting out the immediate path for Canadian copyright reform, the government rejected virtually every recommendation and instead unveiled a plan that attempts to balance both the interests of creators and users.
(Reuters) A powerful group of mobile telecoms operators called for lower prices for essential anti-piracy systems, warning that high royalty payments may stifle the markets for digital music and video. The mobile phone industry's Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) has developed an open standard for anti-piracy software, but the technology used by the standard is too expensive, said the GSM Association of mobile operators.
(CDT) The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in MGM v. Grokster, arguably the most important copyright case before the Court in over two decades. The case, which seeks to hold peer-to-peer software developers liable for products widely used for illegal copying, is likely to have major implications for developers of new digital technologies and for free expression online. see also The Case of MGM v. Grokster (FindLaw) by Julie Hilden.
(BBC) A seven-point plan to tackle Britain's 'digital divide' has been unveiled by the government. It will try to remove barriers such as cost, lack of training and confidence that keep some people off the internet. The plan involves a scheme to lease computers to pupils so they can access web-based teaching materials at home. Another project will see a 'digital challenge' prize awarded to the local authority which shows how the internet changes the way it works with citizens.
(ICANN) At a meeting on 21 March 2005, the board of ICANN approved the delegation of the new .eu top level domain and authorised their CEO, to enter into an agreement with EURid, the organisation selected by the European Commission to operate the .eu registry. The decision was taken following contractual negotiations between ICANN and EURid over the past few months and approval of the agreement by the European Commission. The board decision sets in motion the next stage whereby IANA (The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority), after seeking approval from the US Department of Commerce puts .eu in the internet root. This is not expected to take more than 10 days.
(Searchenginewatch.com) Ever wondered about the organizations that oversee the architecture and operation of the Internet? A recently published article provides an enlightening glimpse behind the scenes of the net's governing bodies. In A Concise Guide to the Major Internet Bodies, Alex Simonelis, a faculty member in the Computer Science Department of Dawson College in Montreal, Canada, offers succinct descriptions and histories of the major Internet governance organizations.
(BBC) The net's self-declared spam king is seeking bankruptcy protection. Scott Richter, the man behind OptInRealBig.com and billions of junk mail messages, said lawsuits had forced the company into Chapter 11. OptInRealBig was fighting several legal battles, most notably against Microsoft, which is pushing for millions of dollars in damages. The company said filing for Chapter 11 would help it try to resolve its legal problems but still keep trading.
(CNET News.com) America Online has announced a new blogging service for teenagers. Red Blogs allows teenagers and parents to select the level of privacy they want for their online diaries; a private blog can be kept locked. A semiprivate blog is locked to all but those who are invited to read it. And a public blog allows access to anybody on the Net. However, blogs of younger teenagers, those between 13 and 15, will be locked from general public viewing. Similarly, with semiprivate blogs, parents must approve the list of people invited to read the journals of younger teenagers.
(ONI) The OpenNet Initiative has released a study documenting Internet filtering in the United Arab Emirates. ONI tested over 8000 Web sites in the past six months, finding that UAE blocks material viewed as culturally inappropriate or offensive to the state's perception of Islam. The study notes that UAE relies on American software (SmartFilter) to implement its filtering, and points out that UAE's system suffers from considerable overblocking that prevents its citizens from accessing content unrelated to the state's expressed goals.
(CommsWatch) Issue 1 of Ofcom's Media Literacy Bulletin has reports on recent events, including a seminar on emotional and political literacy and the media, run jointly by Ofcom and Bournemouth University's Media School. There is a summary of the key findings from Ofcom's recent major reviews of the research literature on the media literacy of children and young people by Professor David Buckingham and on adult media literacy by Professor Sonia Livingstone. Also Paul Whiting, project director of the Independent Mobile Classification Body (IMCB), writes about how the IMCB will operate and Scott Walker from British Music Rights explains why he thinks copyright awareness is a key aspect of media literacy.
(out-law.com) Microsoft has sued 117 phishers. The lawsuits, which will enable the software giant to identify the fraudsters behind phishing schemes, are part of the company's commitment to tackling cyber-crime. A typical phishing attack occurs when a fraudster sends an e-mail that contains a link to a fraudulent web site where users are asked to provide personal account information. The e-mail and web site are usually disguised to appear to recipients as though they are from a bank or other trusted service provider.
(RAPID) Prices for wholesale leased lines, which are a key source of broadband services for businesses should reflect the real cost of supplying them, says the European Commission. In a recommendation to Member States, the Commission reports on ?best current practices? in wholesale leased line pricing and provides competitive market benchmark prices for the entire EU, in order to help Member States to devise regulatory remedies for leased line markets that are not effectively competitive on their territory. The EU single market for electronic communication services is distorted by substantial variations in leased line prices (for a 2 Mbit/s line, 5 km long, the price in the most expensive Member State is seven times higher than in the cheapest), which are hard to explain in terms of possible underlying costs. See also explanatory memorandum;
(Guardian) by Ben Hammersley: Google has been overtaken, left standing, and not by some new startup of ultra smart MIT alumni or by the gazillions in the Microsoft development budget, but by the deeply unhip and previously discounted Yahoo.
(CNET News.com) As legal music downloading takes off as never before, music pirates are shunning peer-to-peer services in favor of using iPods to swap music. According to a report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, the number of music downloaders using peer-to-peer networks has dropped in recent months. Currently, 21 percent of downloaders use networks such as Kazaa or Grokster for music or video, compared with the 58 percent who downloaded music from file-sharing networks in February 2004.
(Europa) On Monday 13 June an Information Day will be held for the first call for proposals of the Safer Internet plus programme. Subject to the completion of all the necessary procedures, it is intended to launch a call in June 2005 with a deadline for proposals in October 2005. Further information and registration forms will be available at the end of April.
(Europa) A plenary session of the Safer Internet Forum will take place in Luxembourg on Tuesday 14 June 2005. The meeting will focus on "Child safety and mobile phones". This issue has become important with the increased use of mobile phones by children, and the launch of 3G mobile services. The objective of the Forum is to contribute to improve the common understanding of this issue at European level. Mobile operators, content providers, industry representatives, child safety associations and public bodies will exchange on potential issues and solutions, national experience of self-regulation and discuss plans for the future, including a set of minimum requirements for a self-regulatory system for content available through mobile phones. Further information and registration forms will be available at the end of April.
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