Legal and regulatory issues

Computer crime

• CH - Campaign targets online child pornography  +/-

  (swissinfo) The Swiss authorities have launched a campaign to stop the illegal downloading of child pornography from the internet. This comes as figures show that over half of the 1,550 Swiss investigated over the past three years for receiving and passing on child pornography have been convicted. The 'Stop child pornography on the internet' campaign was launched by the federal police and the Swiss Crime Prevention Centre. See German and French pages.

• GK - Greek cellular phone dealer arrested for selling sex videos stored on customer phones  +/-

  (AP) An Athens mobile phone dealer has been arrested for allegedly selling thousands of amateur sex videos downloaded from cellular phones brought to his shop for repairs. The arrest followed a sting operation in which the suspect allegedly transferred 183 pornographic videos to the cellular phones of undercover electronic crime squad officers for a total fee of €15 (US$18), police said in a statement.

• Gumshoe chases Internet villains in Eastern Europe  +/-

  (Wall Street Journal) As Internet crime proliferates, law enforcement is relying more on the private sector to help counter it. That's because tracking cyber criminals requires a different set of skills than police have traditionally used. Compounding the challenge is the speed at which new online threats are morphing. Microsoft brings huge resources and technical expertise to the table, ranging from decrypting files to analyzing computer code. Through its security team the company collaborates with police world-wide.

• US - Unraveled Web fraud reveals inner workings of Internet theft  +/-

  (AP) The illicit haul arrived each day by e-mail, the personal details of computer users tricked by an Internet thief: a victim's name, credit card number, date of birth, Social Security number, mother's maiden name. One more Internet 'phishing' scam was operating. But this time, private sleuths soon were hot on the electronic trail of a thief whose online alias indicated an affinity for the dark side. The case moved ahead in part because of an underground tipster and the thief's penchant for repeatedly using the same two passwords - 'syerwerz' and 'r00tm3.'

Content regulation

• CN - Comment Yahoo a sacrifié un dissident chinois à ses intérêts  +/-

  (Libération) Les blogs éructent, les forums grondent : Yahoo est mis en accusation depuis que Reporters sans frontières (RSF) a révélé que le géant américain de l'Internet a remis à la justice chinoise des informations qui ont permis d'envoyer Shi Tao, un journaliste chinois, en prison pour dix ans. Jerry Yang, le cofondateur de Yahoo, a beau expliquer qu'il n'avait pas le choix et que sa société est contrainte d'obéir aux lois des pays dans lesquels elle opère, rien n'y fait. La réputation de Yahoo risque d'en être durablement entachée et son site est menacé de faire l'objet de campagnes de boycottage.

• CN - Yahoo 'helped jail China writer'  +/-

  (BBC) Internet giant Yahoo has been accused of supplying information to China which led to the jailing of a journalist for "divulging state secrets". Reporters Without Borders said Yahoo's Hong Kong arm helped China link Shi Tao's e-mail account and computer to a message containing the information. The media watchdog accused Yahoo of becoming a "police informant" in order to further its business ambitions. A Yahoo spokeswoman said it had to operate within each country's laws.

Copyright, trademarks and patents

• AU - File-sharers 'breached copyright'  +/-

  (BBC) An Australian court has ruled that people using the popular file-swapping program Kazaa are infringing copyright. The Federal Court order Kazaa's owners, Sharman Networks, to modify the software to prevent further piracy. The ruling comes after 10 months of legal wrangling between Sharman Networks, and a group of record labels.

• EU - Complaint to Commission over royalty rates for DVDs  +/-

  (CdrInfo) The International Optical Disc Replicators Association (iODRA) has lodged a formal complaint with the European Commission over the royalty rates charged by DVD patent holders. In its submission to the Competition Directorate-General, the trade association cites three patent pools: the DVD6C, DVD3C and MPEG-LA licensing agencies

Data Protection (privacy)

• DK - Privacy watchdog finds police data riddled with errors  +/-

  (out-law.com) The Danish Data Protection Agency has criticised Denmark's National Commissioner of Police for what it calls an "unacceptably high" number of errors in reporting individuals to the Schengen Information System, or SIS.

• EU - Clarke tells MEPs to back data retention law  +/-

  (out-law.com) The legal framework in which enforcement agencies try to gather and collect vital intelligence data is "very difficult and in some cases impossible", UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke told MEPs in Strasburg. He urged the European Parliament to support plans for EU laws on the retention of telecommunications data, updating the Schengen Information System (which allows citizens from participating Member States to travel throughout those states without checks at internal borders) and in establishing a new Visa Information System.

• EU - UK urges new phone record rules  +/-

  (BBC) EU states should keep mobile phone and e-mail records for longer to help fight terrorism and crime, Home Secretary Charles Clarke has told MEPs. Without such measures, European states would be fighting terrorism 'with both hands tied behind our backs', he said. Mr Clarke said telecommunications data proved valuable in the investigation of the London bombings. He rejected complaints about intrusion into privacy, saying there must be effective protection against abuse. Mr Clarke also said laws preventing suspects being deported to places where they faced persecution might have to change. He said he wanted judges to realise of "circumstances in the modern world" when they judging cases involving European human rights laws. See Liberty and Security: Striking the Right Balance (UK Presidency).

• EU moves slowly ahead with data retention law  +/-

  (EUobserver) Member states are slowly moving ahead with plans to harmonize data retention to fight crime and terrorism, despite concerns both about the costs of the proposal and the infringement of civil liberties. At an informal meeting on 8 September, justice ministers tackled both of these issues, during a discussion on the controversial proposal to store information from email and phone calls for up to three years. Afterwards, the European Commission justice spokesperson, said that the general opinion at the meeting had been that data retention was necessary, although details and time frames were to be agreed upon.

Domain names

• EU - European Parliament seeks .kid domain, but will it work?  +/-

  (out-law.com) The European Parliament wants a safe playground for children on the internet, voting to set up a top level domain called .kid. But a similar scheme already exists in the US and has failed to attract many content providers. The EU vote was on a proposal from rapporteur Marielle De Sarnez, who also suggested the creation of a European free telephone service, designed to provide information on existing filter methods, and making it easier to report dangerous sites or lodge complaints.

• ICANN - Internet oversight board OKs new domains  +/-

  (AP) The Internet's key oversight agency approved a domain name for the Catalan language while deferring final action on creating a red-light district on the Internet through a "xxx" suffix. Creating the ".cat" suffix for individuals, organizations and companies that promote the Catalan language and culture was relatively uncontroversial. As for ".xxx," the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers deferred final approval for the second time in as many months.

e-Government

• EU - Caselex launches consultation on technical barriers to re-using European case law  +/-

  (Caselex) Caselex calls for your views on improving the technical conditions for access to, and re-use of, European court cases based on its report Technical barriers to tapping the potential of European Case Law, which analyses and describes technical barriers in case law processing. Furthermore it discusses and proposes possible solutions and guidelines for the implementation of the Caselex service platform. Caselex has embarked on its mission towards building Europe's first one-stop-shop Internet service to national case law across Europe. It will serve the legal community with the important cases that will prove decisive to any legal works linked to EU law (EU treaties, directives, regulations, European Court of Justice cases). Your views can be submitted before 30 September 2005.

Employment and social issues

• EU - IT accessibility must improve, says European Commission  +/-

  (out-law.com) The accessibility of websites, software, digital TV and 3G phones could become a legal requirement across the EU if plans announced today by the European Commission fail to improve accessibility for elderly and disabled people within two years. By the end of 2005, public procurement rules may also change, to demand that authorities award contracts only to bidders providing accessible services. These messages are part of a Commission Communication on what it calls eAccessibility. It calls upon Member States to do more to promote EU eAccessibility initiatives and to encourage uptake by industry.

Information society and Internet policy

• EU - i2010 : a new start for Lisbon and for European Information Society and Media policies  +/-

  (RAPID) Speech by Viviane Reding, Member of the European Commission responsible for Information Society and Media, The i2010 Conference London, 6 September 2005.

Junk mail (spam)

• EU lässt Spam- und Jugendschutzfilter prüfen  +/-

  (Heise) Spamfilter gibt es wie Sand am Meer, aber wie gut sind sie eigentlich? Dieser Frage geht ab Oktober ein von der EU-Kommission unter dem Safer Internet Action Plan mit einer halben Million Euro gefördertes Projekt nach. Das berichteten Vertreter der EU-Kommission beim 3. Deutschen Anti-Spam-Gipfel des ECO-Verbandes und der Industrie- und Handelskammer in Köln. Acht Spamfilter sollen in der auf drei Jahre angelegten Studie überprüft werden, vor allem weit verbreitete proprietäre, aber auch offene Programme, sagte ein EU-Mitarbeiter. Anfang Oktober soll der Vertrag mit dem aus insgesamt elf Bewerbern ausgewählten Konsortium geschlossen werden.

Liability, jurisdiction and applicable law

• DE - Heise legt Verfassungsbeschwerde gegen Link-Verbot ein  +/-

  (Heise) Der Heise Zeitschriften Verlag wird gegen ein Urteil des Oberlandesgerichts (OLG) München Verfassungsbeschwerde einlegen. Am 28. Juli 2005 hat das OLG entschieden, dass der zum Verlag gehörende News-Dienst heise online keinen Link zum Software-Hersteller Slysoft setzen darf. Durch dieses Verbot werde die in Artikel 5 des Grundgesetzes garantierte Freiheit der Presse ihrer Ansicht nach unzulässig eingeschränkt, erklärte die Verlagsleitung.

Protection of minors

• EU - L'UE demande à ses membres de nettoyer la Toile  +/-

  (Libération) Le Parlement européen adopte un rapport rédigé par la députée européenne Marielle de Sarnez (UDF) qui recommande à l'Union et aux Etats membres d'adopter un arsenal législatif ad hoc afin de faire le ménage sur la Toile. «L'autorégulation a totalement échoué, affirme Marielle de Sarnez. Plus d'un enfant sur trois est involontairement confronté à des images violentes, pornographiques ou pédophiles sur Internet : le pouvoir politique doit donc agir.»

Rating and filtering

• FI - Finnish ISPs must voluntarily block access  +/-

  (EDRI-gram) Ms Leena Luhtanen, Minister of Transport and Communications, has announced that Finnish ISPs will implement a censorship system to curb access to foreign web pages containing child pornography. Ms Luhtanen's plan is framed as a voluntary scheme of industry self-regulation, instead of mandatory regulation. The ministry contends that this is allowable under the constitution, and points out that similar systems are already in use in Sweden and Norway.

• FR - Filtrage automatique des contenus : l'ordre moral s'enhardit  +/-

  (IRIS) L'association IRIS (Imaginons un réseau Internet solidaire) apprend que le gouvernement aurait l'intention d'instaurer, par une mesure législative, le filtrage automatique et par défaut de l'accès à l'information en ligne, au prétexte de la protection des mineurs. Une proposition d'amendement législatif aurait ainsi été adoptée au cours d'une réunion interministérielle. L'annonce de cette proposition serait prévue le 22 septembre prochain, au cours de la Conférence de la famille 2005. La mesure pourrait être introduite dans le prochain projet de loi sur la prévention de la délinquance. L'amendement consisterait à ajouter à la loi pour la confiance dans l'économie numérique (LEN), après le paragraphe sur les moyens techniques de filtrage (Article 6-I.1), la disposition suivante: « Ils [les fournisseurs d'accès à Internet] mettent en oeuvre auprès de tous leurs abonnés, de manière automatique, des dispositifs techniques performants et activés par défaut qui permettent de restreindre l'accès aux services de communication au public en ligne mettant en péril les mineurs. Un décret en Conseil d'Etat fixe les modalités du présent article.»

• UK - BBC may introduce internet rating  +/-

  (BBC) The BBC could bring in an internet TV rating system to help people decide what to watch online. The internet labelling system will let viewers know if BBC programmes available over the internet contain sex, strong language or violence. Programmes that could be viewed on the internet 'on-demand' are not subject to normal broadcasting watersheds. The BBC will carry out a three-month trial with a 'G' for programmes that require parental guidance. see also BBC trials guidance labelling system for online programmes (Revolution).

• US - Games watchdog warns over content  +/-

  (BBC) Games publishers in the US have been told by the industry's watchdog that they must declare any hidden content in games released since September 2004. It follows the uproar over secret sex scenes in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas which were unlocked by a fan.

Safer Internet awareness

• DE - Jugendschutz-Offensive von Klicksafe und AOL: "Informieren statt zensurieren"  +/-

  (Heise) AOL Deutschland hat in Berlin eine Kooperation mit dem seit dem Frühjahr öffentlich aktiven Medienkompetenz-Portal klicksafe.de bekannt gegeben. Ziel soll die bessere Information und Sensibilisierung von Internet-Nutzern im Hinblick auf den Umgang mit illegalen und jugendgefährdenden Inhalten im Netz sein. Klicksafe fungiert als nationaler Knotenpunkt im Rahmen des "EU Safer Internet Action Plan".

Telecommunications

• EU - The review of the regulatory framework for e-Communications  +/-

  (RAPID) Speech by Viviane Reding, Member of the European Commission responsible for Information Society and Media, 1st Meeting of the Centre for European Policy Studies Taskforce on Electronic Communications. Brussels, 15 September 2005.

• EU - Voice over broadband in France: no regulation on internet telephony required  +/-

  (RAPID) The European Commission has endorsed the plans of French national telecoms regulator ARCEP[1] to boost competition in fixed-line telephony markets. The Commission agrees that ARCEP's regulatory approach to Internet telephony is an efficient way to encourage competition between internet carriers of telephone traffic and traditional telephone networks, but also calls upon it to monitor this part of the retail market closely for any anti-competitive practices and if necessary intervene to remedy them

Terrorism

• EU - Declaration on terrorism by Vice-President Franco Frattini  +/-

  (RAPID) Speech by Vice-President Franco Frattini, Commissioner responsible for Justice, Freedom and Security, EP Plenary Session, Strasbourg, 7 September 2005.

Voice over IP

• CN - China Telecom to block Internet telephony providers like Skype  +/-

  (AFX) China Telecom, the nation's biggest fixed-line telephony provider, is working to shut down computer-to-telephone call services, to force people to pay for its much more expensive offering, state press said. China Telecom is presently experimenting with blocking computer-to-telephone and computer-to-computer services in the major urban centers of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Market & Technology

Audiovisual

• UK - ITV and BBC take on Sky with Freesat launch  +/-

  (BBC) ITV and the BBC are to launch a free digital satellite service in a long-anticipated move to take on market-leading pay-TV company BSkyB. The broadcasters are working together to develop a Freesat service that would "complement" Freeview, the digital terrestrial service that has been sold to more than 5 million homes.

Mobile and wireless

• US - Pornography looks to go mobile  +/-

  (New York Times) With the advent of advanced cellular networks that deliver full-motion video from the Internet, the U.S. pornography industry is eyeing the cellphone, like the videocassette recorder before it, as a lucrative new vehicle for distribution. The major American cellular carriers have so far been adamant in their refusal to sell pornography from the same content menus on which they sell ring tones and video games. But there are signs that they may soften their stance. The cellular industry's major trade group is drafting ratings for mobile content - akin to those for movies or video games - signaling that phones, too, will be a subject of viewer discretion.

Portals, browsers and search engines

• CN - Google loses China market share  +/-

  (BBC) Google, the most used search engine, is under pressure in China and losing market share to its biggest local rival Baidu.com, a survey has found. According to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), Baidu is making gains in the main cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Voice over IP

• The meaning of free speech  +/-

  (Economist) The acquisition by eBay of Skype is a helpful reminder to the world's trillion-dollar telecoms industry that all phone calls will eventually be free. It is altogether wrong to call this phenomenon the end, or death, of telephony. "Calling it the death of telephony suggests people aren't going to make calls, but they are," says Sam Paltridge, a telecoms guru at the OECD."It's just the death of the traditional pricing models" In short, all this is great news for consumers and awful news for telecoms operators.

• Portal bid drives eBay Skype deal  +/-

  (BBC) At first glance, auction giant eBay and net phone firm Skype seem to have little in common apart from the fact that both do almost all of their business online. eBay is a giant marketplace used by more than 100 million people to buy and sell all manner of things to each other. In comparison, Skype has about 53 million users who make cheap phone calls via the service that relies on the net to carry the conversations. Certainly, many analysts have questioned why eBay splashed out $2.6bn (£1.4bn) to buy Skype.

Who's who

• Google snaps up internet pioneer  +/-

  (BBC) Google has hired one of the founding fathers of the net as its 'chief internet evangelist'. Net legend Vint Cerf, who helped to define the way the internet works, will join the search giant on 3 October. He joins from telecoms firm MCI and will take on a role that will help to shape Google's strategy and the technologies it backs.

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