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(RAND Europe) RAND Europe informed a European Commission assessment of revising and extending the existing TV without Frontiers (TVWF) Directive to include all audiovisual services in Europe, including those distributed through the Internet. The RAND Europe report advises against precipitate action without full evidential support and recommends, as far as possible, a flexible approach based on self and joint-regulation by the industry with regulatory bodies that audit the effectiveness of such schemes. The proposed Directive has been published in draft form and will be debated by the European Parliament later this year.
(out-law) Viral marketing is open to abuse. So when a website that emulates Friends Reunited offered a 'tell a friend' service, the UK's advertising watchdog decided it was too great a risk to allow emails to be sent to strangers without naming the friend.
(CommsWatch) The Ofcom Consumer Panel has launched a toolkit to help Ofcom and other regulators assess whether they have identified and addressed consumer interests in forming and implementing policy. The toolkit covers a series of questions that regulators can ask themselves to ensure that consumers are appropriately considered throughout a particular project or by the organisation as a whole.
(out-law.com) Premium rate regulator ICSTIS has ordered premium-rate service providers to stop providing certain sexual entertainment and chat services that are billed by means of premium rate text messaging.
(BBC) Microsoft has changed how it reacts to government calls to censor blogs. Recently the software giant faced criticism for removing the blog of Chinese journalist Zhao Jing for writing about sensitive topics. Now Microsoft says blogs or journals blocked inside one nation would remain readable outside that country.
(Guardian) Crazy Frog-owner Jamba has forced the advertising watchdog to overturn its ruling that the ringtones could cause 'harm and distress' to children, but the post-9pm restriction on the ads remains in place The ruling was contained in the Advertising Standards Authority's original judgment, released in December, which banned Jamba from advertising its ringtones before 9pm each night.
(EDRI-gram) Two French companies, Warner Music France and the FNAC, were condemned on 10 January by the Paris District Court to pay fines and damages of 5.000 and 59,50 euros respectively, to the consumer protection association UFC - Que Choisir and to a consumer complaining for not having been able to read a Phil Collins CD on a Macintosh computer. The CD had a copy proof system that prevented the duplication but which also made it impossible to read the CD on certain devices.
(BBC) Libraries have warned that the rise of digital publishing may make it harder or even impossible to access items in their collections in the future. Many publishers put restrictions on how digital books and journals can be used. Such digital rights management (DRM) controls may block some legitimate uses, the British Library has said.
(CNET News.com) by Declan McCullagh. Google's recent legal spat with the U.S. Department of Justice highlights not only what information search engines record about us but also the shortcomings in a federal law that's supposed to protect online privacy. CNET News.com has surveyed Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL to find out their privacy practices, and assembled these answers to frequently asked questions.
(out-law) A service has launched in the UK which allows you to track any mobile phone around the globe and follow its movements from your own computer. The Guardian ran a feature on it yesterday called 'How I stalked my girlfriend'. It painted a scary picture.
(EDRI-gram) The OECD held a two day conference ( 30-31 January 2006) in Rome on 'The Future of Digital Economy - Digital Content Creation, Distribution and Access' with over 350 participants from companies, lobby groups, NGOs and governments. These stakeholders debated the issue and discussed how government policy should respond to the change in content production, delivery and use.
(DomainesInfo) En adhérant au ccNSO, l'AFNIC rejoint les registres nationaux affiliés à l'ICANN. Une décision de bon sens ou un abandon de souveraineté nationale?
(CircleID) Vint Cerf, ICANN's chairman of the board, has replied to concerns expressed about approval of new top-level domains by Peter Zangl, Deputy Director General of Information Society and Media DG of the European Commission. See also Correspondence from Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) to ICANN Board of Directors and Letter from Brazilian Government to GAC.
(Guardian) The first dedicated teachers' TV channel, established to provide information and guidance to the country's teachers, has complained to Ofcom after its output of lesson plans and topical discussions was moved to nestle among Sky's soft porn and dating channels.
(Foreign Affairs,) by Kenneth Neil Cukier. Foreign governments want control of the Internet transferred from an American NGO to an international institution. Washington has responded with a Monroe Doctrine for our times, setting the stage for further controversy.
(Guardian) The mobile phones of Greek prime minister Costas Caramanlis and top government and security officials were tapped by unknown individuals during the Athens 2004 Olympics and for nearly a year after.
(EDRI-gram) The Irish High Court has made an order requiring three ISPs to hand over the personal details of 49 alleged file-sharers. This decision follows a similar decision in July 2005, including an undertaking that the information would only be used for the purpose of litigation. The judge did, however, specify that the plaintiffs could, if they wished, also pass this information to the authorities for criminal prosecution, describing file sharing as 'a modern form of thieving'.
(Financial Times) Telecoms companies face action by the European Commission to force down the prices they charge the European Union's 380m customers for international mobile-phone use. Viviane Reding, European telecoms commissioner, will outline legislative plans to tackle the issue when she addresses industry regulators at a meeting in Paris.
(Intellect) A review of the evidence, by Andrea Millwood Hargrave, Sonia Livingstone. In today's media and communications environment, pressing questions arise regarding the media's potential for harm, especially in relation to children. This book offers a unique and comprehensive analysis of the latest research on content-related media harm and offence. For the first time, a balanced, critical account brings together findings on both established and newer interactive media. Arguing against asking simple questions about media effects, the case is made for contextualising media content and use within a multi-factor, risk-based framework in order to guide future research and policy formation.
(BBC) Children can access internet porn via mobile phones due to a loophole in phone safeguards, Which? magazine says. Youngsters are able to obtain codes for adult websites by paying for them using premium rate text messages, it claims. Which? editor Malcolm Coles said: 'There's nothing to stop children getting hold of hardcore pornography through their mobile phone.'
(out-law.com) The Government suffered two shock defeats after miscalculations allowed rebel Labour and Opposition MPs to water down the controversial Racial and Religious Hatred Bill. Opponents feared that the Bill would restrict free speech. The Racial and Religious Hatred Bill is intended to close a loophole in the law that protects Sikh and Jewish communities from racial hatred, but does not give the same protection to Christians and Muslims.
(EDRI-gram) A High Level Seminar on Racism and the Internet took place in Geneva, during 16-17 January 2006. Dr. Yaman Akdeniz, director and founder of Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties prepared a background report for the seminar entitled Stocktaking on efforts to combat racism on the Internet.
(vnunet.com) This year's Safer Internet Day will be held on 7 February with a series of events, including a global blogging session. The EU's Insafe network is organising a global 'blogathon' in which a wide range of organisations will promote internet safety. Special guests will make postings on the blog and invite comments from visitors.
(eGov monitor) Schools are failing to prevent children being put at risk from the dangers associated with the growing use of digital technology, research has found. A study commissioned by the Becta, the government's lead agency for technology in education reveals 'clear gaps' in the management of so-called e-safety schools due to a lack of any coherent policies.
(Financial Times) The European Commission turned up the heat in a simmering row with Berlin when it said a German draft law to exempt new telecoms services from regulation might break EU law and needed to be changed. The German government had earlier presented a draft of a new Telecoms Act, which would allow its regulator to postpone policing new services on planned ultra-fast internet lines if competition was safe 'in the long term'.
(BBC) Plans for new anti-terrorism controls on websites have led to a government defeat in the Lords - by just one vote. The original plans would have allowed a police constable to decide that information on the internet could be related to terrorism. But peers changed the Terrorism Bill to ensure police have to ask judges before telling internet providers that web pages should be removed.
(CNET France) Des appels illimités gratuits qui n'en sont pas, débits fluctuants, réception de la télévision capricieuse... les offres d'accès à l'internet à très haut débit peuvent réserver quelques mauvaises surprises. On vous dit tout ce qu'il faut savoir avant de choisir votre "box".
(DomainesInfo) Avec 85,6 million de noms enregistrés en 2005 et une croissance de 29% sur un an, le marché mondial du nommage poursuit son embellie. voir aussi Statistiques mondiales des noms de domaine.
(domainpuklse) Zusammen und alternierend veranstalten die Registrierungstellen von Deutschland (DENIC), der Schweiz (SWITCH) und Österreich (nic.at) jährlich die Fachtagung Domain pulse. Die nächste Veranstaltung wird von der DENIC organisiert und findet am 9. und 10. Februar 2006 in Berlin statt. Domain pulse ist im deutschsprachigen Raum die bedeutendste Veranstaltung für aktuelle Themen, Tendenzen und Trends rund um Domains.
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