- CA - Captain Copyright and the Case of the Critical Link +/-
(Michael Geist) The hyperlink is one of the Internet's most basic yet important features. While most sites welcome links, a few do not. What if a website does not want others to link to it? Further, what if a website only wants supportive links, while maintaining the right to block critical links? Permission is not needed to link on the Internet.
- FR - Compromis sur les droits d'auteur +/-
(Le Monde) Certains textes de loi voient le jour dans la douleur. Celui relatif au droit d'auteur et aux droits voisins dans la société de l'information (DAVDSI), qui transpose en droit français une directive européenne de 2001, en est un bel exemple. La commission mixte paritaire (CMP), qui réunissait, jeudi 22 juin au matin, sept sénateurs et sept députés de la majorité et de l'opposition, est parvenue à un compromis dans une ambiance survoltée. Ce texte doit encore faire l'objet d'une adoption définitive le 30 juin par le Parlement.
- NL - Dutch MP3 search site shut down +/-
(BBC) The record industry has welcomed a Dutch court ruling against a website that provided links to MP3 music files. The Zoekmp3.nl site, run by Techno Design, was shut down after the decision by the Dutch Court of Appeal. It ruled that the site was breaking the law by providing links to illegal MP3 files on the internet, even though it did not host the content itself.
- NO - Norway sparks iTunes rebellion +/-
(FT) In one of the most significant threats to the iPod phenomenon to have arisen since the iconic digital music player was launched, the Norwegian Consumer Council concluded that Apple's iTunes service breaches Norwegian law because it prevents users from playing music they have downloaded on any player apart from Apple's own iPod. In association with its sister organisations in Sweden and Denmark, the NCC has taken action that could eventually force courts to make downloaded songs on iTunes usable on all digital music players.
- Online music row shuts web site +/-
(BBC) Internet firm Tiscali has suspended its music sharing Juke Box and accused the European recording industry of being 'virtually impossible to work with'. It took the move after it was told to remove the service's search by artist. Tiscali said services in the US offered that facility, and European music fans were being discriminated against.
- SE - Swedish IT companies demand damages after file-sharing crackdown +/-
(AP) Ten Swedish IT companies whose servers were confiscated in a police crackdown on a prominent file-sharing Web site are now asking the government for damages for loss of business. Police raided the Web hosting company PRQ on May 31, in a crackdown on illegal file swapping that temporarily shut down The Pirate Bay Web site, but they also confiscated about 200 servers belonging to companies not affiliated with the file-sharing site, the nonprofit organization Center for Justice said.
- UK - Google argues with publishers over digital libraries +/-
(CNET News.com) Google has again clashed with publishers over its controversial program to scan, digitize and make searchable the collections of libraries in the U.S. and the U.K. Publishers hit out at Google over the plan, and the effect it will have on copyright, at the launch of a report on digital rights management from the All Party Internet Group, an independent British parliamentary organization.
- UK - MPs in digital downloads warning +/-
(BBC) Consumers should be told exactly what they can and cannot do with songs and films they buy online, says an influential group of MPs in the UK. The All Party Parliamentary Internet Group report on digital rights management looked at how copy protection systems restrict the way digital movies and music can be enjoyed.
- US - Trademark infringement suit hits search again +/-
(CNET News.com) A Colorado-based dating Web site has sued Yahoo and three other companies for allegedly paying to have their ads come up when its name "lovecity" is typed into the Google search page.
- WIPO - Broadcasting Treaty: Constitutional circumvention +/-
(FT) by James Boyle. A very bad proposal is being debated in the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The proposal was to extend the length of an existing set of intellectual property rights for broadcasters, and even apply them to webcasting.With remarkably little public attention, the Broadcasting Treaty train is chugging ahead strongly, with states providing new draft proposals over the next two months for a possible decision in September.
- FR - Le projet de la France pour une Europe numérique +/-
(01net) Le ministre délégué à l'Industrie, François Loos, a exposé - à l'occasion du Conseil télécommunications - la vision de la France pour faciliter l'émergence et le développement d'une « Europe numérique ». Ce document sera transmis au début de l'été aux homologues européens du ministre. De la « réduction de la fracture numérique » à la diversité culturelle en passant par la 3G, l'Internet du futur, la bibliothèque numérique, le commerce électronique et la lutte contre la piraterie, tous les thèmes marquants propres à la révolution numérique sont évoqués.
- Human Rights in the Global Information Society +/-
(MIT Press) Book edited by Rikke Frank Jørgensen. The contributors examine the links between information technology and human rights from a range of disciplinary perspectives. Scholars, human rights activists, and practitioners discuss such topics as freedom of expression, access to information, privacy, discrimination, gender equality, intellectual property, political participation, and freedom of assembly in the context of the revolution in information and communication technology, exploring the ways in which the information society can either advance human rights around the world or threaten them.
- Stoff für den Streit um die Internet-Verwaltung +/-
(Heise) 50 Forscher aus 30 Ländern haben am vergangenen Wochenende im sächsischen Rathen das GigaNet gegründet, das sich als Plattform für Forschung rund um das Thema 'Internet Governance' versteht.
- AU - Australia to give away porn-filtering software +/-
(CNET News.com) The Australian government plans to spend about $86 million to provide all the country's families with free Internet pornography-blocking software. see also Free Internet filter 'half-baked solution' (ABC).
- IT - Betting websites are blocked in Italy +/-
(EDRI) A number of betting websites are officially blocked for Italian Internet users by the Amministrazione Autonoma dei Monopoli di Stato (AAMS or Autonomous Administration of State Monopolies, a part of the Ministry of Economy and Finances).
- UK - Restricting All but the Predators +/-
(Dark Reading) Good intentions that fall woefully short: That's the quickest summation of a proposed U.K. law intended to get pedophiles offline. The British government wants domestic ISPs to voluntarily introduce content filtering software to stop people from viewing child pornography by the end of 2007. Net and personal security experts, however, say that software only stops accidental viewing of such sites; and that the approach doesn't prevent content delivery over encrypted connections, email, instant messaging, or seemingly innocent P2P sites.
- US - Web labeling mandate surfaces in Senate +/-
(CNET News.com) Operators of commercial Web sites with sexually explicit content would have to post warning labels on each offending page or face imprisonment under a new proposal in the U.S. Senate. Caving to earlier demands from the U.S. Department of Justice, the 24-page proposed law focuses on a medley of new penalties related to child pornography and other sexual content on the Internet. For instance, Internet service providers that fail to report to authorities any sightings of child pornography on their networks would have to cough up fines that are triple those written into current law: $150,000 for the first violation and $300,000 thereafter.
- EU - More than a third of EU25 population have no basic computer skills +/-
(RAPDI) In the EU251, in 2005, 37% of people aged between 16 and 74 had no basic computer skills. This percentage was slightly higher for women (39%) than for men (34%). Among Member States for which data are available, the survey showed notable differences between countries. Large differences also existed between age groups and between different education levels. These figures are published by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities. How skilled are Europeans in using computers and the Internet ? - Issue number 17/2006.
- FR - Médiamétrie : bilan de 10 années d'internet en France +/-
(PCINpact) L'institut Médiamétrie a réalisé une étude retraçant les 10 dernières années d'internet en France. Objectif : mesurer l'évolution de l'arrivée du net dans les foyers. De 1997 à 2006, le nombre de foyers connectés a été multiplié par 100. 95 000 foyers début 1996, contre 9,9 millions en 2006. Cette mise en place s'est faite selon trois phases : de 1997 à 2002, c'est l'arrivée du net, avec d'abord son introduction sur le marché puis avec une croissance exponentielle. En 99, 1,4 million de foyers disposent d'une connexion, fin 2000, 3,1 millions. L'année 2000 sera marquée par l'avènement de l'ADSL en France, qui aura un effet catalyseur.En 2002, 6,2 millions de foyers sont équipés soit 1 foyer sur 4.
- TW - Spam: Made in Taiwan? +/-
(CNET News.com) The majority of spam servers are physically located in Taiwan, according to CipherTrust. The e-mail security company found that 64 percent of machines sending out junk mail were in that country. Next was the United States with 23 percent and third China, with 3 percent. CipherTrust also determined that unwanted e-mail traffic went up as much as 20 percent worldwide in May. The company attributed the spam rise to two factors: the demise of antispam efforts by Blue Security, and growing use by spammers of image-only e-mails to defeat filters.
- UK - Football fans flock to BBC site +/-
(BBC) The BBC Sport website is the most popular online source for World Cup news in the UK, according to a study. More than 1.3 million football fans visited the site in the first week of the tournament.
- US - Parent poll on Net safety +/-
(Net Family News) Where their kids' use of the Internet's concerned, parents' greatest fear is sexual predators, a new study by CommonSenseMedia.org found. 'Still, they perceive other dangers to be more likely to occur: 80% are concerned about sexual predators online; 39% think that they are likely to happen to their kids, according to the study press release. Among media in general, the Internet is seen as the most risky - 85% of parents thinks so, vs. 13% for TV.