Legal and regulatory issues

Audiovisual

• EU - European works' share of TV broadcasting time over 60%  +/-

  (RAPID) Europe's television broadcasters on average devote over 60% of their programming time to European works and over 30% to works by independent European producers, says the European Commission in its seventh progress report on the promotion of European works (2003-2004. Broadcasters in the new EU Member States show as much European content as those in the EU-15.

Computer crime

• Net's new porn trend: Nearly nude kids  +/-

  (New York Times) In recent months, an array of investigations of the child pornography business have contributed to wholesale shutdowns of some of the most sexually explicit Internet sites trafficking in child images. But they have been rapidly replaced by a growing number of so-called model sites, Internet locations that offer scores of original photographs of scantily clad under-age children.

• Pedophiles' alternate realities  +/-

  (New York Times) On the Net, they don't just swap pictures, they participate in "support groups," promote their interests, seek jobs near kids, and chat about their experiences, the New York Times reports following a four-month investigation. Times reporter Kurt Eichenwald wasn't investigating specific cases so much as the group itself, and how it uses the Net to extend its reach.

• UK - Possession of violent porn to be criminal offence  +/-

  (Guardian) People who download violent pornography could face three years in jail under new legislation. The UK government unveiled proposals to create a new offence of possessing pornographic images of extreme sexual or life-threatening violence, with a new maximum sentence of three years for possession, or five for distribution of such material.

• US - T-Mobile network hacker sentenced  +/-

  (BBC) A man arrested in 2005 for hacking into the computers of the US arm of mobile company T-mobile has been sentenced. Nicholas Lee Jacobsen was given one year home detention and ordered to pay $10,000 to the mobile firm. In 2004 he accessed personal records of hundreds of T-Mobile customers, including a Secret Service agent.

Copyright, trademarks and patents

• US - Patent review goes Wiki  +/-

  (Fortune) The problem: an epidemic of shoddy patents The solution: Wikipedia? That's the basic concept behind a pilot program sponsored by IBM and other companies, which the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office appears poised to green-light. Patent applications have tripled in the past two decades, leaving examiners only 20 hours on average to comb through a complex application, research past inventions, and decide whether a patent should be granted. As a result, critics contend, quality has declined and lucrative patents have been granted for ideas that weren't actually new. One solution is to let astute outsiders weigh in during the patent-review process, as online encyclopedia Wikipedia does, vastly increasing the information available to the patent examiner. New York Law School professor Beth Noveck floated the idea on her blog, inspiring an article in Wired News. That, in turn, attracted the attention of IBM, which got behind the idea.

• An end run round copyright laws?  +/-

  (CNET News) What Linux has done for operating systems, the Internet should do for content, a prominent lawyer and activist has urged. Lawrence Lessig railed against prevailing copyright laws and urged use of his alternative creation, the Creative Commons license. The license permits content such as music, video, photos or text to be reused and augmented by others in the same way that the open-source and free software movement permits programs to be copied and modified.

• Guitar instruction websites shut down by music industry  +/-

  (OUT-LAW News) Music publishers are taking action against guitar fan websites which they say infringe songwriters' copyrights. Publishers have started to use copyright law suits to shut down sites which share notations which help musicians to play songs at home.

• IN - India's State of Kerala trying to eliminate Microsoft from use in public institutions.  +/-

  (CNET) In a new attack on multinational corporations, the Communist government in India's southern state of Kerala is campaigning to eliminate Microsoft from use in public institutions, just weeks after it imposed a ban on Coca-Cola and Pepsi. As part of a drive against "monopolistic" organizations, schools and public offices across the state are being encouraged to install free software systems instead of purchasing Microsoft's Windows programs.

• Stop googling that hottie!  +/-

  (Guardian) Google is taking steps to stop its name becoming a generic term for surfing the net - which is important to protect its long-term value. Publishers and media organisations may have thought the summer silly season had begun in earnest recently when they received a lawyer's letter from Google attempting to assert control over journalists' use of its brand name. In it, Google informed them, by way of example, that it is fine to say: 'I ran a Google search to check out that guy from the party', but not to say: 'I googled that hottie'."

• UK - Sony refused peer-to-peer patents  +/-

  (OUT-LAW) Sony cannot patent inventions in the UK that remove the anonymity of the peer-to-peer user experience and put social networking at the heart of file-sharing. The application describes a method for attaching a user history to content when it is shared among computers or other devices. When one user downloads a song, he can see who had it last and what he thought about it. The Patent Office ruled that the inventions described computer programs and were not eligible for patent protection in the UK.

• US - Apple pays $100 million to settle iPod patent suit  +/-

  (OUT-LAW) Apple has agreed to pay leading rival Creative Technology $100 million to settle an iPod patent dispute. The settlement lifts the threat of a ban on iPods being imported into the US for sale. Creative had sued Apple over the use of navigation systems to find and organise music on iPods which it said violated their patents.

• US - Patent verdict against Microsoft, Autodesk stands  +/-

  (CNET) A federal judge in Texas has delivered a setback to Microsoft and Autodesk in their patent infringement battle with product activation start-up Z4 Technologies. He turned down the software makers' request for a new trial in a patent infringement lawsuit filed by Z4 Technologies and awarded enhanced damages, ordering Microsoft and Autodesk to pay a combined total of $158 million.

• US - RIAA copyright education contradictory, critics say  +/-

  (CNET News.com) The music industry's educational video about copyright law is full of baloney, according to several trade and public interest groups. The Consumer Electronics Association and Public Knowledge are among the groups to issue a joint statement condemning some statements on the Recording Industry Association of America's video, which the RIAA has plans to distribute to the nation's universities.

• US -Wiki site aims to boost patent review process  +/-

  (CNET News.com) In a draft five-year strategic plan, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced their intention to develop a 'peer review mechanism' that would enlist volunteers from the public to weigh in on applications and ease the burden on its own staff. A patent attorney and an accountant based in Salt Lake City has launched WikiPatents.com. Sporting a star-based rating system reminiscent of those used for movie criticism, it's designed in part to help patent examiners, attorneys, litigants, would-be investors, inventors and other interested outsiders decide whether already-issued patents deserve such a designation.

Data Protection (privacy)

• AOL executive leaves after breach  +/-

  (BBC) One of AOL's top executives has left the internet firm soon after a privacy breach in which the search queries of 650,000 subscribers were released. AOL apologised for accidentally giving details of 20 million search queries by US customers earlier this month, admitting the breach was a 'screw-up'. see also Heads Roll in AOL Affair (Reuters) and They know all about you (Guardian) .

• AT&T hack exposes 19,000 identities of customers  +/-

  (CNET) AT&T said hackers broke into one of its computer systems and accessed personal data on thousands of customers who used its online store. The information that was illegally accessed includes credit card numbers, AT&T said in a statement. The cyberattack affects about 19,000 customers who purchased equipment for high-speed DSL Internet connections through AT&T's Web site.

• US - Verizon gaffe lets cell phone customer details slip  +/-

  (CNET) Verizon Wireless has accidentally distributed a file with limited details on more than 5,000 customers outside the company, potentially giving identity thieves a toehold. The spreadsheet file was e-mailed on Monday and includes names, e-mail addresses, cell phone numbers and cell phone models of 5,210 Verizon Wireless customers. All of the customers have Motorola Razr phones.

Digital content

• EU - Commission calls on Member States to contribute to the European digital library  +/-

  (RAPID) The European Commission has urged EU Member States to set up large-scale digitisation facilities, so as to accelerate the process of getting Europe's cultural heritage on line via the European digital library. In a Recommendation on digitisation and digital preservation, it calls on Member States to act in various areas, ranging from copyright questions to the systematic preservation of digital content in order to ensure long term access to the material.

• US - University of California joins Google's book-scanning project  +/-

  (Associated Press) The University of California is joining Google's book-scanning project, throwing the weight of another 100 academic libraries behind an ambitious venture that is under legal attack for alleged copyright infringement. The deal covers all the libraries in UC's 10-campus system, marking the biggest expansion of Google's effort to convert millions of library books into digital form since authors and publishers' groups sued last autumn.

Domain names

• ICANN - Net's ruling body renews US links  +/-

  (BBC) The US looks set to maintain its role as ultimate supervisor of the net's addressing systems until 2011. The US Department of Commerce has signed a five-year deal with administrative body Icann that renews the body's role overseeing net domains.

e-Government

• UK - Access denied to the laws that govern us  +/-

  (Guardian) On August 2, the government rolled out the second stage of a long-delayed project to make the consolidated law of parliament accessible to the people. So how does it look? The public - who paid for the whole project - can't get a look in.

• UK - Environment minister scraps Web experiment as users deface Internet pages  +/-

  (Associated Press) Britain's government abruptly ended an Internet experiment as a Web site requesting ideas for environmental policies was bombarded with abuse and ridicule. Environment Secretary David Miliband had hoped the public would contribute ideas for a draft paper setting out key ecological responsibilities for individuals, government and businesses. But his Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs withdrew Web pages after contributors instead parodied the minister's jargon-heavy speaking style and criticized Prime Minister Tony Blair's faltering record.

• US - Sober warnings about e-voting systems  +/-

  (CNET News) In the wake of the hanging-and-dimpled-chads debacle of the 2000 presidential election, there has been a move to embrace electronic voting systems. The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University recently released a report analyzing the security vulnerabilities of three of the most commonly used electronic voting systems. The results are sobering. All three voting systems were found to contain significant security and reliability vulnerabilities.

Employment and social issues

• CN - China opens internet addicts' shelter  +/-

  (Guardian) Shanghai has opened mainland China's first shelter for internet addicts to help them bridge the gap between virtual worlds and dysfunctional family homes. The inauguration of the centre highlights growing government concerns about the explosive growth of the web in China, where one in eight young net users are reportedly addicted.

Hotlines

• UK - Chat users to report child abuse  +/-

  (BBC) Users of Windows Messenger can now report suspected sexual predators of children with a mouse click. A 'report abuse' icon will soon appear on the chat software as a result of work by the UK's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP). Users will be encouraged to click the icon when they suffer or witness inappropriate sexual contact.

Information society and Internet policy

• OECD - Future of the Internet  +/-

  (OECD) Workshop held in Paris on 8 March 2006. The objectives of the workshop were to discuss the trends shaping the future of the Internet and foster a forward-looking, international discussion on critical issues related to the future of the Internet and to explore the various approaches - technical, regulatory, and economic - that are being taken or can be taken to create new functionality for and increased trust in the Internet, in order to promote its sustained growth and adoption.

Interception

• US - Federal judge rules wiretaps illegal  +/-

  (BBC) A US programme to tap some phones without warrants is unconstitutional, and must be halted at once, a federal judge in Detroit has ruled. The scheme, approved by President George W Bush in 2001, involves tapping conversations between some callers in the US and people in other countries. Civil liberties campaigners brought the case against the programme, which was uncovered by the US media. Mr Bush authorised the Terrorist Surveillance Programme, as the secret interception scheme is known, after the 11 September 2001 attacks on Washington and New York and insists that it is a vital tool in the US war on terror.

Junk mail (spam)

• Spammers manipulate stock markets  +/-

  (BBC) Spam messages that tout stocks and shares can have real effects on the markets, a study suggests. E-mails typically promote penny shares in the hope of convincing people to buy into a company to raise its price. People who respond to the "pump and dump" scam can lose 8% of their investment in two days.

• US - Michigan prosecutes spammers to protect kids  +/-

  (out-law.com) The State of Michigan is bringing criminal proceedings against two companies that are accused of sending spam to children to promote gambling and alcohol. Attorney General Mike Cox is bringing the actions under the State's Child Protection Registry Act which requires email senders to check the registry to remove children's email addresses before sending messages advertising goods or services that children cannot legally buy.

Liability, jurisdiction and applicable law

• DE - OLG Hamburg legt Begründung zum "Heise-Forenurteil" vor  +/-

  (Heise) Das hanseatische Oberlandesgericht (OLG) hat die schriftliche Begründung zu seinem Urteil gegen den Heise Zeitschriften Verlag nachgereicht (Az. 324 O 721/05, PDF). Am 22. August hatte das Gericht entschieden, dass der Verlag ein Artikelforum auf heise online dann auf rechtswidrige Beiträge hin überwachen muss, wenn er konkret auf dort bereits stattgefundene Rechtsverstöße hingewiesen wurde.

Mobile and wireless

• UK - Disney scraps mobile plan  +/-

  (Register) Disney has ditched plans to start a UK virtual mobile network (MVNO), blaming adverse changes in the retail environment for its decision. O2, which was to provide the service for Disney, said Disney content will still be made available, but there won't be Mickey Mouse phones in the foreseeable future. In the US, Disney has successfully launched its MVNO network, based around giving parents control of their children's spending, and the ability to track their kids through their phone handsets.

Portals, browsers and search engines

• NL - Dutch farmers dating site loses Google court case  +/-

  (Reuters) A dating site for Dutch farmers lost a court case against Google after demanding that the world's biggest Internet search engine stop publishing sponsored links to sex sites. Farmdate.nl had asked Google to install a filter that would prevent links to sex sites from appearing alongside query results for 'farm date,' arguing that it harmed its reputation. The Amsterdam court judge ruled that the words 'farm' and 'date' were too general to be granted exclusivity by Farmdate.

Protection of minors

• EU - Communication: Towards an EU strategy on the rights of the child  +/-

  (European Commission) Communication from the Commission, adopted 04/07/2006. See also Commission staff working documents: Impact assessment and Preliminary inventory of EU actions affecting children's rights.

• Monitoring MySpacers  +/-

  (Net Family News) New social-networking-specific tools are more effective parenting aids than filtering. What's great about these approaches to monitoring is that they provide teachable moments. Instead of being tools for spying, they're more like tools for parent-child communication.

Racism and xenophobia

• CA - Tough Choice for CRTC in Hate Blocking Case  +/-

  (Michael Geist) The Law Bytes column looks at the decision by Canada's telecommunications regulator to decline to issue an order that would have opened the door to ISPs to block access to U.S.-based sites. The CRTC noted that the ISPs and the affected sites were not provided with advance warning nor the opportunity to present their views. See also CRTC asked to block access to U.S. websites (Canadian Press).

• EU - Call for action on extremist websites  +/-

  (Press Association) The whole of Europe faces a 'very real' and 'persistent' threat from terrorism, the home secretary, John Reid, warned, as an EU commissioner called for a crackdown on extremist websites. Mr Frattini also called for a crackdown on extremist internet sites and a meeting at European-level with schoolteachers to prevent classroom violence eventually leading to extremist radicalisation.

Rating and filtering

• VN - Internet Filtering in Vietnam in 2005-2006: A Country Study  +/-

  (OpenNet Initiative) Vietnam regulates access to the Internet by its citizens extensively, through both technical and legal means. The Vietnamese state attempts to block citizens from accessing political and religious material deemed to be subversive along various axes. The technical sophistication, breadth, and effectiveness of Vietnam's filtering are increasing with time, and are augmented by an ever-expanding set of legal regulations and prohibitions that govern on-line activity.

Safer Internet awareness

• NZ - 2006 NetSafe Symposium - CyberSafety & Security Online  +/-

  (Internet Safety Group) The 2006 NetSafe Symposium - Cybersafety & Security Online was held on the 6th and 7th July 2006 in Wellington. The Symposium was modelled on previous NetSafe conferences with a cross-sector focus on the issues of cybersafety and security online. This two-day event brought together leaders from a range of different sectors from New Zealand and the world, to look at child safety, network security (businesses, schools and community agencies), online confidence (secure transactions), and the e-crime challenges for law enforcement and the New Zealand legal system.

• UK - Home Office ad to protect kids online banned for leading to porn  +/-

  (out-law.com) A Home Office radio advert aimed at protecting children from sexually explicit material online has been banned because it could direct listeners to pornographic sites. The Home Office has apologised for the advert. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled that the advertisement should not be played again after complaints that it could lead to listeners accessing pornography through the advertised child protection web address.

• US - Anticrime group calls for laws to curb 'cyberbullying'  +/-

  (CNET News.com) A national anticrime group has urged Congress to pass new laws targeting the practice of 'cyberbullying,' a growing problem the group says will plague at least 13 million American children during the next school year. Mean, threatening, or embarrassing messages delivered online and via portable devices like cell phones are a 'pernicious threat that awaits our kids when they go back to school,' Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said at a press conference hosted by Fight Crime: Invest In Kids, a nonprofit advocacy organization composed of 3,000 police chiefs, prosecutors, law enforcement leaders and crime victims.

• US - Feds to warn teen girls of Net perils  +/-

  (CNET News.com) A new public service campaign unveiled by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is designed to target young females in particular. The ads will warn against posting images or information that 'might put them at risk for online victimization,' a Justice Department press release said.

Security and encryption

• Hackers target latest Microsoft Windows fix  +/-

  (BBC) Hi-tech hackers have started to produce malicious programs that target the latest bugs in Microsoft's Windows. A worm has been spotted online that tries to use the vulnerabilities to hijack home computers. Any computer compromised by the worm will become part of a large network set up to send out junk mail. At the same time Microsoft is re-issuing a recent security patch which has made the Internet Explorer browser crash on some computers.

• Microsoft warning on online games  +/-

  (BBC) Criminals are targeting the lucrative world of online games, an engineer at Microsoft has warned. Hackers could use malicious programs to steal players account information and then sell virtual items, such as gold or weapons, for real world cash. see also Microsoft warns game developers of security risk (CNET News).

• UK - Police: Let us seize encryption keys  +/-

  (CNET) Because British law enforcement officers don't have the authority to seize encryption keys, an increasing number of criminals are able to evade justice, a senior police officer said. Suspected terrorists, pedophiles and burglars have all walked free because encrypted data couldn't be opened. Earlier this summer, the British government announced that it plans to activate Part 3 of the Regulations of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Act, which will give the police the power, in some circumstances, to demand an encryption key from a suspect.

• US - Confidential data really is at risk / Laptop dangers  +/-

  (CNET) U.S. survey reports that 81 percent of companies and governmental entities have lost or misplaced one or more laptops containing confidential business information within the last 12 months. The survey, titled "Confidential Data at Risk," concludes that a main reason for corporate data security breaches is that many companies simply don't know where their sensitive or confidential business information resides. The survey goes on to summarize that "this lack of knowledge coupled with insufficient controls over data stores" poses "a serious threat to both business and governmental organizations."

Self-regulation / codes of conduct

• EU - Study on co-regulation measures in the media sector  +/-

  (Europa) Executive summary and Final report (incl. Annexes 1 & 2) & Additional Annexes: Annex 3 - Questionnaires; Annex 4 Media Systems (Country reports); Annex 5 - Reports on possible co-operative regulatory systems.

Telecommunications

• EU / DE - Web prices may drop in Germany after pact  +/-

  (International Herald Tribune) The European Commission, ending part of a three-year dispute with Germany, is scheduled to announce an agreement requiring Deutsche Telekom to sell wholesale access to its residential phone network, raising competition in Europe's largest market. The accord could force Telekom, still 31.3-percent owned by the German government, to make broadband Internet access available to competitors by the end of the year. If rivals take up the offer, the move would almost certainly lower prices for fast Internet subscriptions in Germany, where the technology has been slower to catch on under the market dominance of Deutsche Telekom.

• EU / DE - Commission endorses German broadband regulation  +/-

  (RAPID) The Commission endorses, with comments, a regulatory measure proposed by German telecom regulator Bundesnetzagentur ("BNetzA") that will give new market entrants high-speed access to end-customers (or bitstream access) via the broadband networks of Deutsche Telekom. This measure is meant to remedy the position of dominance of Deutsche Telekom on the German broadband market. The Commission welcomes in particular that the remedy proposed now requires bitstream access regardless of the technology used by Deutsche Telekom (ADSL2, ADSL2+, SDSL and VDSL). In its comments, the Commission asks the German regulator to ensure that the remedy is applied without further delay, in line with EU law, and that final clarifications are made in the interest of legal certainty on the German broadband market. see Frequently Asked Questions.

• EU telecoms reform: Commission continues debate with three studies  +/-

  (RAPID) The Commission made public three studies which should serve as "food for thought" in the ongoing review of the 2002 EU telecoms rules. The Commission has already published a Communication on the review of the regulatory framework for electronic communications, a Staff Working Paper and an Impact Assessment. The studies deal with some of the key subjects of the review process: growth and investment in the EU electronic communications sector, regulatory reform and the state of competition in the electronic communications markets.

Terrorism

• UK - Readers blocked from NY Times terror article  +/-

  (Guardian) The New York Times has blocked British readers from accessing an article published in the US about the alleged London bomb plot for fear of breaching the UK's contempt of court laws. Published in the US under the headline 'Details emerge in British terror case', the article claims to reveal new information about the alleged terror bomb plot that brought British airports to a standstill earlier this month.

Market & Technology

Digital content

• Can German engineering fix Wikipedia?  +/-

  (CNET) An experiment planned for the online encyclopedia could be a blueprint for improved accuracy. Because nearly anyone can edit just about any of the more than 2 million Wikipedia articles in 229 national versions and have those edits instantly appear, malicious edits of an article so that it contains obscenity or fiction have been one of the more serious problems Wikipedia has faced. A new feature being tested by for the German version of Wikipedia is designed as a way to protect articles from being vandalized.

• Computers write news at Thomson  +/-

  (FT) A US news service has found a way to replace human beings in the newsroom and is instead using computers to write some of its stories. Thomson Financial, the business information group, has been using computers to generate some stories and is so pleased with the results that it plans to expand the practice.The computers work so fast that an earnings story can be released within 0.3 seconds of the company making results public.

• Google: These books are free  +/-

  (CNET News.com) Google Book Search now offers PDF files of scanned books that can be downloaded and printed for free. The PDFs are offered only for those books that fall into the public domain and are intended for personal use. A book's availability depends on the country from which the user is accessing the site. Google blocks users from works that are not yet in the public domain for their country.

Electronic commerce

• UK - How click-happy Britain fell in love with online shopping  +/-

  (Guardian) Rather than battle their way through the hordes on the high street at the weekend, British shoppers are embracing the internet, spending more than their European counterparts booking holidays, hunting out book and DVD bargains and having groceries delivered to their door.

Internet access and use

• Berners-Lee calls for Web 2.0 calm  +/-

  (OUT-LAW News) Five years after the first internet bubble burst, we're now witnessing the backlash against Web 2.0 and a plethora of me-too business plans, marketing pitches and analyst reports exploiting the nebulous phrase. Tim Berners-Lee has become the most prominent individual so-far to point out that the Web 2.0 emperor is naked. He dismisses Web 2.0 as useless jargon nobody can explain.

• Boeing exits in-flight broadband  +/-

  (BBC) Boeing is scrapping its in-flight high speed broadband service because of lack of interest from leading airlines. The discontinuation of its Connexion service will cost the plane maker $320m (£169m) in one-off charges. It invested heavily in the satellite based system but most carriers have opted for cheaper internet services using cellular networks.

Market

• Games industry is 'failing women'  +/-

  (BBC) The videogames industry is continuing to fail women by not producing suitable content, a senior executive at Electronic Arts (EA) has said. David Gardner, chief operating officer for EA's worldwide studios, was speaking to a conference in Edinburgh.

• Google offers hosted communications apps  +/-

  (CNET) Organizations will be able to offer members or employees Web-based e-mail, calendar, chat and Web page publishing hosted by Google for free. Google Apps for Your Domain includes Gmail with 2 gigabytes of storage, Google Calendar, Google Talk and Page Creator. It allows organizations to use Gmail applications with their own e-mail address, instead of the "@gmail.com" domain.

• Holdout Bands Give In to iTunes  +/-

  (AP) Only a few remaining big-name musical acts refuse to make their songs available on Apple Computer's popular iTunes Music Store. Analysts say the online holdouts - including the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Garth Brooks, Radiohead and Kid Rock - probably can't avoid iTunes forever as fans flock to the internet to buy music.

• More media, less news  +/-

  (Economist) Newspapers are making progress with the internet, but most are still too timid, defensive or high-minded.

• UK - Giving it all away  +/-

  (Guardian) The advent of the internet allows the contents of newspapers to be distributed for nothing - which is the main reason why London will be having its free newspaper war next week. No one in their right mind in Britain would launch a paid-for paper aimed at a general readership, not only because competition from freely distributed news sources over the web is too fierce but also because the web will increasingly soak up advertising. The decision of the Rothermeres and Murdochs of this world to give their product away represents an attempt to join rather than beat that trend.

• US - Adware Advertising : The Role of Intermediaries  +/-

  (CDT) Potentially harmful advertising software has grown from an annoying computing issue into a serious computer security risk. Well-known companies are helping to spread this unwanted adware, often unwittingly, by paying to have their ads displayed by nuisance or harmful adware programs. Many high-profile companies are unaware of this problem because the chain of intermediaries involved in moving ads from marketers to adware applications can be incredibly complex.

• US - Universal backs free music offer  +/-

  (BBC) Vivendi Universal, the world's biggest music group, has signed a deal to make its music catalogue available on a free legal downloads service. Under the agreement, Spiralfrog will offer Universal's songs online in the US and Canada. New York-based Spiralfrog will launch its service in December and make its money by carrying adverts on the site.

• Writely online word-processing application - Google welcomes sign-ups  +/-

  (CNET) Writely is a hosted word-processing package that enables users to edit and publish documents online. Five months after being bought by Google, Writely is now open for anyone who wants to sign up and use it. This word processor figures to be part of the search giant's counterweight to Microsoft's Office Live strategy.

• YouTube seeks rights to thousands of music videos  +/-

  (Reuters) YouTube is talking with record labels to post thousands of music videos online, aiming to move beyond being a site for sharing home videos to a provider of mainstream entertainment like Yahoo and others. YouTube, which sprung out of nowhere a year ago to now claim over 100 millions views a day, is negotiating for rights to post current and archive music videos on its site, and said any commercial model it decides on will offer the videos free. see also Newsday.com: Channeling into a new generation (Newsday.com) The site has broke n into the Top 50 among Internet users. According to comScore Media Metrix, YouTube had 16 million unique U.S. visitors in July, a 20 percent increase from 13 million in June.

Portals, browsers and search engines

• Spying an intelligent search engine - Innovation in Web search using artificial intelligence  +/-

  (CNET) While most would agree that Google has set the current standard for Web search, some technologists say even better tools are on the horizon thanks to advances in artificial intelligence. Search is like oxygen for many people now, and considering Google's breakthroughs in Web document analysis, supercomputing and Internet advertising, it can be easy to think this is as good as it gets. But some entrepreneurs in artificial intelligence (AI) say that Google is not the end of history. Rather, its techniques are a baseline of where we're headed next.

Statistics

• CN - Chinese mobile users hit 426m  +/-

  (vnunet) China had more than 431 million mobile phone users by the end of July, according to the Ministry of Information Industry (MII). Local research firm Analysys International put the total number of mobile subscribers slightly lower at the end of June at 426 million,

• UK - OSS Watch Survey 2006: UK colleges and universities consider open source options  +/-

  (OSS Watch) More than three quarters of all UK colleges and universities consider open source options when engaging in IT procurement despite only one quarter mentioning 'open source' in institutional policies. The marked discrepancy between policy and practice is just one of numerous facts emerging from the OSS Watch Survey 2006 report.

• UK - Queen's English preferred for satnav  +/-

  (Reuters) Given the option, most British motorists would prefer their in-car satellite navigation systems to give directions in the well-modulated tones of the Queen's English as opposed to regional accents. A survey of 1,337 people found 57% opted for Queen's English compared with just 2% who said they would enjoy being told where to go by someone with a Birmingham accent.

Forthcoming events

• 2006-09-05 DE, Cologne - 4th German Anti Spam Summit  +/-

  (eco) Focus on international Anti-Phishing Projects. The 4th German Anti Spam Summit will take place on the September 5th in Cologne, this time focusing on Phishing. Organisers are eco, the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) Cologne and EuroISPA. Again it will be an international congress with international speakers, so the event will be held mainly in English language.

• 2006-10-05 CoE, Erevan - Empowering children and young people  +/-

  (CoE) The Council of Europe is organising a Pan-European Forum on "Human Rights in the Information Society: Empowering children and young people" which will take place at in Yerevan, Armenia, on 5 and 6 October 2006. Interested representatives of states, industry (e.g. internet service providers, mobile phone operators, gaming industry, etc), civil society and the media, as well as other organisations, institutions and experts, are invited to take part in this Forum.

• 2006-10-16 EU, Brussels - Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)  +/-

  (Europa) The European Commission will organise in Brussels on Monday 16 October a final conference on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) to close the series of consultation initiatives which Mrs Viviane Reding, Commissioner for the Information and Media, announced at CeBIT 2006. This conference will be opened by the commissioner, and it will feature European Commission officials, Members of the European Parliament, and relevant stakeholders from industry, government and civil society who have been involved in the ongoing European debate about RFID.

• 2006-10-23 EU, Brussels - International Transfers of Personal Data  +/-

  (Europa) The European Commission will organise on 23/24 October 2006 in Brussels a Conference on International Transfers of Personal Data, jointly with the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party -the independent EU Advisory Body on Data Protection and Privacy- and the United States Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration. This Conference is a follow up of the Seminar on the Safe Harbour held in Washington in December 2005 organised by the US Department of Commerce and the Working Party. Programme .

Who's who

• EU's bold voice for communication  +/-

  (International Herald Tribune) In the two years since becoming the European commissioner in charge of digital communications, Viviane Reding has accomplished more than many expected, and more than her critics wanted. Her biggest coup came last month when, using entreaty, bluster, legal threats and finally a proposal to regulate prices, Reding goaded European mobile phone operators into halving the fees they charged for roaming - fees that had approached €3, or $3.80, a minute to make or receive calls outside one's home market.

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