Articles by date
10 March 2010
British police criticise Facebook safety record after Ashleigh Hall murder (The Guardian)
Senior police officers clashed with the UK's most-used social networking site today, accusing Facebook of ignoring worrying trends that it is providing a safe haven for predatory paedophiles by refusing to sign up to a "panic button" for children and young people.
09 March 2010
Facebook security measures criticised in Britain after Ashleigh Hall murder (The Guardian)
Facebook was today accused of a "glaring failure" to implement advice on protecting children online after the conviction of a man for kidnapping, raping and murdering a teenager he ensnared using the social networking site.
UK digital economy bill likely to be pushed through before election (The Guardian)
The digital economy bill will become law before Parliament is dissolved at the beginning of April ahead of a likely general election in May, senior media industry figures believe.
Microsoft 'takes on Goliath' with Bing TV ads mocking Google (The Guardian)
Microsoft is to launch a multimillion-pound TV ad campaign for its search engine Bing, as part of a major marketing push designed to challenge Google's dominance of the UK search market, MediaGuardian.co.uk can reveal.
Steve Ballmer: Microsoft 'betting our company' on the cloud (The Guardian)
Microsoft is still most closely associated with its desktop software (Windows, Office etc), but on Thursday CEO Steve Ballmer said Microsoft was "betting our company" on the cloud. About 70% of Microsoft employees are working on cloud-related projects right now; that figure will reach 90% within a year, he said.
Chatroulette: 71% men, 15% women and 14% perverts (The Guardian)
Heard and read about Chatroulette, but a bit frightened to check it out yourself? Now you can find out about the website that allows you to video chat with strangers all over the world thanks to New York film-maker Casey Neistat.
Cyber-bullying cases put heat on Google, Facebook (Reuters)
The Internet was built on freedom of expression. Society wants someone held accountable when that freedom is abused. And major Internet companies like Google and Facebook are finding themselves caught between those ideals.
British ISPs 'could make up to £200m from legal downloads' (The Guardian)
The UK music downloads market could generate up to £200m a year for internet service providers such as BSkyB and Virgin Media within three years, according to a new report.
Why Google keeps your data forever, tracks you with ads (ars technica)
Not many companies could get away with defending controversial data retention practices by saying that the data is needed to "learn from good guys, fight off bad guys, [and] invent the future." But that's how Google sees itself and its practices -- not surprising from a company that would give itself an unofficial motto like "don't be evil."
Acta battle coming to a head in Wellington (Stuff)
Debate over the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement being negotiated with the United States, the European Union and several other countries is coming to a head after the Government invited submissions on the treaty negotiations.
Hackers, viruses threaten online voting validity by Michael Geist (The Star)
With the increasing shift from analog to digital, some elections officials are unsurprisingly chomping at the bit to move toward Internet-based voting. Last year, Elections Canada officials mused about the possibility of online voting trials, noting the potential benefits of increasing voter participation, particularly among younger demographics.
France Télécom Needs 'Radical Change' After Suicides, Report Says (New York Times)
France Télécom's new management must move quickly "to take charge and encourage radical change" if it is to put an end to a suicide crisis, according to a study commissioned by the company.
Facebook fears after British sex offender logged on to murder (The Independent)
Questions were last night raised about the monitoring of the online activity of sex offenders after it emerged that a convicted rapist was able to use the social networking site Facebook to befriend a vulnerable teenager he then raped and murdered.
08 March 2010
Is there such a thing as internet addiction? (The Times)
Can the internet be as addictive as drugs or alcohol, and should online games addicts be treated in the same way?
U.S. Hopes Internet Exports Will Help Open Closed Societies (New York Times)
Seeking to exploit the Internet's potential for prying open closed societies, the Obama administration will permit technology companies to export online services like instant messaging, chat and photo sharing to Iran, Cuba and Sudan, a senior administration official said Sunday.
Britain applies military thinking to the growing spectre of cyberwar (The Times)
The control room at Little Earth Corporation, where staff field 24-hour-a-day, 365 days a year surveillance of cyber attacks
Microsoft Gives Rival Browsers a Lift in Europe (New York Times)
Rivals of Microsoft's market-leading Web browser have attracted a flurry of interest since the company, fulfilling a regulatory requirement, started making it easier for European users of its Windows operating system to switch.
Internet Industry Association calls social network companies for Australian summit on online safety (The Australian)
Social networking companies including YouTube, Facebook and MySpace are likely to announce new education initiatives to help users protect themselves online.
Japan's 2channel an outlet for free speech, and hate (IOL Technology)
Japan's biggest Internet forum, where anonymous netizens trade anything from cooking tips to death threats, has long been an anarchic zone of uninhibited free speech and a magnet for controversy.
Comment: Pirates will cover their tracks to get to online treasure (New Zealand Herald)
The latest attempt to legislate an end to online music and movie piracy will spark an arms race, according to a figure at the centre of New Zealand internet governance.
Fake drug scam hijacks UK college websites (BBC News)
UK academic institutions have unwittingly become the accomplices of criminals selling fake drugs online.
Cyberwar declared as China hunts for the West's intelligence secrets (The Times)
Urgent warnings have been circulated throughout Nato and the European Union for secret intelligence material to be protected from a recent surge in cyberwar attacks originating in China.
Internet access is 'a fundamental right': BBC World Service survey (BBC News)
Almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the internet is a fundamental right, a poll for the BBC World Service suggests.
07 March 2010
The Rule of Law in Global Governance. Its Normative Construction, Function and Import (Social Science Research Network)
Abstract: This paper divides in two parts. The first part elaborates on the difference among categories of "legalities" that have developed on the globe, and considers their shapes and thickness as irreducible to the uniform notion of a "global law". Different pictures and explanations affect sensibly in epistemic and pragmatic sense the understanding and the potential of the law in relation to global governance. It is the very fact of metamorphoses of law along diverse legal "formats" (one has to think of WTO, ISO, ICANN, WHO, ICLOS- about 2000 specialized global regimes-, of the newly coined "Global Administrative Law", of transnational merchant law, of regional order of the EU, of the international legal order, of State orders, and so forth).
The net generation, unplugged: Is it really helpful to talk about a new generation of "digital natives" who have grown up with the internet? (The Economist)
They are variously known as the Net Generation, Millennials, Generation Y or Digital Natives. But whatever you call this group of young people -- roughly, those born between 1980 and 2000 -- there is a widespread consensus among educators, marketers and policymakers that digital technologies have given rise to a new generation of students, consumers, and citizens who see the world in a different way. Growing up with the internet, it is argued, has transformed their approach to education, work and politics.
