Articles by date
20 October 2007
Trademark Law - What Search Marketers Should Know, Part 1 (Search Engine Watch)
What's a Trademark (and Trademark Law)? Trademark Usage (and Infringement) in Search Results. Search Engines' Policy on Trademarks and the Law. Search Engines' Policy on Trademark Usage. Complexities of Trademark Infringement Detection. These are all issues addressed in part one of a Search Engine Watch article by Grant Cowell.
Paedophile suspect Neil arrested (BBC)
A Canadian paedophile suspect who sparked a global manhunt has been arrested in Thailand, police say. Christopher Paul Neil, a 32-year-old teacher, was held in the north-east of the country, a police spokesman said.
China Blocks YouTube, Restores Flickr and Blogspot (PC World)
China's Web viewers can no longer access YouTube, but Blogspot.com and Flickr photos are now available. China watchers, get your scorecards out: Google Inc.'s YouTube is blocked, Wikipedia is still blocked, but, for the moment, Google blog site Blogspot.com is available and some pictures from Yahoo Inc.'s Flickr photos can once again be viewed. Also includes news release from Reporters sans frontières.
Media companies unveil copyright guidelines for online content (ComputerWorld)
Some of the world's biggest Internet and media companies have joined together to offer a set of guidelines aimed at protecting copyrights online. The idea is to enable the growth and development of user-generated content online without violating the copyrights of the content owners, according to a statement released by CBS Corp., Dailymotion, Fox Entertainment Group, Microsoft Corp., MySpace, NBC Universal, Veoh Networks Inc., Viacom Inc. and The Walt Disney Co. Also coverage from Reuters, Time and The Financial Times.
Czech president endorses bill punishing child porno possession (České Noviny)
Czech President Vaclav Klaus signed a bill stipulating punishment for the possession of child pornography into law today, Klaus's spokesman Petr Hajek told CTK today.
Technology giants spark innovation free-for-all (The Times)
The starting gun was fired today by the world's leading technology companies in the race to offer services via the 'internet of the future'. Apple, MySpace, and Nokia, three of the biggest technology firms offering internet or internet-related services, have announced they would allow other companies to provide products which would work on their web platforms.
Spammers pump up volume with major spoken scam slam (ComputerWorld)
Spammers started delivering spoken messages last night, the newest twist on the ongoing pump-and-dump scam, several security researchers said. Also see "Spammers' new MP3 trick may be short-lived."
Rejoice! Every "Daily Show" ever is now online (Salon)
Hallelujah, every episode of "The Daily Show" will soon be online! Indeed, a great many episodes are here already.
If you're at work today or are taking care of small children, please do not click on this link. It takes you to the amazing new site -- thedailyshow.com -- that Viacom has built for Jon Stewart and his pals, a place where you can find thousands of clips representing every instant of the show since 1999.
Google, Intel, Nokia boost sector hopes (InfoWorld)
Earnings season is in full swing, and results this week from bellwethers like Google, Intel, and Nokia are fueling hopes for a strong fourth quarter while confirming the investor confidence that has led to a rebound in share prices of technology vendors. Also includes coverage from the New York Times/International Herald Tribune, Business Week and "Google's chiefs face questions following powerful stock surge" from The Independent.
Economist to put archive online (The Guardian)
More than 160 years of articles from the Economist are set to become available online with the launch of The Economist Historical Archive 1843-2003.
MySpace Is a Treasure Chest for Cases (Law.com)
At Malbrough & Lirette in Houma, La., a secretary browses MySpace and Facebook Web sites each day. She's not checking the online social networking sites for personal reasons; she is performing one of her job duties. "It's an everyday occasion," said Joan Malbrough, a partner at the three-attorney firm, which handles family law, personal injury and corporate law matters. "Every new client we do a MySpace and Facebook search on to see if they or their spouse have any useful information."
YouTube's Filter Fails to Please (Forbes)
Last April, Googler-in-Chief Eric Schmidt assured an audience at the Web 2.0 Expo that the issue fueling Viacom's massive lawsuit against his company--alleged copyright infringement on YouTube--would become "moot" as soon as Google rolled out a new tool for managing content.
Research Shows Image-Based Exploits on the Rise (Dark Reading)
Until recently, steganography, the stealth technique of hiding text or images within image files, has mostly been considered too complex -- and conspicuous -- to be much of a threat. But some forensics experts now worry that the bad guys are starting to use the tactic more frequently, especially in child pornography and identity theft trafficking.
19 October 2007
The Pirate Bay "steals" nemesis' domain name
The Pirate Bay, a Swedish organisation well-known as the thorn in the side of law enforcement agencies and anti-piracy advocates, has staged one of its most audacious raids to date. The Pirate Bay has raided the domain name IFIP.com - previously the domain name of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), an industry body representing the recording industry worldwide.
Internet preparing to go into outer space: Vint Cerf (The Age)
After expanding across Earth, the Internet is now set to spread into outer space to reach parts no network has gone before, one of its co-creators predicted Wednesday. Vinton Cerf said the proposed "interplanetary" Internet would allow people an ability "to access information and to control experiments taking place far away" from Earth.
us: Pirates in the kitchen: Recipe copying 'rampant' online (CNet)
The next big copyright battle may be fought in the kitchen. Content tracking company Attributor recently conducted a study to get an idea of how frequently online recipes are copied and reposted to other sites. What it found might concern some recipe publishers.
Sex, Nazi, burrito and Viagra: Who Googles what? (Reuters)
Internet users in Egypt, India and Turkey are the world's most frequent searchers for Web sites using the keyword "sex" on Google search engines, according to statistics provided by Google. Germany, Mexico and Austria were world's top three searchers of the word "Hitler" while "Nazi" scored the most hits in Chile, Australia and the United Kingdom, data from 2004 to the present retrievable on the "Google Trends" Web site showed.
Online marketers aim for the kids (The Guardian)
With youngsters spending increasing amounts of time online and bans on advertising during children's TV programming, more companies are turning towards popular websites and virtual worlds as a way to influence younger consumers.
PCs Shipping at Fastest Rate in 2 Years (Sydney Morning Herald)
Computer shipments rose this summer at the fastest rate in nearly two years, and Hewlett-Packard Co. pulled still farther ahead of Dell Inc. as the world's largest maker of PCs, two technology research firms reported Wednesday.
EU targets governments over electronic waste rules (Reuters)
Several European Union countries have failed to turn the bloc's rules on electronic waste into national law and now face legal action from Brussels, the European Commission said on Wednesday.
Austria to allow monitoring of suspects' computers (The Age)
The Austrian government agreed in principle Wednesday to a proposal to allow police to infiltrate the computer hard-disks of criminals and terror suspects, the first European country to do so. Also includes coverage from Heise.
Syracuse University's iSchool Takes Leadership Role in Promoting Discussion of Global Internet Governance
The School of Information Studies (iSchool) is playing a lead role in the Second Annual Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet) Symposium on November 11 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The academic community involved in GigaNet is anticipated to be a substantial contributor to Internet policy discussions occurring at the global level. The symposium's program committee was chaired by iSchool Professor Milton Mueller and is sponsored by four research groups, including the Internet Governance Project (IGP), which involves four professors from Syracuse University and is based out of the iSchool at Syracuse.
18 October 2007
Missed call: the iPhone's hazardous chemicals: When will promises of a greener Apple bear fruit? (Greenpeace)
... An independent scientific laboratory tested 18 internal and external components of the iPhone and confirmed the presence of brominated compounds in half the samples, including in the phone's antenna, in which they made up 10 percent of the total weight of the flexible circuit board. A mixture of toxic phthalates was found to make up 1.5 percent of the plastic (PVC) coating of the headphone cables.
Facebook to Strengthen Child Warnings (New York Times)
Facebook announced today that it will strengthen warnings about child safety on its site and said that it would take steps to improve its process of responding to complaints about sexual or inappropriate content.
The company agreed to make the changes as part of a settlement with the New York State attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, who began an investigation last month into whether the Web site was misleading its users by promoting itself as a place where high school students and younger children are safe from adult sexual predators. The settlement did not include a financial penalty, but Mr. Cuomo said it would serve as a "new model" for other sites to follow. Also includes stories from Reuters, Information Week and AP.
Internet Hijacker, Mousetrapper, John Zuccarini Settles FTC Charges
John Zuccarini, typosquatter extraordinaire, who used more than 5,500 copycat domain names to divert surfers from their intended Internet destinations to one of his sites, such as Bobthebiulder.com and teltubbies.com, and held them captive while he pelted their screens with a barrage of adult-oriented ads, has agreed to settle FTC charges that he was in contempt of a court order requiring him to halt the practices. Under the new FTC order, Zuccarini must give up $164,000 in ill-gotten gains, conform to enhanced compliance and monitoring requirements, and transmit a copy of the new order to his probation officer.
