Articles by date
27 July 2007
Study: 19% of Americans Watch Online Video a Day (Sydney Morning Herald)
One in five online Americans view video over the Internet on any given day, thanks to speedier Internet connections and a wider selection of clips, a Pew Internet & American Life Project study finds.
Nine million now live in World of Warcraft (New Zealand Herald)
World of Warcraft has hit yet another milestone - this time clocking up a massive nine million subscribed players worldwide.
Taiwan helps APEC partners bridge digital divide with ADOC initiative (Taiwan Central News Agency)
The APEC Digital Opportunity Center, an initiative submitted by Taiwan in 2003 at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, has been helping bridge the digital divide in APEC countries, representatives from seven APEC economies said Tuesday at the 2007 ADOC Plenary. The plenary is a part of "ADOC Week, " which is taking place in Taipei from July 24-27. Delegations from Chile, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam will also attend an ADOC forum and an ADOC award ceremony.
EFF Takes Universal To Court Over DMCA Issues (Wired)
Not since that annoying Ally McBeal baby has a dancing toddler caused so much commotion. All it took was Stephanie Lenz uploading a 29 second clip of her son rocking out to Prince's "Let's Go Crazy" on YouTube and now Universal Music Publishing Group is up in arms. The worst of it came last month as YouTube removed the clip in compliance with their own DMCA policy after Universal's official request.
US Congress: P2P networks harm national security (CNet)
Politicians charged on Tuesday that peer-to-peer networks can pose a "national security threat" because they enable federal employees to share sensitive or classified documents accidentally from their computers.
UK Government backs private copying but ignores compensation (Out-Law.com)
The Government will launch a public consultation this autumn on an exemption from copyright law for people who are moving music on to MP3 players. But the plan for a private copying exemption does not address the controversial question of compensation.
'Shooting the Messenger': Myth vs. Reality: U.S. Broadband Policy and International Broadband Rankings (Free Press)
This paper exposes the myths put forward to excuse the shortcomings of the U.S. broadband market. The facts speak for themselves: More than 10 million U.S. households remain unserved, and nearly 50 million homes could subscribe but choose not to because the connection available is too expensive or too slow. The 50 million homes that do have broadband face, at best, a duopoly choice between the local phone or local cable company.
New Report Busts Telco Myths about U.S. Internet by Timothy Karr (The Huffington Post)
A report released today decisively shoots down many of the myths that telecommunications lobbyists and shills have manufactured about the health of America's Internet. The report, "Shooting the Messenger," urges policymakers to focus on the real problems that have caused America to fall dangerously behind the rest of the world in Internet adoption -- competition and availability. The report's authors at Free Press believe the root of the problem to be the "cozy duopoly" of cable and broadband providers that stifle competition and innovation while driving costs to consumers through the roof.
EU to free up wireless spectrum for 3G (Sydney Morning Herald)
The European Union is making more radio spectrum available for accessing Internet services over mobile phones, saying the use of lower frequencies would cut operators' costs and let them reach customers over a wider area.
26 July 2007
Go Daddy, Miss America & Congress Find Ways to Protect Our Kids Online (Go Daddy)
Miss America, the president and CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a well-known researcher of crimes against children, and a top GoDaddy.com executive were among the key figures who testified today before Congress about how to protect our kids from online predators. The business of child pornography over the Internet is estimated to be worth as much as $20 billion.
Vint Cerf on Google spectrum and the new "Die Hard" (Seattle Times)
The Internet can sometimes feel intimidating and even dangerous, but I'm glad to report that the guy who got the thing started is very nice and approachable. Vint Cerf is also funny -- early on he had a T-shirt made that said "IP on everything." Cerf, a key architect of the network and its military predecessor, now works at Google as a telecom policy expert and traveling sage who regularly visits the company's offices around the world. (Technically, he's vice president and "chief Internet evangelist.")
Internet Core Neutrality: Drawing a Line in the Sand at ICANN by Dan Krimm (Toward Freedom)
Dan Krimm writes on ICANN mission-creep saying "ICANN has expanded its reach well beyond that narrow technical realm and into the world of general public policy. Current policy deliberations at ICANN are increasingly touching upon broad issues like personal privacy, crime-fighting, trademark enforcement, and morality and public order in general."
Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse to combat cybersquatting
The Washington-based non-profit The Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse aims to confront cybersquatting. Media reports note cybersquatters should beware with Coca-Cola, Yahoo, Dell, Marriott, Eli Lilly and Hilton, among others, who have joined the coalition to push for harsher penalties for cybersquatters. CNN runs a story from Investor's Business Daily who interviews Josh Bourne. When asked what loopholes cybersquatters use, Bourne claims, “There are relatively lax registrar accreditation requirements from ICANN” and he refers to the “grace period” available to registrants.
us: MySpace bars thousands of sex offenders found among members (The Guardian)
MySpace found more than 29,000 registered sex offenders among its 180 million members, it was revealed on Tuesday. Three months ago the site acknowledged that there were 7,000 profiles of sex offenders on its site, but under pressure from legal officials in several US states it has provided a more complete breakdown of its membership.
Cyberbullying rife in UK business (vnunet)
Cyberbullying is becoming increasingly common in the UK workplace, according to a new government survey in conjunction with trade union Unite. A fifth of respondents said that they have been bullied by email in their current or previous jobs, and six per cent have been bullied via text message.
us: Online Newspaper Audience Rising Twice As Fast As General Internet Population: Report (Forbes)
Newspapers' online audiences are rising at twice the rate of the general internet audience, according to research by Nielsen//NetRatings for the Newspaper Association of America. Among the findings of the report, based on existing and ongoing data collected in Nielsen's @Plan survey was an average of more than 59 million people (37.6 percent of all active internet users) visited newspapers online each month during Q1, a 5.3 percent increase over the same period a year ago.
Survey Reveals Youth Attitudes Toward Technology (PC World)
While young people embrace the Web with real or virtual friends and their mobile phone is never far away, relatively few like technology and those that do tend to be in Brazil, India and China, according to a survey. Only a handful think of technology as a concept, and just 16 percent use terms like "social networking," said two combined surveys covering 8- to 24-year-olds published on Tuesday by Microsoft and Viacom units MTV Networks and Nickelodeon. "Young people don't see "tech" as a separate entity - it's an organic part of their lives," said Andrew Davidson, vice president of MTV's VBS International Insight unit.
us: New EPA Energy Star Specs Raise The Power-Efficiency Bar For PCs (Information Week)
The new Energy Star specs that went into effect last week are the first major overhaul in more than a decade.
25 July 2007
nz: UK internet defamation case resonates here (National Business Review)
A recent case in the UK has again raised the issue of who is responsible for information available on the internet - and its outcome could reach as far as New Zealand. London businessman Brian Retkin is bringing a claim against Google for defamation, alleging that Google is responsible for not removing links to defamatory information posted on the internet by anonymous sources. Mr Redkin has reportedly spent years trying to get Google to remove links to the defamatory content about his internet domain name business Dotworlds from its search results.
Dot TK cleans up Tokelau's web domain (ComputerWorld)
Dot TK, the company managing the Tokelau internet domain, is cleaning up, after .tk was named the riskiest ccTLD in the world. Joost Zuurbier, the registry's chief executive, says the March report was very damaging. "We saw a decline of approximately 10% of new registrations in the countries where this report hit the press," says their chief executive.
uk: Victory for witches in £350m shops fight (The Daily Telegraph)
"A coven of elderly witches has claimed victory in a bizarre battle to have the name of a £350 million shopping centre changed" reports The Daily Telegraph. The objection was that a shopping centre developer had named a huge addition to Leicester's Shires mall Highcross Quarter. "That is the name given by witches to the four most important periods in the "wicca" calendar. Once the name was announced, the witches, wizards and gnomes immediately registered several internet domain names using the term. Then they set up a website that they have used to discuss their beliefs." Hammerson then took action, first through a request, and then through a complaint to WIPO, to get the domain names back. But it appears they've given up, saying the redevelopment name has "evolved" to Highcross Leicester.
Tajik MPs approve internet curbs (BBC)
Tajikistan's parliament has approved legislation making it a criminal offence to publish false or offensive information on the internet. The bill must be signed off by President Emomali Rakhmon before becoming law. Under the proposal, anyone who publishes statements that "offend dignity" may face imprisonment.
New Council of Europe Convention to protect children against sexual exploitation and abus (Council of Europe)
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has adopted the Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, which represents a major advance in this field. "There should be no hesitation or complacency in the fight against sexual exploitation and abuse of children," said Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis when he welcomed the adoption of the Convention.
Teens smart about using MySpace: study (ABC)
Fears that teenagers using the social networking website MySpace are exposing themselves to sexual predators by disclosing too many personal details are probably overblown, researchers say.
Search sites tackle privacy fears (BBC)
User worries are driving search firms to let people manage how much data they reveal when they visit the sites. The top four search sites, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Ask, have unveiled plans to cut how much data they hold and how long they store it. Plus, "Out-Gagging Google on privacy".
