[LINK] Newsletter - No 113 - October 26, 2001
by way of Tony Barry
D.Ziyasheva@unesco.org
Sun, 4 Nov 2001 13:04:21 +1100
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UNESCO OBSERVATORY ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETY
http://www.unesco.org/webworld/observatory
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Newsletter - No 113 - October 26, 2001
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The Briefs selection (below), is ordered into the major themes of the
Observatory:
- Action Plans and Policies
- Privacy and Confidentiallity
- Content Regulation
- Access to Public Domain
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Action Plans, Policies: international, regional and national levels
[APA, CRM, IPR - 26.10.2001] Asians Affirm Internet Treaties Against
Piracy (Newsbytes)
Despite setbacks in fighting piracy of intellectual properties, Asian
leaders have expressed their commitment to extend to cyberspace the
war against intellectual property rights (IPR) violators. At a World
Intellectual Property Rights Organization (WIPO) workshop on Internet
treaties, many of the representatives admitted that putting a plug on
the growing Internet piracy...
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/171502.html
[EUR, PRI, CRM - 26.10.2001] German Carriers Told To Install
Cyber-Snooping Tech (Newsbytes)
The German government has rushed through proposals forcing telcos to
install cyber-snooping technology that would give police and security
agencies access to most German communications. While the proposals
have been on the table for almost five years, their progress was held
back prior to the events of Sept. 11 because of consumer privacy
issues and the costs of installing surveillance systems at smaller
Internet service providers (ISPs).
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/171516.html
[NAM, CRM, PRI - 26.10.2001] Senate Gives Bush His Bill (Europemedia)
The legislation, somewhat weakened from what Attorney General John
Ashcroft proposed, expands the FBI's wiretapping and electronic
surveillance authority and imposes stronger penalties for harboring
or financing terrorists. It also redefines what terrorist acts are
and increases the punishment for them.
http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,47893,00.html
[EUR, ACC - 25.10.2001] Internet users petition government to improve
internet conditions (Europemedia)
The Association of Internet Users (AUI) in Spain has presented a
major campaign to Spain's government to increase internet usage and
improve quality of internet use in Spain. In their presentation to
the Commission for Studies of Information Society of the Assembly of
the Regional Government of Madrid, AUI's chairman Miguel PÈrez
discussed Spanish internet user problems...
http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=6278
[EUR, INF - 25.10.2001] Hungary makes progress on the road to
liberalisation (Europemedia)
As Central Eastern European countries currently exhibit varying
degrees of progress in the liberalisation of their telecommunications
industries, a more progressive Hungary is approaching the first stage
in the process, with local loop unbundling and the expiry of Matav's
concession scheduled for the end of 2001.
http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=6265
[APA, IPR - 24.10.2001] Philippines - WIPO Net Treaty Ratification
Urged (Newsbytes)
The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) of the Philippines is pushing
for Congress to enact into law two Internet treaties initiated by the
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), an official of the
Intellectual Property Office (IPO) of the Philippines said.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/171425.html
[GLO, ECO - 24.10.2001] Online ad squabble nears resolution (ZDnetasia)
A key Internet standards body is scheduled next month to issue new
guidelines for counting online ad "impressions," a move that could
affect hundreds of millions of dollars in contested annual payments
from advertisers to Web publishers. At stake are the billing methods
and ultimately the credibility of the tarnished online advertising
market,...
http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/internet/story/0,2000024714,38027160,00.htm
[GLO, ECO - 24.10.2001] The EU and the U.S. on IT (IDG.net)
Cultural differences between the United States and the countries that
comprise the European Union (EU) have a direct impact on legislation
and how business is conducted on the respective continents. The
concerns of individuals and how they interact with their governments
has caused variations in legislation that affect the adoption of
technology, and make the management of technology difficult for the
international enterprise.
http://www.idg.net/ic_717916_1794_9-10000.html
[AFR, INF - 23.10.2001] Ministers At School' With Global Tech Gurus
(Allafrica.com)
The first meeting of the Presidential Information Technology Task
Force was a school where SA's government ministers gained new insight
into how technology could move the country forward, President Thabo
Mbeki said yesterday. This weekend's meeting in George, which brought
together technology gurus from some of the world's major companies,
was far more than a talking shop and would result in clear plans in
the coming months. http://allafrica.com/stories/200110220222.html
[AFR, INF - 22.10.2001] Minister Calls for Policy On Information
Technologies (Allafrica.com)
The minister of state for Communication, Michael Kafabusa Werikhe,
has said there is need for appropriate information technology
policies that can be used in the struggle to improve the quality of
life of Ugandans. Werikhe said Uganda is already in the process of
formulating a policy on Information Communication Technologies (ICT).
http://www.idg.net/ic_715444_1794_9-10000.html
[NAM, CRY - 22.10.2001] Black Ice scenario sheds light on future
threats to critical systems (IDG.net)
A little-known exercise held last year to help federal, state and
local officials in Utah prepare for a possible terrorist attack
during the 2002 Winter Olympics may hold some of the most important
lessons for critical-infrastructure protection in the aftermath of
the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to a key official involved
in the exercise. http://www.idg.net/ic_715444_1794_9-10000.html
[NAM, MUL, ECO, EGO - 22.10.2001] SEC site gets Spanish-language
section (Cnet)
The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday launched a
Spanish-language section of its Web site to provide investor
education to the fast-growing Hispanic population in the United
States. "Our agency wants to help preclude language barriers from
separating investors from reliable information about saving and
investing wisely," SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt said in
statements--issued for the first time in both English and Spanish.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-7586651.html?tag=cd_mh
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Privacy & Confidentiality: transborder privacy, global e-commerce, cryptography
[ECO, PRI - 26.10.2001] Dot-coms see gold in consumer data (Cnet)
Web companies are hoping analytics services--the process of making
sense of data compiled from cookies and other data-gathering
techniques--will prove the Internet is worthy of dwindling ad dollars
and provide a new source of revenue. During the dot-com implosion,
doubts surfaced about the efficacy of online marketing.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-7646839.html?tag=ch_mh
[PRI, FRE - 26.10.2001] Jam Echelon Day a "rousing" success (ZDnetasia)
An international day of protest designed to jam the US-led
communications spy system Echelon was a "rousing" success according
to its organisers, who claim that the cyber-demonstration helped to
raise public awareness about the surveillance system. Jam Echelon Day
took place on October 21, and encouraged members of the Internet
community to send out as many email messages as possible, containing
so-called trigger words...
http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/internet/story/0,2000024714,38027945,00.htm
[ECO - 25.10.2001] Continental stops Net travel commissions (Cnet)
Continental Airlines said Wednesday that it will stop paying
commissions on tickets booked online "effective immediately," a move
that could hurt Web travel agencies if other airlines follow suit. In
March, Northwest Airlines and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines eliminated
Internet travel commissions, though they said they would keep paying
commissions to traditional travel agencies.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-7641392.html?tag=mn_hd
[ECO, IPR, ACC - 25.10.2001] Lights, camera, download (ITnetcenral)
Five Hollywood movie studios have unveiled plans for a joint-venture
service in the United States that will allow computer users to
download movies from the Internet and watch them whenever they want.
The service will be available only through high-speed broadband
connections. A movie downloaded straight on to the computer's hard
drive stays there for up to a month before automatically erasing
itself. http://www.it.mycareer.com.au/news/2001/10/25/FFXZ8K116TC.html
[PRI - 25.10.2001] Microsoft rejects Austrian 'Big Brother'
nomination (IDG.net)
Microsoft Corp. is demanding that organizers of a mock awards
ceremony withdraw their nomination of the company for practices
deemed a threat to personal privacy. Microsoft is at the top of a
list of companies, politicians, and institutions being considered for
the Austrian "Big Brother Awards," a tongue-in-cheek ceremony
intended to raise awareness of the issue of personal privacy in the
Information Age. http://www.idg.net/ic_718370_1794_9-10000.html
[ECO - 24.10.2001] Consumers may turn to e-mail due to US anthrax
scare (Europemedia.net)
In the midst of the war against terror, the anthrax scare has served
to make businesses and individuals across the US to reconsider their
trust in regular mail, thus making people more favourable to e-mail
marketing, online billing and other electronic communication.
http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=6245
[PRI, CON - 24.10.2001] Beyond Carnivore: FBI Eyes Packet Taps (Newsbytes)
Expect the FBI to expand its Internet wiretapping program, says a
source familiar with the plan. Stewart Baker, a partner with law firm
Steptoe & Johnson, is a former general counsel to the National
Security Agency. He says the FBI has spent the last two years
developing a new surveillance architecture that would concentrate
Internet traffic in several key locations where all packets, not just
e-mail, could be wiretapped.
http://www.interactiveweek.com/article/0,3658,s%3D605%26a%253D16678,00.asp
[CRY, ECO - 23.10.2001] Germany alone implements the European
Electronic Signatures Directive (Europemedia.net)
Germany, who has worked on digital signatures since 1996, is the only
EU member state to have successfully implemented the European
Electronic Signatures Directive by the EUís target date of 19 July
2001, according to the European forum for electronic business EEMA.
The EEMA has found that slow legislation and lack of communication
are to blame for the failure of all other EU member states in this
undertaking. http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=6214
[ECO - 23.10.2001] Music industry's plans spark concern (ZDnetasia)
A few months ago the big record labels finally seemed to have tamed
their biggest Internet foes, from Napster to MP3.com. But a threat
potentially greater than California start-ups lurks on the other side
of the country. The US Department of Justice is growing suspicious of
the labels' increasing power, and antitrust investigators are
beginning to invite start-ups to closed-door discussions in...
http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/internet/story/0,2000024714,38026412,00.htm
[CRY - 22.10.2001] "Redesi" worm reformats hard drives (ZDnetasia)
A worm disguising itself as a security patch for Microsoft products
will in fact reformat the victim's C: drive. The Redesi worm spreads
by email under a number of guises, and is set to trigger on November
11, 2001. But not all PCs are vulnerable to the worst of its effects,
and there is an easy way to stop the damage.
http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/computing/story/0,2000024386,38026312,00.htm
[ECO - 22.10.2001] In 30 Nations, Web Sites Might Escape Taxman's
Cross Hairs (Newsbytes)
Web sites will be out of the tax net of many governments once a
proposed 2002 model tax code drafted by the international
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is
adopted by its 30 member countries. However, many Web servers
apparently will attract the taxman's interest.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/171322.html
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Content Regulation: intellectual property rights, copyright, freedom
of expression
[CON - 26.10.2001] Suppression Stifles Some (Wirednews)
Amid the nationalistic furor sweeping the United States in wake of
the Sept. 11 attacks, many government and private websites are
yanking content that could be deemed unpatriotic or risky to national
security. While the people pulling the informational plug say their
actions are in the country's best interests, free speech advocates
say the trend is chilling and anti-democratic.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,47835,00.html
[IPR, ECO, PRI - 26.10.2001] Microsoft's XP extends reach (BBCnews)
Windows XP is just the vanguard, or dorsal fin perhaps, of a much
broader strategy that Microsoft is hoping, and some say gambling,
will significantly change the way it does business. Essentially,
Microsoft wants to become the organisation that people always turn to
when using anything electronic to organise their lives.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1615000/1615531.stm
[CON, PRI - 26.10.2001] Law could open doors for Net surveillance (Cnet)
The hour new anti-terrorism legislation becomes law, Attorney General
John Ashcroft said Thursday that he would direct all U.S. prosecutors
and FBI offices to immediately use their expanded powers to wiretap
phones, monitor Internet traffic and apprehend suspects. Addressing
the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Ashcroft said President George W. Bush
planned to sign legislation Friday that would greatly boost the
powers of law enforcement officers in the war against terrorism.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-7656969.html?tag=cd_mh
[CON - 25.10.2001] Filter Plan Leaks Like a Sieve (Wirednews)
A Web-rating system touted by Microsoft, AOL Time Warner and Yahoo as
a way to protect children may be far less useful than its backers
have claimed. The companies predicted at a press conference Tuesday
that parents will be able to configure their child's Web browser to
reject sites that either lack ratings or are self-labeled as having
unacceptable amounts of violence, sex or nudity.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,47808,00.html
[CON - 24.10.2001] Portals Back Filtering Scheme (Wirednews)
Three of the biggest companies on the Net will start encouraging
other firms on Tuesday to adopt a system that will allow parents to
restrict access to websites they find objectionable. The companies
hope the system will ward off the threat of government regulation.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,47798,00.html
[CON, ECO - 24.10.2001] Bertelsmann Licenses Napster Technology
Platform (Yahoo)
The technology licensing deal culminates a long-running alliance
between Napster and Bertelsmann, which broke ranks with other major
music companies last year by entering into a strategic alliance with
the song-swap service. Napster, which had allowed free swapping
between peers, was sued by the recording industry for copyright
infringement.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011023/wr/tech_bertelsmann_napster_dc_1.html
[CON - 23.10.2001] China replaces Web site barriers (Cnet)
China quietly lifted blocks on the Web sites of CNN, the BBC and
Reuters for meetings of the 21-member Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Shanghai, which culminated in the
weekend summit. Within hours of Bush flying home after the close of
the biggest international gathering in China's Communist history, the
Web sites were once again accessible only through proxies,
third-party servers located abroad.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-7613270.html?tag=cd_mh
[CON, EGO - 23.10.2001] Singapore Lays Down The Law On E-Campaigning
(Newsbytes)
With national elections looming, the Singapore government has stepped
up its campaign limiting how political parties can advertise their
policies to voters. Already maintaining strict rules against
political campaigning, Singapore has now updated election laws to
take into account new communications technologies like the Internet
and mobile phones. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/171347.html
[CON, FRE, IPR - 22.10.2001] Panel Ponders: To Link, Or Not To Link?
(Newsbytes)
On the Web, the act of creating a hyperlink from one page to another
is one of the simplest and most profound actions possible. But it is
as easy to link to illegal material as it is to link to stuff that
simply is informative. Where should the lines be drawn? And who will
draw them? This was the subject of a panel discussion at last week's
Internet Research 2.0 conference at Minneapolis' University of
Minnesota... http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/171340.html
[IPR - 22.10.2001] NeuLevel delays ë.bizí domain name registry launch
to 7 November (Europemedia.net)
NeuLevel registrar, which should have begun registering new top-level
addresses on 1 October, has delayed the launch of the ë.bizí domain
name yet again to 7 November. The previous delay, which would have
seen registry to begin on 23 October, were a result of business
disruptions that followed the US attacks.
http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=6193
[IPR, CRM, ECO - 22.10.2001] Hacker cracks Microsoft anti-piracy
software (Cnet)
A piece of software being distributed anonymously online has
successfully cracked part of Microsoft's anti-piracy technology, the
centerpiece of much of the giant's recent forays into the audio and
video world. Microsoft confirmed Friday that the code, written by a
programmer using the pseudonym "Beale Screamer," can strip off the
protections that prevent a song from being copied an unlimited amount
of times. http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-7590303.html?tag=cd_mh
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Universal Access - Public Domain: access for all, on-line governance,
virtual libraries, multilingualism
[ACC, INF - 26.10.2001] Has HTML had its day? (The Guardian)
If you fancy a challenge, think about making the web redundant. Think
about getting all the programmers and designers who create web pages
in HTML (Hypertext Mark-up Language) to use something different.
Think about converting them to Curl. It sounds like a long shot, but
it is by no means impossible. The information technology industry is
used to sweeping changes, such as the move from Microsoft's MS-DOS to
Windows, or from proprietary networking systems to the internet's IP
(Internet Protocol).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/internetnews/story/0,7369,580311,00.html
[VIR - 25.10.2001] Apple unveils digital music device (BBCnews)
Apple Computer has unveiled iPod - a portable digital music device
that can hold 1,000 songs. It is the company's first foray outside
its core business for eight years and is about the size of a deck of
cards. To have your whole music library with you at all times, it's a
quantum leap in listening to music It will take only 5 to 10 seconds
to download a CD of music via a link called FireWire to the iPod.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/new_media/newsid_1617000/1617646.stm
[VIR - 24.10.2001] Innerspace meets cyberspace (BBCnews)
Meditation is a tough skill to learn, especially when you're anxious
or stressed. But at Georgia Tech in the United States, Professor
Larry Hodges believes virtual reality could deliver calm and inner
peace more effectively than the traditional yoga mat and sandalwood
joss stick.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1608000/1608223.stm
[ACC - 23.10.2001] Driving the Information Superhighway (IDG.net)
A joint project between the Japanese government, the private sector,
and a Japanese university is to run trials involving 1700 taxis and
private cars networked via the Internet, the project team says. The
group is made up of researchers from Keio University in Japan and
Toyota Motor, NEC, and automobile device maker Denso, and is
sponsored by the Japanese government.
http://www.idg.net/ic_717391_1794_9-10000.html
[DVD, EQU - 23.10.2001] Village in the clouds embraces computers (BBCnews)
Mahabir Pun is a Nepalese educational pioneer who is trying to break
the cycle of poverty in his mountain village of Nangi by taking it
into the computer age. Having founded Himanchal High School, he sees
the internet as the way to improve the children's education. The
internet has been a great help for Nangi, even though we do not have
a connection here.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1606000/1606580.stm
[EQU, DVD, INF - 23.10.2001] Computer Nigeriana (Wirednews)
The picture indeed calls for some concern. Out of every 1000 people
in Malaysia, 46 have personal computers, PCs, at home. Out of every
1000 citizens in South Africa, 41 have PCs for use. In stark
comparison, only five individuals out of every 1000 in Nigeria have
access to the machine. In a country that has a comparative head-start
in Africa,... http://allafrica.com/stories/200110220409.html
[MUL, VIR - 23.10.2001] Software Scours Holocaust Records (Wirednews)
The voices are muddled with thick, emotional accents, revealing both
tragic and heroic eyewitness accounts from thousands of Holocaust
survivors and witnesses. But while these videotaped tracks are
imperfect, they are invaluable to historians and generations to come.
Researchers from Johns Hopkins University, IBM and the University of
Maryland are developing speech recognition software...
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,47584,00.html
[ACC, INF - 22.10.2001] Internet radios aid Africa (BBCnews)
>From his office in the rural market centre of Rongo in southern
Kenya, Alsen Oduwo is able to access information from all over the
world. Beside him is a special radio connected to an adapter card in
a Pentium computer. On the other end, the radio is connected to a
detachable micro-dish receiver outside the window.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1608000/1608394.stm
[INF, VIR - 22.10.2001] Bringing computers to life (Wirednews)
IBM has unveiled an ambitious initiative to develop technologies that
share the basic biological abilities of living organisms. Senior
researchers at the company said the growing complexity of computers
and networks demands that the technology does a better job of
maintaining and healing itself.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1606000/1606862.stm
[INF - 19.10.2001] Tiny Transistor breaks new limits (BBCnews)
Scientists in the US may have paved the way towards working molecular
computers. A group of researchers at Bell Labs have made tiny
functioning transistors a million times smaller than a grain of sand.
Making large quantities of the tiny components should be
straightforward because they self-assemble.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1606000/1606536.stm
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UNESCO Observatory on the Information Society mirrors:
Japan (by the United Nations University):
http://mirror-japan.unesco.org/webworld/observatory/index.html
United States (by the University of Nebraska):
http://mirror-us.unesco.org/webworld/observatory/index.html
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