(BBC) The music industry could be facing a crisis because of the number of young people still illegally downloading from the internet, a report has warned. The report by Jupiter Research suggests European consumers who download music from illegal file-sharing websites outnumber those using legal services. It says illegal networks are used three times as much as legal ones.
(Europa) Call for input on the forthcoming review of the EU regulatory framework for electronic communications and services, including review of the Recommendation on relevant markets. Deadline 31 January 2006. The Commission Services invite interested parties to give their views on possible changes to the five EP and Council directives that constitute the current EU framework for electronic communications, and to the Recommendation on relevant markets. See consultation document. A public workshop is provisionally planned for Tuesday 24 January 2006 in Brussels. The workshop will be open to all interested parties, but prior registration is required.
(RAPID) The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) sends a paper to the heads of the EU administration, in which he addresses the Data Protection Officer's (DPOs) role as a strategic partner in ensuring compliance with the data protection regulation (45/2001) without delay. One of the key messages is that also all EU bodies need to appoint a DPO, although the appointment in itself does not automatically mean full compliance with the regulation. A second key message is that the DPOs must be notified more adequately of personal data processing within their entity and that they must notify the EDPS of any processing which entails specific risks for the people concerned and therefore need a prior check.
(RAPID) The Commission has adopted a strategic framework, the e-Commission 2006-2010, renewing its commitment to an optimal use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to continuously improve its performance and transparency. While promoting externally the use of ICT in the whole society through the i-2010 strategy, the Commission intends to lead by example by applying to its own administration the European society policy in the e-government field. It aims in particular at offering better, more cost-effective, transparent and secure services to staff, national administrations, business and citizens.
(RAPID) Speech by Siim Kallas, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for Administrative Affairs, Audit and Fraud. Ministerial e-government conference 2005. Manchester, 24 November 2005.
(RAPID) With a view to achieving a higher level of EU internal security the European Commission today adopted a package of measures consisting of: (a) a proposal for a Council Decision concerning the access for consultation to the Visa Information System (VIS) to authorities of Member States responsible for internal security and to Europol for the purposes of the prevention, detection and investigation of terrorist offences and of other serious criminal offences, and (b) a communication on the medium- and long-term development of the three common European databases in the field of justice and home affairs: the Schengen Information System (SIS), the Visa Information System (VIS) and EURODAC, the database containing fingerprints of asylum seekers and illegal immigrants.
(BBC) Europeans are signing up for broadband faster than ever research reveals. The report by analysts Datamonitor said high-speed net services were popular because intense competition was driving awareness to new highs and prices to new lows. Datamonitor said it expected the dash for broadband to peter out in two years time when European user numbers topped out at 60% of households. It predicted that up to 8 million UK households will have broadband by 2008.
(Radio Free Europe) A controversial draft law aimed at tightening state control over NGOs in Russia sailed through its first reading at the State Duma on 23 November. The bill particularly targets foreign-funded NGOs, which would become barred from operating directly in Russia. NGO leaders fear the bill may be used to curb, or even shut down, organizations that the authorities disapprove of, and have appealed to parliament to reject it. Most affected by the restrictions are foreign-funded NGOs. Under the new legislation, they would be barred from working in Russia through representative offices, as most of them currently do. They would be required to re-register as a financially independent structure - a status many NGOs fear they might struggle to obtain. The proposed legislation would also severely limit the ability of Russian organizations to receive foreign funding or employ non-Russian workers.
(out-law) The Select Committee on Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform has concluded that Parliamentary scrutiny of the ID Card Bill needs to be enhanced. It described powers being sought in the Bill by the Home Secretary as 'inappropriate.' Unlike three other Parliamentary Committees which have criticised the substance of the Government's ID Card proposals, this Committee was established in the 1990s to counter 'the considerable disquiet over the problem of wide and sometimes ill-defined order-making powers which give Ministers unlimited discretion'. In other words, the Committee looks at whether the executive arm of Government is seeking excessive powers or whether the powers being sought are subject to sufficient scrutiny by Parliament.
(dpa) Wenn die Jugendschutzpläne der großen Koalition umgesetzt werden, könnten einige Computerspiele bald vom Markt verschwinden. Unter dem Punkt "Aufwachsen ohne Gewalt" haben Union und SPD im Koalitionsvertrag festgelegt, den Schutz von Kindern und Jugendlichen im Bereich der neuen Medien zu verbessern - unter anderem durch ein "Verbot von "Killerspielen"". Mit diesen Spielen werde Gewalt eingeübt und das Töten simuliert, lautet die Begründung. Doch viele Medienexperten halten Verbote für überflüssig und unwirksam.
(CNET News.com) A technology glitch temporarily turned Google's new personal listings service, Google Base, into a vast, virtual red-light district. Google Base is the search company's foray into free classified listings and other user-generated content. Anyone can use the service to classify and post all kinds of information, from business services and used cars for sale to recipes and photos. Google Base allows adult content but should filter most of it if visitors use the company's SafeSearch feature, which blocks pornographic material from appearing in search results. That wasn't the case earlier this week, however, due to a technical glitch that allowed porn to leak into Google Base search results.
(David Goldstein) Internet News list is back up and running! David Goldstein is restarting posting to the list on topics such as domain names, WSIS, governance, censorship, legal, security, government regulation, file sharing and new developments. Previous subscribers should resubscribe.
(ZDNet France) Les FAI se sont engagés à fournir dans leurs kits un logiciel de contrôle parental, que les abonnés pourront activer, s'ils le souhaitent, dès l'installation de leur connexion. Sans augmenter le prix de leur abonnement, garantit le ministre de la Famille. voir aussi Contrôle parental sur Internet : Relevé de conclusions (Ministère de la Famille et de l'Enfance) et Protection de l´enfance sur Internet : des engagements concrets et opérationnels (AFA - Association française des fournisseurs d'accès et des services Internet).
(EDRI) Items include: Urgent call for support for EDRI-gram; General disappointment in WSIS-host Tunisia; Tunisian government blocks citizens counter summit; Agreement on internet governance issue; Civil Society Tunis declaration; Panel meeting with EU delegation; RSF report: 15 enemies of the internet; Panel on freedom of expression; Panel on privacy and security; Panel on WIPO and intellectual property; P2P, filesharing and digital rights; Forum on ubiquitous computing; Unesco round table; Recommended reading: 3 books; Petition closed: 58.000 signatures; Agenda.
(BBC) A Belgian songwriter has won a plagiarism case against Madonna over her 1998 hit single Frozen. Salvatore Acquaviva's claim that the song copied one of his recordings was upheld by a Belgian court. The judge ordered EMI, Sony and Warner Music to withdraw the song from sale in the country. the judge agreed that Madonna's single used four bars of the song Ma Vie Fout L'camp, which roughly translates as My Life's Getting Nowhere.
(Guardian) The music and film industries are demanding that the European parliament extends the scope of proposed anti-terror laws to help them prosecute illegal downloaders. In an open letter to MEPs, companies including Sony BMG, Disney and EMI have asked to be given access to communications data - records of phone calls, emails and internet surfing - in order to take legal action against pirates and filesharers. Current proposals restrict use of such information to cases of terrorism and organised crime.
(vnunet.com) File sharing service BitTorrent and Hollywood's major movie studios have reached an agreement in a bid to stop movie piracy using the peer-to-peer service. BitTorrent founder Bram Cohen has agreed to stop providing links on his website to copyrighted films, and hopes to be able to license movies and TV programmes that could be downloaded for a fee.
(Economist) Microsoft's release of its Xbox 360 video-games console begins a new phase in the battle to remove Sony's PlayStation from the top spot. If it succeeds, the software giant may be tempted to make more incursions into the competitive market for home-entertainment hardware. Rivals beware.
(Heise) Im Rahmen der Strategie "Film Online" erarbeitet die EU-Kommission gegenwärtig gemeinsam mit der Content-Industrie und großen Internet-Anbietern ein Maßnahmenpaket zur Eindämmung der so genannten Piraterie im Netz. Den offiziellen Startschuss für die Initiative gab die Kommissarin für die Informationsgesellschaft, Viviane Reding, bereits Mitte Mai beim Filmfestival in Cannes im Rahmen eines Treffens mit Medien- und Kulturpolitikern, Filmemachern und Branchengrößen.
(Out-law) European Commission and Council decisions that led to a controversial agreement permitting the transfer of air passenger data to the US should be annulled because they do not have an adequate legal basis, according to Advocate General Phillipe Léger.
(Heise) Die Düsseldorfer Bezirksregierung hat eine positive Bilanz ihres Kampfes gegen "Medienmissbrauch" gezogen. Besonders die Sperrung rechtsextremistischer "Hass-Seiten" sei in den vergangenen vier Jahren überaus erfolgreich gewesen, sagte Regierungspräsident Jürgen Büssow (SPD). Insgesamt habe die Behörde 76 Sperrungen solcher Seiten verfügt und sämtliche Klagen gewonnen. Zudem will Büssow gegen Phishing und private Sportwetten im Internet vorgehen.
(Heise) Die Kommission für Jugendmedienschutz (KJM) hat die Bewerbung der Freiwilligen Selbstkontrolle Multimedia-Diensteanbieter (FSM) als Institution zur Bekämpfung illegaler und jugendgefährdender Inhalte offiziell angenommen. Mit der Anerkennung der Bemühungen der Wirtschaft endet ein 22-monatiger Prüfungsprozess mit langwierigen Gesprächen zwischen beiden Seiten.
(Heise) Der federführende Ausschuss für Bürgerrechte, Justiz und Inneres des EU-Parlaments hat sich für zahlreiche Änderungen an der heftig umstrittenen EU-Richtlinie zur Vorratsspeicherung von Telekommunikationsdaten stark gemacht. Laut dem mit großer Mehrheit verabschiedeten Votum der Fachpolitiker, das als Empfehlung für eine voraussichtlich schon im Dezember stattfindende 1. Lesung des Gesetzesvorschlags im Plenum gilt, sollen die Standort- und Telefonverbindungsdaten sowie die IP-Adressen beim Internet-Zugang künftig zwischen sechs und zwölf Monate lang archiviert werden. Angaben zum E-Mail-Verkehr oder zu MAC-Adressen von PC-Netzwerkkarten müssten nicht gespeichert werden, wenn die vom Ausschuss beschlossenen Korrekturen angenommen werden.
(Heise) "Gute" Computer- und Konsolenspiele sollen in Österreich künftig mit einem Pickerl (Aufkleber) der Bundesstelle für die Positivprädikatisierung (BuPP) versehen werden. Diese Gutachter-Kommission wurde im August von Familienministerin Ursula Haubner, Schwester des BZÖ-Chefs Jörg Haider, ins Leben gerufen, um unter den rund 15.000 jährlich erscheinenden Titeln die "guten" zu finden. Nun liegt die erste Liste mit 29 empfohlenen Spielen vor. Haubner hofft auf einen Lenkungseffekt hin zu "empfehlenswerten, unbedenklichen und nicht gewaltdominierten Computerspielen".
(New York Times) Chinese blogs have existed since early in the decade, but the form has exploded in recent months in a strong new wave of online activity that is challenging China's ever-vigilant online censors and giving flesh to the kind of free-spoken civil society whose emergence the government has long been determined to prevent, or at least tightly control.
(OECD) Conference on the Future Digital Economy:
Digital Content Creation, Distribution and Access
Istituto San Michele, Rome, Italy. 30-31 January 2006. Digital content is increasingly important across all media and publishing industries and is becoming pervasive in sectors not previously considered to be content producers or users (for example, business services) and in the public sector (public sector information such as weather information, public sector content such as archives, and cultural content), education and health. Rapid changes in the value chains for content development, production, delivery and use and the creation of new commercial business models to exploit these opportunities are posing new policy challenges for governments to provide the market and business environment that supports development of new digital content goods and services, promotes competition and benefits users.
(Economist) The belief that search engines make popular websites ever more popular, at the expense of other pages, is now being challenged by research. A controversial new paper has recently appeared on arXiv, an online collection of physics and related papers. In it, Santo Fortunato and his colleagues at Indiana University in America and Bielefeld University in Germany claim that search engines actually have an egalitarian effect that increases traffic to less popular sites. The paper has now come under attack. Matthew Hindman, a political scientist at Arizona State University, says that the data used in the research are pretty shoddy.
(BBC) Last week's UN-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society put the spotlight on the host country Tunisia. Human rights groups both inside and outside the country intensified their criticism of the Tunisian government's record regarding internet freedom. Some Tunisian dissidents, including blogger Mokhtar Yahyaoui, even staged a hunger strike in protest.
(CNET News.com) Using a search engine is now the No. 2 activity for Web users, research has found. The report also found that reading the news is now the third most popular Web activity.
According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, the number of U.S. Web users taking advantage of search engines has risen sharply since mid-2004 - from 30 percent of the U.S. Web population in July 2004 to its current level of 41 percent, which translates to some 59 million Americans.
(ITU) The Internet of Things is the seventh in the series of 'ITU Internet Reports' by the International Telecommunication Union. The report takes a look at the next step in 'always on' communications, in which new technologies like RFID and smart computing promise a world of networked and interconnected devices that provide relevant content and information whatever the location of the user. Everything from tires to toothbrushes will be in communications range, heralding the dawn of a new era, one in which today's Internet (of data and people) gives way to tomorrow's Internet of Things.
(UK ) An FBI-style website, aimed at tracking the UK's most wanted crime suspects, has received more than 350,000 hits on its first day. The site, launched by Crimestoppers, lists police appeals in the UK as well as pictures of wanted suspects. The Most Wanted site proved so popular on the morning of its launch, it received 21,000 hits in five minutes.
(New York Times) Sony BMG can take two lessons from its recent wayward attempt to fend off digital piracy: One, in a world of technology-astute bloggers, it's not easy to get away with secretly infecting your customers' computers with potentially malicious code. And two, as many a politician has learned, explaining your own screw-up badly is often worse than the screw-up itself. Or as Wired News put it, The Cover-Up Is the Crime.
(New York Times) Five years ago, Web advertisers were engaged in an ever-escalating competition to grab our attention. Today, Web advertisers by and large have put down their weapons and sworn off violence. Thank you, Google. Without intending to do so, the company set in motion multilateral disarmament by telling its first advertisers in 2000: text only, please. No banner ads, no images, no animation.
(Wired) by Bruce Schneier. It's a David and Goliath story of the tech blogs defeating a mega-corporation. On Oct. 31, Mark Russinovich broke the story in his blog: Sony BMG Music Entertainment distributed a copy-protection scheme with music CDs that secretly installed a rootkit on computers. This software tool is run without your knowledge or consent - if it's loaded on your computer with a CD, a hacker can gain and maintain access to your system and you wouldn't know it. The Sony code modifies Windows so you can't tell it's there, a process called "cloaking" in the hacker world. It acts as spyware, surreptitiously sending information about you to Sony. And it can't be removed; trying to get rid of it damages Windows.
(ITU) World Summit on the Information Society. Second Phase of the WSIS (16-18 November 2005, Tunis) Tunis Agenda for the Information Society. WSIS-05/TUNIS/DOC/6 (rev. 1). See also Geneva Declaration of Principles WSIS-03/GENEVA/DOC/0004. see also Tunis Commitment WSIS-05/TUNIS/DOC/7.
(IJCLP) The Yale Law School Information Society Project (ISP) and the International Journal of Communications Law & Policy (IJCLP) announce their third interdisciplinary writing competition and a call for papers in conjunction with the Access to Knowledge (A2K) Conference taking place on April 21-23, 2006 at Yale Law School. We invite students, scholars, policy makers, activists and practitioners to submit papers for the writing competition and/or for publication by the IJCLP. Key issues to be considered include, among others: the economics of A2K in a digital environment; A2K indexes and measurement techniques; the limitations to A2K; digital libraries and archives; government investment in information production; government procurement policies; open source software; the WIPO Broadcast Treaty; access to education and scientific knowledge; universal service in telecommunications; the digital divide; digital rights management; open access journals. Submissions for the writing competition must be received by noon EST, February 15th, 2006.
(CDT) Leslie Harris, Centre for Democracy and Technology's Senior Consultant and incoming Executive Director, testified before a congressional panel about the need to focus on user empowerment in the ongoing effort to protect kids from viewing inappropriate material online. At a Senate subcommittee hearing titled 'Protecting Children and Families in the Age of Convergence,' Harris pointed to the findings of two panels charged by Congress with addressing the issue. Both found that filtering technologies and other user empowerment tools provide the most effective means to limit the types of content that children are exposed to online.
(BBC) A crucial UN summit on expanding net access around the world has ended in Tunis marred by controversy over censorship and who runs the internet. The World Summit on the Information Society ended with talk about narrowing the technology gap between rich and poor nations but little in funding. It was overshadowed by a lingering resentment about who should oversee the management of the net. The summit was also marked by stark differences over freedom of speech.
(IJCLP) The International Journal of Communications Law and Policy and the Yale Journal of Law and Technology are happy to present this section on Global Flow of Information. The selected papers may be considered as the best attempt to explore the emerging patterns of information flow, and their political, economic, social, and cultural consequences.
(RAPID) The European Commission has received improved commitments from the English Football Association Premier League (FAPL) regarding the sale of the FAPL's media rights for the 2007 season onwards. The commitments provide for the FAPL to sell a number of packages of media rights, showcasing the League as a whole throughout each season. Live TV rights will be sold in six balanced packages with no one bidder being allowed to buy all six packages. Packages will be sold to the highest standalone bidder for each package, and bids other than simple standalone bids will be disregarded. The auction will be monitored by a Trustee, selected by the Commission, who will report to the Commission as to whether the commitments entered into by the FAPL have been followed.
(RAPID) A worldwide political agreement providing for further internationalisation of Internet governance, and enhanced intergovernmental cooperation to this end, was brokered at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis. The compromise text agreed was based largely on EU proposals presented in the discussions since June. As a first important element of the agreement, a new international Internet Governance Forum (IGF) will be created to deliberate among governments, the private sector and civil society at large in a multi-stakeholder policy dialogue related to Internet Governance. A first meeting of this Forum will be convened by the Secretary-General of the United Nations by the second quarter of 2006 and take place in Greece. The texts agreed in Tunis also include language that will allow for enhanced cooperation among governments, on an equal footing, on public policy issues.
(RAPID) La société de l'information que nous voulons : le chemin est ouvert pour une approche multilatérale et transparente à la gouvernance d'Internet. Discours de Viviane Reding, Membre de la Commission européenne responsable de la Société de l'information et des médias, Sommet mondial sur la Société de l'information, Tunis, le 16 novembre 2005.
(Register) The Home Office has announced new guidelines for ISPs to help protect kids from the dark side of the internet. The main points suggest that providers should: Offer users a way of reporting material that is illegal or potentially harmful to children; Offer content filtering on search engines Manually review and approve websites included in search services aimed at children; Consider whether they need human or automatic moderation for chatrooms; Ensure where necessary staff who come into contact with children have had relevant Criminal Records Bureau checks. see Good practice guidance for the moderation of interactive services for children, Promoting Internet Safety Through Public Awareness Campaigns: Guidance for Using Real Life Examples Involving Children or Young People, Good practice guidance for search service providers and advice to the public on how to search safely (Home Office Task Force on Child Protection on the Internet).
(BBC) Internet professor Michael Geist explains why the arguments over who runs the internet are far from over. After two years of frequently acrimonious debate, delegates to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis reached a last minute agreement that, at first glance, appears to resolve the debate over the regulation of the internet's domain name system. The one significant change to the current framework is the creation of a new Internet Governance Forum. The forum, to be established by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, will feature representatives from government, business, and civil society. It will first meet this spring in Greece with a mandate to address a broad range of internet issues including governance, spam, cyber crime, and privacy.
(Reporters sans frontières) Reporters Without Borders marks the World Summit on the Information Society by presenting 15 countries that are "enemies of the Internet" and pointing to a dozen others whose attitude to it is worrying.
The 15 "enemies" are the countries that crack down hardest on the Internet, censoring independent news sites and opposition publications, monitoring the Web to stifle dissident voices, and harassing, intimidating and sometimes imprisoning Internet users and bloggers who deviate from the regime's official line.
The "countries to watch" do not have much in common with the "enemies of the Internet". Yet many countries that have so far respected online freedom seem these days to want to control the Internet more. Their often laudable aims include fighting terrorism, paedophilia and Internet-based crime, but the measures sometimes threaten freedom of expression.
(OpenNet Initiative) A country study documents Tunisia's attempts to control Internet information, including the filtering of Web sites, blogs, and anonymizer services. Drawing on open sources and a detailed year-long technical investigation, ONI research describes Tunisia?s aggressive targeting and blocking of on-line content, including political opposition Web sites, human rights groups, and sites that provide access to privacy-enhancing technologies.
(BBC) An internet spammer convicted of running a £1.6m e-mail scam from a bedroom in his father's house has been jailed for six years. Peter Francis-Macrae, of St Neots, Cambs, was found guilty of threatening to kill and blackmail. The 23-year-old was also convicted of threatening to destroy or damage property, concealing criminal property and fraudulent trading. He had offered thousands of e-mail and website names when he had no right. And when victims complained, he threatened to destroy their internet systems by sending millions of spam e-mails.
(France 2) Robert Ménard, secrétaire général de Reporters sans frontières, a été refoulé à l'aéroport de Tunis. Arrivé à bord d'un vol d'Air France, Robert Ménard s'est vu demander de rester à bord de l'appareil, avec lequel il a regagné la France en début d'après-midi. Le secrétaire général de RSF accuse depuis des années la Tunisie du président Ben Ali de vi olations répétées de la liberté d'expression. Dès l'atterissage, a précisé Robert Ménard à l'AFP, une annonce avait été faite au haut-parleur de bord lui demandant de rester à sa place. Pendant que les autres passagers débarquaient, "plusieurs Tunisiens en civil" lui ont indiqué qu'il "ne pouvait pas descendre car il n'était pas accrédité au SMSI". Le commandant de bord lui a ensuite confirmé qu'il ne pouvait pas quitter son siège.
(Michael Geist) This week the regulation of the Internet takes centre stage at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunisia. Initially intended to address the growing digital divide, the WSIS has instead been dominated by politicking over Internet governance concerns. A deep split has emerged, pitting the United States (which favours the current system) on one side and the European Union (which prefers a multilateral approach) on the other.
(RAPID) 85% of students used the internet in 2004. In the EU25, 85% of students (aged 16 or more in school or university) used the internet during the first quarter of 2004, as did 60% of employees, 40% of the unemployed and 13% of the retired, compared to an EU25 average of 47% for individuals aged from 16 to 74. During the past decade, Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) have become widely available to the general public, in both accessibility and cost. However, gaps remain in the use of ICT amongst the EU population depending on factors such as their age, employment status and educational level, and the degree of urbanisation of the area where they live. This information comes from a report released by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, which takes a closer look at the magnitude of the digital divide and some possible explanations for its existence."
(Heise) Auf dem zweiten UN-Weltgipfel der Informationsgesellschaft steht nach fünf Jahren der Diskussion das Thema internationale Netzverwaltung ganz oben auf der Agenda und verdrängt andere Themen – angesichts des Streits um die Macht im Internet scheint ein Scheitern des WSIS möglich. Am 13. November startet der zweite UN-Weltgipfel zur Informationsgesellschaft in Tunis (WSIS) mit der Wiederaufnahme der Vorbereitungskonferenz 3, um dann nahtlos in die eigentliche WSIS-Tagung ab Mittwoch, den 16. November überzugehen.
(ISTD) The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) voted overwhelmingly on 20 October to approve a new global convention for the protection of cultural diversity, in spite of staunch opposition from the US. Supporters of the treaty hailed it as a victory for free expression, claiming that it will help governments protect national cultural identities and traditions from the homogenising pressures of foreign competition. Opponents charged that it could curb free speech and serve as a pretext for arbitrary protectionism, particularly in the entertainment industry. However, the accord's implications for existing and future trade law remain far from clear. The product of two years of sometimes acrimonious negotiations, the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions received the support of 148 countries during the UNESCO General Assembly in Paris. Only the US and Israel voted against it. Australia, Honduras, Liberia and Nicaragua abstained. The convention will enter into force once ratified by 30 governments.
(Usage Statistics for qlinks.net) In October 2005, the number of page views recorded for the QuickLinks Web site exceeded 250,000 in a month for the first time.
(ZDNet France) Selon nos informations, le CSPLA, à la demande du ministre de la Culture, prépare un amendement au projet de loi sur le droit d´auteur. Sa version actuelle élargirait les sanctions prévues aux fournisseurs des logiciels P2P qui n´intègrent pas de DRM.
(Reuters) With internet and video more readily available on wireless phones, the major US carriers have unveiled guidelines aimed at limiting children's access to adult content and services. Those under the age of 18 would need parental or a guardian's permission to receive content that carriers offer that may be sexually explicit, excessively violent, or involve gambling, according to voluntary guidelines issued by the wireless industry's biggest trade group, CTIA. Carriers also plan to make filters and other tools available to restrict internet access on wireless devices."
(CommsWatch) Ofcom has published an independent report which it commissioned from Indepen, Ovum and fathom on the impact of changes to the Television Without Frontiers (TWF) Directive proposed by the European Commission. It assesses the costs and benefits of regulating content delivered over non-broadcast platforms. It concludes that the cost of an extension could outweigh the benefits unless aspects of an extension are limited. In particular: the net benefits of extending the regulations are likely to be negative if the detailed tier of regulation is applied to linear TV services (IPTV, Internet TV and mobile TV). There may be net benefits from applying the basic tier of regulation if it is done through co- regulation.
(OfcomWatch) In its key response to the European Commission the UK government has largely opposed the extension of 'TV-type' regulation to the whole sector of 'audio-visual content services'. The government argues that the proposed definitions of 'linear' and 'non-linear' services and of 'audio-visual content services' are unclear, would place some industries such as publishing in jeaopardy of double regulation, and would impose unnecessary regulatory burdens on the emerging 'convergence' services.
(Ofcomwatch) The UK government has published its official responses to the EC's 'issues papers' on revision of the TV Without Frontiers Directive. Whereas Ofcom has showed sympathy with commercial broadcasters who want relaxation of the rules in order to tap new sources of revenue, the government states: 'In relation to the rules on the identification and separation of advertising, the UK view is that one of the core principles enshrined in the TVWF Directive is that people should know - and be put in a position to recognise - when they are being sold to. The rules in any successor to the TVWF Directive should reflect this. The UK would therefore urge caution in abandoning the principle of separation so as to allow product placement.
(Guardian) Most people have no desire to watch television on mobile phones, preferring to use home computers to watch TV while on the internet, according to new research. The findings of a survey of 1,500 entertainment consumers in Britain by Entertainment Media Research (EMR) deflates some of the hype about mobile-television alliances, such as Vodafone's deal with Sky last week.
(BBC) A Hong Kong man has been jailed for three months for film piracy after he shared movie files over the internet. The authorities say he is the first person in the world to be prosecuted for passing on files using a popular file-sharing program called BitTorrent.
(ZDNet France) Selon la Sofres, 72% des Français possèdent un mobile. Si l'écrasante majorité considère l´avènement de cette technologie comme positive, leur jugement n´est pas sans nuance. Les notions de dépendance, de surveillance et d´incivilité y sont associées. «Le mobile apparaît comme un véritable phénomène de société, sans égal». C'est la conclusion du dernier sondage effectué par TNS Sofres, pour le compte de l'Association française des opérateurs mobiles. Petit rappel des chiffres: 72% des Français possèdent un téléphone mobile personnel et/ou professionnel. Soit un taux d'équipement moyen qui se rapproche du taux d'équipement moyen en téléphone fixe (83 %). Confirmation, les jeunes sont les plus fervents utilisateurs: 94% des 15-17 ans, et 95% des 18-25 ans sont équipés.
(EDRI-gram) EU privacy commissioners (the Article 29 Working Party) have criticised both the Council and the Commission policies on data retention. The Article 29 Working Party calls for restraint and safeguards that have to date not appeared in any national or EU policy. 'The Working Party questions whether the justification for an obligatory and general data retention coming from the competent authorities in Member States is grounded on crystal-clear evidence. The Working Party also doubts whether the proposed data retention periods in the draft Directive are convincing.' And when it comes to safeguards, the Working Party states: 'imposing the said data retention obligations on communication service providers without having first realised adequate, specific safeguards is not to be accepted within the existing European legal framework.'
(BBC) A third of people in the US and Europe will abandon phone lines in favour of wireless and broadband telephony come 2009, say analysts Gartner. Broadband telephony is gaining ground among consumers as people become more confident users of their high-speed net connections.
(BBC) A popular Chinese blog has been blocked by the Chinese authorities, according to Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders. Wang Yi's Microphone is run by a teacher in Sichuan province. Reporters Without Borders says the site deals with 'sensitive subjects' - including local officials' corruption.
(BBC) More than 10% of net users are going online with the Firefox browser, show figures from analysis firm One Stat. The global average of 11.5% is the highest percentage of users that the open source browser has ever reached. The research also reveals that Americans are the biggest fans of Firefox with 14.1% using it. In the UK 4.9% use it to get around online.
(Pew Internet & American Life) More than half of online teens have created content for the internet; and most teen downloaders think that getting free music files is easy to do.
(out-law.com) A London court cleared a British teenager of charges under the Computer Misuse Act, reasoning that the law could not apply to an alleged denial of service attack in which five million emails were sent to a former employer.
(EDRI-gram) The European Data Protection Supervisor has started an e-mail newsletter to inform a general public about his activities such as opinions, policy papers and publications. The October newsletter contains brief information and links to the EDPS's involvement in PNR and the Visa Information System. The newsletter also mentions a policy paper on the conflict between two fundamental rights: access to information and data protection.
(EDRI-gram) Behind closed doors, the European Parliament is engaged in a monumentous battle with the Council of ministers of Justice over the plans for mandatory data retention. After a first meeting of the leading parliamentary committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) on Monday 24 October, it looks like a majority of social-democrats, greens and some liberals is ready to delete internet data from the proposal all together, focus on a very limited set of telephony data and store them for only 3 months, while deleting the abhorred 'comitology procedure'.
(CommsWatch) CommsWatch has had several postings on the important but controversial revision of the European Television Without Frontiers Directive. It is necessary that we all understand where we are after the Liverpool conference of 20-22 September 2005 and the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) gave a helpful briefing to stakeholders on 27 October. The Department has agreed that the presentation can be posted on this blog but please note that it is Crown Copyright.
(Reuters) An online search engine called Guba is set to offer vast amounts of pornography and other video files, specifically tailored for Apple's new iPods. Guba is a subscription-only search engine that culls video files from the Usenet newsgroups, a huge repository of online content - much of it adult, pirated, or both.
(OfcomWatch) The House of Lords Select Committee chaired by Lord Fowler has released a report that is severely critical of the DCMS Green Paper on BBC charter review. We're told that: The process is flawed. The Charter Review should be performed by statute (ie, vote in Parliament) not by royal charter. The current process is carried forth only by government and thus (valid) criticisms of the new BBC structure are simply being ignored; License fee settlements above the rate of inflation must be granted only in 'exceptional' cases; Ofcom should regulate the BBC; The 'BBC Trust' concept should be scrapped for a unitary board with a majority of non-executives.
(BBC) Google is resuming its controversial project to digitise millions of books and make them searchable on the net. The search giant is pressing ahead with its plans despite growing legal pressure from publishers and authors. They object to what they say are violations of copyright. But in an apparent attempt to reassure critics, the search giant said on its blog that it would focus on books that were out of print or in the public domain.
(EuroISPA) The aim of this website is to provide useful information about the important issue of phishing. Phishing seeks to exploit users' trust of reputable online services: it harms successful online service providers' efforts to build confidence in new and exciting uses of the Internet.
(BBC) The BBC has backed down in a row with the music industry over free classical downloads. BBC Radio 3 will not offer complete classical music downloads for free during its forthcoming 10-day Bach extravaganza following complaints from the music industry after the surprise success of the station's Beethoven downloads.
(ClickZ) A digital divide separates broadband users from those who don't own PCs in Belgium. A survey released by the Internet Service Providers Association Belgium (ISPA) says the country's online population is just over two million (2.09M) connections. Belgium's population is 10.36 million. The ISPA cites a low household PC penetration for the relatively low number of users.