[eccr] QuickLinks 264 - 23 March 2003

QuickLinks 264 - 23 March 2003

HTML version: http://www.qlinks.net/quicklinks/latest.htm
Forthcoming events: http://www.qlinks.net/quicklinks/events.htm
Home Page: http://www.qlinks.net

Legal and regulatory issues

Audiovisual
1. EU - Review of the television without frontiers directive,
Discussion papers
2. DE - Deutsche TV-Sender unter Pornografie-Verdacht
3. The Regulation of Interactive Television in the United States and
the European Union

Computer crime
4. US - Federal judge rules hacker covered by informant laws

Content regulation
5. CA - Media Challenge Ban in Serial Killer Case
6. Israel warns Web sites on war coverage
7. US - Supreme Court Addresses the Child Pornography Prevention Act
and Child Online Protection Act

Domain names
8. CENTR Vacancy: General Manager
9. EU - Belgian consortium heads race to run .eu domain
10. ICANN - Australian chosen to be president
11. ITU - ccTLD DNS Survey Finds Many Errors

Information society and Internet policy
12. FR - Internet / Le Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel veut
corriger la loi Fontaine
13. FR - Le gouvernement envisage la création d'un conseil supérieur
de l'internet

Junk mail (spam)
14. US - Junk fax ruling may help antispam effort

Liability, jurisdiction and applicable law
15. DE - Oberverwaltungsgericht bestätigt Website-Sperrungen

Mobile and wireless
16. EU - European Commission adopts Recommendation to promote public
wireless broadband services in Europe

Protection of minors
17. DE - Länder ringen um Jugendmedienschutzkommission

Racism and xenophobia
18. EBay to Make Changes on Racial Slurs

Rating and filtering
19. Does the End Justify the Means?
20. Google Censorship - How It Works
21. US - Web Content Filtering Software Comparison

Safer Internet awareness
22. AU - Porn watchdog faces doom

Telecommunications
23. Eurostrategies study - must carry

Market & Technology

Internet access and use
24. Iraq - Web Deluged After Attack

Junk mail (spam)
25. Study suggests spam-stopping tricks

Market
26. US - Yahoo! launches premium multimedia service

Statistics
27. UK - Digital TV set to overtake internet
28. US - Connected to the Future: A Report on Children's Internet Use
29. US - Legal Issues Don't Hinder American Downloaders
30. US - Online file-sharing networks bring porn into workplaces

Forthcoming events

31. 2003-04-03 EU, Brussels - Review of the television without
frontiers directive, public hearings
32. 2003-04-25 EU, Brussels Workshop on final report of Eurostrategies
Study
33. 2003-05-08 BE, Namur - Collecting and Producing Electronic
Evidence in Cybercrime Cases
34. 2003-06-23 EU, Brussels - Review of the television without
frontiers directive, public hearings

Useful addresses

35. Considering Consumer Privacy: A Resource for Policymakers and
Practitioners

1. EU - Review of the television without frontiers directive,
Discussion papers (Europa)
* Discussion paper 1 : Access to events of major importance to
society
* Discussion paper 2 : Promotion of cultural diversity and of
competitiveness of the European programme industry
* Discussion paper 3 : Protection of general interests in television
advertising, sponsorship, teleshopping and self-promotion
* Discussion paper 4 : Protection of minors and public order ­ The
right to reply
* Discussion paper 5 : Application (related aspects)
* Discussion paper 6 : Short extracts of events and other elements
not covered by the Directive
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15527.htm

2. DE - Deutsche TV-Sender unter Pornografie-Verdacht
(Digitalfernsehen.de)
So gut wie alle privaten Fernsehsender Deutschlands stehen unter dem
Verdacht gegen das Werbeverbot für Pornografie zu verstoßen. Das
teilte die Direktoren- und Gremienvorsitzendenkonferenz der
Landesmedienanstalten nach einer zweitägigen Sitzung in Saarbrücken
mit. Demnach habe sich der Verdacht auf Verstöße gegen das Webeverbot
nach einem Zwischenbericht der Gemeinsamen Stelle Jugendschutz,
Programm, Medienkompetenz und Bürgermedien (GSJP) erhärtet.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15516.htm

3. The Regulation of Interactive Television in the United States and
the European Union (Federal Communications Law Journal)
by Hernan Galperin and François Bar. The broadcasting industry is
rapidly entering the era of digitization, distributed intelligence,
and interactivity.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15492.htm

4. US - Federal judge rules hacker covered by informant laws (AP)
A federal judge ruled that a Canadian computer hacker who provided
authorities with diary entries and other information that led to the
arrest of an Orange County judge on child pornography charges was
acting as a police informant. The ruling triggers Fourth Amendment
protections against illegal searches and could lead to all evidence
against the defendant being thrown out.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15517.htm

5. CA - Media Challenge Ban in Serial Killer Case (AP)
Five U.S. media organizations asked a Canadian appeals court to
overturn inclusion of the Internet in a publication ban covering a
preliminary hearing in Canada's worst serial killing case.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15505.htm

6. Israel warns Web sites on war coverage (CNET News.com)
Israel's top government censor has warned Web sites in her country not
to publish sensitive information about the war with Iraq. America at
war. Chief Censor Rachel Dolev sent a letter to "scoop" news sites,
instructing editors to seek government permission before publishing
information about "materials that could pose a threat to the security
of the State of Israel and its residents."
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15502.htm

7. US - Supreme Court Addresses the Child Pornography Prevention Act
and Child Online Protection Act (Federal Communications Law Journal)
by Sue Ann Mota. The CPPA (Child Pornography Prevention Act) was
intended to protect minors from the harmful effects of virtual child
pornography. The COPA (Child Online Protection Act) was intended to
protect minors from pornography available commercially on the World
Wide Web. However, the U.S. Supreme Court addressed the
constitutionality of both statutes. Currently, neither statute is
being enforced. This Article predicts the future of COPA and
recommends further congressional action to protect minors from the
harmful effects of both virtual and real child pornography, and from
accessing pornography on the Web.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15494.htm

8. CENTR Vacancy: General Manager (CENTR)
CENTR is a not for profit organisation, incorporated in the UK, and
with staff currently based in Oxford and Salzburg. CENTR was created
and funded by country code top level domain registries (ccTLDs) in
Europe and beyond. CENTR's members manage the national Internet domain
name registries for names registered under their two-letter code (.fr,
.uk, .de etc). CENTR provides a forum to discuss matters of policy
affecting ccTLDs and acts as channel of communication to Internet
governing bodies and others involved in the Internet, promoting the
interests of not-for-profit ccTLDs and lobby on their behalf. We are
looking to appoint a General Manager. Salary: Negotiable. Deadline for
applications: 28 March 2003.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15524.htm

9. EU - Belgian consortium heads race to run .eu domain (IDG)
The European Commission is consulting its 15 national member
governments over a draft decision to pick a Belgian-led consortium to
run the long-awaited .eu top-level domain name registry. The front
runner is the Brussels-based European Registry of Internet Domains
consortium, or EURID, which has been set up by DNS Belgium vzw/asbl,
Istituto di Informatica e Telematica Consiglio Nazionale delle
Ricerche and the Network Information Centre Sweden AB (NIC SE).
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15510.htm

10. ICANN - Australian chosen to be president (Sydney Morning Herald)
Australia's Dr Paul Twomey has been appointed the new president and
CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN). Dr Twomey will replace retiring president/CEO Stuart Lynn,
who has served for the past two years, on March 27. For the three
years ending November, 2002, he was the first chair of the ICANN
governmental advisory committee, a global forum of governmental
representatives that provides advice to the ICANN Board on public
policy issues.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15509.htm

11. ITU - ccTLD DNS Survey Finds Many Errors (ICANNWatch)
ITU has released a survey by Nominum UK that queried all 243 ccTLD's
name servers. It would be expected that there would be no mismatches
between the root and a ccTLD over the ccTLD's name servers. In fact,
64% of the ccTLDs have mismatched delegation information between
themselves and the root.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15506.htm

12. FR - Internet / Le Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel veut
corriger la loi Fontaine (ZDNet France)
La loi sur l'économie numérique attribue au CSA la compétence pour
réguler l'internet. Une compétence trop large pour l'institution, qui
veut la limiter aux télévisions et aux radios en ligne. L'Autorité de
régulation des télécommunications (ART), l'Association des
fournisseurs d'accès et des services internet (AFA) et même le Conseil
supérieur de l'audiovisuel (CSA) sont unanimes: l'article 1 de la loi
Fontaine doit être modifié. Dans son premier article, le texte définit
la «communication publique en ligne» comme un sous-ensemble de
l'audiovisuel. Projet de loi pour la confiance dans l'économie
numérique (Assemblée nationale).
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15500.htm

13. FR - Le gouvernement envisage la création d'un conseil supérieur
de l'internet (AFP)
Le gouvernement envisage la création d'un conseil supérieur de
l'internet, a annoncé la ministre déléguée à la Recherche Claudie
Haigneré au cours d'un point de presse. La "société civile des
internautes" serait représentée au sein de ce conseil consultatif
composé de "sages", a-t-elle précisé, les contours précis de cette
instance devant être arrêtés lors d'un prochain Comité
interministériel pour la société de l'information. Selon Claudie
Haigneré, "il faut aller au-delà du Forum des droits sur l'internet",
un organisme de corégulation du net créé par le gouvernement Jospin.
voir aussi ZDNet France.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15501.htm

14. US - Junk fax ruling may help antispam effort (CNET News.com)
A federal appeals court said that a law restricting junk faxes was
constitutional, setting a precedent that favors legal attempts to
restrict unsolicited e-mail. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals
reversed a lower court's ruling, concluding that a 1991 federal law
banning unsolicited fax advertising did not violate the First
Amendment's guarantee of freedom of expression. State of Missouri v.
American Blast.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15504.htm

15. DE - Oberverwaltungsgericht bestätigt Website-Sperrungen (Heise)
Das Oberverwaltungsgericht Münster hat seine lang erwartete
Entscheidung zu den Sperrungsverfügungen der Bezirksregierung
Düsseldorf gegen rechtsradikale Websites gefällt: Die Verfügungen
müssen von den Internet-Providern vorläufig befolgt werden.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15521.htm

16. EU - European Commission adopts Recommendation to promote public
wireless broadband services in Europe (RAPID)
The European Commission has adopted a recommendation that calls upon
Member States to facilitate the use of Radio Local Area Networks (R-
LAN) for accessing public services. The Recommendation encourages
Member States to allow deployment of public R-LAN access networks
without sector specific conditions and subject only to general
authorisations. The Commission thereby implements the policy objective
set by the European Council to foster multiple broadband access
platforms in support of the Information Society. R-LANs (also referred
to as W-LAN and Wi-Fi) are currently operating mainly in licence-
exempt frequency bands. They are a fast-developing, innovative and
promising means of implementing broadband wireless access to the
Internet, and as such complement other broadband access
infrastructures. Developed initially for private usage (e.g. corporate
Intranets), these R-LAN platforms are now increasingly revealing their
market potential for accessing the public Internet when in areas such
as airports, train stations and shopping malls.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15497.htm

17. DE - Länder ringen um Jugendmedienschutzkommission (Heise)
In nur zwei Wochen tritt mit dem Staatsvertrag für den
Jugendmedienschutz ein umfassendes neues System der Kontrolle von
Medieninhalten im Rundfunk ebenso wie im Internet in Kraft. Was auf
Medienaufsicht und Unternehmen mit dem auch Online-Medien umfassenden
Jugendmedienschutz zukommt, ist allerdings noch äußerst ungewiss.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15523.htm

18. EBay to Make Changes on Racial Slurs (AP)
Following complaints from activists, Internet auction giant eBay will
caution sellers against describing items using a racial slur. When a
seller uses the n-word in an item description, a new box will
automatically pop up on the computer screen. It will tell the seller
that the listing contains a word which may be "highly offensive to
many in the eBay community" and could violate the company's policy
against racially offensive items.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15518.htm

19. Does the End Justify the Means? (Wired)
The University of Toronto's Internet Censorship Explorer permits
anyone with a Web browser to test the limits of certain national and
organizational Internet-blocking schemes. Users simply enter a target
URL and a country into a search field on the Censorship Explorer's
website. The software then scans the ports of available servers in
that country, looking for open ones. By using the foreign computer as
a proxy server, ICE then attempts to visit the target URL from behind
that country's firewall. Either the visible website or a "page
blocked" message is then returned to the user.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15496.htm

20. Google Censorship - How It Works (Seth Finkelstein)
This report describes the system by which results in the Google search
engine are suppressed. Google is arguably the world's most popular
search engine. However, contrary perhaps to a naive impression, in
some cases the results of a search are affected by various government-
related factors. That is, search results which may otherwise be shown,
are deliberately excluded. The suppression may be local to a country,
or global to all Google results.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15520.htm

21. US - Web Content Filtering Software Comparison (eTesting Labs)
The U.S. Department of Justice commissioned eTesting Labs to use our
standard test methodology to compare the effectiveness of five Web
content filtering applications in blocking material based on specific
criteria. Study published in Oct 2001.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15515.htm

22. AU - Porn watchdog faces doom (Australian IT)
The federal Government's internet advisory group NetAlert will start
winding-up its operations in two weeks if it does not receive
additional funding. The group was set up three years ago at the
height of the dotcom boom to assist parents in blocking their kids'
access to internet porn and other inappropriate material.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15491.htm

23. Eurostrategies study - must carry (Europa)
Study on the assessment of the Member States measures aimed at
fulfilling certain general interest objectives linked to broadcasting,
imposed on providers of electronic communications networks and
services, in the context of the new regulatory framework, prepared by
Eurostrategies. Executive summary, [EN *.pdf, 168KB] Final report
[EN *.pdf, 1,96MB] Country profiles [EN *.pdf, 1,34MB]
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15513.htm

24. Iraq - Web Deluged After Attack (Reuters)
Internet traffic surged as Web users sought out news on the U.S.-led
attacks on Iraq, others vented outrage on the war and still others
sought tips to protect themselves. Internet usage spiked two to three
times higher than normal, according to representatives for major U.S.
and Chinese websites, as the war got underway with bombing raids on
Baghdad, and Iraq responded with Scud missile attacks on positions in
Kuwait. see also Iraq conflict hits websites hard (BBC), Reporters'
Log: At war in Iraq (BBC) and Iraq war could herald a new age of Web-
based news coverage (USA Today).
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15493.htm

25. Study suggests spam-stopping tricks (CNET News.com)
In a new study of spamming tactics, Why Am I Getting All This Spam?
the policy group Center for Democracy and Technology found the most
successful methods of avoiding unwanted messages involved obscuring e-
mail addresses or hiding them altogether.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15514.htm

26. US - Yahoo! launches premium multimedia service (AP)
Yahoo! launched a subscription service that features video and audio
from the NCAA basketball tournament, "American Idol," The Weather
Channel and other sources in an effort to boost revenues and attract
more broadband users. The company said the multimedia features will
be available to both dial-up and high-speed users, though broadband
customers who have fast cable or Digital Subscriber Line Internet
connections will see the most benefit. The cost of Yahoo Platinum will
be $9.95 a month.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15507.htm

27. UK - Digital TV set to overtake internet (Guardian)
Britain's appetite for digital television is growing so quickly the
medium will overtake the internet in terms of penetration by the end
of this year, according to the independent television commission. The
ITC said more than 10 million homes - 40% of the population - had
digital TV at the end of last year. In comparison, 11 million homes
were connected to the internet. ITC multichannel quarterly - Q4 2002.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15503.htm

28. US - Connected to the Future: A Report on Children's Internet Use
(Corporation for Public Broadcasting)
American children regardless of their age, income, or ethnicity,
greatly increased their use of the Internet from home, school, or
library over the past two years. Yet even with these growth trends,
children from under-served populations still significantly lag behind
more advantaged children both in home and school access. This report
from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting examines both the trends
and the implications of children connecting to the Internet.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15495.htm

29. US - Legal Issues Don't Hinder American Downloaders (Ipsos)
Downloaders believe their actions are not hurting artists, according
to Ipsos, the global marketing research firm. Despite recent efforts
to educate the public on the need to respect copyrights and
intellectual property in the era of peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing,
only one-in-five downloaders age 12 and older agree that free
downloading and peer to peer file-trading hurts artists. New findings
show that nearly half (48%) of 12-to-17 year olds and 42% of 18-to-24
year olds report they have downloaded music or MP3 files.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15519.htm

30. US - Online file-sharing networks bring porn into workplaces
(Mercury News)
Child pornography and other sexually explicit videos and images are
the most sought-after content on online file-swapping networks,
surpassing even the brisk unauthorized music and movie trade. A new
study reveals that pornography accounts for more than 40 percent of
the traffic on the Gnutella network, which connects such file-sharing
services as Morpheus, LimeWire and BearShare. Child porn constitutes a
small yet disturbingly measurable percentage of all searches: about 6
percent.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15508.htm

31. 2003-04-03 EU, Brussels - Review of the television without
frontiers directive, public hearings (EUROPA)
In January, the European Commission adopted a work programme with a
view to a possible review of the 1989 "Television without Frontiers"
Directive. The questions raised in this work programme are to be the
subject of an extensive public consultation. The Commission will
publish a communication based on the results of this public
consultation at the end of 2003 or beginning of 2004 on the future of
audio-visual policy. All interested parties are invited to participate
in the public debate by responding to the questions specified in the
discussion papers and transmitting their written contributions by 15
July 2003. It will include public hearings in April and June. The
documents which will be used as the basis for the debate are now
available. The first series of hearings: 2, 3 April 2003 Protection of
general interest in television advertising, sponsorship, teleshopping
and self-promotion, 4 April 2003 Access to events of major importance
to society, Brief extracts of events.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15499.htm

32. 2003-04-25 EU, Brussels Workshop on final report of Eurostrategies
Study (Europa)
Workshop on final report of Eurostrategies Study on assessment of the
Member States measures aimed at fulfilling certain general interest
objectives linked to broadcasting, in the context of the new
regulatory framework. 25 April 2003 from 10:00- 13:30 in Brussels.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15512.htm

33. 2003-05-08 BE, Namur - Collecting and Producing Electronic
Evidence in Cybercrime Cases (CRID)
The CRID is organising this Conference in the context of the CTOSE
project (EU funded, IST programme). The purpose of this Conference is
to address the legal issues involved in handling electronic traces. A
background of technical aspects for "non-technicians" will be
presented. The event will focus on the legal admissibility of the
electronic evidence, as well as on procedural aspects foreseen in the
Cybercrime Convention of the Council of Europe and the Proposal
Framework decision on attacks against information systems. Then,
controversial issues related to the subject matter will be discussed,
like the case of traffic data retention. Last but not least, the
different interested parties will present their point of view with
regard to e-evidence gathering. The event will take place in the
Faculty of Law of the University of Namur from 14.00 on 8 May until
15.45 on 9 May 2003. The fee for participants is of 150 Euro.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15525.htm

34. 2003-06-23 EU, Brussels - Review of the television without
frontiers directive, public hearings (Europa)
23, 24, 25 June 2003 (provisional) Promotion of cultural diversity
and of competitiveness of the European programme industry, Protection
of minors and public order - The right to reply, Application
(determination of the competent authority, role of the National
Regulatory Authorities, etc.)
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15498.htm

35. Considering Consumer Privacy: A Resource for Policymakers and
Practitioners (CDT)
The Center for Democracy and Technology has released a compendium of
papers that examine key issues in the consumer privacy debate. The
resource contains 23 papers by a balanced array of industry
representatives, privacy experts and consumer advocates.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem15522.htm

Main Sources and Contributors: Baker & McKenzie E-Law Alert, Michael
Geist BNA - ILN, cybertelecom.org, jugendschutz.net, Gerhard Heine,
David Goldstein.

QuickLinks
Links to news items about legal and regulatory aspects of Internet and
the information society, particularly those relating to information
content, and market and technology.



QuickLinks is edited by Richard Swetenham (richard.swetenham /at/ cec.eu.int)



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