[eccr] QuickLinks 276 - 23 June 2003

QuickLinks 276 - 23 June 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 - Television Without Frontiers: MEPs concerned with increasing
media concentration
2. UK - Government unsure of uses for analogue signal

Competition
3. US - Rivals Say Microsoft Flouts Deal
4. US - West Virginia drops Microsoft appeal

Computer crime
5. Man Sentenced for eBay Fraud
6. UK - Ex-university head is jailed for child porn
7. UK - NHTCU gets results

Consumer protection
8. EU - Commission proposes EU-wide ban on unfair commercial practices
9. OECD - 30 nations target cross-border Internet scams

Content regulation
10. CoE - Why Europe still doesn't get the Internet
11. EU - CNBC finds funding haven in Brussels
12. The Internet under Surveillance - Obstacles to the free flow of
information online

Data Protection (privacy)
13. UK - Government rejects call for privacy law
14. US - Netscape Settles Snooping Issue

e-Government
15. UK - Magazines under threat from government ad plan

Employment and social issues
16. US - Probe finds 'significant misuse' Internet at IRS
17. US - Securities Firms Told to Save Instant Messages

Information society and Internet policy
18. OSCE - Amsterdam Recommendations on Freedom of the Media and the
Internet

Interception
19. UK - Blunkett shelves access to data plans

Junk mail (spam)
20. Microsoft opens campaign in the war on spam
21. US - Panel Approves Anti-Spam Measures

Liability, jurisdiction and applicable law
22. DE - Chaotische Umsetzung der Sperrungsverfügung in NRW
23. FR - Un éditeur de site condamné pour un message posté sur son
forum de discussion

Protection of minors
24. DE - Runder Tisch einigt sich auf Leitlinien gegen Gewalt in
Medien

Rating and filtering
25. Prüfung einer Filtertechnik zur weitgehenden Sperrung
rechtsradikaler Web-Seiten

Security and encryption
26. UK - Pornographers hijack home computers

Self-regulation / codes of conduct
27. AU - Code of conduct for copyright collecting societies

Taxation and tariffs
28. EU Stirs Up Internet Sales Tax Debate

Market & Technology

Cable and satellite
29. UK - BBC and BSkyB end satellite row

Market
30. UK - Sony to sell music downloads

Mobile and wireless
31. 3G phones 'unfit for mass market'
32. UK - A new kind of phone sex
33. UK - BT to link mobiles with land lines
34. UK - Five chart discovers joy of text

Technology
35. UK urged to hold back on open source

Forthcoming events

36. 2003-09-21 AU, Sydney - International Rating Conference:
Classification in a Convergent World

1. EU - Television Without Frontiers: MEPs concerned with increasing
media concentration (EurActiv.com)
MEPs urged a complete overhaul of the "Television Without Frontiers"
Directive. The Parliament's Culture Committee believes that the
increasing concentration in the media industry throughout Europe
presents a major threat to integrity and pluralism, and thus it seeks
to establish EU-wide rules on ownership of television media. The
Committee called on the Commission to monitor levels of media
concentration in Europe and to draft an updated Green Paper on this
issue by the beginning of 2004. MEPs also urged the Commission to
support the establishment of a working group of national regulators
and representatives of public and private broadcasting systems who
would be in charge of swapping best practice on all forms of
regulation, including co-regulation and self-regulation in the area of
advertising and consumer protection.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16167.htm

2. UK - Government unsure of uses for analogue signal (Guardian)
New broadcasting minister Lord McIntosh admitted the government was
unclear about the potential future uses of the analogue television
signal. Attempting to justify the decision to press ahead with the
UK's conversion to digital TV, he conceded it was "premature" to
predict the full range of benefits the freed-up spectrum would
provide. Apart from the financial benefit to the Treasury from
spectrum auctions, he was only able to cite the ability to broadcast
clear TV pictures to mobile receivers - dubbed "video Walkmans" - as
one of the possible future uses of the analogue spectrum.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16149.htm

3. US - Rivals Say Microsoft Flouts Deal (Washington Post)
Microsoft is trying to license key pieces of its technology at
inflated rates and under onerous conditions, according to competitors
who charge that the software giant is thwarting its antitrust
settlement with the federal government. The actions are discouraging
rivals from participating in the licensing program, which is an
important element of the agreement that Microsoft struck with the
Justice Department and several states 18 months ago.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16162.htm

4. US - West Virginia drops Microsoft appeal (Reuters)
West Virginia will drop the state's appeal of the landmark Microsoft
antitrust settlement, leaving Massachusetts as the final holdout
pushing for stricter sanctions.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16153.htm

5. Man Sentenced for eBay Fraud (AP)
A man accused of defrauding hundreds of thousands of dollars from eBay
customers who thought they were buying computers was sentenced to
three years in a state facility, and ordered to pay back the lost
funds.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16165.htm

6. UK - Ex-university head is jailed for child porn (Sheffield Today)
A former head of child education at Sheffield Hallam University has
been jailed for downloading thousands of paedophile images from the
internet. Dr Paul Wilcox, 54, downloaded 4,728 shocking images of
children being abused. The disgraced academic, who has since quit his
senior post as head of Hallam's child education unit, is today
starting a six-month jail sentence.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16161.htm

7. UK - NHTCU gets results (vnunet.com)
The National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) says it is making progress in
its fight against organised cybercrime. In the two years since the
unit was created, the NHTCU has made more than 100 arrests from over
40 operations. Prosecutions have mainly been in the area of serious
online child abuse, but pending operations cover hacking, virus
writing, fraud and software cracking."
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16138.htm

8. EU - Commission proposes EU-wide ban on unfair commercial practices
(RAPID)
The European Commission has adopted a proposal for a Directive on
unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices. Consumers' rights
will be clearer and cross-border trade made simpler under the
directive which establishes a single, common, general prohibition of
unfair commercial practices distorting consumers' economic behaviour.
This single set of common rules will replace the existing multiple
volumes of national rules and court rulings on commercial practices.
This will give consumers the same protection against sharp business
practices and rogue traders whether they buy from the shop around the
corner or from a website in another Member State. There are two main
categories of unfairness: misleading and aggressive practices..
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16142.htm

9. OECD - 30 nations target cross-border Internet scams (USA Today)
Thirty onations announced the first multinational pact to fight cross-
border fraud, which has grown sharply with the spread of the Internet.
The agreement among the industrial nations belonging to the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development was a year in
the making and was spearheaded by the United States, which has the
most victims of cross-border fraud. The 30 mostly European and North
American member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development agreed to work together to fight cross-border fraud,
beef up their own consumer-protection laws where necessary, and make
it easier for consumers to recover damages. see OECD Guidelines for
Protecting Consumers from Fraudulent and Deceptive Commercial
Practices Across Borders and Press Release.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16150.htm

10. CoE - Why Europe still doesn't get the Internet (CNet News.com)
Declan McCullough disagrees with a Council of Europe proposal to
extend the right of reply to the Internet. see Draft Recommendation
on the right of reply in the on-line media (CoE) and hearing. see also
Gegendarstellungsrecht online: Widerspruch fest eingebaut? (Spiegel
Online) and Le droit de réponse doit être transposé à l'internet
(transfert.net) interview avec Emmanuel Derieux.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16143.htm

11. EU - CNBC finds funding haven in Brussels (Guardian)
The pan-European business news network CNBC is setting up a new
channel in Brussels which will avoid Britain's strict rules on
programme sponsorship. CNBC Europe, which was embroiled in a row with
the independent television commission over funding of a documentary
series on the euro, said it would be able to show such programmes on
its new channel, although they will still not be screened in Britain.
This year the ITC ruled against CNBC Europe for showing a programme
about the euro that was part-funded by the European commission. CNBC
said the EC had no editorial control over the series but the regulator
said it breached its rule preventing a sponsor funding a news or
current affairs programme "with a view to promoting their goods or
services".
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16173.htm

12. The Internet under Surveillance - Obstacles to the free flow of
information online (Reporters sans frontières)
The Internet is the bane of all dictatorial regimes, but even in
democracies, new anti-terrorism laws have tightened government control
of it and undermined the principle of protecting journalistic sources.
This report is about attitudes to the Internet by the powerful in 60
countries, between spring 2001 and spring 2003. The preface is by
Vinton G. Cerf, who is often called the 'father' of the Internet.
version française.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16146.htm

13. UK - Government rejects call for privacy law (Guardian)
The government has said it had no intention of introducing a privacy
law, despite today's recommendations by a parliamentary inquiry into
media intrusion. In response to a select committee's call for privacy
legislation, the culture secretary, Tessa Jowell, reiterated her
support for the current system of press self-regulation but conceded
there was "room for improvement". See also MPs call for privacy law to
protect public from press intrusion .
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16160.htm

14. US - Netscape Settles Snooping Issue (Reuters)
The New York Attorney General's office said Netscape would pay
$100,000 as part of a settlement of complaints about a feature used by
the unit of America Online to track what users downloaded online.
Netscape would also delete all URLs and related data it has obtained
through its SmartDownload browser software and undergo privacy audits.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16151.htm

15. UK - Magazines under threat from government ad plan (Guardian)
Magazines serving the public sector, including Nursing Times, the
British Medical Journal, the New Scientist and Nature, are facing a
financial crisis after the government revealed a proposal to put
recruitment advertising online. The government says it wants to start
placing adverts for health care, education and environmental workers
on public sector websites from 2005
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16169.htm

16. US - Probe finds 'significant misuse' Internet at IRS (AP)
Internal Revenue Service employees using thousands of computers
accessed prohibited Web sites that included personal e-mail, sexually
explicit sites and games. To Treasury investigators, it was a sign
that 'significant misuse' of the Internet continues after a crackdown
a year ago."
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16140.htm

17. US - Securities Firms Told to Save Instant Messages (Washington
Post)
NASD, the industry's self-regulatory body told securities brokers and
dealers that use computer instant messages to contact clients and
fellow employees must save such communications for at least three
years,
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16145.htm

18. OSCE - Amsterdam Recommendations on Freedom of the Media and the
Internet (Press Release)
At the end of a two-day conference on Internet-related perils to
freedom of expression, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the
Media, Freimut Duve, has issued a call for the OSCE to take up a
strong position towards free flow of information on the Internet. The
so-called Amsterdam Recommendations on Freedom of the Media and the
Internet were issued at the conclusion of the conference held on 13
and 14 June in the City Hall of Amsterdam. The event brought together
more than 25 experts from international organizations, media,
academia, specialized non-governmental organizations from Europe and
the U.S. as well as from the European Parliament, Council of Europe,
European Commission and the OSCE. see also OSZE möchte Meinungs- und
Pressefreiheit im Internet sichern (Heise).
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16154.htm

19. UK - Blunkett shelves access to data plans (Guardian)
Ministers were forced into a humiliating climbdown over plans to hand
a host of public bodies the right to demand access to the
communications records of telephone and internet users. Bowing to
intense public and political pressure, David Blunkett, the home
secretary, admitted that the government had 'blundered' into the issue
as he announced that the proposals had been shelved to allow more
consultation. see also Home Office retreat on RIPA - welcome but tip
of the iceberg (Liberty).
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16137.htm

20. Microsoft opens campaign in the war on spam (Economist)
Microsoft has filed civil lawsuits against 15 alleged spammers, 13 in
America and two in Britain. The company accuses the defendants of
sending over two billion junk e-mails to MSN and Hotmail users.
Microsoft claims the companies resorted to underhand practices, such
as disguising pornographic e-mails with a benign subject line, or
making e-mails appear as if from a recognised sender. Microsoft is
seeking to shut down the spammers¹ operations and claiming unspecified
damages.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16144.htm

21. US - Panel Approves Anti-Spam Measures (Reuters)
A U.S. Senate committee passed a toughened measure to crack down on
"spam" e-mail and promised that it would be strengthened further by
the time it comes up for a full vote. The Senate Commerce Committee
also voted to give antifraud enforcers greater authority to fight the
unsolicited commercial pitches that now account for up to half of all
e-mail traffic.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16147.htm

22. DE - Chaotische Umsetzung der Sperrungsverfügung in NRW (Heise)
Im Februar 2002 verpflichtete die Bezirksregierung Düsseldorf die
Provider in Nordrhein-Westfalen zur Sperrung zweier Webseiten. Jetzt
hat der Bonner Rechtswissenschaftler Maximillian Dornseif deren
Auswirkungen untersucht und fand chaotische Verhältnisse vor: Während
sich manche Provider strikt an die Vorgaben der Behörde halten und den
Zugriff auf strafbare Inhalte kaum erschweren, schießen andere über
das Ziel hinaus und sperren legale Inhalte. Sogar der Mailverkehr ist
betroffen.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16156.htm

23. FR - Un éditeur de site condamné pour un message posté sur son
forum de discussion (transfert.net)
Suite à une décision du Tribunal de grande instance de Paris rendue le
11 avril 2003, l'éditeur du site percussions.org devra rembourser la
moitié des frais de justice engagés dans la procédure menée contre lui
par la société Eurodim. Motif de la plainte : la publication, sur un
des forums de discussion de percussions.org, d'un message que la
société juge diffamant à l'égard de son directeur général.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16152.htm

24. DE - Runder Tisch einigt sich auf Leitlinien gegen Gewalt in
Medien (Heise)
Kinder und Jugendliche sollen künftig besser vor Gewaltdarstellungen
in Internet, Film und Fernsehen geschützt werden. Bei einem Runden
Tisch Medien gegen Gewalt verständigten sich in Berlin Bundeskanzler
Gerhard Schröder und Vertreter der Rundfunkanbieter, der Filmbranche,
Internetprovider sowie Computerspielehersteller über Leitlinien und
Maßnahmen, mit denen Gewaltdarstellungen eingedämmt werden sollen. Der
Schwerpunkt liegt dabei auf Aufklärung und der freiwilligen
Selbstkontrolle der Medienanbieter.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16157.htm

25. Prüfung einer Filtertechnik zur weitgehenden Sperrung
rechtsradikaler Web-Seiten (Heise)
Im Zuge der Beratungen zu den Internetsperren hatten die Firmen
Webwasher, Bocatel und Intranet ein Filterkonzept vorgestellt, das die
Internetblockade zentral und zielgenau abwickeln sollte. In
Zusammenarbeit mit der Universität Dortmund wurde das Konzept
getestet. Der Abschlußbericht vom Dezember 2002 liegt jetzt auch
online vor. Demnach kann der Filterpilot Inhalte auf einigen hundert
IPs sperren. Eine Umsetzung des Konzepts steht jedoch zur Zeit nicht
an, da organisatorische Fragen nicht geklärt sind und Projektgelder
zur Finanzierung fehlen.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16155.htm

26. UK - Pornographers hijack home computers (Guardian)
British experts have found the first hard evidence that hundreds of
thousands of computers were deliberately infected with viruses by
spammers who used the machines to distribute pornography and junk
mail. The Gloucester-based computer security firm MessageLabs
established that a virus which was sent to up to 1 million computer
users over two days was the work of a spammer trying to gain access to
machines to distribute ads for websites carrying incest pornography.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16171.htm

27. AU - Code of conduct for copyright collecting societies (APRA)
APRA and AMCOS subscribes to a code of conduct for copyright
collecting societies. The Code came into effect in July 2002.
Compliance with the Code by participating collecting societies is
currently the subject of a review being conducted by former Federal
Court judge, Mr James Burchett QC.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16158.htm

28. EU Stirs Up Internet Sales Tax Debate (Washington Post)
On July 1, the 15-nation EU will begin collecting the VAT, or value-
added tax, on sales of digital goods and other electronic transactions
from U.S. and other non-EU companies. This means that American
companies selling downloadable music, movies, games and software to
customers in the EU might have to collect taxes that could boost the
total cost of their products in Europe by as much as 25 percent. For
companies like America Online and Internet auction giant eBay, it
means additional costs for restructuring their European operations, as
well as possible price increases for their customers.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16164.htm

29. UK - BBC and BSkyB end satellite row (Guardian)
After months of brinkmanship the BBC and BSkyB have finally settled
their protracted row over an £85m deal that guarantees distribution of
the corporation's channels to 6.7 million Sky homes. They have agreed
a new deal, believed to represent savings of tens of millions of
pounds, which will ensure BBC1 and BBC2 remain the first channels Sky
viewers see on the electronic TV listings that appear on screen
automatically when they switch on their sets. It will mean that, for
the first time, viewers in Scotland will be able to watch BBC London
and that anyone with a satellite dish and a receiver can watch the
BBC's digital channels without a viewing card.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16168.htm

30. UK - Sony to sell music downloads (Reuters)
Under pressure from the success of Apple's iTunes music store, Sony
has joined the digital-download bandwagon. It was the last major
holdout in Europe Sony Music will begin selling music downloads in
Britain for its top artists, making it the last among the major
recording labels to join Europe's music download bandwagon. But the
long-awaited announcement comes with a hitch. Sony, home to such
artists as Michael Jackson and Jennifer Lopez, will not sell song
downloads to European Internet users outside the United Kingdom.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16166.htm

31. 3G phones 'unfit for mass market' (CNET Asia)
The latest mobile phones are not living up to their promises, say
European mobile operators. Nokia has started shipping its much-
anticipated 3G (third generation) phone, the 6550, just as a storm is
brewing over the quality of such handsets. Third-generation (3G)
handsets have failed to deliver on their promises and are unfit for
the mass market, say spokesmen from a group of European mobile
operators. The sentiment was voiced at the recently concluded 2003
UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) Congress in Holland
after the group evaluated 3G handphones from several equipment makers,
according to various reports.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16163.htm

32. UK - A new kind of phone sex (Guardian)
Anyone who has been to the cinema over the past six months will
probably have seen an advert from mobile phone operator Orange
inviting them to "muck about" with picture messaging. The question now
being asked by phone companies is: how mucky are those pictures
actually going to be, and what is going to happen when they breach the
bounds of what is acceptable? It is now accepted that one of the main
drivers behind the take-up of VHS video recorders and handheld
camcorders was pornography. There is an ever growing suspicion within
the mobile phone industry that picture messaging is going the same
way. see also Will porn kick-start the video phone revolution? (BBC).
Pornography is the handmaiden of new technology, it's often claimed.
So, will video phone sales be driven by the lust for bare flesh? The
first use that novel technologies are put to, so the argument goes, is
to let people look at, read or talk about rude things. Sex, it seems,
is synonymous with new gadgets. As video phones - known as third-
generation or 3G phones - make their appearance, it is no surprise to
hear many people say porn will drive its early adoption.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16159.htm

33. UK - BT to link mobiles with land lines (Guardian)
BT will announce its full-scale return to the mobile phone market
later this month with a service which will make extensive use of the
company's massive fixed line network. In a move likely to cause howls
of outrage from its rivals, who do not have the benefit of a direct
connection with people's homes, BT will offer consumers the ability to
use their mobile at home as if it was a fixed-line phone - potentially
offering consumers huge savings.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16170.htm

34. UK - Five chart discovers joy of text (Guardian)
Channel Five is teaming up with BSkyB to launch a new pop chart show
with a twist - it will be based solely on text message voting.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16139.htm

35. UK urged to hold back on open source (CNET News.com)
A U.K. tech industry body has urged the U.K. government to show
restraint in its use of open-source software, particularly software
covered by the General Public License. Intellect, which is backed by
Microsoft, IBM, Intel, BAE Systems and other high-tech heavyweights,
said that the requirement of open-source licenses for software funded
by the government could have a negative impact on competition for
contracts, on the quality of the resulting software and even on the
confidentiality of government departments.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16141.htm

36. 2003-09-21 AU, Sydney - International Rating Conference:
Classification in a Convergent World (OFLC)
21-24 September 2003, Sydney, Australia. The Office of Film and
Literature Classification (Australia) is presenting an international
conference in 2003. The conference is an opportunity to find out about
the latest challenges and dilemmas facing classification and ratings
systems from around the world in our fast changing entertainment and
technology environment. The conference will be attended by local and
international classifiers and regulators, film and computer games
producers, distributors and designers, producers and distributors of
new technologies, media representatives, academics, as well as
professional bodies and community groups. Early bird registration
deadline is before 30 June 2003.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem16177.htm

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

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)



----------------
ECCR-Mailing list
---
To unsubscribe, send an email message to (majordomo /at/ listserv.vub.ac.be)
with in the body of the message (NOT in the subject): unsubscribe eccr
---
ECCR - European Consortium for Communications Research
Secretariat: P.O. Box 106, B-1210 Brussels 21, Belgium
Tel.: +32-2-412 42 78/47
Fax.: +32-2-412 42 00
Email: (freenet002 /at/ pi.be) or (Rico.Lie /at/ pi.be)
URL: http://www.eccr.info
----------------