Reading For Class About Google

Read about Google AdWords and AdSense at http://www.google.com/intl/en/ads/ and at http://www.google.com/intl/en/services/

Read About Google.

Read about Google's products and services

Different Ways to Search on Google

What is different about this search box?

Have a look at the Google and other advertising links on this page.

One bad aspects of Google:
Domain monetarisation, and see this paper.

Lecture on geo-identification

Dr Svantesson gave his public lecture on geo-identification at QUT yesterday (as promoted in this blog).

His lecture on geo-identification, which is the practice of identiyfing internet users' geographical locations, considered how this technology can be used to ensure compliance with national regulations. The PowerPoint slides he used are available here. He also has a website that contains numerous links and resources on geo-identification: http://www.svantesson.org/svantesson4geoid.htm.

xxx domain name controversy

Michael Geist writes that the recent ICANN decision to reject the creation of a new dot-xxx domain name extension (reported in this blog) may have long-term implications for Internet governance since it sparked enormous controversy and provided ample evidence of US government intervention into ICANN matters.

Read more here.

Challenge to Amazon's 1-Click Patent

New Zealander Peter Calveley has successfully lobbied the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to re-examine Amazon's 1-Click Patent, the online process that enables shoppers to enter their credit card details and address just once so that on subsequent visits to the website, it takes just a single mouse click to make a purchase. Read more here.

Geo-Identification: A Death Sentence for the ‘borderless’ internet?

QUT Seminar
Speaker: Dr Dan Svantesson
Title: Geo-Identification - A Death Sentence for the ‘borderless’ internet?
Date: Wednesday 24 May 2006
Time: 5.30pm Refreshments
6.00pm Lecture commences
Venue Lecture Room B122, B Block, Level 1
QUT Gardens Point Campus
The Topic

Recent technological advances let operators of Internet facilities, such as websites, identify the geographical location of those they interact with, enabling them to make their content available in certain locations only. Such geo-identification can solve many of the legal problems associated with the “borderless” Internet. However, this practice also changes the Internet from a relatively borderless medium to something similar to our physical world, divided by borders of different kinds.

The lecture has two aims: (1) giving legal practitioners a better understanding of how geo-identification can help to limit their clients’ legal risk exposure; and (2) giving academics, law-makers and other interested parties an understanding of how the technologies discussed affect Internet regulation.

The Speaker

Dr Dan Svantesson is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law, Bond University. He has law degrees from both Sweden and Australia. In 2004 he was awarded a PhD at UNSW for his thesis titled ‘Private international law and the Internet’. He is a Research Associate at the Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre, a Board Member of the Australian Privacy Foundation and the National Convenor for the International Law Interest Group of the Australasian Law Teachers Association. Further, he is the National Rapporteur for Australia within the Data Protection Research and Policy Group of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law and a Contributing Editor of the World Legal Information Institute. Dan specialises in international aspects of the IT society, an area within which he has published a range of articles and given presentations in Australia, Asia and Europe.

Registration
Sue Lavering

FPL Secretary, International and Community Engagement
Faculty of Law
Queensland University of Technology
Ph 3864 5433
Fax 3864 1161
Email s.lavering@qut.edu.au

LAPD has started a blog

The Los Angeles Police Department has started a blog. Read about it here. Visit the blog here.

Do you think this is a good use for a blog?

eBay patent case

The U.S. Supreme Court has handed a victory to patent-reform advocates, ruling that a small company whose patent was infringed by eBay Inc. was not automatically entitled to a court order blocking the offending service. Read about the case here. Read the judgment.

MS v Google ... again

US antitrust authorities have rejected concerns that a search feature in the new version of Microsoft web browser would give the company an unfair advantage over Google. Read more here.

A defining moment?

The Economist suggests that this is a defining moment for Google. Read more here. Do you agree?

Attorney-General announces copyright reforms

The Commonwealth Attorney-General has announced major copyright reforms. These reforms are, in aprt, an attempt to keep up with rapid technological developments. Read the press release here.

These reforms will be discussed in class tonight.

Choking the internet

Wired asks this question: Could High-Def Choke the Internet?

Read the article and let us know what you think?

Hacker fails to avoid extradition

From Australian IT: A British computer expert accused by Washington of the world's "biggest military hack of all time" should be extradited to the US to stand trial, a court ruled on Thursday. Read more here.

Audit of ISPs by ACMA

A recent audit of the twenty-four largest Australian internet service providers by ACMA has found a high degree of compliance with consumer protection obligations under the industry’s content codes of practice. However, ACMA has also urged consumers to report on lack of internet safety measures. Read the press release here.

Minister for Communications, Information technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan, said that the findings of the audit carried out by the communications regulator demonstrated the effectiveness of codes of practice under its co-regulatory content regulation scheme. However, a spokeswoman for the Minister said that the federal Government had not ruled out ISP-level content filtering and that the Senator's comments shouldn't be taken as indication of how well current regulation policy was working. Read the Minister's press release here.

For more details, read this report in Australian IT.

Yahoo seeks media freedom in China

Yahoo has announced that it is seeking US government help to urge China to allow more media freedom. Read more here.

.xxx domain name rejected

Following yesterday's post, ICANN has voted to reject a proposal to create a red-light district on the internet.

Read more here.

xxx

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will consider a proposal to introduce a new dot-xxx ending for adult-entertainment web sites. Read more here.

Do you think this would be an effective measure to regulate online content?

Academic Live

Just a few months after Microsoft launched the beta version of their new search engine, http://www.live.com/, they have launched Windows Live Academic at http://academic.live.com/.

Affordable internet gambling?

CNN reports that that people who use the Internet to place their bets tend to be affluent and educated. Online gambling advocates hope that this finding will encourage the US government to legalise online gambling. For more information, click here.

Have you ever gambled on the internet? Do you believe that people should be able to gamble on the internet? What legal regulation should there be for online gambling?

U.S. CYBERGAMBLING BAN?

A U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee has approved a bill that would ban Internet gambling, estimated to be a $12 billion industry. The legislation would update and expand an existing federal law to cover all forms of interstate gambling within the US, and would bar a gambling business from accepting payment in the form of credit cards, checks, wire, and Internet transfers.
http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6068432.html

What impact will this have? Will it be effective?

iTunes patent

WIRELESS ITUNES DISTRIBUTION - Apple receives patent

A patent application filed by Apple Computer in December 2004 appears to cover a method of buying a song, ring tone, for music video from an online store over a wireless network. The application was published yesterday on the Web site of
the US Patent and Trademark Office. It describes an invention that allows cell phone or wireless handheld users to interact with an online music store, such as iTunes, and mark a song or video file that can be downloaded to a computer at a later time.
http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-6068654.html

Blogging in China

Australian IT reports that blogs are popular in China.
What impact do you think blogs will have on Chinese society? Can blogs help bring democracy to China?

Business 2.0 Magazine: MySpace purge draws sharp reactions

From Business 2.0 Magazine:

• SAN FRANCISCO (Business 2.0) - When Friendster started deleting profiles it deemed risque or otherwise objectionable, users bolted for the exits, helping to boost rival social networks like MySpace. Could MySpace be making the same mistake? Author Nicholas Carr characterized a recent move to close 200,000 accounts as a "purge." Ross Levinsohn, head of MySpace parent News Corp.'s (Research) Internet division, said the move was motivated by concerns for teen safety. That's certainly credible given the spate or recent incidents in which adults have been arrested for soliciting sex from minors met on the site. But mainstream marketers' concerns about questionable content may just go just as far in explaining its recent reform campaign. And with 250,000 new accounts opened daily, the closures hardly seem large enough to slow MySpace's momentum.

Will this impact on MySpace? Should MySpace be censoring accounts?

Australian Code on Spam

Last week the ACMA registered a code of practice for internet service providers and email service providers on countering spam. Read the press release and the Code.

Do you think this Code will help reduce spam? Why? Why not?

Back to blogging

Sorry for the lack of posts over the last week. But I'm back and I promise to keep blogging until I take another week off from blogging over Easter.

IIA Questions ALP Policy Position on Internet Content

For Immediate Release

Tuesday, March 21 2006

The Internet Industry Association has questioned the rationale for the
fundamental change to Australia's internet content regulatory scheme
proposed by the ALP today.

"We are not convinced that Australian families will benefit from
fundamentally changing a scheme which is internationally recognised as
the most advanced of its kind in the world", said IIA chief executive
Peter Coroneos.

Mr Coroneos added: "Under the government-backed Internet Content Code
scheme which applies in Australia, ISPs are already required to provide
their customers with access to a filter or filtered feed. Furthermore,
these filters must pass rigorous independent testing to ensure they not
only catch the kind of content referred to the in the Opposition's
proposal, but also thousands of other sites which are likely to cause
offence to adults and potential disturbance to children. On top of all
this, the scheme prohibits ISPs from profiting from the provision of
these filters - they must be offered on a cost recovery basis, and some
ISPs even offer them for free."

Under Australia's Broadcasting Services Act, industry Codes of Practice
are developed and enforced. The Codes apply to all ISPs in Australia who
are required to adhere to the scheme, and substantial penalties exist
for non-compliance. These penalties are enforceable in the Federal Court.

Mr Coroneos added: "It is important to recognise that the UK 'Cleanfeed'
scheme (upon which the Labor proposals are modelled) was a
market-drivien initiative which arose because the UK lacked the strong
legislative protection available to Australians. We can't understand why
we'd adopt measures that will impose significant extra costs on users,
degrade network performance and deliver no real upside for Australian
families beyond that currently available."

"For families and those concerned with child safety the message is
simple," Mr Coroneos concluded. "Follow the advice given by your ISP and
take advantage of the tools and services they provide to shield your
children from unsuitable sites."

Ends

More information about the IIA Codes and family friendly filters is
available at www.iia.net.au/guideuser.html. For details of Australia's
co-regulatory scheme see www.acma.gov.au. For general information about
protecting children online, see www.netalert.net.au.


For further information please contact:
Peter Coroneos
Chief Executive
Internet Industry Association
www.iia.net.au
phone (02) 6232 6900

Tales from the Public Domain: Bound By Law?

Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke University School of Law, which focuses on the delicate balance between intellectual property and the public domain - the realm of material that is free to use without permission or payment - has published a comic book that provides a commentary on the most pressing issues facing law, art, property and an increasingly digital world of remixed culture. You can check out the comic book here.

Michael Geist: Keepmusiccoming.com Goes From Bad To Worse

From Michael Geist's blog:

• "I recently blogged about CRIA's failure to renew keepmusiccoming.com, which it used as part of its 'educational' campaign to convince users to stop downloading. A blog reader has noted that the situation has gone from bad to worse as the site is now owned by a Russian download service offering up thousands of MP3 files it says are legal for nine cents each. Bear in mind, there are thousands of CDs sitting in Canadian stores today encouraging people to visit keepmusiccoming.com."

Google's GDrive

Google revealed last week that it had inadvertently disclosed its closely guarded financial projections and also let slip information about a personal, digital storage service that is in the work, known as GDrive. GDrive would be an online storage service that would give users an alternative to storing data on their personal computer hard drives. Such a service could allow users to get access to their files wherever they are, whether from a laptop, cell phone or personal digital assistant.

Read more here.

Government censorship in Australia?

The Sydney Morning Herald reported on Friday that a spoof John Howard website that featured a soul searching "apology" speech for the Iraq war has been shut down under orders from the Australian Government. Read the article here and view a copy of the "speech" here.

Is this censorship? Should the Australian government be allowed to ask Melbourne IT to shut down the site?

EFF: Proposed New Jersey Laws Would Chill Free Speech

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is objecting to a proposed New Jersey law that would require internet service providers to record users' identities and reveal them in any claim of defamation. The EFF believes that this would remove anonymous speech from the internet, thereby chilling free speech protected by the First Amendment.

Read EFF's open letter to three New Jersey congressmen.