News From the Field of Law, Science & Technology

Hindu group making software to partly block Orkut

2007-06-08T23:47:00.000-07:00

A right-wing Hindu group has asked public Internet centers in India to partly block access to Orkut, and is making a software to monitor abusive communities on the popular social networking site operated by Google. The student wing of the Shiv Sena party said many Indians use Orkut to bad-mouth religious groups and disturb communal harmony, and also spread misinformation about India. Reuters

EU states share monitoring of militant Web sites

2007-05-30T09:17:00.000-07:00

European Union states have started sharing monitoring of militant Web sites, including sites linked to al-Qaeda, a draft statement agreed by the bloc's ambassadors shows. The EU police agency Europol is building an information portal to allow exchange of information on militant Web sites monitoring, the draft said. The portal is to include a list of links of monitored Web sites, statements by terrorist organizations, and details on experts checking the web in EU countries, including their language competence and technical expertise. Reuters

Cyber-spies tracking terror on Web

2007-05-29T08:41:00.000-07:00

There is an unconventional war being waged on the Internet. The battles here know no boundaries; and are fought from homes and offices from small Midwestern towns to Europe and the Middle East. It's no secret anymore that active terrorist cells are currently operating freely and openly on the Internet, using propaganda tactics to illicit prospective recruits. The emergence of these terrorist groups has spawned their nemesis: groups of researchers, hackers, and maverick computer geeks who cyber-stalk terrorist networks online and take them down. CNN.com

China cracks down on college campus porn sites

2007-05-29T08:25:00.000-07:00

A Chinese campaign to clean up online pornography has reached college campuses with the Education Ministry lashing out at some school Web sites for making money from porn. The Ministry of Public Security and nine other government departments launched a six-month campaign in April to crack down on illegal online activities such as distributing pornographic materials and organizing cyber strip shows. Reuters

Google defends data policy after EU warning

2007-05-29T08:19:00.000-07:00

Google will tell Brussels it needs to hold on to users' search data for up to two years for security and commercial reasons after being warned it could be violating European privacy laws by doing so. The world's top Internet search engine said it would respond by June 19 to a letter from a European Union data protection advisory group expressing concern it was keeping information on users' searches for too long. Reuters

European officials question Google's privacy policy

2007-05-29T08:17:00.000-07:00

A European Commission advisory group has raised concerns about how Google uses and manages users' search data. A privacy advisory group composed of representatives from all of the European Union countries sent Google a letter expressing concern over the search giant's new privacy policy announced in March. According to a Commission source, the advisory group is concerned with how the information is managed, rather than the length of time it is stored. CNET News

EU wages war on cybercrime

2007-05-25T10:19:00.000-07:00

The EU is stepping up the fight against cybercrime, outlining plans to create more meaningful legislation and promote greater, cross-border cooperation. European Commission said legislation and law enforcement--especially across borders--needs to keep pace with new and evolving opportunities for criminals. It said cybercrime comes in three forms: established crimes such as fraud, publication of illegal content, and crimes unique to the Internet--such as denial-of-service attacks and hacking. CNET News

G8 seeks private sector help to combat child porn

2007-05-25T10:09:00.000-07:00

World powers vowed to increase efforts to combat sexual exploitation of children by Internet pornographers but said governments alone could not stamp out the Web crime. After their first working session in Munich, ministers from current Group of Eight countries Germany, the United States, Britain, France, Italy, Canada, Japan and Russia called on the private sector for help. CNET News

China stepping back from proposed blog rules

2007-05-25T09:58:00.000-07:00

China will back down from a plan to require bloggers to use their real names when they register blogs, following an outcry over the proposal from the Internet industry, official media reported. Instead, the government will promote a "self-discipline code" that will encourage, but not mandate, bloggers to register under their own names, the report said, citing draft guidelines published by the Internet Society of China. CNET News

EU lawmakers back rules for stem cell, other cures

2007-04-25T20:07:00.000-07:00

European lawmakers backed new rules for stem cell and other advanced medical therapies, despite opposition from a key member of the European Parliament. The European Union legislature rejected so-called ethical amendments to the regulation that will create a centralized process for approving new tissue and cell engineering therapies. Reuters

China stepping up Net control to spread party values

2007-04-25T19:42:00.000-07:00

Chinese President Hu Jintao launched a campaign to rid the country's sprawling Internet of "unhealthy" content and make it a springboard for Communist Party doctrine, state television reported. With Hu presiding, the Communist Party Politburo discussed cleaning up the Internet. The meeting promised to place the often unruly medium more firmly under propaganda controls. CNET News

Brazil court hears embryonic stem cell testimony

2007-04-20T21:20:00.000-07:00

Brazil's Supreme Court opened its chambers to the public for the first time as it heard testimony over whether medical researchers using stem cells from frozen embryos were violating a constitutional right to life. Only 25 doctors, scientists and medical researchers were invited to testify, but dozens of citizens crowded into the court to witness the latest in a series of moral debates to sweep the world's largest Catholic nation weeks before a visit from the Pope. Reuters

EU probes Apple over iTunes prices

2007-04-18T20:53:00.000-07:00

The European Commission confirmed it had opened an antitrust probe into Apple's iTunes and the way it sells music online in coordination with major music companies. The commission alleged distribution agreements Apple has signed with the record labels to sell their music on the iTunes online stores in EU countries "contain territorial sales restrictions which violate" EU competition rules. CNN.com

E-mail monitoring may violate European laws

2007-04-16T21:35:00.000-07:00

Monitoring employees' Internet and telephone use at work may contravene human rights laws in Europe, according to a ruling in a landmark case in the European Court of Human Rights. The ruling means that the private use of company telecommunications equipment and Internet access may be protected under European human rights legislation, if the company has an acceptable personal-use policy and fails to inform employees that their communications may be monitored. CNET News

YouTube offers to help offended Thais

2007-04-06T20:05:00.000-07:00

Video-sharing Web site YouTube will help Thailand block access to pages that contain clips offensive to its revered monarch instead of blacking out the whole site, a cabinet minister said. Communications Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom told Reuters the idea came during a phone call with a California-based government liason officer of Google Inc, which owns YouTube. Reuters

EU eyes royalties squeeze for Microsoft

2007-04-05T22:31:00.000-07:00

Microsoft could be forced to give rivals vital technical information in exchange for little or no royalties, according to a newspaper report. The software company originally wanted 5.95 percent in royalty payments on software that uses certain Microsoft-patented routines that are sold by the company to its rivals as part of the settlement with the European Commission. CNET News

Thailand Bans YouTube

2007-04-04T23:03:00.000-07:00

Thailand’s military-appointed government blocked access to YouTube and several other Internet sites in a crackdown on material that denigrates the country’s monarch. “We have blocked YouTube because it contains a video insulting to our king,” said Winai Yoosabai, head of the censorship unit at the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology. The New York Times

ICANN rejects .xxx domain registry

2007-03-30T23:16:00.000-07:00

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has rejected a controversial proposal to create a new .xxx domain suffix for adult Web sites. ICANN voted 9-5 to deny an application from ICM Registry, which for the past several years has sought to be the registry for adult-content Web sites. CNET News

WHO seeks smart technology to stop fake medicines

2007-03-14T00:52:00.000-07:00

The World Health Organization aims to harness smart technology to stop counterfeit medicines flooding developing world markets with sometimes-fatal results. The U.N. body sat down with more than 20 technology companies at a conference in Prague on Tuesday to investigate ways to detect bogus drugs, which account for more than a quarter of sales in some poor countries. Reuters

International domain names succeed in testing

2007-03-10T22:14:00.000-08:00

Internationalized domain names have moved a step closer to reality, following ICANN's announcement that it had successfully completed testing. Currently, domain names can be composed of just 37 core symbols, including numbers, letters from the Latin alphabet and the hyphen. CNET News

New shield foiled Internet backbone attack

2007-03-10T22:12:00.000-08:00

An attack in early February on key parts of the backbone of the Internet had little effect, thanks to new protection technology, according to a report released this week. The distributed denial-of-service attack on the Domain Name System proved the effectiveness of the Anycast load-balancing system, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers said in a document published Thursday. CNET News

Wikipedia founder says to challenge Google, Yahoo

2007-03-08T22:26:00.000-08:00

The online collaboration responsible for Wikipedia plans to build a search engine to rival those of Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc., the founder of the popular Internet encyclopaedia said on Thursday. Wikia Inc., the commercial counterpart to the non-profit Wikipedia, is aiming to take as much as 5 percent of the lucrative Internet search market, Jimmy Wales said at a news conference in Tokyo. Reuters

Assault spurs school YouTube ban

2007-03-04T18:46:00.000-08:00

An Australian state has banned the online video Web site YouTube from government schools in a crackdown on cyber-bullying, a minister said Thursday. Education Services Minister Jacinta Allan said the schools and their Internet service providers already filtered the Web sites that were available to students, and YouTube had been added to a list of blocked sites. CNN.com

Egypt's bloggers test state media control

2007-03-04T18:42:00.000-08:00

Egyptian bloggers have come into the spotlight, on the one hand as an important forum for political debate, on the other as the target of government attempts to limit their freedom of expression. Blogs also provide a platform for religious and social minorities whose issues rarely find space in traditional media. Reuters

Royalty “Collecting Societies” Want You to Know They’re Not the Bad Guys

2007-02-28T22:37:00.000-08:00

After 10 years of staying in the shadows while digital piracy helped the music business self-destruct, the global organization known by its French acronym Cisac is taking its case to the public. The group is arguing that collecting societies have a legitimate place and important role in the digital future - namely, ensuring that creative artists get their due at the end of the monetary food chain. The New York Times