InternetPolicy.net

EU blueprint for broadband mobile services

"Accessing everything you need at [the] head office from a computer in the field is fast becoming vital to the efficiency of both private enterprise and public services. A policy blueprint to ensure that data can be accessed anytime, anywhere across the EU, and that the EU retains its lead in this area, is set out in Mobile broadband services, a Commission Communication issued today. The challenges ahead include ensuring that services can be supplied seamlessly to a variety of devices, making the technologies and networks that carry them interoperable, and providing adequate intellectual property protection for services with high value-added content. [In addition, these problems need to be solved:...]

• E-payments – prudential rules governing the use of 'e-money,' where relevant to mobile payments, need to be applied in a proportionate and risk-sensitive manner;
• Base stations and masts – action is required to address regulatory barriers to their establishment in some Member States;
• Spectrum policy - a co-ordinated European approach towards availability and flexible usage is needed."

[From an EU news release.]

Mideast: boom in online advertising

AME Info in Dubai reports that "advertising spending online has doubled in the [first half of 2004]. This makes online advertising and sponsorship the fastest-growing media in the Middle East, albeit from a low base."

US Supreme Court criticizes net porn law

Adult website hosts can breathe a little easier now that the US Supreme Court has upheld an injunction blocking enforcement of the Child Online Protection Act (COPA). The court's 5-4 decision requires the government to prove that COPA is the least restrictive way to protect youngsters from exposure to sexual content "harmful to minors" if it wants the injunction lifted.

New WSIS papers from APC

A grant from Canada's International Development Agency enabled the Association for Progressive Communications to commission two studies on the hottest issues emerging from WSIS-1: Internet governance and funding ICT development in the "South." Both documents have just been posted on APC's website.

Adam Peake tackles the first subject, describing "opportunities for developing nation stakeholders to contribute to the processes that are defining the Internet governance landscape. The key message is that there are opportunities for civil society to engage and we must take them."

Meanwhile, Pablo Accuosto and Niki Johnson look at "how the question of ICT financing has been debated during the WSIS preparatory process and the first phase Summit (Geneva, December 2003). Particular attention is paid to Senegal's proposal for the creation of a 'Digital Solidarity Fund,' and the reactions to it of the different stakeholders ­ governments, from both North and South, the private sector and civil society ­ participating in WSIS. The following section explores the potential for addressing the issue of financing ICT expansion from a global public goods (GPG) perspective... Finally...the authors offer a concrete proposal with respect to what we consider to be the most appropriate financing mechanism for funding expanded ICT access in the South."

China approves SMS monitoring/filtering system

A Chinese firm, Venus Info Tech Ltd., announced on 11 June that it had received the Ministry of Public Security's first permit to sell a real-time content monitoring and filtering system for SMS. This is outside our usual range of topics, but the company's press release (translated by Babelfish and then polished) strongly suggests that the same technology can be applied to email, IRC and HTTP:

"SMS has quickly become an important channel uniting Internet technology and mobile communications for the dissemination of information in the form of short news messages or notes. The country already has more than 2,800 SMS management units. However, while SMS is very convenient for the user, it also poses significant hidden dangers to information security as every kind of pornographic violence, political rumor, reactionary opinion, cheating trick and illegal advertisement effects social stability. Therefore, a platform for strict and highly effective SMS filters must be established, to guarantee that harmful information is promptly intercepted...."

The press release continues with a technical description of their product, which we must paraphrase because it was quite repetitive: Venus' system uses the Chinese Academy of Science's tests of information content as the basis of its filtering algorithm. There are two main components - management/control centers and filtering engines. The monitoring system gathers bidirectional TCP/IP data and processes a variety of application layer protocols including CMPP, SGIP, SMPP, HTTP, SMTP, etc. It is extremely scalable and does not consume network resources or degrade network performance. The filtering algorithms are rule-based, using keywords or combinations of keywords. Harmful information can be preserved both as plain text and in the original format, along with the source and destination addresses, the time of transmission, etc. Tools are built in for generating reports and warnings for the police, localizing the monitored channel and interrupting the delivery of harmful content, and for retrieving and further processing the recorded data. There are management functions for concurrently selecting users, jurisdictions, SMS content, rules and output diaries. Filtered messages can be preserved for at least 60 days and delivered through encrypted channels to the "correlation department."

While the focus of the company's announcement is on installations inside China, if this product works as claimed, and if its price is as low as Chinese products usually tend to be, exports to other countries may soon follow.

FCC asserts "exclusive jurisdiction" over unlicensed spectrum

Following up an item from 3 weeks ago in this blog, ComputerWeekly reports that the US Federal Communications Commission has ruled that it has "exclusive jurisdiction" over the use of unlicensed radio frequencies. At issue was a series of disputes between airline companies and airport owners over who had the right to regulate wi-fi systems in airports. Airport owners had argued that as landlords, they had the right to set rules for unlicensed radio systems in their facilities. The Industrial Telecommunications Association complained about that to the FCC last March. "In its decision," explains CW's Bob Brewin, "the FCC came down soundly on the side of airlines and other users of spectrum in multi-tenant environments, which would include airports, hotels and conference and convention centres. The FCC said in its ruling that 'we reaffirm that, under the Communications Act, the FCC has exclusive authority to resolve matters involving radio frequency interference when unlicensed devices are being used, regardless of venue...'" This ruling is likely to preempt many potential obstacles to the installation and use of wi-fi networks in the United States.

[Thanks to WirelessUnleashed for the pointer. The text of the FCC's announcement has not yet appeared on their website.]

"Whois" and accountability

"Creating an open DNS Whois system with enforced data accuracy is neither practical, nor is it just," Tom Cross writes on CircleID. "It would prevent democratic governments from developing their own policies that balance the various interests involved in Internet content. Furthermore, as many Internet addresses are not associated with domain names, no DNS Whois system will ever be a comprehensive solution to the problem of accountability. ICANN would be well served to focus its energies on the IP address Whois systems instead, [where] they can make real progress toward a sustainable solution for Internet management without having to unilaterally resolve fundamental questions about freedom of speech."

Center for Pest Research

CNET's John Borland writes: "As Congress takes a more serious look at legislation to restrain spyware, a growing number of online companies are lining up to give consumers their own anti-spyware tools. The latest is security software company PestPatrol, which [yesterday] launched a new anti-spyware resource center, drawing together how-to articles, a large searchable database of spyware, adware and related 'pests,' and other information on the issue. The site focuses more heavily on spyware information than do similar sites at antivirus companies such as Symantec. But like those rivals, it aims to show the breadth of its creators' familiarity with the ever-evolving world of digital annoyances and, ultimately, persuade people to buy its software..."

That description is rather too cynical, we think. The Center for Pest Research responds to the need for more public understanding of malware that does not fit into the traditional categories of viruses and worms: keystroke loggers, trojans, pop-up ads, hijackers, etc. CPR offers descriptions of newly discovered pests, a pest encyclopedia, trends in pest proliferation, recommended countermeasures, in-depth research reports and white-papers, etc. The founders of the sponsoring company were early leaders of the National Computer Security Association (now called Truesecure), and PestPatrol was the first commercially available anti-spyware program, released in 2001. A most useful service.

The problem of link decay

In IDG's Darwin Magazine, Alan T. Schroeder Jr. writes about the growing problem of link decay, suggesting that it may be "time for the Internet Engineering Task Force to implement a solution":

"To most of us, inactive or incorrect URLs are nothing new... However, increasingly for undergraduates and professional researchers... websites are primary resources... In a recent issue of Science, [Robert] Dellavalle and colleagues determined after only three months, the journals New England Journal of Medicine, Science and Nature had 3.8 percent of their article references inactive. After 15 months, 10 percent were found inactive and after 27 months, 13 percent were inactive. These journals are print staples in most research libraries and if references in these heavyweights are susceptible to incomplete research, imagine the percentages in less reputable publications related to URL longevity. The implications of his findings should transcend libraries and be looked at through a records and information perspective in general. Imagine the expert witness with 'disappearing research' or the suddenly phantom case citation that your career hinges on?

"These disappearing acts extend into government. A representative of Electronic Publishing Services, Ltd., in London, was quoted as saying 25 percent of all British government websites change their URLs each year.... [The] Executive Office of the President (EOP) and United States Trade Representative were sued over randomly and inconsistently removing Web pages...

"The problem has technology and human components... As server hosts come and go, mergers occur, data migrates to new systems and companies go bankrupt, expect this problem to continue. Expect URLs to continue to disappear with no explanation. And expect to see a lot of conflicting and duplicative research."

[Thanks to Marcus Zillman for the pointer.]

US Supreme Court to rule on sexual content

"Adult Web sites that have largely enjoyed freedom from government interference could be in for an unpleasant surprise tomorrow," writes CNET's Declan McCullagh, "when the US Supreme Court is set to deliver a long-awaited ruling on Internet pornography. The court is expected to decide whether the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) violates Americans' right to free expression on the Internet. The 1998 law, which restricts sexually explicit material deemed 'harmful to minors' that appears on commercial Web sites, includes civil fines and prison terms in its provisions. COPA has been on hold during the court proceedings. 'If it's upheld, there will be a shock wave,' said Ann Beeson, an attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union who argued the case before the high court... Layne Winklebleck, an editor at the Free Speech Coalition, a trade association for the adult industry, says 'everything depends on what the court says.'

"So far, the Supreme Court has gutted the Communications Decency Act and the Child Pornography Prevention Act, Congress' two previous attempts to extend criminal laws to Internet pornography. The lack of government controls on Internet pornography has permitted the adult industry to blossom on the Web. A report from Reuters Business Insight in February 2003 calculated that sex-related business represented two-thirds of all online content revenue in 2001 and that it had ballooned to a US$2.5 billion industry since then...

"If COPA is upheld as constitutional, the effect on adult Web sites would vary, depending on the wording of the court's opinion... But the ACLU's Beeson warns that COPA's definition of 'harmful to minors' sweeps so broadly that non-pornographic sites dealing with gay and lesbian topics or sexual education could be in its scope. The ACLU is representing OBGYN.net, Philadelphia Gay News, Artnet, PlanetOut, the Internet Content Coalition, and Salon.com..."