InternetPolicy.net

Chinese crackdown on net bars

Two days ago, the Chinese government announced a crackdown on "Internet bars" from now through August, "so as to halt the entry of juveniles as well as access to harmful information through the Internet," reports Xinhuanet. "During the period, the government departments will take resolute measures to enhance supervision over [the] Internet bar business and close those bars with no licenses. Any such place allowing juveniles to enter or allowing unhealthy information to spread through the Internet will be penalized severely..."

ICANN board discusses domain name waiting-list

A special meeting of ICANN's Board convened yesterday to discuss (among other things) ICANN's negotiations with Verisign concerning the latter's proposed "Wait List Service" (WLS), in which paying subscribers would get advance notice of domain name expirations, and thus an advantage in trying to claim them. According to CircleID, a law firm representing a coalition of ICANN-accredited domain name registrars wrote to ICANN's President advising that

in the event the WLS is authorized as publically proposed, ICANN, VeriSign, and any registrars that offer the WLS will be in violation of numerous laws, some of which are summarized below. Accordingly, we request that the ICANN Board of Directors withdraw its approval of the WLS until such time as the issues raised herein have been addressed to our clients' satisfaction. Otherwise, our clients will take legal action to enjoin the WLS and recover any damages they may suffer.

We don't yet know the results of the ICANN Board meeting, but Michael Froomkin posted a short note on ICANNWatch yesterday evening saying that "the rumor I'm hearing is that no decision on WLS was made at the meeting today. Instead, it's going on the agenda for the ICANN meeting in Rome, which will at least have the advantage of being public-like." UPDATE: Rumor confirmed.

For background on the controversy, see CircleID's summary.

EFF announces Fund for Digital Civil Liberties

A $1.2 million bequest from the estate of software engineer Leonard Zubkoff will enable the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to create an Endowment Fund for Digital Civil Liberties. They hope to increase the endowment's capitalization to $3 million and use income from the investment as a permanent source of support for EFF's activities. The Endowment Fund will also enable the online-rights organization to hire a Chief Technology Officer "to implement a technology strategy for EFF [and] help create and foster new technologies designed to enhance freedom." The gift came after Mr. Kubkoff died accidentally in a crash while learning to fly a helicopter in Alaska. See the EFF website for details. [Thanks to LawMeme for the pointer.]

EU launches Econtentplus programme (2005-2008)

From Welcomeurope: "[The] European Commission has today proposed a new €163 million programme, eContentplus (2005-2008). The programme will support the development of multi-lingual content for innovative, on-line services across the EU. Such content should help to drive demand for broadband access and bring wider benefits for businesses, citizens and the economy. The new programme is more focused than its predecessor, seeking to support the combination of information from different systems - irrespective of format, language or location. This also means making sure content works on different platforms and that it can be better tailored to the specific needs of the user. It identifies three areas: geographical data, educational material and cultural content..."

The deadline for submission of projects under the current "eContent" workplan is 14 May 2004. An "information day" about the fourth and final call for proposals is scheduled for 2 April in Luxembourg.

Free anti-virus software for all Australians

Last week, Australia's Internet Industry Association (IIA) proposed "a new scheme to provide all Australian internet users with free trial antivirus software. In announcing the scheme, IIA chief executive, Peter Coroneos said, 'Statistics available to us now indicate that as many as one in four Australian internet users do not have any protection against the latest viruses. These unprotected users are not only a threat to themselves, but also to other internet users everywhere, because their infection becomes the start of a new chain of attack throughout the internet community...'

"The IIA initiative, supported by major vendor members of the association, is designed to give users access to immediate protection at no initial cost... Mr Coroneos said that the scheme was modelled on the IIA's highly successful antispam empowerment initiative which has seen over 100,000 Australians access the IIA's Nospam page which offers free trial antispam software. 'There is no reason why our National Antivirus Initiative shouldn't result in Australians having the highest rate of installed protection anywhere. That is our aim.'

"...The IIA National Antivirus Initiative page can be accessed at www.iia.net.au/novirus."

Inter-registrar transfers of domain names

ICANN's Transfer Task Force Group has developed 29 policy recommendations to guide and smooth the transfer of domain names from one registrar to another. The recommendations (including new standard forms and a dispute-resolution procedure) can be found here. A two-week period for gathering public comments on the recommendations was announced, but the ICANN website is not clear about when it ends. A timeline for implementing the policies is expected to be issued in March 2004.

ICPEN's anti-fraud Internet Sweep

"The crackdown on internet scams continues, as the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network [ICPEN] targets websites that are 'Too Good to be True' as part of the International Internet Sweep. Over the next three days [starting 9 February] 24 ICPEN consumer protection agencies will probe the internet to uncover shonky websites which mislead consumers... Agencies in many countries will be gathering in Sweep rooms in a massive coordinated effort. The International Internet Sweep is just one example of consumer protection agencies working together to combat cyber scams.

"ICPEN is a network of consumer protection authorities of 31 countries. Its main objective is to take action to prevent and redress deceptive marketing practices with an international component. The network fosters cooperative efforts by member authorities to tackle consumer problems connected with cross-border transactions in both goods and services... Consumers who believe they have been a victim of deceptive practices on the Internet can register their complaint at www.econsumer.gov, the ICPEN's global online complaint mechanism..."

Contact: Tanja Wieland, ICPEN Sweep Coordinator (phone: +61 2 6243 1197, fax: +61 2 6243 1078).

Thanks to BeSpacific for the pointer.

Responses to FOISA

CircleID has compiled a selection of public comments on the US House of Representatives's recently-introduced "Fraudulent Online Identity Sanctions Act" (H.R. 3754), which would increase the punishment in criminal cases for people who gave false contact information to an Internet domain name registrar. The public comments are illuminating and pungent. Rod Dixon's essay on CircleID - "Why FOISA Should Never Become Law" - is also worth reading for its clear statement of the issues.

Mobile Internet standards conflict

The Korean Herald warns of a trade dispute that might develop between the US and South Korea concerning mobile Internet standards. It seems that Korea's Wireless Internet Standardization Forum recently adopted a new version of the Wireless Internet Platform for Interoperability (WIPI) as their national standard. According to the Herald, WIPI is "middleware that allows mobile phone users to access the Internet with their handsets and download multimedia data." However, the American company Qualcomm, which supplies technology to one of Korea's mobile networks, has its own proprietary mobile Internet platform, known as BREW. The Herald says that "Qualcomm is known to be considering filing a complaint to the US Trade Representative, claiming that adopting WIPI is an unfair trade practice."

EC Seminar on e-Democracy

Now online are the agenda, presenters' biographies and some of the presentations from last week's Seminar on e-Democracy in Brussels (12-13 February), organized by the European Commission's Information Society directorate. The focus was on "eVoting and eParticipation...the role of ICT for reinforcing participation in democratic decision-making." Many presentations concerned country-level developments, but a few were broader and thus more interesting to people outside the EU zone, particularly Commissioner Erkki Liikanen opening speech, and "The use of technologies to strengthen the role of Parliaments in the Information Society," by Gherardo Casini, from the United Nations' Department of Economic and Social Affairs.