From owner-apple@ns.apnic.net Wed Sep 1 22:42:36 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) id WAA27954; Wed, 1 Sep 1999 22:39:17 GMT Received: from farley.cisco.com (farley.cisco.com [171.71.153.30]) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with ESMTP id WAA27948 for ; Wed, 1 Sep 1999 22:39:14 GMT Received: from kiwi.cisco.com (kiwi.cisco.com [171.71.17.73]) by farley.cisco.com (8.8.8/2.6/Cisco List Logging/8.8.8) with ESMTP id PAA11374 for ; Wed, 1 Sep 1999 15:39:12 -0700 (PDT) Received: from laina ([144.254.193.60]) by kiwi.cisco.com (8.8.5-Cisco.1/CISCO.WS.1.2) with SMTP id PAA22526 for ; Wed, 1 Sep 1999 15:39:57 -0700 (PDT) From: "Laina Raveendran Greene" To: Subject: FW: IMPORTANT - Request regarding APPLE mailing lists Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1999 15:44:14 -0700 Message-ID: <004501bef4cb$83fa25e0$3cc1fe90@laina.getit.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook 8.5, Build 4.71.2173.0 Importance: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.3155.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-apple@apnic.net Precedence: bulk Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message from the APNIC Executive Council ======================================== This is a brief update to the earlier posting regarding a proposal to form an Address Supporting Organization (ASO) within the framework of the International Corporation for the Assignment of Names and Numbers (ICANN). You may remember that APNIC, together with the other Regional Internet Registries (RIR), ARIN and the RIPE NCC, submitted this proposal for ICANN to consider at their August 26th Board meeting in Santiago, Chile. We are happy to report that ICANN accepted this proposal. The proposal is documented at http://www.apnic.net/news/icann/proposal.html and the ICANN acceptance is documented at http://www.icann.org/santiago/ santiago-resolutions.htm We are now moving on to the next steps in the process. The APNIC Executive Council will be working with the other RIR Boards to draft the Memorandum of Understanding that will form the ASO. In addition we need to progress with the selection of nominations for the Address Council. A formal call for nominations will be published on Monday 6th September, detailing the process we will adopt in this initial formation of the Council. We would like to extend a sincere thank you for your continued support in this lengthy and involved process, and trust that you will seriously consider nominating suitably qualified individuals to serve the Asia Pacific Internet Community in the capacity as members of the Address Council. APNIC Executive Council * APPLe: To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe" to apple-request@apnic.net * From owner-apple@ns.apnic.net Thu Sep 2 14:30:44 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) id OAA08476; Thu, 2 Sep 1999 14:26:22 GMT Received: from web1303.mail.yahoo.com (web1303.mail.yahoo.com [128.11.23.153]) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with SMTP id OAA08467 for ; Thu, 2 Sep 1999 14:26:15 GMT Message-ID: <19990902142625.3786.rocketmail@web1303.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [193.129.101.40] by web1303.mail.yahoo.com; Fri, 03 Sep 1999 00:26:25 EST Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1999 00:26:25 +1000 (EST) From: =?iso-8859-1?q?David=20Goldstein?= Subject: censorship in Korea To: "Mailing List" APPLe MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: owner-apple@apnic.net Precedence: bulk Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit I have no idea where this came from as it was emailed to me today, but for your information, a story on censorship in Korea. Regards David KOREAN GOVERNMENT FORCES ISPS TO FILTER FOR PORNOGRAPHY The Korean Government has told the nation's ISPs to install blocks against pornographic content hosted overseas. Korea has an existing ban on domestic ISPs hosting pornographic content, but the rule has proved ineffective, as content providers can simply host their content on foreign servers. According to a report in the Korea Herald newspaper, the prime minister's commission on youth protection will tell the country's 26 local ISPs to block pornographic sites provided through foreign servers. "The idea is to make hardcore, violent and perverted pornography illegal for all users, just as we do with printed material," commission member Nam Hyung-ki told the newspaper. To enforce the plan, Korea's minister of information and communications will be asked to decree an administrative order to the nation's ISPs to block foreign pornographic sites early next year. ISPs will also be expected to develop measures to identify younger users and prevent them from accessing adult-oriented Websites. ISPs defying the government ban will be punished with up to two years in prison or 20 million won (US$16,880) in fines, plus the cancellation of their business licenses. === ---------------------- David Goldstein email: Goldstein_David@yahoo.com.au post: 5 Coles Lane, Oakington, Cambridge, CB4 5BA, UK phone: + 44 (0)1223 574 857 (h); +44 (0)1223 237 700 (w); +44 (0)7979 965 503 (mobile). ICQ: 32130305. _______________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com.au address at http://mail.yahoo.com.au or your free @yahoo.co.nz address at http://mail.yahoo.co.nz * APPLe: To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe" to apple-request@apnic.net * From owner-apple@ns.apnic.net Fri Sep 3 08:55:52 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) id IAA15851; Fri, 3 Sep 1999 08:51:42 GMT Received: from web1305.mail.yahoo.com (web1305.mail.yahoo.com [128.11.23.155]) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with SMTP id IAA15839 for ; Fri, 3 Sep 1999 08:51:34 GMT Message-ID: <19990903085134.24156.rocketmail@web1305.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [193.129.101.40] by web1305.mail.yahoo.com; Fri, 03 Sep 1999 18:51:33 EST Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1999 18:51:33 +1000 (EST) From: =?iso-8859-1?q?David=20Goldstein?= Subject: CNET News ~ AOL, others plan global Net content rating system To: "Mailing List" APPLe MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: owner-apple@apnic.net Precedence: bulk Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Hi All A story from CNET about the development of 'global Net content rating system'. The online version has links to various items referred to in the text below, and the URL ICRA, referred to below, is http://www.icra.org. Regards David AOL, others plan global Net content rating system By Courtney Macavinta Staff Writer, CNET News.com September 2, 1999, 1:05 p.m. PT URL: http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,41248,00.html Following the example of the film and television industries, major Internet companies may embrace a global framework for rating content next week, marking the most aggressive push so far toward a system to filter nudity, hate speech, vulgar language, and other material online. To quell public and political concern about children's access to pornography and "harmful" material, the U.S. government, the European Union, and others have called on the online industry to help consumers block material they find unsuitable. However, online ratings systems have proven controversial. Civil liberties advocates worry that if a single rating system is broadly adopted, it will be easier both technologically and legally for governments to mandate ratings regimes or the use of filters, or to ban controversial sites altogether. Moreover, prominent news organizations such as MSNBC, the Wall Street Journal, and CNN have stated in the past that they will not comply with ratings. Despite criticism, members of the newly formed Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA - http://www.icra.org) will meet in Munich next week to try to advance the use of ratings through their powerful market influence. Members include heavyweights such as America Online Europe, Microsoft, IBM, British Telecom, and the Bertelsmann Foundation, a think tank started by the eponymous media giant, which also is AOL's partner in Europe. Until now, uniform ratings have been difficult to implement on the Net because there are several different ratings systems, and computer users aren't utilizing them in great numbers. In addition, the global nature of the Internet means more governments and organizations need to be represented. But the ICRA is looking to adopt a policy to bolster voluntary ratings worldwide at the Internet Content Summit September 9 through 11, which will be attended by about 300 executives, government officials, legal scholars, and consumer advocates. "We believe there needs to be a reshuffling of responsibility away from the government to focus on industry solutions, such as rating and filtering mechanisms, as well as education campaigns to foster compliance," said Jens Waltermann, deputy head of media for the Bertelsmann Foundation, which is hosting the summit along with a group dubbed the Internet Content Rating for Europe (INCORE). Twelve-step plan The focal point of the summit is expected to be a 12-point memorandum spearheaded by Bertelsmann over the last nine months and drafted by Yale Law School professor Jack Balkin in conjunction with an expert panel including former White House adviser Ira Magaziner, nonprofit groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, and international law enforcement and government officials. "Mechanisms have to be developed to deal with illegal content and to protect children online. But they also have to protect free speech," states the memo, which was obtained by CNET News.com. Mimicking other self-regulatory plans, Bertelsmann's memo suggests that Web sites develop codes of conduct and that Internet service providers remove illegal sites upon notification. It also suggests that governments and industry groups set up hot lines for Net users and others to report questionable online content. The recommendation that will spark the most debate, however, concerns the rating of online material. "At the core of the recommendations for an integrated system of self-regulation and end-user autonomy must be an improved architecture for the rating and filtering of Internet content," the memo states. "Content providers worldwide must be mobilized to label their content, and filters must be made available to guardians and all users of the Internet to make more effective choices about the content they wish to have enter their homes." ICRA's board will meet at the summit and could adopt the Bertelsmann proposal or a paper expected to be floated by INCORE. "ICRA is obviously free to adopt our recommendations or to reject them," the Bertelsmann Foundation's Waltermann added. "But with ICRA there is a chance to get broad support because the standard is so open." Risk of censorship The possibility of broad support is exactly what troubles free-speech advocates, who say that ratings can be used by regulators to stifle expression, or that major online service providers could marginalize sites that don't adopt them. "There is a real danger that the establishment of these systems could, in fact, facilitate government censorship, because once a rating system and the accompanying blocking technology is widely deployed, there will be a strong incentive to require the use of that system," said Electronic Privacy Information Center general counsel David Sobel, who will attend the meeting. "If the Munich meeting truly reflects the sentiments of the Internet community, there will not be a consensus in support of rating and filtering," he added. Others agree that industry plans shouldn't become tools for censorship. "The challenge with self-regulation is that all of these organizations don't end up cops for the government," said Esther Dyson, chair of EDventure Holdings and a member of Bertelsmann's expert network. These concerns are not lost on Stephen Balkam, who helped develop the Recreation Software Advisory Council's voluntary ratings system, the springboard for the creation of the ICRA. "We have made a particularly strong effort to involve the civil libertarians in this debate," Balkam said. Before next summer, the Recreation Software Advisory Council rating system, which uses a numerical scale for nudity, violence, and other categories, will be updated for the release of the latest versions of Microsoft and Netscape Web browsers. The leading Net companies behind ICRA also will kick off a marketing campaign to get Web site operators and their partners, subsidiaries, and customers to rate their sites. The ratings categories will be expanded to give Webmasters and Net users more choices, Balkam said. Then, organizations, companies, and others can create templates that Net users can download to filter sites. For example, a parent could trust the rating levels of his or her local library. Copyright © 1995-99 CNET, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy policy. === ---------------------- David Goldstein email: Goldstein_David@yahoo.com.au post: 5 Coles Lane, Oakington, Cambridge, CB4 5BA, UK phone: + 44 (0)1223 574 857 (h); +44 (0)1223 237 700 (w); +44 (0)7979 965 503 (mobile). ICQ: 32130305. _______________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com.au address at http://mail.yahoo.com.au or your free @yahoo.co.nz address at http://mail.yahoo.co.nz * APPLe: To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe" to apple-request@apnic.net * From owner-apple@ns.apnic.net Sun Sep 5 00:45:46 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) id AAA12713; Sun, 5 Sep 1999 00:43:30 GMT Received: from exchange.agent.org ([206.5.17.8]) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with SMTP id AAA12701 for ; Sun, 5 Sep 1999 00:43:20 GMT Received: from [206.5.17.2] by exchange.chaos.com (NTMail 3.03.0018/1.acsd) with ESMTP id la022319 for ; Fri, 3 Sep 1999 08:05:39 -0400 Message-Id: <4.2.0.58.19990903080544.00af1490@mail.netmagic.com> X-Sender: amr@mail.chaos.com X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.2.0.58 Date: Fri, 03 Sep 1999 08:06:32 -0400 To: David Goldstein , =?iso-8859-1?Q?=22Mailing=A0List=22?= APPLe From: "A.M. Rutkowski" Subject: Re: CNET News ~ AOL, others plan global Net content rating system In-Reply-To: <19990903085134.24156.rocketmail@web1305.mail.yahoo.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Sender: owner-apple@apnic.net Precedence: bulk Hi David, >Mimicking other self-regulatory plans, Bertelsmann's memo >suggests that Web sites develop codes of conduct and that >Internet service providers remove illegal sites upon >notification. It also suggests that governments and industry >groups set up hot lines for Net users and others to report >questionable online content. I expect that Due Process will also be an issue. --tony * APPLe: To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe" to apple-request@apnic.net * From owner-apple@ns.apnic.net Mon Sep 6 10:52:36 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) id KAA07816; Mon, 6 Sep 1999 10:49:47 GMT Received: from web1306.mail.yahoo.com (web1306.mail.yahoo.com [128.11.23.156]) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with SMTP id KAA07806 for ; Mon, 6 Sep 1999 10:49:35 GMT Message-ID: <19990906104937.23173.rocketmail@web1306.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [193.129.101.40] by web1306.mail.yahoo.com; Mon, 06 Sep 1999 20:49:37 EST Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1999 20:49:37 +1000 (EST) From: =?iso-8859-1?q?David=20Goldstein?= Subject: Senator defends entertainment-labeling bill as 'citizenship,' not censorship To: "Mailing List" APPLe MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: owner-apple@apnic.net Precedence: bulk Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Hi all More on online labelling form the US. Cheers David Senator defends entertainment-labeling bill as 'citizenship,' not censorship By Phillip Taylor First Amendment Center http://www.freedomforum.org/speech/1999/9/3ratings.asp 9.3.99 After months of tossing around statistics designed to detail a growing connection between graphic entertainment and real-world violence, senators will return from the Labor Day recess next week prepared to craft measures to warn parents of undesirable content in television, movies, video games and music. On the table is the Media Violence Labeling Act of 1999, a bill that, if passed, would lead to the development and enforcement of a system for labeling violent content in entertainment media. While free-speech advocates contend such an exercise offends the First Amendment, senators such as Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., prefer to describe their efforts as recasting "questions of censorship to questions about citizenship, what responsibilities we all accept in return for the rights we all cherish." "The fact is, this is really a bill of last resort," Lieberman press secretary Dan Gerstein told free! "We have pleaded, cajoled, coaxed, whatever - you plug in the verb - with the entertainment industry to assert more self-control and self-restraint with their products. "If the industry is going to continue to act as it does and not even acknowledge [that it has] responsibilities, we think legislation is a very reasonable alternative." But opponents say the Bill of Rights doesn't offer a "last resort" clause for the government on First Amendment issues. "These labels are a panacea without any regard to constitutional issues," said Robert Corn-Revere, a First Amendment attorney with the Media Institute. "They've tried to cast this as a voluntary effort, but what they are really saying is, 'Do it to yourself, or we'll pull the trigger.' " If passed, the Media Violence Labeling Act would require various entertainment media - ranging from the video-game industry to the music industry to filmmakers to television - to jointly develop a common rating system within six months of the bill's passage. According to Lieberman, such a rating system would have "to reflect the nature, context, intensity of violent content and age appropriateness of the media product." The bill would authorize the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether a movie, video game, television show or sound recording was properly labeled. Violators could be fined up to $10,000 for each infraction. Like the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act it would amend, the bill would also prohibit the sale of labeled products to minors. The FTC &$151; responding to President Clinton's order for a federal inquiry into the marketing of violent entertainment - actually entered the picture several weeks before the bill made its appearance. Last month, FTC officials issued requests to both the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America for documents detailing how they conduct their rating and warning programs. Also bolstering the bill's chances is the Aug. 5 release of a Senate Judiciary Committee report which concludes that, not only do television, video games, movies and music dominate the lives of children, but these media offer them "exceedingly violent" images. Such content, the report says, leads to real-world violence. "The effect of media violence on our children is no longer open to debate," according to the report. The Judiciary Committee report, in part, urges Congress to begin a national media campaign to educate parents and to create a national clearinghouse on children and entertainment violence. It also recommends that the various industries rate their products using a universal system. Predictions of doom for rating system As MPAA president, Jack Valenti served as primary architect of that group's letter-rating system in the late 1960s. After 30 years, the MPAA code remains the premier rating tool in the entertainment industry. But Valenti says that the senators' attempt to legislate and enforce a uniform labeling program across most of the entertainment spectrum won't work. "There are very significant practical and artistic differences among these creative works," Valenti said in a statement sent to free! "Any attempt by the federal government to define such terms as 'intensity of violent content,' 'age appropriateness' and 'context' will collapse in failure because these concepts are elusive, swarming in subjectivity which always resists 'formula' solutions." Joan Bertin, executive director of the National Coalition Against Censorship, notes that the bill doesn't even define "violence." "Who is to become our 'violence czar' - somebody who is going to define how many dead bodies can appear on the screen?" Bertin asked. "What number is too much? How intense is too intense? How could you possibly create such rules?" Bertin says such government-imposed ratings may effectively reduce the amount of violent material not out of sense of responsibility but of fear. Many filmmakers, she says, would likely reject even satirical films about violence, just to avoid a threat of having the work labeled "violent." "So you have a huge potential for the chilling of any kind of expression and any ideas relating to what might be called violence," Bertin told free! "I think this draft has taken essentially no notice of the obligations of the government under the First Amendment." Valenti agrees, saying the bill is flat-out unconstitutional. "Such a proposal is an expensive exercise in futility," he said. "Why? Because this scheme will be struck down by the first court that considers it. There is literally no precedent for such intrusions on creative works protected by the First Amendment." High court's take on violent media Bill supporters disagree, saying the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a "harmful to minors" standard in its decision in Ginsberg v. New York. In that 1968 case, the justices validated a New York law prohibiting the distribution to minors of materials deemed to be obscene to minors. But free-speech advocates say the courts have been unwilling to approve a governmental authority to regulate violent expression as different from other protected speech. Corn-Revere said that, as far back as 1948, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that violent publications deserve full First Amendment protection. In that case, Winters v. New York, the justices invalidated a state law curbing the publication of magazines "devoted principally to criminal news and stories of bloodshed, lust or crime." "What is one man's amusement, teaches another's doctrine," the court wrote. "Though we can see nothing of any possible value to society in these magazines, they are as much entitled to the protection of free speech as the best of literature." The high court has not only upheld violent content as protected speech, it has denounced past government efforts to regulate such speech through censorship boards or labeling systems. On the same day it announced its decision in Ginsberg, the court declared in Interstate Circuit v. Dallas that an ordinance setting up a city's censorship board was unconstitutionally vague, since it lacked "narrowly drawn, reasonable and definite standards for the officials to follow." Lieberman's press secretary, Gerstein, says concerns about the bill's vagueness or unconstitutionality could be quickly addressed to stave off any court challenges. He says, too, that government officials could easily demonstrate a compelling interest for government to demand that the entertainment industry draft a universal rating program. Several prominent Americans agree, including former presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, retired Gens. Norman Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell, entertainers Steve Allen, Naomi Judd and Joan Van Ark and such political figures as William Bennett and Jack Kemp. In a petition called "An Appeal to Hollywood," the signatories demand that the entertainment industry adopt a voluntary code of conduct similar to the one the National Association of Broadcasters embraced for nearly 30 years. "In recent years, several top entertainment executives have spoken out, laudably, on the need for minimum standards and, more recently, on the desirability of more family-friendly programming," the statement reads. "But to effect real change, these individual expressions must be translated into a new, collective affirmation of social responsibility on the part of the media industry as a whole." Specifically, the signatories say the industry code should establish clear, minimum standards for each medium and drawing a line governing violent, sexual and degrading material, below which producers can be expected not to go. Truth in labeling? Gerstein denies that codes and ratings abridge speech, saying they merely provide "truth in labeling," akin to health warnings affixed to tobacco and cigarette advertisements. "It's a real, real stretch to say it's censorship," Gerstein said. "It simply means that they are not to sell a product to children that they themselves openly acknowledge is not good for (children) or meant for them." Corn-Revere says comparing entertainment ratings with tobacco and cigarette warnings is "ludicrous." "A basic problem with this approach overall is that it bans the marketing of all media that are considered to have violent content unless they go through this FTC labeling process," he said. But James Hamilton, associate professor of public policy at Duke University, says it's fair, in some ways, to put entertainment in the same category as regulated substances. "To the extent that entertainment products cause increases in aggression, fear or desensitization, they can harm both viewers and those affected by viewers," Hamilton told free! "The First Amendment makes it unlikely that liability law will be used to link content to harms created by media products, so [the] provision about content may be the next best legal alternative to alerting consumers, especially parents, to violent content." Some object to Hamilton's assertion that some entertainment content influences violent behavior. "They are trying to create an appearance of a causal relationship," Bertin said. "But where is the evidence?" In "An Appeal to Reason" - a direct response to "An Appeal to Hollywood" - the National Coalition Against Censorship and other free-expression groups note that the National Research Council doesn't even recognize exposure to media violence among risk factors for violent behavior. "The purported link between media violence and crime is further undermined by the fact that the crime rate is now the lowest it has been in recent decades," the statement reads. The "Appeal to Reason" contends that censorship would not reduce crime but states that it would stifle artists, writers and musicians from exploring violent topics in their works. Also, it states, the rating program would likely stigmatize works such as the Bible, The Iliad, William Faulkner's Light in August, nearly all religious art graphically depicting the crucifixion of Christ and much of Shakespeare. No rating system, the appeal says, can distinguish between "good" violence and "bad" violence. Even if it could, such ideas can't be stifled by suppressing offensive speech and images. "To counter destructive ideas and behavior requires us to see them for what they are and to speak out forcefully and effectively against them," the statement reads. "The best response to hateful speech is still more speech, not enforced silence." === ---------------------- David Goldstein email: Goldstein_David@yahoo.com.au post: 5 Coles Lane, Oakington, Cambridge, CB4 5BA, UK phone: + 44 (0)1223 574 857 (h); +44 (0)1223 237 700 (w); +44 (0)7979 965 503 (mobile). ICQ: 32130305. _______________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com.au address at http://mail.yahoo.com.au or your free @yahoo.co.nz address at http://mail.yahoo.co.nz * APPLe: To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe" to apple-request@apnic.net * From owner-apple@ns.apnic.net Mon Sep 6 11:01:43 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) id LAA08506; Mon, 6 Sep 1999 11:01:31 GMT Received: from web1305.mail.yahoo.com (web1305.mail.yahoo.com [128.11.23.155]) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with SMTP id LAA08501 for ; Mon, 6 Sep 1999 11:01:28 GMT Message-ID: <19990906110132.21163.rocketmail@web1305.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [193.129.101.40] by web1305.mail.yahoo.com; Mon, 06 Sep 1999 21:01:32 EST Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1999 21:01:32 +1000 (EST) From: =?iso-8859-1?q?David=20Goldstein?= Subject: Internet use Down Under To: "Mailing List" APPLe MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: owner-apple@apnic.net Precedence: bulk Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Hi APPLe The latest statistics on Internet use in Australia. Cheers David Australian Bureau of Statistics Media Release September 6 1999 106/99 3 MILLION INTERNET PURCHASES AND 1.5 MILLION HOUSEHOLDS ONLINE - ABS http://www.abs.gov.au Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates that shopping over the Internet has increased by nearly 60% in the 12 months to May 1999, according to a report released today. An estimated 3 million purchases were made by 650,000 Australian adult Internet shoppers for their private use in the 12 months to May 1999. Books/magazines and computer software/equipment were the most common types of goods or services purchased (38% and 34% respectively) followed by music (14%), clothing, shoes, etc (11%), holidays (9%), tickets to entertainment events (8%) and sporting equipment (4%). Almost half (47%) of all Australian households (just over 3.2 million households) had a home computer in May 1999, an increase of 13% over the May 1998 estimate of 2.9 million households. However, just over 22% of all households (or 1.5 million households) had home Internet access compared with 14% in May 1998. In the 12 months to May 1999, nearly 5.5 million adults (40% of Australia's adult population) accessed the Internet compared to 3.6 million in the 12 months to May 1998. At May 1999 the most frequently reported sites for adult Internet access were work (2.7 million people) and home (2.3 million). Around 84% of adults who accessed the Internet at home did so at least once a week compared with 76% of adults accessing the Internet at work and only 24% of adults accessing the Internet from sites other than home or work. At May 1999, 18-24 year olds had the highest level of Internet use (74%). There were more adult males who accessed the Internet than adult females (44% and 37% respectively) and more adults in capital cities accessed the Internet than in other areas (44% and 33% respectively). The survey also showed that in the three months to May 1999, 2% of adults used the Internet to pay bills or transfer funds, 2% used an electronic information kiosk to pay bills, 39% used the telephone to pay bills or transfer funds, 62% used EFTPOS and 72% used an ATM. At May 1999, there were 587,000 adults (7% of all employed adults) who were able to access an employer's computer from home through a modem. An estimated 412,000 of these (70%) had an agreement with their employer to work from home. Details are in Use of Internet by Householders, Australia, May 1999 (Cat. No. 8147.0) which is available from ABS Bookshops. The main features of the publication are available on this site. The ABS encourages media organisations with online news services to link to the main features. Please phone us if you need assistance to do this. FURTHER INFORMATION: Media requests, comment, interviews Carolyn Verey (02) 6252 6139; 0418 202 580 Jim Payne (02) 6252 7525; 0418 481 756 Statistical clarification Joseph Di Gregorio (02) 6252 5609 Copyright © Commonwealth of Australia, 1999 === ---------------------- David Goldstein email: Goldstein_David@yahoo.com.au post: 5 Coles Lane, Oakington, Cambridge, CB4 5BA, UK phone: + 44 (0)1223 574 857 (h); +44 (0)1223 237 700 (w); +44 (0)7979 965 503 (mobile). ICQ: 32130305. _______________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com.au address at http://mail.yahoo.com.au or your free @yahoo.co.nz address at http://mail.yahoo.co.nz * APPLe: To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe" to apple-request@apnic.net * From owner-apple@ns.apnic.net Wed Sep 15 00:28:37 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) id AAA22717; Wed, 15 Sep 1999 00:26:35 GMT Received: from mail1.cisco.com (mail1.cisco.com [171.68.225.60]) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with ESMTP id AAA22713 for ; Wed, 15 Sep 1999 00:26:32 GMT Received: from laina ([144.254.193.60] (may be forged)) by mail1.cisco.com (8.8.6 (PHNE_14041)/CISCO.SERVER.1.2) with SMTP id RAA27686 for ; Tue, 14 Sep 1999 17:26:28 -0700 (PDT) From: "Laina Raveendran Greene" To: Subject: Call for nominations : ICANN Directors Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1999 17:32:11 -0700 Message-ID: <006601beff11$bfe47560$3cc1fe90@laina.getit.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook 8.5, Build 4.71.2173.0 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.3155.0 Importance: Normal Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-apple@apnic.net Precedence: bulk Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR DIRECTORS OF ICANN ------------------------------------------- This is a call for nominations of interested individuals to serve as a Director of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), as a nominee of the ICANN Address Supporting Organization. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the non-profit corporation that was formed to take over responsibility for the IP address space allocation, protocol parameter assignment, domain name system management, and root server system management functions previously performed under US Government contract by IANA and other entities. The Board of ICANN will be composed of nineteen Directors, nine At-Large Directors, nine to be nominated by Supporting Organizations, and the President/CEO (ex officio). Further details on the composition and responsibilities of ICANN are to be found on the ICANN website at http://www.icann.org. Intending nominees are strongly urged to read the ICANN Corporate Documents and other ICANN published material. The Address Supporting Organization (ASO) will have the responsibility for nominating three ICANN Directors, as noted in the ICANN ByLaws, Art. V. at http://www.icann.org/general/bylaws.htm#V. This responsibility will, in the normal course of events, be conducted through an open process managed by the Address Council, a body created by the ASO to manage the business of the ASO. For the initial ASO nominations to the ICANN Board, the ASO will nominate three Directors to serve terms of 1, 2, and 3 years. ASO Nominations Process for ICANN Directors ------------------------------------------- The ASO nominations process for ICANN Directors is being initiated by the Regional Internet Registries through an open call for nominations. This is an initial action to start up the process and, for future years, this process will be managed by the Address Council on behalf of the ASO. This announcement describes only the call for nominations within the Asia-Pacific region, a call that will be managed by APNIC. The process of selection of the initial ASO nominated ICANN Directors will be defined and managed by the Address Council. Any individual may be nominated within this process, with the exception of any official of a national government or a multinational entity established by treaty or other agreement between national governments (ICANN ByLaws Art. V., Sec 5.). Self-nominations are permitted. Nominations are to be made by completing and submitting the "ICANN Board - Nomination" Form at http://www.apnic.net/icann/nominate.html. All nominations must be submitted on or before 1 October 1999 and must be in English. All nominees will be contacted via email to confirm their willingness to serve as an ICANN Director. If the nominee is not contactable via email then the nomination will not be confirmed. The nominee must explicitly confirm the nomination for the nomination to be considered confirmed. All confirmed nominations will be listed on the APNIC web site (see http://www.apnic.net/icann/) as soon as they are confirmed (the list will be updated at 30 minute intervals). Those wishing to express support for any individuals who have been nominated should use the "ICANN Board - Support of Nomination" Form at http://www.apnic.net/icann/support.html. The list of nominated individuals and the supporting comments will be passed to the Address Council on 4 October 1999. --- * APPLe: To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe" to apple-request@apnic.net * From owner-apple@ns.apnic.net Wed Sep 15 10:03:18 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) id KAA03769; Wed, 15 Sep 1999 10:02:22 GMT Received: from web1303.mail.yahoo.com (web1303.mail.yahoo.com [128.11.23.153]) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with SMTP id KAA03754 for ; Wed, 15 Sep 1999 10:02:14 GMT Message-ID: <19990915100839.11343.rocketmail@web1303.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [193.129.101.40] by web1303.mail.yahoo.com; Wed, 15 Sep 1999 20:08:39 EST Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1999 20:08:39 +1000 (EST) From: =?iso-8859-1?q?David=20Goldstein?= Subject: OCLC Research Project Measures Scope of Web To: "Mailing List" APPLe MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: owner-apple@apnic.net Precedence: bulk Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Hi All >From another mailing list I am on, an item on the size of the web. Cheers David ------------------------------------------- For more information on this item please visit the CANARIE CA*net 3 Optical Internet program web site at http://www.canet3.net =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= This message was forwarded through the Red Rock Eater News Service (RRE). Send any replies to the original author, listed in the From: field below. You are welcome to send the message along to others but please do not use the "redirect" command. For information on RRE, including instructions for (un)subscribing, see http://dlis.gseis.ucla.edu/people/pagre/rre.html or send a message to requests@lists.gseis.ucla.edu with Subject: info rre =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 13:41:53 -0400 From: "Makssour,Marifay" Reply-To: News Releases from OCLC To: OCLC-NEWS@OCLC.ORG Subject: OCLC Research Project Measures Scope of Web FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FOR MORE INFORMATION: Edward O'Neill +1-614-764-6074 oneill@oclc.org Nita Dean +1-614-761-5002 nita_dean@oclc.org OCLC RESEARCH PROJECT MEASURES SCOPE OF THE WEB DUBLIN, Ohio, Sept. 8, 1999--Researchers at OCLC have determined that the World Wide Web has about 3.6 million sites, of which 2.2 million are publicly accessible. They also found that the largest 25,000 sites represent about 50 percent of the Web's content, and that the number of sites and their size are climbing. The project, conducted by the OCLC Office of Research, indicates that the World Wide Web has approximately 2.2 million Web sites that offer publicly accessible content. These sites contain nearly 300 million Web pages. These results, obtained in June 1999 through OCLC's Web Characterization Project, also show that significant portions of the Web are not publicly accessible or do not offer meaningful content. About 400,000 Web sites can be considered "private," in that they do not offer content that is accessible without fee or prior authorization. In addition, about 1 million sites are "provisional" -- either in a transitory or unfinished state (e.g., the ubiquitous "Under Construction" site) or have only content that, from a general perspective, is meaningless or trivial. Project findings indicate that adult content claims a small proportion of the Web. About two percent of the public sites--42,000 of the 2.2 million--contain sexually explicit material. The mean size of a public Web site is about 129 pages, a 13 percent increase over last year's estimate of 114 pages. The Web is dominated by a relatively small collection of "megasites"-- the largest 25,000 sites contain about 50 percent of all pages on public sites. The number of public Web sites has approximately tripled in the two-year period from June 1997 to June 1999, increasing from 800,000 to 2.2 million. "The Web has achieved the status of being one of the foremost information resources available today," said Ed O'Neill, consulting research scientist and manager of the Web Characterization Project. "Because of the Web's importance to libraries around the world, OCLC is committed to providing timely information that will assist them in understanding the Web and using its content." In addition to conducting independent Web research, project staff are also working with the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Characterization Activity, a cross-industry group committed to the goal of promoting the Web's evolution and ensuring its long-term interoperability and robustness. More information about the latest OCLC Office of Research Web statistics and analysis is available at: . Founded in 1978, the OCLC Office of Research is dedicated to research that explores the place of the library in the changing technology environment and develops tools that enhance the productivity of libraries and their users. Headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, OCLC Online Computer Library Center is a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization whose computer network and services link more than 34,000 libraries in 67 countries and territories. OCLC is dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world's information and reducing information costs. In the United States, more information is available (via telephone: +1-614-764-6000 or 1-800-848-5878; fax: +1-614-764-6096; or e-mail: oclc@oclc.org). In Europe, the Middle East and Africa, contact the OCLC Europe office, located in Birmingham, United Kingdom (phone: +44 121 456 4656; fax: +44 121 456 4680; or e-mail: europe@oclc.org). In Asia and the Pacific region, contact the OCLC Asia Pacific office in Dublin, Ohio (phone: +1-614-764-6189; fax: +1-614-764-4331; or e-mail: asia_pacific_services@oclc.org). In Canada, contact the OCLC Canada office in Montreal, Quebec (phone: +1-450-658-6583 or 1-888-658-6583; fax: +1-450-658-6231; or e-mail: canada@oclc.org). In Latin America and the Caribbean, contact the OCLC Latin America and the Caribbean office in Dublin, Ohio (phone: +1-614-761-5196; fax: +1-614-718-1026; or e-mail: america_latina@oclc.org). More information about OCLC, its affiliated U.S. regional networks, service centers, international divisions and distributors is available at . (BL/ND) -0- ------------------------------------- To subscribe or unsubscribe to the CANARIE-NEWS list please send e-mail to: majordomo@canarie.ca In the body of the e-mail: subscribe testnet end ------------------------------------- Bill St. Arnaud Senior Director Network Projects CANARIE bill.st.arnaud@canarie.ca +1 613 785-0426 === ---------------------- David Goldstein email: Goldstein_David@yahoo.com.au post: 5 Coles Lane, Oakington, Cambridge, CB4 5BA, UK phone: + 44 (0)1223 574 857 (h); +44 (0)1223 237 700 (w); +44 (0)7979 965 503 (mobile). ICQ: 32130305. _______________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com.au address at http://mail.yahoo.com.au or your free @yahoo.co.nz address at http://mail.yahoo.co.nz * APPLe: To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe" to apple-request@apnic.net * From owner-apple@ns.apnic.net Wed Sep 15 10:15:38 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) id KAA04477; Wed, 15 Sep 1999 10:13:58 GMT Received: from web1306.mail.yahoo.com (web1306.mail.yahoo.com [128.11.23.156]) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with SMTP id KAA04471 for ; Wed, 15 Sep 1999 10:13:55 GMT Message-ID: <19990915102021.21131.rocketmail@web1306.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [193.129.101.40] by web1306.mail.yahoo.com; Wed, 15 Sep 1999 20:20:21 EST Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1999 20:20:21 +1000 (EST) From: =?iso-8859-1?q?David=20Goldstein?= Subject: stories on Singapore and China To: "Mailing List" APPLe MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: owner-apple@apnic.net Precedence: bulk Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Two stories from the South China Morning Post, one on China and one on Singapore. Cheers David Wednesday, September 15, 1999 http://www.technologypost.com/business/DAILY/19990915104039418.asp?Section=Main BUSINESS Singapore opens ISP market to overseas players NEWSBYTES Singapore is hoping to attract new players to compete in the local Internet service provider (ISP) market with the dropping of a 49 per cent foreign investment limit for new ISP licensees. Foreign companies will no longer have to venture into the market with local partners - a restriction that was preventing overseas companies from applying. Direct and indirect foreign equity limits have been lifted with immediate effect. The Telecommunications Authority of Singapore (TAS) said that further liberalising the market would bring enhancements to overall quality, standard and range of Internet services in Singapore. There are currently three Internet access service providers (IASPs) in Singapore - CyberWay, Pacific Internet and SingNet. Singapore has approximately 400,000 dial-up Internet subscribers. The IASP licence fee will remain the same at S$450,000 (HK$2,059,380) and an annual recurring fee dependent on turnover. The authority's conditions include a S$1 million performance bond. TAS said that it had received a number of inquiries from foreign players, and that the relaxation was in response to what they saw as the major restriction to investment in ISP services in Singapore. Copyright (c) Post-Newsweek Business Information, Inc. All rights reserved. -------------------------------------- Wednesday, September 15, 1999 BUSINESS http://www.technologypost.com/business/Daily/19990915105623235.asp?Section=Main Wu underlines foreigners ban LANA WONG and AGENCIES Beijing has reiterated its ban on foreign participation in its telecommunication network services, which is likely to have implications for those companies rushing to snap up Internet-related businesses on the mainland. Information Industry Minister Wu Jichuan yesterday said the government had clearly stipulated as early as 1993 that foreign investors could not operate or participate in the operation of telecoms networks. Included in the ban were public and non-public, wire and wireless networks and services, he said. The ban encompassed overseas companies and individuals as well as foreign-funded, co-operative or joint ventures in the mainland. Neither could they take part in the operation nor take equity stakes in telecom network operations, Mr Wu said. Foreign participation in the mainland's Internet business, such as in the form of Internet content providers or Internet service providers, was also prohibited under mainland laws and the government planned to weed out such irregularities, Mr Wu was quoted as saying by the Financial Times. His comments followed a spate of Western and Hong Kong companies taking or planning to take equity stakes in the mainland's Internet and cable television business. It also came after reports of resistance from foreign firms in settling the illegal "China-China-Foreign" joint ventures with the mainland's second-largest telecom operator, China Unicom. These joint ventures allow indirect foreign participation in the telecom-service sector as they used joint ventures in the mainland to partner mainland telecom operators such as China Unicom. Mr Wu yesterday said the move did not mean the telecom sector could not use foreign funds. The use of foreign funds could take the form of foreign commercial or government loans, or investment in the manufacture and research and development of telecoms products and equipments, he said. On the liberalisation of the sector, Mr Wu said: "If China enters the WTO and makes some promises, the ministry will follow through with any commitments made by the Chinese Government. "We will continue to adopt the policy of reform and opening up in the telecommunication sector, whether we enter the WTO or not." Mr Wu avoided questions on his reaction to concessions in the telecoms sector promised by Premier Zhu Rongji during World Trade Organisation negotiations in Washington in April. The mainland has reportedly pledged to allow up to 49 per cent foreign ownership in all telecom services and 51 per cent foreign investment in value-added and paging services within four years of joining the WTO. Copyright (c)1999. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All Rights Reserved. === ---------------------- David Goldstein email: Goldstein_David@yahoo.com.au post: 5 Coles Lane, Oakington, Cambridge, CB4 5BA, UK phone: + 44 (0)1223 574 857 (h); +44 (0)1223 237 700 (w); +44 (0)7979 965 503 (mobile). ICQ: 32130305. _______________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com.au address at http://mail.yahoo.com.au or your free @yahoo.co.nz address at http://mail.yahoo.co.nz * APPLe: To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe" to apple-request@apnic.net * From owner-apple@ns.apnic.net Wed Sep 15 15:24:09 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) id PAA28365; Wed, 15 Sep 1999 15:22:40 GMT Received: from web1305.mail.yahoo.com (web1305.mail.yahoo.com [128.11.23.155]) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with SMTP id PAA28355 for ; Wed, 15 Sep 1999 15:22:32 GMT Message-ID: <19990915152929.19020.rocketmail@web1305.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [193.129.101.40] by web1305.mail.yahoo.com; Thu, 16 Sep 1999 01:29:29 EST Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1999 01:29:29 +1000 (EST) From: =?iso-8859-1?q?David=20Goldstein?= Subject: follow up from the Internet Content Summit To: "Mailing List" APPLe MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: owner-apple@apnic.net Precedence: bulk Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Hi All Below is a list of news stories and information following the Internet Content Summit in Munich last week for those of you interested in online rating and filtering issues. Cheers David Bertelsmann Foundation's Internet Content Summit site http://www.stiftung.bertelsmann.de/internetcontent Summit queries Net content law http://www.smh.com.au/news/9909/14/bizcom/bizcom3.html Global Internet Liberty Campaign Member Statement Submitted to the Internet Content Summit http://www.gilc.org/speech/ratings/gilc-munich.html EPIC Filters and Freedom web page http://www.epic.org/filters&freedom Parents fail to nanny children snared in the Net (not related to summit) http://www.smh.com.au/news/9909/09/text/national20.html EFA - International Statement Warns Against Censorship http://www.efa.org.au/Publish/PR990909.html International Net ratings plan under fire http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-346859.html Magaziner on Net Censorship: Why Bother? http://www.thestandard.com/articles/display/0,1449,6284,00.html?home.bf Wired - Internet Ratings Redux http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/21652.html === ---------------------- David Goldstein email: Goldstein_David@yahoo.com.au post: 5 Coles Lane, Oakington, Cambridge, CB4 5BA, UK phone: + 44 (0)1223 574 857 (h); +44 (0)1223 237 700 (w); +44 (0)7979 965 503 (mobile). ICQ: 32130305. _______________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com.au address at http://mail.yahoo.com.au or your free @yahoo.co.nz address at http://mail.yahoo.co.nz * APPLe: To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe" to apple-request@apnic.net * From owner-apple@ns.apnic.net Thu Sep 16 08:58:42 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) id IAA24117; Thu, 16 Sep 1999 08:55:45 GMT Received: from web1306.mail.yahoo.com (web1306.mail.yahoo.com [128.11.23.156]) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with SMTP id IAA24106 for ; Thu, 16 Sep 1999 08:55:37 GMT Message-ID: <19990916090247.18075.rocketmail@web1306.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [193.129.101.40] by web1306.mail.yahoo.com; Thu, 16 Sep 1999 19:02:47 EST Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1999 19:02:47 +1000 (EST) From: =?iso-8859-1?q?David=20Goldstein?= Subject: Tracking the Internet Economy: 100 Numbers You Need to Know To: "Mailing List" APPLe MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: owner-apple@apnic.net Precedence: bulk Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Hello all Some useful or useless facts according to your point of view from the The Industry Standard. Cheers David Tracking the Internet Economy: 100 Numbers You Need to Know http://www.thestandard.com/metrics/display/0,1283,978,00.html?home.metf By Maryann Jones Thompson THE STATE OF THE WEB Time it took to register the first million domain names: four years. Time to move from 4 million to 5 million domain names: three months.1 Number of pages on the Web: 800 million. Web pages covered by the best search engine: 16 percent.4 Yahoo provides 44 percent of all search-engine referrals. AltaVista ranks second with 10 percent.2 94 percent of the top 100 sites post a privacy policy.3 Browser-war update - Microsoft: 73 percent. Netscape: 25 percent.2 55 percent of Web servers run Apache server software; 22 percent run Microsoft Internet Information Server.5 AOL accounts for 21.5 percent of the consumer ISP market.6 70 percent of global Web traffic goes to fewer than 4,500 sites.7 Ratings firms miss as much as 32 percent of Net traffic to large sites.8 Top digital media property: AOL, with 53.4 million visitors in July.9 Top Web site: Yahoo, with 32.3 million visitors in July.9 THE ONLINE POPULATION Global Web population in 1998: 142 million. In 1999: 196 million. In 2003: 502 million.10 14 million Americans will access the Net via TV by 2003.12 Women online: 48 percent of surfers, up from 42 percent in 1996.11 Browsers for news, entertainment: 52, 72 percent.12 Net homes watch 10 percent less TV than non-Net homes.15 Number of Web surfers in Japan: 8 million. In Latin America: 3 million.10 Americans are 44 percent of the Web population. 10 Two fastest-growing segments of Net population: kids and teens.14 50 percent of homes have PCs this year, up from 45 percent in 1998.13 177 million Americans will be online by 2003. 63 million surfed in 1998; 81 million will in 1999.10 Public schools with Net access: 89 percent. Public schools with classroom access: 51 percent.16 Web users with household incomes of at least $100,000: 15 percent. Users who did not graduate high school: 3 percent.11 CONSUMER E-COMMERCE Global e-commerce spending 1998: $50 billion. 1999: $111 billion. 2003: $1.3 trillion.10 1.2 million surfers bought via a Web auction in 1998.14 $51 billion in 1998 offline spending was influenced by Net shopping.12 Seven products bought by the most surfers: books, software, music, travel, hardware, clothing, electronics.12 14 percent of music will be sold online by 2003.14 24.4 million surfers bought online in Q2 1999, up 10 million from last year.12 Four times as many holiday shoppers will buy online this year, ringing up $9.5 billion in 1999 sales.21 93 percent of online transactions are paid for by credit card.22 Online prescription sales will hit $970 million in 2003.14 25 million Web gamblers worldwide will produce $1.2 billion in revenues for online gaming sites.23 Europe's share of Web commerce in 1998: 11 percent. In 2003: 33 percent.10 Online brokerages accounted for 14 percent of equity trades in Q4 1998.24 CORPORATE E-COMMERCE B-to-b sales of products and services online will grow from $131 billion this year to $1.5 trillion in 2003.17 48 percent of 7.8 million small businesses have Net access.12 CEOs worldwide who believe the Internet will have a major impact on the global marketplace within three years: 92 percent.18 The average e-commerce site costs $1 million and takes five months to develop.19 32 percent of business travel ($38 billion) will be booked online by 2003.17 Insurance firms not selling online: 88 percent. Banks not offering online banking: 94 percent.20 IP telephony: from 310 million minutes worldwide in 1998 to 2.7 billion by year-end 1999.10 Worldwide I-Builder revenues: $8 billion in 1998. $78 billion in 2003.10 WEB MARKETING Number of sites seeking ads and the average CPM, June 1999: 2,111 and $34.23. In June 1998: 1,175 and $37.78.33 75 percent of online ad revenues flow to the top 10 Web publishers.37 Portion of the print classified-ad budgets for recruitment spent online in 2003: 20 percent. 17 40 percent of surfers surveyed remembered seeing a specific banner ad.34 1998's top Web ad buyer: Microsoft, at $35 million. Top nontech Web ad buyer: GM, at $13 million.35 Average banner-ad click-through rate in July: 0.58 percent.36 Online ad spending in 1999: $2.8 billion. Online ad spending in 2004: $22 billion.17 NET FINANCE Median 1998 premoney valuation of Net startups that secured venture capital: $17.3 million. In 1995: $5.9 million.25 1998 Internet Economy revenues: $301 billion. 1998 Internet Economy workers: 1.2 million. 30 Biggest expense for e-commerce firms and portals: marketing, at between 60 percent and 65 percent of revenues.26 154 Net IPOs have raised $13 billion through August. And 230 Net IPOs currently are in registration.27 1998 U.S. real economic growth attributed to IT and Net industries: 29 percent. GDP attributed to IT and Net industries: 7.8 percent.32 Jeff Bezos' net worth: $10.1 billion. Jay Walker's: $10.2 billion.28 Tax-free online shopping's cost to state and local governments: $170 million, or only 0.1 percent of the tax base.31 Value of Net M&As for first-half 1999: $43.4 billion (up 63 percent over 1998).29 Net VC for first-half 1999: $6.3 billion (55 percent of all VC funding).25 NOTE: All numbers refer to U.S. market unless specified. SOURCES: 1Network Solutions; 2Web Side Story; 3Georgetown Internet Privacy Study; 4NEC Research Institute; 5Netcraft; 6Cahners In-Stat; 7Alexa Internet; 8FAST Data Reconciliation Project; 9Media Metrix; 10International Data Corp.; 11Mediamark Research; 12Cyber Dialogue; 13ZD Infobeads; 14Jupiter Communications; 15Nielsen Media Research; 16U.S. Department of Education; 17Forrester Research; 18Booz-Allen Hamilton and the Economist; 19Gartner Group; 20Forrester Research and the American Bankers Association; 21Harris Interactive; 22Bizrate.com; 23Christiansen/Cummings Associates; 24Credit Suisse First Boston; 25VentureOne; 26Legg Mason Precursor Group; 27The Standard From IPO Monitor; 28Forbes, July 5; 29Thomson Financial Securities Data; 30Cisco Systems/The University of Texas; 31Ernst & Young; 32U.S. Department of Commerce; 33AdKnowledge; 34AOL/Ipsos-ASI; 35Intermedia Advertising Solutions; 36Nielsen NetRatings; 37Internet Advertising Bureau Copyright © 1999 The Industry Standard All rights reserved === ---------------------- David Goldstein email: Goldstein_David@yahoo.com.au post: 5 Coles Lane, Oakington, Cambridge, CB4 5BA, UK phone: + 44 (0)1223 574 857 (h); +44 (0)1223 237 700 (w); +44 (0)7979 965 503 (mobile). ICQ: 32130305. _______________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com.au address at http://mail.yahoo.com.au or your free @yahoo.co.nz address at http://mail.yahoo.co.nz * APPLe: To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe" to apple-request@apnic.net * From owner-apple@ns.apnic.net Thu Sep 16 14:57:38 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) id OAA17341; Thu, 16 Sep 1999 14:56:48 GMT Received: from web1305.mail.yahoo.com (web1305.mail.yahoo.com [128.11.23.155]) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with SMTP id OAA17337 for ; Thu, 16 Sep 1999 14:56:41 GMT Message-ID: <19990916150426.11165.rocketmail@web1305.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [193.129.101.40] by web1305.mail.yahoo.com; Fri, 17 Sep 1999 01:04:26 EST Date: Fri, 17 Sep 1999 01:04:26 +1000 (EST) From: =?iso-8859-1?q?David=20Goldstein?= Subject: 1st anti-child porn police office opens in Nagoya To: "Mailing List" APPLe MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: owner-apple@apnic.net Precedence: bulk Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Hi All I can't give you a URL for this story, but for your information a news story that was forwarded to me today. Cheers David 1st anti-child porn police office opens in Nagoya COMTEX NewswireThursday, September 16, 1999 9:43:00 AM NAGOYA, Sept. 16 (Kyodo) -- Aichi prefectural police opened an office Thursday to fight child prostitution and child pornography, the first police post of its kind in Japan. The establishment of the office followed the enactment in May of a law banning the sexual exploitation and abuse of children. The office in the police's juvenile crimes section is tasked with cracking down on paying for sexual intercourse with those under 18, and the sale, distribution, production, possession, import and export of child pornography, according to the police. The office will also make sheltering and supporting the victims of such crimes one of its priorities, the police said. The new office is staffed by 41 officers, including 18 women. Mitsuhiko Koga, head of the Aichi police, said, "There has been a spate of crimes affecting the welfare of juveniles, and criminals are becoming increasingly clever. We will crack down (on them) thoroughly."yright 1999 === ---------------------- David Goldstein email: Goldstein_David@yahoo.com.au post: 5 Coles Lane, Oakington, Cambridge, CB4 5BA, UK phone: + 44 (0)1223 574 857 (h); +44 (0)1223 237 700 (w); +44 (0)7979 965 503 (mobile). ICQ: 32130305. _______________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com.au address at http://mail.yahoo.com.au or your free @yahoo.co.nz address at http://mail.yahoo.co.nz * APPLe: To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe" to apple-request@apnic.net * From owner-apple@ns.apnic.net Mon Sep 20 10:44:44 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) id KAA26542; Mon, 20 Sep 1999 10:40:59 GMT Received: from web1301.mail.yahoo.com (web1301.mail.yahoo.com [128.11.23.151]) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with SMTP id KAA26527 for ; Mon, 20 Sep 1999 10:40:47 GMT Message-ID: <19990920105109.26068.rocketmail@web1301.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [193.129.101.40] by web1301.mail.yahoo.com; Mon, 20 Sep 1999 20:51:09 EST Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1999 20:51:09 +1000 (EST) From: =?iso-8859-1?q?David=20Goldstein?= Subject: NY Times ~ Plan Calls for Self-Policing of the Internet To: "Mailing List" APPLe MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: owner-apple@apnic.net Precedence: bulk Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Hi All A story on rating and filtering from the New York Times following on from the conference in München and discusses the Memorandum on Self-Regulation of the Internet. Cheers David New York times on the Web - Technology September 20, 1999 Plan Calls for Self-Policing of the Internet By PAMELA MENDELS http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/09/biztech/articles/20rate.html Parents who want to shield their children from pornographic, violent or other harmful material in the mass media are used to relying on industry ratings for guidance about movies and video games. But when it comes to the Internet, they are on their own -- or left to rely on commercial blocking programs that function as censors rather than guides. Now, an ambitious proposal drawn up by a German policy research group and based largely on the ideas of an American First Amendment scholar urges the creation of an international rating and filtering system for the Internet. The idea is included in a set of recommendations for how the Internet industry could police itself to stave off regulation by governments. "The best thing the industry can do is adopt a system that allows parents, who choose to, to decide to filter things for their children," said Jack M. Balkin, an architect of the plan and a professor of constitutional law and the First Amendment at Yale Law School. But so far, the proposal has received a cool reception from civil libertarians and some major Web publishers who argue that the plan could backfire and chill free speech online. "This is being put forward as an effort to prevent regulation of content, but there is a very good possibility it could end up inviting official censorship," said David L. Sobel, general counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington-based civil liberties group. The proposal, nine months in the making, was written by the Bertelsmann Foundation, a nonprofit group associated with the German media conglomerate, Bertelsmann AG. It was introduced on Sept. 10 at a meeting in Munich sponsored by the foundation and attended by about 300 government officials, scholars, Internet industry representatives and civil libertarians from around the world. It is part of a lengthy Memorandum on Self-Regulation of the Internet that suggests a number of steps businesses could take to protect children from harmful material on line, including the development of industry codes of conduct to be enforced by self-regulatory agencies. But the part of the proposal that has drawn the most fire from free speech advocates is the suggestion that the industry develop a global voluntary rating system that parents could use with filtering software to block content. The Bertelsmann memorandum likens its proposal to a three-layered cake. On the first layer, Web publishers around the world would voluntarily describe their sites using a standard set of terms drawn up by an independent, nonprofit organization. At the second layer, organizations representing a range of backgrounds and viewpoints would devise rating systems to evaluate the terms according to their values, spawning a variety of filters reflecting different ideologies. The third layer refines the scheme by allowing, among other things, the creation of "white lists" of approved sites that may have been unreasonably filtered out -- for example, news sites that might otherwise be blocked because news can be of a violent nature. Parents could choose to block children's access to unrated sites. Jens Waltermann, deputy head of the media division of the Bertelsmann Foundation, argues that the proposed system, with its heavy emphasis on parental choice, could discourage governments from intervening in content regulation. But others see dangers in the plan. Sobel, like the American Civil Liberties Union and other free speech advocates, fears that the system could invite government regulation. For one thing, governments might require sites to rate themselves, perhaps even imposing sanctions on those that mis-rate their content, he said. And, he added, less democratic governments might use the system to filter what citizens see. Others express the fear that self-rating would invite self-censorship. "If you know you are rating for a particular level of violence or other content, you may try to jigger a story so a wider audience could watch it," said Arthur B. Sackler, vice president for law and public policy at Time Warner. Christopher Barr, editor at large at the online publisher Cnet and co-chairman of the Internet Content Coalition, a group of Web publishers that includes The New York Times, said that while the white lists are supposed to act as a brake on unreasonably filtered sites, he was nervous about the idea of someone defining news. "What's a bona fide news site?" Barr asked. "The New York Times? Nudist news? Matt Drudge? Who's to say?" Supporters of the plan say such fears are either unfounded or addressable. Balkin says the self-censorship argument is overstated, in part because it is reasonable to expect producers of children's sites to create age-appropriate material, and the proposed system would not bind adults. As for defining what constitutes news, he says, a variety of news white-lists could describe a range of news types. Balkin also argues that even totalitarian governments may be unable to use the system to censor content, because ratings would not describe political viewpoints and technology could be developed to route around censorship. Perhaps most important, says Waltermann of the Bertelsmann organization, is the threat of government regulation. "If governments feel that there are no ways for parents to make choices in their own homes," he said, "they could do all kinds of horrible things to make sure people don't have access." George Vradenburg, senior vice president for global and strategic policy at America Online, says the Bertelsmann proposal lends an "an intelligent and thoughtful voice" to the discussion of ratings and controls. He added, however, that he had misgivings about a global rating system, fearing, like the civil liberties groups, that it could invite government mandates. The most appropriate place for Internet ratings, he says, may be in those categories of content where parents are accustomed to seeing them in the off-line world -- in movies, games and television shows that migrate to the Web. Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company === ---------------------- David Goldstein email: Goldstein_David@yahoo.com.au post: 5 Coles Lane, Oakington, Cambridge, CB4 5BA, UK phone: + 44 (0)1223 574 857 (h); +44 (0)1223 237 700 (w); +44 (0)7979 965 503 (mobile). ICQ: 32130305. _______________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com.au address at http://mail.yahoo.com.au or your free @yahoo.co.nz address at http://mail.yahoo.co.nz * APPLe: To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe" to apple-request@apnic.net * From owner-apple@ns.apnic.net Mon Sep 20 14:52:51 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) id OAA17713; Mon, 20 Sep 1999 14:52:11 GMT Received: from web1301.mail.yahoo.com (web1301.mail.yahoo.com [128.11.23.151]) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with SMTP id OAA17704 for ; Mon, 20 Sep 1999 14:52:03 GMT Message-ID: <19990920150235.2362.rocketmail@web1301.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [193.129.101.40] by web1301.mail.yahoo.com; Tue, 21 Sep 1999 01:02:35 EST Date: Tue, 21 Sep 1999 01:02:35 +1000 (EST) From: =?iso-8859-1?q?David=20Goldstein?= Subject: International Conference - "Combating Child Pornography on the Internet" To: "Mailing List" APPLe MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: owner-apple@apnic.net Precedence: bulk Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Hi all A news release for an upcoming conference in Vienna next week examining child pornography on the Internet. Cheers David International Conference - "Combating Child Pornography on the Internet" Vienna, Hofburg, 29 September - 1 October, 1999 http://www.stop-childpornog.at Within the context of the transatlantic dialogue between the European Union and the United States, an international conference on "Combating Child Pornography on the Internet" is scheduled for September 29 - October 1, 1999 in Vienna. This conference is based on an initiative by the Foreign Ministers of Austria and the US, Wolfgang Schüssel and Madeleine Albright. Because the large majority of Internet users and the main Internet-Service Providers are based in the US and Europe, it is especially important that the United States and the European Union join efforts to combat this crime which has spread dramatically over the past years. Austria will host the international conference, which is co-sponsored by the US, and organized with the support of the European Union. High-level officials from the Ministries of Interior and Justice, the judiciary and the police, as well as representatives of international and regional organizations, the industry, especially Internet-Service-Providers, NGOs and experts will be invited. Participants will come from Europe and the US as well as some other countries. The objectives of the conference are as follows: * re-inforcing cooperation among law-enforcement officials and the judiciary establishing voluntary self-regulatory mechanisms (codes of conduct) among Internet service providers; * encouraging the establishment of further hotlines (hotlines enable citizens to report leads on child pornography found on the Internet) and of networking among existing hotlines. While the conference will develop concrete recommendations in the areas outlined above, the wider objectives of the conference are to raise awareness and mobilize public opinion regarding child pornography on the Internet and to encourage cooperation, especially among law-enforcement officials and the industry. The conference will be opened by Austrian Vice-Chancellor and Foreign Minister Wolfgang Schüssel and senior representatives of the US government and the European Union. Following keynote speeches and presentations by representatives of international and regional organizations such as the European Commission, the United Nations and the Council of Europe, the participants will split into working groups to discuss the topics mentioned above. On the final day of the conference, the reports of the working groups as well as concrete conclusions and recommendations to combat child pornography on the Internet shall be presented. The Conference will take place at the Hofburg in Vienna. === ---------------------- David Goldstein email: Goldstein_David@yahoo.com.au post: 5 Coles Lane, Oakington, Cambridge, CB4 5BA, UK phone: + 44 (0)1223 574 857 (h); +44 (0)1223 237 700 (w); +44 (0)7979 965 503 (mobile). ICQ: 32130305. _______________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com.au address at http://mail.yahoo.com.au or your free @yahoo.co.nz address at http://mail.yahoo.co.nz * APPLe: To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe" to apple-request@apnic.net * From owner-apple@ns.apnic.net Tue Sep 21 11:50:10 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) id LAA05288; Tue, 21 Sep 1999 11:46:14 GMT Received: from web1304.mail.yahoo.com (web1304.mail.yahoo.com [128.11.23.154]) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with SMTP id LAA05277 for ; Tue, 21 Sep 1999 11:46:05 GMT Message-ID: <19990921115723.27172.rocketmail@web1304.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [193.129.101.40] by web1304.mail.yahoo.com; Tue, 21 Sep 1999 21:57:23 EST Date: Tue, 21 Sep 1999 21:57:23 +1000 (EST) From: =?iso-8859-1?q?David=20Goldstein?= Subject: news items about legal and regulatory aspects of Internet To: "Mailing List" APPLe MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: owner-apple@apnic.net Precedence: bulk Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Hi All A list of news stories from QuickLinks that provides links to news items about legal and regulatory aspects of Internet and the information society, and market and technology. For a full list of stories, check out the full text search and archive at http://www.qlinks.net. I've included the stories here on Computer crime, Content regulation, Data Protection (privacy), Convergence of telecommunications, media and information technology, Electronic commerce, Domain names, Protection of minors, Rating and filtering, and Statistics. Cheers David Computer crime * Image Analysis Cracks Child Pornographers (TechWeb) In a project funded by the European Union, Swedish police are using image-processing knowledge-management software to counter child pornographers, and hope to make the system global. The software uses an adaptive pattern-recognition technology that enables the information about the images to be retrieved quickly as the system compares underlying patterns of images rather than the images themselves. http://www.techweb.com/printableArticle?doc_id=TWB19990913S0007 * Net Hate Speech Serious (Newsbytes) Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, called hate speech on the Internet a "serious situation indeed." To combat what he called the growing problem of Net-based hate speech, Hatch said he has introduced legislation to make filtering technology more readily available and criminalizes using the Internet to teach people how to make bombs. Hatch also re-issued a report prepared by the Judiciary Committee's majority staff. The updated "Children, Violence and the Media: A Report for Parents and Policy Makers" study. http://www.currents.net/newstoday/99/09/15/news4.html * New York stops sale of killer's art on web (Reuters) A serial killer serving life for murdering at least 11 prostitutes was stripped of his arts privileges after prison authorities discovered he was selling art and poetry on the Internet. * http://www.mediacentral.com/channels/inetecomm/09_13_1999.reutr-story-N13614013. html * Report Lists Over 1,400 Hate Sites (NUA) There are currently 1,426 Web hate sites on the Internet, according to a report by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a human rights centre based in Los Angeles. This compares to 600 hate sites at the end of 1997, and just one hate site in 1995. http://www.nua.ie/surveys/?f=VS&art_id=905354792&rel=true * UK police to target online pervs (The Register) Scotland Yard is targeting Net paedophiles with a monitoring service based on a scheme being used by the FBI. Trained agents visit chat rooms and pretend to be teenagers and pre-teens, in an effort to lure the paedophiles into conversation, and eventually into rendezvous, where they will be arrested. http://www.theregister.co.uk/990916-000023.html * USA - Gore calls for cyber-stalking laws (ZDNN) Vice President Al Gore has called for stronger federal laws to combat cyber stalking. He referred to a new U.S. Department of Justice study that found that more than two-thirds of states have no anti-stalking laws explicitly covering the Internet or technologies such as e-mail or pages. http://www.zdnet.com/filters/printerfriendly/0,6061,2335689-2,00.html * USA - Infoseek exec nabbed in sex scandal (ZDNet) A top executive for one of the Web's biggest sites has been arrested by FBI agents on federal charges for allegedly crossing states lines to solicit sex from a minor. http://www.zdnet.com/filters/printerfriendly/0,6061,2337103-2,00.html Content regulation * Bertelsmann Pleads for Self-Regulation Online (internet.com) In a paper presented at the Internet Content Summit, the Bertelsmann Foundation called for greater user control over content regulation. The paper recommended user implementation of rating, filtering and security technology for content regulation, and that international hotlines and "credible self-regulatory institutions" be created to resolve user complaints. The foundation stated its belief that freedom of speech and child protection online go hand in hand. What is needed, it said, is "a new culture of responsibility." see also Plan Calls for Self-Policing of the Internet and Yale Law Professor Is Main Architect of Global Filtering Plan (New York Times (registration required)), Who Polices the Net? (IDG) Internet Ratings Redux (Wired), Global Internet Liberty Campaign (GILC) Press Release, Queasy About Online Ratings(Newsbytes), Net censorship: An impossible task?(IDG), Self-Rating Of Sites Assailed (The Washington Post), Munich, The Censors' Convention (slashdot), Großindustrie und Politik wollen mit unliebsamen Inhalten im Internet aufräumen (Heise Online). http://www.internetnews.com/intl-news/print/0,1089,6_198751,00.html * China bans Internet investment (BBC) The Chinese government is planning to ban all foreign investment in the Internet. Information Minister Wu Jichuan said that foreign investment was not allowed by law and that China now planned to clean up the "irregularities." Up to now, ambiguity about the role of content providers, like portals, has led to big foreign investments in Chinese sites, even though ISPs (Internet Service Providers) who provide Internet access have been banned. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/the_economy/newsid_448000/448305.stm Convergence of telecommunications, media and information technology * Cable Access Opened for AOL Canada (InternetNews.com) Unlike its American parent firm, AOL Canada has taken steps to enter the high-speed cable Internet access market by forming an alliance with Regional Cablesystems, a cable television company serving Canada's non-urban communities. http://www.internetnews.com/intl-news/article/0,1087,6_203481,00.html * Oftel blames Net for phone changes (The Register) Three out of ten people would consider using video on demand, Net access via their TV and broadband Net services when they become available, according to the telecoms watchdog Oftel. http://www.theregister.co.uk/990909-000017.html * USA - Bells Don't Have to Lease Broadband Gear (The Industry Standard) The FCC votes against requiring local telephone carriers to unbundle and lease the equipment they use to provide high-speed Internet service. http://www.thestandard.com/articles/display/0,1449,6376,00.html?05 Data Protection (privacy) * U.S. envoy: EU data privacy deal in sight (Computer World) Trans-Atlantic talks on data privacy are moving ahead with the hope of an agreement before year's end, David Aaron, U.S. undersecretary of commerce for international trade, said. http://www.computerworld.com/home/news.nsf/all/9909175datadeal * USA - All Study, No Action on Privacy (Wired) The House Science Committee last week approved a multibillion dollar technology research fund that will in part be spent researching online privacy technologies. http://www.wired.com/news/print_version/politics/story/21732.html?wnpg=all * Stealth Software Rankles Privacy Advocates (TechWeb) http://www.techweb.com/printableArticle?doc_id=TWB19990917S0014 Domain names * Domain name tests extended again (IDG) The U.S. Department of Commerce and domain name registrar Network Solutions Inc. have agreed to extend for a fourth time the testing phase of a new, competitive system for registering Internet addresses, until Sept. 30. http://www.idg.net/idgns/1999/09/10/DomainNameTestsExtendedAgain.shtml * USA - Hasbro Loses Latest Round Over Clue.Com Domain (Internet.news.com) http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/print/0,1089,3_197321,00.html Electronic commerce * Global business group seeks new e-commerce order ( Redherring.com) Business leaders from more than 200 companies around the world made a joint call for industry-led regulation for electronic commerce, in a bid to help form global policies for Internet-based trade. The GBDe issued policy positions in nine areas: consumer protection, privacy, copyright, communications infrastructure, online security, trust in transactions, jurisdiction, content and advertising, and taxes and duties. see also Industry leaders propose 'trustmark' for the Internet (News Wire), Startups Absent at Global Business Dialogue (TORNADO-INSIDER.COM), Does Self-Regulation Have a Future? and Global E-Commerce Group Slow-Going on Net Regulations (Reuters), E-Commerce Without E-Privacy is E-Theft (Junkbusters) http://www.herring.com/insider/1999/0915/news-eurocomm.html * Boots, Telegraph Group to Launch Women's Net Service (Internetnews.com) Calling it handbag.com, The Boots Company and Hollinger Telegraph New Media announced plans to launch a complete Internet service for women. http://www.internetnews.com/intl-news/article/0,1087,6_202081,00.html * New international e-commerce initiative (IDG) A new nonprofit organisation called Global Trust Authority (GTA) has been created which will work as a certification authority. It is backed by more than 800 banks and financial institutions from several European countries, including Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, Spain, Switzerland, Holland and the U.K., as well as Canada and Japan. The U.S. has not joined the initiative so far. The authority will have its headquarters in Belgium. http://www.idg.co.nz/nzweb/f606.html * UK - Get business online - Blair (BBC) UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has urged British industry to make the leap into online trading or face the prospect of bankruptcy in the face of international competition. Mr Blair's visit to Cambridge coincides with a report rom the Cabinet Office's Performance and Innovation Unit (PIU) warning that Britain is in danger of lagging behind in e-commerce. see also Blair Goes Back To School To Learn Net Skills (Reuters). http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk_politics/newsid_445000/445995.stm Liability, jurisdiction and applicable law * Student not guilty of copyright theft over links to MP3s (The Register) Seventeen-year-old student Tommy Olsson was yesterday acquitted by the Swedish court on charges that he promoted music piracy by linking to an allegedly illegal MP3 archive from his Web site. see also Aftenposten. http://www.theregister.co.uk/990916-000012.html Protection of minors * Internet fördert Kinderprostitution (Heise Online) [ECPAT meeting in Bangkok: globalisation affects child prostitution] "Die Globalisierung hat auch vor der sexuellen Ausbeutung von Kindern nicht haltgemacht", sagte der Neuseeländer Ron O'Grady, Gründer und Vorsitzender der gegen Kinderprostitution gerichteten Organisation ECPAT ("End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes"), auf der ersten weltweiten Mitgliederversammlung in Bangkok. Kinderpornographie im Internet sei weltweit binnen Sekunden abrufbar. Der kommerzielle Handel mit Kindern habe durch offenere Grenzen zugenommen. http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/cp-18.09.99-000/ * USA - Web technology helps trace kids (CNN) The FBI, the Customs Service and the U.S. Postal Service are linked through new World Wide Web-based technologies to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which has opened a new headquarters in Alexandria, Va. Charles Wang, chairman and chief executive officer of Computer Associates International and the center's top benefactor contributed $5 million in funding and technology. http://cnn.com/TECH/computing/9909/16/web.saves.kids.idg/index.html Rating and filtering * UK Games Ratings Not Kids' Play (Wired) The European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA currently operates a self-labeling system for the computer game industry, and only 5 percent of games need to be submitted to the British Board of Film Classification. predicted that existing regulation would become "redundant," and that "there will be a self-rating system in five years. The BBFC is obliged under the 1984 Video Recordings Act to apply film classification standards to computer games so that they may be classified as suitable only for certain ages. http://www.wired.com/news/print_version/culture/story/21770.html?wnpg=all Statistics * Over 18 Million Online in Japan in April 1999 (NUA) There are now over 18 million Internet users in Japan, of which women account for 35.6 percent, according to a study by Nikkei NetBusiness. http://www.nua.ie/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905355268&rel=true * Which? Online: Study Looks at British Net Usage Patterns (NUA) One in ten UK users now describe themselves as regular online shoppers, according to a survey by MORI Research. The study estimates that the typical British user spends five hours or less online per week, visiting 13 Web sites in that time. 75 percent of British users feel that the Internet should be regulated. Pornography was a major concern for 56 percent of those surveyed, followed by morality, 51 percent and fraud, 51 percent. http://www.nua.ie/surveys/?f=VS&art_id=905355279&rel=true * World Wide Web Home to 3.6 Million Sites (NUA) There are now an estimated 3.6 million sites on the Web, of which 2.2 million are publicly accessible, according to a report by OCLC Research. The largest 25,000 sites account for 50 percent of the total content available on the Web. http://www.nua.ie/surveys/?f=VS&art_id=905355273&rel=true * Belgium - ISPA releases updated survey of the Internet market (Press Release) ISPA (the Belgian Internet Service Providers Association) has released the updated figures of the independent market survey of Belgian Internet providers conducted by Heliview. http://www.ispa.be/en/c030209.html === ---------------------- David Goldstein email: Goldstein_David@yahoo.com.au post: 5 Coles Lane, Oakington, Cambridge, CB4 5BA, UK phone: + 44 (0)1223 574 857 (h); +44 (0)1223 237 700 (w); +44 (0)7979 965 503 (mobile). ICQ: 32130305. _______________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com.au address at http://mail.yahoo.com.au or your free @yahoo.co.nz address at http://mail.yahoo.co.nz * APPLe: To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe" to apple-request@apnic.net * From owner-apple@ns.apnic.net Fri Sep 24 08:58:01 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) id IAA21543; Fri, 24 Sep 1999 08:53:35 GMT Received: from web1306.mail.yahoo.com (web1306.mail.yahoo.com [128.11.23.156]) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with SMTP id IAA21533 for ; Fri, 24 Sep 1999 08:53:27 GMT Message-ID: <19990924090647.17309.rocketmail@web1306.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [193.129.101.40] by web1306.mail.yahoo.com; Fri, 24 Sep 1999 19:06:47 EST Date: Fri, 24 Sep 1999 19:06:47 +1000 (EST) From: =?iso-8859-1?q?David=20Goldstein?= Subject: The World's Wide Web: The Great Fire Wall of China To: "Mailing List" APPLe MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: owner-apple@apnic.net Precedence: bulk Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Hi All Thought this article might be of interest to you. Cheers David The World's Wide Web: The Great Fire Wall of China By Matthew Yeomans http://www.thestandard.com/articles/display/0,1449,6411,00.html?home.of Here's a global teaser: Name the country that currently languishes at the bottom of the Internet food chain, but will have an estimated 141 million people online by the year 2005 and will be the largest e-commerce market in the world. Hint: It's the most populous nation on earth. Right now, China counts only 1.4 million Internet users, but that hasn't halted companies like Microsoft (MSFT) , AOL (AOL) , Yahoo (YHOO) and Dow Jones from plunging into the alluring, but officially off-limits, waters of the Chinese Internet industry. Even Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson is getting in on the act as a major investor of Zhaodaola, a Beijing-based Web portal. But amid the heady rush to dot-com this vast country lies a nagging question: What will be the electronic boundaries of the Net in China? The answer is of prime concern for Western investors who spend long days strategizing about how to wire the sleeping giant. The person who may hold the answer, at least for the moment, is Wu Jichuan, China's minister of information industry. That's why Western politicians and executives were dumbstruck as Wu announced that his government would begin to enforce a 1993 ban on foreign investment in its online industry. Wu's salvo may signal little more than a return to hardball negotiations over China's entry into the World Trade Organization, which the Clinton administration would like to see happen before the end of the year. "This is classic Chinese bargaining," says Peter Lovelock, head of Maverick, a telecom consulting company in Hong Kong. But other industry watchers aren't as convinced. "The head of MII is seeming to kick the door shut on foreign investment in China's information industries," says Ken Grant, executive editor of Virtual China's China Matrix Web site. "It remains to be seen whether he can keep it closed." Somewhere beyond all this Beijingology lie two fundamental concerns for China: How does it maintain control of what could be its most influential industry of the next century, and, just as important, how does it control the information passed along the Web? After all, the Internet may be a fine tool for promoting e-commerce in a giant structured market economy, but it's likely to play havoc with the official party line. This hasn't been lost on the ruling technocrats who realize the Internet is their real-life forbidden fruit: They can't wait to taste it, but they dare not. Not surprisingly, all the major players in the domestic Internet boom are closely monitored by the Chinese government and any offending information, for instance about Taiwan, Tibet or whatever the current bete noire, is quickly blocked by a vigilant team of government Web censors. Both the leading domestic portals Netease and Sina.com rarely run afoul of the authorities because they don't place material that breaks from the party line on their mainland Chinese sites. Ironically, the government's most high-profile victim of political blocking so far is its own China.com, a strictly controlled Web portal that is traded on the Nasdaq and is 60 percent owned by the state news service Xinhua with AOL holding another 8 percent. Last spring, according to watchers of the Chinese Web, China.com caught the censors' eyes when it ran items about Taiwan on its mainland site. The articles were compiled by programmers based in Hong Kong. China.com has publicly denied being blocked. But the ever expanding Web universe stretches well beyond the eye of even China's Ministry of Information Industry. Internet users in China report that the government either overlooked or couldn't be bothered to block a U.S. State Department archive site on the 1989 Tiananmen protests. That's just the sort of vast cybersecurity breach which international dissidents and human-rights activists intend to exploit. While they may be able to reach only a small percentage of the Chinese population, activists maintain that in a Chinese society, where Internet access is available only to the rich, the intellectuals and the students, it's not about how many people they reach, but which ones. "What scares the Chinese government so much is that the people who have access to the Internet right now have historically been the people who have launched revolutions," says Bobson Wong, director of the Digital Freedom Network, a Web site dedicated to airing dissident voices that have been silenced in their own lands. Leading the charge is a former Tiananmen Square activist who goes by the pseudonym, Richard Long. Everyday, Long publishes a newsletter called VIP Reference that he sends to over 30,000 Chinese e-mail accounts - whether they want it or not. In short, Long is using the scourge of Western e-commerce, spamming, to advocate social change in China. VIP Reference is taken so seriously in China that two weeks ago, one dissident, Qi Yanchen, was arrested and charged with sedition for printing copies of the newsletter to pass around. While some activists complain that Long's political mass mailing alienates people in China and endangers some underground dissidents, Long says VIP Reference feeds "an information-hungry country." With spam, of course. But is it realistic to expect Internet commerce to bring about democracy in China? After all, telling China that it's morally better to be like the West and here's a new Pepsi ad to prove it is unlikely to change a government that hasn't so much as flirted with democracy for over 5,000 years. At the same time, in a world where Tiananmen Square leader Ling Chai seeks to realize her ideals through a software startup, it's not surprising that someone like Long would seek to make politics and business work together. Long thinks nothing of exchanging his database of 500,000 addresses with young Chinese entrepreneurs in return for a list of their clients. "Everybody knows I have the largest Internet database in China," he says, matter-of-factly. Despite Wu's concerns over controlling the telecommunications industry, China may well already be on an unstoppable course. While the cost of PCs remains prohibitively high for the ordinary Chinese, the country's cellular and cable network offers the hope of cheap mass connectivity in the near future. And while the Chinese may not surf as much as Americans, they certainly watch TV. There are some 320 million television sets in China, and companies such as the Web portal MyWeb are exploring the possibilities of wiring China via a vast system of set-top boxes. So even if China chose to pursue its digital future alone, it might still be building a bigger soapbox for Long and other dissidents. You never know, the revolution may yet be televised. ===== ---------------------- David Goldstein email: Goldstein_David@yahoo.com.au post: 5 Coles Lane, Oakington, Cambridge, CB4 5BA, UK phone: + 44 (0)1223 574 857 (h); +44 (0)1223 237 700 (w); +44 (0)7979 965 503 (mobile). ICQ: 32130305. _______________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com.au address at http://mail.yahoo.com.au or your free @yahoo.co.nz address at http://mail.yahoo.co.nz * APPLe: To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe" to apple-request@apnic.net * From owner-apple@ns.apnic.net Sun Sep 26 01:56:34 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) id BAA12794; Sun, 26 Sep 1999 01:54:05 GMT Received: from armstrong.apic.net (armstrong.apic.net [203.22.101.2]) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with ESMTP id BAA12786 for ; Sun, 26 Sep 1999 01:54:03 GMT Received: from mandela (nas1ppp02.apic.net [203.22.103.72]) by armstrong.apic.net (8.8.7/APIC-2.1) with SMTP id LAA12793 for ; Sun, 26 Sep 1999 11:54:00 +1000 (EST) Message-Id: <199909260154.LAA12793@armstrong.apic.net> X-Org: The Asia Pacific Internet Company Pty. Ltd. X-URL: http://www.apic.net/ X-Sender: bala@mail.apic.net X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.0 Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1999 11:57:10 +1000 To: apple@apnic.net From: Bala Pillai Subject: Parody Challenged: PLDT vs PLDT.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Sender: owner-apple@apnic.net Precedence: bulk Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Dear APPLers, Below was what was exactly envisaged by one of our APPLe veterans a year ago when discussing why domains does not trademarks. Our Prof from upstate NY, Syracuse? - did a stint in HK. I can't believe I've forgotten his name - am writing from home so can't check my archives. Sorry dear friend :-)=20 The battle between PLDT and PLDT.com is a laugh to follow. PLDT is= Philippines Long Distance Telephone company, the largest Philippine telco. The website PLDT.com is owned by a parody-loving mammalian maverick who relishes= dinosaur satire. cheers.../bala bala@apic.net sydney, australia www.apic.net -- forwarded message -- Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1999 03:05:44 +0800 To: ph-cyberview@egroups.com, ph-isp@iphil.net, pics@iphil.net From: Jim Ayson Subject: [ph-isp] Re: [PH-Cyberview] Re: PLDT sues PLDT.com : : : : Sender: owner-ph-isp@lists.iphil.net At 09:50 AM 9/25/99 +0800, David Martin wrote: >happened was that they won under freedom of speech provisions, and the=20 >school had to reinstate them.=A0 Now in the case of Gerry's site, what he= >has=20 >posted there may be uncomplementary to PLDT and various other entities,= >but=20 >I don't think that the affected parties can prove that it is willfully=20 >false and malicious. Not to mention the items were sometimes damn funny too. PLDT.com's articles are not the same as Inquirer op-ed pieces. Inquirer savages. PLDT.com tries to stick it to 'em, and then stick in a punchline in there somewhere.= Aye,there's the rub. I think the big P that PLDT is missing is "P for Parody". As the wise old American adage goes, "F*** 'em if they can't take a joke". The site does commentary on both the trevails of a bloated telco and political issues of= the day by making fun of them. Evidently Manny Pangilinan does not have a sense= of humour - it must have been surgically removed years ago, about the same time they siphoned off his testosterone. And Manny, if you're copy furnished= this, that was a joke too. I grew up reading Mad Magazine and National Lampoon (which unfortunately explains my warped sense of humor) which routinely satirized (sometimes savagely) ads, pop culture icons, politicians, TV and movies. The Lampoon= was especially hard hitting, and their writers were my idols until they started putting out trash like the Chevy Chase "Vacation" movies... but I digress.= Of course, even in America, meron mga pikon - I later read the biography of Mad Magazine founder William C. Gaines and found that in the 50's and 60's Mad's parodies often made them the target of lawsuits, but they kept right on and persevered. In the 70's and up, everthing had become fair game. Does this= mean that PLDT has an unsophisticated 1950's sense of humor? Maybe they'll get a bigger chuckle out of old Pugo and Bentot movies rather than David Letterman or Conan O' Brien. Parody on the Internet has had a long and illustrious tradition - for a prime example, see http://www.suck.com , a Parody of Microsoft's SLATE.com which is a political commentary site edited by Michael Kingley (formerly of CNN's crossfire and the New Republic). Just go to Yahoo and look up "Parody" for a chockful listing of sites. The best presentation to the judge in the PLDT.com case would be to define Parody per se, and then it's state on the Net. This would include everything from video clips of Willy Nepomuceno, to Weird Al Yankovic songs, to clips from "Airplane!" or "The Naked Gun" (or any other Leslie Nielsen comedy for that matter), Conan O' Brien's bits on Bill Clinton and= Bob Dole (who show up as "guests" on the show) and then a tour of Parody sites= on the Internet. Tito, Vic, and Joey clips as well, and look, one of them is= even a senator now. That is the only way to make a judge understand what exactly is the essence= of a site like PLDT.com and the sheer ridiculousness of PLDT's case against it, which in itself is another potential prime target for a satirical broadside. Idiotic or not, this is shaping up to be a landmark case that will decide= the future of freedom of speech on Filipino websites, and our right to parody institutions that affect our daily lives. jim * APPLe: To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe" to apple-request@apnic.net * From owner-apple@ns.apnic.net Sun Sep 26 14:54:06 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) id OAA01106; Sun, 26 Sep 1999 14:52:59 GMT Received: from armstrong.apic.net (armstrong.apic.net [203.22.101.2]) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with ESMTP id OAA01098 for ; Sun, 26 Sep 1999 14:52:56 GMT Received: from mandela (nas1ppp07.apic.net [203.22.103.77]) by armstrong.apic.net (8.8.7/APIC-2.1) with SMTP id AAA11463 for ; Mon, 27 Sep 1999 00:52:52 +1000 (EST) Message-Id: <199909261452.AAA11463@armstrong.apic.net> X-Org: The Asia Pacific Internet Company Pty. Ltd. X-URL: http://www.apic.net/ X-Sender: bala@mail.apic.net X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.0 Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1999 00:56:19 +1000 To: apple@apnic.net From: Bala Pillai Subject: PLDT.Com Vs PLDT - Summary (fw) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Sender: owner-apple@apnic.net Precedence: bulk Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Dear APPLers, A brief on the PLDT vs PLDT.Com dispute. cheers../bala **forwarded message** Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1999 20:58:36 +0800 To: ph-cyberview@egroups.com, ph-isp@lists.iphil.net From: Jim Ayson Subject: [ph-isp] The PLDT.com case: Meta-tag and Domain issues : : : : Sender: owner-ph-isp@lists.iphil.net : : At 01:49 PM 9/26/99 +0800, Kelsey Hartigan-Go wrote: >I have yet to read the actual suit... >What is PLDT suing against?....The domain name?=A0 The content? I've skimmed the documents and it appears the case involves several fronts. There are some technical issues that may affect the Philippine web in general, which are worth discussing here, especially if there Infocom or PLDT persons on these lists. Is Manuel Bauza here? Bauza (a name familiar from past BBS discussions) headed the IT group formed by PLDT under orders from top management to monitor PLDT.com over the web. It's interesting that PLDT's own media group head did not know about the existence of this operation based on his affidavit. points: a) PLDT claims automatic ownership of PLDT.com through their trademark.=20 b) PLDT alleges Mr. Kaimo prevented them from obtaining the domain for their own use, hence they had to resort to PLDT.com.ph c) PLDT claims the use of the PLDT name in meta tags is illegal and infringes on trademark.=20 On the domain issue, the facts are clear that PLDT was already using the PLDT.com.ph domain at the time that Mr. Kaimo applied and obtained the domain PLDT.com in July 1998. www.Pldt.com.ph was operational soon after PLDT's acquisition of 51% of Infocom sometime 96 or 1997. Note that according to the affidavits, web development was outsourced to Infocom.=20 It is false to state, as PLDT has stated in their complaint, that Mr. Kaimo prevented Infocom from using the domain because at the time the corporate website was under development, PLDT.com was already owned by other parties in the Philippines. This must have been registered around 1995 or 1996, based on my recollection of WHOIS queries made around this time. The registration lapsed due to non-renewal sometime 1998, assuming a two year period of ownership. PLDT has had at least three years, from 1995 to 1998, to secure ownership of this domain, either through negotiation with the then owners of the domain, or slapping them with a trademark infringement suit as is happening in 1999.=20 Furthermore, both PLDT and Infocom were most probably aware of the existence of PLDT.com at the time since they were developing PLDT's web presence during this period and would most probably do a WHOIS query at the InterNIC before registering the domain with the PH domain adminstrator. Since neither PLDT nor Infocom made any attempts to obtain the domain at the time, can we then say they that both PLDT's IT group and Infocom were both incompetent and negligent in performing their duties to protect the PLDT trademark? Or will they claim that they were not interested in PLDT.com since they were satisfied with their identity of PLDT.com.ph? One might draw that conclusion as well.=20 In July 1998, PLDT had apparently still NOT shown interest in acquiring the domain PLDT.com because the registration had lapsed for some time already and the domain was once again, available to the first taker. At this time, an organized anti-metering movement was afoot and a campaign was being waged to arouse public opinion on the matter over the Internet. At around this time, PLDT Inc. (PLDTI.ORG) was organized and registered with the SEC to fight PLDT's LMS proposal, among other things. Gerry Kaimo, acting on his own, noted PLDT.com was available, registered it and offered it for use by PLDTI. PLDTI however opted to use its own domain (pldti.org) instead. Kaimo then opted to operate a website independently.=20 Within a couple of weeks after going online, the site became the subject of national attention after being featured in the Inquirer. (Leo Magno's column). At this point, PLDT, now having found out the identity of the owner of the domain, could have once again taken steps to obtain the domain or take immediate action. None were taken, no communication was ever made. One would therefore conclude that the domain PLDT.com was never deemed to be important enough by PLDT for them to initiate any action to obtain it since 1996. And yet their complaint rambles on and on about the importance of the domain as an extension of their trademark, charging PLDT.com with "unfair competition". If that were so, then why no sense of urgency all this time? IF PLDT.com was instead registered by say PLD Telecommunications of Russia (a company offering telephone and cellular service in the former Soviet Union) should the latter be struck by a lawsuit? After all, in that scenario, they are the first to file. Note that in the Philippines, the "First to File" rule is followed by the DTI with respect to trademark and patent registration. --- in our next installment - META TAGS in HTML * APPLe: To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe" to apple-request@apnic.net * From owner-apple@ns.apnic.net Mon Sep 27 02:31:58 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) id CAA06134; Mon, 27 Sep 1999 02:29:05 GMT Received: from relay.dti.ne.jp (relay.dti.ne.jp [202.216.228.150]) by ns.apnic.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with ESMTP id CAA06127 for ; Mon, 27 Sep 1999 02:29:02 GMT Received: from pop.mars.dti.ne.jp (pop.mars.dti.ne.jp [202.216.228.60]) by relay.dti.ne.jp (8.9.3/3.7W) with ESMTP id LAA29492; Mon, 27 Sep 1999 11:28:49 +0900 (JST) Received: from oemcomputer (PPP16.shizuoka-ap3.dti.ne.jp [210.159.129.80]) by pop.mars.dti.ne.jp (8.9.3/3.7W) with SMTP id LAA23084; Mon, 27 Sep 1999 11:28:47 +0900 (JST) Message-ID: <000701bf0890$70d540c0$50819fd2@oemcomputer> From: "Martyn Williams" To: Cc: Subject: CNN Q&A On China Internet/Telecoms Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1999 11:31:42 +0900 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-2022-jp" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2314.1300 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-apple@apnic.net Precedence: bulk Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit FYI: CNN's Q&A Asia has a special week of programs from Shanghai this week. You can participate in a discussion on the CNN Web site and submit questions for guests during the program through the same chat room. Of interest to list members: Monday at 2200 HK/SIN (2300 JST) China's Internet Revolution The development of the internet in China has soared over the past five years. Governnment figures show the total number of computers with access to the internet in 1995 was about 400. By 1998, that figured had grown to 747,000 computers with the number of people surfing the net at just over 2 million. As Q&A kicks off its week-long programming from China, we'll explore the social and political consequences of a technologically-advanced, more well-connected China. Questions can be submitted now via e-mail or fax. Tuesday at 2200 HK/SIN (2300 JST) China's Telecom Revolution Pagers. Beepers. Mobile Phones. Everyday, the people of China are finding it increasingly easier to keep in touch. Indeed, telecommunications is big business here. But even as major outside companies seek to grab a share of China's potentially huge market, the government is tightening control over the industry, fearful that competition will hurt the state-owned China Telecom monopoly. As Q&A from Shanghai continues, we'll discuss China's telecom outlook and the impact all the new communications technology has had on the average Chinese. We'd like your input as well. Do contact us with comments and, if possible, join us in the Q&A real-time chatroom beginning at 1245 GMT. * APPLe: To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe" to apple-request@apnic.net *