August 19, 2006
Government Advertising
The Victorian Government has rejected the state Opposition's call for it to stop running taxpayer-funded advertisements two months before the November state election.Posted by Jaani at 9:15 PM | Comments (0)
Conscience Vote on Stem Cells
Researchers have welcomed moves towards a conscience vote in federal Parliament on the use of stem cells.Posted by Jaani at 4:15 PM | Comments (0)
May 13, 2006
Microsoft Antitrust Oversight Extended until 2009
The United States Department of Justice has extended by two years an oversight period provided for in its antirust settlement with Microsoft:
'The Department of Justice is committed to full and vigorous enforcement of the Microsoft final judgment', said J. Bruce McDonald, Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Department's Antitrust Division. 'This extension will ensure that companies interested in licensing the communications protocols receive the benefit of complete and accurate documentation for the full period of time provided by the court's final judgment.'
The oversight could continue until as late as 2012 upon application to a court. Regardless of whether a specific oversight is in place, however, it seems fairly clear that Microsoft will face cloe scrutiny from regulators and competitors.
Posted by Jaani at 1:50 PM | Comments (0)
May 7, 2006
AMD's lawyers go fishing in Redmond
Anything with 'Intel' on it will do
AMD vs Intel AMD this week served Microsoft with a subpoena, seeking documents that may relate to its ongoing anti-trust case against Intel.…
Posted by Jaani at 10:50 AM | Comments (0)
MS vs EC: Why the fine is unfair and the trustee appointment is wrong
Or not…
On a sunny afternoon in Luxembourg we enter the final lap of this five day case - discussion on the size of the €500m fine and other impositions of the remedy.…
Posted by Jaani at 10:48 AM | Comments (0)
Bill Gates' letter to hobbyists (en Français, 2006)
Plus ça change
EU vs MS Comment European Court justice Cooke gave Microsoft's lawyers a tonic yesterday, by raising concerns about the transfer of Microsoft's intellectual property.…
Posted by Jaani at 10:47 AM | Comments (0)
Microsoft Is Still Battling Europe
Microsoft continues to battle European regulators over antitrust allegations, nearly five years after the software giant reached a settlement with the US.Posted by Jaani at 10:44 AM | Comments (0)
February 16, 2006
Accessibility Lawsuit Challenges Target.com Website
A blind university student has filed a class action lawsuit against Target Corp. The plaintiff alleges that the website discriminates against visually impaired users of its services because the website is inaccessible using screen reader software.
Marc Maurer, president of the National Federation of the Blind in Baltimore, an advocacy group that’s also a plaintiff in the suit, said today that the complaint is based on the theory that online portals of ‘brick-and-mortar stores’, or actual physical places, must be equally accessible.
‘Target is one of the biggest companies in the country’, Maurer said. ‘One of the things we’re trying to do is change the way this is done.’
Blind people access Web sites by using keyboards in conjunction with screen-reading software which vocalises visual information on a computer screen.
But Target’s site lacks ‘alt-text’, an invisible code embedded beneath a graphic on the Web site that a screen reader could use to provide a description of the image to a blind person, the suit said.
Target.com also has inaccessible image maps, the suit said. Image maps, when clicked on by sighted users, allow the patron to jump to other destinations within the Web site. But since Target’s site requires the use of a mouse to complete the transaction, it prevents blind people from making purchases online, the suit said.
Some companies, like Wells Fargo Co, have Web sites that are accessible to the blind, said attorney Mazen Basrawi, an attorney with Disability Rights Advocates of Berkeley, which represents the plaintiffs. …
But many other Web sites can’t be used by the blind, Basrawi said.
The lawsuit is a timely reminder of the importance of complying with web standards and accessibility guidelines. If a commercial website — be it target.com or johnsplumbing.com.au — denies a portion of its users access to goods and services normally available to others, the organisation may be contravene anti-discrimination legislation and face significant penalties.
Posted by Jaani at 5:24 PM | Comments (0)
October 27, 2005
VeriSign To Control .com Domain Until 2012
DIY News wrote to mention a Reuters article reporting that VeriSign will control the .com domain until 2012, according to an agreement with ICANN. From the article: "The agreement settles a long-running dispute between the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, and the most powerful company under its jurisdiction. The settlement comes at a time when ICANN is under attack from China, Iran and other countries that want more direct control over the domain-name system that guides traffic around the Internet."
Posted by Jaani at 9:51 PM | Comments (0)
October 15, 2005
Internet Governance Proving Controversial
'Delegates at a meeting in Geneva on Monday failed to reach an agreement on who should control the internet's addressing system. The meeting, which is being held in preparation of the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis next month, degenerated into a farce when delegates argued over the right of the US to control the internet's addressing system.'
'The new EU proposal is based on recommendations made by the UN-sponsored Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) in July to establish an internet governance model that wasn't linked specifically to one country. Meanwhile, supporting the US are countries like Australia, the UK and Latin American countries such as Argentina and Chile. These countries have rejected the EU proposal with the Australian delegates warning of a "hierarchical and bureaucratic" approach to internet governance if the UN were allowed to assume responsibility for domain names and IP addresses.'
Posted by Jaani at 6:50 PM | Comments (0)
Samsung To Pay Out $300 Million In Anti-Trust Suit
infernalC writes "Reuters is reporting that Samsung has agreed to plea guilty to charges of price fixing in the memory market in a $300 million settlement." From the article: " Samsung would become the third chip maker to plead guilty in the wide-ranging probe of the prices of dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, chips. The Justice Department has blamed the price-fixing conspiracy for driving up the price of chips used in products ranging from personal computers and servers to cell phones, cameras and game consoles."
Posted by Jaani at 6:39 PM | Comments (0)
Google to Expand Reports
Google, the online search engine company, said that it would expand its quarterly financial reports to include an earnings figure that differs from mandated accounting practices.Posted by Jaani at 6:33 PM | Comments (0)
October 6, 2005
FCC Mandate Forces 'Backdoors' in Broadband ISPs and VoIP
Washington, DC - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has issued a "First Report and Order" confirming its expansion of the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) to the Internet. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is planning to challenge the rule in court.
The new rule forces Internet broadband providers and "interconnected" Voice-over-IP (VoIP) providers to build backdoors into their networks to make it easier for law enforcement to listen in on private communications. EFF has argued against this expansion of CALEA in several rounds of comments to the FCC.
"A tech mandate requiring backdoors in the Internet endangers the privacy of innocent people, stifles innovation, and risks the Internet as a forum for free and open expression," said Kurt Opsahl, EFF staff attorney.
CALEA, a law passed in the early 1990s, required that all telephone providers build surveillance backdoors into their networks. Due to pressure from EFF and other privacy groups, Congress expressly exempted information services like broadband. But the new details released on September 23rd show that the FCC has decided to ignore Congress's decision to protect the Internet, instead forcing all "facilities-based" providers of any type of broadband Internet access service, as well as interconnected VoIP services, to make their networks wiretap-ready. According to the FCC, all VoIP communications on a given service must be wiretap-ready if the VoIP service offers the capability for users to connect calls with the public switched telephone network (PSTN), even those communications that do not involve the PSTN.
Practically, what this means is that the government will be asking broadband providers -- as well as companies that manufacture devices used for broadband communications -- to create new backdoors for surveillance, imperiling the privacy and security of citizens on the Internet. It also hobbles technical innovation by forcing companies involved in broadband to redesign their products to meet government requirements.
Posted by Jaani at 10:00 PM | Comments (0)
Government Cracks Down on Spyware Operation
According to this article, United States 'Government regulators are trying to shut down Odysseus Marketing, which they say secretly downloaded spyware onto the computers of unwitting Internet users. The FTC accused Walter Rines and his company of luring computer users with a bogus promise of free software that would make peer-to-peer file sharing anonymous. The crackdown comes as spyware continues to be a growing problem, with calls in Congress for legislation and an increase in enforcement by federal regulators.'
This comes just two days after the Californian government signed legislation that would grant a civil remedy to any person or organisation found to be phishing for information.
Posted by Jaani at 9:59 PM | Comments (0)
Optus takes access fight to the ACCC
Optus has asked the competition watchdog to resolve an access dispute with rival Telstra.Posted by Jaani at 9:58 PM | Comments (0)
Victorian Legal Services Board appointees
Banking and Financial Services Ombudsman Colin Neave will chair the new regulatory body for Victoria’s legal profession, the Legal Services Board.Posted by Jaani at 9:58 PM | Comments (0)
Does the ITU get the internet?
World organisation's IP block on lock
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) is angling for a wider role in running the internet, to the extent that it is hosting the WSIS meeting taking place in Geneva at the moment.…
Posted by Jaani at 9:54 PM | Comments (0)
Finnish copyright protestors to lay siege to MPs
Demonstration outside Parliament
Opponents of Finland's proposed copyright laws are hoping for a good turnout today for a demonstration outside Parliament.…
Posted by Jaani at 9:52 PM | Comments (0)
Europe to Standardise the Airwaves
The European Commission plans to standardize the radio spectrum across its 25 member nations, including a possible bandwidth trading market.Posted by Jaani at 9:49 PM | Comments (0)
FTC Goes After Spyware Firm
Regulators are trying to shut down a company they say secretly installed spyware that couldn't be removed by the consumers whose computers it infected.Posted by Jaani at 9:43 PM | Comments (0)
'Uniform approach needed' on ID Fraud, Cyber-Terrorism
A Melbourne academic has called for a United Nations convention to regulate cyber-terrorism and identity fraud.Posted by Jaani at 9:26 PM | Comments (0)
September 18, 2005
Internet Oversight Board Approves ".cat," Defers on ".xxx"
'The Internet's key oversight agency approved a domain name for Catalan language and culture Thursday, while deferring final action for the second time in as many months on creating an Internet red-light district through the controversial ".xxx" suffix. Proponents say the domain could help the porn industry clean up its act by forcing .xxx sites to avoid trickery such as spamming and malicious scripts; opponents object to providing another channel for porn distribution.'
Posted by Jaani at 12:27 PM | Comments (0)
September 13, 2005
Did Telstra executives move the goalposts on the level playing field?
A tumultuous fortnight for Telstra culminated in ASIC’s decision to investigate whether it breached continuous disclosure rules. Anne Durie analyses the obligations faced by Telstra executives and asks whether protection can be found in its governing legislation. © 2005 CCH Australia LtdPosted by Jaani at 8:48 PM | Comments (0)
Labor accuses Govt of identity fraud in deportation case
The Federal Opposition has accused the Government of engaging in identity fraud, alleging the Immigration Department requested false travel documents for a Serbian couple it wanted to send home.Posted by Jaani at 8:45 PM | Comments (0)
September 3, 2005
High Court Hands Down Judgment in Nauru Jurisdiction Case
'The High Court has upheld the constitutional validity of laws giving it jurisdiction to hear appeals from the Nauru Supreme Court.'Posted by Jaani at 8:36 PM | Comments (0)
August 29, 2005
Affirmative Action
Posner on affirmative action:
My view is that reference to "merit" and "meritocracy" is misleading. A person is not "better" because he's a better exam-taker; for that matter, he's not "better," more "meritorious," because he has a higher IQ than someone else. The issue regarding standardized testing is whether it's a good predictor of college or graduate school performance. ...There is a special factor at work in law, the profession with which I'm most familiar, that casts particular doubt on the wisdom of racial affirmative action. That is the fact that to become a practicing lawyer, you have to pass the bar exam--another standardized timed test but one for which you can't substitute a take-home exam or a term paper. The black pass rate on the bar exam is shockingly low--something like 15 per cent, compared to more than 60 per cent for nonblack exam takers. I cannot see the sense of bending law school admissions standards in favor of applicants who are unlikely to be able to enter the profession after spending $100 000 or more for three years of law school tuition.
Posted by Jaani at 11:19 PM | Comments (0)
High Court of Australia Hears Industrial Relations Advertising Constitutional Challenge
The ACTU and the Labor Party have lodged their High Court challenge against the Government's multi-million dollar advertising campaign on industrial relations ('IR') changes.
Posted by Jaani at 11:06 PM | Comments (0)
August 19, 2005
Holland on the Failure of Law in Cyberspace
H Brian Holland, of Barry University School of Law, has published an article entitled 'The Failure of the Rule of Law in Cyberspace? Reorienting the Normative Debate on Borders and Territorial Sovereignty' (2005) John Marshall Journal of Computer & Information Law [Forthcoming]:The ultimate goal of this article is to suggest a different perspective on the issue of extraterritorial regulation in cyberspace. ... I begin ... by outlining the normative debate on the governance of cyberspace, borders and territorial sovereignty, focusing on the Johnson-Post-Goldsmith debate. I then seek to identify weaknesses in this approach. ... [T]he central question is whether the governance of cyberspace by traditional sovereign legal systems conforms to the rule of law. ... Is conformity to the rule of law a prerequisite of authority or simply one value among many, to be weighed against other values served by law and promoted, but without such exaggerated importance that it devalues other laudable social goals?
Posted by Jaani at 4:28 PM | Comments (0)
San Francisco Wants the Internet to be Free
The city by the bay moves forward in its effort to provide broadband access for all. Meanwhile, a study shows the US is falling farther behind at doing just that.Posted by Jaani at 4:16 PM | Comments (0)
August 17, 2005
Public Interest Groups Up in Arms About New .xxx TLD
'The United States [government] has asked the Internet's regulator to postpone the creation of a new ".xxx" domain for sex-oriented web sites, citing an "unprecedented" level of protests.'
The chairman of ICANN's Government Advisory Committee, Mohd Sharil Tarmizi, also wrote ICANN officials last week urging delay and expressing "a strong sense of discomfort" among many countries, which he did not name. Gallagher's comments, however, carry greater weight because his agency has veto power over ICANN decisions given the U.S. government's role in funding early development of the internet and selecting ICANN in 1998 to oversee domain name administration.
If the new top-level domain can successfully demarcate adult from non-adult content, they would arguably serve a useful function in a cyberspace increasingly congested by adult materials. It would also make it much easier for content filtering programs to operate effectively -- by just blocking all content from websites ending in .xxx, for example. Certainly, it's not quite clear just how the matter evokes 'a strong sense of discomfort' -- it's not like avoiding the new TLD is going to make internet pornography disappear. However, unless accompanied by laws prohibiting adult content from display in non .xxx extensions, its segregating function may not prove as effective as hoped.
Posted by Jaani at 12:03 PM | Comments (0)
Cabinet Paves Way for Telstra Sale
Federal Cabinet has approved a $3 billion plan for regional telecommunications that will pave the way for the full sale of Telstra.
The plan includes a $2 billion fund to pay for service upgrades in regional Australia in the future.
Mr Costello says the plan will resolve the issue of Telstra's ownership once and for all. "It can ensure there is open competition," he said. "It can safeguard services in rural and regional Australia.
Posted by Jaani at 12:02 PM | Comments (0)
February 28, 2005
American E-Voting The Subject of Sweeping Reforms
According to this press release, several US congressmen are proposing to rectify some of the problems associated with last year’s electronic presidential ballots, including requirements that operating code be open source and machines leave a paper trail:
The Count Every Vote Act of 2005 will provide a voter verified paper ballot for every vote cast in electronic voting machines and ensures access to voter verification for all citizens, including language minority voters, illiterate voters and voters with disabilities. The bill mandates that this ballot be the official ballot for purposes of a recount. The bill sets a uniform standard for provisional ballots so that every qualified voter will know their votes are treated equally, and requires the Federal Election Assistance Commission to issue standards that ensure uniform access to voting machines and trained election personnel in every community. The bill also improves security measures for electronic voting machines.
If electronic voting ever takes off in Australia, these are the kinds of safeguards I’d like to see. To my mind, any additional oversight upon an inherently intangible and untraceable ballot is a Good Thing — whether this Bill passes is another matter altogether, however.
Posted by Jaani at 9:08 AM | Comments (0)
