Around the World: Update November 2010
November 2010
Intellectual Property
This update provides an overview of the latest issues of interest to ICT professionals both in Australia and Internationally. We hope that you will find this information useful.
To contact a member of our Information Communications & Technology team, please click here
Kind regards
Brendan Coady | Partner
Direct 61 2 9225 6258
Robert Gregory | Partner
Direct 61 3 9240 0770
robert.gregory@maddocks.com.au
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Domain names
au/nz: 2010 Australia and New Zealand Internet Best Practice Awards Winners Announced
The winners of the 2010 Australia and New Zealand Internet Best Practice Awards were announced at a gala dinner at Crown Towers, Melbourne. Full Story
Survey reveals demand for .brand TLDs
Almost half of trademark-conscious companies are considering a “.brand” top-level domain, according to a survey carried out by World Trademark Review magazine. Full Story
Former ICANN chief speaks out against new TLD morality veto
Former ICANN president and CEO Paul Twomey has expressed his support for rules curbing the ability of international governments to object to new top-level domains. Full Story
.Com Deemed the Riskiest Top-Level Domain, Wrests Title From Cameroon
The .com domain is the riskiest in terms of containing code that can steal passwords or take advantage of browser vulnerabilities to distribute malware, according to McAfee. Full Story
56% of all dangerous websites end in .com, .jp is the safest country-level domain
More than half (56 percent) of all risky websites end in .com, says McAfee. According to the security firm's fourth annual Mapping the Mal Web report, 6.2 percent of websites are dangerous, that's up on 5.8 percent last year. Full Story
IPv4 Address Exhaustion Continues on Critical Path to Depletion
The depletion of IPv4 addresses continues on its critical path with there now being only five per cent of the addresses remaining to be allocated, with the pool still set to be exhausted in mid-2011, despite an increasing take-up of IPv6 addresses. Article 1 Article 2
Q: Is VB.LY Shutdown a Storm in a Teacup? A: Probably
Registrants with .LY domain names, the ccTLD for Libya, must have paused last week when the Libyan government ordered the cancellation of VB.LY, a link shortening service run by run by Ben Metcalfe and Violet Blue that redirects to adult content, as it was declared that the content of the site was "against Sharia law". Full Story
I Hate Ryanair UK Domain Transferred Because It Earned Money
The budget airline Ryanair is loved by some, loathed by others. But it survives as it is cheap, if you do not add in the extras! One of those who loathed it was Robert Tyler, from Walthamstow, north-east London, who set up a website using the domain name ihateryanair.co.uk for travellers to tell their tales of woe. Full Story
Internet Use
Internet users to exceed 2 billion by the end of 2010
One third of the world's population will be online by the end of the year, according to United Nations statistics. The number of people online has doubled to two billion in the last five years, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) said. Article 1 Article 2
We thought the internet was killing print. But it isn't
There is no clear correlation between a rise in internet traffic and a fall in newspaper circulation. Some papers are growing in both formats, others are succeeding in neither, according to new research. Full Story
Ray Ozzie tells Microsoft to 'go beyond the PC'
Microsoft must think beyond the PC if it is to weather the changes due to hit in the next five years. The warning was given by Microsoft's chief software architect Ray Ozzie in a memo penned soon after he announced he was leaving the company. Full Story
Archiving the web: National libraries start to preserve the web, but cannot save everything
Adam Farquhar, in charge of digital projects for the British Library, points out that the world has in some ways a better record of the beginning of the 20th century than of the beginning of the 21st. Whereas Google has hurried to scan books into its digital catalogue, a group of national libraries has begun saving what the online giant leaves behind. Full Story
Enough already: information overload
A survey revealed the latest affliction to hit white-collar workers. It’s called ‘information rage’, and almost one in two Aussie employees is affected by it. Overwhelmed by the torrent of data flooding corporate workplaces, many are on the verge of breaking point. Full Story
Study: 90% of US kids have online presence by age 2
It's increasingly common for children to have an online footprint before they're born, and most kids in many developed countries have some sort of digital profile by their second birthday, according to a new study by AVG, an Internet security firm. Full Story
Andrew Marr says bloggers are 'inadequate, pimpled and single'
The BBC's website has nearly 100 blogs and invites its readers to "have your say" on an enormous range of topics, from Westminster to the weather. Full Story
Intellectual Property
Agency queries plain-pack legality
The battle over plain-pack cigarettes has flared again with the disclosure that a federal agency raised the prospect of legal obstacles to the Labor government's plan. Full Story
Government hands IP to software developers
The Attorney-General’s Department has mandated eligible Federal Government agencies provide software developers and independent software vendors with first rights to intellectual property (IP) for software developed under contract from 1 October. Full Story
Apple faces $600m damages claim
Apple has asked a court to reconsider an impending decision that could cost it more than $600m (£379m) in damages. Full Story
us: IP Enforcement Policies Stir Censorship Debate
Efforts to ramp up intellectual property enforcement in the digital marketplace are bumping up against free speech advocacy in an international treaty nearing completion and a pending Senate bill, CongressDaily reported. Full Story
Online TV & Music
Judge Tells LimeWire, the File-Trading Service, to Disable Its Software
A federal judge in New York issued an injunction that will essentially shut down LimeWire, the big music file-sharing service that has been mired in a four-year legal struggle with the music industry. Full Story
Illegal online sports streaming of matches 'increases'
The number of internet streams showing matches illegally has increased, say some of the UK's biggest sporting bodies. Full Story
Mobile/Wireless
Smart-phone lawsuits: Nasty legal spats between tech giants may be here to stay
History buffs still wax poetic about the brutal patent battles a century ago between the Wright brothers and Glenn Curtiss, another aviation pioneer. The current smart-phone patent war does not quite have the same romance, but it could be as important. Full Story
If mobile phones can’t be kept out of prisons, can they be made useless?
The striking thing about mobile phones in American prisons is not that they exist—though they do, in great numbers—but the ingenuity used to get and keep them. There are the usual entry methods: from visitors, corrupt guards or in packages hurled over the fence. But phones often take more exotic paths. Full Story
Spam
ACMA hosts global anti-spam pow-wow
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) will this week host a series of meetings between international anti-spam regulators. Full Story
Digital Divide
au: Faraway kids in remote control
For the children of Yirrkala school, life in their remote community means less access than city kids to education technology. Full Story
Mobile phones help lift poor out of poverty: UN study
Mobile phones -- spreading faster than any other information technology -- can improve the livelihoods of the poorest people in developing countries. Full Story
UN highlights importance of ICT sector in creating opportunities for the poor [news release]
Services and goods associated with information and communications technologies (ICTs) are creating opportunities for the poor, but those sources of income are unevenly distributed and not always sustainable, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said today in a new report. Full Story
Online Crime, Security & Legal
International cyber security exercise: Cyber Storm III [news release]
Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, today launched Cyber Storm III – a major international cyber security exercise which will simulate cyber attacks targeting critical infrastructure and other nationally important systems and services. Full Story
au: Shrinking brains trust risks cyber defence
Australia's cybersecurity capabilities may be at risk due to a lack of PhD-qualified professionals. Full Story
us: Incidence Of Cybertheft Surpasses Incidence Of Physical Theft For The First Time, Study Says
Incidence of theft of information and electronic data at global companies has overtaken physical theft for the first time, according to a study released yesterday. Full Story
Privacy
Inside the cookie monster - trading your online data for profits
Sandwiched between a bakery and a health food supermarket in the heart of Cupertino, California, is the headquarters of a new kind of stock exchange - one that trades data, your data. Full Story
Government & Public Policy
'Surveillance state' fear as British government revives tracking plan
A £2bn plan to allow the police and security services to track the email, text, internet and mobile phone Full Story
US studying Australian Internet security program [AP]
The US government is reviewing an Australian program that will allow internet service providers to alert customers if their computers are taken over by hackers and could limit online access if people don't fix the problem. Full Story
Miscellaneous
Bees' tiny brains beat computers, study finds
Bees can solve complex mathematical problems which keep computers busy for days, research has shown. Full Story
Telecommunications
Australian broadband speeds stagnant: Akamai
Australia’s internet speeds continue to lag behind the rest of the world, according to a new research report from Akamai. Full Story
Akamai Announces Second Quarter 2010 State of the Internet Report [news release]
Akamai Technologies, Inc., the leading provider of cloud optimization services, announced the release of its 2nd Quarter, 2010 State of the Internet report available for download at www.akamai.com/stateoftheinternet. Leveraging information gathered from its global server network, the Akamai report provides insight into key Internet statistics such as broadband adoption, mobile connectivity, and attack traffic, as well as trends over time. Full Story
S.Korea widens lead in global broadband quality
South Korea has surpassed Hong Kong and Japan in broadband quality for the second consecutive year, setting a new global benchmark for speed and penetration. Full Story