ARIN6902 Internet Cultures and Governance

GoDaddy.com, the world's largest domain name registration company is taking similar action to Google by deciding to not conduct further business in China. This decision is a reaction to China now demanding that applicants of domain names are to provide additional personal information, including a full colour head shot photograph. While China maintains forcing applicants to register extensive personal information will curb the creation of unsavoury sites (namely pornography) everyone else outside of the Chinese government believes such detailed personal information will equip the government to target any individual (to what extent - who knows) displaying any content that the government does not support. Is this an invasion of privacy? Should people be able to exercise multiple personas on the internet, or should you be who you are? If a government is to collect such information who will ensure the information it collects isn't abused? Do we answer these questions differently when thinking of China i.e. what would the answers be if Australia was to introduce such a law? At the very least, it's a relief to see companies realising that China is compromising the values of the internet and are reacting suitably by taking their services out of the country. More need to participate in the retalliation.

Following customer complaints, CommSec recently fined $55K for not providing customers an Opt out option when sending out e-marketing. As a response, CommSec have appointed an independant auditer to assess their e-marketing activity and provide training. I do question a lot of marketing departments... does it take a fine from ACMA before they get up to speed with how to conduct their communications and campaigns?

Their ad agency should know what they're doing! It's not hard to put an unsubscribe link in an email. Wacky.

Hmmm makes one think whether someone in marketing was too lazy in their job or whether CommSec knowlingly defied spamming laws. Australian spamming laws can be found at http://www.efa.org.au/Issues/Privacy/spam.html#acts

Stephen Conroy responds to the 'myths' about ISP filtering on the Punch

The US Federal Communications Commission has been dealt a major blow in asserting its right to regulate net neutrality with a district court ruling the FCC had "failed to demonstrate" its authority to interfer with activity undertaken by internet service provider Commcast. Comcast had been moving to restrict the internet access of customers using peer-to-peer sharing software, which uses large amounts of bandwidth and is a common mode of illegal video and music piracy.

In the words of one infamous US President, Australia - "you are either with us or against us". Australia's proposed mandatory filtering laws runs contrary to stated US foreign policy championing an open internet. Read US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton's remarks on internet freedom.

If you missed Abbott on Q&A last night the full transcript is here (http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s2859473.htm?show=transcript) or I've extracted the main bit about ISP filtering on my blog (http://logocopblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/facebook-v-isp-filtering-via-abbott.html). This article from the Oz also provides a good recap of Abbott's comments and some analysis...

The elderly in an effort to uphold their right to freedom of information are undertaking workshops which teach them how to circumvent the internet filters so that they can still access information regarding euthanasia which would otherwise be fettered with the proposed ISP filtering law …..how effective are these filters going to actually be?

More on the new remarketing offer from Google. This is a good effective way to market to consumers, however companies do still need to be mindful of their audience, especially if Google are now on board, and this does get the publicity around being creepy. What is currently an effective way to advertise, could turn sour.

Nick Xenophone wants a new law introduced that  could see people being jailed for up to 5 years if they lie about their age to children.  The idea has come about after the murder of Carly Ryan in 2007. 

This article discusses how online review sites can be manipulated, and the importance that companies place on 'word of mouth' for reputation. It raises this important issue: online reviews and comments are crucial for the reputation of 'real world' sites, so how can these sites be 'governed'? Or should they be?

Corporate governance is becoming more and more important, and in considering the growing economies in the Gulf states, there is considerable interest in the region. It will be interesting to see how models of corporate governance may differ in the Gulf countries, especially in relation to board members.

This article discusses how cyberbullying is on the rise in Asia. Cyberbullying is so great in South Korea, that students are in favour of government regulation that requires Internet users to supply their names, through a "real name system." One has to wonder, how great the harassment has to be, that the population is in favour of government regulation.

This article has been written in 2008 after the DITA/CMS Conference and discusses the added value of semantic tags according to Carolyn Inkster and Sharon Rouiller who work for IBM company.

This article discusses how a simulated war game called "Cyber ShockWave" can turn any electronic item, for example, cell phone or computer can be "weapons" used to shut down the Internet during terrorist attack. The notion of privacy and civil liberties, should expect to be ceased for Americans during a crisis of that level. During this mock scenario, it was revealed that "[The United States] don't have the authority in this nation as a government to quarantine people's cellphones." Which during a state of emergency brings to question if Internet carriers should allow their networks to be monitored. How secure is online security, and who is the enemy, becomes difficult to discern, as any threat to national security arises.

This article introduces another 'body' called auDA the Australian domain name administrator. The article discusses a complaint from the president of the Australian Web Site Developers Association after 500 sites he had set up, and $100K later were just switched off by the auDA bases on their assessment of use. Perhaps the auDA needs its own audit and regulation over policy approval!

Overview found on legal site about the Spam Act. The release covers examples of what the Spam Act is all about, breaches, consequences of breaches and also how companies and individuals can protect themselves (however this is more a sales pitch).

A group of teenagers in the US have been charged after months of bullying led to victim committing suicide. The district they live in has since passed a law requiring anti-bullying to form part of the curriculum.  

Listen to Radio National- Australia Talks. Presenter Paul Barclay mediates a discussion about the proposed mandatory internet filtering system. He talks with Minister Stephen Conroy and Colin Jacobs, Vice President of Electronic Frontiers Australia. Together with two experts, Mark Newton a network engineer and Andrew Graydon Chief Operations Office of Netsweeper, who both provide technical analysis on the efficiency of the filtering system.

Here is the wikipedia synthesis about the French law Hadopi. After a lot of reboudings and disagreements, the law which tends to bring a better control and regulation on the Internet has been adopted last october. If you are interesting, you can also find some further information on this blog: http://connectedresearch.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/france-approves-hadopi-2-law-on-illegal-downloading/

And as you can see, the effects expected are not immediate... http://connectedresearch.wordpress.com/2010/03/29/hadopi-leads-to-increased-illegal-downloading/

Digital Due Process is the name of a new coalition composed among other companies by Google, Microsoft and AT&T advocationg for a new legislation to strenght online privacy laws to prevent government access to private digital information in the US