Information Policy

WiBro Blankets Seoul With High-Speed Internet

Koreans have very high expectations on the quality and the speed of telecommunication systems, whether they are mobile phones or broadband Internet lines or a mobile TV. And that standard is being raised even higher this year with the introduction of Mobile WiMax (WiBro) network in major cities this year.

Between Jan. 15 and Feb. 4, The Korea Times conducted field tests of KT's WiMax service around Seoul. Testers used a Lenovo laptop PC and a finger-sized modem that comes with the WiMax subscription for free. The WiMax modem was plugged into a USB port of the laptop, and the green light started to blink in about 10 seconds to indicate it went online. The test vehicle hit the Seoul-Busan expressway, the main artery of South Korea, from its starting point near Hannam Bridge to Pangyo exit near Bundang, about 30 kilometers south of Seoul. To see whether the network works constantly, testers launched a real-time Web broadcasting channel of MBC TV, which requires a high-speed Internet connection for viewing. The result was almost flawless. During the 20-minute journey, the TV streaming had only two brief interruptions, each of them lasting less than one second. It actually seemed like a problem of the broadcasters' network, not WiMax's, because the Internet connection of the laptop remained online.

http://www.edemocracy-forum.com/2008/02/wibro-blankets.html

Anonymous Blogging and Defamation: Balancing Interests of the Internet

by Betsy Malloy

As more and more people create personal websites and blogs, courts are more frequently asked to rule on questions related to the Internet boom. Specifically, an issue has arisen concerning what standard to apply in defamation suits brought against anonymous bloggers. Courts have wrestled with producing an appropriate standard for revealing the identity of an anonymous blogger who posts allegedly defamatory material on a message board or website. Recently, in Doe v. Cahill, the Delaware Supreme Court created a strict standard that makes it extremely difficult for defamation victims to bring suit against anonymous bloggers. The standard created is far too sympathetic to anonymous bloggers and fails to address important issues facing victims of defamation. It is important not to silence communication on the Internet, but it is just as important not to silence victims of defamation. Therefore, this comment argues for the protection of libel plaintiffs facing defamatory comments from anonymous bloggers.

http://ssrn.com/abstract=1093525

The Future of International Law: Cybercrime

by Henrik Stakeman Spang-Hanssen

This Article first deals with the question of to what extent the Convention on CyberCrime have unreasonable implications for the individual Cybernauts, specially the convention's basic principle of aut dedere aut judicare - the duty of each party to extradite or to prosecute. Next, it deals with the problem that the convention pursuant to article 22(4) does not exclude any criminal jurisdiction exercised by a Party in accordance with its domestic law. It then describe when a state under public international law has jurisdiction over public international computer networks (the Internet), including the problem of where the offence is committed and who is the offender. In addition it deals with the problem of a minor being the offender and mention some Internet related cases involving juveniles. Finally, it deals with what public international law should embrace in relation to public international computer networks.

http://ssrn.com/abstract=1090876

Europe makes moves toward Internet censorship

Privacy advocates worry that filtering Internet sites related to piracy, terrorism, and child pornography will have serious effects on the freedom to communicate

http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/02/22/Europe-makes-moves-towards-Internet-censorship_1.html

Pakistan blocks YouTube website

Pakistan has blocked access to the popular YouTube website because of content deemed offensive to Islam. Its telecommunications authority ordered internet service providers to block the site until further notice.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7261727.stm

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID): A Focus On Information Security And Privacy

The deployment of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in a large number of application areas is promising. This paper introduces the main characteristics of RFID technologies and focuses on the information security and privacy aspects of RFID in the short term. It will be complemented by an overview of RFID applications and an analysis of economic aspects of RFID carried out by the OECD Working Party on the Information Economy (WPIE). Later on, and based on both sets of work, a common set of policy principles related to RFID will be developed. This report represents the first step of OECD work related to sensor-based environments. Follow-up work will address security and privacy issues raised by a number of possible longer-term trends such as the generalisation of object tagging (pervasive RFID), of open loop RFID and of other sensors and sensor networks that can monitor the environment.

http://www.olis.oecd.org/olis/2007doc.nsf/LinkTo/NT00005A7A/$FILE/JT03238682.PDF

Bangladesh gov't to adopt e-governance strategy by June

DHAKA, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The government will adopt an electronic governance strategy by June this year to help change the work-practice of bureaucrats, enabling them to serve citizens in a more effective way, leading English newspaper The Financial Express reported on Sunday.

Science and information technology ministry has assigned Price Waterhouse Coopers, a global consultancy, to draft the e-governance strategy, which is expected to modernize the functions of the state machinery.

http://www.egovnews.org/?p=3362

Malaysian Government Warns Bloggers Of Monitoring

A Malaysian government minister has accused bloggers, who have been writing avidly on upcoming elections, of being cowards and warned they are being monitored, a report said Friday. Youth and Sports Minister Azalina Othman said opposition parties were using blogs to get their message out because they believed the Home Affairs Ministry was busy monitoring reports in the mainstream media, the Star daily said

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080222/ttc-malaysia-vote-internet-0de2eff_1.html

Commission launches consultation on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)

The Commission is preparing a Recommendation that will address the issues raised by the use of RFID in terms of privacy, data protection and information security.

As part of this preparation, and given the importance of this forthcoming Recommendation, the Commission has decided to put up for public consultation all the articles that are currently being considered in its draft Recommendation. This will allow all stakeholders to voice their opinion on the subject. The public consultation will be open until 25 April. The Commission services will then analyse the received contributions and put forward a draft Recommendation for adoption before the summer of 2008.

EU Tube : video on RFID: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg1VKJUrxi4

http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/ipm/forms/dispatch?form=RFIDRec

Cybercrime And The Data Protection Law In Chile

Martha Arias CYBERCRIME AND THE DATA PROTECTION LAW IN CHILE Since e-commerce is growing fast in Latin American countries, these countries are steadily enacting legislation against cyber-crimes. There are innumerable types of cyber-crimes. The most currently and internationally prosecuted are, (i) Internet fraud (including businesses, auctions, merchants, securities, ect.); (ii) identity theft; (iii) hacking, data theft and destruction; (iv) child predation and pornography; (v) cyber-stalking; (vi) extortion and sabotage; and (vii) terrorism.

Both, international organizations and national governments are enacting legislation against specific types of cyber-crimes. For instance, some European countries have signed the Cyber-crime Convention, which addresses several Internet wrongdoings including intellectual property violations; the United States has enacted a great number of statutes typifying certain conducts as cyber-crimes offenses. Among them, we have the Digital Millennium Copyright, The Child Pornography Act, etc; the European Union published the Data Protection Directive as well as other Directives addressing Internet offenses.

Most of the domestic cyber-crime laws are crime-specific. Chile enacted a Data Protection law 19,223 in 1993. Following is a brief of the Data Protection Law in Chile.

http://www.ibls.com/internet_law_news_portal_view.aspx?s=articles&id=5F4845FD-71AD-45FE-98EF-6A2BC6C58649