E-GOVERNMENT
House Panel Approves Deep E-Govt Funding Cuts
Extra Push to Meet Vietnam's E-Government Goal
COPYRIGHT
Subpoenas Sent to File-Sharers Prompt Anger and Remorse
File-Sharers Fight Legal Moves
INTERNET
Blogging by the Numbers
"Open Access" Battle Sheds Light on Potential New Pricing Models for
Broadband
Diverging Estimates of the Costs of Spam
TELEPHONY
Telemarketers Sue Over Do-Not-Call List
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E-GOVERNMENT
HOUSE PANEL APPROVES DEEP E-GOVT FUNDING CUTS
Despite the Bush administration's request for $45 million to support the
much-touted E-Government Act, the US House Appropriations Committee has
offered only $1 million. The legislation, passed by Congress last year,
proposes to make it easier for citizens to interact with government, as well
as streamline citizen-to-government transactions. The Act also established
an Office of Electronic Government and funds improvements on the firtgov.gov
portal, among other e-government activities. Bush had hoped to see funding
increase to $150 million by 2006; the House Appropriations Committee,
meanwhile, explained its decision by saying the White House hadn't justified
the spending request. In the Senate, which hasn't taken up appropriations
for the legislation as of yet, Senators Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and Conrad
Burns (R-MT) are expected to fight for more money. The final dollar amount
eventually will be determined when the House and Senate meet in conference
to work out a compromise.
SOURCE: InternetNews; AUTHOR: Roy Mark
http://dc.internet.com/news/article.php/2240881
EXTRA PUSH TO MEET VIETNAM'S E-GOVERNMENT GOAL
Vietnam hopes to meet its goal of achieving advanced e-government services
nationwide by 2010, according to Mai Liem Truc, Deputy Minister of Post and
Telecommunications. The minister said that Vietnam's use of e-government
should promote economic development and facilitate interactions between the
government and the general population. Currently, Vietnam ranks 55th on a
list of 82 nations in terms of e-government readiness, according to the UN
Development Programme. Vietnam has much work to do if it is to reach its
goals, however; according to one ministry source, government officials
generally have limited IT skills, and IT literacy amongst the general public
remains low. Currently, around two percent of Vietnam's population are
online. The government is working to connect all research facilities,
universities, colleges, vocational training schools and over 1,000 high
schools by the end of the year, and hopes to raise Internet penetration to
around five percent by 2005.
SOURCE: Voice of Vietnam News
http://www.vov.org.vn/2003_07_28/english/kinhte.htm
See also:
Vietnam Internet Use on the Rise
http://www.vov.org.vn/2003_07_29/english/xahoi.htm
COPYRIGHT
SUBPOENAS SENT TO FILE-SHARERS PROMPT ANGER AND REMORSE
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has sent nearly 1,000
subpoenas to Internet service providers and universities, seeking the
identities of people suspected of illegal file sharing. Under copyright law,
the group can be awarded damages of $750 to $150,000 for each copyrighted
song distributed without authorization. Before pursuing individuals, the
association warned the public through instant messages and radio, television
and print advertisements. "We want the message to get across to parents that
what their kids are doing is illegal. We are going to file lawsuits," said
Cary Sherman, president of the RIAA. But some legal experts say the tactic
is risky, particularly if the industry appears to be concentrating on
individual and families with no resources to defend themselves. "The
practice of filing thousands of lawsuits is a game of chicken, and not a
sustainable model for the industry or the courts," said Jonathan Zittrain,
director of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. He said the
industry's challenge is "to truly convince the public that this is in the
public interest." Reactions of those subpoenaed include professions of
ignorance, fear of the financial and legal ramifications, shock and remorse.
SOURCE: New York Times; AUTHOR: Amy Harmon
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/28/technology/28TUNE.html
FILE-SHARERS FIGHT LEGAL MOVES
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has launched a website aimed at helping
would-be targets of file-swapping lawsuits initiated by the Recording
Industry Association of America. The site includes a database for users to
determine whether or not the RIAA sent them a subpoena, as well as resources
to help them challenge the action. "We hope that EFF's subpoena database
will give people some peace of mind and the information they need to
challenge these subpoenas and protect their privacy," said EFF's Fred Von
Lohmann. EFF has also partnered with the US Internet Industry Association to
set up a website called subpoenadefense.org which has details about
attorneys and other legal resources.
SOURCE: BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3102261.stm
RIAA subpoena database:
http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/riaasubpoenas/
INTERNET
BLOGGING BY THE NUMBERS
How many bloggers are out there in the Blogosphere, you may ask? Robyn
Greenspan of the CyberAtlas addresses the question, examining data collected
from various sources trying to determine how many people on the Internet
have created online diaries known as Web logs or blogs. According to
BlogCount, as many as 2.9 million people have staked a claim in Blogospace,
with 1.6 million of them utilizing one of the top three blog services:
LiveJournal, Blogger and DiaryLand. Jupiter Research estimates that around
two percent of the overall online population has created a blog. Bloggers
appear to be made up of 60 percent men and 40 percent women, generally
living in households making more than $60,000 per year. However, a majority
of blogs gets published via dial-up connections rather than broadband.
English is the language of choice for the majority of bloggers, while native
speakers of Portuguese, Polish, Farsi and French round out the top five.
SOURCE: CyberAtlas; AUTHOR: Robyn Greenspan
http://cyberatlas.internet.com/big_picture/applications/article/0,,1301_...
831,00.html
"OPEN ACCESS" BATTLE SHEDS LIGHT ON POTENTIAL NEW PRICING MODELS FOR
BROADBAND
During testimony at last week's House hearing on the "Regulatory Status of
Broadband," support for bit-rate pricing for high-speed Internet access came
from an unlikely party to the debate. Amazon.com vice president Paul
Misener, who has led a coalition of Internet content creators such as
Microsoft and Disney to prevent phone and cable networks from "impair[ing]
consumer access to Internet content," said that Amazon supported the right
of ISPs "to charge their customers on the basis of how many bits they
receive or transmit." Misener's Coalition of Broadband Users proposal is
seen as "modest" relative to the "open access" solution advocated by the
Center for Digital Democracy, the ACLU and many other public interest
groups, which would require cable and phone networks to support various
service providers while being prohibited from discriminating against certain
content or applications. At the hearing, representatives for Verizon and the
cable industry opposed any form of open access -- even the coalition's
proposal. Some fear that without safeguards, network owners will have
incentive to block access to certain content, placing limits on free speech.
SOURCE: Center for Digital Democracy
http://www.democraticmedia.org/news/washingtonwatch/payAsSurf.html
DIVERGING ESTIMATES OF THE COSTS OF SPAM
Experts agree that unsolicited email messages come at a much more
significant cost to recipients than to individuals, who need roughly .025
cents to send each message. There is discord, however, over the actual cost
to US companies. Estimates peg the annual cost per employee at anywhere from
$49 to $1,400. Other research suggests a quite different picture, as Peter
S. Fader of the Wharton School suggests that firms vastly overstate the cost
of spam. "I am deeply skeptical that these crude top-down methods are
accurate," he said. "Hitting the delete key is far more efficient than
carrying your physical mail from the mailbox over to the trash can." Fader
also argues that spam has accelerated the growth of the email
infrastructure, a point contended by Brian Voss of Indiana University. Voss
cites the multiple costs of network build-out that go beyond actual
computers, such as building filters and hiring attorneys to protect the
school against First Amendment violations. Lost productivity is another
significant factor, though it tends to be hard to quantify. ISPs have felt
indirect effects from spam -- companies like MCI report net losses when
spammers set up accounts and skip the monthly payments, while AOL's spam
filtering has actually reduced the volume of email they send to their users.
SOURCE: The New York Times; AUTHOR: Saul Hansell
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/28/technology/28SPAM.html
TELEPHONY
TELEMARKETERS SUE OVER DO-NOT-CALL LIST
The American Teleservices Association (ATA), an industry group that sued the
Federal Trade Commission in January to stop the federal do-not-call service
for consumers, is now after the FCC. The ATA has asked a Denver appeals
court to reject the FCC's new regulations, which close regulatory loopholes
and block calls from certain industries, including airlines, banks and
telephone companies. The ATA has asked the FCC to stay enforcement of its
rules until the court can review them. No court date has been set for the
case against the FTC, the group said. The telemarketing industry estimates
that the do-not-call list could cause it to lose up to $50 billion in sales
each year and eliminate up to two million jobs. The service will block about
80 percent of telemarketing calls after the FTC begins enforcing the list in
October. Exemptions from the list include charities, pollsters and calls on
behalf of politicians.
SOURCE: CNN; AUTHOR: Associated Press
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/ptech/07/29/telemarketers.sue.ap/index.html
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