DIGITAL DIVIDE
A Burgeoning Hacker Culture Points to Promise in Africa
INTERNET
ICANN Threatens to Take Away VeriSign's '.com' Privileges
Campaign Reform Sponsors Oppose Internet Exemption
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Judge Blocks Napster's Sale to Bertelsmann
DIGITAL DIVIDE
A BURGEONING HACKER CULTURE POINTS TO PROMISE IN AFRICA
Despite inadequate infrastructure and training, a young generation of
computer-savvy people is taking root in Accra, Ghana's capital. Ghana
remains a country where "wiring a school" means installing electricity
service, not the Internet. "We talk about moving into the 21st century, but
the truth is that we never mastered the technologies of the 20th century:
roads, electricity, the telephone, water and the like," says Kwaku Boadu,
who runs a computer networking company in Accra. Against great odds,
however, youth are finding ways to tap into the global computing culture,
creating new jobs and identities in the process. Recently, the New York
Times published a page-one story about how data from New York City traffic
tickets was being computerized by Ghanaians at Accra's BusyInternet
cybercafe. The positive attention, and a growing awareness of the tech-savvy
youth scene, is encouraging to Accra's elite. "We are destined for greatness
as an information hub," says Ken Ofori-Atta, executive chairman of Databank,
a local investment bank and money manager.
[SOURCE: Technology Review, AUTHOR: G. Pascal Zachary]
(http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/wo_zachary083002.asp)
INTERNET
ICANN THREATENS TO TAKE AWAY VERISIGN'S '.COM' PRIVILEGES
VeriSign, the oldest and largest registrar of accredited domain names, is
being threatened by The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN), stating that VeriSign "ignored its contractual responsibility to
maintain an accurate, searchable database of its customers." VeriSign
currently manages more than 10 million domain names, and has 15 days to
remedy the contractual breaches before losing their right to sell dot-com
names. ICANN said that while all of the 150 registrars occasionally have
inaccurate entries, VeriSign's Dulles-based Network Solutions unit has
failed to remedy inaccurate information listed in its "Whois" database,
which tracks and displays information regarding individual domain names.
ICANN claims that VeriSign "has exhibited a pattern of persistent violations
of its contractual obligations to take reasonable steps to correct
inaccurate or incomplete Whois data in spite of repeated requests and
reminders by ICANN." ICANN also announced yesterday the establishment of an
online form that people can use to report faulty Whois data.
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: David McGuire]
(hhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34373-2002Sep3.html)
CAMPAIGN REFORM SPONSORS OPPOSE INTERNET EXEMPTION
The McCain-Feingold law, authored by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Russ
Feingold (D-Wis.), is currently undergoing hearings on the interpretation of
their law by The Federal Election Commission (FEC). The senators contend
that Internet-based political communications should follow the same rules
that soon will govern most forms of
political advertising. However, Bradley Smith, an FEC commissioner, states
that the statue makes no mention of expanding the law to include
Internet-based ads. "The flat exemption for the Internet proposed in the
regulation is too broad-brush a treatment of this issue, which requires a
more particularized approach," said attorney Donald Simon, in written
comments submitted to the FEC on behalf of Common Cause and Democracy 21.
The McCain-Feingold law will take effect after the November 6th election.
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Brian Krebs]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10966-2002Aug29.html)
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
JUDGE BLOCKS NAPSTER'S SALE TO BERTELSMANN
Napster, once the most popular Internet music file sharing program,
effectively ceased to exist yesterday with a court ruling by U.S. Bankruptcy
Judge Peter Walsh in Delaware. The judge ruled that Napster's acquisition by
Bertelsmann AG, one of the world's largest media companies, posed potential
conflicts of interests because Napster's chief executive Konrad Hilbers
worked with Bertelsmann before joining Napster. Napster laid off all of its
42 employees yesterday. "As with most start-up technology businesses,
Napster's technology is of little value without the talented team that
created it, so it is an occasion of loss on many levels," Napster said in a
statement.
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Frank Ahrens]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34582-2002Sep3.html)
----------------------------------------------------------------------