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Yahoo To Begin Monitoring Hate Materials
In a reversal of its earlier pledges, Yahoo announced this week it would begin monitoring hate materials on its auction Web site. The California-based Internet portal said after a year of working with groups like the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Anti-Defamation League, it would institute a program to monitor and remove hate materials such as Ku Klux Klan or Nazi-related memorabilia.
Though the announcement follows recent court decisions in France that would have fined Yahoo nearly $13,000 a day if it continued to enable French citizens to publicly access racist or hate materials — a crime in France — the company said it did not issue the new policy in response to the court order. Last week, Yahoo asked a U.S. court to "invalidate" the French court order. The petition, filed in District Court in San Jose, seeks a judgment stating that the Paris court rulings are "not recognizable or enforceable."
China To Revise Its Telecom Pricing
Preparing for ascension into the World Trade Organization, China's Ministry of Information Industry, the State Planning Commission and the Ministry of Finance last week announced that they would slash the country's long-distance and overseas telephone rates. Additionally, the government would begin revising Internet connection charges in January. According to Nikkei Business News, the new telecommunications plans would implement shorter billing-time units, and a gradual overall reduction in phone charges with a new flat rate for all long distance calls.
Revisions to Internet connection charges are designed to produce 25 percent savings for every three minutes of Internet connection time. The plan would reduce current prices from 0.08 yuan per 3 minutes to 0.02 per minute, where 1 yuan equals 12 cents. China is betting the rate reductions will boost Internet use among the population. The plan also calls for China's government to dramatically reduce leasing fees for domestic and international phone circuits. According to the announcement, the leasing fee for international phone circuits would drop an average of 72.8 percent under the new system.
China's Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress also passed a resolution last week to enforce and punish individuals who violate computer security, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
High criminal punishments would be doled out for offenses such as entering national computer information networks, spreading slander and rumors or publicizing harmful information on the Internet, and stealing or disclosing state, intelligence or military secrets through the Internet. In addition to issues of computer security, the resolution also stipulates the spread of slander, ethnic hate-related materials and the organization of cults as criminal activity.
Brazilian Congress Extends Tech Tax Incentives
After a year-long impasse, Brazilian lawmakers delighted tech industry officials last week by approving a bill that would extend major tax breaks for the technology sector for nine years, the AP reported.
Specifically, the bill would extend tax breaks and incentives for producers of high-technology equipment such as computers, video monitors and cell phones across Brazil until 2009, and also would give a few extra advantages to the duty-free zone until 2013.
President Fernando Henrique Cardoso has 15 working days to sign the bill into law. Source at the country's Ministry of Industry, Trade and Development told AP that the impasse over the tax breaks prevented several major tech-related deals from moving forward. Industry officials say the approval clears the way for new development.
One of the first projects expected to go ahead is a much-discussed Dell computer factory worth approximately $125 million.
www.We're Watching You.com
A new Web site in Thailand aims to cut back on government corruption and increase accountability for politicians. Derived from a principle in the country's new constitution that dictates voters can force investigations of any politician if they collect a petition of 50,000 names, www.50000up.com will operate a portal for public opinion in hopes of using the response to hold politicians accountable for their actions.
Since its debut nearly two months ago, organizers said that more than 70,000 surfers have visited the Web site. Once the site is officially launched at the end of this week, sponsors hope to expand it into the realm of online voting. Though online voting is illegal, the Thai parliment is considering legislation that would speed the introduction of electronic voting.
Canada Uses Net Power For Recovery of Nazi-Seized Art
The National Gallery of Canada last week posted pictures of 110 of its art works on the Internet to try to determine if they were stolen by the Nazis during World War II, the AP reported. According to gallery director Pierre Theberge, the pieces listed on the gallery's Web site lacked information about their history of ownership from 1933-45. Theberge told AP that the National Gallery had yet to receive any claim of ownership from Nazi victims or their heirs for pieces in its collection.
Indian Industry Groups Look To Hackers For Security Advice
India's top software industry group, the National Association of Software And Service Companies (NASSCOM), said this week that it would enlist the help of teenage hackers to promote computer security in cyberspace.
Reuters reported that the National Cyber Cop Committee, set up by the software association, would rely on a group of 19 hackers, all between 14 and 19 years old, for advice and information to protect against computer hacking. Dewang Mehta, president of NASSCOM, said the teens "are brilliant. They told me that within five minutes they can hack the [Indian] Defense Ministry Web site...," he said "If you want to catch hold of a hacker, you need the brains of a hacker."
- by Maureen Sirhal
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