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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 10 Issue 52
Volume 10, Issue 52 Atari Online News, Etc. December 26, 2008
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2008
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #1052 12/26/08
~ Happy New Year - 2009! ~ People Are Talking! ~ Who Owns the Web?
~ Amazon Holiday Record! ~ Game Sequels Help Sales ~ XP Gets A Reprieve!
~ Uproar in Australia! ~ Games Help Aging Brains ~ Win 7 Beta at CES?
-* Notebooks Overtake Desktops! *-
-* Australia To Test Internet Filter! *-
-* Verizon Wins Huge Cybersquatting Judgment! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Well, here we are the day after Christmas, and the "final" issue of the
year. Personally, I can't wait for this year to end because it has been
a long and dreadful year.
It's ironic that Joe mentions his family's holiday escapades this year,
especially with his dog. Joe's tales brought up numerous memories that
my wife and I have enjoyed over the years with our two dogs.
Unfortunately, those memories were cut all too short last week - our
"son" Butkus passed away last Saturday.
As I mentioned last week, Butkus was doing well, albeit a slow-paced
improvement. We saw him last Friday, and he seemed, to us, to be on
the road to recovery. The doctors were doing all that they could to wean
him off of the oxygen so he could breathe on his own and be able to come
home within a few days. But the day after we saw him, one of the ER docs
thought that there was "excess" air in his chest and wanted to validate
that with an x-ray. The x-ray verified her suspicion, and they opted to
drain the excess. That seemed to help. However, we got a call a couple
of hours later informing us that he had died. We immediately went to the
hospital to say our final goodbyes.
It's been an incredibly tough week, and not getting much better. We can
still "see" Butkus everywhere, anticipating his usual begging for a
MilkBone biscuit, or barking at the FedEx truck as it passes by the house,
or sitting by one of my windows watching for any movement outside, or
laying curled up on the couch having one of his typical dreams. None of
us, including Butkus' "sister" Buffy, has been managing his loss very
well. He was with us for more than 11 years, and that time was full of
joy. He was our best friend, and dearly missed.
So, even though my year is ending on a sad note, and the new one starting
with a heavy heart, I hope that all of you have had a good year, and a
promising new year to come. All of us here at A-ONE appreciate your
spending another year with us, and look forward to another year. It's
been 10 years already - hard to believe!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. Would you believe that there were a
whopping 6 new messages in the NewsGroup this week? That's right. Six of
'em... I hope that things pick up, or it'll take a month to come up with
a week's worth of messages.
I can remember a time when my major task was to decide which of the many
hundreds of weekly messages to use. Now my major task is to try to
squeak a column out of the messages or save them to add to next week's.
On weeks like this one, it's a no-brainer... they go in the bin to add
to next week's.
So, I guess I've got lots of space here to talk about stuff.
Today is the day after Christmas and I sit here with the remnants of a
Christmas tree and presents that've been mixed thoroughly with a
rambunctious dog who's never seen Christmas trees or presents before (we
didn't put up our Christmas tree last year BECAUSE of the dog).
Actually, she's done pretty well with it, and we've only had to shoo her
away from the tree a time or two, and I've already stopped comparing her
to Marley the lab from Marley & Me by calling Marley "the world's SECOND
worst dog", a twist on the book's subtitle "Life With The World's Worst
Dog".
Of course, Stormy (our lab-mix pup) looks at us with those big, soulful,
sad eyes and promises to do better... right up 'till the next time.
[grin]
Of course, Stormy got more presents than my wife and I combined, but
that's okay. We get to play with them with her... IF she lets us.
It's always amazed me that a creature who is so willing to share life
and love can be soooooo selfish where toys are concerned. When she zeros
in on one of her favorite toys, my wife and I seem to exist only
peripherally and even then only when we can actually enhance Stormy's
enjoyment, like throwing the ball or Frisbee for her.
Well, she IS a dog, after all, and I guess we'll cut her some slack.
I've been a 'dog person' all my life, and I can't imagine not having a
dog anymore. I had quite a dry spell, not having had a dog of my own
for... ohhh... twenty years or so. After my Siberian Husky died, I
needed some 'downtime' without a dog to constantly compare to him. Once
I got married, a dog was out of the question, since our landlord didn't
allow dogs or cats.
Of course, we did have other, smaller pets... Hamsters, fish, a prairie
dog... but they weren't the same as having a dog. Having a prairie dog
as a pet was an incredible experience, and I wouldn't have traded our
time with him for anything else, but he wasn't really a pet we could
take for a walk or train to do 'dog tricks'. You don't train a prairie
dog to be a pet... he trains you to be a prairie dog.
He was incredibly social and very loving... except during his mating
season. Even after having him 'fixed', from late October to February, he
was an unholy terror. You could be petting him one moment and he'd be
docile as a lamb, then a moment later he could be chattering, nipping
and scratching at you, ready to draw blood. It was just the way he was,
and while the peaks of his agitation were high, they never lasted very
long, and the intensity of his positive emotions the rest of the time
were amazing and actually very touching.
But still, despite his common species name, he was not, in fact, a dog.
He was a rodent, closely related to the ground squirrel. As interesting
and as loving and as comforting as he was, he just was not a dog. And
there really IS no substitute for a canine companion. There are those
who will tell you that a cat is the only pet to have, but you've really
got to be a 'cat person' to subscribe to that philosophy while a 'dog
person' will usually be more open to the possibility that some people
WILL prefer cats. Having said that, I've had cats too. It's just not the
same as having a dog.
Heh heh... you're not going to believe this, but as I'm sitting here
typing this (sitting on the living room couch with laptop on my lap),
Stormy came over to me and sat down next to me and ever so gently placed
her chin on my shoulder.
Okay, everybody all at once now... "Awwwwwwwwww" [grin]
Well, I couldn't think of a better note to end on than that one, so I'll
finish up with a quick reminder to not drink and drive on New Year's
Eve, and a single request that you donate a little to the local food
share or homeless shelter.
Of course, in keeping with the bulk of this column, I guess I SHOULD
mention that dog rescues and pounds could use a couple bucks from you as
well... but that's up to you. I know you'll do the right thing.. I trust
you.
So c'mon back next year and we'll see how things went. And let's hope
that there'll be more stuff in the NewsGroup and that we keep meeting
here every week for a long time to come.
'Till then, keep your ears open so that you'll hear what they're saying
when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Videogames May Do The Aging Brain Good!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" EA To Offer 'Spore' DRM-Free!
Sequels Keep Video Games Buzzing in 2008!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Videogames May Do The Aging Brain Good
Older adults might want to take an interest in their grandchildren's'
video games, if early research on the brain benefits of gaming is
correct.
In a study of 40 adults in their 60s and 70s, researchers found that
those who learned to play a strategy-heavy video game improved their
scores on a number of tests of cognitive function.
Men and women who trained in the game for about a month showed gains in
tests of memory, reasoning and the ability to "multi-task."
The findings suggest that videogames that keep players "on their toes"
might help older adults keep their brains sharp, the researchers report
in the journal Psychology and Aging.
This is the first published study to suggest as much, so it's important
not to overstate the findings, said senior researcher Dr. Arthur F.
Kramer, a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign.
Still, he told Reuters Health, the results are "very promising," as they
suggest that strategy-based videogames can enhance reasoning, memory and
other cognitive abilities that often decline with age.
The study included 40 older adults who were randomly assigned to either
the video-game group or a comparison group that received no training in
the game. Over 1 month, the gamer group spent about 23 hours training in
"Rise of Nations," an off-the-shelf video game where players seek world
domination.
Ruling the world, the game group learned, requires a complex set of
tasks, including military strategy, building cities, managing economies
and feeding people.
Study participants who trained in the game ended up improving their
scores in several areas of a battery of cognitive tests, Kramer and his
colleagues found.
More research is needed to confirm and extend the findings, Kramer said.
It's not clear, he noted, if other strategic games would have the same
benefits, or if the effects seen in this study persist over time.
Still, the findings are in line with research suggesting that older
adults can improve their cognitive health by staying both physically
active and mentally active through activities such as reading, writing
or other hobbies.
"Playing videogames with their grandkids would also be a great idea,"
Kramer noted, "because we know that social interactions - along with
physical exercise and intellectual challenge - also enhance the
cognitive abilities of older adults."
EA To Offer 'Spore' DRM-Free
Starting Monday, Electronics Arts will sell its popular video game Spore
free of any digital rights management restrictions.
It's part of a slew of titles which EA will offer on Valve's Steam
distribution platform, according to a report by Ars Technica.
Besides Spore, the collection will include Warhammer Online, Need for
Speed Undercover, Mass Effect, and FIFA Manager 09. Crysis, Crysis:
Warhead, and SiN Episodes: Emergence are already available on the
service, and there are more on the way.
Prices for the DRM-free versions are said to be on par with what the
games would sell for in a box in a retail store.
It's a move likely to win EA some points with gamers after the disastrous
public response to its DRM policy for Spore. Originally the company
locked the game using DRM software called SecuROM to no more than three
machines, which it later upped to five.
Sequels Keep Video Games Buzzing in 2008
Despite the sluggish global economy, video game sales remained
recession-proof in 2008 as game sequels were snapped up by fans and music
games struck the right note.
Sequels like MTV Games' "Rock Band 2," Bethesda Softworks' "Fallout 3"
and Konami Digital Entertainment's "Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the
Patriots" won over game critics and consumers.
"In uncertain economic times, gamers do what every other consumer does -
focus on quality brands," said Sid Shuman, senior editor at GamePro
Magazine.
"If game purchases are limited, gamers will flock to core titles that
are guaranteed to satisfy like "Call of Duty: World at War," "Gears of
War 2" and "Grand Theft Auto IV." Think of them as gaming comfort foods."
2K Games' "Grand Theft Auto IV," which was released back in April, has
sold over 11 million copies worldwide. The first next generation story
in the award-winning franchise presented gamers with an open world
sandbox to explore.
Xbox 360 gamers will be introduced to a new storyline come February 17
when "The Lost and the Damned" expansion pack is released digitally via
Xbox Live with the new episode introducing Johnny Lebitz and his biker
gang, The Lost.
With the average age of a gamer today 35, mature-rated games like
developer Epic Games' "Gears of War 2" have risen to the top of the
global charts. This sci-fi shooter that sent Delta Squad into the heart
of Planet Cera to take out the monstrous Locust Horde sold over 3
million units in its first month.
In the battle between Microsoft and Sony in the sci-fi sequel
department, Microsoft's Xbox 360-exclusive "Gears of War 2" nudged
Sony's PlayStation 3-exclusive "Resistance 2" by an aggregate review
score of 94 percent to 87 percent, according to GameCritics.com.
Activision returned to World War II after taking a year off in 2007 to
introduce "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" and gamers were eager to
experience the Pacific Theater of War in "Call of Duty: World at War."
The franchise has sold over 35 million units around the globe and
remains a top draw on Xbox Live.
Although Electronic Arts' "Madden NFL 09," the 20th installment in that
franchise, and "NCAA Football 09" once again attracted enough loyal
gridiron fans in the U.S. to place high in the charts, the music game
genre surpassed sports.
The one-two punch of Activision's "Guitar Hero" and MTV Games' "Rock
Band" have achieved success with both hardcore and casual gamers.
"Guitar Hero: World Tour," "Guitar Hero: Aerosmith" and "Guitar Hero
III: Legends of Rock" helped propel the franchise to global sales of
over 23 million, according to The NPD Group, Charttrack and GfK.
"In the aggregate, I expect "Guitar Hero" will sell through around $800
to 900 million at retail globally this year, while "Rock Band" probably
will sell through half that figure," said Michael Pachter, videogame
analyst, Wedbush Morgan Securities.
"However, "Rock Band" appears to have a huge lead in the sales of
downloadable content."
Nintendo's Wii ushered in a whole new gaming audience, and as a result,
Nintendo sequels like "Mario Kart Wii" and "Super Smash Bros. Brawl"
each sold over 4 million units through the end of November in the U.S.,
according to The NPD Group.
Nintendo creator Shigeru Miyamoto introduced a balance board that allows
gamers to exercise and do yoga with "Wii Fit," which has topped U.S.
sales of 3.5 million
And Nintendo wasn't the only one pushing creativity. Sony Computer
Entertainment and developer Media Molecule delivered the first
user-generated game experience with "LittleBigPlanet" on PS3. Gamers
have already created over 100,000 custom levels, which have generated
over 20 million plays.
"I think the very nature of the games industry has changed," said Anita
Frazier, videogame analyst, The NPD Group. "Yes, there is still a
dedicated group of core gamers and the really great more traditional
games will still sell a lot of units, but there is so much more
possibility now imaginable with content for videogame systems."
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Will Google and Microsoft Own the Web?
It's something of an open secret that Mozilla, the organization behind
the open source Firefox Web browser, gets most of its funding from
Google - 91 percent, to be exact.
The deal gives Google top placement in Firefox's search engine bar. But
now that Google is also shipping Chrome, its own branded browser, some
critics are asking whether the search engine giant's deep pockets have
allowed it to gain too much influence over the Web browser market.
This week, Mozilla CEO John Lilly admitted that his organization's
relationship with Google is "more complicated than it used to be"
in light of the current funding arrangement. But Sun Microsystems CEO
Jonathan Schwartz goes even further, claiming that because the market is
controlled by just a few giant companies - namely Google and Microsoft
- the Web browser has become "hostile territory" for application
developers. Could the days of an open Web be coming to an end?
The technologies used to build Web pages - including HTML, JavaScript,
and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) - are all open standards, maintained
by industry consortia. No one company owns them. But experimental
features often appear in new browser releases first, then are integrated
into the official standards later. One example is Google's Gears
technology, which is built into Chrome and is available as a plug-in for
Firefox and Internet Explorer. Gears is widely expected to influence the
upcoming HTML 5 standard.
That's all well and good, except that arguably only Microsoft can
compete with Google's share of the browser market. For example, Opera is
a longstanding alternative browser that is often praised for its
compliance with Web standards, but its market share is but a fraction of
that of Firefox or IE. Because of Opera's narrower reach, a new feature
introduced in Opera might be seen as less significant, and therefore be
less likely to become part of the public standards.
Sun's Schwartz has good reason to fear a market where large companies
wield an undue influence over widely-used technologies. A few years ago,
Sun fought a protracted legal battle with Microsoft over the Redmond-based
giant's nonstandard implementation of Sun's Java programming language. Sun
argued - successfully - that Microsoft's actions amounted to an attempted
hostile takeover of Java.
Rather than see the same scenario play out on the Web, Schwartz argues
that developers should avoid the "hostile territory" altogether. Instead
of the browser, he says, developers should build applications using
Sun's new JavaFX technology.
But this seems somewhat disingenuous, considering that JavaFX is so far
almost entirely the brainchild of Sun, and is therefore less open than
any browser.
But there are other reasons to be concerned about Google's stake in
Firefox and Chrome, too. Some privacy advocates worry that Google's
influence over the browser market gives it access to too much user data,
which the company collects for the purposes of its massively lucrative
online advertising business.
What do you think? Does the overwhelming influence of Google and
Microsoft on the browser market mean the Web is destined to become just
another proprietary platform? Or will the influence of open source and
open standards bodies ensure that the Web remains a free, public
resource? Sound off in the PC World community forums.
Notebook Shipments Overtake Desktops in New Study
Shipments of notebook computers edged passed desktop sales in the third
quarter for the first time, according to data from the research firm
iSupply.
Preliminary figures for the quarter show notebook PC shipments shot up
about 40 percent from the same period a year ago to 38.6 million,
according to iSupply. Meanwhile desktop shipments fell about 1.3 percent
to 38.5 million.
The numbers underscore a broader shift toward portable computing as more
functions like e-mail and Web surfing migrate to mobile phones and the
popularity of inexpensive "netbooks" used mainly for Internet access
grows.
"The trend has accelerated and will continue going forward," AmTech
Research analyst Dinesh Moorjani said.
He expects computer makers to ratchet down production of desktops by 20
percent in the fourth quarter while notebook production should remain
flat.
The research firm IDC also predicted this month that sales of laptops
would fair better amid a deepening recession. IDC projects portable PC
shipments will grow by 15.2 percent in 2009, while expecting a 6.7
percent decline for desktops and servers using PC microprocessors.
Microsoft Grants Windows XP A Reprieve
Some PC makers now have an extra four months to sell Windows XP.
The BBC reported Monday that Microsoft has extended the deadline for
smaller PC builders and resellers to obtain licenses for the
discontinued operating
system from the previous deadline of January 31, 2009 to May 30, 2009.
"Microsoft is making accommodation through a flexible inventory program
that will allow distributors to place their final orders by January 31,
2009; and take delivery against those orders through May 30, 2009," a
Microsoft representative said in an e-mailed statement. "This is not an
extension of sales."
Even after May 30, however, it's still not the end of XP. The operating
system will be available on ultra-low-cost PCs until June 30, 2010, and
the low-end Windows XP Starter Edition will continue to be available in
emerging markets until the same date.
Plus, big PC makers plan to offer PCs with Vista Ultimate and Vista
Business that have been factory downgraded at customers' request until
July 30 next year.
Microsoft May Release Windows 7 Beta at Show
Attendees at next month's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) could get
the first public look at Windows 7, the next version of Microsoft's
client OS.
At its Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles in October,
Microsoft said it would release the beta early in 2009.
Though nothing has been confirmed, signs are pointing to sometime in
January and possibly the CES show in Las Vegas as a likely release date.
CES is scheduled for Jan. 8-11.
A member of Microsoft's public relations team in the U.K. said in an
e-mail that at the show, "Microsoft will be making some significant
announcements including Windows 7." She did not specify exactly what the
news around the OS would be. But several blogs, including All About
Microsoft, have reported that beta testers are expecting a Windows 7
beta any day.
Furthermore, Microsoft wrote on a Web site for its Microsoft Developer
Network Conferences (MDCs) that attendees of those conferences, some of
which are scheduled for mid-January, can expect a Windows 7 beta DVD.
Some of the MDCs were this month and the site gave Microsoft an out if
the beta wasn't released in December, saying that "the DVD will be
shipped to attendees when it becomes available." A Windows 7 beta was
not released at those conferences, and the next MDCs are scheduled for
Jan. 13 in Chicago and Minneapolis.
Microsoft expects to release Windows 7 in early 2010, although some
industry observers expect it may be out by the end of 2009 because of
lackluster customer response to Windows Vista.
Many business customers in particular have opted to skip Vista and run
XPuntil Windows 7 is available.
Microsoft Has New Windows 7 Download Link
Microsoft's Web site has a new page with info on the Windows 7 beta,
including a download link and info on "What's coming in the Windows 7
beta." However, the download link isn't quite live yet, and as for
what's coming...well, you've probably already read a bit about the new
operating system. According to the site,
"Great ideas are often simple and clear. Here's ours: We're making
Windows 7 for you. This means we're:
* Tailoring it for laptops
* Making it work the way you do
* Designing it for web services
* Building it for entertainment
* Engineering it to be easy to own and manage
The site begs the question, when will the links be active? Popular
blogger Ed Bott has been postulating that CES will mark the date, what
with Steve Ballmer's eagerly anticipated keynote. But that's not for
another three weeks. Is simply MS getting ready early? Or are they
preparing a little holiday surprise for us all?
Australia To Test Internet Filter Next Month
The Australian government said Tuesday it would begin testing a pilot
system next month to filter harmful information from the Internet, amid
criticism that any such plan would be a technical failure.
The government's cyber safety policy aims to place a mandatory filter on
the web to shield children in particular from accessing illegal and
inappropriate material.
But Internet user groups, the pornography industry and others have
opposed the plan, saying any such measure would be impractical to
enforce, block access to some legitimate websites and slow down Internet
speeds.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said the government was aware of
the technical concerns about the plan.
"And that is why we are conducting a pilot to put these claims to the
test," he said in a statement.
Conroy said the trial, which would be conducted by several Internet
service providers from mid-January, would provide evidence on the impact
of content filtering.
Internet users lobby group Electronic Frontiers Australia said the trial
would likely show the government "that the technology just isn't there
to do what they want to do."
"If they want to pursue the child-safe clean feed... it's impossible to
do it in an highly accurate way. Trying will slow down the Internet,"
spokesman Colin Jacobs told AFP.
Jacobs said he was concerned about the government introducing a secret
blacklist of banned websites.
"We wouldn't go so far as to say the government is going to implement
something on the scale of the 'Golden Shield' in China and that they are
going to crack down on political speech or anything like that," he said.
"But the issue is that it's only in countries like that where there
exist secret government blacklists that are controlled by the powers
that be that determine what people can and can't see."
Uproar in Australia over Plan To Block Web Sites
A proposed Internet filter dubbed the "Great Aussie Firewall" is promising
to make Australia one of the strictest Internet regulators among
democratic countries.
Consumers, civil-rights activists, engineers, Internet providers and
politicians from opposition parties are among the critics of a mandatory
Internet filter that would block at least 1,300 Web sites prohibited by
the government - mostly child pornography, excessive violence,
instructions in crime or drug use and advocacy of terrorism.
Hundreds protested in state capitals earlier this month.
"This is obviously censorship," said Justin Pearson Smith, 29, organizer
of protests in Melbourne and an officer of one of a dozen Facebook
groups against the filter.
The list of prohibited sites, which the government isn't making public,
is arbitrary and not subject to legal scrutiny, Smith said, leaving it
to the government or lawmakers to pursue their own online agendas.
"I think the money would be better spent in investing in law enforcement
and targeting producers of child porn," he said.
Internet providers say a filter could slow browsing speeds, and many
question whether it would achieve its intended goals. Illegal material
such as child pornography is often traded on peer-to-peer networks or
chats, which would not be covered by the filter.
"People don't openly post child porn, the same way you can't walk into a
store in Sydney and buy a machine gun," said Geordie Guy, spokesman for
Electronic Frontiers Australia, an Internet advocacy organization. "A
filter of this nature only blocks material on public Web sites. But
illicit material ... is traded on the black market, through secret
channels."
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy proposed the filter earlier this
year, following up on a promise of the year-old Labor Party government
to make the Internet cleaner and safer.
"This is not an argument about free speech," he said in an e-mail to The
Associated Press. "We have laws about the sort of material that is
acceptable across all mediums and the Internet is no different.
Currently, some material is banned and we are simply seeking to use
technology to ensure those bans are working."
Jim Wallace, managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby,
welcomed the proposed filter as "an important safeguard for families
worried about their children inadvertently coming across this material
on the Net."
Conroy's office said a peer-to-peer filter could be considered. Most of
today's filters are unable to do that, though companies are developing
the technology.
The plan, which would have to be approved by Parliament, has two tiers.
A mandatory filter would block sites on an existing blacklist determined
by the Australian Communications Media Authority. An optional filter
would block adult content.
The latter could use keywords to determine which sites to block, a
technology that critics say is problematic.
"Filtering technology is not capable of realizing that when we say
breasts we're talking about breast cancer, or when we type in sex we may
be looking for sexual education," Guy said. "The filter will
accidentally block things it's not meant to block."
A laboratory test of six filters for the Australian Communications Media
Authority found they missed 3 percent to 12 percent of material they
should have barred and wrongly blocked access to 1 percent to 8 percent
of Web sites. The most accurate filters slowed browsing speeds up to 86
percent.
The government has invited Internet providers to participate in a live
test expected to be completed by the end of June.
The country's largest Internet provider, Telstra BigPond, has declined,
but others will take part. Provider iiNet signed on to prove the filter
won't work. Managing director Michael Malone said he would collect data
to show the government "how stupid it is."
The government has allocated 45 million Australian dollars ($30.7
million) for the filter, the largest part of a four-year, AU$128.5
million ($89 million) cybersafety plan, which also includes funding for
investigating online child abuse, education and research.
One of the world's largest child-advocacy groups questions such an
allocation of money.
"The filter may not be able to in fact protect children from the core
elements of the Internet that they are actually experiencing danger in,"
said Holly Doel-Mackaway, an adviser with Save the Children. "The filter
should be one small part of an overall comprehensive program to educate
children and families about using the Internet."
Australia's proposal is less severe than controls in Egypt and Iran,
where bloggers have been imprisoned; in North Korea, where there is
virtually no Internet access; or in China, which has a pervasive
filtering system.
Internet providers in the West have blocked content at times. In early
December, several British providers blocked a Wikipedia entry about
heavy metal band Scorpion. The entry included its 1976 "Virgin Killer"
album cover, which has an image of a naked underage girl. The Internet
Watch Foundation warned providers the image might be illegal.
Canada, Sweden, the United Kingdom have filters, but they are voluntary.
In the United States, Pennsylvania briefly imposed requirements for
service providers to block child-pornography sites, but a federal court
struck down the law because the filters also blocked legitimate sites.
In Australia, a political party named the Australian Sex Party was
launched last month in large part to fight the filter, which it believes
could block legal pornography, sex education, abortion information and
off-color language.
But ethics professor Clive Hamilton, in a column on the popular
Australian Web site Crikey.com, scoffed at what he called "Net
libertarians," who believe freedom of speech is more important than
limiting what children can access online.
"The Internet has dramatically changed what children can see," said the
professor at Charles Sturt University in Canberra, noting that "a few
extra clicks of a mouse" could open sites with photos or videos of
extreme or violent sex. "Opponents of ISP filters simply refuse to
acknowledge or trivialize the extent of the social problem."
Verizon Awarded 'Largest-Ever' Cybersquatting Judgment
A federal court in Northern California has awarded $33.15 million to
Verizon Communications in what the company is calling the largest
cybersquatting judgment ever.
Verizon, which announced the judgment Wednesday, had filed the case
against OnlineNIC, a San Francisco-based Internet domain registration
company. Verizon had claimed that OnlineNIC used Internet names - 663 to
be exact - that were chosen to be easily confused with legitimate Verizon
names, according to Verizon.
It might hard, however, for Verizon to actually collect on the judgment,
which was a default ruling, or one entered against a defendant who fails
to answer a summons. No one appeared in court on OnlineNIC's behalf or
in its defense, Verizon said.
We weren't able to get through to OnlineNIC by phone (the line just rang
and rang), and an e-mail request was not immediately answered. The
company claims on its Web site that it's an ICANN-accredited
registrar--but only through 2006. And the site offers a mailing address
in Oakland, Calif., not San Francisco.
The award amount was calculated based on $50,000 per domain name,
Verizon said.
"This case should send a clear message and serve to deter cybersquatters
who continue to run businesses for the primary purpose of misleading
consumers," Sarah Deutsch, Verizon vice president and associate general
counsel said in a statement. "Verizon intends to continue to take all
steps necessary to protect our brand and consumers from Internet frauds
and abuses."
Verizon, which says it has won a string of similar cases, is part of a
not-for-profit coalition founded last year that fights cybersquatting.
Amazon Claims Record Holiday Orders in '08 Season
Online retailer Amazon.com Inc. on Friday reported its best holiday sales
season yet, even as sales and traffic at U.S. store chains were the
weakest in decades, sending its shares up nearly 4 percent.
Analysts have pointed to Amazon as a rare bright spot in this year's
holiday shopping season due to its scale and flexibility, as retailers
try to outdo each other with deep discounts to lure consumers during a
recession.
Online sales were also helped by winter storms that hit large sections
of the United States on the last major shopping weekend before Christmas.
In a release titled "Amazon.com's 14th holiday season is best ever," the
company said more than 6.3 million items were ordered on its site
worldwide for the peak shopping day of December 15, amounting to 72.9
items ordered per second. On its peak day, it shipped more than 5.6
million units.
However, the company gave no financial details regarding the sales, such
as how its margins fared with the discounts seen across the retail sector.
Stifel Nicolaus analyst Scott Devitt said Amazon's day of peak orders
represented a 17 percent rise from a year ago, while its peak shipments
represented an increase of 44 percent. He rates the share a "buy" with a
$61 price target.
Amazon shipped merchandise to more than 210 countries, and said it
shipped more than 99 percent of orders on time for holiday deadlines.
=~=~=~=
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