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News Article Monday, January 8th 2007, 11:18am EST UK domain name dispute rules could change. The rulebook used in most disputes over .uk domain names is out of date, according to Nominet, the .uk domain name registry. Its suggestions for revision include the introduction of a financial deterrent against cybersquatting. A person wishing to complain about another party's ownership of a domain name has a choice between suing in court and following Nominet's Dispute Resolution Service (DRS). Court actions can be slow and expensive, though successful litigants can win damages and sometimes their legal costs from the losing party. Lawsuits are generally based on the laws of "passing off" and trade marks. In contrast, Nominet's Dispute Resolution Service is a more popular forum that follows its own rulebook, the DRS Policy & Procedure. (It is similar but not identical to ICANN's Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, or UDRP, the rulebook followed in disputes over .com, .net, .org and many other domains. UDRP disputes are handled by any of four approved providers, the best known of which is the World Intellectual Property Organisation.) Marketing Monday, January 8th 2007, 11:17am EST Avoiding Internet Marketing Burnout. Over the past 10 years, I've had dozens of friends, who had successful online businesses, tell me that they were going to quit the Internet marketing business and do something else. Over the past 10 years, I've gone to hundreds of websites to discover that the owners of the sites had left the online world. .. simply packed up and quit. Some of them explained why they quit, others simply allowed their domains to expire and quietly faded away. Many of the people, in both of the cases above, simply experienced "Internet marketing burnout." They no longer enjoyed Internet marketing and so they went on to do something that they enjoyed more. Let's briefly examine some of the causes of Internet marketing burnout and perhaps address how you can avoid it! News Article Monday, January 8th 2007, 11:15am EST Commentary: Does Sitcom Strategy Explain Anti-Porn Laws? As any fan of television comedy knows, the better sitcoms have always been plagued with censorship by the networks, and the better producers have always fought that censorship tooth and nail. Larry Gelbart has expounded on CBS's attempts to soften the bite of the long-running "M*A*S*H"; Barbara Eden's bellybutton was verboten on "I Dream of Jeannie"; and more recently, producer George Schlatter spoke on TV Land's "TV Land Confidential" about how he dealt with NBC's joke-stripping practices on Laugh-In. The answer the producers have almost always come up with has been misdirection: Have the show's writers load the script with oftentimes outrageous material the censors were sure to order taken out, and that would allow racy but tamer material to stay in. This ruse has worked since at least Sid Caesar's "Your Show of Shows," and shows no sign of failing even in 2007 – to the point that one might even suspect that the censors collude with the writers and producers to allow some racy material to get on the air. (The reactionary Parents Television Council undoubtedly believes this.) But what does that have to do with the adult video industry? News Article Monday, January 8th 2007, 11:14am EST Internet under attack by zombie computers. Computer code writers in Europe are the chief suspects in the creation of programs that turn other computers into zombie-like slaves for Internet crimes. Computer experts in Eastern Europe and elsewhere are likely behind the newest computer crime plaguing the Internet, which has turned innocent users into unwitting participants and left security experts stumped, The New York Times reported. By inserting small programs into others' computers, electronic criminals can harness the collective power of multiple computers to commit more elaborate online crimes. "It's the perfect crime, both low-risk and high-profit," computer security researcher Gadi Evron said. "The war to make the Internet safe was lost long ago, and we need to figure out what to do now." While some zombie computer crimes have been linked to computers running Linux or Macintosh operating systems, officials have warned that Windows systems are the most susceptible. News Article Monday, January 8th 2007, 11:13am EST ICT blocks porn site abusing Buddha's name. Thailand's Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has blocked a US-based pornography website, using the word "Buddha" in a website name, ICT Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom. The website www.Buddha-porn.com has already been blocked by the ICT ministry. The ICT minister said there are no measures to prevent launching improper websites on the Internet when they are based in other countries. The ministry can only block such websites after officials detect them, he explained. Minister to the Prime Minister's Office Khunying Dhipavadee Meksawan said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will contact the website owner as a warning before taking legal action against him. Site Development Monday, January 8th 2007, 11:12am EST Liquid vs. Fixed Layout Debate in Modern Web Design. For the last 10 years the question of whether to use fixed or liquid layouts when designing a website has raged on in the web design world, with major design players on both sides of the proverbial fence. Recently though, as screen resolutions have increased dramatically, fixed layouts have all but replaced liquid, but there are still come major advantages to a liquid layout if designed properly. News Article Monday, January 8th 2007, 11:11am EST Rogue diallers still a threat. Rogue diallers are still a major threat to home PC users, according to figures collected by security software vendor Kasperksy Lab for December. The scams made up one third of the top 20 online threats in the run up to the new year. The top two alone - Trojan.Win32.Dialer.cj and Trojan.Win32.Dialer.hz – accounted for 24 per cent of online threats in December. The research indicates that even among a PC-literate audience, around 10 per cent still use dial-up connections to access the internet at home. This makes them vulnerable to rogue diallers – something that will continue into 2007. But it’s not just dial-up users who are affected: broadband users are also at risk if they still have a dial-up modem on their PC.'We have heard of a number of instances where people believed they would be safe from rogue diallers because they have broadband access, but they have still been ripped off,' says David Emm, senior technology consultant at Kaspersky Lab. News Article Monday, January 8th 2007, 11:10am EST Grannies make grade in film and it's not pretty. Just a year ago, on this same date and in this same space, I lamented the banishment of women from the television screen once they've passed the age cusp of 60 years. And, indeed, that banishment seems to continue, although there are glimmers of change on the horizon. As 73 million boomers start easing into their sixth decade, the biggest news in entertainment programming is the sudden sexual desirability of women old enough to be somebody's grandmother. Ladies over 50 are returning to stardom – showcasing their talents in granny-fetish porn films, the latest hot ticket in the naughty cinema world, according to The New York Times.I don't know whether to feel vindicated or violated. News Article Monday, January 8th 2007, 11:09am EST Top Ten Spyware Threats for December. Sunbelt Software, a leading provider of Windows security software, today announced the top ten most prevalent spyware threats for the month of December 2006. The results are based on monthly scans performed by Sunbelt's award-winning antispyware product CounterSpy(TM). The WinAntiVirusPro threat appears for the first time in the top ten lists and is a rogue antispyware program that purports to scan and detect malware or other problems on the computer. The application then attempts to badger users into purchasing the program by presenting the user with intrusive, deceptive warnings and/or false, misleading scan results. The top ten most prevalent spyware threats for the month of December are: News Bytes Saturday, January 6th 2007, 9:36am EST The Rest of the News - Updated Continuously. Terror nuke rocket attack plotted in Australia.  News Article Saturday, January 6th 2007, 9:35am EST Fewer Charges for 'Girls Gone Wild' Creator. A judge on Thursday dropped most of the charges filed against the producer of the "Girls Gone Wild" video series, saying the evidence did not support the allegations involving the filming of a pair of underage girls at spring break. Of the more than 40 criminal charges filed, only four felony and two misdemeanor counts remain against series creator Joe Francis and his company, Mantra Films, Inc., after two 17-year-old girls claimed a "Girls Gone Wild" cameraman videotaped them in sexual situations on Panama City Beach in 2003. The remaining felony counts charge that Francis and the company used minors in sexual performances and conspired to use minors in sexual performances, which would carry a maximum combined prison sentence of 40 years if convicted. The two misdemeanor counts charge Francis and the company with prostitution. The punishment for those charges was not immediately known. In her ruling, Circuit Judge Dedee Costello said she kept those charges because prosecutors have said a photographer and a cameraman may testify at the trial. Search Engines Saturday, January 6th 2007, 9:34am EST SEO Holy Trinity, Holy Grail, and Wholly Textbook. If there was a Holy Trinity of SEO I would say it would have to be copywriting, usability and links. These three things make up the bulk of any SEO campaign and also hold the most influence as to how a site will rank. But there is one important part of SEO that is actually more important than this Trinity, and that is Keyword Research. Without this, any SEO campaign, even "Textbook SEO," is basically a game of pin the tail on the online donkey! News Article Saturday, January 6th 2007, 9:34am EST Microsoft pulls four planned patches. Microsoft has pulled four bulletins from its announced list of Patch Tuesday fixes, but did not specify why it was backpedaling on the security releases. It now plans to issue four security bulletins on Tuesday, rather than the eight originally announced, the software giant said Friday in an updated notice on its Web site. Three bulletins will contain fixes for Office, at least one of which will be rated "critical," Microsoft said. Critical vulnerabilities typically can allow a worm to spread or allow a Windows system to be fully compromised with minor or no interaction from the person using it. The fourth bulletin, for Windows, is also tagged critical. News Article Saturday, January 6th 2007, 9:32am EST Google blacklist sheds light on phishing tactics. An analysis of Google's blacklist of suspected phishing sites found that eBay, PayPal and Bank of America together account for almost two in three (63 per cent) of suspected scam sites. Security researcher Michael Sutton also discovered that Yahoo! hosts a significant number of bogus websites - as identified by Google's blacklist) - that try to trick surfers into handing over Yahoo! login credentials. Information from the list is used by anti-phishing technology within the Firefox 2 browser and by the Google Toolbar for Firefox. Sutton found that 83 per cent of sites detailed on the list are no longer available. By their nature, phishing websites have a rapid turnover but Google's blacklist, and other such initiatives, undoubtedly helpCERTs and other net defenders to identify and remove bogus websites more quickly. News Article Saturday, January 6th 2007, 9:31am EST Internet obsession a growing disorder. A few months ago, it wasn't unusual for 47-year-old Carla Toebe to spend 15 hours per day online. She'd wake up early, turn on her laptop and chat on Internet dating sites and instant-messaging programs - leaving her bed for only brief intervals. Her household bills piled up, along with the dishes and dirty laundry, but it took near-constant complaints from her four daughters before she realized she had a problem. "I was starting to feel like my whole world was falling apart - kind of slipping into a depression," said the Richland, Wash., resident. "I knew that if I didn't get off of the dating sites, I would just keep going," detaching herself further from the outside world.Toebe's conclusion: She felt like she was "addicted" to the Internet. She's not alone. Domains Saturday, January 6th 2007, 9:30am EST .mobi - Birth of a Mobile Internet Revolution? The recent announcement that .mobi domain names had been released for general sale caused very little stirring on the Internet. It has been heralded as the dawn of a new era for the mobile Internet but many believe that once the initial land rush for domains has passed, it will become just another top-level domain like all others. .Mobi domains have already been purchased by a lot of companies. Initially, from May of this year, trademark holders from within the mobile communication world were given the opportunity to secure the domain associated with that trademark. Then in June, all remaining trademark holders were given the opportunity until finally this month, September, domain names go on general sale. News Article Saturday, January 6th 2007, 9:29am EST The legal rights to your avatar. A Second Life land developer has convinced YouTube to pull down an off-color video of her virtual self being harassed during an interview, raising novel questions about the legal rights of virtual world participants. Last month, Anshe Chung Studios demanded that YouTube delete the recording, citing the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, which generally requires Web sites to remove material that infringes on copyright laws. The controversy stemmed from video taken during an interview with Anshe Chung, the virtual world's biggest land owner, conducted by CNET News.com in its Second Life bureau last month. During the interview--which took place in a digital theater in front of dozens of audience members' avatars--a group intent on sabotaging the event attacked it with 15 minutes of animated penises and photographs of Anshe Chung's real-life owner, Ailin Graef, digitally altered to make her look like she was holding a giant penis. Afterward, a video of the attack was posted on YouTube. News Article Saturday, January 6th 2007, 9:28am EST CES: Like Woodstock for marketing execs. The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is more than a nearly week-long peek into the future of home electronics. It's also a panicky mob of people from all over the world trying to figure out who will be the winners and losers in a multibillion-dollar global business. Here are some expected highlights of the massive event, which kicks off at 6:30 p.m. PST Sunday with a preshow keynote address by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and then runs through Thursday. News Bytes Friday, January 5th 2007, 11:30am EST The Rest of the News - Updated Continuously. Oil Prices Drop Below $55 a Barrel. News Article Friday, January 5th 2007, 11:29am EST Porn Biz Seeks Growth On TV--And Not-So-Furtive Future. Sexual entertainment content on cable systems still has a good growth rate. Porn everywhere else? Not so much. The overall porn business--much of it coming from DVD sales--is set to grow by 2.4% to $12 billion. Cable industry revenue from sex-related content on pay-per-view and video-on-demand sales is moving at a clip nearly three times that, a 6.5% growth rate. Overall VOD revenue growth is expected to be double that. Once again the Internet is to blame--but how much? Few people know, since financial data is hard to access, especially since many companies are private. Sex movies bring in about $515 million a year for cable operators, representing about a third of all PPV/VOD business. To some, the porn business has been the cable operators' dirty little secret. But all that is set to change. One can believe the slowdown isn't because consumers aren't interested in porn, but that, as with music, movies, and other entertainment, people are looking to get it for free--on the Internet. What's next? Perhaps the porn industry should take its cue from non-porn video on the Internet, and offer up advertising-supported video porn content?  Marketing Friday, January 5th 2007, 11:28am EST Marketing with Online Social Networks. I think I figured it out. In learning about online social networks, blogs, the 1% rule and all of the rest, I think I have developed a pretty good way to generate A LOT of online traffic, and because I am a big fan of Who Moved My Cheese and Your Iceberg Is Melting, I will explain the process with a story. So here is my Once Upon a Time to help you explode your presence online: Before we begin our story we must realize that for every online social network, 1% of the visitors will stop to create a profile and only 10% of those people will actively participate in the network. This is the 1% rule. News Article Friday, January 5th 2007, 11:27am EST Taiwan quakes cost Chinese 10,000 domain names. The 26 December earthquakes off Taiwan - which cut undersea telecoms cables and severely disrupted internet connections across Asia - also cost the Chinese 10,000 domain names, Reuters reports. The addresses went AWOL because users "were unable to update them or failed to re-register them on their expiry", according to the China International Network Information Centre. The centre added that it was not responsible for the loss since the outage was caused by an "act of God" - a strangely inappropriate buck-pass for a Communist country. However, there is hope. Xinhua news agency said "domain name servers may compensate individuals and companies under a scheme yet to be finalised". News Article Friday, January 5th 2007, 11:26am EST This time of year it's as predictable as college bowl games -- e-mails from scammers pretending to be the Internal Revenue Service and offering a refund. What the sender hopes will happen is that unsuspecting people will provide enough personal and financial information so their identities can be stolen. Such an e-mail -- using an official-looking IRS logo -- recently surfaced in the Pensacola area. The e-mail encouraged recipients to "click here" to access the needed form to retrieve the $79.80 refund. Scott Cutler, executive vice president at AppRiver, a Gulf-Breeze-based e-mail security company, said the e-mail originated in Italy. But when people responded, the information was forwarded to a hosting company in France. News Article Friday, January 5th 2007, 11:24am EST Banks to finance Prostitution! Amsterdam Mayor Job Cohen is asking two of the oldest professions - prostitution and banking - to link hands in an effort to clean up the finances of the city's Red Light district. The popular Cohen is adopting a two-pronged strategy of closing down sex businesses tainted by money laundering, while simultaneously promoting the legitimate sex industry that draws thousands of tourists to the Dutch capital. The first part of the strategy went into operation at the end of last year. The city authorities withdrew licenses from Charles Geerts, who operates fully a third of the 350 windows used by prostitutes in the 'Wallen,' as the district is known. Geerts, a 63-year-old native of the city who made his fortune in pornography in the 1970s, has challenged the decision through courts, pointing to longstanding good relations with the authorities. Deploying the second part of his strategy, Cohen is approaching sober-suited bankers to ask them to provide financing for the sector. Podcast Friday, January 5th 2007, 11:23am EST A federal court says virtual porn and real porn are not the same thing, that computer-generated images cannot violate federal laws against child porn. We talk with CNET New.com's Declan McCullagh about this court decision. News Article Friday, January 5th 2007, 11:22am EST ERG tight-lipped on $26m smartcard deal with porn site boss. The long-suffering ERG Group struck its latest smartcard deal with hardcore gay-porn website entrepreneur James Mackay, who has been under investigation by US authorities. The $26 million smartcard deal with First Versatile Smartcard Solutions Corp (VersaCard) in the Philippines will provide the operators with access to confidential information on thousands of customers and an entre into the country's cash payments and banking system. Although the deal was announced in November by ERG, Mr McKay's companies had announced it five months earlier. Sure Trace Security Corp, Globe Staff Consulting and True Product ID announced their "brand new electronic payment system" deal using ERG technology on June 29 last year. ERG declined to provide details of Mr Mackay's involvement yesterday, nor did the company confirm whether it knew about his corporate track record when it negotiated the transaction. News Article Friday, January 5th 2007, 11:21am EST Using highly scientific methodology as well as algorithms snuck out of NASA and Google, we analyzed cities across the US to find the top 10 places to get your geek on. News Article Friday, January 5th 2007, 11:20am EST Penthouse Pet Charged Under RICO. Penthouse Pet and adult star Lisa Ann Taylor (known professionally as Melissa Wolf) has been charged with violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act after being arrested for prostitution and conspiracy to possess drugs. Arrested at her million-dollar Sugarloaf Country Club home, Taylor, along with another woman, was allegedly providing “dates” for as much as $10,000. News Article Friday, January 5th 2007, 11:19am EST 16-year-old Norwegian filesharer charged. A 16-year-old from Stavanger in Norway who shared thousands of movies and songs through the P2P program Direct Connect, has been charged with illegal file-sharing, Norwegian Aftenposten reports. The boy allegedly ran the Stavanger Dragon Hub, from where at least 7,000 movies, 150,000 songs and 20,000 video clips were shared illegaly. The server was tracked down last year by Norwegian law firm Simonsen, which is acting as regional representatives for the Motion Picture Association (MPA). The hub was closed immediately. News Article Friday, January 5th 2007, 11:18am EST IE 'unsafe' for 284 days last year. Using IE6 was "unsafe" 284 days last year even for users who patched their systems as soon as Microsoft released fixes. An analysis by the Washington Post's Stuart Krebs revealed that exploit code for critical unpatched flaws in IE6 was available for three-quarters of the time last year. Even worse, for at least 98 days last year no patches were available for flaws that were been actively exploited by hackers to steal personal data. Firefox users, by comparison, were exposed to critical, unpatched flaws that were actively exploited for just nine days last year. This single period of exposure compares to multiple overlapping periods of vulnerability faced by IE6 users.  News Article Thursday, January 4th 2007, 1:03pm EST The Rest of the News - Updated Continuously. Final rest for Gerald Ford in hometown. News Article Thursday, January 4th 2007, 12:15pm EST Why Shut Down Child Porn Sites When You Can Just Tell ISPs To Block Them? We've often discussed how ISPs should focus on providing bandwidth, and leave policing content to law enforcement. Italy is just the latest country to place the child porn cure onus on ISPs, and have tasked providers with banning access to child porn sites within six days of being told about them. The announcement from the Italian Prime Minister's office makes no mention of who is determining what sites should be blocked, how the determination is made, or how ISPs should go about blocking access -- but you get the impression such details aren't as important as the political grandstanding. Whether you're talking about blocking child porn or hate speech, we've long argued that the proper course of action is to target the provider and the host of the content -- not to burden ISPs with the costly role of playing middle man. Even if offending sites are successfully blocked, users who want access to banned content will ultimately find other ways to get to it, and illegal content providers will continue to find ways to satisfy that demand until they face proper criminal penalty -- leaving the original problem intact. If the Italian Prime Minister's office can spend time surfing for child porn sites, they should finish the job, and collaborate with law enforcement to take them offline -- either by arresting the offenders or pressuring the content host. Laying the mess in the lap of the ISPs is a lazy and ineffective cop out. News Article Thursday, January 4th 2007, 12:14pm EST Forget porn shops--let's protect kids from churches. Here we go again, with crusaders preaching their holy law: oppression. Rick Hazelgreen's op-ed on pornography is as ironic and untruthful as the book he probably believes to be sacred ["Planning for porn," Dec. 17]. Striking to me is the tone of his concerns. His proposal to localize these stores in industrial parks is ludicrous and entertaining. The idea is for the police to "concentrate their major enforcement efforts to a specific industrial park." Almost sounds like the herding of "nonreligious followers" in an organized fashion. Allowing sales within 500 feet of certain establishments is "an invitation for trouble." So are spray paint sales. We need to "protect our most precious resource--our children," he says. And he concludes with the idea that potential pedophiles will find a way to abuse our children. I ask, can't they do that already? I'd like to refocus his ideas to the churches. Why are churches allowed to be located so close to schools? The pestilence of religion is scattered throughout communities. Television is littered with evangelists looking for money and preying on the despair of the viewers. Bibles are placed in all hotel rooms. Billboards with pictures of some figure believed to be almighty block the scenery on our highways. I say the religious followers are a huge threat to our children. And who says churches are safe? Many priests are pedophiles, plastered all over the news these days. News Article Thursday, January 4th 2007, 12:12pm EST '07 Utah Legislature to wrestle few 'moral bills'. Critics of the Utah Legislature often charge that conservative legislators meddle with so-called "moral bills" that do little but give the state bad public relations and costly lawsuits, which the state often loses. But so far among the several hundred pre-filed bills and bill-drafting titles for the 2007 Legislature, there are fewer moral bills than in recent years, a review by the Deseret Morning News found. The 45-day session starts Jan. 15 and legislators have until Jan. 25 to officially introduce a bill. In addition, any legislator can ask that a bill be kept secret during its drafting. And so, there are often last-minute bills that pop up just before the bill-filing deadline. But as of now there are just a few bills that could well bring morality debates and, possibly, lawsuits should they become law. Perhaps the most far-reaching is HB50 by Rep. Scott Wyatt, R-Logan, a former Cache County prosecutor. Wyatt wants to include "inappropriate violence" as a criminal offense within the Harmful Materials to Minors Act — a current state law that has over time been much debated in the Legislature. As it now stands, any adult who intentionally gives pornography to a minor — defined as anyone younger than 18 years old — can be found guilty of a third-degree felony. The harmful material is limited to a sexual nature, with language from a U.S. Supreme Court decision using local community standards to define pornography. News Article Thursday, January 4th 2007, 12:11pm EST Brazil court orders YouTube shut on celeb sex video. A Brazilian court ordered the popular video sharing service YouTube, a unit of Internet search provider Google Inc., to be shut down until it removes a celebrity sex video from its site, a judicial clerk said on Thursday. Daniela Cicarelli, a model and ex-wife of soccer great Ronaldo, sued YouTube after a video of her apparently having sex in shallow water on a beach with her boyfriend was posted to the site. For days it was the most viewed video in Brazil. Cicarelli and boyfriend Tato Malzoni filed to force YouTube to take the video down and demanded $116,000 in damages for each day the video remains up. Some copies of the video have been taken off the site but users have reposted it. The case dragged on for several months before they filed a third suit in December requesting that YouTube be shut down as long as the video is available to users. The court honored that request on Wednesday, but legal experts say the ruling by the Brazilian court could be difficult to enforce in the United States, where YouTube is based. News Article Thursday, January 4th 2007, 12:10pm EST Click here to continue to "Porn on Wii Cracked Out". Porn follows money, just as horny adult males who aren’t or can’t get ‘any’ follow porn, which is why online filth peddlers are already producing Wii-friendly sites. A reader on Ars Technica writes, “So shortly after getting the trial version of Opera on the Wii I went to a free adult site to look at some photos. Yesterday I went back and... well, apparently either the site maintainers are Wii enthusiasts or I'm not the only one. The site has added a ‘Wii friendly’ interface for browsing their content. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised the adult industry seems to always know where technology is going, but I'm surprised to see it so quick. The browser hasn't been available but for a week now.” News Article Thursday, January 4th 2007, 12:09pm EST SanDisk rolls out flash hard drives for laptops. SanDisk wants to replace the hard drive in notebooks with flash memory, a swap that it says will make thin laptops faster and more reliable. The switch, however, will cost you a few hundred dollars more. SanDisk on Thursday released a 32GB drive for commercial notebooks that stores information on flash memory chips rather than the magnetic platters that make up a traditional hard drive. The drive is available only to manufacturers, and the company declined to give out pricing or identify any notebook makers that will adopt it, but SanDisk said notebooks sporting the drive could come out in the first half of 2007. News Article Thursday, January 4th 2007, 12:08pm EST Indications of a slowdown in sex entertainment trade. The sex-related entertainment industry's leading performers, owners and fans gather in Las Vegas for three conferences starting next week amid indications that pornography's robust growth since it came out from behind the counter in the 1970s is slowing. The sex-related entertainment business grew in 2006 by just 2.4 percent, roughly the rate of inflation, to just under $13 billion, according to Paul Fishbein, president of the AVN Media Network, which publishes five trade magazines and runs industry conferences. Jerry Ropelato, an opponent of the industry who owns the Web site TopTenReviews.com, gave a slightly smaller estimate of the size of the business, about $12 billion. "The porn industry is still growing," Ropelato said, "but just not at the growth rates they experienced in the past." Fishbein's estimates indicate that for every dollar Americans spent buying tickets to Hollywood movies last year, they spent about 90 cents viewing sex movies in various formats. News Article Thursday, January 4th 2007, 12:06pm EST Computer waste law becomes active after long delays. Laws forcing suppliers of IT equipment to dispose of it free of charge in an environmentally sound manner have come into force in the UK. The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive of the European Commission became law in the UK on 2nd January. It was originally intended to be transposed into all European laws by August 2004 but was delayed several times.The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2006 take immediate effect, but state that suppliers do not have to take full responsibility for the disposal of goods until 1st July this year. The law forces manufacturers to recycle and dispose of used equipment in an attempt to stem the harm that is caused by the dumping of used technological materials. With a high rate of turnover of machines as businesses attempt to keep up with a constant upgrade cycle, the Directive could make a major impact on the environmental impact of using hardware. The Directive could also push up hardware prices, though, as manufacturers seek to recover the costs of recycling and environmental disposal on such a massive industrial scale. News Article Thursday, January 4th 2007, 12:04pm EST European network will target email and internet scams. Email, phone, prize draw and web shopping scams are being targeted by a new coalition of European consumer groups for the first time. The bulk of the Consumer Protection Co-Operation (CPC) Regulation came into force across Europe on 29th December. Designed to tackle cross-border schemes to defraud consumers, the CPC Regulation focuses on some emerging scams, such as those using email and phone calls to mislead consumers. "Crooks and fraudsters who prey on unsuspecting consumers are the lowest of the low," said Ian McCartney, the Consumer Minister at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). "No longer will they be able to rip off large numbers of people and then hide behind borders, beyond the reach of the enforcers." The CPC Regulation was passed in 2004 in order to create a network of consumer protection and public enforcement bodies to prevent people using borders as a barrier to their discovery, though it applies only to intra-Community infringements of consumer protection legislation.  News Article Thursday, January 4th 2007, 12:02pm EST Paris Hilton says no to sex doll honour. There's some bad news today for those of you dreaming that you might one day enjoy a roll in the hay with highly-talented video star Paris Hilton: the hotel heiress has declined an offer to have a sex doll made in her image. An outraged Hilton said: "I turn down perverted things, some sex things. Like a Paris Hilton blow-up doll ... They were like, 'They'll sell for $50,000 each, it'll be the real-life you.' And I'm like, 'I really don't want a real-life me with anyone, anywhere. No!'" At $50k a pop, we can only assume that the proposed sex machine would have been a fully-functioning cyberminx, ready and willing to perform for the cameras in One Night in RoboParis. Sadly, we'll never know. News Article Thursday, January 4th 2007, 12:00pm EST Adobe scripting flaw unearthed. Users are advised to upgrade their Adobe Reader software following the discovery of a potential serious cross-site scripting bug. The vulnerability, which involves Adobe Reader 6.x and Adobe Reader 7.x, means it is possible to execute potential hostile JavaScript code simply by appending it to a PDF's URL. The flaw, discovered by security researchers Stefano Di Paola and Giorgio Fedon and announced at the Chaos Communication Congress conference in Berlin this week, might be most easily exploited through Adobe Reader browser plug-ins. Users are advised to upgrade to Adobe Reader version 8.0 to defend against attack, or to apply workarounds as suggested by the SANS Institute's Internet Storm Centre. News Bytes Wednesday, January 3rd 2007, 9:45am EST The Rest of the News - Updated Continuously. Inquiry ordered into Saddam's execution video. News Article Wednesday, January 3rd 2007, 9:43am EST Net neutrality push expected to resume in Congress. The nation's soon-to-be largest telephone company may have caved already to certain Net neutrality commitments in the name of a merger blessing, but a renewed push for more sweeping rules could return to Capitol Hill as soon as this month. Breaking months of partisan deadlock among the four voting members of the Federal Communications Commission over AT&T's roughly $86 billion union with BellSouth, the telecommunications giant made a last-minute pledge last week to abide by a series of antidiscrimination principles supported by Internet content companies like Google and eBay, and consumer advocacy groups. "The agreement once and for all puts to rest the bogus argument that no one can define Net neutrality." --Ben Scott, policy director for Free Press Although some FCC commissioners have asserted that the agreement is not a public policy mandate, it could serve as a blueprint for members of Congress preparing to reintroduce bills intended to bar network operators like AT&T from charging extra fees to content providers for added perks. News Article Wednesday, January 3rd 2007, 9:42am EST Firefox Developer Criticizes Google. Firefox and Google have enjoyed a quaint partnership as of late. The search engine giant has helped sponsor the development of the increasingly popular web browser, and in return Firefox has embedded Google as the default search engine and start page in the application. The partnership may be experiencing a bit of turbulence, however, after a December 25th blog posting by Blake Ross, a developer for the Firefox web browser. In a bit of a sour Christmas present, Ross took umbrage with recent revelations that Google is using AdWords and its SERP pages to market its own product and services. This is yet more negative publicity for the one-time darling of the blogosphere, adding to the list of frustrations with advertising practices and service outages mounting against Google these days. Search Engines Wednesday, January 3rd 2007, 9:41am EST Search Engine Inclusion with Google and Yahoo Sitemaps. One of the most common problems ecommerce web sites have with rankings is that portions of their web sites are not included in the search engines. The cause can be any of a variety of reasons that range from complicated URL strings to slow server response or lack of a proper internal linking structure. If Google can't find your pages, they won't get into the search results. Search engines benefit from having as many good quality pages in their databases as possible because it improves user experience. Better user experience equals more traffic and that means more advertising revenue. As a result, several efforts have been made to make it easier for webmasters to have their web sites indexed more effectively. This article discusses efforts Google and Yahoo have made to augment current methods of discovering as many URLs of a web site as possible. News Article Wednesday, January 3rd 2007, 9:40am EST Italy enacts law to block child porn web sites. Italy has introduced a new law requiring Internet service providers to block child pornography Web sites within six hours of being told to do so, the communications ministry said on Tuesday. The decree, which comes into force almost immediately, requires Internet providers to set up a system that blocks child pornography Web sites from being viewed soon after the providers are notified of their existence. "The decree reinforces the fight against child pornography and the exploitation of minors through the Internet," Communications Minister Paolo Gentiloni said in a statement. Italy's penal code includes severe punishment for the distribution and publication of child pornography. News Article Wednesday, January 3rd 2007, 9:40am EST Unpatched bug bites QuickTime. Security researchers have uncovered a buffer overflow flaw in Apple's QuickTime media player software that creates a means for hackers to load malware onto vulnerable systems. The vulnerability - which affects both Windows and Mac OS X PCs - is the first to be published as part of the "Month of Apple Bugs" project, which involves a plan to release details of previously undisclosed Mac OS X or Apple application security bugs every day in January. The as-yet-unpatched vulnerability involves a flaw in Apple QuickTime 7.x, specifically an error in processing malformed Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) URLs. As a result, users tricked into running malformed Quicktime files or who visit a hacker website hosting the exploit are liable to find their systems owned due to this stack-based buffer overflow bug. Security clearing house US CERT reports that hackers have created an exploit targeting the bug, increasing the risk posed by the flaw. News Article Wednesday, January 3rd 2007, 9:38am EST KT, South Korea's dominant high-speed Internet service provider (ISP), hosts most Internet protocol (IP) addresses exploited by spammers among domestic carriers, according to Spamhaus. The international anti-spam agency also noted KT offers an IP address to the world¡¯s second worst spammer through its Kornet services typically dedicated to corporate customers. As of Wednesday, Spamhaus compiled a total of 175 IP addresses, which sends unwanted junk messages in bulk, hosted by 53 local ISPs. The Pundang, Kyonggi Province-based KT manages most spam addresses with 23 followed by Dreamline, the mid-tier high-speed Internet carrier, with 20 and LG Dacom, the No. 3 ISP, with 18. In addition, Spamhaus indicates KT has hosted a notorious ``spam gangster, named Leo Kuvayev during more than two months since Oct. 22, 2006. Spamhaus ranked the Russian, noted for enormous numbers of domains using bogus registration information, as the second worst unsolicited junk mail sender in this planet. Marketing Wednesday, January 3rd 2007, 9:37am EST Top 10 Offline Website Marketing Tools. When most people think about marketing their website they think about "How can we get more traffic online" and yet they seem to totally disregard the Offline Website Marketing Tools already available free and in most cases they should be using. I want to set about in this article to give you 10 Offline Website Marketing Tools that are guaranteed to give you traffic. However, one point to note, it will not be easy to track how many people are using these offline website marketing tools unless you ask them. So on your contact page on your website make sure you have a drop down box with these options for your customers to select from. To often website owners only include online website marketing tools in their "How You Heard About Us" drop down boxes on their contact pages. So let us get started.  News Article Wednesday, January 3rd 2007, 9:36am EST Detecting computer-generated porn? FBI claims that one of its analysts can simply look at a photo and detect whether it's been altered in Photoshop or generated by a computer. U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner in Massachusetts ruled on August 11 and November 22, 2006. FBI's claim was rejected and its expert was not permitted to testify. What happened, according to court documents: In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a federal law banning the possession of images of minors in lascivious poses that were either Photoshop-altered adults or completely computer-generated. Since then, to secure a conviction, prosecutors must prove that a defendant possessed images of real--not virtual--children. This brings us to the case of Rudy Frabizio, whose employer discovered sexually explicit images on Frabizio's computer that appeared to involve minors. The FBI was contacted, and Frabizio was indicted on one count of possession of child pornography. Initially, the FBI chose as its expert witness Hany Farid, a Dartmouth College professor of computer science, who had written a program to determine whether an image was real. But then Frabizio's defense attorney discovered that the program had a 30 percent false-positive error rate: it frequently classified a real photograph as computer-generated. It also classified an image of a cartoon dragon called "Zembad" as real. News Article Wednesday, January 3rd 2007, 9:35am EST Google Defends "Meaningless" Zeitgeist. When Google put out its year-end Zeitgeist, an account of the hottest searches in 2006, bloggers immediately felt the list's creators were fudging it a little for decency's sake. Google responded on its blog saying the list was edited to save us from the boredom of constants and givens. Google's "Top Searches in 2006" was topped by searches for Bebo, MySpace, World Cup, and Metacafe. But the blogosphere at large wasn't buying it. They wanted to know where all the sex went, casting doubt on the list. WebProNews' own Chris Richardson called the list "meaningless." Google responded to the hubbub, defending its actions on a more Kantian level. (In philosophy Immanuel Kant asserted that there are only three constants in life: birth, death, and sexuality). In search life, searches for "games," "maps," and "sex" are constant, which, in short make them uninteresting after a while. News Article Wednesday, January 3rd 2007, 9:34am EST Google has fixed a vulnerability in its popular GMail web mail service that creates a means for hackers to steal users' contact lists. The cross-site scripting flaw stemmed from the decision by GMail to store contact lists in a JavaScript file. GMail always saves contact lists as JavaScript code using the same URL, so a script featuring this URL can read out the fields of a users' contact list. GMail failed to check what sites were attempting to run this "callback" function. As a result users logged into GMail, or other Google services sharing the same login, are liable to hand over their contact list to spammers or other miscreants providing they are tricked into visiting a maliciously constructed website. Exploitation would have been as simple as fooling users into visiting a hostile website through spam messages sent to users' email accounts. News Article Wednesday, January 3rd 2007, 9:33am EST Microsoft accused of trying to buy bloggers. A Microsoft stunt handing out brand spanking new laptops with Windows Vista to selected bloggers has backfired with claims that Microsoft tried to "buy" bloggers. At least six bloggers each received a sleek, black, highly specified Ferrai machine running the as-yet-to-be released Windows Vista from Microsoft and Acer just before Christmas. At least one recipient claimed his machine was a gift. Microsoft watcher Long Zheng called the PC a "Christmas present [that was] officially" a review machine. He congratulated Microsoft on its "kudos for thinking about the little guys" - meaning that it is targeting bloggers instead of the usual PC trade publications that make it on the big vendors' gift list. News Bytes Tuesday, January 2nd 2007, 12:06pm EST The Rest of the News - Updated Continuously. Scientists announce mad cow breakthrough. News Article Tuesday, January 2nd 2007, 12:04pm EST Aria Giovanni to Kick Off PussyCash’s ImLive Events. PussyCash’s video chat arena, IMLive.com, will kick off a number of upcoming, exclusive events with a free live chat with Penthouse Pet Aria Giovanni on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2007. The event is scheduled to take place from 9 to 10:30 p.m. E.S.T. Giovanni is being featured as the first of what ImLive is billing as its Celebrity Events. The events are designed to give celebrities from the online and offline industry an opportunity to broadcast and promote themselves directly to ImLive's member community. News Article Tuesday, January 2nd 2007, 12:04pm EST China Internet Usage Increases. More and more Chinese citizens are using the Internet, according to a Chinese news agency. The number of Internet users increased by about one third in 2006. June figures showed about 123 million Chinese used the Internet. That increased to 132 million at the close of the year. This number still leaves China at number two in Internet usage behind the US. The number of Chinese hooked up to Broadband has also grown to 52 million. Chinese government encourages Internet use but blocks things like pornography from being viewed. In fact, many have been jailed for viewing such sites. The growth in Internet use had been attributed to a large number of Internet cafes being opened and the country's healthy economy. The increase has also bolstered the country's online commerce as well as it's advertising and gaming industries. Hardware Tuesday, January 2nd 2007, 12:03pm EST We live in an age of technology and as such we are always looking for ways to make life easier or ways to make things look better. In the home or office (or even the home office) making things look better involves getting rid of clutter. This is where the wireless desktop comes into play. No wires means less clutter and because when using Bluetooth wireless devices line of sight is not needed, you can use your desk space to its optimum with no worries. News Article Tuesday, January 2nd 2007, 12:02pm EST Porn Filled Holidays Via Madden NFL 07. As previously reported, Madden NFL 07 is one of the best selling games of 2006. But now, this game starts to get known for more than its graphics and gameplay. By the looks of it, some copies of Madden NFL 07 are filled with porn and can be hazardous if they fall in the hands of youngsters. This is the case of a 14-year-old Layton boy, who received a copy of EA's football sim for Christmas. Kolton Mahoney, the boy in question, was very excited with his new present and hurried to pop in the game into his Xbox 360 console. He was very surprised when instead of the usual “It's in the game” logo, appeared a very explicit image. According to standard.net, his first words were: “This is definitely not Madden”. No kidding! His first reaction was to notify his parents, who came and viewed the shocking image themselves. They were appalled by the image and later the boy's father said: “It wasn't a pretty scene”.Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force is trying to determine who is to blame for this porn incident, as Lt Rhett McQuiston declares: "The hard part will be finding out who did it. We'll give it a shot. I would go through the roof if this happened to my kid. Whoever did this is a complete and utter coward." News Article Tuesday, January 2nd 2007, 12:01pm EST In late December, a security firm sent out an alert that a worm was spreading via Skype. It turned out to be a false alarm. No worm has spread on Skype, and while security experts have painted a target on the popular Internet telephony application, its security has been pretty solid, according to the company's Chief Security Officer Kurt Sauer. That's not to say there is no work to be done on security at Skype, part of eBay. The company is looking at integrating payment features, which obviously need securing, Sauer said. Also, Skype is in talks with security companies to provide add-ons to Skype to secure text-based communications, he said. Skype is often described as a boon for security because all calls are encrypted and there is no central server that could be targeted in a cyberattack. However, the application has also caused headaches for many IT administrators because it can find ways to make a Net connection despite strong firewall controls on corporate networks. News Article Tuesday, January 2nd 2007, 12:00pm EST Welcome to Britain, home of porn. Britain's tourism agency has apologised for a link on its website that directed visitors to a pornography page. Visit Britain said it thought pranksters had hacked into its internet site after the porn link was reported by net surfers who got more than they bargained for when searching for what Cardiff has to offer. "In the immediate term we have corrected the link and, while we cannot be responsible for the content of external sites, apologise for any distress caused,'' said a spokesman for the website. Jeff Rees, a Welshman living in Finland, logged on and said he was absolutely disgusted. "I was shocked when I saw that - very surprised,'' he told the South Wales Echo newspaper. "I wanted to see what kind of things were being done to promote Cardiff and I was just amazed when I saw this website link; I couldn't believe it.'' Business Tuesday, January 2nd 2007, 11:59am EST Secrets of Successful Business Relationships Online. Operating a successful business is largely about building and maintaining relationships. Sure, your customers are concerned about price, quality, service, etc., but the most successful businesses are those that work to develop a relationship with their customers. Look at Wal-Mart, for example. Do you really need someone handing you a shopping cart on your way in the store? No, but they always hire a nice, elderly type people who smile and says hello to you as you walk in. That''s relationship building! Truth is people will often pay more for something if they have established some kind of personal connection with the person or persons within the business. Certainly, such relationships lead to repeat business, whether you run a grocery store, a restaurant, a sporting goods store, or a movie theater. News Article Tuesday, January 2nd 2007, 11:58am EST 419 'money launderer' caught at Schiphol Airport. Dutch police believe a Nigerian man who was arrested at Schiphol Airport a couple of weeks ago with €1.2m in his pocket - the biggest money seizure in Dutch history - belongs to a major 419 scam operation. According to Dutch police Idowu Musiliu Balogun, 36, works for ringleader U. Kingsley, who is still at large. Kingsley and his band of confidence tricksters recently plundered a dozen or so German companies for €4m. Balogun and Kingsley were arrested two years ago in Nigeria for selling a house in the US without the knowledge of the owner. Both men had gained access to a mailbox of a US businessman and then instructed an estate agent to sell his house and transfer the money to their own account. Another victim from Limburg in the Netherlands was lured into a classic advance fee scheme, with promises of lottery winnings or an inheritance. News Article Tuesday, January 2nd 2007, 11:56am EST Dutch brothels take city to court. Brothel owners in Amsterdam's red light district have taken the city council to court over its decision to close a number of sex businesses. The council is demanding the closure of 33 brothels, which account for around a third of the district's sex businesses, by the end of the year. The prostitutes union says the move will force many women to work illegally. Prostitution was legalised in the Netherlands five years ago. News Article Tuesday, January 2nd 2007, 11:54am EST Microsoft adds behavioral targeting. Microsoft Corp. has started linking users' search habits with other personal information as it prepares to show more personalized advertisements. With the use of small data files known as cookies, Microsoft can link information users provide when they sign up for Hotmail e-mail and other services with data on what they view and search for on various Microsoft sites, such as those for maps, Web journals and finance. Microsoft uses that information to build a profile for a certain class of users - women over 30 who read financial news, for example - and sell marketers the opportunity to reach that targeted group as they surf Microsoft properties. |
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