10 5 May 2008

News:

EBay has agreed to delay a plan to only accept online payments made through its subsidiary, PayPal, on its Australian internet auction site until the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has made a decision on whether its plan delivers sufficient benefits as to be exempt from Australian law.

The Internationalized Domain Names Working Group (IDNC WG) published, on 13 June, a draft report on plans by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to fast track a stable and secure system to introduce country-coded Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) in nonLatin scripts.

Europe is catching the US in revenue spent on online advertising, according to figures for 2007 reported by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and IAB Europe.

Features:

In notifying the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) of its plan to only accept online payments through PayPal, eBay will find out if it can justify a move to restrict payments to a subsidiary company on 'safety and security' grounds.

ICANN to vote on proposal to combat domain tasting
Google's keywords advertising system in the firing-line
Government consults on simplifying consumer law
Home Affairs Committee releases report on levels of surveillance
Dates for your diary

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has announced that it intends to block a move by eBay to limit online payments to its subsidiary, PayPal. In this article, written before the ACCC announced its intentions, Roger Featherston, Natasha Cox and Jaani Riordan, of Mallesons Stephen Jacques, consider the implications should eBay succeed or fail in gaining regulatory approval.

In a strategy paper, the UK Government outlined its intention to consult on legislation requiring ISPs and rights holders to co-operate in taking action against illegal file sharing. John Enser, David Carter and Nick Eziefula, of the Media Communications and Technology Group at Olswang, examine how the Government's plans dovetail with the E-Commerce Directive and signal that the Government will not hesitate to legislate if a commercial solution - its preferred option - is not reached.

The 'Co-operation against Cybercrime' global conference has adopted the Council of Europe's non-binding guidelines, which define the responsibilities of law authorities and ISPs in combating cybercrime. Catherine Stromdale, a Solicitor with Wragge & Co LLP, explains how the guidelines attempt to strike a balance between combating cybercrime and protecting the fundamental rights of the citizen.

Imagine that the Royal Mail suggested opening everyone's post down at the sorting office, so that they could scan the contents, work out what you were interested in and thereby arrange to send you a better class of junk mail. Most people would be horrified, yet some of the UK's largest Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are planning to do something that is even more intrusive. They're planning to capture the details of all the searches you make, all of the web pages you visit - and all in the name of arranging to serve up better targeted online adverts. Of course, the prime motivation isn't improving your browsing experience: the ISPs will get a cut from the advertising revenue and Phorm, the technology vendor involved, reckons to charge a premium for delivering up an audience that is especially receptive to a particular advertiser's message.

Marc Martin, Partner and Co-leader of the TMT practice and Lauren Bergen, an Associate in the TMT practice of K&L Gates, examine some key changes for email advertisers set out in the Federal Trade Commission's 'Definitions and Implementation Under the CAN-SPAM Act', including the definition of 'person', the sender rule, forward-to-a-friend emails and opt-outs.

Insurance comparison sites are an innovative development, but they are not perfect. Graeme Trudgill, Technical and Corporate Affairs Executive at the British Insurance Brokers' Association, takes a look at some of the pitfalls and summarises the results of FSA investigations.

The International Gaming Research Unit and Camelot, the operator of the UK's National Lottery, have developed a gaming risk-assessment tool to help protect vulnerable individuals from addiction risk, when developing games. Professor Mark Griffiths, Dr. Richard Wood and Jonathan Parke explain how the new tool, GAM-GaRD, works.