Latest Radio 1 show

My latest Radio 1 show in the Netherlands, about the new BBC show 'Autistic Superstars'. Click on the link and my item starts straight away - in Dutch:

http://player.omroep.nl/?aflID=11009383&start=01:25:02

www.radio1.nl

www.bnntoday.nl

Chinese secrets

The Chinese Government has issued new rules defining when corporate data should be regarded as a commercial secret. 

The guidelines - published by the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) on 26 April and aimed to protect Chinese businesses - classify information such as financial data, resource reserves, merger information and strategic plans as a corporate secret. A commercial secret is ‘information unknown to the public that can bring economic benefit to state-owned companies’, according to the SASAC. 

Additionally, under the rules commercial secrets can be classified as state secrets, which means commercial secrets could soon fall within the scope of the Law on Guarding State Secrets. 

On 26 April, an amendment to this law was submitted to the National People's Congress Standing Committee for a third review. The amendment would require telecom and internet service providers (ISPs) – domestic as well as international ISPs operating in China – to notify and cooperate with public security and state security authorities if they detect any disclosure or sharing of state secrets on their networks.

Michiel Willems - 2010

Latest radio 1 show

Latest radio 1 show in Holland, broadcast last Thursday - in Dutch. Click on the link, my item starts immediately:
http://player.omroep.nl/?aflID=10898901&start=01:31:00

www.bnntoday.nl / www.radio1.nl

The global solution for Cybercrime?

The Council of Europe (COE) has said it will present its Convention on Cybercrime as the global solution to cybercrime at the United Nations (UN) congress on crime prevention and criminal justice. The UN will hold its 12th congress on crime prevention in Salvador,  late April. 

"The UN Crime Congress in April 2010 will be an opportunity to reinforce our global response to the global threat of cybercrime and cyberterrorism,” said COE Deputy Secretary General Maud de Boer-Buquicchio. “I think we will have the best chance to succeed if we unite around one international instrument which already exists – namely the Convention of Cybercrime.” 

The COE - an intergovernmental organisation overseeing human rights in 47 countries - organised its own cybercrime conference last week in Strasbourg. bringing together 300 cybercrime experts from some 60 countries, the private sector and international organisations. Here, the COE called for a worldwide implementation of its Convention on Cybercrime to continue legislative reforms already underway in a number of countries. 

“The Convention should be implemented globally. Since [the COC] requires authorizing legislation in each member country, it puts an additional burden on each member country to pass the implementing legislation,” said Kevin A. Thompson, Attorney at Davis McGrath LLC. “With global implementation wrongdoers cannot hide beyond the reach of the law. It's time for the Internet to move beyond the ‘Wild West’ model.”

Participants also recommended that a global action plan should be launched by the COE and the UN to get a clearer picture of criminal justice capacities and how cybercrime should be tackled. “Internet knows no borders. Fraud and crime do not have a geographical address”, said Ivan Koedjikov, Head of the Department of Information Society and Action Against Crime at the COE. “The law of which country to apply? The only meaningful response to cybercrime is global. There must be a minimum understanding of all countries about cybercrime, about similar procedures to prevent, prosecute and punish such crime.” 

Participants to the Strasbourg conference also urged the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to strengthen its oversight role of the internet domain name registration process in order to allow the protection of private data of individual registrants, as well as the opportunity for law enforcement agencies to use the database to fight cybercrime and cyberterrorism.

The Convention on Cybercrime Treaty has been ratified by 27 countries so far, among them the US, France, Germany and Italy. Another 100 countries are using the treaty as the basis for their national legislation. The call for a global approach came in the same week American and Canadian researchers have traced an extensive cyber-espionage network back to China – which has not signed up to the Treaty. It targeted computers in several countries, including systems used by the Indian Government and army. Although the UK has signed but not yet ratified the Convention on Cybercrime, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has recently set up a new cyber enforcement team. “Online consumer protection is a key priority for the OFT”, said Heather Clayton, Senior Director at the OFT. “The enforcement team will be looking at the activities of a wide range of commercial websites and taking action in cases where consumers’ rights are being abused.”

Michiel Willems - 2010 - Published earlier in E-Commerce Law & Policy magazine

Final steps for the UK Digital Economy Bill

The UK House of Commons approved the Digital Economy Bill (DEB) on 7 April, upholding measures destined to fight online copyright piracy.

The DEB will enable internet service providers (ISPs) to monitor the use of individual internet connections, and extend the remit of Ofcom – the UK telecommunications regulator - to cover telecommunication content and infrastructure. One of the most controversial aspects of the DEB is the ability for ISPs to cut off the internet connection of most serious infringers without a court order. The British Phonographic Industry’s Chief Executive, Geoff Taylor, said that “removing unfair competition from clearly illegal websites will encourage investment in legal online services”. Many in the industry have spoken out against the DEB. According to the Pirate Party UK, “[it is] a major attack on free speech and human rights”. Andrew Heaney, Director of Strategy and Regulation at TalkTalk, added: “oppressive and futile deterrents are not the solution”. Parliament is expected to finalise the DEB in a few weeks, in time for the general election on 6 May 2010.

Michiel Willems - 2010 - Published earlier in E-Finance & Payments magazine

Icelandic volcanic ash

All airports in the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Ireland are closed today.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8621407.stm

April Fools' Day

It's 1 April, April Fools' Day in the UK. Therefore, every major British publication is running a fake story today. Find an overview of those features here:

http://www.anorak.co.uk/244104/media/aprils-fool-day-media-stories-the-best-ones-of-2010.html

Embrace life

Embrace life - wear a seat belt. 

http://www.embracethis.co.uk

An amazing video of the Sussex Safer Roads Website: www.sussexsaferroads.gov.uk

Book returned 45 years late

It’s not uncommon to return a library book late, but by half a century? Staff at Dinnington Library, close to Sheffield in the UK, couldn't believe their eyes when they received a book through their mailbox that was 45 years overdue. Alison Lawrie, the principal assistant at Dinnington Library, says the Penguin first edition copy of Quartermass and the Pit, written by Nigel Kneale, was due back on 15 October 1965. 

The identity of the borrower remains a mystery because the library records do not go back that far, and there was no a letter or note attached to the book. Lawrie has made it clear the sender should not worry about a fine. She said in the Yorkshire Post: “If the person who returned the book wants to come forward, we would love to know the story behind it.” Anyone returned any books lately?

Launch of first virtual debit card in Japan

Credit card company Visa and the Japan Net Bank (JNB) have commenced a virtual debit card programme for online merchant payments, the country’s first.

The programme gives JNB customers the possibility to make purchases up to $1,000 at online merchants around the world that accept Visa. Upon customers’ request, JNB issues a unique 16-digit account number, which can withdraw money from a listed JNB account. The digital cards are only valid up to ten days after being issued - customers can then request a new virtual Visa Debit card number. No plastic cards will be issued. JNB, founded in October 2000, is Japan’s first internet bank, with over two million customers but no local branches. 

“Whether it is to search online or to spend online, Japanese consumers have named the internet as the number one item they could not live without”, said Brian McGrory, Head of Debit Products for Asia Pacific, Central Europe, Middle East and Africa at Visa. “Teaming their passion for the internet with this ‘buy now, pay now’  program taps into an existing demand for Japanese consumers.”

Published earlier in E-Finance & Payments Law & Policy magazine, London, www.e-comlaw.com

Giant blaze in the City of London

This morning, while on my way to work, I noticed a huge fire was taking place and smoke could be seen all over the City. A number of streets were closed down (including City Road coming from Old Street station), causing massive traffic jams. Black smoke reached as far as the Bank of England and the Gherkin building after a fire broke out at a nightclub on the Shoreditch and City borders in the early hours. Fire fighters were called to the scene on Tabernacle Street (Shoreditch, just north of the City) at around 4.30am. The fire started at a building housing the Sosho nightclub and East Room, a private members club.

 

Latest radio 1 show

Latest radio show about Bad Boy Brown, from last Monday - in Dutch. 

Click on the link and my item starts straight away.

 http://player.omroep.nl/?aflID=10691080&start=01:22:13

www.bnntoday.com / www.radio1.nl

Game over

The introduction of webfilters in Australia has inspired other governments to do the same. Tifatul Sembiring, the Indonesian Minister of Information and Communications, announced last week that his country plans to ‘filter content on the internet by using a system like the one Australia has chosen for’. 

A monitoring committee would determine what online content is to be blocked. Under the new web regime, internet service providers (ISPs) would be forbidden to transmit or distribute pornography ‘or anything else considered to be illegal or immoral’, as well as ‘lies and misleading information’. The Ministry has made clear that article 4 of the proposals covers online gambling, already illegal in Indonesia. Online betting has become a relatively popular spare time activity in the island state, and although there are no Indonesian gambling websites, hundreds of international operators manage to reach many Indonesians every day. The statement by the Ministry has caused outrage many Indonesians, the Alliance of Independent Journalists have condemned the proposals saying it ‘is a violation of political and internet freedom’. Many fear the proposed system is vulnerable for abuse and it effectively means the end of freedom of expression and the right to information. And – if the filters will be introduced – it is a safe bet to say it will be the end of online gambling in Indonesia.

 Michiel Willems (2010) - Published earlier in E-Finance & Payments Magazine, London

 

Latest radio show

Latest radio 1 show in Holland, about homeopathic remedies, vitamins, pharmaceutical scams and a mass 'overdose'. Click on the link, the item starts straight away:

http://player.omroep.nl/?aflID=10613951&start=00:31:58

It's a women's world

If you thought online gambling is merely for old, cigar-smoking men, sitting behind their PCs late at night, you need to think again.

The UK Gambling Commission conducted a survey in 2009 which found that the number of women gambling online has increased enormously, especially during daytime, when the kids are at school. The survey concluded that women feel safer gambling online than in a casino and many websites are taking advantage of that. Marketing strategies are gradually more aimed at women, with ‘female-friendly’ gimmicks, including pink formats, gambling horoscopes and ‘hunk of the month’ pictures. The typical age for women who gamble online is 25 to 34, according to the survey, and some websites have an 80%, or more, female audience, such as getmintedbingo.com. The National Problem Gambling Clinic has confirmed that more women than in previous years have sought help. Overall, online gambling has gone up. In June 2009, the Gambling Commission’s survey found that 10.2% of adults questioned said they had gambled online in the previous year, up from 7.2% in 2006 and – as we now know – many of these ‘new gamblers’ are women. 

Published earlier in "World Online Gambling" magazine, Michiel Willems (c) 2010