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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. A bill that would add new regulations to Internet dating services doing business in Illinois now one floor vote from passage but is hitting some opposition from Republicans who say theyre concerned about government overreach.

The bill (SB2545) would create the Internet Dating Safety Act, requiring that Internet dating services either conduct criminal background checks on all their members, or post online warnings specifying that they dont conduct such screenings. It has already passed the House, and today passed the Senate Judiciary Committee 6-3.

Proponents say the measure is needed to combat online predators, who can create Internet personas that mask previous convictions for sex crimes. Most states today make such convictions easily searchable through online sex-offender registries.

Illinois lawmakers have tried and failed for years to pass similar legislation. Don't you have an expectation when you pay $30 to find true love that it won't turn out to be a sex offender? Rep. John Bradley, D-Marion, asked during one such debate, in 2007, before an earlier version of the idea failed.

Opponents have questioned whether Illinois can effectively police Internet services that arent based in the state, and whether the services themselves might create a false sense of security by saying they do background checks, when there is no way to know how extensive those checks are.

Another, more ideological argument has been put in play by some Republican opponents to the measure.

Its another intervention by the government thinking for us, said Sen. Matt Murphy, R-Palatine, who voted against the measure in committee today. Adults have the ability to make these decisions for themselves.

The full Senate could take up the bill as early as Tuesday.

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Internet dating safety bill in Illinois would disclose background check policies

Several Internet groups are gearing up to battle SOPA-like legislation via the Internet Defense League, a new organization intended to protect the open Web.

The League, spearheaded by Fight for the Future and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, is putting together an Internet bat signal of sorts. When the group detects a threat to the Internet - most likely via objectionable legislation - it will send supporters a snippet of code they can add to their website in order to organize the masses in protest.

"Think of it like the Internet's Emergency Broadcast System, or its bat signal," the group said on its website.

According to All Things D, the Internet Defense League has already won the support of WordPress, Imgur, Cheezburger Network, Public Knowledge, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Craigslist founder Craig Newmark.

The Internet Defense League will formally launch next week when Congress returns to session. At that point, the Senate could take up the much-maligned CISPA legislation. CISPA is intended to allow private companies to share information with the government in the event of a cyber attack, but detractors worry it will give the feds an all-access pass to your private information. It passed the House in late April, and now moves to the Senate, where it could be addressed on its own or folded into other legislation. The White House has already said it would veto CISPA if it reaches the president's desk.

The Senate is considering at least two cyber-security bills. In February, Sens. Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins introduced the Cybersecurity Act of 2012, and a month later, Sen. John McCain unveiled the Secure IT Act. They could combine their efforts into one bill, but according to Nextgov.com, there are "fundamental" differences the senators are thus far unlikely to overcome.

Internet groups like Fight for the Future, meanwhile, have already had some success in going after cyber-security bills. The Internet blackout, for example, resulted in the demise of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). An anti-CISPA campaign, however, did not stop its passage in the House.

Fight for the Future is also backing "Privacy is Awesome," a campaign that encourages people to call their members of Congress and urge them to vote against legislation like SOPA and CISPA.

For more, see the Top 5 Biggest Concerns About CISPA and the Top 5 Objections to SOPA, PIPA.

For more from Chloe, follow her on Twitter @ChloeAlbanesius.

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Internet Defense League Crafts 'Bat Signal' for the Web

(MENAFN - Khaleej Times) The Internet stands at a crossroads. Built from the bottom up, powered by the people, it has become a powerful economic engine and a positive social force.

But its success has generated a worrying backlash. Around the world, repressive regimes are putting in place or proposing measures that restrict free expression and affect fundamental rights. The number of governments that censor Internet content has grown to 40 today from about four in 2002. And this number is still growing, threatening to take away the Internet as you and I have known it.

Some of these steps are in reaction to the various harms that can be and are being propagated through the network. Like almost every major infrastructure, the Internet can be abused and its users harmed. We must, however, take great care that the cure for these ills does not do more harm than good. The benefits of the open and accessible Internet are nearly incalculable and their loss would wreak significant social and economic damage.

Against this background, a new front in the battle for the Internet is opening at the International Telecommunications Union, a United Nations organisation that counts 193 countries as its members. It is conducting a review of the international agreements governing telecommunications and aims to expand its regulatory authority to the Internet at a summit scheduled for December in Dubai.

Such a move holds potentially profound - and I believe potentially hazardous - implications for the future of the Internet and all of its users. At present, the ITU focuses on telecommunication networks and on radio frequency allocations rather than the Internet per se. Some members are aiming to expand the agency's treaty scope to include Internet regulation. Each of the 193 members gets a vote, no matter its record on fundamental rights - and a simple majority suffices to effect change. Negotiations are held largely among governments, with very limited access for civil society or other observers. When I helped to develop the open standards that computers use to communicate with one another across the Net, I hoped for but could not predict how it would blossom and how much human ingenuity it would unleash. What secret sauce powered its success?

The Net prospered precisely because governments - for the most part - allowed the Internet to grow organically, with civil society, academia, private sector and voluntary standards bodies collaborating on development, operation and governance. In contrast, the ITU creates significant barriers to civil society participation. A specialised agency of the United Nations, it grew out of the International Telegraph Union, which was established in 1865. The treaty governing the agency, last amended in 1988, established practices that left the Internet largely unaffected.

While many governments are committed to maintaining flexible regimes for fast-moving Internet technologies, some others have been quite explicit about their desire to put a single UN or other intergovernmental body in control of the Net.

Last June, then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin stated the goal of Russia and its allies as ''establishing international control over the Internet'' through the ITU. Such proposals raise the prospect of policies that enable government controls but greatly diminish the ''permissionless innovation'' that underlies extraordinary Internet-based economic growth to say nothing of trampling human rights. Some countries have expressed sympathy for these proposals. They are concerned about the outsized role they perceive that the United States plays in the direction and development of Internet policy. Some believe the status quo favours the interests of large, global Internet companies. Others believe the ITU can help speed Internet access in the developing world.

I encourage you to take action now: Insist that the debate about Internet governance be transparent and open to all stakeholders.

Vinton Cerf is Google's chief Internet evangelist. He is widely recognised as one of the ''fathers of the Internet,'' sharing this title with the American computer scientist Bob Kahn

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Keep the Internet an open forum

NEW YORK, May 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue:

http://www.reportlinker.com/p0867130/Internet-Retailing-in-Emerging-Markets-Long-Term-Growth-Opportunities-in-BRIC-Countries.html#utm_source=prnewswire&utm_medium=pr&utm_campaign=e-Commerce

As internet retailing matures as a channel in developed markets, sales growth rates will slow. This will make emerging markets increasingly attractive to retailers and manufacturers looking to benefit from the long-term strong rates of sales growth that they are expected to provide. However, whilst the rewards are enticing, there are several pitfalls that lie ahead for companies hoping to profit from internet retailing in the BRIC and other emerging markets in the short to medium term.

Euromonitor International's Internet Retailing in Emerging Markets: Long-Term Growth Opportunities in BRIC Countries global briefing offers an insight into the size and shape of the retailing industry, highlights emerging trends, their effects on retailing in markets around the world, on the development of channels and consumers' shopping patterns. It identifies the leading companies and brands, offers strategic analysis of key factors influencing the market be they the developments of new store types, the importance of non-store retailing, economic/lifestyle influences, private label or pricing issues. Forecasts illustrate how the market is set to change and criteria for success.

Product coverage: Non-Store Retailing, Store-based Retailing.

Data coverage: market sizes (historic and forecasts), company shares, brand shares and distribution data.

Why buy this report?

* Get a detailed picture of the Retailing market;

* Pinpoint growth sectors and identify factors driving change;

* Understand the competitive environment, the market's major players and leading brands;

Link:
Internet Retailing in Emerging Markets: Long-Term Growth Opportunities in BRIC Countries

Thecountry's biggest search engine Yandex saw more daily visitors last month than thenumber ofany television channel's viewers, inwhat analysts said is anindication that inthe near future thenumber ofInternet users inRussia might exceed thesize ofTV audiences.

Yandex had atotal of19.1 million daily visitors inApril, while thenumber ofviewers ofstate-controlled Channel One thecountry's leading TV channel byviewers reached 18.2 million, according toestimates byTNS Russia, which surveyed people between 12 and54 years old incities with apopulation ofmore than 100,000.

Yandex had more daily users than any other Internet project inRussia, according tothe market researcher's Web Index report, which put Mail.ru insecond place, with 17.5 million daily visitors, while thecountry's biggest social network Vk.com took third, with 16.2 million users each day.

Thegap between thetotal daily TV audience andthe number ofdaily Internet users was also narrow: 31.4 million ofthose preferring TV compared with 30.5 million consuming information online, TNS Russia said ine-mailed comments.

"It's not thelimit yet, we are likely tosee even more TV viewers moving tothe Internet," said Konstantin Chernyshyov, ananalyst atUralSib Capital.

Channel One has thebiggest reach across thecountry, but thenumber ofInternet users inRussia is steadily rising, because more people consider theInternet asource ofinformation andpenetration is growing, he said bytelephone.

"The figures indicate acertain trend: more Russians are moving online. Thereasons are growing incomes, decreasing prices forcomputer hardware andbroadband Internet access, as well as increasing Internet penetration, including mobile Internet," Investcafe analyst Ilya Rachenkov said ina note.

Theconvergence ofvarious sources ofinformation also plays its role, with products like Internet TV andInternet radio attracting more people, Rachenkov said.

"A traditional television can't offer such flexibility andvariety yet," he said.

As aresult, more advertisers might place bets onthe Internet inthe future, Chernyshyov said, adding that this segment is already demonstrating rapid growth.

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Internet Shows Signs of Challenging TV for Attention