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Suzanne Choney

Once again, the British government may try to get Internet service providers to be the babysitters charged with keeping onlineporn away from children. A similar effortin late2010 failed, but now it's back in a different form.

The previous plan would haverequired adult, at-home Internet users toasktheir ISPs for access to porn. That went over well with the Brits (not): "Yes, please, may I have my daily dose of Internet porn now, and thank you."

The revamped approach is only slightly less humiliating for adults: They would be required to "opt in" with their Internet service provider if they don't want all adult content blocked. And, as many of us know first-hand, opt in/opt out lingo can be mighty confusing, with the user ofteninadvertentlypicking the "wrong" choice.

There are other concerns.

"Forcing ISPs to filter adult content at the network level, which users would then have to opt out of, is neither the most effective nor most appropriate way to prevent access to inappropriate material online," saidNicholas Lansman, secretary general of Britain's Internet Service Providers Association, in a pressstatement.

"It is easy to circumvent, reduces the degree of active interest and parental mediation and has clear implications for freedom of speech. Instead parents should choose how they restrict access to content, be it on the device or network level, with the tools provided."

Ah, the parents.

Britain's Independent Parliamentary Inquiry into Online Child Protection said in a recent report that the problem is too overwhelming for parents alone to deal with:

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UK wants Internet providers to block porn by default

NEW YORK (AP) The organization in charge of expanding the number of Internet address suffixes the ".com" part of domain names is apologizing for delays but says it's favoring "quality, not speed."

Three weeks ago, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers abruptly shut down a system for letting companies and organizations propose new suffixes, after it discovered a software glitch that exposed some private data. At the time, ICANN planned to reopen the system within four business days. The system remains suspended indefinitely.

"We've very focused on the quality of what we do," ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom said. "We take this very seriously. That's why we're moving very methodologically and professionally."

In an interview with The Associated Press this week, Beckstrom added, "We apologize for the delay, but we're committed to getting this right."

ICANN has said it needed time to figure out why the software failed and how to fix it. That was completed last week, Beckstrom said, but ICANN still must undergo extensive testing on the fixes and inform companies and organizations whose data had been exposed. He declined to offer a timetable; ICANN said Friday that it planned to provide an update after Tuesday.

Up to 1,000 domain name suffixes could be added each year in the most sweeping change to the domain name system since its creation in the 1980s.

The idea is to let Las Vegas hotels, casinos and other attractions congregate around ".Vegas," or a company such as Canon Inc. draw customers to "cameras.Canon" or "printers.Canon." The new system will also make Chinese, Japanese and Swahili versions of ".com" possible.

After several years of deliberations, ICANN began accepting applications in mid-January. The application window was to have closed on April 12 the same day ICANN had to shut down the system, just hours before the deadline.

The glitch did not affect general availability of the Internet's domain name system the databases that let Internet-connected computers know where to send email and locate websites. It also did not affect the ability to register new names under existing suffixes.

Rather, the glitch was with the software ICANN had set up to take applications for new suffixes.

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Internet group: Quality over speed in new domains

30-04-2012 23:09 The newest ridiculous threat that our Government is hyping up in order to take our liberties and make money: CYBER WAR

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CISPA - Our Congress Can't Sleep At Night Because of Digital Bombs

By Tony Daltorio - May 1, 2012 | Tickers: EBAY, GOOG, TEF, VOD | 0 Comments

Tony is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network -- entries represent the personal opinions of our bloggers and are not formally edited.

As with SIM cards cards, the future of the new digital wallet industry may hang on decisions made in Europe. The decision revolves around the so-called Project Oscar in the United Kingdom. This is a proposed mobile payments system put together by Britain's leading mobile phone operators Vodafone PLC ADR (NASDAQ: VOD), O2 owned by Spain's Telefonica S.A. ADR (NYSE: TEF) and Everything Everywhere, the merged UK business of Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom.

Warnings about Project Oscar to European Commission regulators in Brussels have been sounded by two US companies, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY), which owns PayPal. Both companies, of course, have a lot to lose in the fast-developing mobile payments market if the new system proposed by the European telecom companies becomes the dominant system throughout Europe. The telecom companies have a lot at stake too since they see this sector as the most promising area in their hunt for streams of revenue.

The worry for Google and PayPal is that Project Oscar may make a reality that the payments chip could be built into mobile SIM cards. This would ensure that the mobile operators like Vodafone would have full control over the digital wallet, raising at least the possibility that Google and PayPal would be cut out completely.

Even if the payment chip was built into the phone itself instead of the SIM card, there is a problem for the American companies. A quarter of the mobile phones in the UK are being subsidized by the partners in Project Oscar, meaning that on those phones Google and PayPal could still be shut out if the telecom operators refuse to sell or subsidize those phones.

Paypal may have the most to lose if Project Oscar comes to fruition. It would like to be seen as the leader in the industry as it moves to define the future of money. CEO John Donahoe recently said, PayPal mobile payment volumes continue to be on fire. A rapidly growing part of PayPal's $1.3 billion in revenues is coming from two areas overseas markets and through many of its recently-launched mobile payment initiatives.

This tussle is just the latest as players jockey for position in a very profitable market. According to Juniper Research, the global mobile payments sector had already grown to a $240 billion market in 2011 and is forecast to at least triple in size over the next five years. A key part of that global market will be Europe.

Google is launching their Google Wallet service in Europe in the first half of this year in the race to become the most commonly used digital payment method for consumers. Google has said that it has actually been easier to find companies in Europe willing to partner with them on the Google Wallet than it has been in the United States. So it obviously does not want to be behind the eight ball in a key European market like Great Britain.

PayPal spoke for all parties looking to break into the European mobile payment sector when it said We believe that consumers should be able to choose from a wide range of payment methods [in Europe]. For their part, the European telecom companies stated that Project Oscar will make it easy for companies of all sizes to create brand-new services that will sit in the mobile wallet. It remains to be seen who the European Commission sides with and what the decision on the matter will be.

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Digital Wallet War Heats Up Again

San Francisco, California

ARX (Algorithmic Research), provider of the market-leading CoSign digital signature solution, has recently announced extended language support for the popular digital signing engine. In addition to English, CoSign now supports Spanish, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Dutch, and Japanese.

This update comes shortly after ARX released the upgrade of the CoSign for SharePoint solution, which enables organizations that have invested in business automation through SharePoint to eliminate the need to resort to paper each time a signature is required. CoSign for SharePoint supports each of the most popular applications and file types, including Office, PDF and InfoPath. Users can easily add their digital signatures to InfoPath forms in their native formats, with neither CoSign nor InfoPath installed on their machines. CoSign also integrates seamlessly with built-in and third-party SharePoint workflow solutions (Nintex, K2, etc.). Professionals working on-the-go can use the solution to keep processes moving forward regardless of their location by digitally signing via any popular smartphone or tablet device.

"The extended language support that CoSign offers allows us to more precisely meet the needs of our existing and future customers around the world, and enable them to more smoothly integrate the tool into their processes," said Gadi Aharoni, CEO, ARX. "It falls in line with our commitment to support organizations across industries and geographies in seamlessly and effectively streamlining their operations."

About CoSign Digital Signatures

ARX (Algorithmic Research) is a global provider of cost-efficient digital signature solutions for industries such as AEC, life sciences, healthcare, government, energy, and manufacturing. ARX CoSign is the market leading digital signature solution. CoSign digital signatures fully automate signature-dependent processes affordably and compliantly, allowing organizations to go paperless and save time and money. Compatible with major document types including Word, Excel, PDF, PDF/A, and IBM Forms, CoSign signatures are globally verifiable without requiring proprietary validation software. CoSign is also centrally managed by your organization for reliable control over signature privileges. Learn more about the CoSign digital signature solution.

CoSign is a registered trademark of Algorithmic Research, Ltd. All other trade names and trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

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Digital Signature Software supports 8 languages.