Parents would be able to use the system to help block access to porn sites, though because its use would be voluntary, the “.xxx” suffix wouldnt keep such content entirely away from minors. Religious and other anti-porn groups worry that “.xxx” would legitimize porn sites, and the proposal has already been rejected three times since 2000.
But the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which oversees the allocation of Internet addresses globally, may revive ICM Registry LLCs bid yet again as ICANN meets this week in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.
Last month, responding to complaints from ICM, an outside panel [...]

The Federal Communications Commissions first-ever survey on Internet usage and attitudes concludes that those who arent connected today need to be taught how to navigate the Web, find online information that is valuable to them and avoid hazards such as Internet scams.
The study, being released Tuesday, comes less than a month before the FCC is due to hand Congress policy recommendations on how to make affordable, high-speed Internet access a reality for everyone. The findings are certain to shape the policy recommendations in that plan, which was mandated by last years stimulus bill.
The Obama administration has identified universal broadband as [...]

A new study has found that young people are losing interest in long-form blogging, as their communication habits have become increasingly brief, and mobile. Tech experts say it doesnt mean blogging is going away. Rather, its gone the way of the telephone and e-mail - still useful, just not sexy.
“Remember when Youve got mail! used to produce a moment of enthusiasm and not dread?” asks Danah Boyd, a fellow at Harvard Universitys Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Now when it comes to blogs, she says, “people focus on using them for what theyre good for and turning to other [...]

The judge said it was the first time a court had ruled on the question of whether an ISP should be liable for copyright violations by its users, and one expert said the decision would have global implications.
A group of 34 movie companies, including Australian branches of Hollywood studios Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox, claimed Australias third-largest Internet provider, iiNet, breached their film copyrights by failing to stop users from illegally downloading files.
Federal Court Justice Dennis Cowdroy ruled that while iiNet knew its users violated copyrights, that did not mean the provider was authorizing those breaches and [...]

Now the FCC hopes to use a dispute with the nations largest cable TV and Internet provider to establish its legal authority to adopt such “network neutrality” regulations. The rules would aim to prevent phone and cable companies from abusing their control over the market for high-speed Internet access.
A federal appeals court was holding oral arguments Friday in Comcast Corp.s challenge of the FCCs 2008 order banning the company from blocking its broadband subscribers from using an online file-sharing technology known as BitTorrent.
The commission, at the time headed by Republican Kevin Martin, based its order against Comcast on a set [...]

The report, handed to Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand on Wednesday, says Google and other Internet portals should be slapped with a new tax on their online ad revenues in France to fund the development of legal outlets for buying books, movies and especially music on the Internet.
The proposal is the latest idea to emerge amid Frances efforts to fight illegal file-sharing and impose order - French-style - on the free-for-all that is the Internet.
The plan “seemed inevitable to us, if we want to maintain a certain pluralism in the culture world” and prevent the “endless enrichment of two or three [...]

Between 2006 and 2008, the percentage of adult Latinos in the U.S. who used the Internet grew to 64 percent from 54 percent, according to the survey. Among whites, Internet use increased to 76 percent from 72 percent. Blacks saw the smallest overall gain - two percentage points to 63 percent.
Latinos who were born in the U.S. were much more likely to go online than those born outside the U.S. This gap persisted even after accounting for differences in education levels, household income and English proficiency, the report said.
Poor Latinos went online less than those with higher incomes. But overall, [...]

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology posted the new rules over the weekend, part of a three-phase plan to target what it called pornography accessible through cell phones.
The regulations require telecom companies and Internet service providers to carry out “complete and thorough” checks to determine if Web sites are officially registered. Any Web sites that have not registered with the ministry should be taken off the Internet, the order says.
But the new rules have the potential to freeze out thousands of legitimate Web sites by creating a pre-approved “whitelist” of sites.
It also tightens [...]

CEO Jim Gianopulos said Internet piracy is the single biggest threat to the film industry worldwide, and independent films are the hardest hit.
“The bad news is that the Internet is big, and its anonymous,” Gianopulos told a news conference in Athens.
But he said Internet service providers can track down subscribers whose IP address - the unique number assigned to every computer that connects to the Internet - has been spotted downloading films illegally and issue warnings.
Gianopulos said punishing repeat offenders would help create “a level playing field” for filmmakers.
“If we can do that, it would be a big victory against [...]

Online activities such as e-mail, blogging and frequenting Internet hangouts can even lead to larger, more diverse social networks, according to the study released Wednesday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The study refutes research earlier in the decade suggesting that peoples growing embrace of technology has come at the expense of close human connections.
“Social isolation has not changed that much since 1985,” said Keith Hampton, the main author of the study professor at the University of Pennsylvanias Annenberg School for Communication. This means that very few adults - 6 percent of the population - say they have [...]