Bush to Sign Extension on Internet Tax Relief
President Bush is expected to sign legislation that will extend a moratorium on Internet-related taxes for two years, although he preferred a longer period of tax relief.
A voice vote in the Senate on Thursday renewed the three-year-old tax ban, which expired Oct. 21.
Senators rejected an amendment that could have led to the collection of state taxes on Internet sales and even Internet access. The proposal would have required a congressional vote to allow sales tax collections after 20 states agreed to collect for each other.
The state compact plan failed when senators voted 57-43 for a procedural motion to kill the measure.
Fake Software Seized by Feds
Authorities said Friday they had made the largest seizure of counterfeit computer software in U.S. history, material worth an estimated $100 million.
The haul included nearly 31,000 phony copies of Microsoft's Windows Millennium edition and the Windows 2000 Professional operating system. There were also tens of thousands of copies of Symantec products, including the popular Norton anti-virus software.
The products originated in Taiwan and came complete with counterfeit packaging, manuals and authentication that included holographic stamps and registration codes. Some even carried the warning, "Do not make illegal copies of this disc" and urged consumers to contact Microsoft with concerns about piracy.
The seizure resulted from an 18-month undercover investigation in which a U.S. Customs agent pretended to be corrupt and accepted bribes to allow 40-foot shipping containers of counterfeit software and cigarettes to move through the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex, authorities said.
Council of Europe Ministers Adopt Convention on Cybercrime
The Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the 43 member states of the Council of Europe last week adopted the Convention on Cybercrime, the first international treaty on criminal offences committed on the Internet and other computer networks. The convention is now opened for signature at a cybercrime conference in Budapest on Nov. 23.
The adoption follows approval of a final draft in September by the Council's Deputy Ministers. However, the convention can only become legally effective when at least five countries, three of which must be Council of Europe members, ratify it. The ratification process, which will involve some changes to domestic laws, is expected to take at least two years. Some non-European countries, including the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, are also party to the convention.
The convention aims to harmonize laws on crimes such as hacking and online piracy, fraud and child pornography.
Library of Congress Launches Site
A new Web site set up by the Library of Congress furnishes detailed, up-to-date information on 49 countries, down to the precise form your resume should take if you want to register at the university. By 2003, the project, called "Portals to the World,'' expects to have a Web page for every country on earth.
UN Hopes to Bring Technology to Third World
A new U.N. task force on technology pledged to fight poverty, improve education and create jobs by expanding access to the Internet and other communications tools in the developing world.
The task force joins scores of private and government initiatives already in place, but differs by tapping the United Nations' reputation and resources, members said during this week's inaugural meetings.
Task force and U.N. officials believe technology will be important in fighting poverty, illiteracy, AIDS and societal ills identified during last year's U.N. Millennium Summit.
Officials were short on specifics.
FTC Sends Warnings to Sites Offering Treatments for Anthrax
The government is warning dozens of Web site operators to stop touting unproven treatments for anthrax, smallpox and other infectious agents that could be used for bioterrorism.
The treatments offered included dietary supplements such as oregano oil and zinc mineral water, the Federal Trade Commission said Monday. The agency said there is no scientific evidence for any of these alternative treatments.
The agency has sent about 40 e-mail warnings to site operators, giving them a week to reply.
The FTC didn't name the Web sites being warned, but said operators who don't comply could be fined, banned from operating or required to repay consumers.
The FTC has been working with the Food and Drug Administration and law enforcement officials in 30 states to scour the Internet for products that falsely claim to protect against, detect, prevent or treat biological and chemical agents.
VoiceStream Offers Mobile Internet Access to Subscribers
VoiceStream is rolling out high-speed mobile Internet access--including e-mail and instant messaging service--across the United States.
Using Motorola's T193 phone, iStream subscribers can access AOL IM service; Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes e-mail, contacts and calendar; and up to 10 Internet e-mail accounts.
Announcing the launch Wednesday, the company said its new iStream "always on" network operates at 40 kilobits per second (kbps), which is comparable to the average home dial-up Internet connection and considerably faster than the 9.6 kbps offered by most competing wireless networks.
The new network is based on GPRS (general packet radio service) technology, an extension of VoiceStream's GSM (global system for mobile communications)-based wireless network.