It is surely evidence of how quickly and thoroughly Internet history passes by, that few will have noticed as one of the most iconic personifications of the rise of the Internet passed into oblivion recently. In late December 2007, America Online (AOL) announced that it would officially cease development and support for the Netscape browser on February 1st, 2008. One reason why Netscape will not be missed is that its popularity has long been surpassed by Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (77% market share) and Mozilla Firefox (a 16% and growing share) — which itself traces its history back to open source software derived from Netscape. Aficionados of Netscape can still download the software at this website, but AOL will not provide any support.

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Botswana finally has a cybercrime law. Passed by Parliament in December 2007 and signed into law by President Festus Mogae later in the same month, the law goes a considerable distance towards updating the legal framework required to facilitate effective use of computers and computer networks in private, commmercial, and public spheres. The Attorney-General’s Chambers defines the purpose of the law as “to combat cybercrime and computer related crime, to repress criminal activities perpetrated through computer systems and to facilitate the collection of electronic evidence.” Officially the law is referred to as the Cybercrime and computer related crimes act, 2007.

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