IP: European Commission "looking actively" at net-regulation

[Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

From: "Declan B. McCullagh" <declan+ () CMU EDU>


[I just updated my international net-censorship page, which is now at
<http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~declan/international/>. This "informal meeting"
by the EC comes just in time for the G-7 summit next month... --Declan]


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BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1996 MAY 3 (NB) -- The European Commission (EC) has  
confirmed it is now looking actively at methods by which its official 
agencies can police the Internet. 


Speaking earlier this week in Italy, where an informal IT (information  
technology) meeting took place between various EC agencies, Agostino 
Gambino, the Italian Minister for Telecommunications, told journalists 
that the main focus of the regulatory changes will be to protect the 
interests of children, and outlaw criminal activity on the Internet. 


Gambino said that an informal meeting between himself and his EC  
member country counterparts in Bologna, Italy, had been successful, 
and had established a framework for a full report from the EC. Once 
the report was prepared, he said, a decision on how best to proceed 
would be taken by Brussels. 


"Many member states perceive the need now for some discipline, some  
kind of regulatory framework, codes of ethics," he told journalists, 
adding the French government has proposed that EC member states draw 
up a draft global convention on ethics, legislation and the Internet. 


[...]


According to EC officials, the first task of the Consultative  
Commission on Racism and Xenophobia (CRAX), as it is called, will be 
to investigate and, using legal means, stamp out the current wave of 
racism on the Internet.


[...]