IP: European call for strong regulation of Internet

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> The URL is: http://www.ispo.cec.be/infosoc/promo/speech/geneva.html


> September 09, 1997
>
>                  European Communications Chief Calls For Internet Charter
>                  (09/08/97; 2:40 p.m. EDT)
>                  By Douglas Hayward, TechWire
>
>                  GENEVA -- Europe's top communications regulator
>                  has called for an international charter to establish
>                  minimum standards worldwide for policing the Internet
>                  and the broadcasting and multimedia industries.
>
>                  To enforce such a charter, however, the international
>                  community may have to create a powerful regulatory
>                  infrastructure, said European commissioner Martin
>                  Bangemann at the Telecom Interactive 97 conference in
>                  Geneva.
>
>                  "We need to simplify the current [international
>                  regulatory] framework and perhaps bring together
>                  legislation on the provision of infrastructure, services,
>                  content, and access to content via television, computer,
>                  or telephone networks," said Bangemann to delegates
>                  at the event, organized by the International
>                  Telecommunication Union.
>
>                  The European Union said it hopes to kick off a debate
>                  on controlling the convergence of broadcasting,
>                  networking, and content-creation industries later this
>                  year when it publishes a paper on the implications of
>                  the convergence of telecommunications and
>                  broadcasting.
>
>                  Individual countries have lost the ability to regulate the
>                  content of their telecom networks -- or to guarantee the
>                  security of those networks -- because governments are
>                  powerless in the face of the increasingly global nature of
>                  communications, Bangemann said.
>
>                  Therefore, countries and groups such as the World
>                  Intellectual Property Organization must work together
>                  to establish global principles covering networking issues
>                  such as security and free competition, he said.
>
>                  "I call upon governments, regulators, and industry to
>                  work together to establish a new global framework for
>                  communications for the next millenium," Bangemann
>                  said. This framework, which could be embodied in an
>                  international charter, is necessary to ensure coherence
>                  and mutual recognition at an international level, he
>                  added.
>
>                  Such a charter would lay down a set of principles that
>                  govern such areas as content, network security, and
>                  encryption, and data protection but would give
>                  individual governments the freedom to protect the laws,
>                  habits, and culture of their countries, he added. Issues
>                  suitable for regulation include digital signatures,
>                  encryption, privacy, illegal and harmful content, taxes,
>                  and data protection.
>
>                  Although the maze of international bodies has
>                  successfully introduced global rules covering market
>                  competition and protection of intellectual property, they
>                  are incapable of producing the wide-ranging principles
>                  needed to regulate the convergence of broadcasting
>                  and computing technologies, Bangemann said.
>
>                  Bangemann, who is responsible for encouraging the
>                  development of Europe's technology industries, courted
>                  controversy by suggesting that an international
>                  super-regulator may be needed to create and enforce
>                  such a charter.
>
>                  "It will not be possible to achieve a satisfactory
>                  international framework only on the basis of
>                  strengthened industrial cooperation and existing
>                  international organizations," he said.
>
>                  "The current situation may lead to the adoption of
>                  isolated global rules with different countries signing up
>                  for different rules agreed under the auspices of different
>                  international organizations," he said. The proposed
>                  charter would incorporate agreements already reached
>                  by these international organizations, he added.