Break Out The Cybergag
     Worldwide censors putting the clamp down on press freedoms are nothing new. But a report released last week on world press freedom by human rights group Freedom House gave it a cybertwist. The report is a survey of press friends and foes in 186 countries that examines how national censors are moving from traditional media restrictions to reigning in media on the Internet.
     Among the reports findings: Although China's press is heavily controlled and the Internet is monitored for any challenges to the government, news from abroad does get through. Last year in Russia, the government forced Internet service providers to install surveillance equipment. Burma's "cyberspace warfare center" finds Net dissidents by hacking into computers that receive and send messages forbidden by the government. In Germany, while print and broadcast media are free, the government has attempted to block neo-Nazi propaganda and Internet access to pornographic or violent material. The German Interior Ministry has called for more international cooperation to fight the spread of neo-Nazi propaganda on the Internet.
     Leonard Sussman, a senior scholar at Freedom House and author of the report, says any plans for international cooperation to censor the Net concern him and that a worldwide hate speech law for the Net could have dangerous consequences. In the meantime, Sussman said the report, released last week, is getting good response. Sussman, who taught journalism and mass communications for 10 years at New York University, says his greatest delight is watching governments' response to the survey.
     "We get quite a few responses from governments, most of those who are annoyed by it," he said. "It's gratifying."

Give Me Some Lovin'
     While the investigation of the Love Bug virus has been followed at nearly every step of the way, when Philippines law enforcers were set to detain a suspect, they had a problem. What law was broken? Certainly, unleashing a software virus that vandalizes computer networks around the globe is a crime. But police must determine which of their nation's laws applies — not an easy feat for many countries who don't have laws tailored to cybercrime.
     Coincidentally, the Council of Europe's preliminary proposal on fighting international cybercrime was released for public comment in late April. The plan would give police agencies of member nations, including the United States, the European Union, Russia and Japan, new powers to stamp out computer crimes. The proposal is expected to be finalized in December 2000. Frank Cilluffo, a senior analyst with the Center For Strategic and International Studies, said while an international cybercrime treaty might be premature at this point, incidents such as the "Love Bug" attack highlight the need for a global harmonization of cybercrime laws that balance with privacy interests.
     "Fortunately, we haven't seen the marriage of the real bad guys exploiting the real good stuff," Cilluffo said. "It's not just about putting laws on the books, it's enforcing those laws. We need harmonization so we can work toward implementation."

All For One
     A group of 460 tech companies, including biggies such as IBM and Microsoft, are partnering with the United Nation's World Intellectual Property Organization to help track software advances and establish a way to avoid or settle legal spats with customers. The Application Service Provider Industry Consortium has used WIPO, which is perhaps best known in the cybercommunity for its dispute resolution system for domain names, to handle sticky cyberlaw issues in the past. "We have agreed to develop a voluntary dispute resolution system," said Francis Gurry, director of the arbitration and mediation center at WIPO. "It's a new direction (for WIPO), and we will take it on."
     He said the group, which says software over the Internet will be widely available in two years, came to WIPO because it was looking for a legal framework for the delivery of these application services online.
     Traver Gruen-Kennedy, the consortium's chairman, said that as societies join the new economy, managing contracts across borders would become more important.
     "With an ASP (application service provider), you may have a client, network service provider, data center or the ASP itself all residing in different counties," he explained in a statement.
     Gurry said the plan is still being ironed out, but that he hoped to have a proposal ready in six months.

A Small Step For Intellectual Property Rights
     A global group of businesses is one step closer to finalizing a plan to protect intellectual property rights and plans to release its findings at a meeting in Miami this September. The Global Business Dialogue on Electronic Commerce has been grappling with ways to protect intellectual property online for the past year. At a recent meeting, members of the group, which includes CEOs of such companies as Hewlett-Packard and Time Warner, tackled some of the finer points of the proposal, such as how to handle Internet service provider's liability if they are hosting sites that violate intellectual property rights. Theresa Swinehart, of MCI WorldCom and a member of the group, said other dangling issues include how Internet service providers should be notified that they have these violations, how they should remove the content and who is responsible for determining if a copyright violation has been committed.
     "We're trying to establish principles that are going to work in a predictable, legal framework," she said.
     Swinehart said the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act is a model for the group's work.

The EU Fast Ball
     The European Parliament approved May 4 a key e-commerce directive that would make companies subject to the laws of the country in which they are based, with the exception of consumer protection laws, which allow consumers to sue a company in their home country. In addition, the plan defines the validity of electronic contracts and the rules for online dispute settlements. EU member states now have 18 months to implement the directive.
     In addition to the European Parliament's move, the European Commission is expected to propose a plan for opening up telecommunications monopolies in Europe. This would allow rival operators better access to local networks. The plan would not be binding for member states, but will be a step towards introducing more competition in local networks by the year's end.
     Other movement in Europe includes possible approval by the end of the month to privacy principles negotiated between the United States and the European Union. The principles allow data to flow between the EU and United States. The current EU privacy law bans personal information about EU citizens being sent to other countries without "adequate" privacy protections.
     EU officials also may take more steps towards implementing key points in the "E-Europe" initiative in June, which aims to bolster Europe's tech sector in every area from education and workforce issues to lower Internet access costs.

Radioheads
     A cadre of representatives from 150 countries kicked off the World Radiocommunications Conference this week, aiming to tackle the development of wireless communications, such as wireless Internet access, and the development of next generation wireless services. The conference, operating under the auspices of the U.N.-backed International Telecommunications Union, meets every two to three years.
     "One of the key issues at stake is our ability to take communications services to the next level through new services to allow broadband wireless connections to the Internet," U.S. Ambassador Gail Schoettler said in a release.
     Gregory Rohde, assistant secretary of commerce for communications and information said the conference would impact the development of wireless communications technology internationally and help expand broadband access in the U.S. market.
     The meeting, held in Istanbul, lasts until June 2.
- by Caroline Broder