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Europeans Tackle Online Terrorism
by William New
A committee of the 43-member Council of Europe (COE) next week will consider whether to move ahead on a proposed agreement on intercepting and decoding terrorist communications sent through computer networks.
The idea to add a terrorism protocol to the cyber-crime treaty completed last fall arose at a November meeting of the COE, which is based in Strasbourg, France. A COE committee this week is engaged in tense negotiations on a treaty protocol on xenophobia and racism, often referred to as the "hate speech" protocol.
The negotiations over a terrorism protocol, if pursued, would not occur until after completion of the hate-speech protocol. That protocol has a deadline of the end of April, but a COE official said Tuesday that it could be extended, given the complexity of the negotiations.
The United States, which is involved in all of these matters, has declared that the current text of the hate-speech protocol would violate the U.S. Constitution, but France extracted an agreement from the United States to negotiate such a protocol in return for France's approval of the main cyber-crime treaty.
The committee on terrorism will meet in Strasbourg on Feb. 18-21 and again on April 2-5, before providing an opinion to ministers by their deadline of April 30.
More E-News From The European Front
Italy's announcement this week of a high-speed Internet strategy leaves the United States alone among the Group of Seven industrialized nations without a federal broadband strategy.
An Italian broadband task force completed a survey of broadband communications infrastructure, identifying steps to encourage uses of the infrastructure. It also was tasked with identifying problems and proposing solutions.
A report on the development of online communications in Europe out this week, however, shows that while the eEurope action plan adopted in March 2000 has helped increase the number of households, schools and businesses connected to the Internet, the growth rate is slowing.
The 2002 eEurope Benchmarking Report, adopted Tuesday by the European Commission, also found the e-commerce growth rate slowing and security problems on the rise. It further found that broadband growth remains "sluggish," and is generally expensive and limited to two choices.
EU Enterprise and Information Society Commissioner Erkki Liikanen said Tuesday that the commission will issue a communication "in about a week" to push a technical protocol, called IPv6, that "will extend the address space of the Internet enormously."
On e-commerce, only 20 percent of European businesses buy and sell online, and most of them are larger firms. Liikanen issued a separate statement outlining an approach to getting Europe's small businesses into e-commerce. At 20 million, they comprise about 99 percent of all European businesses. And while there have been more virus attacks in Europe, the number of secure servers per capita for e-commerce remains half that of the United States, the report said.
E-government is faring much better, it said.
Recommendations include closing the gaps in Internet penetration, conducting an "urgent" review of barriers to e-commerce, increasing Internet use in school curricula, expanding e-government, creating a cyber-security task force and including EU candidate countries in the process.
The goal is to make Europe the most "dynamic" knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010.
European E-Commerce Tax In Final Stages
Despite calls for a reduction in barriers to e-commerce in Europe, the European Council agreed on Tuesday to a value-added tax on e-commerce proposed by the European Commission. The rules would apply to products delivered online, such as computer games and software, as well as to subscription-based and pay-per-view radio and television broadcasting.
Member states would implement the rules by July 1, 2003. But the package first must clear the Parliament and return to the council for final approval. The tax would apply only to business-to-consumer purchases, which amount to about 10 percent of online trade, the council said.
The council argued in a statement that although non-EU suppliers would be treated differently than EU suppliers, the treatment would be "fair and will meet fully non-discrimination obligations under the World Trade Organization." The United States has threatened a possible WTO challenge to the tax.
In other news, European Commission President Romano Prodi held a live Internet chat in December, marking a first, according to a Democracy Online article. The event was significant also as a mark of how interactive the European Commission has become. Prodi's chat was two hours, and questions were submitted in all 11 official languages of the 15-member European Union. His was the 23rd chat held by the commission.
Australia Pushes Internet Fraud Initiative
As host this week of an expert group on global information security, Australia is driving an initiative to curtail online credit-card fraud, terrorist activity and "spam" e-mails. According to AustralianIT, the Internet Industry Association is crafting a cyber-crime policy with local law enforcement agencies that will bring Internet service providers and police together.
The policy is on the agenda of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which is meeting in Sydney. The agenda also calls for a review of guidelines for the security of information systems.
U.N. Tech Group To Help In Afghanistan
The U.N. Information and Communications Technologies Task Force agreed at a meeting earlier this month to contribute to the reconstruction of Afghanistan. Executive Coordinator Pekka Torjanne said the goals would be peace building and peacekeeping, according to a statement.
The 39-member task force, launched last June by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, will hold its next meeting in September. The task force is financially independent from the United Nations, relying on voluntary contributions from about eight governments, as well as international organizations and a few private companies.
Chambers Of Commerce Get Web Portal
The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) announced this week that it has created a World Chambers Federation Web portal for chambers of commerce worldwide to help them share information and experiences. "This will provide chambers of commerce around the world with a one-stop shop that will help them find new ways to do business," the ICC said in a statement.
In a separate development, the ICC gave a "cautious welcome" to proposals by the U.N. Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) for a draft convention on online contracting that national legislatures could voluntarily pass. An UNCITRAL working group on e-commerce will discuss the proposals in March in New York.
Canada's Tech Sector Drives, Drags Economy
The high-tech sector in Canada constituted little more than 1 percent of the economy from November 2000 to November 2001, but it accounted for half the slowdown in growth, according to a survey reported in the National Post. By contrast, the sector accounted for one-fifth of real growth from 1998 to 2000.
Commerce Seeks Companies For Latin E-Fellows
The U.S. Commerce Department is seeking high-tech companies to host one or more Latin America fellows for the month of September in the second round of the Inter-American E-Business Fellowship Program. Commerce covers most of the costs as companies build potential business partners or customers. Past participants included Microsoft, IBM and EDS.
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