http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19980326S0010
U.S. Favors Global Internet Charter, European Official
Says
(03/26/98; 2:50 p.m. EST)
By Matthew Slater, TechWeb
Europe's proposals for a coordinated, worldwide approach
to regulation
of electronic commerce has been favorably received by the
Clinton
administration, according to a European Commission
official.
The United States expressed qualified approval for an
international
charter, proposed by European IT and telecom commissioner
Martin
Bangemann, said Paul Verhoef, a senior aide to Bangemann.
Verhoef
spoke at a European Multimedia Forum conference on
Tuesday.
The global charter would oversee and influence the
development of all
aspects of Internet commerce, including the protection of
privacy and
personal data. Bangemann first suggested the charter last
July at an
international information society conference in Bonn, and
the
European Commission rubber-stamped the idea in February.
Verhoef, who advises Bangemann on e-commerce and Internet
issues,
said the United States has promised a written response by
the end of
the month. "Our impression is that they are very
interested in the
concept," he said.
The commission does not intend to create a global
regulator. "That
has never been our intention," Verhoef said. In February,
Microsoft
CEO Bill Gates surprised some by announcing his support
for the
proposals.
Verhoef said the charter also had the support of European
industry
leaders, and had attracted much interest from trading
partners other
than the United States.
The charter would address complex issues hindering the
development
of the electronic marketplace, such as taxation,
intellectual property
rights, and digital signatures, but the details still
have to be worked out.
Verhoef said the next step would be an industy roundtable
in May,
before presentation of a more detailed proposal at an
Organisation for
Economic Cooperation and Development conference in Ottawa
in
October. The adoption of the charter could take place at
the end of
the year or early next year, Verhoef said.
The commission has also received positive reaction from
the White
House to the European Union's criticism of the U.S.
government's
green paper on Internet domain name registration. "The
U.S. has
accepted that they made one or two mistakes in the green
paper,"
Verhoef said.