EU and US display unity on information society issues

At the annual EU-US information society meeting
on September 17, both delegations stressed similar positions on
most issues, including internet telephony (VoIP) and Digital
Rights Management (DRM).

• 
  Voice over Internet (VoIP)
  

   

Asked if the Commission was considering regulating
VoIP, The 
head of the Commission’s Information Society DG,
Fabio Colasanti

, said it should be regulated „as little as possible“.
„We are confident that, by and large, [the new]
regulatory framework will allow the development of VoIP
without many problems,“ as it „does not depend on a
specific technology“. A public consultation was closed at
the end of August and the Commission is now examining the
answers to see if it needs to issue guidelines or a
communication on the issue. Asked about VoIP’s potential
adverse impact on traditional telecoms companies‘
revenues, Colansanti said „they will probably have to
adapt the way they work“ but felt confident that they
will do so in the same way as with previous technological
breakthroughs. „It will be a spontaneous movement and we
have to make sure that the regulation will allow this
spontaneous movement provided a certain number of social
and public needs are safeguarded“.

Michael D. Gallagher

, from the National Telecommunications and Information
Administration at the 
US Department of Commerce

, underlined that the EU and the US were „looking to
industry first to help chart the course“ of VoIP because
there is „much greater knowledge of how that path will go
forward in the private sector“. Although Gallagher
admitted that VoIP presented „regulatory questions“, he
said it „may not“ result in a „regulatory decision“. In
the US, Gallagher said he expected that 22 million US
consumers would have access to VoIP services by the end
of 2008, generating 13 billion dollars of revenue for
industry. He recalled a pledge by George Bush that
„universal access to broadband“ is available in the US by
2007 as a necessary first step in the take-up of
VoIP. 

• 
  Digital Rights Management (DRM)
  

   

Colasanti said the European Commission’s approach has
been to „force stakeholders“ to discuss the subject in a
High-level Group on DRM which he says has „brought the
positions much closer“. He added that discussions in the
group „may be leading to results in terms of acceptance
of the DRMs usage“ and perhaps to „the possibility of
DRMs to replace other forms of levying“ of rights in
Europe. Asked about the European consumers‘ organisations
(BEUC) disagreement with the 
final report 

drawn up by the stakeholder consultation group, Colasanti
said he was „not surprised that any compromise text will
leave people unhappy“. He said „the important thing is
that there is progress“ although he admitted that „there
is still a lot of work to be done“. „At the end of the
day, this is essentially an area where industry have to
take position,“ he pointed out.

On EU-US cooperation on DRM, Gallagher said that
„cooperation will be through the industry standards“.
„DRM is one of the key issues that must be resolved for
the adoption of broadband, simply because of the
attraction of the content. We’ve seen that with music,
now we’re encountering it with video“. But he pointed to
the risk for the video industry that it becomes
„Napsterised“, saying „there is a risk component which is
driving them towards a solution“. The answer, he said,
„will be technical“, „driven by the industry“ and „will
be by definition a world standard“. 

• 
  Spam
  

   

US Ambassador David A. Gross

said he hoped industry would solve the problem but that
his government considered it very important to address
the issue at international level. „If [spam] is deceptive
and unlawful, governments should make it unlawful“.
„We’re looking to work country to country in order to
make sure that laws are enforced“. Gallagher added that
the fight against spam was a top policy priority because
it is a „drag on our economy“ and „retards the adoption
of broadband“. He referred to the US CAN spam act as a
„strong policy“ but said it „only is as good as the
weakest link because of the nature of the internet
transcending national boundaries“. He said the answer to
spam will ultimately come from technology but that
consumer education and enforcement measures also needed
to be addressed.

Director General Fabio Colasanti said the fight
against spam required „action on many fronts and from
many sides“ and referred to the EU’s ‚opt-in‘ approach
that already makes commercial communications illegal
without prior customer consent. But he added that „most
of the work will have to be done by industry in
developing filter mechanisms“. „Governments and
law-enforcement agencies have to recognise the problem,“
he added, saying that there is „huge scope for diplomatic
action because most of the spam comes from outside our
countries and unless we have the cooperation of these
countries, no action will be successful“. But he declined
to comment on deadlines set to industry to provide
so-called black and white lists of spammers.“I don’t
think that the problem is so much about giving deadlines.
Industry already has an enormous economic incentive to
fight spam,(…) so I don’t think that there is any great
need to exert a different pressure“ Colasanti
explained.

• 
  World Summit on Information Society (WSIS)
  

   

Ambassador David A. Gross, the US coordinator for
international communications and information policy, said
he was looking forward to working closely with the EU on
identifying the issues and the documents that should be
issued by the summit in November 2005. He said the US
concern was to ensure that the financial support given
for the development of ICT in developing countries does
not create „bureaucracies that would take the resources
away from the intended beneficiaries“.

Colasanti added that the way to support the taking up
of ICT in developing countries is „not to set up ad hoc
funds“ but the creation of „the right legal environment“.
„We do not feel that it will be useful to set up a new
machinery (a new ad hoc fund) but it is important that
the existing funds be used in a way that is consistent
with the opportunities offered by ICT,“ Colasanti said.
„In Europe, we don’t have a specific ICT fund but we have
guidelines that make sure that the available funds (the
structural funds) are used as much as possible in the
direction of ICT. We feel that this approach would be
very useful at world level“.

• 
  Cybercrime
  

   

Referring to the US war on terrorism, Gallagher said
„the Bush administration is very clear that those that
would seek to do us harm will not be able to use 21st
century networks without us being able to access their
communications“.

In Europe, Colasanti pointed to the the newly set up
European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA),
which will deal with the issue.