[liberationtech] France wants to put Internet regulation on the G8 agenda

[Cyrus Farivar]

12 JAN 2011
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,14763876,00.html

Deutsche Welle: France wants to put Internet regulation on the G8 agenda

A senior French official has called for a new report on online
terrorism and pedophilia. French Internet advocates dismissed renewed
demands for regulation, pointing to critiques of controversial
anti-piracy law.
On Monday, a member of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's
administration said that Sarkozy wanted to gather representatives of
Internet operators from each of the G8 countries prior to the upcoming
international summit.

That summit, which is currently slated for May 26-27, is to be held in
Deauville, in northern France.

"The idea is that representatives from each G8 nation should meet in
Deauville before the G8 and produce a report on these questions: What
regulation is necessary for the Internet? How to respond to problems
of terrorism, pedophilia, and the right to be forgotten?" said the
source, whom French wire services did not name.

In December 2010, Sarkozy put forward a similar proposal, calling for
"website founders and bloggers from G8 states" to meet on the
sidelines of the esteemed conference. He also reportedly discussed the
issue during his meeting earlier this week with US President Barack
Obama in Washington, D.C.

Paris' interest in Internet regulation present for years

The French newspaper Le Monde reported on Tuesday that French
government interest in increased international regulation of the
Internet has been kicking around French political circles since 2008,
when Frederic Lefebvre, France's Secretary of State for Trade, called
for a "G20 Internet" summit in a speech before the French National
Assembly.

In November 2010, France also began sending out warning e-mails to
illegal file-sharers across France as part of a controversial new
anti-piracy government agency, known as Hadopi.

The French Internet advocacy group, La Quadrature du Net, which has
repeatedly spoken out against Hadopi and other online regulatory
measures in France, also told Le Monde on Tuesday that Sarkozy's
desire for increased Internet regulation was "not a surprise."

"All of this is extremely worrisome," said Jeremie Zimmermann,
spokesperson for the French organization. "The Internet is a
communications tool, and by regulating it, we attack its very nature,
as well as individual freedoms. This is a bad solution."

Author: Cyrus Farivar (AFP, Reuters)
Editor: Nathan Witkop

-- 
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Cyrus Farivar
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 Freelance Technology Journalist
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