[FYI] Chipmakers publish Net regulation white paper

["Ralf Stephan" <ralf@ark.in-berlin.de>]

http://www.infoworld.com/articles/pi/xml/00/05/01/000501pichippaper.xml

Chipmakers publish Net regulation white paper
   
   By Martyn Williams
   
   A GROUP OF associations representing the world's top semiconductor
   makers have called on world governments to ensure any policies and
   regulations in the Internet arena promote competition and are not used
   as excuses to further the governments' regulatory hand.
   ...  
   Chief among its recommendations is that the current WTO (World Trade
   Organization) moratorium on e-commerce duties be made permanent. Any
   taxes that are applied to e-commerce transactions should not treat
   online sales any less favorably than real-world transactions, no
   e-commerce-specific taxes should be introduced, and tax regimes should
   be clear and simple.
      
   The group also recommended that efforts to control encryption products
   take into account the availability of such products on the world
   market and said it was "imperative that governments do not impose
   restrictions in the name of national security that actually serve to
   discourage or restrict the flow of information and, ultimately,
   interfere with trade."
      
   Among other areas touched upon by the document, the group cautioned
   against the introduction of online piracy laws that are any more
   stringent than existing offline laws, called on governments to work
   with the industry in development of e-signature systems, and asked
   that governments work to ensure current World Intellectual Property
   Organization (WIPO) and WTO efforts to give intellectual property
   protection to electronic transmissions are successful.
      
   A copy of the WSC Internet Policy White Paper can be found at
   www.semichips.org/trade/wsc_whitepaper_04282000.htm.
   ...


ralf
-- 
http://ME.IN-berlin.de/~rws/