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French Law Would Require Posters to Register

------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Tue, 23 May 2000 15:42:08 -0400 From: David Sobel <sobel@epic.org> Subject: French Law Would Require Posters to Register To: GILC Plan <gilc-plan@gilc.org> Send reply to: gilc-plan@gilc.org

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-France-Internet-Law.html

May 23, 2000

French Bill Has Web Ramifications

Filed at 2:57 p.m. EDT

By The Associated Press

PARIS (AP) -- It's called the Liberty of Communication Act, but critics say the French government-sponsored legislation would instead encourage the Internet's first mass emigration.

By requiring that the names of all who publish on the Internet be registered with authorities, the bill could prompt an exodus of French users to Net companies in other nations, opponents say.

The legislation, passed by the House and being debated in the Senate this week, would apply to any company that hosts World Wide Web pages viewable by the public.

It is apparently without precedent in Europe and the United States.

The bill arose in response to a case last year of a nude photo of model Estelle Halliday being posted on a free Web site without her permission. It seeks to place legal liability for what is published on a Web site on the individual that creates it rather than on Internet Web hosting companies.

Web hosting companies provide users on the Net with space on networked computer servers. Some charge for the space; others offer it for free. U.S.-based GeoCities, a division of Yahoo!, is a leading example. It's popular for everything from personal pages showcasing a family's photographs to pages created by political advocacy groups.

While the French legislation would make it easy to track down cybercriminals, its principle aim is to eradicate anonymity in Web page publishing, said Philippe Chantepie, a technical advisor for the French Culture Ministry.

``In a newspaper you can see the who the publisher is, the editor is,'' Chantepie said. ``When you publish something, you're participating in the public space and the public order imposes a certain amount of responsibilities, and that is to identify yourself.''

Libertysurf.com, France's largest free Web hosting company, says the measure would cripple its business with additional maintenance costs and send users elsewhere where registering contact information is not a legal requirement. After all, the Internet has no boundaries.

``It's clear that requiring us to validate users would make it very difficult, quasi-impossible,'' said Nenad Cetkovic, Libertysurf's marketing director.

The European Internet Service Providers Association is unaware of any similar legislation on the continent. Spokesman Joe McNamee says the industry group hasn't taken a position on the bill but also hasn't been consulted and considers the measure flawed.

He said the bill, which would require Web users only to complete an electronic form, has many loopholes.

``We don't know where it begins and where it ends, we don't know how it will be enforced and we don't know who will be liable for information that isn't correct,'' said McNamee.

Technically, experts note, it's very simply for users to lie about themselves while registering.

Only through log files that register the unique Internet addresses of computers on the Net can users be traced. Technically sophisticated users, or hackers, can even mask their origin.

Internet service providers also say the bill's wording is vague by not specifying whether ``publishing'' on the Internet includes postings to newsgroups or chat areas, which are separate from the World Wide Web.

Chantepie said the law would apply only to Web pages.

*** Please Note New Address and Phone Numbers *** ...................................................................... . David L. Sobel, General Counsel * +1 202 483 1140 (tel) Electronic Privacy Information Center * +1 202 483 1248 (fax) 1718 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Suite 200 * sobel@epic.org Washington, DC 20009 USA * http://www.epic.org .

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