FITUG e.V.
Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft
FITUG e.V.Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft |
|
------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Fri, 26 May 2000 11:01:06 -0400 To: politech@vorlon.mit.edu From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> Subject: FC: Russia may register Net-press; Feds want Net-drugstore regulations Send reply to: declan@well.com
*******
From: Paul Spirito <berezina@nihidyll.com> Subject: Proposed Russian Internet Regulations Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 08:14:45 -0400
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2000/05/24/041.html
| Press Minister Seeks To Regulate Internet | By Andrew McChesney | | | A top government minister has come out in favor of tougher | regulation in cyberspace, a move that critics say could | tighten the stateâ^À^Ùs control of the free flow of information. | | Press Minister Mikhail Lesin on Monday called for new rules | requiring the registration of local media outlets that use | the net, saying they should be subject to registration in | the same way any other media is under the law. | | The sought-after requirement is part of a wieldy Internet | bill being considered by the State Duma. That draft | legislation seeks to regulate the registration of Internet | addresses and could qualify all 30,000 Russian web sites as | mass media. | | The Center for Media Law in Moscow has warned that the | vagueness of the wording "mass media" poses a serious | challenge to free speech, since any Internet site could | conceivably be considered mass media. | | However, Lesin said Monday that he was targeting any web | site that claimed to be a news agency or newspaper. | | "As long as they identify themselves as mass media outlets, | they should be subject to registration in compliance with | the established order," Lesin said on radio station Ekho | Moskvy.
[...]
***********
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,36601,00.html
DOJ Wages War on Net Drugs by Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com)
3:00 a.m. May. 26, 2000 PDT WASHINGTON -- Internet shoppers, look out: The next time you buy from an overseas pharmacy, you might go to jail.
The problem of Americans ordering from unregulated drugstores abroad is so acute that new federal penalties are necessary, administration and congressional officials said during a hearing Thursday.
"I believe that the noose is slowly tightening around the neck of domestic sites ... but the question on foreign sites is what can we do about them?" asked William Hubbard, senior associate commissioner at the Food and Drug Administration.
"An effective Internet enforcement process requires establishing priorities, identifying and monitoring potentially violative websites, and making appropriate referrals for criminal prosecution," Hubbard told members of the House Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight.
The Justice Department had its own proposal: Grant it the power to block related financial or credit card transactions.
"Such an amendment (to existing law) would provide the department with an important weapon to combat the harms posed by offshore ... online pharmacies," said Ethan Posner, deputy associate attorney general.
Posner said it is currently illegal to order unapproved drugs from another country. He also said it's against U.S. law for an overseas pharmacy to sell prescription drugs to Americans without a prescription.
But if drugs are legal in other countries and not in the United States, there's little incentive for foreign companies to kowtow to the Justice Department or FDA rules.
[...]
---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- ------- End of forwarded message -------