[tt] Copyright filtering online

[Allen Smith]

The last part of the below is additional evidence that freedom of
speech/press and copyright/trademark (and patents on software, etc) are
fundamentally at odds in a world with rapid communication and duplication of
information. Edited for fair use (ironically, yes...).

	-Allen

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Subject: Taking the next step to rein in European mobile phone industry - International Herald Tribune
Date: Sun, 21 Sep 2008 15:03:16 -0400 (EDT)
X-URL: http://www.iht.com/bin/3-col.php?id=16337612

Taking the next step to rein in European mobile phone industry

   By Kevin J. O'Brien
   Published: September 21, 2008

   BERLIN: The European Union's telecommunications commissioner is
   gearing up for the next phase of her effort to bring the Continent's
   mobile phone industry under control and pass the benefits on to
   consumers.

[...]

   On Wednesday, Parliament is scheduled to consider Reding's plan to
   create an EU telecommunications regulator, called the Body of European
   Regulators in Telecoms, or BERT, a 40- to 50-person agency overseen by
   the EU's 27 national telecom regulatory chiefs. Under the proposal,
   the national regulators meeting as BERT could compel individual EU
   countries to change domestic calling rates or consumer practices to
   conform to EU law by a two-thirds vote.

   But in a concession to some EU countries, the agency would not have
   the power to force individual countries to force functional
   separation. The German government, for instance, still owns nearly a
   third of Deutsche Telekom, the former monopoly, and stands to lose
   income if the operator were forced to separate itself from its
   network.

   In Europe only Britain so far has separated BT from its network.
   Sweden and Poland are considering similar moves.

   Other challenges to Reding's package are likely. A French lawmaker,
   Jacques Toubon, the former French minister of culture, managed in
   committee debate to insert language into the proposal that would allow
   individual EU countries to force Internet service providers and
   software makers to adopt filtering technology that detects software
   piracy.

   That could lead to onerous obligations to filter Internet traffic,
   said Francisco Mingorance, a senior director of public policy in
   Brussels at the Business Software Alliance, which represents the
   world's largest software and hardware makers.

   Mingorance said a national or EU law mandating Internet filtering
   could force software makers to include a certain type of detection
   software in their own products.

   "That would be a disaster for business," Mingorance said.

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-- 
Allen Smith, Ph.D.                http://cesario.rutgers.edu/easmith/
February 1, 2003                               Space Shuttle Columbia
Ad Astra Per Aspera                     To The Stars Through Asperity