[Nettime-bold] AP "Liberty of Communication Act" Net Registration Bill Could Trigger Exodus From French Web Sites

["Lessard, George" <GLessard@gov.nu.ca>]

Net Registration Bill Could Trigger Exodus From French Web Sites
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
from
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/05/biztech/articles/24france-net.html
(Free registration required to read full story)

PARIS -- 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.


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