WITSA ACTIVITIES: 1. Digital Planet Now Available for Sale The study results are clear. Spending on information and communications technology (ICT) is a critically important element of the global economy. The ICT industry is among the most significant drivers of the global economy accounting for U.S. $1.8 trillion in spending in 1997, approximately 6% of global gross domestic product (GDP). This is greater than the GDP of France and almost twice the size of the GDP of the state of California. In addition, the study findings suggest that national GDP grows when Information and Communication Technology (ICT) spending increases and that even in the face of worsening economic conditions, the effect on ICT spending is muted. More information on the Digital Planet, including an order form, can be found at http://www.witsa.org/press/digplan.htm. Inquiries can be sent to Anders Halvorsen at ahalvorsen@itaa.org or tel. + 1 (703) 288-1425. 2. Alliance for Global Business Works to Provide Industry Views on E-Commerce Work Program at WTO The AGB is a coordination mechanism of leading international trade associations created to provide business leadership on information society issues and electronic commerce. Jointly, these organizations represent the bulk of electronic commerce in almost all countries in the world. Created in response to the need for a unified, global industry voice to international organizations and governments around the world, the AGB represents high tech manufacturers and service providers as well as information technology users from nearly every sector of the global economy. The founding members of the AGB are:
The Alliance issues a set of fundamental principles as the basis for policy making for electronic commerce. The Global Business Action Plan for Electronic Commerce calls for minimum government regulation and emphasizes business self-regulation as the most effective way of building confidence in transactions over open networks. The plan, which was officially submitted to the OECD trade ministers at the October 1998 Electronic Commerce Ministerial, sets out industry's views on the full range of e-commerce issues, including privacy, encryption, consumer protection, taxation, intellectual property, competition and standards. It describes in detail business initiatives in all these fields so that governments are informed of the extent to which self-regulation is already operating and what further initiatives are in the pipeline. The global business action plan is now being used by the AGB to convey industry's views on electronic commerce in foray beyond the OECD. For more information on the AGB, contact Sheila O'Neill at soneill@itaa.org or at +1 (703) 284-5329. WITSA ACTIVITIES: 3. Formation of Singapore Information Technology Federation (SITF) The much awaited merger brings together nearly four hundred leading IT companies in Singapore. The SITF, as was SFCI, will be the national association representative of the IT industry in Singapore and continue to promote the growth of the IT industry. It will be the key interface between the Singapore IT industry and the governmental and trade organizations, both locally and internationally. The existing SFCI office bearers and councilors will continue in the SITF Council, which is a merged from the SFCI and MTAS councils. The SITF officer bearers are: Chairman - Mr. Wilson Tan Mr. Noel Hon and Mr. Johnny Moo will continue to be advisors in the council joined by Mr. Tan Chin Ngiap. The SITF secretariat will continue its operations at the former SFCI secretariat. For more information about SITF, please visit http://www.asianconnect.com/sfci/ or contact Executive Director Mr. Seng-Hong Chung at sfcii@singnet.com.sg. 4. Leading Australian Technology Associations form the Technology Tax Alliance to tackle tax reform The Technology Tax Alliance consists of:
According to the Australian WITSA member association, AIIA, the issue of taxation reform for the information industries is important for Australia to compete in the global information economy and its marketplace. The overall objective of the Technology Tax Alliance is to create a competitive business regime in Australia for the IT industry, attracting new investment in Australian industry both from domestic and international firms. The industries covered by the Technology Tax Alliance account for more than 8.2% of Australia's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and will increase in importance to the Australian economy and Australians in the coming years. The full story can be found by going to the AIIA media release http://www.aiia.com.au/2MediaReleases.html. 5. ITAA Supports New Encryption Proposal The SAFE Act includes three key components. The bill ensures Americans the right to choose any level of encryption, prohibits governments from mandating back doors into computer systems, and relaxes export controls on U.S. encryption products. ITAA believes the bill serves the national interests of infrastructure protection, law enforcement, national security, robust electronic commerce, and privacy. "Protecting consumer privacy is a key element in the continued expansion of electronic commerce. Congress is providing the leadership needed to remove encryption as a stumbling block to more rapid economic growth," said ITAA President Harris Miller. In addition to ITAA's extensive work on behalf of the SAFE Act, the association also is a member of Americans for Computer Privacy, a broad-based coalition of more than 100 companies and 40 associations advocating the lifting of current export restrictions on U.S.-made encryption. For more information about the SAFE Act, please contact ITAA Sr. Vice President Jon Englund at jenglund@itaa.org. REGIONAL ASSOCIATION ACTIVITIES 6. ASOCIO '99 Announcement ASOCIO is the Asian Oceanian Computing Industry Organisation, which is formed by the national IT industry associations from our region, covering from India to New Zealand and from Australia to Japan. Every year, the ASOCIO holds its premier event in one of the countries of this region, and in 1999 it will be Australia's turn. Please see the event's web site at: http://www.aiia.com.au/ASOCIO99.html. ASOCIO 99 is being managed, on behalf of AIIA, by DPM. Contact Michelle Williamson, tel. +61 2 6248 5211 or email asocio@dpm.com.au. For ASOCIO issues, contact Rob Durie, AIIA Deputy Executive Director, tel. +61 2 6282 4700 or email r.durie@aiia.com.au. WORLD CONGRESS ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 2000 (WCIT 2000) 7. WCIT 2000 Program Outline Lays Out Priorities for the 21st Century A preliminary program outline for the June 11-14, 2000, World Congress on IT in Taipei highlights some of the hottest topics to be discussed by industry and government leaders in the first year of the 21st century. The development, convergence and deployment of information and communication technology have the potential to positively impact every aspect of human activities in the 21st century. During its 3-day program, the XII World Congress on IT will focus on the potential beneficial uses of technology to mankind in order to advance and promote worldwide applications; hence the World Congress theme " Information technology for a better world - a new millennium ". The programs will be divided into three separate but related elements:
Day 1: World Markets: The first day of the Congress will be devoted to examining the present role of information technology and its impact on world economies. World renown experts will present macro perspectives as they examine information technology's impacts on economic growth, distribution of wealth, labor and productivity, rural and urban development, health issues and the quality of life of those who reside in their respective regions of the world. The Congress has chosen to address world markets in the following six sessions: (1) World Markets, (2) Asia Pacific, (3) Europe, (4) North America, (5) Latin America, and (6) Middle East / Africa. Day 2: Emerging Core Technologies And Applications: On the second day, the program will focus on emerging core technologies and applications as they apply to a variety of professions and industries. The first three subjects set stage for discussing the horizontal development of emerging technologies and their combined usage. The subjects on the industry specific applications are intended to allow the audience exposure to pioneering applications in those industries. The attendees will also have an enhanced understanding of the industries present and future trends and requirements: Comments and suggestions on the program are encouraged. Please contact WCIT 2000 Executive Director Mr. Arthur Hwa at arthwa@ms10.hinet.net. More information can also be found at http://www.worldcongress2000.org. YEAR 2000 ACTIVITIES 8. International Y2K Coordinating Center Opens Its Doors In order to address the continuing global Y2K challenges, WITSA has been working over the past several months with the United Nations and the World Bank to develop a follow on program to the October 15-16, 1998, Global Y2K Summit in London and the December 11 special meeting of 120 national coordinators for the Year 2000 computing problem (Y2K Coordinators) held at the United Nations in New York. On February 5, several of the leading countries involved with the UN effort had announced the creation of the International Y2K Coordinating Center. The Center is based in Washington, DC, and headed by Center Director Mr. Bruce McConnell, a loaned senior US government official. The Center operates in conjunction with other Y2K coordinators in regions around the world. The Center is governed by a Steering Committee of National Y2K Coordinators acting as regional focal points. The Steering Committee comprises the following members: Amable Aguiluz, Philippines, Yahia Bouabdellaoui, Morocco, Don Cruickshank, United Kingdom, Peter Hagedoorn, Netherlands, Carlos Jarque, Mexico, Haukur Ingibergsson, Iceland, Ahmad Kamal, United Nations, Seiichi Kondo, Japan, John Koskinen, United States, Rodrigo Moraga, Chile, Youngsoo Shin, Republic of Korea, Mario Tagarinski, Bulgaria. For further information on the International Y2K Coordinating Center, please contact Sheila O'Neill at soneill@itaa.org / tel. +1 (703) 284-5329. 9. JISA Issues Y2K Risk Management Guideline for Small/Medium Sized Corporate Users The Y2K Committee of Japan Information Service Industry Association (JISA) in late February started distributing a new Y2K Risk Management Guideline for Small and Medium Sized Corporate Users. The purpose of this guideline is to promote small and medium sized corporate users to prepare for any expected as well as unexpected accidents caused by year 2000 computer problems. Detailed and practical methods are given in the guideline, so that small/medium sized corporate users can prevent disastrous situation caused by Y2K problems. A helpful "Y2K Expected Damage Estimation Check Sheet" and "Y2K Risk Management Check Sheet" have also been developed for users to recognize the seriousness and expected damages, and to develop risk management systems throughout their companies. A summary of this guideline can be obtained by contacting Junko Kawauchi at JISA (info@jisa.or.jp). Unfortunately, the original guideline is ONLY IN JAPANESE. 10. Koskinen Commends Philippines at March 1-3 Global Y2K Summit On March 1-3 the Second Global Y2K Summit took place in Manila, Philippines. The Summit, which was organized by the Philippine Commission on Year 2000 Compliance in-cooperation with the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA), the Year 2000 (Y2K) Foundation, Inc., and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), drew more 1,344 delegates from around the world. John Koskinen, Chair of the US President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion commended the Philippines for taking the Y2K problem seriously: " I am pleased and confident that with what is happening here in the Philippines where there is truly a priority of the government (on the Y2K problem). I think the Philippines takes to its credit for the high level of capability and priority provided by the government leadership on this problem," Koskinen said. Koskinen pointed out that the Millennium Bug issue is no longer a technical problem but a problem that could "affect the ability of a country to operate effectively." For more information about the Summit, please visit the Philippine Presidential Commission on Year 2000 Compliance at www.y2k.gov.ph, e-mail Executive Director Karim L. Bangcola at Karim@amanet.net or contact ITAA Sr. Vice President Jon Englund at jenglund@itaa.org 11. Y2K Manila Declaration signed [The full content of this article can be found at http://www.y2k.gov.ph/] Year 2000 Regional Asian Coordinators headed by Dr. Amable R. Aguiluz V, Chair of the Philippine Commission on Year 2000 Compliance and senior executive of the International Year 2000 Cooperation Center signed today the historic manila Declaration that will lay down the framework of the region's approach on the Millennium debacle. The "Declaration of Cooperation and Support of Asian Y2K Coordinators" summarized the priorities of action, which will be implemented by the regional coordinators in the Asia Pacific region and will serve as their "bible" in dealing with the Y2K problem. " This historic declaration puts the Philippines in the foreground with the rest of the Asian countries as we act in unison to defeat the Millennium Bug," Aguiluz said. The Manila declaration, which is the world's first to be executed by regional Y2K coordinators, will further strengthen Asia's link with other international coordinators through the Washington-based International Year 2000 Cooperation Center chaired by Bruce McConnell. The Asian coordinators came up with the declaration on the initiative of Aguiluz V, head of the regional Asian coordinators in consultation with the International Y2K Cooperation Center, the World Bank and the Y2K coordinators around the world including the United States, The Netherlands and Zambia. Aguiluz said Asian coordinators agreed among others that they Y2K Bug " is not a mere technical problem but is a societal management problem that if not addressed, will adversely affect the delivery of essential services in critical sectors of society including power, telecommunications, finance, transport and health." It also emphasized that because of the inter-connected nature of systems, regional cooperation across borders is essential to assure the continued functioning of critical sectors. It further stressed that global cooperation is needed to assure a successful response to the potential consequences of Y2K. The regional coordinators also agreed to work with all other nations and economies of the Asian region and intensify efforts in the sharing of information across borders on Y2K readiness, best practices, lessons learned, embedded systems and Y2K failures and successes. 12. Arab States Called Unprepared for the Millennium Bug At a February 26 Y2K conference in Beirut organized by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Africa (ESCWA), the UN concluded that most of the Middle East's Arab states are largely unprepared for the Y2K bug. With January 1, 2000 less than 10 months away, several Arab countries from Egypt to the Persian Gulf were said to be only beginning to set up committees to tackle the computer challenge. The UN stated that the Middle East was particularly at risk because of a persistent lack of contingency planning. UN officials called the situation critical as few countries in the region reportedly had done much to prevent airports, Egypt's Suez Canal and electricity networks from malfunctioning, and the highly computerized oil refining and water desalination plants were said to be at the greatest risk. After the y2K conference in Beirut, ESCWA urged its 13 Arab member states to draft and test contingency plans. 13. Global 2000 Issues "Lessons Learned from the Euro" Report Intent on learning from the experience obtained by the introduction of the Euro on January 4, Global 2000 Coordinating Group last month issued a report called "Lessons Learned from the Euro". The report is based on the outcome of the Euro review workshop held in London on January 27, and focus on lessons that can be applied to the Year 2000 computer challenge. The report characterized the Euro conversion as an excellent "live test" for the Year 2000 issue. Although the Euro conversion involved more functional programming and application changes than the Y2K, every other characteristic is reported to be present, but with significantly greater complexity and scope. Internal and industry-wide project management, testing, information networking, liquidity and credit management, dependencies on third parties, contingency planning and regulatory interaction are said to be essentially the same for both conversions. On the other hand, unlike the Euro conversion, the Y2K suffers added complexity with its global reach and with the inclusion of external dependencies of telecommunications, energy, transportation, government and other systems. The Global 2000 Co-ordinating Group is an informal grouping of Banks, Securities Firms, and Insurance Companies whose aim is to identify and resource areas where co-ordinated initiatives will facilitate efforts by the global financial community to minimize the risks to global financial markets arising from the Year 2000 date change. Global 2000 was one of the most prominent organizers and sponsors of the October 15-16, 1998, Global Year 2000 Summit in London. For more information, please see the full report at www.global2k.com or contact Ms. Daniela Grass at the Global 2000 Secretariat: daniela.grass@ubs.com. PUBLIC POLICY NEWS 14. ICANN Determines the Structure of Domain Name Supporting Organization and Accreditation Requirements for Domain Name Registrars Domain Name Supporting Organization: Instead of choosing between the two rival proposals (BMW - which was supported by WITSA - and Paris proposals), the ICANN Board adopted a last minute compromise proposal, dubbed CENTR, that combines "the best features" of both and recognizes a wide range of constituencies to be granted voting rights and membership; commercial and business interests, ISPs and connectivity providers, noncommercial domain-name holders, registrars, country-code top-level domains, generic top-level domains and trademark, intellectual property and anti-counterfeiting interests.. The DNSO will be an advisory group within ICANN responsible for recommending policies concerning the Domain Name System and for selecting three of ICANN's 19 directors. A Names Council will act as a steering committee for the DNSO and will be responsible for managing consensus and making recommendations to the ICANN Board regarding top-level domains (TLDs), including operation, assignment and management of the domain name system and other related subjects. The Names Council should be elected by the DNSO constituency groups, each of which will elect three Names Council members. Registrar accreditation policy: The original proposal posted on ICANN's web site in February proposed that applications be judged by a company's ability to demonstrate that they are technically, operationally and financially capable of operating a registrar, and that they have a certain amount of insurance and capital on hand. In response to concerns that those guidelines were heavy-handed, ICANN adopted some changes to make the guidelines clearer and less burdensome, including a provision that could allow the whole accreditation process to be abolished if the market proves able to police itself. Some of the fee scales were also changed, and ICANN President Mike Roberts has been authorized to start implementing the policy and accepting applications for the five first initial registrars on March 15. While the first five registries will be selected by the end of April, an unlimited number of companies around the world could participate in the registry after the initial two-month test period. The Board also adopted a conflict-of-interest policy and established procedures for reconsideration of ICANN decisions. A complete summary of the decisions can be found at http://www.icann.org/statement.html. For further information, please contact ITAA Sr. Vice President Jon Englund at jenglund@itaa.org. 15. Critical Information Protection in Focus With the growth of the Internet, attacks on networks and computer systems are on the rise. In one other incident, in February, 1999, the East Timorese domain (.tp) was subjected to a concerted attack by unknown hackers, resulting to its disappearance from the Internet. There has been an increase in media reports of attacks against security and military installations as well, although often not substantiated. In one such unconfirmed incident, The Sunday Business newspaper on February 28 reported that hackers may have seized control of one of Britain's military communication satellites and issued blackmail threats. In the US, critical information protection (CIP) issues have received increased attention recently amidst reports that Pentagon computers for months had been under a "coordinated, organized" attack from hackers who attempted to map out networks and to gain access to classified information. This latest in a series of well-publicized attacks was markedly different in that the attacks were conducted at a low level of activity by scanning multiple Pentagon computer systems from several different locations over several months. The attacks, which resulted in complete network mapping of some systems was detected and stopped by the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Virginia. Some members of US Congress characterize Washington's fight against computer crimes as a "state of cyberwar", and worry about a future "electronic Pearl Harbor". When a 20-year old Israeli hacker, known as "Analyzer", was arrested last month, he claimed to know ways into some 400 US Defense Department computer systems. According to the US Department of Defense, there are about 60-80 recorded attacks against Pentagon computers every day, leading to 24 hour monitoring, 7 days a week. Paul Higdon, head of the international police-organization's (Interpol) digital crimes department, on February 28 said critical information infrastructure protection and cyber crimes would be the challenge of the 22nd century. In a worst-case scenario, Interpol believes cyber terrorists could paralyze an entire city. In the US, as many as 17 million people are thought to have enough computer knowledge to stop the distribution of electricity, drinking water and well as other critical items needed in a large city. Meanwhile, computer crime is on the rise worldwide and critical information protection (CIP) on the international arena is marked is generally marked by a lack of coordination. Japan, which experienced a 58 percent increase in cyber-crime from 1997 to 1998, does not yet criminalize hacking of computer systems (while a law is in the making). Other countries have disparate policies. The global nature of the Internet makes geography less important as a malicious act against a computer system in any given country could very well be committed at virtually any location on earth. 16. ITAA to Share Role as Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Sector Coordinator with other Industry Groups "The Year 2000 threatens to be the first crack in the foundation of the information economy," said ITAA President Harris Miller. "We understand that information technology has become the bricks and mortar of this country's economic order and must be built with an eye towards consumer confidence in its strength, reliability and secure operation. We are therefore delighted to participate in PDD 63 as sector coordinator for the information technology industry and to play a leadership role in critical infrastructure protection." ITAA will join with USTA and TIA to form the CIP Consortium. The Consortium will pursue a multifaceted agenda, including the identification of infrastructure vulnerabilities, development of mitigation strategies, creation of attack response and recovery plans, as well as support of research and public education. The Consortium will also develop a plan to facilitate information sharing with other industry sectors. 17. WTO's Financial Services Commitments in Force from March 1, 1999 52 governments, accounting for more than 90 percent of global financial services market on February 15 agreed that the landmark WTO financial services agreement would enter into force on March 1, 1999. The commitments eliminate or relax current restrictions on commercial presence of foreign financial service suppliers, covering all three of the major financial services sectors (banking, securities and insurance). They also reduce other limitations previously imposed on service suppliers. As a result of the negotiations that were concluded on December 12, 1997, the new and improved set of commitments in financial services under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) totaling 56 schedules of commitments representing 70 WTO Member governments and 16 lists of Most Favored Nations (MFN) exemptions (or amendments thereof) were annexed to the Fifth Protocol to the GATS. While the annex was open for ratification and acceptance by Members until 29 January 1999, 52 Member governments accepted the Protocol by the due date, and those Members decided to put the Protocol into force on 1 March 1999 in accordance with the terms of the Protocol. It was also decided by the Council for Trade in Services that the Protocol would be kept open for acceptance until 15 June 1999 for the remaining 18 Members. For those Members accepting after 1 March, the Protocol will enter into force upon acceptance. On September 17, 1997, WITSA issued a Statement on the WTO Financial Services Negotiations. Representing the global IT industry voice, WITSA encouraged WTO members to present truly liberalizing financial services offers, to commit to a specific date for complete liberalization with significant phased-in commitments in the interim, and to remove remaining rules and regulation which constitute technical and non-technical barriers to competition. The WITSA Statement can be found at http://www.witsa.org/papers/. For more information, please see February 15 press release (PRESS/120) at http://www.wto.org/wto/new/press120.htm or for additional background information, see http://www.wto.org/wto/services/finance_background.htm. 18. New Survey of International Electronic and Digital Signature Initiatives The ILPF report notes how few non-US legislative initiatives there have been to date. This report identifies only six countries that have enacted legislation specifically relating to electronic authentication: Argentina, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, Russia, and Singapore. By contrast, according to the ILPF US Survey, 36 states have introduced or are considering legislation concerning electronic signatures, with 26 states having enacted some type of legislation. In fact, a number of other U.S. states have since passed legislation relating to electronic authentication, so these numbers are now higher. As in the United States, however, there have been a large number of official studies and proposed legislative initiatives that have not yet come to fruition. Australia, Austria, Belgium, Colombia, Denmark, Hong Kong SAR, South Korea, and the United Kingdom are in the process of reviewing and adopting proposed legislation. Canada, Finland, France, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, and New Zealand are reported to have published reports, consultative papers or policy statements on electronic authentication issues, and other countries are in the process of preparing similar reports. It is difficult to compare national approaches to electronic authentication legislation because so few countries have conceived of the purpose of such legislation in quite the same way. Some countries, like Germany and Japan, have, to date, focused only on the technical standards for the operation of a Public Key Infrastructure ("PKI"). Others, like Singapore and Malaysia, have spanned the entire range of issues associated with the legal effect of electronic signatures, the legal framework for the operation of a PKI, and the establishment of a regulatory apparatus to oversee Certificate Authorities ("CAs"). The report mentions several international initiatives that are underway to harmonize national approaches to electronic authentication. These initiatives include the draft EU Directive on electronic authentication, the work of the UNCITRAL Experts Group in preparing Uniform Rules on electronic authentication, and a proposed international convention on electronic authentication. The entire study is available for review at http://www.ilpf.org/digsig/survey.htm. 19. February 24 Negotiations on a WTO IT Agreement (ITA II) Provide No Results As reported in previous issues of the WITSA Newsletter, the WTO Committee of Participants on the Expansion of Trade in Information Technology Products is attempting to reach consensus among the 44 countries participating in the ITA on an extended product coverage (ITA II). The February 24 meeting was a follow-up to a meeting Committee on December 11, where the Committee failed to reach consensus on a compromise package of additional products for tariff elimination. The ITA I was concluded at the December 1996 WTO Ministerial in Singapore, and provides for the staged elimination of tariffs on all products covered - including semiconductors, computers, telecommunications equipment and computer software - by the year 2000 (extended staging of commitments to 2005 allowed in limited circumstances). ITA covers over US$ 600 billion in trade, or 93 percent of the global market for these products. The product coverage under consideration in ITA II represents a modest expansion of the original coverage, and includes 220 products in four major areas of printed circuit board manufacturing equipment, radar/navigation apparatus, certain components for IT equipment, and some consumer electronics. For more information on ITA II, please see USTR press release 98-110 (http://www.ustr.gov/releases/1998/12/index.html) or WTO press release at http://www.wto.org/wto/new/ita2pr.htm. 20. European Parliament Approves Provision to Effectively Ban Internet Caching The cache-ban provision was reportedly inserted at the initiative of MEP (Member of the European Parliament) Roberto Barzanti in an effort to reach the same level of protection as the US Millennium Copyright Act. However, the US Act does not make ISPs or telcos liable for copyright infringement, but allows copyright holders to sue anyone who pirates their cached content online. The new draft directive is currently in the hands of Mr. Mario Monti, European Commissioner for the Internal Market. As the Commissioner in charge of copyright, Mr. Monti is scheduled to present a re-draft to the EU Council of Ministers under the Co-decision Procedure. 21. EU and US to Discuss Privacy Issues on March 16 Ambassador David Aaron, the US Commerce Department's Under-Secretary for International Trade, and EU negotiator John Mogg, the European Commission's director general for the single market, are slated to meet on March 16 in Washington, D.C. for another round of discussions over the EU's privacy directive (Directive 95/46/EC). As previously reported, U.S. and European Union officials on January 27 set a new target deadline of June for concluding discussions over the Union's privacy directive. David Aaron and EU negotiator John Mogg set the deadline during their meeting on January 27 in Brussels on the EU's privacy directive, which would ban the flow of data to third countries that do not have adequate privacy protections. Because the United States does not have broad regulatory privacy protections written into law like the European Union, US industry and government officials are concerned that the directive may disrupt business between the United States and Europe. Aaron has been negotiating with EU officials on developing a safe harbor for U.S. businesses that agree to comply by certain privacy principles. Aaron and Mogg hope to conclude discussions in time for the EU-US summit in June in Germany. While there were no major breakthrough's at the January 27 meeting, some progress was made on one of the major sticking points: what type of access US companies must provide EU citizens to information the companies may have about individuals. However, they did not make much progress on another major issue, enforcement. The EU wants to ensure there is effective third party enforcement of whatever privacy principles are agreed to. But the United States has expressed concern during all the discussions that US companies not be subject to a higher standard than European companies. The implementation of the EU privacy directive already has impacted some non-European businesses. In one incident, American Airlines last month was told to stop transmitting information -- including meal preferences, requests for wheelchair assistance and specific hotel arrangements -- about Swedish passengers to the airline's Sabre reservation system in the United States. This was due to a new Swedish law implementing the provisions of the European Union Data Protection Directive (Directive 95/46/EC). Sweden's national privacy watchdog agency, with the blessing of a local court, has forced the airline to set up a separate database for Europe. American is still fighting the ruling in the Swedish courts. 22. New UK E-commerce Legislation, Encryption and Digital Signatures Provisions, Seen as Promising During a 3-week consultation period, the UK government requests industry to provide alternative ideas for what sort of criteria it should establish to grant licenses for encryption services and to access criminal communication. In a controversial move, the British Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) on March 9 proposed that the UK government employ hackers in a central policing unit to access suspect material and to track down cybercriminals. ISPA argued that hackers would be a far better alternative to unpopular key escrow requirements. The proposed legislation would also recognize digital signatures as legally binding, and would seek not to discriminate between traditional and electronic ways of doing business by eliminating obstacles in current law which require the use of paper. UK Trade Secretary Stephen Byers said the new legislation, if enacted into law, would give Britain the most attractive legal framework in the world for conducting electronic commerce. The British government hopes to introduce the legislation to parliament in April with a view to the new laws being passed later in the year. In an unrelated measure, a new report by the research firm NOP states that Britain leads Europe when it comes to joining the Internet in 1998. The report states that nearly 11,000 Britons join the Net for the first time every day, ahead of Germany's 10,000 and France's less than 3,000 new daily subscribers. For more information, please contact CSSA Group Executive Richard Sullivan at Richard.Sullivan@CSSA.co.uk. 23. Norwegian IT Industry United in One Association The new IT industry association will unite the Norwegian IT industry into one association, which from the outset will have about 350 members, representing a turnover of approximately $6.25 billion (Nkr 50 billion). The associations are convinced that the consolidation will strengthen the Norwegian IT industry's leverage with the government as well as make the industry more visible. The new association will represent the IT, software and multimedia/Internet companies, office contractors, IT consultants and telecom companies with an interest in playing an active part in the development of the IT industry in Norway. For more information, please go to http://www.kdl.no/ or contact Mr. Per Morten Hoff, KDL General Secretary at hoff@kdl.no. 24. French and Dutch Speaking Belgians Boycott Internet on Two Separate Days A strike by Spanish Internet users last September resulted in Telefonica announcing a 37 percent cut in local call rates Monday this week. France Telecom set a flat rate for web access this month after a strike in December by 10 percent of users. Belgacom now hopes to offer tariff reductions in the spring. 25. Anti-spamming Legislation on the Rise in the US Many spammers use false online identities and send e-mail under fake addresses. In Virginia, that will be a misdemeanor punishable by fines ranging from US $10 per message up to US $25,000 per day. But violations could rise to a felony punishable by up to five years in prison if spamming is caused by a "malicious act" and results in more than US $2,500 in damages to the victim. The Virginian legislation also apply to all out-of-state junk mail sent through any Internet service provider based in Virginia. The reach of the law thus becomes very significant because about half of the US Internet traffic is routed through Virginia by companies such as America Online (AOL), which has more than 16 million subscribers around the country. 26. India Moves to Police Internet Abuse, Cyber Crimes An Information Technology Bill, which is planned to be introduced in the current session of parliament, would contain provisions to help check computer crime in addition to measures to legalize electronic transactions. Large parts of the Indian government, the banking and insurance sectors and law enforcement authorities still use paper files extensively, and the police still have limited information on computer crimes and on how they could be combated. 27. Hong Kong Builds Own Silicon Valley High-tech companies including Hewlett-Packard, Hua Wei, Oracle, Softbank, Yahoo!, IBM and Sybase have already signed tenancy agreements with the government. The 'cyberport' will be based in Pokfulam and academic links will be set up with nearby Hong Kong University. The government said it hopes the site will provide the infrastructure for the development of software applications and services as well as multimedia and film. For more information, please contact Tony W.H. Au, President of the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation LTD. (HKITF), at AAU@abc.com.hk. 28. China Slashes Internet and Telephone Charges Under the old rates, a call from Beijing to New York would cost approximately three times as much as from New York to Beijing. According to the official Xinhua News Agency, higher Internet service rates and lower incomes meant using the Internet in China was about 30 times more expensive than in the United States.
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