WASHINGTON-A French court’s decision to regulate the Internet could have repercussions for the wireless Web in the United States at a time when carriers are excited mobile commerce will help them increase revenues.
A French court recently told Yahoo! Inc. it has three months to filter out French users so they do not have access to a Yahoo! auction site that sell Nazi memorabilia, or face a fine of $13,000 per day.
At the same time in Strasbourg, France, the Council of Europe is finishing a cybercrimes treaty that could lead to full-blown regulation of the Internet.
“What we are finding in e-commerce is that there are links. You can’t have something happening in one part without it impacting other parts,” said Rick Lane, director of e-commerce and Internet technology for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Mobile carriers appear to be oblivious to the implications. Interviews with major carriers showed most of them are waiting for Yahoo! to act. But Yahoo! has not decided its next step in the case.
A Yahoo! spokeswoman said that the Internet service provider is still reviewing the order, noting that while Judge Jean-Jacques Gomez handed down his decision Nov. 20, a translated version was not available until just before the Thanksgiving holiday.
That is not to say, however, that the portal will ignore the ruling as had been reported in some media outlets, said Greg Wren, associate general counsel of international for Yahoo.
In his ruling, Gomez relied on experts who said filtering software is available that would geographically segment the Internet by filtering out Internet addresses that identify French citizens. Experts believe this would capture between 70 and 90 percent of the users. Yahoo! told the court it could only filter 50 percent of users.
Gomez’s decision codified a May 22 order. The decision had been postponed until Gomez heard from experts on whether filtering was possible.
Wren said Yahoo! could appeal the decision either in France or the United States. If Yahoo! chooses to fight its case in France, it has two months after it receives the official opinion to appeal.
If it chooses to appeal the case in U.S. courts, it could wait until the plaintiffs in the French case-the Union of Jewish Students, and the International Anti-racism and Anti-Semitism League-ask a U.S. court to fine Yahoo! the amount demanded by Gomez. Yahoo! also could go pre-emptively to the U.S. courts and ask them to rule the fine illegal under the public-policy exemption of international jurisprudence.
One carrier, Verizon Wireless, said the Yahoo! case would not impact it because it has no overseas operations.
“We abide by the laws of the U.S. because that is where we do business,” said company spokesman Jeffrey Nelson.
The Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association called the case an example of “challenges of the global marketplace.”
The Personal Communications Industry Association, which represents some small carriers and content providers, such as The Weather Channel, said the Yahoo! case could be the beginning of a slippery slope toward Internet regulation.
“This is potentially another brick in the wall. There are some serious concerns here locally about what this means about regulation at the [Federal Trade Commission] and the [Federal Communications Commission] and getting on that slippery slope,” said Rob Hoggarth, PCIA senior vice president for government relations.
Meanwhile, civil libertarians are crying foul.
“This French court ruling has potentially disastrous implications for free expression around the world. Today, millions of individuals, small businesses, and nonprofit groups are now Internet publishers. Holding them liable for the constantly changing and potentially restrictive laws of every country and municipality in the world will have a chilling effect on speech and commerce online,” said the Center for Democracy and Technology.
Cybercrimes treaty
Equally alarming to the business community is the impact of the Council of Europe cybercrimes treaty, which the United States is expected to sign.
The treaty started as a way to combat cybercrimes by gaining immediate access to digitally stored information that could provide evidence of a crime, but many fear it has expanded to include much more.
The U.S. Department of Justice has been secretly and quietly negotiating the treaty for years, but now that it has come to light-a draft is available on the Internet-the business and technology communities, and civil libertarians are joining forces to slow the progress.
Time is running out, Lane said, noting a final version may be ready by the end of the year.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is lobbying the Senate to nix the treaty.
The American Bar Association’s Global Jurisdictional project has been working for more than two years on what jurisdictional rules apply to the Internet.
Thomas Vartanian, chairman of the ABA project, said rules are needed for cyberspace. He said the study underscores the limited ability that any one state or nation may have in bringing greater certainty to cyberspace, and thus the need for a multinational commission that could work with governments to establish rules.
“It’s as if we’ve landed on Mars and we’re constructing a commercial and business setting. We have to establish new rules of engagement and we have to get people used to dealing with those new rules,” said Vartanian.
