Confederation of European Computer User Associations

CECUA Euro-news flash

Hot Legal Internet issues as seen from European users side

The new media, the information society, telecommunication, the Internet bring up new political, legal, economical, organisational / structural, cultural and social challenges and changes. We as the leading persons in our professions, countries and societies have to deal with them in a responsible way.

The Internet has created a new space in the legal system affecting the current legal and societal framework of every country, Europe, the United States and world-wide. Many of the legal issues raised by the Internet are different to existing legislation, some are near to legislation that is already developed but not quite the same, some domains need to be developed on the basis of completely new considerations.

The issues, which follow, are all of legal nature; their technical, organisational, commercial and other aspects being neglected, although they are of major importance for the further evolution of the Net.

Basic legal principles of the Internet:

The Internet is a widely available telecommunication network of any type of information in electronic form, available for everybody, every time from every location to every location in the world. It is governed by the principle of freedom applying to all kinds of information such as speech / word, image, sound / music and the mixture of them.

Applicable are the basic human civil rights of:

· Freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of cultural expression,
· Freedom of national / ethnic affiliation and information,
· Freedom of religious confession and presentation

Consequently, there exists the principle of freedom of presentation of information contents, a freedom similar to the freedom of the press and radio broadcasting, a freedom near to but not the same as that of expression in film and a freedom of expression similar to that in television

This said, let us consider the following question:
Is there also a general freedom of presentation of harmful or even criminal content such as pornography, dirty language (sometimes in chat-rooms), violence, slander, nationalism / racism, extremist political opinions e.g. fascist, extreme communist, anarchist and terrorist instructions and activities, weapons, use and abuse, preparation of crimes, blasphemy, etc.?

or

do moral and ethical standards and legal limits exist to control harmful and criminal content, usage and practices in the Internet?

Freedom is not unlimited. The freedom to offend against ethical and moral standards, open or clandestine criminal behaviour is limited as well as crimes and abusive use of the „Net"

Evidently two important thresholds / barriers are to be set in the „Net"

1. Provisions against harmful content and use
2. Provisions against criminal content and use

Let us expand upon each of those thresholds.

1. Provisions against harmful contents and use in the Net

· Ethical rules for the content suppliers and the service providers and the use of the Internet are on the way to be developed by the industry itself and by concerned users / user groups such as CECUA´s Bill of Rights for the Citizens of the Information Society (see www.CECUA.org and www.incore.org )

· Clear and transparent codes of conduct need to be written, implemented and followed, both for content and service providers, in accordance with the principles of a professional non-harmful and non-criminal behaviour which every profession has to keep for the well-fare of its society.

· These codes should include the obligation to remove harmful and illegal content when notified that such contents exists on their services. (Remark: This requirement often is already taken into consideration in the contractual terms of many serious providers (e.g. AOL). On the basis of contract conditions they can and do remove harmful and illegal content).

· All service providers should commit themselves legally to follow the principles and terms of the codes of good conduct for the Internet industry.

· The protection of minors must have a special emphasis

· Self-rating of the contents, products and services by all serious content and service providers should become a regular procedure

· A labeling of the contents, group of contents according to categories to be settled by boards / committees of the industry is envisaged by the industry

· Filtering of content by the users is to be accepted and developed. The aim is to exclude the use of unwanted harmful and criminal sites, especially for the protection of minors / youth. On the other hand, so-called white lists with contents recommended for certain user groups, e.g. children 4 - 6, 6 - 8, 9 -11, ... should be developed and applied, too. Such screening and filtering systems of different kind can be established and recommended by groups for the protection for children, parents, schools, teachers and their groups / organisations, churches etc.

· Hotlines and help desks for complaints concerning the contents and its presentation are to be installed with the larger content and service providers, or the acknowledged self-regulatory agencies, or the relevant government authorities. Some service providers already operate internal checking systems to keep their services clean, e.g. for chat-rooms. In some countries (e.g. Australia) this task is, by law, assigned to a public authority.

· Self-regulatory agencies of the Internet industry and/or governments / government agencies shall be installed to support and enforce self-regulation, pursue suspected breaches of code of conduct and criminal activities on the Internet as well as enforcing legal obligations

· International co-operation of these institutions is required as the dangerous contents can have their origin in other countries and must be spotted, eliminated wherever located

· Illegal content is to be reported to the law enforcing authorities

2. Provisions against illegal, criminal content and use in the Net

· The growing general use of the Internet is accompanied
by similar (or more extensive) actions of criminals and extremists.
The abuse has reached a wide range from gambling to copyright infringements, from offering of stolen goods to drugs, weapons, construction of explosives, literature and guidance on violence, child pornography, terrorism, extreme nationalism etc. This kind of material is easy to produce and to transmit world-wide, but difficult to trace and control.

· New forms of international criminality specific to the Net are emerging such as fraud, espionage, sabotage, hacking, and implantation of virus, falsification of information etc. Often they are executed across borders. Globalisation of crimes by the Internet is becoming a real threat.

· States and governments have responsibility for the protection of their constitutions and law and order. They must take the initiative when serious new problems affecting public concern, public order and public safety arise. This is now the case.

· Internet cannot be a lawfree space. The state must protect its citizens, commerce, trade and industry from misuse of the communication system.

· Legal rights and values accepted by society and cultural standards cannot be given up because of a world-wide functioning network. It must not allow technical progress to harm the order and legal basis of any nation and society.

· New legal and procedural rules need to be made when new technologies and dangers arise: In Germany for example, by a recent law, every provider of media has to nominate and install a person responsible for youth protection. On behalf of the management of the company / institution he / she is responsible for ensuring that relevant legal and ethical obligations are kept and harmful and illegal content is withheld.

By law in Germany, security authorities (police, public attorney etc) recently have now the authority to „patrol the Internet" by surfing and searching the Internet and online services. The Federal Office for Information Security in Cologne, together with the Federal Criminal Office (KBA) in Wiesbaden are commissioned by the government to develop search machines to detect criminal contents, to trace evidence regarding the source and the addressee.

· An international co-operation of these authorities and the legal basis for the co-operation are needed.

The author of this NewsFlash guest editorial is Mr. Tilo Steinbrinck, retired Director of the Datenzentrale Schleswig Holstein in Kiel, Germany and former president of CECUA (Confederation of European Computer Users Association)1 . He is also Honorary President of CECUA. The second part of the editorial will be the subject of another NewsFlash.

There is an on-going discussion about the CECUA Bill of Rights on the Web. All citizens are invited to participate and comment and exchange views with other fellow citizens. The address is www.cecua.org

1 The views and opinions expressed by the author may not necessarily be those of CECUA, its member organisations and partners.