12-18-95. NYPaper: "Telecommunications Giants Join Internet Security Quest." The consortium seeks to establish a layer of software and hardware standards that would effectively rest atop the Internet. Their goal is to make the Internet more secure, reliable and easy to use. The consortium started meeting last summer, and had seven core members: AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, Lotus, Novell, NTT, the Telstra Corporation and Unisource. The group held private meetings from Dec. 6 through Dec. 9 in New York, attended by 24 phone carriers and 14 computer companies, including Intel, Microsoft, Sun and the Hewlett-Packard. "The prospect of Internet censorship raises troubling issues for business." Denise Caruso's column. While most of the outcry has raised valid concerns about the First Amendment and civil liberties, little of the discussion has focused on how censorship could cripple much of the Internet's commercial potential. "This proposal will have more than a chilling effect," Ms. Fulton said. "It may well mean a cold death for everyone except very rich and very cautious media companies." GIA_nts (11 kb)