17 Dec
2003
17 Dec
'03
6:17 p.m.
BONN, Germany (AP) -- Germany on Friday became the first country to pass a law regulating the free-wheeling global electronic space of the Internet.
Chancellor Helmut Kohl's government says the so-called multimedia law creates legal clarity that will help boost commercialization of cyberspace and combats illegal uses of the Internet such as for pornography.
Guess Mr. Kohl never heard of the CDA, or Malaysia's "multimedia laws." Or any of dozens of attempts to muzzle the Net, documented two years ago in a Humran Rights Watch report. Sigh. -Declan