From govenment side, the Internet Medienrat is supported by the Federal Ministry of Economy. Min. of Economy Rexroth: "I appreciate
[German institutions' cancelling pornography, violence and Nazi propaganda on Usenet will certainly have large international impact. Thus I strongly suggest that you ask <summa@eco.de> for an official translation. I cannot guarantee for this rough translation to be correct. -- Ulf] From: summa@eco.de ("Harald A. Summa") Press Release, June 5, 1996 Internet Media Counsil presents fist measurements for Voluntary Self-Control [Voluntary Self-Control is the doublespeak term for censorship on pornography, violence, etc. It is, of course, not voluntary. um] The leading Internet Serive Providers, on whose initiave the Internet Medienrat, have deciced to found the Internet Content Task Force (ICTF) for the purposes of Voluntary Self-Control. The ICTF will introduce technical and organizational measurements to put up effective control against contents harmful to minors and national-socialist propaganda material. As a first step, the ICTF occupy itself with the News service, and later with other forms of content transport in the Internet as well. The Internet Content Task Force will supply a news server specificially configured for purposes of self-control at DE-CIX, the national data exchange point of the Internet Service Providers. Proof of origin of critical articles will be processed by the server, archived in a data base observing privacy laws, and stored at a central facility. Furthermore, sample news articles will be suject to detailed legal evaluation. Should this result in suspicion or proof of transportation of illegal contents, the ICTF can launch various steps to work against propagation of these contents. For example, it can arrange for blocking of complete newsgroups or retrospect "Cancel" of articles already transmitted. ICTF can direct possible criminal investigation with help of its data base. Criteria for the ICTF's proceed will be developed, evaluated and continuously updated by the Internet Medienrat. As an independant gremium, the Internet Medienrat tries to achieve a social consensus in the use of online media without government [sic! um] censorship. The formation of the Internet Medienrat, which is currently preparing its working basis, is being pushed ahead by Prof. Goetze, COE of Springer Verlag Heidelberg, and eco Electronic Commerce Forum e.V. It will present its members and organization to the public on September 19, 1996. the German online industry's initiative to found an Internet Media Counsil as a gremium of Voluntary Self-Control." Background Information on the Internet Content Task Force (ICTF) The problem of protection of minors and of spreading national-socialist ideas in the new media - especially on the Internet - is currently being discussed intensively and controversially. Meanwhile, politics and investigation authorities have begun to proceed against the distribution of illegal contents the the Internet. In the past weeks, the press has been reporting intensively about investigations against large service providers. However, the current legal situation gives few starting points for coordinated proceeding. Lawyers cannot even agree on who can and should be punished for distributing contents relevant to criminal law on the Internet. Depending on standpoint and interests, even noted criminal lawyers hold different views. Some do not consider distribution of pornography and national-socialist writings in electronic form punishable at all, others even want to hold service providers responsible for mere transportation of data. Mediating opionions imply that only the author of the message be punishable. The only strong fact in the complete discussion is that the matter -- as always in difficult dogmatic questions in penal law -- will finally be decided by courts. It is also a fact that the true authors of illegal messages -- especially those with an especially high criminal energy -- can be determined only with great difficulty, so that the threat of punishment insofar is void. The solution to this problem is being complicated by the continuing political discussion and superposed by other question complexes. For example, the states regard new media as an extension of their traditional radio regulation competence. They are trying to ensure future influence by an extensive interpretation of the constitutional regulation of competences and the laws and state treaties based on it. The draft State Treaty on Media Services that applies to the whole field of Internet and online services is one result of these reasonings. To create facts in this field, the state treaty shall be passed soon. Lead by the "Future" Ministry, the federation is also working on legal framework for new information and communication services to comprehensively cover the subject. The Ministry of Interior on its side is concerned with restricting Freedom of Communication with priority. This activity has already resulted in the novel Wiretap Law and the Telecommunication Surveillance Decree. Further laws, especially a ban on crytography, are planned. On the European level, a working group initiated on the last G7 conference, is trying to achive international consesus. Legal clarification, which is strictly needed but with still open result, is faced by fear of censorship and too wide-reaching government interference. Since a long time, the leading German Internet Service Providers have been trying to solve the now openly visible conflict betreen the "Information Police State" and the "Anarchy in the Net" as feared by politics. Thus they have propagated founding a Voluntary Self-Control and initiated the formation of an Internet Medienrat. As a further buiding stone, the Internet Content Task Force (ICTF) is now being put to existence. This shall also work against the impression that the main purpose of the Internet were distributiong extremist and pornographic contents. At least this was the result of numerous -- often badly researched -- reports in the recent weeks. They did neither differenciate between the Internet services (Mail, News, WWW, Chat and others), nor present the relation of doubtlessly useful and the less desired contents. ICTF now turns towards the problem in a much more refined way. There, it first will occupy itself with the currently probably most critcal part of the Internet, the so-called News service. The special problem of the News service is that information can be distributed world-wide, yet anonymously. This is different of at least fundamentally more difficult in other parts of the Internet, so that the volume of critical content in the News is comparably high. The ICTF will register the information availible on the origin of news and store them in a data base as to make it possible to determine who has sent an article or disguised the real author's identity, in retrospect. The data base will be kept observing privavy laws and third parties' protection-deserving interests [the Privacy Law puts limits on databases with "protection-deserving" personal information, um]. To avoid abuse, the data will regularly be exported to hard storage and deposited with an attorney. Furthermore, the existing or newly created newsgroups will be classified, so that groups serving to distribute exclusively or predominantly illegal contents can be excluded from further distribution. Sample investigation of articles and analysis of articles as necessary will also make it possible to limit the transportation of individual articles. Founding the ICTF, the Internet Service Providers accept part of the responsibility in forming a modern information society. It is clear that preventive action on a national level cannot stop illegal action on a global level. Thus, the ICTF is a model for similar initiatives in other countries, and is to be seen as an appeal to politics to make their contribution to solving the problem. Currently, the ICTF is the only perceptible approach to respect the need for "Law and Order" and yet leaves the new medium Internet with the freedom needed for futher prosperation. On the other hand, national legislator's attempts to solve the problem on its own will hardly solve the problem, but put severe damage to the economic site Germany. For one thing is clear in the virtual worlds of communication networks: Borders lose their importance, and location is no longer an issue. There is nothing to prevent an enterprise from moving its online activities to a country with less bureaucrary and legal restrictions. First tendencies for migration are already percepted. The Internet Content Task Force is supported be the following Internet Service Providers: CERFnet GmbH, Heidenrod ECRC GmbH, Muenchen, EUnet Deutschland GmbH, GTN GmbH, Krefeld, ipf.net GmbH, Frankfurt, IS/Thyssen Internet Service GmbH, Hamburg, Point of Presence, Hamburg, nacamar GmbH, Dreieich, NTG-X/link GmbH, Karlsruhe, roka GmbH, Duisburg, seicom GmbH, Pfullingen, spacenet GmbH, Muenchen. Further information can be obtained from: eco Electronic Commerce Forum e. V. c/o Harald A. Summa Schaeferkampstr. 19 44287 Dortmund Tel: +49 (0) 231 44 79 49 Fax: +49 (0) 231 44 81 35 E-Mail: summa@eco.de http://www.eco.de/ or attorney at law RA Michael Schneider Dickstr. 35 53773 Hennef / Sieg, Tel: +49 (0) 2242 9270-0 Fax: +49 (0) 2242 9270-99 E-Mail: Michael.Schneider@Anwalt.DE http://www.anwalt.de/ +++ eco - Electronic Commerce Forum e. V. c/o Harald A. Summa Schäferkampstr. 19 44287 Dortmund Tel 0231 / 44 79 49 Fax 0231 / 44 81 35 Email info@eco.de +++