-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

A recently released European Commission Communication on "Illegal and harmful content on the Internet" may prefigure the nature of coming European Union regulatory initiatives concerning the net. This Communication was in response to a 27 September resolution by the Telecommunication Council on "preventing the dissemination of illegal content on the Internet, in particular child pornography." The document reportedly reflects what will be ongoing work to "present practical measures in time for the next Telecommunications Council on 28 November 1996."

The Communication describes its aims as:

firstly to describe briefly the different types of illegal and harmful content,

secondly to examine the technical context in which action can be taken to deal with illegal and harmful content,

and finally to suggest a number of practical measures designed to be rapidly implemented

Among the points of interest, it states with emphasis that "additional international cooperation is required to avoid 'safe havens' for documents contrary to general rules of criminal law." With respect to anonymous communications it discusses proposed "measures to close known loopholes and improve traceability and that anonymous remailers record details of identity."

As is typical of these agendas, the devil will be in the evolving details of enforcement. It looks like 1997 will be a busy year for proponents of greater state control over internet content both here and abroad. If they can conjure up enough sufficiently compelling bogeymen, it could be a very successful one for them as well.

It looks as if a functioning AP system can't be here any too soon. I can't wait to bet that these sorts of thought-crime restriction won't be seen as reasonable.