Internet Without Frontiers?

[James M. Cobb]

  Friend, 
 
 
     A 02 11 96 Reuter newsstory from Brussels, headlined 
     ---------------------------------------------------- 
 
         STRASBOURG MEDIA DEBATE HEADS FOR SHOWDOWN 
 
  reports: 
 
    ...the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday...
    hammers out new rules for the European Union's audio- 
    visual sector. 
 
 
  The EP may try to revise the 1989 law puffed as "television 
  without frontiers."  That law might be extended to govern 
  "new" services such as 
 
    ...teleshopping, the internet and pay television.... 
 
  
  Ach! and Sacre bleu!  Therefore-- 
 
     A coalition of 40 companies and trade associations from 
     the recording, advertising and technology industries has 
     written to parliamentarians...to urge them against extend- 
     ing rules to new services. 
 
 
  But there's another factor. 
 
    If the socialist demands for regulation of information high- 
    way services...prevail, the Parliament will then be set for 
    an almighty row with EU governments. 
 
 
  Why? 
 
    EU culture ministers agreed last November to keep current 
    rules unchanged. 
 
 
  It's cheaper to enlighten a few ministers, you see,  than it is 
  to enlist a whole gaggle of parliamentarians. 
 
 
  Cordially, 
 
  Jim 
 
 
 
  NOTE.  The newsstory's www.nando.net online filename: 
 
                         info13_8187.html 
 
 
         This critical essay was composed 02 12 96.