World Telecommunication Day 1999 |
While ''This Bud's for you'' is a well-known American advertising slogan, it does not work on the World Wide Web. On the Internet, ''you'' could be anyone in the world (which is fine for a purveyor of beer), but the question is, ''Which Bud is this?'' Is it the Budweiser beer brewed by Anheuser-Busch in the United States, where the slogan originated, or the beverage brewed in Ceske Budejovice, a town in the Czech Republic, which is also called Budweiser and has a long tradition?
The Internet brings the two Buds into conflict, because each has copyright protection in its entrenched markets, but such geographic boundaries do not exist in cyberspace.
Business and governments, lawyers and regulators are currently wrestling with this dilemma, and its ultimate resolution may be a long time coming. While e-commerce suggests the creation of one big global market, the reality can be somewhat different. Both private and public interests are seeking to reconcile the benefits of universal access and a global marketplace with the need for consumer protection, privacy considerations, intellectual property rights, consistent taxation policies, acknowledgment of social concerns and the special needs of children.
Governments have one set of agendas, private enterprise another, consumers often a third. The priorities of developing countries are unlike those of the most wealthy nations. Cultural mores - and corresponding economic policies - vary from one region of the world to another and can be markedly different even across a single border.
Donald Johnston, secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, is optimistic, however. ''Many of the differences concerning e-commerce are marginal,'' he says. ''We are finding agreement on general principles, for example, that there should be no 'Brave New World' of taxation, no 'bit taxes' based on the use of the network itself.''
A number of OECD conferences on the subject over the past few years have revealed general consensus on internationally agreed privacy and data protection principles. The challenge for the OECD and others lies in the translation of these time-tested principles into workable, globally accepted agreements.
The precedents established by previous innovations can serve as guidelines. For example, the photocopier and the fax machine made copying and delivery of information much easier than the technologies that preceded them, and digitalized transmissions take this one step further. Differences in the legal approaches of different countries can be worked out, as they are now, by ensuring compatibility among different systems.
The United Nations has developed a Model Law on Electronic Commerce under the auspices of the U.N. Commission on International Trade Law. Security concerns are a major emphasis, and the commission is working to establish a globally acceptable system of digital signatures and certification authorities (which protect both buyers and sellers in e-commerce transactions) through the Global Certificate Authority Forum and other initiatives.
In the United States, the Clinton administration has developed a Framework for Global Electronic Commerce to address the major issues being raised. The administration has also been seeking a temporary moratorium on Internet taxes for e-commerce. The rationale is, in effect: ''This technology is still too new to make binding legislative decisions. Let's wait a bit and see how it evolves.''
The European Commission has heretofore taken a similar view. Former European Union Commissioner Martin
Electronic commerce is 'driven by market forces and technological change, not by regulation'
Bangemann, in a speech given in March 1999, explained that such legislative restraint ''avoids the problem of too much, too soon, due to the speed of development of technology, the option of self-regulation, the participation of industry, etc.''
The World Trade Organization has followed suit. At its 1998 ministerial meeting, 132 countries agreed not to impose customs duties or import taxes on ''electronically delivered products or services'' until the end of 1999.
The International Telecommunication Union held a colloquium on regulatory issues for e-commerce in December 1998 and concluded that electronic commerce is ''driven by market forces and technological change, not by regulation.'' The ITU also expressed the view that many issues raised by e-commerce - such as intellectual property rights, taxation, dispute resolution and contract issues - fall outside the scope of national telecommunications regulators.
Nevertheless, some regulation is actually welcomed by businesses because it levels the playing field and assigns accountability in an industry sometimes described as anarchic. Pierre Hesler, chief executive officer of Cap Gemini, a technology consulting firm, claims that governments are ''despised by networked economy actors, but they play a major role.''
Earlier this month, the Global Business Dialogue on Electronic Commerce, a group representing some of the world's leading technology companies, urged governments to let the Internet self-regulate, saying that this would best remove obstacles to growth.
Claudia Flisi