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To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (77391)	9/15/1999 2:39:00 PM
From: Bill Harmond	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 164684

fnews.yahoo.com

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (77391)	9/15/1999 3:14:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

This kind of thing is T's problem right now (not fundamentally, I mean the stock only) phonefree.com; Michelle, I agree. The market is still focused on near term profits from long distance calling. T is no longer focused there in my opinion. Glenn

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (77391)	9/15/1999 5:59:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

Internet self-regulation seen lacking punch By Neal Boudette, European Telecommunications Correspondent PARIS, Sept 14 (Reuters) - A movement to encourage companies to regulate the Internet themselves ran into heavy scepticism only a day after releasing its initial set of proposals. Its guidelines for protecting personal data of consumers, restricting access to pornography, levying taxes and handling other issues in electronic commerce are unlikely to stop abuses without some enforcement authority, a leading American economist said on Tuesday. "I don't believe in self-regulation," said Lester Thurow, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a frequent adviser to governments and corporations. "I don't think there is any example (of self-regulation) that has ever worked, unless government is standing behind it with a club," Thurow said at an Internet conference organised by market researcher International Data Corp (IDC). His comments came a day after an industry group led by 29 of the world's most influential computer and media companies laid out initiatives for taming the Internet with minimal government involvement. BASIC GUIDELINES SET TO BENEFIT ONLINE COMMERCE The group, called the Global Business Dialog on Electronic Commerce (GBDe), hopes to further the growth of online commerce by creating guidelines for responsible security, privacy, liability, consumer protection, and taxation policies. The proposals include basic suggestions for dealing with harmful or illegal content such as pornography, protecting personal information, enforcing copyrights, and handling disputes between consumers and online retailers located in other countries. GBDe also wants to discourage individual countries from passing laws on their own that could ensnarl cross-border e-commerce. "A patchwork of national laws would keep consumers from seeing the benefits of e-commerce," Thomas Middelhoff, GDBe chairman and chief executive of German media group Bertelsmann AG <BTGGga.F> <BTGGga.DE> said at a gathering of 435 GBDe members on Monday. But Thurow, one of the most respected economic thinkers in the United States, expressed doubts about the initiative. "Self-regulation can play a role if you have real regulation that will come piling in if you don't do it," he said at the IDC European IT Forum in Paris. NO-RULES INTERNET MAKES CONTROL DIFFICULT And Thurow was not alone. Although GBDe counts 200 companies among its members - including heavyweights Time Warner Inc <TWX.N>, DaimlerChrysler AG <DCXGn.DE>, Deutsche Bank <DBKGn.DE>, Fujitsu Ltd <6702.T> and Toshiba Corp <6502.T> - some top e-commerce companies have stayed away from the effort. Michael Dell, chairman of e-commerce pioneer Dell Computer Corp <DELL.O>, said GBDe was raising important issues but the lack of a strong enforcement mechanism would be a problem. "When you have a situation where there's no rules like on the Internet, you will have one bad actor and then the rule is the lowest-common denominator," Dell told Reuters. Compaq Computer Corp <CPQ.N>, the world's largest PC maker, chip giant Intel Corp <INTC.O> and Microsoft Corp <MSFT.O> have not yet joined the GBDe ranks. Middelhoff said Microsoft chief Bill Gates had stayed out of GBDe this year for "personal reasons" but would join next year. Even without regulations, e-commerce is expected to continue its boom. By 2003, e-commerce should generate more than $1 trillion in business, IDC estimates. Dell, the world's second largest maker of personal computers, now takes in $30 million a day in online sales. But Thurow said the Internet by its nature will be extremely difficult if not impossible to control to the satisfaction of diverse cultures. "In the Persian Gulf a woman with bare arms is considered pornography. How do you stop that?" he said. I do not know but I am not moving there;-) Glenn