To: Dee Jay who wrote (8716 ) 11/6/1997 11:11:00 AM From: Glenn D. Rudolph Read Replies (1) | Respond to
Magaziner urges antitrust law rethink for Internet
Reuters Story - November 06, 1997 10:16
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By Marcel Michelson
PARIS, Nov 6 (Reuters) - A senior policy advisor to U.S.
President Bill Clinton on Thursday urged a rethink of antitrust
policy for the digital age and said existing policies could be
outdated.
"In the industrial age, the mere existence of a high market
share was in itself evidence for antitrust action. In the
digital age, we are not so sure if a high market share in itself
is enough evidence to warrant action. Technologies and the
market are moving so fast," Ira Magaziner told reporters.
He declined to comment directly on U.S. anti-trust action
against Microsoft. The Justice Department last month
charged that Microsoft had violated a 1995 antitrust agreement
by using its Windows "monopoly" to force computer makers to
install its Internet Explorer as well.
"Ten years ago we looked into the dominant position of Wang
in the office automation market, five years ago we
looked at IBM , today we look at Microsoft," Magaziner
said as an illustration of the speed at which technological
changes alter the market positions of individual companies.
Magaziner was in Paris on Thursday morning at an electronic
commerce conference organised by the International Chamber of
Commerce here.
He said he had been urging European officials not to try and
regulate the Internet and the emerging business of electronic
commerce, but leave it up to the market to develop standards.
"The notion of government protection through regulation,
which served us well in the industrial age, might not be the
right paradigm for the digital age," he said, adding that
over-regulation might actually stifle innovation.
Magaziner played down reports of a spat between the U.S. and
Europe over encryption -- the technology needed to secure
transactions and privacy on the open Internet.
"In every country there is a division between on the one
hand the people at economy who see the interest of business in
allowing encryption and on the other hand the law enforcement
people who want to remain capable of intercepting and reading
messages," Magaziner said.
He said he hoped there could be agreement on a proposal made
by the U.S. to exempt electronic commerce from custom duties.
"There was initial misunderstanding of what our proposals were,"
he said.
The U.S. is proposing that there will be no custom duties on
electronic commerce and no new discriminatory taxes imposed on
the Internet. It will start talks through the World Trade
Organisation to declare the Internet a global free-trade zone
and wants to use the Organisation for Economic Development and
Co-operation (OECD) as a forum for harmonisation of existing
taxes on the net, their administration and collection.
Magaziner, the main author of Clinton's July report "A
Framework for Global Electronic Commerce," said he was not
advocating that there should absolutely not be any taxes on the
net.
"If I have to pay a 10 percent tax when I buy a book in a
store it is normal that I have to pay 10 percent when I buy a
book over the net," he said.
He said that Internet security was a matter for industry and
while banking authorities would have to monitor electronic
transactions in order to avoid fraud, they should not try and
set standards.
The ICC on Thursday issued guidelines for ensuring
trustworthy digital transactions over the Internet, filling a
legal vacuum and providing a basis for business self-regulation.
The ICC's GUIDEC guidelines establish procedures for what is
termed "ensuring" messages to certify transactions.
Magaziner said that the ICC's guidelines were helpful as a
basis to develop common standards and practices. But he said
industry would develop various transaction systems.
"Our opinion is, let there be different systems out there
and see what works best," he said, adding a buyer of a $10 video
would require a different level of security than an investor
making a multi-million dollar transaction.
-- paris.newsroomreuters.com tel +33 1 4221 5452
