http://www.currents.net/newstoday/98/01/26/news4.html
Clinton To Release Internet Naming Policy On Web
- By Jacqueline Emigh, Newsbytes
The Clinton Administration will next week use the World Wide Web to
release a statement detailing a new policy on Internet domain naming,
said Ira C. Magaziner, senior White House Internet policy advisor, at
the close of a talk today during the Mass. Software Council's Annual
Meeting that also touched on Internet filtering, privacy protection,
taxation, and anti-trust issues.
<snip>
As outlined in his talk to the MSC, other unifying principles of the
administration's e-comm program include "transparent and minimal"
government involvement; "neutrality" on technology; and recognition of
the growing convergence between telephony and broadcasting.
"The President has made clear that (electronic commerce) is one of the
priorities for his second administration," Magaziner said in his speech
today.
The Clinton advisor told journalists just afterward that a description
of the new domain naming policy will join descriptions of the previously
announced policies next week at http://www.ecommerce.gov on the Web.
Also during the informal press Q&A, Magaziner informed Newsbytes that
the Clinton administration has taken the "unusual" step of posting
internal discussions on policy matters on its e-comm Web site.
During his speech today, the White House policy specialist pinpointed
Internet content as the single "hottest" topic to be debated in
Washington in coming months.
As an alternative to government censorship, he said, the White House is
calling for the use of filtering technology that will provide parents
and schools with content control.
This approach will protect the "fundamental America right" to privacy,
while at the same time preventing complex and cumbersome regulatory
actions that could "interfere with the Internet taking off," according
to the Clinton advisor.
Magaziner also called upon the Internet industry to establish a "code of
good practice," with a seal -- along the lines of a seal long ago
developed by the Ad Council -- that can be displayed on Web sites
abiding by the code.
The White House advisor recommended industry development and agreement
on rules and technology for protecting information obtained from people
obtaining goods and services over the Internet.
"The seller should notify the buyer of what he plans to do with the
information," he told the group. "The buyer should (then) be able to see
the information."
In the taxation arena, he said, the Internet would like to see a
moratorium of several years placed on current regulations in the US
requiring a sales tax on goods sold over the Internet.
The current regulations are so complicated that they are rarely
enforced, according to Magaziner.
During the proposed moratorium period, the federal government would
develop an alternative method of Internet taxation, he said.
One possibility is to deploy smart card technology in a way that
"automatically" places a given percentage of the proceeds from an
Internet transaction into a government escrow account, he illustrated.
<snip>
The Mass. Software Council is located on the Web at
http://www.swcouncil.org .
-- Regards brd +-------------------------+ |Bernard Robertson-Dunn | |Canberra Australia | |brd@netinfo.com.au | +-------------------------+