The European Parliament has approved legislation designed to promote e-commerce by setting out rules in areas ranging from consumer protection to liability of ISPs. The EU endorsed and strengthened the principle outlined in the original text that companies selling online goods or services across borders should only be regulated by the EU country where they are established.
This comes as a relief to telecommunications operators and ISPs in member-states, who had feared that e-commerce would be stifled if they had to comply with 15 different national regimes. The MEPs also agreed that consumers should be able to sign registers to opt out of receiving spam but rejected pleas to ban it altogether.
Future Vision: The Internet could become more user-friendly for visually and hearing-impaired users under new guidelines that designers are being encouraged to use. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) which oversees developments in Web standards, has released guidelines to establish principles for design including the need to provide text alternatives for audio and video information.
Web Of Laws: The recently launched Information Technology Law in Ireland website, www.ncilr.ie/itlaw, provides a comprehensive examination of how Irish and EU law is responding to the challenges posed by IT and the Net. The site, edited by IT law specialists Karen Murray and Denis Kelleher, examines the main areas influencing IT law, including copyright, intellectual property, privacy and data protection, e-commerce, computer misuse and the Y2K problem.
Twins Storm Castle: The 21st European MultiTwinning conference, hosted by Fingal Junior Chamber of Commerce, begins on Thursday in Dublin Castle with a particular emphasis on the Internet and e-commerce. Speakers will include Indigo's Mark Beggs and Sharon Kennedy from Ericsson Internet/E-Commerce.
Explaining Y2K Away: Eight months before the turn of the century, PC makers jointly announce a Y2K compliance specification for SMEs and home PC buyers today. The 12 members' site, www.pcy2000.org, defines in non-technical terms exactly what the problem is, how and why customers should fix it.
AT&T Phone Bill: Microsoft is to take a $5 billion stake in AT&T, the largest long-distance telephone company in the US, to enable the companies to work together on broadband and Internet services projects. The agreement calls for AT&T to increase its use of Microsoft's TV software platform in set-top devices and will see the phone company license Microsoft client/server software to support digital services including email and interactive television.
Who Knew What, When? America Online has revealed that a senior executive met privately with a US government lawyer weeks before the start of the Microsoft trial to warn him that AOL was actively involved in negotiations with Netscape, which culminated months later in AOL's $10 billion purchase of Netscape. Microsoft has maintained that it didn't know about the plans until news reports of the deal surfaced late in November, and that it wasn't able to explore its implications for the antitrust trial.
IFS Overseas: Dublin-based International Financial Systems, which specialises in web-enabled collateralised trading and risk management software for the international financial markets, has opened a US regional office as part of a global expansion programme. The office will offer account management and product support to IFS customers.
ICAN Do Tables: The Internet Communications and Advertising Network, ICAN, is to provide league tables to reflect the progress of Irish web-sites and the amount of traffic they generate. Focusing on commercial sites, the first table to be launched is a listing of Irish-based sites page impressions per month. This, plus a further 10 league tables, will be released as part of ICAN's new advertising portal, www.ican.ie, on Thursday.
Encryption Free For All: US government limits on the export of computer encryption codes are a violation of freedom of expression, a federal appeals court has ruled. The ruling is a blow to the Clinton administration, which limits exports of the most powerful encryption technology because, it says, law enforcement agencies might not be able to read the messages of criminals or terrorists.
Counting Chernobyl's Cost: The Chernobyl virus damaged 360,000 computers in China and caused $120 million in economic losses, according to the official China Daily newspaper. In South Korea the virus hit 240,000 PCs and Indian industry officials said it had affected 10,000 to 15,000 computers in New Delhi alone. Asian countries, where anti-virus protection is less prevalent and pirated software more common, appeared to suffer most at the hands of the virus. Chen Ing Hau, from Taiwan, admitted creating Chernobyl, but has yet to be charged by Taiwanese authorities.
In Brief...Esat Telecom is to apply for both a broadband and narrowband fixed wireless point to multi-point access licence. . . Sun Microsystems has submitted its Java technology to the European Computer Manufacturers Association for formal standardisation. . . Barnesandnoble.com is going ahead with plans for an initial public offering of stock despite signs that the demand for Net-related businesses may be waning. . .