Urgent help required on possible Internet law in Bulgaria
Veni, In Ireland, legislative interest in the Internet has appeared only in relation to the distribution of pornography and the protection of minors. It is not clear what will come of this. I understand that relevant state agencies and ISP's are co-operating to address this area. Domain registry has not been involved, and would not wish to be. I expect that in the long term, legislation to regulate Internet communication will arrive in Ireland. Until now, and for the foreseeable future, state agencies are taking a non-interventionist approach. I expect the intent of any future legislation to be in support of industry needs rather than regulation for regulation's sake. I do not expect anything unwelcome. To my knowledge, some other countries also have quiet support of their TLD registry from state agencies, with a more developed relationship than we have in Ireland. In at least one case, a state agency is (or is becoming) involved directly in the TLD registry. All of this without problem. If your legislators are inclined to regulate the Internet, the challenge is to persuade them to do "the right thing", and to keep their intervention at a helpful, rather than intrusive, level. At the end of the day, your legislators are in charge in your country. You have to recognise this, and restrict your own efforts to area where you can make a difference. Courage and good luck! Niall O'Reilly
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 19:31:05 +0200 From: veni markovski <veni at isoc.bg> Subject: Urgent help required on possible Internet law in Bulgaria To: Paul Ridley <Paul.Ridley at ripe.net> Cc: Niall.oReilly at ucd.ie, burack at isoc.org, Daniel.Karrenberg at ripe.net, heath at isoc.org, vcerf at mci.net, brian at hursley.ibm.com, martin at terena.nl
Paul, friends, colleagues very urgent matter:
A member of the Bulgarian parlament called me today, asking to provide him with information about possible legislature in European countries and the US about ISP licensing, Internet laws, etc.
Could you: a) point me to web sites where I can find this b) briefly inform me what's the current status in your country or in any other that you are familiar with?
The Bulgarian government has proposed a draft decree to license Internet services and regulate information spread over the net in Bulgaria.
Please, advise. Your help will be more than jus appreciated.
Sincerely,
Veni Markovski, Chairmain, the Internet Society - Bulgaria, http://www.isoc.bg, http://www.bulgaria.com/isoc/, http://www.bol.bg/isoc/ phone: (+359-2) 9809666, phone/fax (+359-2) 805012 mailing address: p.o.box 71, Sofia 1164, Bulgaria *** Because e-mail can be altered electronically, the integrity of this communication cannot be guaranteed.
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area. Domain registry has not been involved, and would not wish to be.
it's not a problem here, too. The registry is a subject to other discussion (recent views are published at http://www.ibm.com/OtherVoices/Levine/February1398155624.phtml
agency is (or is becoming) involved directly in the TLD registry. All of this without problem.
If your legislators are inclined to regulate the Internet, the challenge is to persuade them to do "the right thing", and to keep their intervention at a helpful, rather than intrusive, level.
I am afraid I haven't made it clear or you have misunderstood. The Bulgarian government wants to licens the Internet usage and services. They also intend to regulate the content of the information being placed in the web.
At the end of the day, your legislators are in charge in your country. You have to recognise this, and restrict your own efforts to area where you can make a difference.
it's a question of legislature, yes, but the government wants to regulate it through the local Committee for post and telecommunications, and not through the law. That's the dangerous part of it. The question of the domain registry is not an issue here. regards, veni -------- Logged at Thu Feb 26 18:06:13 MET 1998 ---------
...
it's a question of legislature, yes, but the government wants to regulate it through the local Committee for post and telecommunications, and not through the law. That's the dangerous part of it. The question of the domain registry is not an issue here.
Other countries I know of where governments try to regulate their respecive Internets: China North-Korea Vietnam They probably all do it through an appropriate local authority. With growing number of PC's they will have a hard time. Looks to me like the Germans allowing nobody to listen to foreign stations on their radios during WW II. Marcel -------- Logged at Fri Feb 27 17:53:48 MET 1998 ---------
At 17:46 27.2.1998 '?.' +0100, Marcel Schneider wrote:
Other countries I know of where governments try to regulate their respecive Internets:
China North-Korea Vietnam
I've found some interesting documents: 1) China for sure 2) GERMANY! - on June 13, 1997 "Federal act Establishing the General conditions for information and communication services - Information and communication services act"... HOWEVER: "the result was the guarantee of license-free access enshrined in the law" 3) Singapore - in 1996. 4) Thailand - pending regulation... Do you have more information? regards, Veni Markovski, Chairmain, the Internet Society - Bulgaria, http://www.isoc.bg, http://www.bulgaria.com/isoc/, http://www.bol.bg/isoc/ phone: (+359-2) 9809666, phone/fax (+359-2) 805012 mailing address: p.o.box 71, Sofia 1164, Bulgaria *** Because e-mail can be altered electronically, the integrity of this communication cannot be guaranteed. -------- Logged at Sun Mar 15 08:34:45 MET 1998 ---------
Veni Markovski wrote:
area. Domain registry has not been involved, and would not wish to be.
it's not a problem here, too. The registry is a subject to other discussion (recent views are published at http://www.ibm.com/OtherVoices/Levine/February1398155624.phtml
I am afraid I haven't made it clear or you have misunderstood. The Bulgarian government wants to licens the Internet usage and services. They also intend to regulate the content of the information being placed in the web.
I can tell you a story about situation in Ukraine. Internet and all possible data communication services were subject for license in Ukraine. And surely all major ISPs in Ukraine were forced to obtain/pay for such license. The same situation was expected with Internet telephony. But good news came from Europe and from Ukrainian Government at the same time. The European Commission defined that Internet telephony is not a subject for licensing. Begining this year in Ukraine licensing for all communication services (including data communication, Satellite, etc.) except voice telephony was canceled. I haven't time to investigate the reason for such positive shift but think that it's not even forthcoming Parlamentary election in March. But it was principal demand for Ukraine's entering into EC in liberalisation and harminisation of regulatory basis in Telecommunications. Next steps are expected in canceling State monopoly in Communications area.
LEGISLATION AND POLICIES
The European Commission has adopted a notice defining its policy on voice telephony in respect of telephony over the Internet. The notice considers that Internet telephony is not subject to the regulation applying to voice telephony until certain conditions are met. The provision of Internet telephony may therefore not be subject to European Union Member States individual licensing procedures but at the most to declaration procedures (http://europa.eu.int/en/comm/dg04/lawliber/en/voice.htm)
At the end of the day, your legislators are in charge in your country. You have to recognise this, and restrict your own efforts to area where you can make a difference.
it's a question of legislature, yes, but the government wants to regulate it through the local Committee for post and telecommunications, and not through the law. That's the dangerous part of it. The question of the domain registry is not an issue here.
In European experience and documents you can find arguments why it is wrong but in countries' like Ukraine experience you can find why it's senseless and definetely will be canceled in the future. Regard, Yuri Demchenko.
regards, veni
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Veni
A member of the Bulgarian parlament called me today, asking to provide him with information about possible legislature in European countries and the US about ISP licensing, Internet laws, etc.
Could you: a) point me to web sites where I can find this b) briefly inform me what's the current status in your country or in any other that you are familiar with?
You may check http://www.wia.org/ http://www.patents.com/ http://www.inet.de/ (German) http://www.widmerpartners-lawyers.ch/itlaw.htm (German, our lawyers) For CH and LI there is no activity by federal institutions although they watch closely what we (a foundation of the Swiss government and the cantons hosting universities) are doing. We at SWITCH have the feeling that the government should not become involved and does not need to be involved. Everything gets more cumbersume with having the status of a sovereign body: your data base needs to comply to strict data protection rules (at least here in Switzerland) pricing and policy issues will probably be handled by several committees and then forced upon you, your status will be that of an official employee of the government etc. Arghh ;-). But the debate around domain names has woken up many governments and they now see a need for them to regulate anything. Does the situation in BG justify such an involvent ? Marcel -------- Logged at Thu Feb 26 20:14:00 MET 1998 ---------
Marcel Schneider said: But the debate around domain names has woken up many governments and they now see a need for them to regulate anything. Does the situation in BG justify such an involvent ?
There are rumors that the Comitte of Posts and Telecommunications, which is the regulatory body in Bulgaria that deals with telecommunications licensing, the frequency specter etc. is considering some form of licensing for companies providing ISP services. It seems that there may be three causes for this: 1. The government wants control over this business, as they suspect it's in the hands of 'mafia' (to validate this concern, one has to consider the ongoing "anti-MULTIGROUP" fight the current government is leading for about a year now). 2. Someone at the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company is worried that the Internet infrastructure in Bulgaria is developing in such a way, that it bypasses BTC. For example, most of the new ISP companies rely on satellite links for connectivity. Which is practically illegal in Bulgaria - the current law does not permit any transmission by commercial entities. A subsidiary of BTC and a joint venture are actively involved in ISP business. Considering the very close ties that still exist between BTC and CPT (which until very recently were one and the same entity) this is the most likely reason. 3. This may be an attempt of a specific power group to monopolize this business in Bulgaria. Some years ago, there were similar attempts to pass a law that would require grant of concession rights to operate an Internet infrastructure in Bulgaria. It may be the same group. Unfortunately, the CPT plans and procedures are not made public in any way, so that a more specific comment can be made. Regards, Daniel -------- Logged at Thu Feb 26 22:02:42 MET 1998 ---------
Marcel Schneider said: But the debate around domain names has woken up many governments and they now see a need for them to regulate anything. Does the situation in BG justify such an involvent ?
There are rumors that the Comitte of Posts and Telecommunications, which is the regulatory body in Bulgaria that deals with telecommunications
daniel at digsys.bg wrote: licensing,
the frequency specter etc. is considering some form of licensing for companies providing ISP services.
I am afraid these are not rumours. I have the draft with me. It's awful. What I did was the following: 1. asked in a public meeting the minister of state administration if the government approves this act. 2. after his positive answer, I've sent a fax to all parties, represented in the Bulgarian parlament. 3. I already have response from some MPs. And today I've made a research about current laws and regulations. I am supposed to provide all interested parties with laws that exist. So far it's Germany, Singapore (and perhaps Thailand). China also has a law.
1. The government wants control over this business, as they suspect it's in the hands of 'mafia' (to validate this concern, one has to consider the ongoing "anti-MULTIGROUP" fight the current government is leading for about a year now).
I don't think this is relevant to the issue.
2. Someone at the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company is worried that the Internet infrastructure in Bulgaria is developing in such a way, that it bypasses BTC. For example, most of the new ISP companies rely on satellite links for connectivity. Which is practically illegal in Bulgaria - the current law does not permit any transmission by commercial entities.
well, as you perhaps know, there are lots of commercial entities, hiding behind universitites, which also use VSATs (practically ALL major ISPs are doing this, and there are no exceptions!) But that's not bad. Everything that brings the world at your keyboard at lower prices than the local PTT is welcome:-)
3. This may be an attempt of a specific power group to monopolize this business in Bulgaria. Some years ago, there were similar attempts to pass a law that would require grant of concession rights to operate an Internet infrastructure in Bulgaria. It may be the same group.
could you provide more details? perhaps in a private e-mail?
Unfortunately, the CPT plans and procedures are not made public in any way, so that a more specific comment can be made.
well, we'll force them go public. Even if that means to go into politics. I hate bureaucracy, and I hate Bulgarian bureaucracy even more. regards, Veni Markovski, Chairmain, the Internet Society - Bulgaria, http://www.isoc.bg, http://www.bulgaria.com/isoc/, http://www.bol.bg/isoc/ phone: (+359-2) 9809666, phone/fax (+359-2) 805012 mailing address: p.o.box 71, Sofia 1164, Bulgaria *** Because e-mail can be altered electronically, the integrity of this communication cannot be guaranteed. -------- Logged at Fri Feb 27 09:34:00 MET 1998 ---------
participants (6)
-
daniel＠digsys.bg -
demch＠cad.ntu-kpi.kiev.ua -
Niall.oReilly＠ucd.ie -
schneider＠switch.ch -
veni＠isoc.bg -
veni＠mail.uucp