Internet Business News
01-03-1995
The European Commission has switched on its "Slow, hazard ahead" signs signalling fundamental differences with mainly US companies over the development of the information superhighway. Battle lines were first drawn at a technology convergence conference by Robert Finocchio, executive vice-president of 3Com Corp who bluntly told governments to step aside. The European Commission's director-general for industry, Stefano Micossi, came back with a warning that issues like intellectual property rights, security and the problem of cultural identity had to be solved before business got unfettered access to the European market, where there are social constraints that do not exist in the US" Finocchio said over-regulation would be counter-productive. "There is nothing more politically liberating than the Internet. People will make their own decision whether to use it or not. Regulation has a long history of protecting monopolies not ending them, and this will inhibit European progress, not liberate it," said Finocchio. Funnily enough, the UK government continues to do its own thing apart from Europe, by restating its opposition to state regulation of the Internet -- probably fearing such a move would stifle key business opportunities offered by the medium.
Copyright 1995 M2 Communications, Ltd., All Rights Reserved.
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