EU Internet Regulation Policy: The Rise of Self-Regulation
![handle is hein.journals/bcic22 and id is 165 raw text is: EU Internet Regulation Policy: The Rise of
Self-Regulation
INTRODUCTION
The world is quickly entering an exciting economic arena with vast
opportunity for commercial gain and equal opportunity for criminality
and abuse.' This arena is called the Internet.2
Because of its unique technology, the Internet will be a major source
of global information and a marketplace for commercial transactions
by the year 2000.3 This uniqueness stems from the Internet's combina-
tion of television media capabilities with the ability to instantaneously
exchange information necessary to effectuate a commercial transac-
tion.
As a commercial medium, the Internet is particularly economically
attractive because it allows small scale manufacturers and service pro-
viders to reach customers around the globe at minimal cost.4 However,
the Internet also provides users with anonymity, making it a fertile
environment for economic and social crime.5
As the planet rapidly plunges into cyberspace,'6 governments and
international organizations are faced with the challenge of designing
a regulatory framework for the Internet that will allow nation-states to
I See EC Documents Address Need for Internet Regulation, TtLECoMMUNICATIONS REPORTS, Oct.
21, 1996, at 42, 62 [hereinafter ECDocuments].
2 See LiewellynJoseph Gibbons, No Regulation, Government Regulation, or Self-Regulation: Social
Enforcement or Social ContractingFor Governance in Cyberspace, 6 CoRNELLJ.L. & PUB. POL'Y 475,
487-89 (1997). The Internet has been defined by one commentator as a network of interlocking
computer networks with no owner, central authority, or geographical boundaries. See id.
3 See Shailagh Murray & Richard L. Hudson, A Fair Deal and Real Choice, WALL ST. J. EUR.,
Mar. 14, 1996.
4 SeeNeil Winton, EU Commissioners Urge Internet Business Caution, REUTER EUR. COMMUNITY
REP., June 3, 1997. Industries that are likely to benefit most from Internet commerce include the
travel, computer, and clothing industries. See id.
5 See id.
6 SeeTodd H. Flaming, The Rules of Cyberspace: Informal Law in a NewJurisdidion, 851 ILL. BJ.
174, 174 (1997). William Gibson, a science fiction writer, is credited with being the first to use
the term Cyberspace in one of his books to describe the state of consensual hallucination
which people experienced by connecting their nervous systems through the use of a computer](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/bcic22&div=10&collection=journals&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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EU Internet Regulation Policy: The Rise of Self-Regulation
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