|
ADVANCED TOPICS The Government's Involvement |
|
Many Internet afficianados believe that the Cyberspace should be free
from any government intervention. Yet, people desire a certain level of
protection from the government. An exemplary issue is the protection of
children from pornography and indecent materials. Thus, there is a government
involvement in form or another for the Internet.
Taxes The government is constantly trying to find a way to tax the Internet commerce. The ISPs, on the other hand, are putting a strong fight against the taxes. Texas imposes a sales tax on downloaded software and Net access. Tennessee's tax department ruled that its sales tax applies to ISPs. In Massachusetts, ISPs pay a 5 percent sales tax on access services. Alabama's revenue department also has ruled that access charges should be subject to the state's utility tax. The ISPs fight, however, led to victories in some of the cases. In mid-January New York's Gov. George Pataki agreed to exempt ISPs from sales taxes, and Massachusetts Gov. William Weld proposed to eliminate the state's 5 percent tax on Internet services in his annual budget submitted late last month. Legal Issues The issues such as pornography on the Internet led the government to pass several laws concerning the Internet. On June 14, 1995, the Senate debated and voted on Title IV the Telecommunications Competition and Deregulation Act of 1995 (S.652). The Title proposed to amend Section 223 (47 U.S.C. 223) to read: "Whoever, by means of telecommunications device knowingly makes, creates, or solicits, and initiates the transmission of, any comment, request, suggestion, proposal, image, or other communication which is obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent, with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass another person," n112 will be charged awith a felony punishable by a fine of up to $100,000 or up to two years in prison, or both." A year after, the Congress passed telecommunications act of 1996 that permitted censorship communications carried across the Internet. Aside from the laws governing the pornography on the Internet, laws such as the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 exists to protect the privacy of the Internet users. There have been numerous organizations that support the more secure privacy on the Internet, and make the Act applicable to Internet. Ironically, the law passed by the government that allows the FBI to eavesdrop the traffic on the Internet conflicts with the Privacy Act. An important area that the government enforces it law on the Internet is the security attacks. The worm created by Robert Morris Jr. paralyzed thousands of computers due to a bug in the form of spoiler attack. He was then prosecuted with civil laws. In the recent years, the government is looking for ways to effectively deal with spoiler attacks such as SPAMS. Due to the global nature of the Internet, there have been efforts to unify the copywrite laws on the international level. In washington, a coalition to push forth the ratification of two new international copyright treaties that supplements original Berne Convention that went into effect in 1886 met in September of 1997. The two treaties are the World Intellectual Property Organization's Copyright Treaty, and the Performances and Phonograms Treaty. Regulation The Telecommunications Act of 1996 and e-rates Before the Telecommunications Act of 1996, universal service ensured affordable access for telephone service only. Under universal service, consumers who live in areas where telephone service is expensive to provide recieve subsidized phone rates. Subsidies come from a universal service fund to which telephone companies must contribute. Telephone users in other areas ultimately pay for the subsidies through elevated telephone rates. Thus universal access ensures affordable phone access for all consumers. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 expands the concept of universal access to include a broader range of telecommunication services, including Internet access. Also, the new law requires all telecommunications providers, ranging from cable companies to wireless services, to contribute to the universal access fund. Finally, schools and libraries are now eligible for universal service support. Ultimately, the new law allows eligible schools and libraries to receive discounted rates to Internet services, and the Internet Service Providers who offered the discounts would be reimbursed through the universal access fund. Following the mandates of Telecommunications Act of 1996, the Federal Communications Commision has expanded the universal service fund to create an E-rate, or education rate, for schools and libraries. With the E-rate, schools and libraries are guaranteed to recieve from a telecommunications company the lowest rates for telecommunication services that are available to any customers in the area. In addition, qualifying disadvantaged schools can receive discounts of 20 to 90 percent on all telecommunication services. FCC regulation on local access charges Long-distance telephone companies must pay per-minute fees to both local telephone companies at the originating and terminating locations of a long-distance call. These fees are known as access charges and are meant to reimburse local telephone companies for use of their facilities. Enhanced service providers such as ISPs currently do not have to pay these fees, because they are considered to be end-users rather than carriers. In June of 1996, four local telephone companies (Pacific Bell, Bell Atlantic, US West, and NYNEX ) urged the FCC to impose access charges on enchanced service providers such as ISPs. They argued that the increased traffic caused by Internet usage has been causing congestion problems, and so they should receive compensation for the expenses that Internet usage brings. After hearing public comments and considering the issue, the FCC declared in May of 1997 that the current system should reamin in place, and that ISPs should not have to pay access charges. This issue is not likely to go away. As the Internet becomes more and more widely used and as ISPs tie up more and more phone lines in meeting the increased demand, the local phone companies will continue to argue for assessing these charges on ISPs. If the FCC ever did impose access fees on ISPs, the expenses for ISPs would rise considerably. These increased expenses would mean significantly higher rates for the consumer, probably making Internet access to the home too expensive for many consumers. The federal government has additional information on access charges. |
|
|
|
JOHN LeFLOHIC MARCH 16, 1998 |