Annotated Web Resources - Regulation

Regulation,Legislation, and Government

The Internet Society

The Internet Society is a non-profit, non-governmental, international, professional membership organization. It represents over 100 countries and more than 150 organizations and over 6,000 individuals. Through the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) it focuses on Internet standards, education, and policy issues and is recognized as a leading authority on Internet issues. It is governed by a Board of Trustees elected by the international membership. From the homepage of the International Society is a website that deals offers legal research sites and short descriptions of these sites.

Internet Law

And from the law page is a website that deals with U.S. laws governing companies that do business on the Internet. There are many links from here to government and organization sites that provide primary documents.

Internet Law - Trade

This document provides links to the topics of Arbitration, Banking Online, Corruption, E-Commerce, Encryption, Foreign Exchange, Foreign Ownership, Insurance, Project Finance, Securities, Software Licensing, Trade Finance, Trade Regulation, and Venture Capital. The site offers a wealth of reliable information which is well organized and easy to use with references to primary sites.

Internet Law and Policy Forum

The mission of the Internet Law and Policy Forum is facilitate the growth of electronic commerce, protect property rights within the Internet, promote dialog between governments and businesses, and "establish an efficient and predictable marketplace". The ILPF would prefer as little government regulation as possible but does want legislation that protects the rights of businessmen and investors. With the bias noted, the site provides many links to primary sources. Two of the most useful for the Commercialization group are Traditional, Sovereign, Nation-State Regulation and Internet Law Resources. Both sites provide bibliographies and links to other sites about legal issues and current law.

The John Marshall Law School Center for Information Technology and Privacy Law

The John Marshall Law School in Chicago provides a site called Cyberspace Law that provides links to bibliographies of journal articles and court cases involving a variety of topics relating to Internet laws. This is an excellent source for finding primary documents.

United States Government Sites

United States Department of Commerce

This home page for the Department of Commerce provides links to sites that give information regarding the current state of electronic commerce and pertinent U.S. regulations.

A Framework for Global Electronic Commerce

This is a policy paper of the Clinton Administration released in July, 1997 which outlines principles, issues, and strategy for global electronic commerce.

The President's Information Infrastructure Task Force

The task force brings together representatives from U.S. federal agencies as well as representatives from the private sector to develop and apply information and telecommunication technology and to determine government policy as it applies to these areas.

National Science Foundation

Before deregulation the National Science Foundation had the charge of developing and commercializing the Internet. It is currently working on software to facilitate the retrieval of information from databases found on the Internet and on educational tools for classroom use. This site provides historical context.

Office of Information Technologies

The mission of this General Services Administration office is to manage Federal information technology to better run government programs. To do this they encourage the development of collaborative efforts with the private sector. The regulations and legislation pertaining to this function are outlined at the following web site: http://www.itpolicy.gsa.gov/mks/regs-leg/reglegtc.htm

Office of Technology Policy

This site is also related to the partnership of the public and private sectors. The OTP has the charge of developing policies that encourage growth of the U.S. economy by creating high paying jobs and improving the quality of life. As the research and development of information technologies (and other areas of the economy as well) has shifted from government funding to funding in the private sector, the federal government has shifted its emphasis to collaboration. Links to information regarding government policies can be found here.

Australian Government

Government Policy and the Information Superhighway

This is an Australian site that provides international links to government reports and documents that deal with national and global networking. Areas represented with links are Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan, Singapore, The United Kingdom, and the United States.

Points of View

A Clash of Cultures on the Internet

This an article written by Howard Besser of the University of California, Berkeley School of Library & Information Studies. In the article he wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle he outlines the three generations of Internet users and their cultures to explain why there is so much controversy regarding how the Internet is used and the resulting call for regulation of the Internet.

The COOK Report

The COOK Report is a monthly online newsletter that focuses on the technology and policy issues relating to development of Internet infrastructure. It is written by an independent former government official who is oriented toward a business model. There is a useful index of articles from past issues and a search/browse function that is easy to use. The information is geared more toward the techie population and is frequently critical of government policy. It has been published since 1992.

"A Slice of Life in my Virtual Community" by Howard Rheingold

Subtitled "Social Contracts, Reciprocity, and Gift Economies in Cyberspace" the author argues that the Internet should be regulated to exclude private commercial ventures from the Internet. He provides arguments and anecdotes from his experiences in his online virtual community.

"A Cultural Transition: The Commercialization of the Internet"
Christopher R. Vincent, 25 October 1995

The author, who is from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, provides a historical context for the commercialization on the Internet. He explores business advertising on the Internet and the something-for-nothing psychology of Internet users.