. Electronic trade and encryption

. Internet

Most recent French initiatives:

at national level:

• the Prime Minister announced on 25 August 1997 that the government intended to begin an ambitious programme of action to integrate France into the information society. This programme of concrete action, which will be co-ordinated by an inter-ministerial committee, will be the subject of public debate.



• working group on the creation of a code of conduct. This brings together all professionals involved, and is lead by Antoine Beaussant, president of the Telematics service providers group (GESTE). Mission statement. The group has put the final touches to a draft Charter presented to François Fillon on March 5 1997. It's the subject of public debate.
  


• mission on legal and fiscal aspects conveyed to Patrice Martin-Lalande, member of parliament. Mission statement. A forum designed to complement the interviews which P.Martin-Lalande carryied out was opened on this Web site. Martin-Lalande's survey.



• mission with a larger scope but which involves the Internet conveyed to Senator René Trégouët : new information technologies and society. Mission statement. Web site.

at international level:

• France proposes a charter for international co-operation : in October 1996, France proposed to its OECD partners of which the object is to harmonise the rules of the different countries with regard to the Internet on the basis of self-regulation of content. . This proposal was examined on 27 and 28 February 1997 by the OECD committee for policy on the information and communications industry. This latter requested that the OECD secretariat to establish the current state of legislation an practice in Member States. To this end, a document was sent to Member States 8 April 1997. An intermediary report, resulting from this consultation, has been presented the 1 and 2 July 1997 in Paris (20 avenue de Ségur, 75700 Paris. FRANCE) before the experts and involved parties of the member countries of the OECD. As for the final report, which integrates a certain number of recommendations, it will be presented during the meeting of the Committee, 23 and 24 October next. will be ready in May.

Most recent European Initiatives:

• ministerial conference in Bonn on the information society (6-8 July 1997) : this conference was organised jointly by the European Commission and the Federal Republic of Germany. Participants included the relevant ministers of Member States of the European Union, members of the European Association for free trade, and Central and Far Eastern European countries, representatives of USA, Canada, Japan, Russia, and industrialists
  - "the Bonn declaration", July 8 1997
  - Martin Bangemann’s opening speech and the various declarations
  - Christian Pierret’s speech, made July 7 1997 as an introduction to the plenary session entitled "Empowering the User"



• communication from the European Commission concerning the status of voice communications over the Internet (in conformance with directive 90/388/CE)- OJEC May 7 1997.
  The question is whether telephone communications over the Internet can be assimilated to base voice telephony. The Commission asked all parties concerned to communicate their opinions.



• group of experts set up by the Council of European Ministers 27 September 1996. This group was given two months to identify concrete measures that would limit illicit activity on the Internet. The group submitted its report to the Council of European Ministers 28 November who adopted a proposed resolution on this theme



• communication , 16 October 1996, from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the Economic and Social Committee, and the Committee for Regions on illegal and harmful content on the Internet
  
  
• Green paper (pick gpen-toc) on "the protection of minors and human dignity in audiovisual information services", approved by the Commission 16 October 1996

Observations of the National Consultative Committee on Human Rights (14 November 1996)

Legal texts:

law on telecommunications regulations
law relative to the use of the French language (4 August 1994) + application decree (3 March 1995)
law relative to information technology, files and freedom of access (6 January 1978)
decree n·96-481 relative to public service legal databases (31 May 1996)

Communications and government texts relative to the Internet:

Press statements and speeches by the Minister for Postal Services, Telecommunications
Press statements and speeches by the Minister for Culture
Press statements and circulars issued by the Prime Minister's office

Public connection to Internet access providers for the price of a local call: details

Does the law need to be changed? An interministerial working group, lead by Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, submitted its report in early July 1996 to François Fillon and Philippe Douste-Blazy.

Summary
Full report (without appendices)

The Interministerial Internet Workshop : works to share the competence and expertise of various ministries with regard to the Internet, and to assist ministries who do not yet have a Web site.

The workshop was officially started by the cabinet 27 March 1996.

1) Official statements relative to the Workshop

• Communication of 27 March 1996
• Circular from the Prime Minister 15 May 1996 ("relative to communication, information and documentation in State services on the new telecommunications networks").

2) Workshop meetings

. France, the G7 and the information society