FYI France: Libraries & info control, M.Melot's proposal p.2/2 [In Part 1, Michel Melot, Conservateur Ge'ne'ral des Bibliothe`ques, outlined his proposal for an "observatory", a quasi - official advisory body which might mitigate some of the more passionate arguments in France over Internet and general library censorship. Here he elaborates a bit more, and the surrounding and ensuing debate is presented.] III. The identification of messages One other condition seems to me useful to insure a minimum of police on the Internet: the identification of messages and their authors (and also readers, who all are in a potential "author" position). In addition to this legal application, this identification is demanded insistently by authors themselves, to control the usage of their production, and to protect their rights and possibly their remuneration under their copyright. It is demanded just as insistently by the librarians and documentalists* who cannot work without clearly authenticating information as they research and redistribute. [*Non - French readers should note this "librarian" / "documentalist" distinction, which is well - defined in Europe and particularly in France but is not used by many non - European librarians. JK.] The identity of the addressee can be determined from the URL, as well as the identity of the source. But this is insufficient: the source may be only a mirror -- it is necessary to identify the primary source, and later modifications that the message possibly has received since its first publication. This task is difficult, but not unrealistic. The problem, one crucial for the international distribution of digital television programming, is in the process of being resolved for images by the "tattoo" of a brief signal, encoded within the total message and undetectable (it runs by every half - second) that allows, in all circumstances, the identification of its owner (ayant - droit*), and of its responsible party (autorite'*). [*"ayant - droit": in French law, "the person owning the right", cf. *"autorite'": "the person able to exercise the right". JK.] Is what is possible for images and for sound also possible for text strings? I leave this question to the specialists; those whom I have consulted have not told me that it is impossible. The impetus in this area comes primarily, in my opinion, from the financial risks which have induced television producers to accept this norm (included in MPEG 2). In the case of texts, on the one hand financial risks are less, and on the other hand actors are divided. They are not grouped in collective management organs such as the SACEM* or the SCAM*. However, only these collective management groups can achieve and insure the installation of a system of this type at the global level, witness the major role played, for example, in MPEG, by CISAC*, which represents the world's music composers. May the debate continue. Michel Melot, conservateur ge'ne'ral des bibliothe`ques [*SACEM: Socie'te' des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Editeurs de Musique; *SCAM: Socie'te' Civile des Auteurs Multime'dias; *CISAC: Confe'de'ration Internationale des Socie'te's d'Auteurs et Compositeurs. JK] XXX And now: the Debate did continue -- selections from what the readers in France said, and how to listen in on or even join the debate -- The above article first appeared on the BIBLIO-FR econference, Biblio-fr@info.unicaen.fr, on Wed, 29 May 1996, under the heading "Subject: Debat ISOC-CODE: le point de vue de Michel Melot". The debate which this issue, and this statement of it, has brought about in France has been extensive and -- like any debate in France -- noisy, although literally moderated in the BIBLIO-FR case by the tireless efforts of the econference moderator, Herve' Le Crosnier. Among the points made by the various combatants: "'I see libraries as fortresses of the freedom of expression"... the librarian must always stay ahead of the laws..." "...a mathematician would find that the total absence of organization is already a form of regulation... a social scientist would think that the Internet is a good place to test entirely new forms of organization and regulation, which intertwine deontology, debate, and the rule of law." Readers who wish to see the entire ISOC - Code / Melot debate in full, as it developed after Melot's original posting -- these are old issues, after all, albeit now with a new technological twist -- may do so easily via the exemplary archival management system available for BIBLIO-FR, among other econferences, at, http://www.univ-rennes1.fr/ You also might want to see the remarkable site to which Melot himself originally posted his remarks, an ongoing discussion forum sponsored and archived very interestingly by the France chapter of the Internet Society -- I believe by the chapter's President Bruno Mannoni -- at, http://www.inforoute.cgs.fr/isoc-code/index.html ISOC-France ran a debate there which you can read, opinion - by - opinion and blow - by - blow, entitled "For a Code of Good Conduct on the Internet?: The Debate!", and a topic, "What self - censorship mechanisms should be developed for the Internet?" with comments like, "There is no electronic filter which can separate truth from fiction.. We have only one tool available: critical thinking. This fact applies to the Internet as it does to all other communications media..." [tr. by JK from a French translation of a statement made originally, I think elsewhere and in l'ame'ricain, by someone named V. Cerf.] "There already is legislation in existence for audiovisual communication. This law requires a Web site to file a declaration, prior to the opening of a service, with the Procureur de la Re'publique du TGI... This law, conceived originally for Minitel services, fits the Web perfectly. I do not understand why people are trying to make the public believe that there is no such registration law for Web services..." "Must we create an official government Agency of the Internet? I wouldn't do this. Let's not make a new bureaucracy, let's stay in the realm of the 'virtual', the realm of the cooperation which is so easy on the Nets..." "... you have to remember that the Internet is not a homogeneous and continuous space: the Internet is a network of interconnected networks; some of these networks have a specific vocation -- such as the R&D networks in France -- and can be the object of specific regulations which the authority in charge of the network can decree: traffic restriction, control of access or of certain sites, etc...." "If the vehicle is personal (the general public's point of entry to the Internet), the first place to look is to the producer of a document. But if we are speaking of a professional vehicle (points of entry for the professions, in either the public or private sector), the first place to look is to some person in authority..." and also -- this is France -- "The Internet is a place of liberty too precious to be left to governments..." and, "How can one think of restraining an invention which permits the sending of 50 million love - notes in a few seconds?" XXX FYI France (sm)(tm) e - newsletter ISSN 1071 - 5916 * | FYI France (sm)(tm) is a monthly electronic newsletter, | published since 1992 as a small - scale, personal, | experiment, in the creation of large - scale | "information overload", by Jack Kessler. Any material / \ written by me which appears in FYI France may be ----- copied and used by anyone for any good purpose, so // \\ long as, a) they give me credit and show my e - mail --------- address and, b) it isn't going to make them money: if // \\ if it is going to make them money, they must get my permission in advance, and share some of the money which they get with me. Use of material written by others requires their permission. FYI France archives are online at http://infolib.berkeley.edu (search for FYIFrance), or via gopher to infolib.berkeley.edu 72 (path: 3. Electronic Journals (Library-Oriented)/ 6. 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