[10732] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
FYI France: Libraries & info control: M.Melot's proposal p.2/2
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (PACS-L Moderator)
Thu Oct 17 20:25:21 1996
Date: Thu, 17 Oct 1996 17:30:19 -0500 (CDT)
From: PACS-L Moderator <libpacs@UH.EDU>
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>From: Jack Kessler <kessler@well.com>
>Subject: FYI France: Libraries & info control: M.Melot's proposal p.2/2
>
>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
>
>
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>
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