Privacy issues were the subject of a major government sponsored conference and it promises to capture as many headlines in 1998 as it did in 1997. E is for electronic commerce, which seems to have become the focal point of online activity and regulatory initiatives. The United States, the European Union, and the OECD all released major papers concerning electronic commerce with each projecting significant growth and calling for minimal government intervention. F is for filters, supported by many advocates as a possible alternative to protecting minors from harmful speech. Opponents argued that the use of filtering programs in public libraries, which are governmental entities, would violate the First Amendment and that filtering programs often block access to valuable speech.
G is for gambling, an increasingly popular pursuit on the Internet.
I is for Internet Explorer, the Web browser at the center of a Department of Justice complaint against Microsoft. A decision in late December found Microsoft in violation of a 1995 agreement. Microsoft's antitrust battles promise to continue to be a major legal story in 1998. J is for jurisdictional questions, the source of numerous cases in 1997 including Zippo Manufacturing v. Zippo Dot Com , Hearst Corporation v. Goldberger , and Cybersell v. Cybersell . By year's end the courts seemed to be adopting a standard requiring activity or effect beyond a passive Web site in order to assert jurisdiction.