The courtroom was surprisingly full, populated mainly by American journalists sensing a resistance to world domination of American cultural product - a subject that continues to rankle even the most reluctant 'European'. The panel, appointed by Judge Jean-Jacques Gomez, is made up of French, American and European members who will reconvene to present their findings on November 6. Consciously or not, this small group of men will play a large part in the evolution of global society in the information age. Their deliberations will be a timely statement on where the world is heading in the 21st century. It could yet turn out to be a landmark case, perhaps the biggest of the year.
Parents buy software to protect their computers from pornography.
Software, of course, that exists for commercial rather than moral reasons. Add to that a basic belief in freedom of speech which our generation takes for granted and the MRAP's statement appears to be a little naive. But the real issue here is not moral. The real issue is territorial. The concept of the portal has evolved as a place where access is encouraged to be as immediate and as general as possible, a non-place, from where one can link to an infinity of particular 'places' or web sites.