So far policy makers have not tried to limit the new types of copy protection, Radin and Appleman wrote. Stanford economist Roger Noll explained the ongoing impact of telecommunications policy with an example of buying and selling a book across national boundaries. Americans do not pay by the minute for access charges but people in most other countries do. Many economists argue that local access should be free, he said, because the transaction costs of billing for access are much higher than the cost of providing it. Most countries also use small parcel shipping to subsidize their postal services, Noll said.
Tax is another area of uncertainty for e-commerce.
Speakers predicted some system for taxing Internet commerce within five years. The government doesn't want people to make decisions on where to buy things based on taxes. In Europe, value-added taxes are a larger chunk of tax revenue. D.C. The Clinton administration still hopes to reach an agreement with European countries for a self-regulatory framework in which businesses assume responsibility for getting consumers' approval for information use and sale. But EU policy makers continue to insist their citizens have the right to see all the information collected on them as well as to sue under consumer protection laws in their home countries.