WRITTEN QUESTION No. 1542/96 by Jaime VALDIVIELSO DE CUÉ to the Commission. Regulation and control of criminal pornographic material and apologias for terrorism on the Internet
Date: 1996-06-06
Institutions: European Parliament, VALDIVIELSO DE CUE
Subjects: EU law, OECD, censorship, control of communications, freedom of communication, information system, interactive network, national law, terrorism













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91996E1542

WRITTEN QUESTION No. 1542/96 by Jaime VALDIVIELSO DE CUÉ to the Commission. Regulation and control of criminal pornographic material and apologias for terrorism on the Internet  


Official Journal C 356 , 25/11/1996 P. 0055 





WRITTEN QUESTION P-1542/96 by Jaime Valdivielso de Cué (PPE) to the Commission (6 June 1996)Subject: Regulation and control of criminal pornographic material and apologias for terrorism on the InternetAs use of the Internet spreads, so do messages constituting an apologia for terrorism, pornographic material, violations of intellectual property rights and individual privacy and other criminal activities.What steps does the Commission plan to take in order to examine the scale of the problem and find a solution to it?Giving the international nature of the problem, will the Commission draw up a report to enable the Council to seek technical and legal solutions at European and world level and via the OECD?Answer given by Mr Monti on behalf of the Commission (12 July 1996)The Commission attaches considerable importance to the issues raised by the Honourable Member and, more generally, to the analysis of the regulatory requirements brought about by the dissemination of information society services on account of the eminently cross-border connotations of such services.Since the forms, nature and content of the new services are at present not sufficiently known or foreseeable, it is too early to undertake immediate wide-ranging harmonization at Community level of the relevant substantive law.Furthermore, the new services are not developing within a legal vacuum since they remain subject to the legal principles in force both at the level of Community law (Treaty and secondary legislation) and at the level of national law (notably civil and criminal law).The Commission has already begun or is planning several studies of certain matters inherent in the development prospects for the new on-line services. These studies include the Green Papers - already adopted - on 'Copyright and related rights in the information society', ((COM(95) 382 final. )) on 'Legal protection for encrypted services in the internal market' ((COM(96) 76 final. )) and on 'Commercial communications in the internal market' ((COM(96) 192 final. )) and the forthcoming Green Paper on the new audiovisual services.The Commission is also following very closely the numerous studies undertaken at national level with a view to ascertaining how existing rules and regulations can be adapted to the special features of these new services.It will be possible, in the light of all these activities, to make a wide-ranging and in-depth analysis of the issues of general interest referred to by the Honourable Member, so as to identify the regulatory needs at Community level and to map out future Commission activity within the competent international bodies, including the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, with which it is already cooperating.