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From...
Politicians and Net heads in uneasy dance
October 12, 1998
Web posted at 12:25 PM EDT
by
Elizabeth Wasserman
(IDG) -- The U.S. Senate handed Internet companies a victory last week, passing a three-year prohibition on new taxes for Internet access and commerce.
However, the bill's proponents also got a little more than they asked for. The bill included amendments designed to protect the online privacy of children, require government documents to be put online, require ISPs to offer filtering software, and revoke the tax-free status of Internet sites that post content considered "harmful to minors."
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As the 105th congressional session wound to a close this weekend, more Internet-related legislation was ready for the White House than ever before. Most of the bills were wins for the commercial Internet – the tax moratorium, a recognition of digital signatures, an increase in the number of visas for highly skilled foreign workers and an Internet-friendly digital copyright bill. But there were losses, too; the session saw the revival of provisions to protect children from online pornography.
It was a year in which high tech beefed up its presence in the nation's capital by opening lobbying offices and starting political action committees.
"I'd characterize this as a year in which the Internet came of age in Congress," says George Vradenberg III, senior VP of AOL. "There are over 30,000 taxing jurisdictions in the country and many had indicated interest in taxing commerce on the Net. We were faced with the prospect of a crazy quilt of different taxes, many duplicative and overlapping." He says the tax bill was necessary but described the anti-porn measures as "troubling."
"It's been a year of partnership building," echoed Brian O'Shaughnessy, spokesman for the Internet Alliance. He says that politicians and Internet stakeholders are finally learning to work together. "In the past, there was that sort of uncomfortable situation that you find at junior high dances. The girls stand on one side; the boys stand on the other. At least we're dancing now."
Dancing – but sometimes stepping on toes. On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed by an overwhelming voice vote the Child Online Protection Act, requiring companies to verify an Internet user's age before allowing the user to view porn or other material deemed "harmful to minors." The measure is similar to a Senate bill dubbed "CDA II" after the ill-fated Communications Decency Act. Civil liberties groups are already lining up to fight this one.
Internet companies preferred to focus on the Senate's passage of the Internet Tax Freedom bill, which would prohibit new taxes while "grandfathering" existing state and local taxes and allowing the sales and excise taxes that apply to mail-order and telephone sales. State and local jurisdictions, afraid that electronic commerce will erode sales tax revenues, have fought the bill. An advisory commission created by the legislation will study this and other issues further before reporting back to Congress in 18 months.