French Organize Resistance To U.S. Net Plans

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March 10, 1998 (11:30 AM EST)

French Organize Resistance To U.S. Net Plans

By Alan Tillier,

The relationship between Americans and the French has long been a curious mixture of love and hate, and nowhere more so these days than in cyberspace.

While the French are beginning to take the Internet and the Web to their hearts, French industry and the country's government are becoming increasingly critical of that they see as the "American hegemony" over the Internet. French government and industry, arguing that Internet is now global, wants a much bigger say for itself and other countries in the management of this aspect of the Web.

Last month's U.S. government "green paper" outlining proposals for privatizing the Internet's domain-name administration infrastructure, met disappointment and hostility in Europe. The green paper, which proposed a new structure with a U.S.-based, nonprofit organization in charge of Internet domain name issues, was criticized by European Internet services organizations and by the European Commission for its allegedly U.S. bias.

Government officials and industry captains in Paris say they are spoiling for a fight. The terms "U.S. monopoly" and "distortion of competition" are flying around government corridors. French government officials have been discretely lobbying their European counterparts over the last few weeks, seeking to persuade the European Union that a more international body, such as the Geneva-based International Telecommunications Union, should oversee the Internet of the future.

A series of high-level meetings have been held in the past week in Brussels, Belgium, to try and formulate a common position among the 15 European Union nations. "Half the world's Internet users are now outside of the U.S.," said one French government official.

"Dot com and other domains have become international and should not remain a U.S. monopoly," said Jean-Luc Le Gall, information technology adviser to the French Finance and Economy Minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn. "The French position, which strongly opposes any future U.S. exclusivity in owning or running the domains, is supported by the southern countries -- Spain and Italy -- and, to a certain extent, by Germany. The Scandinavians are more skeptical about adopting a hard-line with Washington as are the British," said Le Gall.

Although French private industry has generally opposed its government's anti-liberal position on imposing controls over electronic commerce and encryption usage, many French companies are supporting their government on the Internet domain issue -- or what the French call "nommage," a new French word invented specially to describe Internet domain name issues.

"The American position as outlined in the Commerce Department's green paper is extremist," said Bruno Oudet, head of the French branch of the Internet Society, an influential group of managers and technicians associated with the Internet. "Many people here in France say the Europeans have no chance taking on the Americans, but this is perhaps the best moment for us to change matters. Half of French businesses now want to have .com addresses," said Oudet.

Ira Magaziner, the influential White House special adviser on the Internet, is viewed with deep suspicion in the higher echelons of the French government. His insistence that the origins of Internet are American is akin to a red rag in some government quarters. "Magaziner has a very short-term view of the future," said one senior official.

The French are lobbying hard in Brussels for a tough reply this month to the green paper. "If the Americans don't make concessions and engage in a proper dialogue, then there is a risk of a rival Internet being established -- one run by Europeans," said the Internet Society's Oudet. He and others are trying to organize a Europe-wide gathering of Internet Society chapters in Brussels next month, to throw down the gauntlet to the Americans. The Belgians, Dutch, Germans, and Spanish will there alongside the French -- but not the British, who are the closest allies of the Americans in European Internet politics.

According to Oudet, a major fear in France is that if American law is used as the basis of solving future disputes over Internet domain names, as suggested by the green paper, "everyone will be working for American lawyers." As Daniel Kaplan, Oudet's deputy put it: "A plumber in Kansas could challenge my Internet names, and what chance would I have?"

The Internet needs a "stable, comprehensive, and transparent framework for Internet governance," said Jean-Jacques Damlamian, group executive and head of development at France Telecom. "A reform should be based on the consensus of all stakeholders, and the green paper raises serious concerns in this regard.

"Any solution must be consistent with the international scope of the Internet. France Telecom considers that supervision under an international organization or consortium would provide a better guarantee of independent self-governance" than under a U.S.-based organization suggested by the green paper, Damlamian added.