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On Monday the Internet Service Provider Association (ISPA) was formed in the US, replacing the Commercial Internet exchange (CIX), which is disbanding. The new body, which represents ISPs and other Internet companies, said that it would have a broader focus than its predecessor, but initially it will concentrate on compliance and liability issues that affect its members.
The new body, which will have a larger membership and broader goals than the CIX, said "the ISP community has matured (and) so have its needs for an organisation that could represent the growing legal and policy issues common to service providers." Founding members of US ISPA's board include representatives from America Online, Cable & Wireless, Earthlink, eBay, Teleglobe, Verizon Online and WorldCom.
Some of the issues the new body says it will focus on this year include Internet security, on-line liability and compliance with the new antiterrorism law, the USA-Patriot Act and the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime and it also plans to work closely with the US government in the aftermath of 11 September. The ISPA also says it will provide a forum for infrastructure, cyber-security issues and "a variety of other policy and legal issues of concern to ISPs, such as Internet privacy, content regulations and intellectual property."
The Internet Service Providers Association of Ireland (ISPAI), a body formed in 1998, provides similar industry support for Ireland's ISPs.
"This year is going to be the year of cyber crime and data protection," claimed Cormac Callanan, chairman of the ISPAI. Although the Irish ISP Association is part of a larger ISP Association across Europe, and not connected to the new US body, Callanan said that it would be examining many of the same issues as its US counterpart.
Unlike the US body, the ISPAI restricts its membership to ISPs operating in Ireland, but the organisation does work closely with other hi-tech industry organisations as well as the Irish government.
Some of the issues Callanan said that the Association would examine in 2002 include the expected release of the .eu domain name, adherence to the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime, data protection, child pornography, and the roll out of Internet infrastructure.
A variety of new laws and regulations are expected to be introduced in Ireland and throughout Europe this year as ISPs and governments look to come to terms with the implementation of the Council of Europe initiatives and other European laws that will require more stringent record keeping of ISPs' user activities. New internationally agreed legislation, which must be implemented on a national level, may require ISPs to keep records of the activates of their users, including what sites they visit, what material is uploaded or downloaded and what e-mail is sent as well as to whom.
While decisions of how this will be done, over what time frame and for how long records will be kept, have not yet been made, the impact on ISPs and the way they run their businesses could be enormous. The new measures, designed to help law enforcement agencies cope with increasing levels of cyber crime, are "not just an issue for ISPs to haggle over," Callanan claimed. He pointed out that the data retention measures are still being debated, and in some cases resisted, by privacy groups, ISPs, governments and users.
Meanwhile new regulations regarding the real-time interception of telecommunications information are also set to be introduced this year, with similar implications for ISPs and opponents of the proposed new laws. Callanan did not suggest that the ISPAI opposed any of these measures but did say that the body wanted to ensure that its voice was heard before laws were formally established.
Callanan went to say that he was hopeful of progress in still more Internet-related issues in the next 12-months. Attempts to stamp out child pornography have progressed in recent years, thanks in part to the establishment of child pornography hotlines throughout Europe and North America. Meanwhile nations that do not take sufficient steps to prevent child pornography, such as Russia, are facing increased international pressure which has led to significant and advancement in the arena, Callanan explained.
Rollout of high-speed Internet, namely DSL, in Ireland continues to be a concern for the body's members and the row between the ODTR and Eircom over the issue has stopped progress for the most part. But Callanan said the industry agrees that DSL would be positive and that some constructive signs had emerged such as the recent agreement between Eircom and Esat over site access.
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