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*********** Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000 21:09:51 +0100 From: Axel H Horns <horns@T-ONLINE.DE> Organization: FITUG e.V. Subject: [FYI] Mandatory URL Filter System to be introduced in Germany In 1999 the German section of the "International Federation of the Phonographic Industry" (IFPI) and the German music collecting society GEMA have started to push towards mandatory introduction of a URL based filtering system called "Rights Protection System" (RPS). All ISPs operating cross border routers (i.e. routers having at least one link crossing a national border) are said to be urged to install said RPS URL filter system. Up to now very little technical and political details have come to be known. FITUG e.V. has prepared a brief "Fact Sheet" which is available via ftp://ftp.fitug.de/pub/eu/RPS02.PDF This paper summarizes a number of available press reports which have appeared since autumn 1999. At the beginning of this year a prototype implementation of RPS was said to be tested with a supportive Berlin ISP company: http://www.tcpip-gmbh.de/ In May 1999, TCPIP GmbH, Berlin, had been aquired by or had merged with an U.S. company PRIMUS Telecommunications Group, Incorporated (NASDAQ: PRTL): http://www.primustel.com See also the press release of TCPIP GmbH: http://www.tcpip-gmbh.de/news/news9.html It is recommended to have a close watch on said matter. Axel H Horns -------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------