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Sarkozy @ e-G8: “The Internet must have rules”

May 24, 2011

French President Nicolas Sarkozy opened the first e-G8 forum in Paris declaring that “[the Internet] you represent is not a parallel universe where legal and moral rules and more generally all the basic rules that govern society in democratic countries do not apply.”

France has been in the vanguard of trying to protect rights holder and make service providers take responsibility for piracy.

Around 1,500 guests have been invited to the forum. Among the VIPs were Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, John Donahoe, president of eBay, and Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook.

Critics have claimed that the e-G8 is too focused on handing net control to companies and governments.

The theme of the two-day forum is The Internet: Accelerating Growth. Sarkozy said its conclusions would be communicated to heads of state at the G8 economic forum taking place in Deauville, France on Thursday and Friday.

Categories: Articles, Policy, Regulation