WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., (14 Jan 2002, 4:54 PM CST) A clutch of the nation's largest Internet service providers (ISPs) today announced that they had joined forces to form a new lobbying group that will address the growing number of high-tech policy matters that directly concern ISP operators.
America Online, Verizon Online, WorldCom Inc., Earthlink and a handful of other ISP giants have signed on as founding members of the United States Internet Service Provider Association (US ISPA).
"This is an awfully focused organization," said Stewart Baker, an attorney for the Washington law firm Steptoe & Johnson, who is serving as the group's general counsel. "These are ISPs - large ones - who are really pooling their resources to address issues that effect ISPs specifically."
Although many of the founding companies are active members of other high-tech associations and lobbying groups, the US ISPA will be the first such group to address the specific needs of the nation's largest ISPs, Baker said.
The top legislative priority for the group will be to define parameters for how ISPs work with law enforcement agencies, particularly in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Baker said. Baker said that the ISPs want to make it clear to Congress "what they can do and what they can't do," in terms of assisting criminal investigations.
Other legislative issues on the group's plate will include the obligations of ISPs under international cybercrime rules and critical infrastructure protection as it relates to service providers.
Baker acknowledged that the founding members of the US ISPA include several companies that argue against one another in other areas of the high-tech policy debate, but he said that the companies also have plenty of common ground. "We'll be working on the things we have in common, and there are a lot of them," Baker said.
Verizon and WorldCom particularly have argued opposite sides in the debate over whether Bell companies (like Verizon) should be allowed to offer long-distance broadband Internet service without opening their local phone service markets to competition.
The US ISPA Web site is still under construction, but will eventually be online at http://www.usispa.org.
Internet Providers Form New Group To Address Security, Liability Issues
Dow Jones Newswires
WASHINGTON (January 14, 2002) Several Internet companies announced Monday the creation of a new group representing service providers and said it will focus on compliance and liability issues. The U.S. Internet Service Provider Association will replace the Commercial Internet eXchange, which is disbanding.
According to US ISPA, the change came about because "as the ISP community has matured so have its needs for an organization that could represent the growing legal and policy issues common to service providers."
Founding members of US ISPA's board include representatives from AOL Time Warner Inc.'s America Online, Cable & Wireless PLC, Earthlink Inc., eBay Inc., Teleglobe, Verizon Online and WorldCom Inc.
"We are very excited about the new focus and membership of US ISPA," said Clint Smith, president of the association and vice president and chief network counsel of WorldCom.
The group's vice president, Tom Dailey, said: "The US ISPA will serve as an effective voice for the ISP community on a wide variety of compliance and liability issues of common interest to ISPs."
He said some issues the group will examine include Internet security, online liability and compliance with the new antiterrorism law, the USA-Patriot Act and the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime.
The group said it will also provide a forum for critical infrastructure and cyber-security issues, and looks forward to working closely with the federal government on efforts launched since Sept. 11.
The group said it will also advance "a variety of other policy and legal issues of concern to ISPs, such as Internet privacy, content regulations and intellectual property."
The group's press release did not specifically mention open access, a hot issue in the past. Open access refers to a policy that forces a cable operator providing Internet service using affiliated ISP to sell unaffiliated ISPs access to the cable pipeline.
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