From: Rolf Michelsen <Rolf.Michelsen@delab.sintef.no>
Date: Thu, 24 Mar 94 23:48:24 PST
To: Cypherpunks mailing list <cypherpunks@toad.com>
Subject: Re: Netherlands and Other European Countries
In-Reply-To: <199403250025.QAA16496@mail.netcom.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.3.88.9403250854.A7028-0100000@svme.er.sintef.no>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


On Thu, 24 Mar 1994, Timothy C. May wrote:

> As for the Netherlands being a hacker's paradise....recall that
> telephone and other services are under the control of the "PTT"
> (Postal, Telegraph, and Telephone monopoly) that's
> so common in European countries. If they say "no modems may be
> attached," that's the law. (I don't know the current status, but at
> one time there were severe restrictions, heavy fees, etc.)

European telecommunication is (slowly) being deregulated and 
demonopolized.  For instance we now have two competing companies offering 
mobile telephony services in Norway -- not bad for a country of just 4 
million people :-)

> "Orderly societies" like those in Europe prize order and control over
> the "cowboy" aspects of America.  Just because the American debate
> over Clipper and Digital Telephony is so loud and angry here in the
> U.S. is no reason to believe that the same measures are not already
> being put into place in Europe and parts of Asia.

Perhaps the problem is that we don't have a "critical mass" of concerned 
people.  The EU is not as integrated as the US (and Norway is not even a 
member!) so these matters are usually left to individual (and small) 
countries.


-- Rolf


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Rolf Michelsen         Phone:  +47 73 59 87 33
SINTEF DELAB           Email:  rolf.michelsen@delab.sintef.no
7034 Trondheim         Office: C339
Norway
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