SAN FRANCISCO -- The Internet industry has two choices, Internet policy guru Ira Magaziner said Monday: It can lead now or be led later.
Magaziner -- who last month stepped down as a senior White House adviser -- called for information-technology businesses to take a proactive approach to hot issues such as minors online, privacy, encryption, and filtering software.
"The best defense is a good offense," he said. "It will deflect a lot of bad legislation."
Magaziner joined other panelists -- from the American Civil Liberties Union, Netscape Communications, Warner Brothers Online, Playboy Online, Ziff-Davis, CNET -- at the Internet Content Coalition's second annual forum. The group debated a spate of issues that have yet to be completely hammered out by businesses or governments.
"The next two years are crucial in determining whether the Internet remains a free medium," Magaziner said.
Also speaking at the conference was Christine Varney, a lawyer who represents Netscape in the US v. Microsoft antitrust trial. A former FTC commissioner and White House advisor, Varney said issues of online consumer protection will soon come to a head.
The volumes of consumers who went online to do their holiday shopping "will translate into people that had problems, [who] will let Congress know they had problems," Varney said. Those problems might include spam, she said, and could encourage legislators to act.
Privacy has "taken root as an industry-led issue," and if it continues to grow in a private sector-led way, the model could be successful, she said.
"The private sector has to take a leadership role in ... issues of consumer protection," said Magaziner. "If not ... I have no doubt that the government will step in."
