Inside the US-Anglo-French plan to civilize the Internet

Get ready for international Internet regulation; top leaders from the US, UK, and France are making increasingly public statements about their plans to draft new rules that will make the 'Net more secure and will crack down on copyright infringers.

On May 25, as President Obama wrapped up a UK visit with Prime Minister David Cameron, the two issued a joint statement on the Internet calling for "rules of the road" in cyberspace. Both singled out the London International Cyber Conference as a key event at which "consensus" would be sought on such rules. Both sides are deadly serious about policing the Internet. In October 2010, the UK issued the most recent draft of its National Security Strategy — and "cyber attack" was the second most pressing security risk faced by the country after terrorism. In May 2011, the US issued a cybersecurity policy document of its own which threatened even military retaliation. "When warranted, the United States will respond to hostile acts in cyberspace as we would any other threat to our country," said the document. This is music to the ears of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who for years has called for a "civilized Internet." Sarkozy had a world platform for his ideas when he pushed the creation of the e-G8 conference last month in Paris, which took place just before a major G8 summit in the French resort of Deauville.