EU Net regulation IMIS reponse

A paper with the rather dry title, "Response to the European Commission Issues paper on the Rules applicable to Audiovisual Content Services from the Institute for the Management of Information Systems (IMIS)" takes a rather unconventional, though enlightening approach to critiquing an EU Commission proposal.

The hypothetical review from the perspective of a future historian is very effective and is introduced with a relatively standard, if extremely damning, criticism of the proposal, thus:

Over the past two decades IMIS members have seen the European information
industries first stagnate and then begin to atrophy. This process has been
expedited by a series of ill-judged regulatory initiatives, including under
the banner of "harmonisation". In consequence over half the IMIS membership
now lives and works outside Europe, many in those nations to which UK and
EU-based information systems and service jobs, including content creation
and electronic publishing have been relocated over recent years.

The surreal thought processes behind this issues paper exemplify a mindset
that looks set to expedite that process by helping drive away what is left
of our content creation and publication industries, while failing to protect
children or consumers from abuse.

The absence of any analysis by the Commission of the economic consequences
of past EU policies with regard to the regulation of information society and
e-commerce products and services, let alone of those likely to follow from
this initiative, led one of our members to consider how a future historian
might view the likely consequences of this initiative. We believe that his
short paper will be more effective in helping open up constructive debate
than would a conventional response

The essay that follows, The Day the Internet Stopped, is well worth reading in full (it only runs to about 2 pages). I'm not necessarily subscribing to the political vision outlined here but it is very very cleverly done. Congratulations to the IMIS for taking the approach given the serious risk that it might be ignored or marginalised in the consultation for doing so. And well done to the author for convincing the IMIS to run with it.