<div class="printarticle">
<h1><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/24/us-internet-idUSTRE74N2J020110524">http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/24/us-internet-idUSTRE74N2J020110524</a></h1><h1>Sarkozy woos Web giants, urges state role</h1>
<div class="photo"><img src="http://www.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20110524&t=2&i=421021124&w=250&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=2011-05-24T105638Z_01_BTRE74N0UEP00_RTROPTP_0_FRANCE" alt="Photo" border="0">
</div>
<div class="printtimestamp">6:56am EDT</div>
<p>By <a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=us&n=georgina.prodhan&">Georgina Prodhan</a> and Leila Abboud</p>
<p>PARIS (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged Internet
leaders gathered in Paris on Tuesday to work with governments and share
fairly the benefits of a revolution he compared to the discoveries of
Columbus, Galileo and Newton.</p>
<p>Opening a forum at which Google's Eric Schmidt and Facebook's Mark
Zuckerberg will be among the speakers, Sarkozy heaped praise on an
industry that has democratized information and helped enable the
revolutions of the Arab Spring.</p>
<p>Sarkozy, widely mistrusted in the online world for measures such as a
law that calls for copyright pirates to be cut off from the Internet,
struck a more conciliatory tone than in the past, although he said
governments must still set ground rules.</p>
<p>"We don't want to make mistakes in regulating this powerful yet
fragile ecosystem," he said in response to a question from an audience
member. "We have to act with pragmatism. It is better to do nothing than
to do harm."</p>
<p>He reminded the industry of its responsibilities in the fields of
copyright and privacy, drawing a parallel between the intellectual
property on which many Web companies are built and the copyright that
artists seek to protect.</p>
<p>"These algorithms that constitute your power ... this technology that
is changing the world, are your property and nobody can contest that,"
he said. "Writers, directors or actors can have the same rights."</p>
<p>CIVILISING CYBERSPACE</p>
<p>The forum, whose conclusions will be presented to G8 leaders in the
French seaside resort of Deauville later this week, pits passionate
advocates of two opposing views of the Internet against each other.</p>
<p>One, espoused by Silicon Valley companies such as Google and Twitter
as well as many academics, favors a hands-off approach to allow
innovation and freedom of information.</p>
<p>The other, embraced by many established media companies, privacy
advocates and governments, favors more regulation to tame potential
excesses and online abuse.</p>
<p>The debate has been thrown into the spotlight in Britain this week as
Twitter users in their thousands made a mockery of injunctions obtained
by the rich and famous to hush up scandals, by publishing names and
details.</p>
<p>The affair has highlighted the near impossibility of imposing
national law on the Internet as well as cultural differences between
Europe and the United States.</p>
<p>News Corp, whose Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch is among the speakers
at the forum, has led a movement to stem the flood of free information
online by charging readers and viewers for content on the Web.</p>
<p>John Perry Barlow, a founding member of the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, which campaigns for internet civil rights, said: "It's about
the revenge of the mass media.</p>
<p>"We've been trying to civilize cyberspace for 22 years," he told
Reuters when asked why he was attending the forum. "It's a good idea to
be present when movement is afoot to take away some of the values that
you cherish."</p>
<p>Hubert Burda, chief executive and owner of a German magazine and
newspaper empire, told Reuters the forum was a welcome first step by a
European government.</p>
<p>"It's the first combination between European politics and the World
Wide Web," he said. "Many European governments have been backward in
understanding the digital revolution."</p>
<p>(Editing by <a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=us&n=david.holmes&">David Holmes</a>)</p>
</div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Anne-Rachel Inne<br><br>