A coalition of Finnish telecom and media companies has joined the fight against proposed government legislation to make owners of message boards liable for all content, similar to print media. Additionally, Finnish government wants access to historical data to trace anonymous postings. The law therefore requires publishers and ISPs website to log practically all Internet traffic data for a period of 3 months. In a message delivered to parliament on 5 February, the companies say the law could have a chilling effect on commercial communication.

Electronic Frontier Foundation has acted against the new law from the beginning, warning it will stifle freedom of expression on the Internet.

Press release Finnish companies (06.02.2003)
http://www.iccwbo.org/home/news_archives/2003/stories/finnish.asp

EFFI dossier about the law (Jan/Feb 2003)
http://www.effi.org/sananvapaus/index.en.html

Previous EFFI fight against mandatory data retention (25.11.2002)
http://www.effi.org/julkaisut/tiedotteet/pressrelease-2002-11-25.html

(Contribution by Ville Oksanen, EDRI-member EFFI)