As those Parlimentary people hack out what they think is “best for the rest of us”, the latest round of the our Electronic Commerce Bill have been labeled a potentially “damaging and embarrassing failure” by a parliamentary inquiry.

The House of Commons Trade & Industry Select Committee report, has found that the controversial Department of Trade and Industry Bill made proposals to license encryption and digital signature providers that were “not fit to be written into law”. The committee said it

saw no benefit in the most contentious part of the Bill - key escrow and key recovery. These would have provided law enforcement access to users’ encryption keys and therefore their confidential data.

“Powers for key escrow should not be taken in the forthcoming Bill to permit the introduction of key escrow or related requirements at a later date,” the report stated. The committee was doubtful about the proposed criminalization of intercept targets or their encryption providers who did not hand keys over to law enforcement agencies.

The report concluded that “UK electronic commerce policy was for so long entrapped in the blind alley of key escrow that fears have been expressed that the UK’s reputation ...  for electronic commerce is now severely damaged.” And on other Eurot news ...  Jupiter Communications research notes that the popularity of “free” European Internet service providers is not increasing the number of Europeans on the Net. “Telephone usage is metered and that alone will continue to hold back the growth of online advertising, content, and commerce ventures in Europe by inhibiting Internet usage,” said Phil Dwyer, managing director for Jupiter Communication’s European operations

in a statement. The research went to say however, that Europe is a large and growing e-commerce market that will see number of online households in Western Europe triple over the next five years.

Also the London School of Economics has published a comprehensive survey of corporate Web sites shows that six European companies place among the top 10 rankings. The study evaluated the Web sites of 120 Fortune 500 companies, ranking them according to quality and business value.  

Of the top 30 companies, 17 were based in the U.S., 11 in Europe, and two in Asia. Germany’s Lufthansa took the top spot, while the UK’s Tesco and British Telecommunications took the second and third slots. The top 10 was rounded out by IBM, British Airways, WalMart Stores, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Telekom, Comcast, and Walt Disney.  At 17, Japan Airlines posted the highest grade among Asian firms.  

We’ve come along way baby.