e-G8 Stress Internet Freedom at Meeting with G-8

The big message to come from the Internet business leaders who gathered in France for the e-G8 meeting this week was “Leave the Internet alone.”

Hosted by Publicis chief exec Maurice Lévyand serving as a prelude to the Group of 8 summit currently under way, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Google’s Eric Schmidt, John Donahoe, chief executive of eBay, and Groupon founder Andrew Mason were among the digital bigwigs in attendance for the e-G8. They also had an audience with G-8 world leaders like British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has called for some regulation of the Web.

“Yes, we should protect intellectual property; no, we shouldn’t create a situation by which the internet cannot grow and cannot develop,” said