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                Date: 2000-12-06
                 
                 
                Cyber-Crime Convention: Stillstand ist gut
                
                 
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      Die Anzeichen mehren sich, dass ein von Anfang an  
schlechtes und schädliches Abkommen sich in eine Schleife  
fügt. Dass diese möglicht near-on endlos werde, daran  
arbeiten Menschen aus mehr als zehn verschiedenen  
Ländern - pereat! 
 
post/scrypt: erinnert sich noch wer an die Zeiten, als es  
verschieden numerierte "Internationalen" gab?   
 
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relayed by David Sobel <sobel@epic.org>  via <gilc- 
plan@gilc.org> 
 
 
Monday December 4 2:21 PM ET 
 
U.S. Embraces European Computer Crime Proposal 
 
By Jim Wolf 
 
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has endorsed  
the gist of a controversial European drive to tighten  
cybercrime laws over the protests of privacy, civil liberties  
and human rights advocates. 
 
The central provisions of the 41-nation Council of Europe's  
latest draft convention ``are consistent with the existing  
framework of U.S. law and procedure,'' the Justice  
Department said in a Friday posting on its cybercrime Web  
site. 
 
At issue is the first multilateral pact drafted specifically to  
deal with the cross-border nature of much computer-related  
crime. 
 
... 
Targeted are such things as malicious code to disable Web  
sites as well as computer use for such garden-variety crimes  
like fraud, copyright infringement and distribution of child  
pornography. 
 
The United States will decide whether to join only after the  
drafting is wrapped up, probably later this month, and the  
treaty is opened for signature, perhaps by the end of next  
year, the Justice Department said. 
 
But in a ``Frequently Asked Questions'' text, it played down  
charges that the pact would stretch the long arm of the police  
improperly in cyberspace, trample on individual privacy and  
erode government accountability. 
 
One key issue had to do with data-retention requirements for  
Internet Service Providers, companies that serve as  
electronic gateways to the Web. 
 
Worldwide Groups 
 
In an October 18 statement signed by groups around the  
world, critics said logs based on such archived data had  
been used to track dissidents and persecute minorities. 
 
``We urge you not to establish this requirement in a modern  
communications network,'' said a 27-group coalition including  
the American Civil Liberties Union, Privacy International and  
the Internet Society. 
 
``Police agencies and powerful private interests acting  
outside of the democratic means of accountability have  
sought to use a closed process to establish rules that will  
have the effect of binding legislation,'' the groups added. 
 
In its response to these concerns, the Justice Department  
said there was no such retention requirement at issue but a  
data ``preservation'' provision. 
 
``Preservation is not a new idea; it has been the law in the  
United States for nearly five years,'' the statement said. 
 
Similarly, it discounted critics' fears that the convention  
would mandate surveillance capabilities be built into service  
providers' architecture. 
 
But ``there is no prohibition on states imposing such  
requirements if necessary under their legal systems,'' the  
posting said. 
 
The latest draft by a panel of the Council of Europe, the 24th  
in a marathon that began in the late 1980s with U.S. support,  
was released on Nov. 19. The United States has had a ''real  
voice'' in the drafting process, represented by the  
Departments of State and Justice in close consultation with  
other U.S. agencies, the FAQ said. 
 
David Sobel, general counsel of the Washington-based  
Electronic Privacy Information Center, said the Justice  
Department was in effect acknowledging that the treaty could  
be read ``to require some things that are very controversial,''  
including redesign of system architecture to facilitate  
surveillance. 
 
Washington currently exempts Internet service providers from  
the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of  
1994. The law, crafted largely at the behest of the Federal  
Bureau of Investigation, requires other U.S.  
telecommunications providers and equipment manufacturers  
to build in a window for court-ordered wiretaps. 
 
Barry Steinhardt, associate director of the American Civil  
Liberties Union, said the pact could force police in the United  
States to conduct searches under rules established by treaty  
''that don't respect the limits of police powers imposed by the  
U.S. Constitution.''  
 
Sorce: Reuters 
 
 
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published on: 2000-12-06 
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