Security News > 2001 > March > Experts object to Europe's cybercrime treaty

http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/0,1643,500460485-500701461-503820232-0,00.html By ANGELA DOLAND Associated Press PARIS (March 6, 2001 1:37 p.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - Amid concerns raised Tuesday that it might endanger users' privacy, Europe moved closer to finalizing an ambitious international treaty on cybercrime. Four years in the works and now in its 25th draft, the Council of Europe's treaty is likely to be ready for signature by year's end. But some industry observers say the convention could stifle the Net's free-for-all nature by giving governments too much power. On Tuesday, the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly convened a panel of private Internet experts, police officers and academics in Paris to debate the controversial text in front of reporters for the first time. The treaty, drafted by representatives of the 43-nation Council of Europe, covers the destruction of data or hardware - such as the damage caused by the Love Bug virus - as well as online child pornography, copyright theft and other Internet crimes. Computer attacks still are not universally recognized as crimes. The speakers agreed that the council's work was an important step toward standardizing laws on cybercrimes. But Fred Eisner, a consultant for the Dutch government and private companies, said the draft made unfair demands on Internet service providers by asking them to track Web users' online movements. "This draft convention lacks balance," Eisner told the assembly. "The convention explicitly gives much more power to law enforcement agencies and it has no system of checks and balances." Bruce McConnell, president of McConnell International, a Washington-based consulting firm, said the treaty should be more forceful in protecting the privacy of Web users - who are already worried about being spied on. "There is concern that the powers of surveillance ... are not balanced by comparable protections for individuals' privacy," he said. When the draft convention was declassified in April 2000, concerned Web users flocked to chat rooms and set up newsgroups to talk about what they perceived as a threat to Net freedom. The council has addressed many of their concerns in more than two dozen version of the text, and it is not likely to evolve much before it is ratified and opened for country signatures, said Guy de Vel, the council's director of legal affairs. "Everything has been so carefully weighted, I don't really see important parts of it changing," he said. Some critics say the treaty doesn't go far enough. They have slammed it for focusing on financial measures such as copyright infringement while leaving out provisions to fight online racism. The United States, which often stresses freedom of expression over measures to fight hate speech, had pushed to keep such anti-racism measures out of the treaty. "You're stopping short of protecting human dignity," lawyer Marc Levy told the group. Levy has represented one of several French advocacy groups that sued California-based Yahoo! for hosting online auctions of Nazi memorabilia. The United States, along with Canada, Japan and South Africa, has been working with the Council to develop the treaty, and will have a right to sign on once it is ratified. Though the U.S. government has endorsed the gist of the treaty, it is unclear whether the Bush administration might have objections with the final version, McConnell said. "The new administration is becoming very interested in the treaty but is not yet up to speed," he said in an interview. "We still need to see how it will play out." ISN is hosted by SecurityFocus.com --- To unsubscribe email LISTSERV () SecurityFocus com with a message body of "SIGNOFF ISN".

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