IP: Planned global Net-treaty hands police more power, limits privacy

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

>
>From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
>
>
>http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,36047,00.html
>
>    Cyber-treaty Goes Too Far?
>    by Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com)
>
>    3:00 a.m. May. 3, 2000 PDT
>    WASHINGTON -- U.S. and European police agencies will receive new
>    powers to investigate and prosecute computer crimes, according to a
>    preliminary draft of a treaty being circulated among over 40 nations.
>
>    The Council of Europe's 65KB proposal is designed to aid police in
>    investigations of online miscreants in cases where attacks or
>    intrusions cross national borders.
>
>    But the details of the "Draft Convention on Cybercrime" worry U.S.
>    civil libertarians. They warn that the plan would violate longstanding
>    privacy rights and grant the government far too much power.
>
>    The proposal, which is expected to be finalized by December 2000 and
>    appears to be the first computer crime treaty, would:
>
>     * Make it a crime to create, download, or post on a website any
>     computer program that is "designed or adapted" primarily to gain
>     access to a computer system without permission. Also banned is
>     software designed to interfere with the "functioning of a computer
>     system" by deleting or altering data.
>
>     * Allow authorities to order someone to reveal his or her passphrase
>     for an encryption key. According to a recent survey, only Singapore
>     and Malaysia have enacted such a requirement into law, and experts say
>     that in the United States it could run afoul of constitutional
>     protections against self-incrimination.
>
>     * Internationalize a U.S. law that makes it a crime to possess even
>     digital images that "appear" to represent children's genitals or
>     children engaged in sexual conduct. Linking to such a site also would
>     be a crime.
>
>     * Require websites and Internet providers to collect information about
>     their users, a rule that would potentially limit anonymous remailers.
>
>    [...]
>
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