IP: Esther Dyson [ the "world's leading Internet watchdog -- djf] calls on Ministers to abandon RIP Bill (London Times)

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

>From: "Caspar Bowden" <cb@fipr.org>
>To: "'Dave Farber'" <farber@cis.upenn.edu>
>
>
>http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/00/07/06/timpolpol02005.html
>E-mail snooping will create police state, guru warns
>
>BY MELISSA KITE, POLITICAL REPORTER
>
>THE world's leading Internet watchdog warned Tony Blair yesterday that his
>plans to give police powers to intercept private e-mails would turn Britain
>into a police state.
>
>Esther Dyson, who advises President Clinton and heads an international
>agency charged with setting policy for the Internet, urged ministers to
>abandon the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill.
>
>The American businesswoman said the legislation was tantamount to passing a
>law forcing people to keep their living room curtains open. She told The
>Times at an Anglo-American enterprise conference in London attended by
>Gordon Brown, John Prescott, and Stephen Byers: "The UK is not uniquely
>clueless on this. This is what governments do, they control things.
>
>"But the Government needs to have the courage and the faith to leave people
>alone."
>
>Ms Dyson, who is chairman of the venture capitalist group EDventure
>Holdings, said: "You don't want a police state. Crime is crime, but that
>doesn't mean you can have a law making everyone keep their curtains up to
>help the police."
>
>The former Wall Street analyst said she was relieved that the Bill had run
>into opposition in the House of Lords. Ministers last week rushed out a
>series of amendments that water down some of the proposals after Liberal
>Democrat and Tory peers threatened to throw out the Bill.
>
>Concessions including tighter definitions of the information police can
>obtain without a warrant from the Home Secretary, and when they can demand
>the handover of decryption keys to allow the deciphering of encoded internet
>files.
>
>But the Government shows no sign of backing down from the main proposals
>which will give the security forces access to e-mails. All companies that
>provide Internet services would be forced to install expensive "black boxes"
>that would allow the security forces to monitor e-mail traffic.
>
>Minister say the Bill will help the police and MI5 to combat organised crime
>and terrorism but a powerful alliance of civil liberties groups, Internet
>companies and peers have protested that it would impose unfair costs on
>industry and risk abuse of privacy rights. MPs who believe the Bill
>contravenes the European Convention on Human Rights are threatening to mount
>a further rebellion when it returns to the Commons.
>
>Regarded in the US as the doyenne of cyberspace, Ms Dyson is chairman of
>Icann, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which sets
>policy for the Net's core infrastructure. She is listed by Fortune Magazine
>as one of America's 50 most powerful women.
>
>Ms Dyson also dismissed claims that US businesses were worried about Britain
>joining the euro. She believed that Americans regarded it as inevitable that
>Britain would join eventually.
>
>"Americans take it for granted. American business is going to say 'the
>simpler you make it the better'.
>
>"Fundamentally it is more efficient, so long as it is on the right terms.
>So, on balance, go ahead and do the euro. It is cute to have the British
>pound, it is quaint. But Britain has more hope if it joins them and fights
>for what it wants: don't stand on the sidelines."