IP: U.S. EMBRACES EUROPEAN COMPUTER CRIME PROPOSAL

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

I "love" the linking of these crimes together -- the need to catch those 
engaged in Web site tampering, fraud, copyright infringement, and child 
pornography. It does nothing to help intelligent discussion


>The United States has endorsed the main principles of a European
>drive to amend cybercrime laws, despite the wishes of privacy,
>civil liberties, and human rights advocates. The U.S. Justice
>Department said the measures of the pact drafted to deal with the
>cross-border nature of cybercrime "are consistent with the
>existing framework of U.S. law and procedure." The pact would
>allow for the circumvention of the procedural and jurisdictional
>obstacles that law enforcement officials say allow
>cyber-criminals to evade prosecution. The pact specifically
>addresses the need to catch those engaged in Web site tampering,
>fraud, copyright infringement, and child pornography. The
>Justice Department also attempted to ease concerns that the new
>pact allows for the invasion of personal privacy and the erosion
>of governmental accountability. A 27-member coalition including
>the ACLU, Privacy International, and Internet Society has urged
>the Justice Department not to follow through on the international
>pact for fear it will enable police agencies and other private
>interests to include the redesign of system architecture to
>facilitate surveillance.



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