Summary: Council of Europe has approved the "cybercrime" treaty -- more like a law enforcement wishlist -- and it is awaiting formal ratification next week. The "hate speech" sections are in a side agreement. The French are peeved: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,48274,00.html >"If this ruling, which we will appeal against in the United States, is >upheld, it will give total impunity to all those who seek technological >asylum in the United States," (the lawyer who sued Yahoo said). "This >would make America a haven for all types of people on the extreme right >and racists..." See also: "Council of Europe debates 'anti-online-racism' treaty Thursday" http://www.politechbot.com/p-02766.html --- Date: Thu, 08 Nov 2001 23:10:34 +0100 From: "Mikael Pawlo" <mikael.pawloat_private> To: <declanat_private> Subject: Breaking news: Cybercrime convention Declan, The Council of Europe has opened the so called cybercrime convention into signature. In the international convention on cybercrime, the Council's 43 member states and their partners (United States, Canada, Japan, South Africa) are setting out to bring legal and ethical standards into the Internet area. "The final version of the draft Convention on Cyber Crime has been submitted to the European Committee on Crime Problems (CDPC) for its 50th session on 18-22 June 2001. Once adopted by the CDPC, the draft will be forwarded to the Committee of Ministers, which should examine and probably adopt the Convention in September. At that time, the Committee of Ministers may also decide to open it for signature in Budapest at the end of November. The Convention will enter into force when five states, including at least 3 Council of Europe member states, have ratified it." Read all about it: http://www.coe.int/T/E/Communication_and_Research/Press/Themes_Files/Cybercrime/ Regards, Mikael ________________________________________ Advokatfirman Lindahl KB Tel: +46 8 670 58 00 (direct dial +46 8 670 58 25 or cell phone +46 70 421 58 25) Fax: +46 8 667 73 80 Address: Box 14240, SE-104 40 Stockholm, Sweden Visiting address: Strandvägen 5A General e-mail: reception.stockholmat_private www: http://www.lindahl.se --- Date: Thu, 08 Nov 2001 23:16:12 +0100 From: "Mikael Pawlo" <mikael.pawloat_private> To: <declanat_private> Subject: Re: Breaking news: Cybercrime convention Here is better information (add that to my earlier submission): http://press.coe.int/cp/2001/828a(2001).htm Assembly presses for ban on racist websites, including "illegal hosting" Strasbourg, 08.11.2001 - The new Council of Europe Cybercrime Convention, which was adopted today and will be opened for signature later this month(1), should be supplemented as soon as possible by a protocol eliminating racist websites from the internet and defining and criminalising hate-speech on computer networks, according to the Standing Committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (2). In a recommendation adopted unanimously today the parliamentarians said drafters of the protocol should consider ways of preventing "illegal hosting" - a practice whereby cyber-racists locate their servers in a country with less strict regulations in order to sidestep the law. The report's author Ivar Tallo (Estonia, SOC) explained: "For example, a racist French site aimed at a French audience, but housed on a server located in the United States, would not be able to hide behind American laws protecting freedom of speech." He added: "The eleventh of September has shown that hate speech can become an action of horrendous magnitude. Therefore modern technology has to have safeguards and one of those is to ban hate speech on the internet." The Assembly earlier recommended that Europe's governments consider including measures to decode "terrorist messages" in the protocol (3). The Cybercrime Convention, which was drawn up with the participation of non-European countries such as the US, Canada, Japan and South Africa, will be the world's first international treaty in the field. Mr Tallo's report, Doc. 9263, can be found on the Assembly's website at the following address: http://stars.coe.fr/doc/doc01/edoc9263.htm. --- http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/10/technology/10CYBE.html?todaysheadlines November 10, 2001 Europe Moving Toward Ban on Internet Hate Speech By PAUL MELLER BRUSSELS, Nov. 9 — The 43-nation Council of Europe is trying to ban racist and hate speech from the Internet by adding a protocol, or side agreement, to its cybercrime convention, which was stamped for ratification on Thursday. The convention is scheduled to be formally ratified at a meeting in Budapest Nov. 23. Also: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-7850494.html --- Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2001 23:04:48 -0800 (PST) From: Roger Boston <cmdrbostonat_private> Subject: Re: FC: Council of Europe debates "anti-online-racism" treaty Thursday To: declanat_private Dear Declan, since the terrocrats use _confusion_ as one of their major weapons, I think it appropriate to clarify the following. The European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) are two distinct critters. The first is elected by the citizens of the "member countries of the European Union" and is supposed to have control functions over the EU "burocracy" in Brussels. "PACE" is an assembly of members of the parliaments of "states members of the Council of Europe." CoE & EU have widely differing membership (the EU's being a subset of the first one). The Rapporteur for this liberticide trash, for instance, is representing (and dishonoring) Estonia -- definitely not (yet) a member of the EU. This just for clarification --- otherwise I share both Scully's disgust for (truly) racist sites and outrage for this action by PACE. Note that this is intended to be grafted on the infamous COE cybercrime treaty, on which you reported previously. And the COE was originally established to _defend_ human rights in Europe!! The COE could well become an examplary failure of the political institution approach for the best of intentions!! Thanks Roger From: "Vincent Penquerc'h" <Vincent.Penquerchat_private> To: "'declanat_private'" <declanat_private> Subject: RE: Council of Europe debates "anti-online-racism" treaty Thursda y Date: Thu, 8 Nov 2001 10:17:41 -0000 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2448.0) Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----_=_NextPart_001_01C1683E.9B1E60A0" X-UIDL: 09ea8a0b27d0ce55bbe7fe9a99cecaec Hi Declan, Just a quick word about this. Europe has a rather special view of racism that is still very much influenced by what the Nazi did during WW2, and any more as there is a firm resurgence of neo Nazi movements in Europe. There is still a fair amount of people alive who were or had a relative caught in this, and this contributes to explains the special attention racist sites get. Just meant this as an explanation, not as a justification. Apologies for the HTML email, the company's mailserver overrides any text-only client settings. -- Vincent Penquerc'h --- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. 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