FC: Council of Europe approves "cybercrime," "hate speech" treaty

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Mon Nov 12 2001 - 23:11:21 PST

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    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
    
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    ---
    
    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
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    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
    
    ---
    
    
    
    
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