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.pawlo_at_lindahl.se>
To: <declan_at_well.com>
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.stockholm_at_lindahl.se
www: http://www.lindahl.se
---
Date: Thu, 08 Nov 2001 23:16:12 +0100
From: "Mikael Pawlo" <mikael.pawlo_at_lindahl.se>
To: <declan_at_well.com>
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 <cmdrboston_at_yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: FC: Council of Europe debates "anti-online-racism" treaty Thursday
To: declan_at_well.com
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.Penquerch_at_artworks.co.uk>
To: "'declan_at_well.com'" <declan_at_well.com>
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
---
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