IP: drug treaty

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

From: Thierry GOURDON <tgourdon () iway fr>


Dave,
As per Dan request, here is the reply I sent to him about the Drug Treaty
in the European Union. I hope this will help both sides to understand each
other.


Best regards
Thierry


----------
From:   Thierry Gourdon
Sent:   dimanche 24 novembre 1996 21:14
To:     'Dan Lynch'
Subject:        RE: drug treaty


Dan, I'm afraid that this is true. However, this proposal to the EU
(European Union), has to be voted to be executed. They want to protect our
new generation against drug propaganda. This is a good cause. Like
Californian banning smoking people. They do not fully understand yet the
Internet dimension, so they are afraid about it, and want to check what
Internet is doing transmitting informations from drug dealers. You will
agree with me that a site who is promoting usage of drug is bad, won't you?
The question is how can the Internet community help the governments to
fight against drug, while keeping freedom of speech on it. This is THE
question. When countries and governments will fight against Mafia,
including over the Internet, will the Internet community be against?, under
the holly principle of "freedom of speech?". When newspapers were invented,
haven't we the same kind of conflicts, about freedom of single citizen and
good for the entire community?


Great debate that has no end. I'm confident that our government will aim at
better control of citizen protection as well as citizen freedom of speech.


What are your thoughts? I would be please to talk with you about it.


Kindest regards


Thierry Gourdon
Vice President Europe
New Horizons, CLC, Inc.


----------
From:   Dan Lynch[SMTP:dlynch () cybercash com]
Sent:   samedi 23 novembre 1996 15:18
To:     tgourdon () iway fr
Subject:        IP: drug treaty


Thierry, is this for real?


Dan


> X-Sender: farber () linc cis upenn edu
> Date: Sat, 23 Nov 1996 15:18:11 -0500
> From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
> Subject: IP: drug treaty
> Mime-Version: 1.0
> Precedence: list
> To: interesting-people () eff org (interesting-people mailing list)
> X-Proccessed-By: mail2list
>
> As John Barlow keeps saying, the Bill of Rights is a local ordincance in
> cyberspace and this shows it very well. Next in the EC no nasty comments re
> politicians and the LEADER.
>
> I seem to have seen this type of thing start before when I was 4 years old
>
> Dave
>
>
> From: Dennis Derryberry <dennis () eff org>
>
> This just in from Europe. According to this translation, new treaty would
> make it illegal to discuss *any* positive aspects of illegal drugs,
> presumably including medical values. - D
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Sat, 23 Nov 1996 20:04:02 +0100
> From: mario lap <mlap () xs4all nl>
> To: ask () eff org
> Subject: drug treaty
>
> L.S,
>
> The European Union is about to sign a new treaty on drugs.
>
> Now particular notice should be paid to an article of this treaty
> introducing the prohibition of incitement, advocacy or stimulation of drug
> use and production. (I have added the original french text and a brief
> translation)
>
> In France where this particular article comes from it is therefore almost
> impossible to produce and disseminate unbiassed harm reduction prevention
> material.
>
> Now the article contains a specific sentence mentioning Internet as the
> major concern.
>
> I believe immediate action is to be taken before french and european
> government will make further steps down the road of taking away our freedom
> of expression
>
> mario lap
> lapnet
> drugtext foundation
>
> Article 8
>
> Les Etats membres s'engagent, dans le respect de leurs principes
> constitutionnels et des principes fondamentaux de leur droit national, a
> interdire et sanctionner, lorsque l'acte a ete commis intentionnellement,
> le fait d'inciter ou d'amener publiquement aubrui, par quelque moyen que ce
> soit a l'usage ou a la production illicites de produits stupefiants. Ils
> font preuve d'une particuliere vigilance en ce qui concerne l'usage fait
> des serveurs informatiques et particulierement Internet
>
> (draft english translation)
>
> Respecting the constitutional and fundamental national legal principles,
> the member states will prohibit and sanction, the incitement or public
> stimulation of the use or illegal production of drugs regardless of the
> means by which this is taking place. Notably a particular vigilance is
> necessary concerning the use of information servers and especially
> Internet.
> If anyone's proficient at French legalese, the text of this proposed treaty
> is now online at:
>
> http://www.drugtext.nl/conseil.htm
> http://www.drugtext.org/conseil.htm


My assistant's info is:
        Kim Marshall
        Ph.    415-947-9688
        Fax.   415-854-1912
        e-mail  kmarshall () cybercash com