FC: 2600 Australia assails "cybercrime" legislation

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[Hey, whatever happened to ASCII text and HTML versions? --Declan]


----- Forwarded message from Grant Bayley <gbayley () ausmac net> -----

From: Grant Bayley <gbayley () ausmac net>
Subject: 2600 Australia Cybercrime Bill 2001 Inquiry Submission
To: <link () www anu edu au>
Cc: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>, <macki () 2600 com>,
        <cryptography () wasabisystems com>
Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2001 17:01:40 +1000 (EST)

2600 Australia would like to announce the public release of its
submission to the Australian Senate Legal and Constitutional Legislation
Commitee inquiry into the provisions of the Cybercrime Bill, 2001.

        http://www.2600.org.au/Cybercrime-Submission.pdf  (121k)
        http://www.2600.org.au/Cybercrime-Submission.doc  (91k)

(This release has been authorised by the Secretary to the Committee as at
24th July, 2001)

Included here is the Executive Summary:

a. 2600 Australia believes the term "cybercrime" is so broadly defined
   and so frequently misdefined that legislation such as the Cybercrime
   Bill, 2001 will fail to achieve the desired result if only through
   failure to address some issues and through the addition of unnecessary
   complexity to existing laws.

b. 2600 Australia believes that a number of parts of the Cybercrime Bill,
   2001 place in grave danger the robust debate, discussion and
   disclosure that the computer security industry relies so heavily upon.

c. 2600 Australia believes that a number of parts of the Cybercrime Bill,
   2001 will unintentionally place a significant number of computer
   security industry professionals at risk because of poorly defined or
   overly broad definitions of certain acts, objects and intentions.

d. 2600 Australia believes that a number of parts of the Cybercrime Bill,
   2001 place in grave danger the common law privilege against self
   incrimination.

e. 2600 Australia believes that an alternative response to the perceived
   threat of "cybercrime" is required, including but not limited to
   additional training for law enforcement, more rigorous ACCC scrutiny of
   security claims made in respect of products and services and the
   formation of a national body to oversee computer security matters.

f.  For these reasons and others as discussed below, 2600 Australia canot
    support the passage of the Cybercrime Bill, 2001 in its current or any
    substantially similar form.

Grant Bayley

-------------------------------------------------------
Grant Bayley                         gbayley () ausmac net
-Admin @ AusMac Archive, Wiretapped.net, 2600 Australia
 www.ausmac.net   www.wiretapped.net   www.2600.org.au
-------------------------------------------------------


----- End forwarded message -----



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