IP: Esther Dyson [ the "world's leading Internet watchdog -- djf] calls on Ministers to abandon RIP Bill (London Times)

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

> From: "Caspar Bowden" <cb () fipr org>
> To: "'Dave Farber'" <farber () cis upenn edu>
>
>
> http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/00/07/06/timpolpol02005.html
> E-mail snooping will create police state, guru warns
>
> BY MELISSA KITE, POLITICAL REPORTER
>
> THE world's leading Internet watchdog warned Tony Blair yesterday that his
> plans to give police powers to intercept private e-mails would turn Britain
> into a police state.
>
> Esther Dyson, who advises President Clinton and heads an international
> agency charged with setting policy for the Internet, urged ministers to
> abandon the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill.
>
> The American businesswoman said the legislation was tantamount to passing a
> law forcing people to keep their living room curtains open. She told The
> Times at an Anglo-American enterprise conference in London attended by
> Gordon Brown, John Prescott, and Stephen Byers: "The UK is not uniquely
> clueless on this. This is what governments do, they control things.
>
> "But the Government needs to have the courage and the faith to leave people
> alone."
>
> Ms Dyson, who is chairman of the venture capitalist group EDventure
> Holdings, said: "You don't want a police state. Crime is crime, but that
> doesn't mean you can have a law making everyone keep their curtains up to
> help the police."
>
> The former Wall Street analyst said she was relieved that the Bill had run
> into opposition in the House of Lords. Ministers last week rushed out a
> series of amendments that water down some of the proposals after Liberal
> Democrat and Tory peers threatened to throw out the Bill.
>
> Concessions including tighter definitions of the information police can
> obtain without a warrant from the Home Secretary, and when they can demand
> the handover of decryption keys to allow the deciphering of encoded internet
> files.
>
> But the Government shows no sign of backing down from the main proposals
> which will give the security forces access to e-mails. All companies that
> provide Internet services would be forced to install expensive "black boxes"
> that would allow the security forces to monitor e-mail traffic.
>
> Minister say the Bill will help the police and MI5 to combat organised crime
> and terrorism but a powerful alliance of civil liberties groups, Internet
> companies and peers have protested that it would impose unfair costs on
> industry and risk abuse of privacy rights. MPs who believe the Bill
> contravenes the European Convention on Human Rights are threatening to mount
> a further rebellion when it returns to the Commons.
>
> Regarded in the US as the doyenne of cyberspace, Ms Dyson is chairman of
> Icann, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which sets
> policy for the Net's core infrastructure. She is listed by Fortune Magazine
> as one of America's 50 most powerful women.
>
> Ms Dyson also dismissed claims that US businesses were worried about Britain
> joining the euro. She believed that Americans regarded it as inevitable that
> Britain would join eventually.
>
> "Americans take it for granted. American business is going to say 'the
> simpler you make it the better'.
>
> "Fundamentally it is more efficient, so long as it is on the right terms.
> So, on balance, go ahead and do the euro. It is cute to have the British
> pound, it is quaint. But Britain has more hope if it joins them and fights
> for what it wants: don't stand on the sidelines."