Internet business group calls for delay in cybercrime treaty

[William Knowles <erehwon () C4I ORG>]

http://www.computerworld.com/cwi/story/0,1199,NAV47_STO53469,00.html

By RICK PERERA, IDG NEWS SERVICE

(November 07, 2000) BERLIN -- The Global Internet Project (GIP), a
U.S.-based business group that's trying to head off government regulation
of the Internet, yesterday called for more dialogue on a proposed
international treaty on cybercrime issues.

At a press conference held here during a two-day policy workshop sponsored
by the GIP, members of the group urged the Council of Europe to delay its
self-imposed deadline of December for completing work on the cybercrime
treaty. The Council, which has 41 member countries, released a draft of
the treaty last month, and it's widely expected that the U.S. and other
nations outside of Europe also will adopt the final version.

But John Patrick, vice president of Internet technology at IBM and the
GIP's chairman, claimed that the proposed treaty could actually hamper
efforts to stop cybercrime and track down people who launch
computer-related attacks. "It's an issue where if we move too quickly to
ban the tools used by hackers, we may also ban the tools used by
investigators," Patrick said.

The Arlington, Va.-based GIP agrees in general with the aims of the
proposed international treaty, said member Tom Evslin, chairman and CEO of
Internet-telephony provider ITXC Corp. in Princeton, N.J. But more work is
needed to ensure that the agreement doesn't stifle technical innovation,
Evslin added.

For example, he and other GIP members argued, the draft treaty would
impose heavy record-keeping burdens on Internet service providers and make
them liable for the actions of companies or individuals who use their
networks.

According to the GIP, the proposed treaty would empower law enforcement
authorities to demand "subscriber information under [a] service provider's
possession or control." Internet service providers also could be compelled
to "collect or record or cooperate and assist the competent authorities in
the collection or recording of content data ... transmitted by means of a
computer system," the GIP said.

That provision is "an example that demonstrates to us the need for more
dialogue" before the treaty is finalized, Evslin said. "A rush to adopt
those regulations probably will be counterproductive," he added.

On its Web site, the GIP says it isn't a formal lobbying organization. The
group's primary goal is to promote industry self-regulation on Internet
policy issues in order to minimize the need for government intervention.
The GIP was founded by James Clark, the former chairman of Netscape
Communications Corp., and is managed by the Information Technology
Association of America, which also is based in Arlington.


------------------------------------------------
Private information is practically the source of
every large modern fortune.       -- Oscar Wilde
------------------------------------------------
erehwon () c4i org      http://www.c4i.org/erehwon/
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