FC: Council of Europe approves "cybercrime," "hate speech" treaty

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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


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Date: Thu, 08 Nov 2001 23:10:34 +0100
From: "Mikael Pawlo" <mikael.pawlo () lindahl se>
To: <declan () 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
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Date: Thu, 08 Nov 2001 23:16:12 +0100
From: "Mikael Pawlo" <mikael.pawlo () lindahl se>
To: <declan () 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.

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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

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Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2001 23:04:48 -0800 (PST)
From: Roger Boston <cmdrboston () yahoo com>
Subject: Re: FC: Council of Europe debates "anti-online-racism" treaty Thursday
To: declan () 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 () artworks co uk>
To: "'declan () well com'" <declan () 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
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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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