Dear Colleagues, On Monday, October 11, 2004, Global Knowledge Dev. Moderator asked:
> 8) Growing collaboration between regulatory and security agencies helps > fight cyber-crime and cyber-terrorism, but simultaneously poses threats > to privacy and human rights. What is the best approach to maximizing the > benefits and reducing the threats? I wanted to respond specifically to the above question. Some of you may have heard about the seizure of Indymedia servers from the UK based Rackspace ISP this week in London. Several articles have been written analysing the incident, the most comprehensive by Statewatch in the UK, and they can be read here: http://www.efcr2004.net/imc_servers_seized http://www.statewatch.org/news/2004/oct/04uk-usa-indymedia.htm This incident has highlighted the dangers of international law enforcement cooperation dealing with transborder 'cyber-crime'. Many organisations including the National Union of Journalists, Reportier Sans Frontiers, AMARC, APC, the Global Liberties campaign, etc., have highlighted the violation of 'freedom of expression' rights this incident has underscored. However, it also presents other challenges which are poorly understood by many civil society organisations active in communication rights work. These include: - the trends in, and dangers of, international law enforcement cooperation--or 'trans-border' cooperation - ISP responsibility in these situations - accountability and due process As Gus Hosein from Privacy International noted: "This is a growing trend to use international co-operation regimes to obscure accountability and due process. Now we are in a position where we don't know who to complain to regarding these actions, and which laws were used, under who's jurisdiction - and such action will likely increase with international treaties such as the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime, and other such initiatives." For those of us following the WSIS Internet Governance process, we have seen the Council of Europe Cybercrime treaty promoted as a possible global governance model for dealing with trans-border 'cyber-crime'. The seizure of the IMC servers is indeed an 'interesting case' to monitor, but more so, it's an excellent opportunity to spotlight and scrutinise the cyber-crime treaty and similar bilateral treaties with a view to taking action to call for openness and clarity in international co-operation and to ensure due process and civil liberties are protected. Karen Banks ------------ This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by the dot-ORG USAID Cooperative Agreement, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org provides more information. To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd For the GKD database, with past messages: http://www.GKDknowledge.org
