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Draft Convention On Cybercrime

Posted by michael on from the keeping-an-eye-on-Europe dept.

niteshad writes: "The Department of Justice and the Senate are once again trying to curtail our rights to encrypted and anonymous speech on-line. This time, they're collaborating with the Council of Europe on the Draft Convention on Cybercrime. One clause of which would force anyone to surrender their encryption passphrase if suspected of a crime. Read more about it on Wired." This treaty isn't quite ripe yet, but it seems to be shaping up quite nicely as another disaster to online civil liberties.

3 of 8 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Find: password by DaveHowe · · Score: 2
    Hmm. 1.6.a.2, in context: Article 6 - Illegal Devices
    Each Party shall adopt such legislative and other measures as may be necessary to establish as criminal offences under its domestic law when committed intentionally and without right:
    a.the production, sale, procurement for use, import, distribution or otherwise making available of:
    2. a computer password, access code, or similar data by which the whole or any part of a computer system is capable of being accessed with intent that it be used for the purpose of committing the offences established in Articles 2 - 5;
    I can see where this makes posting the root password to microsoft.com a crime, but don't see how it gives LEAs the right to demand MY passwords...
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  2. UK - world leaders in this field by tagishsimon · · Score: 2
    The Council of Europe may well be led by the UK, famous for its Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Bill, which has such cute measures as:
    • Two years in prison for failing to reveal your password. That you may have mislaid or forgotten it will not be a defence.
    • if, having suffered a miscarriage of justice under RIP, you decide to complain in public, you can be imprisoned for a further five years
    More details of this scumsucking piece of legislation are available from www.stand.org.uk. The UK has, historically, led Europe in many aspects of the information age (such as telecoms deregulation), and then there is the 'special relationship' we have with you Yanks. So, visit the future, read it & weep.
  3. Passwords? by DaveHowe · · Score: 2
    Hmm. I found a fair amount of questionable stuff in there, for instance:
    • 14.2 - Warrants to be extended to computer systems connected to, but not located at the site for which the warrant was issued
    • 15.1 - Authority to order someone in your jurisdiction to provide you with data they have access to - note this doesn't say anything about where the data is....
    • 16.3 - RIP style gagging order to be for the longest period of time allowed by law in that juristiction
    Not to mention that warrants or any kind of judicial overview aren't mentioned, just that "legislative and other measures as may be necessary" be taken to ensure that "competent authorities" (also not defined) be able to perform the actions specified in this convention.

    However, I can't find the bit about turning over passwords - can someone locate it in the Legalese for me?
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