Cybercrime Treaty — Hidden Costs For All

linuxtelephony writes in with an article at CIO Insight about a cybercrime treaty drafted in Europe with help from the US. It has implications for just about everyone with a network. From the article: "Civil libertarians are especially concerned about the sweeping authority given to participating countries to seize information from private parties as they investigate cybercrimes, even when the activity being investigated isn't a crime in the country where the data is located... Telecommunications companies object to provisions that require member countries to establish and enforce potent data-retention policies for network traffic, and require any operator of a computer network to respond to requests for information from any participating country without compensation of any kind... The provisions for data retention and production apply to any operator of a computer network, not just telecoms... Worldwide law-enforcement agencies, in other words, may now avail themselves of the opportunity to outsource their most expensive problems to you."

Comments

Can China join this

[wannabgeek]

And demand information about bloggers posting from even outside their country?

Re:data-retention policies for network traffic ???

[max born]

If we encrypt everything, it will simply become infeasible to perform long-term dragnet surveillance of innocent people.

Until they make encryption illegal. I think that's the next step when it doesn't work out for them.

But really, what's new? Never in the history of humanity has there not been one group of people who felt it their god given right to tell another group of people what to say and think.

Don't be lulled into thinking these folks are here to protect you.

Just like the increased powers of search and seizure, designed to protect us from the terrorists, are used mostly to bust people for possession of pot; so the draconian measures enacted to save from the cyber criminals will mostly be used to bust you for downloading your favorite music.

HELP!

[photomonkey]

I am an American, and I love my country. I am, however, getting really sick and tired of constantly watching my country crap all over everyone's rights (or in some cases, preempt people from HAVING rights) both here and abroad all for the sake of a few super-mega-corps; all the while, we're pretty powerless to immediately end any of it.

As I sit back and watch all the industry in this country die as we make the shift to a service-based economy, I watch us become less important in the global marketplace. Sure we have lots of cash (read: power) now, but what happens when we piss it all away? For Pete's sake, the Shanghai market shows instability and Wall Street shits the bed. We're on the verge of recession.

There were times in history in which the US helped prevent other countries from making stupid mistakes. Now we are the ones making lots of stupid mistakes, and we're doing it over and over again.

How does it benefit the EU or anyone else to go along with our silly shenanigans (especially these ridiculous 'e-piracy', think-of-the-children policies)? They didn't with Iraq (for the most part) and escaped unscathed (mostly). Why not tell the current US administration to stop being stupid by not agreeing to participate in its bullshit?

We're really not a bad country or a bad people. Unfortunately, the filth has risen to the top. Certainly we can do our part to help stop all this, but voting takes time. Please help us stop this train speeding off its track by not supporting/recognizing the US' inane global commercialization laws and regulations. In the end, it will be better for all of us.

We are, as a world, beginning to define what a global economy really is. This is our (the world's) chance to make life better place for everyone, and even turn a buck doing it. Please help the US stop being stupid not for the sake of the Bush family or those that give us a bad name, but for the regular folks here who work to feed their families and really do want to spread freedom and wealth around the world.

Americans really aren't bad people. The leadership class just needs a little reminder every once in a while that they are PART of the world, not the fucking owners of it.

This is certainly no call for violence. Just a simple request that other countries not participate in nor support our stupidity.