Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Tech firms call for approval of cybercrime treaty

Declan McCullagh writes in C|Net News:

Computer security and software companies are urging the U.S. Senate to approve the world's first treaty targeting cybercrime.

A letter from the groups, including the Business Software Alliance, VeriSign, InfraGard and the Cyber Security Industry Alliance, called on senators to ratify the controversial document, which was the subject of a brief flurry of attention last year before it expired without a floor vote.

"The cybercrime convention will serve as an important tool in the global fight against those who seek to disrupt computer networks, misuse private or sensitive information, or commit traditional crimes utilizing Internet-enabled technologies," said the letter, which was sent Tuesday. "It requires countries to adopt similar criminal laws against hacking, infringements of copyrights, computer-facilitated fraud, child pornography and other illicit cyberactivities."

...and:

Those far-reaching prohibitions have caused alarm among civil liberties groups.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center sent a letter to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last year saying the treaty should not be ratified because it "would create invasive investigative techniques while failing to provide meaningful privacy and civil liberties safeguards."

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