HTML version: http://www.politechbot.com/docs/coe.anonymity.042302.html RTF version: http://www.humanrights.coe.int/media/documents/Draftdeclaration.rtf
The Council of Europe is considering a "draft declaration on freedom of communication on the Internet." (Comments should be sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED] by May 1.) It has many excellent parts, for which the council deserves praise. But let's focus on the problems for the moment. While recognizing "freedom of expression," the council talks about "balancing" it -- usually a codeword for restrictions on speech that someone, somewhere may find to be objectionable. The council says anonymity is important but must be -- again, that word -- "balanced" with "the need for law enforcement authorities to trace the authors of criminal deeds." Those are the same "balancing" arguments we heard about key escrow a few years ago. Some excerpts: >"Aware at the same time of the need to balance freedom of expression and >information with other legitimate rights and interests; >"Convinced that there is a necessity to state firmly that prior control of >communications on the Internet, regardless of frontiers, should remain an >exception; >"Considering that a balance has to be found between the right of users of >the Internet not to disclose their identity and the need for law >enforcement authorities to trace the authors of criminal deeds; >"Welcoming efforts by intermediaries to co-operate with law enforcement >agencies when faced with illegal content on the Internet; -Declan ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sign this pro-therapeutic cloning petition: http://www.franklinsociety.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------
