Council of Europe debates 25th draft of Cybercrime Convention

However, the 41-member Council is still facing heavy criticism after two dozen revisions to its text, most of which dilute the Convention’s obligations on signing parties, individuals and the internet industry as the Council tries to find consensus.

A consultant for the Dutch government told the assembly that the draft gives too much power to law enforcement agencies and has no system of checks and balances. A US consultant said the draft fails to protect the privacy of individuals against being spied upon.

Others say the treaty focuses too much on financial measures, such as copyright infringement, while not taking a stand against on-line racism.

Other concerns were voiced by organisations such as the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA) and the Global Internet Liberty Campaign (GILC) in response to the 24th draft of the Treaty, albeit some of their claims were arguably unfounded.

The 25th draft has taken some of the earlier concerns on board, clarifying in its foot notes, for example, that the treaty will not criminalise spam, hyperlinking, deep links, cookies or bots. It also now provides that for the crime of on-line fraud, states can provide in their national laws that there must be an intention to defraud.

One of the major concerns of ISPs in various previous drafts was a possible obligation for them to collect traffic or content data from their servers. However, the 25th draft provides that they need only do so to the extent of their “existing” technical capability.

The Council’s director of legal affairs said there are unlikely to be significant amendments before the draft is finalised. The final text could be approved at its next plenary session in June 2001, after which it will be submitted to the Committee of Ministers for adoption.