Letter on Council of Europe Convention on Cyber-Crime
Misc.
10/18/2000; 2:59:45 PM

Link from Privacy Digest.

The letter criticizes many aspects of the cyber-crime treaty. I think the key objection is summed up in this objection to the extreme criminalization of copyright infringement:

'New criminal penalties should not be established by international convention in an area where national law is so unsettled.'

It's about five years too early (number pulled from the air) for this sort of comprehensive treaty. The countries need time to come to grips with the problem and learn what solutions work and what don't. Doing something like this, big and massive and universal, so soon is a sure-fire recipe for causing big and massive and universal disaster.