lambda 2.10

[jt@freenix.fr (Jerome Thorel)]

netizen's --> Lambda Bulletin 2.10 <-- contents
flash bulletin

+ French Constitution censors Internet control
+ Singapore and the Censorship Proxy Server
+ G7 and the EC take strong steps for Key Escrow Encryption


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French Constitution censors Internet control

As we speculated in our last bulletin (2.09), the French Conseil
Constitutionnel, watchdog of the 1958 Constitution, censored 2 articles in
a new telecom act which were intended to establish a kind of administrative
control over Internet speech and online services.

The nine "Sages" said that the creation of the Conseil Superieur de la
Telematique, which would have make guidelines on Internet content, breaches
article 34 of the Constitution which states that the Parliament can act
alone to dictate rules concerning "civic rights and fundamentals garanties
given to citizens for a fair exercice of public liberties". The CST could
have undermine these principles, because the law didn't specify clearly how
it would have taken its decisions. So the Conseil recognized the particular
state of the Internet, which is not a basic medium.

Only one section remains in the censored law : it obliges ISPs to give
their clients "technical means" to forbid or select access to online
services, software that allows a so-called "parental control".

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Singapore and the Censorship Proxy Server

A communique from SingNet, Singapore's main Internet Service Provider,
states that "ALL SingNet customers will be required to connect to SingNet's
proxy server by the deadline September 14th 1996, failing which you would
not be able to access the web without the proxy. This applies to all
dial-up, ISDN, and leased line customers (STIX customers are exempted). "

The proxy server will ease the ISP to "Deny access to blacklisted sites
supplied by SBA". SingNet said that "Access to sites banned by the SBA will
prompt the message :
The site you requested is not accessible
For more information on Singapore's Internet regulation, please check
http://www.gov.sg/sba/netreg/regrel.htm".

On July 11 the Singapore government passed the Singapore Broadcasting
Authority Act (Chapter 297) in which it announced a "Class Licence Scheme"
aimed "to encourage responsible use of the Internet while facilitating its
healthy development in Singapore. It encourages minimum standards in
cyberspace and seeks to protect Net users, particularly the young, against
the broadcast of unlawful or objectionable materials. ... SBA will focus on
content which may undermine public morals, political stability and
religious harmony of Singapore. However, SBA recognises that it is
impossible to regulate the Internet fully. ... Singaporeans can help SBA in
the identification of objectionable sites in order to keep cyberspace
clean. SBA welcomes public feedback on objectionable content found on the
Internet. Members of the public can write to SBA, call its toll-free
hotline ... or post their views on the SBA homepage at
http://www.gov.sg/sba. "

China, which has created its own Internet regulations aimed at controlic
data traffic and urged netizens to declare themselves to the authorities,
approved the Singapore Act and an official was quoted as saying, "China has
a lot to learn from Singapore's experience" (source : Fight-censorship
mailing list).

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G7 and the EC take strong steps for Key Escrow Encryption

The European Commission's DG-13 division on information security (Infosec)
opened on July 30th a "call for tenders" for "preparatory works" towards
regulating encryption procedures. The plan is aimed to test the
introduction of the Europe-wide network of Trusted Third Party Services
(ETS).

Observers saw in this move the so-called "guidelines" the EC was to propose
last year, when press reports (Nature, Sept. 28, 1995) argued the
Commission and the Council of Europe in Strasbourg were willing to regulate
encryption use through the creation of TTPs.

The Infosec call for tenders, which will end by September 30, is to
"identify, define and verify ... operationnal, technical, regulatory and
legal aspects ... to assess the effectiveness, economics and acceptability
of Trusted Third Party Services."

Other voices in European talks, however, said these "preparatory works" are
to push for EU countries to adopt TTPs and the principles of key-escrow
encryption. Nordic countries such as Finland, Denmark and Sweden, are said
to be opposed to change encryption legislation, as France and Britain took
steps in June and July to enforce the creation of TTPs in their own
country.

On July 30 G7 countries agreed policies that would "accelerate
consultations on encryption that allows, when necessary, lawful government
access to data and communications in order to prevent or investigate acts
of terrorism, while protecting the privacy of legitimate communications".
The EPIC, in Washington, DC, said "stronger measures sought by the US to
restrict information on the Internet and limit the availabilioty of
encryption were apparently not adopted by the G7 countries". Among other
industrialised nations, Japan and Australia are said, like Nordic countries
in Europe, to oppose key escrow as a mean to regulate the free flow of
information. Remember the OECD talks in June, were the US tried to impose
key-escrow legislation to the 27-countries' club of the industrial world
(see lambda 2.09)

*****
Soon archived on www.freenix.fr/netizen

-----
Jerome Thorel =-= Journaliste/Free-lance Reporter =-= Paris, France
   =+= the lambda bulletin --> http://www.freenix.fr/netizen =+=