************* http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/afternoon/0,1012,1626,00.html The Netly News / Afternoon Line (http://netlynews.com/) December 10, 1997 Big Eight Ball At a briefing at FBI headquarters today, top police officials from eight countries outlined a 10-point action plan calling for greater cooperation, joint training and a revision of national laws to combat malicious hackers and "cybercrime." Anne McLellan, Canada's attorney general, said her country wanted to crack down on "old crimes using new technology -- for example, child pornography or hate." Left unsaid was how, for instance, the U.S. could follow Canada's lead and ban racist web sites, which are permissible under the First Amendment. Among the virtual crimes listed were the "cyber-offenses" of money laundering and... H-bomb smuggling? (In response to a reporter's question, the Russians denied they had misplaced 84 of their nuclear weapons.) Heinz Lanfermann, Germany's state secretary, added to the list of Internet undesirables "all those who are organizing slave trading and drug trafficking and car theft." U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno pointedly declined to address encryption, saying "it was generally not a topic" discussed. She did, however, applaud the Internet industry for offering to "work together in a collaborative manner" to track "computer criminals." But she clearly intends to do more than collaborate: The joint principles call for the government "to continue providing the public and private sectors with standards for reliable and secure telecommunications and data processing technologies." Like the Clipper Chip, maybe? --By Declan McCullagh/Washington [More Afternoon Line stories are at http://netlynews.com/ ]