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 * * * * * 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". * * * * * 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). * * * * * 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 =+=