Unpleasant EU Move

[Daniel_Sabbagh@vnu.co.uk]

This article appeared in Computing yesterday. Some further notes,
unpublished, follow clarifying the DTI position
As Markus Kuhn noted, the amendments orginally cited by Ross Anderson have
not
yet been accepted. So there is still time to lobby. The committee votes on
April 16.

Hope this helps.

text:

 Alarm over hacker law
 Euro law to ban public discussion of IT security

 Draft European legislation to outlaw any devices or software that can
 be used to hack into pay-TV systems could also make it illegal to
 publicly discuss computer security weaknesses, write Daniel Sabbagh
 and Colin Barker.

 Alarm bells have been sounded by the UK?s IT academic community
 ? and echoed by the DTI ? over a series of amendments to a draft
 directive aimed at suppressing the activities of pirates who provide
 illegal, low-cost access to satellite TV broadcasts around Europe.

 The amendments, which are under consideration by a European
 Parliament committee, would make it illegal to disseminate
 information about security holes in conditional access systems. These
 could be defined as anything from pay-TV systems to subscription
 Web sites.

 ?The proposed amendments to the draft directive go way over the
 top,? said Dr Ross Anderson, a secu- rity specialist at the Cambridge
 University Computer Laboratory.

 ?In any engineering activity, we need constant feedback. Security is
 like bridge building: engineers learn how to build them safely by
 understanding why they fall down,? he added.

 The key amendment calls upon member states to prohibit ?the
 advertising and provision of information concerning activities and
 measures facilitating unauthorised access? to a wide range of
 electronic systems, including computers.

 It is also believed that the UK?s DTI is unhappy about the
 broad-ranging amendments, and has lobbied the British MEPs on the
 committee accordingly.

 The European Parliament?s legal affairs committee will vote on the
 proposed amendments on 16 April.

 But the measure will take from six to 18 months to be adopted ? and
 will then have to be enacted by member states, a process that could
 take up to two years.


                                        19 March 1998

Notes:

It emerged just as Computing went to press with this, that the DTI have
taken no formal position on these amendments. Hence the suggestion in the
article below that DTI
'is unhappy'.

And despite DTI's claims of lobbying against the amendment, one Labour euro
 MEP
on the committee considering the amendment (legal affairs and citizens
rights), claimed that the
DTI had not issued any line to take on the controversial amendments.

Dan Sabbagh
Senior Reporter
Computing.