European Arrest Warrant and publishing/distributing on the internet

[James Hammerton]

> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: ukcrypto-admin@chiark.greenend.org.uk
> > [mailto:ukcrypto-admin@chiark.greenend.org.uk]On Behalf Of James
> > Hammerton
> > Sent: 08 July 2002 15:54
> > To: ukcrypto@chiark.greenend.org.uk
> > Subject: European Arrest Warrant and publishing/distributing on the
> > internet
> >
> >
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > Under the draft Extradition Bill, which implements the European Arrest
> > Warrant, if an EU country requests that a British resident be
> > extradited for an "extradition offence", then so long as various rules
> > such as the double jeopardy rule are observed, the extradition will go
> > ahead without any consideration by the British courts of the evidence
> > against the resident concerned.
> >
> > The offence needs to be punishable by upto a year in prison, *in the
> > country requesting extradition* (dual-criminality does not apply). For
> > conduct to be an extradition offence it must have occurred in the
> > country requesting extradition and be an offence falling under the
> > list of offences given in a Framework document. This list of offences
> > includes "computer-related crime".
> >
> > So what does all this have to do with ukcrypto? Potentially (and I
> > have a query relating to this), should this be implemented, it means
> > that if any EU country makes it an offence to distribute a piece of
> > software or a document, then British citizens could be extradited to
> > that country for posting the software on their webpages or to
> > usenet that is legal in Britain but not in another EU country.
> >
> > For this to happen, the crucial question for a British court to answer
> > is whether posting something to a website accessible in another
> > country constitutes conduct occurring in that country. If the courts
> > decide "yes", then EU countries will get the right to extradite
> > British citizens for the things they post to the internet that are
> > illegal in those countries. All it would then take is for one other EU
> > country to ban the distribution of e.g. copies of PGP, and they'd be
> > able to enforce the ban in Britain. Whether the same would apply for
> > all EU countries, would depend on what they regard as conduct
> > occurring in other countries.
> >
> > So here's my query: Are there any British precedents relating to
> > whether posting things to websites or usenet groups, constitutes
> > conduct occurring in all the countries they are subsequently
> > accessible from?
> >
> > The draft Extradition Bill can be found here (along with the Framework
> > Document on the EU Arrest Warrant):
> 
> Your general point, I (willingly) leave to the lawyers here.
> 
> In the particular of your 'banning PGP' example, it does seem to fall at the
> first fence. There are no longer any restrictions on the free movement of
> unclassified cipher programs within the EU. No EU country can abrogate this
> agreement unilaterally any more than it can any other intra-EU trade
> agreement it has entered into.

Presumably any of the countries planning to join the EU will have to
agree to allow the free movement of such programs then.
 
> However, with regard to other items, criminal libels, pornography etc, the
> position does not seem so clear.

Indeed. All it would take would be for one country to ban a document
or piece of software and the issue might well raise its head. Note
that another of the crimes listed for the EAW is "racism and
xenophobia", which isn't a crime as such in the UK (inciting racial
hatred is the nearest thing we have but being racist or publishing
racist material per se is not illegal AIUI) but is in some EU
countries.

James