[WSIS CS-Plenary] IMC statement

[karen banks]

dear all

A lots of folk are asking for actions and what they can do to highlight 
this incident and react.

** IMC will be issuing a statement tonight with a request for support. I'm 
not sure if they will be able to translate themselves so we may need 
support there. **

Many statements issued by organisations point to various MLATs as the 
*legal* basis for the seizure of the IMC servers, but IMC still have no 
official confirmation from any government agency in the US, UK, Switzerland 
or Italy, as to which MLAT the warrant was issued in pursuance of.

All statements have focussed on freedom of expression violation - which is 
of course absolutely right - but there are other issues which are not as 
visible, and this incident provides a good opportunity to make them more so.

These include:

- the trends in and dangers of international law enforcement cooperation - 
or 'trans-border' cooperation
- ISP responsibility in these situations
- accountability and due process

As gus hosein from privacy international noted:

"this is a growing trend to use international co-operation regimes to 
obscure accountability and due process.  Now we are in a position where we 
don't know who to complain to regarding these actions, and which laws were 
used, under who's jurisdiction - and such action will likely increase with 
international treaties such as the Council of Europe Convention on 
Cybercrime, and other such initiatives."

For those of us following the WSIS internet governance process, we have 
seen the Council of Europe Cybercrime treaty promoted as a possible global 
governance model for dealing with trans-border 'cyber-crime'.

The seizure of the IMC servers is indeed an 'interesting case' to monitor, 
but more so, it's an excellent opportunity to spotlight and scrutinise the 
cybercrime treaty and similar bilateral treaties with a view to taking 
action to call for openness and clarity in international co-operation and 
to ensure due process and civil liberties are protected.

karen