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Out-Law News 1 min. read

Cybercrime Convention in force from July


The Council of Europe's Convention on Cybercrime is set to enter into force on 1st July following its ratification by Lithuania last Thursday. The Convention is the first international treaty on criminal offences committed against or with the help of computer networks.

In particular, the Convention deals with offences related to infringements of copyright, computer-related fraud, child pornography and offences connected with network security. It also covers a series of procedural powers such as searches of and interception of material on computer networks.

More controversially, the Convention includes powers to preserve data, to search and seize, to collect traffic data and to intercept communications. These powers came in for serious criticism from privacy activists during the drafting process.

It also contains an Additional Protocol that makes it a criminal offence to disseminate racist or xenophobic propaganda via computer networks – although this had to be separated from the main text to avoid alienating the US, where it would likely be deemed inconsistent the country's Constitutional right of free speech.

The Convention has so far been signed, but not ratified, by 28 of the 45 Member States of the Council of Europe, including the UK, France, Germany and Norway. Four non-member states – Canada, Japan, South Africa and the US – have also signed the treaty.

For the Convention to have the force of law it must also be ratified, i.e. given effect to in the laws of a participating country, by five of those states, three of which must be members of the Council of Europe (a body that should not be confused with the Council of Ministers of the European Union).

Lithuania joins Albania, Croatia, Estonia and Hungary in ratifying the Convention.

Reacting to the news, Walter Schwimmer, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, said:

"The Convention on Cybercrime is a ground-breaking agreement which will play a key role in fighting computer-related crime. Cybercrime is a major global challenge which requires a co-ordinated international response – I therefore urge all of those Council of Europe member states which have not yet signed or ratified the convention to do so as a matter of priority."

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