Paul Meller NYT
BRUSSELS If anyone in the European Union tried to protest online the way thousands of anti-war protesters did in the United States last week, they could be branded criminals under a pact recently reached by justice ministers in Brussels.
Last week, protesters against a possible U.S. war against Iraq barraged the White House and Senate offices with tens of thousands of messages by phone, fax and e-mail, as part of what was billed as the first-ever "virtual protest march."
The 15 European ministers signed Friday a so-called framework decision on cybercrime that makes no legal distinction between an online protester and the spammers or cyberterrorists the decision is designed to trap, according to legal practitioners and academics. Full: http://www.iht.com/articles/88499.html --- Sent from UnionMail Service [http://mail.union.org.za]