Title: International Laws and Legal Bodies
Course: IN 2001 Principle of Information Assurance > Section: Module 3: Chapter Three

International Laws and Legal Bodies

1.    It is important for IT professionals and information security practitioners to realize that when their organizations do business on the Internet, they do business globally.
2.    As a result, these professionals must be sensitive to the laws and ethical values of many different cultures, societies, and countries.
3.    While there are currently few international laws relating to privacy and information security, the few that do exist are important but are limited in their enforceability.

European Council Cyber-Crime Convention

1.    The Council of Europe adopted the European Council Cyber-Crime Convention in 2001.
- It provides for the creation of an international task force to oversee a range of security functions associated with Internet activities for standardized technology laws across international borders.
- It also attempts to improve the effectiveness of international investigations into breaches of technology law.

2.    While 34 countries attended the signing in November 2001, only 18 nations, including the U.S., have ratified the Convention as of February 2007.
3.    The U.S. is technically not a “member state of the council of Europe” but does participate in the convention.
4.    The Cyber-Crime Convention lacks any realistic provisions for enforcement.
5.    The overall goal of the convention is to simplify the acquisition of information for law enforcement agencies in certain types of international crimes.
6.    It also simplifies the extradition process.

Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights

1.    The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), created by the World Trade Organization (WTO), introduced intellectual property rules into the multilateral trade system.
2.    This agreement is first significant international effort to protect the intellectual property rights of individuals and of sovereign nations.
3.    This agreement outlines requirements for governmental oversight and legislation of WTO member countries to provide minimum levels of protection for intellectual property.
4.    The WTO TRIPS agreement covers five issues:
- How basic principles of the trading system and other international intellectual property agreements should be applied
- How to give adequate protection to intellectual property rights
- How countries should enforce those rights adequately in their own territories
- How to settle disputes on intellectual property between members of the WTO
- Special transitional arrangements during the period when the new system is being introduced

Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)

1.    The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is the American contribution to an international effort to reduce the impact of copyright, trademark, and privacy infringement, especially through the removal of technological copyright protection measures.
2.    In 1995 the European Union had adopted Directive 95/46/EC, which added protection for individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and the use and movement of such data.
3.    The United Kingdom has also already implemented a version of this law called the Database Right, in order to comply with Directive 95/46/EC.
4.    The DMCA includes the following provisions:
- Protections and countermeasures implemented by copyright owners to control access to protected content may not be circumvented.
- Devices may not be manufactured to circumvent protections and countermeasures to control access to protected content.
- Trafficking in devices manufactured to circumvent protections and countermeasures to control access to protected content is banned.
- Information attached or imbedded into copyrighted material may not be altered.
- Internet service providers are excluded from certain forms of contributory copyright infringement.