Behind the Headlines: 'Snooping Bill' praised by John Menzies' IT chief

NEWS The controversial RIP Bill has been welcomed by a leading IT director who claims it is a sensible response by the government to protect UK business against cybercrime. On this week's Behind the Headlines programme, Frank Coyle, IT director at John Menzies, claimed the government would have been criticised if it had not proposed the Bill. He said: "We cannot underestimate the threat to businesses from organised crime using the Internet. I think we have to try it. At the moment we have nothing, and that puts the initiative in the hands of organised crime. If the government did nothing it would be accused of being inept." However, the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) joined the opposition this week with an open letter addressed to Jack Straw. In it, Chris Humphries, director general of the BCC, said: "There is a real danger that the competitive disadvantage caused by the measure will frustrate the government's ambition of making the UK the best place to trade electronically by 2002." Nathalie Calvert, MD and founder of call centre consultants Calcom, said that IT trade associations should be more visible opponents to the Bill. She said: "We're putting a lot of power in the hands of the government, that in the long term we're not sure what they're going to do with. We hear groups like the Institute of Directors (IoD) complaining, but why aren't this industry's trade associations standing up and making a big noise about it?" In an earlier interview with silicon.com, Jim Norton, head of ecommerce at the IoD, agreed lobbying needs to intensify. He said: "I don't believe the government's motives are malign, but I think people have looked at the Bill and they have realised that it would give the government a range of powers that perhaps not even the government intended. Hence the importance of getting sensible amendments in even at this late stage." Other topics up for discussion on this week's Behind the Headlines are the Microsoft verdict and the possibility of an industry-wide body to monitor and rate computer viruses. The full Behind the Headlines programme can be seen in the Desktop Strategies' Channel (http://www.silicon.com/a37974 ).