DTI removes cybercrime laws from Ecommerce Bill

NEWS The long-awaited Ecommerce Bill has finally been published in a form that spells victory for privacy lobbyists and the business community. Patricia Hewitt's Electronic Communications Bill, which has been in consultation since 1996, contains legislation that will pave the way for government's plans to make the UK central to global ecommerce. The legislation will make electronic signatures legal and create a framework to make online transactions secure. The DTI hopes it can speed the Bill through, making it the first set of laws to be passed in the new millennium. More importantly, the Bill no longer contains the law enforcement proposals that were at the heart of a long-running debate between the DTI and lobby groups who claimed they were restricting human rights. Yaman Akdeniz, director of the Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties UK, said: "This officially signals the death of key escrow and key recovery." But the battle is not yet over for the privacy activists, according to Akdeniz, as the proposals have now been transferred to the Home Office's Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill which will require ongoing scrutiny. Members of the business community welcomed the final version of the Bill and claimed the full rejection of key escrow and the legalisation of electronic signatures will be a driving force in the progress of ecommerce. However there is still concern from both communities that the full details are yet to be fully thought through. Mark Lewis, partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers law firm, Arnheim Tite and Lewis, said: "The government has not tackled the legal barriers to ecommerce and there's no guarantee of when they will revisit these areas to get them sorted out. I'm not sure the technicians who are drafting the Bill really understand the implications of what they are doing." Many industry observers agree that the key to unlocking ecommerce in the UK comes down to high call charges. Hewitt refused to admit that the government will have to take any further action beyond Oftel's current measures to curb the monopoly and said she's relying on the fact that "BT knows what it has to do."