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Computer crime: the necessary Human Rights perspective

Document Citado por Related
Vincent
AutorPaz Pena Ochoa
Páginas226-228

Page 225

See note 93

In a context of increased criminalization of cybercrime, it is time to relect on how our laws respond harmoniously with respect to the Human Rights of citizens. The conclusions drawn may prove to be more than worrying.

Spam, fraud, child pornography and virtual terrorism, among so many other things. With the development of Internet, computer crimes have become more frequent, sophisticated and, therefore, more important in the public opinion. This has led to several laws around the region being concerned with persecution, even though in many cases they end up damaging other fundamental rights of the rest of the citizens.

The seminar "Computer Crime: New Critical Perspectives", a joint initiative of the Center for Studies in Information Law (CEDI) of the University of Chile and Derechos Digitales NGO, sought precisely to take a look from this perspective. At the various panel discussions, the conclusions were more than disturbing.

This is, for example, the case of Law 19.223 for Chilean cybercrime, which has been in force since 1993, and that several panelists criticized for its lack of clarity regarding penal types, its vagueness in deining computer rights and ambiguity when distinguishing protected rights, even claiming that the law should be repealed like in the case of Renato Jijena, of the Catholic University of Valparaiso.

For Juan Carlos Lara, director of contents at Derechos Digitales NGO, all these weaknesses of the law are troubling when the persecution of cybercrime is necessary, proportionate and appropriate. As he emphatically pointed out, harmonic and sensible standards are required in regards to the Human Rights and avoid falling into obvious civil rights abuses such as today’s Peruvian cybercrime law.

However, the discussion went further and also touched upon the controversial topic of intellectual property crimes. In this case, the igures are revealing. In Chile, on average there have been two thousand people convicted of piracy in recent years, whereas in the United States, home of the Hollywood ilm industry which exports high standards of intellectual property protection to the whole world, there have been 20 times fewer, somewhere around ifty convictions a year.

Page 226

This apparent imbalance and huge criminalization that continues throughout most Latin American countries, masks an even more disturbing reality for Alberto Cerda, the international affairs director of Derechos Digitales, who...

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