Re: Cybercrime treaty

[Adam Shostack <adam@homeport.org>]

On Mon, May 08, 2000 at 01:24:04PM -0400, Steven M. Christey wrote:
| One Board member has since sent me an email saying that they are
| concerned with the Editorial Board as a whole making a statement,
| although they personally agree with what is being said.  The member's
| concern appears to be related to the fact that if "the Board" makes a
| statement, then the member's organization may be viewed as agreeing
| with the statement by association.
| 
| A different member sent me an email saying that while the member
| agrees with the concerns, they cannot comment publicly on this,
| especially while their own organization may be pursuing this issue
| independently.  But this member did not seem to be concerned with how
| a Board statement would reflect on their own organization.
| 
| So it seems to me that it may not be appropriate to have a statement
| from the Board as a whole.  I think that part of this is due to the
| fact that we don't formalize whether Board members are speaking for
| themselves or for their organizations.
| 
| I think we could work with the introductory text that Stuart provided,
| and say that the statement is a result of Editorial Board discussions,
| and advocated by various Board members, but it is not a statement by
| the full Board itself.  Individuals who are not comfortable with
| speaking for their organization could provide feedback behind the
| scenes, or be listed on the statement without their organizational
| affiliation.

Having talked with my lobbying folks on this, they say that a
statement by the board is a much stronger tool to present to the COE,
and that a statement which headlines that the board could not agree
has less of an impact.  

Steve, could you ask those who question a board statement if they'd be 
more willing to accept a disclaimer within the text, such as:

"In our capacity as security experts, <Treaty> has recently come to our
attention, and we have some concerns about it, specifically Article
6."

Or at the bottom: "Affiliations are listed here for identification
purposes only."

This allows a board statement to be made without drawing in all of the 
organizations which we may or may not represent.


Adam

-- 
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once."
					               -Hume