Professional groups push for EU ratification

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) and 20 coalition partners in the Copyright Assembly,including the likes of the American Federation of Musicians, the Motion Picture Association of America and the Screen Actors Guild, sent the letter to chairman of the committee Republican Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana.

The groups argued that ratification of the treaty would help address the problem of cybercrime internationally -- namely, "by requiring nations to adopt effective criminal laws against hacking, child pornography, computer-facilitated fraud, and infringements on copyright."

They continued: "It would also make these laws easier to enforce by improving international law enforcement cooperation. And, importantly, the Treaty would not require a single change in current U.S. law."

Paul Kurtz, executive director for the Cyber Security Industry Alliance, said that the U.S., as part of its efforts to tackle IT security crimes, must ratify this Convention.

"Without a doubt, we need to see an increase in civil and criminal convictions in [the IT] space," he said, noting ratification of such an international treaty would only aid in this goal.

The Convention is the first of its kind to offer minimum punishments for international computer-related security crimes.

Europe Convention on Cybercrime