A lot of people have been complaining about the new Internet laws which Lebanon is planning to introduce. These are some points that are highlighted by Naharnet as important but I don’t think they’re a bad thing at all:
– Article 92 demands that anyone providing online services must apply for a license
– Article 82 allows for the search and seizure of financial, managerial, and electronic files, including hard drives and computers
– Article 70 paves the way for the establishment of the Electronic Signature & Services Authority, a new regulatory and licensing body with wide powers over the ICT sector
So basically if you do something wrong the government can seize your computers which is how it is everywhere in the world including the US. Then, if you want to start an online business you need to get a license, I see that as a positive thing since from my experience with local businesses they can be very dodgy sometimes. Finally establishing of the ESSA, does anyone even know what that is?
Am I missing something here? Is that it?
Personally I don’t think there is a problem. I might be very wrong here since I am just basing all this from a Naharnet article and the YouTube video above. The Naharnet article says this law could curb online freedom but unless the law says all bloggers must register with the government, torrents should be illegal, playboy.com should be blocked and political sites must be shutdown, I don’t see what Internet freedom we will be losing…
1. anyone providing online services must apply for a license -> . if you want to open a http://www.blogbaladi.com.lb you will need a license , More paperwork, more bureaucracy, more delays, less revenue.
2. Article 82 allows for the search and seizure of financial, managerial, and electronic files, including hard drives and computers -> this is warrantless, if any part of the government decides that you are doing something wrong, they can take your laptop and servers and do whatever they like
3. Article 70 : Another agency, who can make or break your organization at their whim.
We need less regulation – not more regulation – and if we need any regulation, then it has to be discussed with private sector
Though it’s not 100% related this is useful to read http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/07/heres-how-the-government-can-fix-silicon-valley-leave-it-alone/
Hey we’ll never have a sillicon valley, what exactly happened to BETZ (Beirut Emergent Technology Zone) first discussed in 2007 http://www.idal.com.lb/upcomingproject.aspx?ID=239 … regulated probably !
I’m assuming the ESSA will allow for things such as online banking, which is a joke in Lebanon at the moment.
Skype – its not registered in Lebanon so it would be illegal to use it.
The main issue with the law is that its quite vague. Who defines what an “online service” is?
OK, scratch the Skype part. It seems that the VOIP ban is going ahead regardless of this particularly law. Anyway, the main issue is that the law is quite vague and was prepared by MPs without review by the general public. How many of our MPs know how to switch on a computer let alone prepare a law on e-transactions?
Basically this Law gives this “hay2a” the power of monitoring every electronic transaction.
For example online banking is an internet transactions. The only one who should be able to monitor it is the Banque Du Liban and not this group!
Plus for example lets examine the “Nizam dakhili” of the hay2a. Section 75 basically says that this hay2a will create its own rules and send them to the minister in charge, if he doesn’t accept them within 30 days or send them to the counsel of minister (that also have 30 days to accept them) the rules starts to apply!
That is crazier then Israel launching an investigation into it’s own murder!
Mark the idea of having a law is not wrong, its great no one is going to invest in Lebanon’s IT infrastructure with no Law to protect him. The problem is that this law should not be created by a group of people who do not know a thing about computers but want to employ a couple of people “teb3ine elone” to manage the sector! This law was not even shown to Lebanese IT sector. When the sector discovered the Law they smuggled it to Parliament as quickly as possible to approve it before people know about it!