UK bill would "infringe scientists' freedom"

Sat Feb 23 10:06:08 EST 2002

http://www.newscientist.com/news/print.jsp?id=ns99991944

UK bill would "infringe scientists' freedom"

14:30 18 February 02
Duncan Graham-Rowe and Will Knight

British scientists could soon face a ten-year jail sentence for sending an
email or failing to ask for permission before teaching a foreign student.

New legislation, which will be reviewed by UK House of Lords in March,
would even give the government the right to "prior review" of scientific
papers - effectively allowing ministers to censor academic research if they
so choose.

"It potentially affects every type of science and technology and a fair
amount of medicine too," says Ross Anderson, computer scientist at
Cambridge University and cofounder of the Foundation for Information Policy
Research.

The Export Control Bill is designed to curb the spread of scientific
knowledge on how to make weapons of mass destruction. It is being touted as
a modernisation of existing controls, following a UK government report in
1996 that found British intelligence had been illegally selling weapons to
Iraq.

Journal threat

For decades, controls have existed on the transfer of physical goods on the
"dual-use" list - a list, recognised by the international community, of
technologies that could have both civilian and military uses.

These controls have allowed scientists to carry out research with relative
freedom, provided they do not try to physically carry it overseas.

But the new powers will extend these controls to apply to "intangibles",
such as software, emails, designs and presentation slides. This will
subject much more scientific activity to controls, says Nicholas Bohm, a
member of the Law Society's electronic law committee.

Even more worrying is that the bill covers internal communications within
the UK - not just "exported" communications. Anyone submitting their
research for publication in a British journal could be subjected to the
controls. This, say critics, could prevent scientists from assessing and
replicating their colleagues' work, and threatens to undermine the very
fabric of the scientific process.

"The problem of the dual list is that it contains anything that the MOD
thinks is high-tech," explains Anderson. This can include anything from
semiconductor testing equipment and hard composites to certain types of
catalyst, he says. It would also include types of software that many
researchers have posted on their websites, such as cryptoanalytic or
code-breaking programmes. Such postings could become illegal overnight.

Fundamental freedom

The Department of Trade and Industry, which drafted the bill, say the
exemptions will be brought in to protect academic interests as secondary
legislation, after the bill has passed. But such reassurances are little
comfort, since secondary legislation cannot be amended once it has been
drafted by ministers.

Universities UK, which represents the heads of British Universities, is
concerned that the Bill could have dire consequences for collaborative
research, both within the UK and overseas.

"We believe that there should be some direct reference to the protection of
routine academic activity in the text of the bill," a spokesman for
Universities UK told New Scientist. The potential power to give government
the right to prior review of scientific publications could infringe
scientists' fundamental academic freedom, he adds.

The DTI claim that the bill will merely bring the UK into line with
European regulations, introduced in 2000, which extend export controls to
include intangibles. "But the UK was a prime mover in pushing for these
extensions in the first place," says Bohm. "The European regulations don't
require the UK to impose domestic transfer or publications controls."

14:30 18 February 02

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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
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[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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