Nauseating

With all the brouhaha about Zardari jokes and their being branded as anti-democratic propaganda :P I thought I should have a peek at the now famous Cyber Crime bill. While I am neither a law expert nor did I expect to understand all of it, I did stumble upon some interesting stuff. For example under the Offenses and Punishments chapter:

CHAPTER-II
OFFENCES AND PUNISHMENTS

ll. Misuse of encryption. -- Whoever for the purpose of commission of an offence or concealment of incriminating evidence knowingly and willfully encrypts any incriminating communication or data contained in electronic system relating to that crime or incriminating evidence, commits the offence of misuse of encryption shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years, or with fine, or with both.

So does this mean that if I sent Zardari jokes I can be jailed? And if I encrypt them I can be jailed even more? Other questions that also come to mind are: How will they break the encryption in the first place? Do those idiots even know how to use a computer? Have they ever seen one?

Then I found this in a news item by Dawn (13.07.2009):

An official announcement by the interior ministry said that the government was launching a campaign against circulation of what it called ill-motivated and concocted stories through emails and text messages against civilian leadership and security forces.

.....A senior official of the ministry said: ‘Sending indecent message is a crime under the Cyber Crime Act and liable to punishment.’

.....Under the Cyber Crime Act, violators could be jailed for 14 years, besides confiscation of their property. Similarly, any Pakistani living abroad and violating provisions of the act may be charged and will be liable to deportation to Pakistan.

Under the campaign, all Internet Service Providers would be checked physically by the FIA on a daily basis.

Let us forget the humongous 14 year prison time for a moment or the definition of 'indecent message' :P. What bothers me the most is that the FIA is allowed by law to inspect and record all internet traffic going through an ISP on a daily basis. WOW. While I find it hard to believe that the FIA possess the technical know how and resources needed for such an endeavour, I am distressed by the ease with which they can implicate thousands if not millions of internet users in the country. The democratic government's lack of respect for freedom of expression and their complete disregard for privacy is a different yet equally sad story.

Guess it's back to Faraz jokes, eh? :P

Do check out the Cyber Stalking section in Prevention of Electronic Crimes Ordinance, 2007. It's hilarious :)