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[FYI] (Fwd) Proposed wiretap laws in South Africa



------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date:          Sun, 13 Dec 1998 14:06:36 +0200 (SAST)
From:          Alan Barrett <apb@iafrica.com>
To:            cryptography@c2.net
Subject:       Proposed wiretap laws in South Africa

The South African Law Commission (a body that makes suggestions to the
central goverment about changes in legislation) has released a
discussion paper on interception and monitoring of electronic
communications.

Parts of the proposed legislation are reminiscent of the worst parts
of the US FBI-sponsored Digital Telephony legistation a few years ago:

  * Notwithstanding the provisions of any other law, no person ... may
    provide [any telecommunications service] which is not capable and
    does not have the capacity to be monitored

  * any person ... rendering a telecommunications service shall at own
    cost ... acquire ... facilities ... to enable the monitoring of
    conversations and communications ...

  * the investment ... and operating costs in enabling a
    telecommunications service to be capable of being mionitored,
    shall be carried by the person ... rendering such a service

  * duplicate signals ... shall be routed by the relevant person ...
  to
    the central monitoring centre, to be designated by ... [the
    police], [the military], [the National Intelligence Agency], [the
    South African Secret Service].

Whether Internet service providers are "telecommunication service
providers" in terms of relevant legislation is not entirely clear.

See the South African Law Commission web page at
<URL:http://www.law.wits.ac.za/salc/salc.html>, and follow the links
to

   * Project 105
     Review of Security Legislation
     Discussion Paper 78
     The Interception and Monitoring Prohibition Act 127 of 1992
     (November 1998)

or go directly to
<URL:http://www.law.wits.ac.za/salc/discussn/monitoring.pdf> for the
paper in PDF format.

--apb (Alan Barrett)