UEM Computer Centre to loose control of internet domain “mz” – New Electronic Transactions Bill

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UEM Computer Centre to loose control of internet domain “mz” – New Electronic Transactions Bill

9:23 CAT | 16 Nov 2016

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The Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Wednesday began debating a government bill on electronic transactions, intended to protect consumers and regulate the use of electronic systems in trade, finance and other areas.

Introducing the bill, the Minister of Science and Technology, Jorge Nhambiu, said a law on electronic transactions is urgent “because electronic operations are a reality in various spheres of our society. The growing use of information technologies has also brought to light the challenges we face as a state to guarantee the security and privacy of citizens in cyberspace”.

The bill therefore includes the establishment of a state Digital Certification System, with the responsibility “to ensure the authentication, recognition and certification of electronic documents and signatures”. This system must also ensure the security of electronic data and documents, whether they belong to the state or to individuals.

The bill seeks to give electronic documents the same treatment currently afforded to physical ones. When certain acts legally require documentation, the bill will allow such documentation to take electronic form, thus ending the situation in which emailed receipts, for example, are not accepted.

Nhambiu stressed that this bill should be complemented by rapid ratification of international conventions on cybercrime.

“These conventions are fundamental for the effectiveness of the law we are proposing”, he said. “For the law is limited to Mozambican jurisdiction, while the internet and cyberspace have no jurisdiction. Since they open the space for cross-border cybercrime, international cooperation is important, particularly the assistance of other states in identifying, locating and prosecuting the perpetrators of cybercrime”.

Most of the bill is uncontroversial, and there was no dissent from opposition deputies in the Assembly commissions that analysed it.

But one area which seems to have passed unnoticed by the deputies is the government’s intention to take control of the Mozambican internet domain “mz” away from the control of the Eduardo Mondlane University Computer Centre (CIUEM).

The CIUEM has the intellectual property rights to the “mz” domain. It was the university, through the CIUEM, which registered the “mz” domain with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), back in 1992. Since then the CIUEM has been running the “mz” domain without any significant mishap, and without any complaints from the users.

Yet, despite this record of almost quarter of a century of quiet and efficient service, the government bill seeks to take the domain away from the University, and give it to the Regulatory Authority for Information and Communication Technologies.

Source: AIM