The European Privacy Association, after being caught out for failing to respect the rules of the European Transparency Register, has issued a defence of its actions. An article published by IDG News Service describes Google, Microsoft and Yahoo as the “secret backers” of the organisation. The EPA, in its defence, explains that it is a “small organisation”, with a budget of 50 000 to 100 000 Euro. Furthermore, it is “primarily” a voluntary association.

As a “small” organisation, it has major corporations paying at least ten thousand Euro to it. This money is used to ensure the services of a former Member of the European Parliament and an Italian lobbying company (Competere).

The data protection reform has entered the “hot” phase. More than 4000 amendments have been tabled in the European Parliament and MEPs are now trying to find compromises in order to vote on the Albrecht report before the summer break.

Last week, a coalition of European and international civil rights groups (Access, Bits of Freedom, Digitale Gesellschaft, La Quadrature du Net, Open Rights Group, Panoptykon, Privacy International and EDRi) organised a three-day barcamp and activist safari to establish a small counterweight to the massive industry lobbying efforts in the Parliament over the past several months.

The nakedcitizens.eu campaign is a response to these unprecedented lobbying activities.

On 25 April 2013, the European Commission invited all interested parties to comment on Google’s proposed commitments to meet the Commission’s concerns formally drafted in March 2013 regarding to Google’s four types of businesses that might violate EU antitrust rules prohibiting the abuse of a dominant position.

The Commission has concerns that Google might abuse its dominant position on the market by a favourable treatment of links to Google’s own specialised web search services as compared to links to competing specialised web search services.

On 30 March 2013, the consultation on the intellectual property rights enforcement directive (IPRED) will be over. This means that you have three more days to let the European Commission know your thoughts on the current enforcement of copyright in the European Union.

The European Commission now wants to evaluate the efficiency of the current framework and whether or not a revision is necessary. It is the perfect occasion to raise attention to the necessity of a comprehensive copyright reform. Moreover, some questions seem to lead to the conclusion that Internet service providers should be responsible for dealing with alleged infringements online.

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Deutsch: ENDitorial: Europäische Finanzkoalition gegen den sexuellen Missbrauc...

In 2009, the Swedish Presidency of the European Union helped launch the “European Financial Coalition against Child Pornography”. The initiative was based on the pre-existing US “Financial Coalition against Child Pornography,” involved the same companies and addressed the same websites.

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Deutsch: EDRi Leitfaden zur Konsultation zum Urheberrecht

This is just a quick warning that you have until 30 March 2013 if you want to answer to the public consultation on the Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED). The directive has been in force since 2004 and requires all Member States to apply remedies and penalties against those engaged in "commercial" infractions of intellectual property law.

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Deutsch: [Netzneutralität: Ignoriert Kommissarin Kroes alle Gefahren?