EDRI welcomes 5 new members

At the EDRI general assembly of 7 August 2005 in Berlin, Germany, EDRI has welcomed 5 new members. FoeBuD from Germany organises the Big Brother Awards in Germany and is well-known for its expertise in RFID. Greennet, an independent ISP in the UK, is part of the APC network and has built up a reputation as campaigner for privacy and human rights on the Internet. The Association for Technology and Internet (APTI) from Romania is a newly founded group of internet experts, who wish to promote human rights in the digital environment and support digital civil rights in the Romanian society.” The Prague-based NGO Iuridicum Remedium offers free legal help to disadvantaged or discriminated people, and has developed a special program on technology and human rights. This year they will organise the first Big Brother Award ceremony in the Czech Republic. Last but not least, the NGO Metamorphosis in Macedonia was founded with a focus on software issues, but they are developing into a networking node for digital rights in Macedonia.

EDRI now has 21 members in 14 European countries, all within the territory of the Council of Europe. The members of EDRI agreed during the meeting to focus on a few topics in the upcoming parliamentary year: data retention, biometrics and the new Commission proposal for penal enforcement of intellectual property rights. In addition, EDRI-members will closely follow developments with regards to RFID and e-voting and many will be present at WSIS in Tunisia in November.

APTI, Romania
http://www.apti.ro/

FoeBuD, Germany
http://www.foebud.org/

Greennet, UK
http://www.gn.apc.org/

Iuridicum Remedium, Czech Republic
http://www.iure.org/

Metamorphosis, Macedonia
http://www.metamorphosis.org.mk