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ENDitorial: Transparency and law-making on EU copyright – mutually exclusive?
Transparency should be a core principle for an open democracy. According to the European Union (EU) founding treaties, in order to have a democratic decision-making process, the EU institutions “shall maintain an open, transparent and regular dialogue with representative associations and civil society”. However, by following the legislative process on the copyright directive, one can […]
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Denmark: Weakening the oversight of intelligence services
A draft law to amend the data protection provisions of the law on the oversight of the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) was submitted for public consultation in September 2016. In their consultation responses, several NGOs including EDRi member IT-Pol Denmark, as well as the Danish Intelligence Oversight Board (TET) criticised the proposal. The […]
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What to do with the online platforms – the academics point of view
The rise of “platform economy” with rapid growth of online intermediary platforms, such as Airbnb, Uber, Amazon Marketplace, and also dating, gaming and other services is bringing new challenges not only for existing business models, but also for European legislation. In a meeting of Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) Committee Working Group on the […]
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EDRi @RightsCon 2017 – You cannot miss us!
EDRi member Access Now is bringing the sixth edition of RightsCon, the world’s leading digital rights event, to Brussels. We are happy to announce that EDRi’s presence at the conference will be particularly strong this year – our members will be organising a record number of sessions, and our team will participate in an impressive […]
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EU moves one step closer to the world’s worst internet filtering law
In September 2016, the European Commission proposed legislation that would require the constant monitoring and filtering of virtually everything that is uploaded to the internet in Europe. Under the extreme rules proposed by the Commission in the Copyright Directive, uploads to the internet would need to be scanned to assess if any photo, video or […]
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Hakuna Metadata – Exploring the browsing history
Metadata is data about data. In an e-mail, the data is the content of the e-mail and metadata is the information about the e-mail. So, it covers information like who is it from or who sent it, the date and time, the subject, network information etc. When we are browsing the internet, data is represented […]
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Multilateral Investment Court System does not deliver equal justice
On 15 March 2017, the public consultation on “options for a multilateral reform of investment dispute resolution” launched by the European Commission (EC) was concluded. EDRi responded to the consultation, in line with the response to the previous Investment-to-State-Dispute-Settlement (ISDS) consultation and our work on trade and fundamental rights. Our view is that the Multilateral Investment Court […]
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Human rights court: Website not liable for anonymous comment
On 9 March 2017, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) published its unanimous ruling in the case of Pihl v. Sweden. It declared that a non-profit association was not liable for an anonymous defamatory comment posted on its blog. The plaintiff Rolf Anders Daniel Pihl had made a civil claim against the small non-profit […]
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Switzerland: Blocking of gambling sites – gambling with human rights
On 1 March 2017, the Swiss National Council debated the proposal to regulate online gambling, and approved it. The consequences of the law go beyond gambling regulations, since they amount to censorship, blocking of content, and restricting the free and open internet.
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Open letter: direct and indirect lobbying needs to be better regulated
European Digital Rights (EDRi) and more than 100 civil society organisations joined the Alliance for Lobby Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU), Civil Society Europe and Transparency International EU in sending a letter on lobby transparency. The letter was sent to the key MEPs concerned with the interinstitutional negotiations to review of the EU Transparency Register. This […]
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Open letter: Community Networks essential in providing affordable internet access
EDRi joined a coalition of more than 25 European Community Networks and alternative internet access providers, and 35 civil society organisations in signing a letter in support of Community Networks in Europe. Today, 16 March, the letter was sent to European policy-makers with recommendations to ensure the continuous development of these citizen initiatives, which provide […]
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#NetCompetition wants an improved Electronic Communications Code
Today, on 13 March 2017, #NetCompetition, an alliance of consumer organisations, service providers and network operators, digital rights organisations and online content providers, adopted its position paper on the European Commission’s proposal for a European Electronic Communications Code. Despite some general positive aspects, we have concluded that the proposed Directive to establish a European Electronic Communications […]
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