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Net Neutrality – What happens next?
After the big vote on net neutrality in the European Parliament on 3 April 2014, many people are asking “what now”? The answer is that the Council of Ministers of the European Union will decide what parts of the overall “Telecoms Single Market Regulation” it can accept, which parts it wants to amend and which […]
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Turkey removes Twitter ban following court decision
On 2 April 2014 Turkey’s constitutional court ruled that the ban on Twitter breached laws on the freedom of expression. The decision follows Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s pledge to “wipe out Twitter” after users leaked information detailing alleged corrupt and illegal activities of several officials. The ban was enacted on 20 March and was […]
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UK adds format shifting and parody to copyright laws
The UK government has proposed regulations to add format shifting, parody and non-commercial text mining to copyright laws. After two major reviews, run by two different governments in 2006 and 2010, recommendations for greater flexibility in copyright have been tabled for voting in the UK. A debate and vote will follow at the start of […]
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Google fined for Street View violating privacy in Italy
Google has paid a 1 million euro fine imposed by Garante Privacy, the Italian data protection authority. The case dates back to 2010 when, Google’s Street View cars drove across the country without being labeled clearly enough to be perfectly recognisable, and thus violating the privacy of citizens being photographed without their knowledge. The data […]
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European Court overturns EU mass surveillance law
The European Court of Justice today ruled that the EU legislation on mass surveillance contravenes European law. The case was brought before the Court by EDRi member Digital Rights Ireland, together with the Austrian Working Group on Data Retention. After eight years, this affront to the fundamental rights of European citizens has finally been declared […]
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Child pornography and the net neutrality vote – what happened?
Immediately before the vote on the “net neutrality” vote (in the so-called Telecoms Single Market Regulation), there was a sudden storm around the issue of “child pornography”. What exactly was going on? Child pornography The 2011 EU Directive “on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child pornography” took two years of […]
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European Parliament leads the world with open internet vote
The European Parliament today took a major step to protecting the open internet in Europe and to setting a global standard for online freedoms. Despite fierce lobbying from a coalition of the European Commission and former monopoly telecoms operators, Parliamentarians have supported the principle that the internet should remain open, competitive and democratic. “The European […]
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Commissioner Kroes’ letter to MEPs on net neutrality – now with subtitles
Letter to Members of the European Parliament, published by Neelie KROES on Tuesday, 01/04/2014 Open letter Translation If adopted, the European Commission’s Connected Continent regulation will lead to ending roaming charges by end 2015 on voice, text and data, ensure more coherent rules on spectrum allocation, set out the principles of net neutrality in the […]
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Launch of WePromise.eu: Helping voters to win the European Parliament elections
Press release – Brussels, April 1st. The We Promise campaign was formally launched today in the European Parliament. Parliamentarians from across the political divide joined forces with European Digital Rights to support the campaign. Paweł Zalewski MEP (EPP) opened the event with an introductory video message. He highlighted the importance of adapting copyright to the […]
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April 3rd – Decision day for net neutrality in Europe
The battle to preserve the open internet is reaching its final stage, with the big European Parliament vote taking place on April 3rd. The report adopted by the Industry Committee two weeks ago includes provisions undermining the principle of net neutrality, putting the open internet and freedom of speech at risk. The good news is that […]
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IFPI calls for increased censorship of alleged illegal sites
In its latest report music industry federation IFPI has called for more EU countries to adopt legislation that forces Internet Service Providers to block access to websites that index torrents. It also calls on search engines to voluntarily do more in suppressing the prominence of content which they believe to be distributed without authorisation. “Actions […]
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Russia accused for blocking news sites criticising Putin
Russia has blocked a number of major news sites including the online newspapers Grani and Ejednevni Jurnal, Garry Kasparov’s opposition information site, the blog of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, and the website of the liberal radio station Ekho Moskvy. A law allowing the blocking of internet sites on the order of prosecutors without a court […]
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