Blogs

March 12, 2003 · Blogs | Open internet and inclusive technology | Freedom of expression online

Petition against copyright law in Italy

On 9 March the Italian Associazione Software Libero opened an on-line petition against the proposed implementation of the European Copyright Directive. The petition is an open letter to the Culture Committee of the Lower House, inviting them to reconsider their almost unanimous approval of the copyright law on 25 February 2003. Like in most other […]

March 12, 2003 · Blogs | Transparency

Finland changes policy on software patents

Anticipating the new EU Directive on Patents, the National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland (PRH) decided to accept patents on software. Before, the Fins were a lot stricter than the European Patent Office. The reason for the change in policy is mind-boggling. Because the European Parliament seems to propose much more unpermissive rules […]

March 12, 2003 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Surveillance and data retention

Limiting the storage of traffic data

The European data commissioners (through the Article 29 working group) have pleaded for a maximum storage period of half a year for traffic data that telecommunication companies store for billing purposes. With the opinion paper the working group tries to limit the duration and scope of traffic data storage. “Traffic data should be kept for […]

March 12, 2003 · Blogs | Data protection standards

Update on anti-spam legislation

In the previous EDRI-gram 6 EU-countries were mentioned that already have a spam-ban, Denmark, Germany, Finland, Greece, Italy and Austria, plus Hungary and Norway in Europe-at-large. We can now add France, Romania and Poland to this list. French E-Commerce Directive (approved 26.02.2003 in the Lower House) http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/12/ta/ta0089-2.pdf Polish E-commerce Directive (effective 10.03.2003) http://www.giodo.gov.pl/English/ust_podpis_el.htm Romanian E-commerce […]

March 12, 2003 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Surveillance and data retention

Call for public views on video-surveillance

The European data protection commissioners, united in the Article 29 Working Party, invite the public to respond to a position paper about videosurveillance. The paper gives an interesting overview of the differences in legislation and measures adopted in the different member states since the transposition of the Privacy Directive (95/46/EC). The Commissioners are specifically worried […]

March 12, 2003 · Blogs | Open internet and inclusive technology | Freedom of expression online

Censoring the internet: the situation in Turkey

‘Turkey, showing the symptoms of a developing country, has not yet established the jurisprudence necessary for the Internet. The existing Turkish laws, especially the Press Law, are naively applied to alleged lawbreakers on the Internet, resulting in ludicrous outcomes.’ Paper about internet censorship in Turkey by Kemal Altintas, Tolga Aydin and Varol Akman published 10 […]

February 26, 2003 · Blogs

EDRI-gram – Number 3, 26 February 2003

February 26, 2003 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards

Data-retention scandal in Ireland

Ireland has had a secret data retention regime for almost a year, after the Cabinet confidentially instructed telecommunications operators to store traffic information about every phone, fax and mobile call for at least three years. The Irish Data Protection Commissioner Joe Meade revealed this last monday at a forum on data retention. Telcos even used […]

February 26, 2003 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards

Dutch interception secrecy

The quantity of police interceptions of telecommunication in the Netherlands is higher than anywhere else in the world, according to the few available official statistics. Government however, tries to maintain secrecy about the exact numbers and the technical specifications of the equipment. Last week, a Freedom-of-Information request by EDRi-member Bits of Freedom for statistics covering […]

February 26, 2003 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Privacy and confidentiality

ID requirements in Europe

Only a few EU-member states currently have ID-requirements. Privacy-authorities and civil rights groups alike doubt the practical effects and warn against highly arbitrary checks. Belgium, France and Spain, where ID-requirements have been in place for a long time, have bad track-records of police discrimination. Belgium currently has the strictest legislation, requiring everybody age 15 and […]

February 26, 2003 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards

Criticism gone from EP report on safer internet plan

In a remarkable change of heart, rapporteur Bill Newton Dunn removed all criticism from his draft report on the Safer Internet Action Plan (EU Document Number COD/2002/0071). In stead of the original recommendation to discontinue the program because of its complete in-effectiveness, Mr. Newton Dunn (British Liberal) now pleads for an extension of the program. […]

February 12, 2003 · Blogs

EDRI-gram – Number 2, 12 February 2003