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Internet censorship in Switzerland
In Switzerland, internet censorship is gaining ground. 2 recent events demonstrate this development. Last December, the examining magistrate of the canton Vaud issued a command to many Swiss internet service providers (ISPs), to block access to 3 websites. The websites, all hosted in the USA, contain strong criticism of a.o. the Swiss courts and are […]
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E-commerce directive transposition raises serious privacy and free speech concerns in France
France has started the process of implementing the European Directive on Electronic Commerce. The draft text of the Digital Economy Law (“Loi relative à l’économie numérique” or LEN in French) deals with ISP liability, electronic contracts and unsolicited commercial emails, cryptography, cybercrime, and satellite systems. Among them, the most controversial provisions are those concerning cryptography, […]
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EUCD implementation stalled in Finland
Last week, the Finnish parliament returned the national copyright law proposal back to the ministry that originally drafted it. Electronic Frontier Finland heavily criticized the anti-circumvention provisions and other controversial issues of the proposal. After a parliamentary hearing on the 31st of January, the chair of the hearing committee announced it was impossible to continue […]
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Finnish companies oppose law to censor internet
A coalition of Finnish telecom and media companies has joined the fight against proposed government legislation to make owners of message boards liable for all content, similar to print media. Additionally, Finnish government wants access to historical data to trace anonymous postings. The law therefore requires publishers and ISPs website to log practically all Internet […]
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Microsoft Passport does not comply with European privacy rules
Microsoft has agreed to change its Passport authentication system, after the publication on 29 January of a very critical review by the united EU privacy commissioners. Besides the Microsoft .NET Passport system, the commissioners, united in the so-called Article 29 Working Party, also examined the Liberty Alliance Project. The review concludes with general guidelines for […]
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EDRI-gram in Spanish
From now on, EDRI-gram will also be available in Spanish, usually 3 days after the English edition. Translations will be provided by David Casacuberta, secretary of the Spanish chapter of CPSR (Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility). To receive the Spanish EDRI-gram, please visit http://www.edri.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/edri-grama/ or subscribe by email: To: Subject: subscribe (Please note: this […]
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Rally Members European Parliament against data retention
38 Members of the European Parliament from 7 different political groups have united in their resistance against mandatory data retention. Initiated by Marco Cappato, Italian Radical and former Rapporteur on privacy in the electronic communications, last week the MEP’s presented a strongly worded recommendation to the European Council. Even though the new European Privacy Directive […]
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Action against governmental censorship in Germany
EDRI-member FITUG (Forderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft) launched an urgent public campaign against government censorship of websites. A year ago, the district government of Dusseldorf county in Germany passed orders to more than 80 internet providers to block access from their users to some foreign websites. Providers and civil rights groups united in protest against the […]
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New patent law on software threatens innovation
Current European patent law does not allow for patents on software, much to the dismay of large IT-companies like IBM, Intel and Cisco. In February 2002, The European Commission published a draft patent law directive that will be dealt with in a co-decision procedure with the European Parliament. The proposed text clearly reflects the strong […]
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Update: United Kingdom
On 31 January 2003 consultation in the United Kingdom ends on plans for a national ‘Entitlement’ card, widely perceived to be an identity card. A six month consultation on the initiative was launched by the Government in July last year. Civil rights groups have demanded to abandon the scheme in the wake of criticisms including […]
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Action against governmental censorship in Germany
EDRI-member FITUG (Forderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft) launched an urgent public campaign against government censorship of websites. A year ago, the district government of Dusseldorf county in Germany passed orders to more than 80 internet providers to block access from their users to some foreign websites. Providers and civil rights groups united in protest against the […]
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Introduction
This is the first EDRI-gram, a newsletter about freedom, rights and rules in the information society in Europe. EDRI-gram is produced by members of European Digital Rights and will appear every 2 weeks. European Digital Rights (EDRi) is a not-for-profit association, currently made up of 10 different privacy and civil rights organizations from 7 European […]
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