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Commission Report on child protection online lacks facts and evidence
In December 2016, the European Commission issued two reports on the implementation of the Directive on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child pornography (Child Exploitation Directive, 2011/92/EU): a general report and a specific report about Article 25 of the Directive, which covers removal and blocking of child abuse, child exploitation and child […]
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Total information awareness for law enforcement, no data protection
The European Network of Law Enforcement Technology Services (ENLETS), an informal group funded by the European Commission, has produced a report on best practices in mobile solutions for law enforcement practitioners.
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Latest copyright votes: Filtering, blocking & half-baked compromises
On 11 July, two Committees in the European Parliament voted on their Opinions on European Commission’s proposal for a Copyright Directive: the Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) and the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE). CULT decided to abandon all reason and propose measures that contradict existing law on monitoring of online content. […]
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No, you can’t enjoy the music you paid for, says EU Parliament Committee
A leaked European Parliament document exposes some of the most bizarre suggestions yet in the debates around the proposed new copyright rules in Europe. The proposal for the Copyright Directive is currently being debated in various European Parliament Committees. The leaked document shows that conservative, socialist and Green Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in […]
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Germany: Will 30 June be the day populism killed free speech?
On 30 June 2017, the German Parliament will vote on the bill on “Enforcement on Social Networks”, also known as the “NetzDG”. This draft law, if adopted, could seriously impair human rights online, including freedom of expression and opinion. That is why we tirelessly explored different ways to make sure the European Union (EU) would […]
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The Freedom Index – easing access to information on rights issues
A diverse group of human rights defenders in the EU has launched an ambitious project that aims to radically change the way information relating to human rights is organised. If successful, the initiative will create a system that can permanently identify and preserve all human rights data across all languages, and radically improve its availability […]
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Proposed Copyright Directive – Commissioner confirms it is illegal
At a meeting of the European Parliament Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) on 19 June, European Commission Vice-President Andrus Ansip made a statement that was both shocking and shockingly honest. He advertised the content filtering product of the US company Audible Magic as an affordable alternative to Google’s Content ID filtering technology for filtering European […]
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An end to copyright blackmail letters in Finland?
On 12 June, the Finnish Market Court ruled in a case Copyright Management Services Ltd vs. DNA Oyj that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are not obliged to hand out the personal data of their clients based only on the suspicion of limited use of peer-to-peer networks. Stronger proof of significant copyright infringements need to be […]
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Are we on the right track for a strong e-Privacy Regulation?
European legislation protecting your personal data (the General Data Protection Regulation and Law Enforcement Directive on Data Protection) was updated in 2016, but the battle to keep your personal data safe is not over yet. The European Union is revising its legislation on data protection, privacy and confidentiality of communications in the digital environment: the e-Privacy […]
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Denmark allows massive retention of location data for mobile internet
On 24 May 2017, the Danish telecom regulator announced its decision concluding that the retention of location data for mobile internet usage is lawful. With the decision, the regulator allowed for massive data retention, which seriously undermines citizens’ right to privacy, since it means they can be tracked at all times and the data is […]
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ENDitorial: AVMSD – the “legislation without friends” Directive?
When the European Commission proposed yet another revision of the TV Without Frontiers Directive in 2016, the Directive was really showing its age. The Directive was originally launched in 1989, revised just eight years later in 1997, again ten years later in 2007, and finally only three years after that in 2010. It has become […]
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#ALTwitter privacy revelation: European parliamentarian goes bananas
Recently, Mr Dunston (of the “Dunston Checks In” fame) came to the EDRi Brussels office looking for help. He complained that somebody from the European Parliament is messing up with his “holy banana collection” that he has been preserving since decades after he inherited it from his forefathers. Other than that we had no information.
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