Our work
EDRi is the biggest European network defending rights and freedoms online. We work to to challenge private and state actors who abuse their power to control or manipulate the public. We do so by advocating for robust and enforced laws, informing and mobilising people, promoting a healthy and accountable technology market, and building a movement of organisations and individuals committed to digital rights and freedoms in a connected world.
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Lie detectors in Russian airports
Lie detectors will be used in Russian airports as part of the security measures starting with July 2006. Meant to identify terrorists or other types of criminals, a lie-detecting device developed in Israel, known as “truth verifier,” will be first introduced in Moscow’s Domodedovo airport as early as July. The technology, already used by UK […]
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UK teachers are spied in classrooms
Teachers protest against the installation of 50 CCTV systems with microphones in UK schools, used as surveillance measures by the school management. While observation in class was supposed to help teachers in improving their performances, the headmasters, who have also used two-way mirrors to survey the teachers, grade them according to the way they perform […]
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Legal actions against file-sharers in Europe
About 2000 new legal actions are taken in 10 countries by the International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI) against file-sharers amounting now to a total number of 5500 cases outside US. IFPI persists in its actions against uploaders, stating it targets persistent file-sharers, who typically upload thousands of music files. “The campaign started in major […]
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Telecom data to be retained for one year in France
The long-awaited application decree for telecommunication data retention was finally published in France on 26 March 2006. It requires telecommunication data operators (Internet and telephony) to retain data for one year. Concerned data are those allowing the identification of: – the user and its terminal equipment – the recipients of the communication – the date, […]
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Internet under attack on election day in Belarus
On 19 March 2006, date of the presidential elections in Belarus, the major online independent news resources (svaboda.org, charter97.org, belapan.com, ucpb.org, naviny.by, kozylin.com, zubr-belarus.com) were the targets of various types of attacks. The Website of “Nasha Niva” newspaper was not available from Belarus on 18 March on the Internet. Other problems were spotted in accessing […]
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Slovenia : Draft Police Act endangers privacy
The draft of new Police Act has raised a lot of criticism in the last days from privacy activists and legal experts on its broad encroachment upon citizens’ right to privacy, granted by the Slovenian Constitution. Through the suggested act, the Slovenian government grants more power to the police, using terrorism, the Schengen treaty and […]
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Creative Commons license upheld in Dutch and Spanish courts
Both in The Netherlands and in Spain the Creative Commons license was judged in court. In both cases the validity of this alternative copyright license was upheld. In the Netherlands, the first court case about the validity of the Creative Commons license produced clear victory for the user of the license. On 9 March 2006 […]
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New anti-terror bill proposed in Denmark
As a follow up to the latest anti-terror plan of action (49 proposals) of November 2005, the Danish government is now proposing new anti-terror legislation. In the current round of public hearing, massive criticism has been raised by NGOs, legal experts, Danish industry, telecom providers, and from a number of political parties, including the Liberal […]
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Update on French EUCD Transposition
The DADVSI draft law (French EUCD Transposition) made its first step on 21 March, with 286 votes in favour and 193 votes against. In an unusually crowded National Assembly, 501 out of the 577 Members of the Parliament took part in the vote. All the votes in favour came from representatives of the Conservative government […]
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Damages on online defamatory statements in UK
Michael Keith Smith, a former parliamentary candidate for the UK Independence Party has received £10,000 in damages in a defamation case occurred on the internet Smith was a participant in a discussion on the Iraq war held on a discussion board run by Yahoo!. Tracy Williams, another participant in the discussion, posted under pseudonym series […]
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Swedish Foreign Minister resigned following pressure on website
Laila Freivalds, the Swedish Foreign Minister resigned on 21 March after having been cornered by the press on her involvement in the closure on 9 February of a far-right party’s website. The Web site, which was planning to publish caricatures of Muhammad like those that led to deadly protests by Muslims all over the world, […]
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TACD debate on the politics and ideology of intellectual property
Civil society groups from around the world met in Brussels 20/21 March to discuss the politics and ideology of intellectual property. Speakers included representatives from WIPO and the EU, former US Patent Commissioner Bruce Lehman, consumer and development campaigners and noted IP academics Peter Drahos and Susan Sell. The conference tried to step back from […]
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