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.
Filter resources
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French jurisprudence about Google and cybersquatting
Search engine Google has lost an appeal on 10 March 2005 against a French court order to change its advertisement practices. The case about the advertisement practice was instigated by the travel companies Luteciel SARL and Viaticum SA. Competitors bought the search terms ‘bourse des vols’ and ‘bourse des voyages’ (flight exchange and trip exchange) […]
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EU rejects Microsoft's licence
The European Commission has rejected Microsoft’s proposal to comply with the EU anti-trust ruling. Microsoft needs to enable other software providers to interoperate with computers that run the Windows operating system. But the proposed Microsoft server interoperability licence contains a number of serious flaws including unjustifiably high royalty fees and the exclusion of open source […]
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No ban on wiretapping of Dutch lawyers
The Dutch association of criminal defence lawyers (NVSA) has lost a court case (preliminary proceedings) demanding an immediate stop to the practice of wiretapping their confidential telephone conversations with clients. On 15 March 2005 the administrative Court of the Hague ruled that these conversations do not per definition fall under the professional secrecy. There is […]
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Austrian power company demands take down critical website
The Austrian regional power company TIWAG (based in Tirol) has claimed 500.000 euro in damages if an activist doesn’t immediately take down a critical website. On 10 March they filed preliminary proceedings at the court of Innsbruck. On 23 March they sent another claim of 100.000 euro to the hosting provider of the site (based […]
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New defeat for Scientology in Dutch Internet case
The Dutch Attorney-General for the Supreme Court, Verkade, has once more righted internetprovider XS4ALL and author Karin Spaink in their decade long defence against legal attacks by Scientology. In his opinion for the Supreme Court Verkade argues “Although copyright resides under Article 1 of the First Protocol of ECHR and can therefore be regarded as […]
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Italian agreement to fight copyright infringements
The Italian government has closed an agreement with 50 organisations from the music, video, publishing and IT industry to fight copyright infringements by organising public ‘sensibilisation’ campaigns. The agreement was launched on 3 March 2005 during the well-known Sanremo pop music festival. Prepared by three ministers (of Technological Innovation, Culture and Communications) the agreement was […]
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Search engines voluntarily block harmful content in Germany
According to a report in the German e-zine Heise all the major search engines in Germany have voluntarily agreed to filter out harmful content for their German audience. Google, Lycos Europe, MSN Germany, AOL Germany, Yahoo, T-Online and t-info have founded a self-regulatory organisation that will voluntarily block a list of URLs considered to be […]
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Dutch plan large-scale satellite snooping
The Dutch ministry of defence is planning to build a large facility to intercept civilian and military satellite communications. The Echelon-like site at Burum, in the north of the Netherlands, will have 15 dishes and listen to telephone, fax and internet telecommunications. The large streams of intercepted information will be examined by a new intelligence […]
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French court decision on traffic data retention
On 4 February 2005 the appeal court of Paris has extended the general obligations for data retention to companies. According to the verdict, like internet providers all companies are obliged to store traffic data originating from their employees, to allow identification of e-mails with illegal contents sent from company machines. The verdict is ominous since […]
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Geneva meeting on access to knowledge
On 3-4 February 2005, more than 60 academics, researchers and scientists, software developers, diplomats, librarians, consumers and representatives of disability and other public interest groups from north and south gathered in Geneva to discuss the WIPO Development Agenda and a draft Treaty on Access to Knowledge (A2K). The meeting was organised by the Consumer Project […]
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Europe crowned as Internet Villain
Europe was crowned ‘Internet Villain’ of the year at the 7th Annual UK Internet Industry Award Ceremony, for “threatening the Country of Origin principle, which has encouraged e-commerce across the EU, and for the Draft Framework on Data Retention.” The awards are an initiative of the UK Internet Service Providers’ Association Council. Previous winners include […]
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Council adopts decision on attacks against information systems
On 24 February 2005 the JHA Council finally adopted the framework decision on attacks against information systems. The decision harmonises legislation in the EU for any offence committed against a computer infrastructure with the intention of destroying, modifying or altering the information stored on computers or networks of computers. The two key definitions in the […]
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