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January 26, 2005 · Blogs

EDRI-gram – Number 3.2, 26 January 2005

January 26, 2005

Poland blocks software patents once more

Poland did it again. For the second time they blocked the attempt to silently adopt EU Council’s agreement on software patents, this time in the Fisheries Council of 24 January 2005. The government of Poland had already requested the item to be deleted from the agenda of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council on 21 December […]

January 26, 2005

German library allowed to crack copy protection

The German national library (Deutsche Bibliothek) has negiotated a license with rightholders to legally circumvent copy protection mechanisms on CD-roms, videos, software and E-books. It seems this is the first library in Europe to have managed a voluntary agreement on the strict new anti-circumvention rules prescribed by the EU copyright directive of 2001 (2001/29/EC). Article […]

January 26, 2005

Data Retention: Parliament Rapporteur doubts legal foundation

The European Parliament’s rapporteur on the retention of traffic data resulting from all kinds of electronic communications, Alexander Alvaro (Liberal, Germany) has asked the Parliament’s legal service to look into the legal foundation for this report. His doubts are founded on the fact that the report contains obligations addressed to civil parties, which is a […]

January 26, 2005

Total surveillance visitors World Cup Germany

Think twice before buying a ticket to the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. You can only apply for tickets online, and in order to obtain a ticket you will have to answer a questionnaire demanding a lot of personal data. This profile will be linked to a mini spy chip (RFID) on the ticket. […]

January 26, 2005

New rumours about spy chips in Euro notes

There is a renewed rumour that the European Central Bank is going to add spy chips (RFIDs) to Euro banknotes. ‘Czerwensky intern’, a German newsletter providing bank and insurance background reports, says the ECB might have already signed contracts with Hitachi, and is ready to introduce the spy-notes this year. Allegedly, the contract requires such […]

January 26, 2005

French Big Brother Awards

On 22 January 2005, the jury of the French Big Brother Awards needed no less than 7 of the famous negative Big Brother Awards to name and shame projects, people, institutions and companies for destroying privacy and promoting control. The minister of Health, Mr Douste-Blazy received a special Jury Award for promoting a new law […]

January 26, 2005

EU consultation calls for social impact studies on nanotech

The European Commission puts nanotechnology high on the political agenda with its Communication ‘Towards a European strategy for nanotechnology’. The communication has been discussed at the political level in the European Council under the Irish and Dutch presidencies during the year 2004, and an on-line open consultation on the communication was held between August and […]

January 26, 2005

Verizon blocks European e-mail

The large US provider Verizon (3 million DSL customers and 1 million dial-up customers) is systematically blocking e-mail from Europe, as well as from China and New Zealand. On 22 December 2004 Verizon has installed new central spam-filters that refuse e-mail from many large European providers. Attempts from European ISPs to have their mail-servers white-listed […]

January 26, 2005

Recommended reading: spyware

The US researcher Benjamin Edelman, famous for his publications about internet filtering in China and in Saudi Arabia, has turned to spyware, and the results of his research are impressive. In November 2004 he did a simple test, to find out how much junk can get installed on a user’s PC visiting a single webpage. […]

January 12, 2005

Answer to RFID consultation Italian privacy authority

The Italian data protection authority (Garante della Privacy) has opened a consultation on privacy issues related to RFID tags, loyalty cards, digital TV (pay per view etc.) and video-telephoning. The Italian Winston Smith project (defending e-privacy since 1999) has responded with a specific legal proposal to control the use of RFID-tags. These mini-chips are becoming […]

January 12, 2005

EU plans database of visa applicants' biometrics

The EU Commission plans to store biometric data taken from visa applicants in the planned Visa Information System (VIS). This was decided as part of a proposed regulation, which was already due in late 2004, but was delayed until 7 January 2005. The delay seems to be due to technical problems with stacking multiple RFIDs […]