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February 11, 2004

IFPI sues Belgian ISP over Usenet

The IFPI, the international representative of the recording industry, has instigated legal proceedings against the Belgian ISP Telenet for the unauthorised distribution of music via Usenet (newsgroups). Telenet refuses to block the access to certain newsgroups in its newsservice ‘Bommanews’. The ISP argues that providing Usenet services is a ‘mere conduit’ activity, and under the […]

February 11, 2004

Spy-chips discovered in German loyalty cards

After a tour in the Future Store of the German Metro concern, privacy advocate Katherine Albrecht discovered spy-chips with unique numbers in the customer loyalty cards. She also found RFID tags on products sold in the store that were not completely de-activated after the purchase. Albrecht, founder of CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and […]

February 11, 2004

More delay for IPR Enforcement and SoftPat Directives

The final vote on two of the most controversial information society Directives, the Directive on Software Patents and the Directive on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights has been delayed once more. The IPRE directive was withdrawn last minute from the 9 February plenary agenda of the European Parliament. On 6 February the Council presented […]

February 11, 2004

Dutch police arrests 52 'Nigerian' spammers

In January, Dutch police have arrested 52 people suspected of large scale internet fraud with the infamous ‘Nigerian e-mail’ scam. The scammers sent spam e-mails asking for help in transferring a large sum of money out of their country (usually Nigeria), in exchange for a generous percentage. According to an AP news report, the gang […]

January 28, 2004 · Blogs

EDRI-gram – Number 2.2, 28 January 2004

January 28, 2004

European Commission communication on spam

The European Commission has finally published a Communication on spam, just in time for the OECD conference on spam, hosted by the Commission on 2 and 3 February. The Communication focusses on actions to be taken by the EU member states in order to make the ban on spam more effective. Clearly, implementing the EU […]

January 28, 2004

German DP Commissioner criticizes draft IPR Enforcement

Peter Schaar, appointed 2 months ago as Germany’s chief Data Protection Commissioner, has severely criticized the draft Directive on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights, currently under discussion in the European Parliament and the Council. Interviewed by the online news service Heise, Schaar said the Directive brought along many risks, including deep cuts into the […]

January 28, 2004

PNR: Bolkestein's diplomacy and anger Belgian DPA

MEP Marco Cappato has revealed a letter EU Commissioner Bolkestein sent to Tom Ridge, the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security. The letter was sent on 18 December, only two days after Bolkestein had given his presentation in which he tried to mislead the European Parliament on the true nature of the agreement on the transfer […]

January 28, 2004

Italy: five years data retention

On 28 January 2004, the Italian Lower House approved of a governmental decree-law on mandatory data retention by telephone and internet companies. Government issued the decree on 24 December 2003, without any prior parliamentary debate. All data about electronic communications must now be stored for a period of 5 years. According to the privacy-group ALCEI, […]

January 28, 2004

EP in favour of collecting societies and levies

On 15 January 2004 the European Parliament accepted an own-initiative report about the importance and future of collecting societies, the organisations that collect the rights on copyright and neighbouring rights. The report states that Digital Rights Management is insufficiently developed to replace the work of collecting societies. According to the report, reasonable levies (for example […]

January 28, 2004

Polish government allowed to send SMS-spam

According to a recent decision from the Polish Data Protection Authority (Generalny Inspektor Ochrony Danych Osobowych – GIODO) a massive SMS-spamrun from the Polish government was perfectly legal. A governmental agency committed this run in June 2003 as a last-minute reminder to citizens of the upcoming referendum about the European Union. Of the 30 million […]

January 28, 2004

Russian plans to introduce new ID-system

The Russian government is considering a new system of personal registration for all citizens. In 2006 all Russians will be assigned a unique universal identifier. On 15 January 2004 the deputy minister of economical development Andrei Sharonov told journalists that the original proposal had been prepared by his ministry and the government supported this idea. […]