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September 25, 2003

Legal victory for German anonymiser AN.ON

On 15 September the Frankfurt District Court confirmed an earlier partial ruling in favour of the German web anonymiser AN.ON. According to this ruling, there was no legal ground for the request by the German Federal Bureau of Criminal Investigation to record data about visitors to a specific website (see EDRI-gram 16 and 17). The […]

September 25, 2003

New directive on privacy in the workplace

The European Commission is planning a new Directive on privacy in the workplace, in 2004 or 2005. After two consultations with the social partners, in August 2001 and October 2002, the Commission is convinced of the necessity of such a new directive. 3 main grounds for the new legislatory framework are: technological advances that increasingly […]

September 25, 2003

Confusion about UK ID-card plans

Confusion still reigns within the UK government over plans for a national ID card. Home Secretary David Blunkett (the Minister of Internal Affairs) has continued to push his scheme despite opposition from Cabinet colleagues. Though it is unclear whether carrying a card would be mandatory, Blunkett said at the very least no-one should be able […]

September 25, 2003 · Blogs

EDRI-gram in Italian

Thanks to an enthusiastic group of Italian-speaking activists, EDRI-gram is now also available in Italian. Similar to the Russian translation, the Italian translation will appear on-line a few days after the mailing. An archive is available from Nr. 10 onwards. Check out: http://www.autistici.org/edrigram/

September 10, 2003 · Blogs

EDRI-gram – Number 17, 10 September 2003

September 10, 2003

PNR data transfer: EU Parliament gets angry

On 12 September the moratorium expires on the transfer of European passenger-data to the United States. Already harsh words are being exchanged between EU institutions, one of the last realms of diplomatic kindness. “The violation of EU legislation is continuing and with it the rights of European citizens are being violated.” This judgement from an […]

September 10, 2003

Draft EU directive on software patents withdrawn

European Parliament rapporteur Arlene McCarthy has withdrawn the draft directive on software patents. The directive will now go back to the committee stage for some more work. A new vote is scheduled for the plenary sessions between 22 and 25 September. Even though officially the European Patent Office does not allow for patents on software, […]

September 10, 2003

New report finds problems with EU copyright law

European citizens could find many common activities banned as the EU Copyright Directive becomes law, a new report reveals. Transferring songs from a copy-protected CD to a Walkman or computer could be illegal, as could watching a DVD on a computer running Linux. ‘Implementing the EU Copyright Directive’, published 8 September 2003, reports on legal […]

September 10, 2003

Scientology loses legal battle with ISP's

8 years after Scientology started legal procedures against Dutch author Karin Spaink, internet provider XS4ALL and 20 other defendants, the Appellate Court of The Hague rejected all claims and ruled that freedom of expression should prevail upon copyrights. According to the ruling “The (…) texts show that, in their doctrine and their organisation, Scientology et […]

September 10, 2003

German anonymiser raided by police

The legal victory for privacy was short-lived for the German web anonymiser AN.ON. Only 2 days after a German Court suspended a previous verdict to build a back door in the anonymiser, German police obtained a new court order to raid the offices. On Friday 29 August, the Lower District Court in Frankfurt /Main gave […]

September 10, 2003

Fines and prison sentence for Italian spammers

Italy is introducing tough fines and prison sentences against spammers. Senders of unsolicited junk e-mails can expect fines up to a maximum of 90.000 euros and 3 years in prison. The penalties go far beyond those in any other European country. All EU member states will have to outlaw spam by 31 October 2003 as […]

September 10, 2003

Danish conference on on-line freedom of expression

On 2 September the Danish network on the World Summit on the Information Society hosted a conference on Freedom of Expression in the Information Society. The conference addressed global tendencies of regulation of freedom of expression, the new Council of Europe Declaration on Freedom of Communication on the Internet, intellectual property rights, (traditional) media, access […]