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July 2, 2003

Dutch court orders ban on foreign gambling websites

Last Tuesday, a Dutch court ordered 21 foreign gambling websites to ban Dutch visitors. The sites are located in 10 different countries, from a well-known gambling paradise like Antigua to companies based in Canada and Australia. The case was instigated by the national Dutch lottery (Lotto). This 100% state-owned company became very confident after winning […]

July 2, 2003 · Blogs

Foundation of Turkish digital civil rights group

At the end of this year, Turkey will have its first digital civil rights group. Foundational work started in April 2003. Initiator is Dr. Yaman Akdeniz, the founder and director of Cyber-Rights and Cyber-Liberties (UK). According to Akdeniz, the organisation aims to protect the interests of all honest, law-abiding Turkish Internet users with the aim […]

June 21, 2003

Finnish Big Brother Awards for YTV and Sonera

On 4 June EDRI-member EFFI organised a second annual Big Brother Ceremony. The award in the public sector was given to YTV, a firm that controls public transport in the Helsinki region. The company received the award for its new electronical ticket system that stores individual passenger information, including social security numbers. Anonymous cards were […]

June 19, 2003 · Blogs

EDRi-gram – Number 11, 19 June 2003

June 19, 2003

Answers to EU questionnaire on spam

During the last meeting of the EU Communication Committee on 11 June, a document was presented with answers of the member states to the questionnaire on spam. The same document was also presented next day to the members of the article 29 working party (the collaboration between the EU data protection authorities). The questionnaire was […]

June 19, 2003

OSCE statement about freedom of the media on-line

At the end of a two-day conference in Amsterdam on internet-related perils to freedom of expression, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Freimut Duve has issued a call to take up a strong position towards free flow of information on the internet. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the […]

June 19, 2003

Industry groups against data retention laws

Four major industry groups have published a joint statement against mandatory data retention. The coalition represents worldwide and European businesses including most major electronic communications service providers and manufacturers. They are challenging EU member states on proposals that would require communication service providers to store details of all calls, emails and transactions for use by […]

June 19, 2003

Right of reply in on-line media

The Council of Europe (45 member states) is finalizing a recommendation on the ‘right of reply’ in on-line media. Through a right of reply persons and organisations can reply to articles in the media in which they have been portrayed or criticized. Many countries in Europe already have a limited right of reply for printed […]

June 19, 2003

EP Legal Committee approves of software patents

The European Parliament’s Committee for Legal Affairs and the Internal Market (JURI) voted Tuesday 17 June about a list of proposed amendments to the planned software patent directive. It was the third and last in a series of committee votes. The results will be presented to the parliament in plenary early in September. The other […]

June 19, 2003

NGOs want Human Rights Commissioner at WSIS

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the first part of which will be held in Geneva from 10 to 12 December this year, tries to involve governments, the private sector and the civil society in its process. Intergovernmental organizations and various UN Agencies are also part of the WSIS, with the International Telecommunications […]

June 19, 2003

UK acknowledges public criticism of identity-card

The UK Government has finally admitted that the public are overwhelmingly opposed to the idea of a national ID card. In response to a parliamentary question from member of parliament Anne McIntosh, Home Office minister Beverley Hughes has confirmed that over 5,000 of the 7,000 responses to a public consultation on the issue were opposed […]

June 19, 2003 · Blogs

Plans to extend Schengen Information System

The European Parliament currently discusses 3 different reports about the Schengen Information System (SIS). Rapporteur for all three reports is Carlos Coelho. The reports aim at extending the amount of data handled and the degree of cross-linking within the computer network. Coelho, a Portuguese Conservative, has already been the Rapporteur on four previous reports on […]