Our work

May 21, 2003

Airport protests against data transfer to USA

EDRI and its partners held successful actions on 20 May at Schiphol (Amsterdam), Zaventem (Brussels) and Vienna airport. At all three airports EDRI members have provided airline passengers with important information about the transfer of their personal data to US authorities. Passengers were given a letter they can send to the national Data Protection Authority […]

May 21, 2003 · Blogs

Romania forbids free access to online pornography

Romania has adopted a new law to make free access to pornography illegal. Online pornography must always be protected by a password, and should always charge a fee per minute, to be declared with the fiscal authorities. Free access is explicitly forbidden in a law formally adopted on 20 May 2003. The law has raised […]

May 21, 2003

New cybercrime legislation in Romania

Romania has implemented the Cybercrime Convention in Title III of the Anticorruption law no 161/2003, published in the Official Monitor no 279 from 21 April 2003. Romania signed the convention in the end of 2001. There are no provisions regarding data retention, even though in some previous versions of the law there was an obligation […]

May 21, 2003

Trial of Nigerian spammers in the Netherlands

A gang of 6 Nigerian spammers was put to trial on 15 May. The gang was arrested last year in the Netherlands. Operating from Amsterdam the group posed as very rich businessmen from Nigeria. Victims were promised a lot of money in exchange for a temporary loan. The Dutch police estimates the gang earned at […]

May 21, 2003 · Blogs

Update on Swiss website blocking order

The internet censorship requests issued by the examining magistrate of the canton of Vaud (see EDRigram number 2 from 12 February) have been rejected on 30 April by a judge from the court of Lausanne. In December, over 30 providers had received the order, and while most of them installed some technical blocking-measures, they joined […]

May 7, 2003

Campaign against the illegal transfer of European travellers' data to the USA

EDRI campaign at Schiphol airport (Amsterdam). EDRI and its partners held successful actions on 20 May at Schiphol (Amsterdam), Zaventem (Brussels) and Vienna airport. At all three airports EDRI members have provided airline passengers with important information about the transfer of their personal data to US authorities. Passengers were given a letter they can send […]

May 7, 2003 · Blogs

EDRi-gram – Number 8, 7 May 2003

May 7, 2003

New EU legislation on copyright infringements

The European Commission has launched a proposal for a new Directive that aims at no less than harmonising penalties for infringements against copyright laws. The proposal, adopted by the Commission at the end of January, is currently under discussion in the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament. A first draft of a ‘Working Document’ […]

May 7, 2003

EDRI launches campaign on air passenger data

This week, European Digital Rights (EDRI) launched a campaign against the transfer of European air travellers’ data to the United States. The campaign coincides with renewed talks between the European Commission and the United States. Since 5 March 2003, an agreement between the European Commission and United States Customs provides US authorities online access to […]

May 7, 2003

Evaluation of Directive on Electronic Pay Services

In their formal evaluation of the European Directive on Electronic Pay-Services (98/84/EC), the European Commission strongly promotes legal measures against copyright infringements. The report, published 2 weeks ago, evaluates the implementation and enforcement of the directive by member states and candidate countries, from its adaptation in November 1998 through to December 2002. Part of the […]

May 7, 2003

Danish company convicted for spamming

The Danish company Fonndanmark was convicted for spamming last week. The company, specialised in human resource software, has to pay a fine of EUR 2.000 for sending out 156 unsolicited commercial e-mails to 50 different addresses. In Denmark, spamming is forbidden since June 2000, under section 6a(1) of the Danish Marketing Practices Act (Markedsforingsloven). The […]

May 7, 2003

European Court of Justice rules on copyright fees

A recent verdict from the European Court of Justice implies that all EU countries should choose the same legislative translation of ‘equitable remuneration’, a crucial formula in the European Copyright Directive. Weighing the case of the Dutch copyright collecting society SENA versus the national broadcasting organisation NOS, the Court explains how the 1992 EU directive […]