November 5, 2003

Big Brother Awards presented across Europe

Privacy and civil liberty activists across Europe have presented their Big Brother Awards to governments, companies and persons that have excelled in violating the right to privacy. In a weeks period Award ceremonies were held in Germany (24 October), Spain (25 October), Austria (26 October) and Switzerland (1 November). In Germany prices went to German […]

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May 9, 2007

New calls for computer online searches by German authorities

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) The German authorities seem to have a higher desire to push for a legal basis of the online searches of personal computers in Germany, despite the Federal Supreme Court decision in February 2007 that, according to the German Code of Criminal Procedure, decided that online police snooping […]

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November 17, 2010

Dutch government cancels plans for national database on bank data

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Niederländische Regierung gibt Pläne für nationale Bankdatenbank auf | http://www.unwatched.org/node/2360] After facing enormous pressure from the media, civil society and several MPs, The Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice announced that it will not develop a national database or search engine containing bank data of all Dutch citizens. […]

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May 24, 2006

German Constitutional Court has outlawed preventive data screening

On 22 May the German Constitutional Court has declared illegal under the German Constitution the practice of screening data across several private and public databases in order to find potential terrorists (“sleepers”). Several federal states will now have to change their police laws. The decision does not make data screening (“Rasterfahndung”, literally: “grid investigation”, usual […]

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September 26, 2018 · On the ground | Open internet and inclusive technology | Equal access to the internet

Will the evaluation of the net neutrality rules be balanced?

In our open letter we expressed our concerns about the study of the implementation of the net neutrality rules. Our letter focused on the possible conflicts of interest of the lawyers in charge of the study, as well as the risk of an unbalanced report.

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October 19, 2011

European Parliament legal service confirms: ACTA may or may not be legal

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Juristischer Dienst des EP bestätigt: ACTA könnte rechtmäßig sein. Oder auch nicht. | www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_9.20_Juristischer_Dienst_des_EP_bestaetigt_ACTA_koennte_rechtmaessig_sein_oder_auch_nicht?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20111028] Several weeks ago, the International Trade Committee of the European Parliament asked for an opinion from the Parliament’s internal legal service regarding ACTA’s legality and whether or not documents must be made public. At […]

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May 7, 2014 · Blogs

Copyright meets broadcasting in Geneva

The 27th session of the World Intellectual Property Organization´s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) took place from 28 April to 2 May in Geneva. The Committee assessed the proposal for a Broadcasting Treaty. This initiative for a new binding global copyright treaty has been discussed at WIPO for over 10 years at […]

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May 21, 2008

Updates on Visa Information System Regulation

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) An updated version of the Regulation on the Visa Information System (VIS) published by Statewatch reveals that only random checks might be carried out, if there are too many people waiting. As already presented in EDRi-gram, the legislative package on the Visa Information System that included the […]

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June 7, 2006

Frankfurt Appellate Court says online demonstration is not coercion

The collective blockade of a corporate website in the context of a political event is not violence or coercion but legitimate free expression, a German Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt decided on 22 May. The decision came almost five years after the online demonstration took place. The groups “Libertad” and “Kein Mensch ist illegal” (No […]

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June 7, 2006

Journalistic protection for online journalists and bloggers

The Californian appeal court decided on 26 May that online journalists and bloggers have the same right to protect their sources as all other journalists. The case was brought to court by Apple Computer demanding from a number of news website operators to reveal the source of confidential information posted about some of its products. […]

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December 18, 2003

WSIS report – the long way ahead

The first phase of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) ended in Geneva last week, after more than 18 months of preparatory process. Its 2 outcomes are a Declaration of Principles and a Plan of Action, both enthusiastically adopted by government representatives, though hardly discussed until the last hour. A major outcome is also […]

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June 6, 2007

IPRED2 on the DROIPEN table

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) The Second Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED2) is now going through the Justice and Home Affairs route. On 4 June, it passed it’s first port of call at the Council’s Working Group on Substantive Criminal Law (DROIPEN) – the first step on the road to the […]

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