March 11, 2015 · Blogs

Scottish Government proposes a national ID database

The Scottish Government has run a consultation to use the National Health Service (NHS) Registry database as a means to connect citizens’ data and allow online logins. The proposal has similar characteristics to the plan to introduce an Identity Database in the United Kingdom which was abandoned in 2006. Campaigners and opposition parties have urged […]

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April 27, 2017 · Blogs

AVMS Directive: It isn’t censorship if the content is mostly legal, right?

AVMSD – What is it? The Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) was originally designed for satellite TV, where broadcasters are a) in full editorial control and b) content is actively transmitted to viewers. It was subsequently extended to “on-demand” services, where providers a) make an active choice to decide what is made available, but b) […]

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October 17, 2019 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Freedom of expression online | Surveillance and data retention

Trilogues on terrorist content: Upload or re-upload filters? Eachy peachy.

On 17 October 2019, the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union (EU) and the European Commission started closed-door negotiations, trilogues, with a view to reaching an early agreement on the Regulation on preventing the dissemination of terrorist content online. The European Parliament improved the text proposed by the European Commission by addressing its […]

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February 26, 2014 · Blogs

Linking content does not infringe copyright says ECJ

On 21 February 2014, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that a website could not be found to have infringed copyright for merely linking to content hosted elsewhere. The advice was given for the Svea hovrätt (Svea Court of Appeal, Sweden), in a case involving local journalists and aggregation Swedish company Retriever Sverige, a […]

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March 25, 2015 · Blogs

Copyright exceptions and limitations – back to the future

The noise around the non-legislative report of the European Parliament on the Copyright in the Information Society Directive (also known as the InfoSoc Directive and Directive 2001/29/EC) in Brussels is deafening. With one Committee still to table its amendments, the total number of amendment has already reached 759. Part of the reason for this is […]

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September 22, 2010

Commissioner Malmström sets out her agenda to the European Parliament

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Kommissarin Malmström stellt ihre Agenda vor | http://www.unwatched.org/node/2201] In a Committee meeting last week and in the Parliament’s plenary session this week, Commissioner Malmström has set out her vision on various upcoming issues in her portfolio. In the Committee, Malmström drew attention to the Communications on information sharing […]

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November 20, 2019 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards | Privacy and confidentiality

Dance. Enjoy. Share. With Care.

Anyone using cloud services should be aware of what the “cloud” is, what it is not, and how it can affect our privacy and security. Our information stored in “clouds” can be protected if the EU says “Yes!” to a strong ePrivacy Regulation, greater enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and drops the […]

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August 12, 2003

Deep-linking legal in Germany

The German Federal Supreme Court ruled on 17 July that deep links from a news search engine to articles on a publishers web site do not violate German copyright or competition law. The plaintiff, a media group that publishes several newspapers and magazines, including ‘Handelsblatt’ and ‘DM’, sued the search engine provider www.paperboy.de for forbearance. […]

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June 13, 2018 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Data protection standards

ePrivacy for Children: What is Data Protection Culture?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) attracted widespread attention and comment in recent weeks when it came into force on 25 May 2018. Having taken several years to get from being proposed by the European Commission to entering into force, the GDPR has been designed as a concerted, holistic and unifying effort to regulate personal […]

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March 29, 2006

Swedish Foreign Minister resigned following pressure on website

Laila Freivalds, the Swedish Foreign Minister resigned on 21 March after having been cornered by the press on her involvement in the closure on 9 February of a far-right party’s website. The Web site, which was planning to publish caricatures of Muhammad like those that led to deadly protests by Muslims all over the world, […]

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July 17, 2013 · Blogs

Closed environments locking down consumers’ rights

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Geschlossene Systeme sabotieren Rechte der Verbraucher | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_11.14_Geschlossene_Systeme_sabotieren_Rechte_der_Verbraucher?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20130717] Can you resell your used apps for your iOS or Android device? How about your video games that you purchased from Valve’s Steam Store? The answer is yes and no. Legally, you are allowed to resell your used apps and […]

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July 31, 2013 · Blogs

Finally! Safe Harbour Agreement under question by EU commissioner

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Endlich! EU-Kommissarin stellt „Safe Harbor“-Abkommen in Frage | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_11.15_Endlich_EU-Kommissarin_hinterfragt_Safe-Harbor-Abkommen?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20130731] On 19 July 2013, during the informal Justice Council in Vilnius, Lithuania, EU justice commissioner Viviane Reding stated for reporters that her services will be reviewing the so-called Safe Harbor Agreement. The agreement, concluded 13 years ago between the […]

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