June 19, 2003

France ready to ratify Cybercrime convention

France has started the process of ratification of the Council of Europe cybercrime convention. On 11 June, Dominique de Villepin, the French minister of foreign affairs presented to the council of ministers a draft law for the ratification of the convention. France would be the first EU country to ratify the convention, which has only […]

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February 15, 2006

Worldwide overview of freedom of information laws

Roger Vleugels, an independent Netherlands-based legal consultant, published on 1 February, with the help of the Freedom of Information Advocates network, a very comprehensive overview of the situation of of freedom of information laws all over the world. The document offers a complete image of the adoption of FOI laws in the world and is […]

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June 29, 2011

Traffic data fraudulently obtained by the Czech police

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Tschechien: Polizei verschafft sich illegal Zugang zu Verkehrsdaten | http://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_9.13_Tschechien_Polizei_verschafft_sich_illegal_Zugang_zu_Verkehrsdaten?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20110708] An inspection of the Czech Interior Ministry has revealed that police detective Marian Hudec from Varnsdorf was gaining phone call statements including those of President Vaclav Klaus´s closest aides as well as those of Constitutional Court Chairman Pavel […]

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July 2, 2003

2 million DNA-profiles in UK police database

On the 100th anniversary of George Orwell, a UK police database with DNA-profiles of suspects reached the number of 2 million. According to an article in the English daily The Guardian, Home Secretary (minister of internal affairs) David Blunkett said the five-year-old database was well on the way to its target of holding 3 million […]

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June 5, 2013 · Blogs

ENDitorial: Correction / Clarification regarding iCOMP

In the previous EDRi-gram, we published an “ENDitorial” entitled “European Privacy Association – good, bad or simply misunderstood”. In that article, we made reference to the ICOMP organisation and its transparency. Subsequent to the publication of that article, Burson-Marsteller asked for some clarifications to be made. The clarifications (copied verbatim from an e-mail to us) […]

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February 15, 2006

Civil Rights and Consumer Protection in ICANN's policies

In a public call to action released on 13 February 2006, Annette Muehlberg, European member of At-large Advisory Committee (ALAC) and co-chair network new media asked for public support in building up a regional structure to represent individual’s interests and concerns. The petition with the title “Help to strengthen Civil Rights and Consumer Protection in […]

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June 20, 2012

Austria: Data retention petition ignored by the Parliament

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Österreich: Parlament ignoriert Bürgerinitiative zur Vorratsdatenspeicherung | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_10.12_Oesterreich_Parlament_ignoriert_Buergerinitiative_zur_Vorratsdatenspeicherung?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20120620] The Austrian Working Group on Data Retention counters the lack of responsiveness to citizens’ political participation with even more participation. Albeit gaining support of over 100 000 citizens, the Austrian citizens’ petition against data retention has been deferred to the […]

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April 19, 2017 · Blogs

German Social Media law – sharp criticism from leading legal expert

Professor Wolfgang Schulz, one of Europe’s preeminent legal experts, has prepared a short critique of Germany’s so-called “Act improving Law Enforcement on Social Networks”, also known under the abbreviation NetzDG.

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February 14, 2007

French Court decides on the sequel of Les Miserables

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) The French Cour de Cassation (the highest Appeal Court in France) has taken a decision regarding a sequel of the famous French book Les Miserables, that was contested by one of the descendants of Victor Hugo. The Court has refused to ban the appearance of the sequel […]

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March 25, 2015 · Blogs

Bad analogies and the threat to “cybersecurity”

In policy discussions about the online world a general pattern repeats: The online sphere is differentiated from its offline equivalent by adding the prefix “cyber”, giving it both immediacy and generating a fear of the unknown “cyberworld”. Then, in order to explain “cyberspace”, practitioners draw analogies between cyber and non-cyber, often being blissfully unaware of, […]

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February 28, 2007

From Schengen to Prüm: Data Protection under 3rd pillar a prerequisite

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) One of the main priorities of the current German presidency, the inclusion of the Prüm’s Treaty into the EU legal framework, is likely to be achieved before its end in 30 June 2007. During its last meeting on 15 February the EU JHA Council agreed on incorporating […]

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July 19, 2003

French consumer unions fight CD copy protection

In a first result of legal procedures against record companies instituted by two French consumer unions, EMI Music France is condemned for deception. Within a month, they must print the following warning on copy protected CD’s: ‘Attention, this CD cannot be read by all players or car-radio’s.’ Late in May, the 2 unions started legal […]

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