July 15, 2004

Court attacks Dutch internet anonymity

By verdict of 24 June 2004 the Appeals Court of Amsterdam in the Netherlands has to a large extent limited the freedom of internet users to express their opinion anonimously. The main issue in this principal case was whether internet provider Lycos was required to hand over the personal data of one of its subscribers […]

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September 27, 2006

Europe faces software patents threat again

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) The software patents issue will be back, once again, for discussion, with the European Patent Litigation Agreement (EPLA) proposal which calls for the harmonization of patent laws in EU states. EPLA could to be voted on 11 October 2006 in the European Parliament. Last year, the Parliament […]

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October 10, 2007

Italian Minister of Justice wants to close sarcastic blog

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) The Italian Police, following a complaint from Clemente Mastella, the Minister of Justice, has asked for the closing down of blog Mastellatiodio.blogspot.com (translation – I hate you Mastella) which has been placing material on the Minister that he considers as defamatory. If found so, the blog authors […]

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November 5, 2014 · Blogs

FTDI: Is the law criminal?

The EDRi-gram has previously reported on the general silliness, if not active harmfulness to an open society, of certain copying controls that are generically referred to as Digital Rights Management (DRM). However, it’s not often that a practical example comes around that underlines the problem and at the same time has potential to demonstrate the […]

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November 5, 2014 · Blogs

The “Google tax” that is not a Google tax

The new European Commissioner with responsibility for “digital agenda” issues, Guenther Oettinger caused a stir in the media recently when he raised the possibility of introducing “ancillary copyright” payments, requiring search engine providers to pay for displaying copyrighted materials on their sites, on the EU level. The press was all of a sudden full of […]

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October 9, 2013 · Blogs

LSE Report: File-Sharing Is Rather Beneficial To Music Industry

A new report shows again file-sharing is not detrimental to the entertainment industry sales, but quite the opposite. The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) has released a new policy brief asking the UK Government to take into consideration more than the industry lobbying efforts when deciding on the copyright enforcement policies such […]

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October 23, 2013 · Blogs

Skype Is Investigated In Luxembourg For Its Relations To NSA

Skype, owned now by Microsoft, has entered the attention of Gerard Lommel, Luxembourg’s Data Protection Commissioner, as a result of the documents revealed by Edward Snowden in the PRISM affair. Gerard Lommel has put Skype under investigation over its possible secret collaboration with NSA, within PRISM spy programme, and the company could face criminal and […]

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March 28, 2012

New German court decision on traffic filtering

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Deutsches Gericht entscheidet über Netzfilter | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_10.6_Deutsches_Gericht_entscheidet_ueber_Netzfilter?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20120328] A Higher Regional Court in Hamburg ruled on 14 March 2012 that the file-hosting site RapidShare had to proactively filter the files uploaded by its users. A court’s press release stated RapidShare was required to block its users from uploading a […]

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December 3, 2008

Parliaments seem to use very little IT technology

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) The findings of the World e-Parliament Report 2008 achieved by UNDESA and the Inter-Parliamentary Union on the use of information and communication technologies within 105 parliament assemblies from all over the world were presented on 25 November 2008, at the second high-level meeting of the Board of […]

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December 18, 2013 · Blogs

Italian telecom authority gets the power to block websites

AGCOM, Italy’s Electronic Communications Authority decided on 12 December 2013 to take in its hands the powers to order the removal of any online content for alleged copyright violation, with the purpose to speed up the procedure. The authority had drafted new regulations allowing it to order a domain seizure or ISP blockade of any […]

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January 17, 2007

New Italian law to block child pornography websites

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) At the beginning of 2007 a ministerial decree was signed by Communications Minister Paolo Gentiloni that obliges Internet Service Providers to block child pornography sites within 6 hours from being announced to do so. The body that has the responsibility to notify the ISPs on the sites […]

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January 17, 2007

Prison or fine for French p2p users ?

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) The French Minister of Culture, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, considered in December 2006 that there should be no prison for those downloading only a few works from the Internet. However, just a couple of weeks after this statement an Internet user was condemned by a French court […]

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