April 25, 2007

Copyright clearing for EU digital libraries project

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) On 18 April 2007, a copyright handling model for digitalised works was agreed by EU High Level Expert Group on Digital Libraries including major stakeholders such as the Federation of European Publishers, the British Library, the German national library and Google. The High Level Expert Group, founded […]

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April 23, 2008

Russian Government wants to control all WiFi devices

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) On 14 April 2008, Fontanka.ru online newspaper reported that Rossvyazokhrankultura, the Russian Mass Media, Communications and Cultural Protection Service, intends to ask for the mandatory registration of all WiFi devices, including personal home networks, notebook computers, mobile telephones and PDAs. Vladimir Karpov, the deputy director of the […]

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December 18, 2019 · Blogs | On the ground | Information democracy | Disinformation and electoral interference | Equal access to the internet | Freedom of expression online

Spain: New law threatens internet freedoms

On 5 November 2019, the Royal Decree-Law 14/2019 that had been adopted on 31 October was published in the Spanish Official State Gazette (BOE). This was just five days before the general elections that would take place on 10 November, under an undefined “exceptionality and urgency”, and justified by the “challenges posed by new technologies […]

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June 15, 2016 · Blogs

It’s time to save the internet!

Net neutrality is a principle that all the internet traffic is treated equally, without blocking or slowing down certain data. Net neutrality is crucial for fair competition between online services, for innovation, and for freedom of expression online. The European Parliament adopted the Regulation on a Single Market for Electronic Communications in October 2015. That […]

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October 22, 2003

White paper on notice and take-down

The RightsWatch Project, a research project funded under the European Commission’s Information Society Technology programme, produced a white paper on notice and take-down of websites. During a 2 year project RightsWatch tried to develop consensus between providers, right holders and internet users about self-regulatory notice and takedown (NTD) procedures. The attempts miserably failed, since self-regulation […]

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September 11, 2013 · Blogs

LIBE inquiry on surveillance

On 5 September 2013, the Civil Liberties (LIBE) committee from the European Parliament organised a first inquiry hearing, which included Jacques Follorou from Le Monde, Jacob Applebaum from the Tor and Wikileaks projects, Alan Rusbridger, editor in chief of the Guardian, Carlos Coelho, EPP MEP and former chairman of the Echelon committee and Gerhard Schmid, former socialist MEP and rapporteur […]

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May 7, 2014 · Blogs

Swiss data retention visualisation

The Swiss civil society group Digital Society Switzerland is working on building opposition to the practice of the “data retention” – the requirement for telecommunications companies to store for six months meta-data (such as information on who emailed or called whom, and where the telephones were located) and to make it available for law enforcement […]

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November 19, 2003

Commission holds Microsoft antitrust hearing

The European Commission has concluded a three-day hearing against Microsoft. Several competing companies made presentations to the Commission during the hearing. RealNetworks and Sun Microsystems, as well as the Computer and Communications Industry Association have accused Microsoft of abusing its dominant position in the market. The hearing, which took place on 12, 13 and 14 […]

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May 23, 2007

OECD finds the real piracy losses

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) Financial Times obtained an executive summary of a new report produced by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that estimates the trade losses due to piracy and counterfeiting did not exceed 200 billion USD. The report should be endorsed by the OECD board this month and […]

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May 23, 2007

Romanian open source community gets together

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) Probably the most important conference in Romania on open source and free software took place at the end of the last week – on 18-19 May 2007 in Brasov. The eLiberatica 2007 conference was organized by a new group of IT specialists called Romanian Open Source and […]

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January 15, 2004

Launch of Irish Free Software Organisation

On 5 January 2004 the Irish Free Software Organisation (IFSO) was launched. Since June 2003, members of a European free software mailing list have been collaborating on issues such as software patents, and the European Copyright Directive. One of the founders, Ciaran O’Riordan, comments: “With Ireland holding the presidency of the EU for the next […]

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June 21, 2006

EC supports its online broadcasting proposal

In an Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA) event held in Brussels on 14 June, Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, expressed again her position to support the EC proposal to revise the Television Without Frontiers (TVWF) Directive. “There will be no regulation of the Internet,” Mrs. Reding told ZDNet UK stating that […]

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