August 24, 2011 · Blogs

No effective sanction for Police abuse of Irish data retention system

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Irland: Keine wirksamen Sanktionen gegen polizeilichen Missbrauch von Vorratsdaten | http://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_9.16_Irland_Keine_wirksamen_Sanktionen_gegen_polizeilichen_Missbrauch_von_Vorratsdaten?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20110901] Recent media reports have confirmed that an Irish Garda (Police) detective sergeant will not face criminal prosecution and will keep her job despite abusing the data retention system to spy on an ex-boyfriend. In November 2010 the […]

Read more

March 28, 2007

General ideas behind a computer game are not copyrighted

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) The UK Court of Appeal has ruled that general ideas in a computer game can be copied, in the appeal Nova Productions, producer of Pocket Money computer game, made against two rival companies, Mazooma Games and Bell Fruit Games. Nova Productions had lost its case in first […]

Read more

October 6, 2010

EU concerns for US plans to increase the amount of bank transfer data

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [EU-Bedenken über US-Pläne zur Ausweitung des Zugriffs auf Bankdaten | http://www.unwatched.org/node/2246] The EU Commission and MEPs have requested clarifications from US Administration regarding the plans to extend existing anti-terrorism programs targeting bank transfers which would make the EU-US so-called Swift agreement invalid. The Washington Post announced on 27 […]

Read more

April 12, 2007

EC suggests new compromise on an EU patent system

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) A new communication was published on 3 April 2007 by the European Commission (EC) on enhancing the patent system in Europe, suggesting new ways of creating a Community patent. The communication supports a compromise between the European Patent Litigation Agreement supported by the European Patent Office and […]

Read more

November 5, 2009 · Blogs

Compromise on Amendment 138. Telecom Package finalised

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Kompromiss hinsichtlich Zusatz 138. Telekom-Paket zum Abschluss gebracht | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1565] The European Parliament (EP) and the Council were set in reaching an agreement when they started the negotiation activities on 4 November 2009 at 7 PM. After hot debates, an agreement was reached on the 5 November, a […]

Read more

October 20, 2010

Facebook applications raise new privacy concerns again

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Neuerliche Datenschutzprobleme bei Facebook Apps | http://www.unwatched.org/node/2275] Facebook continues to raise concerns related to the privacy of its users’ personal data. According to an investigation made by Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Facebook applications such as FarmVille have been supplying identifying information of its users to several online advertising […]

Read more

August 29, 2012

The French government wants to reinforce Internet control

On 21 August 2012, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault asked three ministers to work on relating CSA (the Superior Council of the Audiovisual) and Arcep (Telecommunications and Post regulator) asking them to coordinate their work with that of Pierre Lescure on Hadopi future. The request made by the prime minister is obviously intended to take Internet […]

Read more

August 28, 2013 · Blogs

The Finnish Supreme court rules on blocking anti-censorship site

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Finnland: Entscheidung über die Zensur einer Anti-Zensur-Website | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_11.16_Finnland_Entscheidung_ueber_die_Zensur_einer_Anti-Zensur-Website?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20130828] On 26 August 2013, the Finnish Supreme Court ruled it was legal to censor a website listing domain names of sites that are currently blocked even if the site itself doesn’t host or link to illegal content. The ruling […]

Read more

April 9, 2014 · Blogs

Google fined for Street View violating privacy in Italy

Google has paid a 1 million euro fine imposed by Garante Privacy, the Italian data protection authority. The case dates back to 2010 when, Google’s Street View cars drove across the country without being labeled clearly enough to be perfectly recognisable, and thus violating the privacy of citizens being photographed without their knowledge. The data […]

Read more

April 25, 2007

Data retention and increased surveillance in Germany

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) The German government has approved the draft legislation that implements the data retention directive, but the political opposition and the growing anti-surveillance movement shows an important resistance to the new plans of the federal Minister for the interior, Wolfgang Schäuble, who wants an ever increased surveillance. The […]

Read more

October 22, 2003

199 amendments on IP enforcement directive

Last Monday, the European Parliament’s Judicial Affairs Committee (JURI) should have discussed its Report on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights. But the agenda was so overcrowded that the Rapporteur, French MEP Janelly Fourtou, could only make some introductory remarks before the session was over. Overwhelmed by the large number of 199 amendments the Parliament’s […]

Read more

September 11, 2013 · Blogs

German newspapers sued for pointing out an alleged illegal site

At the end of August 2013, a group of German publishers sued newspapers Der Tagesspiegel and Die Zeit, accusing them of assisting copyright infringement for having printed an interview with the operator of an alleged unauthorized ebook site, giving the site name as well – TorBoox, which claims to be the largest ebook piracy site […]

Read more