August 1, 2017 · Blogs

Italy plans to extend telecoms data retention and increase censorship powers

On 19 July 2017, the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament approved two amendments to existing laws. One of the amendments aims at extending telecommunications data retention to six years, while the other gives Agcom, the communications regulator, powers to order takedown and blocking of online content without judicial oversight. Data retention in Italy […]

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September 25, 2013 · Blogs

Spain: New penal sanctions proposed for alleged illegal linking

Spain plans to toughen its legislation by including penal sanctions for publishing links to alleged pirated content. From a very relaxed environment some years ago, Spain is, more and more, giving in to US pressure after having been threatened to be put on the blacklisted countries. Since his election in December 2011, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has […]

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June 29, 2016 · Blogs

How digital rights in the UK will be affected by Brexit

The United Kingdom’s vote to leave the EU means that inhabitants of the country no longer have a clear idea what levels and kinds of protection of digital rights they will have in the future. Nearly all the relevant law is European. A lot depends on the kind of model of leaving the EU that […]

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October 10, 2012

Portugal: File-sharing for personal use is not infringing the law

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Portugal: Filesharing für private Zwecke verstößt nicht gegen das Gesetz | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_10.19_Portugal_Filesharing_fuer_private_Zwecke_verstoesst_nicht_gegen_das_Gesetz?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20121010] The Portuguese prosecutors division DIAP (Department of Investigations and Criminal Acts) have recently ruled against ACAPOR (the Association of Audiovisual Commerce of Cultural Works and Entertainment of Portugal) in a case the latter initiated in 2011 […]

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January 15, 2004

Belgian consumer group sues music industry

The Belgian consumer group Test Aankoop (in French: Test Achats) is starting a court case against 4 leading companies in the music industry. Test Aankoop, member of the European Consumer association BEUC, is suing Sony, EMI, BMG and Universal Music at a Brussels court for using technical protection measures on their music CDs that make […]

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December 1, 2010

Ireland: reshaping the law for the digital economy

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Irland: Neugestaltung des Gesetzes über die digitale Wirtschaft | http://www.unwatched.org/node/2397] EDRi-member Digital Rights Ireland, Google and the Institute of International and European Affairs co-sponsored an event in Dublin on 19 November 2010 which presented suggestions for the reform of Irish law to promote digital innovation. Speakers were Niall […]

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December 16, 2009

Spain discusses shutting down websites without court order

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Spanien berät über die Schließung von Webseiten ohne richterliche Verfügungen| http://www.unwatched.org/node/1628] Despite the recent statements of Spanish culture Minister Angeles Gonzalez-Sinde and the warnings received from Commissioner Reding, the Spanish Government announced at the beginning of December 2009 a proposal that may lead to shutting down websites that […]

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July 15, 2015 · Blogs

ICANN considers banning privacy services

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is proposing a new Internet policy which comes at the expense of human rights, especially privacy and freedom of speech. The proposed rules are addressed to companies that provide WHOIS privacy/proxy services (which restrict access to domain registrant information) and limit their availability to individuals only, […]

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June 21, 2006

Swedish torrent website Pirate Bay returns back home

At the end of May, the Swedish Police raided the location where the PirateBay.org website was located and shut down the site seizing several servers. However, after less than 1 month, the site, which is considered the world’s biggest BitTorrent tracker being visited by 10 million to 15 million daily users, resumes its activity from […]

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January 14, 2009

France: ARMT was useless

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar) At the end of December 2008 it was publicly presented the first yearly report of the French Authority for Regulations of the DRMs (Autorité de régulation des mesures techniques – ARMT) that should have ensured the interoperability of the DRM systems and allow the private copies. This […]

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January 28, 2004

EP in favour of collecting societies and levies

On 15 January 2004 the European Parliament accepted an own-initiative report about the importance and future of collecting societies, the organisations that collect the rights on copyright and neighbouring rights. The report states that Digital Rights Management is insufficiently developed to replace the work of collecting societies. According to the report, reasonable levies (for example […]

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June 4, 2014 · Blogs

Google takes the first steps to comply with European Court ruling

The noise, misunderstandings and confusion about the alleged “right to be forgotten” has increased in amplitude since the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued its ruling on the so-called “Google case”. Like a politician’s use of statistics, the phrase  “right to be forgotten” has been used by critics of privacy law like […]

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