April 8, 2009

French National Assembly votes for the three strikes law

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Französische Nationalversammlung stimmt für das 3 Treffer-Gesetz | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1356] An almost empty National Assembly voted on 2 April 2009 in favour of the extremely controversial law introducing the graduate response system in France, in spite of the fierce opposition from privacy campaigners, individuals, associations and even some French […]

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March 24, 2010

Spanish anti-piracy law approved by the Government

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Spanische Regierung bestätigt Anti-Piraterie-Gesetz | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1794] The Spanish Council of Ministers approved on 19 March 2010 the draft for the Sustainable Economy Law (LES) that gives legal cover to the closure of sites that links to “illegal” content made available without the the copyright owners’ permission. Despite the […]

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April 8, 2009

European Parliament asks for respect of human rights on the Internet

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Europäisches Parlament fordert Respekt für die Menschenrechte im Internet | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1357] This article is also available in: Macedonian: [Европскиот парламент бара да се… | http://www.metamorphosis.org.mk/content/view/1422/56/lang,mk/] On 26 March 2009, the European Parliament voted with a large majority to support Lambrinidis report concerning the protection of individual liberties on […]

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March 24, 2010

Four strikes in the Belgium draft copy of the French Hadopi law

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Vier Treffer in der belgischen Nachahmung des französischen Hadopi-Gesetzes | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1795] On 17 March 2010, Belgian senator Philippe Monfils presented a new version of his proposition for a law that would implement in Belgium the graduated response system in illegal downloading cases, as the one introduced by the […]

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April 8, 2009

Extended copyright term for sound recordings pushed back

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Verlängerte Urheberrechtsfrist für Tonaufnahmen abgelehnt | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1358] The proposal for the extension of the copyright terms for sound recordings was rejected on 27 March 2009 by COREPER, which has the task to negotiate a consensus before the EU Council of Ministers takes votes. To the great disappointment of […]

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March 24, 2010

Several German libraries are releasing their catalogue data openly

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Einige deutsche Bibliotheken veröffentlichen ihre Katalogdaten | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1796] Some German libraries, most of them from Cologne, announced at the beginning of the Leipzig Congress for Information and Library on 15 March 2010 that they would release 5.4 million bibliographic records under an open licence. The University and Public […]

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March 24, 2010

Lithuanian court rules in favour of BitTorrent user

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Litauisches Gericht urteilt zugunsten eines BitTorrent-Nutzers | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1797] A Lithuanian District Court has recently ruled against the anti-piracy organisation LANVA in a case against a user of the BitTorrent tracker LinkoManija.net. Last year, LANVA accused 106 users of LinkoManija.net of sharing Windows 7 Ultimate and brought one of […]

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March 24, 2010

Kyrgyzstan protests against website blocking call for Europe's help

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Kirgisistan protestiert gegen die Blockade von Webseiten und ruft Europa zu Hilfe | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1798] About 50 activists demonstrated in Kyrgyzstan on 14 March 2010 in front of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, appealing to European organizations to support them in regaining access to independent news […]

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March 24, 2010

ENDitorial: Counterfeit version of ACTA presented by European Commission

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [ENDitorial: Europäische Kommission präsentierte falsche ACTA-Version | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1799] At a meeting in Brussels on 22 March 2010, the European Commission presented a counterfeit version of ACTA to participants. As with any good counterfeit, it bore quite a strong relationship with the genuine article. However, the differences were quite […]

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April 8, 2009

ISPs asked to block child porn sites on the Internet

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [ISPs werden aufgefordert, Kinderpornografieseiten im Internet zu sperren | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1362] In Germany, based on the initiative of the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ), the government has had discussions for several months now on how to block child pornography sites hosted on servers […]

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October 22, 2014 · Blogs

Macedonian investigative magazine fined in defamation case

On 27 September, 2014, the Skopje Court of Appeals, Macedonia, confirmed the decision of a lower court, and ordered a critical independent magazine “Fokus” to pay a nearly ten thousand euro fine to a high government official for defamation. The ruling was another setback to country’s media freedom. Sasho Mijalkov, the Director of the Security […]

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April 8, 2009

Big Brother Awards France 2009

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Big Brother Awards Frankreich 2009 | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1363] The French Big Brother Awards ceremony, or ‘Orwell Party’, was held this year on Saturday 4 April. The 2009 edition awarded 12 of the 35 nominees, in 6 categories, one of them being the positive ‘Voltaire Award’. Armand Mattelart, a renowned […]

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