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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April 8, 2009

Behavioural targeting at the European Consumer Summit

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Behavioural Targeting am Europäischen Verbrauchergipfel | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1359] The European Commission Directorate – General for Health & Consumers organized the European Consumer Summit on “Consumer Trust in the Digital Market Place” held in Brussels on 1 and 2 April, 2009. The agenda featured policy workshops on ‘Consumer challenges and […]

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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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April 8, 2009

Second PrivacyOS Conference

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [Zweite PrivacyOS Konferenz | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1360] Meetings between researchers from universities with representatives from industry, data protection authorities, standardizers from W3C and ISO and NGOs to discuss privacy challenges and develop privacy infrastructures represent the idea behind the European Privacy Open Space. The second PrivacyOS event was held in […]

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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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April 8, 2009

Phorm – under scrutiny at the European level

This article is also available in: Deutsch: [http://www.unwatched.org/node/1361horm: Überprüfung auf Europäischer Ebene| ] On the event on 31 March 2009, the European Commissioner for consumers, Meglena Kuneva, warned on the transparency in the online environment: “We must establish the principles of transparency, clear language, opt-in or opt-out options that are meaningful and easy to use. […]

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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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