Digital Rights Management
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Turmoil about voting date for EU Patent directive
A proposal to hasten the plenary vote about the EU Software Patent directive was stopped just in time. The voting date now remains set at the 1st of September. The extra time seems extra important now that the public debate about the implications of this directive has only just taken of. Last Monday, the French […]
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Analysis: Privacy in the EU draft constitution
The draft European Constitution was presented in May 2003. The proposed treaty contains a section on Fundamental Rights and Citizenship of the Union. The European Charter of Fundamental rights, which was adopted at the Nice summit, in 2000, will be an integral part of the treaty (section II, article 5, paragraph 1). The right of […]
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Biometrics in EU passports
In a remarkably high-speed procedure, the EU Council plans to oblige all Member States of the Union to introduce chips containing biometric data on their passports within little less than a year. Allegedly, this step is taken to meet a U.S. deadline set on 26 October 2004. After that date, according to a law passed […]
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EU data protection supervisor: contest not over yet
The list of candidates for the new post of EU Data Protection Supervisor and Deputy Supervisor is shrinking. Joaquín Bayo Delgado, the contested candidate of a Conservative-Social Democrat alliance in the European Parliament (EP) risks to get pushed out of it. Bayo Delgado, the Dean of the Judges of Barcelona, will, as it seems, not […]
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Outsider recommended as new EU Data Protection Supervisor
In their vote yesterday on the future EU Data Protection Supervisor, the Committee of the European Parliament on Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) produced a very surprising result. Out of 8 possible candidates, a majority of the MEPs voted for the only candidate who has no record of dealing with privacy, data protection or even […]
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Evaluation of Directive on Electronic Pay Services
In their formal evaluation of the European Directive on Electronic Pay-Services (98/84/EC), the European Commission strongly promotes legal measures against copyright infringements. The report, published 2 weeks ago, evaluates the implementation and enforcement of the directive by member states and candidate countries, from its adaptation in November 1998 through to December 2002. Part of the […]
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EU row over airline passenger data transmission
The Commission’s secret talks with U.S. authorities on the transmission of air passenger data have caused a heavy clash between EU institutions. The Security spokesperson of the EP conservative fraction, the Austrian Hubert Pirker, announced today his fraction will take the Commission to the European Court of Justice. Since 5 March U.S. authorities have access […]
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USA gets direct access to European passenger data
From 5 March onwards, USA officials will have direct electronic access to databases with EU passenger data. On 19 February, U.S. Deputy Customs Commissioner Douglas Browning and officials of the European Commission agreed to give the custom officials direct access to the personal data of passengers flying to, from and through the United States. These […]
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Critical draft report on Safer Internet Plan
The EU Safer Internet Action Plan, than ran from 1999 to 2002, did not deliver very impressive results, to put it mildly. Rapporteur Bill Newton Dunn (UK Liberal Democrat) from the Parliamentary Committee on Citizen’s Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) wrote a slashing draft report about the request to extend the plan […]
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Microsoft Passport does not comply with European privacy rules
Microsoft has agreed to change its Passport authentication system, after the publication on 29 January of a very critical review by the united EU privacy commissioners. Besides the Microsoft .NET Passport system, the commissioners, united in the so-called Article 29 Working Party, also examined the Liberty Alliance Project. The review concludes with general guidelines for […]
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Rally Members European Parliament against data retention
38 Members of the European Parliament from 7 different political groups have united in their resistance against mandatory data retention. Initiated by Marco Cappato, Italian Radical and former Rapporteur on privacy in the electronic communications, last week the MEP’s presented a strongly worded recommendation to the European Council. Even though the new European Privacy Directive […]
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