UK
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European Digital Rights asks the European Commission to investigate illegal data retention laws in the EU
European Digital Rights (EDRi) this morning sent a letter to European Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans, asking the European Commission to investigate the data retention laws in EU Member States which appear to be illegal in light of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruling on this issue from 8 April last […]
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UK: Report of the investigatory powers review
A key report reviewing the UK’s legal framework governing surveillance commissioned by the Government and written by David Anderson QC, was released on 11 June 2015. The thrust of the report is a resounding call for wholesale reform of Britain’s surveillance legislation with it concluding that “This state of affairs is undemocratic, unnecessary and – […]
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Scottish Government proposes a national ID database
The Scottish Government has run a consultation to use the National Health Service (NHS) Registry database as a means to connect citizens’ data and allow online logins. The proposal has similar characteristics to the plan to introduce an Identity Database in the United Kingdom which was abandoned in 2006. Campaigners and opposition parties have urged […]
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UK court finds secret spying docs made surveillance illegal
Several human rights groups are celebrating a major victory against the Five Eyes, an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US, as the UK surveillance tribunal ruled on 6 February that the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) acted unlawfully in accessing millions of private communications collected by the National Security Agency […]
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Danish court orders a UK company to block Danish IP addresses
In Denmark, and in most other EU member states, furniture design is protected by copyright for 70 years from the death of the designer. However, a few member states have shorter protections for furniture. In the United Kingdom, for example, Article 52 of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act of 1988 limited the protection for […]
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Irish ISP introduces child porn blocking – doesn’t know why
The Irish broadband provider UPC has introduced blocking for web addresses that are alleged to contain child abuse material. It chose an interesting moment to do this – with the total number of domains allegedly hosting abuse material half what it was ten years ago and with sites staying online for historically short periods of […]
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UK format shifting and parody copyright laws come into force
On 1 October 2014, new copyright regulations adding exceptions for personal copying, parody, and quotation came into force in the UK. The personal copying exception allows copying of purchased media for private use. This includes format shifting and backups. The exception doesn’t cover making copies for friends, family or making copies of media you do […]
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UK: Emergency legislation on data retention pushed through
Faced with a lawsuit from NGOs challenging the legality of its data retention regulations (which are based on the data retention directive the European Court of Justice found unlawful in April 2014), the UK government brought in emergency legislation, a Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Bill (DRIP), to not only declare data retention to be […]
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Torrenz.eu suspended, but restored in absence of court order
Torrentz.eu, one of the most popular search engines for file-sharing websites, was taken offline on for linking to contents that infringe copyright. The site was taken down by the Poland-based registrar of its domain on 26 May 2014, after it had received a request from by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) in the […]
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Anniversary of Snowden revelations: The year we fight back
On 5 June 2013, the Guardian published Edward Snowden’s first documents. These showed that the NSA was using a secret court order to collect millions of customers’ phone calls of the US company Verizon. Snowden’s subsequent disclosures confirmed what many privacy activists were suspecting for a long time: that the US government and its allies […]
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UK adds format shifting and parody to copyright laws
The UK government has proposed regulations to add format shifting, parody and non-commercial text mining to copyright laws. After two major reviews, run by two different governments in 2006 and 2010, recommendations for greater flexibility in copyright have been tabled for voting in the UK. A debate and vote will follow at the start of […]
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UK privacy groups file complaint on medical data in Google Cloud
UK privacy groups Big Brother Watch, medConfidential and the EDRi member Foundation for Information Policy Research have filed a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK’s data protection authority. The complaint follows revelations that PA Consulting Group, a technology and innovation consultancy, uploaded a large quantity of data to Google’s cloud-based Big Data service […]
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