(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)
On 10 July 2007 the members of the European Parliament (EP) adopted with an overwhelming majority, close to 90%, a Resolution that heavily criticizes the new PNR agreement struck by the European Commission with the US Department for Homeland Security (DHS), considering it "substantively flawed", in particular by "open and vague definitions and multiple possibilities for exception".
The EP considers that the new deal still fails to offer an adequate level of data protection and that it has been concluded without any involvement of parliaments from both sides, lacking democratic oversight. The resolution explains what are the main weak points of the agreement:
a. The handling, collection, use and storage of personal data from air passengers by US DHS is not founded on a legal agreement but on non-binding assurances remitted in a letter, which can be unilaterally changed.
b. PNR transfer is not limited to fighting terrorism, it can also be used for other "unspecified additional purposes" by the US government.
c. Information regarding ethnic origin, political opinions, sex life of the individual etc. will be also made available and can be used by the US DHS in exceptional cases.
d. The fields of data which can be accessed from each PNR file have been reduced from 34 to 19, but "the reduction is largely cosmetic due to the merging of data fields instead of actual deletion."
e. Data can be retained for longer periods with the new agreement - from 3,5 years to 15. Besides that, PNR data will be kept for seven years in "active analytical databases", leading to a big risk of massive profiling, contrary to EU principles.
The Parliament has also taken the opportunity to question Commissioner Frattini's latest statements regarding the creation of a European PNR system, that could oblige the airlines flying to the EU to share passenger private data with Europe's secret services.
The national parliaments need to approve the agreement and we could see some interesting developments, taking into consideration that the EP resolution also asked for a careful examination of the present PNR draft .
Joint resolution "On the PNR agreement with the United States" (10.07.2007)
http://quintessenz.org/doqs/000100003894/2007_07_11_EU-parl_PNR_joint%...
MEPs fear that new PNR agreement fails to protect citizens' data
(12.07.2007)
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/019-8993-190-...
Draft text - PNR Agreement (28.06.2007)
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2007/jul/eu-usa-pnr-agreement-2007.pdf
(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)
In an unprecedented decision, the Court of First Instance in Bruxelles has order Scarlet, a Belgium ISP, to implement technical measures in order to prohibit its users to illegally download music files.
The decision comes after a complaint initiated in 2004 by Sabam (Belgian Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers) against the Belgium ISP Tiscali, now renamed as Scarlet. A first intermediary ruling of 26 November 2004 accepted the possibility for an ISP to disconnect customers if they violate copyrights, and block the access for all customers to websites offering file-sharing programs. But further technical clarifications were needed, so an expert was appointed in order to present its opinions.
In a report published on 3 January 2007, the expert presented 11 solutions that could be applied in order to block or filter the file-sharing, and seven of them could be applied by Scarlet.
The court has decided that Scarlet need now to implement one or more technical measures in order to stop the copyright infringement, by making it impossible for its subscribers to send or receive music files from the repertoire of Sabam via p2p software. Scarlet also needs to inform Sabam on the technical measures that will be implemented. The decision needs to be implemented in 6 months, or the ISP must pay 2 500 euros/day as damages for non-compliance.
The decision did not consider the issues regarding privacy, freedom of expression or the right to the secrecy of the correspondence. Scarlet also claimed that the duty imposed by the court is a general obligation to monitor the network, that is contrary to the EU E-commerce Directive. But the court stated that the decision was not an obligation to monitor the network and that the solutions identified by the expert were just technical measures allowong blocking or filtering certain information sent through the Scarlet's network.
The decision was praised by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) that hoped the ruling would be replicated across Europe. "This is a decision that we hope will set the mould for government policy and for courts in other countries in Europe and around the world," explained IFPI chief executive John Kennedy.
UK's Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA) made public its opposition to such a move to make ISPs "play judge and jury" whenever customers are suspected of engaging in copyright infringement.
An ISPA representative explained "What we wouldn't want is corporate censorship. Any kind of censorship of the Internet has to be at the government level. ISPs are not law enforcement. We understand that ISPs play a part in combating instances of illegal activity on the Internet, which is why we engage with rights holders and work with government authorities on that basis, but we wouldn't say we're the gatekeepers of the Internet."
Sabam moved quickly and asked Belgium's dominant telecom group Belgacom to commit to blocking or filtering illegal music file sharing, giving it eight days to react. Belgacom spokesman Haroun Fenaux replied: "As access provider our role is simply to transport information."
Scarlet announced that they were appealing the decision of the Court of First Instance in Bruxelles.
P2P: ISPs summoned to turn off the tap! (only in Frech, 5.07.2007)
http://www.juriscom.net/actu/visu.php?ID=940
TPI Bruxelles - SABAM vs SA Scarlet (formerly Tiscali) (only in French,
29.04.2007)
http://www.juriscom.net/jpt/visu.php?ID=939
Belgium : A court imposes an ISP measures to prevent piracy (only in French,
5.07.2007)
http://www.silicon.fr/fr/silicon/news/2007/07/05/un-tribunal-de-bruxel...
ISP told to block file-sharing in landmark case (6.07.2007)
http://www.out-law.com//default.aspx?page=8239
Belgacom urged to block illegal music file sharing (14.07.2007)
http://news.iwebtool.com/article_22482.html?mp=1
EDRI-gram:Provider Tiscali in Belgium forced to disconnect P2P-users
(2.12.2004)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number2.23/p2p
(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)
On 13 July 2007, a French court has ruled against the French company DailyMotion, second world leader of video-sharing platforms after YouTube, in a counterfeit case. The legal action was initiated by the director, the producer, and the distributor of a movie put on-line by a user of the DailyMotion platform. The court decision is entirely based on the French law on the digital economy (LCEN), and not the copyright law (DADVSI). The LCEN provisions onISP liability are a direct transposition of the EU E-commerce Directive. This decision is likely to constitute a major turn in the legal qualification of web2.0 services.
The court acknowledges that DailyMotion is not a content provider as claimed by the plaintiffs, but only a host provider, without any ambiguity, even though its economic model is based on revenues from advertisement, while the use of the platform is free of charge. Consequently, its liability is limited, according to the LCEN and to article 15 of the Directive. The second consequence acknowledged by the court, still according to this national and EU legislation, is that Daily Motion has no general obligation to monitor illegal content or illegal activities when providing, as host provider, its services.
However, the decision innovates in that it considers that this limitation of liability does not apply in the case of DailyMotion, since the illegal activities of its users are "induced or generated by the host provider itself". The court argues that "the success of the enterprise necessarily supposes the dissemination of works known by the public, solely able to increase the audience and to correlatively ensures incomes through advertisement."
Acording to French EDRI member IRIS, "this legal qualification of ISP without a general obligation of monitoring of illegal activities but with a general knowledge of illegal activities, on the basis of a given economic model, is new, and neither contained in the LCEN nor in the E-commerce Directive provisions.
While DailyMotion announced that it will immediately implement the "Audible Magic" system to forbid the upload of content blacklisted in a database of copyrighted works, IRIS warns against this a priori content control and this use of filtering as a panacea to fight illegal content. According to the digital rights NGO, this kind of content-sharing platforms should stick to the sole activity of host provider, generating their revenues only from providing space to store content under the sole responsibility of their subscribers. According to IRIS, this allegedly "free of charge" use of platforms is making fuzzy the repartition of liability between the platform users and providers, and, in the end, constitutes an obstacle to the preservation of freedom of expression, communication and information.
According to French medias, DailyMotion will appeal this decision, although the company finds it "globally positive, since it recognizes its statutes of host provider".
TGI Paris ruling against DailyMotion (in French only, 13.07.2007)
http://www.juriscom.net/documents/tgiparis20070713.pdf
DailyMotion, condemned for counterfeit , will filter Internet users videos
(in French only, 17.07.2007)
http://www.01net.com/editorial/355007/dailymotion-condamne-pour-contre...
IRIS - "DailyMotion case: the Paris TGI writes the LCEN2.0" (in French only,
18.07.2007)
http://www.iris.sgdg.org/info-debat/comm-dailymotion0707.html
(Contribution by Meryem Marzouki, EDRI-member IRIS - France)
(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)
The Swedish Justice Department initiated the public debate process on a new legislation that will allow the copyright holders to obtain the identity of people that share illegal content over in the Internet.
The draft says that the copyright holders can go to court asking the ISPs to reveal the names of the people allegedly violating intellectual property laws.
The Justice Department statement explained the purpose of the draft: "Thereby, it will become easier to intervene against illegal file-sharing, which in turn will stimulate the development of legal alternatives for distribution of, for example, film and music over the Internet."
Tobias Andersson, press spokesman for Piratbyrån, was critical of the new act: "The danger here is that it will speed up the development of anonymous file-sharing programmes that make it technically more difficult to trace somebody's internet use. These kinds of services can also be exploited by people involved in criminal activities, such as paedophiles".
Sweden's legislation stipulates that downloading movie and music files is illegal and the Police has also tried to shut down PirateBay, the popular file sharing site. The latest attempt announced by the Swedish Pirate Party was to classify it as a child pornography site on the blacklist that Swedish Internet Providers need to respect. An update to the blacklist should have included The Pirate Bay: "This means that anyone from Sweden visiting the well-known file sharing site The Pirate Bay will be greeted by a block page from the Police Board saying they're not allowed to visit child pornography sites."
Rick Falkvinge, leader of the Pirate Party, commented: "Once given the means to shut down unwanted sites, the Police uses the filter to shut down the Pirate Bay after the failed attempt last year. And just like last year, through abuse of procedure."
Later info from the Swedish Police shows that Pirate Bay will not be included on the child pornography sites list, claiming that the alleged child pornography files were removed by the Pirate Bay webmasters. However, the administrators of the website deny this information : "The police has not given us one single hint on what content on the site has been containing child porn - and the things we have filtered out has been proven not to be child porn either."
Swedish ministry proposes tougher file-sharing laws (9.07.2007)
http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKL0988308720070710
Swedish Police Shuts Down Pirate Bay - Again (6.07.2007)
http://www.piratpartiet.se/nyheter/press_release_swedish_police_shuts_...
Police take credit wrongfully (9.07.2007)
http://thepiratebay.org/blog/78
Fresh clampdown on internet piracy (9.07.2007)
http://www.thelocal.se/7835/
(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)
A joined letter regarding the proposed DoubleClick acquisition by Google was sent to the Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes by BEUC (the coalition of all consumers' organisations in Europe) together with other consumer protection organizations from Germany, Italy and Spain.
The letter says that "the proposed transaction may have a negative impact on the selection of online content available to consumers and on privacy. (...) According to the information available to us it seems that, through its acquisition of DoubleClick, Google could monopolize the on-line advertising business, thereby restricting competition and raising privacy concerns over control of consumer data."
Cornelia Kutterer, the senior legal advisor for BEUC, explains the possible dangers of the new deal: "They have, so far, complementary databases with private data. If they merge them, this could lead to unmatched databases of profiles. If they can combine them, this could lead to a violation of user privacy rights."
Another expressed concern is that "it would be practically impossible for users after the merger to avoid all web sites serving Google/DoubleClick ads, consumers would have no real ability to choose services other than those served by Google, or to simply opt-out of sharing personal data with Google. To put it in simple words, a website will have to be part of the Google network of content sites if they are to be viable and visible in the commercial market."
Similar questions were raised in a previous complaint by US privacy and consumer NGOs sent to the US Federal Trade Commission that started an investigation on the matter.
Google privacy practices top the Privacy Ranking of Internet Service Companies, according with a recent report by Privacy International and its search retention policy is also investigated by the European data protection bodies.
Consumer organisations BEUC (EU level), vzbv (Germany), Altroconsumo (Italy)
and OCU (Spain): Letter to Commissioner Kroes on proposed acquisition of
DoubleClick by Google (27.06.2007)
http://epic.org/privacy/ftc/google/beuc_062707.pdf
International Herald Tribune: Europeans worry about Google's takeover of
DoubleClick (5.07.2007)
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/05/business/google.php
Consumer groups alarmed by Google online ad merger (9.07.2007)
http://www.euractiv.com/en/infosociety/consumer-groups-alarmed-google-...
EDRI-gram: Privacy bodies investigate Google's data protection standards
(25.04.2007)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.8/google-data-protection
(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)
On 10 July 2007, the EU Commission received a letter from a large group including some of Europe's biggest media groups and telecom companies urging for the rejection of an offer made by EU national royalty-collecting societies to settle an anti-trust case.
The Commission started examining a model contract for public performance rights between the collecting societies members of CISAC (the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers) as a result of a complaint made in 2003 by digital music distribution platform Music Choice Europe.
The complaint concerned the fact that the authors were obliged to transfer their rights only to their own national collecting society and that the users could obtain a license only from the domestic collecting society and limited to the domestic territory.
The Commission considered that "the membership and territorial restrictions multiply and guarantee to collecting societies an absolutely exclusive position on their domestic market."
In February 2006, the Commission sent CISAC a statement of objections, agreeing with Music Choice Europe complaint.
In March 2007, CISAC proposed a set of draft commitments related to membership, territoriality and exclusivity. Its members agreed to allow copyright holders to move freely between different collecting societies, to group up and grant cross-border licenses for music on the internet, over satellite and cable and to delete the exclusivity requirement from their contracts. However, the licenses are subject to a complex system of requirements and limitations, which, CISAC says, is necessary to "ensure that authors and their works do not suffer the effects of a potentially harmful downward spiral in royalty rates".
The letter addressed to EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso and Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, signed by companies such as France Telecom, Liberty Global, SBS Broadcasting, Orange, RTL, ProsiebenSat1, Telenet, ORF, Cable Europe, Deutsche Telekom and the German Association of Private Broadcasters and Television Operators, states that the proposal made by CISAC "raise substantial issues as regards application of competition law and internal market rules, cultural diversity, and the relationship between smaller and larger representatives of rights holders".
As the letter reads, the proposals "instead of remedying the consumer harm identified by the European Commission - would undermine the current system of licensing the global music repertoire as a single package and lead to a costly, inefficient and fragmented licensing system for music rights" and would "...lead to the disappearance of many smaller author's rights societies."
"Such fragmentation would result in regional and national linguistic repertoires either not being played or paid. Cultural diversity would suffer immediately and directly," said the letter also suggesting to the Commission that: "The collecting societies amend their proposals to provide for an economically meaningful licensing system, including guarantees that the remedies in this competition case are not undermined by withdrawal of repertoire while they are in effect."
The letter concludes by stating that in case CISAC does not offer a solution, the Commission should adopt "a decision finding an infringement of EC competition rules."
A final decision from the Commission is expected by the end of the summer. According to EU rules the decision can reject the settlement offer and impose a fine for restrictive business practices, that can reach up to 10 percent of the annual revenue.
Media companies urge Commission to turn down copyright proposal (12.07.2007)
http://www.euractiv.com/en/infosociety/media-companies-urge-commission...
Business urges Brussels to protect cultural diversity (11.07.2007)
http://euobserver.com/19/24457
EDRI-gram: European Commission starts antitrust procedure against CISAC
(15.02.2006)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.3/cisacantitrust
(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)
The second draft of the Copyright Act for the Information Society, including amendments proposed by the legal committee of the Parliament, was voted on 5 July by the majority of the German Bundestag and sent to Bundersrat for review.
Although Brigitte Zypries (SPD), the Minister of Justice, expressed her satisfaction for finally completing an important act, representatives of the left party and the greens accuse the government of not taking into consideration the interests of the educators and researchers, believing that the right to private copy cannot be exerciced as long as DRM systems are in place. Furthermore, they have shown concern for the fact that the new version of the act does no longer include the clause that was considering file sharing in P2P networks a minor offence.
The act is focused on compensation fees for private copies that can be established independently by the industry and copyright representatives and banning copies from "illegal sources". Regulations have been included to restrict electronic reading stations in museums and libraries.
Dr. Günter Krings, CDU MP, considers the Act should be further more amended to allow only for copies of the original and spoke of "intelligent" recording software as "legally tantamount to an illegal file-sharing network". In his opinion, "there must be an end to the freebie mentality in our society."
Jerzy Montag of the Greens expressed his opinion that while copyright applies to everyone, no property right is absolute and that the offered by the state "is limited by the rights of others." He showed concern that education and research have not been properly covered by the act. This opinion is also shared by Jörg Tauss (SPD) and Carsten Müller (CDU), who deal with education policy issues. They believe knowledge promoted by public funding should also be made available to the public.
German parliament passes new Copyright Act (6.07.2007)
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/92318
Fewer private copies, more copyright fees: an overview of the main
stipulations in the "second basket" of the amended Copyright Act (only in
German, 5.07.2007)
http://www.heise.de/ct/hintergrund/meldung/92265
(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)
The famous website allofmp3.com was quietly shut down at the beginning of July 2007, but the Russian websites that are selling music online at much cheaper prices are on the rise, one of them winning also a lawsuit against Visa.
Russian authorities pressured the Moscow-based company MediaServices, owner of allofmp3.com, to close its website in order to meet the requirements for the entry into the World Trade Organisation. MediaServices claimed that is was a legal business, paying royalties to a Russian collective society that distributed the collected fees to the copyright holders.
However, a new website, mp3Sparks.com, was opened by MediaServices selling online music. The company considers that the new website is legal under the Russian law, using similar arguments advanced in support of allofmp3.com. Also, another online music Russian website, alltunes.com, has a joint client database with allofmp3.com.
The latter website had a rough time at the beginning of the year when Visa and MasterCard announced that they would no longer process payments for allofmp3.com and alltunes.com, following a request from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) that accused them of copyright infringement.
But Internet-Audit, the owner of alltunes.com, sued Rosbank, the Russian agent of Visa, the international payment system and its affiliate United Card Services, the acquiring center. The Moscow Arbitrary Court decided that VISA's unilateral refusal to accept the payment operations was illegal, considering that, according with the copyright law, neither IFPI or VISA were the right holders representatives.
The decision has put VISA in a difficult position because they need to respect also the court decision and accept payments from Alltunes.com, but also to stick to its original decision, required by the IFPI. According to a Moscow business lawyer: "Visa is likely to press Rosbank down under the threat to recall the credit card acquiring right, so that the bank does not resume credit cards payment through Alltunes under any conditions."
IFPI has announced that they would appeal the decision.
Russian pirates get Visa in court (13.07.2007)
http://eng.cnews.ru/news/top/indexEn.shtml?2007/07/13/258719
Goodbye, Allofmp3.com, Hello, WTO! (5.07.2007)
http://mnweekly.ru/business/20070705/55260798.html
AllofMP3 Shuts Down, Reopens As MP3Sparks.com (3.07.2007)
http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/07/allofmp3-shuts-.html
Russia shuts down Allofmp3.com (2.07.2007)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2016297.ece
EDRI-gram: Russian copyright law gets tougher (13.09.2006)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.17/russia
(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)
The Spanish Plenary Congress of Deputies approved on 21 June 2007 the draft law on the retention of traffic data requiring fixed and mobile telephony, but also ISPs to retain data for a period of one year and to make it available to law enforcement or secret services under court order.
The bill, called Electronic Communications and Public Communications Network Data Storage Act, represents the implementation of the EU Directive 2006/24/CE on data retention. According to the draft act, the data will be retained only with the purpose to: "detect, investigate and prosecute serious crimes stipulated by the Criminal Code and other special laws" and could be accessed by law enforcement and secret services only under court order.
The pre-paid mobile telephone cards will no longer be anonymous, the telephony operators being obliged to register the data of the pre-paid customers. In case of the cards already sold before the entering into force of the law, operators are bound to gather the information on the card owners during a period of one year and when this is not possible, the cards must be disconnected and cancelled.
According to Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, Minister of Interior, this law will place "in the hands of the judges and the police a modern and efficient instrument to fight against organised crime".
The Spanish draft law is now sent for approval to the Senate from where it will return to the chamber of deputies.
Draft Spanish Law on Data retention(only in Spanish, 11.06.2007) http://www.congreso.es/public_oficiales/L8/CONG/BOCG/A/A_128-09.PDF
The Congress approves the decision of the draft law on the retention of traffic data (only in Spanish, 23.06.2007) http://www.libertaddigital.com/noticias/noticia_1276308198.html
The Congress unanimously approves the new Disciplinary Regime of Guardia Civil (only in Spanish, 21.06.2007) http://www.lexureditorial.com/noticias/0706/21141913.htm
(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)
The Irish Data Protection Commissioner has indicated that there is a widespread problem with government officials selling or leaking personal information to the insurance industry.
Recent media reports have indicated that members of the Irish police force have been providing access to the police computer system to insurance companies investigating car accidents. An inquiry arising from those concerns has discovered that there is also a wider problem in the insurance industry involving access to private social welfare records of individuals. The Data Protection Commissioner Billy Hawkes is quoted as saying that the practice of obtaining such information has been and continues to be "systematic" across the industry.
Billy Hawkes announced in April 2007 that the Data Protection Commissioner started an investigation in this field, after the Sunday Tribune reports. "I am aware that some insurance companies use private investigators to investigate claims which they suspect are fraudulent or exaggerated. Private investigators in their activities are bound by the Data Protection Acts. I intend to work closely with the Private Security Authority on the licensing requirements that will shortly apply to this sector."
But this case is seen as part of a wider problem in Ireland of staff in public bodies leaking or selling private information. One of the main causes could be that the government has adopted a policy of matching up various databases using the individual's PPS number as a unique identifier. This applies to areas as disparate as schools, healthcare, taxation and local authorities and creates new risks of abuse by allowing public officials to easily access information from other public databases, and potentially allowing an individual to be tracked "from cradle to grave".
Welfare records leaked to insurers - Sunday Times (15.07.2007) - Excerpt
http://www.digitalrights.ie/2007/07/16/welfare-records-leaked-to-insur...
Tribune insurance allegations prompt two probes (15.04.2007)
http://www.tribune.ie/article.tvt?_scope=TribuneFTF&id=87563&S...
Press Release regarding allegations of disclosure of confidential
information to Insurance Companies (16.04.2007)
http://www.dataprotection.ie/viewdoc.asp?Docid=443&Catid=66&St...
PPS Numbers and "Cradle to Grave" Tracking ( 20.04.2007)
http://www.digitalrights.ie/2006/04/20/pps-numbers-and-cradle-to-grave...
(Contribution by TJ McIntyre, EDRI-member Digital Rights Ireland)
(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)
Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) adopted on 12 July 2007 a resolution on a protocol amending the World Trade Organization agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) of 1994.
The protocol, that would make permanent a 2003 waiver from the TRIPS agreement, is to be ratified by the EU 27 governments. The waiver was meant to allow poor countries to deal with public health emergencies by importing cheap generic versions of patented drugs produced under a compulsory licence. However, the waiver has not been invoked by any country since 2003 as the EP resolution notes.
David Martin, a British Labour deputy, complained of the fact that in four years "not a single drug has been supplied to a single patient" and continued by stating that what was asked from the Commission was to "commit itself to give technical and political support in order to utilise the mechanism."
MEPs are concerned that the TRIPS agreement on intellectual property rights is preventing the development of affordable generic medicines and asks the Commission and the Member States to provide financial support for pharmaceutical technology transfer and capacity building for local production of pharmaceuticals in developing countries. The EP also asks the Commission to grant funding for R&D on poverty-related, tropical and neglected diseases.
The resolution requires the Council to adopt a Joint Policy Statement with the EP so that EU Member States may use all exception provisions of the TRIPS Agreement under their domestic patent laws. It also calls on the Council to limit the Commission's mandate in the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), "in order not to negotiate pharmaceutical-related TRIPS-plus" affecting public health and access to medicines, such as data exclusivity, patent extensions and limitation of grounds of compulsory licenses.
Olli Rehn, the commissioner for EU enlargement, stated that the Commission was decide to avoid any provision in the EPAs that could affect access to medicines and made an appeal to the pharmaceutical companies to use a so called "tiered pricing" system, in order to sell medicines cheaper in poor countries.
Some of the MEPs consider the issue was not taken seriously by all representatives of the EU institutions. The Italian liberal Gianluca Susta said that the EU institutions should not lay low and play deaf to the failure of the waiver but ensure funding for medicine production in poor countries.
Swedish Green Carl Schlyter said that "12 million people a year die from tropical diseases because they don't have access to drugs" although patents should provide incentives for research and development.
The Parliament's position was welcomed by the humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières who consider that the MEPs are trying to push the Commission and the member states governments to find a solution to the issue.
More measures needed on access to medicines says EP resolution (12.07.2007)
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/026-9059-190-...
Parliament Delays WTO IP Health Deal Till EU Boosts Bilateral Drug Access
(12.07.2007)
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=688&res=1024_ff&pri...
More measures needed on access to medicines says EP resolution (12.07.2007)
http://www.newsdesk.se/view/pressrelease/159535
Which comes first, medicine or profit? (14.07.2007)
http://www.neurope.eu/view_news.php?id=75987
(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)
UK Information Commissioner Annual Report (11.07.2007)
Press release
http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/pressreleases/2007/annual_repor...
Full Annual Report 2006
http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/corporate/detailed_spec...
Italian DPA (Garante per la protezione dei dati personali) - Annual report
(only in Italian, 12.07.2007)
http://www.garanteprivacy.it/garante/navig/jsp/index.jsp?folderpath=At...
Full Annual Report 2006 (only in Italian)
http://www.garanteprivacy.it/garante/document?ID=1422054
French DPA (Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés) - Annual
report
Executive Summary (only in French, 9.07.2007)
http://www.cnil.fr/fileadmin/documents/La_CNIL/actualite/DP-conf2007.p...
Full Annual Report 2006 (only in French)
http://www.cnil.fr/fileadmin/documents/La_CNIL/publications/CNIL-27era...
EDPS : Eurodac - first coordinated inspection concluded with generally
satisfactory remarks (17.07.2007)
http://www.edps.europa.eu/EDPSWEB/webdav/site/mySite/shared/Documents/...
(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)
8 May - 22 July 2007, Austria
Annual decentralized community event around free software lectures,
panel discussions, workshops, fairs and socialising
http://www.linuxwochen.at
8-12 August 2007, near Berlin, Germany
Chaos Communication Camp 2007
"In Fairy Dust We Trust!"
http://events.ccc.de/camp/2007/
5-11 September 2007, Linz, Austria
Ars Electronica Festival - Festival for Art, Technology and Society
http://www.aec.at/en/festival2007/index.asp
21 September 2007, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Bits of Freedom organizes the 5th Dutch Big Brother Awards
Nominations can be sent to info at bigbrotherawards.nl until the end of
August.
http://www.bigbrotherawards.nl/
25 September 2007, Montreal, Canada
Civil Society Workshop: Privacy Rights In A World Under Surveillance
A one-day workshop organized by the International Civil Liberties Monitoring
Group (ICLMG) in cooperation with Canadian and international civil rights
and privacy organizations ahead of the 29th International Conference of Data
Protection and Privacy Commissioners in Montreal.
http://www.thepublicvoice.org/events/montreal07/default.html
25-28 September 2007, Montreal, Canada
29th International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners
http://www.privacyconference2007.gc.ca/Terra_Incognita_home_E.html
3 October 2007, Ottawa, Canada
Participative Web Forum
http://www.oecd.org/futureinternet/participativeweb
11 November 2007, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
GigaNet'07 - Global Internet Governance Academic Network 2nd Annual
Symposium
Deadline for submissions: 1 August 2007
http://www.igloo.org/giganet
12-15 November 2007, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The Government of Brazil will host the second Internet Governance Forum
meeting.
http://www.intgovforum.org/
http://cgi.br/igf/