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Deutsch: Neue EDRi-Mitglieder
At the EDRi General Assembly of 31 March-1 April 2012 in Amsterdam, Netherlands, EDRi welcomed 5 new members: Statewatch (UK), Society for Open Internet Technologies (Slovakia), Article 19 (UK), Icelandic Digital Freedom Society (Iceland) and DFRI (Föreningen för digitala fri- och rättigheter) - Sweden.
EDRI now has 31 members in 19 European countries, all within the territory of the Council of Europe.
Statewatch (UK)
http://www.statewatch.org/
Society for Open Internet Technologies (SOIT)- Slovakia
http://www.soit.sk/sk/aktualne
Article 19 (UK), Icelandic Digital Freedom Society
http://www.article19.org/
Icelandic Digital Freedom Society
http://www.fsfi.is/
DFRI (Föreningen för digitala fri- och rättigheter) - Sweden
https://dfri.se/
EDRi members and observers
http://www.edri.org/about/members
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Deutsch: UK: Innenministerium plant neue Überwachungsmaßnahmen
The Communication Capabilities Development Programme (CCDP) proposed by UK coalition, meant to extend the police’s access to individuals' email and social media traffic data, is facing strong criticism from the opposition and civil liberties campaigners.
CCDP is likely to be part of Queen's speech on 9 May and relies on ISPs to gather the information and allow government intelligence operatives to scrutinise it. "It is vital that police and security services are able to obtain communications data in certain circumstances to investigate serious crime and terrorism and to protect the public,” said the Home Office spokesman.
An attempt to introduce a similar system has been previously made by the Labour Party but was dropped in 2009 after concerns regarding the feasibility of such a project had been raised by ISPs and mobile phone operators.
Civil liberties campaigners have strongly criticised the new plan because of the risk that it could breach the privacy of individuals. Also Mr.David Davis, the former Conservative shadow home secretary, considers it unnecessary and likely to generate high public resentment. Davis believes the provisions of RIPA (the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act) are already "too loose", therefore more than enough. "It's going to cause enormous resentment. Already thousands of people on the web are objecting to it. It was dropped by the last government … if it was so important, they should have kept going last time," added Davis.
"We need to take action to maintain the continued availability of communications data as technology changes. Communications data includes time, duration and dialling numbers of a phone call, or an email address. It does not include the content of any phone call or email and it is not the intention of government to make changes to the existing legal basis for the interception of communications," stated the Home Office spokesmen.
But Davis also drew the attention over the fact that the argument of the government that CCDP does not imply access to the content of communications was false as, in the case of the Internet, a web address was content.
According to Privacy International, what the new proposal is seeking is to require that Google, Facebook and other providers grant government agencies the same type of access to data that Communication Service Providers provide. This would place new regulatory burdens upon them and could set a dangerous precedent for other governments. A second aspect is that of the installation of black boxes with ISPs, to monitor and store all communications data, which will bring serious safety concerns.
Moreover, these black boxes, in order to access the communications data, must intercept all communications streams which are considered as “content” by law and this is in contradiction with the government statements. The boxes may have to reconstruct your browsing session in order to identify your email addressees.
EDRi-member Open Rights Group also raised another important issue - the fact that government would logically have to break encryption to read the communications data it wants to access as, especially with the government reading the traffic, the sites will be very keen to encrypt the information. For businesses and commerce encryption is a vital tool.
A spokesperson for the Commission commented on 5 April 2012 that UK Government’s plans to monitor emails would potentially be incompatible with the right to privacy of UK citizens.
In 2011, the Commission referred the UK to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) because the privacy of Internet users in the country was not being adequately protected, leading to amendments to RIPA which now states that it is generally only legal to intrude on private communications if you have a warrant or the consent of both the sender and recipient of information.
Plans for greater email and web monitoring powers spark privacy fears
(2.04.2012)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/02/email-web-monitoring-power...
FAQ: The Communications Capabilities Development Programme (3.04.2012)
https://www.privacyinternational.org/blog/faq-the-communications-capab...
UK net super-snooping clashes with Euro privacy law - expert
Real-time surveillance won't wash with Brussels says lawyer (4.04.2012)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/04/uk_snoop_law_europe_privacy/
Surveillance plans: key questions (3.04.2012)
http://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/2012/surveillance-plans-key-questi...
EDRi-gram: UK: Home Office spy plan (29.02.2012)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number10.4/uk-home-office-spy-pla
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Deutsch: 9. Juni 2012: Europäischer Aktionstag gegen ACTA
On 9 June, there will be another day of action which will give protesters the opportunity to gather across Europe to voice their opposition to the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). Civil society protests erupted in February 2012 to express concerns regarding ACTA's impact on fundamental rights and encouragement for Internet surveillance. They added their voices to the numerous papers, opinions and studies criticising ACTA from academics, politicians and NGOs, such as the OSCE, the Sakharov Laureates, the EDPS, Amnesty International and the EU Economic & Social Committee.
The European Commission has now published an update on its process of referring ACTA to the European Court of Justice (ECJ). In a press release, Commissioner De Gucht urged the Parliamentarians to delay their vote. The question which will be asked is: “Is the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) compatible with the European Treaties, in particular with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union?"
The referral will not be the answer to all concerns regarding ACTA, since it can legally only address compatibility with the EU Treaties and neither the wisdom and value of such policies nor the compatibility of ACTA with the full body of EU law.
Worse still, the referral to the Court is being used by the European Commission as a way of bullying the Parliament into postponing its vote – an approach which is being facilitated by the pro-ACTA faction within the Parliament. Stand by for numerous delays due to translations, printing, avalanches...
In this context, it is therefore crucial that the European Parliament shows courage to stand up for its democratic role in the decision-making process and does not give in to the Commission's schemes to prevent the Parliament from rejecting the Agreement. Not just for ACTA but for every upcoming piece of legislation of importance for fundamental rights and democracy, European citizens must support the Parliament in standing up for both the rights of citizens and its own institutional role.
Since the decision of the International Trade Committee (INTA) of the European Parliament not to file a separate request to the Court, it has now become very possible that the Parliament puts the controversial Agreement straight to a vote in June or July – “unexpected” delays notwithstanding.
Tell the Parliament to support European citizens and itself!
9 June 2012 - Protest against ACTA! Promo video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAl6Ef90GBc
Promo video in other languages, free to copy/remix
http://www.youtube.com/user/stopactaeurope
Stop ACTA! Contact your MEPs
http://www.edri.org/stopACTA
Update on the referral of ACTA to the ECJ (4.04.2012)
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/12/354&...
FAQ On Referral Of ACTA To European Court Of Justice
http://www.edri.org/ACTA_referral
ENDitorial: European Parliament Defends Itself And Democracy From ACTA (28,03.2012)
http://edri.org/edrigram/number10.6/acta-european-parliament-inta-deci...
(Contribution by Kirsten Fiedler - EDRi)
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Deutsch: Erste Sperrverfügungen nach dem spanischen Sinde-Gesetz stehen an
The Spanish Minister of Culture has stated that in only one month since the Spanish anti-piracy law (known as Sinde Law) has been passed, the Commission for Intellectual Property (CIP) has received more than 300 complaints against websites allegedly infringing copyrights, including 79 site takedown requests.
The law that was passed on 1 March 2012, after Spain was threatened of being included on US trade blacklist, allows for the blocking of allegedly infringing sites based on reports from copyright holders.
The CIP which will investigate all the received complaints has the power to dismiss claims or to initiate further action, including the removal of allegedly infringing links, court-ordered closure or ISP blockade of entire websites.
The administrative process is as follows: the CIP, after having received a complaint, takes 20 days to establish whether there is a case of copyright infringement and the Central Court of Administrative Matters has to reach an agreement with the website in question to solve the issue bureaucratically that is by the removal of the content under dispute.
The site has 48h to remove the respective content and in case it does not comply, the Commission may ask a legal intervention which ultimately may lead to the voluntary removal of the content or the forced intervention of an ISP to take down the site.
Out of the entire number of complaints, it is not yet clear how many are the result of a hacktivist sabotage campaign launched on the day the Sinde law came into effect. The group Hackivistas encouraged sites to link to an “infringing” song by Eme Navarro, an outspoken critic of the law who reported the sites to the Commission to overload it with requests.
“The aim of this action is testing this law and being the first ones who use it in order to show the absurdity and the censorship that it will bring,” stated the hacktivists. Another purpose of the action was to find out how the procedure works. “Nobody knows how they will shut down websites. We suspect that they will ask Spanish companies hosting the websites to shut them down, and that Spanish service providers will block websites that are hosted outside of Spain. They will also censor foreign websites, so anyone in the world can join us. We want to check what happens in every case,” the hacktivist added.
Also the group Anonymous launch in January an initiative called “Marzo Negro” (the Black March) urging Spanish Internet users to stop buying or downloading any cultural work, in order to make a statement that no pressure will be accepted from any industry that favours a law censuring the Internet. Although the Ministry of Culture has stated that no punitive action has yet been taken regarding the 300 complaints, theoretically the process between a complaint and the shutdown of a site can take a month up to maximum three months, meaning that April could see the first website closures. The Ministry of Culture may impose a maximum penalty of up to 300 000 euro to the sites that do not comply with the legislation.
Almost 80 requests for web closing down the first month of Sinde Law
(only in Spanish, 1.04.2012)
http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2012/04/01/navegante/1333276914.html
Spanish ‘SOPA’: 79 Site Takedown Requests in First Month (4.04.2012)
http://torrentfreak.com/spanish-sopa-79-site-takedown-requests-in-firs...
Artist and Hacktivists Sabotage Spanish Anti-Piracy Law (1.03.2012)
http://torrentfreak.com/arists-and-hacktivists-sabotage-spanish-anti-p...
Culture Ministry has received 292 requests since the entry into force of the
Sinde Law(only in Spanish, 2.04.2012)
http://www.elreferente.es/tecnologia/cultura-recibe-292-denuncias-desd...
The “Black March” has started (only in Spanish, 2.03.2012)
http://www.elreferente.es/tecnologia/el-marzo-negro-ha-comenzado-19139
EDRi-gram: The US pressure on Spain to censor the Internet has paid off
(18.01.2012)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number10.1/spain-adopts-sinde-law
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Deutsch: Polen: Fast 2 Millionen Zugriffe auf elektronische Kommunikationsdaten
EDRi-member Panoptykon Foundation (Poland) published last week the latest data received from the Office of Electronic Communications (UKE). During 2011, the courts, public prosecutor's office, the police and other authorities used data concerning Polish citizens' electronic communication exactly 1 856 888 times.
It is almost half a million times more than in 2010 and 800 000 times more than in 2009. Back then, the Polish public was enraged by the news of million billings that positioned Poland at the very top of the list of European countries interfering with the privacy of its citizens. In 2010 the number of requests sent to various service providers increased by one third and amounted to 1 382 521. The latest collection of data on this subject proves to be even more disturbing. It is yet another argument for the change of the policy granting authorities free access to telecommunications data.
Data retention is a legal requirement placed on the service providers to collect data concerning who, when and with whom had either tried to or successfully connected by means of electronic communication. The data is collected "just in case", thus placing everyone in the circle of possible suspects. Officially, it is supposed to serve the public safety. The Polish law, however, is very unspecific when it comes to regulating what happens to the collected data.
The police and several other governmental institutions can use the data not only for serious crime detection but also to take "preventive measures" that are still defined in a rather broad and unspecified manner. On top of that, no oversight on the part of the judge or public prosecutor's office is required. What is more, the courts themselves, more than ever before, use telecommunication data secured by the telecommunication secrecy clause in civil cases (for example, divorce and alimony cases). The problem lies within the length of the required retention. In Poland, it is required to store data for two years, while in most of the EU the retention period ranges from six months to a year.
Among the most vivid cases of abuse of this law are the ones concerning journalists being spied on by the secret services. Just recently the District Court of Warsaw confirmed that by employing such data the public prosecutor's office had breached the law. Those cases prove that the Polish law does not secure citizens from groundless invigilation. Potentially, each one of us can become an object of attention for secret services, the police or public prosecutor's office without being aware of the fact.
For over two years now the Panoptykon Foundation has tried to place the spotlight on this particular problem. The breakthrough came in 2010 after receiving research data on the topic from UKE. The special team created under the supervision of Jacek Cichocki (at the time the secretary of the collegiate on the intelligence agencies) has proposed amendments to the existing law. The proposed changes, although insufficient, went in a good direction and had a potential to, at least partially, recover control over the authorities actions. Unfortunately, after the elections the team lost its momentum. The latest statistics show that it is crucial to start the public debate, as well as work on the amendments, once again.
We still don't know, however, what exactly is hidden behind the statistics: who asks what, in relation to what cases and what number of requests is answered to the fullest extent. This is a part of a much broader problem. New technologies allow for gathering increasing numbers of data and creating electronic profiles of citizens. This, in particular, is a problem of not only lack of democratic control over one's own data but also a problem of lack of society's knowledge concerning the government's use of new technologies. The current biding law does not provide enough protection for the citizens interests and this is what the office of Human Rights Defender has been pointing out in their official claim sent to the Polish Constitutional Tribunal. At the moment, we are awaiting the Tribunal's decision.
More information in Polish
http://panoptykon.org/wiadomosc/ile-razy-panstwo-siegalo-po-nasze-dane...
Table with data provided by the Office of Electronic Communication for
2011 (only in Polish)
http://panoptykon.org/sites/default/files/retencja_danych_2011.pdf
(Thanks to EDRi-member Panoptykon Foundation – Poland)
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Deutsch: Hadopi: Bericht verschweigt Rückgang bei den Verkaufszahlen
Although French Hadopi authority has issued its new report to show how effective the three-strikes law was in 2010 cutting Internet piracy to half, the reality is that the system has brought no increase in the revenues for the culture industry as expected by the law promoters.
“Benchmarking studies covering all of the sources available shows a clear downward trend in illegal P2P downloads. There is no indication that there has been a massive transfer in forms of use to streaming technologies or direct downloads,” says the new Hadopi report which gives a series of statistics showing a 29% decrease in visits to “pirate” sites in 2011 or a 66% drop in illegal file-sharing traffic.
One of the main arguments of the copyright holders, in favour of the three-strikes law, has been for years that piracy was the main cause of the revenue losses. Therefore, according to this argument, a significant cut down of piracy in France should consequently lead to an increase in revenues. Yet, in 2011, the French music industry experienced a decrease in the overall revenues by 3.9 percent and the French movie industry has had a drop in revenues by 2.7 percent.
This only proves what specialists have said time and again – chasing illegal downloading is not the solution that would support the entertainment industries in increasing their revenues. Moreover, the Hadopi report shows the decrease in illegal downloading on P2P platforms (BitTorrent, µTorrent, eMule and Limewire). What it does not shown is that French users have shifted from P2P to direct downloading and streaming which have marked a significant increase in 2011.
According to Médiamétrie, since October 2010 (when the first Hadopi warnings were sent), streaming and direct downloading have turned from 6.5 to 8.3 million unique visitors in France, which means a 29% increase.
The issue here is that this new Hadopi report which focuses entirely on P2P piracy drop, ignoring all the other aspects, will be used by anti-piracy lobbyists to show how effective anti-piracy laws can be so that they may promote them all over the world.
The results of the French presidential elections may have some impact upon the Hadopi law which is presently supported only by the present President Sarkozy. Only one other candidate, François Hollande, expressed the opinion that the law should be revised while all the other candidates appear to be in favour of the suppression of the law altogether.
French ‘Three Strikes’ Law Slashes Piracy, But Fails to Boost Sales
(30.03.2012)
http://torrentfreak.com/french-three-strikes-law-slashes-piracy-but-fa...
Hadopi, 1 and ½ years after the launch (only in French, 27.03.2012)
http://hadopi.fr/actualites/agenda/hadopi-1-apres-son-lancement
The compressed Hadopi action report (only in French, 28.03.2012)
http://www.lefigaro.fr/hightech/2012/03/27/01007-20120327ARTFIG00670-l...
EDRi-gram: French Internet users on the verge of being disconnected
(5.10.2011)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number9.19/hadopi-report-france-18-months
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Deutsch: Ungarn: Neuer Gesetzesentwurf zur Einschränkung der Informationsfreih...
Hungarian authorities are considering adopting legislation regarding access to public sector information that watchdogs say is unconstitutional and would create legal uncertainty.
This comes on the heels of infringement proceedings initiated by the European Commission (over the independence of the Central Bank and of the Data Protection Commissioner and the forced retirement of judges) in January, an investigation by the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee (LIBE) (prompted by concerns about new domestic laws affecting democracy and rule of law) in February, and a critical report by the Venice Commission (concerning judiciary independence and freedom of religion) in March.
The right to access government-held information may now also be threatened, according to government watchdogs. Last week the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (TASZ) and K-Monitor (a national corruption watchdog), issued a statement about the proposed law that suggested it was not particularly well drafted.
The proposal is problematic as it would create legal uncertainty by potentially charging application fees at a “reasonable margin of profit” and by requiring applicants to comply with a “re-use agreement” the terms of which are unspecified. These modifications contravene the basic freedom of information standards based on the principle that furnishing public information is in the public interest; accordingly, data must be provided at no cost (or at a reduced rate) and any access restrictions must be unambiguous.
Another source of potential concern is the conflation of the terms “public sector information” and “public interest information” which may weaken the existing norms. The authors also raise an important question concerning regulatory restrictions, claiming that these provisions violate constitutionally protected legal safeguards for access to information.
The goal of the tabled law is to implement the PSI Directive (Directive 2003/98/EC on the re-use of public sector information) which first laid down measures to facilitate access to and re-use of government information. However, some of the proposed amendments would actually result in non-compliance, after the launch of the “Open Data Strategy” by the European Commission in December of 2011 updating the Directive to broaden the possibilities for the re-use of government data and to more firmly establish the principle that charging fees for data should not hinder access unless duly justified.
In their appeal to Parliament the government watchdog organizations are demanding that the draft bill be withdrawn.
For-profit Freedom of Information? (only in Hungarian, 05.04.2012)
http://tasz.hu/informacioszabadsag/profitorientalt-informacioszabadsag
The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union and K-Monitor’s Letter to
Parliament (only in Hungarian, 05.04.2012)
http://tasz.hu/files/tasz/imce/2010/tasz_allaspont_a_kozadatok_ujrahas...
K-Monitor Position Statement:Profit-making through FOI? (05.04.2012)
http://kmonitor.hu/hirek/magyar-hirek/profit-making-through-foi
(Contribution by Christiana Mauro - EDRi observer, Hungary)
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Deutsch: Neue Empfehlungen des Europarats zur Wahrung der Menschenrechte im Int...
On 4 April 2012, the Council of Europe adopted two recommendations made by the Committee of Ministers related to the protection of human rights, particularly the freedom of expression, freedom of association, access to information and the right to private life in relation to search engines and online social networks.
In its recommendations, CoE calls on Member States to engage with search engines in order to provide more transparency regarding the way access to information is provided, especially the criteria used to select, rank or remove search results.
CoE also asks for the respect for users’ rights in relation to personal data processing (particularly regarding cookies, IP addresses and individual search histories). It urges states to encourage “search engine providers to clearly differentiate between search results and any form of commercial communication, advertisement or sponsored output, including ‘own content’ offers.”
The actions recommended include the minimization of the collection of personal data by search engine providers. “No user’s IP address should be stored when it is not necessary for the pursuit of a legitimate purpose and when the same results can be achieved by sampling or surveying, or by anonymising personal data. Innovative approaches promoting anonymous searches should also be encouraged.” It also asks for a proportionate data retention period with “legitimate and specified purposes of the processing. Search engine providers should be in a position to justify with demonstrable reasons the collection and the retention of personal data. Information in this connection should be made publicly available and easily accessible.”
Moreover, CoE recommends the development by search engine providers of tools allowing users “to gain access to, and to correct and delete, data related to themselves that have been collected in the course of the use of services, including any profile created, for example for direct marketing purposes”.
Regarding social networking services, CoE calls on states to work with operators to raise users´ awareness of their rights and the possible risks, by providing clear and understandable language and by helping users understand the default settings of their profiles and choose accordingly how much to reveal online about their identity.
The CoE invites states to refrain from “the general blocking and filtering of offensive or harmful content in a way that would hamper its access by users.” The recommendation ask for the implementation of Recommendation CM/Rec(2008)6 on measures to promote the respect for freedom of expression and information with regard to Internet filters “with a view to ensuring that any decision to block or delete content is taken in accordance with such principles.”
Press Release - Council of Europe adopts recommendations to protect
human rights on search engines and social platforms (5.04.2012)
https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?Ref=DC-PR040%282012%29&Language=la...
Recommendation CM/Rec(2012)3 of the Committee of Ministers to member
States on the protection of human rights with regard to search engines
(4.04.2012)
https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=1929429&Site=CM&BackColorIn...
Recommendation CM/Rec(2012)4 of the Committee of Ministers to member
States on the protection of human rights with regard to social
networking services (4.04.2012)
https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=1929453&Site=CM&BackColorIn...
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Deutsch: UK: Gesetz über Online-Sicherheit zur Sperre pornografischer Seiten i...
A new bill proposed to the House of Lords by Baroness Howe of Ildicote, requires ISPs and mobile operators to "provide a service that excludes pornographic images" and electronic device manufacturers to include ways to filter content at the point of purchase.
If enacted, the Online Safety Bill will force ISPs to prevent access of their customers to pornographic images unless those customers, aged over 18 actively “opt-in” to access the respective material by telling "the service provider of his or her consent to subscribe to a service that includes pornographic images". The ISPs may deny the customers option unless the website featuring the images "has an age verification policy which has been used to confirm that the subscriber is aged 18 or over".
The manufacturers of "electronic devices" will also have to "provide customers with a means of filtering content from an Internet access service at the time the device is purchased" by electronic devices, the bill meaning any device "capable of connecting to an Internet access service and downloading content".
The ISPs and mobile operators would also be required to provide customers with "prominent, easily accessible and clear information about online safety" and on “the safe and responsible use of the Internet by children and young people on an electronic device," when they go to purchase their services and make that information "available for the duration of the service".
The proposal is a Private Members Bill, which needs the Government’s support. Yet, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has already said it would not support the bill. "Much can be achieved through self-regulation and it can be more effective than a regulatory approach in delivering flexible solutions that work for both industry and consumers,” stated DCMS spokesman.
Also, a trade industry body representing UK ISPs told Out-Law.com that it was against the proposed legislation. "ISPA does not believe there is a need for legislation on this issue as there is healthy competition in the industry and ISPs are responsive to consumer demands. The Bailey Report published last year also acknowledged that 'industry already does much to help educate parents about parental controls, age-restriction and content filters'. Government should concentrate on helping educate consumers to ensure they know about the tools already available to them to restrict unwanted content," said a spokesperson for the Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA) who added that "Filtering by default will only reduce the degree of active interest and parental mediation, lull parents into a false sense of security and lead to over blocking. The question also arises of who decides what is pornographic and what is not."
Automatic porn censorship legislation proposed (4.04.2012)
http://www.out-law.com/en/articles/2012/april/automatic-porn-censorshi...
Online Safety Bill (HL Bill 137)
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/lbill/2010-2012/0137/lb...
Lords bill demands ISPs and device makers block porn (5.04.2012)
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/373951/lords-bill-demands-isps-and-device-...
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Deutsch: ENDitorial: Auf der Suche nach einer Google-Strategie
The more time passes, the more difficult it is to explain the love-hate relationship between European conservatives and Google. Every new policy, both on European and national levels, appears on the surface to be anti-Google but, on closer inspection, appears destined to ensure that Google never has any significant European competitors.
At the end of 2011, the conservative European People's Party group in the European Parliament adopted a paper on the “Internet of Today and Tomorrow,” which included several key pro-Google measures, which are duplicated in the policies of national members of the EPP group.
For example, the EPP paper proposes “auxiliary copyright”, which is a new layer of bureaucracy and expense to be imposed on any company offering news search or news aggregation services on the Internet. This policy is now in the process of being put into place by the conservative/liberal German government. They feel that they need to do this in order to help the hapless publishers whose livelihoods are being ruined by people finding the material that they put on the Internet and... reading it. The unintended consequence of this policy is that it creates a significant new administrative and financial cost on small companies providing aggregation services and preventing any new service from entering the market. Indeed, the only kind of company that will be able to comfortably deal with such burdens will be a large multinational already in the business. Google wins.
The conservatives also propose increased liability for Internet intermediaries for copyright infringements. Google already implements far from perfect technology to remove content that might breach copyright. It blocks content for European consumers not only if it is breaking the law, but even if there is a fear that it might be breaking the law – for example, Laurence Lessig's “website chat” video. While Google is far from happy with the Russian roulette that is European intermediary copyright liability regime, this has helped limit the number of competitors it has to deal with. Yahoo!, as one example, tried to launch a user-generated video service but had to close down this functionality because of the legal uncertainty caused by Italian and Spanish court rulings. Google wins.
Perhaps the most egregious example of pro-Google lobbying and activism comes from the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament. The Legal Affairs Committee recently voted on a proposal to make it easier to provide access to so-called “orphan” works – works for which the author or rightsholder cannot readily be found. The Directive should have been proof that European copyright is about supporting culture and not about locking it away from European citizens. Instead, a plethora of amendments adopted in the Committee (albeit in very questionable circumstances) will make access to and the digitisation of orphan works vastly more complicated, costly and bureaucratic. The question then is... which company has got the financial and administrative power to be able to cope with this barrier to European culture? It is unlikely that any European company will be able to build a business model on unlocking access to European culture. Google wins.
Of course, it isn't the case that policy is being deliberately being made to promote the interests of Google. That, however, does not prevent this from being the real world effect.
EPP hearing on the Internet of Today and Tomorrow (1.12.2011)
http://stream.eppgroup.eu/Activities/docs/year2012/hearing_internet_en...
EPP paper - A Fair Internet for All Strengthening Our Citizens' Rights
and Securing a Fair Business Environment in the Internet
http://edri.org/files/11_2011EPPInternetTodayTomorrow_FinalConclusions...
EDRi response to EPP paper (03.2012)
http://edri.org/files/03_2012EDRi_comments_EPPfinal.pdf
Google's auto-delete function (03.2010)
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/03/youtubes-content-id-c-ensorship-...
Lessig's legal yet illegal video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JIp3yStpmg
Strange: Vote Against Freeing Up Orphan Works Achieves 113% Turnout In
EU Committee (16.03.2012)
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120315/08382118115/strange-vote-aga...
(Contribution by Joe McNamee - EDRi)
This article is also available in:
Deutsch: Mitmachen!
Draft CC Licences version 4.0 available for comments
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/32157
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/4.0/Draft_1
Call for Proposals: copyright law reform advocacy campaigns
Deadline: 7 May 2012
http://www.eifl.net/call-proposals-copyright-law-reform-advocacy-campa
This article is also available in:
Deutsch: Lesestoff
OSCE: Safety of Journalists Guidebook, by William Horsley (also
addresses online journalism)
http://t.co/XFhOK3is
The Article 29 Data Protection Working Party's opinion on facial
recognition in online and mobile services (23.03.2012)
http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/article-29/documentation/o...
The Article 29 Data Protection Working Party's opinion on data
protection reform proposals
http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/article-29/documentation/o...
Digital School program with open textbooks approved by Polish
government! (3.04.2012)
http://creativecommons.pl/2012/04/digital-school-program-with-open-tex...
Being Open About Data
The Finnish Institute in London has recently completed a five-month
research project on the British open data policies. The report looks on
how the open data ecosystem has emerged in the UK and what lessons can
be drawn upon the British experiences (29.03.2012)
http://blog.finnish-institute.org.uk/2012/03/our-new-research-on-open-...
http://www.finnish-institute.org.uk/images/stories/pdf2012/being%20ope...
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Deutsch: Agenda
13 April 2012, Bielefeld, Germany
Big Brother Awards Germany
http://www.bigbrotherawards.de/
16-18 April 2012, Cambridge, UK
Cambridge 2012: Innovation and Impact - Openly Collaborating to Enhance
Education. OER12 and the OCW Consortium's Global Conference
http://conference.ocwconsortium.org/index.php/2012/uk
24-25 April 2012, Berlin, Germany
Cyber Security and Privacy EU Forum 2012
http://www.cspforum.eu/
25 April 2012, Helsinki, Finland
Finnish Internet Forum
http://www.internetforum.fi/
26-28 April 2012, Belgrade, Serbia
SHARE 2 Conference
http://www.shareconference.net/en
2-4 May 2012, Berlin, Germany
Re:Publica 2012: ACTION!
http://re-publica.de/12/en
14-15 June 2012, Stockholm, Sweden
EuroDIG 2012
http://www.eurodig.org/
18-22 June 2012, Samos, Greece
Samos 2012 Summit on Open Data for Governance, Industry and Society
Academic Papers Submission Deadline: 29 April 2012
http://samos-summit.blogspot.com/
20-22 June 2012, Paris, France
2012 World Open Educational Resources Congress
http://www.unesco.org/webworld/en/oer
2-6 July 2012, Budapest, Hungary
Policies and Practices in Access to Digital Archives: Towards a New
Research and Policy Agenda
http://www.summer.ceu.hu/sites/default/files/course_files/Policies-and...
9-10 July 2012, Barcelona, Spain
8th International Conference on Internet Law & Politics: Challenges and
Opportunities of Online Entertainment
http://edcp.uoc.edu/symposia/idp2012/cfp/?lang=en
11-13 July 2012, Vigo, Spain
The 12th Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium
(PETS 2012)
http://petsymposium.org/2012/
12-14 September 2012, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Building Institutions for Sustainable Scientific, Cultural and genetic
Resources Commons.
http://biogov.uclouvain.be/iasc/index.php
7-10 October 2012, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2012 Amsterdam Privacy Conference
http://www.ivir.nl/news/CallforPapersAPC2012.pdf
6-9 November 2012, Baku, Azerbaijan
Seventh Annual IGF Meeting: "Internet Governance for Sustainable Human,
Economic and Social Development"
Workshop submission by 20 April 2012
http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/
9-11 November 2012, Fulda, Germany
Digitalisierte Gesellschaft - Wege und Irrwege
FIfF Annual Conference in cooperation with Fuldaer Informatik Kollquium
http://www.fiff.de/2012