At the beginning of May 2006 the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR/14) met in Geneva with the aim to decide on recommendations to the WIPO General Assemblies 2006 in September on a draft WIPO Treaty on the Protection of Broadcasting Organisations.
The proposals for a treaty giving new intellectual property rights for broadcasting and webcasting organizations were discussed over five very tense days. One of the critical points debated was whether or how to include transmissions of broadcast over the Internet, known as webcasting. The United States supported the inclusion of webcasting as an annex to the treaty. The European Union favoured the inclusion of simulcasting (simultaneous transmissions of broadcasts over the Internet).
A growing number of non-profit groups like CPTech, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Knowledge, library groups (like IFLA, eIFL), IP-Justice played an important role in opposing the treaty.
Intel Corporation also weighed in with their opposition to the draft treaty considering that " Proponents have not demonstrated that the benefits of creating new exclusive rights outweigh the burdens that these new rights impose", including control of mobile device and digital home innovation, Technical Protection Measures (TPM) that limit design freedom and harm copyright owner interests and the public interest.
On the last day the SCCR finally decided to split the negotiations into two parts: a treaty that will focus on "traditional" broadcasting and one on the technologies that would deliver content over the Internet.
The first part, covering also the newer forms of broadcasting such as cable or satellite TV, will be the subject of a meeting of WIPO SCCR in August 2006 (date to be decided). WIPO member states will try to agree on the text of a draft treaty for "traditional" broadcasting organisations and to get approval and terms of reference from the WIPO General Assemblies which meet in September for a diplomatic conference possibly in 2007.
The second part was put off to another committee meeting to be held in 2007. Written proposals for the webcasting/simulcasting track are due by 1 August. The United States accepted the bifurcation with the condition that if no diplomatic conference is recommended in September on traditional broadcasting, webcasting would be back on the table for future talks.
The decision was saluted by the opponents of the draft Treaty. CPTech commented: "This is a victory for everyone who has opposed linking webcasting to the broadcasting treaty. There is still a lot of work to be done. There is a strong likihood the traditional broadcasting treaty will move forward, and the EU will clearly push to expand this to cases where broadcasters use the Internet.. The Internet is far safer now than before, because the threat of a new treaty for Internet middleman is now much less likely."
WIPO xcasting treaties -- next steps (8.05.2006)
http://onthecommons.org/node/888
WIPO To Proceed On Broadcasting Treaty Talks Without Webcasting (5.05.2006)
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=294&res=1024_ff&pri...
Statement of Intel Corporation Concerning the World Intellectual Property
Organization's Proposed Treaty on the Protection of Broadcasting
Organizations (10.04.2006)
http://www.cptech.org/ip/wipo/bt/intel04102006.pdf
WIPO carves up the Internet (and the broadcast spectrum) (4.05.2006)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-love/wipo-carves-up-the-intern_b_2...
Draft Basic Proposal for the WIPO Treaty on the Protection of Broadcasting
Organziations - Including a Non-Mandatory Appendix on The Protection in
Relation to Webcasting. (8.02.2006)
http://www.wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/sccr/en/sccr_14/sccr_14_2.pdf
Momentum Builds in Talks on Updating Rights of Broadcasting Organizations
(8.05.2006)
http://www.wipo.int/edocs/prdocs/en/2006/wipo_upd_2006_274.html
EDRI-gram Report on WIPO general assemblies (5.10.2005)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number3.20/WIPO
The Committee of Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs at the European Parliament debated the draft Regulation on the establishment, operation and use of the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II).
There was a consensus among members of the committee that better privacy safeguards are needed for the SIS II, especially because it will contain sensitive biometric data. Now the questions are related to the usage of the biometric data as a search criterion by the law enforcement authorities. However, representatives of the European Commission called the option of using these data as a basis for searches "indispensable."
The draft report on the proposal for the Regulation from the MEP Carlos Coelho (PPE - Portugal) highlights that "a 'bigger system' requires 'bigger safeguards'. Consequently amendments for improved data protection standards are put forward. A sense of priority for data protection has to be displayed."
Also the rapporteur notices that:" The Commission proposes the inclusion of biometrics without any further specification as to the source of the biometric data and its use. In his proposed Art. 16a the rapporteur introduces certain basic rules to close this gap: Firstly, the biometric data entered into SIS II has to pass a quality check according to a standard to be established by comitology in order to reduce the risk of errors. Secondly, a search with biometrics should be excluded at this initial stage of the system."
The report is in line with the Declaration adopted at the Conference of European Data Protection Authorities at the end of April 2006 that considered : " There is no alternative to creating a high and harmonized data protection standard in the EU Third Pillar. This is a logical consequence of the Hague Programme, according to which the safeguarding of freedom, security and justice are indivisible elements of the task of the EU as a whole, as well as of the recent steps taken at EU-level on issues such as the Visa Information System (VIS), the Schengen Information System II (SIS II) or the interoperability among European databases in the area of Justice and Home Affairs."
EU parliamentarians demand better privacy protection for Schengen
Information System (5.05.2006)
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/72770
Draft Report on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament
and of the Council on the establishment, operation and use of the second
generation Schengen information system (SIS II) - LIBE committee -
Rapporteur: Carlos Coelho (31.03.2006)
http://www.europarl.eu.int/meetdocs/2004_2009/documents/pr/609/609858/...
MEPs amendments to the proposal (25.04.2006)
http://www.europarl.eu.int/meetdocs/2004_2009/documents/am/612/612230/...
Proposal for a regulation on the establishment, operation and use of the
second generation Schengen information system (SIS II) (31.05.2005)
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2004_2009/documents/com/com_com(2005)0236_/com_com(2005)0236_en.pdf
EDRI-gram Schengen information system goes biometric (15.01.2004)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number2.1/schengen
Declaration adopted at the Conference of European Data Protection
Authorities (25.04.2006)
http://www.edps.eu.int/legislation/06-04-25_Budapest_Declaration_EN.pd...
The European Commission has revived a proposal to criminalise infringement of all intellectual property rights "on a commercial scale" after a European Court of Justice ruling that the Commission may include criminal offences in their Directives.
The proposal would also criminalise the "attempting, aiding or abetting and inciting" of infringement, and introduce multi-year jail sentences, confiscation of equipment and fines of hundreds of thousands of euros. This goes much further than the EU's obligations under the World Trade Organisation's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Right holders could participate in police investigations into infringement.
While the Commission focuses in its press release on counterfeiting by organised criminal gangs, the legislation would have a much wider effect. It could cover teenage file sharers, authors of file sharing and DRM-circumvention software, and even incautious campaigners for intellectual property law reform.
It is this type of outrageous legislative manoeuvring by large intellectual property right holders and their allies in European and US administrations that has brought IP law into such public disrepute.
Amended proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the
Council on criminal measures aimed at ensuring the enforcement of
intellectual property rights (26.04.2006)
http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/lex/LexUriServ/site/en/com/2006/com2006_0...
Commission proposes criminal law provisions to combat intellectual property
offences (26.04.2006)
http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/06/532&...
European Court of Justice ruling (13.09.2005)
http://curia.eu.int/jurisp/cgi-bin/form.pl?lang=fr&Submit=Recherch...
(Contribution by Ian Brown, board-member EDRI)
Spanish courts have upheld three times already the validity of music free licenses. In the three cases, the Sociedad General de Autores (SGAE), Spanish music copyright collecting society, sued some open public premises on alleged rights to the music listened therein.
In all the three cases, the defences demonstrated that the music played was downloaded from the Internet and was under free licenses. The Spanish system presumes that SGAE holds the right to represent all authors, unless the contrary is proven.
The defendants in the three cases proved that the music downloaded from Internet and burnt into CDs was carefully chosen as free licensed music.
In the first resolution, dated on the 2 February 2006, the term "Copy left" appears for first time in a Spanish resolution. The SGAE asked for levies to Ladinamo, a copyfighter cultural association dedicated to spread Copyleft. Ladinamo demonstrated the music played in its premises was Copyleft, so no levy should be paid, which was accepted by Madrid Mercantile Court no. 5. SGAE announced an appeal but finally did not formalize it and the final decision was declared by a further court resolution dated 24 April.
The second case occurred in Badajoz on 17 February where First Instance Court no. 6 ruled the music played in the disco bar Metropol was licensed under Creative Commons. It is clear from the decision that music was downloaded from Internet from diverse websites, although it makes no reference to streaming or burning. As in the Ladinamo case, SGAE lastly did not file the appeal although it also announced it.
On the 30 March, Madrid Mercantile Court no. 1 stated that SGAE was not entitled to claim levies from Buena Vistilla Club Social, another cultural association, as the music performed in its premises was not managed by SGAE. No term Copyleft nor Creative Commons is used in the sentence but the ruling is clear to admit that music downloaded from the Internet and burnt in CDs to allow its public performance should not have any payment as it was proven the authors were not SGAE members nor belonged to another society that had representation agreements with the SGAE.
EDRI - Creative Commons license upheld in Dutch and Spanish courts
(29.03.2006)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.6/ccdecisions
Full text of the Madrid Mercantile no. 5 court decision (in Spanish only,
02.02.2006)
http://www.derecho-internet.org/node/373
Full text of the Badajoz court decision (in Spanish only, 17.02.2006)
http://www.derecho-internet.org/node/374
Full text of the Madrid Mercantile no. 1 court decision (in Spanish only,
30.03.2006)
http://www.derecho-internet.org/node/375
(Contribution by Javier de la Cueva, digital technology lawyer - Spain)
During the recent Italian political elections an experimental e-voting system for counting votes - not for expressing the vote itself - has been used in several polling places. The system has been used in parallel with normal, manual counting operations; but it was quite clear that the goal of such experiments was to progressively switch all counting operations to using automated, computer-based systems.
Emmanuele Somma, fellow of Free Software Foundation Europe, participated as an official observer to the counting operations in one polling station (section 224 in the city of Rome) and reported on his experience, which casts an alarming shadow over the reliability of the system used and of the "human element" involved.
According to Somma, the computer operator was not able to produce the necessary official documentation which, according to law, qualifies personnel assigned to supervise electronic counting operations; after the system erred in assigning votes to one list, the operator proceeded in manually - and illegally - correcting the error, and was stopped only by the intervention of Somma; it seemed overly hard for the president of the polling station to check the activities of the computer operator for lack of technical knowledge.
The request of Somma to have a copy of the CD-ROM containing the program that was used for the automated counting operations was refused, as the operator claimed that such program was a "trade secret". What is worse, Somma reports having found a copy of that CD-ROM and a paper containing the access codes to the system in the trash outside of the polling place, while the counting operations were still undergoing.
Somma concludes his report by suggesting that automated counting operations are far from being that model of efficiency and reliability that has been boosted by the government; given the claimed costs of such a system - more or less 37 millions euros - and its perceived advantages, which - assuming the system really works - amount to having the final voting results just a few hours before, it arguably remains a mystery why Italy should implement e-voting systems in the near future.
Reports of Emmanuele Somma of the Italian e-voting experiment (11.04.2006)
http://exedre.xed.it/archives/51
http://exedre.xed.it/archives/52
(Contribution by Andrea Glorioso - Italian consultant on digital policies)
Starting with 1 January 2007, passports containing electronic chips will be put into circulation for the Romanian citizens. The passports will include a storage system (probably RFID) for personal data, including a facial image and digital fingerprints.
The present passports will preserve their validity and they will be replaced at the request of the citizens. According to a draft Government Decision under public debate the producer of the electronic passports will be designated by international bidding. The sole supplier must provide the necessary documents and technique for the introduction of the electronic system at EU standards. The provider will finance the project and will be further on reimbursed in instalments as established by the contract. The provider, with the agreement of the Ministry of Finance, will also establish and update the fee to be paid by the citizens when obtaining the passports.
The decision to use only electronic passports will not be the subject of a law adopted by the Parliament and there have been no discussions so far on the privacy and security concerns raised by usage of the RFID technology.
The Romanian officials, as in other eastern European countries, just indicated that the European Union is requesting such a change and therefore no special debate was needed on the decision. The substantiation note accompanying the draft Government decision says: "At the European level, it was considered that the introduction of passports containing electronic information will increase the prevention of person substitution or counterfeit, will facilitate more rapid control procedures at the borders and will further on allow exercising the right to free circulation in those states having imposed such a travel document".
Electronic passports will enter into circulation on 1 January 2007 (in
Romanian only, 27.04.06)
http://www.hotnews.ro/articol_47338-Pasapoartele-electronice-vor-fi-pu...
Romanians will have electronic passports (in Romanian only, 27.04.06)
http://stiri.rol.ro/stiri/2006/04/romanii_vor_avea_pasapoarte_electron...
EDRI-gram : New biometric passports in Slovenia (1.03.2006)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.4/slovenia
EDRI-gram : No delay for EU biometric passports (6.04.2005)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number3.7/biometrics
After many complaints from Russia, the Swedish authorities closed up on 5 May, Kavkazcenter.com, a Chechen separatist Web site that allegedly encouraged terrorism. The police arrived at PRQ Web hosting company in Stockholm with a search warrant and confiscated two servers.
The Finish owner of the servers, Mikael Storsjo, told Swedish news agency TT that the Russian embassy had filed a police complaint that the site incited rebellion for an attack in Nalchik by suspected Islamic extremists in October last year. "I see this as an outrage. I don't agree with what's written on the website but I respect their right to free speech." said Mr. Storsjo.
The Web site has moved around on numerous servers in the Nordics and Baltic countries during the last years and has previously been shut down by authorities in Finland and Lithuania.
On 6 May the site was replaced with a temporary page with link to a different Web address with the same content as the original site.
Swedish authorities shut down Chechen separatist Web site (6.05.06)
http://www.tkb.org/NewsStory.jsp?storyID=119029
Sweden Closes Chechen Separatist's Web Site (6.05.06)
http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/05/06/web.shtml
A special panel discussed the role of the developing countries in the WSIS panel at this year conference Computers, Freedom and Privacy 2006 (CFP 2006) that took place in Washington DC between 2-5 May.
The participants tried to identify what was the place of the developing countries in shaping the future of the Internet in the WSIS debate and what were the results of the debate in these countries, but also the role the Internet could have in the economic and democratic development of these countries.
Bill Drake, director of the project on the Information Revolution and Global Governance, summarized some of the benefits of the WSIS process, among them noticing the first high level dialogue in the international arena on the information society and its role in bringing together civil society active actors from all over the world and building a real dialogue between them on several ICT topics. Mr Drake underlined that the main result of the WSIS process is the process itself, explaining that the Summit was not focused on creating binding decisions for the international community, as some Government representatives from developing countries have hoped.
Samia Melhem, Senior Operations Officer at InfoDev presented some of the benefits of the developing countries involvement in the WSIS process, including making information society an important discussion topic in the international arena. She presented also some practical examples from Infodev experience in promoting information society in developing countries, focusing on the important policy decisions that are essential for such a development.
Bardhyl Jashari, director of Metamorphosis Foundation in Macedonia and EDRi-Member, highlighted the information society situation in a developing country and what are the most important problems that need real involvement. As regards to the WSIS process Jashari considered that: "There is need for building an efficient inclusive and multi-stakeholder mechanism, identifying, providing and ensuring participation of countries with economies in transition and developing countries in global ICT policy development, in which all aspects (multilingualism, spam, cyber crime, privacy, etc) will be included. But, also to build mechanisms for evaluation of the participation and involvement and not make it only formal."
He also said that the global dialogue at the international level with all the stakeholders needs to be continued at the local level on the national and regional problems, involving all the key actors in the information society domain.
George Sadowsky, Global Internet Policy Initiative GIPI technical advisor, underlined the fact that the WSIS process has proven that the Internet and information society is a global phenomenon. He also presented the role of the GIPI members in raising awareness at the national level on the major ICT policy decisions and the importance of the Internet Governance at the international level.
The role of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) as a public interest advocacy was debated also in another session that brought together, on the spot or via the Internet, international diplomats and experts on this matter: Milton L. Mueller, Syracuse University School of Information Studies, Markus Kummer, Internet Governance Forum, Michael Nelson, Internet Society and Director of Internet Technology and Strategy, IBM or Derrick Cogburn, Syracuse University School of Information Studies. One of the main conclusions of this panel was that IGF should not become just a new forum of political debate and it should focus on the real ICT problems that can be discussed at a global level.
Computers, Freedom and Privacy 2006
http://www.cfp2006.org/
EDRI-gram - WSIS SPECIAL (21.11.2005)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number3.23
On May 10 2006, a public hearing was held in the Danish Parliament on a new proposal for an anti-terror act including surveillance measures. The proposed law may increase camera surveillance, obliges carriers to store passenger data for one year and introduces new measures for the intelligence service. According to the proposal, the intelligence service may obtain personal data from other authorities regardless of whether there may be specific considerations for not forwarding the data (such as professional secrecy). Data may be obtained regardless of whether there is a specific suspect or the intelligence service wish to investigate all individuals having done something specific such as passing by a certain location or borrowing a certain book from the library. This is a measure which has particular implications in Denmark where comprehensive and detailed personal data of all citizens are registered in order to effectively provide the services offered by the welfare state.
The full day hearing organised by the Danish Technology Council was attended by politicians, police officers, industry, privacy experts, scholars and the public. Digital Rights Denmark was invited to give an oral and written contribution and put forward a number of critical remarks regarding the proposed measures that were considered incompatible with privacy rights while having a questionable ability to combat terror. Most speakers criticized the surveillance measures for being disproportional, unnecessary and unclear, while police and some politicians insisted that there is a need for improved tools to combat terror and that surveillance measures constituted such tools.
The new proposal for anti terror law (in Danish only)
http://www.ft.dk/Samling/20051/lovforslag/L217/index.htm
Comments from NGOs and others regarding the new proposal for anti terror law
(in Danish only)
http://www.ft.dk/Samling/20051/MENU/dok_REU_L217_ALLE.htm
Digital Rights comments to the proposed law and the administrative report on
new measures to combat terror (in Danish only)
http://www.digitalrights.dk/
(Contribution by Tanja Krabbe - EDRI-Member - Digital Rights - Denmark)
Reporters Without Borders - Internet Annual report 2006 : Everyone's interested in the Internet - especially dictators
The Internet has revolutionised the world's media. Personal websites, blogs
and discussion groups have given a voice to men and women who were once only
passive consumers of information. It has made many newspaper readers and TV
viewers into fairly successful amateur journalists. Dictators would seem
powerless faced with this explosion of online material. How could they
monitor the e-mails of China's 130 million users or censor the messages
posted by Iran's 70,000 bloggers? The enemies of the Internet have
unfortunately shown their determination and skill in doing just that. China
was the first repressive country to realise that the Internet was an
extraordinary tool of free expression and quickly assembled the money and
personnel to spy on e-mail and censor "subversive" websites. The regime soon
showed that the Internet, like traditional media, could be controlled. All
that was needed was the right technology and to crack down on the first
"cyber-dissidents.
http://www.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/internet_report.pdf
OpenNet Initiative - "The Internet and Elections: the 2006 Presidential Election in Belarus."
The report presents the findings of ONI's effort to monitor the Internet
during Belarus' recent presidential elections. Amidst fears that the
authoritarian regime of President Aleksandr Lukashenka was going to close
down Belarus political cyberspace during the elections, ONI testing found
little evidence of systematic and comprehensive filtering, despite earlier
ONI investigations that established the regimes capability to do so. ONI
monitoring during the elections showed that, on average, opposition and
independent media websites remained accessible throughout the monitoring
period. ONI testing revealed a number of serious irregularities that
disrupted access to certain opposition and independent media websites at
strategic moments during and after the vote.
http://www.opennetinitiative.net/studies/belarus/ONI_Belarus_Country_S...
11-18 May 2006, Geneva, Switzerland
Consultations on WSIS implementation by action lines. 9 meetings on
different thematic action lines will be held by respective UN
Agencies facilitators. Open to all WSIS stakeholders.
http://www.itu.int/wsis/implementation/index.html
10 May - 23 July 2006, Austria
Annual decentralized community event around free software lectures, panel
discussions, workshops, fairs and socialising
http://www.linuxwochen.at
19 - 23 May 2006, Geneva, Switzerland
A new round of consultations on the convening of the Internet Governance
Forum will be held at the United Nations in Geneva on 19 May. The
consultations will be followed by a meeting of the IGF Advisory Group on
22 - 23 May 2006.
http://www.intgovforum.org
19-20 May 2006, Florence, Italy
E-privacy 2006
Trusted Computing, Data retention: privacy between new technologies and new
laws.
The central theme of this year's edition is data retention, but several
interventions on other relevant aspects of privacy protection are planned,
including Trusted Computing and the new issues raised by the draft reform of
Italian Criminal Law, with specific reference to Cybercrime.
http://e-privacy.firenze.linux.it
20 May 2006, Florence, Italy
Big Brother Award Italia 2006
http://bba.winstonsmith.info
19-20 June 2006, Paris, France
New relations between creative individuals and communities, consumers
and citizens. Hosted by the TransAtlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD)
http://www.tacd.org/docs/?id=296
21 June 2006, Luxembourg
Safer Internet Forum 2006 Focus on two topics: "Children's use of new
media" and "Blocking access to illegal content: child sexual abuse images"
http://europa.eu.int/information_society/activities/sip/si_forum/forum...
26-27 June 2006, Berlin, Germany
The Rising Power of Search-Engines on the Internet: Impacts on Users, Media
Policy, and Media Business
http://www.uni-leipzig.de/journalistik/suma/home_e.html
16 - 28 July 2006, Oxford, UK
Annenberg/Oxford Summer Institute: Global Media Policy: Technology and New
Themes in Media Regulation Application
deadline 1 May 2006.
http://www.pgcs.asc.upenn.edu/events/ox06/index.php
2-4 August 2006, Bregenz, Austria
2nd International Workshop on Electronic Voting 2006 Students may apply for
funds to attend the workshop until 30 June 2006.
http://www.e-voting.cc/stories/1246056/
14-16 September 2006, Berlin, Germany
Wizards of OS 4
Information Freedom Rules
http://wizards-of-os.org/