(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

As some of our readers already know, the biggest digital civil rights NGO from the United States has opened this year a new office in Brussels to work with EU policy issues. EFF's new European Affairs Coordinator, Erik Josefsson, was previously the president of the Swedish chapter of Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII.se) and has worked in cooperation with EDRI on various digital rights issues.

EDRI welcomes EFF Europe in the European digital rights arena and looks forward for a fruitful collaboration on the important subjects for European policy that are debated. We thought it could be useful for our readers to find more info from the main source about what EFF Europe looks into in the near future. Erik has been kind enough to share with you his thoughts on this :

I am still very proud of the rejection of the software patents directive. It set a European precedent both in terms of on-line activism and concrete political outcome. I think I'm one among thousands of people who feel a sense of responsibility for that achievement. And I am quite sure everybody involved felt that they were at the centre of the action, no matter if it was a demonstration in Brussels in 2003 or the naval battle in Strasbourg in 2005. That is what dedicated networked communities do to those who participate: it puts everyone at the centre of change.

I am convinced that a network of European NGOs that work together can shape the future of the digital world and concretely influence the outcome of the political process. I will just mention three important issues that EFF Europe is working on right now.

Most urgent is IPRED2. The directive has been closely monitored by FFII for more than half a year. EFF joined after Christmas with analysis and distribution of voting lists, and is launching a campaign today to raise awareness before the vote in Plenary on 24 April: www.copycrime.eu The core of the directive is a "one size fits all"-philosophy making all intellectual property infringements on a commercial scale a criminal offence. Regardless if the intellectual property is a vague "sui generis database right" or an unexamined "design right" - this regime risks making normal business and consumer behaviour a crime.

Another directive that needs attention is the Audiovisual Media Services Directive. Formerly known as "Television Without Frontiers", much of the debate was only about television and not so much about the extension of television regulations to the Internet. There is a high risk that interactive and user generated Internet-based services like YouTube will be covered by the directive and face serious liability for programming that might "offend against human dignity". Outside the EU, non-democracies employ these kinds of vague edicts to shut down dissidents' use of the Internet. Such tactics should not be legitimized in Europe.

Finally, EFF has been working behind the scenes for several years in the Digital Video Broadcasting Project (DVB). DVB is a standard-setting body for broadcasting signals, and it has been developing a very advanced DRM scheme that would restrict consumer behaviour like never before. Consumer electronics devices like televisions and set top boxes that obey the DRM schemes would basically hand over control of the device to content companies and broadcasters. Unless checked, the DRM scheme is anticipated to receive legal protection through tech mandate laws on a national level.

This ENDitorial is written on the fly, in between meetings and mail backlogs, so I'd just like to add some words about the EFF Brussels office. It's not only a workspace, but also a place with the purpose to host activists who need a place to stay a night or two. It is not first class, but the sofa is famous, and you should feel free to contact me if you are planning to go to Brussels to meet your MEPs.

Finally, I'd just like to encourage as many as possible to support the German initiative Vorratsdatenspeicherung.de and join the demonstration in Frankfurt am Main on 14 April.

EFF Europe campaign - IPRED2: Will it Make You a Copy Criminal?
http://www.copycrime.eu/

AVMS Directive - EU Commission webpage
http://ec.europa.eu/comm/avpolicy/reg/tvwf/modernisation/proposal_2005...

Who Controls Your Television? How the Digital Video Broadcasting Project's DRM Standards Jeopardize Innovation, Competition, and Consumer Rights (03.2007)
http://www.eff.org/IP/DVB/

EFF Europe
http://www.eff.org/global/europe/

(Contribution by Erik Josefsson - European Affairs Coordinator - Electronic Frontier Foundation)