On 15 January 2004 the European Parliament accepted an own-initiative report about the importance and future of collecting societies, the organisations that collect the rights on copyright and neighbouring rights. The report states that Digital Rights Management is insufficiently developed to replace the work of collecting societies. According to the report, reasonable levies (for example on blank CD-recordables) are "the only means of ensuring equitable remuneration for creators and easy access by users to intellectual property works and cannot be replaced by Digital Rights Management Systems."

In 2002 the European Commission promised to produce a Communication about the collecting societies, to fill in some details left open by the new Copyright Directive (2001/29/EC). The communication never materialised, and the Austrian Member of Parliament Mercedes Echerer took the initiative herself.

The first phase of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) ended in Geneva last week, after more than 18 months of preparatory process. Its 2 outcomes are a Declaration of Principles and a Plan of Action, both enthusiastically adopted by government representatives, though hardly discussed until the last hour.

A major outcome is also the civil society (CS) alternative Declaration.

Early in November independent experts from all regions of the world met in Geneva to discuss about the fundamental human rights in the information society. The meeting was supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the European Commission, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Government of Mali, Chair of the Human Security Network. The experts produced a paper that was distributed during one of the last preparatory conferences (PrepCom 3A) for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), that started on 12 November in Geneva. The paper calls on governments to protect all human rights related to the information society; ranging from freedom of expression and information to privacy to intellectual property rights, and from bridging

Talks between the European Commission and the US department of Homeland Security about airline passenger data are moving very slowly. Commissioner Frits Bolkestein told the European Parliament that the US are only willing to compromise on a few disagreements. Most importantly the US do not want to limit the use of airline passenger data to the purpose of fighting terrorism.

Since March the US are demanding passenger data from European airlines flying to or through the US. The data is sent to the US prior to flight departure and used by the US to screen passengers and apply a risk assessment. The passenger name record data (PNR) consist of many data items: departure and return flights, connecting flights, special services required on board the flight (meals such as Kosher, Halal) and payment

European discussions can't agree on the appointment of a European privacy-czar. The European parliament insists on choosing Joaquín Bayo Delgado, who has no experience in data protection issues, as the new EU Data Protection Supervisor. The Council favours the Dutch Data Protection Commissioner Peter Hustinx.

Jorge Salvador Hernández Mollar, the President of the European Parliament's Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), recently made a move to break the blockade between the Parliament and the Council on the issue. In a letter sent on 10 October to Umberto Vattani, the Permanent Representative of Italy with the European Union, Mr.

Negotiations about airline passenger data between the European Commission and the US are stuck but both parties have agreed to solve their differences before the end of this year. On 22 September, Asa Hutchinson, US Under Secretary for Border & Transportation Security met with EU Commissioner Bolkestein, but that didn't result in any public change of the US position.

Since March the US is demanding passenger data from European airlines flying to or through the US. The data is send to the US prior to flight departure and used by the US to screen passengers and apply a risk assessment.

The European Parliament yesterday drastically altered the proposed directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions. A long summer of intensive lobbying by an impressive European alliance of open source advocates, economists and CEOs of small and medium-sized businesses has paid off.

One of the great fears about software patents, the extension to business methods like Amazon's one-click shopping, is effectively answered by the new Recital 13a. This states: "A computer-implemented business method, data processing method or other method in which the only contribution to the state of the art is non-technical cannot constitute a patentable invention."

In itself, software is excluded from patentability. So are any forms of information processing, handling and presentation. According to Recital

European Parliament rapporteur Arlene McCarthy has withdrawn the draft directive on software patents. The directive will now go back to the committee stage for some more work. A new vote is scheduled for the plenary sessions between 22 and 25 September.

Even though officially the European Patent Office does not allow for patents on software, many trifle software inventions and business methods have already been accepted.