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Deutsch: WP29 fordert strenges EU-US Datenschutz-Abkommen

As the European Commission prepares to conclude a deal with the US on the protection of personal data exchanged in police and criminal justice cooperation matters, the European privacy watchdogs call for a strict and clear privacy agreement.

Article 29 Data Protection Working Party (WP) sent a letter on 18 November 2010 to the three European main institutions (Council, Commission and Parliament) expressing its concerns for not having been consulted on the development of the discussion within the Council and European Parliament over the draft negotiation mandate presented by the European Commission on 25 May 2010, voic

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Deutsch: ENDitorial: Europäische Kommission präsentierte falsche ACTA-Version

At a meeting in Brussels on 22 March 2010, the European Commission presented a counterfeit version of ACTA to participants. As with any good counterfeit, it bore quite a strong relationship with the genuine article. However, the differences were quite obvious for those in the know.

For example, in this counterfeit version, there is no mention of ISP liability changes that would lead to measures such as the cutting off of consumers ("three strikes").

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Deutsch: ENDitorial: ACTA, die Resolution des Europäischen Parlaments und poli...

The European Parliament adopted a widely-reported Resolution on ACTA on 10 March. It contained several positive elements. For example, it insists that the Agreement not go beyond the requirements of existing EU law and demands an impact assessment of ACTA's implementation on fundamental rights and data protection.

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Deutsch: Deutsche Datenschutzbehörden debattieren über das Safe Harbour-Abkom...

The German data protection authorities want to have a meeting on the EU-US data protection Safe Harbour agreement and to agree on a resolution on this matter.

Heise reports that some of the German Lander Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) that will meet in Düsseldorf in April are unhappy about the practical application of the Safe Harbour agreement, especially when a high number of servers from companies such as Google and Facebook is located there, including EU citizens personal data.

The concern of the German DPAs is motivated by report published by Galexia, a US consulting company, which f

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Deutsch: Durchgesickerter ACTA-Text bestätigt Verdacht

The text of the digital chapter of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement was published on 21 February 2010, following news articles from IDG News Service issued a few days before.

The text of the draft digital chapter confirms that there are several problems with the draft agreement and many of the assurances given on the topic were somewhat "economical with the truth".

These "economies" were on display again during a discussion between the Commission Head of Unit responsible for the dossier, Luc Devigne and the International Trade Committee of the Parliament.

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Deutsch: ACTA: Umstrittenes Urheberrechts-Abkommen im Nebel

The secrecy on the closed international agreement on Intellectual Property issues - ACTA - is making everyone suspicious on the content of the new treaty, which could contain dangerous legislation for digital civil rights.

After the end of talks on ACTA in Mexico, there was little information on the actual topics discussed and issues to be adopted.

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Deutsch: Kulturausschuss des Europäischen Parlaments – Gutachtenentwurf zu I...

The European Parliament (EP) has started its deliberations on a non-binding report on "Internet governance, the next steps", following the Commission's Communication on this topic in 2009.

The draft Opinion of the European Parliament's Culture Committee has been published.

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Deutsch: ENDitorial: Was uns Konquistadoren über ACTA lehren

When the conquistadores arrived in the Americas, historians tell us that the viruses that they carried caused devastation among the indigenous populations. For the European invaders, who had been subject to the viruses for longer, the illnesses, while still sometimes deadly, were less dangerous than for populations that had not yet been exposed to them.