EDRI - Access to information

How much longer before web accessibility?

bogdan — Wed, 31 Jul 2013 19:41:23 +0000

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: Barrierefreier Zugang zum Netz: Wie lange müssen wir noch warten?

Access to the so-called Digital Society through the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is increasingly gaining importance in our everyday life. Access to the web, where these technologies usually converge, is already a fundamental right that everyone should enjoy, including persons with disabilities, who represent 15 % of the European population. Today, ICTs and the web are the gateway to public services, education, employment, leisure etc.

SIF Unconference: Enforcement through "self-"Regulation - who ever thought this was a good idea?

joe — Mon, 27 May 2013 14:36:38 +0000

Last week, European Digital Rights attended the second annual Stockholm Internet Forum which focused on two main themes: Internet Freedom and Security and Internet Freedom and Development. A novelty this year were the Unconference sessions.

DFRI asks EP President Schulz for missing ACTA documents

bogdan — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 19:09:37 +0000

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: DFRI verlangt fehlende ACTA-Dokumente von EP-Präsident Schulz

Swedish EDRi-member DFRI (Föreningen för digitala fri- och rättigheter) has asked the president of the European Parliament about a question from the Court of Justice of the European Union to the Commission that, according to a Commission spokesperson, made the Commission withdraw its referral of ACTA to the Court.

The Commission has stated that "the question asked by the Court of Justice as well as the letter of the Commission of 20 December 2012 have been served also on the European Parliament."

DFRI boa

CETA: EU ditches criminal sanctions.... almost

joe — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 09:23:00 +0000

In documents seen by EDRi, the current Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the European Union made a proposal at the beginning of October to delete the criminal sanctions section of the proposed EU/Canada Free Trade Agreement.

Lawless, unproven filtering and blocking of content as “best practice”

joe — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 07:07:35 +0000

On Monday of next week (29 October, 2012), the European Union and the United States will have a “summit” (draft agenda) on “Exchange of Best Practices for Child Protection Online”. In the course of that meeting, the question of measures to prevent “re-uploading of the content” will be discussed. Both the European Commission and the United States appear to think that widespread, suspicionless upload filtering is “best practice”.

Clean IT – Leak shows plans for large-scale, undemocratic surveillance of all communications

joe — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 07:47:47 +0000

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: CleanIT – Pläne zur Überwachung des Internets im großen Stil

A leaked document from the CleanIT project shows just how far internal discussions in that initiative have drifted away from its publicly stated aims, as well as the most fundamental legal rules that underpin European democracy and the rule of law.

The European Commission-funded CleanIT project claims that it wants to fight terrorism through voluntary self-regulatory measures that defends the rule of law.

Macedonia: Serious challenges for access to public information

bogdan — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 18:19:48 +0000

During July 2012, the Macedonian Young Lawyers Association (MYLA) submitted 145 requests for free access to information of public character to a number of state institutions (aka FOI requests).

The requests were submitted in order to obtain information about the dynamics of implementation of the National Programme for Adoption of the Acquis Communautaire (NPAAC 2012) which is a strategic document enshrining specific obligations for the state institutions the fulfilment of which affects the process of the integration of the Republic of Macedonia into EU.

Websites with takedown notices are pushed down in Google Search

bogdan — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 18:15:56 +0000

Google announced on 10 August 2012 that it would change the searching algorithms so as to lower the search rankings of websites that receive a high number of DMCA, European (Directive 2000/31/EC) or other similar local legislation takedown requests.

“Starting next week, we will begin taking into account a new signal in our rankings: the number of valid copyright removal notices we receive for any given site. Sites with high numbers of removal notices may appear lower in our results,” Google’s Amit Singhal wrote in a blog post.

The company has given in to the extensive and strong lobbying efforts of the entertainment industry groups thus “punishing” websites such as filestube.com, extratorrent.com, torrenthound.com, The Pirate Bay, FilesTube, and even YouTube.

Hungary: freedom of information restricted by new draft law

bogdan — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 17:49:07 +0000

This article is also available in:
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 b

Protect Coders' Rights!

bogdan — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 19:23:31 +0000

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: Entwicklerrechte schützen!

The European Parliament is preparing to discuss the European Commission's proposal on a draft Directive on Attacks Against Information Systems. EDRi-member Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has submitted its remarks urging the legislators not to create legal woes for researchers who expose security flaws.

EFF is concerned with the Commission's attempt to criminalize what it determines to be attacks on information systems. EFF believes the text is largely duplicative of the Convention on Cybercrime, which itself is riddled with problems.