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Deutsch: Stellungnahme des EDSB zu Netzneutralität und Datenschutz

Peter Hustinx, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) adopted an opinion on 7 October 2011 on the European Commission Communication on the open internet and net neutrality in Europe, stressing the necessity of respecting the fundamental right to privacy and data protection of users, in particular in terms of confidentiality of communications.

The Opinion addresses a very controversial subject and comes in the light of the Communication adopted by the Commission on 19 April 2011 and the Commission's public consultatio

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Deutsch: EU-Rat: Entwurf des Ratsbeschlusses zur Netzneutralität

On 15 July 2011, the Council (of the EU Member States) published Draft "Conclusions" (a policy statement) on Net Neutrality.

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Deutsch: Niederlande: Erstes EU-Land mit Pflicht zu Netzneutralität

A broad majority in the Dutch Parliament voted on 22 June 2011 for a legislative proposal to safeguard an open Internet in The Netherlands. The proposal prohibits Internet access providers from restricting or charging end-users for specific services. In addition, provisions were launched protecting users against disconnection and wiretapping by providers. The Netherlands is the first country in Europe to launch net neutrality provisions in parliament.

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Deutsch: Französisches Parlament veröffentlicht erfreulichen Bericht zur Netz...

Last week, a trans-partisan/cross party parliamentary mission set up by the Economic Affairs committee of the French National Assembly released a report on Net Neutrality.

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Deutsch: Bericht der Europäischen Kommission zur Netzneutralität

The European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes presented on 19 April 2011 its report on net neutrality, which brings nothing significant to the table, except strengthening the "wait and see" approach already presented at the Net Neutrality Summit in November last year.

The Commission's report is already confirming the unequal treatment of Internet traffic, quoting the results of the survey made by BEREC (Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications) in early 2010 in several EU member states:

- Limits on the speed of peer-to-peer (P2P)

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Deutsch: Netzneutralität: Britische ISPs empfehlen Transparenzkodex

Minister Ed Vaizey met with Internet service providers, Internet platforms and citizen groups including the EDRi-member Open Rights Group on 16 March 2011 to discuss network discrimination.

The positive outcome is that Tim Berners-Lee, who was at the meeting, will work with the ISPs "Broadband Stakeholders Group" on their new code. The ISPs themselves however did not feel any need to limit their ability to engage in network discrimination, arguing that market forces would prevent any serious problems from emerging.

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Deutsch: Mangel an Netzneutralität und Open Standards gefährdet das Netz

"The Web is critical not merely to the digital revolution but to our continued prosperity-and even our liberty.

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Deutsch: ENDitorial: Netzneutralität – Warten auf das Ende des offenen Inter...

At the joint European Parliament and European Commission net neutrality summit in Brussels on 11 November there was a clear political message - that interference with Internet traffic is permissible as long as companies tell their consumers that it is happening.

The Commission will "wait and see" if such interferences cause problems for the market and will consider taking action if this is the case.