archief:edri_gram_nieuwsbrief:01_12_10
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+ | ====== EDRI-gram Nieuwsbrief - 1 december 2010 ====== | ||
+ | ===== 1. Internet blocking - key decisions to be made by 3 February 2011 ===== | ||
+ | The legislative process on Internet blocking is about to move from almost standstill to almost completed between now and the beginning of February. In the Council of Ministers, an informal agreement is planned for the Justice Council in December, while the MEP in charge in the Parliament will present her draft report on 10 January 2011 with an informal orientation vote just three weeks later. | ||
+ | Every civil society organisation that wants to stop web blocking and the damage that this will do for child protection must focus all available resources on the Civil Liberties Committee of the European Parliament between now and early February. Afterwards, it will be too late. The risk of damage to child protection is abundantly clear from the Working Document prepared by the MEP in charge of the dossier, Roberta Angelilli (Italy). She says: "We have to bear in mind that our priority is to eliminate these images for public access as quick as possible." | ||
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+ | Bizarrely, Ms Angelilli also suggests that "the providers would be promptly informed about their rights to appeal against the decision" | ||
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+ | In the Parliament, MEPs remain divided but the argument that blocking is a " | ||
+ | |||
+ | In the Council, Germany and Romania are fighting hard for blocking to remain optional for Member States. However France and Italy (coincidentally, | ||
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+ | In the Council, the current negotiating text reads as follows: "2. Where the removal of webpages containing or disseminating child pornography is not possible within a reasonable time, Member States shall take the necessary measures, including through non-legislative measures, to ensure that the blocking of access to webpages containing or disseminating child pornography is possible towards the Internet users in their territory. The blocking of access shall be subject to adequate safeguards, in particular to ensure that the blocking, taking into account technical characteristics, | ||
+ | |||
+ | This text raises three interesting points. Firstly, blocking through non-legislative measures has already been described as illegal by the European Commission in the impact assessment it prepared to accompany the proposals. In that text, the Commission assessed extra-judicial blocking as follows: "More problematic may be the compliance with the requirement that the interference in this fundamental right must be " | ||
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+ | The second interesting point refers to the last lines of the draft text. It suggests that a legal obligation is necessary for Member States to take the step of contacting the alleged criminals, accused of publishing pictures of children being abused on the Internet, and politely informing them that their page has been blocked and giving them the opportunity to complain, if they so wish. | ||
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+ | The final point is that Member States should do what they consider necessary, which means that, strictly speaking, this text places no obligations on anyone. Its only real purpose is to give Member States an excuse to introduce blocking, even via " | ||
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+ | The civil society in Poland is pushing hard to demand that the government have the courage to take a position. EDRi-member the Panoptykon Foundation, along with representatives of the Kidprotect Foundation, the Modern Poland Foundation, the Foundation for Free and Open Source Software and the Interactive Advertising Bureau Poland appealed to the Prime Minister to ensure that Polish representation to the European Council takes a critical stance on the Child Exploitation Directive. | ||
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+ | In their appeal, the groups demanded proper action against the abuse, rather than the childish act of placing its hands before its eyes in the hope that the monsters would disappear. Illegal content must be removed and not hidden by the creation of a censorship infrastructure. | ||
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+ | ===== 2. Data protection authorities call for a strict EU-US privacy agreement ===== | ||
+ | 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, voicing certain concerns and giving its recommendations. | ||
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+ | Referring to the agreement as "an umbrella agreement" | ||
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+ | WP recommends that the agreement be widely applicable for a " | ||
+ | |||
+ | In the WP's opinion, a national security exception for the transfer of data concerning " | ||
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+ | Furthermore, | ||
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+ | Having in view the privacy issues raised by the TFTP II Agreement (so called SWIFT) allowing the US to obtain access to information on international bank transfers, the WP stresses the need for data protection safeguards in the future agreement, including "full, effective and enforceable rights for all individuals, | ||
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+ | On 24 November, LIBE (Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs) Committee of the European Parliament Chairman also sent a letter to the EU Council on the future EU-US agreement regarding the protection of personal data that are transferred and processed in the framework of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters. | ||
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+ | The letter reiterates the support of the European Parliament for the data protection agreement draft mandate and reminds the urgent need of such an agreement between the EU and US that should cover personal data exchanges as well as an "early start to negotiations on enforceable data protection rights" | ||
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+ | LIBE held on 25 October 2010 a public hearing on Data Protection in a Transatlantic Perspective - Future EU-US data protection agreement in the framework of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters - with MEP Sophia In't Veld as chairperson. | ||
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+ | While the US Ambassador to the EU assured that the US believed both parties had to " | ||
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+ | One of the most important interventions was that of Mr Rotenberg' | ||
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+ | Rotenberg considers that the data protection agreement could bring global benefits influencing other countries in adopting stronger privacy acts to protect the transfer of personal data. | ||
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+ | Dr. Patrick Breyer from the German Working Group on Data Retention was very firm in stating that the transfer of personal data to the US created the risk of a violation of human rights and that no agreement could eliminate that risk. However, an international agreement with the US could improve the present situation if applied " | ||
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+ | The negotiating mandate for the beginning of the talks between the European Commission and the US is expected to be adopted at the Justice and Home Affairs Council on 3 December 2010. | ||
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+ | * [[http:// | ||
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+ | ===== 3. The Pirate Bay founders lost their appeal in the Swedish Appeals Court ===== | ||
+ | Peter Sunde, Carl Lundström and Fredrik Neij, who, in April 2009, were found guilty of copyright infringement through their file-sharing website, The Pirate Bay (TPB), have recently lost their appeal in Svea Court of Appeal. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Although the court has decided to reduce their imprisonment sentence of one year to 8, 4 and 10 months respectively, | ||
+ | |||
+ | A separate hearing will take place later for the forth TPB founder, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg who was ill and could not take part in the proceedings with the other three men. | ||
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+ | Rick Falkvinge, leader of the Swedish Pirate Party, considers the trial was politically-motivated and believes that: "The copyright laws have strayed so far from the public' | ||
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+ | La Quadrature du Net called the decision "both absurd and unfair. It illustrates how an obsolete copyright law and its indiscriminate application are harmful to society as a whole." | ||
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+ | Christian Engstrom, member of the European Parliament for the Pirate Party has told Deutsche Welle that the ruling only proved that the influence corporations have on the Swedish coursts is too large.. "The lawyers for the record companies are friends with the judges, both in the lower court and in the appeals court. They belong to the same societies for copyright, which is a lobby organization for copyright lawyers. This corruption unfortunately leads to the fact that you can't get a fair trial in copyright-related issues in Sweden today," | ||
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+ | Obviously, the music industry welcomed the ruling. " | ||
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+ | The court had found that TPB "has facilitated illegal file sharing in a way that results in criminal liability for those who run the service." | ||
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+ | The defendants had claimed they could not be liable for the material exchanged via their site, because the copyrighted material was not stored on its servers and there was no actual exchange of files. But the prosecution argued that, through TPB, the four men encouraged the infringement of copyrights. | ||
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+ | Sunde said on Twitter that the case would now go to the Swedish Supreme Court. | ||
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+ | ===== 4. ICO started applying fines for Data Protection Act breaches ===== | ||
+ | After having received increased powers in April 2010, the UK Data protection authority (Information Commissioner Office - ICO) has recently used these powers to fine an organisation and a local authority for having breached the Data Protection Act. | ||
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+ | Hertfordshire County Council has been fined with about 120 000 Euro for the fact that its employees sent highly sensitive information by fax to the wrong recipients twice, once in June to a member of the public instead of a barrister and the second time, 13 days later, to the office of an unconnected barrister instead of the Watford County Court. | ||
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+ | "The Commissioner ruled that a monetary penalty of 100,000 pounds was appropriate, | ||
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+ | Employment services company A4e was also fined with about 72 000 Euro for having given a laptop with the unencrypted personal information of 24 000 people to an employee to take home. The laptop was stolen from the employee' | ||
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+ | ICO is also concerned about Google' | ||
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+ | "It is a significant achievement to have an undertaking from a major multinational corporation like Google Inc. that extends to its global policies and not just its UK activities. We will be keeping a close watch on the progress Google makes and will follow up with an extensive audit," | ||
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+ | Others are sceptic regarding ICO's influence on Google. "The Information Commissioner is ineffective and is widely held in contempt," | ||
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+ | ===== 5. Azeri bloggers released from prison ===== | ||
+ | After a long and continuous pressure from several civil society groups and European international organisations such as the European Parliament, the Presidency of the European Union, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders, the US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, the two Azeri bloggers arrested in 2009 on false pretences of hooliganism, | ||
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+ | A Baku court released Emin Milli on 18 November 2010, one day after his friend Adnan Hajizade' | ||
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+ | The decision was welcomed by Reporters Without Borders which, however, expressed its disappointment for the fact that the bloggers had not been cleared. "We nonetheless regret that his conviction has not been quashed as we have always insisted that he was arrested for exercising the right to free expression and was jailed on grotesque charges after a sham trial. The vigilance must not let up and the campaigning must continue in order to protect him from any kind of harassment or intimidation by the authorities and to obtain the release of Milli and Fatullayev," | ||
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+ | After his release, Hajizade reaffirmed his innocence and said he would remain in Azerbaijan and continue his blogging. "I am not guilty and will demand full rehabilitation. Freedom is my right," | ||
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+ | On this occasion, pressure for all sides continues for the release of newspaper editor Eynulla Fatullayev who has been imprisoned since April 2007 for his political convictions, | ||
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+ | * [[http:// | ||
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+ | ===== 6. Ireland: reshaping the law for the digital economy ===== | ||
+ | EDRi-member Digital Rights Ireland, Google and the Institute of International and European Affairs co-sponsored an event in Dublin on 19 November 2010 which presented suggestions for the reform of Irish law to promote digital innovation. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Speakers were Niall O' | ||
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+ | Chairing the event was TJ McIntyre from Digital Rights Ireland who concluded with a presentation which called for reform of defamation law and for greater immunities to be given to intermediaries under the Irish law. | ||
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+ | * [[http:// | ||
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+ | ===== 7. Lack of net neutrality and open standards threaten the web ===== | ||
+ | "The Web is critical not merely to the digital revolution but to our continued prosperity-and even our liberty. Like democracy itself, it needs defending." | ||
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+ | This is the subtitle of a recent article of Tim Berners-Lee published in the Scientific American Magazine on 22 November 2010 where he focuses on the new threats of the current developments of the world wide web: lack of Internet neutrality, social networking, closed standards and attempts from governments to snoop on web communications. | ||
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+ | The articles titled "Long Live the Web: A Call for Continued Open Standards and Neutrality" | ||
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+ | Sir Tim Berners-Lee points to Internet neutrality as one of the core issues that needs to be preserved in order to allow the unhindered development of the WWW, based on its principles of universality and de-centralization. | ||
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+ | The author is clear in emphasizing why legislation is needed to protect these principles: "A neutral communications medium is the basis of a fair, competitive market economy, of democracy, and of science. Debate has risen again in the past year about whether government legislation is needed to protect net neutrality. It is. Although the Internet and Web generally thrive on lack of regulation, some basic values have to be legally preserved. " | ||
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+ | The father of the WWW also explains what the open standards are key to keep innovation at maximum in the Internet: "By 'open standards' | ||
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+ | Sir Tim Berners-Lee also points to stupid EU legislation, | ||
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+ | "In these cases, no due process of law protects people before they are disconnected or their sites are blocked. Given the many ways the Web is crucial to our lives and our work, disconnection is a form of deprivation of liberty. " | ||
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+ | * [[http:// | ||
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+ | ===== 8. ENDItorial: EC Internal Security Strategy - My dog is a cat ===== | ||
+ | The European Commission (EC) recently published its " | ||
+ | |||
+ | One almost amusing element is how it included " | ||
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+ | Meanwhile, some elements that are missing are also interesting. For example, the Strategy argues that " | ||
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+ | With regard to cybercrime, the Strategy suggests the creation of a " | ||
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+ | Even though no progress has been made on the Commission' | ||
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+ | ===== 9. Recommended Action ===== | ||
+ | * [[http:// | ||
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+ | ===== 10. Recommended Reading ===== | ||
+ | * [[http:// | ||
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+ | * [[http:// | ||
+ | * [[http:// | ||
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+ | ===== 11. Agenda ===== | ||
+ | * [[http:// | ||
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+ | * [[http:// | ||
+ | * [[http:// |
archief/edri_gram_nieuwsbrief/01_12_10.txt · Laatst gewijzigd: 2017/09/11 21:36 door KapiteinG