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Sent: 25 March 2009 20:02
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Subject: EDRi-gram newsletter - Number 7.6, 25 March 2009
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EDRi-gram
biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe
Number 7.6, 25 March 2009
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Contents
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1. Telecom Package in second reading - dangerous amendments 2. Extension of copyright term postponed in the European Parliament 3. German Police searches the homes of the wikileaks.de domain owner 4. Data sharing legislation pulled by the UK government 5. France: Three strikes law debated by the General Assembly 6. European Parliament wants more transparency on ACTA 7. Germany: Data retention is disproportionate 8. Irish ISP Association rejects the copyright industry threats 9. Coalition of musicians against criminalizing downloaders 10. Recommended Reading 11. Recommended Action 12. Agenda 13. About
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1. Telecom Package in second reading - dangerous amendments ============================================================
Several alarming amendments to the Telecom Package second reading in the European Parliament are to be voted on 31 March 2009 by ITRE/IMCO committee.
The amendments are meant to give additional control to the entertainment industry, telecoms and IT security companies over the Internet.
An agreement on several delicate issues of the telecom package is sought in a trialogue between the European Parliament, the European Council and the European Commission to agree on a resolution regarding politically sensitive and technically difficult aspects of the Telecoms Package.
Although the European Parliament is supposed to represent the interests and rights of the users, it seems it is trying to make compromises in agreeing upon the limitations of the users' rights pushed by the UK and France in the Council.
One of the most controversial issues is that of the three-strikes strongly and continuously pushed by France in the EU Council .
Although most of the dispositions introducing the graduate response system were rejected in first reading of the Telecom Package, there are still some alarming ones persisting. France is trying hard to get rid of Amendment 138 which seeks to protect users' rights against the three-strikes sanctions and which, until now, has stopped the EU from applying the three-strikes policy.
Also, some new amendments reintroduce the notion of lawful content, which will impose the obligation on ISPs to monitor content going through their networks.
The UK government is pushing for the "wikipedia amendments" (so-called because one of them has been created by cutting and pasting a text out of the wikipedia) in order to allow ISPs to make limited content offers. The UK amendments eliminate the text that gives users rights to access and distribute content, services and applications, replacing it with a text that says "there should be transparency of conditions under which services are provided, including information on the conditions to and/or use of applications and services, and of any traffic management policies ."
"In a context where markets like mobile telecommunication or entertainment industries, merging with telecommunication operators, are controlled by oligopolies, relying on the only information of the consumer leaves the consumer without any choice.
Competition law would be the only remedy, and they proved to be totally inefficient against Microsoft or mobile operators cartels. Therefore, it is essential to define a positive guarantee of access to services without discrimination," stated Jérémie Zimmermann, co-founder of La Quadrature du Net.
Also a very dangerous amendment to the ePrivacy directive is introduced by the UK, allowing the telecommunications industry to collect a potentially unlimited amount of users' sensitive and confidential communications data including telephone and e-mail contacts, geographic position of mobile phones and websites visited on the Internet.
As a result of the amendments pushed by the AT&T industry, network discrimination practices could be included by the use of Traffic Management Systems, leading to a discriminative way in which users can access content, services and applications, therefore giving complete control of the network to the operators who will be able to decide who and what can access. The pretext for this movement is the necessity of preventing a collapse of the network due to congestion and of a diversified range of offers by the operators. "Such practices would discourage investment in network capacity as well as competition and innovation, and could pose serious threats to freedom of speech" states La Quadrature du Net which has published an analysis of the tabled amendments and recommendations for the votes to be taken by ITRE/IMCO committee.
La Quadrature du Net believes the time left before the vote in the ITRE/IMCO committee must be used to urge MEPs from IMCO and ITRE to protect the citizens' freedoms by voting against all amendments allowing net discrimination, three strikes schemes and privacy breaches. "The second reading on the Telecoms Package means a second round of intense lobbying, where corporate interests try to go back on citizen's basic freedom in order to gain more control over the network. However, the European Parliament has a unique chance of showing citizens its commitment into protecting freedom and equity, since it is only 3 months until the European elections, in June"
states the group.
BEUC, the European Consumers' Organisation, also issued a press release on
18 March appealing for the net neutrality of the Internet. "Over the coming days, the European Parliament, Commission and the Council are holding informal trialogue discussions on the third telecom package. We urge them to keep the principle of "net neutrality" in the final text, ensuring that consumers will still have access to an open Internet. Consumers should be able to choose their own content, application and services online - this right needs to be enforced by national telecom regulators".
The next key dates after the vote by ITRE/IMCO committee are 15 April 2009, the deadline for plenary amendments, and 22 April 2009- the date estimated for the EP plenary vote.
Lion of France on the attack against Amendment 138 (22.03.2009)
http://www.iptegrity.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=284&Itemid=9
Telecoms Package 2nd Reading ITRE IMCO Amendments
http://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/Telecoms_Package_2nd_Reading_ITRE_IMCO_Draft_Amendments#Amendment_85_--_2
UK government pushes for discriminated Internet (7.03.2009) http://www.laquadrature.net/en/uk-government-pushes-for-discriminated-internet
EU citizens: Save Internet from being turned into a TV! (22.03.2009) http://www.laquadrature.net/en/eu-citizens-save-internet-from-being-turned-into-a-tv
UK Proposed Amendments
http://www.laquadrature.net/files/UK_PROPOSED_AMENDMENTS_on_net_neutrality_DRAFT_20090223_print.pdf
How the EU is bargaining away the Internet (23.03.2009)
http://www.iptegrity.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=287&Itemid=9
Unblock the Internet for consumers: BEUC's fight for net neutrality
(18.03.2009)
http://docshare.beuc.org/docs/1/GOCCADAAPAOEOHHKPKMALAKIPDBG9DBYEG9DW3571KM/BEUC/docs/DLS/2009-00269-01-E.pdf
EDRI-gram: Open letter to the European Parliament - Telecom Package
(17.02.2009)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/campaigns/open-letter-telecom-package
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2. Extension of copyright term postponed in the European Parliament ============================================================
As a result of the very large controversy and lack of consensus among MEPs, in a meeting of the presidents of the political groups in the European Parliament on 17 March 2009, the vote on the extension of the copyright term, which was due for 23 March 2009, was postponed for the end of April 2009.
The proposed directive, introduced by Commissioner McCreevy, was to extend copyright from 50 to 90 years and was allegedly meant to support performers during their old age. As the many opponents to the proposal have emphasized and as several studies have shown, the extension would mostly benefit the major multinational companies and would negatively affect the economy and culture of Europe.
Professor Martin Kretschmer, Director of the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy & Management Bournmemouth considered the measure would be beneficial to the four multinational record companies Universal, Sony BMG, Warner Music and EMI owning almost all the key records to be covered by the extension, a few major artists and the collecting societies.
According to the calculation of the European Commission's own figures, most of the performers would only receive about 52 euro/year while according to the EDRi-member Open Rights Group's estimation, 80% of the performers would receive only 0.5 to 27 euro/year. Even if we take into consideration the Commission's figure, the amount is far from helping aging performers.
The Association for Fair Audiovisual Copyright in Europe ("A Face"), a group including individuals and associations of the European audiovisual community, has joined other voices against the directive and initiated a petition against it. "We regard the proposed Directive, and any other one based on similar principles and affecting the audiovisual world, as detrimental to the development and dissemination of European culture and economy, which are among the basic missions of the European Parliament. For this reason, we intend to actively oppose their approval and call everybody to support this cause" is the statement of the group. Face's goal is to make sure copyright does not deviate from its initial purpose of "protecting the interest of right holders only to the extent a general progress of culture is assured."
At the end of March, a discussion between the European Commission, European Council and the European Parliament will decide whether the directive will be allowed to be furthers discussed in the European Parliament.
MEPs back off from copyright term extension vote! (19.03.2009) http://www.openrightsgroup.org/2009/03/19/meps-back-off-from-copyright-term-extension-vote/
Copyright extension debate: We must not inhibit digital creators
(16.03.2009)
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/shane_richmond/blog/2009/03/16/copyright_extension_debate_we_must_not_inhibit_digital_creators_
Association for Fair Audiovisual Copyright in Europe Petition of the european audiovisual community against the proposed directive for a copyright term Extension for sound recordings http://aface.eu/
EDRI- gram: Reject the Term Extension Directive (21.01.2009) http://www.edri.org/reject-term-extention-directive
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3. German Police searches the homes of the wikileaks.de domain owner ============================================================
The German Police searched the homes of Theodor Reppe, the owner of the domain name wikileaks.de, alleging he was under investigation for "distribution of pornographic material" and "discovery of evidence"
The seven police officers in Dresden and four in Jena having performed the searches in the evening of 24 March 2009 claimed the raid was initiated due to Mr. Reppe's position as the Wikileaks.de domain owner.
However, it is not clear what exact documents were targeted, because the German Police did not want to give any further information to Mr. Reppe and no contact was made with Wikileaks before or after the search. But the search is considered to be related with the publication of Wikileaks of the censorship lists for Australia, Thailand, Denmark and other countries. The lists include to sites alleged to contain pornography, including child pornography. However, Wikileaks has not published any images from the sites.
Wikileaks also speculated on the search: "The raid appears to be related to a recent German social hysteria around child pornography and the political battle for a national censorship system under the German family Minister Ursula von der Leyen. It comes just a few weeks after a member of parliament, SPD Joerg Tauss had his office and private house searched by police. German bloggers discussing the subject were similarly raided. "
According to information from Reppe, the Police asked for the passwords to the wikileaks.de domain and asked. for the entire domain to be disabled. But Wikileaks.de and other Wikileaks domains were unaffected by the raid.
Reppe is just a volunteer who sponsors the domain for Wikileaks, but is not involved in the day-to-day-operation of wikileaks and just mirrors a collection of Wikileaks US Congressional Research Service reports.He also maintains one of the most popular Tor servers in Germany.
Police raid home of Wikileaks.de domain owner over censorship lists
(24.03.2009)
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Police_raid_home_of_Wikileaks.de_domain_owner_over_censorship_lists
Police raid Wikileaks.de domain owner Theodor Reppe's home over 'censorship lists' (25.03.2009) http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,25240192-5014239,00.html
House searches for owners of the domain wikileaks.de (only in German
25.03.2009)
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/Hausdurchsuchung-bei-Inhaber-der-Domain-wikileaks-de-Update--/meldung/135147
Danish police mobilized Blocked list (only in German, 2.03.2009) http://www.lawblog.de/index.php/archives/2009/03/02/danische-sperrliste-mobilisiert-polizei/
Australia secretly censors Wikileaks press release and Danish Internet censorship list (16.03.2009)
http://wikileaks.de/wiki/Australia_secretly_censors_Wikileaks_press_release_and_Danish_Internet_censorship_list%2C_16_Mar_2009
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4. Data sharing legislation pulled by the UK government ============================================================
The campaign of Privacy International and of other civil liberties groups against data sharing legislation in UK resulted in the UK Government decision to abandon Clause 152 of the Coroners and Justice Bill.
The respective clause was giving a "designated authority" the power to sign an order allowing the sharing of information between any two agencies in the public and private sector.
The proposed legislation raised concerns related to the possible misuse of personal data and created a large opposition movement. In a campaign led by Privacy International and other NGOs, an open letter addressed to Justice Secretary Jack Straw, signed by thirty organisations on 28 February 2009 condemned the proposal as a dangerous threat to privacy, and called for the withdrawal of clause 152 from the Coroners & Justice Bill. "In view of the extraordinary powers conferred by clause 152, the information sharing provisions in the Bill may constitute the gravest threat to data protection in the history of the Data Protection Act, and are among the most wide-ranging and potentially intrusive proposals ever laid before Parliament," stated the letter.
On 9 March 2009, a spokesman for Straw announced the "rethinking" of the legislative initiative as a result of the "strength of feeling" against it.
The spokesmen stated Justice Secretary recognized that the clause had been drafted in too wide a manner and the reason for the "rethink and a re-consultation" was to "try to strike a balance between the positive elements of data-sharing and ensuring that sensitive data is protected".
Although the proposal was entirely stricken out from the Coroners and Justice Bill, a new attempt will be made to introducing an adjusted version in an undetermined future.
"This is an extraordinary U-turn but we cannot be led into a false sense of security. We congratulate the Government on its decision, but it was inevitable given how badly the clause have been drafted and how morally corrupt its outcome would have been. Nobody should be under the illusion that the Government has changed its colours with regard to its zeal for surveillance. This could be merely a blip, so we all have to remain vigilant for the next assault of privacy" said Simon Davies, director of Privacy International.
Privacy campaigner Phil Booth, director of No2ID was also pleased by the decision. "People realized that their information could be taken and used and abused for other purposes" he said, adding: "The public backlash against Clause 152 has been phenomenal. NO2ID has been working closely with Privacy International and others to focus grassroots and organisational opposition, but the reality is that people just won't put up with the hypocrisy of politicians who want to keep their own details secret, or who support shadowy police databases on protestors, yet who clearly still think that the state can do just as it wants with our personal information. It can't - the people have spoken. Let's hope the scrapping of Clause 152 is the first nail in the coffin of the database state."
However, just as Davies, he expressed some reservations, thinking the government might disregard Straw's position.
Straw will launch a public consultation in view of implementing more limited proposals to allow government bodies to share information in cases when there is clear benefit.
"We will talk to interested groups to get the balance right so that we have the right policy issues reflected in any future legislation and at the same time avoid worrying people unnecessarily that their data is being abused"
stated Straw's spokesmen.
UK Government backs down on data sharing legislation after PI campaign
(8.03.2009)
http://www.privacyinternational.org/article.shtml?cmd[347]=x-347-563879
Government abandons data-sharing scheme (7.03.2009) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/4954058/Government-abandons-data-sharing-scheme.html
Straw bows to pressure over data sharing (8.03.2009) http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/mar/08/data-sharing-civil-liberties
UK govt to rethink data-sharing plans (10.03.2009) http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/security/0,39044215,62052042,00.htm?scid=rss_z_nw
Civil society joins key professional bodies to demand removal of data sharing powers (28.02.2009) http://www.privacyinternational.org/article.shtml?cmd[347]=x-347-563710
EDRIgram:UK Government proposes increased data sharing (11.02.2009) http://www.edri.org/edri-gram/number7.3/uk-govt-more-sharing-data
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5. France: Three strikes law debated by the General Assembly ============================================================
The debates on the French three strikes law (so called Hadopi law) started on 11 March 2009 in the General Assembly only to be suspended at the end of the second day, to be continued on 31 March.
While the law was adopted by the Senate in less than a day, it appears the deputies will need a much longer time for the debates. Several deputies have shown their opposition to the project considering it as a mechanism to suppress rights and liberties, a "legal monster" as deputy Patrick Bloche expressed himself.
However, several amendments to the law were rejected during these two days.
Besides the debates related to the financial costs incurred by the creation of Hadopi authority, many discussions referred to the respect of the right to defence raised by the graduated response. At the request of the Minister of Culture and some rapporteurs, the deputies rejected the amendment stipulating that "the right to an equitable procedure must be observed in all cases by the High Authority" and that "attached to this fundamental principles are the audi alteram partem right, the right of defence, the presumption of innocence and imputability rights".
The deputies also rejected the modified version of the global licence despite the arguments brought by the opponents of the graduate response.
Didier Mathus brought the argument of the revenue showing that with a 2 euro/month contribution from the Internet users, 400 millions euro would go to the music industry while the three strikes system would bring nothing.
Jean Dionis du Séjour's proposal of an extended collective licence for the commercial platforms wishing to have access to the catalogues of the record companies was also rejected as well as the amendment introduced by the majority deputy Suguenot that referred to a tax on all advertising revenue from the web, in favour of performers.
Another rejected amendment requested a report to be submitted to the Parliament before 31 October 2009 for the implementation of a fund for music creation. The financing of the fund should be included as a part of the tax payed by operators of electronic communications.
So, basically, Christine Albanel succeeded in influencing the votes of the deputies in many of the issues under the debate. She also reaffirmed her intention to continue to defend the draft law.
However, there is still some time before the debates are resumed which could be used to try and influence the final result.
La Quadrature du Net has launched an initiative in this sense meant to make all deputies aware of the consequences of their position regarding the Hadopi law. The "Memoire Politique" (Political Memory) is a wiki including all texts and comments of the deputies that will allow the citizens to verify the position of each deputy in various national and european legal debates.
La Quadrature du Net team, has decided to thus improve the democratic information and to "concretely apply the fundamental principle of the representative democracy" by the Memoire Politique".
The Memoire Politique will collect the declarations and positions of the deputies during the sessions on Hadopi law, also providing their assessment.
This will give the citizens the possibility to verify whether the deputies they elected really represent their interests. This will also help in providing the citizens with the counter-arguments that they may present to their deputies in requiring the refusal of amendments that may affect their rights.
Internet and Creation Law (day 2): suspended until 31 March... minimum (only in French, 13.03.2009) http://www.numerama.com/magazine/12301-Loi-Creation-et-Internet-jour-2-suspendue-jusqu-au-31-mars-minimum.html
Hadopi (day 2) : the deputies rejected the global licence - version 2009 (only in French, 12.03.2009) http://www.numerama.com/magazine/12299-Hadopi-jour-2-les-deputes-rejettent-la-licence-globale-version-2009.html
Hadopi (day 1): The right wing divided by the suspension of the access to Internet (only in French, 12.03.2009) http://www.numerama.com/magazine/12285-Hadopi-jour-1-la-droite-divisee-sur-la-suspension-de-l-acces-a-Internet.html
Hadopi : National Assembly massively rejects the exception of non-admisability (only in French, 11.03.2009) http://www.numerama.com/magazine/12281-Hadopi-l-Assemblee-Nationale-rejette-massivement-l-exception-d-irrecevabilite.html
La Quadrature du Net sets up the Mémoire Politique (only in French,
23.03.2009)
http://www.numerama.com/magazine/12387-La-Quadrature-du-Net-met-en-place-une-Memoire-Politique.html
Mémoire Politique
http://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/Political_Memory
Hadopi amendements - National Assembly
http://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/Hadopi_amendements_assemblee_nationale
EDRI-gram: HADOPI law close of creating a dangerous precedent (25.02.2009) http://www.edri.org/edri-gram/number7.4/hadopi-law-france
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6. European Parliament wants more transparency on ACTA ============================================================
The European Parliament has included in the Draft Regulation regarding public access to the European Parliament, Council and Commission documents a reference asking for more transparency in the current negotiations on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)
A recital in the text adopted by the European Parliament says:
"In accordance with Article 255(1) of the EC Treaty, the Commission should immediately make all documents related to the ongoing international negotiations on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) publicly available."
The new regulation considers that the basic principle of the new policy on access to documents should be: "No legislative documents should be kept secret." MEPs adopted amendments to the draft proposal but postponed the vote on the legislative resolution, leaving the door open for further negotiations and a first-reading agreement.
The regulation foresees also the disclosure of the documents originating from a Member State and received by the EU institutions, after the consultation of the Member state, but without giving it a right of veto.
Also Member States shall seek to ensure that an equivalent level of transparency is granted in relation to national measures implementing normative acts of the EU.
The MEPs concluded that transparency should be extended also to the international agreements where EU is participating. Special reference was made to the agreement with the USA on the PNR that "must not give a non-EU country or an international organisation the right to prevent the European Parliament from accessing confidential information."
Also, MEPs asked the Commission to make available all the documents related to ACTA that might create a new international benchmark on intellectual property right enforcement.
This decision came as a breath of fresh air for all international civil rights activists that have asked several times for the publication of the documents related to this international treaty. Especially after in US a Freedom of Information Act request by Jamie Love, director of the non-profit group Knowledge Ecology International, was denied by the chief FOIA officer in the White House's Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. The subject of the request were 7 specific documents, referenced by their exact title and date. These documents are the proposals for ACTA text. The requested documents "are being widely circulated to corporate lobbyists in Europe, Japan, and the U.S. There is no reason for them to be secret from the American public."
However, the answer of the Obama administration was that the discussion draft of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and related materials are "classified in the interest of national security pursuant to Executive Order 12958."
A document published by Michael Geist in Canada reveals that also the Canadian Government might be favourable to an early release of draft ACTA ".. the Canadian delegation plans to argue for a transparent approach. . .
This approach would result in an earlier release of the text, which would serve to alleviate domestic concerns about the scope of the agreement and the perceived secrecy surrounding the process. The draft text could then serve as the basis for broad-based public consultations. "
Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents (11.03.2009) http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P6-TA-2009-0114+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN
Access to documents: The European Parliament demands more transparency
(11.03.2009)
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/019-51409-068-03-11-902-20090310IPR51408-09-03-2009-2009-false/default_es.htm
Copyright treaty is classified for 'national security' (12.03.2009) http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10195547-38.html
Obama Administration Rules Texts of New IPR Agreement are State Secrets
(12.03.2009)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-love/obama-administration-rule_b_174450.html
Canada Favours Early Release of ACTA Text (14.03.2009) http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3751/125/
EDRi-gram: EU pushes for an international Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (7.11.2007) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.21/acta-eu
EDRi-gram: BitTorrent tracker sites threatened by draft ACTA agreement
(4.06.2008)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number6.11/bittorent-acta-agreement
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7. Germany: Data retention is disproportionate ============================================================
The German Working Group on Data Retention (AK Vorrat) announced that the Administrative Court of Wiesbaden found the blanket recording of the entire population's traffic data on telephone, mobile phone, e-mail and Internet usage is disproportionate.
The decision of the court is "that data retention violates the fundamental right to privacy. It is not necessary in a democratic society. The individual does not provoke the interference but can be intimidated by the risks of abuse and the feeling of being under surveillance (...) The directive (on data retention) does not respect the principle of proportionality guaranteed in Article 8 ECHR, which is why it is invalid."
AK Vorrat, that has also initiated the Constitutional complaint against the German Data retention law, used this opportunity to address another digital civil rights fear: a government project to allow Internet service providers to record everybody's Internet surfing habits. The project was debated on 19 March by the German Bundestag in the first reading.
Started as a project to better protect the computer networks against any cyber-attacks, the new draft has been criticized by the Privacy Commissioner of the Federal Government, Peter Schaar, who considered that the draft needed to be revised and several law provisions needed to be clarified.
The draft also contains an amendment to the Telemedia Act, which allows service providers, using data they are allowed to store and process for legal purposes, to use the information for identifying surfing habits. The amendemnt is justified by the necessity of the protection against malicious software and other similar threats.
"We call on all citizens to contact their MPs now in order to protest against the proposed retention of web surfing habits," says Werner Hülsmann, member of the board of the forum of computer scientists for peace and social responsibility, actively working in the Working Group on Data Retention.
"The recent criticism by Federal Minister of the Interior Wolfgang Schäuble
(CDU) of the Constitutional Court's preliminary decision on data retention proves that his surveillance mania is limitless", criticizes Patrick Breyer of the Working Group on Data Retention. "It is not 'a matter for the legislature' to keep eroding our constitutional guarantees protecting us from errors and abuses by the authorities. We urgently need to establish a Fundamental Rights Agency to have all existing powers and programs of the security authorities systematically and scientifically reviewed as to their effectiveness, cost, adverse effects, alternatives and compatibility with our fundamental rights."
Despite all the different European attempts to stop data retention, the day of 15 March 2009, imposed by the EU data retention directive, marks the starting point for ISPs to collect and store traffic data in several European countries.
Administrative Court: Data retention is "invalid" (16.03.2009) http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/content/view/301/1/lang,en/
Video: Bundestag debates draft law (only in German, 25.03.2009) http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/content/view/302/1/lang,de/
Protection against hackers, surveillance fears (only in German, 19.03.2009) http://www.tagesschau.de/inland/ueberwachung/bsigesetz100.html
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8. Irish ISP Association rejects the copyright industry threats ============================================================
After several weeks of silence in the the Eircom deal with IRMA (Irish Recorded Music Association), the Irish ISP Association (ISPAI) has reacted considering the legal threats as spurious and that there is no evidence of wrong-doing by Internet Service Providers.
The Irish ISP scandal has started with the major Irish ISP Eircom agreement to a "three strikes" approach, following the settlement of the court case with IRMA. In terms of this agreement, the evidence of illegal downloads will be provided by IRMA and Eircom will take action without a court hearing. The agreement also means that Eircom is not to oppose any application blocking file-sharing websites from their network.
IRMA tried to extend the agreement to other ISPs by sending them letters threatening legal action from solicitors representing four major music recording companies.
ISPAI, where Eircom is also a member, published a statement approved by "a majority" of its members that claims that two years ago they initiated meetings with the music representatives to explore these aspects, but the matter was not followed up by the industry.
"The ISPAI and its members have never condoned the use of its members'
services for theft of copyrighted works of any kind, and continue to operate within the existing legal framework which has provisions for taking action where appropriate," says the statement explaining that the present Irish copyright law provides remedies and means of action for breaching copyright through the courts and that "ISPAI members will continue to co-operate fully within these existing legal parameters."
ISPAI also supports the privacy of its users' communications and underlines its importance through this statement:
"Privacy of user communications is protected in European and Irish legislation. ISPs can not be expected to ignore these merely because it does not suit another private party. To do so would breach the privacy of our users as well as having serious implications for the continued location of international e-business in this country and the jobs these generate. "
ISPAI - Position statement (13.03.2009)
http://www.ispai.ie/docs/20090313copyright.pdf
Irish ISPs rally against record label anti-piracy threat (17.03.2009) http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/17/irish_isps_rally_against_irma_threats/
Irish ISPs reject music industry's file-sharer demands (18.03.2009)
http://www.out-law.com//default.aspx?page=9887
EDRi-gram: Irish ISP settled to introduce 3 strikes (11.02.2009) http://www.edri.org/edri-gram/number7.3/3-strikes-ireland
EDRi-gram: IRMA tries to block websites (11.03.2009) http://www.edri.org/edri-gram/number7.5/irma-blocks-websites
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9. Coalition of musicians against criminalizing downloaders ============================================================
On 11 March 2009, during its inaugural meeting, the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) including 140 of UK biggest rock and pop stars, expressed concern about actions taken against fans involved in file-sharing.
FAC expressed the intention to fight for a fairer deal for musicians "at a time when they can use the internet to forge direct links with their fans."
The members of the coalition want to campaign for effective laws and regulations and for transparent and equitable business practices. They believe that companies such as MySpace and YouTube should be required to remunerate the artists when using their music for advertising. At the same time, they want to dissociate themselves from the industry in its move to criminalize individuals for illegally downloaded music.
The artists discussed on a response to the interim version of the Digital Britain report which proposes a Rights Agency to enforce anti-piracy measures. Although the interim report does not propose a three-strikes system like in France, it proposes measures requiring ISPs to give up information about customers sharing music on P2P networks to rights-holders.
This would make it easier to take actions against the most significant infringers.
"What I said at the meeting was that the record industry in Britain is still going down the road of criminalising our audience for downloading illegal MP3s," said musician Billy Bragg who added that "Artists should own their own rights and they should decide when their music should be used for free, or when they should have payment."
Ed O'Brien, member of Radiohand band, considered that during a "defining time for the industry (...) a lot of the rights and revenue streams are being carved up, and we need a voice... I think all the major players want to hear what we have to say."
It's not a crime to download, say musicians (12.03.2009) http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/its-not-a-crime-to-download-say-musicians-1643217.html
Featured Artists Opposed To Cutting Off File-Sharers (12.03.2009)
http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3iffcfe0c0b0255a5af3401db90f5dd412
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10. Recommended Action
============================================================
Document Freedom Day - 25.03.2009
For the second time, in 2009, the Document Freedom Day is orgganized as a global day for Document Liberation with the participation of roughly 250 active teams worldwide. It is a day of grassroots effort around the world to promote and build awareness for the relevance of Free Document Formats in particular and Open Standards in general.
http://www.documentfreedom.org/
============================================================
11. Recommended Reading
============================================================
Database State - a comprehensive map of UK government databases By Ross Anderson, Ian Brown, Terri Dowty, Philip Inglesant, William Heath, Angela Sasse, Foundation for Information Policy Research (March 2009)
Database State - full report
http://www.jrrt.org.uk/uploads/Database%20State.pdf
Database State - Executive Summary
http://www.jrrt.org.uk/uploads/Database%20State%20-%20Executive%20Summary.pdf
============================================================
12. Agenda
============================================================
26-27 March 2009, London, UK
5th Communia Workshop: Accessing, Using, Reusing Public Sector Content and Data
http://www.communia-project.eu/ws05
27-29 March 2009, Manchester, UK
Oekonux Conference: Free Software and Beyond The World of Peer Production http://www.oekonux-conference.org/
28 March 2009, London, UK
Open Knowledge Conference (OKCon) 2009
http://www.okfn.org/okcon/
29-31 March 2009, Edinburgh, UK
Governance Of New Technologies: The Transformation Of Medicine, Information Technology And Intellectual Property - An International Interdisciplinary Conference http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/ahrc/conference09/
1-3 April 2009, Berlin, Germany
re:publica 2009 "Shift happens"
http://www.re-publica.de/09/
Subconference: 2nd European Privacy Open Space http://www.privacyos.eu/
4 April 2009, Paris, France
French 2009 Big Brother Awards
http://bigbrotherawards.eu.org/
21-23 April 2009, Winchester, UK
BILETA 2009 Annual Conference
http://www.winchester.ac.uk/?page=9871
23-24 April 2009, Brussels, Belgium
The future of intellectual property - Creativity and innovation in the digital era http://www.intellectualproperty-conference.eu
23-24 April 2009, Amsterdam, Netherlands Second European Licensing and Legal Workshop organized by Free Software Foundation Europe http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/2009/news-20090323-01.en.html
11 May 2009, Brussels, Belgium
GigaNet is organizing the 2nd international academic workshop on Global Internet Governance: An Interdisciplinary Research Field in Construction.
Deadline for abstracts submissions is 20 March 2009.
http://giganet.igloogroups.org/publiclibr/giganetcos/2009brusse
13-14 May 2009 Uppsala, Sweden
Mashing-up Culture: The Rise of User-generated Content http://www.counter2010.org/workshop_call
19-20 May 2009, Brussels, Belgium
European Commission organizes a personal data protection conference to look at new challenges for privacy http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/fsj/privacy/news/docs/pr_03_03_09_en.pdf
24-28 May 2009, Venice, Italy
ICIMP 2009, The Fourth International Conference on Internet Monitoring and Protection http://www.iaria.org/conferences2009/ICIMP09.html
1-4 June 2009, Washington, DC, USA
Computers Freedom and Privacy 2009
http://www.cfp2009.org/
5 June 2009, London, UK
The Second Multidisciplinary Workshop on Identity in the Information Society (IDIS 09): "Identity and the Impact of Technology"
http://is2.lse.ac.uk/idis/2009/
28-30 June 2009, Torino, Italy
COMMUNIA Conference 2009: Global Science & Economics of Knowledge-Sharing Institutions
http://www.communia-project.eu/conf2009
2-3 July 2009, Padova, Italy
3rd FLOSS International Workshop on Free/Libre Open Source Software Paper submission by 31 March 2009 http://www.decon.unipd.it/personale/curri/manenti/floss/floss09.html
13-16 August 2009, Vierhouten, The Netherlands Hacking at Random http://www.har2009.org/
23-27 August 2009, Milan, Italy
World Library and Information Congress: 75th IFLA General Conference and
Council: "Libraries create futures: Building on cultural heritage"
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla75/index.htm
10-12 September 2009, Potsdam, Germany
5th ECPR General Conference, Potsdam
Section: Protest Politics
Panel: The Contentious Politics of Intellectual Property http://www.ecpr.org.uk/potsdam/default.asp
16-18 September 2009, Crete, Greece
World Summit on the Knowledge Society WSKS 2009 http://www.open-knowledge-society.org/
October 2009, Istanbul, Turkey
eChallenges 2009
http://www.echallenges.org/e2009/default.asp
16 October 2009, Bielefeld, Germany
10th German Big Brother Awards
Deadline for nominations: 15 July 2009
http://www.bigbrotherawards.de/
15-18 November 2009, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt UN Internet Governance Forum http://www.intgovforum.org/
============================================================
13. About
============================================================
EDRI-gram is a biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe.
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