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Subject: EDRi-gram newsletter - Number 7.11, 3 June 2009
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EDRi-gram
biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe
Number 7.11, 3 June 2009
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Contents
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1. The French Government wants to spy on electronic communications 2. Pressure of the record companies on The Pirate Bay 3. Open source supporters criticize European govts for favouring MS 4. DRI against the Irish law on the interception of communications 5. French Government hurries to put HADOPI law into application 6. WIPO: Visually impaired treaty proposal 7. EU will examine Google Books project 8. Deutsche Telecom investigating the sexual life of job applicants 9. Recommended Action 10. Recommended Reading 11. Agenda 12. About
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1. The French Government wants to spy on electronic communications ============================================================
On 27 May 2009, the law on orientation and programming for the performance of the domestic security (Loppsi) was presented by Michèle Alliot-Marie to the French Council of Ministers.
The law will give the French police the possibility to physically or remotely install spying software to listen to electronic communications and introduces the Internet filtering by administrative decision.
According to the text, the Criminal Investigation Police will be allowed to place on a suspect's computer a sort of internal or external USB key which will send data to the computers of the authorities. The police may also remotely install Trojans which will give access to all the data in a computer in real time.
The police will be allowed to make use of these tools only in "the most severe cases" which however include "support given to the illegal entry and residence of a foreigner". Under the control of an examining magistrate (juge d'instruction), the investigating authority will have to justify the use of the technique by declaring the infringement investigated, the place where the investigation will take place and its duration. The spyware can be installed for a four-month period that can be renewed once.
The examining magistrate's control would be a positive thing as the examining magistrates are independent from the Ministry of Justice and are free to take decisions, in terms of the gravity of the investigation.
However, if the justice reform project of the French Government comes into being, the examining magistrates will disappear which means that the responsibility to authorize spyware will come to the prosecutor of the Republic.
The law also obliges ISPs to block access, "without delay", to sites included on a list drafted under the authority of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The list will not be made public and therefore it will be impossible to contest and this will create the risk of abuses.
In order to prevent contestations, for the beginning, the law will target the paedophilic contents with the declared purpose to "protect the Internet users from child pornography images". The operators will have to introduce in their network software that will stop any connection to sites having a pedophile character that will be listed by the police. The French Government will always be able to extend the target by a simple decree.
The text also stipulates severe sanctions for the ISPs that do not observe the law providing a fine up to 75 000 euro and a year of imprisonment.
Loppsi : the sneaks under the authority of an endangered judge (only in French, 25.05.2009) http://www.numerama.com/magazine/12976-Loppsi-les-mouchards-sous-l-autorite-d-un-juge-en-voie-de-disparition.html
Loppsi wants to "protect the Internet users" by filtering (only in French, 27.05.2009) http://www.numerama.com/magazine/13010-La-Loppsi-veut-proteger-les-internautes-avec-le-filtrage.html
The police will be able to pirate the computers of the yobs (only in French,
25.05.2009)
http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2009/05/24/01016-20090524ARTFIG00098-la-police-va-pouvoir-pirater-les-ordinateurs-des-voyous-.php
Loppsi: ISPs will have to "block access without delay" (MAJ) (only in French, 27.05.2009) http://www.numerama.com/magazine/13004-Loppsi-les-FAI-devront-empecher-l-acces-sans-delai-MAJ.html
Loppsi presented this Wednesday in the Council of Ministers (MAJ) (only in French, 27.05.2009) http://www.numerama.com/magazine/13002-La-Loppsi-presentee-ce-mercredi-en-conseil-des-ministres.html
Draft law on the orientation and programming for the performance of the domestic security http://static.pcinpact.com/pdf/Loppsi_projet_loi.pdf
Decrypting: Sarkozy and his work of controlling the Internet (only in French, 20.05.2009) http://www.numerama.com/magazine/12948-Decryptage-Sarkozy-et-son-oeuvre-de-controle-du-net.html
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2. Pressure of the record companies on The Pirate Bay ============================================================
The Swedish court has denied the request of four major record companies to fine The Pirate Bay (TPB) for being still operational.
At the middle of May 2009, Universal, EMI, Sony and Warner asked the Swedish District Court to apply penalties to the operators of TPB for every day they continue to operate the site. The plaintiffs claimed TPB was an "infringing service" as they had been able to download through it 467 music albums to which they owned the copyright. They also asked that the four operators of TPB take measures so that the works for which they own the copyright could not be downloaded by Internet users via the site.
Moreover, the recording companies seem to have asked the ISP "Black Internet" to stop providing services to TPB. Additionally, they asked the court to apply the penalties even before the District Court ruled on it and without hearing the four defendants.
On 25 May 2009, the District Court denied the demands stating they wanted to hear the defendants first and gave the Pirate Bay operators a few weeks to state their position in the matter. The record companies were also given a week to decide whether they wanted to appeal the decision to the Court of Appeal.
"I don't think these are circumstances where the case must be tried immediately. Usually you get to make your statement before a demand like this is granted" said judge Caroline Hindmarsh who reviewed the demands and made the decision.
IT security expert André Rickardsson said to DN.se that the demand of the record companies was surprising. "Swedish law applies in Sweden and their Internet service isn't even in Sweden. I don't understand why the district court has anything to do with this. The Pirate Bay operates in countries where the activity is permitted," said the expert.
Peter Sunde, one of the defendants, has stated that the record companies have never asked TPB to remove any of the torrents the plaintiffs refer to in their request to the District Court and accused the record companies of being more interested in money and power than in the artists they should represent.
In the meantime, TPB is searching for unbiased judges after they filed, along with the appeal to the High Court of Justice, accusations against Judge Tomas Norström for conflict of interest due to its membership with associations such as the Swedish Copyright Association.
Judge Ulrika Ihrfeldt was appointed to investigate the conflict of interest but, soon after that, the judge also revealed having been a member of the Swedish Copyright Association and was removed from the case. The next judge appointed to lead the investigation, Anders Eka, appears to be connected to the Stockholm Center for Commercial Law, where lawyers Monique Wadsted and Peter Danowsky representing the record companies in TPB trial also are involved.
Although Eka said he had no personal relationships with the plaintiffs'
lawyers and that he had no background in copyright law, he acknowledged however he might be suspected for potential bias.
Court President Fredrik Wersäll Wersäll stated that the investigation of Norström's potential conflict of interest would be finished in a few weeks.
If Norström is found biased, the case will be sent back to the District Court. In case the judge is cleared of the accusation, the High Court of Justice will deal with the main appeal of the verdict and decide on whether to hold a new trial.
Pirate Bay Money Squeeze Rejected by Court (25.05.2009) http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-money-squeeze-rejected-by-court-090525/
Pirate Bay: In search of an unbiased judge (23.05.2009) http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10248264-38.html?tag=mncol;title
Record Labels Increase Legal Pressure on Pirate Bay (19.05.2009) http://torrentfreak.com/record-labels-increase-legal-pressure-on-pirate-bay-090519/
Court rejects lawyers' call to gag Pirates (25.05.2009) http://www.thelocal.se/19656/20090525/
EDRi-gram: The Pirate Bay asks for retrial claiming conflict of interest
(6.05.2009)
http://www.edri.org/edri-gram/number7.9/pirate-bay-mistrial
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3. Open source supporters criticize European govts for favouring MS ============================================================
Recent governmental plans in several European countries to buy proprietary software for public administration or education have caused concerns over the methods used and the lack of public discussion over the decisions.
18 open source companies (including Red Hat) have challenged successfully in the Federal court a three-year contract between the Swiss Federal Bureau for Building and Logistics (BBL) and Microsoft for the provisions of Windows desktops and applications, including support and maintenance. The total value of the contract was estimated at about 27.8 million euro.
The preliminary ruling of the Federal court from 28 May 2009 was based on the fact that the BBL disregarded the procurement rules and did not issue a call for tender. A future final positive decision of the court could mean that the contract will be canceled and a public auction call needs to be made.
Just a few days before the court decision, another similar case was raised by the Swiss open source advocacy group ch/open. They have presented the situation in the Bern canton, where a 18 million euro contract was attributed directly for Microsoft software licences, without a public auction.
Ch/open criticized the lack of transparency of the deal and explained the current action: "Without any public process, contracts are awarded to a proprietary software vendor. This makes public administration increasingly dependent on Microsoft, giving it again no other option in eight years time."
This deal will be debated in the canton's Parliament by the parliamentary group on digital sustainability that has the main scope to increase the use of open source by Swiss public bodies.
Another government-related project that created rumors was the Spain government decision to install Microsoft software on the 420 000 laptops for students. After the Spanish Socialist Party supported the idea that laptops should be equipped with Open Source software, the Microsoft's chaiman Bill Gates and Spain's Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero met on 26 May
2009 to decide on the new software for this project.
The project was criticized even earlier this year by open source organisations such as Hispalinux that pointed out that there was no public tender on this topic.
Similarly, in a different corner of Europe, the Romanian Government has announced that it has mandated the Ministry of Communications to buy Microsoft licences of 100 million euros for the Ministries and Governmental Agencies in the period 2009-2012. Although the government press release talks about obtaining these licences through a possible auction, there is a clear-cut signal on who will be the winner.
"The Romanian Government seems out of touch with reality" has been the harsh comment by Lucian Savluc, the organizer of the third national open source conference eLiberatica that took place in Bucharest in the second part of May 2009.
Georg Greve, the president of Free Software Foundation Europe and a speaker at the same event, commented on the situation:
"Microsoft's deals in new EU member states have raised concerns over corruption before, e.g. in Bulgaria. But while Microsoft seems to raise such questions more often than others, it should be noted that the problem of illegal procurement is larger and not limited to Microsoft. Nor is the problem limited to the new EU member states, as the recent irregularities and resulting antitrust complaint filed in Switzerland demonstrate. (...) It seems ironic that the European Commission has to fine Microsoft repeatedly over sustained monopoly abuse, then transfers part of that money to Romania, which enjoyed the highest level of financial support ever granted to a candidate country in the history of the European Union, and the Romanian government then decides to return part of that money to Microsoft with close to no tangible benefit for Romania."
CH: Court scraps federal no-bid software licence deal (28.05.2009) http://www.osor.eu/news/ch-court-scraps-federal-no-bid-software-licence-deal
CH: Protests over no-bid software contract in Bern (28.05.2009) http://www.osor.eu/news/ch-protests-over-no-bid-software-contract-in-bern
Bill Gates, pleased with the announcement of Zapatero of giving laptops to students (only in Spanish, 26.05.2009) http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/470593/0/zapatero/gates/reunion/
Hispalinux censorship financial costs and technological dependence of the "solution" for Microsoft Education (only in Spanish, 27.04.2009) http://www.hispalinux.es/minipc-primaria
ES: Gates and Zapatero weigh in on debate over school laptops (29.05.2009) http://www.osor.eu/news/es-gates-and-zapatero-weigh-in-on-debate-over-school-laptops
My official position - The Romanian government is about to spend millions of euro on proprietary software. (27.05.2009) http://www.cianblog.com/2009/05/27/my-official-position-the-romanian-government-is-about-to-spend-millions-of-euro-on-proprietary-software/
Minister of Communications - mandated to pay 100 million euro for Microsoft licences (only in Romanian, 1.06.2009) http://www.mediafax.ro/economic/ministerul-comunicatiilor-mandatat-sa-achite-100-milioane-euro-pentru-licente-microsoft.html
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4. DRI against the Irish law on the interception of communications ============================================================
Digital Rights Ireland has lodged a formal complaint with the European Commission against Ireland over the Irish law on the interception of communications.
The Irish law, which is governed by the Interception of Postal Packets and Telecommunications Messages (Regulation) Act 1993, applies only to telecommunications providers who operate under a licence or general authorisation. Consequently, the vast majority of internet communication services (such as VOIP providers, webmail and instant messaging services) are not covered, so the interception of communications on those services is unregulated.
This is in breach of Art. 5 of the e-Privacy Directive (Directive
2002/58/EC) which requires member states to "prohibit listening, tapping, storage or other kinds of interception or surveillance of communications and the related traffic data by persons other than users, without the consent of the users concerned, except when legally authorised to do so (by) legislative measures (which are) necessary, appropriate and proportionate within a democratic society".
Complaint to European Commission over Irish Interception Laws (28.05.2009) http://www.digitalrights.ie/2009/05/28/complaint-to-european-commission-over-irish-interception-laws/
(contribution by EDRi-member Digital Rights Ireland DRI)
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5. French Government hurries to put HADOPI law into application ============================================================
No sooner has the three strikes law been adopted that the French government issued CCAPs (special administrative specifications) and CCTPs (special technical specifications) which were sent by the Ministry of Culture to the candidate enterprises to put into function the information system of HADOPI.
The call for tenders was sent since the beginning of the year even before the Hadopi law was adopted, the notification date having been set for 5 June
2009 with a deadline on 1 July 2009 for a first prototype of the graduate response system. A draft calendar foresees the application of the Hadopi law in stages starting with 5 June 2009 until 31 March 2010.
In the beginning, Hadopi will send only written recommendations by e-mail at a rate of about 100 infringing cases per day after which, when the treatment is completely automatic probably in September 2009, the number of cases will increase to 1000 per day reaching 10 000 when the prototype is finalised in 2010.
A calendar of actions is left however at the choice of the candidates, the CCTP mentioning that "the offers will be assessed in terms of the closeness of the proposed calendar as compared to the target calendar". The ministry is not concerned with costs or means but only with speed. The candidates will have a rather difficult task as the beta-test will last only two weeks before the first warnings and the blocking bugs will have to be corrected in one day, otherwise they will face sanctions. There is also the result obligation, the operator taking the responsibility in case of problems and having to compensate Hadopi in case of delays or malfunctions.
There is no provision for the moment that Hadopi makes sure, before issuing a warning or a sanction, that illegal downloading has effectively taken place from the IP address of a suspected Internet subscriber. It appears that between the IP address collection phase and the warning or sanction phase there will be a "notarisation and sampling" phase.
The notarisation phase means the "qualification of the data and the recording of essential elements of the transaction from a trustworthy third party" meaning the recording of all the elements proving the downloading or rather making copyrighted material available. "The content, origin, receiving date, the sender's identification key and the destination of the file are essential elements" says the CCTP.
Sampling means Hadopi would retain only some of the complaints received in order to deal mostly with those of higher interest. An algorithmic system will allow targeting potential recidivists as a priority.
Hadopi does not take into account the presumption of innocence and only needs to be certain of the reliability of the IP address lists on the basis of which it would give warnings and sanctions. Hence the provision of attaching a "chunk" of the file to every submission of a case in court which would be a material proof of the infringing. However, such a provision raises practical and economical problems.
The CCAP and CCTP do not precise either the criteria based on which Hadopi will decide on recidivism in order to send another e-mail, registered letter or give sanctions. It is only mentioned that a "study of the reiterations is carried out so as to bring out the following elements for each
subscriber: infringement stage (1st, 2nd, 3rd.); type of actions taken or sanctions given by the High Authority: time interval between each infringement; and type of works concerned".
There are also very little details as to what are the means of appeal for the sanctioned Internet users. It is provided that an appeal can be made by means of an electronic form or by mail and that the appeal may lead to informing the ISP of the obligation to re-establish a suspended subscription. On the other hand, no observations can be brought by a subscriber before the sanction stage.
For the time being, Hadopi continues to be criticised and contested. On 15 June, a concert evening against the graduate response will take place with several groups of artists supported by Numerama, co-organised by Réseau des Pirates and Owni.fr, in partnership with Vendredi Hebdo and International and supported also by Slate, Agoravox, LePost, Ivox, 22mars, Social Média Club, j'affiche and ZikNation.
The evening will include the projection on films dealing with Hadopi, the new models to remunerate artists, the protection of numerical freedoms, a debate on the topics as well as music moments.
"The problem with HADOPI is triple: it does not bring more money to artists, it touches the fundamental rights and finally it opens a breach into net neutrality allowing private interests to get hold of a judge in order to oblige an access provider to censure part of the net. This law stigmatises the Net which is however an incredible chance for the music to get renewed.
(...) A new model must be invented and the technological evolution must be accompanied rather than rowing against it. This is what the public politics serve for, not to protect an industry where 5 multinationals make a trust of the entire market and refuse in a single voice to accept the challenge," was the statement of Flowers From The Man Who Shot Your Cousin / Waterhouse Records that will participate in the event.
Exclusive: Hadopi will target as a priority the potential recidivists!
(only in French, 20.05.2009)
http://www.numerama.com/magazine/12960-Exclusif-l-Hadopi-ciblera-en-priorite-les-recidivistes-potentiels.html
Exclusive: Hadopi will not collect material evidence... for the moment (only in French, 27.05.2009) http://www.numerama.com/magazine/13006-Exclusif-l-Hadopi-ne-collectera-pas-de-preuve-materielle-pour-l-instant.html
Concert-Evening "Hadopi has killed me" Monday 15 June in Paris (only in French, 26.05.2009) http://www.numerama.com/magazine/12998-Soiree-Concert-Hadopi-m-a-Tuer-le-lundi-15-juin-a-Paris.html
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6. WIPO: Visually impaired treaty proposal ============================================================
The WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) met from
25 to 29 May in Geneva. This time, the main points on the agenda were the survey on limitations and exceptions and the visually impaired treaty proposal introduced by Brazil Ecuador and Paraguay (BEP proposal).
As usual, the committee also briefly dealt with the situation pertaining broadcaster's rights and audiovisual protection but since the national positions are not moving, no real progress was made.
The most interesting part of the meeting was the discussion about the BEP proposal. The treaty was strongly supported by the South American countries and it was also seen in a favourable light by most of the African representatives (which would like to see even wider support for access to information, though) and Asian delegates.
However, group B and the European Union did their best to derail the process of getting the treaty under serious consideration. The given reasons for this were rather perplexing e.g. "the matter is so complex" (unlike the broadcast treaty?) and "there's need for more fact-finding" (there's lot of published research by both WIPO and WBU). In reality, the civil servants from Germany, France etc. want to oppose categorically any instrument which would give rights to the users. However, since it is not politically possible to oppose helping visually impaired persons such poor excuses are needed.
EDRi also stressed in its intervention the fact that EU is ready to use a "hard law" approach to help elder stage musicians so it would be very unsincere to oppose the same approach for blind persons.
WIPO Limitations & Exceptions Treaty Advances; Audiovisual Treaty Gets New Life (30.05.2009) http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2009/05/30/wipo-limitations-audiovisual-treaty-gets-new-life/
SCCR to Expedite Work in Favor of Reading Impaired (2.06.2009) http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2009/article_0012.html
(Contribution by Ville Oksanen, EDRI-member EFFI)
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7. EU will examine Google Books project
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The German delegation submitted at the European Council meeting held in Brussels on 28 and 29 May 2009, an information note asking EU to take action against Google's online library project, Google Books, a project targeting the scanning of entire book collections of major libraries.
"This move has an impact on cultural and media policy that we need to put on a European level," said Culture Minister Bernd Neumann.
There is already a dispute between Google and US authors and publishers as the publishing industry is concerned by the fact that scanning books without authors' permission is a violation of copyright laws.
Germany's information note argues that many of the rights holders having works that are scanned by Google are in the EU and that European copyright law differs from the US one. The German delegation considers that Google is using the excuse of a fair use exception to face copyright claims, an exemption which doesn't exist in EU member states.
The main concern is related to the necessity of obtaining consent given by authors before scanning their works. "Google's actions are irreconcilable with the principles of European copyright law, according to which the consent of the author must be obtained before his or her works may be reproduced or made publicly available on the Internet" says the note.
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has shown concerns regarding competitivity issues: "Through digitalising millions of books without right holders' permission, Google has already gained a competitive advantage against similar projects like Europeana and libreka.de - who unlike Google respect European copyright laws."
The EU has immediately confirmed the launching of a formal inquiry which will apparently focus on copyright matters and will look into the settlement Google has with publishers and authors.
After Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers filed a law suit against Google in 2004 arguing the giant was violating copyright by displaying excerpts of books without the permission of the copyright holders, a settlement reached in October 2008 raised criticism and is now investigated by the US Justice Department on anti-trust grounds.
The settlement would let Google sell to other libraries access to its online books and subscriptions to its entire library and the revenues would go to Google, publishers and authors. The settlement gives authors until early January to adhere to it and hence receive money for having their books scanned or to opt out of the system by September 2009.
Anne Bergman-Tahon, director of the FEP believes that "millions of works will never be claimed because these 300 pages of settlement are so complicated." Therefore, critics argue that when copyright holders do not come forward, Google alone will have the rights to "orphan books" which, according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal newspaper are estimated at 50 to 70 percent of books published after 1923. Google will hold monopoly under the circumstances and will be in the position to charge as much as it wants for access to books.
On the other hand, Google stated that by its project it was giving an eternal digital life to millions of books which are now out of print and that it was "happy to engage in any constructive dialogue about the future of books and copyright."
EU may flex regulatory muscles against Google book deal (1.06.2009) http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/06/eu-may-flex-regulatory-muscles-against-google-book-deal.ars
Germany wants EU to fight Google Books project (2.06.2009) http://www.thelocal.de/sci-tech/20090602-19649.html
Council calls on Commission to examine Google Books project (2.06.2009)
http://euroalert.net/en/news.aspx?idn=8811
EU states concerned over Google library plans (27.05.2009)
http://euobserver.com/19/28193
EU confirms Google investigation (31.05.2009) http://www.thebookseller.com/news/86904-page.htm
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8. Deutsche Telecom investigating the sexual life of job applicants ============================================================
According to German newspaper Handelsblatt, Deutsche Telecom was keeping records about personal details of job applicants, including details about their sexual life. Similar records on potential employees were also kept in Macedonia, Croatia, Slovenia and Hungary.
An anonymous security consultant who used to work for Deutsche Telecom stated for the German newspaper that this was actually a common practice of the company.
According to Handelsblatt, the German Telecom hired private detectives from Germany who were collecting data about potential employees by eavesdropping phone conversations, investigating their bank accounts and intimate, sexual life, explaining that this way they could know who they were dealing with.
This was revealed soon after Deutsche Telecom confirmed the information that it was spying on the directors in its companies and on journalists, in order to determine where the information was leaking from.
The company announced that it did not order regular reports on the private life of the potential employees. The people from Macedonian Telecommunications say that this was not, is not and will not be a practice of their company.
"These allegations are absolutely wrong, unserious and unsubstantiated.
Such practice is prohibited by the Law on personal data protection.
Everybody knows what information should be submitted by the applicant; first and last name, address, education, previous work experience, recommendations and a motivation letter" claim the representatives of T-Mobile and T-Home, companies owned by Deutsche Telecom.
"All of the employment applications can be found on the company's website" say the representatives from Macedonian Telecom.
The representatives of the Croatian T-Com stated that they did not know anything about the spying, and if the investigation proves that this really happened, the responsible persons will have to bear the consequences.
According to the reports to which the newspaper had access, a woman that was applying for a job in the Croatian telecom - a branch of DT, is described as an experienced sexual partner with a rich imagination. The partners of the candidate allegedly said that she was a "female predator"
with a big sexual urge and that she prefered older men. In another report, which was allegedly prepared by the German counterintelligence service BND, a candidate is described as an alcoholic, and another one as a corrupted old man.
Deutsche Telecom claims it did not order reports with personal data of the candidates.
"Deutsche Telecom is not analyzing the private life of the applicants.
DT doesn't need any information about the private life of the candidates"
stated Philip Blank, the company's spokesman.
According to AFP, this is one of the several scandals that broke out in Deutsche Telecom and the company also admitted to have spied on journalists and members of the supervisory board in order to find the source of the media. DT also admitted that in 2006 it was checking the bank accounts of more than 100 000 workers to determine whether any of them were involved in corruption.
Deutsche Telecom investigating the sexual life of job applicants
(26.05.2009)
http://www.metamorphosis.org.mk/en/news/world/1498-dojce-telekom-go-proveruval-seksualniot-zivot-na-kandidatite-za-rabota
(contribution by Kire Dimik - EDRi-member Metamorphosis - Macedonia)
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9. Recommended Action
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On 26 May 2009 the European Commission opened a consultation on the conclusions of the online commerce roundtable on the online distribution of music. The consultation will close on 30 June 2009.
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/09/832&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
http://ec.europa.eu/competition/consultations/2009_online_commerce/roundtable_report_en.pdf
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10. Recommended Reading
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Ethnic Profiling in the European Union: Pervasive, Ineffective, and Discriminatory (26.05.2009)
http://www.soros.org/initiatives/osji/articles_publications/publications/profiling_20090526
Constitutional complaint against Hadopi (only in French, 19.05.2009) http://www.lesechos.fr/medias/2009/0519//300350517.pdf
The German constitutional court published its 2008-ruling that created a "fundamental right to the guarantee of the confidentiality and integrity of information technology systems" in English (27.02.2008) http://www.bverfg.de/en/decisions/rs20080227_1bvr037007en.html
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11. Agenda
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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/
10 June 2009, Brussels, Belgium
The Global Enforcement Agenda of copyright, patents and other IPRs: Some consumer perspectives Organized by TransAtlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD), Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) and Health Action International Europe (HAI-E) http://www.tacd-ip.org/blog/2009/05/29/tacd-kei-and-hai-e-host-event-on-enforcement-agenda-of-copyright-patents-and-other-iprs-in-brussels/
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 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/
17-18 September 2009, Amsterdam, Netherlands Gikii, A Workshop on Law, Technology and Popular Culture Institute for Information Law (IViR) - University of Amsterdam Call for papers by 1 July 2009 http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/ahrc/gikii/2009.asp
21-23 October 2009, Istanbul, Turkey
eChallenges 2009
http://www.echallenges.org/e2009/default.asp
24-25 October 2009, Vienna, Austria
3rd European Privacy Open Space
http://www.privacyos.eu
25 October 2009, Vienna, Austria
Austrian Big Brother Awards
Deadline for nominations: 21 September 2009 http://www.bigbrotherawards.at/
16 October 2009, Bielefeld, Germany
10th German Big Brother Awards
Deadline for nominations: 15 July 2009
http://www.bigbrotherawards.de/
13-15 November 2009, Gothenburg, Sweden
Free Society Conference and Nordic Summit http://www.fscons.org/
15-18 November 2009, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt UN Internet Governance Forum http://www.intgovforum.org/
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12. About
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EDRI-gram is a biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe.
Currently EDRI has 29 members based or with offices in 18 different countries in Europe. European Digital Rights takes an active interest in developments in the EU accession countries and wants to share knowledge and awareness through the EDRI-grams.
All contributions, suggestions for content, corrections or agenda-tips are most welcome. Errors are corrected as soon as possible and visibly on the EDRI website.
Except where otherwise noted, this newsletter is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. See the full text at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Newsletter editor: Bogdan Manolea <[log in to unmask]>
Information about EDRI and its members:
http://www.edri.org/
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EDRI-gram is also available in German, with delay. Translations are provided Andreas Krisch from the EDRI-member VIBE!AT - Austrian Association for Internet Users http://www.unwatched.org/
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