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EDRI-gram newsletter - Number 2.11, 2 June 2004 (EDRI-gram newsletter) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2004 20:44:16 +0200 (CEST) From: "EDRI-gram newsletter" <[log in to unmask]> Subject: EDRI-gram newsletter - Number 2.11, 2 June 2004 To: [log in to unmask] Message-ID: <[log in to unmask]> Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1 ============================================================ EDRI-gram bi-weekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe Number 2.11, 2 June 2004 ============================================================ Contents ============================================================ 1. PNR data deal signed by European Commission 2. Report about ID-conference London 3. Belgian consumer group will appeal in copy protection case 4. IPR Enforcement Rapporteur made millions on IPR 5. New German proposal data retention 6. Polish proposal to demand ID for pre-paid cards 7. Two online journalists arrested in the Ukraine 8. French E-commerce law tested in constitutional court 9. Creative Commons license success in the UK and Finland 10. Recommended reading: EU network fundamental rights 11. Agenda 12. About ============================================================ 1. PNR data deal signed by European Commission ============================================================ An international agreement was signed on 28 May between the European Union and the United States that makes it possible to transfer air passenger data to the US, under certain conditions. It entered into force immediately. This agreement goes hand-in-hand with the Decision adopted two weeks ago by the European Commission, establishing the adequacy of US Bureau of Customs and Border Protection's personal data protection. Under the agreement, Washington is allowed to collect 34 types of data from passengers' records flying to the US, which include name, address, phone number, credit cards and the identity of their travelling companions. Since March 2003, airlines have faced the possibility of fines of 6,000 euro per passenger as well as potential loss of landing rights in the US if they failed to provide US security agencies with the data 15 minutes before the flight's departure. Carriers such as British Airways, Lufthansa and Air France already started sharing data with the US before the decision. The agreement completely ignores the European parliament and is closed at a time in which the members of the European parliament are absorbed by the upcoming European elections. Several MEPs such as Marco Cappato and Johanna Boogerd-Quaak have urged the President of the parliament, Pat Cox, to take this matter to the European Court of Justice. Cappato writes in an open letter: "The Commission and the Council have exploited the fact that the EP has suspended its activities because of the electoral period, hereby breaching the principle of loyal co-operation among institutions. I believe the EP President has the duty to immediately take measures to defend the prerogatives and the rights of the institution he chairs, of its members and of EU citizens." Not taking action would 'seriously put the credibility of our institution into question', according to Cappato. Group leaders of the European Parliament will meet on 16 June to discuss reactions to the Council's and the Commission's bluntly ignoring several votes of the Parliament against the transfer of PNR data to the U.S. EU press release (28.05.2004) http://tinyurl.com/3af6h Council decision on the agreement (17.05.2004) http://europa.eu.int/cgi-bin/eur-lex/udl.pl?REQUEST=Seek-Deliver&LANGUAG E=en&SERVICE=eurlex&COLLECTION=oj&DOCID=2004l183p00830083 Commission Decision of 14 May on the adequate protection of personal data contained in the Passenger Name Record of air passengers transferred to the United States' Bureau of Customs and Border Protection http://tinyurl.com/2rgkz Letter Cappato (Radical MEP) (27.05.2004) http://coranet.radicalparty.org/pressreleases/press_release.php?func=det ail&par=7062&PHPSESSID=92812ec10b77efa06b919c4fdabc8ca8 EU parliament considers steps (27.05.2004) http://www.euobserver.com/?sid=9&aid=16326 ============================================================ 2. Report about ID-conference in London ============================================================ Advocates, politicians and lawyers from across the political spectrum met in London on 19 May 2004 to debate UK ID card legislation. EDRi members Privacy International and FIPR organised the meeting, which heard resounding criticism of the government's ID card plans. Highlights included the Shadow Home Secretary asking "how on earth can ID cards prevent terrorism if foreign visitors can wander around the streets for three months", alongside the Assistant Information Commissioner's concerns that "a whole identity system is being proposed for the UK". The meeting also saw the launch of the No2ID campaign. Privacy International, FIPR, Liberty, Stand, the Liberal Democratic party, the 1990 Trust and Statewatch are co-ordinating their opposition to the ID card plans, and are planning to derail the government's legislation when it is introduced later this year. No2ID campaign http://www.no2id.net/ (Contribution by Ian Brown, FIPR) ============================================================ 3. Belgian consumer group will appeal in copy protection case ============================================================ On 27 May 2004 the Belgian court of Brussels rejected the complaint made by the consumer organisation Test-Achats (Test Aankoop) against four record companies in Belgium (EMI, Sony, Universal and BMG) about their use of technical copy protection measures. Test-Achats collected 200 complaints from individual members and demanded that the companies would stop using technical measures on their CDs and remove all copy-controlled CDs on the market. The judge ruled that copyright legislation does allow for a private copy, but does not grant a 'right'. According to an article in the national newspaper 'De Morgen', Test-Achats immediately announced an appeal. Spokesperson Ivo Mechels said to De Morgen that the judge did not provide sufficient argumentation in his verdict. He complained the verdict only comprised half an A4 paper. "The judge seems to have based his ruling on the content table of the copyright law. Making a private copy is classified under the exceptions, so according to his particular logic, it is an exception. There was no debate about the meaning and purpose of the legislation. When we presented the European Copyright Directive from 2001, which allows for private copies but has not yet been implemented in Belgium, the judge suggested that would be a matter for parliament to decide. But the text of this directive clearly states that voluntary initiatives can be undertaken if the implementation is delayed. And delayed it is indeed in Belgium (...)." So far copy protection has not been challenged very successfully in Europe. In September 2003 the French consumer organisation UFC-Que Choisir won a case against EMI, forcing them to remove copy-protected DVDs from the stores. But on 30 April 2004 the Paris Tribunal de Grand Instance rejected a challenge to the technical protections used on David Lynch's film 'Mulholland Drive'. In the Netherlands, the Minister of Justice told the Lower House in 2003 during the debate about the European copyright directive that copy-control protections on audio CDs do not as such raise problems for consumers, given that such discs are primarily designed to be played on CD players. De Morgen 'Cd's kopieren voor eigen gebruik is geen verworven recht' (28.05.2004) http://www.demorgen.be/archief/ (no direct link available, use 'zoek' and enter 'kopieerbeveiliging') EDRI-gram 2.1 'Belgian consumer group sues music industry' (15.01.2004) http://www.edri.org/cgi-bin/index?id=000100000124 EDRI-gram 13 'French consumer unions fight CD copy protection (16.07.2003) http://www.edri.org/cgi-bin/index?id=000100000104 ============================================================ 4. IPR Enforcement Rapporteur made millions on IPR ============================================================ The rapporteur of the EU Directive on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights, Janelly Fourtou (UDF, Conservative, France), has earned millions from business related to Intellectual Property Rights, even while she was shepherding the report through the European Parliament. As several newspapers have investigated, Mrs. Fourtou runs a private fund together with her husband, Jean-Reni Fourtou, who is the CEO of Vivendi Universal, the media giant that is worldwide the biggest holder of intellectual property rights. In November 2002, this fund acquired transferable bonds worth 14,5 million Euro, which shall be transferred into Vivendi Universal shares at preference conditions in 2005. The Fourtou children have, according to the Financial Times, acquired bonds for an additional 5 million Euro. The Fourtou couple has until now made a computational surplus of 10 million Euro; their children 3,4 million Euro. Mr. and Mrs. Fourtou are under investigation in France because there are allegations that the deal was made in contravention of rules against insider trading and share price manipulation. When she filled out the "Declaration of financial interests" every MEP has to give, Mrs. Fourtou claimed she had 'nothing to declare'. Now the Green MEP Heide Ruehle complained with the President of the European Parliament, Pat Cox, saying "Mrs Fourtou should never have been appointed rapporteur". Any gains from their private fund, the Fourtous say, shall be used for an artist exchange programme between France and Morocco, where the couple has a house. AFP 'Vivendi chief Fourtou target of insider trading probe' (15.05.2004) http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/040514/1/3ka6t.html IHT 'Fourtou defends foundation's Vivendi bond purchase' (17.05.2004) http://www.iht.com/articles/520190.html FT 'Vivendi chief investigated over bond purchase' (15.05.2004, subscription) http://tinyurl.com/32jm5 Berliner Zeitung 'Euro-Filz - die Interessen der Madam Fourtou' (01.06.2004, in German) http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/archiv/.bin/dump.fcgi/2004/0 601/wirtschaft/0006/index.html (Contribution by Andreas Dietl, EDRI EU Affairs Manager) ============================================================ 5. New German proposal for mandatory data retention ============================================================ According to the German e-zine Heise there is a new proposal for mandatory data retention in Germany. Just a few weeks ago, a final compromise was reached on the new Telecommunications Act, without any obligations for systematic data retention. But the Minister of the Interior, Otto Schily, is now said to work on a law that would oblige telecom and service providers to store information about everybody's calling and internet behaviour for at least 1 year. The German Multimedia Federation (DMMV), with 1.000 members one of the largest professional digital economy associations in Europe, criticised the proposal. The proposal is not yet public, but according to their sources close to the Minister, Schily wants to introduce the law to facilitate the pursuit of criminal offences as well as the monitoring of persons suspected of terrorism. DMMV criticises the proposal as an attempt to eliminate the right to informational self-determination. "Mandatory data retention violates the fundamental rights of innocent citizens and places everybody under suspicion of terrorism." Arndt Groth, the chairman of the multimedia association, said that while the retained data would belong mainly to blameless users, experience learned that criminals and terrorists are very capable of hiding their traces with the assistance of anonymisation services or encryption. He estimated providers and network carriers would be forced to make investments up to a three-figure amount in millions of euros, to pay for the necessary storage media and appropriate data protection measures. Germany, together with Austria, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK, is one of the few remaining countries in the EU without any provisions for general mandatory data retention, though in most countries proposals are underway. In April 2004 the European Council welcomed a joint proposal from France, Great Britain, Ireland and Sweden to create a framework decision that would oblige all member states to store all telecommunication traffic data over a period of 12 to 36 months. Heise 'Otto Schily will Verbindungsdaten laenger speichern' (30.05.2004) http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/47795 (in German) EDRI-gram 2.9 'New EU proposal to store telecom data 450 million citizens' (05.05.2004) http://www.edri.org/cgi-bin/index?id=000100000149 ============================================================ 6. Polish proposal to demand ID for pre-paid cards ============================================================ Revising the Polish Telecommunication Act to implement the EU e-communication directives, the Polish Ministry of Infrastructure introduced a new obligation for mandatory identification of buyers of pre-paid GSM-cards. The proposal is brought as an anti-terrorism measure. State officials immediately acknowledged that the ID-demand would not make pre-paid cards totally anonymous, referring to the vivid trade in stolen phones, but said it was necessary to make it more difficult to use GSMs for illegal purposes. The wording of the proposal was so general that a number of Polish internet portal-sites feared it would oblige them to register the ID of every free e-mail user. Reuters reported on 31 May they had sent a protest letter to the lawmakers. "The desire of Polish lawmakers to treat e-mail providers in the same way as telecoms operators is totally incomprehensible to us," said the letter from portals Interia, Onet and Agora's gazeta.pl service. The same day the government issued an official statement that promised that the proposal would be re-worded, if the objection was indeed correct. The bill is currently being examined by parliament's infrastructure committee and has not yet been scheduled for a second reading in the plenary session. Polish Web Portals Criticise Draft Telecoms Law (31.05.2004) http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=53011 19 Official statement Polish Ministry of Infrastructure (in Polish, 31.05.2004) http://www.mi.gov.pl/moduly/informacje/informacja.php?id_informacji=357& opcja=pokaz&typ=2 (Thanks to Piotr Vagla Waglowski, ISOC Poland) ============================================================ 7. Two online journalists arrested in the Ukraine ============================================================ Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) reports the arrest of 2 online journalists in the Ukraine. In two separate incidents, Ukrainian authorities detained the online journalists Kostyantyn Sydorenko and Olexandre Pomytkin. Sydorenko is an online journalist who had been reporting on a mayoral election in the western part of the country. When he went to a local police station to retrieve a lost camera, he was arrested, then ordered to spend five days in detention for 'resisting the security forces'; he remains in solitary confinement. Pomytkin, who works for the online newspaper Ukrayina kryminalna (Criminal Ukraine), was arrested not long after the publication of 'The Ukrainian Mafia', in which he exposes ties between criminal syndicates and Ukrainian police officers. Questions remain as to whether Pomytkin and Sydorenko were actually detained in order to intimidate and deter them from investigating government corruption. Reporters Sans Frontieres objects to the treatment of the two men and calls for a closer examination of the circumstances behind their arrests: "It is all the more important to look into these cases because both journalists were investigating issues that are sensitive for the authorities." RSF 'Two online journalists imprisoned' (26.05.2004) http://www.rsf.fr/article.php3?id_article=10454 Website Criminal Ukraine http://www.cripo.com.ua (Thanks to Chris Giu, editor GILC-alert) ============================================================ 8. French E-commerce law tested in constitutional court ============================================================ EDRI-member IRIS and the French Human Rights League (LDH) have sent a brief to the French Constitutional council regarding the unconstitutionality of the French transposition of the E-commerce Directive (Loi pour la confiance dans l'economie numerique or LEN). On 18 May 2004 the French socialist MPs submitted the finalised law to the Constitutional Council, following the public advice from the two organisations. The parliamentary opposition uses three of the four provisions pointed out by IRIS and LDH: status of email (not defined as private correspondence), privatisation of justice (through notice and take down procedure) and the introduction of different periods of limitation for on-line and off-line content. In the proposed law there is no time bar for offences identified in the press law (defamation, racist speech, holocaust denial, etc.) if they result from an on-line publication, while the statute of limitations is three months if previously published in any other medium). For this reason, IRIS and LDH decided to complement the analysis of these three provisions with a brief analysing a number of others provisions both organisations find unconstitutional. The status of such briefs in France is not official, but considered a useful instrument to influence the decision of the council. For example, the two groups criticised the proposal's broadly worded provisions that would limit the "freedom of online communication" on vague grounds of "national defence, public service necessities, technical constraints" as well as "protecting a young audience," suggesting that these and other sections of the bill could be abused to chill internet speech. IRIS and LDH observations (in French, May 2004) http://www.iris.sgdg.org/actions/len/LEN-memoireCC-IRIS-LDH.pdf EDRi-gram 2.9 'Final vote about French digital economy law' (05.05.2004) http://www.edri.org/cgi-bin/index?id=000100000149 (Thanks to Meryem Marzouki, IRIS) ============================================================ 9. Creative Commons license success in the UK and Finland ============================================================ On 25 May 2004 the Creative Commons licensing scheme gained a major victory in Europe. The BBC announced it will apply a CC-license to the content of its Creative Archive, thus offering free public access to some of their audio and video programming. The CC model turns copyright on its head by explaining the ways that the content can be used rather than saying it cannot - or Some Rights Reserved as they put it. By applying a CC-type license to the content, the BBC will enable individuals in the UK to download released content to their computers, share it, edit it and create new content. Commercial reuse of the content will not be allowed. Professor Lawrence Lessig, chair of the Creative Commons project and advisor of the BBC was clearly excited: "The announcement by the BBC of its intent to develop a Creative Archive has been the single most important event in getting people to understand the potential for digital creativity, and to see how such potential actually supports artists and artistic creativity." The Creative Commons and the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology launched the Finnish Creative Commons licenses. Finland is the third country after the US and Japan to go ahead with full-fledged CC licences. After several months of legal deliberation the Finnish project leader Herkko Hietanen felt able to clear the licence draft and present it to the Finnish public on 31 May 2004, thus marking a major milestone in the development of iCommons. Professor Lawrence Lessig and a group of CC-license users gave a speech at the launch. BBC Creative Archive licensing to be based on Creative Commons (26.05.2004) http://digital-lifestyles.info/display_page.asp?section=distribution&id= %0A1254 Open Content Licensing. Working paper Herkko Hietanen (01.12.2003) http://www.hiit.fi/de/creativecommons/OpenContenCase_CC.pdf Overview international adaptions Creative Commons http://creativecommons.org/projects/international/overview (Thanks to Herkko Hietanen, Creative Commons Finland) ============================================================ 10. Recommended reading: report 2003 of the EU network on fundamental rights ============================================================ The EU Network of Independent Experts on Fundamental Rights published their 2003 report. The network has been set up by the European Commission, upon request of the European Parliament. Since 2002, it monitors the situation of fundamental rights in the Member and in the Union, on the basis of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The report covers a wide range of fundamental rights and raises for example concern about the use of biometric identifiers and the transmission of Passenger Names Records. It also criticises control over state media in Italy and Poland. The section on freedom of expression however, lacks reference to the internet and notice-and-takedown procedures. Report on the situation of fundamental rights in the European Union in 2003 (01.2004) http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/cfr_cdf/doc/report_eu_2003_en .pdf Synthesis report: conclusions and recommendations on the situation of fundamental rights in the European Union and its member states in 2003 (04.02.2004) http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/cfr_cdf/doc/synthesis_report_ 2003_en.pdf Thematic comment n.2: fundamental rights in the external activities of the European Union in the fields of justice and asylum and immigration in 2003 (04.02.2004) http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/cfr_cdf/doc/thematic_comments _2003_en.pdf ============================================================ 11. Agenda ============================================================ 3-4 June 2004, Vienna, Austria - Free Bitflows conference Conference and workshops about cultures of access and politics of dissemination, organised by Public Netbase (AT), in collaboration with Hull Time Based Arts (Hull, UK); V2_ (Rotterdam, NL); Bootlab (Berlin, DE); interSpace Media Art Center (Sofia, BG). http://freebitflows.t0.or.at 10-12 June 2004, Berlin, Germany - Wizards of Os http://wizards-of-os.org/index.php?id=835&L=3 13 June 2004, Berlin, Germany - Where next for copyright in Europe? A workshop featuring speakers from around Europe and the US. http://wizards-of-os.org/index.php?id=921 13 June 2004, Berlin, Germany - WSIS panel Objective: To discuss and strategize for the involvement of European and North American NGOs in WSIS phase two. The meeting will be used to prepare for PrepCom 1 of phase two that will take place ten days later. Moderator Ralf Bendrath, bendrath(at)zedat.fu-berlin.de 15 June 2004, Kyiv, Ukraine - Conference on Freedom of Information Conference "Freedom of Information, Transparency and E-governance: The view of civil society" organised by Privacy Ukraine jointly with Internews-Ukraine, supported by OSI and the local Soros Foundation. As a part of the event the results of a competition among local authorities for best practices of e-openness will be announced. http://e-uriadnik.org.ua/modules.php?name=Conferences (in Ukrainian and Russian). 15-17 September 2004, Strasbourg, France The Council of Europe is planning a major international conference on "The Challenge of Cybercrime", which will bring together senior politicians, computer industry leaders and experts from around the world. No online information yet. ============================================================ 12. About ============================================================ EDRI-gram is a bi-weekly newsletter about digital rights in Europe. Currently EDRI has 14 members from 11 European countries. EDRI 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 or agenda-tips are most welcome. Newsletter editor: Sjoera Nas <[log in to unmask]> Information about EDRI and its members: http://www.edri.org/ - EDRI-gram subscription information subscribe by e-mail To: [log in to unmask] Subject: subscribe You will receive an automated e-mail asking to confirm your request. unsubscribe by e-mail To: [log in to unmask] Subject: unsubscribe - EDRI-gram in Russian, Ukrainian and Italian EDRI-gram is also available in Russian, Ukrainian and Italian, a few days after the English edition. The contents are the same. Translations are provided by Sergei Smirnov, Human Rights Network, Russia; Privacy Ukraine and autistici.org, Italy The EDRI-gram in Russian can be read on-line via http://www.hro.org/editions/edri/ The EDRI-gram in Ukrainian can be read on-line via http://www.internetrights.org.ua/index.php?page=edri-gram The EDRI-gram in Italian can be read on-line via http://www.autistici.org/edrigram/ - Newsletter archive Back issues are available at: http://www.edri.org/cgi-bin/index?funktion=edrigram - Help Please ask <[log in to unmask]> if you have any problems with subscribing or unsubscribing. ============================================================ Publication of this newsletter is made possible by a grant from the Open Society Institute (OSI). ============================================================ End of EDRi-news Digest, Vol 15, Issue 1 **************************************** -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by the NorMAN MailScanner Service and is believed to be clean. 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