From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of EDRI-gram newsletter
Sent: 21 October 2009 18:12
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Subject: EDRi-gram newsletter - Number 7.20, 21 October 2009
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EDRi-gram
biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe
Number 7.20, 21 October 2009
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Contents
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1. EDRI Open Letter to the EP on Amendment 138 2. Romania: Data retention law declared unconstitutional 3. France pushes the introduction of EDVIGE project through the back door 4. Web blocking gets a reality check 5. Buma/Stemra imposes levy for embedding audio and video 6. Copyright in the digital environment 7. The European Commission calls for online privacy protection measures 8. Microsoft tries to comply with EU requirements 9. Finland: Introducing Internet broadband as a universal service 10. Recommended Reading 11. Agenda 12. About
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1. EDRI Open Letter to the EP on Amendment 138 ============================================================
EDRi sent the following open letter to all the members of the European Parliament (EP) on 19 October 2009 asking for a continuos support for the citizens' rights by not giving up on Amendment 138 in the Telecoms Package.
To the Members of the European Parliament,
European Digital Rights is an association of 29 privacy and civil rights organisations based in 18 European countries and active across the European Union. As an association whose focus is on protecting the civil rights of online citizens, we have serious concerns about the possible abandonment of the core meaning of the so-called "Amendment 138" in the Telecoms Package.
We believe that this would not just create lasting damage for the rights of European citizens, but it would also durably damage the credibility and institutional power of the European Parliament.
Citizens' Rights
The purpose of Amendment 138 is to protect the fundamental rights of citizens to freedom of expression and communication, to privacy and to due process of law. It also protects the development of democratic culture on the Internet. The fact that the Council is aware of current and planned activities in Member States that will undermine or do already undermine these principles should further convince Parliamentarians of the need to defend the principles in Amendment 138. Even if, and it is far from evident that this is the case, the Council can argue convincingly that there are certain exceptional circumstances where communications must be limited for the purposes and urgency required by the European Convention on Human Rights, such limitations should remain the exception in a democratic society, while the rights defended in Amendment 138 must constitute the rule. This must be reflected in the Telecoms Package.
Furthermore, failure to protect EU citizens will not only undermine their rights, but will be used in less democratic countries to victimise individuals, justified with the excuse that this is "EU policy".
Parliament Powers
The Parliament now has the chance to protect citizens' rights and fully perform its institutional function within the European legislative process.
A capitulation faced with the unacceptably inflexible, legally dubious and democratically deficient approach of the Council would inflict lasting damage on the Parliament.
What trust can voters have in an institution that will overwhelmingly support citizens' rights before an election only to abandon them immediately afterwards? What credibility will the Parliament have in future inter-institutional negotiations when it is prepared to abandon a position it supported twice with such an overwhelming majority? What authority will be left once the Parliament loses this crucial battle with the Council?
Could there be a worse moment to fail so completely on an issue of such importance, at the historic moment when the institution is being entrusted with a greatly increased scope of codecision powers under the Lisbon Treaty?
For the sake of the rule of law, for the sake of European citizens and for the sake of the only democratically elected European Institution, we urge you to take whatever actions you can to defend the principles in Amendment 138. In particular, we urge you to support the principle that, unless exceptional circumstances render this impossible, citizens are entitled to a prior judgment before any measure is taken to limit their fundamental right to freedom of communication.
EDRi Open letter to EP on the European Parliament (19.10.2009) http://www.edri.org/files/edri_open_letter_091019.pdf
French version
http://www.edri.org/files/edri_open_letter_091019fr.pdf
See also
BEUC: Open letter from European Consumers to The Conciliation Committee on Telecom Package - Maintain the Current Amendment 138: Protect consumers'
fundamental rights on the Internet
http://pierani.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/229wba2009e_beuc_open_letter_on_telecoms_package_beuc_logo2.pdf
EuroISPA: European Parliament should maintain its defence of citizens'
Fundamental Rights (16.10.2009)
http://www.euroispa.org/files/091016_euroispa_telecom_review_am_138.pdf
Greens/EFA call on EU Parliament to stick to its principles (16.10.2009) [log in to unmask]" target="_blank">http:[log in to unmask]
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2. Romania: Data retention law declared unconstitutional ============================================================
The Romanian Constitutional Court (CCR) announced on 7 October 2009 that it took the decision to consider unconstitutional the Romanian implementation of the data retention directive.
The Romanian data retention law has been in force since the beginning of 2009, but it received a lot of bad press reviews, as reported by EDRi-gram at the beginning of the year. Several NGOs declared that they would contest the law. An initial appeal of the civil society to the Ombudsman was not successful, since the Ombudsman did not consider the law as unconstitutional and therefore he declared that he would not ask the opinion of the Constitutional Court.
The case that was decided by the Constitutional Court in October 2008 was initiated by a Romanian NGO, Civil Society Commissariat, which sued its mobile operator for keeping the traffic data according to the new law on data retention 298/2008. The lawsuit brought to the Bucharest Tribunal was just a pretext to raise, during the trial, a motion for the law's unconstitutionality - so that CCR would give its opinion of the data retention law.
CCR has accepted the motion for law's unconstitutionality through decision 1258/2009, based on the breach of article 28 of the Romanian Constitution, which stipulates the secrecy of correspondence. Other articles invoked were articles 25, 26 and 30 which deal with freedom of movement, privacy and freedom of expression respectively.
Unfortunately, it could take some time to see the motivation of the CCR and therefore to asses the real potential of this breakthrough decision. It might take even one month to get the official text published in the Official Monitor. In any case, the decision of the CCR is final and can't be appealed.
The court is the only authority of constitutional jurisdiction in Romania, independent of any other public authority. It is formed by nine judges, appointed for a nine-year term. Its members are renewed by one third every three years. The court is known for its low number of cases admitted as unconstitutional. In 2008 there were only 18 cases fully admitted, out of almost 1400 motions raised in the regular courts.
The Ministry of Communication and Information Society was quick to declare that it informed the European Commission about the new situation and that they might re-draft the law in order to avoid the constitutionality issues.
But the problems could be more complicated for the executive if the decision of the CCR declares unconstitutional the entire law or article 1 which stipulates the purpose of the law.
The decision also comes in a rather restless political and social period that might have influenced the CCR outcome and could further on have an impact on the way in which the Government will deal with this case. But for now, there is no stable government in place, with the former one being repealed by the Parliament on 13 October and a new one under formation these days.
Romanian constitution
http://www.cdep.ro/pls/dic/site.page?id=371
Romania's Constitutional Court Rules Data Storage Law Unconstitutional
(8.10.2009)
http://www.mediafax.ro/english/romania-s-constitutional-court-rules-data-storage-law-unconstitutional-4972690/
Waw: Constitutional Court declared the law on data retention unconstitutional (only in Romanian, 8.10.2009) http://legi-internet.ro/blogs/index.php/2009/10/08/lege-pastrarii-datelor-trafic-neconstitu
Romanian authorities seek solutions for the data retention law (only in Romanian, 9.10.2009) http://economie.hotnews.ro/stiri-telecom-6261206-autoritatile-romane-cauta-solutii-pentru-evitarea-unui-avertisment-comisia-europeana-dupa-legea-stocarii-datelor-telefonice-fost-declarata-neconstitutionala.htm
Statistical situation of the Romanian Constitutional Court Acts http://www.ccr.ro/statistics/pdf/en/sin09_2009.pdf
The Ombudsman will not address the CCR regarding the data retention law (only in Romanian, 10.02.2009)
http://www.ziare.com/actual/eveniment/02-10-2009/avocatul-poporului-nu-va-sesiza-ccr-cu-privire-la-legea-interceptarilor-668636
EDRi-gram: Romania: Is really privacy a topic in the public debate?
(28.01.2009)
http://www.edri.org/edri-gram/number7.2/romania-privacy-in-public-debate
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3. France pushes the introduction of EDVIGE project through the back door ============================================================
The French Government produced two new decrees published in the Official Journal on 18 October 2009 which actually resurrect the rejected EDVIGE plan to create an intelligence database with personal data.
By-passing the French Parliament, the Minister of Interior Brice Hortefeux introduced the two new decrees by practically splitting the former EDVIGE decree which was withdrawn by the Government at the end of 2008, thus creating two clones of the rejected project, as EDRi-member IRIS (Imaginons un réseau Internet solidaire) explains.
One of the texts is meant as a tool for the police to prevent harm to public safety, to "collect, store and analyze information concerning persons whose individual or collective activity indicates that it may jeopardize public safety." Under the pretext of preventing harms to the public security, the data collected may include complete personal data ranging from nationality, profession, address or telephone numbers to physical signs, travel behaviours or geographic origin. And this is not all as the database will include also information on people who have come into contact or relation with persons deemed susceptible of performing a criminal offence.
The file is related to the public security and has nothing to do with national security or terrorism. IRIS explains this is just a disproportionate and illegal mean for the government to deal with petty and medium delinquency. Moreover the data will be stored for everybody starting with 13 years old. For minors, the retention period is limited to three years as compared to a 10-year retention period for all the others.
The other text introduces a file of administrative investigations. It includes personal data of citizens starting with the age of 16 (the official age at which one person can be employed) in order to check out whether a person's behaviour is compatible with the tasks he is entrusted with, for some sensitive jobs, like those in the security field. Data including political, religious, philosophical and union information with be stored for a minimum of 5 years.
Despite the obvious concerns related to the gathering of so many sensitive data, the main subject of opposition is the so called "geographic origin"
which actually is a masked way of gathering information related to the ethnic origin. "Replacing the ethnical criterion with that of geographic origin is to take us as morons" stated Samuel Thomas, Vice-president of SOS Racisme.
CRAN (The council representing the black associations of France) also expressed its concern related to the geographic origin reference that they consider only a way to go round the interdiction of making reference to the ethnical origin and asked Hortefeux to remove any such reference from the text.
The only guarantee given by the government is that CNIL (The French Data Protection Authority), which has already approved the two texts, will have the control over the two databases but, according to the critics, this is not very reassuring.
The "humour" of the Ministry of Interior of signing the two texts on 16 October, Saint Edwige's day didn't pass unnoticed. The "No to EDVIGE" group publicly declared its decision to continue its fight against the two split variants of EDVIGE project, including by starting mobilizing people against it and to file appeals to the State Council.
No to EDVIGE, no its these two clones! IRIS release (only in French,
18.10.2009)
http://www.iris.sgdg.org/info-debat/comm-edvigeab1009.html
Two decrees recreate the EDVIGE Decree (20.10.2009)
http://nonaedvige.ras.eu.org/spip.php?article1078
"The Police needs files" (only in French, 18.10.2009) http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2009/10/18/01011-20091018FILWWW00131-chevenementla-police-a-besoin-de-fichiers.php
Hortefeux creates two new police files (only in French, 18.10.2009) http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2009/10/18/01016-20091018ARTFIG00099-deux-nouveaux-fichiers-policiers-a-la-place-du-conteste-edvige-.php
Brice Hortefeux Hedwig resuscitated with 2 decrees published in OJ
(19.10.2009)
http://space-net1.blogspot.com/2009/10/brice-hortefeux-hedwig-resuscitated.html
A new version of Edvige? Clones of the previous text (only in French,
19.10.2009)
http://www.20minutes.fr/article/356199/Politique-La-nouvelle-version-d-Edvige-Des-clones-du-texte-precedent.php
EDRi-gram: France: No to new EDVIGE! (1.07.2009)
http://www.edri.org/edri-gram/number7.13/no-edvige-3
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4. Web blocking gets a reality check
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In the negotiations surrounding the formation of a new conservative-liberal coalition in Germany following the recent elections, an agreement has been reached to postpone, for at least a year, the introduction of web blocking.
As the law has already been adopted, the procedure by which the law will be stopped from entering into force has not yet been decided. Coincidentally, the UK government decided also not to introduce mandatory blocking to force the remaining consumer ISPs to follow the "voluntary" blocking already undertaken by the major ISPs in that country.
In Germany, the plan is to use the existing legislation in order to remove as much illegal material as possible from the Internet. After an initial 12-month trial, this approach will be reevaluated. It remains very unclear, however, on what criteria the re-evaluation may take place. The approaches of the two coalition partners on this issue are very different, with the liberal FDP steadfastly opposed to blocking during the election campaign, while the blocking legislation was pushed by the conservative CDU Minister von der Leyen. By default, therefore, the approaches and interpretations that will be taken on the "re-evaluation" will also most probably be divergent.
The decision to prioritise the removal of child abuse images from the Internet was criticised by organisations whose purpose is to protect children, including Unicef. Unicef's press release explains that blocking is necessary because takedown of illegal sites is "not possible" in "foreign"
countries. However, the organisation does not find it necessary to criticise or name any of the major countries which leave images of child abuse online rather than removing them. This is particularly surprising when we consider that all countries in the world, with the exception of the USA (which has signed the Optional Protocol on Child Pornography) and Somalia have signed and ratified the binding UN Child Rights Convention which requires state parties to take all appropriate national, bilateral and international measures to prevent the exploitative use of children in pornographic performances and materials.
No internet censorship in Germany for the next year (18.10.2009) http://ak-zensur.de/2009/10/access-blocking-germany.html
Home Office backs down on net censorship laws (16.10.2009) http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/16/home_office_iwf_legislation/
German Internet Blocking Bill Suspended (18.10.2009) http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2009/10/18/german-internet-blocking-bill-suspended/
UNICEF: Priority for Child! Access barriers are an important step - Further action needed (16.10.2009) http://www.unicef.de/091016vorrang_fuer_k.html
(contribution by Joe McNamee - EDRi)
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5. Buma/Stemra imposes levy for embedding audio and video ============================================================
Dutch collecting society Buma/Stemra announced that it will impose a levy on Internet users for embedding audio- and videomaterial on their website, starting 1 January 2010. The levy starts at EUR 130 for the first six embedded links per website per year. The rules could affect small bloggers and users of social network-sites such as Facebook.
As the rules were legally questionable and did not sufficiently take into account the interests of internet users and Dutch musicians, Buma's announcement immediately led to protests in the blogosphere and on Twitter. Dutch digital rights organisation Bits of Freedom drafted a letter to Buma/Stemra, assisted by numerous concerned internet users through text annotation website co-ment.net, calling for a revision of the rules. Bits of Freedom then handed its letter over to the CEO of Buma/Stemra. Meanwhile, Dutch politicians further questioned the rules in Parliament.
Three days later, on 9 october 2009, Buma/Stemra responded to the criticism by stating that it would for now not apply its rules to non-commercial use. Bits of Freedom responded the same day, questioning the definition of non-commercial use by Buma/Stemra. Indeed, on 14 october Buma/Stemra revealed that even one advertisement on a website would be considered 'commercial use'. Bits of Freedom continues its efforts to defend communication freedom in relation to these controversial measures by Buma/Stemra.
Brochure Buma/Stemra Digital Music Licences (only in Dutch http://www.bumastemra.nl/NR/rdonlyres/DF0B3120-8850-4DF1-ACD6-17F94B0BB18C/0/Brochure_Digitale_Muzieklicenties_2010.pdf
Letter Bits of Freedom to Buma/Stemra (only in Dutch, 6.10.2009) http://www.bof.nl/briefbuma061009.pdf
NOS eight o'clock news report (only in Dutch, 7.10.2009) http://player.nos.nl/index.php/media/play/tcmid/tcm:5-576060/
(Contribution by Ot van Daalen - EDRi-member Bits of Freedom - Netherlands)
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6. Copyright in the digital environment
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During the 1st European Innovation Summit that was held on 12 - 16 October
2009 at the European Parliament in Brussels, a workshop on the future of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) in Europe included a panel to debate the subject of the IPRs in the new digital environment.
In the introduction it was asserted that national copyright laws are no longer adapted to the digital environment, that old business models have failed to produce results, that DRMs have been rejected by the consumers and that the issue now at stake is how to adapt to new business models.
Professor Hugenholtz (IvIR, University of Amsterdam) said that licensing had been impacted heavily by the territorial nature of copyright. The only effective way forward is to create truly harmonising copyright regulation, as has been done for trademarks already. The problem of exceptions and limitations also needs to be effectively rethought.
Antoine Aubert (Google) repeated the point that the current exceptions and limitations regime needed to be reviewed. He explained that the current 70-year copyright terms was too long. Google's priorities have been to ensure that content can find its audience in the digital world and that rights owners get value for their contents.
Malte Behrmann (European Gaming Developers Federation) described how games developers had profited from the Internet to reduce the number of intermediaries in their path to the market. The online games industry has quickly adapted to the digital challenges and has developed a variety of business models. As a result, piracy is not an important issue and the games industry therefore does not support extreme solutions for copyright enforcement. He encouraged the film and music industry to follow the example of his industry.
Giancarlo Miglioro (MrGoodIDEA) said that the issue of finance was missing in the debate on the future of IPR. He said that major companies saw intellectual property as a major asset and trade in it.
Francisco Mingorance (Business Software Alliance) said that the adoption of the Hadopi law in France had demonstrated that technology was neutral and can be used efficiently to enforce copyright without any risk to people's privacy. There should be a focus on adopting codes of conduct for IPR enforcement, with ISPs responsible for monitoring and enforcement.
Christian Engstrom, MEP (Greens/EFA (Pirate Party), Sweden) said that his party was pro-copyright but also pro-reform and pro-adaptation to the digital age. He argued for a 5-year term of protection and that all non-commercial uses should be free of copyright.
Professor Hugenholz reminded participants that adjustments to the copyright term should comply with the international treaties and five years could not be acceptable. However, the recent proposal of the Commission to nearly double the term of protection for related rights has failed to provide evidence as to the need for such a long term.
Margot Froehlinger defended that proposal by pointing out that it had been accompanied with an impact assessment and that the Commission's aim had been to help performers. She warned against the criterion of "commercial infringement" and gave the example of somebody copying a film and putting it online without wanting to make a profit but doing so simply as a hobby.
1st European Innovation Summit
http://www.knowledge4innovation.eu/k4i/default.aspx
(contribution by Joe McNamee - EDRi)
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7. The European Commission calls for online privacy protection measures ============================================================
On 8 October 2009 the European Commission (EC) repeated its call to all EU member states to increase their efforts in dealing with online privacy threats to the public, such as spam, spyware and malware, based on findings from a study required by the Commission.
The study performed by time.lex "Study on activities undertaken to address threats that undermine the confidence in the Information Society, such as spam, spyware and malicious software", which includes assessments of progress in each EU country, shows the need of legislative improvements, more consistent enforcement rules and sanctions and better cross-border cooperation in the domain.
"Today's figures show that several EU countries are doing more to enforce online privacy rules. However, spam is an area where we can and must improve for the benefit of internet users in the EU ," said Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media who added that "Although since 2002, European law has prohibited spam and spyware, on average 65% of EU citizens are still affected by spam on a regular basis. We need to step up our fight against spammers and make sure that the EU adopts legislation that provides for strong civil and criminal sanctions against spammers. I call on EU countries to reinforce their national efforts to fight on-line privacy threats such as spam, spyware and malicious software."
The study reveals that there are large differences in the way the member states enforce regulations and apply sanctions for spammers and recommends a more successful approach in fighting online threats that should involve a combination of prevention, enforcement and raising public awareness (as proposed also by Critical Information Infrastructure Protection policy).
"Public authorities (such as telecoms regulators, data protection and consumer agencies and law enforcement
bodies) must have clear responsibilities and cooperation procedures between themselves; while public and private sector must also work together." In order to achieve that, EU countries should provide sufficient resources to national authorities so that they may gather evidence, carry out investigations and built prosecution in this field.
The findings also show that the level of cooperation also differs between EU countries and indicates that as spam is a global problem, there is the need for a closer cooperation with the EU as well as worldwide.
More action needed to fight spammers and protect online privacy, says Commission report (8.10.2009)
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/09/1487
Study on activities undertaken to address threats that undermine confidence in the Information Society, such as spam, spyware and malicious software - Spam and spyware study SMART 2008/0013 Final Report - (2.10.2009) http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/ecomm/doc/library/ext_studies/privacy_trust_policies/spam_spyware_legal_study2009final.pdf
Critical Information Infrastructure Protection - a new initiative in 2009
(29.05.2009)
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/nis/strategy/activities/ciip/index_en.htm
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8. Microsoft tries to comply with EU requirements ============================================================
After having long criticised and penalised Microsoft for its anti-competitive practices, the European Union seems to be now at the point of trying to close up the battle with the company after Microsoft has made a new offer to give its customers access to a wider range of web browsers through its Windows operating system and to share information with its competitors.
"The commission will formally market test proposals made by Microsoft to address concerns regarding the tying of Internet Explorer to the Windows PC operating system," said the EU's competition commissioner Neelie Kroes who also expressed the idea that a at a preliminary view it appears that "Microsoft's commitments would indeed address our concerns."
Microsoft's last proposal in July to give a choice screen that would allow consumers to pick from several browsers was not considered good enough and the European Commission (EC) asked for improvements. After intense discussions with the EC and with feedback from the industry, the present proposal gives a choice of 12 browsers and also addresses the other topic of concern, interoperability, by offering an exchange of information with other software companies.
However, the new proposal is not considered as good by everybody. FSFE (Free Software Foundation Europe) believes that, being close to the end of her mandate, Ms Kroes is rushing in closing up a deal with Microsoft that serves the company and not the EU.
FSFE argues that the solution proposed by Microsoft is tricky as the browsers offered as alternative are not pre-installed but must be downloaded. As many time downloading may be slow or even failing, depending on the connection, many people will prefer to just use Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) as it will be much easier. In the foundation's opinion, Microsoft should pre-install alternative browsers and "any browser that the user chooses needs to be integrated into the Windows operating system to the same degree that IE is integrated today." FSFE also believes that the settlement between the EC and Microsoft should not be limited to Europe, as the company proposed, but apply globally.
As regarding the interoperability, the foundation argues that what is Microsoft offering now is only the interoperability information that is impossible to use in Free Software. What FSFE considers necessary is "a binding commitment from Microsoft to provide and update interoperability information on terms that are compatible with Free Software. This has to be a legally binding document, and needs to include guarantees as well as clear remedies if Microsoft fails to comply."
The European Committee for Interoperable Systems also consider the settlement "does not appear to deal with the inadequacies of Microsoft's standards compliance, unfair pricing practices or other concerns related to patent abuse or standards manipulation".
Microsoft's present proposal will be marked tested for one month period during which the industry and consumers may submit suggestions for further changes. Following the trial month, the Commission may decide to make Microsoft's commitment legally binding for five years and in that case, during this period, no action will be brought against Microsoft related to browsers.
In the meantime, the company is close to releasing in Europe its new browser - Windows 7 - that launches on 22 October worldwide. But not without concerns.
In a recent press release, FSFE warns that "Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows 7, is currently shipping with a potentially serious defect.
Ahead of the product's global launch on Thursday, Germany's federal IT security agency (BSI) has issued a warning about a high-risk vulnerability in the SMB2 protocol. This can be exploited over the network to shut down a computer with a Denial of Service (DoS) attack."
EU approves new Microsoft pledges (7.10.2009) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8294587.stm
FSFE to EC: Don't waste an opportunity with a hasty deal (28.09.2009)
http://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/?p=263
Antitrust: Commission welcomes new Microsoft proposals on Microsoft Internet Explorer and Interoperability (24.07.2009)
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/09/352
Microsoft browser battle draws to a close (8.10.2009)
http://euobserver.com/9/28798/?rk=1
Microsoft and Europe Near Browser Truce (8.10.2009) http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/oct2009/gb2009108_963950.htm
Windows 7 to hit consumers with known security problem (19.10.2009) http://www.fsfe.org/news/2009/news-20091019-01.en.html
EDRi-gram: Windows 7 is launched without IE, but the Commission is not pleased (17.06.2009)
http://www.edri.org/edri-gram/number7.12/microsoft-europe-ie-windows7
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9. Finland: Introducing Internet broadband as a universal service ============================================================
According to a decree issued by the Finish Ministry of Transport and Communications, starting with 1 July 2010, a 1 Mbit Internet connection will be defined as a requirement of the Universal Service. Thus, Finland becomes the first country in the world to make access to broadband Internet a legal right.
The decree states that by the end of 2009, the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority will establish which of the telecom operators will be imposed this universal service obligation. The designated universal service providers will have to be able to provide access for all residential or business users, at a reasonable price, to a high-quality connection of at least 1 Mbit/s. The providers may choose themselves the technology used to provide the service. The average speed of downstream traffic must be at least 75 per cent of the required speed in a 24 hour period. While in a four hour measuring period the average speed must be at least 59 per cent of the required speed.
Ms Suvi Lindén, Finland's Minister of Communications, believes that high speed access to everybody will improve people's quality of life especially in the less populated areas, will boost business, enable electronic communications and encourage online banking.
Finland is already amongst the first countries in the world from the point of view of access to Internet connection. According to Laura Vilkkonen, the legislative counselor for the Ministry of Transport and Communications, about 95 percent of the population have some sort of Internet access. She also stated that the one-megabit requirement is only an intermediary step as the target is to reach speeds of up to 100 megabit per second for all by 2015.
"We think it's something you cannot live without in modern society. Like banking services or water or electricity, you need Internet connection,"
Vilkkonen said.
Access to a minimum of 1 Mbit Internet connection available to everyone in Finland by July 2010 (16.10.2009) http://www.lvm.fi/web/en/pressreleases/view/920100
Finland makes broadband access a legal right (14.10.2009) http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/oct/14/finland-broadband
Fast Internet access becomes a legal right in Finland (15.10.2009) http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/10/15/finland.internet.rights/index.html
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10. Recommended Reading
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Law enforcement access to EURODAC: EDPS expresses serious doubts about the legitimacy and necessity of proposed measures (7.10.2009) Press release http://www.edps.europa.eu/EDPSWEB/webdav/site/mySite/shared/Documents/EDPS/PressNews/Press/2009/EDPS-2009-11_Eurodac_access_EN.pdf
Opinion on Eurodac
http://www.edps.europa.eu/EDPSWEB/webdav/site/mySite/shared/Documents/Consultation/Opinions/2009/09-10-07_Access_Eurodac_EN.pdf
Communication on Copyright in the Knowledge Economy (19/10/2009) Press release http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/09/1544&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
Citizens Summary
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/copyright/docs/copyright-infso/citizens_summary16102009_en.pdf
Communication
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/copyright/docs/copyright-infso/20091019_532_en.pdf
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11. Agenda
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24 October 2009, Zurich, Switzerland
Big Brother Awards Switzerland
http://www.bigbrotherawards.ch/2009/
25 October 2009, Vienna, Austria
Austrian Big Brother Awards
http://www.bigbrotherawards.at/
26-27 October 2009, Vienna, Austria
3rd European Privacy Open Space
http://www.privacyos.eu
26 October 2009, Brussels, Belgium
European Commission - Public hearing on orphan works http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/copyright/copyright-infso/copyright-infso_en.htm#publichearing
29 October 2009, Barcelona, Spain
oXcars, the biggest free culture event of all times, 2nd edition http://oxcars09.exgae.net
29 October - 1 November 2009, Barcelona, Spain Free Culture Forum: Organization and Action http://fcforum.net/
3 November 2009, Madrid, Spain
Civil Society Conference: "Global Privacy Standards in a Global World"
Organized by "The Public Voice" coalition
http://thepublicvoice.org/events/madrid09
4-6 November 2009, Madrid, Spain
31st International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy http://www.privacyconference2009.org
10-11 November 2009, Cambridge, UK
Public Domain Calculators Meeting
http://wiki.okfn.org/PublicDomainCalculators/Meeting
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/
19-20 November 2009, Malmö, Sweden
First popular European e-government conference http://malmo09.org/
27-30 December 2009, Berlin, Germany
26th Chaos Communication Congress
http://events.ccc.de/congress/2009/
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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.
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Newsletter editor: Bogdan Manolea <[log in to unmask]>
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