July 2018 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: [cryptography] [info] The NSA Is Building the Country's Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)
by Dean, James 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

From http://blogs.computerworld.com/19917/shocker_nsa_chief_denies_total_info rmation_awareness_spying_on_americans?source=CTWNLE_nlt_security_2012-03 -22: Despite the fact that domestic spying on Americans is already an e-hoarding epidemic, the massive new NSA storage facility in Utah will solve the problem of how to manage 20 terabytes a minute of intercepted communications. Even if the intercepted communication is AES encrypted and unbroken today, all that stored data will be cracked some day. Then it too can be data-mined. The super secret spook agency is full of code breakers. "Remember," former intelligence official Binney stated, "a lot of foreign government stuff we've never been able to break is 128 or less. Break all that and you'll find out a lot more of what you didn't know-stuff we've already stored-so there's an enormous amount of information still in there." Binney added the NSA is "on the verge of breaking a key encryption algorithm." _______________________________________________ cryptography mailing list cryptography(a)randombit.net http://lists.randombit.net/mailman/listinfo/cryptography ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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EDRI-gram newsletter - Number 5.5, 14 March 2007
by EDRI-gram newsletter 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

============================================================ EDRI-gram biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe Number 5.5, 14 March 2007 ============================================================ Contents ============================================================ 1. YouTube blocked for 2 days in Turkey 2. French High Court cancels the creation of illegal migrants database 3. Cross-border wiretapping proposed by the Swedish Government 4. Consumer Protection Commissioner wants to see changes in iTunes 5. Russian deputy sues a commentator on his blog for insult 6. UK Home Office plans to fingerprint children starting 11 7. Consolidated "Audiovisual without Frontiers" Directive 8. ENDitorial: French law on delinquency: the threat to FoE is elsewhere 9. Recommended Reading 10. Agenda 11. About ============================================================ 1. YouTube blocked for 2 days in Turkey ============================================================ The video-sharing website Youtube, was blocked on 7 March 2007 by a court order in Turkey, after some videos insulting Turkey's founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk had been uploaded on its servers. The ban was lifted two days later, when the videos were removed from the website. Some of the videos, considered offending by the court, presented Ataturk and the Turkish people as homosexuals. In others, insults were proffered to the Turkish flag and Ataturk's portrait. The court ordered the Turkish ISPs to block the video-sharing website, based on Article 301 from the Turkish Penal Code, known as the main obstacle to freedom of speech. Article 301 considers insulting Ataturk as well Turkishness as a crime. However, after a petition from Turk Telekom, the court has made it clear that it will changeits decision if the videos are removed. Turkey's leading ISP, Turk Telecom blocked the site right away after receiving the decision. The head of the company Paul Doany confirmed: "We are not in a position to say if the YouTube video was insulting, we just respect the court's decision." The order was heavily criticized in Turkey and abroad. Reporters Without Borders quickly reacted by saying that "Blocking all access to a video-sharing site because of a few videos that are considered offensive is a radical and inappropriate measure." One of the editorialists at Hurriyet pointed out that the blocking just made the problem worst: "While protesting a video clip which at first only a handful of people even knew about, and then moving to block its broadcast in Turkey, what we achieved was that now, the entire country knows about it. " A common declaration has been published by 17 NGOs in the IT field, where they have protested against every attempt of filtering the Internet including the recent YouTube event, underlining that the latter has became "an unlucky progress" as it indicates the future threats against the Internet. "This is another proof that Internet is not correctly understood, because the procedure for preventing the YouTube access is the same with the procedure for the printed press. It is like closing a whole library because of a single book which was found improper." Two days later, after the videos were removed from the Youtube website, the court lifted the ban, so the site is now again accessible from Turkey. However, the penal case continues and the court tries to identify the person that has uploaded the videos to the website. YouTube unblocked after withdrawal of videos insulting Ataturk (9.03.2007) http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=21256 Turkey revokes YouTube ban (10.03.2007) http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=67977 YouTube: We didn't solve the problem, just made it worse (8.03.2007) http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/6087438.asp?gid=74 The ban on Turks by Turks (12.03.2007) http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=68017 Informatica/Information/Consumer NGOs - "Own your Internet" Declaration (10.03.2007) http://bt-stk.org.tr/internetim.html ============================================================ 2. French High Court cancels the creation of illegal migrants database ============================================================ In a decision published on 13 March, the Conseil d'Itat, the French highest administrative court, cancelled the ministerial order ("Arrjti") by which the Interior Ministry created the ELOI file, a database aimed at facilitating the expulsion of illegal migrants. On 2 October 2006, four French NGOs filed this case against the Interior minister: CIMADE and GISTI (two associations defending the rights of migrants), LDH (the French Human Rights League), and French EDRI member IRIS. While the database creation itself is allowed by the French code on immigration and asylum (CESEDA), the NGOs argued that the ELOI file would contain excessive and inadequate personal data on the foreigners themselves, their children, the citizens with which they were staying, and their visitors in retention centres. Moreover, these data were supposed to be kept for an excessive duration. During the proceedings of the case, the French Ministry of Interior had to downsize its expectations, recognizing that no data should be kept on some categories of retention centres visitors (members of Parliament, social workers, doctors, and specially habilitated NGOs, like volunteers from CIMADE). It also had to recognize that keeping data about visitors for 3 months rather than 3 years was enough, clearly showing how arbitrarily this duration had been initially set. However, at this step the Conseil d'Itat has only based its decision on a procedural issue: given that the database was supposed to include a digitised photograph of illegal migrants, the ministry of Interior should not have created the database by a simple ministerial order, but rather by an administrative decree ('Dicret') submitted to the Conseil d'Itat after consulting the CNIL, the French data protection authority. Beyond the fact that the French administrative court reminded the French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy - who is currently running for French presidency - that he, too, had to obey the law, this decision acknowledges that a digitised photograph is a biometric identifier, even when not processed by automatic facial recognition software. Although based on the CESEDA rather than on the French data protection law, this ruling by the highest administrative court is important since there is no official definition in France of what is a biometric identifier. On the very day of the ruling, the French Ministry of Interior announced that it had submitted the new draft decree to the CNIL, and that "the Conseil d'Itat has not found valid the arguments claiming that the ELOI database was infringing fundamental freedoms". This claim is refuted by the 4 NGOs in a press release, since the French court has judged first, as usual, upon procedural arguments, without the need to examine the substance of the complaint. The NGOs announced that if the new database characteristics remain the same, this would be as unacceptable as the former file. They now call the CNIL and the Conseil d'Itat to make fundamental rights prevail on the temptation of generalized indexing of people. French ministry of Interior press release (in French only, 13.03.07) http://www.interieur.gouv.fr/misill/sections/a_la_une/toute_l_actualite/etr… gers-circulation-transf/traitement-eloi Cancelling of ELOI file: after the victory of law, the CNIL and the Conseil d'Itat must make rights prevail (in French only, 13.03.2007) http://www.iris.sgdg.org/info-debat/comm-eloi0307.html IRIS dossier on the case, with all legal documents (in French only) http://www.iris.sgdg.org/actions/fichiers/index.html (Contribution by Meryem Marzouki, EDRI member IRIS - France) ============================================================ 3. Cross-border wiretapping proposed by the Swedish Government ============================================================ Mikael Odenberg, the Swedish defence minister presented on 8 March 2007 a draft law to the parliament that would give the national defence intelligence agency the power to monitor all cross-border phone calls and email traffic without court order. The proposal, which according to the government, is meant to combat terrorism and other threats to national security, would allow the National Defence Radio Establishment (FRA) to use computer software to search for sensitive keywords in all cross-border phone and e-mail communications. Although the Government states that this would affect only a small part of the electronic communications and that communication exchanged between Swedes will be filtered, critics are concerned that this proposal is too far reaching, being among the most advanced in Europe. They consider it is impossible to eliminate from this programme private communications between Swedes as e-mails are often routed via a server abroad. Even SAPO, the national security police agency, has criticized the proposal, considering it violates personal integrity. The Swedish Legislative Council, with some suggestions for amendments, especially related to FRA and its monitoring, has given its approval on the governmental proposal encouraging the defence minister to continue his action. "I am now going to continue preparing a proposal. The first thing I will do is to contact the Social Democrats and consult with them as to how best to apply the Legislative Council's constructive suggestions," stated Odenberg. Thomas Bodstroem, head of the opposition Social Democrats, accused the defense minister of trying to "cover up" the fact that, in the future, the military would have a similar role in fighting crime as that of the police and that FRA, unlike the police, would not need a court order to begin the surveillance. "We have to ask the question: Do we want this change, and if we do, shouldn't we carry out a thorough examination first," said Bodstroem. A 12-month delay in discussing the draft law can be obtained by the vote of 60 out of the 349 members of Sweden's parliament, since it is a proposition limiting freedoms and rights of individuals. However, Bodstroem said the Social Democrats had not yet decided whether they would go for a delay and that they would examine the proposal closely before taking any decision. Sweden proposes giving intelligence agency broad new powers (8.03.2007) http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/08/news/sweden.php Sweden edges closer to bugging (9.03.2007) http://www.thelocal.se/6355/20070209/ Sweden proposes extensive wiretapping programme (8.03.2007) http://www.sweden.se/templates/cs/NewsML____12744.aspx?newsid=3363 ============================================================ 4. Consumer Protection Commissioner wants to see changes in iTunes ============================================================ Many consumer rights organizations in Germany, Norway, France and Finland have gathered to take common actions against Apples on its iTunes bundling services, but new concerns are expressed also by the EU Consumer Protection Commissioner, Meglena Kuneva. In an interview for the German weekly Focus, Kuneva was very critical to this service: "Do you think it's fine that a CD plays in all CD players but that an iTunes song only plays in an iPod? I don't. Something has to change." The statement was confirmed by Helen Kearns, a Commission spokeswoman who considered however that those were the commissioner's own opinions and not those of the Commission. "I don't think she was stating it as a definitive policy position. At this stage it is her gut instinct," said Kearns who added that Kuneva was leading a review of the eight basic laws governing cross-border consumer rights. The respective review, which is in its early stage, has resulted so far in a preliminary document that will probably lead to revision proposals for current EU laws. Apple faces opposition not only in Europe, but in the US as well where the company was sued for binding the music bought on its iTunes to its iPod which violates US anti-trust laws. EU takes aim at Apple over iTunes (11.03.2007) http://uk.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUKL1126917220070311 Criticism on Itunes (only in German, 11.03.2007) http://www.focus.de/digital/multimedia/ipod/apple_aid_50327.html Apple faces US iPod anti-trust suit (3.01.2007) http://www.computing.co.uk/personal-computer-world/news/2171724/apple-faces… pod-anti-trust EDRi-gram: iTunes under continuous attack in Europe (31.01.2007) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.2/itunes ============================================================ 5. Russian deputy sues a commentator on his blog for insult ============================================================ Viktor Alksnis, a Duma State deputy, has acted on his threat to take to court blogger Timofey Shevyakov, a LifeJournal user, for insults addressed to the former as a state authority. The deputy started his blog on the LifeJournal on 3 February, wanting to "demonstrate the everyday routine work of a Duma opposition member", but became soon unhappy of some comments on his blog. As a response to comments placed by Alksnis on his blog on 18 February on the new military banners in the Russian army, which he was not content with, a user "tarlith" said the depute was "either a liar or a fool". Alksnis threatened with filing a criminal complaint against him, and the discussion continued offensively with the participation of all forum users. Alksnis identified the user "tarlith" as blogger Timofey Shevyakov, historian and member of the Efficient Politics Fund. On 22 February O2TV held a talk show with Alksnis and Shevyakov where they could not find any common ground of understanding. The deputy claims that the Shevyakov has spread false information hurting his national dignity and thinks his actions fall under three articles of the Russian Criminal Code. Hence, he has sent a request to the General Prosecutor's Office against the blogger, asking that he should be prosecuted for insult and violence in respect of authority. He attahced to the request 74 pages of notarized screen shots and a CD with alleged evidentiary material. Anton Sergo, Head of Internet and Justice company, thinks that while the deputy has all the grounds for appealing to court, in such cases, the court has to prove that the insult really took place and has to determine who did it. The deputy also addressed all LiveJournal users, expressing his indignation regarding the lack of courtesy of some users and their wish to always insult or humiliate. He intends to suggest the issue for consideration in the State Duma. "Let us start the process of Internet Community against Internet Heels together", he said. As regarding the insult to authority, Stanislav Petrovsky, Associate Professor with the Russian Academy of Justice believes that the deputy's position is not really significant in terms of the Internet and that Alksnis should not always be considered as authority representative. In Petrovsky's opinion, it is not clear if Alksnis' blog is part of his work. Petrovsky thinks that some Russian authorities might not perceive the Internet very correctly and might not be so used to interactive communication with people, stating: "A person who cannot persist in his statements in the internet without involving government law enforcement bodies shouldn't be using such democratic means of communication as blogs, which are free to anyone, not just a small community". Alksnis involves Prosecutor's Office to LJ scandal (6.03.2007) http://eng.cnews.ru/news/top/indexEn.shtml?2007/03/06/238881 Duma depute to take LJer to court (20.02.2007) http://eng.cnews.ru/news/top/indexEn.shtml?2007/02/20/236785 ============================================================ 6. UK Home Office plans to fingerprint children starting 11 ============================================================ "Restricted" documents circulated among officials in the UK Identity and Passport have shown Home Office plans to fingerprint children aged 11 years and over, beginning with 2010, as part of the programme for the introduction of new biometric passports and ID cards. The fingerprints are to be stored in a big database expected to cover about half a million children by 2011 that will be also used by the Immigration and Nationality Directorate to store fingerprints of asylum seekers. The programme of introducing biometric elements on ID cards foresees that all citizens over 16 will be taken fingerprints, eye and facial details when applying for passports. Initially, children were supposed to be exempt from the programme, but the new proposals show that this has been reconsidered. Once a child reaches 16 his fingerprints pass from the stored database to the National Identity Register covering information on almost 50 million adults. The ministers argue that ID cards are necessary to prevent identity theft and fraud but private campaigners and opposition politicians consider that these plans will turn Britain into a "surveillance society". David Davis, the shadow home secretary, criticized the plans by stating: "This borders on the sinister and it shows the government is trying to end the presumption of innocence. With the fingerprinting of all our children, this government is clearly determined to enforce major changes in the relationship between the citizen and the state in a way never seen before." The critics also complain about the trouble involved by children having to travel up to 150 km to special Home Office screening centres to have their fingerprints taken when applying for a passport and on the costs that this programme would involve. A combined ID card and passport that could rise up to about 160 euro as documents show. "The government's determination to build a surveillance state behind the backs of the British people is becoming increasingly sinister. It is a measure of ministerial arrogance that plans are being laid to fingerprint children without public debate." said Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman. The plan is considered by the opponents as a "Big Brother" scheme which is badly planned, too expensive and inefficient. The Tories declared that, in case they win the next elections, they would scrap the scheme. Children of 11 to be fingerprinted (4.03.2007) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1466943.ece Children's prints to be held on database (4.03.2007) http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=428&id=342772007 Ministers clash over Labour's 'sinister' plans to fingerprint children (5.03.2007) http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=428&id=345152007 ============================================================ 7. Consolidated "Audiovisual without Frontiers" Directive ============================================================ After the first reading in the European Parliament of the new proposed Television without Frontiers directive, the European Commission has made the new consolidated text public on 9 March 2007 . The initial proposal was criticized by Internet media specialists and some significant changes were adopted by the European Parliament in December 2006 during the first reading. The changes are now incorporated in the consolidated text presented by the Commission. They include the initial proposal that those non-TV audiovisual services, comprising so-called non-linear or on-demand services, will be made subject to some basic content regulation. The Commission wants to push the draft directive hoping that it will be adopted by the end of May 2007 by the European Parliament and the Council. "Thanks to the ambitious work of the European Parliament and the intense efforts of the German Presidency over the past months, Europe's new legal framework for a more competitive, more diverse and more pluralistic audiovisual media sector is now within reach," said Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding. "I am confident that we will now achieve political agreement on the new "Audiovisual Without Frontiers" Directive by the end of May. Europe's internal market would then be truly open for providers and consumers of audiovisual services by the end of 2008 at the latest." The text adopted by the Parliament is still subject to criticism, especially on the lack of clarity of the definitions of the commercial TV-like services on the Internet. A report of the UK European Union Committee of theHouse of Lords considered that the regulation might be wrongly applied to other contents such as that of blogs. The report warned that the Directive might cause production companies outside of the EU to try and escape the regulation, considering UK will be one of the main victims of this action. Boosting the Diversity of European TV- and On-Demand services: Commission paves the way for the new Directive "Audiovisual without Frontiers"(9.03.2007) http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/07/311&format=HT… &aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en Draft Audiovisual Media Services Directive - Consolidated text (8.03.2007) http://ec.europa.eu/comm/avpolicy/docs/reg/modernisation/proposal_2005/avms… cons_amend_0307_en.pdf EDRI-gram: House of Lords produces report against the AVMS directive (14.02.2007) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.3/avms EDRI-gram: New Audiovisual Directive: First Reading in EU Parliament completed (20.12.2006) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.24/avms ============================================================ 8. ENDitorial: French law on delinquency: the threat to FoE is elsewhere ============================================================ The new French law for the prevention of delinquency is yet another vehicle to worsen penalties and to increase the prerogatives of the police, when infractions are committed through or using the Internet. The main purpose of this law is to reduce the limitation of penal responsibility for 16 to 18 years old minors and to increase the powers of mayors, including by providing them with normally private information on families and minors in difficult social situation. As it has become usual in France, the parliamentary discussion has been the occasion to include various provisions having little to do with the core of the law. The law imposes new obligations to French ISPs, reducing their limitation of liability resulting from the transposition of the E-commerce directive. In addition to contribute to the fight against hate speech, holocaust denial and child porn, ISPs should now inform public authorities on any incitement to violence and violation of human dignity, allegedly committed by their subscribers and having been reported to them by Internet users (article 40 of the law). On gambling activities, French ISPs should now inform their subscribers of foreign gambling websites considered illegal under the French law and of the penalty in case of illegal gambling practices (same article 40). When this information lacks, French ISPs may be charged to one year imprisonment and 75000 euros fine penalty. Furthermore, advertising on any media unauthorised gambling activity is also punished with 30000 euros fine (article 38). French ISPs may also be concerned by provisions (article 35) imposing to editors, or by default to persons in charge of disseminating materials considered as harmful to minors, to clearly mention that these materials are forbidden to minors. The law also creates new infractions and grants extended prerogatives to law enforcement authorities. The use of electronic communication in making 'sexual proposals' to minors younger than 15 is now a crime (article 35), punished by two years imprisonment and 30000 euros fine (5 years and 75000 euros when the proposal leads to an encounter). A new provision introduced by the same article 35 grants dedicated law enforcement authorities with new powers, since they now can use pseudonyms when they participate in electronic exchanges for the purpose of investigations, and they also can detain and provide illegal content for the same purpose. However, they cannot use these possibilities for crime incitement. Finally, extension of law enforcement authorities prerogatives is provided by article 39, which extends to the public prosecutor (who is hierarchically subordinated to the Justice Minister) the possibility to initiate an emergency legal procedure in order to take down a website considered as illegal. While these provisions are actually likely to seriously endanger freedom of expression and the respect for the rule of law on the Internet, they haven't called for the same attention as the provision criminalising the video recording and dissemination of violent acts - from 'happy slapping' to rape (article 44). Unless recording is made by a professional journalist or in order to be used as an evidence in court cases, the person knowingly recording such acts is now considered as an accomplice and punished as such, depending on the act. The dissemination of such recorded images is punished by five years imprisonment and 75000 euros fine. Some French organisations (Wikimedia France, Reporters without Borders, and the Odebi league) claimed that this provision would threaten 'citizen journalism', especially when citizens record police violence, e.g. during street demonstrations. The Odebi league is even trying to demonstrate this thesis in its press release by pointing out that, among the concerned violent acts, those perpetrated by 'agents of the State' are included. This is obviously an outbid manoeuvre, since little knowledge of the law suffices to understand that this mention is only meant as an aggravating circumstance for some violent acts - recorded or not -, when they are perpetrated by civil servants! In fact, this provision, although somehow badly formulated, has been introduced after some serious crimes (rape, violent aggression) have been recorded and disseminated with no serious actual possibility of incrimination. And regarding police violence issue, actually, if a video shows the police carrying violence, this could be used as evidence... against the police! It remains that the penalty is disproportionate with regards to the fact that recording and dissemination of violent acts are often made by minors, sometimes very young, and this disproportion is exactly the reason why the whole law, and not only this provision, should be blamed and have been fought by human rights organisations. It also remains to discuss this notion of 'citizen journalism' and especially what are the legal, sociological and political implications of assimilating free expression (which should be granted to any citizen) to journalism (which is a professional activity encompassing some duties, notwithstanding the freedom of the press). And this is another story... French law for the prevention of delinquency (in French only, 05.03.2007) http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/WAspad/UnTexteDeJorf?numjo=INTX0600091L Wikimedia France press release - Draft law for prevention of delinquency (in French only, 02.2007) http://www.wikimedia.fr/index.php/Communiquis_de_presse/Projet_de_loi_preve… ion_delinquance New prevention of criminality law poses threat to citizen reporting (07.03.2007) http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=21237 Odebi league press release - Reaction to Nicolas Sarkozy's spokesperson's explanations : Forced to react to the articles published by the international press, the candidate and minister can't assume the consequences of his own actions and policy (12.03.2007) http://www.odebi.org/new2/?p=233 French to limit violent net clips (07.03.2007) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6426235.stm (Contribution by Meryem Marzouki, EDRI member IRIS - France) ============================================================ 9. Recommended Reading ============================================================ Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the follow-up of the Work Programme for better implementation of the Data Protection Directive http://www.statewatch.org/news/2007/mar/eu-com-dp-proposals.pdf ============================================================ 10. Agenda ============================================================ 14-15 March 2007, Berlin, Germany Challenges and Opportunities in a Digital World. The Role of Consumer Policy http://www.konsumentdigital.de/index.php?id=159 16 March 2007, Hannover, Germany European Commission conference on Mobile TV at CeBIT http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/events/cebit_07/index_en.htm 17 March 2007, London, United Kingdom Open Knowledge 1.0. Organized by the Open Knowledge Foundation http://www.okfn.org/okcon/ 11 April 2007, London, United Kingdom Support ORG http://supportorgandparty.eventbrite.com/ 11-13 April 2007, Berlin, Germany re:publica 2007 - Leben im Netz http://www.re-publica.de 1-4 May 2007, Montreal, Canada 7th Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy (CFP2007) http://www.cfp2007.org/live/ 18-19 May 2007, Brasov, Romania eLiberatica - The Benefits of Open and Free Technologies - Romanian IT Open Source and Free Software Conference http://www.eliberatica.ro/ 11-15 June 2007, Geneva, Switzerland Provisional Committee on Proposals Related to a WIPO Development Agenda: Fourth Session http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/details.jsp?meeting_id=11927 15-17 June 2007, Dubrovnik, Croatia Creative Commons iSummit 2007 http://wiki.icommons.org/index.php/ISummit_2007 18-22 June 2007, Geneva, Switzerland Second Special Session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/details.jsp?meeting_id=12744 ============================================================ 11. About ============================================================ EDRI-gram is a biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe. Currently EDRI has 25 members from 16 European countries. 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 2.0 License. See the full text at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Newsletter editor: Bogdan Manolea <edrigram(a)edri.org> Information about EDRI and its members: http://www.edri.org/ - EDRI-gram subscription information subscribe by e-mail To: edri-news-request(a)edri.org Subject: subscribe You will receive an automated e-mail asking to confirm your request. unsubscribe by e-mail To: edri-news-request(a)edri.org Subject: unsubscribe - EDRI-gram in Macedonian EDRI-gram is also available partly in Macedonian, with delay. Translations are provided by Metamorphosis http://www.metamorphosis.org.mk/edrigram-mk.php - EDRI-gram in German 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/ - Newsletter archive Back issues are available at: http://www.edri.org/edrigram - Help Please ask <edrigram(a)edri.org> if you have any problems with subscribing or unsubscribing. ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature which had a name of signature.asc]

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EDRI-gram newsletter - Number 5.5, 14 March 2007
by EDRI-gram newsletter 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

============================================================ EDRI-gram biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe Number 5.5, 14 March 2007 ============================================================ Contents ============================================================ 1. YouTube blocked for 2 days in Turkey 2. French High Court cancels the creation of illegal migrants database 3. Cross-border wiretapping proposed by the Swedish Government 4. Consumer Protection Commissioner wants to see changes in iTunes 5. Russian deputy sues a commentator on his blog for insult 6. UK Home Office plans to fingerprint children starting 11 7. Consolidated "Audiovisual without Frontiers" Directive 8. ENDitorial: French law on delinquency: the threat to FoE is elsewhere 9. Recommended Reading 10. Agenda 11. About ============================================================ 1. YouTube blocked for 2 days in Turkey ============================================================ The video-sharing website Youtube, was blocked on 7 March 2007 by a court order in Turkey, after some videos insulting Turkey's founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk had been uploaded on its servers. The ban was lifted two days later, when the videos were removed from the website. Some of the videos, considered offending by the court, presented Ataturk and the Turkish people as homosexuals. In others, insults were proffered to the Turkish flag and Ataturk's portrait. The court ordered the Turkish ISPs to block the video-sharing website, based on Article 301 from the Turkish Penal Code, known as the main obstacle to freedom of speech. Article 301 considers insulting Ataturk as well Turkishness as a crime. However, after a petition from Turk Telekom, the court has made it clear that it will changeits decision if the videos are removed. Turkey's leading ISP, Turk Telecom blocked the site right away after receiving the decision. The head of the company Paul Doany confirmed: "We are not in a position to say if the YouTube video was insulting, we just respect the court's decision." The order was heavily criticized in Turkey and abroad. Reporters Without Borders quickly reacted by saying that "Blocking all access to a video-sharing site because of a few videos that are considered offensive is a radical and inappropriate measure." One of the editorialists at Hurriyet pointed out that the blocking just made the problem worst: "While protesting a video clip which at first only a handful of people even knew about, and then moving to block its broadcast in Turkey, what we achieved was that now, the entire country knows about it. " A common declaration has been published by 17 NGOs in the IT field, where they have protested against every attempt of filtering the Internet including the recent YouTube event, underlining that the latter has became "an unlucky progress" as it indicates the future threats against the Internet. "This is another proof that Internet is not correctly understood, because the procedure for preventing the YouTube access is the same with the procedure for the printed press. It is like closing a whole library because of a single book which was found improper." Two days later, after the videos were removed from the Youtube website, the court lifted the ban, so the site is now again accessible from Turkey. However, the penal case continues and the court tries to identify the person that has uploaded the videos to the website. YouTube unblocked after withdrawal of videos insulting Ataturk (9.03.2007) http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=21256 Turkey revokes YouTube ban (10.03.2007) http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=67977 YouTube: We didn't solve the problem, just made it worse (8.03.2007) http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/6087438.asp?gid=74 The ban on Turks by Turks (12.03.2007) http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=68017 Informatica/Information/Consumer NGOs - "Own your Internet" Declaration (10.03.2007) http://bt-stk.org.tr/internetim.html ============================================================ 2. French High Court cancels the creation of illegal migrants database ============================================================ In a decision published on 13 March, the Conseil d'Itat, the French highest administrative court, cancelled the ministerial order ("Arrjti") by which the Interior Ministry created the ELOI file, a database aimed at facilitating the expulsion of illegal migrants. On 2 October 2006, four French NGOs filed this case against the Interior minister: CIMADE and GISTI (two associations defending the rights of migrants), LDH (the French Human Rights League), and French EDRI member IRIS. While the database creation itself is allowed by the French code on immigration and asylum (CESEDA), the NGOs argued that the ELOI file would contain excessive and inadequate personal data on the foreigners themselves, their children, the citizens with which they were staying, and their visitors in retention centres. Moreover, these data were supposed to be kept for an excessive duration. During the proceedings of the case, the French Ministry of Interior had to downsize its expectations, recognizing that no data should be kept on some categories of retention centres visitors (members of Parliament, social workers, doctors, and specially habilitated NGOs, like volunteers from CIMADE). It also had to recognize that keeping data about visitors for 3 months rather than 3 years was enough, clearly showing how arbitrarily this duration had been initially set. However, at this step the Conseil d'Itat has only based its decision on a procedural issue: given that the database was supposed to include a digitised photograph of illegal migrants, the ministry of Interior should not have created the database by a simple ministerial order, but rather by an administrative decree ('Dicret') submitted to the Conseil d'Itat after consulting the CNIL, the French data protection authority. Beyond the fact that the French administrative court reminded the French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy - who is currently running for French presidency - that he, too, had to obey the law, this decision acknowledges that a digitised photograph is a biometric identifier, even when not processed by automatic facial recognition software. Although based on the CESEDA rather than on the French data protection law, this ruling by the highest administrative court is important since there is no official definition in France of what is a biometric identifier. On the very day of the ruling, the French Ministry of Interior announced that it had submitted the new draft decree to the CNIL, and that "the Conseil d'Itat has not found valid the arguments claiming that the ELOI database was infringing fundamental freedoms". This claim is refuted by the 4 NGOs in a press release, since the French court has judged first, as usual, upon procedural arguments, without the need to examine the substance of the complaint. The NGOs announced that if the new database characteristics remain the same, this would be as unacceptable as the former file. They now call the CNIL and the Conseil d'Itat to make fundamental rights prevail on the temptation of generalized indexing of people. French ministry of Interior press release (in French only, 13.03.07) http://www.interieur.gouv.fr/misill/sections/a_la_une/toute_l_actualite/etr… gers-circulation-transf/traitement-eloi Cancelling of ELOI file: after the victory of law, the CNIL and the Conseil d'Itat must make rights prevail (in French only, 13.03.2007) http://www.iris.sgdg.org/info-debat/comm-eloi0307.html IRIS dossier on the case, with all legal documents (in French only) http://www.iris.sgdg.org/actions/fichiers/index.html (Contribution by Meryem Marzouki, EDRI member IRIS - France) ============================================================ 3. Cross-border wiretapping proposed by the Swedish Government ============================================================ Mikael Odenberg, the Swedish defence minister presented on 8 March 2007 a draft law to the parliament that would give the national defence intelligence agency the power to monitor all cross-border phone calls and email traffic without court order. The proposal, which according to the government, is meant to combat terrorism and other threats to national security, would allow the National Defence Radio Establishment (FRA) to use computer software to search for sensitive keywords in all cross-border phone and e-mail communications. Although the Government states that this would affect only a small part of the electronic communications and that communication exchanged between Swedes will be filtered, critics are concerned that this proposal is too far reaching, being among the most advanced in Europe. They consider it is impossible to eliminate from this programme private communications between Swedes as e-mails are often routed via a server abroad. Even SAPO, the national security police agency, has criticized the proposal, considering it violates personal integrity. The Swedish Legislative Council, with some suggestions for amendments, especially related to FRA and its monitoring, has given its approval on the governmental proposal encouraging the defence minister to continue his action. "I am now going to continue preparing a proposal. The first thing I will do is to contact the Social Democrats and consult with them as to how best to apply the Legislative Council's constructive suggestions," stated Odenberg. Thomas Bodstroem, head of the opposition Social Democrats, accused the defense minister of trying to "cover up" the fact that, in the future, the military would have a similar role in fighting crime as that of the police and that FRA, unlike the police, would not need a court order to begin the surveillance. "We have to ask the question: Do we want this change, and if we do, shouldn't we carry out a thorough examination first," said Bodstroem. A 12-month delay in discussing the draft law can be obtained by the vote of 60 out of the 349 members of Sweden's parliament, since it is a proposition limiting freedoms and rights of individuals. However, Bodstroem said the Social Democrats had not yet decided whether they would go for a delay and that they would examine the proposal closely before taking any decision. Sweden proposes giving intelligence agency broad new powers (8.03.2007) http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/08/news/sweden.php Sweden edges closer to bugging (9.03.2007) http://www.thelocal.se/6355/20070209/ Sweden proposes extensive wiretapping programme (8.03.2007) http://www.sweden.se/templates/cs/NewsML____12744.aspx?newsid=3363 ============================================================ 4. Consumer Protection Commissioner wants to see changes in iTunes ============================================================ Many consumer rights organizations in Germany, Norway, France and Finland have gathered to take common actions against Apples on its iTunes bundling services, but new concerns are expressed also by the EU Consumer Protection Commissioner, Meglena Kuneva. In an interview for the German weekly Focus, Kuneva was very critical to this service: "Do you think it's fine that a CD plays in all CD players but that an iTunes song only plays in an iPod? I don't. Something has to change." The statement was confirmed by Helen Kearns, a Commission spokeswoman who considered however that those were the commissioner's own opinions and not those of the Commission. "I don't think she was stating it as a definitive policy position. At this stage it is her gut instinct," said Kearns who added that Kuneva was leading a review of the eight basic laws governing cross-border consumer rights. The respective review, which is in its early stage, has resulted so far in a preliminary document that will probably lead to revision proposals for current EU laws. Apple faces opposition not only in Europe, but in the US as well where the company was sued for binding the music bought on its iTunes to its iPod which violates US anti-trust laws. EU takes aim at Apple over iTunes (11.03.2007) http://uk.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUKL1126917220070311 Criticism on Itunes (only in German, 11.03.2007) http://www.focus.de/digital/multimedia/ipod/apple_aid_50327.html Apple faces US iPod anti-trust suit (3.01.2007) http://www.computing.co.uk/personal-computer-world/news/2171724/apple-faces… pod-anti-trust EDRi-gram: iTunes under continuous attack in Europe (31.01.2007) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.2/itunes ============================================================ 5. Russian deputy sues a commentator on his blog for insult ============================================================ Viktor Alksnis, a Duma State deputy, has acted on his threat to take to court blogger Timofey Shevyakov, a LifeJournal user, for insults addressed to the former as a state authority. The deputy started his blog on the LifeJournal on 3 February, wanting to "demonstrate the everyday routine work of a Duma opposition member", but became soon unhappy of some comments on his blog. As a response to comments placed by Alksnis on his blog on 18 February on the new military banners in the Russian army, which he was not content with, a user "tarlith" said the depute was "either a liar or a fool". Alksnis threatened with filing a criminal complaint against him, and the discussion continued offensively with the participation of all forum users. Alksnis identified the user "tarlith" as blogger Timofey Shevyakov, historian and member of the Efficient Politics Fund. On 22 February O2TV held a talk show with Alksnis and Shevyakov where they could not find any common ground of understanding. The deputy claims that the Shevyakov has spread false information hurting his national dignity and thinks his actions fall under three articles of the Russian Criminal Code. Hence, he has sent a request to the General Prosecutor's Office against the blogger, asking that he should be prosecuted for insult and violence in respect of authority. He attahced to the request 74 pages of notarized screen shots and a CD with alleged evidentiary material. Anton Sergo, Head of Internet and Justice company, thinks that while the deputy has all the grounds for appealing to court, in such cases, the court has to prove that the insult really took place and has to determine who did it. The deputy also addressed all LiveJournal users, expressing his indignation regarding the lack of courtesy of some users and their wish to always insult or humiliate. He intends to suggest the issue for consideration in the State Duma. "Let us start the process of Internet Community against Internet Heels together", he said. As regarding the insult to authority, Stanislav Petrovsky, Associate Professor with the Russian Academy of Justice believes that the deputy's position is not really significant in terms of the Internet and that Alksnis should not always be considered as authority representative. In Petrovsky's opinion, it is not clear if Alksnis' blog is part of his work. Petrovsky thinks that some Russian authorities might not perceive the Internet very correctly and might not be so used to interactive communication with people, stating: "A person who cannot persist in his statements in the internet without involving government law enforcement bodies shouldn't be using such democratic means of communication as blogs, which are free to anyone, not just a small community". Alksnis involves Prosecutor's Office to LJ scandal (6.03.2007) http://eng.cnews.ru/news/top/indexEn.shtml?2007/03/06/238881 Duma depute to take LJer to court (20.02.2007) http://eng.cnews.ru/news/top/indexEn.shtml?2007/02/20/236785 ============================================================ 6. UK Home Office plans to fingerprint children starting 11 ============================================================ "Restricted" documents circulated among officials in the UK Identity and Passport have shown Home Office plans to fingerprint children aged 11 years and over, beginning with 2010, as part of the programme for the introduction of new biometric passports and ID cards. The fingerprints are to be stored in a big database expected to cover about half a million children by 2011 that will be also used by the Immigration and Nationality Directorate to store fingerprints of asylum seekers. The programme of introducing biometric elements on ID cards foresees that all citizens over 16 will be taken fingerprints, eye and facial details when applying for passports. Initially, children were supposed to be exempt from the programme, but the new proposals show that this has been reconsidered. Once a child reaches 16 his fingerprints pass from the stored database to the National Identity Register covering information on almost 50 million adults. The ministers argue that ID cards are necessary to prevent identity theft and fraud but private campaigners and opposition politicians consider that these plans will turn Britain into a "surveillance society". David Davis, the shadow home secretary, criticized the plans by stating: "This borders on the sinister and it shows the government is trying to end the presumption of innocence. With the fingerprinting of all our children, this government is clearly determined to enforce major changes in the relationship between the citizen and the state in a way never seen before." The critics also complain about the trouble involved by children having to travel up to 150 km to special Home Office screening centres to have their fingerprints taken when applying for a passport and on the costs that this programme would involve. A combined ID card and passport that could rise up to about 160 euro as documents show. "The government's determination to build a surveillance state behind the backs of the British people is becoming increasingly sinister. It is a measure of ministerial arrogance that plans are being laid to fingerprint children without public debate." said Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman. The plan is considered by the opponents as a "Big Brother" scheme which is badly planned, too expensive and inefficient. The Tories declared that, in case they win the next elections, they would scrap the scheme. Children of 11 to be fingerprinted (4.03.2007) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1466943.ece Children's prints to be held on database (4.03.2007) http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=428&id=342772007 Ministers clash over Labour's 'sinister' plans to fingerprint children (5.03.2007) http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=428&id=345152007 ============================================================ 7. Consolidated "Audiovisual without Frontiers" Directive ============================================================ After the first reading in the European Parliament of the new proposed Television without Frontiers directive, the European Commission has made the new consolidated text public on 9 March 2007 . The initial proposal was criticized by Internet media specialists and some significant changes were adopted by the European Parliament in December 2006 during the first reading. The changes are now incorporated in the consolidated text presented by the Commission. They include the initial proposal that those non-TV audiovisual services, comprising so-called non-linear or on-demand services, will be made subject to some basic content regulation. The Commission wants to push the draft directive hoping that it will be adopted by the end of May 2007 by the European Parliament and the Council. "Thanks to the ambitious work of the European Parliament and the intense efforts of the German Presidency over the past months, Europe's new legal framework for a more competitive, more diverse and more pluralistic audiovisual media sector is now within reach," said Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding. "I am confident that we will now achieve political agreement on the new "Audiovisual Without Frontiers" Directive by the end of May. Europe's internal market would then be truly open for providers and consumers of audiovisual services by the end of 2008 at the latest." The text adopted by the Parliament is still subject to criticism, especially on the lack of clarity of the definitions of the commercial TV-like services on the Internet. A report of the UK European Union Committee of theHouse of Lords considered that the regulation might be wrongly applied to other contents such as that of blogs. The report warned that the Directive might cause production companies outside of the EU to try and escape the regulation, considering UK will be one of the main victims of this action. Boosting the Diversity of European TV- and On-Demand services: Commission paves the way for the new Directive "Audiovisual without Frontiers"(9.03.2007) http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/07/311&format=HT… &aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en Draft Audiovisual Media Services Directive - Consolidated text (8.03.2007) http://ec.europa.eu/comm/avpolicy/docs/reg/modernisation/proposal_2005/avms… cons_amend_0307_en.pdf EDRI-gram: House of Lords produces report against the AVMS directive (14.02.2007) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.3/avms EDRI-gram: New Audiovisual Directive: First Reading in EU Parliament completed (20.12.2006) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.24/avms ============================================================ 8. ENDitorial: French law on delinquency: the threat to FoE is elsewhere ============================================================ The new French law for the prevention of delinquency is yet another vehicle to worsen penalties and to increase the prerogatives of the police, when infractions are committed through or using the Internet. The main purpose of this law is to reduce the limitation of penal responsibility for 16 to 18 years old minors and to increase the powers of mayors, including by providing them with normally private information on families and minors in difficult social situation. As it has become usual in France, the parliamentary discussion has been the occasion to include various provisions having little to do with the core of the law. The law imposes new obligations to French ISPs, reducing their limitation of liability resulting from the transposition of the E-commerce directive. In addition to contribute to the fight against hate speech, holocaust denial and child porn, ISPs should now inform public authorities on any incitement to violence and violation of human dignity, allegedly committed by their subscribers and having been reported to them by Internet users (article 40 of the law). On gambling activities, French ISPs should now inform their subscribers of foreign gambling websites considered illegal under the French law and of the penalty in case of illegal gambling practices (same article 40). When this information lacks, French ISPs may be charged to one year imprisonment and 75000 euros fine penalty. Furthermore, advertising on any media unauthorised gambling activity is also punished with 30000 euros fine (article 38). French ISPs may also be concerned by provisions (article 35) imposing to editors, or by default to persons in charge of disseminating materials considered as harmful to minors, to clearly mention that these materials are forbidden to minors. The law also creates new infractions and grants extended prerogatives to law enforcement authorities. The use of electronic communication in making 'sexual proposals' to minors younger than 15 is now a crime (article 35), punished by two years imprisonment and 30000 euros fine (5 years and 75000 euros when the proposal leads to an encounter). A new provision introduced by the same article 35 grants dedicated law enforcement authorities with new powers, since they now can use pseudonyms when they participate in electronic exchanges for the purpose of investigations, and they also can detain and provide illegal content for the same purpose. However, they cannot use these possibilities for crime incitement. Finally, extension of law enforcement authorities prerogatives is provided by article 39, which extends to the public prosecutor (who is hierarchically subordinated to the Justice Minister) the possibility to initiate an emergency legal procedure in order to take down a website considered as illegal. While these provisions are actually likely to seriously endanger freedom of expression and the respect for the rule of law on the Internet, they haven't called for the same attention as the provision criminalising the video recording and dissemination of violent acts - from 'happy slapping' to rape (article 44). Unless recording is made by a professional journalist or in order to be used as an evidence in court cases, the person knowingly recording such acts is now considered as an accomplice and punished as such, depending on the act. The dissemination of such recorded images is punished by five years imprisonment and 75000 euros fine. Some French organisations (Wikimedia France, Reporters without Borders, and the Odebi league) claimed that this provision would threaten 'citizen journalism', especially when citizens record police violence, e.g. during street demonstrations. The Odebi league is even trying to demonstrate this thesis in its press release by pointing out that, among the concerned violent acts, those perpetrated by 'agents of the State' are included. This is obviously an outbid manoeuvre, since little knowledge of the law suffices to understand that this mention is only meant as an aggravating circumstance for some violent acts - recorded or not -, when they are perpetrated by civil servants! In fact, this provision, although somehow badly formulated, has been introduced after some serious crimes (rape, violent aggression) have been recorded and disseminated with no serious actual possibility of incrimination. And regarding police violence issue, actually, if a video shows the police carrying violence, this could be used as evidence... against the police! It remains that the penalty is disproportionate with regards to the fact that recording and dissemination of violent acts are often made by minors, sometimes very young, and this disproportion is exactly the reason why the whole law, and not only this provision, should be blamed and have been fought by human rights organisations. It also remains to discuss this notion of 'citizen journalism' and especially what are the legal, sociological and political implications of assimilating free expression (which should be granted to any citizen) to journalism (which is a professional activity encompassing some duties, notwithstanding the freedom of the press). And this is another story... French law for the prevention of delinquency (in French only, 05.03.2007) http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/WAspad/UnTexteDeJorf?numjo=INTX0600091L Wikimedia France press release - Draft law for prevention of delinquency (in French only, 02.2007) http://www.wikimedia.fr/index.php/Communiquis_de_presse/Projet_de_loi_preve… ion_delinquance New prevention of criminality law poses threat to citizen reporting (07.03.2007) http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=21237 Odebi league press release - Reaction to Nicolas Sarkozy's spokesperson's explanations : Forced to react to the articles published by the international press, the candidate and minister can't assume the consequences of his own actions and policy (12.03.2007) http://www.odebi.org/new2/?p=233 French to limit violent net clips (07.03.2007) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6426235.stm (Contribution by Meryem Marzouki, EDRI member IRIS - France) ============================================================ 9. Recommended Reading ============================================================ Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the follow-up of the Work Programme for better implementation of the Data Protection Directive http://www.statewatch.org/news/2007/mar/eu-com-dp-proposals.pdf ============================================================ 10. Agenda ============================================================ 14-15 March 2007, Berlin, Germany Challenges and Opportunities in a Digital World. The Role of Consumer Policy http://www.konsumentdigital.de/index.php?id=159 16 March 2007, Hannover, Germany European Commission conference on Mobile TV at CeBIT http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/events/cebit_07/index_en.htm 17 March 2007, London, United Kingdom Open Knowledge 1.0. Organized by the Open Knowledge Foundation http://www.okfn.org/okcon/ 11 April 2007, London, United Kingdom Support ORG http://supportorgandparty.eventbrite.com/ 11-13 April 2007, Berlin, Germany re:publica 2007 - Leben im Netz http://www.re-publica.de 1-4 May 2007, Montreal, Canada 7th Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy (CFP2007) http://www.cfp2007.org/live/ 18-19 May 2007, Brasov, Romania eLiberatica - The Benefits of Open and Free Technologies - Romanian IT Open Source and Free Software Conference http://www.eliberatica.ro/ 11-15 June 2007, Geneva, Switzerland Provisional Committee on Proposals Related to a WIPO Development Agenda: Fourth Session http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/details.jsp?meeting_id=11927 15-17 June 2007, Dubrovnik, Croatia Creative Commons iSummit 2007 http://wiki.icommons.org/index.php/ISummit_2007 18-22 June 2007, Geneva, Switzerland Second Special Session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/details.jsp?meeting_id=12744 ============================================================ 11. About ============================================================ EDRI-gram is a biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe. Currently EDRI has 25 members from 16 European countries. 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 2.0 License. See the full text at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Newsletter editor: Bogdan Manolea <edrigram(a)edri.org> Information about EDRI and its members: http://www.edri.org/ - EDRI-gram subscription information subscribe by e-mail To: edri-news-request(a)edri.org Subject: subscribe You will receive an automated e-mail asking to confirm your request. unsubscribe by e-mail To: edri-news-request(a)edri.org Subject: unsubscribe - EDRI-gram in Macedonian EDRI-gram is also available partly in Macedonian, with delay. Translations are provided by Metamorphosis http://www.metamorphosis.org.mk/edrigram-mk.php - EDRI-gram in German 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/ - Newsletter archive Back issues are available at: http://www.edri.org/edrigram - Help Please ask <edrigram(a)edri.org> if you have any problems with subscribing or unsubscribing. ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature which had a name of signature.asc]

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<nettime> Caspian Shitstorm
by Janos Sugar 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

. http://forums.airbase.ru/2012/06/t86082--azerbajdzhan-vs-karabakh-armeniya-… Caspian Shitstorm Wars never happen, when forces, alliances and intentions are known in advance. In those cases, the weaker party simply yields to the demands of the stronger. Every war is preceded by misunderstanding. That is, the different sides live in different perceived realities. The expectations on both sides are typically completely out of whack. I will going to try to shed some light on these expectations and if you think that they are ridiculous, that's precisely what makes them dangerous. Also, I should state up front that because of that, these events are quite unlikely and the probability of a large-scale war is fairly low in normal terms, but uncomfortably high in terms of the potential damage it can cause. First statement that you can verify by talking to any Armenian you can find: the overwhelming majority of Armenians is crazy. Not just the government, not just the political class, not just the intelligentsia, not just the population of the country, but near-everybody for whom their Armenian heritage is part of identity, both inside and outside of Armenia, including the entire vast Armenian diaspora around the world. Of course, there is a large absolute number of perfectly sane Armenians, but they are a tiny minority with zero political clout. The rest is perfectly capable of enormous sacrifices for their nation, which they perceive to be existentially threatened. They are, on average, much crazier than Israelis even. Azerbaijanis are only slightly less crazy. While they do not feel existentially threatened, the refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh and Agdam county as well as the humiliated military establishment thirsts revenge. Politicians of all stripes have vowed to retake Karabakh in the very near future. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan spent around 3%-4% of GDP on Military, with a steep hike in the past two years in both countries. Azerbaijan's GDP is approx. 6 times that of Armenia, meaning that their military budget is bigger than the entire government budget of Armenia. So, on paper, Azerbaijan would be ready to launch a military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh any day, if Armenian armed forces were the only obstacle to overcome. However, there is potentially a bigger obstacle: Russia. Obviously, Armenia's government want to secure Russian protecion, while Azerbaijan's government wants the Russian military to stay out of the conflict. So far, both have tried to curry favors with the Kremlin, but things are changing. Why would Russia intervene on the side of Armenia? Because they want to keep Nagorno-Karabakh Armenian-occupied, for the same reasons why Transdnistria, Crimean naval bases, South Ossetia and Abkhazia exist: to keep these countries (Azerbaijan, Moldova, the Ukraine and Georgia, respectively) out of NATO. Here's how it works: because of Article 5, NATO never grants membership to countries with territorial disputes and non-NATO foreign armed forces on their soil; Russian military thinking measures Russia's security by the distance potential adversaries need to cover on their way to Moscow, as exchanging territory for time has been a time-honored (and mostly successful) strategy for beating back invaders. For numerous reasons (in which both parties share the blame) Russian military establishment considers NATO potential adversaries. Since the eastward expansion of NATO first into former Warsaw-pact countries and then into former Soviet republics, only very hard guarantees (preferably: Russian military bases) are considered reliable (and acceptable). These disputed territories and military bases are Russia's effective veto on the respective states' NATO membership. In case of Azerbaijan, Armenian forces substitute for Russians. In case of Azerbaijan, keeping it out of NATO is especially important for the Russian government, as its NATO membership could very realistically (in their nightmare scenarios) change the strategic balance around the Caspian Sea and even threaten Russia with disintegration. Here's why. Right now, the Caspian Sea is the only sea with no U. S. naval presence. By contrast, Russia maintains by far the strongest naval force on that lake (and it is legally a lake, more on this later) and is essentially the arbiter of all disputes regarding seabed (oil & gas) and surface (fisheries, caviar) among littoral states. When separatists in Russia (in Chechnia or Dagestan) used the territory of neighboring countries (Georgia and Azerbaijan) for logistics and training, Russia's government did not hesitate to apply pressure with the threat of military force and in case of Georgia (in 2003) even acted on it carrying out a number of bombing raids in Pankisi Gorge against Chechen separatists, violating Georgian airspace and bombing undisputed Georgian territory, after deeming the efforts of Georgia's government (still headed by Eduard Shevarnadze at that time) insufficient. Azerbaijan has so far usually ??omplied with Russian demands. When Georgia's new government (headed by Mikheil Saakashvili) declared its intention to join NATO and then moved to reconquer South Ossetia and Abkhazia (in 2008), the Kremlin responded with a full-scale invasion, the near-total destruction of Georgia's military infrastructure and the recognition of the two separatist states, maintaining a powerful military presence in both. Now, such measures won't work against NATO members. All parties know that. Why are Russia's rulers so nervous about foreign support of separatism in the Northern Caucassus? Losing access to large parts of the mineral and caviar wealth of the Caspian Sea is just one reason. If Dagestan (which already has a simmering separatist civil war going on) and Kalmykia (a national republic with a 3/4 ethnic Kalmyk population) secede, it would become entirely feasible to close the small gap over the Volga delta between Kalmykia and Kazakhstan called Astrakhan county which right now on paper has a 2/3 Russian majority, but which may change very quickly. If Russia ceases to be a littoral state to the Caspian Sea, it loses its veto in re-classifying it from a lake to a sea. Once it is a sea, maritime law requires that access to international waters is granted to all without interference. This is why Turkey cannot stop any ships, including military ones, to travel between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. In practice that would mean that American naval vessels could sail up and down the Volga waterway (which thus becomes an international one much like the Bosphorus) between St. Petersburg and Astrakhan and Russia's government cannot legally do anything about it. In Yaroslavl, they would be a mere 230km from Moscow and they are allowed to carry cruise missiles with nuclear warheads. As you can now understand, Russia's rulers would go to pretty extreme lengths to resist every single step down that road. Sounds crazy? See the first paragraph. So how could Azerbaijan's rulers realistically hope to keep Russia neutral in an armed conflict with Armenia? For instance, by giving them a military base in Azerbaijan's territory. Namely, they rent them the Gabala Radar Station (a Soviet-era advanced beyond-horizon early warning station controlling the airspace over the entire Middle East). So, they could convincingly claim that they have a proper Russian military base and there's no need to keep those Armenian occupiers. The lease runs out on December 24, 2012. A few years ago, it was considered a given that it will be prologued after a little bit of haggling over the price and other minor horse-trading. But things have suddenly changed last year. The rulers of Israel and the U. S. started preparations for an attack on Iran. For a number of reasons (more on this later), the Kremlin is against it and thus wants to make an attack on Iran as costly as possible. Ways to do that without getting involved in the conflict include providing Iran with effective air defense weapons and early warning in case of an attack. The latter even has the benefit of plausible deniability. The radar station in Gabala is perfectly suited for the purpose. In a surprise move, Azerbaijan's government raised the annual rent from $7.5M USD to $300M USD and offered to lease it for only seven years. This position has not changed for months and is still the official position of the government of Azerbaijan in the ongoing negotiations. Time is running out and Russia's military seems to be resigned to the fact that they will have to vacate Gabala before the end of the year; already half of the personnel has been removed, families have been resettled to Russia, etc. Whether or not the new radar station in Armavir is a suitable replacement is anybody's guess. This development points to the possibility that Azerbaijan got very strong security guarantees from the United States government, because it pushes the Kremlin unambiguously to the Armenian side in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Given the value of Azerbaijan's support in the event of an attack on Iran, this does not strike me as entirely impossible. It is also worth noting that verbal guarantees and even strong military ties are obviously insufficient: the U. S. military stood idle as Russia's military invaded Georgia, even though they had direct access through the Black Sea; ferrying back Georgian troops from Iraq to Tbilisi was all the help Georgia got from Uncle Sam. Azerbaijan is not accessible by U. S. Navy, all material aid must arrive through Turkey or Georgia. Armenia does not share a border with Russia and has no seaports either. Supplies from Russia (both for Russian troops stationed in Gyumri, Armenia and for Armenian recipients) must pass through third countries. Initially, it was done through Georgia, but since 2003 it has become increasingly difficult and by now effectively impossible. Azerbaijan and Turkey are out of question, which leaves the only possibility: Iran. Stuff gets shipped from Russian ports on the Caspian to Iranian ports; from there it is forwarded by land to Armenia. Thus, Armenia critically depends on Iran and its government is pretty desperate in keeping that relationship warm, even if it means breaching the embargo on pretty much anything and fouling up relationships with the U. S. and their allies. Here's the latest episode: Fars News Agency :: Iranian, Armenian FMs Discuss Bilateral Ties in Tehran http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9106061134 ps http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2012/09/hungary-armenia-an… # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime(a)kein.org ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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WW: Bruce Schneier on why security can't work
by Jay Ashworth 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/03/security-when-the-bad-guys-have-techno… Three words: "desktop gene sequencing", "ebola", "script kiddies". I dunno how to fix it either. Cheers, -- jra -- Jay R. Ashworth Baylink jra(a)baylink.com Designer The Things I Think RFC 2100 Ashworth & Associates http://baylink.pitas.com 2000 Land Rover DII St Petersburg FL USA #natog +1 727 647 1274 ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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The Dangers of Cross-Pollinating Other Mailing Lists
by tcmay＠got.net 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

mailing lists on messages they send to Cypherpunks (or vice versa), we often get flooded with insults and spams from people who don't share our views. (While I have nothing against trying to recruit others to our views, in my opinion this is best done by judicious writing of essays for _them_, tuned to their interests, and not in mindless spamming of every list that might have a passing interest in some of the topics.) We already have enough traffic here, and don't need replies from a bunch of other lists, be they libertarian lists, digital commerce lists, human rights lists, or java lists. The latest example of this is the rantfest invvolving these players: ------ From: Jack Hammer <jh(a)teleport.com> To: jim bell <jimbell(a)pacifier.com> Cc: Rich Graves <llurch(a)networking.stanford.edu>, cypherpunks(a)toad.com, nwlibertarians(a)teleport.com, hammernet-l(a)teleport.com, libernet-d(a)dartmouth.EDU, liberty-and-justice(a)pobox.com ------ I recognized Bell and Graves, but not the others. And I see no reason why our list should be dragged into flames about "fart sacks" by people on all of these other lists. This was the final straw, and I have no choice except to add Bell, Graves, Hammer, etc. to my filter list, which I will now proceed to do beforesending this message off. [Done] Words have consequences. So do flames. --Tim May

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The Dangers of Cross-Pollinating Other Mailing Lists
by tcmay＠got.net 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

mailing lists on messages they send to Cypherpunks (or vice versa), we often get flooded with insults and spams from people who don't share our views. (While I have nothing against trying to recruit others to our views, in my opinion this is best done by judicious writing of essays for _them_, tuned to their interests, and not in mindless spamming of every list that might have a passing interest in some of the topics.) We already have enough traffic here, and don't need replies from a bunch of other lists, be they libertarian lists, digital commerce lists, human rights lists, or java lists. The latest example of this is the rantfest invvolving these players: ------ From: Jack Hammer <jh(a)teleport.com> To: jim bell <jimbell(a)pacifier.com> Cc: Rich Graves <llurch(a)networking.stanford.edu>, cypherpunks(a)toad.com, nwlibertarians(a)teleport.com, hammernet-l(a)teleport.com, libernet-d(a)dartmouth.EDU, liberty-and-justice(a)pobox.com ------ I recognized Bell and Graves, but not the others. And I see no reason why our list should be dragged into flames about "fart sacks" by people on all of these other lists. This was the final straw, and I have no choice except to add Bell, Graves, Hammer, etc. to my filter list, which I will now proceed to do beforesending this message off. [Done] Words have consequences. So do flames. --Tim May

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[IP] U.S. Agents Seize Travelers' Devices
by David Farber 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

________________________________________ From: Sashikumar N [sashikumar.n(a)gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 1:46 PM To: David Farber Subject: U.S. Agents Seize Travelers' Devices Dear Prof Dave, Happen to read this link from slashdot, this is a disturbing news, a direct assault on privacy...shocking that this could be real. regards sashi http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/06/AR200802060… Clarity Sought on Electronics Searches U.S. Agents Seize Travelers' Devices By Ellen Nakashima Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, February 7, 2008; Page A01 Nabila Mango, a therapist and a U.S. citizen who has lived in the country since 1965, had just flown in from Jordan last December when, she said, she was detained at customs and her cellphone was taken from her purse. Her daughter, waiting outside San Francisco International Airport, tried repeatedly to call her during the hour and a half she was questioned. But after her phone was returned, Mango saw that records of her daughter's calls had been erased. A few months earlier in the same airport, a tech engineer returning from a business trip to London objected when a federal agent asked him to type his password into his laptop computer. "This laptop doesn't belong to me," he remembers protesting. "It belongs to my company." Eventually, he agreed to log on and stood by as the officer copied the Web sites he had visited, said the engineer, a U.S. citizen who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of calling attention to himself. Maria Udy, a marketing executive with a global travel management firm in Bethesda, said her company laptop was seized by a federal agent as she was flying from Dulles International Airport to London in December 2006. Udy, a British citizen, said the agent told her he had "a security concern" with her. "I was basically given the option of handing over my laptop or not getting on that flight," she said. <snip> ------------------------------------------- Archives: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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The Dangers of Cross-Pollinating Other Mailing Lists
by tcmay＠got.net 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

mailing lists on messages they send to Cypherpunks (or vice versa), we often get flooded with insults and spams from people who don't share our views. (While I have nothing against trying to recruit others to our views, in my opinion this is best done by judicious writing of essays for _them_, tuned to their interests, and not in mindless spamming of every list that might have a passing interest in some of the topics.) We already have enough traffic here, and don't need replies from a bunch of other lists, be they libertarian lists, digital commerce lists, human rights lists, or java lists. The latest example of this is the rantfest invvolving these players: ------ From: Jack Hammer <jh(a)teleport.com> To: jim bell <jimbell(a)pacifier.com> Cc: Rich Graves <llurch(a)networking.stanford.edu>, cypherpunks(a)toad.com, nwlibertarians(a)teleport.com, hammernet-l(a)teleport.com, libernet-d(a)dartmouth.EDU, liberty-and-justice(a)pobox.com ------ I recognized Bell and Graves, but not the others. And I see no reason why our list should be dragged into flames about "fart sacks" by people on all of these other lists. This was the final straw, and I have no choice except to add Bell, Graves, Hammer, etc. to my filter list, which I will now proceed to do beforesending this message off. [Done] Words have consequences. So do flames. --Tim May

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The Dangers of Cross-Pollinating Other Mailing Lists
by tcmay＠got.net 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

mailing lists on messages they send to Cypherpunks (or vice versa), we often get flooded with insults and spams from people who don't share our views. (While I have nothing against trying to recruit others to our views, in my opinion this is best done by judicious writing of essays for _them_, tuned to their interests, and not in mindless spamming of every list that might have a passing interest in some of the topics.) We already have enough traffic here, and don't need replies from a bunch of other lists, be they libertarian lists, digital commerce lists, human rights lists, or java lists. The latest example of this is the rantfest invvolving these players: ------ From: Jack Hammer <jh(a)teleport.com> To: jim bell <jimbell(a)pacifier.com> Cc: Rich Graves <llurch(a)networking.stanford.edu>, cypherpunks(a)toad.com, nwlibertarians(a)teleport.com, hammernet-l(a)teleport.com, libernet-d(a)dartmouth.EDU, liberty-and-justice(a)pobox.com ------ I recognized Bell and Graves, but not the others. And I see no reason why our list should be dragged into flames about "fart sacks" by people on all of these other lists. This was the final straw, and I have no choice except to add Bell, Graves, Hammer, etc. to my filter list, which I will now proceed to do beforesending this message off. [Done] Words have consequences. So do flames. --Tim May

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