July 2018 - cypherpunks-legacy

EDRI-gram newsletter - Number 5.21, 7 November 2007
by EDRI-gram newsletter 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

============================================================ EDRI-gram biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe Number 5.21, 7 November 2007 ============================================================ Contents ============================================================ 1. EDRI supports PI's comments on Google-Doubleclick merger 2. EU pushes for an international Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement 3. EC plans to profile all passengers in and out EU 4. Putin wants control of Russian Internet 5. Whois privacy problems not solved by ICANN 6. Government attempts of increased level of surveillance in Czech Republic 7. Open Document Format gains more support 8. Recommended Action 9. Recommended Reading 10. Agenda 11. About ============================================================ 1. EDRI supports PI's comments on Google-Doubleclick merger ============================================================ European Digital Rights Initiative (EDRI) is supporting the letter Privacy International (PI) sent on 5 November 2007 asking the head of the European Commission DG Competition, Commissioner Kroes, to take the merger of Google-Doubleclick to the next phase. PI argues that the merger could have serious implications for privacy innovation in advertising. The letter explains the problems that the merger could bring to the online advertising market: "Google's purchase of Doubleclick is particularly worrying because it is a significant consolidation in this domain and we worry that this very competition to provide high-quality privacy practices will dissipate. Google's dominant position in the search marketplace will be compounded by Doubleclick's dominant position in online profiling, leading to a potentially abusive situation for the protection of privacy. If the merger is approved, then Google's dominant service will transform radically from one with a search advertising function into one that collects both searches and browsing habits of users. " PI showed how the decision could influence privacy of the Internet users if the merger is approved : "Privacy innovation could suffer under the merger as the two largest online databases come together. Other companies will have to compete against this massive entity and we worry it will lead to a race to the bottom for privacy protection. (...) Little is actually known about how all these companies protect their customers' data, even though they must do so in accordance with European privacy laws. (...)We know little about how firms make use of this data. Google promises that it does not yet create online user profiles, but it is purchasing a firm that is renowned for the depth and extent of its online user profiles. We need strong and enforceable assurances that profiles will not be developed and enhanced through this merger." BEUC, the Consumer's Organization, as well as the Data Protection Commissioner of the German state of Shleswig-Holstein, Thilo Weichert, have publicly opposed the Google-Doubleclick deal. However, Commissioner Kroes announced on 15 October: "We are looking at the influence on competition and that's it." The new deadline for the enquiry has been set for 13 November 2007. PI Comments on Google-Doubleclick Merger to the European Commission (5.11.2007) http://www.privacyinternational.org/article.shtml?cmd[347]=x-347-558328 EU review of Google bid won't cover privacy issue (15.10.2007) http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2191128,00.html BEUC expresses concern over DoubleClick acquisition by Google (18.07.2007) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.14/beuc-doubleclick-google ============================================================ 2. EU pushes for an international Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement ============================================================ A recent statement from the European Commission reveals that it has started negotiations with US, Japan, Korea, Mexico and New Zealand to create an international treaty on counterfeiting - Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), despite the absence of any independent data on the topic. The European Commission is looking for a mandate from the European Member States to proceed in this endeavour, but the ball is already rolling, taking into consideration the almost simultaneous press statements from the US Trade Representative and Canada's Minister of International Trade as well. But "while the claims regularly focus on health and safety risks or suggestions that organized crime or terrorist groups benefit from counterfeiting, the reality is that the policy prescription typically includes a range of issues that have little to do with those issues", as Michael Geist puts it. Even though the OECD estimates the losses of the international trade are 3-4 times lower than the ones the industry has so heavily promoted, the big states still have their ears open to the industry lobbists' claims. EU announces that the new ACTA should build the international cooperation leading to harmonised standards and a better communication between authorities and should establish common enforcement practices to promote strong intellectual property protection in coordination with right holders and trading partners. Also it suggests "creating a strong modern legal framework which reflects the changing nature of intellectual property theft in the global economy, including the rise of easy-to-copy digital storage mediums and the increasing danger of health threats from counterfeit food and pharmaceutical drugs." In fact, it seems that the negotiations have started since mid-2006 between the European Commission, Canada, US and Japan on such an agreement on counterfeiting. But ACTA aims higher. US Trade Representative Susan Schwab explained that the negotiations would "expand upon the enforcement standards of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and countries would be encouraged to comply with other international IPR agreements. The goal is to set a new, higher benchmark for enforcement that countries can join voluntarily." Or, as Michael Geist better explains it: "This treaty could ultimately prove bigger than WIPO - without the constraints of consensus building, developing countries, and civil society groups, the ACTA could further reshape the IP landscape with tougher enforcement, stronger penalties, and a gradual eradication of the copyright and trademark balance." European Commission seeks mandate to negotiate major new international anti- counterfeiting pact (23.10.2007) http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/07/1573 Is ACTA the New WIPO? (24.10.2007) http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2318/125/ Top Economies To Negotiate Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Pact (24.10.2007) http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=799&res=1024_ff&print=0 EDRI-gram: OECD finds the real piracy losses(23.05.2007) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.10/oecd-piracy-loss ============================================================ 3. EC plans to profile all passengers in and out EU ============================================================ The European Commission(EC) put forward on 6 November 2007 a PNR plan that is almost similar to the EU-USA PNR (Passenger Name Records) agreement. The EU PNR plan is part of a new package of proposals "aimed at improving the EU's capabilities in the fight against terrorism." According to this proposal, EU will have to collect 19 pieces of personal data on air passengers coming into and leaving the EU space, including phone number, e-mail address, travel agent, full itinerary, billing data and baggage information. The information will be collected in analysis units that will make a "risk assessment" of the traveller, which could lead to the questioning or even refusal of the entry. The data is to be kept for five years and then another eight years in a "dormant" database. "The availability of PNR data ... is necessary for the purpose of preventing and fighting terrorist offences and organised crime," is the reason expressed by the draft. In October 2007, Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini told Parliament members that the creation of a PNR database was justified by the high level of terrorist risk for Europe. "The Union is at least as much a potential target of a terrorist attack as the United States, and the use and analysis of passenger name records is an important law enforcement tool to protect our citizens". However, legal experts, human-rights groups and data-protection activists oppose this plan and find it a threat to privacy. Tony Bunyan, editor of Statewatch stated: "This is yet another measure that places everyone under surveillance and makes everyone a "suspect" without any meaningful right to know how the data is used, how it is further processed and by whom [.] We have already got the mandatory taking of fingerprints for passports and ID cards and the mandatory storage of telecommunications data of every communication, now we are to have the mandatory logging of all travel in and out of the EU. The underlying rationale for each of the measures is the same - all are needed to tackle terrorism. Yet there is little evidence that the gathering of "mountain upon mountain" of data on the activities of every person in the EU makes a significant contribution. On the other hand, the use of this data for other purposes, now or in the future, will make the EU the most surveilled place in the world". MEP Sophie in 't Veld has also made an appeal to the European Commission to make an analysis of the situation in USA and Canada in order to verify the effectiveness of such a system before taking any decision on a similar system in Europe. "EU counter-terrorism policies must be regularly assessed on their effectiveness.their impact on reducing the threat and increasing security, on improving cooperation and exchange between countries and agencies, as well as an evaluation of the cumulative impact of individual measures on privacy and civil liberties," she stated. The Commission's proposal for EU PNR is proposed as a Framework Decision meaning that the European Parliament is only consulted and its opinion can be ignored as it happens on a regular basis. The European Council can, in its secret working parties, change at will this legislative proposal. Another question raised is why 2004 Directive on the collection of API (Advance Passenger Information), meant to be applied by all member States by September 2006, is not enough in supporting the fight against terrorism and is not yet applied. The API data is more limited including only name, nationality, passport number, date of birth and the details related to the flight. The proposal did not take into consideration the opinions of EU's Article 29 Data Protection Working Party which, during the consultation period concluded that they "have not seen any information presented by the Commission that would substantiate the pressing need to process PNR data for the purpose of preventing and fighting terrorism and related crimes or law enforcement". They also stated that "Bulk transfer of personal data, which would include unsuspected travellers to other authorities would be disproportionate, as data may only be provided to an authority if necessary for a given purpose". Concerning data protection, the draft proposal has in view the Council Framework Decision on the protection of data for police and judicial cooperation that should apply to the proposed PNR scheme as well. However, the decision has not been adopted and offers very little protection to individuals. The decision ignored the opinions of the European Parliament, the European Data Protection Supervisor, and the EU's Article 29 Data Protection Working Party and allows the personal data exchange with third states such as USA. On the other hand, the draft makes no reference to 1995 EC Directive on data protection covering the collection of PNR data by the airlines. PNR (passenger name record) scheme proposed to place under surveillance all travel in and out of the EU (1.11.2007) http://www.statewatch.org/news/2007/nov/01eu-pnr.htm Draft Framework Decison on the use of PNR data (22.10.2007) http://www.statewatch.org/news/2007/oct/eu-com-pnr-proposal.pdf EU plans anti-terror screening for air passengers (5.11.2007) http://www.euractiv.com/en/transport/eu-plans-anti-terror-screening-air-pas… EU plans to collect personal data on air passengers (4.11.2007) http://www.reuters.com/article/asiaTopNews/idUSIndia-30328920071104 Fight Against Terrorism: stepping up Europe's capability to protect citizens against the threat of terrorism (6.11.2007) http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/07/1649&format=H… EDRI-gram Final agreements between EU and USA on PNR and SWIFT (4.07.2007) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.13/eu-us-pnr-swift ============================================================ 4. Putin wants control of Russian Internet ============================================================ As the Internet use in Russia increases spectacularly, having tripled in the last three years, Putin' governance concentrates its efforts on getting control over the Russian Internet after having already gained much control over the traditional mass media. Putin's allies and supporters have created blogs and news sources to flood the Internet with messages favourable to the present political power. During a national broadcast live on TV and Radio in October 2007, Putin tackled the issue of Internet censorship. "Naturally, in this sphere, as in other spheres, we should be thinking about adhering to Russian laws, about making sure that child pornography is not distributed, that financial crimes are not committed" said Putin. Besides numerous pro-government blogs, several already established online outlets have been bought by Putin's allies with the purpose to create a network to disseminat propaganda and to control the online information. Such a publication is Gazeta.ru, the most respected online newspaper which was sold in December to a metals magnate loyal to Putin. Russian officials have also been looking for the possibility of establishing a separate Internet within Russia that would serve their purposes. The reaction of the Kremlin power comes to counterpart situation as the one having occurred in 2004 when, due to concentrated efforts of uncensored blogs and on-line publications, a popular uprising in Ukraine provoked the revoking of the vote for a pro-Moscow candidate in the presidential elections. In April 2007, when an opposition movement held a march in Moscow, blogger Pavel Danilin, a Putin supporter, together with his team, started blogging about a smaller pro-Kremlin march being held the same day. They blogged so much, and linked to each other so effectively, that they crowded out all the items about the opposition march from the very influential top-five blog post listing on the Yandex Web portal. Prosecutors have also started focussing on Internet chat sites, blogs and postings in order to charge the users that criticize Putin or other officials. However, the federal officials deny any campaign to control the Internet. "Personally, I am against developing and adopting a special law that would regulate the Internet," declared Leonid Reiman, Minister of IT&C. "The Internet has been always developing as a free medium, and it should remain as such" he added. Despite the officials' statements, in July 2007, Putin already announced his plans to create a global information technology powerhouse network, a statement that was interpreted by the mass media as an attempt from his part to establish a controlled network separated from the current Internet which is organised by ICANN. According to Wolfgang Kleinwaechter, special adviser to the chairmen of the Internet Governance Forum, some Russian officials are thinking of a separate Internet, with Cyrillic domain names, taking the example of China. Kremlin Seeks To Extend Its Reach in Cyberspace (28.10.2007) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/27/AR200710270… Putin tightens his grip on Russia's internet (29.10.2007) http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/29/putin_censors_internet/ ============================================================ 5. Whois privacy problems not solved by ICANN ============================================================ ICANN meeting that took place last week (29 October - 2 November 2007) in Los Angeles was expected to decide on the WHOIS database privacy problems. But unfortunately the decision taken was just to make further studies on the matter, despite the already seven years of discussions on this topic. The need for WHOIS reform has been a hot topic for some years in the civil society and some ICANN structures. An EPIC & NGO Letter to ICANN Board on Need for Whois Reform sent on 30 October 2007 asks "for changes to WHOIS services that would protect the privacy of individuals, specifically the removal of registrants' contact information from the publicly accessible WHOIS database." The letter explains that the "current ICANN WHOIS policy conflicts with national privacy laws, including the EU Data Protection Directive, which requires the establishment of a legal framework to ensure that when personal information is collected, it is used only for its intended purpose. As personal information in the directory is used for other purposes and ICANN's policy keeps the information public and anonymously accessible, the database could be found illegal according to many national privacy and data protection laws including the European Data Protection Directive, European data protection laws and legislation in Canada and Australia." Moreover, it points to the Article 29 Working Party's opinion that underlines that "in its current form the WHOIS database does not take account of the data protection and privacy rights". The NGOs supported Final Outcomes Report recently published by the WHOIS Working Group that "accepted the Operational Point of Contact (OPoC) proposal as a starting point, and the best option to date. The OPoC proposal would replace publicly available registrant contact information with an intermediate contact responsible for relaying messages to the registrant." The public letter accepted the fact that the WHOIS Working Group proposal was a workable framework and not a perfect one, recommending "a distinction between commercial and non-commercial domains." But the proposal was rejected by the ICANN, as well as another proposal that would have allowed domain name registration companies to stop making the data available through WHOIS. Instead, the ICANN decided to ask for further studies, that will be identified by the The Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Council until 15 February 2007. The move was seen as a new delay after seven years of discussions. Ross Rader from the GNSO said to AP: "We've had seven years of study on this issue... what has not been answered is what are the specific questions we want answers to. From my perspective, further, broad, open study is just a way for (opponents) to say you don't have enough votes to change the status quo." The lack of a concrete decision from GNSO meant a renewal of a call for a procedure to allow exemptions from ICANN standard contractual obligations for WHOIS. ICANN's Government Advisory Committee (GAC) said "uniform process" among governments was not to be expected and the specific cases should just be referred to national authorities in order to come to a procedure for the respective registries and registrars. EPIC & NGO Letter to ICANN Board on Need for Whois Reform (30.10.2007) http://ipjustice.org/wp/2007/10/30/epic-ngo-letter-to-icann-board-on-need-f… Whois Studies Approved, Privacy Deferred (31.10.2007) http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hCiHLmZiymo5BhARlugPCaGcTsUQD8SKFC680 Faced with clamor for WHOIS reform, ICANN votes to study the issue more (31.10.2007) http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071031-faced-with-whois-reform-icann… Whois reform: ICANN says let's run more tests (1.11.2007) http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/01/whois_reform/ Change Of Leadership At ICANN As Cerf Makes Way For IP Expert (4.11.2007) http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=807&res=&res=1024_ff&print=0 ============================================================ 6. Government attempts of increased level of surveillance in Czech Republic ============================================================ The Czech Interior Ministry introduced in October 2007 a new National Action Plan to Combat Terrorism that would increase the access of the police and intelligence authorities to personal data, under the pretext of the protection against terrorism. The Czech Ministry of Interior has introduced a similar plan every year since 2002 - in 2005 it actually won the Czech Big Brother Award for it - which, until now, has been rejected by the Parliament. The Plan of Action is meant to be used to draft legislation allowing police and other agencies to have access to emails and to wiretap without following any court procedures. "According to the current legal regulations, in order to perform certain actions it is necessary that security bodies meet a number of requirements and conditions, the existence of which is unquestionable," stated Vladimmr Repka, spokesman for the Interior Ministry. As compared to the plan proposed last year, this year's plan seems to have a much more ambiguous wording that " it is actually very difficult to argue against it" says privacy expert Filip Pospmsil from the EDRI-member Czech NGO Iuridicum Remedium. According to him, the plan is inspired from the US Patriot Act that that give the US police authorities direct access to personal data. Presently, in Czech Republic, the interception of emails and wiretapping can be done only by a court order that is valid for up to six months. "They want to have the power just to call the judge and then to get written approval later" said Pospmsil. What the Interior Ministry also wants is to force financial institutions and private Internet providers to pass on clients' information to security agencies as well as to eliminate anonymous phone cards. In Pospmsil's opinion, the present plan is meant as a test to check out on the position of the policy makers and of the public as anyway, even if approved by the government, the plan has no value if it is not passed by the Parliament. "I think it's just a kind of test by the Interior Ministry and other intelligence services to test the willingness of the public and its representatives to exchange some privacy for promises of improved security," he said. Privacy International has issued reports on the situation in the Czech Republic showing concern on the increase of the government attempts to legalise wiretapping, to create a central database from the separate databases of the security agencies as well as on the high level of video surveillance in the country, unrestricted by law. Hana Stepankova, the spokeswoman of the Office of Personal Data Protection, which is responsible for enforcing the country's privacy laws, stated that the office lawyers are presently studying the proposal. The draft plan may receive comments from the public until the end of October but there is no guarantee that the Interior Ministry will take any comments into consideration. Ministry seeks approval for terror law (24.10.2007) http://www.praguepost.com/articles/2007/10/24/ministry-seeks-approval-for-t… EDRI-gram: Big Brother Awards presented in 4 countries (3.11.2007) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number3.22/BBA ============================================================ 7. Open Document Format gains more support ============================================================ The first international workshop of Open Document Format (ODF) public sector users took place in Berlin on 29-30 October 2007, hosted by the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany. The position of the German Foreign Office, as host of the event, was made very clear. The Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in his opening word, called ODF "a completely open and ISO-standardized format", considering it an "excellent basis" for "a free exchange of knowledge and information in a time of globalization". The Foreign Office has already linked its foreign missions in a network using open-source programs and shifted to OpenOffice and Linux operation systems on their laptops and has in view to extend this program to all diplomatic workstations by the middle of 2008. According to Florian Schie_l of the LiMux Project Office of Munich, where a migration to Linux is in progress, the ODF is a good tool in reducing the large range of templates and macros in the municipal government and in creating more uniform file management standards. The municipal administration of Freiburg will also implement a project for the migration of 2000 workstations from Microsoft Office 2000 to OpenOffice, relying in the future solely on ODF and PDF. ODF will also be adopted as the standard file format by all agencies and departments of Schwdbisch-Hall as Horst Brduner, IT director, stated. Germany is not the only country in favour of ODF. As expressed by Gavin Beckett of the city administration of Bristol, UK, a migration to Sun Microsystems's StarOffice is currently in progress in the city administrative offices. Mr. Beckett pointed out that the difficulty in the development of the progress is the inertia and habit of the office employees having been used Microsoft operation system for many years. "The point is to overcome deeply ingrained modes of behavior," he stated. Brazil and India are also leaders in the use of open standards in the office area. Deivi Kuhn of Serpro, a company coordinating the use of open source in Brazil, declared that ODF standard adopted by the International Organization for Standardization, a good tool providing both access to knowledge and ensuring user freedoms, was mandatory for e-government state interoperability standards. In India, in the federal state of Assam, PCs with Linux and OpenOffice were given to students and the migration to open source software was in progress in government offices. German Foreign Office comes out in favor of Open Document Format (30.10.2007) http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/98208 ODF Workshop (29-30.10.2007) http://www.odfworkshop.org/ EDRI-gram: OOXML - negative vote at International Organization for Standardization (12.09.2007) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.17/ooxml-rejected-iso ============================================================ 8. Recommended Action ============================================================ Privacy International in a coalition with over 50 other organisations from around the world, including EDRI, is in the process of appealing for the imminent implementation of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act by the Japan's Ministry of Justice. The act will make fingerprint and face-scan compulsory for Japan's visitors and foreign residents. The campaign will be launched later this week. If any organisation wants to endorse this privacy campaign, please contact as soon as possible Gus Hosein - Privacy International - gus at privacy.org. ============================================================ 9. Recommended Reading ============================================================ Big Brother Eyes German Journalists http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0%2C1518%2C514872%2C00.html ENISA Position Paper : Security Issues and Recommendations for Online Social Networks (25.10.2007) Social Networking is like a 'digital cocktail party': a powerful mixture of human social instincts and web 2.0 technology which is revolutionising the Internet. In this position paper, ENISA emphasises the many benefits of Social Networking but identifies 14 important threats. This leads to 17 recommendations on how Social Networking can be made safer. http://www.enisa.europa.eu/doc/pdf/deliverables/enisa_pp_social_networks.pdf ============================================================ 10. Agenda ============================================================ 9 November 2007, St. Gallen, Switzerland Big Brother Awards Switzerland http://bigbrotherawards.ch/ 11 November 2007, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil GigaNet'07 - Global Internet Governance Academic Network 2nd Annual Symposium http://www.igloo.org/giganet 12-15 November 2007, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil The Government of Brazil will host the second Internet Governance Forum meeting. http://www.intgovforum.org/ http://cgi.br/igf/ 15-16 November 2007, Lisbon, Portugal On RFID: The Next step to the Internet of Things http://www.rfid-outlook.pt/ 16-18 November 2007, Munich, Germany 20 years of grassroot networks - 20 years /Cl-Network in Germany Congress on Networking of alternative media, privacy, environment, anti-nuclear, antifascism, peace and human rights http://www.cl-netz.de/cl-netz/20-jahre-datennetze-von-unten-20-jahre-cl-netz 21 November 2007, London, UK Privacy enhancing technologies: How to create a trusted information society http://www.petsfinebalance.com/index.php 29-30 November 2007, Skopje, Macedonia The International Conference e-Society.Mk on inclusive e-Government http://www.e-society.org.mk 3-4 December 2007, Bonn, Germany Network Neutrality - Implications for Europe http://www.wik.org/content/netneutrality_main.htm 4-5 December 2007, Rome, Italy First QualiPSo Conference - Fostering trust and quality of Open Source Software systems http://www.qualipso.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=63&Itemid… 5-7 December 2007, Pisa, Italy Second DELOS Conference on Digital Libraries http://www.delos.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=606&Itemid=… 17 January 2008, London, UK Nanotechnology for security and the crime prevention III http://www.nano.org.uk/events/ionevents.htm#security ============================================================ 11. About ============================================================ EDRI-gram is a biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe. Currently EDRI has 28 members based or with offices in 17 different countries in Europe. European Digital Rights takes an active interest in developments in the EU accession countries and wants to share knowledge and awareness through the EDRI-grams. All contributions, suggestions for content, corrections or agenda-tips are most welcome. Errors are corrected as soon as possible and visibly on the EDRI website. Except where otherwise noted, this newsletter is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 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/ European Digital Rights needs your help in upholding digital rights in the EU. If you wish to help us promote digital rights, please consider making a private donation. http://www.edri.org/about/sponsoring - 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 http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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[liberationtech] Stanford Security Seminar Tomorrow: Jay Lorch -- Ensuring Private Access to Large-Scale Data in the Data Center
by Yosem Companys 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

From: Joe Zimmerman <jzim(a)cs.stanford.edu> *Jay Lorch* -- *Ensuring Private Access to Large-Scale Data in the Data Center* Tuesday, February 12, 2013 Talk at 4:30pm in Gates 463A Abstract: Recent events have shown online service providers the perils of possessing private information about users. Encrypting data mitigates but does not eliminate this threat: the pattern of data accesses still reveals information. Thus, this talk will present Shroud, a general storage system that hides data access patterns from the servers running it, protecting user privacy. Shroud functions as a virtual disk with a new privacy guarantee: the user can look up a block without revealing the block's address. Such a virtual disk can be used for many purposes, including map lookup, microblog search, and social networking. Shroud aggressively targets hiding accesses among hundreds of terabytes of data. We achieve our goals by adapting oblivious RAM algorithms to enable large-scale parallelization. Specifically, we show, via new techniques such as oblivious aggregation, how to securely use many inexpensive secure coprocessors acting in parallel to improve request latency. Our evaluation combines large-scale emulation with an implementation on secure coprocessors and suggests that these adaptations bring private data access closer to practicality. Bio: Jacob R. Lorch has been a Researcher at Microsoft Research in Redmond, WA for the last eleven years. Before that, he received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from UC Berkeley in 2001 under the supervision of Alan Jay Smith. Jacob's research focuses broadly on computer systems, with particular emphasis on distributed systems, web security, cloud computing, and energy management. In recent work, he has developed TrInc (NSDI 2009), a simple piece of trusted hardware useful in securing a variety of distributed systems; Memoir (IEEE S&P 2011), a framework for building stateful, crash-resilient trusted modules; and GreenUp (NSDI 2012), a decentralized system for maintaining the availability of machines while letting them save energy by sleeping. His current work includes protecting user privacy when using online services and simplifying the construction and deployment of fault-tolerant systems. -- Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password at: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech ----- 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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CEA Applauds Appeals Court Ruling in Over-the-Air Reception Devices Case
by Consumer Electronics Association -Communications 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

FOR RELEASE Contact: Jeff Joseph or Jenny Miller tel: (703) 907-7664 tel: (703) 907-7079 e-mail: jjoseph(a)ce.org e-mail: jmiller(a)ce.org http://www.CE.org CEA Applauds Appeals Court Ruling in Over-the-Air Reception Devices Case Decision Upholds FCC Order Prohibiting Restrictions on Satellite Dish Placement Arlington, Va., July 10, 2001 - The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) applauded the U.S. Appeals Court ruling Friday, which upheld Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations prohibiting restrictions on certain over-the-air television reception and direct-to-home satellite services. Petitioners in the case, including building owners and managers, had questioned the agency's statutory authority and had objected to the FCC's rules concerning over-the-air reception devices (OTARD) that were promulgated following enactment of the 1996 Telecommunications Act and amended in 1998 to extend to leaseholders. The three District of Columbia appellate court judges decidedly rejected the petitioners' claims, delivering a victory to the FCC. CEA celebrated the decision as a victory for consumers who may install satellite dishes and equipment despite landlord opposition in order to enjoy freely the benefits of digital access and entertainment. "This is a big win for consumers. The 'unambiguously expressed intent of Congress' was clear in Section 207 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996," said CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro. "The Court has upheld the right of all Americans - including renters - to have access to the latest and best consumer technologies, such as direct-to-home satellite. As the original FCC Order recognized, full participation in the digital revolution shouldn't be conditioned on property ownership." The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) represents more than 650 U.S. companies involved in the design, development, manufacturing and distribution of audio, video, mobile electronics, wireless and landline communications, information technology, multimedia and accessory products, as well as related services that are sold through consumer channels. Combined, these companies account for more than $70 billion in annual sales. CEA also sponsors and manages the International CES - Your Source for Workstyle and Lifestyle Technology. All profits from CES are reinvested into industry services, including technical training and education, industry promotion, engineering standards development, market research and legislative advocacy. UPCOMING EVENTS DTV Summit - Is Laissez-Faire Fair? July 24, 2001, Washington, DC CEA Fall Conference and Industry Forum October 14-17, 2001, La Quinta CA Digital Car Conference and Exhibition October 16-18, 2001, Detroit, MI 2002 International CES - Your Source for Workstyle and Lifestyle Technology January 8-11, 2002, Las Vegas, NV ### I:\RELEASES\DTV & DTV SUMMIT\FCC.OTARD.doc Consumer Electronics Association -Communications 703-907-7041 Phone --------------------------------------------------------------------- If you would prefer not to receive further messages from this sender: 1. Click on the Reply button. 2. Replace the Subject field with the word REMOVE. 3. Click the Send button. You will receive one additional e-mail message confirming your removal. ----- End forwarded message -----

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Laundering as a Service
by Borked Pseudo Mailed 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Robert, Just sent this to gsc. Not sure if it will get through. Feel free to forward (gsc or anywhere) if you think it's of interest. ---- http://www.avertlabs.com/research/blog/index.php/2009/04/29/laundering-as-a… ervice/ Laundering as a Service Wednesday April 29, 2009 at 5:24 am CST Posted by Francois Paget Money laundering is a process for concealing the origin of funds generated by illegal means. People generally associate money laundering with drug trafficking, gun smuggling, or corruption. But funds misappropriated by identity theft, phishing, and carding also have to be laundered. Today, the mushrooming of virtual money (or e- currency) makes the job easier when you need to eliminate traces of suspicious actions. In the past, E-Gold and WebMoney were frequently under suspicion and had to respond to serious allegations of having been used to transform dirty money into clean money. But they are not unique; ECUMoney, Liberty Reserve, PerfectMoney, Pecunix, etc. are also on the scene. As with all digital gold currencies, these exchangers offer nonreversible transactions, which is a primary advantage when you want to manipulate money. Today, websites proposing virtual money exchanges are numerous on the Internet. They are profitable for their owners because they are subject to significant exchange commissions. It is also relatively safe for the people offering these services. In the past, malware authors explained they created their programs only for educational purposes and were not responsible for any inappropriate use. Today administrators of such websites are trying to claim they are not liable for the origin of the transmitting money. Here too, the network is turning professional, and many former crooks are now specializing in this field. In October 2004, the U.S. Secret Service arrested people said to be responsible for a set of credit card and identity thefts that had plagued Internet users. It was the result of Operation Firewall. Most of them frequented ShadowCrew, a worldwide marketplace where thousands of members traded stolen credit cards and debit cards, as well as bank account numbers and counterfeit identification documents, such as drivers licenses, passports, and Social Security cards. One convicted person, using Voleur (French for thief) as a pseudonym, set up a special payment system for cybercrime transactions. For a 10 percent commission, he exchanged cash for E- Gold, the well-known and controversial digital gold currency. Voleur laundered money for dozen of deals of forum members, moving amounts ranging from $40,000 to $100,000 per week. With about twenty other individuals, he pleaded guilty in November 2005, was sentenced in June 2006, and was released later on. At that time, Voleurs work was not institutionalized. But today, I believe, this individual is again in business and manages some websites specialized in giving advice for digital currency activities. One of them is named Voleur Financial Services; thats a tall order! [image] On another site from the same origin (same administrators), we can see some examples of current fees: [table] Many people want to seize power in this fruitful business, and there are no holds barred. Enemies of Voleur often spread stories of him on the Internet and do not hesitate to reveal bank account numbers. [image] U.S. nationals are not alone in this business. At the time of Operation Firewall, an Eastern Europe married couple (he is Russian, she is Ukrainian), their son, and several other people were arrested after they moved more than $35 million in suspect funds through their company, a pioneer of virtual money exchange. Their office was originally located in the Empire State Building, in New York City. Approximately $20 million flowed through E-Gold digital currency accounts. It is also estimated they purchased approximately $15 million worth of Webmoney digital currency. Now, from the Manhattan House of Detention, the main prisoner/offender keeps his blog, gives security advice, and is visited by compassionate countrymen. Some of his friends (I suppose) still manage such exchange sites from Russia. From one of them, these screen shots show transfer fees and how easy it is to remain anonymous in the world of money transfers. [image] When you visit the website, you will discover a touching interview made in a U.S. jail and the (presumed) building housing the actual company: a bit empty, but nonetheless prestigious in the New York area. [image] In early April, at an annual conference of the Association of Russian Banks, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin explained that many small banks are now engaged in money laundering. It seems that many suspicious online companies are also engaged in this business both in and outside of Russia.

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EDRi-gram newsletter - Number 7.16, 26 August 2009
by EDRI-gram newsletter 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

============================================================ EDRi-gram biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe Number 7.16, 26 August 2009 ============================================================ Contents ============================================================ 1. The Pirate Bay - public enemy number one 2. Italian DNA database: The devil is in the details 3. People convicted in UK for refusing to surrender cryptographic keys 4. Google's Street View contested in France and Switzerland 5. UK: p2p three strikes clamp down despite civil liberties concerns 6. Belgium: Minister of Justice wants 2 years of data retention 7. Creative Commons licensed works available on Google Books 8. ENDitorial: Dutch NGO Bits of Freedom resumes its activities 9. Recommended Action 10. Recommended Reading 11. Agenda 12. About ============================================================ 1. The Pirate Bay - public enemy number one ============================================================ The Pirate Bay (TBP) seems to be the website in the limelight these days, after the music industry decided to attack it with every legal possibility and in any country they can, with actions in Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, Ireland and, of course, Sweden. The move seems not to have troubled the website too much, but has definitely given it a lot of publicity. Thus the Pirate Bay was offline for a few hours on 24 August 2009, after its ISP, called Black Internet, was obliged by a Swedish court order, following an action from the music industry, to disconnect the website from Internet. Otherwise Black Internet would had to pay penalties of 500 000 Swedish Krowns (approx. 50 000 euros). But TPB already had in place a backup solution, after the other problems with the music industry this year, and came back online in a few hours, with a message for the "attackers": "The MAFIAA has spent millions of dollars and endless amounts of time to get this ban in order. Our guess is that they also bribed a bit to get it since it violates so many laws not only in Sweden but also in the EU, not to mention violations against human rights. And what do they have to show for it? 3 hours of partial downtime" In Ireland, according to the understanding reached by the music record companies and the Irish ISP Eircom in January 2009, and to the order issued by The High Court on 24 July 2009, Eircom has agreed to cut off the access to TPB starting with 1 September 2009. The agreement Eircom made with the music industry implied that the Irish ISP would implement a three-strikes system to its users deemed guilty of copyright infringement and also that it would not oppose any application to the court to block access to The Pirate Bay. Irish divisions of EMI, Warner, Universal and Sony music companies have also sent official requests to the other Irish ISPs to block access to the Pirate Bay website but, for the time being, this request was denied by UPC and BT Ireland. "UPC has informed the rights holders that there is no basis under Irish law requiring an ISP to block access to certain websites and that it will not agree to a request that goes beyond what is currently provided for under Irish law," stated UPC who added that "UPC has every intention of vigorously defending its position in Court." BT Ireland has also confirmed that it has refused the music industry request considering "there is no legal basis for such a request". In Norway, a coalition of 21 movie and music industry companies sued Telenor, the country's largest ISP trying to force it to block TPB. The hearing is to take place in October. In Netherlands, the anti-piracy organisation, BREIN won a court case at the end of July against TPB. An Amsterdam court has ruled that the Swedish site must cease its operations in 10 days in Netherlands. Otherwise they will need to pay 30 000 euros per day in penalties. Even though the ten days have passed now, the sentence is not applied yet and the three defendants have already appealed the case. The two parties have clashed before the appeal at the Hacking at Random, with a public juicy encounter between the head of BREIN, Tim Kuik and the Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm. All these publicity on the Pirate Bay could be connected with the purchase of the site by the Swedish company Global Gaming Factory, which is estimated to be closed by the end of this week. Eircom to block the Pirate Bay from September; UPC not so keen (19.08.2009) http://www.tjmcintyre.com/2009/08/eircom-to-block-pirate-bay-from.html Eircom to block internet access to Pirate Bay as other firms refuse (20.08.2009) http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2009/0820/1224252952116.html Eircom Agrees to Block Pirate Bay Access (20.08.2009) http://torrentfreak.com/eircom-agrees-to-block-pirate-bay-access-090820/ UPC Refuses to Block Pirate Bay (19.08.2009) http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0819/breaking49.htm Pirate Bay Faces ISP Block in Norway (19.08.2009) http://freakbits.com/pirate-bay-faces-isp-block-in-norway-0819 Pirate Bay and BREIN Clash at Hacker Conference (16.08.2009) http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-and-brein-clash-at-hacker-conference-090… Pirate Bay website back online (25.08.2009) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8217800.stm EDRI-gram: The big record companies are after Irish ISPs (15.07.2009) http://www.edri.org/edri-gram/number7.14/irish-isp-copyright ============================================================ 2. Italian DNA database: The devil is in the details ============================================================ On 30 June 2009, the Italian Parliament finally passed Law No. 85 that ratifies the Prum Convention and forms the legal ground for the creation of an Italian National DNA Database (NDNAD). Although this law might have benefited from UK and USA court experience in the field of DNA forensics, the current text indicates that neither British nor American case law have been taken into consideration. Furthermore, the law is flawed by a foggy understanding of the technicalities behind DNA profiling and sloppy wording that certainly will not facilitate the work of lawyers, prosecutors or judges. Just to highlight a few of these inconsistencies, it must be noted that art. 8 (Attivita` del laboratorio centrale per la banca dati nazionale del DNA - Activity of NDNA Database Central Laboratory) lacks any general provision that would oblige all the responsible parties to adopt serious and adequate security measures against unauthorized access, data tampering, and illegal handling of data and information. Furthermore, art. 9 (Prelievo di campione biologico e tipizzazione del profilo del DNA - Mandatory DNA Sample Collection and DNA Profile Sequencing) states nothing about the need for a properly established chain of custody. It is crucial that the collected sample be processed, both technically and administratively, in such a way that it would be impossible for a "planted" or "altered" sample to be used. This requirement was proven vitally important in the OJ Simpson trial (held between 1994 and 1995 at the Los Angeles Court in the USA) where the value of DNA evidence was successfully challenged by the defendant due to law enforcement gaffes. As if this wasn't enough, nothing is said about the effect of an improperly managed chain of custody on admissibility of the samples as evidence in Court. This is an issue similar to the one raised in the computer forensics field, where there is an vigorous ongoing debate about the admissibility/reliability of digital (volatile) information presented in Court without a documented and technically well-grounded chain of custody (the relevance of this issue is enhanced by the recent finding that DNA samples can be easily faked without expensive facilities.) This same lack of perspective can be observed in art.10 (Profili del DNA tipizzati da reperti biologici acquisiti nel corso di procedimenti penali - DNA Profiles Sequenced from Biological Samples gathered during Criminal Investigations). (Its impact on due process and the right of defense are addressed in the analysis of art. 12). This section deals with sample tracing and access to data. Law enforcement officers can access the NDNA database without prior authorisation from the prosecutor or the judge that is responsible for the investigation involving the sample or profile in question (under Italian law, law enforcement bodies are under the direction and control of the public prosecutor). Since the article is silent about the matter, only future court decisions will determine whether prior authorization is needed to access the NDNA database, thus leaving wide open a window of several years in which "anything can happen". It is worth pointing out that there is no mention of defense and victim's lawyers in this provision, thus making it impossible for them to make reasonable discovery demands. The third provision in art.12 requires neither the positive identification of the personnel accessing the NDNA database and material in the central lab, nor the secure logging of access to and activity involving the profile and sample. Art.13 also raises concerns (Cancellazione dei dati e distruzione dei campioni biologici - Data Erasire and Destruction of Biological Samples). Provision 3 doesn't clearly identify who is in charge of ordering the destruction of samples and profiles. It would have been far more appropriate (and easier) to say that samples, profiles and all of its related information cannot be used during the trial. A judge in the preliminary investigation, preliminary hearing or trial - depending on the stage of the trial - orders the destruction of both profiles and samples from the NDNA database, the central laboratory and any other place where this information is stored (e.g. prosecutor's docket, law enforcement investigator files, etc.) Art.14 deals with punishment for a public officer that communicates or uses data and information without authorization, or for purposes other than those stipulated specifically in the law. Well, the punishment is incredibly light: a jail term of between one and three years. This means that by pleading guilty (up to 1/3 of a reduction in term) and obtaining a further 1/3 reduction for the "attenuanti generiche" (generic circumstances that decrease the severity of the punishment), a defendant could face a final jail term of less than six months that could be avoided by simply paying a fine. Given the magnitude of the matter, one would expect to find harsh punishments rather than the equivalent of a light slap on the hand. Two final remarks: The first one is about technology. The law says nothing about strategic technological choices. Of course it is not to be expected that a law will enter into the maze of ICT and molecular biology oddities. Naturally a series of subordinate administrative acts will be adopted by the ministries concerned. But what the law might have (and should have) laid down was the inclusion of principles such as the use of non-proprietary file formats and technologies (thus avoiding the technological "locked-in" syndrome that allowed ICT multinationals to create a de facto monopoly since the cost of converting huge quantities of information to a different format was so high as to discourage the shift). The second one concerns the "vicious loop" in assessing crime impact and crime spreading. By excluding white collar crime profiles from the NDNAD, the law can alter crime-related statistics. If all you can find in the NDNAD are violent crimes committed by Africans or Balkan immigrants and undocumented migrants (they will hardly be involved in stock exchange frauds), prosecutors will find easier to investigate these crimes, with the potential result being an injection of "hidden racism" into the justice system. To put it briefly: crime statistics are based upon prosecutory investigations and trials, but if prosecutory investigations are based upon the NDNA database, the only crimes that will be scrutinized by politicians will be those that fall into the NDNA database. Italian NDNA database. The devil is in the details http://blog.andreamonti.eu/?p=165 (Contribution by Andrea Monti - EDRi-member ALCEI -Italy) ============================================================ 3. People convicted in UK for refusing to surrender cryptographic keys ============================================================ According to the Annual Report of the Chief Surveillance Commissioner Sir Christopher Rose to the UK Prime Minister and Scottish Ministers, people were sentenced between 1 April 2008 and 31 March 2009 for not having given their passwords or cryptographic keys, on the basis of powers provided to authorities by section 49 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) that came into force in October 2007. The law, initially intended to deal with organised crime and terrorism, allows the police and other enforcement agencies to demand from a person passwords, encryption keys or a clear text transcript of encrypted texts. Failure to comply can result in two years imprisonment for cases not involving national security, or five years for terrorism or similar offences. The required data can be even several years old. The report, ordered by the House of Commons, shows that there were 26 applications for section 49 RIPA powers, out of which 17 obtained permission from a judge to proceed. Out of the 17, 15 notices were served and 11 people having received the notices failed to comply with the request. The actions resulted in seven charges being brought and two convictions. According to the report, the types of crimes under investigation in these cases were "counter terrorism, child indecency and domestic extremism". Sir Christopher was unable to give details on the two convictions or the situations regarding the other five charges as the former High Court judge did not provide such information and the Crown Prosecution Service stated it could not track down any information on the cases without the defendants' names. According to The Home Office, the National Technical Assistance Centre (NTAC) where the police is suppose to apply in order to obtain a section 49 notice do not follow up the results of the notices they approve and UK Government Communications Headquarters which apparently covers NTAC, did not answer to the request of revealing some information on these cases. Annual Report of the Chief Surveillance Commissioner to the Prime Minister and to Scottish Ministers for 2008-2009 (21.07.2009) http://www.surveillancecommissioners.gov.uk/docs1/osc_annual_rpt_2008_09.pdf Initial password prosecutions in UK (17.08.2009) http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/143617 Two convicted for refusal to decrypt data (12.08.2009) http://www.out-law.com/page-10250 EDRi-gram: UK: Decrypt data or go to prison! (10.10.2007) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.19/ripa-part3-uk ============================================================ 4. Google's Street View contested in France and Switzerland ============================================================ After being criticised and contested in several countries in Europe, such as UK, Germany and Greece and even outside Europe like in Japan, it is the turn of France and Switzerland to complain against Google's service Street View. Several complaints have been recorded in France in 2009 against Street View service as recently indicated by the French Data Protection Authority - CNIL (Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertis). CNIL is keeping an eye of Google's system as the company has introduced in France this summer tricycles equipped with cameras to explore parks, walking streets and other less crowded areas. Despite the system introduced by Google to blur faces and other identification elements such as licence plates from the images taken by Street View cameras, the system is not 100% proof. For instance, profiles or faces through grills can still be visible and are not blurred. Besides, people are also asking for other elements to be blurred such as the access to private homes. The French authority is also concerned about the delay in the data treatment and the retention of raw images. In June, Google committed in front of European Commission's Article 29 working party to improve this aspect and delete the raw images but not on a very short term and no precise period of time was given. In Switzerland, less than one week after the launching of Street View, the authorities have already asked for the immediate interruption of the service under threat of taking the case to court as they consider that Google's blurring technology is not good enough. "Numerous reports from the public and our own research show that Google Street View does not respect the conditions that were laid down. Many faces and car numbers have not been blurred, or only insufficiently so," stated Hans-Peter Th|r, the Swiss data protection commissioner who asked Google to "improve the service and ensure that the images published meet Swiss legal requirements". In its defence, Google admitted there were still some flaws in their technology: "Our face and license plate blurring software is very effective, but like any new technology it still makes mistakes now and then - occasionally blurring things that shouldn't be blurred, or missing some things that should." Sibastien Fanti, a lawyer specialised in Internet issues, warns on the fact that all the data gathered by Google is available to US authorities as according to the USA Patriot Act, any US government agency has access to data collected anywhere in the world by US firms, even without a court order. "If the CIA asks to see what was going on in Zurich this spring, Google isn't going to provide blurred images," says Fanti. Google's Switzerland spokesman Matthias Meyer admitted that the companies is collaborating with authorities but stated that "What we are putting on line are photos of the past. Once they've been taken they don't change, nothing is shown in real time." This is far from being reassuring and as it can be seen people in many countries there are a lot of privacy concerns related to Street View service. Google Street View feeds Cnil's complaints (only in French, 10.08.2009) http://www.01net.com/editorial/504863/google-street-view-alimente-le-bureau… CNIL in the wheel of Street view tricycle (only in French, 7.08.2009) http://www.cnil.fr/la-cnil/actu-cnil/article/article/2/40-000-euros-damende… Switzerland asks the interruption of Google Street View (only in French, 24.08.2009) http://www.zdnet.fr/actualites/internet/0,39020774,39705022,00.htm Europe asks for the suppression of the raw images by Google Street View (only in French, 16.06.2009) http://www.zdnet.fr/actualites/internet/0,39020774,39504703,00.htm Big Google is watching you - really? (only in French, 21.08.2009) http://www.swissinfo.ch/fre/a_la_une/Big_Google_is_watching_you_vraiment.ht… Street View privacy guarantees remain fuzzy (24.08.2009) http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/front/Street_View_privacy_guarantees_remain_fuz… EDRi-gram: Privacy complaints related to Google's Street View (16.07.2009) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number6.14/privacy-street-view ============================================================ 5. UK: p2p three strikes clamp down despite civil liberties concerns ============================================================ A new proposal shows that the UK Government has given in to the pressure of right holders who have complained that the measures proposed by the 'Digital Britain' report were not powerful enough "to have a significant deterrent effect on infringing behaviour". The new proposals would allow Lord Peter Mandelson, UK Secretary of State, to approve automated sanctions against file-sharers (so basically a three strikes scheme) and thus, practically, placing the regulator Ofcom under Mandelson's orders. Apparently, this follows a meeting between Lord Mandelson and the David Geffen, head of Steven Spielberg's Dreamworks Studio. The new proposal also takes into consideration British Recorded Music Industry's amendment addressed to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act proposing that ISPs should be made liable for copyright infringement and obliged to introduce measures against infringers. BIS seems to take for granted the opinion of the industry that all file-sharing is unlawful and that the right solution is represented by technical measures which actually imply automated network technology to block websites and user connections. One of these technical measures is what is called the deep packet inspection implying the opening by the ISP of each data package. After checking out the package content, the ISP can decide on interrupting the communication. This is actually legal interception and is not allowed under EU laws including the UK law. Technical measures are infringing Amendment 138 of the EU Telecoms Package but all this does not seem to concern the UK Government. In line with EU Commissioner Viviane Reding's opinion expressed in July at the Ludwig Erhard Lecture 2009 Lisbon Council in Brussels, UK MEP Tom Watson, who has joined the online copyright enforcement debate, believes drastic measures such as the automated suspension of the Internet connection are not the best methods to deal with illegal file-sharing. In his opinion, the policy-makers should rather consider assisting companies in creating new business models and setting up efficient alternative distribution structures for online music and entertainment works. Mr Watson considers the technical measures are only in favour of an industry that is not ready to change and that the government should find ways to promote innovation and deal with the changes in the entertainment business which develop along with the development of the IT technology. UK 3-strikes - MP urges consultancy not censorship (20.08.2009) http://www.iptegrity.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=384&Item… Mandelson to sit in judgement on UK file-sharers (25.08.2009) http://www.iptegrity.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=385&Item… Government details how Digital Britain Report will become reality (18.08.2009) http://www.out-law.com/page-10300 UK anti-filesharing plans get the Mandelson touch (17.08.2009) http://www.iptegrity.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=383&Item… Digital Britain: Government vows to cut illegal file-sharing by 70% (16.06.2009) http://www.out-law.com/page-10097 BIS Implementation Plan of Digital Britain (08.2009) http://www.culture.gov.uk/images/publications/DB_ImplementationPlanv6_Aug09… Internet cut-off threat for illegal downloaders (25.08.2009) http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/aug/25/file-sharing-internet EDRI-gram: EU Commissioner: Current business models encourage illegal file-sharing (15.07.2009) http://www.edri.org/edri-gram/number7.14/reding-business-models-encourage-p… ============================================================ 6. Belgium: Minister of Justice wants 2 years of data retention ============================================================ Belgium is starting again to discuss the implementation of the data retention directive, suggesting a 2-year retention period for electronic communication traffic data, according with the Flemish newspaper De Tijd. The initial discussion in 2008 did not passed the criticism received from the Belgian Data Protection Authority and from the public comments submitted by an ad hoc alliance of civil society and industry. The draft was presented these days in the media by the Minister of Justice, Stefaan De Clerck. He asks for a two year period for data retention, claiming that the Police and the Prosecutors Office need the data for that long. The draft foresees that the prosecutor or the magistrate in a case has to submit a written justification for every query. The Belgium ISP Association claimed that a period of six months should be enough, asking the Government to support the costs for a longer period. Otherwise the cost might be passed to the user, therefore an increased cost for an Internet connection. The Belgium Data Protection Authority (DPA) has also considered a two year period as excessive. In a comment sent to the Government on this topic, the Authority has suggested a one year period. After that period, all the stored data needs to be deleted immediately. The DPA has stated that a public report needs to be made public each year in order to assess if the data retention is necessary and in what conditions it was used. The Authority made also several comments on the text - for a better clarification of the "public networks" definition or the "exceptional circumstances" when the data can be kept more than 24 months. Comments from the Belgium DPA on the data retention draft law (only in French, 1.07.2009) http://www.privacycommission.be/fr/docs/Commission/2009/avis_20_2009.pdf Emails kept for 2 years, Internet user might pay (only in French, 12.08.2009) http://www.rtbf.be/info/economie/la-justice-risque-de-rendre-linternet-plus… Belgium wants to go for 2 years in data retention (only in Dutch, 12.08.2009) http://www.tijd.be/nieuws/ondernemingen_diensten/Justitie_maakt_internet_du… ============================================================ 7. Creative Commons licensed works available on Google Books ============================================================ Google Books announced on 13 August 2009 the launching of an initiative allowing writers, artists and publishers to specify their works as Creative Commons (CC) works, being able to choose between the six CC version 3 licenses, a public domain license or the CC "no rights reserved" license. This gives right holders a simple way to give clear indications on the legal rights they have to CC-licensed works found through Google Books and tell readers whether and how they can use the copyrighted books. A few authors have already made their CC books available on Google Books and these books have been marked by a matching logo on the book's left hand navigation bar. Books can thus be downloaded, shared and even modified and remixed if the right holder has chosen to allow this. People downloading these books agree to use them only as specified by the license, as for instance giving proper credit to the author in case of remixing and further public distributions. Google Books also announced that according to the publisher's choice, it will introduce the option to restrict searches of books accordingly. Representatives of the Book Rights Registry have also shown the intention to allow the free distribution by right holders of CC-licensed works in case the settlement is approved in court. This action might come also in light of the late criticism and investigation of Google Books by the European Commission with the hearing to come very soon on 7 September. The hearing seems to come late, as 4 September is the deadline of submissions on the settlement that the US Judge has set in this case. With a final decision in this case estimated on 7 October, the European hearing finds widespread disagreement between different publishers. Bringing the power of Creative Commons to Google Books (13.08.2009) http://booksearch.blogspot.com/2009/08/bringing-power-of-creative-commons-t… Google Books adds Creative Commons license options (13.08.2009) http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/16823 Europe Divided on Google Book Deal (24.08.2009) http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/technology/internet/24iht-books.html EDRI-gram: EU EC hearing on Google book deal (29.07.2009) http://www.edri.org/edri-gram/number7.15/ec-investigating-google-books ============================================================ 8. ENDitorial: Dutch NGO Bits of Freedom resumes its activities ============================================================ When EDRi was established, its founders recognized that co-operation between European digital rights organisations was essential for the effective protection of digital civil rights in the years ahead. EDRi would in the subsequent years indeed come to serve as an important framework for this co-operation. One of these founders was a Dutch digital rights organization called Bits of Freedom (BoF). Not only has it helped establishing EDRi, but it was also one of the first digital rights organisations in Europe. Thus, it was highly unfortunate that Bits of Freedom announced in August 2006 that it would cease most of its activities. Both full-time employees decided to leave, and the continuing uncertainty about financing led to the conclusion that a relaunch at that time was not possible. Of all the reasons which led to this conclusion, the lack of work was not one, however: "a bottom-up civil rights movement in the Netherlands seems more necessary than ever", one of the former directors of Bits of Freedom wrote in the EDRI-gram at that time. Now, exactly three years later, we are happy to announce that Bits of Freedom resumed its activities this month. A substantial initial grant by the Dutch foundation Internet4All allows Bits of Freedom to start again defending Dutch civil rights in the information society. Bits of Freedom will focus on protecting privacy and communications freedom in a digital age. It will do so by influencing government policy and self regulation, not only on a national, but also on a European level. And when doing so on a European level, Bits of Freedom still is convinced that co-operation between European digital rights organisations remains an essential part of effectively defending freedom in a digital world. Bits of Freedom strives to make a meaningful contribution to that co-operation in the years to come. The new executive board of the foundation consists of Doke Pelleboer (former CEO of Dutch ISP XS4ALL), Joris van Hoboken (researcher at the University of Amsterdam) and Karianne Thomas (attorney at the Dutch law firm Van Doorne). The organisation will be led by Ot van Daalen (former attorney at the Dutch law firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek). Bits of Freedom website http://www.bof.nl Press release on re-launch of BoF (only in Dutch, 14.08.2009) http://www.bof.nl/persbericht140809.html EDRi-gram: End of activities Bits of Freedom (2.08.2009) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.15/bof (contribution by Ot van Daalen, Director EDRi-member Bits of Freedom - Netherlands) ============================================================ 9. Recommended Action ============================================================ Public consultation on post-i2010: priorities for new strategy for European information society (2010-2015) http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/eeurope/i2010/pc_post-i2010/index_e… Launch of International Free and Open Source Software Law Review. http://www.ifosslr.org/ifosslr/announcement/view/1 ============================================================ 10. Recommended Reading ============================================================ Statewatch analysis - EU agrees on rules for remote computer access by police forces, but fails, as usual, to mention the security and intelligence agencies http://www.statewatch.org/analyses/no-83-remote-computer-access.pdf The Privacy Jungle: On the Market for Data Protection in Social Networks http://preibusch.de/publications/social_networks/privacy_jungle_dataset.htm ============================================================ 11. Agenda ============================================================ 10-12 September 2009, Potsdam, Germany 5th ECPR General Conference, Potsdam Section: Protest Politics Panel: The Contentious Politics of Intellectual Property http://www.ecpr.org.uk/potsdam/default.asp 12 September 2009, Worldwide 2nd International Action Day "Freedom not Fear - Stop the Surveillance Mania" Demonstrations, Events, Privacy Parties etc. in many countries http://wiki.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/Freedom_Not_Fear_2009 16-18 September 2009, Crete, Greece World Summit on the Knowledge Society WSKS 2009 http://www.open-knowledge-society.org/ 17-18 September 2009, Amsterdam, Netherlands Gikii, A Workshop on Law, Technology and Popular Culture Institute for Information Law (IViR) - University of Amsterdam http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/ahrc/gikii/2009.asp 23-24 September 2009, Copenhagen, Denmark The Net will not forget European conference on ICT and Privacy http://www.ict-privacy.dk/ 29-30 September 2009, Warsaw, Poland 3rd International Conference "Keeping Children and Young People Safe Online" http://konferencja.saferinternet.pl/articles-2009/3rd_international_confere… 1-2 October 2009, Barcelona, Spain 6th Communia Workshop: Memory Institutions and Public Domain http://www.communia-project.eu/ws06 16 October 2009, Bielefeld, Germany 10th German Big Brother Awards http://www.bigbrotherawards.de/ 21-23 October 2009, Istanbul, Turkey eChallenges 2009 http://www.echallenges.org/e2009/default.asp 24 October 2009, Zurich, Switzerland Big Brother Awards Switzerland Deadline for nominations: 31 August 2009 http://www.bigbrotherawards.ch/2009/ 24-25 October 2009, Vienna, Austria 3rd European Privacy Open Space http://www.privacyos.eu 25 October 2009, Vienna, Austria Austrian Big Brother Awards Deadline for nominations: 21 September 2009 http://www.bigbrotherawards.at/ 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 for a Global Economy" Organized by Electronic Privacy Information Center http://www.privacyconference2009.org/privacyconf2009/home/eventos_previos/C… 4-6 November 2009, Madrid, Spain 31st International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy http://www.privacyconference2009.org 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/ ============================================================ 12. About ============================================================ EDRI-gram is a biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe. Currently EDRI has 29 members based or with offices in 18 different countries in Europe. European Digital Rights takes an active interest in developments in the EU accession countries and wants to share knowledge and awareness through the EDRI-grams. All contributions, suggestions for content, corrections or agenda-tips are most welcome. Errors are corrected as soon as possible and visibly on the EDRI website. Except where otherwise noted, this newsletter is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. See the full text at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Newsletter editor: Bogdan Manolea <edrigram(a)edri.org> Information about EDRI and its members: http://www.edri.org/ European Digital Rights needs your help in upholding digital rights in the EU. If you wish to help us promote digital rights, please consider making a private donation. http://www.edri.org/about/sponsoring - 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 http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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For IP: Fear destroys what Bin Laden could not
by Brett Glass 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Fear destroys what Bin Laden could not By Rober Steinback Fear destroys what bin Laden could not ROBERT STEINBACK rsteinback(a)MiamiHerald.com One wonders if Osama bin Laden didn't win after all. He ruined the America that existed on 9/11. But he had help. If, back in 2001, anyone had told me that four years after bin Laden's attack our president would admit that he broke U.S. law against domestic spying and ignored the Constitution -- and then expect the American people to congratulate him for it -- I would have presumed the girders of our very Republic had crumbled. Had anyone said our president would invade a country and kill 30,000 of its people claiming a threat that never, in fact, existed, then admit he would have invaded even if he had known there was no threat -- and expect America to be pleased by this -- I would have thought our nation's sensibilities and honor had been eviscerated. If I had been informed that our nation's leaders would embrace torture as a legitimate tool of warfare, hold prisoners for years without charges and operate secret prisons overseas -- and call such procedures necessary for the nation's security -- I would have laughed at the folly of protecting human rights by destroying them. If someone had predicted the president's staff would out a CIA agent as revenge against a critic, defy a law against domestic propaganda by bankrolling supposedly independent journalists and commentators, and ridicule a 37-year Marie Corps veteran for questioning U.S. military policy -- and that the populace would be more interested in whether Angelina is about to make Brad a daddy -- I would have called the prediction an absurd fantasy. That's no America I know, I would have argued. We're too strong, and we've been through too much, to be led down such a twisted path. What is there to say now? All of these things have happened. And yet a large portion of this country appears more concerned that saying ''Happy Holidays'' could be a disguised attack on Christianity. More at http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/columnists/13487511.htm ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as eugen(a)leitl.org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/ ----- 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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[IP] Fear destroys what Bin Laden could not
by David Farber 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Begin forwarded message:

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[silk] Radioactive blood
by Udhay Shankar N 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

http://www.courant.com/hc-radiation0303.artmar03,0,2607541.story Radar Didn't Get Her; Radiation Did March 3, 2006 By TRACY GORDON FOX, Courant Staff Writer The large, black SUV passed the woman on the left, abruptly slowed down, and then dropped behind her. Suddenly, flashing red and blue lights lit up her rearview mirror. "Ma'am, you were pulled over because you set off a nuclear radioactive alarm," a man dressed in a blue jumpsuit-type uniform and a baseball cap said in a monotone. It sounds like a scene from the movie "Men in Black." A select group of state troopers and inspectors from the state Department of Motor Vehicles now wear ultra-sensitive, portable radiation detectors on their belts to check for dangerous materials inside large trucks. But the 45-year-old Suffield woman wasn't hauling nuclear waste. She had been injected with a radioactive substance for a common medical test. Relieved to have completed a series of stress tests on her heart on Feb. 23, the woman was heading home, seatbelt on, and cruising at the 65 mph speed limit on I-91 north. Inspectors in the SUV were on a routine assignment when the device started beeping and they homed in on the woman's car. The woman, who asked not to be identified, wasn't angry about being stopped, nor particularly inconvenienced, but baffled as to how police detected radiation from a substance injected into her body hours earlier. The pager-size devices are so new to Connecticut law enforcement that even state homeland security officials and top state police were at first perplexed by the woman's story. "I've never heard of this being done in my entire life," James Thomas, commissioner of the state Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, said Wednesday. On Thursday, he called Public Safety Commissioner Leonard C. Boyle, who also did not know that radiation could be detected in a moving vehicle. "I was surprised and did not expect that these devices could detect radiological activity in a moving car," Boyle said. Both men said they knew that radiation testing is regularly done at truck stops. Edward Wilds, director for the division of radiation at the state Department of Environmental Protection, solved the mystery. Wilds said Thursday that he was consulted on the purchase of the device. He said DEP workers have carried them for a while to detect radiation at scenes involving biological hazards. The state purchased 50 of the "radiological pagers," dividing them between the state police and the DMV, said Bill Seymour, a DMV spokesman. Seymour confirmed Thursday that a motor vehicle inspector pulled over the woman. "When these things go off, they have an obligation to check it out," he said. Seymour said the inspector, who has full police powers, identified himself as being from the DMV and that his truck was marked with the agency's insignia. "These are very sensitive devices," Seymour said, adding that some officers have reported them going off in buildings "because someone in the next room on the other side of the wall had a stress test." Doctors said they have heard of radiation sensors going off at nuclear plants after patients have had stress tests, but not along highways. "It is certainly conceivable," said Dr. Bernard Clark, chairman of the department of medicine and associate chief of cardiology at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford. "The glass and steel of a car wouldn't stop it, if they have an extremely sensitive indicator or detector." In stress tests, which monitor a patient's heart at rest and during activity, technetium and Cardiolite are injected. Cardiolite is a substance that helps move technetium, a radioactive isotope, to the heart muscle, allowing doctors to look at how the blood flows to it, Clark said. The substance has a half-life of about six hours, and then starts to dissipate, he said. "These are very safe agents," he said, adding that they are also used to scan other organs. The woman said she quickly explained to the officer that she had just undergone a medical procedure that involved a radioactive substance. She had to sign a bunch of forms that explained the risks. The officer seemed satisfied by her answer, and said, " `That's usually what it is,' " she said. He asked for her license and registration, and returned to her car a short time later. "Nobody at my doctor's office warned me this could happen," the woman said she told the officer. "He said, `That's because they don't know.' " She drove home and called her husband, who works for the state, telling him her strange story. Although she is glad someone is monitoring radioactivity in the state, the woman said she feels a little violated. "I was pulled over because of something in my bloodstream," she said. "There are [federal privacy laws], and I pretty much had to tell him I had a medical test. I was going to say, `none of your business why I'm radioactive.' But that wouldn't have gotten me that far." Clark said he assumes there will be a higher level of vigilance for radioactive material in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "You figure on the interstate highways people are going to ship things that shouldn't be shipped," the doctor said. "Most people aren't radioactive. If they are, you'd probably want to know why. Are you carrying weapons grade plutonium, or did you just get a stress test?" ----- 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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Laundering as a Service
by Borked Pseudo Mailed 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Robert, Just sent this to gsc. Not sure if it will get through. Feel free to forward (gsc or anywhere) if you think it's of interest. ---- http://www.avertlabs.com/research/blog/index.php/2009/04/29/laundering-as-a… ervice/ Laundering as a Service Wednesday April 29, 2009 at 5:24 am CST Posted by Francois Paget Money laundering is a process for concealing the origin of funds generated by illegal means. People generally associate money laundering with drug trafficking, gun smuggling, or corruption. But funds misappropriated by identity theft, phishing, and carding also have to be laundered. Today, the mushrooming of virtual money (or e- currency) makes the job easier when you need to eliminate traces of suspicious actions. In the past, E-Gold and WebMoney were frequently under suspicion and had to respond to serious allegations of having been used to transform dirty money into clean money. But they are not unique; ECUMoney, Liberty Reserve, PerfectMoney, Pecunix, etc. are also on the scene. As with all digital gold currencies, these exchangers offer nonreversible transactions, which is a primary advantage when you want to manipulate money. Today, websites proposing virtual money exchanges are numerous on the Internet. They are profitable for their owners because they are subject to significant exchange commissions. It is also relatively safe for the people offering these services. In the past, malware authors explained they created their programs only for educational purposes and were not responsible for any inappropriate use. Today administrators of such websites are trying to claim they are not liable for the origin of the transmitting money. Here too, the network is turning professional, and many former crooks are now specializing in this field. In October 2004, the U.S. Secret Service arrested people said to be responsible for a set of credit card and identity thefts that had plagued Internet users. It was the result of Operation Firewall. Most of them frequented ShadowCrew, a worldwide marketplace where thousands of members traded stolen credit cards and debit cards, as well as bank account numbers and counterfeit identification documents, such as drivers licenses, passports, and Social Security cards. One convicted person, using Voleur (French for thief) as a pseudonym, set up a special payment system for cybercrime transactions. For a 10 percent commission, he exchanged cash for E- Gold, the well-known and controversial digital gold currency. Voleur laundered money for dozen of deals of forum members, moving amounts ranging from $40,000 to $100,000 per week. With about twenty other individuals, he pleaded guilty in November 2005, was sentenced in June 2006, and was released later on. At that time, Voleurs work was not institutionalized. But today, I believe, this individual is again in business and manages some websites specialized in giving advice for digital currency activities. One of them is named Voleur Financial Services; thats a tall order! [image] On another site from the same origin (same administrators), we can see some examples of current fees: [table] Many people want to seize power in this fruitful business, and there are no holds barred. Enemies of Voleur often spread stories of him on the Internet and do not hesitate to reveal bank account numbers. [image] U.S. nationals are not alone in this business. At the time of Operation Firewall, an Eastern Europe married couple (he is Russian, she is Ukrainian), their son, and several other people were arrested after they moved more than $35 million in suspect funds through their company, a pioneer of virtual money exchange. Their office was originally located in the Empire State Building, in New York City. Approximately $20 million flowed through E-Gold digital currency accounts. It is also estimated they purchased approximately $15 million worth of Webmoney digital currency. Now, from the Manhattan House of Detention, the main prisoner/offender keeps his blog, gives security advice, and is visited by compassionate countrymen. Some of his friends (I suppose) still manage such exchange sites from Russia. From one of them, these screen shots show transfer fees and how easy it is to remain anonymous in the world of money transfers. [image] When you visit the website, you will discover a touching interview made in a U.S. jail and the (presumed) building housing the actual company: a bit empty, but nonetheless prestigious in the New York area. [image] In early April, at an annual conference of the Association of Russian Banks, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin explained that many small banks are now engaged in money laundering. It seems that many suspicious online companies are also engaged in this business both in and outside of Russia.

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EDRi-gram newsletter - Number 7.16, 26 August 2009
by EDRI-gram newsletter 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

============================================================ EDRi-gram biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe Number 7.16, 26 August 2009 ============================================================ Contents ============================================================ 1. The Pirate Bay - public enemy number one 2. Italian DNA database: The devil is in the details 3. People convicted in UK for refusing to surrender cryptographic keys 4. Google's Street View contested in France and Switzerland 5. UK: p2p three strikes clamp down despite civil liberties concerns 6. Belgium: Minister of Justice wants 2 years of data retention 7. Creative Commons licensed works available on Google Books 8. ENDitorial: Dutch NGO Bits of Freedom resumes its activities 9. Recommended Action 10. Recommended Reading 11. Agenda 12. About ============================================================ 1. The Pirate Bay - public enemy number one ============================================================ The Pirate Bay (TBP) seems to be the website in the limelight these days, after the music industry decided to attack it with every legal possibility and in any country they can, with actions in Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, Ireland and, of course, Sweden. The move seems not to have troubled the website too much, but has definitely given it a lot of publicity. Thus the Pirate Bay was offline for a few hours on 24 August 2009, after its ISP, called Black Internet, was obliged by a Swedish court order, following an action from the music industry, to disconnect the website from Internet. Otherwise Black Internet would had to pay penalties of 500 000 Swedish Krowns (approx. 50 000 euros). But TPB already had in place a backup solution, after the other problems with the music industry this year, and came back online in a few hours, with a message for the "attackers": "The MAFIAA has spent millions of dollars and endless amounts of time to get this ban in order. Our guess is that they also bribed a bit to get it since it violates so many laws not only in Sweden but also in the EU, not to mention violations against human rights. And what do they have to show for it? 3 hours of partial downtime" In Ireland, according to the understanding reached by the music record companies and the Irish ISP Eircom in January 2009, and to the order issued by The High Court on 24 July 2009, Eircom has agreed to cut off the access to TPB starting with 1 September 2009. The agreement Eircom made with the music industry implied that the Irish ISP would implement a three-strikes system to its users deemed guilty of copyright infringement and also that it would not oppose any application to the court to block access to The Pirate Bay. Irish divisions of EMI, Warner, Universal and Sony music companies have also sent official requests to the other Irish ISPs to block access to the Pirate Bay website but, for the time being, this request was denied by UPC and BT Ireland. "UPC has informed the rights holders that there is no basis under Irish law requiring an ISP to block access to certain websites and that it will not agree to a request that goes beyond what is currently provided for under Irish law," stated UPC who added that "UPC has every intention of vigorously defending its position in Court." BT Ireland has also confirmed that it has refused the music industry request considering "there is no legal basis for such a request". In Norway, a coalition of 21 movie and music industry companies sued Telenor, the country's largest ISP trying to force it to block TPB. The hearing is to take place in October. In Netherlands, the anti-piracy organisation, BREIN won a court case at the end of July against TPB. An Amsterdam court has ruled that the Swedish site must cease its operations in 10 days in Netherlands. Otherwise they will need to pay 30 000 euros per day in penalties. Even though the ten days have passed now, the sentence is not applied yet and the three defendants have already appealed the case. The two parties have clashed before the appeal at the Hacking at Random, with a public juicy encounter between the head of BREIN, Tim Kuik and the Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm. All these publicity on the Pirate Bay could be connected with the purchase of the site by the Swedish company Global Gaming Factory, which is estimated to be closed by the end of this week. Eircom to block the Pirate Bay from September; UPC not so keen (19.08.2009) http://www.tjmcintyre.com/2009/08/eircom-to-block-pirate-bay-from.html Eircom to block internet access to Pirate Bay as other firms refuse (20.08.2009) http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2009/0820/1224252952116.html Eircom Agrees to Block Pirate Bay Access (20.08.2009) http://torrentfreak.com/eircom-agrees-to-block-pirate-bay-access-090820/ UPC Refuses to Block Pirate Bay (19.08.2009) http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0819/breaking49.htm Pirate Bay Faces ISP Block in Norway (19.08.2009) http://freakbits.com/pirate-bay-faces-isp-block-in-norway-0819 Pirate Bay and BREIN Clash at Hacker Conference (16.08.2009) http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-and-brein-clash-at-hacker-conference-090… Pirate Bay website back online (25.08.2009) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8217800.stm EDRI-gram: The big record companies are after Irish ISPs (15.07.2009) http://www.edri.org/edri-gram/number7.14/irish-isp-copyright ============================================================ 2. Italian DNA database: The devil is in the details ============================================================ On 30 June 2009, the Italian Parliament finally passed Law No. 85 that ratifies the Prum Convention and forms the legal ground for the creation of an Italian National DNA Database (NDNAD). Although this law might have benefited from UK and USA court experience in the field of DNA forensics, the current text indicates that neither British nor American case law have been taken into consideration. Furthermore, the law is flawed by a foggy understanding of the technicalities behind DNA profiling and sloppy wording that certainly will not facilitate the work of lawyers, prosecutors or judges. Just to highlight a few of these inconsistencies, it must be noted that art. 8 (Attivita` del laboratorio centrale per la banca dati nazionale del DNA - Activity of NDNA Database Central Laboratory) lacks any general provision that would oblige all the responsible parties to adopt serious and adequate security measures against unauthorized access, data tampering, and illegal handling of data and information. Furthermore, art. 9 (Prelievo di campione biologico e tipizzazione del profilo del DNA - Mandatory DNA Sample Collection and DNA Profile Sequencing) states nothing about the need for a properly established chain of custody. It is crucial that the collected sample be processed, both technically and administratively, in such a way that it would be impossible for a "planted" or "altered" sample to be used. This requirement was proven vitally important in the OJ Simpson trial (held between 1994 and 1995 at the Los Angeles Court in the USA) where the value of DNA evidence was successfully challenged by the defendant due to law enforcement gaffes. As if this wasn't enough, nothing is said about the effect of an improperly managed chain of custody on admissibility of the samples as evidence in Court. This is an issue similar to the one raised in the computer forensics field, where there is an vigorous ongoing debate about the admissibility/reliability of digital (volatile) information presented in Court without a documented and technically well-grounded chain of custody (the relevance of this issue is enhanced by the recent finding that DNA samples can be easily faked without expensive facilities.) This same lack of perspective can be observed in art.10 (Profili del DNA tipizzati da reperti biologici acquisiti nel corso di procedimenti penali - DNA Profiles Sequenced from Biological Samples gathered during Criminal Investigations). (Its impact on due process and the right of defense are addressed in the analysis of art. 12). This section deals with sample tracing and access to data. Law enforcement officers can access the NDNA database without prior authorisation from the prosecutor or the judge that is responsible for the investigation involving the sample or profile in question (under Italian law, law enforcement bodies are under the direction and control of the public prosecutor). Since the article is silent about the matter, only future court decisions will determine whether prior authorization is needed to access the NDNA database, thus leaving wide open a window of several years in which "anything can happen". It is worth pointing out that there is no mention of defense and victim's lawyers in this provision, thus making it impossible for them to make reasonable discovery demands. The third provision in art.12 requires neither the positive identification of the personnel accessing the NDNA database and material in the central lab, nor the secure logging of access to and activity involving the profile and sample. Art.13 also raises concerns (Cancellazione dei dati e distruzione dei campioni biologici - Data Erasire and Destruction of Biological Samples). Provision 3 doesn't clearly identify who is in charge of ordering the destruction of samples and profiles. It would have been far more appropriate (and easier) to say that samples, profiles and all of its related information cannot be used during the trial. A judge in the preliminary investigation, preliminary hearing or trial - depending on the stage of the trial - orders the destruction of both profiles and samples from the NDNA database, the central laboratory and any other place where this information is stored (e.g. prosecutor's docket, law enforcement investigator files, etc.) Art.14 deals with punishment for a public officer that communicates or uses data and information without authorization, or for purposes other than those stipulated specifically in the law. Well, the punishment is incredibly light: a jail term of between one and three years. This means that by pleading guilty (up to 1/3 of a reduction in term) and obtaining a further 1/3 reduction for the "attenuanti generiche" (generic circumstances that decrease the severity of the punishment), a defendant could face a final jail term of less than six months that could be avoided by simply paying a fine. Given the magnitude of the matter, one would expect to find harsh punishments rather than the equivalent of a light slap on the hand. Two final remarks: The first one is about technology. The law says nothing about strategic technological choices. Of course it is not to be expected that a law will enter into the maze of ICT and molecular biology oddities. Naturally a series of subordinate administrative acts will be adopted by the ministries concerned. But what the law might have (and should have) laid down was the inclusion of principles such as the use of non-proprietary file formats and technologies (thus avoiding the technological "locked-in" syndrome that allowed ICT multinationals to create a de facto monopoly since the cost of converting huge quantities of information to a different format was so high as to discourage the shift). The second one concerns the "vicious loop" in assessing crime impact and crime spreading. By excluding white collar crime profiles from the NDNAD, the law can alter crime-related statistics. If all you can find in the NDNAD are violent crimes committed by Africans or Balkan immigrants and undocumented migrants (they will hardly be involved in stock exchange frauds), prosecutors will find easier to investigate these crimes, with the potential result being an injection of "hidden racism" into the justice system. To put it briefly: crime statistics are based upon prosecutory investigations and trials, but if prosecutory investigations are based upon the NDNA database, the only crimes that will be scrutinized by politicians will be those that fall into the NDNA database. Italian NDNA database. The devil is in the details http://blog.andreamonti.eu/?p=165 (Contribution by Andrea Monti - EDRi-member ALCEI -Italy) ============================================================ 3. People convicted in UK for refusing to surrender cryptographic keys ============================================================ According to the Annual Report of the Chief Surveillance Commissioner Sir Christopher Rose to the UK Prime Minister and Scottish Ministers, people were sentenced between 1 April 2008 and 31 March 2009 for not having given their passwords or cryptographic keys, on the basis of powers provided to authorities by section 49 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) that came into force in October 2007. The law, initially intended to deal with organised crime and terrorism, allows the police and other enforcement agencies to demand from a person passwords, encryption keys or a clear text transcript of encrypted texts. Failure to comply can result in two years imprisonment for cases not involving national security, or five years for terrorism or similar offences. The required data can be even several years old. The report, ordered by the House of Commons, shows that there were 26 applications for section 49 RIPA powers, out of which 17 obtained permission from a judge to proceed. Out of the 17, 15 notices were served and 11 people having received the notices failed to comply with the request. The actions resulted in seven charges being brought and two convictions. According to the report, the types of crimes under investigation in these cases were "counter terrorism, child indecency and domestic extremism". Sir Christopher was unable to give details on the two convictions or the situations regarding the other five charges as the former High Court judge did not provide such information and the Crown Prosecution Service stated it could not track down any information on the cases without the defendants' names. According to The Home Office, the National Technical Assistance Centre (NTAC) where the police is suppose to apply in order to obtain a section 49 notice do not follow up the results of the notices they approve and UK Government Communications Headquarters which apparently covers NTAC, did not answer to the request of revealing some information on these cases. Annual Report of the Chief Surveillance Commissioner to the Prime Minister and to Scottish Ministers for 2008-2009 (21.07.2009) http://www.surveillancecommissioners.gov.uk/docs1/osc_annual_rpt_2008_09.pdf Initial password prosecutions in UK (17.08.2009) http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/143617 Two convicted for refusal to decrypt data (12.08.2009) http://www.out-law.com/page-10250 EDRi-gram: UK: Decrypt data or go to prison! (10.10.2007) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.19/ripa-part3-uk ============================================================ 4. Google's Street View contested in France and Switzerland ============================================================ After being criticised and contested in several countries in Europe, such as UK, Germany and Greece and even outside Europe like in Japan, it is the turn of France and Switzerland to complain against Google's service Street View. Several complaints have been recorded in France in 2009 against Street View service as recently indicated by the French Data Protection Authority - CNIL (Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertis). CNIL is keeping an eye of Google's system as the company has introduced in France this summer tricycles equipped with cameras to explore parks, walking streets and other less crowded areas. Despite the system introduced by Google to blur faces and other identification elements such as licence plates from the images taken by Street View cameras, the system is not 100% proof. For instance, profiles or faces through grills can still be visible and are not blurred. Besides, people are also asking for other elements to be blurred such as the access to private homes. The French authority is also concerned about the delay in the data treatment and the retention of raw images. In June, Google committed in front of European Commission's Article 29 working party to improve this aspect and delete the raw images but not on a very short term and no precise period of time was given. In Switzerland, less than one week after the launching of Street View, the authorities have already asked for the immediate interruption of the service under threat of taking the case to court as they consider that Google's blurring technology is not good enough. "Numerous reports from the public and our own research show that Google Street View does not respect the conditions that were laid down. Many faces and car numbers have not been blurred, or only insufficiently so," stated Hans-Peter Th|r, the Swiss data protection commissioner who asked Google to "improve the service and ensure that the images published meet Swiss legal requirements". In its defence, Google admitted there were still some flaws in their technology: "Our face and license plate blurring software is very effective, but like any new technology it still makes mistakes now and then - occasionally blurring things that shouldn't be blurred, or missing some things that should." Sibastien Fanti, a lawyer specialised in Internet issues, warns on the fact that all the data gathered by Google is available to US authorities as according to the USA Patriot Act, any US government agency has access to data collected anywhere in the world by US firms, even without a court order. "If the CIA asks to see what was going on in Zurich this spring, Google isn't going to provide blurred images," says Fanti. Google's Switzerland spokesman Matthias Meyer admitted that the companies is collaborating with authorities but stated that "What we are putting on line are photos of the past. Once they've been taken they don't change, nothing is shown in real time." This is far from being reassuring and as it can be seen people in many countries there are a lot of privacy concerns related to Street View service. Google Street View feeds Cnil's complaints (only in French, 10.08.2009) http://www.01net.com/editorial/504863/google-street-view-alimente-le-bureau… CNIL in the wheel of Street view tricycle (only in French, 7.08.2009) http://www.cnil.fr/la-cnil/actu-cnil/article/article/2/40-000-euros-damende… Switzerland asks the interruption of Google Street View (only in French, 24.08.2009) http://www.zdnet.fr/actualites/internet/0,39020774,39705022,00.htm Europe asks for the suppression of the raw images by Google Street View (only in French, 16.06.2009) http://www.zdnet.fr/actualites/internet/0,39020774,39504703,00.htm Big Google is watching you - really? (only in French, 21.08.2009) http://www.swissinfo.ch/fre/a_la_une/Big_Google_is_watching_you_vraiment.ht… Street View privacy guarantees remain fuzzy (24.08.2009) http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/front/Street_View_privacy_guarantees_remain_fuz… EDRi-gram: Privacy complaints related to Google's Street View (16.07.2009) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number6.14/privacy-street-view ============================================================ 5. UK: p2p three strikes clamp down despite civil liberties concerns ============================================================ A new proposal shows that the UK Government has given in to the pressure of right holders who have complained that the measures proposed by the 'Digital Britain' report were not powerful enough "to have a significant deterrent effect on infringing behaviour". The new proposals would allow Lord Peter Mandelson, UK Secretary of State, to approve automated sanctions against file-sharers (so basically a three strikes scheme) and thus, practically, placing the regulator Ofcom under Mandelson's orders. Apparently, this follows a meeting between Lord Mandelson and the David Geffen, head of Steven Spielberg's Dreamworks Studio. The new proposal also takes into consideration British Recorded Music Industry's amendment addressed to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act proposing that ISPs should be made liable for copyright infringement and obliged to introduce measures against infringers. BIS seems to take for granted the opinion of the industry that all file-sharing is unlawful and that the right solution is represented by technical measures which actually imply automated network technology to block websites and user connections. One of these technical measures is what is called the deep packet inspection implying the opening by the ISP of each data package. After checking out the package content, the ISP can decide on interrupting the communication. This is actually legal interception and is not allowed under EU laws including the UK law. Technical measures are infringing Amendment 138 of the EU Telecoms Package but all this does not seem to concern the UK Government. In line with EU Commissioner Viviane Reding's opinion expressed in July at the Ludwig Erhard Lecture 2009 Lisbon Council in Brussels, UK MEP Tom Watson, who has joined the online copyright enforcement debate, believes drastic measures such as the automated suspension of the Internet connection are not the best methods to deal with illegal file-sharing. In his opinion, the policy-makers should rather consider assisting companies in creating new business models and setting up efficient alternative distribution structures for online music and entertainment works. Mr Watson considers the technical measures are only in favour of an industry that is not ready to change and that the government should find ways to promote innovation and deal with the changes in the entertainment business which develop along with the development of the IT technology. UK 3-strikes - MP urges consultancy not censorship (20.08.2009) http://www.iptegrity.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=384&Item… Mandelson to sit in judgement on UK file-sharers (25.08.2009) http://www.iptegrity.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=385&Item… Government details how Digital Britain Report will become reality (18.08.2009) http://www.out-law.com/page-10300 UK anti-filesharing plans get the Mandelson touch (17.08.2009) http://www.iptegrity.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=383&Item… Digital Britain: Government vows to cut illegal file-sharing by 70% (16.06.2009) http://www.out-law.com/page-10097 BIS Implementation Plan of Digital Britain (08.2009) http://www.culture.gov.uk/images/publications/DB_ImplementationPlanv6_Aug09… Internet cut-off threat for illegal downloaders (25.08.2009) http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/aug/25/file-sharing-internet EDRI-gram: EU Commissioner: Current business models encourage illegal file-sharing (15.07.2009) http://www.edri.org/edri-gram/number7.14/reding-business-models-encourage-p… ============================================================ 6. Belgium: Minister of Justice wants 2 years of data retention ============================================================ Belgium is starting again to discuss the implementation of the data retention directive, suggesting a 2-year retention period for electronic communication traffic data, according with the Flemish newspaper De Tijd. The initial discussion in 2008 did not passed the criticism received from the Belgian Data Protection Authority and from the public comments submitted by an ad hoc alliance of civil society and industry. The draft was presented these days in the media by the Minister of Justice, Stefaan De Clerck. He asks for a two year period for data retention, claiming that the Police and the Prosecutors Office need the data for that long. The draft foresees that the prosecutor or the magistrate in a case has to submit a written justification for every query. The Belgium ISP Association claimed that a period of six months should be enough, asking the Government to support the costs for a longer period. Otherwise the cost might be passed to the user, therefore an increased cost for an Internet connection. The Belgium Data Protection Authority (DPA) has also considered a two year period as excessive. In a comment sent to the Government on this topic, the Authority has suggested a one year period. After that period, all the stored data needs to be deleted immediately. The DPA has stated that a public report needs to be made public each year in order to assess if the data retention is necessary and in what conditions it was used. The Authority made also several comments on the text - for a better clarification of the "public networks" definition or the "exceptional circumstances" when the data can be kept more than 24 months. Comments from the Belgium DPA on the data retention draft law (only in French, 1.07.2009) http://www.privacycommission.be/fr/docs/Commission/2009/avis_20_2009.pdf Emails kept for 2 years, Internet user might pay (only in French, 12.08.2009) http://www.rtbf.be/info/economie/la-justice-risque-de-rendre-linternet-plus… Belgium wants to go for 2 years in data retention (only in Dutch, 12.08.2009) http://www.tijd.be/nieuws/ondernemingen_diensten/Justitie_maakt_internet_du… ============================================================ 7. Creative Commons licensed works available on Google Books ============================================================ Google Books announced on 13 August 2009 the launching of an initiative allowing writers, artists and publishers to specify their works as Creative Commons (CC) works, being able to choose between the six CC version 3 licenses, a public domain license or the CC "no rights reserved" license. This gives right holders a simple way to give clear indications on the legal rights they have to CC-licensed works found through Google Books and tell readers whether and how they can use the copyrighted books. A few authors have already made their CC books available on Google Books and these books have been marked by a matching logo on the book's left hand navigation bar. Books can thus be downloaded, shared and even modified and remixed if the right holder has chosen to allow this. People downloading these books agree to use them only as specified by the license, as for instance giving proper credit to the author in case of remixing and further public distributions. Google Books also announced that according to the publisher's choice, it will introduce the option to restrict searches of books accordingly. Representatives of the Book Rights Registry have also shown the intention to allow the free distribution by right holders of CC-licensed works in case the settlement is approved in court. This action might come also in light of the late criticism and investigation of Google Books by the European Commission with the hearing to come very soon on 7 September. The hearing seems to come late, as 4 September is the deadline of submissions on the settlement that the US Judge has set in this case. With a final decision in this case estimated on 7 October, the European hearing finds widespread disagreement between different publishers. Bringing the power of Creative Commons to Google Books (13.08.2009) http://booksearch.blogspot.com/2009/08/bringing-power-of-creative-commons-t… Google Books adds Creative Commons license options (13.08.2009) http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/16823 Europe Divided on Google Book Deal (24.08.2009) http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/technology/internet/24iht-books.html EDRI-gram: EU EC hearing on Google book deal (29.07.2009) http://www.edri.org/edri-gram/number7.15/ec-investigating-google-books ============================================================ 8. ENDitorial: Dutch NGO Bits of Freedom resumes its activities ============================================================ When EDRi was established, its founders recognized that co-operation between European digital rights organisations was essential for the effective protection of digital civil rights in the years ahead. EDRi would in the subsequent years indeed come to serve as an important framework for this co-operation. One of these founders was a Dutch digital rights organization called Bits of Freedom (BoF). Not only has it helped establishing EDRi, but it was also one of the first digital rights organisations in Europe. Thus, it was highly unfortunate that Bits of Freedom announced in August 2006 that it would cease most of its activities. Both full-time employees decided to leave, and the continuing uncertainty about financing led to the conclusion that a relaunch at that time was not possible. Of all the reasons which led to this conclusion, the lack of work was not one, however: "a bottom-up civil rights movement in the Netherlands seems more necessary than ever", one of the former directors of Bits of Freedom wrote in the EDRI-gram at that time. Now, exactly three years later, we are happy to announce that Bits of Freedom resumed its activities this month. A substantial initial grant by the Dutch foundation Internet4All allows Bits of Freedom to start again defending Dutch civil rights in the information society. Bits of Freedom will focus on protecting privacy and communications freedom in a digital age. It will do so by influencing government policy and self regulation, not only on a national, but also on a European level. And when doing so on a European level, Bits of Freedom still is convinced that co-operation between European digital rights organisations remains an essential part of effectively defending freedom in a digital world. Bits of Freedom strives to make a meaningful contribution to that co-operation in the years to come. The new executive board of the foundation consists of Doke Pelleboer (former CEO of Dutch ISP XS4ALL), Joris van Hoboken (researcher at the University of Amsterdam) and Karianne Thomas (attorney at the Dutch law firm Van Doorne). The organisation will be led by Ot van Daalen (former attorney at the Dutch law firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek). Bits of Freedom website http://www.bof.nl Press release on re-launch of BoF (only in Dutch, 14.08.2009) http://www.bof.nl/persbericht140809.html EDRi-gram: End of activities Bits of Freedom (2.08.2009) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.15/bof (contribution by Ot van Daalen, Director EDRi-member Bits of Freedom - Netherlands) ============================================================ 9. Recommended Action ============================================================ Public consultation on post-i2010: priorities for new strategy for European information society (2010-2015) http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/eeurope/i2010/pc_post-i2010/index_e… Launch of International Free and Open Source Software Law Review. http://www.ifosslr.org/ifosslr/announcement/view/1 ============================================================ 10. Recommended Reading ============================================================ Statewatch analysis - EU agrees on rules for remote computer access by police forces, but fails, as usual, to mention the security and intelligence agencies http://www.statewatch.org/analyses/no-83-remote-computer-access.pdf The Privacy Jungle: On the Market for Data Protection in Social Networks http://preibusch.de/publications/social_networks/privacy_jungle_dataset.htm ============================================================ 11. Agenda ============================================================ 10-12 September 2009, Potsdam, Germany 5th ECPR General Conference, Potsdam Section: Protest Politics Panel: The Contentious Politics of Intellectual Property http://www.ecpr.org.uk/potsdam/default.asp 12 September 2009, Worldwide 2nd International Action Day "Freedom not Fear - Stop the Surveillance Mania" Demonstrations, Events, Privacy Parties etc. in many countries http://wiki.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/Freedom_Not_Fear_2009 16-18 September 2009, Crete, Greece World Summit on the Knowledge Society WSKS 2009 http://www.open-knowledge-society.org/ 17-18 September 2009, Amsterdam, Netherlands Gikii, A Workshop on Law, Technology and Popular Culture Institute for Information Law (IViR) - University of Amsterdam http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/ahrc/gikii/2009.asp 23-24 September 2009, Copenhagen, Denmark The Net will not forget European conference on ICT and Privacy http://www.ict-privacy.dk/ 29-30 September 2009, Warsaw, Poland 3rd International Conference "Keeping Children and Young People Safe Online" http://konferencja.saferinternet.pl/articles-2009/3rd_international_confere… 1-2 October 2009, Barcelona, Spain 6th Communia Workshop: Memory Institutions and Public Domain http://www.communia-project.eu/ws06 16 October 2009, Bielefeld, Germany 10th German Big Brother Awards http://www.bigbrotherawards.de/ 21-23 October 2009, Istanbul, Turkey eChallenges 2009 http://www.echallenges.org/e2009/default.asp 24 October 2009, Zurich, Switzerland Big Brother Awards Switzerland Deadline for nominations: 31 August 2009 http://www.bigbrotherawards.ch/2009/ 24-25 October 2009, Vienna, Austria 3rd European Privacy Open Space http://www.privacyos.eu 25 October 2009, Vienna, Austria Austrian Big Brother Awards Deadline for nominations: 21 September 2009 http://www.bigbrotherawards.at/ 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 for a Global Economy" Organized by Electronic Privacy Information Center http://www.privacyconference2009.org/privacyconf2009/home/eventos_previos/C… 4-6 November 2009, Madrid, Spain 31st International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy http://www.privacyconference2009.org 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/ ============================================================ 12. About ============================================================ EDRI-gram is a biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe. Currently EDRI has 29 members based or with offices in 18 different countries in Europe. European Digital Rights takes an active interest in developments in the EU accession countries and wants to share knowledge and awareness through the EDRI-grams. All contributions, suggestions for content, corrections or agenda-tips are most welcome. Errors are corrected as soon as possible and visibly on the EDRI website. Except where otherwise noted, this newsletter is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. See the full text at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Newsletter editor: Bogdan Manolea <edrigram(a)edri.org> Information about EDRI and its members: http://www.edri.org/ European Digital Rights needs your help in upholding digital rights in the EU. If you wish to help us promote digital rights, please consider making a private donation. http://www.edri.org/about/sponsoring - 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 http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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