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