From 30 October to 2 November approximately 1500 people gathered in Athens, Greece for the first global internet governance forum (IGF). The IGF is one of the outcomes of the Tunis Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in 2005, with the aim of creating a new global policy space to advance discussions related to internet governance. Since the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) stalemate could not be resolved at the Tunis Summit, the participants agreed to establish a process to continue the debate, which is a classical way to deal with issues that are
Due to severe hardware failure, our mailing server was off-line until this
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Please accept our apologies for this situation.
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EDRI-gram
biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe
Number 4.21, 8 November 2006
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Contents
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Support EDRi-gram!
1. Discussion during IGF against Internet content control
2. Danish ISP forced to block Allofmp3.com
3. Greek blog aggregator admin arrested
4. IGF Outcome : Dynamic Coalition on Privacy
5. Czech Republic bestowed Big Brother Awards for the second time
6. UK DNA Database under scrutiny
7. The Role of OSS for the Development of Information Society
8. Privacy Commissioners act together
9. Fileshares get different treatment in Europe's courts
10. ENDitorial : IGF - UN innovation or just another conference ?
11. Recommended reading
12. Agenda
13. About
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1. Discussion during IGF against Internet content control
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The first global Internet Governance Forum (IGF) was organized by United
Nations in Athens between 30 October and 2 November 2006.
The forum has shown a strong and large opposition to Internet blocking and
filtering, putting under pressure repressive governments such as China. The
three sessions devoted to content regulation and control have been dominated
by the advocates of anti-censorship and access to knowledge that have
criticized the state control of Internet content.
Thus, Amnesty International publicly handed a pledge, called
Irrepressible Info. that states: "I believe the Internet should be a force
for political freedom, not repression. People have the right to seek and
receive information and to express their peaceful beliefs online without
fear or interference. I call on governments to stop the unwarranted
restriction of freedom of expression on the Internet - and on companies to
stop helping them do it."
Most panellists from several work sessions opposed the extension of content
filtering and blocking. They criticized severely the representative of the
Council of Europe who tried to justify regulating "harmful content."
Some participants argued in favour of an international treaty on Access to
Knowledge, supported for some time by South Africa, some other governments
and NGOs.
Mr. Joichi Ito, the iCommons chairman, emphasised the fact
that the access to Internet was already considerably restricted by the
identification and authentication measures required for DRM and considered
the copyright legislation was getting, "worse and worse" . He said one
solution to the problem could be to review the copyright laws so as to adapt
the multimedia domain. Another solution would be through the Creative
Commons and its alternative licenses.
Among other important subjects debated during the sessions there was the
problem of unsolicited email communications.A group of six main anti-spam
organisations made an alliance called Stop Spam Alliance and launched a
website with information and advise on spam.
The Internet Governance Forum (IGF)
http://www.intgovforum.org/
Internet Governance Forum 2006 Greece
http://www.igfgreece2006.gr/
Reporter's Log: Internet Governance Forum (2.11.2006)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6105496.stm
The gossip issue (2.11.2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/02/igd_blog_wed/
Assault on State Censorship at the IGF (1.11.2006)
http://www.circleid.com/posts/assault_on_state_censorship_at_the_igf/
IGF: more free content for the Internet (2.11.2006)
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/80401
Stop Spam Alliance
http://www.stopspamalliance.org/
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2. Danish ISP forced to block Allofmp3.com
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A Danish court ruled against the Danish ISP Tele2 and ordered to block all
access to the site Allofmp3.com. According to the ruling, the ISP is
willingly infringing copyright if its customers use AllofMP3 to download
music.
IFPI Denmark sued the ISP, Tele2, in July 2006. It asked the judge to force
the ISP to block access to AllofMP3.com. A few days ago, the judge ruled in
favor of the IFPI, but Tele2 will appeal this decision.
The verdict hasn't been taken well by ISPs from all over the world. It is a
milestone in the IFPI's efforts. According to the IFPI it will be referenced
in future cases, not only against Danish ISPs, but ones in other EU
countries too.
The verdict could have very strong implications for the future. It clearly
states that an ISP can be held liable for temporarily (milliseconds) storing
infringing data on their routers. This means that ISPs can be forced to
block websites, if the court decides that these sites are mainly used to
spread "illegal" content.
These are the most critical passages in the IFPI vs. Tele2 ruling :
a.Under section 2(2) of the Danish Copyright Act, reproduction is
regarded as any direct or indirect, temporary or permanent, and complete or
partial reproduction in any form or manner whatsoever. Thus, any form of
copying falls within the scope of section 2.
b. Based on this, the Court finds that the fleeting and random fixation
of the work of music in the form of electronic signals conducted in the
various routers during the transmission of data packages via the Internet
also falls within the scope of section 2 of the Danish Copyright Act.
c. Furthermore, Tele2 cannot invoke the right of temporary reproduction
under section 11a of the Danish Copyright Act, since this provision
presupposes that the reproduction is based on a legal copy.
The head of a Danish telecommunications industry group told Computerworld
Denmark that they "are horrified over this judgment, to say the least. It
means that we must now keep an eye on what our users are doing online. And
blocking user access to certain websites will never be a perfect solution."
Sebastian Gjerding , spokesperson for Piratgruppen, said: "This case shows
that it has never been the question if Allofmp3 were legal or not. Its part
of IFPI's more general attack on the freedom of the Internet. They have lost
control over their customers, and they want it back at any price."
Piratgruppen is the sister organization of the famous Swedish Piratbyren, an
organization whose goals are reforming current copyright law and protecting
consumers' rights.
Sebastian added: "The verdict is highly controversial as it brings internet
censorship to Europe. It states that ISPs are responsible for the traffic
they route. In this way introducing a new paradigm, where Internet service
providers are obliged to block sites that the authorities dislike. The
verdict is at the same time so unclear that accusations of copyright
infringement can be used to censor a long list of sites. The result is the
destruction of the Internet as a free space of communication, and the
realization of national borders in cyberspace."
Danish ISP forced to censor the Internet (5.11.2006)
http://torrentfreak.com/danish-isp-forced-to-censor-the-internet/
Allofmp3.forbidden in Denmark (only in Danish, 25.10.2006)
http://www.computerworld.dk/art/36251?a=fp&i=1
Danish ISP Must Block AllofMP3.com ( 25.10.2006)
http://slyck.com/news.php?story=1321
Verdict IFPI vs. Tele 2 (2.11.2006)
http://propiracy.org/article/11
EDRI-gram : Russian copyright law gets tougher (13.09.2006)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.17/russia
(Contribution by Smaran-Torrentfreak and Sebastian Gjerding,
Piratgruppen.org - Denmark)
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3. Greek blog aggregator admin arrested
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Antonis Tsipropoulos, the administrator of a Greek blog aggregation
website, blogme.gr, had his house raided, his hard drive seized and was
himself arrested by the Greek cybercrime division, after having been served
with a libel lawsuit without prior notice, because a public figure was
offended by a satirical blog that was linked to by his site. The outraged
response by Greek bloggers was immediate and unprecedented, reaching in the
hundreds of posts within two days of the raid.
It was later revealed that the arrest and seizure had taken place 5
months prior to the revelation, but Mr. Tsipropoulos had chosen to
withhold the incident. The story however received wide coverage in local
media, as well as international attention, since it's disclosure
coincided with the First Internet Governance Forum being hosted in
Athens last week, that was attended by Internet luminaries,
entrepreneurs and activists like Vint Cerf, Bob Kahn and Joi Ito and
featuring panels on Openness and Freedom of Expression.
The IGF Openness session in particular dealt at length with the
implications of the arrest, with whether blogs should be regulated and
the larger question of free speech on the Internet. Chairing the session
was Greek Minister of State and government spokesman Theodoros
Roussopoulos, who, when asked about the case, denied any knowledge of
the incident. The Minister then went on to declaim against "bloggers who
spread lies through television", giving rise to yet another hue and cry
among greek bloggers.
Despite the successful campaign to break out the story to the media
ahead of the IGF, Greek bloggers have largely been intimidated from the
combined effect of the aggregator's arrest and the Minister's
statements, and many fear that political blogging might lead to
persecution as their status under Greek law is non-existent.
Prior successes of the Greek cybercrime division include the arrest of
Swedish programmer Rick Downes on charges of spreading spam via
handshake. Greece also made international headlines four years ago
because of the shortsighted and highly controversial electronic games
ban, that ended with the government being forced by public outcry, both
at home and abroad - as well as the intervention of the European
Commission - to amend the law and later suspend and deprecate it as
unconstitutional.
On a related note, Amnesty International recently put out a "Call to
Bloggers", to stand up for Internet freedom ahead of the IGF, while its
representatives to the Forum presented special advisor to UN
Secretary-General on internet governance, Nitin Desai, with a petition
calling on governments to stop the unwarranted restriction of freedom of
expression on the internet, and on companies to stop helping them do
it", backed by 50,000 online signatures.
A representative of Reporters without Frontiers (RSF) also attended the
meeting to accuse leading IT companies of assisting the Chinese government's
efforts to curtail free speech in the country. RSF recently published its
5th Annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index, which ranks Greece 32nd among 168
places, leading other EU15 members such as France and Italy, as well as the
US, but lagging behind such countries as Namibia, Bolivia and Bosnia -
Herzegovina.
Greek Blog Agregator
http://www.blogme.gr
Greek blogger arrest infuriates world (30.10.2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/30/greek_blogger_arrested/
U.N. blasts Cisco, others on China cooperation (31.10.2006)
http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6131010.html
Blogging in the free speech world (31.10.2006)
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/2006/10/31/blogging_in_the_free_sp...
ech_world.html
"Call to Bloggers" to stand up for freedom ahead of world meeting on future
of Internet (27.10.2006)
http://news.amnesty.org/index/ENGPOL300552006
North Korea, Turkmenistan, Eritrea the worst violators of press freedom -
Press Freedom Index 2006
http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=639
Greek Blogs on the blogme.gr case (only in Greek)
http://monitor.vrypan.net/search?q=blogme.gr
( Contribution by Asteris Masouras - oneiros.gr/blog )
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4. IGF Outcome : Dynamic Coalition on Privacy
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At the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) a diverse group of stakeholders has
agreed to launch a Dynamic Coalition on Privacy, which will address emerging
issues of internet privacy protection such as digital identities, the link
between privacy and development, and the importance of privacy and anonymity
for freedom of expression. It will initiate an open process to further
develop and clarify the public policy aspects of privacy in internet
governance in the perspective of the next IGF meeting in Brazil in 2007. The
group will use online collaboration tools as well as facilitate meetings at
related events all over the world throughout the year. Participants in
Athens in particular agreed that there is a need for greater public
participation in technical and legal standardizations that have a global
public policy impact on privacy. They also emphasised that it is important
to better include perspectives from developing countries in these processes.
One of the main outcomes of the IGF is the creation of "dynamic coalitions"
or multi-stakeholder groups working together on a common issue over a
multi-year process. The Dynamic Coalition on Privacy is a direct outcome of
two privacy workshops at the IGF on 31 October, co-organized by the
Information Systems Group at the LSE and the University of Bremen. It also
reflects discussions held during the IGF main session on cyber-security as
well as the IGF workshops on "Human Rights and the Internet" organized by
the Council of Europe and on an "Internet Bill of Rights" organized by the
Government of Italy together with IP Justice and the Internet Society of
Italy. It builds upon several months of multi-stakeholder collaboration in
the run-up to the UN meeting in Athens.
The coalition is open to interested parties and will start a global process
to engage more stakeholders over the next year. Therefore, more than 40
start-up organizations call for people interested in or willing to join the
work of this coalition and for recommending other stakeholders that should
be contacted.
The French government has offered to host a follow-up meeting in Paris in
early 2007.
Dynamic Coalition on Privacy
http://igf2006.intgovforum.org/wiki/Privacy
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5. Czech Republic bestowed Big Brother Awards for the second time
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On 30 October 2006 in Prague the Big Brother Awards for the most
egregious data privacy transgressions in the Czech Republic were bestowed
for the second time. The event organised by the NGO Iuridicum Remedium was
quite a big success reported by many national media. The chief of the Czech
data protection office as well as other officials and foreign guests -
Meryem Marzouki from EDRi, padeluun from German FoeBud, Alexander Kashamov,
of AIP organising BBA event in Bulgaria together with dozens of people
enjoyed the evening show.
Thus, for retaining indefinitely the data of its former customers and even
of people who have merely made an inquiry with the institution, the
"Komercnm banka" (which freely translates as "Commercial Bank") will
henceforth be allowed to bear the title of "Worst Commercial Intruder."
The title of "Biggest State Intruder," on the other hand, the jury thought
fit to bestow upon the country's Minister of Finance Vlastimil Tlust} .
Anyone who wants to do small business in the Czech Republic must apply for a
taxpayer reference number. This number is to certain extend identical to the
identity number that every Czech national receives and retains throughout
his or her life. This way, identity numbers of a great part of the Czech
citizens are available in the database accessible by public.
The International Award went to the United States for surreptitiously
gathering financial transactions data supplied by the transaction services
provider SWIFT as well as for the country's controversial flight passenger
data collection scheme that applies to all passengers flying to the United
States.
The jury found the most dangerous new technology from a data-privacy
protection angle to be that introduced by the Czech Federal Railway Company.
The company is banking on "In-Karta," an RFID-based ticket that makes it
possible to track the movement of passengers. The title Big Brother law of
the year went to the Law on electronic communications which introduces
Data Retention Directive. The law has been in force in the Czech Republic
since last autumn.
The winner of the award for the "most ridiculous argument against data
protection" was Milos Titz, the erstwhile deputy chairman of the
Parliamentary Committee on Defence and Security. Six months ago Mr. Titz
came out in public with the following statement: "If I don't do anything bad
I have nothing to fear of phonetapping." Alas, the Social Democratic Member
of Parliament is not alone in adopting this attitude toward data privacy
protection. A virtually identical statement helped the Czech Police
Commissioner Jirm Kolar bag last year's Big Brother award.
Positive prize for protection of the privacy was given to EDRi represented
in Prague by its chairwomen Meryem Marzouki. EDRi was awarded the prize for
its electronic biweekly EDRigram which becomes the most important source of
information on privacy protection in Europe and for the coordination of the
campaign against Data retention last year.
Big Brother Awards 2006 - Czech Republic
http://www.bigbrotherawards.cz
(Contribution by Filip Pospisil - EDRI-member Iuridicum Remedium - Czech
Republic and padeluun - FoeBud, Germany)
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6. UK DNA Database under scrutiny
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United Kingdom has today the largest DNA database in the world, with over
3,5 million DNA samples. These days the Nuffield Council on Bioethics
announced starting a public consultation about the new legislation regarding
the storage of the DNA samples.
The DNA database was initiated in 1996 with little public consultation and
since 2003 anyone arrested by the police had their DNA taken, for crimes
going from murder to drink driving. Their DNA samples have been kept even
though they have never been officially charged. A Home office report has
shown that over 139 000 people, including 24 000 children, are in this
situation.
The report also shows that 5,24 % of the UK population has a profile in the
database. The DNA sample could be taken also from victims or witnesses, but
only with their written consent. However, the consent could not be
withdrawn.
The percentage could increase up to 25% of the population, if the original
plans of Tony Blair continues. In a recent visit to the Forensic Science
Service, which operates the database for the Home Office, the prime minister
declared that he wanted a further extension of the DNA database. According
to the new legislation, the samples will be kept for three years for the
people charged with violent and sexual offences, even if they are not
convicted.
The independent think-tank Nuffield Council on Bioethics called for a
public consultation regarding the UK DNA database. One of the members of the
think-tank is Sir Alec Jeffreys, who developed the DNA testing in
1980s. He considers that the initial objective of the tool - to catch
criminals that re-offend - has been overridden and expressed his concerns
that the samples could be used in the future also for different purposes.
Sir Jeffreys said that the collected DNA samples were now "skewed
socio-economically and ethnically". "The real concern I have in the UK is
what I see as a sort of 'mission creep'."
The chairman of the Nuffield Council Sir Bob Hepple explained the scope of
the campaign:
"We want to hear the public's views on whether storing the DNA profiles of
victims and suspects who are later not charged, or acquitted, is justified
by the need to fight crime." He also explained that: "Certain groups, such
as young males and ethnic minorities, are over- represented on the database,
and the council will be asking whether this potential for bias in law
enforcement is acceptable."
The forensic use of bioinformation: ethical issues (1.11.2006)
http://www.nuffieldbioethics.org/fileLibrary/pdf/Consultation_FINAL001.pdf
DNA pioneer accuses the police of being overzealous (2.11.2006)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,173-2433318,00.html
Growing DNA database 'turning Britain into a nation of suspects' (1.11.2006)
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article1945768.ece
Public consulted over DNA fears (1.11.2006)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6104876.stm
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7. The Role of OSS for the Development of Information Society
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The conference "The Role of Open Source Software for the Development
of Information Society" was held in Yerevan, capital of Armenia from 31
October to 1 November 2006. The conference aimed at the exchange of
experience in open source promotion policy and in the use of open source
software in specific areas such as public administration and education.
The Conference was organised by the Center for Information Law and Policy
(CILP) and was attended by representatives of non-governmental organizations
from Eastern Europe (Macedonia and Bulgaria), CIS countries (Russia,
Ukraine, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan), and Armenian
officials responsible for the development of information policies.
Ms. Larisa Minasyan, director of Open Society Institute Assistance
Foundation - Armenia, noted that "EU integration is a big open source
project" in which member countries consider solutions to change the way
they function.
Presenting the free and open source software situation in Armenia, Ms.
Taguhi Tumayan, CILP, noted that one of the main issues is the lack of
comprehensive applied policies. The good news is that international donors
ask for use of licensed software and 79% of the universities in Armenia use
Free and Open Source Software for e-learning applications.
Presenting the applied policies in Eastern Europe, Ms. Julia Velkova,
ISOC Bulgaria, noted that publishing laws under free licenses can be
considered as a step towards the development of appropriate applied
policies. She stressed the high value of Free and Open Source Software in
education and in the creation of added value in local economy.
She presented State ICT Agency in Bulgaria as an example. The ICT
Agency creates a register of open source projects that can be used by the
governmental bodies. The municipalities use Linux due to the outdated
hardware, despite the fact that the Government has bought MS Windows XP
licenses. Ms. Velkova said the Extremadura region in Spain developed its own
Linux version for the project within which a computer is provided for each
two students in primary school.
Mr. Filip Stojanovski, Metamorphosis Foundation representative,
presented the Macedonian experience in applied policies development through
the example of National Strategy for Development of Information Society,
the situation in local self-government units in Macedonia with the research
conducted in May and June 2006, as well as innovative ways for raising
awareness for free and open source software, and Get Your Job Done CD that
has notable public reaction.
Speaking of Governmental OSS Policies, Mr. Asomiddin Atoev, Director
of the Civil Initiative on Policy of Internet from Tajikistan referred to
CSIS report Global Policies on OSS, adding that "a major difference between
FOSS and proprietary software (PS) is in the way they provide access to the
benefits of information society." While PS promotes consumption and
passivity of the users, FOSS turns the users into developers". He mentioned
the examples of Tajikistan, whose e-Strategy considers FOSS as a tool to
narrow the growing digital divide, and Singapore, where the state provides
tax incentives for organizations using FOSS.
Comprehensive public debates on the use of the free and open source
software in education and public administration, as well as related legal
framework and implications were organised during the second day of the
conference. Major issues were discussed through concrete experiences:
training and retraining of users, which depends on whether they are thought
to use technologies and not individual products (Mr. Atoev); lack of
individual motivation of government employees, especially teachers, to
increase their IT skills level in Kazakhstan (Mr. Alexader Borovitsin from
Information Initiatives Foundation); need for increased usability (Mr.
Vyacheslav Baharev from Kiberkultura Kazakhstan); example of extensive use
of localized FOSS in the Armenian Army, aimed at untrained recruits who
don't know English (Mr. Ruben Muradyan of Public TV Company of Armenia); and
copyright and/or patenting of software and algorithms in the legal framework
session.
In the closing session of the conference, Mr. David Sandukhchyan from
CILP underlined the general impression that the conference had a productive
knowledge exchange and it was a basis for networking of stakeholders from
the wider region of Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
Open Source Policy Conference
http://gipi.am/?i=254
(Contribution by Filip Stojanovski - EDRI-member Metamorphosis - Macedonia)
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8. Privacy Commissioners act together
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At the 28th annual Conference of Data Protection and Information
Commissioners held on 2-3 November in London, privacy commissioners from ten
countries adopted common policies related to the international issue of
increased citizen surveillance.
The document adopted by the commissioners, titled "Communicating Data
Protection and Making It More Effective", asked for a common support in
creating an international convention on data protection, first agreed on by
commissioners in 2005.
UK's Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas welcomed the initiative of the
commissioners that show concern for the protection of data. He had already
warned on the dangers created by the monitoring of individuals' actions in
UK by public and private bodies. A report prepared by the Commissioner's
office had showed a spilt between wealthy and poor people in both physical
and economical mobility, triggered by social profiles based on data
gathering.
In the same direction, on the occasion of the 72nd Federal Conference of 19
October 2006 at Naumburg, Germany, data protection officers criticized a
planned anti-terror file as being unconstitutional. A resolution was passed
in this sense.
Although they think the terrorism threat has to be dealt with, the German
data protection officers consider any anti-terrorist action should be
within the Constitution and therefore they would like to see some
modifications in the planned anti-terror file.
Another concern expressed by the data protection officers is related to a
central "educational register" with ID number for schoolchildren and
teachers called for by the German Standing Conference of the Ministers of
Education and Cultural Affairs of the Ldnder, in view of identifying
individual data records at any time. The data protectionists have passed a
resolution stating there is no clear need for such a register at the
national level.
A new resolution of the data protectionists was related to the use of RFID
chips and the creation of secret profiles by scanning data from the RFID
devices. The resolution requires for devices to disable the chips used in
the retail and service sectors and the use of encryption during data
transmission and storing to prevent data scanning by unauthorised persons.
However, just a couple of weeks after the German privacy commissioners
meeting, the Bundesrat, the upper chamber of the German Parliament has
approved the federal government's draft regulation on the introduction of
unique and permanent identity numbers, for tax assessment purposes.
Irrespective of age, each German citizen will have an identity number
starting with July 2007. The identity number, given by the Federal Central
Tax Office, will replace the taxpayer identification numbers issued by the
German federal states and will include personal details such as name, sex,
date of birth or address.
Data protection advocates have largely criticized the proposed new identity
number that will accompany its "owner" permanently for the entire life and
which will be included in a large database. They claim there is no
provision that would prevent the information collected for this database to
be used by the taxpayers' employers or clients.
Privacy chiefs vow to fight surveillance together (7.11.2006)
http://www.out-law.com/page-7452
"Communicating Data Protection and Making It More Effective" (3.11.2006)
http://ico.crl.uk.com/files/Communicating%20data%20protection%20and%20making...
20it%20more%20effective%20-%2020%20October%202006%20(E).pdf
Results of the Data protection Officers Conferences (27.10.2006, only in
German)
http://www.bfdi.bund.de/nn_531946/DE/Oeffentlichkeitsarbeit/Entschliessungss...
mmlung/Functions/DSK__table.html
Data protectionists criticize anti-terror file and register of
schoolchildren (30.10.2006)
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/80205
Bundesrat gives the green light to identity number (7.11.2006)
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/80622
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9. Fileshares get different treatment in Europe's courts
===========================================================
A few interesting decisions regarding the copyright infringement by
fileshares have been taken in the last weeks by courts from different states
in Europe. Usage of p2p programms has been considered totally different in
decisions in Finland, Sweden and Spain.
At the end of October 2006, a judge from Turku, Finland convicted 22 people
for copyright infringement deciding on a fine of more than 420 000 euros in
damages, in favour of several plaintiffs including music, game and film
producers. The plaintiffs had claimed 3.5 millions euro as damages.
The group of sentenced people had a peer-to-peer file sharing network with
about 10 000 users, called Finreactor, and the judge ruled that the network
had been created with the precise purpose to share copyrighted works such
as games, software or movies thus violating the copyright law.
Although the defendants argued that the content was transferred directly
between the users with no storage on the network, claiming that, in this
case, they had no responsibility in the law infringement, the court
considered the service as a whole, thus involving directly its operators in
the violation action.
The Finnish court did not consider the offenders deserved a more severe
conviction and applied an earlier copyright legislation that required profit
scope for a criminal conviction on copyright violation.
Finland is not the only country to deal with file sharing more severely.
Sweden courts also fined two men who had downloaded movies and music for
personal use and more than 100 students at Vdxjv University of Sweden were
banned during the past two years from using the university network for
having downloaded copyrighted works.
A totally opposite decision was taken in Spain on 26 October 2006 when a
judge of the of Penal Court No.3 of Santander acquitted a 48-year-old man
who had shared digital music on the net, ruling that under the Spanish law a
person who downloads music for personal use, without the intention of
gaining money out of it, cannot be convicted.
The sentence was surprising for the state prosecutor's office and the two
music distribution associations, the Asociacisn Fonografica y Videografica
Espaqola (Afyve) and the Asociacisn Espaqola de distribuidores y editores
de
software de entretenimiento (Adese) who had asked for a two-year sentence
for the defendant, a 7.200 euro fine and 18.361 euro damages for Afyve.
The plaintiffs have not succeeded in proving the defendant had made money
from selling the CDs with the downloaded music and the judge argued that a
sentence "would imply the criminalization of socially accepted and widely
practiced behaviour in which the aim is in no way to make money illicitly,
but rather to obtain copies for private use."
The Spanish recording industry federation Promusicae stated it would appeal
against the decision. Justice Minister Juan Fernando Lopiz Aguilar also said
that artists' rights must be protected as much as possible and that Spain is
drafting a new law to eliminate the present right to private copies.
A judge from Santanter decided downloading music from the Internet without
working purpose is no crime (only in Spanish, 1.11.2006)
http://www.elpais.es/articulo/internet/elpportec/20061101elpepunet_1/Tes/
File sharing website brings heavy damages in copyright case (27.10.2006)
http://www.hs.fi/english/article/File+sharing+website+brings+heavy+damages+i...
+copyright+case/1135222603756
Finland convicts 22 in file sharing case (30.10.2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/30/finns_convicted/
Students get network ban over file sharing(30.10.2006)
http://www.thelocal.se/5347/20061030/
Two Swedes fined for file sharing (18.10.2006)
http://www.thelocal.se/5262/20061018/
Spain Court Dismisses Music Download Case (2.11.2006)
http://www.forbes.com/technology/feeds/ap/2006/11/02/ap3141442.html
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10. ENDitorial : IGF - UN innovation or just another conference ?
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politically difficult. So the idea of the IGF was born and actually first
proposed by civil society actors active in the WSIS negotiations. Civil
society actors were also very active in preparing the IGF through the
Advisory Group that was set up in May 2006 to assist UN Secretary General
Adviser Nitin Desai and the Swiss diplomat Markus Kummer in preparing the
meeting.
The overall theme for the first IGF was "Internet governance for
development"; divided into four topics: Openness, Security, Diversity, and
Access. The IGF was structured around long plenary panel debates on the four
issues, combined with 30+ workshops organized by governments, civil society
and industry actors on a broad range of topics, ranging from privacy and
identity management, privacy and development, freedom of expression, content
regulation and access, capacity building, open standards, access to
knowledge, infrastructure security and so on.
Optimists hope for the IGF to harvest new grounds for the development of
public policy on internet-related issues, using a model based on an open and
informal deliberative process in which the role of civil society is not
subordinated to that of governments. As several interventions stressed,
choosing Athens -"the cradle of western democracy"- as the IGF's host city
may suggest that a new model of networked policy making is being born. From
this perspective, the IGF represents the first step towards truly
multi-stakeholder policy dialogue and cooperation, at UN level. Others are
more skeptical and see the IGF as yet another talkshow where everyone talks,
but no one listens, and where the broad civil society coalition and pressure
have been demobilized into individual goals and actions. Not least since
there are no mechanisms to ensure that the many words are followed by
action.
Looking at the IGF meeting from the perspective of European Digital Rights,
the interesting point is to which extent the IGF may advance the protection
and promotion of human rights such as privacy, freedom of expression, access
to information etc. in the digital world.
The IGF was definitely a new way to follow up on UN Summits, and in many
ways more interesting and inspiring with regard to the content being
discussed than the usual UN setting of pre-prepared statements and
constrained modalities for civil society interaction. One example, among
many, was the way internet architects Vincent Cerf and Robert Kahn actively
engaged in the debate with policy makers, NGOs etc. on how to find common
ground for the internet. Another example was the way contentious human
rights issues like imprisonment of bloggers, censorship on the net, industry
cooperation with governments that violate human rights, or intellectual
property rights regimes and their effect on access to knowledge was aired
and discussed in the main sessions to an extent that you rarely see in
normal UN gatherings. However, I should not be forgotten that this type of
debate is possible precisely because no common decisions are taken, and no
binding commitments are agreed upon.
Another perspective is the IGF as a policy laboratory, where new approaches
and cooperation may be tested. One example is the new so-called dynamic
coalition on Privacy, which already has 40+ supporting organizations
ranging from privacy commissioners, governments, academia, industry, human
rights groups etc. The coalition is a new platform that aims to advance
privacy concerns on the global internet policy agenda, where it continued to
be absent during WSIS. The initiative is a direct outcome of a couple of
Privacy Workshops organised by "edri-associate" Gus Hosein from Privacy
International (London) and EDRI-member Ralf Bendrath from Netzwerk Neue
Medien (Berlin). Also, a number of new coalitions related to access to
knowledge and freedom of expression are already launched or in the pipeline.
It remains to be seen whether these new initiatives will have impact on the
content and shaping of future Internet policy decisions.
The IGF has no real powers in terms of enforcement, the concrete outcome
depends on how seriously it is treated, especially by governments. From a
civil society perspective, the IGF was a step forward in terms of
participation and in terms of setting the substantive agenda. However, it
appeared that policy makers were much more bewildered as to which role to
play. How should they interact in this rather loose setting where debate was
much less diplomatic than the usual policy spaces ? and how may the IGF feed
into the more closed policy spaces where decisions are actually taken?
Since the core idea of the IGF is to create new and more participatory ways
for policy deliberation, it is crucial that government delegates find their
feet in the process and are open to new ways of preparing for decisions. It
is also crucial that civil society groups keep up the pressure, and ask for
concrete indicators of progress. If not, it will just be civil society and
industry having yet another internet conference.
Internet Governance Forum
http://www.intgovforum.org/
IGF Greece
http://www.igfgreece2006.gr/
(Contribution by Rikke Frank Joergensen, EDRI-member Digital Rights Denmark)
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11. Recommanded Reading
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A Report on the Surveillance Society: For the Information
Commissioner by the Surveillance Studies Network, 2006
http://ico.crl.uk.com/files/Surveillance%20society%20full%20report%20final.p...
f
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12. Agenda
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13 November 2006, London, United Kingdom
Blocking Denial of Service Attacks
A conference to discuss technical, legal, regulatory and contractual
measures that would have a real effect in reducing Denial of Service
attacks on-line.
http://www.communicationsresearch.net/events/article/default.aspx?objid=1464
15-17 November 2006, Skopje, Macedonia
International Conference "e-Society.Mk"
http://www.e-society.org.mk/
16 November 2006, Basel, Switzerland
Big Brother Awards Switzerland
http://www.bigbrotherawards.ch/2006/
30 November - 1 December 2006, Berlin, Germany
The New Surveillance - A critical analysis of research and methods in
Surveillance Studies. A two day international Conference hosted at the
Centre for Technology and Society of the Technical University Berlin.
http://www.ztg.tu-berlin.de/surveillance
2 December 2006, London, United Kingdom
Reclaiming Our Rights
www.londonmet.ac.uk/reclaimingourrights
14 December 2006, Madrid, Spain
Conference on the Admissibility of Electronic Evidence in Court in Europe.
The final event of the project Admissibility of the Electronic Evidence in
Court in Europe (A.E.E.C.) funded by the European Commission and led by the
Spanish company Cybex.
http://www.cybex.es/AGIS2005/
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13. About
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EDRI-gram is a biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe.
Currently EDRI has 21 members from 14 European countries and 5 observers
from 5 more countries (Italy, Ireland, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia).
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