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EDRI-gram
biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe
Number 5.11, 6 June 2007
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Contents
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1. CSS protection used in DVDs is "ineffective"
2. RFID Expert Group - Kick Off
3. The European Parliament voted for stronger data protection
4. IPRED2 on the DROIPEN table
5. The French Ministry of Interior has a new interception platform
6. Legislation banning "hacking tools" in Germany
7. French State Council allows tracing P2P users
8. Slovenian intelligence agency scandal
9. Italian Government criticized by Free Software Association
10. Launch of Creative Commons Switzerland
11. Germany is preparing the G8 meeting by searching NGOs servers
12. Agenda
13. About
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1. CSS protection used in DVDs is "ineffective"
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In an unanimous decision on 25 May 2007, the Helsinki District Court ruled
that Content Scrambling System (CSS) used in DVD movies is "ineffective".
The decision is the first in Europe to interpret new copyright law
amendments, based on EU Copyright Directive of 2001, that bans the
circumvention of "effective technological measures". According to both
Finnish copyright law and the above-mentioned directive, only such
protection measure is effective, "which achieves the protection objective."
The background of the case was that after the copyright law amendment was
accepted in 2005, a group of Finnish computer hobbyists and activists
opened a website where they posted information on how to circumvent CSS.
They appeared in a police station and claimed to have potentially infringed
copyright law. Most of the activists thought that either the police did not
investigate the case in the first place or the prosecutor dropped it if it
went any further. To the surprise of many, the case ended in the Helsinki
District Court. Defendants were Mikko Rauhala who opened the website and a
poster who published his own implementation of a source code circumventing
CSS.
According to the court, CSS no longer achieves its protection objective. The
court relied on two expert witnesses and said that "since a Norwegian
hacker succeeded in circumventing CSS protection used in DVDs in 1999,
end-users have been able to get with ease tens of similar circumventing
software from the Internet even free of charge. Some operating systems come
with this kind of software pre-installed." Thus, the court concluded that
"CSS protection can no longer be held 'effective' as defined in law." All
charges were dismissed.
The defendant's counsel Mikko Vdlimdki explains for EDRI-gram that he
"first
proposed to the court an interpretation where a protection measure is
ineffective when technical experts can circumvent it. The court did not buy
that one. Instead, it adopted my secondary proposal where the efficiency
test is based on the ability of random end-users to circumvent."
He explains that "this should not affect DVD Copy Control Association CCA
(DVD CCA - the California group that licenses CSS to DVD player
manufacturers in Europe and Asia), or the movies studios. My understanding
is that DVD CCA is interested in their player manufacturing monopoly and
license income from Asia, not random Linux users who buy DVDs."
A DVD CCA spokesman has confirmed that they are aware of the decision, but
they "do know that in the US, courts have ruled CSS to be effective, viable
protection."
Vdlimdki also explained why this decision is important in the European
context : "Relevant sections of the Finnish copyright law are copied
verbatim from the directive. I think any European court with common sense
would end up in the same interpretation."
The defendant Mikko Rauhala is also happy about the judgement: "It seems
that one can apply bad law with common sense, which was unfortunately absent
during the preparation of the law".
However, the prosecutor announced she would appeal the decision and might
ask the Finnish Copyright Council for an opinion on the interpretation of
"effective". The Helsinki Court of Appeal is not expected to rule until
2008.
Finnish court rules CSS protection used in DVDs "ineffective" (25.05.2007)
http://www.turre.com/blog/?p=102
English translation of the judgment
http://www.turre.com/css_helsinki_district_court.pdf
Keep on hacking: a Finnish court says technological measures are no longer
"effective" when circumventing applications are widely available on the
Internet (25.05.2007)
http://www.valimaki.com/docs/finnish_css.pdf
Case Could Signal Weakening Of Digital Rights Management In Europe
(4.06.2007)
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=639&res=1024_ff&print=0
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2. RFID Expert Group - Kick Off
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Following the public consultations on RFID last year, the European
Commission announced the creation of an RFID Expert Group to assist in
drafting the future RFID strategy. The group's kick-off meeting was held in
Brussles last week. EDRi was invited to participate in the group.
The Group has been established for two years and includes representatives
from the industry, standardisation bodies and the civil society. The EU data
protection authorities participate as observers.
In the past years digital rights organisations have continuously expressed
their strong concerns regarding the implications the usage of RFID may have
on privacy. The public consultation on RFID confirmed that these concerns
were shared by a majority of the respondents and that safeguards were needed
to ensure the protection of personal data and privacy.
RFID technology may be used to collect information on directly or indirectly
identified persons or to track and trace people's movements in the workspace
and in public areas. Therefore privacy and security will be the first topics
the group will work on. Input from the group will be taken into account by
the European Commission when preparing a Recommendation on RFID usage, which
is planned to be issued by the end of 2007.
The work of the group will then broaden its scope and deal with the move
towards the "Internet of Things". Giving every day objects a representation
on the Internet and building "smart" environments that react to the presence
or movements of people and things have been subjects of research in the last
years. Ambient Intelligence, Ubiquitous Computing, Pervasive Computing
and Smart Objects are keywords for the research specialists that often name
Mark Weiser's article "The Computer for the 21st Century" as the starting
point for these ideas.
Privacy, environmental issues and the dangers stemming from the accumulation
of electromagnetic fields will certainly be among the issues that have to be
discussed with regards to this topic.
As a member of the RFID Expert Group, EDRi will promote the implementation
of privacy-friendly technologies and stress that the reliable protection of
privacy and personal data is a key issue for the acceptance of this
technology.
Mark Weiser already wrote back in 1991 with regards to Ubiquitous
Computing: "If designed into systems from the outset, these techniques can
ensure that private data does not become public. A well-implemented version
of ubiquitous computing could even afford better privacy protection than
exists today." Sixteen years later this statement must still remain the
guideline for RFID applications. Key technologies that are said to have the
potential to become a new motor of growth and jobs need to be concordant
with and to protect the societal standards of the society.
In times of mandatory data retention, as communication traffic data has to
be stored for up to two years, it is important to ensure that only an
absolute minimum of data which can be linked to a certain personis stored.
Otherwise any movement in an RFID-enabled "smart" environment could feed
into a behaviour-profile of a potential future surveillance society.
The RFID Expert Group will make it their mission to discuss these and
related issues and to work out possible solutions and necessary regulatory
measures over the next two years; EDRi will contribute to this mission.
EDRI-gram: EU study on RFID tags shows major privacy concerns (25.10.2006)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.20/rfid
EDRI-gram: Stakeholder group to advise on EU RFID strategy (28.03.2007)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.6/eu-rfid-strategy
Results of the Public Online Consultation on Future RFID policy - "The RFID
Revolution: Your voice on the Challenges, Opportunities and Threats"
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/rfid/doc/rfidswp_en.pdf
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in Europe: steps towards a policy
framework
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/rfid/doc/rfid_en.pdf
Mark Weiser, The Computer for the 21st Century, Scientific American
Feb.,1991
http://www.ubiq.com/hypertext/weiser/SciAmDraft3.html
(contribution by EDRI-member Andreas Krisch)
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3. The European Parliament voted for stronger data protection
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On 21 May 2007, the European Parliament (EP) voted for the reinstallation of
the data protection principles in the legislation that allows the police
forces in Europe to share data.
The European Council, which is the one deciding in police and judicial
matters, had formally asked the EP for its opinion on this issue as, lately,
concern has been expressed on the lack of proper protection of personal data
processed in the framework of police and judicial co-operation in criminal
matters. Such a concern has been expressed also by the European Data
Protection Supervisor (EDPS), Peter Hustinx who, at the end of May, advised
the Council against adopting the Commission's new Council Framework Decision
proposal as he considered the proposal did not provide appropriate data
protection.
The MEPs, consulted by the German Presidency, voted in favour of amendments
that would provide stronger data protection.
The German Presidency proposed that the legislation should only apply to
data shared between European police forces and not to data held by national
police forces and the decision of whether it should be applied nationally
will be discussed in three years time by EC.
The proposal is that the police should not send data to other forces that do
not have a proper level of data protection in place. The EP has reinstated
an amendment that would prevent the police from sending data to third
countries that don't have adequate data protection. If the amendment is
voted by the Council, a national harmonisation of police data protection
rules might be forced especially to strengthen the Europe's co-operation to
face US data snooping programmes like PNR and Swift.
Germany's action might also allow new EP amendments that deal with the other
concerns expressed by EDPS last month, to be accepted by the Council at its
meeting this month.
Hopefully the European Council will take into consideration the MEPs' vote
and will take decisions to allow data sharing between police forces in
Europe only with the respect of civil liberties.
Europe votes to restrict police data sharing (23.05.2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/23/europarl_on_3rdpillar/
EDRI-gram: EDPS advises against new data protection framework decision
(9.05.2007)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.9/edps-framework-decision
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4. IPRED2 on the DROIPEN table
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The Second Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED2)
is now going through the Justice and Home Affairs route. On 4 June, it
passed it's first port of call at the Council's Working Group on Substantive
Criminal Law (DROIPEN) - the first step on the road to the decision of EU's
Council of Ministers.
DROIPEN's job is to prepare the Council's first reading on the
directive. The national government representatives might come up with a
proposal that all Member States agree on, or else they will identify
issues that the Ministers of Justice will have to vote on.
According to information kindly shared by some Member States
representatives following DROIPEN's work, the state of play in general
is as follows.
Many delegations feel they need more information in order to prepare
this legislation properly. There is a general reluctance towards this
directive because of the competence issue, so the Council wants to wait for
the ECJ ship pollution verdict before moving on.
Some delegations have expressed views the directive is the wrong tool to
solve the problem and they don't see criminal sanctions as a way
forward. Further, since criminal sanctions are already in place in many
countries there is no need to rush.
Still time should be used to prepare negotiations, but for now, the only
thing that could be said to have been decided is not to take any action
in any direction.
It is now up to the Portuguese Presidency to negotiate what to do next.
One question on the table is if DROIPEN should approach the Article 36
Committee (CATS) to have an expert opinion on some issues before
involving COREPER 2 (Committee of the Permanent Representatives).
The general forecast is that there will be no Council decision before
late fall, and it is likely that issues not resolved in COREPER2 will
end up in JHA Council votes with a North-South dividing outcome.
Meanwhile, outside of Brussels, Member States are working to prepare
their positions on IPRED2. The United Kingdom's Intellectual Property
Office (IPO) is currently collecting comments from British citizens and
companies on the directive.
A comprehensive policy paper was submitted by a coalition from
FFII/EFF/EBLIDA/BEUC to the UK IPO. The policy is available to be passed on
to the Justice Ministry in your own country.
For general interest AIPPI has already in 2002 compiled information on
criminal law sanctions with regard to the infringement of intellectual
property rights. This might give you a starting point in addressing the
issue at the national level or comparing the situation with other relevant
countries from Europe.
Movement on IPRED2 in Brussels and Beyond (4.06.2007)
http://www.copycrime.eu/blog/movement-ipred2-brussels-and-beyond
Backroom Changes May Be Coming for IPRED2 (16.05.2007)
http://www.copycrime.eu/blog/backroom-changes-may-be-coming-ipred2
FFII/EFF/EBLIDA/BEUC coalition report on the proposal as amended in
Strasbourg by the European Parliament at its first reading on Wednesday, 25
April, 2007 (25.04.2007)
http://action.ffii.org/ipred2/Report_on_EP_vote
EDRI-gram: IPRED2 voted in first reading by the European Parliament
(25.04.2007)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.8/ipred2
AIPPI report: "Question Q169 - Criminal law sanctions with regard to the
infringement of intellectual property rights"
http://www.aippi.org/reports/q169/gr_q169_index.htm
(Thanks to Erik Josefsson - Electronic Frontier Foundation)
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5. The French Ministry of Interior has a new interception platform
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On 2 May 2007 a new technical platform for the interception of traffic data
in all types of communication systems was discretly put into operation by
the French Ministry of Interior, covering communication data related to text
messages, mobile or Internet.
The security services are now in the position of knowing who has contacted
whom, when and where and, by a simple click, they can obtain from the
telephone operators the list of all calls from and to a subscriber. They can
obtain the subscription documents of the respective person with address and
bank information and can also require all the Internet sites or forum
addresses the respective person has accessed.
The authorised services may require such kind of information from Uclat
(Coordination unit of the anti-terror fight) that manages the technical
centre located in the new headquarters of the security services of the
national police of Levallois-Perret (Hauts-de-Seine), under the supervision
of IGPN (The General Inspection of the National Police).
This comes as a direct result of the Sarkozy law adopted on 23 January 2006
in an emergency procedure, to prevent terrorist acts, after being found
constitutional by the French Constitutional Council. The text of the law
states that Internet Service Providers, Internet cafes, hosting providers
and operators must communicate the traffic data, called numbers, IP
addresses to specialised services in case of investigations related to
suspect terrorist activities.
The law has created serious concerns to the public freedom advocates as well
as to the magistrates as the procedure doesn't need the involvement of
judges and ignores guarantees related to public freedoms.
Since the entering into operation of the new technical platform on 2 May,
the centre has already dealt with 300 requests per week made mostly by DST
(Direction de la surveillance du territoire) and RG (Renseignement
Generaux). According to an estimation, the platform should be able to
address about 20 000 requests per year.
The French justice system is, in its turn, creating its own national
platform that will be finalised by the end of 2008 - beginning of 2009 to
intercept SMSs and record phonecalls, not only for terrorism cases. Although
France is not in the worst position in Europe as concerning data
interceptions being surpassed by Italy, the Netherlands or Germany, the
tendency is obviously towards an increase of the control by the authorities.
The anti-terrorism spies mails and text messages as well (only in French,
28.05.2007)
http://www.lefigaro.fr/france/20070528.WWW000000165_lantiterrorisme_espionne...
EDRI-gram: IRIS protest against delay French government (20.10.2004)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number2.20/IRIS
EDRI-gram: France adopts anti-terrorism law (18.01.2006)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.1/frenchlaw
EDRI-gram: French anti-terrorism law not anti-constitutional (2.02.2006)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.2/frenchlaw
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6. Legislation banning "hacking tools" in Germany
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The laws on computer crimes have become stricter in Germany where the
creation, use or distribution of so-called "hacking tools" have been banned.
On 23 May 2007, the Committee on Legal Affairs of the Bundestag (the lower
chamber of Germany's Federal Parliament) approved a controversial government
bill meant to improve criminal prosecution of computer crimes.
The Criminal Code has been modified so as to make illegal for the
unauthorized users to access secure data by bypassing the computer security
protection system. The "deliberate acquisition of data by tapping into a
non-public transmission of data or by way of reading radiation leaked by a
data processing system" is now considered a crime.
The German law defines hacking as penetrating a computer security system and
gaining access to secure data, without necessarily stealing data and any
individual or group that intentionally creates, spreads or purchases hacker
tools designed for illegal purposes is considered an offender. Under the
present Criminal Code, the offenders could face fines and up to 10 years
imprisonment for major offences.
These measures have been criticised being considered as counterproductive by
several groups, including EDRI-member Chaos Computer Club, which drew
the attention to the so-called "white hat" hackers who work for security
companies. By this present legislation, these experts could be in the
position of not being allowed to work with software developers in creating
secure products. "It's a win-lose law in favour for the bad guys," wrote a
hacker, known by the pseudonym van Hauser.
Chaos Computer Club also expressed the concern that this legislation will
allow the German Government to install spyware on suspected criminals'
computers without their knowledge.
The critics argue that the legislation does not make any difference between
a password cracker and a password recovery tool for instance. "Forbidding
this software is about as helpful as forbidding the sale and production of
hammers because sometimes they also cause damage," said Chaos Computer Club
spokesman Andy M|ller-Maguhn to Ars Technica who also stated that under the
new law, the police will be able to more easily access information on
suspects.
Germany declares hacking tools 'verboten' (31.05.2007)
http://www.out-law.com//default.aspx?page=8103
Green light for tightening of anti-hacker legislation (24.05.2007)
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/90163
Germany leads the way with tough anti-hacking law (25.05.2007)
http://www.computerworlduk.com/management/security/cybercrime/news/index.cfm...
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7. French State Council allows tracing P2P users
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The State Council of France validated on 23 May 2007 the automatic tracing
of illegal downloading in P2P networks. This decision cancelled the 18th
October 2005 CNIL (Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertis)
decision that rejected the introduction of surveillance devices proposed by
Sacem and other 3 author and producer associations asking for the automatic
tracing of infringements of the intellectual property code.
The State Council believes that such devices are acceptable considering the
extent of the piracy phenomenon in France. The number of downloaded files
decreased by half in 2006 as compared to 2005 but according to GfK institute
this is probably due to the evolution from a quantitative type of
downloading to a qualitative one.
GfK institute has also reached the conclusion that the illegal downloading
in P2P networks have not caused the decrease in the sales of cultural
products but actually "quite the contrary, downloading is really perceived
by half of the Internet users as a promotion vector for artistes."
The State Council's decision was to the liking of the associations the
request of which was rejected by CNIL in 2005. SCPP (Sociiti civile des
producteurs phonographiques), one of these associations, stated that CNIL's
rejection of their request had "not allowed them to take measures to prevent
and repress music piracy that were however taken by most states of the
European Union". In their opinion "France is one of the countries where
Internet piracy is the most developed and where, therefore, the legal music
market develops more slowly".
CNIL reaction to the State Council decision came after two days by stating
that its intention is that of +ensuring a fair balance between the copyright
protection and the protection of the right to private life of Internet
users".
CNIL also stated having already authorized Sell (Syndicat des iditeurs de
logiciels de loisirs) to develop an automatic surveillance system for the
downloading of video games in P2P networks.
In comparison with the systems proposed by the music associations, this
system was approved because it puts less burden on the ISPs and it involves
"only the users that are responsible with the first sharing in a network of
a work or having shared a not yet commercialized work". The surveillance
devices are ready and a request of tenders has been launched.
CNIL will meet the author associations among which Sacem and SCPP as well as
ISPs and the discussions will last for several weeks.All parties have
expressed their willingness to collaborate.
Peer-to-peer: The State Council says yes to the pirate chase (only in
French, 23.05.2007)
http://www.zdnet.fr/actualites/internet/0,39020774,39369675,00.htm
Surveillance of P2P networks: CNIL acknowledges the decision of the State
Council (only in French, 25.05.2007)
http://www.cnil.fr/index.php?id=2221&news[uid]=464&cHash=57a0f43bbe
Peer-to-peer: half downloaded files less in 2006 (only in French,
18.01.2007)
http://www.zdnet.fr/actualites/internet/0,39020774,39366341,00.htm
Peer to peer : CNIL does not authorise the devices presented bu the author
and music producer associations (only in French, 25.10.2005)
http://www.cnil.fr/index.php?id=1881
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8. Slovenian intelligence agency scandal
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The Slovenian intelligence agency (SOVA) is monitoring telecommunications
in the Balkans in cooperation with German BND (Bundesnachrichtendienst) and
UK's MI5. Some believe that the recently disclosed secret location in the
Slovenian capital could be a part of Echelon.
The Slovenian intelligence agency is currently a part of a political scandal
which has revealed some secret locations and methods that SOVA was using for
intelligence purposes. Moreover, international credibility in SOVA and
its agents is compromised, as the Slovenian press managed to obtain
classified information regarding SOVA's secret financing, its company of
straw and its international cooperation with other intelligence agencies.
Most likely, the information leaked from the parliamentary committee for
monitoring the secret services activtiy.
The latest disclosure reveals SOVA's secret location for monitoring
international telecommunications in Ljubljana near Telekom Slovenije
(Slovenian Telco) and Siol (the major Slovenian ISP) headquarters, as well
as near the Slovenian Internet Exchange (SIX) and Ljubljana Stock Exchange
(LJSE) buildings.
The Slovenian media is reporting that the above mentioned location was also
used by German BND (Bundesnachrichtendienst) and UK's MI5, especially to
monitor telecommunications in the Balkans. Miso Alkalaj, an IT expert from
Jozef Stefan Institute said he would not be surprised if the location was a
part of Echelon.
An interesting fact is that residents of the block of flats where SOVA has
its secret location, knew that conspiratorial activities were taking
place there. Apart from that, elder residents are able to tell that
the former communist intelligence agency used the same flat to wiretap
telephone conversations.
The other disclosure reveals that Slovenian intelligence agency SOVA
established a webhosting company WEBS, which is presumably a company
of straw that SOVA needed for its intelligence activities.
Having in view the recent events regarding the Slovenian intelligence
agency, it becomes interesting that SOVA's headquarters are located in
Stegne, an industrial area of Ljubljana, where among others, Telekom
Slovenije (Slovenian Telco) has its operational services. Intention or
coincidence?
Telekom Slovenije indirectly admits SOVA's wiretapping (only in Slovenian,
1.06.2007)
http://dnevnik.si/novice/slovenija/249095/
Director of SOVA takes action after disclosure of wrath of foreign
intelligence agencies (only in Slovenian, 30.05.2007)
http://dnevnik.si/novice/slovenija/248654/
(Contribution by Aljaz Marn, EDRI-observer, Slovenia)
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9. Italian Government criticized by the Free Software Association
============================================================
After filing a case to the Regional Administrative Tribunal of Lazio
against the Italian Ministry of Work for launching a call for tenders
where only Microsoft software was considered as eligible, Italian NGO Assoli
(Associazione Software Libero) is criticizing again its Government.
The problem arose when the Government - specifically the Ministry for
University and Research, headed by Mr.Fabio Mussi (Left democrats) and the
Ministry for Innovation in the Public Administration,
headed by Mr. Luigi Nicolais (Left democrats) - announced
an official agreement with Microsoft Italia whose main goals are
"education/training, technology transfer and facilitation of research
projects".
AsSoLi publicly objected to the agreement by which Microsoft
commits to invest only 737,000 euros - 0.0007% of the total turnover of
the company for 2006, according to AsSoLi's calculations - in three
years, to be subdivided among three research centres. Moreover,
AsSoLi notices that, according to the agreement, the investment will
not take the form of cash, but will rather be performed "through (the
work of) third parties, on the basis of specific needs for hardware
products, software, technical support services and training
activities". On the other hand, continues AsSoLi, the agreement does
not specify what would be the financial burden for the Italian Public
Administration.
In reaction to what it considered a waste of public money, AsSoLi
officially committed to make available to the Italian Government, for
a period of five years, training activities, training material,
technological solutions and software, either directly or delegating
Italian companies specialised in Free Software, for a value of
about 10.000.000 euros per year - a total value of 50.000.000 euros. AsSoLi
stresses the fact that their offer is absolutely serious.
Moreover, AsSoLi conducted a study on the Microsoft Research Center
located in Trento (Northern Italy). According to the study, Microsoft
invested only 250.000 euros in research activities on their own
products, with the Italian Public Administration paying more than
1.800.000 euros. The study was sent to hundreds of representatives of
national and local institutions. AsSoLi also announced the forthcoming
release of a second study, providing a more thorough assessment of the
financial elements in the first analysis.
The Italian Government, through its spokesman Mr. Alfonso Lelio, has
recently answered AsSoLi's criticisms, stressing that the agreement
with Microsoft does not mean that the Government is not interested in
investing in Free Software, or is not already doing so, as the
Government claims is the case with the latest budget law, where 10.000.000
euros for 2007-2009 are allocated to "Information Society" projects, with an
explicit priority to those that "develop or use" Free Software.
AsSoLi - Associazione Software Libero
http://www.softwarelibero.it/
EDRI-Gram 5.72, "Free software needs to be considered in Italian
public acquisitions" (12.04.2007)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.7/free-software-italy
AsSoLi offers EUR 10,000,000 to the Italian Government (Italian only,
8.05.2007)
http://www.softwarelibero.org/lassociazione-il-software-libero-offre-50-000-...
Text of the proposed agreement with the Italian Government (Italian only,
8.05.2007)
http://www.softwarelibero.org/progetti/proposta_governo
Study by AsSoLi on the Microsoft Research Center in Trento (Italian only,
18.05.2007)
http://softwarelibero.it/riflessione-politiche-innovazione-ict
Answer of the Italian Government to AsSoLi's criticisms (Italian only,
29.05.2007)
http://www.lastampa.it/_web/CMSTP/tmplrubriche/giornalisti/grubrica.asp?ID_blog=2&ID_articolo=549&ID_sezione=3&sezione=Web%20Notes
(contribution by Andrea Glorioso - Italian consultant on digital policies)
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10. Launch of Creative Commons Switzerland
============================================================
On 26 May 2007 the Swiss version of Creative Commons licenses were launched
in Zurich at a ceremony held as the finishing highlight of this year's
Tweakfest, Switzerland's Festival for Media, Culture, and Digital Lifestyle.
The launch was hosted by Digitale Allmend, a Swiss NGO focused on access to
digital information and creativity. Openlaw and Digitale Allmend are
co-leading the Swiss Creative Commons project in a joint effort. With
Switzerland, the Creative Commons licenses are now offered in localized
versions in a total of 37 countries around the world.
John Buckman, Creative Commons board member and founder of magnatune.com,
gave the keynote address, explaining how he developed his website as a
successful example of a Creative Commons based business.
There was live audio and visual performances by DJ Soult and VJ Set from
Pixelpunx.ch who released a number of works under the new Swiss
Creative Commons licenses that evening.
Urs Gehrig from Openlaw explained the system: "The Creative Commons
licensing system simplifies the exchange of cultural goods such as music,
video, text and other creative media."
"We see the porting of Creative Commons licences to Switzerland as an
important step - firstly because the swiss cultural movement will be able to
contribute a variety of interesting works to a global creative community and
secondly in achieving a more balanced choice for creators when deciding how
their works is distributed and accessible." was the declaration of Martin
Feuz from Digitale Allmend.
During the launch, Creative Commons Switzerland announced several upcoming
projects that plan to use the Swiss Creative Commons licenses, including
netlabels (starfrosch.ch, sonicsquirrel.net), two online cultural TV
channels (kulturtv.ch and rebell.tv) or a video art website (lenarmy.ch).
Creative Commons Switzerland
http://www.creativecommons.ch/
Digitale Allmend - News and videos from CC Switzerland launch (only in
German)
http://blog.allmend.ch/
Openlaw
http://www.openlaw.ch
Tweakfest
http://www.tweakfest.ch
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11. Germany is preparing the G8 meeting by searching NGOs servers
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The German government decided to prepare the G8 meeting that will take place
during 6-8 June in Heiligendamm, a Baltic seaside resort, by increasing the
number of searches and seizures to NGOs and anti-globalization movements
offices and servers.
During the entire month of May the Federal Prosecutor gave order to the
Police in Hamburg, Berlin and other states to search private homes, offices,
libraries, social centres or other locations were there were located servers
of the anti-globalisation opponents, without making any arrests. The
searches and seizures were explained by the German authorities by the
possibility to create a terrorist organization by the altermondialist German
chapter of the association Attac, a group founded in France to campaign for
a global tax on speculative capital movements to finance development aid.
The association between terrorism and altermondialism was considered as
"scandalous" by the co-president of the Attac France, Aurilie Trouvi,
taking into consideration the objectives of the association: democratisation
of the international institutions, fight against poverty or the preservation
of the natural resources. She rhetorical asked: "Do freedom of expression
and democracy stop were the interests of the richest eight countries begin?"
Peter Wahl from Attac Germany has underlined the obvious political purpose
of this operation: "to discredit the democratic actions that contest the G8
summit. It is an excessive measure that is incompatible with the rule of
law."
Another measure that the German Government took was the temporary suspension
of the Schengen Agreement until 10 June. Every persons travelling to Germany
until that date will have to pass the identity and security controls. The
German authorities have also banned any demonstration near the resort where
the G8 summit will take place.
Searches against the alter movements on Germany (only in France, 17.05.2007)
http://www.france.attac.org/spip.php?article7093
The police authority Rostock - not the demonstrators - are severely damaging
the reputation of the Federal Republic of Germany (17.05.2007)
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2007/may/germany-g8-protests.pdf
Germany: Police raid G8 activists (5.2007)
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2007/may/02germany-g8-raids.htm
Despite Germany's Tight Controls, Violence (3.06.2007)
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38015
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12. Agenda
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8 May - 22 July 2007, Austria
Annual decentralized community event around free software lectures,
panel discussions, workshops, fairs and socialising
http://www.linuxwochen.at
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
11-12 June 2007, Strasbourg, France
Council of Europe - Octopus Interface 2007 - Cooperation against Cybercrime
http://www.coe.int/t/e/legal_affairs/legal_co-operation/combating_economic_c...
12 June 2007, Berlin, Germany
German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information -
Symposium "Data Protection in Europe"
http://www.bfdi.bund.de/cln_029/nn_533554/DE/Oeffentlichkeitsarbeit/Termine/...
14 June 2007, Paris, France
ENISA/EEMA European eIdentity conference - Next Generation Electronic
Identity - eID beyond PKI
http://enisa.europa.eu/pages/eID/eID_ws2007.htm
15-17 June 2007, Dubrovnik, Croatia
Creative Commons iSummit 2007
http://wiki.icommons.org/index.php/ISummit_2007
17-22 June 2007 Seville, Spain
19th Annual FIRST Conference, "Private Lives and Corporate Risk"
http://www.first.org/conference/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
28 June 2007, London, UK
First London CC-Salon organized by Free Culture London and the Open Rights
Group
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/London_Salon
8-12 August 2007, near Berlin, Germany
Chaos Communication Camp 2007
"In Fairy Dust We Trust!"
http://events.ccc.de/camp/2007/
5-11 September 2007
Ars Electronica Festival - Festival for Art, Technology and Society
http://www.aec.at/en/festival2007/index.asp
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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 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