============================================================ EDRI-gram biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe Number 6.18, 24 September 2008 ============================================================ Contents ============================================================ 1. Google reduces search data retention time to 9 months, but not enough 2. International workshop in Budapest challenges data retention 3. Spain: Indexing torrent files is not copyright infringement 4. The EU commissioners ask for a friendly environment in online retailing 5. French file EDVIGE revised after huge civil society mobilization 6. House of the German Pirate Party spokesman raided by Police 7. European Competition Commissioner: We investigate Google-Yahoo deal 8. ENDitorial: A stupid law and a perverse "criminal" sentence 9. Recommended Reading 10. Agenda 11. About ============================================================ 1. Google reduces search data retention time to 9 months, but not enough ============================================================ Following the demands of EU privacy protection authorities, Google announced on 9 September it would reduce the search data retention time from 18 to 9 months. This is the second reduction Google applies in the past 2 years, having already reduced the retention period from indefinite to 18 months in 2007. However, the company still does not meet the Article 29 Working Party's recommendations. On 4 April 2008, the Article 29 Working Party published an opinion on search engines, recommending a maximum retention period of 6 months and reaffirming the applicability of the European data protection law. "Search engine providers must delete or irreversibly anonymise personal data once they no longer serve the specified and legitimate purpose they were collected for." As a result, on 8 September 2008, Google answered announcing that the IP addresses associated with requests on the search engine will be anonymised after 9 months and that a link to Google's privacy policy appeared now on its homepage. The company did not provide any details regarding the way this anonymisation will work which, taking into consideration previous statements, will just consist in deleting the last 8 bits of a user's IP address. But if this does not go together with the anonymisation of the cookie values, then the entire process is useless, as Christopher Soghoian, a student fellow at Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society explains: "Even though the 9-month-old search logs have been 'anonymized', because the cookie values remain, it is trivial to match the newer search results to the older searches, and thus completely reverse the anonymization process." Although the Article 29 Working Party has appreciated Google's willingness to collaborate with data protection authorities, they consider there are still strong disagreements. Alex Turk, chairman of the Article 29 Working Party, says in a public press release on 16 September 2008 that despite the progress done, Google has still a lot of work to do to guarantee the rights of Internet users and the respect of their privacy. Some of the issues that raise concern are that Google considers that the European law on data protection is not applicable to itself and that IP addresses are confidential data, but not personal data. The company has not offered a clear justification for retaining personal data beyond the recommended 6 months period and has not made any improvement to its anonymisation mechanisms, which are still insufficient. Furthermore, it did not show any intention to improve and clarify the methods used to gather the consent of its users. The Article 29 Working Party established in 2007 that the IP address is related to an "identifiable person", and should thus be considered personal data. Therefore, Google should ask its users' prior permission before storing the information. Google argued there was a question of quality of service. "While we're glad that this will bring some additional improvement in privacy, we're also concerned about the potential loss of security, quality, and innovation that may result from having less data. (...) As the period prior to anonymisation gets shorter, privacy benefits are less significant and the utility lost from the data grows" wrote Peter Fleisher, the company's global privacy lawyer on the Google blog. Another step to protect user privacy (9.08.2008) http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/another-step-to-protect-user-privacy.... Google cuts data retention after EU privacy warning (10.09.2008) http://euobserver.com/22/26718 Google tries to please privacy watchdogs (10.09.2008) http://www.euractiv.com/en/infosociety/google-tries-please-privacy-watchdogs... Article 29 Working Party - Google: The Beginning of a Dialogue (16.09.2008) http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/fsj/privacy/news/docs/pr_16_09_08_en.pdf Debunking Google's log anonymization propaganda (11.09.2008) http://news.cnet.com/8301-13739_3-10038963-46.html?tag=mncol;title EDRi-gram: Google limits the search data retention period (28.03.2007) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.6/google-data-retention ============================================================ 2. International workshop in Budapest challenges data retention ============================================================ 70 international experts and e-activists met in Budapest on Friday 19 September to discuss EU-wide policies on data retention and to develop strategies for defending and enhancing privacy. Hosted by the Center for Media and Communication Studies (CMCS) at the Central European University in Budapest, the workshop "Data retention on the Internet: Challenges for small, alternative and citizen-based internet service providers (ISPs)" brought together scholars, lawyers, policy experts, digital rights advocates and a large number of grassroots/activist ISPs. EDRI was represented through its board member Meryem Marzouki and Digital Rights Ireland, Electronic Frontier Finland, Iuridicum Remedium, Netzwerk Neue Medien and Greennet. According to European Union (EU) Directive 2006/24/EC, all telecommunication operators and ISPs in the EU have to retain the email and telephone connection data of their customers and users for up to two years. Data about every citizen's communication is stored without a specific reason. According to workshop participant TJ McIntyre from Digital Rights Ireland, this allows the creation of a "comprehensive digital dossier about every individual." Workshop participants exchanged information about the implementation of the Directive in different EU member states and explored options of challenging data retention on three different levels: legal complaints and court cases, technological by-passes, and public campaigns. On the legal side, the workshop brought together organizations that are challenging data retention laws in five different countries and allowed them to exchange experiences and increase future collaborations. In the technical realm, different options of minimizing the risks of data retention, or circumventing it altogether, were introduced. The workshop also contributed to the preparation for an international day of action against data retention - entitled "Freedom not Fear" - on 11 October. Many of the groups and organizations that were represented at the workshop agreed to organize a protest action or a public event on that day. The workshop was the first to bring together members of non-commercial ISPs from different countries with members of international campaigns and NGOs to discuss together the new policy environment and this sector's particular concerns. The EU directive forces these ISPs to compromise on their most fundamental objective - protecting their users' privacy from state and corporate data gathering. Grassroots ISPs continued to meet on the weekend following the workshop and developed strategies on how to maximise privacy protection despite data retention obligations. The workshop was organized by Arne Hintz (CMCS), Oliver Leistert (University of Paderborn), and Maxigas (Zold Pok/Green Spider), in collaboration with the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and EDRI. It was supported financially by the Dutch Internet provider XS4ALL, the Open Society Institute (OSI), and APC. Center for Media and Communication Studies http://cmcs.ceu.hu Association for Progressive Communications http://www.apc.org Zold Pok (Green Spider) http://www.zpok.hu EU directive paints alternative ISPs black (3.08.2008) http://www.apc.org/en/news/security/europe/eu-directive-paints-alternative-i... EDRi-gram - Telecom data retention http://www.edri.org/issues/privacy/dataretention (Contribution by Arne Hintz - Center for Media and Communication Studies) ============================================================ 3. Spain: Indexing torrent files is not copyright infringement ============================================================ The case of Sharemula.com, the eDonkey website publishing links allowing users to download movies, music and software has been recently dismissed by the Provincial Court of Madrid which ruled that the website was operating legally. The case had been brought to court by the Federacisn Antipiraterma (Anti-piracy Federation) in 2006 when 15 people were arrested in Spain in relation with the operation of the site. The Spanish Brigade of Technological Investigations had claimed that the site was illegal and asked for its closure. A year ago, a Madrid court dismissed the case deciding that the site and its administrators had not infringed any law as the site included no illegal content. It had only links to P2P downloads which had no commercial purposes either. The entertainment industry, including Columbia, Disney Company Iberia, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner, Universal, Paramount, Sony, MGM and others were very displeased with the court's ruling and appealed the decision. But the Provincial Court of Madrid rejected all allegations concluding that indexing torrent files can not be viewed as copyright infringement. The court found Sharemula as not responsible for where the links went and considered that whether the site made profit or not was irrelevant. This court's decision is final and cannot be appealed. "The hearing confirms the position of the defense that linking to P2P networks does not constitute a criminal offense," said David Bravo, a lawyer in the case who emphasized the fact that the website only linked to files that were hosted elsewhere, on computers of P2P users, and did not store any copyrighted material itself. This decision represents good news for P2P-site administrators and may be a good basis for the upcoming cases against The Pirate Bay and Mininova in Europe. Auto final AP Madrid caso Sharemula (only in Spanish, 19.09.2008) http://derecho-internet.org/proyectos/procedimientos-libres/browser/defensa-... Linking to P2P Downloads Confirmed Legal in Spain (19.09.2008) http://torrentfreak.com/linking-to-p2p-downloads-confirmed-legal-in-spain-08... Spanish Court Dismisses Piracy Case against Sharemula.com (24.10.2007) http://www.whichwebsite.com/2007/Oct/spanish_court_dismisses_piracy_case_aga... EDRi-gram: Website with P2P download links found legal by Spanish court (24.10.2007) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.20/p2p-website-legal-spain ============================================================ 4. The EU commissioners ask for a friendly environment in online retailing ============================================================ A roundtable on online retailing with the interested private companies, including online music providers, and consumers organisations took place at the European Commission in Brussels on 17 September 2008 with competition commissioner Neelie Kroes and internal market commissioner Charlie McCreevy. Ms Kroes expressed her concern regarding the barriers in buying music online: "Why is it possible to buy a CD from an online retailer and have it shipped to anywhere in Europe, but it is not possible to buy the same music, by the same artist, as an electronic download with similar ease? (...) Why do pan-European services find it so difficult to get a pan-European license? Why do new, innovative services find licensing to be such a hurdle?" The commissioner believes there are many reasons for this situation, including tax systems, consumer protection laws, guarantees and after-sales service. One of the issues she wanted to discuss was related to the competition rules for companies that enter into distribution agreements. She expressed her intention to check out whether the provisions for Internet sales were observed adding: "if I hear that these rules are not being respected, then I will look into these allegations immediately. And if I find any company to have breached the rules, I will ask the Commission to act and punish the companies concerned." She added that consideration had to be given on whether companies should exclude Internet-only retailers from their distribution system. "I have heard today from companies who think that that is the best way to protect a brand image. I have also heard from companies that use internet only retailers but impose strict conditions on them. And I have also heard from consumers who believe that consumers should have the right to choose." During the debate, the issue was considered as more complex as the rights and the licensing agreements were more complicated. "The world is always more complicated than we would like it to be. But that is no excuse for inaction. Collecting societies and music labels have come a long way since 1851, the time of Bourget and his sugared water, but the world has changed around them. Artists have changed, distribution has changed, and consumers have changed. There is a perception, though, that the collecting societies and the music labels have not" was Mrs. Kroes' comment. She considers the collecting societies have a vital responsibility in looking after the interests of artists. "That is only right because music is a vital part of our society and our culture. It always has been and it always will be. But where regional monopolies are not necessary - in the online world - then I want to hear more about whether the current system really helps the artists and whether it serves the consumer." She warned that the commission would intervene if musicians, record labels and retailers were not able to overcome their differences and produce a more consumer-friendly environment for digital music distribution. In his turn, McCreevy stated he had never thought " the internet was going to be such a stumbling block. This magical creation - invented by people who hadn't been born 50 years ago and developed by people, some of whom hadn't been born 25 years ago - has no natural physical frontiers or boundaries like traditional markets. But somehow it has been trapped and parcelled up by a whole series of barriers." In his opinion, it was worth considering "the idea that every single owner of a copyright - from authors and composers to music publishers and record labels - should license downloads individually through a collecting society that has an exclusive mandate for each of the 27 national territories." Along with Apple and EMI, the meeting was attended also by Alcatel-Lucent, Ebay, Louis Vuitton, Fiat and UK consumer watchdog Which? as the problems of online retailing are not limited to music. A commission report on the subject will be drafted later this year with Mr Jagger's and the others' participation and the EU executive will require responses to that report from stakeholders by 15 October 2009. Later on, the European Commission will present its legislative proposals on Internet retailing. Mick Jagger in Brussels for online retailing chat (18.09.2008) http://euobserver.com/19/26771 Competition commissioner Neelie Kroes's closing remarks at Online Commerce Roundtable (17.09.2008) http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/08/437&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services Charlie McCREEVY's closing remarks at Online Commerce Roundtable (17.09.2008) http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/08/439&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en ============================================================ 5. French file EDVIGE revised after huge civil society mobilization ============================================================ Following a very strong opposing movement, the decree allowing the creation of EDVIGE file has been abandoned by the French Government, but it will be replaced by a modified project called now EDVIRSP. On 1 July 2008, the French Government had announced a project creating a huge database, EDVIGE (Exploitation documentaire et valorisation de l'information ginirale - Documentary exploitation and valorisation of general information) which would have systematically gathered information on any person having applied for or exercised a political, union or economical mandate or playing a significant institutional, economical, social or religious part as well as information on any person considered by the police as a "suspect" potentially capable of disrupting the public order. The decree was very rapidly and strongly opposed by a large number of associations, organizations, political parties, unions and individuals. Almost 200 000 signatures and 1200 associations have supported a petition against the decree and 12 organizations, among which four main labour unions, main Lesbian and Gay associations, the French Human Rights League, and French EDRi-member IRIS, have filed a complaint before the French highest administrative court to have this decree cancelled. As a result, the French Government has given up the decree and the prime minister's office announced on 18 September a new decree having in view a modified file called EDVIRSP (Exploitation documentaire et valorisation de l'information relative ` la sicuriti publique - Documentary exploitation and valorisation of information related to public security). Differently from EDVIGE, the new file will explicitly exclude information related to people's health or sexual orientation, but will keep other sensitive personal data such as ethnical origin, as well as political, philosophical, religious opinions or union affiliation. In addition, it will no longer allow police to collect data in the same file on people belonging to political parties, unions or religious groups only because of their activities. The criteria for data gathering will be related to perceived security threats. Although a first victory for the opponents of EDVIGE, the new decree is still far from being satisfactory. The new text still allows the police to store data on minors starting the age of 13 if they are considered a threat to public safety. A "right to oblivion" was also introduced meaning the data gathered on minors is to be deleted when coming of age 18, except for the case when a new element occurs between 16 and 18, where the data is deleted at 21. The 12 organizations having filed the complaint against EDVIGE, together with the large coalition of petition signatories, consider it is unacceptable for the database to include minors, especially when they haven't committed any offence, and ask for stronger guarantees that citizens' rights and freedoms would be respected, starting from their right to the presumption of innocence. They continue to call for the withdrawal of the entire decree. The new project has been sent to The French Data Protection Authority (Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertis) which should give its opinion in a month. Opponents to the database have called for a day of demonstrations on 16 October, on the occasion of Sainte Edwige's day of the Roman Catholic calendar. Files: from Edvige to EDVIRSP, a capital change (only in French, 21.09.2008) http://www.rue89.com/philippe-madelin/2008/09/21/fichiers-dedvige-a-edvirsp-... Edvige:"insufficient rebound" (SM) (only in French, 20.09.2008) http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2008/09/20/01011-20080920FILWWW00552-edvig... EDVIGE file becomes EDVIRSP (only in French, 20.09.2008) http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/actualites/societe/20080920.OBS1990/le_fichie... Edvige file : the opponents stay vigilant (only in French, 19.09.2008) http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2008/09/19/fichier-edvige-les-opposant... RAS - Petition in order to obtain the abandoning of EDVIGE file (only in French) http://nonaedvige.ras.eu.org/ France drops plan for political database after row (18.09.2008) http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSLI3864020080918 EDRi-gram: ENDitorial: Massive mobilization against EDVIGE, the new French database (16.07.2008) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number6.14/edvige-french-database ============================================================ 6. House of the German Pirate Party spokesman raided by Police ============================================================ The Bavarian Police searched the house of the German Pirate Party spokesman on the 11 September 2008, searching for information on some leaked plans regarding a Skype wire tap project, that were published by the Party. The Pirate Party published some documents received from an anonymous whistleblower that show the Bavarian government plans to develop a Trojan horse able to eavesdrop on Skype conversations. Police wanted to find out the source of that information and they searched the house of the spokesman and took away a server, but this was fully encrypted, so there are little chances to discover the source. The search seems to be related to the two documents leaked on January 2008 that were present on the Internet and then posted on Wikileaks website. The first document is a communication by the Bavarian Ministry of Justice to the prosecutors' office, relating to cost distribution for the interception licenses between the police and the prosecution. The second document allegedly presents the offer made by Digitask, the German company developing the technology, holding information on pricing and the license model, high-level technology descriptions and other details. The recent action by the police has little chances to find the whistleblower, but confirm the authenticity of the documents. "A brave person leaks documents to the Pirate Party, to inform the public about a procedure of the Bavarian Government, which is highly likely to violate the constitution. Now this persons is hunted like a criminal. Private rooms are raided, servers get seized." stated Andreas Popp, the Chairman of the Bavarian Pirate Party. German cyberplods raid Pirate Party on Skype Trojan mole hunt (18.09.2008) http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/18/german_police_raid_pirate_party/ Pirate Party Official Raided after Uncovering State Trojan (17.09.2008) http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-party-official-raided-after-uncovering-state-... Chairman of the Koln Pirate Party condemned house search (only in German, 18.09.2008) http://pressemitteilung.ws/node/136096 Skype and SSL interception letters (24.01.2008) http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Skype_and_SSL_Interception_letters_-_Bavaria_-_Dig... ============================================================ 7. European Competition Commissioner: We investigate Google-Yahoo deal ============================================================ Google announced in June that it had struck a deal with Yahoo, so it would sell ads on Yahoo website in return for a share of the profits. The EU anti-competition authorities confirms that they are investigating the deal between the two majors in the online advertising. The major competitors claimed that this new deal gives a dominant position for Google. This is why the agreement has also been investigated for some months by the US Department of Justice that hired a well-known Washington litigator to oversee the anti-trust proceedings. Although the companies said that the deal would have effect only in Canada and the United States, The World Association of Newspapers called for a investigation from the EU authorities, claiming: "it would hurt Yahoo's ability to compete against Google in the future." Jonathan Todd, a spokesman for European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, confirmed the investigation :"In mid-July, we decided to open a preliminary investigation on our own initiative into potential effects of the Google-Yahoo agreement on competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) market." Google claimed that the deal would have no effect on the EEA market, since "the agreement is limited in scope to Yahoo's U.S. and Canadian websites", while Yahoo showed his cooperation with the EU authorities stating that the company "has been and will continue to work with the relevant regulatory agencies to provide officials with the necessary information about this business agreement, which we believe will strengthen competition in search and make advertisements more relevant for our users." As it was the case with the Google - Doubleclick deal, it seems that both the US and EU authorities will not investigate the privacy issues of the new Google-Yahoo agreement, even though serious concerns have already been expressed. EDRi-member Joris van Hoboken points out the Google blog entry related to the Google-Yahoo deal that claims: "neither company has access to personally identifiable user information from the other company", giving no explanation on what the two companies understand by "personally identifiable information". Since server logs are not considered by Google as personally identifiable information, it could be possible that the present deal gives Google access to Yahoo search data. EU competition officials probing Google-Yahoo deal (15.09.2008) http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSBRU00674420080915?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=10003 European regulators investigate Google-Yahoo advertising deal (16.09.2008) http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/16/google.yahoo The Google-Yahoo Deal and the Privacy of End-Users (20.09.2008) http://www.jorisvanhoboken.nl/?p=189 ============================================================ 8. ENDitorial: A stupid law and a perverse "criminal" sentence ============================================================ There is no censorship in Italy, but... "Censorship" was abolished and outlawed in Italy sixtytwo years ago. Freedom of the press and of personal opinion is not only established by the Constitution, but also deeply rooted in custom and in all perceptions of civil society. There are, however, some worrying facts. The concentration in a few hands of a large part of the information system. A general, "centralized" myopia of the "dominant culture", that is partly deliberate manipulation and partly unintentional ignorance. A sly, apparently "benevolent", culture of superficiality and vagueness that tends to lull, confuse and subdue. A disturbing maverick, in this context, is the internet. Originally feared, later ambiguously applauded, anyhow misunderstood, the net remains annoying for those who are in the habit of having control and are irritated, if not scared, by a tool that they can't dominate or "tame". It would be long to repeat here what I have written several times, since I published Cassandra in 1996 and continued with eighty articles in Italian (thirteen also in English) in the "freedom and censorship" section of my website. But a recent episode deserves some comment. In this ambiguous context there are laws and "norms" that are poorly conceived and applied even worse. One, in particular, is the law on "clandestine press" (1948) to which was added, fiftythree years later (2001) a clumsy definition of "authorization" for "journalistic publications" online. Before we get into this specific subject, let's look at two articles of the Italian Constitution. In Article 3 it is stated that +All citizens have equal social status and are equal before the law.; But this isn't quite so. There are laws (in addition to "social status") that make some citizens "more equal than others". And there are several formally organized categories that have improper and unreasonable privileges. In addition to all sorts of limitations (or bureaucratic hindrance) of free enterprise, in business, society and culture, that everyone agrees should be removed, but de facto remain - and sometimes get worse. In Article 21 it is stated that +Everyone has the right to freely express thoughts in speech, writing, and by all other communication.; Also that +The press may not be controlled by authorization or submitted to censorship.; But this isn't quite so. There are "authorization" rules (as well as other hindrances and privileges) that get in the way of freedom of information and communication (generally defined as "freedom of the press" ever since the concept was established in 1848 by the "Statuto Albertino" - that in 1861 became the Constitution of what was, at the time, the Kingdom of Italy.) Within this framework, let's get to the specific case that has, quite rightly, caused a wave of protest and indignation - and to the two awkward laws that have made it possible. The facts are reported (not always accurately) in several online documents. (see the end of the article) A "criminal sentence" issued by a Court in Modica (Sicily) on 8 May 2008 condemned historian Carlo Ruta, defining his website "clandestine press" because it wasn't formally "authorized" as a newspaper or a magazine. (The site was no longer active. It had been "seized" by the police, by order of the Modica Court, in 2004). One of the absurdities in this Court decision is that the website was defined as "testata giornalistica" because it had a "heading". By that criterion, any publicly available correspondence written on "letterhead" could be criminally condemned as "clandestine press". I leave it to historians of law and politics to try to understand why, when fascism had been defeated and censorship had been abolished, in 1948 a law was passed that restricts press freedom and is in contrast to Article 21 of the Constitution. But let me "try to guess" why in April 2001 the Italian government proposed, and parliament "distractedly" approved, a poorly conceived (and never properly amended) law that extends press regulation to online communication. All governments and all political parties and parliamentary groups have always declared that they don't intend to limit or control in any way the freedom of the press and, generally, of opinion. On the sincerity and coherence of such statements we can have some doubts, but let's assume that the purpose of the messy 2001 law was not censorship. The idea was to extend to online newspapers and magazines the ambiguous "benefits" (subsidies) that exists for print - as well as the "responsibility" controls (a system that has already caused several distortions and manipulations in its "traditional" definition). This means that an online "newspaper" or "magazine" must be "registered" as such - and the editor must be a member of an officially regulated association called Ordine dei Giornalisti, a privileged "caste" that many agree should be abolished, but in spite of its absurdity continues to exist. The consequence is that, if the unclear text of the law is interpreted extensively, approximately five million Italian websites could be declared "illegal". That law has been in existence for five years and there has been no "extermination" of Italian online activity. But the fact remains that, by this or other means, "errors" are possible. Several other flaws in law or regulation have been used to "blacklist" or "seize" online activities that were disliked by authorities or powerful private lobbies. What makes the "Modica affair" unique is that, so far, it's the only case of the 1948 "clandestine press" law and its 2001 extension being applied to a website. Obviously protest and indignation must not relate only to this individual case, but above all to its general implications. The editor-owner of that website is not in jail. The "penalty" is a 250 euro fine, plus legal expenses. But obviously the problem is that, for totally unacceptable reasons, he has a "criminal" record and his site has disappeared. It's rather nearsighted to be complaining about this episode after having paid little attention to the fact that there is a nonsensical, and never properly amended, law. And there are other situations of Italian, or even foreign, websites being "removed" or made inaccessible, for a variety of unreasonable motives, with a too easy "voluntary" cooperation of internet providers who are more concerned with the protection of their business than with the rights and privacy of their customers. Why was there such a violent aggression on that particular website? It's improper to "guess" making unproven assumptions. But the fact is that the "cancelled" content was about collusion of politics with mafia - probably irksome for some powerful interests. But let's assume, for the sake of this argument, that it was only a "mistake" in the interpretation of an unclear law. The fact remains that such "errors" are possible - and unacceptable in a civilized country. There are many "tricks" that make it possible to limit, though not totally destroy, freedom of opinion and information. There is, by the way, a not irrelevant "technical detail". It is possible, by several different means, to make available online whatever has been "prohibited". "Seizing" or "cancelling" has little, if any, effect on criminals or other "wrongdoers". This sort of persecution is very painful for honest people who want to freely express "uncomfortable" opinions, irrelevant for the mischievous, ranging from the extreme of terrorism and organized crime to all sorts of frauds and spamming. In the (unproven) hypothesis of an absurd legal procedure being influenced by someone who wants to remove uncomfortable information or opinion, the irony is that it backfires, because the resulting "noise" spreads more widely than the original source. But that, of course, doesn't justify the perversity of the Court's decision or the clumsiness of the law. It's hard to tell how much all this is caused by the ignorance of "powerful" people who don't understand what the net is and how it works - or by an insidious desire to repress freedom of opinion and control sources of information. But the fact is that, no matter how disguised, repressive intentions exist even in the most free and open societies - and watchdogs need to be consistent over time, with constant observation of how things evolve, not just short-lived "indignation" over an occasional episode, soon to be forgotten while abuses continue. And we should never forget that censorship isn't only evil, it is also stupid. Cassandra (1996) http://gandalf.it/free/casseng.htm Bad legislation - again (05.2001) http://gandalf.it/offline/off37-en.htm Italy - blog condemned for clandestine press (only in Italian,16.06.2008) http://punto-informatico.it/2321322/PI/News/italia-blog-condannato-stampa-cl... "Clandestine press": an unacceptable decision (only in Italian, 9.09.2008) http://www.mcreporter.info/stampa/c_ruta2.htm Only a journalist can run a website in Italy? (21.05.2008) http://blog.andreamonti.eu/?p=64 (Contribution by Giancarlo Livraghi - EDRi-member ALCEI Italy) ============================================================ 9. Recommended Reading ============================================================ The Shape of Things to Come by Tony Bunyan Seven years from 11 September 2001 and from the launch of the "war on terorism" this major new report The Shape of Things to Come (60 pages) examines the proposals of the Future Group and their effect on civil liberties. It shows how European governments and EU policy-makers are pursuing unfettered powers to access and gather masses of personal data on the everyday life of everyone - on the grounds that we can all be safe and secure from perceived "threats". The Statewatch report calls for a "meaningful and wide-ranging debate" before it is "too late" for privacy and civil liberties. Press release http://www.statewatch.org/news/2008/sep/the-shape-of-things-to-come-prel.pdf Eight page Conclusions http://www.statewatch.org/news/2008/sep/the-shape-of-things-to-come-conclusi... Copy of full report (pdf) http://www.statewatch.org/analyses/the-shape-of-things-to-come.pdf ============================================================ 10. Agenda ============================================================ 24-28 September 2008, Athens, Greece World Summit on the Knowledge Society http://www.open-knowledge-society.org/summit.htm 30 September 2008, Vienna, Austria Book launch and award presentation, quintessenz writing contest: "At the end of the line" - a science fiction anthology pertaining to civil rights, surveillance and data protection http://sf.quintessenz.at/ 11 October 2008, Worldwide Action day "Freedom not fear" Protests, demonstrations and activities against the surveillance mania http://wiki.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/Freedom_Not_Fear_2008 13-15 October 2008, Strasbourg, France First PrivacyOS "Open Space" Conference EDRi is a partner of the PrivacyOS project - a thematic network for privacy protection infrastructure within the current European Commission4s ICT Policy Support Programme. http://www.privacyos.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=3&Itemid=37 15-17 October 2008, Strasbourg, France 30th International Data Protection and Privacy Conference http://www.privacyconference2008.org/ 18 October 2008, Berne, Switzerland Big Brother Awards Switzerland 2008 http://www.BigBrotherAwards.ch/ 20-21 October 2008, Strasbourg, France European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG) http://www.eurodig.org/ 20-21 October 2008, Amsterdam, Netherlands Marking the public domain: relinquishment & certification Third Communia Workshop http://communia-project.eu/node/109 21 October 2008, Brussels, Belgium Workshop"International Transfers of Personal Data" Organized by the European Commission with the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party and the United States Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration. http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/news/events/news_events_en.htm#personal_dat... 24 October 2008, Bielefeld, Germany Big Brother Awards Germany 2008 http://www.BigBrotherAwards.de/ 25 October 2008, Vienna, Austria Big Brother Awards Austria 2008 http://www.BigBrotherAwards.at/ 3-6 December 2008, Hyderabad, India Third Internet Governance Forum http://www.intgovforum.org 9-10 December 2008, Madrid, Spain Future Internet Assembly http://www.future-internet.eu/home/future-internet-assembly/madrid-dec-2008.... http://www.fi-madrid.eu/ 10-11 December 2008: Tilburg, Netherlands Tilting perspectives on regulating technologies, Tilburg Institute for Law and Technology, and Society, Tilburg University http://www.tilburguniversity.nl/tilt/conference 27-30 December 2008 Berlin, Germany 25C3: Nothing to hide The 25th Chaos Communication Congress http://events.ccc.de/congress/2008/ 18-20 March 2009, Athens, Greece WebSci'09: Society On-Line http://www.websci09.org/ ============================================================ 11. 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