============================================================ EDRI-gram biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe Number 6.12, 18 June 2008 ============================================================ Contents ============================================================ 1. EU Competition Commissioner backs open standards in eGovernment 2. France obtained ISPs support in blocking pedopornographic sites 3. UK MPs report: A Surveillance Society? 4. Italian blog closed by Police 5. OOXML standard on hold by ISO 6. British ISPs warn Internet downloaders on the risk of being prosecuted 7. Recommended Action 8. Agenda 9. About ============================================================ 1. EU Competition Commissioner backs open standards in eGovernment ============================================================ The EU Competition Commissioner, Neelie Kroes, publicly supported the use of open source software in eGovernment, in a public speech at a seminar hosted by OpenForum Europe in Brussels on 10 June 2008. Kroes encouraged the public institutions to use open standards, underlining the positive example of Munich that have implemented open standards in their local eGovernment projects. She suggested a much more active role of the European Commission in promoting open standards in eGovernment applications, by adopting an internal policy not to buy proprietary software: "The Commission must do its part. It must not rely on one vendor, it must not accept closed standards and it must refuse to become locked into a particular technology." The EU Commissioner's speech shows an indirect support to the Open Parliament petition initiated in March 2008 by OpenForum Europe, The European Software Market Association and the Free Software Foundation Europe asking the European Parliament to change its ICT system in order to allow the adoption of open standards. Also Kroes praised the benefits of open standards: "No citizen or company should be forced or encouraged to choose a closed technology over an open one, through a government having made that choice first." She also encouraged the business customers to make a difference by promoting open standards: "I know a smart business decision when I see one. Choosing open standards is a very smart business decision indeed." Kroes mentioned a number of competition cases in ICT that are investigated by the Commission in relation with ICT standards, giving as examples Apple, the mobile phone company Qualcomm and chip maker Rambus. Also she clearly referred to Microsoft when she mentioned the problems with the well-known fines against the US software producer: "The Commission has never before had to issue two periodic penalty payments in a competition case." Some MEPs wanted to go further and asked the European Commission if Microsoft could not be banned from the European public procurements, since it has been fined by the Commission. Heide R|hle, internal market policy spokeswoman for the Greens in the European Parliament, explained that there were provisions of the public procurement EU Directive that allow the exclusion of applicants from public procurement procedures if "they have been convicted of an offence concerning their professional conduct by a judgement which has the force of res judicata or they have been guilty of grave professional misconduct proven by any means which the contracting authority can justify". But the European Commission rejected these arguments in its answer explaining that, according to the directiv, the exclusion was not obligatory. EC claimed that the fine did not count as an "criminal conviction of a criminal offence by a final judgement from a Court". Also the second provision should "require a case-by-case assessment which can only be done in the framework of an on-going procurement procedure." Kroes calls for open standards in eGovernment (10.06.2008) http://www.euractiv.com/en/infosociety/kroes-calls-open-standards-egovernmen... EU's Kroes: open standards are smart business move (10.06.2008) http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSL0935274720080610 European Commission won't exclude Microsoft from procurement procedures (13.06.2008) http://www.heise-online.co.uk/news/European-Commission-won-t-exclude-Microso... Written Question: Microsoft - Implementation of Article 93 of the Financial Regulation (21.04.2008) http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+WQ+E-2008-2... EDRi-gram: European Parliament criticized for not using open standards (12.03.2008) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number6.5/ep-open-standards ============================================================ 2. France obtained ISPs support in blocking illegal sites ============================================================ French Interior Minister Michel Alliot-Marie announced on 10 June 2008 that the French state had come to an agreement with the French ISPs to block sites carrying pedophilic content or content related to terrorism and racial hatred. "We can no longer tolerate the sexual exploitation of children in the form of cyber-pedophilia. We have come to an agreement: the access to child pornography sites will be blocked in France. Other democracies have done it. France could wait no longer" said the minister. The plan will be put into force in September by the creation of a blacklist on the basis of information received from Internet users on sites that carry offensive material. Internet users will be able, via a platform, to signal offensive content. A decision will then be taken on whether the respective sites should be included on the blacklist that will be sent to ISPs that will then block them. Sites found to contain illegal content will be referred to justice. According to Alliot-Marie, France will pass on, via Interpol or Europol, information regarding sites found offensive that are hosted in other countries. The minister said this plan was not intended as a Big Brother of the Internet stating she believed in the "fundamental liberty that is Internet access." She also expressed her hope that France's upcoming presidency of the European Union will be a chance to coordinate efforts between countries so as to avoid useless duplicated efforts in blocking offensive sites. In view of creating the platform for the signalling system, the French Family State Secretary Nadine Morano paid a study visit to Oslo, Norway where the police has had such a system since 2004. "The public forces are obliged to organize the security on the Internet. The Internet, is a fabulous as well as disastrous tool with which danger is in the house", was Morano's opinion. Among other countries having already implemented similar measures there are UK, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Canada and New Zealand and on 10 June, a similar deal with ISPs was also announced in the United States where three service providers Verizon, Sprint and TimeWarner Cable have agreed with New York state officials to block child pornography sites. French to block porn, terror, hate web sites (11.06.2008) http://news.smh.com.au/technology/french-to-block-porn-terror-hate-web-sites... The ISPs will have to filter pedo-pornographic sites (only in French, 10.06.2008) http://www.zdnet.fr/actualites/internet/0,39020774,39381639,00.htm France has in view blocking access to pedophile sites before 2009 (only in French, 13.06.2008) http://www.lemonde.fr/web/depeches/0,14-0,39-35824819@7-37,0.html ============================================================ 3. UK MPs report: A Surveillance Society? ============================================================ A report of the Home Affairs Committee shows concerns that Britain might be in danger of becoming a Big Brother type of state and calls on the UK ministers to take the necessary measures to provide safeguards and minimize the amount of the citizen's information collected and stored in databases. The report shows concerns especially in relation to the ID card scheme that might be used to spy on people. "We are concerned about the potential for 'function creep' in terms of the surveillance potential of the national identity scheme. (...) Any ambiguity about the objectives of the scheme puts in jeopardy the public's trust in the scheme itself and in the government's ability to run it" says the Committee in its report. The Committee made some recommendations asking for further assurances that people would not find themselves subject to unnecessary intrusion from the authorities. "We recommend that the Home Office produce a report on the intended functions of the national identity scheme in relation to the fight against crime, containing an explicit statement that the administrative information collected and stored in connection with the national identity register will not be used as a matter of routine to monitor the activities of individuals." The report also recommends a data minimisation policy so that only what is essential should be collected and stored for as long as necessary. Although the Committee considers the new national DNA database as a "valuable investigative tool" for the police in solving crime, in the light of the recent data losses, warns the Government on the responsibility it bears towards the very sensitive data involved. The report asks for "greater assurances from ministers that the government will protect people's data after the recent loss of information, including two discs containing details of half the population. (...) Assurances that the government has learned lessons, though welcome, are not sufficient to reassure us or, we suspect, the public." What the committee also suggests is the creation of a major new database, the sharing of information, the use of increased surveillance only in circumstances when there is a proven need and the focus on security and privacy in any system. One of the problems observed was that of CCTV cameras. UK seems to have more cameras in public spaces than any other country in the world and the Government seems to have completely lost control over them. While the Police has recently accepted CCTV cameras are not very efficient in cutting down crime, their number has continuously increased. The committee calls for a greater transparency in the use of the cameras and wants assurances that "the techniques of intrusive and directed surveillance will not be applied to the general public". It also says the Government must not attach microphones to cameras. Moreover, the report sets ground rules for the Home Office that should raise awareness of how and why the surveillance techniques provided for by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) might be used. The Committee also recommended that the Information Commissioner should present an annual report on surveillance to the Parliament that should receive a response from the Government also presented in front of the Parliament. "The key issue is trust - the public don't have much choice over the data held on them by public bodies, so they must be confident about how it is being collected, stored and used - otherwise we are in danger of becoming a surveillance society" said Committee Chairman Rt. Hon. Keith Vaz. MPs must act now to set limits on snooping (9.06.2008) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/06/09/do0902... ID cards could help turn Britain into a surveillance society, warn MPs (9.06.2008) http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jun/09/idcards.civilliberties/print MPs propose new safeguards for Government uses of personal data (9.06.2008) http://www.out-law.com//default.aspx?page=9173 A Surveillance Society? - House of Commons Home Affairs Committee 5th Report of Session 2007-08 Vol I http://www.statewatch.org/news/2008/jun/uk-hasc-surveillance-society-report-... A Surveillance Society? - House of Commons Home Affairs Committee 5th Report of Session 2007-08 Vol II http://www.statewatch.org/news/2008/jun/uk-hasc-surveillance-society-report-... ============================================================ 4. Italian blog closed by Police ============================================================ On 6 June 2008, the blog of the Italian journalist Antonino Monteleone was closed, without notification, by the Polizia Postale of Calabria under accusations of defamation, but the journalist claims that this action came after having posted uncomfortable information on political figures. The whole story started in 2006 after the elections, when the blogger posted extracts from a document containing CVs of candidates for the Italian Parliament. The document included information of certain names on the nomination list that had previous relations to cases of power abuse and manipulation of tenders or even with mafia activities. On 9 December 2006, Monteleone posted an article on Galati, member of UDP party then, undersecretary in the Ministry for productive activities during the period in office of the Berlusconi Government, showing he was a drug addict. Following a brief exchange of e-mails between Monteleone and Galati, the latter sued the former but the court dismissed the case making Galati pay for the costs. The closing of the website was made without notification and without any information to the blogger on the concrete accusations. Piero Ricca, a blogger who was in his turn investigated by the police for defamation considers the situation absurd and states that the "preventive seizure" for defamation is a debatable provision anyway. In any case, this action must be brought to the attention of the post author under accusation. This is not an isolate case in Italy and Ricca believes there are other bloggers whose blogs have been seized but did not make this public. It seems another Italian blogger, Carlo Ruta, was condemned by the Court of Modica for clandestine printing. Therefore, the blog was treated in this case by the Italian justice the same as a journal or newspaper. This is not a trend only in Italy. According to the annual report of the University of Washington, more and more people are arrested for having published on their blogs their opinions on political issues. A World Information Access report states that bloggers have been arrested for having exposed corruption in government, abuse of human rights or suppression of protests. The reports also predicts that 2008 will see a higher number of arrest cases for such kind of issues. Another Italian blog seized (only in Italian, 10.06.2008) http://punto-informatico.it/2314627/PI/News/Sequestrato-un-altro-blog-italia... Why was the blogger condemned? (only in Italian, 17.06.2008) http://punto-informatico.it/p.aspx?i=2322890 Blogger arrests hit record high (16.06.2008) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7456357.stm ============================================================ 5. OOXML standard on hold by ISO ============================================================ International Standards Organisation (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in Geneva have postponed the publication of the revised specification of Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) document format, following complaints filed by their member organizations representing these four countries: Brazil, India, South Africa and Venezuela. The planned standard ISO/IEC DIS 29500 cannot be published until the complaints are examined by ISO and IEC who will have to give responses and comments by the end of June 2008 The four national standardization organizations have shown concerns that no consensus has been reached on changes that must be made to the 6000-page specification, during the consultation period on the numerous comments submitted at the end of February. The complaints mainly address the fact that the concrete technical objections were not individually discussed. The concerns are summarized in an open letter of a member of the technical standardisation committee in India who stated that the standard had not been properly thought out and it was not even clear what standard would result from the proceedings. The adoption of the standard in the present state would not be an open process as it would be implemented only by Microsoft. Other protests have been filed to ISO by the Danish Open Source Business Association. They claim that "the procedures and the decision conflict with ISO's rules, and the process has caused considerable damage to the reputations of Danish Standards and ISO." The letter also explains why the case should be picked up by ISO: "The process has thus been formally annulled now for two months - since March 29, at which time the specifications should have been sent to the national standardization organizations. The prerequisites for the fast-track procedure no longer exist, and, therefore, I expect that ISO recommence the case." The European Commission is also investigating the case. Competition Commissioner Kroes explained in a recent conference why the European Commission is interested in this topic: "If voting in the standard-setting context is influenced less by the technical merits of the technology but rather by side agreements, inducements, package deals, reciprocal agreements or commercial pressure, then these risk falling foul of the competition rules." In the meantime, The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), has invited interested parties to create a new technical committee for the "implementation, interoperability, and conformity" of the next version of the Open Document Format (ODF) which has already been certified by the ISO. Open source supporters draw the attention on a possible new alliance with Microsoft which announced its intention to support ODF and to join the technical OASIS committee in its works on the open standard. The management boards of ISO and IEC will decide, after having examined the complaints against Microsoft standard, whether the appeals should be further processed and if they decide so, the chairmen of the two boards will establish a conciliation panel that will try to resolve the appeals. ISO puts standard for Microsoft's OOXML document formats on hold (10.06.2008) http://www.heise-online.co.uk/news/ISO-puts-standard-for-Microsoft-s-OOXML-d... Four national standards bodies appeal against approval of ISO/IEC DIS 29500 (6.06.2008) http://www.iso.org/iso/pressrelease.htm?refid=Ref1136 Now an OOXML Protest from Denmark's OSL - Updated 3Xs: Official English Translation (31.05.2008) http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080531134006167 OASIS opens discussion list for ODF Implementation, Interoperability and Conformance (3.06.2008) http://opendocument.xml.org/news/oasis-opens-discussion-list-for-odf-impleme... Microsoft will support Open Document Format (ODF) (22.05.2008) http://www.heise-online.co.uk/news/Microsoft-will-support-Open-Document-Form... EDRi-gram: OOXML adopted as a new standard by ISO (9.04.2008) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number6.7/ooxml-adopted-iso ============================================================ 6. British ISPs warn Internet downloaders on the risk of being prosecuted ============================================================ As a continuation of the actions started in March 2008, and despite opinions that ISPs should not act as an Internet police, the major British record labels represented by British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and Virgin Media, UK's largest provider of home broadband, have joint forces in a campaign meant to fight illegal music downloads. Virgin Media has started warning Internet users illegally downloading music that they may be prosecuted, by sending letters to thousands of households where such activities have taken place. This appears to be the first step in the attempt of BPI to get ISPs to implement a "three strikes and out" rule, meaning warning and ultimately disconnecting the estimated 6.5 million customers whose accounts are used for illegal downloading activity. "Virgin Media is the first ISP to publicly address the problem. It is a socially responsible ISP and I think other ISPs will look at this and see progress. I am very encouraged they have engaged with us. They understand the rights of musicians" said Geoff Taylor, BPI's chief executive. BPI and Virgin have chosen to start with an educational phase before taking any legal action against Internet illegal downloaders. "Education is the absolute key to reducing the amount of illegal downloading ... new partnerships with ISPs can help build an internet in which music is properly valued" stated Taylor. The intention is first to educate customers during a 10-week trial campaign through "informative" letters they will send which will however be accompanied by a written warning from the BPI, threatening with disconnection and a court case for those who continue to download illegally. The first letters sent do not consist in threats of disconnection. The letter says: "We understand you may be concerned about this, and you might be unsure how it happened. One possible answer is that other people in your household have used your computer and/or internet connection, and they might have shared these files with others by using unauthorised 'peer-to-peer/P2P' filesharing networks like 'BitTorrent' or 'Limewire'. However, you need to make sure that these files aren't downloaded or shared from your Virgin Media internet connection in future." Virgin warns illegal downloaders: stop or face prosecution (7.06.2008) http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/virgin-warns-ille... British ISP, recording industry warn illegal downloaders (6.06.2008) http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9962404-7.html Virgin Media's downloading education campaign represents a turning point in digital music (13.06.2008) http://www.bpi.co.uk/index.asp?Page=news/bizinfo/news_content_file_846.shtml Virgin Media Sample Letter http://regmedia.co.uk/2008/06/06/vm_filesharing_letter.pdf EDRI-gram: UK: ISPs are not the Internet cops (9.04.2008) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number6.7/isp-cops-uk Virgin sends file-sharing warnings to customers (16.06.2008) http://www.out-law.com/page-9180 ============================================================ 7. Recommended Action ============================================================ On-line Consultation for the purposes of the review of the PSI Directive The purpose of this online consultation is to gather information from as many sources as possible, including public sector content holders and commercial and non-commercial re-users (universities, NGOs) on their views on different aspects related to the implementation, impact and scope of the PSI Directive. http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/psi/index_en.htm ============================================================ 8. Agenda ============================================================ 23 June 2008, Paris, France GigaNet is organizing an international academic workshop on "Global Internet Governance: An Interdisciplinary Research Field in Construction" http://tinyurl.com/2nww9t 26-27 June 2008, London, UK International Conference on Digital Evidence http://www.mistieurope.com/default.asp?Page=65&Return=70&ProductID=8914&LS=DigitalEvidence 30 June-1 July 2008, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium First COMMUNIA Conference - Assessment of economic and social impact of digital public domain throughout Europe http://www.communia-project.eu/conf2008 7-8 July 2008, London, UK Developing New Models Of Content Delivery Online & Innovative Strategies For Effectively Tackling Copyright Infringement http://www.isp-content-regulation.com/conference.agenda.asp 7-9 July 2008, Cambridge, UK Privacy Laws & Business 21st Annual International Conference http://www.privacylaws.com/templates/AnnualConferences.aspx?id=641 19-20 July 2008, Stockholm, Sweden International Association for Media and Communication Research pre-conference - Civil Rights in Mediatized Societies: Which data privacy against whom and how ? http://www.iamcr.org/content/view/301/1/ 23-25 July 2008, Leuven, Belgium The 8th Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS 2008) http://petsymposium.org/2008/ 8-10 September 2008, Geneva, Switzerland The third annual Access to Knowledge Conference (A2K3) http://isp.law.yale.edu/ 22 September 2008, Istanbul, Turkey Workshop on Applications of Private and Anonymous Communications http://www.alpaca-workshop.org/ 24-28 September 2008, Athens, Greece World Summit on the Knowledge Society http://www.open-knowledge-society.org/summit.htm ============================================================ 9. About ============================================================ EDRI-gram is a biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe. Currently EDRI has 28 members based or with offices in 17 different countries in Europe. European Digital Rights takes an active interest in developments in the EU accession countries and wants to share knowledge and awareness through the EDRI-grams. All contributions, suggestions for content, corrections or agenda-tips are most welcome. Errors are corrected as soon as possible and visibly on the EDRI website. Except where otherwise noted, this newsletter is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License. See the full text at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Newsletter editor: Bogdan Manolea <edrigram@edri.org> Information about EDRI and its members: http://www.edri.org/ European Digital Rights needs your help in upholding digital rights in the EU. 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