============================================================ EDRI-gram biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe Number 4.24, 20 December 2006 ============================================================ Contents ============================================================ 1. Support EDRI-gram 2. New Audiovisual Directive: First Reading in EU Parliament completed 3. Proposal of computers online searching in Germany 4. New EU recommendation includes the right of reply in the online media 5. Violent video games - a hot topic on the European agenda 6. Wiretapping scandal in Greece ends with record fine 7. Promotion of open standards in Poland 8. EUCD Best Practice Guide published 9. Biometric scanning is being tested in Heathrow Airport 10. UK government reacts to campaign opt out of central medical database 11. ENDitorial: AVMS Directive : TV or not TV b that is the question 12. Recommended reading 13. Agenda 14. About ============================================================ 1. Support EDRI-gram ============================================================ European Digital Rights needs your help in upholding digital rights in the EU. Thanks to your last years donations EDRi has been able to issue 24 editions of EDRi-gram in 2006. To continue with EDRi-gram in 2007 we again ask for your support. If you wish to help us promote digital rights, please consider making a private donation, or interest your organisation in sponsorship. We will gladly send you a confirmation for any amount above 250 euro. KBC Bank Auderghem-Centre, Chaussee de Wavre 1662, 1160 Bruxelles, Belgium Name: European Digital Rights Asbl Bank account nr.: 733-0215021-02 IBAN: BE32 7330 2150 2102 BIC: KREDBEBB ============================================================ 2. New Audiovisual Directive: First Reading in EU Parliament completed ============================================================ On 13 December 2006, exactly one year after the presentation of the revised directive by the Commission, the European Parliament's Plenary voted on a report on the draft Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMS) that was prepared by the Parliament's Committee for Culture and Education. In December 2005, the Commission proposed a set of new rules for television regulation to bring it into line with new developments in audiovisual technology and advertising. The new directive will amend the 1989 "Television without Frontiers" Directive, which was last revised in 1997, and include, inter alia, new rules on advertising and the extension of the directive to more audiovisual services than just 'classic' on-air television. The proposal widened the scope of the directive also to 'non linear audiovisual media services', i.e. on demand services, also on the internet. Parliament now amended the Commission proposal in first reading. The main focus clearly laid on provisions regarding product placement and advertising which were controversial enough. Definitions regarding the scope, namely of linear and non-linear services were only slightly clarified by the Parliament, despite concerns of many interest groups as well as some MEPs. The EP vote also backed up the Commission proposal that those non-TV audiovisual services, including so-called non-linear or on-demand services, will be made subject to some basic content regulation. After the Parliament's first reading under the co-decision procedure, it is now again the Council's turn. While having agreed on a preliminary compromise, the so called General Approach, on 13 November 2006, the Member States will be working on a Common Position under the German Presidency as from January 2007. After that, the draft legislation will be sent back to the Parliament for the second reading. This will give interest groups once again some b though small- room for manoeuvre. The Common Position adopted by the Council will become the new and only basis for discussion in a second reading. Amendments may only relate to parts of the text which have already been subject of amendments for the first reading. In addition, a three-month time limit is laid down by the Treaty for the Parliament to take action. Therefore the draft can be expected to be adopted by both the EP and the Council still under German Presidency. Once adopted, Member States will have two years to transpose the new directive into national law. AVMS Directive - Text adopted by the European Parliament (13.12.2006) http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?Type=TA&Reference=P6-TA-2006-05 59&language=EN MEPs set new rules on TV commercials and product placement (13.12.2006) http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/039-1359-345-12-50-... 06-20061207IPR01149-11-12-2006-2006-false/default_en.htm Council of the European Union General Approach (13.11.2006) http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/06/st15/st15277.en06.pdf (Contribution by Angelika Wessels, legal consultant, EU affairs) ============================================================ 3. Proposal of computers online searching in Germany ============================================================ Earlier this year, Ingo Wolf, the Minister of the Interior of the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, and Wolfgang SchC$uble, the German Federal Minister, proposed certain plans that would give the police and the Interior Federal Office of Criminal Investigation permission to access online computers of the German citizens of as a measure of internal security. The plans have been were recently criticized by Germany's Federal Data Protection Commissioner Peter Schaar. In August, Mr. Wolf proposed a draft bill for a new Protection of the Constitution Act giving the Office for the Protection of the Constitution undercover access to "hard disks" and other "information technology systems" on the Internet. Later, in November 2006, Mr. SchC$uble's Program for Strengthening the Federal Republicbs Internal Security allowing authorities to monitor online forums was signed by the Budget Committee of the Bundestag and the lower chamber of Germany's Federal Parliament. Recently a judge at the German Federal Supreme Court has ruled that there was no legal basis to allow authorities to make online searches of personal computers. Talking to Berlin daily Berliner Zeitung, Mr. Schaar, Federal Data Protection Commissioner, expressed his reservations for this project stating that an online search cannot be compared to a physical search of a person's home. "In the case of a search via the Internet a police officer covertly, without the person knowing about it, accesses a person's computer." By searching through the Internet, an investigator would act as a "state hacker" accessing personal data thus being in contradiction with b the legal obligation to protect the core of individuals' privacy," said the Commissioner. "Instead of applying these methods of investigation, the state should restrict its use of methods to those assigned to it by law," added Mr. Schaar. The Security program of the Federal Ministry of the Interior is still being pursuit by Mr.SchC$uble. The program focuses on searching computers without any physical access to them and on setting up an "Internet Monitoring and Analysis Unit " at the Joint Center for Defense against Terrorism where it will be possible to eavesdrop on Internet telephone calls and closed chat rooms. The North-Rhine Westphalian bill for a new Protection of the Constitution Act was adopted on 20 December 2006 by the state parliament. Privacy activist Twister from the German group Stop1984 has announced to challenge the law at the German constitutional court. "This is outrageous", she said to EDRi-Gram. "They try to tell us that if you go online, your computer is leaving your home and is out in the public. Have they ever heard of firewalls and cybercrime? In the information age, people have their most intimate and private information stored on their hard drives, and there is an absolute barrier for government's spying eyes here. And such a barrier has to be kept because privacy can not be sacrificed in total for an illusion of security." Data Protection Commissioner criticizes search of private PCs online (14.12.2006) http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/82529 NRW state parliament has adopted law for domestic intelligence agency (in German only, 20.12.2006) http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/82814 Prosecuting and security authorities to be allowed to search PCs online (7.12.2006) http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/82181 Schaar rejects government hacking. Data protection commissioner against online-searches (only in German, 14.12.2006) http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/print/politik/612096.html Federal Court of Justice prohibits online-searches of computer systems (only in German, 11.12.2006) http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/82341 EDRI-gram: License to hack: domestic Internet intelligence powers growing in Germany (13.09.2006) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.17/hack ============================================================ 4. New EU recommendation includes the right of reply in the online media ============================================================ The European Parliament adopted on 12 December 2006, at its second reading, a recommendation on the protection of minors and human dignity and on the right of reply in relation to the competitiveness of the European audiovisual and online information services industry. The right of reply in the online media has been heavily discussed also in the previous years, including a much contested 2004 Council of Europe Recommendation on the right of reply in the new media environment. In practice the recommendation has not been implemented in the member countries, but various human rights groups have expressed their serious concerns regarding its practical effects on the freedom of expression. The new document proposed by the Council considers again that: b It is appropriate for the right of reply or equivalent remedies to apply to on-line media, and to take into account the specific features of the medium and service concerned.b The recommendation adopted by the European Parliament is now vaguer than the initial text discussed in 2005 suggesting that the member states should consider b the introduction of measures into their domestic law or practice regarding the right of reply or equivalent remedies in relation to on-line media, with due regard for their domestic and constitutional legislative provisions, and without prejudice to the possibility of adapting the manner in which it is exercised to take into account the particularities of each type of medium. b There is no hint on what should be considered as b on-line mediab or how an actual implementation of this recommendation could be done. The right of reply in the new media is also included in the new Audiovisual Media Services Directive recently adopted in its first reading by the Parliament, but the text now refers only to the TV-like services on the web. On the same occasion the Commission announced its interest for two other activities for the safety of the Internet that have been discussed in the previous EP meetings. The first one regards the possibility of introducing a European free phone number or of extending an existing service to assist Internet users by directing them to available complaint mechanisms and information resources and providing information for parents about the effectiveness of filtering software. The second initiative is related to the possibility of supporting the establishment of a generic second level domain name reserved for monitored sites committed to respect minors and their rights, such as .KID.eu. Keep children safe while browsing the Internet, Parliament says (12.12.2006) http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/040-1377-345-12-50-... 06-20061207IPR01240-11-12-2006-2006-false/default_en.htm European Parliament legislative resolution on the Council common position for adopting a recommendation on the protection of minors and human dignity and on the right of reply in relation to the competitiveness of the European audiovisual and online information services industry (12.12.2006) http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?Type=TA&Reference=P6-TA-2006-05 37&language=EN Common Position adopted by the Council - Recommendation on the protection of minors and human dignity and on the right of reply in relation to the competitiveness of the European audiovisual and on-line information services industry (18.09.2006) http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/06/st09/st09577-re01.en06.pdf EDRI-gram: Council of Europe insists on right of reply (29.12.2004) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number2.25/reply EDRI-gram:Rapporteur EU parliament: more liability for ISPs (6.04.2005) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number3.7/filtering ============================================================ 5. Violent video games - a hot topic on the European agenda ============================================================ Starting from a violent video game seen in Italy by Commissioner Frattini, a new hot topic has started to be heavily discussed by European Union bodies and Member States. Although the self-regulation measures are already in place for some years, a new approach is pushed by the Italian Commissioner. As previously reported by EDRI-gram, the violent video game debate started in Italy where the Minister of Justice, Mr. Clemente Mastella, has claimed that it would be advisable to create an "authority" that would "decide on acceptable standards related to the modalities of sale" of videogames, after the game "Rule of Rose" appeared on the market. The debate was extended to the EU level by the Italian Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security Franco Frattini that sent a letter to all the Internal Affairs Ministries on this topic, asking them to do something about the "dreadful" glorification of violence and the "obscene...brutal [and] perverse" games distributed to Europe's children. The first answer came very quickly from the Information Society Commissioner, Mrs. Reading, that criticized his colleague in harsh terms: "It is very unfortunate that my services were not pre-consulted before your letter to the Ministers of Interior was sent out.b She also reminded that a European self-regulation system for classification of the violent games - called PEGI (Pan European Gaming Information) - had already been in place since 2003, strongly backed up by Mrs. Reading. She emphasized that the system was very similar to the one used for movies and it was the best solution not to censor the content: "This is in line with the Commission's view that measures taken to protect minors and human dignity must be carefully balanced with the fundamental right to freedom of expression as laid down in the Charter on Fundamental Rights of the European Union." Another answer came from the UK Minister of Interior, John Reid that also presented the PEGI system as a viable solution, if properly enforced. He added that a retailer could face imprisonment in UK if it sold violent games to minors. Italy is not the only country where the violent video games are a hot topic. A recent event was reported in the western part of Germany where an 18-year old Counter Strike fan wounded several pupils at a school in Emsdetten before killing himself. Politicians in Bavaria and Lower Saxony have promptly reacted by drafting a new law that will fine and even imprison videogame producers that will create games containing "cruel violence on humans or human-looking characters." Frattini has continued his critical remarks on the present system in a declaration in the European Parliament and called for a multidisciplinary approach to the problem. He considered that three components needed to be encouraged: rating of movies and games, media literacy and technical solutions. Frattini also announced that in the spring of 2007 he would present to the Parliament a new declaration on cybercrime. It is clear, at this point, that the present European system is put under scrutiny, compliance with the voluntary rating system being considered as a possible significant problem. This is why EU is planning a 2007 conference on violent video games, where all the stakeholders could discuss and eventually agree on the best practices to follow. The topic will still be present on the agenda of the EU Justice Ministers meeting in January 2007, when a legislative action could be initiated. EU may regulate development and sale of violent video games (15.12.2006) http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061215-8433.html EU to take UK lead on violent video games (8.12.2006) http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12/08/eu_video_games/ Euro commissioners swap slaps in video game row (24.11.2006) http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/24/reding_said_to_frattini/ German gamers face jail for acts of virtual violence (12.12.2006) http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1969921,00.html Franco Frattini - European Commissioner on Justice, Liberty and Security - b Declaration on violent games b (only in French, 13.12.2006) http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/06/800&format= HTML&aged=0&language=FR&guiLanguage=en EDRI-gram : Italian Minister of Justice proposes an authority for violent videogames (22.10.2006) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.22/videogames ============================================================ 6. Wiretapping scandal in Greece ends with record fine ============================================================ As a result of the scandal related to the wiretapping of phone conversations of several Greek officials, including Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, during the period August 2004 b March 2005, Vodafone was fined by the Greek privacy committee for not having protected its network against hacking activities. The Greek Prime Minister, other ministers, top military officials, human rights activists, the police, army and intelligence heads, journalists and lawyers were illegally monitored for almost a year by unknown hackers through the Vodafone network. The action was discovered in March 2005 but the hackers behind the wiretapping have not been discovered. Vodafone was blamed by the Hellenic Authority for the Information and Communication Security and Privacy for obstructing its investigation and failing to report the installation of the surveillance software and therefore fined it with 76 million euro. Vodafone had deactivated the legal surveillance system used by the hackers too soon to trace them. The Greek unit of Vodafone considers the action as groundless and intends to contest the decision at the independent committee of the Council of State, Greece's highest court of arbitration. "Vodafone announced that it fully rejects the rationale of the authority and considers the penalty illegal, unfair and totally groundless" stated Vodafone's Greek operation. Vodafone also intends to verify the responsibility of the Swedish technology equipment maker Ericsson in this matter. The Greek Parliament is also investigating the circumstances of the senior Greek Vodafone officialbs death who was found hanged a little before the illegal surveillance activities were discovered. Greek privacy watchdog fines Vodafone over wiretapping scandal (14.12.2006) http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/14/europe/EU_GEN_Greece_Wiretaps_Voda... one.php EDRI-gram: Government communication illegally wiretapped in Greece (15.02.2006) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.3/wiretapping ============================================================ 7. Promotion of open standards in Poland ============================================================ On 14 December 2006 a Coalition for Open Standards was established by a large group of IT companies and organizations in Poland with a view to promote open technological standards. The coalition aims at taking measures to ensure freedom of choice for IT solutions for Polish citizens as well as businesses and administration bodies by enforcing open standards for information storage and exchange. The use of open standards has numerous advantages among which the possibility to freely exchange information, the freedom of choosing the IT tool suppliers, an increased flexibility and interoperability in implementing IT solutions, an increased competitiveness and quality of systems on the Polish market. The lack of open standards leads to higher costs, closed formats for sharing information requiring the use of specific software. The Coalition for Open Standards includes companies present on the Polish market, such as Corel, IBM, Macrologic, Novell, Oracle, etc., but also organizations such as Aviary.pl, Internet Society Poland, the Professional Linux Association, the Cities Online Association and the PRO Polish Software Market Association. The new coalition intends to promote open standards through its website, as well as by educational and informational campaigns for the public. Large interest on open standards has been shown in many EU countries. Thus, on 2 November, the Athens Internet Governance Forum hosted in Athens the Open Standards, Interoperability and Government Procurement event where one recommendation for Governments was to follow the example of countries such as Denmark or Belgium in adopting Open Document Format especially for public records. During the IGF meeting, a Dynamic Coalition on Open Standards was created. This Dynamic Coalition wants to frame and define the most urgent problems related to open technology standards and application interoperability and suggest straightforward, workable solutions that can be implemented by all stakeholders. Polish Coalition for Open Standards http://www.standardy.org Open standards for information exchange and storage a prerequisite for the information society development (14.12.2006) http://www.standardy.org/node/31 Promoting Open Standards for the Participation Age (31.10.2006) http://www.sun.com/2006-1031/int_gov/index.jsp IGF Dynamic Coalition on Open Standards (2.11.2006) http://www.cptech.org/a2k/igf/athens110206/key_docs.html ============================================================ 8. EUCD Best Practice Guide published ============================================================ A network of European civil society experts, including several EDRI members, published in December 2006 a Best Practice guide for countries implementing the EU copyright directive. The guide aims at legislators and advocates of a balanced copyright framework in countries hoping to join the EU in the next decade. It shows how these countries can maximise creativity, access to knowledge, but also political and cultural participation within the EU copyright regime. The project's wiki contains a more detailed analysis of existing member states' legislation, and will continue as a resource for civil society campaigners for copyright reform in Europe and around the world. The guide, sponsored by the Open Society Institute, can now be freely downloaded from the Internet. Best Practice Guide - Implementing the EU Copyright Directive in the Digital Age (12.2006) http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/uploads/1112/EUCD_Best_Practice_Guide_Dece... ber_2006.pdf EUCD Review and Implementation Wiki http://eucd.wizards-of-os.org/index.php/Main_Page (contribution by Ian Brown - EDRI-member Open Rights Group, UK) ============================================================ 9. Biometric scanning is being tested in Heathrow Airport ============================================================ A biometric scanning system called miSense started to be used as a trial on December 2006 at Heathrow Airport, as part of the International Air Transport Association's Simplifying Passenger Travel Programme. The system allows passengers to scan their passport and right index finger, creating an electronic key that permits them to skip boarding queues, thus aiming to simplify their journey through the airport. The UK Government decided to use it to control immigration and check the identity of people coming to Great Britain. The UK immigration minister Liam Byrne, said the scanning system would improve security but also allow the passengers to go through the check-in more easily and rapidly: "I think it's going to be popular. People want secure borders. If we can find a way of strengthening security and making it easier for legitimate travellers to move around then I think the public are going to want that." Initially, the miSense system will be used for Heathrow's Terminal 3 flights to Hong Kong and Dubai. A second stage of the trial will allow all passengers flying from Terminal 3 to use the system by registering their 10 fingerprints, a scan of each eye and a scan of their face that will be linked to their passport information. Then, the passengers will be provided with a membership card that they can use to go through the system by using only their fingerprints for identification. Simon Davies from Privacy International considered that the biometric scanning technology is still unstable and unreliable and pointed out: "At this early stage of biometric understanding this programme can have only extremely limited value." The purpose of the trial is to check the technical performance of the system and to see how it will be accepted by the passengers. If successful, the system could adopted in airports all over the world. miSense system http://www.misense.org/home.html Face scans for air passengers a step nearer (8.12.2006) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/12/07/nscan07.xml Biometric science arrives at Heathrow (6.12.2006) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6214592.stm ==================================================================== 10. UK government reacts to campaign opt out of central medical database ==================================================================== English health minister Lord Warner has reacted to TheBigOptOut.org, a campaign that mobilises citizens to opt out from a proposed national medical database. He is offering patients an opt-out from one part of the new system - a synopsis for emergency care, which contains things like your prescriptions and whether you are diabetic. He is not offering an easy opt-out from the full database. The plan is to upload data from family doctors and hospitals over the next year or two, to regional hosting centres. Custody of the data will then pass from doctors to the Chief Medical Officer, a government official. The campaign is now focussed on persuading people to forbid their doctors from uploading the data in the first place. A November poll showed that most general practitioners would not upload data without patient consent; another showed that a majority of patients did not approve of a compulsory central database. The Big Opt Out http://www.thebigoptout.org Latest media coverage of campaign (20.12.2006) http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2006/12/18/health-database-optout-latest-... ews/ EDRI-gram: Campaign launched in UK to opt out of central medical database (6.12.2006) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.23/uk_medical_database (Contribution by EDRI-member Foundation for Information Policy Research - UK) ============================================================ 11. ENDitorial: AVMS Directive : TV or not TV - that is the question ============================================================ The discussions on the new Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMS) are continuing unabated within the European Union's institutions. With regards to Internet media, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament are moving in the same direction. The question is how far. The new Directive proposed by the Commission in December 2005 (COM(2005)646) was meant to modernize the Television without Frontiers Directive (TVWF), which was last updated in 1997. Besides proposed liberalized rules for classic television regarding advertisement or product placement that have been widely discussed, the new Directive also introduces regulation for so called 'non-linear audiovisual media services', including on the Internet - a fact that did not receive wide public attention to date. The adoption of the Directive is pursued under the co-decision procedure, whereby both, the Council and the Parliament are involved in the process. On 13 November, the 'Education, Youth and Culture Council' came up with a first 'General Approach' proposing amendments to the Commission Proposal of December 2005. On Wednesday last week, 13 December, the European Parliament adopted a legislative resolution on the AVMS in its first reading, also amending the Commisson proposal. In spite of the parallel discussions in the Parliament and the Council, the two have slightly differing approaches on how far the new Directive will in fact be applicable to Internet media, although they are moving in the same direction. The good news is that compared to the vague initial Commission proposal, the current definition of 'non-linear audiovisual media services' has been narrowed down considerably by both the Parliament and the Council. Which Internet services will in the future be regulated by this EU directive, however, remains unclear. While the Council in its general approach sees it as "characteristic of on-demand services that they are 'television-like'", and does not include non-commercial services such as "private websites and services consisting of the provision or distribution of audiovisual content generated by private users for the purposes of sharing and exchange within communities of interest" - obviously trying to exclude services like YouTube -, Parliament is not that lucid. The text adopted by the EP defines audiovisual media services, both off- and online, still somewhat vaguely as services "the content of which is suitable for television broadcasting irrespective of the delivery platform". But also the Parliament acknowledges - in line with the service definition of the EU Treaty - that non-economic activities "which are normally not provided for remuneration, such as weblogs and other user-generated content or any form of private correspondence, such as e-mails and private websites" are not covered by the Directive. But that's not a reason for celebration, yet. The Parliament's report that was compiled from a number of Committee proposals under the responsibility of rapporteur Ruth Hieronymi of the Committee for Culture and Education in many points suggests additional regulation compared to the initial proposal by the Commission. For example, the right of reply was introduced for non-linear services as well as an obligation for Member States to ensure that media service providers provide filtering systems along with a stipulation that new television sets shall be equipped with technical devices to enable certain programmes to be filtered out. While the Commission in its proposal stressed the 'country of origin principle' - i.e. whatever is legal in one EU country is also licit in every other Member State and must not be blocked - the Parliament in its resolution allows for derogations from this principle, the introduction of which was initially mentioned as one of the main motives for the update. For example, in a speech from 22 September 2005 Commissioner Reding stressed that " (...) an effective country of origin principle - for me a cornerstone of the European audiovisual policy." The results of the Parliament's first reading show improvements in some areas, while the level of regulation was increased in others. Especially the inconsistency in the country of origin principle makes it hard to find the justification for the regulation of on-demand services under the AVMS, given that many such provisions already exist in the EU e-Commerce Directive and in national legislation. The ongoing co-decision procedure will show how far this regulation will go in the end and what the consequences of this "technologically neutral approach" eventually will be for a still growing market. A market that certainly would not have grown this fast had it been regulated in such a way from the beginning. Budapest Recommendations to the European Parliament on the draft Audiovisual Media Services Directive (1.12.2006) http://194.8.63.155/documents/rfm/2006/12/22708_en.pdf Speech by Viviane Reding, Audiovisual Conference * Between Culture and Commerce - Liverpool (22.09.2005) http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/05/532&format= HTML&aged=1&language=EN&guiLanguage=en EDRi-gram: Draft Audiovisual Directive Limited To The TV-Like Services On The Web (22.11.2006) http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.22/twf (Contribution by Christian MC6ller) ============================================================ 12. Recommended reading ============================================================ The "principle of availability" - the free market in access to data/intelligence will rely on "self-regulation" by the law enforcement agencies and make accountability almost meaningless Tony Bunyan, December 2006, Statewatch http://www.statewatch.org/news/2006/dec/p-of-a-art.pdf ============================================================ 13. Agenda ============================================================ 27-30 December 2006, Berlin, Germany 23rd Chaos Communication Congress: "Who can you trust?" http://events.ccc.de/congress/2006/Home 17-19 January 2007, Geneva, Switzerland Special Session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR): First Session http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/details.jsp?meeting_id=12043 20 January 2007, Paris, France Big Brother Awards France http://bigbrotherawards.eu.org/ 28 January 2007, Europe-wide Data Protection Day: An initiative of the Council of Europe with the support of the European Commission http://www.coe.int/t/e/legal_affairs/legal_co%2Doperation/data_protection/De... ault%20DP%20Day%2016-10-2006.asp 19-23 February 2007, Geneva, Switzerland Provisional Committee on Proposals Related to a WIPO Development Agenda: Third Session http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/details.jsp?meeting_id=11926 1-4 May 2007, Montreal, Canada 7th Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy (CFP2007). The deadline for proposals is 20 January 2006 http://www.cfp2007.org/live/ ============================================================ 14. About ============================================================ 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 <edrigram@edri.org> Information about EDRI and its members: http://www.edri.org/ - EDRI-gram subscription information subscribe by e-mail To: edri-news-request@edri.org Subject: subscribe You will receive an automated e-mail asking to confirm your request. unsubscribe by e-mail To: edri-news-request@edri.org Subject: unsubscribe - EDRI-gram in Macedonian EDRI-gram is also available partly in Macedonian, with delay. Translations are provided by Metamorphosis http://www.metamorphosis.org.mk/edrigram-mk.php - EDRI-gram in German EDRI-gram is also available in German, with delay. Translations are provided Andreas Krisch from the EDRI-member VIBE!AT - Austrian Association for Internet Users http://www.unwatched.org/ - Newsletter archive Back issues are available at: http://www.edri.org/edrigram - Help Please ask <edrigram@edri.org> if you have any problems with subscribing or unsubscribing. ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature which had a name of signature.asc]