EDRi-gram newsletter - Number 6.23, 3 December 2008

[EDRI-gram newsletter]

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           EDRi-gram

biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe

    Number 6.23, 3 December 2008


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Contents
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1. Changes in the telecom package adopted by the Council
2. French EDVIGE decree withdrawn
3. Effects of counter-terrorism legislation on freedom of the media
4. Sweden on the verge of passing the local IPRED law
5. Turkey: Another blocking order against YouTube
6. Ireland proposes to legalise covert surveillance
7. UK rejected data breach notification law
8. Parliaments seem to use very little IT technology
9. Recommended Action
10. Recommended Reading
11. Agenda
12. About

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1. Changes in the telecom package adopted by the Council
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A political agreement on the telecom package was reached by the EU Council
on 27 November 2008. Even though the final text does not support the 3
strikes measures proposed by the French Presidency, it has also deleted some
important amendments adopted by the European Parliament in order to
safeguard the citizen's fundamental rights.

Austria and Denmark have spoken up for keeping the Amendment 138 during the
Council meeting. Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland joined them in an attempt to
provide safeguards for users in the event of any attempts to sanction them
or restrict their access to content on the Internet. They asked the
exclusion of any issues related to copyright enforcement and the promotion
of creative content instead. But in the end, the Council decided the
deletion of this amendment, the only pretext expressed being that the
wording was too broad.

The new text of the modified Universal Services Directive allows the
national regulatory authorities to "promote cooperation between undertakings
providing electronic communications networks and/or services and the sectors
interested in the promotion of lawful content in electronic communication
networks and services." The adopted recitals makes it clear that any
cooperation procedures will not allow for systematic Internet monitoring and
that the Member States, and not the electronic communication providers, have
to "decide, in accordance with due process, whether content, applications or
services are lawful or harmful or not."

The decision of the Telecom Council to reject the 3 strike scheme, comes
after the EU culture ministers took a similar decision on 20 November. They
also suggested promoting legal offers of music or films on the Internet. The
EU Culture Council considered that "a fair balance between the various
fundamental rights" needs to be establishedwhile fighting online piracy,
first listing "the right to personal data protection," then "the freedom of
information" and only lastly "the protection of intellectual property".

In fact, the Commission has already sent a number of critical comments on
the French draft law on 3 strikes, suggesting a long series of changes in
order to comply with the European legislation.

The text adopted by the European Telecom Council is not so positive from
the privacy point of view. Thus, the Council has rejected the suggestion
of the Parliament to allow a study on Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and
their use that should have been promoted by the Commission.

The Council has decided to keep Art 6 par 6 (formerly amendment 181 adopted
by the European Parliament) that has been interpreted as an open door for
voluntary data retention. Thus, the German actions to push for the rejection
of the amendment 181 in the Telecom Council did not found a majority,
despite the public position of the German federal minister of economic
affairs Michael Glos. He agreed with a number of civil society
representatives that this amendment "would create unmanageable data dumps
and thus expose sensitive data on our communications and movements to risks
of abuse."

The Telecom Council has taken the European Commission's point of view in
restricting the obligation for personal data breach notification only for
electronic communication providers, thus excluding the Parliament amendment
that extended this provision also to "any company operating on the
Internet, providing services to consumers, which is the data controller and
provider of information society services."

The Council has also limited the number of cases when the notification to
the competent Authority and affected individuals is mandatory only in cases
representing "a serious risk for subscriber's privacy."

This common position adopted by the Telecom Council is a base for new
negotiations between EU Bodies, that could meetthis month. Also, a new
informal meeting of the Telecom ministers is already scheduled on 17
February. The second reading of the European Parliament on the agreed text
could take place at the beginning of 2009.

2907th Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council meeting (provisional
version) - (27.11.2008)
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/cms3_applications/Applications/newsRoom/LoadDocument.asp?directory=en/trans/&filename=104387.pdf

European Council - Reviewed ePrivacy Directive (27.11.2008)
http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/08/st15/st15896.en08.pdf

European Council - Reviewed Universal Service Directive (27.11.2008)
http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/08/st15/st15899.en08.pdf

Federal government supports opposition against "voluntary data retention"
(25.11.2008)
http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/content/view/280/79/lang,en/

EU states bin telecoms 'super-regulator' idea (27.11.2008)
http://euobserver.com/19/27192

Citizen safeguards striked out in EU Council (26.11.2008)
http://www.laquadrature.net/en/citizen-safeguards-striked-out-in-EU-council

Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland - only EU members on the same page vis-a-vis
Internet content control (1.12.2008)
http://blog.veni.com/?p=898

European Council opposes Parliament on Amendment 138 (27.11.2008)
http://www.iptegrity.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=212&Itemid=9

EU ministers reject ban on free downloading (21.11.2008)
http://www.euractiv.com/en/infosociety/eu-ministers-reject-ban-free-downloading/article-177379

Denmark and Austria speak up for citizens rights (27.11.2008)
http://www.iptegrity.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=211&Itemid=9

Commission response to France's obligation of notification for its
"graduated response" law (only in French, 27.11.2008)
http://www.latribune.fr/entreprises/communication/telecom-internet/20081127trib000314818/loi-antipiratage-sur-internet-les-observations-de-bruxelles-.html

EDRi-gram: Data breach notification - different opinions in EU bodies?
(19.11.2008)
http://www.edri.org/edri-gram/number6.22/data-breach-ec

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2. French EDVIGE decree withdrawn
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It seems the demonstrations that took place on 16 October against the EDVIGE
decree have found an echo with the French authorities. The French Government
has finally withdrawn the EDVIGE file after a very strong mobilisation of
the citizens through the "No to EDVIGE" group that gathered several
associations and unions, including EDRi-member IRIS (Imaginons un Riseau
Internet Solidaire).

The withdrawal of the decree is different from the abrogation in the sense
that the withdrawal has a retroactive character meaning that all the
information gathered since the creation of EDVIGE 1.0 has to be destroyed.
The RG file, introduced in 1991, previous to EDVIGE, will remain valid until
31 December 2009 but no information will be added to it starting with 1 July
2008.

However, the liberty advocates and associations are still vigilant and stay
careful while waiting for the occurrence of the newly envisaged file called
EDVIRSP which has not yet been published. The new version which should
exclude the collection of personal data related to health, sexuality or data
on personalities or minors below 13 is now with the French Data Protection
Authority - CNIL (Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertis)
before being sent to the State Council.

IRIS and the rest of the "No to EDVIGE" group are still concerned by some of
the issues of the new version such as the creation of a file based on
suspicions and not facts, the collection of data related to religious
beliefs, ethnical origin, union membership, political opinions as well as
data on minors older than 13.

So, for the time being, before the issue of a new file, the data already
collected for the withdrawn EDVIGE file cannot be used which means that
the police cannot gather data at this point. However, there are concerns
that, in this case, the police will use other sources such as Cristina, a
similar file to EDVIGE, which is a defence classified file that can provide
the legal basis for the collection of data.

"We are now under a legal blur and this blur is never favourable to
liberties' said Helhne Masse-Dessen, lawyer of "No to EDVIGE" group.

IRIS Press release on the withdrawal of EDVIGE1.0 - First citizen victory
but vigilance stays in place (only in French, 20.11.2008)
http://www.iris.sgdg.org/info-debat/comm-edvige1108.html

Decree no. 2008-1199 of 19 November 2008 on the withdrawal of decree no.
2008-632 of 27 June 2008 on the creation of automatic treatment of personal
data called EDVIGE (only in French, 21.11.2008)
http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000019774085

Withdraw EDVIGE1.0 team Press Release - + No to EDVIGE ; team congratulates
itself but stays mobilized (only in French, 21.11.2008)
http://nonaedvige.ras.eu.org/spip.php?article920

The Edvige file officially withdrawn but not yet replaced (only in French,
21.11.2008)
http://www.lesechos.fr/info/france/4800116-le-fichier-edvige-officiellement-retire-mais-pas-encore-remplace.htm

The Edvige file officially withdrawn, the opponents stay "vigilant" (only in
French, 20.11.2008)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gRs-meyd--OCvfnMRd3rHruoHU7Q

EDRi-gram: Protests in France against the Edvige file on St. Edwige day
(22.10.2008)
http://www.edri.org/edri-gram/number6.20/edvige-saint-edwige-day

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3. Effects of counter-terrorism legislation on freedom of the media
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A new report conducted by Privacy International (PI) for the Council of
Europe Media and Information Society Division reveals effects of new
counter-terrorism laws on media and free expression rights in European
countries.

The report "Speaking of Terror" examines how the "war on terror" has
affected access to information, the growth of incitement, glorification and
"extremism" restrictions on speech, blocking of internet sites, increased
surveillance of journalists and limits on protection of journalists'
sources. The report finds that the laws have already seriously affected
freedom of expression while providing little benefit in fighting terrorism.
The report also examines the roles of the United Nations Security Council,
European Union and Council of Europe in promoting new laws while paying
little attention to human rights.

The findings of the study reveal that international bodies including the
Council of Europe (CoE) and the European Union (EU) have adopted many
international agreements that either ignore or only pay scant attention to
fundamental human rights and the importance of a free media. Their agendas
are often driven by those countries that are most aggressive in adopting
expansive counter-terrorism laws including the UK, US and Russia. The role
of European institutions such as the EU and the CoE have resulted in greater
adoption and harmonization of these laws than most other regions.

New laws on prohibiting speech that is considered "extremist" or supporting
of terrorism have been a particular problem. These laws are used in many
jurisdictions to suppress political and controversial speech. Newspapers
have been closed and journalists arrested. Web sites are often taken down or
blocked. State secret and national security laws are regularly being used
against journalists and their sources even as access to information laws are
widely accepted and adopted across the CoE.

Protection of journalists' sources are often undermined by governments
seeking to identify officials who provide information. Even the protection
is widely recognized both in national laws and in decisions of the European
Court of Human Rights.

New anti-terrorism laws are giving authorities wide powers to conduct
surveillance. Other new laws impose technical and administrative
requirements on the ability to intercept communications and keeping
information. Of particular concern are data retention laws which require
the routine surveillance of all mobile and Internet users that can be used
to easily identify sources and journalists' investigations.

Speaking of Terror: A survey of the effects of counter-terrorism legislation
on freedom of the media in Europe
http://www.privacyinternational.org/issues/terrorism/speakingofterror.pdf

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4. Sweden on the verge of passing the local IPRED law
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The Sweden Government is to pass these days a controversial law that might
give the entertainment industry some tools to track down those that
illegally share copyrighted material on the Internet.

The law, which is based on the European Union's Intellectual Property Rights
Enforcement Directive (IPRED), has been under debate for more than a year
and claims to be essential by the Swedish industry which complains that,
presently, Sweden lacks the necessary legislation to support them: " Swedish
laws are considered something of a joke and our politicians are viewed as
arrogant for not taking this seriously. Sweden has the worst laws in this
area and, consequently, the worst problems with piracy. It is embarrassing
that Sweden has waited so long to put in place a directive that was
implemented long ago by our European neighbours." says a letter addressed to
the Swedish Government by the director and producers of the Swedish movie
"Let The Right One In".

The law, which is planned to come into force on 1 April 2009, would make it
possible for copyright holders to get a court order requesting ISPs to
provide IP addresses associated with computers which have downloaded
copyrighted material without paying for it.

The copyright holders could afterwards contact those suspected of illegal
file sharing requesting them to stop the activity. If those in question do
not comply, the copyright holders can use the information obtained from the
ISPs to sue the infringer and ask for compensation for copyright violations.
With this, the Swedish draft law would go even farther than IPRED.

The proposed law faces a large opposition from centre-right political
parties and youth organisations. More than 22 000 members have joined a
group started by Pirate Party vice-chair Christian Engstrvm on Facebook
which is called Stoppa IPRED (Stop IPRED) and which has sent e-mails of
protests to Swedish Parliament members.

"We have examples from other countries where this has amounted to the
legalization of wide-spread blackmail. Record companies get the name of
someone suspected of file sharing and send out a letter demanding 20,000
Swedish crowns (1 800 euros) or some other made up sum with the threat that
if you don't pay, we'll be taking you to court" said Engstrvm

In an attempt to answer to these concerns, according to Sveriges Radio,
justice minister Beatrice Ask, whose ministry is responsible for the law,
has asked for the deletion from the draft law of a clause making the law
enforceable retroactively, fact which would have giving the industry
the possibility to access information about people who have been illegally
downloading copyrighted material over the past few years and therefore to
take the respective people to court for actions performed in the past.
Another change that seems to have been introduced by the minister is that IP
addresses can only be given when the suspected file sharing is "of
commercial nature."

The vote of the Swedish Parliament on the matters is expected these days.

Swedish copyright laws 'a joke' (26.11.2008)
http://www.thelocal.se/15946/20081126/

Justice minister offers concessions on file sharing law (21.11.2008)
http://www.thelocal.se/15844/20081121/

Sweden judges back Pirate Hunter Act (14.11.2008)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/14/sweden_closer_to_antipiracy_law/

Lines drawn in battle over file sharing bill (14.11.2008)
http://www.thelocal.se/15688/20081114/

Resistance mounts to new file sharing law (7.11.2008)
http://www.thelocal.se/15536/20081107/

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5. Turkey: Another blocking order against YouTube
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For the forth time in two years, on 20 November 2008, the Turkish
authorities blocked access to YouTube asserting that certain content posted
on the site was disrespectful to Kemal Mustafa Atat|rk, the Turkish
Republic's founder, or supported the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Turkey is the only country in the world banning YouTube.

"We have said it before and we say it again now - blocking access to YouTube
is wrong. It has been blocked since 5 May, as a result of an earlier court
order, and the obstinacy shown by the authorities is unacceptable. Denying
Turkish citizens access to this file-sharing site violates freedom of
information" said Reporters Without Borders.

The Cubuk magistrate court issued the latest blocking order on the basis of
article 162 of the criminal procedure law and of Law 5651 on crimes and
offences committed online which has been in force since November 2007 and
which obliges ISPs to block access to websites declared illegal. According
to this law, a public prosecutor may ban access to a website within 24 hours
if the content is considered "liable to incite suicide, paedophilia, drug
usage, obscenity or prostitution" or if it "contradicts the law of Atat|rk."

YouTube is not the only site banned by the Turkish authorities. Since 2007,
based on the same laws, about 1 000 websites which have been blocked by
Turkey's Telecommunications Directorate. Besides YouTube, recently,
nacizanebilgo.com, the Turkish popular dictionary website has also been made
inaccessible following a complaint from religious leader Adnan Oktar on the
grounds that the site editors allowed Internet users to post "insulting"
terms on him. Lawsuits initiated by Oktar have resulted in the blocking of
at least 61 websites. Other banned websites include that of a teachers'
trade union and the site of the British biologist Richard Dawkins.

"Banning YouTube, Google's blogging site, the websites of a teachers' trade
union, Richard Dawkins and even a Turkish dictionary stands alongside more
than 40 cases against writers and journalists even since the reform of the
so-called anti-Turkishness article of the penal code," stated Richard
Howitt, the vice president of the European Parliament's Human Rights
Sub-Committee.

Howitt, who is a supporter of Turkey's becoming an EU member, met Justice
Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin on 27 November in Ankara and asked him to
overturn the decision of banning the sites, in the interests of free speech,
warning about the implications of such actions upon Turkey's EU adhering
process. "As a modern country looking forward to European Union membership,
Turkey should be embracing new communications rather than putting itself in
the same bracket as some of the world's pariah states," he said.

According to Kerem Altiparmak and Yaman Akdeniz, authors of the book
"Restricted Access", Internet restrictions are against European Union
standards and Turkey could face charges at the European Courts of Human
Rights for violating the freedom of expression. The authors argue that
Turkey's current Internet regulations, besides being procedurally flawed,
are designed to censor political speech: "Clearly the current regime,
through its procedural and substantive deficiencies, is designed to censor
and silence speech. Its impacts are wide, affecting not only the freedom of
speech but also the right to privacy and fair trial. It has been reported
that prosecutors have even demanded that politicians widen the scope of the
law to include insults, defamation and terrorism. This antiquated approach
remains unacceptable in a democratic society."

The authors also point out the fact that blocking a site is also a totally
inefficient method to combat illegal content: "Blocking as a preventative
policy measure has been explicitly dismissed within the context of terrorist
use of the Internet at the level of the European Union. Furthermore,
circumvention technologies are widely available, and the filtering and
blocking mechanisms and methods currently used in Turkey are easy to
circumvent even for inexperienced Internet users." One argument in favour of
this is that even the Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan stated to the
press that, despite the ban, he could access YouTube and even provided the
information of how to do it.

MEP urges turkey to end YouTube ban (28.11.2008)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5j6NR6ouzA63R5vnPNxaZN306MMzQ

YouTube censored yet again by another court order blocking access
(25.11.2008)
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=29421

European parliamentarians urge Turkey to remove YouTube ban (1.12.2008)
http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/domestic/10463374.asp?scr=1

Turkey could face charges at European court over restrictions (30.11.2008)
http://www.sundayszaman.com/sunday/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=160202

Ban on YouTube proves virtual (1.12.2008)
http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/domestic/10441126.asp?gid=244

EDRigram - YouTube blocked once more in Turkey (30.01.2008)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number6.2/youtube-turkey

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6. Ireland proposes to legalise covert surveillance
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The Irish Government has approved the outline of a Bill which, if passed by
Parliament, will permit police to break into private property to plant
covert audio bugs and video cameras. The Covert Surveillance Bill is
intended to legitimise what is already believed to be existing practice, to
make Irish law compliant with the European Convention on Human Rights and to
allow evidence obtained in this way to be used in court. Judicial approval
will be required before this can be done, except in exceptional
circumstances.

The procedure to deal with cases of exceptional urgency is too lax. Under
the Bill as it stands those cases would bypass the judicial process
entirely, so that surveillance could take place for up to 14 days without
any authorisation. There must be a question mark as to whether this
provision would be constitutional if it was used to break into and bug a
dwelling. Instead, it would be preferable to deal with cases of urgency by
permitting Gardam to commence surveillance without a judicial authorisation
but then requiring that an application be made to the District Court for
permission to continue the surveillance.

Despite its broad title, the Bill addresses only one very narrow area - the
covert surveillance of locations by devices which are physically planted in
those locations. Many other forms of surveillance - such as the use of GPS
devices to track the position of cars, the use of long range cameras and
microphones to monitor locations from a distance and live monitoring of
Internet activity - will still be entirely unregulated. As a result there
will continue to be doubt as to whether Gardam have the power to use these
types of surveillance and as to whether the resulting evidence can be used
in criminal prosecutions.

Meanwhile, although there is some legislation regulating other forms of
surveillance such as the interception of communications, data retention and
Garda use of CCTV, that legislation has developed on an ad hoc and reactive
basis with few consistent principles applying to its use or oversight. Much
of it is also out of date, most notably the 1993 interception of
communications legislation which due to technological changes no longer
adequately protects email and other Internet communications.

Considered as a whole therefore, the wider Irish law is inadequate. Given
that many of these issues were flagged by the Law Reform Commission in 1998,
it is hard to see any justification for the failure to address them to date.
Although this Bill does provide for some improvements, it is at best a
piecemeal response which will not address similar problems with other forms
of surveillance. It is clear that the time has come for comprehensive reform
of the overall law relating to surveillance. This Bill is a good first step
towards that reform. But it is only a first step, and it would be
regrettable if the government were to continue to ignore this area until
forced to act by another highly visible crime.

Government approves covert Garda measures (18.11.2008)
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/1118/breaking63.htm

Time to take a close look at surveillance (28.11.2008)
http://www.digitalrights.ie/2008/11/28/time-to-take-a-close-look-at-surveillance/

(contribution by TJ McIntyre - EDRi-member Digital Rights Ireland)

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7. UK rejected data breach notification law
============================================================

Two reports were published on 24 November 2008 by UK Ministry of Justice
related to the data breach notification law, the powers of the Government
to share data and the Information Commissioner's inspection powers and
funding arrangements.

One of the reports states that the law requiring that significant data
breaches should be notified to the Information Commissioner Office was
rejected, the ministry considering that the notification should be subject
to good practice and not to a law: "As a matter of good practice any
significant data breach should be brought to the attention of the ICO and
that organisation should work with the ICO to ensure that remedial action is
taken" says the report which adds: "The ICO will take into account the
failure of an organisation to notify any breaches of the data protection
principles when considering enforcement action."

The modification of the EU ePrivacy Directive introduces such an obligation
to telecommunications companies and Peter Hustinx, the European Data
Protection Supervisor, said in April that that law should be extended to
banks, online businesses and medical bodies.

William Malcolm from Pinsent Masons said a breach notification law might
have anyway been unnecessary as the lack of dealing with responsibly in case
of data breach would lead to a breach of the Data Protection Act anyway.

The report also announced that new laws would increase the powers of the
Government to share data, introducing a fast-track procedure to allow data
sharing when "a robust case" could be made. "We intend to bring forward
legislation to confer upon the Secretary of State a power to permit or
require the sharing of personal information between particular persons or
bodies, so long as a robust case can be made to use that power. The power
will also be used to simplify the data protection framework and remove any
unnecessary obstacles to data sharing" says the report.

The new legislation will also place a statutory duty on the ICO to prepare,
publish and review a Code on the sharing of personal data that would will
provide guidance on how organisations can share personal data and promote
good practice in the sharing of personal data. "A breach of, or compliance
with, the Code will be taken into account by the courts, the Information
Tribunal and the ICO whenever it is relevant to a question arising in legal
or enforcement proceedings".

A second report acknowledged the necessity of a framework that would
increase "public trust and confidence in the handling of personal data by
both the public and private sector." The report proposes measures
complementing ICO's present powers and ensuring it has the necessary and
effective instruments to carry out its regulatory functions.

The UK does not need a data breach notification law, says Government
(25.11.2008)
http://www.out-law.com//default.aspx?page=9619

Government announces new law for increased data sharing (25.11.2008)
http://www.out-law.com/page-9617

ICO to get powers to audit public bodies without consent (25.11.2008)
http://www.out-law.com/page-9618

The Information Commissioner's inspection powers and funding arrangements
under the Data Protection Act 1998 Summary of responses (24.11.2008)
http://www.justice.gov.uk/docs/information-commissioner-consultation-responses.pdf

Why we don't need a security breach notification law in the UK (19.05.2008)
http://www.out-law.com/page-9128

EDRigram: Data breach notification - different opinions in EU bodies ?
(19.11.2008)
http://www.edri.org/edri-gram/number6.22/data-breach-ec

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8. Parliaments seem to use very little IT technology
============================================================

The findings of the World e-Parliament Report 2008 achieved by UNDESA and
the Inter-Parliamentary Union on the use of information and communication
technologies within 105 parliament assemblies from all over the world were
presented on 25 November 2008, at the second high-level meeting of the Board
of the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament.

The Report is the first one of this kind and was meant to assess the level
to which information and communication technologies are used by parliaments
within their activities. It also used the information exchanged during the
World e-Parliament Conference 2007 and the publicly available information
related to the topic.

The purpose of the report was to help "legislatures evaluate the potential
benefits of ICT in supporting parliament's basic values of transparency,
accessibility, accountability and effectiveness, and, at the same time, its
representative, legislative and oversight functions. Its publication is
intended to establish a shared knowledge base among the parliaments of the
world and, most importantly, promote international dialogue on these
matters." The issues tackled by the report were: the relationship between
parliaments, ICT and the information society; innovation and leadership;
management, planning and resources; infrastructures and services;
documenting the legislative process; parliamentary websites; building a
knowledge base for parliament; enhancement of the dialogue between
parliaments and citizens and cooperation and coordination.

According to the report, only 10% of the parliaments from EU, Africa, Latin
America, Australia and Canada use ICT to make their activities known to
their citizens. "For most parliaments, our survey has documented that there
is a significant gap between what is possible with ICT and what has been
accomplished," said Jeffrey Griffith, one of the authors.

The study has shown that only 43% of the parliaments stated having document
management systems and most of them find it difficult to keep their websites
up to date and accessible to the wide public. Even when the sites displayed
the texts of bills they lacked links to the relevant information.

In most cases, but not in all, the level of the ICT use by a parliament
appears to be related to the level of the national income.

In Mr. Griffith's opinion, parliaments should use a similar model to Web 2.0
techniques used by the US presidential elections but also considered that in
order to do that, strong political leadership, the active engagement of MPs
and well-trained technical staff were necessary. "Attaining a high level of
performance in the application of ICT is not only dependent on resources; it
also requires strong political leadership, active engagement of members, a
skilled secretariat, well-trained technical staff, and a sustained
commitment to the strategic implementation of information and communication
technologies in the legislative setting" says the World e-Parliament Report
2008.

During the EP conference, Mechthild Rothe, vice-president of the European
Parliament said that e-parliament strategies also had to guarantee a high
level of IT security concerning the privacy of the citizens' personal data.
She also made a presentation of the ICT tools used by the European
Parliament including RRS feeds, podcasts, online streams of plenary sessions
in 23 languages. This presentation came in contrast with the statements of
the representatives of the Egyptian Parliament and the Pan-African
Parliament who spoke of a "great digital divide" between the developed world
and African countries.

"There are technical and know-how obstacles in introducing ICT in the
parliaments of the developing world, marred by ignorance, poverty and wars,"
said Ahmed Fathy Sorour, speaker of the Egyptian Parliament who was backed
by Gertrude Mongella, President of the Pan-African Parliament. In her turn,
she talked about the lack of dialogue and parliamentary representation which
was one of the causes of conflicts such as the one presently going on in
Congo.

The survey also shows there is willingness from parliaments to improve their
use of ICT technology and their awareness of the importance of the issue.

The World e-Parliament Report 2008 also points out the "opportunities for
parliaments to benefit from cooperating at the regional and global levels in
the e-parliament domain. Existing and emerging parliamentary networks can
sustain some of these efforts, but a worldwide dialogue is becoming
increasingly essential. By offering coordinated support and training for
those parliaments with fewer resources, increasing the opportunities for
sharing expertise and software at a global level and providing greater
access to parliamentary information resources, parliaments will be better
positioned to fulfil citizens' legitimate expectations, achieve common goals
and advance the principles of the World Summit on the Information Society."

Parliaments are slow in going online, study shows (25.11.2008)
http://euobserver.com/843/27175/?rk=1

World e-Parliament Report 2008 - Executive summary
http://www.ictparliament.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=245

============================================================
9. Recommended Action
============================================================

Collective Redress: Commission seeks views on settling large scale consumer
complaints

The European Commission has published a Green Paper on Consumer Collective
Redress on how to facilitate redress in situations where large numbers of
consumers have been harmed by a single trader's practice which is in breach
of consumer law. Violations of consumer rules could include overcharging
consumers - through hidden charges or overbilling - misleading advertising
on websites, or failing to provide compulsory information on financial
products. These kinds of illegal practices, if they occur to a large number
of consumers, can cause considerable damage to consumers, generate unfair
competition and distort markets. The Green Paper identifies barriers to
effective consumer redress in terms of access, effectiveness and
affordability and presents various options to close the gaps identified. The
options set out in the Green Paper seek to ensure that consumers who are
victims of illegal commercial practices can get compensated for their
losses, while avoiding unfounded claims. Comments on the Green Paper can be
submitted until 1 March 2009.
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/08/1800&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

The Green Paper on Consumer Collective Redress
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/redress_cons/greenpaper_en.pdf

============================================================
10. Recommended Reading
============================================================

EDPS sees adoption of Data Protection Framework for police and judicial
cooperation only as a first step
http://www.edps.europa.eu/EDPSWEB/webdav/site/mySite/shared/Documents/EDPS/PressNews/Press/2008/EDPS-2008-11_DPFD_EN.pdf

The European Commission has published its report on the recent consultation
on the review of the PSI Directive.
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/psi/docs/pdfs/online_consultation/report_psi_online_consultaion_stakeholders.pdf;
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/psi/online_consultation/review_Direct2008/stakeholders/index_en.htm.

============================================================
11. Agenda
============================================================

3-6 December 2008, Hyderabad, India
Third Internet Governance Forum
http://www.intgovforum.org

6 December 2008, Berlin, Germany
Open Everything
http://openeverything.mixxt.de/

9-10 December 2008, Madrid, Spain
Future Internet Assembly
http://www.future-internet.eu/home/future-internet-assembly/madrid-dec-2008.html
http://www.fi-madrid.eu/

10 December 2008, Skopje, Macedonia
Fourth International Conference e-Society.Mk.
http://www.e-society.mk/

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/

16-17 January 2009, Brussels, Belgium
Computers, Privacy & Data Protection conference
CPDP 2009: Data Protection in A Profiled World?
http://www.cpdpconferences.org/

23 January 2008, Geneva, Switzerland
Communia Workshop - Public Broadcasting and Alternative Licensing -
Co-organized by the European Broadcasting Union and the Research Center for
Information Law at the University of St. Gallen (FIR-HSG)
http://www.communia-project.eu/node/163

28 January 2009, Europe-wide
3rd Data Protection Day
http://www.coe.int/t/e/legal_affairs/legal_co-operation/data_protection/Data_Protection_Day_default.asp

18-20 March 2009, Athens, Greece
WebSci'09: Society On-Line
http://www.websci09.org/

1-4 June 2009, Washington, DC, USA
Computers Freedom and Privacy 2009
http://www.cfp2009.org/

2-3 July 2009, Padova, Italy
3rd FLOSS International Workshop on Free/Libre Open Source Software
Paper submission by 31 March 2009
http://www.decon.unipd.it/personale/curri/manenti/floss/floss09.html

13-16 August 2009, Vierhouten, The Netherlands
Hacking at Random
http://www.har2009.org/

10-12 September 2009, Potsdam, Germany
5th ECPR General Conference, Potsdam
Section: Protest Politics
Panel: The Contentious Politics of Intellectual Property
First proposals to be submitted by 1 February 2009
http://www.ecpr.org.uk/potsdam/default.asp

============================================================
12. About
============================================================

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