EDRI-gram newsletter - Number 6.12, 18 June 2008
EDRI-gram newsletter
edrigram at edri.org
Wed Jun 18 14:17:34 PDT 2008
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EDRI-gram
biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe
Number 6.12, 18 June 2008
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Contents
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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
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1. EU Competition Commissioner backs open standards in eGovernment
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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-egovernment/article-173209
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-Microsoft-from-procurement-procedures--/110920
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-2008-2295+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN
EDRi-gram: European Parliament criticized for not using open standards
(12.03.2008)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number6.5/ep-open-standards
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2. France obtained ISPs support in blocking illegal sites
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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-20080611-2oop.html
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
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3. UK MPs report: A Surveillance Society?
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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.xml
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-vol1.pdf
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-vol2.pdf
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4. Italian blog closed by Police
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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-italiano/p.aspx
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
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5. OOXML standard on hold by ISO
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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-document-formats-on-hold--/110892
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-implementation-interoperability-and-conformance
Microsoft will support Open Document Format (ODF) (22.05.2008)
http://www.heise-online.co.uk/news/Microsoft-will-support-Open-Document-Format-ODF--/110794
EDRi-gram: OOXML adopted as a new standard by ISO (9.04.2008)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number6.7/ooxml-adopted-iso
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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-illegal-downloaders-stop-or-face-prosecution-842086.html
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
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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
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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
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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 at edri.org>
Information about EDRI and its members:
http://www.edri.org/
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