Date: Wed, 4 May 2005 21:09:29 +0200 (CEST)
From: EDRI-gram newsletter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: EDRI-gram newsletter - Number 3.9, 4 May 2005
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EDRI-gram
biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe
Number 3.9, 4 May 2005
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Contents
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-note about the next EDRI-gram-
1. Industry and civil society agree against data retention
2. NGOs against international surveillance and policy laundering
3. EP takes position on softpats for second reading
4. Strong protest Dutch libraries against access to data
5. French court forbids DVD copy protection
6. Report on journalism, civil liberties and the war on terror
7. Danish debate about privacy in municipal administrations
8. Italian prosecutor demands take down Indymedia Italy
9. Initiative European libraries to digitise books
10. Recommended reading
11. Agenda
12. About
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About the next EDRI-gram
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The next EDRI-gram will appear on Monday 23 May, with a special report on
the UNESCO conference in St. Petersburg 'between two phases of the World
Summit on the Information Society' and an interview with Sergei Smirnov
from Human Rights Moscow about political developments in Russia with
regards to digital rights.
EDRI-gram 3.11 will appear in the regular schedule, on Wednesday 1 June 2005.
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1. Industry and civil society agree against data retention
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The rapporteur for the European Parliament on telecommunication data
retention, Alexander Alvaro, has organised on 3 May a round table
discussion with the title 'How does the internet work and how does data
retention effect industry and society'. A broad cross section of civil
society and industry representatives criticised the current Council
framework proposal on data retention for its content and procedure. The
meeting was held under the flag of the alliance of liberals and democrats
(ALDE) in the European Parliament. Several MEPs attended the meeting,
including Mastenbroek, Cederschiöld and Duquesne.
"We need a genuine debate, one which has been sorely missing", said
Alexander Alvaro. "The current proposal lacks a proper legal base, is
disproportionate and ineffective. It needs a thorough rethink", he added.
Almost all speakers attacked the European Council's proposal regarding
proportionality, necessity and costs. Both industry and civil society
organisations agreed on the grave impact that data retention will have on
civil liberties, internal market and consumer trust.
Gus Hosein from Privacy International expressed his disbelief that a data
retention proposal is still being discussed. Hosein pointed out that both
in the US and Europe the misconception exists that the US has passed the
most invasive legislation on the interception and retention of
telecommunications. Hosein however reminded the audience that a data
retention proposal would not even be considered for one minute by any US
government. Hosein also criticised the policy laundering by national
governments in the EU concerning data retention. Both the UK and Ireland
have initiated the Council's proposal because national proposals on
mandatory data retention could not be pushed trough. According to Hosein
the Irish minister of justice recently admitted that he is waiting to
implement data retention until "the EU cavalry is coming in". Hosein
called the Council proposal invasive, illusory, illegal, and illegitimate.
Privacy International and EDRI submitted such criticism to the European
Commission in September 2004. Andreas Gebhard representing EDRI-member
Netzwerk Neue Medien called data retention "the civil society's worst
nightmare". Gebhard pointed out that data preservation, as laid down in
the Cyber-Crime Treaty, offers a less intrusive and less costly
alternative to data retention.
Christina Vela, representing the European Telecommunications Network
Operators' Association (ETNO), called for a proper impact assessment and
justification for any mandatory data retention measure. Vela also called
upon the Council and the Commission to consider solutions that are less
intrusive. ETNO is concerned that the industry will be caught between
strict data protection rules and very broad data retention provisions.
Christiane Eichele of the Federation of German Industries (BDI) said that
data retention does not only effect the telecommunication industry but
called it a general issue of industry policy. She labelled the decision
making process on data retention a clear example of how it should not be
done.
Ilias Chantzos of Symantec didn't speak out in favour or against the
proposal but raised several issues regarding the volume and security of
retained data. Chantzos pointed out that the volume of the retained data
will present law enforcement with the very difficult task of "finding the
needle in the haystack". Chantzos emphasised that the costs of data
retention are not limited to the collection, storage and retrieval of
traffic data. The physical and network security of the storage systems
will be a key factor in the total costs. The abuse of retained data
through security breaches will pose huge risks. This point was followed up
by Klaus Landefeld of EuroISPA, the European alliance of ISP associations.
Landefeld noted that the data retention proposal asks for secure and
redundant storage which is not at all the standard for keeping logs in the
ISP industry. EuroISPA fears that a data retention obligation will force
ISPs to engage in data mining, a craft in which they have no expertise.
Rapporteur Alvaro noted in his closing remarks that in the past months he
has met very few people that think the data retention proposal is the
right way forward. MEP Mastenbroek expressed strong criticism of the
Councils proposal saying that the necessity for the measure has not been
investigated. She also demanded that the Council stops negotiating about
the proposal now that legal opinions from the Commission, the Council
itself and the EU Parliament's legal committee state that the proposal is
illegal and in breach of the EU Treaty.
A representative of eBay in the audience was one of the few that spoke out
in favour of data retention which he saw as a solution to reduce identity
theft. Gus Hosein blasted this argument as false: "Identity theft is
caused by data aggregation". A representative for the Commission
expressed, as a personal opinion, his dissatisfaction with the absence of
law enforcement input into the public debate. He also called for more
understanding for the needs of law enforcement regarding retention.
No news about an upcoming Commission proposal on data retention came out
of the meeting. But privately many insiders expressed their confidence
that a decision on data retention will be in the hands of the Commission
and Parliament and that the Council will at some point redraw it's current
proposal. It will however be a challenge to remind the Parliament that the
redrawal of the Council's proposal does not mean that the fight over data
retention has been won. Any future Commission proposal will still have to
be scrutinised by Parliament for its necessity, proportionality and cost
reimbursements.
The Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs has advised the LIBE Committee
that the Council proposal is illegal. It advises that a EU Commission
directive should regulate which data have to be retained and how long. "In
the light of these considerations, two separate measures could be
envisaged: one based on the first pillar (ECT) on harmonisation of
categories of data and the length of time such data must be retained, and
the other based on the third pillar (TEU) on aspects relating to
cooperation on criminal matters, in particular on the subject of access to
and exchange of such data."
The Council has released a new censored draft for the data retention
proposal that allows members states to retain data for up to 48 months.
This proposal is in accordance with the secret minutes that EDRI-gram
published on 6 April. The proposal also shows that the Council is
continuing with negotiations, ignoring all opinions on the legality of the
proposal.
Presentations of the speakers will be made available on the ALDE public
hearing website (03.05.2005)
http://alde.europarl.eu.int/content/default.asp?pageid=715
Press release: ALDE rapporteur considers Council proposals
"disproportionate, invasive and illusory" (04.05.2005)
http://alde.europarl.eu.int/content/default.asp?PageID=37
Invasive, Illusory, Illegal, and Illegitimate: Privacy International and
EDRI Response to the Consultation on a Framework Decision on Data
Retention (15.09.2004)
http://www.privacyinternational.org/issues/terrorism/rpt/responsetoretention.html
Opinion of the EU Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs (31.03.2005)
http://www.bof.nl/docs/eplegaladvice.pdf
New Council Draft proposal (14.04.2005)
http://register.consilium.eu.int/pdf/en/05/st07/st07833.en05.pdf
Secret minutes EU data retention meeting (06.04.2005)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number3.7/retention
(Contribution by Maurice Wessling, EDRI-member Bits of Freedom)
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2. NGOs against international surveillance and policy laundering
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On 20 April 2005 the civil liberties group Statewatch, together with the
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and two other NGOs launched the
Campaign Against Mass Surveillance (ICAMS), calling on all national
governments and intergovernmental organisations to turn away from
antiterrorism efforts that are oriented around mass surveillance.
The campaign started with an in-depth report on 'The emergence of a global
infrastructure for registration and surveillance'. "Driven largely by the
United States, a growing web of anti-terrorism and security measures are
being adopted by nations around the world. This new 'security' paradigm is
being used to roll back freedom and increase police powers in order to
exercise increasing control over individuals and populations." The report
describes 10 signposts that clearly mark the general erosion of human
rights. To some extent, all of the signposts have already been realised.
To another extent, the report reads like a manual for an awesome uncle of
Big Brother.
The signposts begin with systems to register populations (from the EU visa
database to the US visit program) to the creation of global ID systems and
the global registration of movement. After that, surveillance
infrastructure is brought into place of electronic communications and
financial transactions, and national and international databases are
merged. 'Risk assessment' is the sixth step. "Instead of focusing on
time-honored techniques of working outward from known facts and suspected
wrongdoers, the risk assessment approach seeks to subject everyone to
scrutiny, in the hopes of combing wrongdoers out of the crowd." This is
followed by a deep integration of police, security, intelligence and
military establishments. Finally, democratic values are fundamentally
eroded by suspending judicial oversight and "circumventing debate by
imposing policy through unelected, unaccountable transnational bodies."
During the CFP conference in Seattle another international NGO project was
launched with a strong focus on digital rights. Privacy International, the
American Civil Liberties Union and Statewatch presented the policy
laundering project, to closely monitor the formation of civil
liberties-sensitive security policies through international organisations.
"Governments are increasingly pushing the illiberal policies through
international treaty organisations, then bringing them back home", said
Dr. Gus Hosein, Senior Fellow with Privacy International. "This is the
strategy we call policy laundering. The UK has recently laundered
communications surveillance policies through the European Union and ID
cards through the United Nations. The Government returns home to
Parliament, holding their hands up saying 'We are obliged to act because
of international obligations' and gets what they want with little debate."
Besides the plans for mandatory data retention and the introduction of
biometric identifiers on ID cards, the watchmen also warn against the
transfer of passenger data, the compilation of lists of supposed
terrorists and the global flow of all kinds of personal banking
information.
Report and list of supporting NGOs
http://www.i-cams.org/
Privacy International Announces Project to Stop 'Policy Laundering'
(13.04.2005)
http://www.privacyinternational.org/policylaundering
Central clearinghouse policy laundering
http://www.policylaundering.org/
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3. EP takes position on softpats for second reading
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Rapporteur Michel Rocard (French socialist, PSE) is preparing the European
Parliament for the second reading of the controversial directive on
software patents. On 21 April his working document was discussed in the
EuroParl Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) and on 29 April he filed a long
list of amendments on the document produced by the Council of Ministers of
Competitiveness. Rocard clearly wants to exclude any patents on pure
software and business methods and is reinstating almost all of the
amendments adopted by the European Parliament in the first reading. In
spite of the massive majority in the EP during the first reading against
software patents and ignoring the protest from 5 member states, the
European Commission and the Council of Ministers produced a hotly
contested 'common position' in March 2005 that didn't specifically exclude
software from patentability.
In his amendments Rocard proposes a sharp definition of a technical
invention. He clearly states (both in the considerations and in the actual
text of the directive) that software or other means of processing data can
never be called technical and that an invention can only claim
patentability if it is a really new invention, if it is susceptible of
industrial application, if it relates to a technical activity and is using
controllable forces of nature. An example of such a patentable technical
invention Rocard mentions is an improved ABS breaking system, which is
controlled by a computer, but has a real impact on forces of nature
(breaking).
To prevent possible gaps in the legislation that would somehow still allow
for a patent on software, Rocard is also guaranteeing the
interoperability. If it is necessary to use a patented technique to insure
the communication and exchange of data between two different systems or
networks, such usage can never infringe on a patent, he proposes to add to
consideration 22.
In his working document Rocard provides a noteworthy defence of the
importance of free access to ideas and knowledge. "For thousands of years
knowledge has been established and disseminated by copying and
improvement, that is by free access to ideas. The fact that modern
branches of knowledge, at least those that have some relation to logic or
quantification, can be more easily expressed in the form of software must
in no case lead to our relinquishing the principle of free access, which
is the only way of safeguarding humanity’s luxuriant ability to constantly
create new areas of knowledge."
The Europarl JURI committee will vote on the amendments on 20 June 2005.
The parliament is scheduled to vote in plenary on 6 July 2005. Meanwhile,
the European Commission has issued an explanatory statement about the
scope of the directive on Intellectual Property Enforcement (IPRE). It
also includes any kinds of patents. The directive provides strong new
enforcement powers to right holders and thus gives an extra incentive to
MEPs to very carefully avoid patentability of software and business
methods, to avoid competitors spitefully raiding each others offices.
Michel Rocard working document on the patentability of computer-generated
inventions (13.04.2005)
http://www.europarl.eu.int/meetdocs/2004_2009/documents/DT/563/563744/563744en.pdf
FFII comments on rapporteur Rocard's software patents report (28.04.2005)
http://wiki.ffii.org/RocardPr050428En
FFII report about the JURI debate (21.04.2005)
http://wiki.ffii.org/Juri050421En
Statement European Commission concerning Article 2 of Directive 2004/48/EC
(13.04.2005)
http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/lex/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2005/l_094/l_09420050413en00370037.pdf
Overview earlier articles in EDRI-gram about software patents
http://www.edri.org/issues/copyright/software
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4. Strong protest Dutch libraries against access to data
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The public and academic libraries in the Netherlands have united in strong
protest against a proposed new law that will give the police extraordinary
new access powers to data about readers. The law is now with the Senate
and the committee on legal affairs is waiting for answers from the
minister after a first critical round of questions. The law addresses all
holders of data, from car rent companies to video stores and from private
people with databases to any kind of company with data about their
customers. Parts of the law have already entered into force, in special
legislation for banks and for telephony and Internet providers.
Generally, the law will make it much easier for law enforcement to get
access to data, by lowering legal barriers and safeguards. The proposal
distinguishes between three kinds of data: identifying data, other data
and sensitive data. Identifying data are much more than just name and
address. This category includes postal address, date of birth, gender and
all kinds of administrative identifiers such as customer number, insurance
policy number, bank account or membership numbers. Any police officer can
demand 'series' of these identifying data, without any suspicion, as
pro-active investigation. These demands can be even be made verbally, on
the phone.
Only sensitive data, such as religion, race, political affiliation, health
or sexual life still require an authorisation from an independent
examining magistrate. Any 'other data' can be ordered by the public
prosecutor. This is a massive category of all kinds of data stored in
business administrations, but also for example reader profiles held by
libraries. Supposedly, people who's 'other data' have been requested
without any result, should be notified after the research is closed. But a
recent evaluation of the new extraordinary policing powers in the
Netherlands revealed that hardly anybody is ever notified. Minister of
Justice Donner has already told the Senate that he wants to talk with the
public prosecution office to see if this obligation to notify needs a
revision, "in case essential investigation interests are at risk."
The Dutch libraries are now alarming a general audience in the Netherlands
with their appeal to 'Keep Big Brother out of the library!'. "Libraries
are not convinced by soothing remarks that all law enforcement activities
in the Netherlands are supervised by the public prosecutor or judge. That
provides no guarantee against a too broad use of the powers granted by the
draft law. In the United States, where the powers are more broadly
defined, many more inquiries have been made than originally claimed, and
with a much broader scope than could have been expected from the original
intention to fight terrorism. The intended fight against terrorism could
thus easily degenerate into a kind of moral police supervision."
The Dutch library protest is similar to the massive protest from
libraries, librarians, booksellers, publishers and readers in the United
States against the new snooping powers granted in section 215 of the
Patriot Act. On 12 April 2005 this US coalition welcomed a testimony by
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales that he is willing to amend the section
to protect reader privacy. One approach would be to require the FBI to
possess 'specific and articulable facts' indicating 'reason to believe'
that the person whose records are sought is a terrorist or foreign agent.
Press release Dutch libraries (in Dutch, 25.04.2005)
http://sitegenerator.bibliotheek.nl/fobid/overig33/overig33.asp
US Book groups support efforts to amend patriot act (12.04.2005)
http://www.readerprivacy.org/news.jsp?id=6
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5. French court forbids DVD copy protection
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On 22 April 2005, a Paris appeal court has outlawed the use of a copy
protection mechanism on a DVD. The case was launched by the French
consumer union UFC-Que Choisir early in 2004, on behalf of a customer who
had unsuccessfully tried to copy a DVD of David Lynch's film Mulholland
Drive. She tried to copy the DVD to regular video for her mother, who
didn't have any computer or DVD-player.
In April 2004 the court in first instance rejected the demand, but in
appeal the court has declared it forbidden to apply copy-prevention
because it violates the right to make a private copy. On top of that, the
court criticised the lack of an explicit warning on the cover. There was a
very small sign with the letters CP, which is supposed to mean 'copy
prohibited'. The producers and the distributor must now pay the customer
250 euro to compensate for the inconvenience and the union 1.500 euro to
cover basic legal costs.
Within a month, the producers must unlock the DVD. The judgement only
applies to this specific DVD, but the ruling can also be used by anybody
else to protest against copy protection, after they have bought a DVD,
according to a spokesperson of the consumer union.
In their battle against copy protection on CDs the consumer union was not
so fortunate. On 15 April 2005 they lost an appeal case at the court of
Versailles, in an attempt to lift the copy protection on a CD by the
French singer Alain Souchon, issued by EMI France. The Versailles court
acknowledged the copy protection was the cause of many problems with
different readers, but also ruled that copy protection was completely
legitimate, as long as the CDs contained a clear warning. EMI still has to
pay the consumer union 10.000 euro to compensate for damages.
France has not yet implemented the European Copyright Directive
(2001/29/EC), with the provisions in Article 29 that provide strong legal
protection for copy protection mechanisms.
La justice interdit de protéger les DVD contre la copie (22.04.2005)
http://www.01net.com/editorial/274752/droit/la-justice-interdit-de-proteger-les-dvd-contre-la-copie/
Les verrous anticopie des CD reconnus coupables, mais pas illégaux
(19.04.2005)
http://www.01net.com/article/274330.html
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6. Report on journalism, civil liberties and the war on terror
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The international federation of journalists (IFJ) and the UK civil
liberties group Statewatch have launched a new report on 3 May 2005, World
Press Freedom Day. The report examines how democratic states sacrifice
civil liberties and free expression in the name of security and concludes:
"The war on terrorism amounts to a devastating challenge to the global
culture of human rights and civil liberties established almost 60 years
ago."
According to the press release the report also concludes:
-Media and independent journalism suffer in a 'pervasive atmosphere of
paranoia' which is leading to dangerous levels of self-censorship
-Dissent inside and outside media is being restricted
-Fundamental rights to a fair trial are routinely violated
-Governments are covertly creating massive databanks for surveillance of
their citizens
-New international rules are being agreed in a secret process of 'policy
laundering'
IFJ press release (03.05.2005)
http://www.ifj.org/default.asp?Index=3107&Language=EN
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7. Danish debate about privacy in municipal administrations
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A recent bill proposing a comprehensive structural reform of the Danish
municipal system has initiated a heated debate about the protection of
personal data, the rule of law and citizens access to information. "How
can digital administration empower marginalised groups of the Danish
society?", "How to ensure that the administration will be more transparent
for the citizen and not the other way around?", and "How can democratic
control ensure coherence between political goals and technology choices?".
These were some of the questions debated on 27 April 2005 when a working
group established by the Danish Board of Technology had invited a number
of public and private decision makers to discuss consequences and
perspectives of the digital administration. In the debate the Danish
Institute for Human Rights stressed that the current proposals represent a
regress of citizens' rights rather than an improvement, not least
concerning the right to privacy.
On 2 May 2005 the workshop was followed by a Parliamentary Hearing, in
which members of the legal committee of the Parliament had asked an expert
panel to give their assessments of rights implications related to the
current proposal on citizen service centres. The debate underlined two
points. Firstly that the current proposals do represent a regression in
privacy protection and access to information compared to the current level
of protection in Denmark. Secondly that there are no solid arguments
(neither technical, practical nor legal) for lowering the level of privacy
protection in order to gain benefits from digital administrations. Not
even the representatives from the municipalities (who will be implementing
the new proposals) were able to provide any argument to implement
legislation that will lower protection in stead of enhance it. At the
Hearing the Danish Institute for Human Rights argued that the perspective
of citizen empowerment has to be included, as well as self autonomy and
democratic participation. Digital administrations should not only be
addressed from a perspective of administrative efficiency.
In February 2005 a first report on Privacy and Digital Administration was
published by the working group under The Danish Board of Technology. A
final report will follow in August 2005.
Information about the proposed bill (in Danish)
http://www.teknologiraadet.dk
(Contribution by Rikke Frank Jřrgensen from EDRI-member digital rights in
Denmark and the Danish Institute for Human Rights)
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8. Italian prosecutor demands take down Indymedia Italy
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The public prosecutor's office of Rome has requested the relevant judicial
authorities to allow the seizure of Indymedia Italy's website, on the
ground of violation of the Italian penal law on 'vilipendio della
religione cattolica' ('insult to the catholic religion') and 'vilipendio
della figura del Papa' ('insult to the Pope's figure').
What happened? Someone, using Indymedia's content management system (which
allows everyone to freely upload all kind of material) has published a
fake photo of Pope Benedictus XVI dressed as a Nazi official. This was a
clear reference to the Pope being a member - albeit, as he put it in
various interviews, 'not a real enthusiast' - of the Hitlerjugend (the
'Hitler Youth').
Even though the constitutionality of the law on insult to the catholic
religion, that is being invoked as a weapon against Indymedia Italy, is
itself quite doubtful (on the basis that it is discriminatory towards
other religions and in general not really compatible with the supposedly
lay nature of the Italian State) the public prosecutor has nevertheless
decided to issue an international judicial action; the website of
Indymedia Italy is physically hosted in the US. Italian media consequently
speak about hosting in Brazil, but they are probably confused the fact
that the domain name is registered by a Brazilian entity.
Moreover, the public prosecutor is waiting for the authorisation of the
Italian Ministry of Justice in order to prosecute for insult to the Pope's
figure. Since the Pope is a foreign head of state, a formal authorisation
by the minister is necessary. It will be interesting to see what the
decision of the Minister of Justice will be, especially given the very
close links that have always existed between Italian governments from 1945
onwards and the Vatican.
This is not the first time that Indymedia is being targeted by Italian
authorities: last October many Indymedia national websites went off-line
because of the seizure of two hard disks. Even though the information was
officially dismissed as untrue, rumours were that the request for the
seizure was issued by the public prosecutor of Bologna, in the context of
an investigation on homeland terrorism. However, the FBI - which
materially seized the servers - confirmed that the request came from
Italy.
The fake image of Pope Benedictus XVI
http://italy.indymedia.org/news/2005/04/782557.php
(Contribution by Andrea Glorioso, Italian consultant on digital policies)
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9. Initiative European libraries to digitise books
============================================================
On 28 April 2005 6 EU countries sent an open letter to the European
Commission and the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council asking for a
European digital library. Inspired by the French president Jacques Chirac,
the presidents or prime ministers of Poland, Germany, Italy, Spain and
Hungary have signed the letter.
On On 3 May 2005 the European Commission responded with an announcement
that it will boost its policy of preserving and exploiting Europe's
written and audiovisual heritage. The Commission plans to issue a
communication by July outlining the stakes involved and identifying the
obstacles to using written and audiovisual archives in the European Union.
The communication will be accompanied by a proposal for a Recommendation
aimed at enlisting all the public players concerned and facilitating
public-private partnerships in the task of digitising the European
heritage.
The French initiative is perceived as a counter initiative against the
Google sponsorship of the digitalisation of 15 million books from the
prestigious libraries of the universities of Harvard, Stanford and
Michigan, the New York Public Library and the Bodleian in Oxford. The
French press dubbed this move 'omnigooglisation' and expressed fear about
the disappearance of French literature and culture from the Internet.
On 16 March 2005 Chirac asked Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres
and France's National Library president Jean-Noel Jeanneney to study how
collections in libraries in France and Europe could be put more widely and
more rapidly on the internet. They produced a general statement that was
signed by national libraries in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark,
Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania,
Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden. The
British National Library has given its implicit support to the move,
without signing the motion, while Cyprus and Malta have agreed verbally to
the text. Portugal is also set to approve it.
Open letter Chirac to Commission and Presidency (in French, 28.04.2005)
http://tinyurl.com/9yfj4
Europe rallies against Google library (28.04.2005)
http://cooltech.iafrica.com/technews/436241.htm
Press release European Commission (03.05.2005)
http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/05/528&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
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10. Recommended reading
============================================================
The Open University in the UK has released an interesting course on Law,
the Internet and Society: technology and the future of ideas. The course
is published under one of the very first creative commons licenses in the
UK. The UK license was officially launched on 16 March 2005, after 16
months of legal scrutiny. Registration for the course is necessary.
Open University course
http://technology.open.ac.uk/t182
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11. Agenda
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8 May 2005, Dresden, Germany
1 day symposium on the future of data protection in relation to the
increased technological surveillance powers
http://datenspuren.dresden.ccc.de/2005/
12 May 2005, Berlin, Germany
The 1st "Linux in BERLIN" - conference and communication platform about
free software, open source and open content
http://www.linuxinberlin.de
21 May 2005, London, UK
Conference: Suspect Communities, the real 'war on terror' in Europe
http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/research-units/hrsj/events/events_home.cfm
27-28 May 2005, Florence, Italy, E-Privacy Conference 2005
This edition of the foremost Italian conference on privacy in the digital
age will focus on automatic data collection and retention. During the
conference the first Italian Big Brother Award Ceremony will be held in
the stunningly beautiful Palazzo Vecchio.
http://e-privacy.firenze.linux.it/
30 May - 1 June 2005, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
First Holland Open Software Conference, with keynotes by representatives
from IBM, Sun, Philips, Apache, Wikipedia and the FFII. The fee for
attendees is 185 euro including coffee, tea, two lunches, a dinner and
party. Reduced entrance fee for students.
http://www.hosc.nl
6-11 June 2005, Benevento (Naples), Italy
Digital Communities 2005
http://www.ssc.msu.edu/~espace/DC2005.html
13 June 2005, Luxembourg, Luxembourg
European Commission Information day on the first call for proposals of the
Safer Internet plus programme. Subject to the completion of all the
necessary procedures, it is intended to launch a call in June 2005 with a
deadline for proposals in October 2005.
http://europa.eu.int/information_society/activities/sip/news_events/infoday_2005/index_en.htm
14 June 2005, Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Plenary session of the Safer Internet Forum focussed on child safety and
mobile phones
http://europa.eu.int/information_society/activities/sip/news_events/mobile_2005/index_en.htm
17-18 June 2005, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
3d Amsterdam Internet Conference organised by OSCE Representative on
Freedom of the Media
http://www.osce.org/fom/item_6_9759.html
30 June - 1 July 2005, Geneva, Switzerland
International Symposium on Intellectual Property (IP) Education and
Research, organised by WIPO
http://www.wipo.int/academy/en/meetings/iped_sym_05/
11-15 July 2005, Genova, Italy, OSS 2005
http://oss2005.case.unibz.it/index.html
28-31 July 2005, Den Bosch, The Netherlands
What The Hack, major open air hacker / internet lifestyle event. Reduced
early bird entrance fee available until 10 May 2005.
http://www.whatthehack.org/
8-9 September 2005, Brussels, Belgium
EuroSOCAP Workshop on confidentiality and privacy in healthcare
3 year programme to develop new ethical standards for privacy and patient
access to (electronical) files, started on 31 January 2003.
http://www.eurosocap.org
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12. About
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EDRI-gram is a biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe.
Currently EDRI has 17 members from 11 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 or agenda-tips are
most welcome.
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: Sjoera Nas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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EDRI-gram is also available in Ukrainian and Italian, a few days
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Translations are provided by Privacy Ukraine and autistici.org, Italy
The EDRI-gram in Ukrainian can be read on-line via
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