[info] EDRI-gram newsletter - Number 5.16, 29 August 2007
Eugen Leitl
<eugen at leitl.org> on
Wed Aug 29 17:57:51 UTC 2007
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From: EDRI-gram newsletter <edrigram at edri.org>
Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 20:09:30 +0300
To: edri-news at edri.org
Subject: EDRI-gram newsletter - Number 5.16, 29 August 2007
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.3138
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EDRI-gram
biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe
Number 5.16, 29 August 2007
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Contents
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1. File-sharers' identification refused by German prosecutors
2. Wordpress.com blocked in Turkey
3. US law threatens non-US citizens' privacy rights
4. Allofmp3.com director acquitted by Moscow Court
5. Operation Pedopriest: Italian censorship on videogames?
6. DRM-free music is supported by consumers
7. French police investigated teenager for unofficial translation
8. Enough Internet voting trials says the UK Electoral Commission
9. Google has joined the Open Invention Network
10. Recommended Action
11. Recommended Reading
12. Agenda
13. About
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1. File-sharers' identification refused by German prosecutors
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Recent cases in the German Local Court of Offenburg have confirmed the
reluctance of the German public prosecutors in determining the identities of
P2P users that have allegedly breached the copyright law.
The German online publication Heise has revealed that in a recent case in
the Offenburg court, the judge decided to reject the music industry claims
to order the ISPs to reveal the subscribers that were suspected of having
infringed the copyright through peer-to-peer applications. The court
considered the measure as "disproportionate"and the plantiffs did not show
how the alleged offenders had been involved in actions that had created a
"criminally relevant damage".
The Offenburg Local Court confirms its jurisprudence set on 20 July 2007
when the public prosecutor's office was not allowed to ask the ISPs for the
identification of P2P users, considering that sharing some music files via
P2P was "a petty offense."
This is not an uncommon practice in Germany, as Heise reveals. The public
prosecutor's office in Celle dismissed a complaint by a law firm, known for
filing these type of suits on a massive scale for the music industry. The
law firm was complaining about the fact that the public prosecutor's office
in Hanover refused to start an investigation on order to reveal the names of
the persons behind some IP addresses provided by the firm.
But the public prosecutor's office in Hanover was in line with its
supervisor in Celle doubting that the law firm was "genuinely interested in
initiating criminal proceedings." They considered the offenses as minor and
that no substantial damage had occured. The Celle public prosecutor's office
said that "some parties may regret the fact" that the legislator has not
given holders of copyrights a civil law right to obtain the type of
information in question from providers, but such parties "could not however
expect such omissions on the part of the legislator to be offset in other
areas and in every minor case by the endeavors of the prosecuting
authorities with their limited resources."
In a reply in a similar case when a law firm asked the identification of
9,186 IP addresses, the chief public prosecutor's office in Berlin went on
accusing the copyright holders of trying "under cover of pretending to want
to initiate criminal proceedings to obtain for free and by exploiting the
limited resources of the prosecuting authorities and at the expense of the
budget of the federal state of Berlin the personal data required for the
successful pursuit of civil claims".
The German examples bring more trouble to the file-sharing lawsuits
initiated by the music industry, after the recent opinion of the Advocate
General Juliane Kokott from the European Court of Justice (EJC) who
considered that, according with the EU law, the ISPs are not obliged to
reveal personal data in civil litigation cases.
This opinion was recently brought in front of the public eye in Sweden,
where the Justice Department announced that a new legislation that would
allow the copyright holders to obtain the identity of people that share
illegal content over in the Internet could be initiated by the Swedish
Government. Rickard Wessman, spokesman for Justice Minister considered the
opinion as "hard to interpret" and affirmed that they were waiting for the
final result from the European Court of Justice in that case , but still
"believe that our proposal is compatible with the directive. "
Public prosecutors refuse to collect IP address-related information from
providers (2.08.2007)
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/93759/
Music industry rebuffed across Europe on file-sharing identifications
(3.08.2007)
http://www.out-law.com/page-8353
EU court 'could scupper Swedish piracy law' (22.08.2007)
http://www.thelocal.se/8263/20070822/
EDRI-gram : ECJ's Advocate General says no handing traffic information in
civil cases (1.08.2007)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.15/traffic-data-civil-cases
EDRI-gram: Sweden wants tougher laws against file sharers (18.07.2007)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.14/sweden-file-sharing
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2. Wordpress.com blocked in Turkey
============================================================
Turkey blocked the access to all the blogs hosted at wordpress.com on 17
August 2007, after a Turkish court decided on this action by agreing with
a law firm hired by Adnan Oktar, that claimed that several blogs on the
wordpress platform were publishing allegedly defamatory and "unlawful"
statements about their client.
Since 17 August 2007, over a million WordPress hosted blogs could have not
been accessible in Turkey, and a standard message has been displayed
instead: "Access to this site has been suspended in accordance with decision
no: 2007/195 of T.C.Fatih 2.Civil Court of First Instance ".
Adnan Oktar's lawyers claimed that they had tried to contact wordpress.com
several times in order to remove the alleged unlawful statements, but there
had been no reply, so they had been forced to go to court and ask for a
decision to block all the websites hosted at that address. They are accusing
Edip Yuksel, a Turkish writer and rival of their client, of using
WordPress-hosted blogs to publish "slander" about Adnan Oktar.
Apparently the court ordered the main ISP Turk Telecom to block a few
specific blogs, but when the new sites moved the content to other blogs
hosted at WordPress," we applied to the court to order that all websites of
WordPress be blocked," said one of the lawyers. He also claimed that "We
have also sent messages to other blog hosting sites and if the libellous
content moves to them we will again apply to the courts to have those
blocked also."
WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg published on his blog the letters
received from Adnan Oktar's lawyers with their allegations. He also
commented that, "when they said they contacted us 17 times, that means that
they would blast the same email to multiple address and when they didn't get
the reply they wanted they sent the same message over and over again" and
pointed out that "we never received any notice from Turkish courts".
He ended by saying : "So if you don't disallow certain words being used on
your blogs, you'll be punitively punished through our state-controlled ISP.
Today those words are 'Adnan Oktar'. Who knows what they'll be tomorrow."
Turkey also blocked the entire Youtube website for 2 days in March 2007
by a court order, after some videos insulting Turkey's founding father,
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk had been uploaded on its servers.
Why We're Blocked in Turkey: Adnan Oktar (19.08.2007)
http://wordpress.com/blog/2007/08/19/why-were-blocked-in-turkey/
Turkey: wordpress.com ban inspires firestorm of criticism (21.08.2007)
http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/08/21/turkey-wordpresscom-ban-inspires-firestorm-of-criticism/
Wordpres Banned in Turkey: A case of throwing the baby with the bath-water
(21.08.2007)
http://bekirlyildirim.wordpress.com/2007/08/21/wordpres-banned-in-turkey-a-case-of-throwing-the-baby-with-the-bath-water/
Turkey Update (25.08.2007)
http://photomatt.net/2007/08/25/turkey-update/
WP block in Turkey: Oktar lawyers issue 'threat' (27.08.2007)
http://jimcolella.wordpress.com/2007/08/27/wp-block-in-turkey-oktar-lawyers-issue-threat/
EDRI-gram: YouTube blocked for 2 days in Turkey (14.03.2007)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.5/youtube-turkey
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3. US law threatens non-US citizens' privacy rights
============================================================
A Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act proposed by the US Administration
was passed by the US Congress on 4 August 2007 allowing US intelligence
services to intercept electronic communications between US, but also non-US
citizens, if the communication passes across US-based networks, without
needing a court order.
A written question was addressed to the European Commission and the Council
by MEP Sophie In't Veld and Graham Watson from ALDE (Liberal group in the
European Parliament) raising concerns on the US act which they consider as a
violation of the privacy and civil rights of EU citizens. The questions
refer to the level of protection of the EU citizens' personal data that the
European Commission can provide as well as to the relation between EU-US
extradition agreements and the new US act, wondering whether the information
obtained by means of such interceptions can lead to automatic extraditions
without judicial substantiation. Ms. Sophie In't Veld is also concerned
about the unilateralism of the act that was passed without consulting the
European partners.
The MEPs asked the Commission whether it indented to carry out an
investigation on "what personal data of EU citizens can be accessed or
obtained by third countries, notably the US, and by what legal instruments",
an investigation that has been requested several times by the European
Parliament.
Tony Bunyan, director of Statewatch also commented: "Just because it happens
to pass through the US they claim they can do whatever they want,. Where is
the EU saying..? What's going on here, we've got to protect the rights of
our citizens?"
The US Act has raised opposition even in the US from the Democrats Hillary
Clinton and Barack Obama. According to In 't Veld, members of the US
Congress fear that US President Bush will use this act to eavesdrop on US
citizens.
US Congress rubber-stamps new law authorising spying on foreign nationals'
calls and emails -ALDE release (7.08.2007)
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2007/aug/ep-alde-eu-us-question-fisa-com-prel.pdf
Question addressed by Liberal Democrat MEP, Sophie In't Veld and Graham
Watson (ALDE) (06.08.2007)
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2007/aug/ep-alde-eu-us-question-fisa-com.pdf
Terror law puts Britons at risk of surveillance by US agents (19.08.2007)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,330596568-105744,00.html
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4. Allofmp3.com director acquitted by Moscow Court
============================================================
Denis Kvasov, head of Mediaservices, owner of music website Allofmp3.com was
acquitted by a Moscow court after having been brought to trial by
entertainment companies EMI Group Plc, NBC Universal and Time Warner Inc.
for copyright offences.
On 15 August 2007, district judge Yekaterina Sharapova ruled that Denis
Kvasov had not infringed the Russian law. "The prosecution did not succeed
in presenting persuasive evidence of his involvement in infringing copyright
law," said the judge. She considered the arguments of the plaintiffs as
unconvincing and contradictory. Also, no evidence was produced to prove the
purchase and storage of counterfeit phonograms or the conversion of the
record-label phonograms into mp3 by the site.
Website Allofmp3.com site, which was a delicate subject during the US-Russia
talks for Moscow's joining the World Trade Organization, was shut down in
June 2007 as a result of the pressure from the US music firms. The site had
offered downloads at very low prices; an album could be bought at less than
1 euro.
Kvasov's defence argued that royalties had been paid to the Russian
Organization on Collective Management of Rights of Authors and Other
Rightholders in Multimedia, Digital Networks & Visual Arts (ROMS). However,
ROMS is not recognized by many Western companies which continue to ignore
the organization and refuse to receive payments from it. The payments are
made by the Russian sound recording companies according to the Russian
copyright law.
Mr. Nezus, director general of ROMS stated the music companies were
influenced by IFPI (The International Federation of the Phonographic
Industry). "The activity of all the legal Russian music Internet shops might
be affected, while IFPI intention to interfere with the activity of the
intern shops and societies to collectively supervise the copyright gives
rise to concern".
In its turn, IFPI Russian Representation Office Head, Igor Pozhitkov,
considers the following reasons for not accepting ROMS: "Using broad law
formulations and separate parts of law, malefactors, sometimes the pirates
themselves, start creating pseudo societies on collective management to hide
their pirated activities. At the same time the criteria to determine the
efficiency and legitimacy of a Collective Management Society) are rather
simple and include representation of most of the copyright holders, activity
transparency, and actual recognition by the copyright holders and
international organizations".
He also expressed the intention to appeal the decision against website
Allofmp3.com in a higher court.
Russia throws out net piracy case (15.08.2007)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6948345.stm
Russian court acquits music site owner (15.08.2007)
http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSL1585563020070815
Allofmp3.com Director acquittal (15.08.2007)
http://eng.cnews.ru/news/top/indexEn.shtml?2007/08/15/262659
Russian mp3-shops barred from paying for the content (23.08.2007)
http://eng.cnews.ru/news/top/indexEn.shtml?2007/08/24/263640
EDRI-gram: Allofmp3.com shut down, but more Russian music websites opened
(18.07.2007)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.14/russian-music-websites
============================================================
5. Operation Pedopriest: Italian censorship on videogames?
============================================================
In the past weeks a small online videogame has been the center of much
controversy in Italy, with center-right MPs explicitly asking
governmental intervention in its removal, questioning once again the
limits of freedom of expression in the country.
Everything started when Molleindustria, a group of "artists, designers
and programmers that aims at starting a serious discussion about
social and political implications of videogames", developed and
published on its website a small Flash-based videogame called
"Operation Pedopriest". Molleindustria was already quite famous in
Italian specialized circles for its Flash-based games on politically
sensitive topics, including exploitation of workers and gender
identity.
"Operation Pedopriest" was Molleindustria's provocative follow-up to
the recent BBC documentary "Sex, crimes and the Vatican" and the hot
debate that raged in the Italian political world when the documentary
was broadcasted on the public TV network. Echoing the claims of the
documentary, players of "Pedopriest" are in control of so-called
"silencers", priests intimidating parents of abused children in order
to avoid police intervention. Apparently, some MPs from the UDC party
(Unione dei Democratici Cristiani e di Centro - Christian and Center
Democrats Union, currently in the center-right opposition coalition)
were not amused by the game.
On 26 June 2007 Luca Volontè, head of the UDC group in the lower chamber,
issued an official request to the Ministers of Internal Affairs, of
Cultural Goods and Activities and of Communications. In the request,
Mr. Volontè lamented the existence and wide availability of a "flash
game (...) whose goal is to attack the [Catholic] Church and Pope
Benedetto XVI" and asked the Ministers "which urgent measures they
plan to adopt in order to avoid that freedom of expression (...)
become an alibi to offend human and religious sensitivity and which
measures they plan to put in place in order to avoid (...) offences to
(...) religious confessions in general and to the catholic religion in
particular".
Of particular interest, the request by Mr. Volontè stressed the fact
that the videogame depicted "simulations of rapes on children"; this,
according to Mr. Volontè, violated Italian Law 38/2006 ("Measures
related to the fight against sexual exploitation of children and
pedopornography, including via the Internet") and specifically the
prohibition of obtaining or trafficking with "virtual images" of
child pornography.
Notwithstanding the fact that, as many commentators argued, Law
38/2006 defines "virtual images" as "images made using techniques of
graphical elaboration [...] whose quality makes unreal situations look
real" (which was obviosuly not the case of "Operation Pedopriest", a
very stylized, lo-res game) the statement by the Minister of Internal
Affairs that the website of Molleindustria was already "under
examination" and that "judicial authority" had been informed was
enough for Molleindustria to take action.
On 1 July, Molleindustria announced the removal of "Operation
Pedopriest" from the website, "in order to not worsen the situation of
our webspace provider that is legally responsable for all the
content". As could be expected, shortly after its removal the game
started to be mirrored and copied all around the Internet, in Italy
and abroad. What had probably not been expected was that on 2 July,
the lucavolonte.eu domain name was registered by a member of the art
group "Les Liens invisibiles" and used for a parody of Mr. Volontè
official website - an almost exact copy, but with the game "Operation
Pedopriest" shown in good evidence.
This prompted a reaction that took the form of a precautionary seizure
of the website by the Postal Police of Frosinone (Rome) on 9 July.
According to a communiqué by Les Liens invisibles, the seizure was
based on violation of art. 494 ("Replacement of person") and
art. 593(3) ("Defamation through the press") of the Italian Criminal
Code. The content on lucavolonte.eu was replaced with a dry
notice of seizure.
However, the saga was not (and is not) finished. On the same day of
the seizure, the domain name "luca-volonte.com" was registered and
used for the same parody of Mr. Volonté website; this time, however, a
US hosting provider was chosen. According to some non-verified inside
sources, the Italian prosecutor of the case is considering whether to
issue an international request to US authorities.
If the "Operation Pedopriest" case might seem solved, the larger
problem of how much freeedom of expression Italian citizens can expect
to be granted remains, especially in light of the Government's
worrying theories on the harsh limits that art. 21 - the article of
the Italian Constitution defending freedom of expression - should meet
when confronted with "religious sensitivity".
The web site of Molleindustria
http://www.molleindustria.org/home-eng.php
Sex, crimes and the Vatican (29.09.2006)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/5389684.stm
Official website of Luca Volontè
http://www.luca-volonte.it/
Luca Volontè request (in Italian only, 26.06.2007)
http://banchedati.camera.it/sindacatoispettivo_15/showXhtml.Asp?idAtto=13557&stile=6&highLight=1&paroleContenute=%27INTERPELLANZA%27
Official response to Luca Volontè's request (in Italian only, 28.06.2007)
http://www.camera.it/_dati/leg15/lavori/stenografici/sed179/s140.htm#STitolo22%2060
Law 38/2006 (in Italian only, 6.02.2007)
http://www.giustizia.it/cassazione/leggi/l38_06.html
First parody of Mr. Volontè website (now seized)
http://www.lucavolonte.eu/
Linking the Invisible (in Italian only, 10.07.2007)
http://www.lesliensinvisibles.org/volonte_vs_molleindustria/
Second parody of Mr. Volontè website
http://www.luca-volonte.com/
(Contribution by Andrea Glorioso, consultant on digital policies - Italy)
============================================================
6. DRM-free music is supported by consumers
============================================================
A new survey regarding music online conducted by Entertainment Media
Research in association with the law firm Olswang showed that the DRM
(Digital Rights Management) related problems are more present in UK
consumers' opinion than the music industry initially thought.
The survey was made on more than 1,700 respondents, a sample drawn from
Entertainment Media Research's UK panel of 300,000 music consumers. The
survey was performed in June 2007.
It shows that the number of people that have never heard about DRM dropped
from 50% to 37% in just one year. Moreover, the number of respondents that
claimed to have a good or exact knowledge of DRM almost tripled in the past
year.
Regarding the DRM-related questions the report underlines that DRM is an
increasingly hot topic for consumers, with 68% of respondents who expressed
the opinion that downloads are "Only worth purchasing if free of DRM." Also,
more people would prefer to pay a little extra for tracks free of DRM than
to pay the standard price and have restrictions.
The survey confirms the bad reputation of DRM within the UK consumers and
triggers some significant question marks for the music industry, at a time
when, according to the same survey, unauthorized downloading increased
across every single demographic category measured. Within the same timeframe
the legal downloading was still growing at a substantial pace (15%), but
less than it was expected.
Under the circumstances, it is not surprising that the biggest music labels
are trying to cope with the new situation. Universal Music announced in
August 2007 that it would sell thousands of albums and tracks available in
MP3-format without a DRM protection. "The experiment will run from August to
January and analyse such factors as consumer demand, price sensitivity and
piracy in regards to the availability of open MP3s." The music, including
tracks of 50 Cent, the Black Eyed Peas or Amy Winehouse, will be sold
through Google, Wal-Mart, and Amazon.com, but not through iTunes.
Survey says: only DRM-free music is worth paying for ( 5.08.2007)
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070805-survey-says-only-drm-free-music-is-worth-paying-for.html
The 2007 Digital Music Survey (07.2007)
http://www.entertainmentmediaresearch.com/reports/EMR_Digital_Music_Survey2007.pdf
Universal sells songs without DRM (10.08.2007)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6939807.stm
EDRI-gram: Is DRM fading out? (17.01.2007)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.1/drm
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7. French police investigated teenager for unofficial translation
============================================================
A French high school student was arrested and interrogated by the police for
having posted online his translation of the first three chapters of the
latest Harry Potter volume, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", only a
few days after the official launching of the English version in July 2007.
He was however immediately released and no civil charges were made by the
pubisher and the author.
The action was the result of a complaint made by J.K. Rowling's and
Gallimard's lawyer in France meant to stop industrial counterfeits, but the
complaint was targeting organised networks of translators looking for direct
or indirect profit from the successful saga and not individuals. The concern
was related to organized networks that achieve counterfeited works and edit
them with the same cover as the originals and commercialize them, which was
not the case of the arrested teen.
The young man had indeed created a forum called Hptrad for Harry Potter's
fans and wanted to make available "a true and beautiful translation" of the
last volume. The forum gathered about 500 people and included translators
and proof-readers that would ensure a correct and coherent translation of
the text. However, the forum had not been meant for any commercial profit.
A Gallimard spokeswoman stated: "This complaint in no way concerns isolated
translations published on the internet (...) by disinterested fans not fully
aware of the illegal nature of their action."
The official release of the Harry Potter French version is scheduled for 29
October 2007.
Police arrest French teen over Potter translation (8.08.2007)
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20070808/tot-uk-france-potter-arrest-566e283_1.html
Was it wizardry that guided him? Or too much free time? (8.08.200&)
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/20185024/
An Internet user arrested for having made available a pirate translation of
the latest Harry Potter (only in French, 13.08.2007)
http://www.01net.com/editorial/355801/un-internaute-arrete-pour-avoir-diffuse-une-traduction-pirate-du-dernier-harry-potter/
JK Rowling in a tizz about internet groups (13.08.2007)
http://networks.silicon.com/webwatch/0,39024667,39168122,00.htm
============================================================
8. Enough Internet voting trials says the UK Electoral Commission
============================================================
On 2 August 2007, the Electoral Commission, independent body set up by the
UK Parliament, recommended in its evaluation on the pilot schemes used in
May 2007 elections to end electronic voting trials until the establishment
of a strategy by the UK Government to modernise the electoral system and
make it more secure.
The Electoral Commissions considers that there would be not much further to
learn from any more electronic voting trials, as lessons have been gathered
during the trials that took place during the last seven years when the
Ministry of Justice commissioned thirteen local authorities in England to
run pilot schemes. The Commission believes that it is time the government
drafted a clear plan to change the way to run these elections.
"We have learnt a good deal from pilots over the past few years. But we do
not see any merit in continuing with small-scale, piecemeal piloting where
similar innovations are explored each year without sufficient planning and
implementation time, and in the absence of any clear direction, or
likelihood of new insights. ..We welcome the recent government green paper
on constitutional reform; and we believe this needs to be supported by a
clear plan for modernising elections. We continue to believe that the
security of our electoral process needs to be strengthened through a system
of individual registration" said Peter Wardle, Chief Executive of the
Electoral Commission.
The reports issued by the Electoral Commission present an analysis of all
the stages of the electronic voting including voting in advance, electronic
counting and signing for ballot papers at the polling station and raises
concerns related to the low public confidence in the security of these
methods, technical difficulties and accessibility.
The recommendations of the Commission include the creation of a system for
the registration of the individual voters, a more reliable testing and
procurement process for electronic counting, a clear decision from the
Government of whether they want to use electronic voting in advance of the
polling day, the necessity for a strategy for the modernization of the
electoral process and for security improvement. It also recommended that the
value of ballot paper signing should be limited in case of the absence of
individual registration.
The Commission considers that electronic voting should not be continued
unless significant improvements were brought to better testing and that the
system would need at least six months for implementation.
The Electoral Commission's report confirms experiences of the EDRI-member
Open Rights Group (ORG) election monitoring teams, but does not recognize
the fundamental challenges in using computers for elections.
Despite the Commission's and ORG report's conclusions, Michael Wills, the
Election modernisation minister, does not seem to have understood the
message and stated: "These evaluations point to instances where e-counting
and e-voting have worked well, and where electors choose to vote remotely by
internet or telephone they often had favourable responses to these
innovations(...)The purpose of pilots is to learn lessons for the future and
we will do so."
Electoral Commission calls for end to 'piecemeal' election pilots
(2.08.2007)
http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/media-centre/newsreleasereviews.cfm/news/657
Electoral Commission May 2007 pilot schemes reports (2.08.2007)
http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/elections/pilotsmay2007.cfm
Halt e-voting, says election body (2.08.2007)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6926625.stm
ORG welcomes Electoral Commission recommendation to halt pilots (2.08.2007)
http://www.openrightsgroup.org/2007/08/02/org-welcomes-electoral-commission-recommendation-to-halt-pilots/
Findings of the Open Rights Group Election Observation Mission in Scotland
and England (20.06.2007)
http://media.ito.com/kevinmarks/org_election_report.pdf
============================================================
9. Google has joined the Open Invention Network
============================================================
The Open Invention Network (OIN), the Open source patent-swap body, has
received Google as a new member. This means that Google has implicitly
agreed not to file any patent infringement action against the Linux
community.
An OIN member has full access to a collection of more than 100 patents and
patent applications which is attractive "for companies that want to
repackage, embed and use Linux to host specialized services or create
complementary products. Additionally, it helps ensure the continuation of
innovation that has benefited software vendors, customers, emerging markets
and investors" as OIN site expresses. A member, however, has to agree to
take no legal actions against Linux developers, in an attempt to support
open source developers to avoid patent infringement suits. All members must
allow the other members to use their technologies without paying royalties.
The Network was created in 2005 by IBM, Novell, Sony and Red Hat in order to
create protection for companies developing open source software and includes
members such as Oracle, NEC and Phillips.
This action comes right after the annual Stanford Summit in Northern
California where Associate General Counsel, Head of Patents and Patent
Strategy Google, Michelle Lee, expressed the idea that the American patent
system was "out-of-balance [and] needs to be remedied". On that occasion she
also added that the Patent Office was overburdened as there were too many
businesses that used patents only to make money and had created obstacles to
tech companies during the last few years.
Rosenthal, chief executive officer of OIN, expressed the pleasure to receive
Google among the network members: "As we look to grow the Linux Ecosystem,
we are pleased to have Google become our first end-user licensee(...)Google
is one of a growing number of companies, of all sizes, that value the
openness and collaborative culture of the Linux community. We applaud their
support for Linux."
The representative of Google, DiBona, open source programmes manager, also
showed the satisfaction of the company for this action: "For us, today's
announcement marks the latest development in a long, fruitful relationship
with the open source community.We believe Linux innovation moves fastest
when developers can share their knowledge with full peace of mind. We're
proud to participate in an organization that's making that possible".
Google joins patent swap group (9.08.2007)
http://www.out-law.com/page-8367
Google: Kill all the patent trolls (2.08.2007)
http://www.out-law.com/page-8345
Open Invention Network Extends The Linux Ecosystem As Google Becomes Its
First End-User Licensee (7.08.2007)
http://www.openinventionnetwork.com/press_release08_06_07.php
============================================================
10. Recommended Action
============================================================
EU - Evaluation of Internet Self Regulation Survey
RAND Europe invite contributions to an online survey from all Internet users
with knowledge of self-regulatory institutions. This research institute is
conducting fieldwork for the European Commission to evaluate options for and
effectiveness of self-regulation in the Information Society. The findings
and recommendations will be validated by means of a key stakeholder workshop
and reported in a form suitable for wide dissemination and discussion. The
final date for completion of the online survey is 31 October 2007.
http://web3.rand.org/resurvey/TakeSurvey.asp?SurveyID=3JK663L0368KG
Call for tender: "Assessment of the Economic and Social impact of the Public
Domain in the Information Society".
The envisaged purpose of the assessment is to analyse the economic and
social impact of the public domain and to gauge its potential to contribute
for the benefit of the citizens and the economy.
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/digital_libraries/index_en.htm
============================================================
11. Recommended Reading
============================================================
ENISA presents the 1st report on current EU practices and assessing the
success of information security awareness raising activities.
http://www.enisa.europa.eu/pages/02_01_press_2007_08_22_meas_succ.html
============================================================
12. Agenda
============================================================
5-11 September 2007, Linz, Austria
Ars Electronica Festival - Festival for Art, Technology and Society
http://www.aec.at/en/festival2007/index.asp
17 September 2007, Geneva, Switzerland,
WIPO Information Seminar on Rights Management Information: Accessing
Creativity in a Network Environment
http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/2007/sem_cr_ge/
21 September 2007, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Bits of Freedom organizes the 5th Dutch Big Brother Awards
Nominations can be sent to info at bigbrotherawards.nl until the end of
August.
http://www.bigbrotherawards.nl/
22 September 2007, Berlin, Germany
Protest march against excessive surveillance
http://www.FreiheitstattAngst.de
25 September 2007, Montreal, Canada
Civil Society Workshop: Privacy Rights In A World Under Surveillance
A one-day workshop organized by the International Civil Liberties Monitoring
Group (ICLMG) in cooperation with Canadian and international civil rights
and privacy organizations ahead of the 29th International Conference of Data
Protection and Privacy Commissioners in Montreal.
http://www.thepublicvoice.org/events/montreal07/default.html
25-28 September 2007, Montreal, Canada
29th International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners
http://www.privacyconference2007.gc.ca/Terra_Incognita_home_E.html
29 September 2007, Bern, Switzerland
Wikipedia Day 2007 - Switzerland
http://www.wikipediatag.ch
3 October 2007, Ottawa, Canada
Participative Web Forum
http://www.oecd.org/futureinternet/participativeweb
11 November 2007, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
GigaNet'07 - Global Internet Governance Academic Network 2nd Annual
Symposium
Deadline for submissions: 1 August 2007
http://www.igloo.org/giganet
12-15 November 2007, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The Government of Brazil will host the second Internet Governance Forum
meeting.
http://www.intgovforum.org/
http://cgi.br/igf/
17 January 2008, London, UK
Nanontechbology for security and the crime prevention III
http://www.nano.org.uk/events/ionevents.htm#security
============================================================
12. About
============================================================
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