100 posts
ACTA, SOPA,PIPA...A threat or not?
As a blogger, I can not support the mentioned laws (ACTA,SOPA,PIPA). And while I understand the arguments that support this idea, the property rights and loss of revenue of the creators, I fear the way it could transform the internet and how we use...
THIS IS EUROPE #4
Freedom of information is luxury This is Europe (This is the world)...
Safer Internet Day 2012
Safer Internet Day 2012 by NeelieKroesEU Tomorrow, Tuesday 7 February, in 70 countries and 6 continents, it’s Safer Internet Day 2012. Across Europe, events are happening from quizzes and competitions to radio marathons. I want everyone getting...
The News: Unforgettable
From credit card numbers to holiday snaps, 75% of people think they should be able to delete what they put online. The EU is fighting for the right to be forgotten. Wartch the video.
ACTA and EU IPR enforcement agenda
It is not only a question about what the Anti-Counterfeiting (and much more) Trade Agreement ACTA contains or not, because it is a part of an intellectual property enforcement agenda driven by the European Commission. Long before popular discontent...
Censorship, surveillance and ACTA in European Parliament
IT exports for web censorship, Internet surveillance and other trade matters will be discussed in the European Parliament. Thursday, 8 February 2012, the Committee on International Trade (INTA) of the European Parliament arranges a workshop on Intern...
Securing our Internet – I visit the Munich Security Conference
Last weekend, I attended the Munich Security Conference. A cold couple of days – but a great opportunity to meet many interesting and influential figures in the field of defence, security and foreign affairs. I was there to highlight the increasing...
ACTA: 1.717 million ”misinformed” citizens to ignore
I was reminded by @alexanderhanff on Twitter that the EU trade commissioner Karel De Gucht asked members of the European Parliament to disregard public opposition to ACTA (Infojustice). In my view De Gucht's attitude (letter at La Quadrature du Net)...
So, confidentially, what DO you think of WIPO?
A rare first: the IPKat keeps his comments on WIPO to himself You may have been waiting for years to tell the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) what you think of it. If so, your chance has come. WIPO informs...
Is Google's New Privacy Policy Effective March 1, 2012 a Violation of Data Protection Rules in the European Union as well as the HIPAA in the USA ?
What this new Google privacy policy may mean in practice is that ALL your searches will become part of a single portfolio of information about YOU and be connected to all your Google accounts and services. Hmmm.Now THAT could be a very serious...
In the mean time, Anonymous takes on the offensive against FBI
Anonymous Unleashes Coordinated Attack Against Governments, Law Enforcement from Mashable! by Alex Fitzpatrick Anonymous is on the move. The hacker group has claimed credit for coordinated attacks and leaks against the U.S. government and internation...
”Hollywood versus The People” ACTA causes flood of protest
What the Pirate Party founder and inimitable digital freedom evangelist Rick Falkvinge calls the ”Hollywood versus The People” Anti-Counterfeiting (and much more) Trade Agreement ACTA has caused the biggest political protest storm ever among EU c...
Mitt tal på ACTA-demonstrationen i Stockholm
Vi var ungefär 1000 personer som trotsade kylan och demonstrerade mot ACTA i Stockholm igår lördag, enligt polisens uppskattning. Jag talade, och Urban Sundström, som brukar vara flitig och uppskattad gäst i kommentarsfälten på många bloggar,...
ACTA-demonstrationen i Stockholm — bilder
Idag hade vi en mycket lyckad demonstration mot ACTA-avtalet på Sergels torg i Stockholm. Här är några bilder fria för publicering (Creative Commons CC0). Andra som skriver om demonstrationerna: Expressen, Aftonbladet, DN, SvD, GP, Nyheter24, SV...
ACTA demonstrations today in Sweden
From the Stopp ACTA wiki main page you can proceed to the Google protest map or to demonstrations in 19 European countries. The main anti-ACTA action day is 11 February 2012, but today I visit Sweden, where four protests have made it to the pages. In...
More information on our privacy policy changes
Last night we received a letter from the Jacob Kohnstamm, Chairman of the Europe's Article 29 Working Party, asking for additional information about the changes to our privacy policy. We briefed most of the members of the working party in the weeks...
Europeans fighting against ACTA and snow… A Eurosphere roundup
ACTA activates European civil society (News) from EurActiv.com Growing ACTA protest online and on the ground by Grahnlaw By now, more than 1.526 million netizens have signed the Avaaz.org petition for the European Parliament to reject #ACTA. The call...
German Office of Information Security recommends Chrome
Last month, we published the core principles around Chrome security. This included commitments such as working with the internet community to help increase security for all web browsers, and continuing to design Chrome to offer multiple layers of de...
Copyright wars, Assange Trial, Facebook IPO, Pirate Bay and more… A Cyberculture roundup
Dear Hollywood: An Open Letter to the Hardworking Men and Women in the Entertainment Industries from EFF.org Updates by parker Dear Hollywood, You don’t need us to tell you that your position on anti-”piracy” laws has been unpopular rec...
Post Videos from Your iPhone or iPad
Would you like to post videos to your blog while you’re on the go? Are you interested in a photography theme that’s also video-friendly? Well, look no further, because we have some news for you. The VideoPress upgrade, which allows you to...
Piercing ACTA armour
We have looked at the growing protests online and on the ground against the Anti-Counterfeiting (and much more) Trade Agreement ACTA. The anti-ACTA feelings run high, but there is also a need for deliberation on the official policies of ever more dr...
European Parliament makes strong progress on outlawing counterfeiting
The Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) between the European Union, Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerlandand the USA has been the focus of much attention over the past few weeks. I have recei...
Growing ACTA protest online and on the ground
By now, more than 1.526 million netizens have signed the Avaaz.org petition for the European Parliament to reject #ACTA. The call is also directed at the parliaments in the EU member states, where most of the governments are preparing ratification. P...
Who’s the highest-profile European Commissioner?
In Brussels, being a member of the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, is about as high as an official can climb in the eurocracy. But just how well are those Brussels luminaries known back in their home countries? Thanks …Contin...
Thanks to all those taking part in the tweet-chat!
A big thank you to all who took part in the Tweetchat on Monday – 1000+ questions, covering subjects from the cloud to online privacy, from ACTA to VAT on ebooks (via a certain tweet that drew a lot of attention on my choice of perfume). To tho...
Megaupload, FBI, anonymous: internet battle over copyright
After a vast legal process in the American courts, the internet platform megaupload was closed down. Copyright struggle or third world war? One Frenchie looks for a more differentiated approach...
Software Patents vs Competitiveness: Less is More
Less is More http://jungla.dit.upm.es/~joaquin/report_en.pdf (Madrid-based EU Study)http://www.researchoninnovation.org/swpat.pdf (Boston Law + Federal Reserve Study)A pair of studies on the effect of software patents on innov...
Demonstrera mot ACTA nu på lördag 4 feb
Nu på lördag den 4 februari ordnas det demonstrationer mot ACTA på flera platser i landet. I Stockholm hålls demonstrationen på Sergels Torg 12.00. Den slutliga talarlistan är inte helt spikad ännu, men bland talarna ingår Anna Troberg, parti...
Should the EU regulate the internet?
Last month, we asked you what you thought Europe’s digital future might look like. We spoke with Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding about her proposed new data protection legislation, and got some reactions from MEPs and some of the companies...
ESAB: The EPO's new advisory board
The EPO has recruited an expert group of eleven advisors to sit on a newly-minted advisory council, to be known as the Economic and Social Advisory Board, or ESAB. The purpose of ESAB is to tell the EPO how to direct its efforts when studying the im...
De Gucht merits ACTA rejection
We learn, although not from the website of Karel De Gucht, but from La Quadrature du Net, that the EU trade commissioner has written a letter to the members of the Committee on International Trade (INTA) in the European Parliament, accusing civil soc...
ACTA text in 22 languages - Soon a million protesting online
The Anti-Counterfeiting (and much else) Trade Agreement #ACTA is a hot subject on Twitter and the online public sphere in general. Different campaigns aim at defeating the treaty. A short while ago @Avaaz had reached 963,079 online signatures on a gl...
The Digital Policy Landscape Seems To Be Moving
It seems to your author that the digital policy landscape has been moving significantly in recent days and weeks, possibly for the better. Firstly, and this is a biggie, Google has simplified and streamlined it’s privacy policy. It seems that t...
Information society, ACTA and copyright legislation
Here they are, in all their glory, the 22 language versions of ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. But, as we soon find out, the European Union and its Member States, Australia, Canada, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United Mexican Stat...
Notes on Facebook
By now everyone should be aware of Facebook’s recent stunt: introducing Timeline, which chronicles the users’ entire Facebook past on their profiles, all the way back to their actual births. Now it will be made obligatory. Needless to say...
ACTA Stipulates Increased Damages For File Sharing
”ACTA changes nothing” has become the favorite mantra of those who want to push the agreement through at any cost. This in itself is of course a strong signal that there is something very suspect about the whole issue. If ACTA really chan...
Cyberculture roundup: Understanding Twitter’s country-specific basis blocking; Pew Report on Tablet and E-book reader Ownership and more…
Twitter caves to global censorship, will block content on country-specific basis as required by Xeni Jardin EFF: “What Does Twitter’s Country-by-Country Takedown System Mean for Freedom of Expression?” by Xeni Jardin What Does Tw...
ACTA: ”Nu handlar det om att få ett nej i EU-parlamentet”
Sveriges Radios ”Alltid Nyheter” hade flera inslag om ACTA igår. Först intervjuade de Stefan Johansson, som är tjänstemannen på Justitiedepartementet som driver på för att få igenom ACTA, och därefter fick Henrik Alexandersson oc...
Eurosphere roundup: ACTA, Davos, Bloggingportal.eu 3 years old
Booklet: Why You Should Care About ACTA 14 November, 2011 » Campaigns | Intellectual Property Enforcement The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a plurilateral agreement which proposes international standards for enforcement of intel...
“the top of judgment”* 2012: This year’s top telecoms and broadcasting cases at the ECJ
Carrying on what has become some sort of a tradition (2009, 2010, 2011), I shall again take a look at pending cases in the field of telecommunications and broadcasting at the Court of Justice of the European Union (and the General Court) which we can...
Send us your video comments!
The Debating Europe team is really enjoying experimenting with all the online tools that are out there to try and bring politicians, academics and experts together with citizens in the same conversation. There’s been a brilliant response to...
Blogging from Davos – I meet Myanmar industry minister Soe Thein
Today, also while in Davos, I met Myanmar Industry Minister Soe Thein, one of those supporting the current reform agenda. He heads Myanmar’s investment commission and is a key political actor shaping economic reform and liberalisation. There is...
Immaterial world
Kodak's filing for bankruptcy protection should give us pause for thought when it comes to our brave, new online world, says Jason Walsh. Peering into the metaphorical crystal ball for 2012 – in reality looking back over the trends of the la...
DN: Sverige skrev under Acta-avtalet
DN skriver: EU och 22 av medlemsländerna skrev på torsdagen under det omdiskuterade Acta-avtalet vid en ceremoni i Japan. ”Sverige har mörkat det här”, anser Christian Engström, piratpartist i EU-parlamentet. Läs mer hos DN...
Blogging from Davos – Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook
While at the World Economic Forum in Davos this morning, I had an important discussion with Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook; we talked about protecting children, and new data protection rules. One of my priorities under the Digit...
Data Protection Day 2012
What can happen to your personal data online? The EU is taking action so you can control your information, have access to your data, and be able to modify or delete it. Here comes a video on the subject.
ACTA signatures and content
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan has published a note on the signing of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, Australia, Canada, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United Mexican States, the...
A communication disaster called ACTA
During the negotiations of ACTA the participating states did their best to undermine public trust by secrecy and obstinate refusal to publish various documents (Techdirt). When the first batch of countries signed ACTA in October 2011, the EU Commissi...
ACTA: Nu har det blivit åka av
Det händer osannolikt mycket runt ACTA just nu. Jag försöker samla lite länkar. Stora demonstrationer i Polen mot ACTA. Nyheter24: Kravaller i Polen – men i Sverige är det locket på BBC: Thousands march in Poland over Acta internet treaty...
EFD Rights Watch: Not surprisingly “Turkey Loses Ground again in World Press Freedom Index
Turkey Loses Ground again in World Press Freedom Index Turkey fell back ten places to number 148 in the 2011-2012 World Press Freedom Index. According to the report of Reporters Without Borders, press freedom is in an even worse state in only 31 coun...
