Wednesday, March 31, 2004

FOIA

From Dr. Yaman Akdeniz:
EU Agreement on security procedures for the exchange of classified information with Bulgaria, Romania, Iceland, Norway, Turkey, Canada, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, the United States of America, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and FYROM

Press Note: BilgilenmeHakki.Org website received an EU document entitled EU Agreement on security procedures for the exchange of classified information with a number of states including Turkey. This document was obtained from the Council of the European Union by Mr. David Banisar of Privacy International, a well known FOI expert under the EU public access to Council documents procedure...

Notes from the EU Agreement

Article 2 of the Agreement defines classified information as follows:For the purposes of the present Agreement, classified information shall mean any information (namely, knowledge that can be communicated in any form) or material determined to require protection against unauthorized disclosure and which has been so designated by a security classification (hereafter: 'classified information').

Article 4 requires Each Party to
(a) protect and safeguard classified information subject to the present Agreement provided or exchanged by the other Party;
(b) ensure that classified information subject to the present Agreement provided or exchanged keeps the security classification given to it by the providing Party. The receiving Party shall protect and safeguard the classified information according to the provisions set out in its own security regulations for information or material holding an equivalent security classification, as specified in the Security Arrangements to be established pursuant to Articles 11 and 12;
(c) not use such classified information subject to the present Agreement for purposes other than those established by the originator and those for which the information is provided or exchanged;
(d) not disclose such classified information subject to the present Agreement to third parties, or to any EU institution or entity not mentioned in Article 3, without the prior consent of the originator.

You can read the full document entitled EU Agreement on security procedures for the exchange of classified information with a number of states including Turkey.

You can also see and read the final version of the EU agreement with revisions - to track the changes made to the original document.

For more details: http://www.bilgilenmehakki.org/

Harvard Weblogs: What makes a weblog a weblog?

Harvard Weblogs: What makes a weblog a weblog?

Sunday, March 28, 2004

Knowlege Economy Forum-III

I have just returned from Budapest at where the Knowledge Economy Forum-III was held by the World Bank and the Hungarian Government...


Closing Session at the Hungarian Parliament...



Here is the website of the event: http://www.worldbank.org/eca/kef
And this is one of the last presentations made by Halil Ibrahim Akca, Deputy Undersecretary, State Planning Organization:
Turkey: The Country Perspective! (Next year the IVth Forum will be held in Istanbul)


FREE CULTURE

The new book from Larry Lessig may be found online, for free at :

http://www.free-culture.cc

" Lawrence Lessig could be called a cultural environmentalist. One of
America's most original and influential public intellectuals, his focus is
the social dimension of creativity: how creative work builds on the past and
how society encourages or inhibits that building with laws and technologies.
In his two previous books, CODE and THE FUTURE OF IDEAS, Lessig concentrated
on the destruction of much of the original promise of the Internet. Now, in
FREE CULTURE, he widens his focus to consider the diminishment of the larger
public domain of ideas. In this powerful wake-up call he shows how
short-sighted interests blind to the long-term damage they're inflicting are
poisoning the ecosystem that fosters innovation.

All creative works-books, movies, records, software, and so on-are a
compromise between what can be imagined and what is possible-technologically
and legally. For more than two hundred years, laws in America have sought a
balance between rewarding creativity and allowing the borrowing from which
new creativity springs. The original term of copyright set by the
Constitution in 1787 was seventeen years. Now it is closer to two hundred.
Thomas Jefferson considered protecting the public against overly long
monopolies on creative works an essential government role. What did he know
that we've forgotten?

Lawrence Lessig shows us that while new technologies always lead to new
laws, never before have the big cultural monopolists used the fear created
by new technologies, specifically the Internet, to shrink the public domain
of ideas, even as the same corporations use the same technologies to control
more and more what we can and can't do with culture. As more and more
culture becomes digitized, more and more becomes controllable, even as laws
are being toughened at the behest of the big media groups. What's at stake
is our freedom-freedom to create, freedom to build, and ultimately, freedom
to imagine."

Monday, March 01, 2004

“The Right to Information in Turkey”, International Conference
by Istanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Law and Human Rights Law Research Center,
in cooperation with TESEV (Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation) and
Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties.
February 26th, 2004

Details...

OECD Backs Broadband for Economic and Social Development

Balca Celener posted:
OECD Backs Broadband for Economic and Social Development



Bogdan sent this report:

EU - EP Report on collecting societies for authors' rights
Report on a Community framework for collecting societies for authors'
rights A5-0478/2003. Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal
Market Rapporteur: Raina A. Mercedes Echerer
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem17577.htm

NL - Microsoft wins Lindows fight in the Netherlands (The Register)
Resellers of the Linux distribution Lindows in the Netherlands were
ordered to stop selling the product. Amsterdam judge Rullmann agreed
with Microsoft that in many ways Lindows is 'profiting from the
success of Windows' by infringing Microsoft trademarks.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/35221.html

IT - VALIDITY OF E-MAIL AS EVIDENCE
The Court of Cuneo ordered a company to fulfil its obligations to another
company on the basis of a claim proved with e-mail communications. The
order is interesting as it represents one of the few precedents in relation
to the issue of the validity of e-mails as evidence in Court. An e-mail may
have the same validity as a written document when it is linked to the sender
through information authentication tools. The Judge of Cuneo held that the
use of authentication credentials such as a user ID and password to access
the e-mail account represents a valid means of adducing evidence on the
origin of the message and therefore the Judge held that the e-mails had the
same validity as written documents and admitted them as trial evidence.
http://punto-informatico.it/p.asp?i=46663

NO - LINKING TO INTERNET DATABASE IS LEGAL
The owner of the finn.no website lost its lawsuit against the owner of the
notar.no website. Both websites provide advertisements for properties for
sale and Notar provides a link to the Finn/Eiendom website where Finn offers
its property advertisements. The link is not a deep link and does not
involve framing. Nevertheless, Finn claimed that the link infringed the
copyright in their database and contravened the Norwegian Marketing Control
Act. Finn claimed damages and removal of the link. The claim was dismissed
as the Court held that Finn had voluntarily made its database available to
the public by placing it on the Internet and therefore the link was merely a
way to make it easier for a user to find the information. Further, the Court
did not find the linking to be in conflict with good business practices


US - COPYRIGHT TERM EXTENSION ACT
A group of economists submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in
the case of Eldred v. Ashcroft, arguing that the term extension provided in
the Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) adds no economic value to the owner
while it extends a monopoly and increases costs to create new derivative
works. Recently, the authors published a paper that counters a common
claim that copyright extension so far out in the future can have little
effect on creativity.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=488085
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID488085_code59984.pdf?abstractid=488085

US - CYBERCRIME TREATY
The Senate is considering ratification of the Cybercrime Treaty, aimed at
stopping computer hackers. But according to the ACLU, the treaty's
language is too broad, threatening the core liberties of citizens. The
treaty, among other mandates, requires signatory nations to grant to its law
enforcement new powers of search and seizure, and forces U.S. law
enforcement to cooperate with investigations of activities that are legal in
the U.S. but illegal overseas.
http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=14605&c=39

Italy to retain communications data for five years (Statewatch)
On 23 December 2003, the Italian data protection authority expressed
its 'concern' about a decree that the government approved on the
compulsory storage of traffic data relating to telephone and Internet
communications by service providers. The decree introduces the
wholesale collection and storage of traffic data on all telephone and
Internet communications by service providers compulsory for sixty
months, in case it may subsequently prove useful for criminal
investigations.
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2004/jan/03italy-dataretention.htm

Spyware cures may cause more harm than good (CNET News.com)
A small army of angry Web users has set up a network of Web sites
where they post reports of antispyware programs said to prey on
consumers by installing offending files. Some of these charges could
get a hearing soon, as public-interest group The Center for Democracy
& Technology plans to file complaints with the Federal Trade
Commission against specific companies.
http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5153485.html

ES - LEGISLATION ON INTERNET SERVICE QUALITY
As the number of complaints from ADSL users has increased dramatically
during recent months, several Internet user associations are creating a
lobby group to demand that the Spanish Government approve legislation
governing Internet service quality. Several consumer associations and other
organizations are considering creating a similar lobby group relating to
Internet content, focusing particularly on legislative measures to improve
secure navigation and the protection of children.
http://www.internautas.org/article.php?sid=1481&mode=thread&order=0
http://www.belt.es/noticias/2004/febrero/02/seguridad_red.htm

US - STOPPING SPAM BY REQUIRING E-MAIL STAMPS
Major ISPs indicate interest in a system in which bulk emailers must pay 1
cent to buy a digital "stamp" for each e-mail message sent. The encrypted
stamp would verify the identity of the sender and require e-mailers to honor
requests to opt out. Opponents of the system argue that e-mail stamps
cannot work because the Internet and its traffic are not regulated by one
authority like the postal system is regulated by the federal government.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/32760.html

FR - Les enfants du Net : Recommandation du Forum des droits sur
l'internet (Communiqué de presse)

Recommandation du Forum des droits sur l'internet : Les Enfants du Net
- (1) Les mineurs et les contenus préjudiciables sur l'internet.
Rapport remis à Christian Jacob, Ministre délégué à la Famille, dans
le cadre du Conseil Consultatif de l'internet placé auprès de Claudie
Haigneré, Ministre déléguée à la Recherche et aux Nouvelles
technologies. Publiée le 11 février 2004, cette recommandation est le
fruit de plusieurs mois de concertation d'un groupe de travail
constitué de représentants d'administrations, d'associations
d'utilisateurs et d'acteurs économiques concernés.
http://www.foruminternet.org/activites_evenements/lire.phtml?id=66

EU - Handbook of Legislative Procedures of Computer and Network
Misuse (EDRI-gram)

Study for the European Commission, Directorate-General Information
Society, by Rand Europe. The Handbook is designed to help European
Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRT) deal with incidents
and operate in a European environment with divergent legal codes
dealing with computer crime and misuse. Particular attention is
devoted to the examination of the content of the Council of Europe's
Cybercrime Convention and the proposed European Framework Decision on
Attacks Against Information Systems. The publication contains an
analysis of legislation in each EU member state in the area of
computer crime. A summary table is also provided together with the law
enforcement points of contacts and reporting mechanisms.
http://www.qlinks.net/items/qlitem17646.htm

Mémoire - Les contrats de distribution et Internet - FR
Michaël MALKA - 17/02/2004
http://www.juriscom.net/uni/visu.php?ID=447

JP - E-MAIL LOGGING REQUIREMENT
A bill that would let police without warrants require ISPs to keep logs of
e-mail up to 90 days is expected to go to the Diet this session. The
Justice Ministry's revision of the Criminal Procedure Law aims to give law
enforcement officials stronger tools to deal with Internet crime.
http://www.asahi.com/english/nation/TKY200402190172.html

KR - EMPLOYEE HACKS MESSENGER CONVERSATIONS
An employee of a Internet travel agency hacked his work colleague's Internet
Messenger conversations and reported them to the company head. The employee
used a hacking program to monitor conversations. It is an offence under the
Information Protection legislation to monitor another person's personal
information or communications through phone, Internet, or other information
communication networks.
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200402/200402180019.html

CA - RECORDING INDUSTRY P2P MOTION
Following the lead of RIAA in the U.S., CRIA sought orders from the Federal
Court to require several large ISPs to disclose the identities of
subscribers who uploaded large quantities of pirated music through the ISPs'
IP addresses. Shaw and Rogers have opposed disclosure, citing obligations
under PIPEDA, the cost of tracing dynamic IP addresses, and the risk of
misidentifying subscribers. Vidéotron, affiliated with a legitimate music
downloading site, said it will comply. The motion was adjourned until March
12, 2004. There are suggestions the court may consider the reasoning of a
December U.S. appeals court decision that limited ISP disclosure
obligations.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3496417.stm

'Télécharger tue l'industrie musicale'
Jean-Christophe BOBABLE - 19/02/2004
http://www.juriscom.net/int/visu.php?ID=457

The Creative Commons by Sandy Starr
'What if the law had said that you need someone's permission before taking
their image?' So asked LawrenceLessig, to draw our attention to what the
consequences might have been for
photography and film if they had been regulated as closely when they first
emerged as the internet is today.
http://www.spiked-online.com/articles/0000000CA401.htm