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[FYI] (Fwd) EDRI-gram - Number 6, 9 April 2003



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Date sent:      	Wed, 09 Apr 2003 19:32:55 +0200
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From:           	EDRI-gram newsletter <edrigram@edri.org>
Subject:        	EDRI-gram - Number 6, 9 April 2003

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==================================================================

                             EDRI-gram

      bi-weekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe

                      Number 6, 9 April 2003

==================================================================
Contents
==================================================================

1. Stupid security measures in Europe
2. Draft law promotes free software in Bulgaria
3. New content restrictions in Germany
4. Swiss providers to keep email records for 6 months
5. Danish committee on citizens IT-rights
6. Austria looses court case about surveillance costs
7. Recommended reading: privacy policy
8. Agenda
9. About

================================================================== 1.
STUPID SECURITY MEASURES IN EUROPE
==================================================================

During last weeks CFP conference (Computer Freedom Privacy) in New
York, Simon Davies from UK EDRi-member Privacy International announced
the winners of the Stupid Security Awards. The jury received some
5.000 nominations from 35 different countries. Though most of the
winners are American, Europe also produced some very noteworthy stupid
security measures. UK mobile phone company T-Mobile won a Most
Annoyingly Stupid Award 'for pointless and idiotic financial security
measure'. T-Mobile won't let anyone pay more than fifty pounds a month
from a bank account, for unspecified 'security' reasons. Runner-Up for
the Most Egregiously Stupid Award was Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov for
the "Propiska" Identity Papers, while UK Heathrow Airport was selected
the runner-up for the Most Inexplicably Stupid Award.

In Moscow both foreigners and citizens of Russia need a special
permission to be in Moscow, a propiska-paper. According to the
nomination, propiska was already invented in 1932 by Stalin, but
reintroduced in 2002 as a measure against terrorism. The usual price
is USD 1-3 for Russians and USD 10 and more for others. To obtain it
officially seems virtually impossible. "You need to fill out a lot of
applications, collect many signatures and permissions. According to
different sources you are responsible to get a registration in 3 or 10
days after arriving to Moscow. This is even theoretically impossible
because registration department (pasportnyi stol) works only 2-3 hours
a week and you have to wait hours and hours in a huge line. In
addition, any official may refuse you without any explanation."

A passenger on Heathrow Airport was found to carry a box with loose
leaf Chinese tea. Unfortunately, it was of a well known variety known
as Gunpowder Tea, and had this printed on the packaging. It was
decided that the tea was allowed, but the evil word "Gunpowder" was
not. Consequently the security staff then rummaged around and found a
plastic bag into which they decanted the fragrant tea leaves, and
confiscated the cardboard packaging.

Other European stupid security measures include:

- The refusal of UK railways company Railtrack to provide litter bins
on stations (a bomb could be hidden in there). - Irish budget Airline
Ryan Air accepting international student cards as photographic ID but
refusing military ID-cards. - The Danish Ferry-Company requiring
fingerprint scans to board a boat from the island Bornholm to mainland
Denmark. - The French province of Pyrenees-Atlantiques allowing
nightclubs and disco's with sufficient camera-supervision (CCTV) to
stay open 1 hour longer. - A Scuba diving club in Devon (UK) requiring
a full security check from people interested in taking classes. - An
anonymous UK airline forbidding its pilots to carry nail clippers,
while allowing for a huge fire-axe in every cabin.

Selected nominations in 5 categories (08.04.2003)
http://www.privacyinternational.org/activities/stupidsecurity/

Details about Moscow Propiska
http://www.nelegal.net/articles/index.html


================================================================== 2.
DRAFT LAW PROMOTES FREE SOFTWARE IN BULGARIA
==================================================================

A draft law, currently discussed in parliament in Bulgaria, will
oblige all governmental institutions to use free software and open
formats with their computer information systems within 2 years. The
law addresses all state bodies, mayors of municipalities and regions,
higher schools, medical establishments, non-profit legal entities as
well as other bodies and entities that receive governmental funding. A
permit of exception from this obligation can only be procured on a
case-by-case basis, if no free software is available for a specific
purpose.

In the Bulgarian definition, free software must allow for:

- Unlimited use of the software for all purposes;
- Unlimited access to the source code;
- Comprehensive check of its mechanisms of operation;
- Use of internal mechanisms and of any arbitrary part of it, so that
it can be adapted to the needs of the user; - Production and public
distribution of its copies; - Modification and free distribution of
changes as well as of the newly designed software under the same
conditions as those of the original.

If adopted, the law would bring about a remarkable change of policy.
Only a year ago, Minister of the State Administration Dimitar Kalchev
triumphantly announced a new contract with Microsoft for the provision
of software to the state administration. In total, in 3 years Bulgaria
would have to pay USD 8,400,000 (EUR 7,862,245) to Microsoft.

Press release 'The contract with Microsoft is one of the most
advantageous contracts sealed in the country' (14.06.2002)
http://www.government.bg/English/Priorities/Administration/2002-06-14/
671.html

A copy of the draft law is available through Veni Markovski
<veni@veni.com>.


================================================================== 3.
NEW CONTENT RESTRICTIONS IN GERMANY
==================================================================

In Germany, new content restrictions were introduced for the
protection of minors, extending current regulations and indexing
schemes for film and video to internet and games. Since 1 April all
kinds of ego shooters and electronic media "glorifying war" are
banned. Furthermore, under the new regulation, all computer games must
carry labels with minimum age requirements. The restrictions on
computer games were speeded up after a youngster killed 18 people in
his school in the city of Erfurt a year ago. The youngster was
addicted to the game 'Doom', media reported.

Through the new additions on the Treaty on Human Rights & the
Protection of Minors in Broadcasting and Telecommunication Media a new
central commission decides on illegal and harmful media and Web
content. Though the implications are not yet clear, the extension to
web pages might mean filtering mechanisms will have to be introduced
to prevent minors from accessing indexed web pages.

Based on a German article in Heise (03.04.2003)
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/jk-03.04.03-002/default.shtml

Available in English through
http://www.computeruser.com/news/03/04/03/news5.html


================================================================== 4.
SWISS PROVIDERS TO KEEP EMAIL RECORDS FOR 6 MONTHS
==================================================================

Since 1 April, new legislation went into force that obliges Swiss
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to keep a 6 month email log file.
That means they will have to store time, size and addresses of all
emails sent by their customers (the SMTP envelope data). The
authorities will be able to access these stored data with a search
warrant only. Access is limited to a number of serious offences such
as paedophilia and drug trafficking.

There is no general obligation to store the content of all emails, but
providers can be ordered to keep the specific correspondence of a
suspect (preservation) and forward it to a special new
crime-investigating unit.

Internet service providers have resisted the new legislation, pointing
at the high costs of storage and selection software. However, the new
legislation hasn't fully satisfied law enforcement officers either.
Before this law was introduced, there were no restrictions on the type
of data a judge could order an ISP to hand-over. "The politicians
weren't very pragmatic," said Nicolas Cruchet, an investigating judge
in canton Vaud. "These restrictions undermine the value of the law."

Sunrise, Switzerland's second-biggest ISP, estimated that complying
with the legislation would cost the company around 1 million Swiss
Francs (673,000 Euro). Some smaller ISPs have threatened to pass the
extra costs on to their customers. Company and university servers are
not covered by the new rules; nor are cybercafes.

A confidential document about the technical requirements of
wiretapping in Switzerland (02.04.2002) can be found at:
http://cryptome.org/ch-ilets-regs.htm

Contribution by Felix Rauch, Swiss Internet User Group (SIUG).


================================================================== 5.
DANISH COMMITTEE ON CITIZENS IT-RIGHTS
==================================================================

The Danish ministry of science and technology has mandated a committee
on citizens IT-rights. The committee has representatives from various
ministries, consumer organisations, the IT-business sector and civil
society. EDRi-member Digital Rights has participated in the committee
since it started its work in September 2002. The aim of the committee
is to give recommendations to areas where existing laws and practices
in Denmark may hinder citizen's enjoyment of their IT-rights. Areas
under scrutiny include: citizen's communication with the public
sector, privacy and registration, freedom of expression and access to
information. The fiercest debates within the committee were about data
retention (obligatory in Denmark for the period of 1 year), access to
public information and ISP self-regulation. The recommendations are
expected to be finalised by May/June 2003.

Information is available at (in Danish)
http://www.vtu.dk/

or through committee member Rikke Frank Jørgensen from Digital Rights
<rfj@digitalrights.dk>.

================================================================== 6.
AUSTRIA LOOSES COURT CASE ABOUT SURVEILLANCE COSTS
==================================================================

Telecommunication companies in Austria have won an important court
case against the federal government. Though in general the wiretapping
provisions in the new Telecommunications Law were not deemed
unconstitutional, from 2004 onwards, government will have to reimburse
providers for the costs of procuring and maintaining surveillance
equipment.

Full verdict in German (27.02.2003)
http://www.vfgh.gv.at/vfgh/presse/G37-16-02.pdf


================================================================== 7.
RECOMMENDED READING: EPIC AND PI 2002 REPORT ON PRIVACY
==================================================================

Each year, Privacy International and the Electronic Privacy
Information Center review the state of privacy in over fifty countries
around the world. The survey examines a wide range of privacy issues
including, data protection, telephone tapping, genetic databases, ID
systems and freedom of information laws.

Specifically, the 2002 edition of Privacy and Human Rights examines
the impact of government proposals after 11 September 2001 on privacy
and civil liberties. The report documents many new anti-terrorism and
security measures and identifies key trends including increased
communications surveillance, weakening of data protection regimes, and
increased profiling and identification of individuals.

The book can be ordered via the EPIC bookstore for USD 25
http://www.epic.org/bookstore/phr2002/

================================================================== 8.
AGENDA
==================================================================

6-7 May 2003 Padova, Italy - Information Society Visions and
Governance Contact for information: Claudia Padovani
<claudia.padovani@unipd.it>.

8 May 2003, Brussels, Belgium - European Parliament hearing on
Software Patents Small and medium enterprises are requested to
register and attend
http://www.quintessenz.at/cgi-bin/index?funktion=view&id=000100002512

8-9 May 2003, Namur, Belgium - Collecting and Producing Electronic
Evidence in Cybercrime Cases 2-day workshop organised by the
University of Namur
http://www.ctose.org/info/events/workshop-8-9-may-2003.html

30 June - 2 July 2003 St. Petersburg, Russia - Building the
Information Commonwealth http://www.communities.org.ru/conference/

7-10 August 2003 Berlin, Germany - Chaos Computer Camp 2003
http://www.ccc.de/camp/


================================================================== 9.
ABOUT
==================================================================

EDRI-gram is a bi-weekly newsletter from European Digital Rights, an
association of privacy and civil rights organisations in Europe.
Currently EDRI has 10 members from 7 European countries. EDRI 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.

Newsletter editor:
Sjoera Nas <edrigram@edri.org>

Information about EDRI and its members:
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==================================================================
Publication of this newsletter is made possible by a grant from the
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==================================================================



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