“…
UK and 12 Other Member States issue Statement on Telecoms Reform Package [UPDATED]
November 23, 2009 by Paladine
Filed under: News
Almost two weeks ago I was sent a draft copy of a statement the UK had sent to the Council of Europe which it wanted the Council to publish on behalf of all member states. The statement was based on how the UK would like the Telecoms Reform Package to be interpreted by Member States (MS) and contained a few paragraphs twisting the intent of ammendments to Article 5(3) of Directive 2002/58/EC with regards to informed consent.

Today I have been sent the final statement which is now supported by 13 Member States along with some explanations of what this all means. My source within EU Parliament states:

The relevant part, not crystal clear but presumably meant to bless the current practice of silent placing of 3rd party cookies etc, is: “However, as indicated in recital 52( a) {66} , amended Article 5(3) is not intended to alter the existing requirement that such consent be exercised as a right to refuse the use of cookies or similar technologies used for legitimate purposes.”

They go on to explain that the lobby pushed the statement to be published on behalf of the entire Council (as mentioned above) but that the final statement has only been made on behalf of 13 states after Council refused to accept it on behalf of all member states:

AUSTRIA
BELGIUM
ESTONIA
FINLAND
GERMANY
IRELAND
LATVIA
MALTA
POLAND
ROMANIA
SLOVAKIA
SPAIN
UNITED KINGDOM

However the introductory text to the statement is almost a carbon copy of the draft UK statement I received over a week ago, so it is clear that the UK have been the driving force behind the declaration.

My source goes on to explain that from a legal standpoint the statement is “without value” as all member states are required to change their national laws to reflect the revised text of Article 5(3) and also enforce those laws. I have also been assured that should a case go before the European Court of Justice relating to issues covered under 5(3) the EU Court of Justice will not take such a unilateral statement by some Member States into account, further:

EU law applies equally across the EU, not differently in different MS. It’s also bad practice – all MS adopted the text unanimously almost a month before the statement and the statement was issued in connection with another Directive.

The only stake the statement has in the overall gameplay is that it:

may give the lobby some leverage when they proceed to discuss the new text and its implementation with national DPAs etc, so the focus is now shifting on transposition of the revised text, possible Commission and DPA guidelines and ultimately enforcement.

In closing, I would like to add that I am dismayed that the UK Government is displaying such blatant regulatory capture even when dealing with matters in the Council of Europe. It has been suggested to me that the IAB may have initiated the call for this statement from the UK Government, who are already the subject of infringement proceedings by the EU Commission for failing to protect consumer’s rights to privacy with regards to Phorm Inc.’s behavioural advertising technology.

It is clear that the UK Government place a higher priority on the convenience of companies to be able to make money from personal data than the fundamental right to privacy of the people who elected it. I am relieved that this statement did not win full support of the Council and represents just under half of the entire Council of Europe – but it is clear that the UK Government have allies within the Council and the public will need to continue lobbying very aggressively in order to continue to be heard.

[UPDATE]

It would seem that Commissioner Vivian Reding is displeased at the attempts by the above Member States to change the interpretation of the ammendments to 5(3). In a speech given yesterday on the matter the Commissioner stated:

Second, the question of cookies. Now the Commission was, like Mr Harbour, surprised that certain Member States appeared to call the agreed text on cookies into question. Let me be very clear: we agreed with Parliament, and we believe that the final text is unambiguous. First, there must be clear and comprehensive information to users on the basis of which second users must give their consent. That is that and that should be applied now in the Member States. I do not appreciate it that after everything has been agreed, some like to manoeuvre in order not to keep 100% to the agreements pacta sunt servanda in politics.

[Source: Approx. 3m 52s into the recording - taken from yesterdays Electronic Communication Networks and Services Debate (Second Intervention) ( 18:05:05 > 19:00:58)]

The Commission seem to be very clear on the matter that informed consent must be obtained, regardless of the statement by the 13 member states listed above.

(I have chosen not to publish the documents in order to protect my source, but I am sure the statement will be published by Council in the near future).

Please make a donation to help support our ongoing lobbying to protect privacy rights. Click the donate buttons at the top right of this page.

Author: Alexander Hanff
“

We’re talking about about England…small, impotent, insignificant England. When Latvia enacts a similar law, then I’ll start to worry.
”

ROFL Brudda, You clearly dont understand any of this, its not about England, and theres clearly nothing “insignificant” about any of this…

its the United Kingdom, its about the use of Deep Packet Interception in the core networks to collect, collate, and make derivative works of YOUR data, yes your data , just because you perhaps happen to be outside the UK borders or the US boarders for that matter, does Not mean Your data will not be intercepted, collected and passed on to 3rd partys,if you use any websitea etc inside the UK, and that includes the mass data sharing agreements that the UK and the US Govenments have in place right now…

if you were to actually follow the threads and related information come to light in the last year or two it would become clear to even you with a little thought that at its core, this latest move has very little of anything to do with anti-piracy,behavioural advertising, or even anti terrorisminitatives.. these things are merely a convenient label to use so their core initatives can justify Deep Packet Interception to collect and build up their data base initatives, with the added side benefit that 3rd party companies around the world can then trade in its derivative works, and use it to create new commercial income by ‘pirating YOUR data for commercial profits’ ,a criminal offence in the UK and the US, and several other countries BTW….

dismiss it as just “insignificant England” at your peril.

time will tell, but while you sit on your arse doing Nothing and dismissing the obvious implications , others in the EU and the UK understand the Uk’s Nu Labour and conservative backer long term thinking, and see whats coming ,they are trying to make a difference, and if they do you and all the lazy bums that are to stupid to think beyond your next meal never mind actually use your net connection to contact and help inform,or even just officially complain in writing directly directly to your EU reps….
will benefit from these hard working ordinary peoples taking the time to actually find do the right things…. to make a real difference and change the game…

its simple, make it far more costly for/to the Govt people putting these things through than it is to let them get away with it one more time, that means use the laws that already exist against them, and point out every single time they break them…..

using the RIPA criminal law with its prison term upon conviction to actually prosecute the the UK BT Executives for mass ‘commercial interception and piracy for profit’ being the current CPS inactive case in point….

We’re talking about about England…small, impotent, insignificant England. When Latvia enacts a similar law, then I’ll start to worry.

England…bbbbwwwhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What a bunch of losers…

https://nodpi.org/2009/11/23/uk-and-12-other-member-states-issue-statement-on-telecoms-reform-package/

“UK and 12 Other Member States issue Statement on Telecoms Reform Package
November 23, 2009 by Paladine
Filed under: News
Almost two weeks ago I was sent a draft copy of a statement the UK had sent to the Council of Europe which it wanted the Council to publish on behalf of all member states. The statement was based on how the UK would like the Telecoms Reform Package to be interpreted by Member States (MS) and contained a few paragraphs twisting the intent of ammendments to Article 5(3) of Directive 2002/58/EC with regards to informed consent.

…
”

https://nodpi.org/forum/index.php/topic,1268.30.html

In October 1998, during his first period in the Cabinet, Mandelson was the centre of media attention when Matthew Parris (openly gay former MP and then Parliamentary sketch writer of The Times) mentioned during a live interview on Newsnight, in the wake of the resignation of Ron Davies, that “Peter Mandelson is certainly gay”.

In 2000, Peter Mandelson publicly recognised his long term relationship with his long-time partner, Reinaldo Avila da Silva by allowing photographs of them together.

Mandelson also acquired the nickname “Mandy” by reference to his surname.

Tam Dalyell, while Father of the House of Commons, claimed Mandelson formed part of Blair’s ‘Jewish cabal’ in May 2003. In response Mandelson said: “Apart from the fact that I am not actually Jewish, I wear my father’s parentage with pride.”

In 1999 and 2009, Mandelson was an invited guest of the Bilderberg Group and attended the annual conferences.

Uh! What?

We are Anonymous.
We are Legion.
We do not Forgive.
We do not Forget.
Expect us.

People who illegally download music and films could have their internet connection slowed down or cut off altogether under new legislation.
New law to curb illegal downloads .The Government said its Digital Economy Bill would ensure the UK was at the “leading edge” of global online industries.

Under the proposed legislation, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) would be required to notify users accused of online piracy.

They would also have to record how many times each subscriber receives one of these notifications.

This would allow the copyright holders to apply for a court order to get the name and address of serious repeat offenders so they can take legal action against them.

But the Bill, announced in the Queen‘s speech on Wednesday and published on Friday, also makes provision for the Secretary of State to direct communications regulator Ofcom to develop tough sanctions for illegal file-sharers.

These could include bandwidth capping – where the user‘s internet connection is slowed down – or temporary suspension of their online account.

The Bill would give the Secretary of State power to require ISPs to impose these technical measures.

Anyone who feels they have been unfairly penalised could complain through a “clear and effective appeals mechanism”.

The Bill also includes a power to amend copyright legislation to deal with any new technologies that emerge in the future.

… suddenly wakes up from bad dream screaming …

At least you can fight to the death and inflict as many casualties as possible.

Okay NeoStyles…do you even read any posts?I mean…its obvious your a retard, but still, the arguement is simple isnt it?

Calling people names doesn’t make your arguement any stronger, for your information.

How about….no!

1. This is theft.2. You admit to being a selfish person who only thinks about themselves.3. You are breaking the law.4. You evidently have zero concept of right and wrong.5. You don’t know anything about hard work or self sacrafice.

I dont have enough money to pay for all this crap being churned out

I want a a really fancy car, so I think I’ll just go steal it!

and im quite glad, most stuff i download just isnt worth paying for! On the off chance i download something really good that is worth paying for, i usually do, either that or donate. A download doesnt equal a lost sale by any stretch of the imagination.

…And if it is, do you actually go pay for it? If it’s not, do you remove it from your computer and never watch/listen to it again?That’s beside the point. Bottom line is you don’t get to take whatevery you want for free and decide afterwards whether you like it or not.

What!? Firstly, we are NOT pirates, we are filesharers (DUH! I dont even own a DVD burner!) and whats all this trust and sympathy shit? Im not totally sure what the hell your on about there, we just use the internet for the purpose it was ORIGINALLY intended. To share information…in a way that humans ALWAYS have, but more efficiently.

Well, for starters, take the fact that you (presumably) aren’t in jail. Society (your ISP) gave you a net connection and assumed you wouldn’t use it for any illegal purposes. Instead, as you have conceded, you use it to rip off the interntainment industry.”Filesharer” is just another, positive way to dress up piracy. Do you produce what you share? If not, it is theft. Furthermore, it’s not information. Looking up something up something on wikipedia is information. These are CREATIVE works. Look it up. They are also copyrighted and don’t belong to you.Jesus christ, how can you be this oblivious to what is is you are downloading?

Do a web search dood, one or two big rich corporations (and theyre employees) moaning about “piracy”, millions of small artists hailing “filesharing” as the best thing that has ever happened to em!

You can’t even get your own information straight. The only artists that were talking about how piracy is good were the few BIG artists, who are the minority.

Again, you are only showing your ignorance, what if i parked outside a house, in my car, with my laptop, hacked someones WEP (which takes about 2 seconds) and downloaded a crap load of whatever…

Then what I said wouldn’t apply since you aren’t paying for things, you stealing things?

“Piracy” JUST LIKE THIS has existed for hundreds and hundreds of years! Did you hear about just after the first printing press was invented, “booksharers” minimised the machinery, put it on small boats, and went up and down rivers, avoiding authorities and flogging theyre “pirated” books. Its unstoppable, no matter what laws are passed, hell – it could be the death penality! All the industry can do is move with the times and try NOT to make themselves look like arseholes to they’re consumers…..they’re failing quite bady =)

Uhm, printing a book manually by hand and transporting it is much harder than downloading something off a .TORRENT. Internet piracy is much, much more user friendly and thus much more of a threat. In case, it never occured to you, with bittorrent everyone serve’s as a distrobuter, where as in your example there is only one distributed which is much less efficient. Books could not be converted into a digital format, effectively marginalizing their creators.

time for a new business model perhaps?

You never get it do you? What new business model can there be that creates profits for creators? SHOW me a working business model that isn’t just “everyone gets everything for free yayy!”

We dont think content falls from the sky cause we’re not retarded like you. But we DO believe in freedom of information. I cant see any hollywood actors starving on the streets, and a number of my friends who run small bands and groups, are earning more money now than they have EVER, thanks mainly down to the freedom the internet has given them to reach new fans – they give all they’re content away for free, and make money from organising nights out where people can see them in person – quite a few big names have even adapted VERY successfully to this model. Oh, and there is no harm in not paying for something as long as it doesnt deprive anyone else of that “something” – rock on copy and paste =)

You’re not retarded and you think people can make money when they aren’t paid? What an irony. Movies and music, aren’t “information”, they are creative works. I think I already explained this to you, but this highlights how dependant piracy is on dressing things up. Anything is okay to download since it’s just infromation. So, if you have learned that content doesn’t fall out of the sky, where do you think it comes from? What about it’s creators, or does the world revolve around you?

the REAL disease is you, the capitalist that wants a world where he has control in ever aspect of a normal person’s life, for the sole purpose of tanking on cash so he can drive his fat Porsche while others starve to death… you disgust me and I wanna pu-ke on your face, you scum su-cking dog

Since when was entertainment “every aspect of life”? That explains so much, how people like you think that their happiness the only thing that matter, more important than other people making a living.

Guyzzzzz I’m really a troll… MASSIVE, UGLY, CAPITALISTIC, MONKEY GUZZLING, WITH BAD BREATH AND UGLY TEETH, IN A NICE TIGHT SUIT FROM VERSACE, LYING HYPOCRITICAL MEGATROLL

Hi, im a pirate. Im too lazy to get a job and I think everything in the world belongs to me, so it I sit my house the whole day, stealing things.

So by your own admission, those creating content will continue to make large amounts of money even if some people (a minority of people), do not buy the product?

NO one is garunteed to make money, but if people buy their things when they like it (this thing called money), then atleast they will have a fair chance at success.Calling someone a troll doesn’t automatically mean that you are right either.

You Brits must really be regretting given up your guns now.
//////////////////
guns really won’t help you when they come for you, the only way they would help you is if the neighbors ganged together.All the neighbors will do is stand behind their trees and watch you get filled with lead.

I hope you guys over there get to vote on that crap because WOW.

One of these days the RIAA and MPAA and all the other lables and such will realize its just like telling a child DONT DO IT over and over and over, the more you hold out the more they want what they cannot have.

Make it good, make it easy and people will pay for it… more so than not. You will always have pirates, but just like DRM on video games the harder you make it for the legit users to enjoy high quality legal products the more people are going to turn to piracy, which is very easy.

just eat, sleep and f*ck. that’s it.

to hell with everything else.

jesus loves you.

Don`t sue me for mentioning copyrighted stuff without permission please!

Ahem, I see Reasoned Mind and his MAFIAA friends have smoked some heavy pot in this one. Hardcore delusional ideas. Amusing.

Please, prove the vast majority simply gets stuff for free and never pays for the content. Maybe that happens around you or you chose to see only the people who actually pirate stuff. Just wondering where you gather your evidence because people around me who share also buy. And much more than the ones that don`t share at all.

Evidence people, evidence. I might be wrong since my evidence is based on people around me but we`ve seen many posts here telling exactly the same thing: sharers are buyers, downloads don`t mean lost sales.

Please RM, EVIDENCE.

By the way, I`m currently downloading Windows 7 from openbt (those ones that come with an activator) because I got myself a legal key (by legal means) but my DVD is 14.000 kilometers away from me (abd I don`t wanna spend $15 to have it sent to me). I`m a goddamn thief that is stealing money from the poor and hungry M$ employees children. Right?

Here in Denmark, the development is going in the complete opposite way than in UK. The Danish anti-piracy group called “anti-piratgruppen”, shut down because they could not make the pirates into cash cows, cuz everybody the sued took the cases to supreme court and got massive lawyer aid by the pro-piracy group “piratgruppen”

Also numurous Danish artist are praising piracy as a good thing, the whole opinion on piracy i Denmark is undergoing a revulution!

Any1 in for a massive DDOS attack on BPI???

Fuck you Mandelson!

[quote]Good. Don’t. Millions upon million of others will, all around the world, year after year as always. And as long as you stop stealing stuff online, you’ll have nothing to worry about.[/quote]

So by your own admission, those creating content will continue to make large amounts of money even if some people (a minority of people), do not buy the product? How is boycotting the product (and not spending money), any different from sharing the product (and not spending any money)? According to you, content creators will still make large sums either way.

Haven’t you ppl learned anything? Neo & Reasoned isn’t here as a non-partial, single human being reacting; they are here to propaganda for “the mafiaa”, thats right!; you don’t even deserve the CAPS.

To argue with them is to be defeated. Because they drag you down to their level of intelligence and beat you with experience!

To argue is to lose, to take action is to win.
Learn it, live it, do it; they do it to YOU!

SNF – Stupidity Never Fails