European Internet Blocking Plans

An EU proposal on “notice and action” is in the making:

Stakeholders in particular asked for clarifications about how “notice-and-action procedures” should work in practice and this Communication presents an initiative that will help to clarify this. (see question 8).

It starts with a rewrite of the “mere conduit” principle:

Online service providers simply “transmitting” content on the Internet (for instance companies that provide consumers with access to the Internet) cannot be held liable for illegal content that is uploaded by third parties. For example, an Internet access provider cannot be held liable for providing access to an illegal website.

Note that the relationshop between providers and their clients is not covered by the new language.

Online service providers that “host”‘ content on the Internet (for instance websites on which you can view content that users themselves put online) cannot be held liable for illegal content uploaded onto their websites by others, as long as they are not aware of it. However, as soon as they become aware of this illegal content (for example via a notification), they are obliged to remove it or to block access to it immediately.

Finally, governments may not impose a general obligation on online service providers to monitor the content that they transmit or host.

As so many EU phrases “Notice and Action” takes inspiration from the American “notice and takedown”, the difference is “action” and it means blocking and takedown.

“Notice-and-action” procedures refer to rules on removing or blocking of access to illegal content by an online company, after it has received a request to do so. Internet users can submit a notification of illegal content that they have found displayed on the website of an online intermediary (such as a social network, an online vendor or a search engine). To avoid liability, the E-commerce Directive obliges the online intermediary to take action as soon as it becomes aware of the illegal content. Taking action can take the form of takedown (removing content) or blocking (disabling access to content).

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LXDE accepted for Google Summer of Code

LXDE Foundation has been accepted as a mentoring organisation for the Google Summer of Code. The students application period starts on March 29: ~12 noon PDT / 19:00 UTC

Congratulations, your application for LXDE Foundation as a mentoring organization for Google Summer of Code 2010 has been accepted! Over the next few days, you should plan to register your mentors and complete some housekeeping tasks to make sure your pages on the GSoC 2010 site are up to date. …

The complete GSoC timeline is here: http://socghop.appspot.com/document/show/gsoc_program/google/gsoc2010/faqs#timeline

Please add more ideas for development projects to the LXDE Idea Page on http://wiki.lxde.org/en/Google_Summer_of_Code_2010

Discuss projects on oftc #lxde

We also need mentors. Mario suggested to schedule an IRC meet up for potential mentors on Sun 21, 2010.

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Google wants your questions on ACTA

Google Blog post, they organise a lobby workshop Jan 11 in DC and ask for your questions on ACTA.

The panel will tackle important questions like: Will ACTA preserve the existing balance in intellectual property laws, providing not just enforcement for copyright holders but also appropriate exceptions for technology creators and users? Will it undermine the legal safe harbors that have allowed virtually every Internet service to come into existence? And will it encourage governments to endorse “three strikes” penalties that would take away a user’s access to the Internet?

In short, lobbying at Google seems badly informed about ACTA. It is a bit late for that.

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EU Chemical Agency and the Analytics trojan

Here is another EU Website ECHA.europe.eu, the European Chemicals Agency. They were smart enough to copy/paste a standard text as if they were a private company and not a public authority:

Site usage information

This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses “cookies”, which are text files placed on your computer, to help the web team analyse how users use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States.

Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner and for the purposes set out above.

Cookies do not contain any personal information about you and cannot be used to identify an individual user.

I wonder how a public authority can make a company use the traffic information of its visitors for commercial analysis purposes. So in other words, a European Union body allows a company from a third nation to record traffic data, to spy on the use of its government websites and hand it out to third nation authorities. That does qualify as a kind of assistance of espionage by the responsible Executive Director Geert Dancet for the European Chemicals Agency. “By using” an European Unions website, citizens consent to the processing of data about them by Google. And if citizens explicitly disagree with the use of their traffic information they “may not be able to use the full functionality of this [EU] website”.

Keep in mind that the European Chemicals Agency deals with very sensitive issues such as REACH which were subject to confrontation in transatlantic trade talks: The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) manages the technical, scientific and administrative aspects of the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) system. ECHA is sited in Helsinki, Finland.

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Does the EU-Commission use Google Analytics?

From a European Union Commission website:


$(document).ready(function() {
// If Google Analytics used, also track document downloads as Pageviews
$("a[href*='document.cfm']").bind('click',function(){
try {
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-3076907-3");
pageTracker._trackPageview(this.pathname + this.search);
//console.log('tracked ' + this.href);
} catch (err) {
//console.log(err)
}
});
if (location.hash == '') {
$('form[name!=commentform][name!=searchForm][name!=itemcall]:not(form[name^=rating]):first *:input[type=text]:first').focus();
}
$('form[name=identification] *:input[type!=hidden]:first').focus();
/* REVIEW: DOES NOT WORK IN IE6 (no form submission at all!!)
$('input[type=submit]').click(function() {
var self = this;
$(self).attr('disabled','disabled');
setTimeout(function() {$(self).removeAttr('disabled')},5000);
});
*/

And if so, does this constitute a national security risk? I am just asking because even in private sector operations often passionate citizens approach us with concerns when we use Google Analytics. I am curious if the European Data Protection Supervisor website also uses Google Analytics…

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Google Wave kommt morgen

Morgen soll es dann so weit sein, Google Wave wird öffentlich. Wieder ein interessantes Werkzeug für die Webgemeinde. Das für mich Interessante wird vor allem sein, dass Google Wave als “Killerapplikation” für Html 5 konzipiert ist.

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Bing.com no gentlemen when you run Opera web browser

The new search engine bing.com shortly tested:

I search for “Sägezahntiger” (the correct word is “Säbelzahntiger“), first hit, Bing tells me that I may find many Sägezahntigers at ebay and asks me if I was looking for “Sägezahn Tiger”.

Now, let’s try the map service, I am of course using Opera as my web browser:

The web browser on this computer and the Maps site may not work well together.

To continue, install a browser that is more compatible with this site. Or, continue to use your current browser, keeping in mind that some features may not work correctly.
Install Internet Explorer
Install Firefox
Go to the map using this browser

Hello, Mrs Kroes, …! It reminds you so much of the old DR-DOS tricks but this is even more silly for a new search engine which was supposed to get it right. One of the best and most popular web browsers, Opera, is not supported? Surprisingly everything works seems to work fine anyway when you select “Go to the map using this browser”.

The map service looks great, but it is not fully translated yet into German language. Additionally to the usual satellite images it adds a bird view perspective. I am from Germany’s largest navy port and I am quite surprised that you can get detailled bird view pictures of our military facilities. In the real world signs scare you that they may shoot at you. And if you take pictures, the police might be very interested in your identity and your actions may be interpreted as a criminal offence by a court. With Bing.com you also find out that the vessel “F214” is the F214 Lübeck. In another map view the arsenal port is mislabeled as the “Jade Bay”. I really wonder why these search engine and map companies are not concerned about homeland security at all.

Then I search for “Place du Luxembourg”. It shows me a place in Luxembourg but offers no context link to the well-known alternative in Brussels.

Responsiveness of Bing? Needs improvements. I stay with Google though I like the bird view for maps. It is just more convenient and mature.

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Google Wave Developer Preview

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Vint Cerf and the cloud buzz

Google Vice-President Vint Cerf, an architect of the internet, came to Brussels yesterday for an Open Forum Europe conference.

In this interview with Euraktiv from yesterday the great net strategist speaks about Cloud computing and other trends.

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