Last published content
1984: The amendments on the Telecom Package are killing fundamental freedoms
Submitted by pi on 16 May, 2008 - 19:21.
In a press statement, Guy Bono, member of the European Parliament, member of the Culture Committe is indignant about the freedom-killing amendments that have been submitted in the framework of the “Telecom Package”, that is currently being discussed in the European Parliament.
He said : “After the resolution of the European Parliament of 10 April condemning the principle of the graduated response [ndt : three strikes approach], we are exposed to attacks from all sides from major record companies who try forcibly to get their freedom-killing proposals to be accepted, even if they are lacking a sounds economic basis and ignoring the development of our digital world.»(..)
«Guy Bono is particulary upset about an amendment by the draftsman of the opinion M. Mavromatis (EPP, GRE), who intends to legalise the “spywares” of major record companies.»
Digital repression : record industry talks nonsense
Submitted by pi on 1 May, 2008 - 19:49.
Paris, April 30th, 2008. Hervé Rony, spokesperson for the SNEP (french syndicate of the record industry), declared yesterday that « it would not be acceptable » that the "flexible response" would not be examined before summer by the French Parliament. He added that it would be « a bit late if the Olivennes law was voted before the end of July.
La Quadrature du Net (Squaring the net) reminds the french government and SNEP that one does not make laws in a rush about such important subjects as the regulation of civil liberties on the Internet and the development of digital economy... and that « the coffers are empty » as the french president Nicolas Sarkozy said.
Specifically, the Olivennes law, through which families and companies would be banned from the Internet without any trial, was judged in contradiction with the Human Rights by the European Parliament.
Spanish internet users go to the front line
Submitted by pi on 30 April, 2008 - 18:20.
Comic strip of the week - week 20 - "Sarkozy & Carla" - Mermadon
This week, Mermadon draws the "graduated response" as seen from Spain : Nicolas Sarkozy serving the record majors...
They support Squaring the Net
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International
Electronic Frontier Foundation
From the Internet to the iPod, technologies are transforming our society and empowering us as speakers, citizens, creators, and consumers. When our freedoms in the networked world come under attack, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is the first line of defense.
EFF broke new ground when it was founded in 1990 — well before the Internet was on most people's radar — and continues to confront cutting-edge issues defending free speech, privacy, innovation, and consumer rights today. From the beginning, EFF has championed the public interest in every critical battle affecting digital rights.
Blending the expertise of lawyers, policy analysts, activists, and technologists, EFF achieves significant victories on behalf of consumers and the general public. EFF fights for freedom primarily in the courts, bringing and defending lawsuits even when that means taking on the US government or large corporations. By mobilizing more than 50,000 concerned citizens through our Action Center, EFF beats back bad legislation. In addition to advising policymakers, EFF educates the press and public.
Site : http://www.eff.org
Open Society Institute
The Open Society Institute (OSI), a private operating and grantmaking foundation, aims to shape public policy to promote democratic governance, human rights, and economic, legal, and social reform. On a local level, OSI implements a range of initiatives to support the rule of law, education, public health, and independent media. At the same time, OSI works to build alliances across borders and continents on issues such as combating corruption and rights abuses.
OSI was created in 1993 by investor and philanthropist George Soros to support his foundations in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Those foundations were established, starting in 1984, to help countries make the transition from communism. OSI has expanded the activities of the Soros foundations network to other areas of the world where the transition to democracy is of particular concern. The Soros foundations network encompasses more than 60 countries, including the United States.
Site : http://www.soros.org
Privacy International
Privacy International (PI) is a human rights group formed in 1990 as a watchdog on surveillance and privacy invasions by governments and corporations. PI is based in London, England, and has an office in Washington, D.C. PI has campaigned across the world to protect people against intrusion by governments and corporations that seek to erode this fragile right.
PI believe that privacy forms part of the bedrock of freedoms, and our goal has always been to use every means to preserve it.
PI is the oldest surviving privacy advocacy group in the world, and was the first organisation to campaign at an international level on privacy issues. Its antecedents stretch back to 1987, at which time the organisation’s founders started to build an international network in response to mounting concern across the world over the changing nature and magnitude of privacy violations.
National
Asociación de Internautas
Asociación de Internautas has as its primary objectives to defend, inform and educate users and consumers of communications thru telephone and Internet, about their uses of those media as a general right.
In particular, this "Asociación de Internautas" is fighting for a special reduced price of use for Internet connections or any other similar media, actually existing or to be developed and used in the future. They also fight against abuses in communication practices.
This association had been founded in october 1998 in reaction to the argumentation of high prices established by the government and the principal historic telecommunication operator Telefonica de España. Several associations then met their efforts to obtain a "flat rate"
price. Those associations and one non-profit association (FrEE, GTP, PLH and PTP) founded the Asociación de Internautas.
Comfia CC OO
Comfia CC OO is a Spanish trade union which operates in financial and insurance sector, and also in ITC, Call centres, and other offices. With more than 100.000 members, it is part of Comisiones Obreras (CC OO), Spanish union confederation.
Since several years ago Comfia CC OO cooperates and promotes campaigns about freedom and rights on the Internet. Comfia CC OO had an active role in some campaigns like european one about Software patents, against criminalisation of P2P, in front of canon (royalties) on digital equipements, and also got a sentence of Spanish Constitutional Court allowing the use of e-mail among workers and their union representatives.
Comfia CC OO has also participated (in cooperation with UNI Global Union in some actions to bridge the digital gap in developing countries, like UNI Perú and Africa E-future (this year, helping to set up websites for 16 African unions).
Site : Comfia CC OO
IT-Political Association of Denmark
IT-Political Association of Denmark is a danish non-profit organization raising awareness for privacy and free speech in the digital era. It is the home of Polippix project.
The aim of Polippix project is to produce a live CD (and USB memory stick, memory card, etc) with software that users without expertise in IT can use to protect their privacy. Polippix make use of TOR (onion routing), MAC address manipulation, encryption of disks and Twkinkle in order to provide privacy and anonymity for data and voice communications.Because the price of phone calls to PSTN land-lines have dropped dramatically, it is possible to sponsor free phone calls for every user.
The reception of Polippix was overwhelming. 13000 physical CD's were distributed to the members of trade union, PROSA, more than 35000 CD images were downloaded from our homepage and mirrors in a week, after that we lost track of downloads. Polippix have been covered on every major TV- and radio channel and all national newspapers.
Site : http://www.itpol.dk/
Netzwerk Freies Wissen
Netzwerk Freies Wissen (translated: Free Knowledge Network) is a network of individuals, that stands for the protection and extension of the knowledge commons.
Its goal is to protect these commons, which it defines as the entirety of all knolwedge that is freely available to mankind, from the ongoing attacks by the extension of intellectual property rights throughout the world. It also aims towards the extension of the commons by promoting free culture and software.
It is based in Berlin, Germany and aims at raising awareness for these issues within german domestic and foreign policy.
Open Rights Group
The Open Rights Group is an independent, non-profit advocacy group, campaigning for the digital civil rights of British citizens. Its goals are :
- To raise awareness in the media of digital rights abuses
- To provide a media clearinghouse, connecting journalists with experts and activists
- To preserve and extend traditional civil liberties in the digital world
- To collaborate with other digital rights and related organisations
- To nurture a community of campaigning volunteers, from grassroots activists to technical and legal experts
France
April
Founded in 1996, April is the main French advocacy association devoted to promote and protect Free/Libre Software.
April, made up of nearly 2 000 members (individuals, companies, and organizations), is a pioneer of Free Software in France. Since 1996, it is a major player in the field of Free Software.
Its aim : making Free Software more accessible for the general public, professionals and institutions, and thus more widespread. It also acts as a watchdog on digital freedoms, warning the public about the dangers of private interests keeping an exclusive stranglehold on information and knowledge.
The association has three full-time employees, one general delegate, an administrative assistant, and a person in charge of institutional relations. However, even with three full-time employees, the volunteer work is still very important, and represented around 3,000 hours of work in 2007.
Site : http://www.april.org
Big Brother Awards France
Lancée par Privacy International en 1998 à Londres, cette cérémonie vise à stigmatiser les menaces à la vie privée en montrant du doigt les personnes, institutions et sociétés privées les plus actives dans la promotion ou la conception de technologies de surveillance des individus.
Les Big Brother Awards sont décernés dans une quinzaine de pays d’Europe, d’Asie et d’Amérique du Nord. L’esprit s’inspire du roman "1984" de George Orwell, et a obtenu le soutien moral de Richard Blair, fils du célèbre évrivain, de son vrai nom Eric Blair.
L'opération Big Brother Awards en France, organisée pour la première fois en 2000, est le résultat d'une rencontre de militants associatifs, de travailleurs sociaux, de journalistes, de juristes et d'avocats défenseurs de la vie privée et des libertés publiques.L’organisation comprend un comité de sélection chargé de recueillir les candidatures et de rassembler un jury citoyen d’une dizaine de personnes.
Depuis la première édition Privacy International s'est rapproché d'organisations reconnues pour leurs combats en faveur des libertés fondamentales, comme la Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l'Homme (FIDH), le Syndicat de la magistrature (SM) Groupe d'information et de soutiens des immigrés (GISTI), le Centre d'études sur les conflits (revue Cultures & Conflits), le Syndicat des avocats de France (SAF), etc.
Creative Commons France
L’organisation Creative Commons a été fondée en 2001 à la Stanford Law School à l’initiative du professeur de droit Lawrence Lessig. Creative Commons propose gratuitement des contrats flexibles de droit d'auteur pour diffuser vos créations.
Simples à utiliser et intégrées dans les standards du web, ces autorisations non exclusives permettent aux titulaires de droits d'autoriser le public à effectuer certaines utilisations, tout en ayant la possibilité de réserver les exploitations commerciales, les oeuvres dérivées ou le degré de liberté (au sens du logiciel libre). Ces contrats d'accès ouvert peuvent être utilisés pour tout type de création : texte, film, photo, musique, site web...
Des équipes de juristes volontaires participent à la traduction des textes dans leur langue et à l’adaptation des dispositions aux spécificités de leur législation nationale de manière à permettre leur utilisation dans leur pays. Le CERSA, Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches de Science Administrative, laboratoire de recherche rattaché à l'Université Panthéon-Assas Paris 2 et au Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - CNRS est l'institution affiliée à Creative Commons en France.
French Data Network
French Data Network (FDN) is a french non-profit organization, which aims at promoting the use and development of the INTERNET and USENET networks. FDN offers multiple services, handled by its members, for its members. FDN doesn't sell services. FDN asks you to participate, and does its best to provide the services you need.
FDN was created on June 2nd 1992, as non-profit association (under french law of july 1901), to offer at lesser cost services that other have been used to since the beginning of the 1980s, as a working tool. It's notable that the web didn't exist, yet, when FDN was founded. With the strongness of being a precursor and its associative structure, FDN continues to be a pioneer in the extent and quality of the Internet services provided, at affordable prices for individuals.
FDN's advantage is the diversity of its members, both composed of Internet old-timers, with a strong technical background, and members interested in a wide range of topics (music, legal, education, graphics, ...). It allows for promoting of a quality Internet service, on a technical level, as for content and respect of its initial ethical choices.
Site : http://www.fdn.fr/
Globenet
Globenet is a non-profit organisation, focusing on freedom of speech and privacy, providing internet services.Globenet was created in February 1995, to further the goals of several groups and NGO interested in internet, the new media and how to use it. Globenet is commited to providing electronic communication not as a source of profits but as an end in itself.
Collaborating with organisations such as WISE International, APC (Association for Progressive Communication), Reporters without Borders, ANAIS network for Internet in Africa, Globenet explored the early potentialities of a "network of networks" for NGO and militant organisations.
Since 2001, with Placenet, French Data Network (non-profit internet access providers), Gandi (low price domain names registrar) and Netaktiv (web design company), Globenet created Gitoyen, a co-operated and non-profit telecom operator ; this allows us to share the costs and reinforce our technical independence.In 2002, Globenet set up a free internet and email access for the general public, called No-log, which protects privacy.
What makes Globenet special is:
- the variety of the services: full hosting, dedicated servers, internet access, free email
- a total independence: no external subsidy, autonomous and free technical and non-technical management by volunteers, autonomous and free network connection
- an ongoing effort for openness and transparency
- strong defense of privacy and of freedom of speech
Site : http://www.globenet.org | www.no-log.org
MarsNet
MarsNet est un ensemble de Services Internet, proposés par et pour les associations de Marseille et sa région, géré par AssoDev (Marseille), association d’entraide et de soutien aux associations en partenariat technique avec GlobeNet / No-log.
MarsNet propose les services suivants :
- Accès Internet via modem et e-mail gratuit
- Hébergement (site, e-mail, listes, ...)
- Accompagnement à la création de site et d’outils spécifiques
- Formations et accompagnement
Il s’agit de services professionnels, performants, à prix abordables, en cohérence avec les valeurs et les pratiques associatives : pas de pub, pas de censure, but non-lucratif, fonctionnement participatif, outils libres et coopératifs.
Site : http://www.marsnet.org
Musique Libre
The non profit organization Musique libre aims to :
- support and promote music creation and independent distribution,under free licences system.
- fight for individual rights management, in front of civil companies, events organisers, labels and distributors.
- in this new digital era, inform artists and the public about emergent distribution channels and use of musical works. And inform also about the business that is thus generated.
Dogmazic.net is the new web site of the Musique libre organisation. It's not only thousands of free ogg's and mp3's to download, it's an invitation for sharing within the libre music philosophy.
Site :http://www.dogmazic.net
Qwartz Electronic Music Awards
To present and make heard the many facets of the contemporary electronic and digital music scene; give people the opportunity to enhance their knowledge of this music and enjoy it to the full; support the creativity and cultural diversity that independent production can ensure : these are the aims of the Qwartz Electronic Music Awards.
2 million people visited the website in the course of the previous editions. They were from 80 countries in Asia, North and Central America and the Caribbean, South America and Europe, including 25% of visitors from France. A gala awards ceremony closes each edition and is held in Paris (Cirque d'Hiver Bouglione) at the end of March. Participation of independent artists and labels in the Qwartz Electronic Music Awards is free of charge. A call for entries is made throughout the world by e-mail to the 10,000 labels listed by Qwartz.
Site : http://www.qwartz.org
Digital economy : head or tail ?
Submitted by pi on 20 April, 2008 - 20:31.
After studying the votes of the french MEPs, Squaring the Net analyzed the vote of the April 10, 2008 by country, crossed with the NRI index. It is obvious that the french graduated response project, initiated by Nicolas Sarkozy, was rejected by the countries the most able to adapt to the digital economy.