URGENT: Defend Your Liberties

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
-Article 12, Universial Declaration of Human Rights

The Council of Ministers are trying to push through 3:rd pillar law (the one that the elected parliament doesn't have any say in), that threaten the free and open society. The law that is in violation of the universial declaration of human rights and the European convention of human rights will mandate that traffic data will be stored for a very long time (proposals mention between 6 months and 4 years), current law states that traffic data must be erased when it's not needed for billing purposes. The Council wants traffic data such as timestamps, sender and reciever stored for SMS-messages, e-mail, webbsurfing, phonecalls et.c. The possibillities for missuse are endless.

The law is being rushed by the Brittish and Swedish governments now after the latest terror attacks against Europe. While combatting terrorism is one of the most important issues, this law will help with nothing except to bring ISPs out of business due to the tremmendous costs in storing all the data, and reinstate the eastern european state terror against its citizens, but this time against all of Europe.

This is an orvellian nighmare comming true.

EDRi has in coorporation with the Dutch ISP XS4ALL started a petition in order to prevent the gestapo-like law.

I urge you all to sign it as soon as possible, your liberties are at stake here.

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Det bör vara ganska uppenbart att jag avskyr Nils Lundgrens europapolitik, men för ni övriga som röstade på honom i parlamentsvalet kan ni fundera på brustna vallöften.

Nils Lundgren var emot mjukvarupatent innan valet, ett antal av hans kryss var förmodligen också på grund av detta. På liknande sätt som SAPs löfte om inga biltullar inför förra valet ändrade han åsikt helt och hållet.

Man skall hålla sina löften.

Bibliografi
Uppsala Nya Tidning

EP Rejects Software Patents Directive

July, 6, 2005 is a great day for European democracy, SMEs and software developers all over Europe.

The EP has decided to reject the directive on computer implemented inventions, aka the software patents directive. The parliament rejected the directive with 648 votes to 14 with 18 abstenations, this out of a total of 732 MEPs.

The overwelming majority came after the EPP in last minute after a speach by Michel Rocard (PSE); the speach changed the EPP MEPs to reject the directive the directive.

Although, while a directive is needed that clearly limits the patentability of software, it is better with no text at all than a bad text; and it would also be better to address this issue in a full Union based patent system that replaced all the national patents.

Bibliography
European Parliament