CyberLaw Blog

Archive for February 12th, 2009

Surveillance needs better control, warn Lords: “The fundamental relationship between Government and the people of the UK is at risk because of the increasing surveillance being carried out by the state and by private bodies, a House of Lords Committee has said.”

The Lords Constitution Committee has warned that better checks and balances are needed on the use of surveillance if the basis of open democracy is not to be eroded by incursions into citizens’ privacy.

The Committee has published the results of an investigation into the amount and nature of surveillance in the UK.

“The huge rise in surveillance and data collection by the state and other organisations risks undermining the long standing traditions of privacy and individual freedom which are vital for democracy,” said Lord Goodlad, the Committee’s chairman. “If the public are to trust that information about them is not being improperly used there should be much more openness about what data is collected, by whom and how it is used.”

The House of Lords Constitution Committee Surveillance: Citizens and the State Report can be accessed as PD documents: HL 18-I and HL 18-II – both published on 06 February, 2009.

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

Data Retention Directive has sound legal basis, rules ECJ: “The European Union’s Data Retention Directive has a sound legal basis because it connects to policing but does not actually cover policing functions, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has said.”

Ireland and Slovakia had objected to the Directive, which orders countries to pass laws requiring telecoms companies to retain phone and internet usage records for between six and 24 months so that they can be used to help solve crime.

Ireland and Slovakia took legal action to repeal the Directive because it was introduced by mechanisms reserved for economic laws and not through the processes reserved for laws relating to policing and justice.

The ECJ has said, though, that the Directive does regulate economic activity and not policing activity, and so was legally introduced and will stand.

“The provisions of [the Directive] are designed to harmonise national laws on the obligation to retain data (Article 3), the categories of data to be retained (Article 5), the periods of retention of data (Article 6), data protection and data security (Article 7) and the conditions for data storage (Article 8),” said the ECJ’s ruling

“The measures provided for by [the Directive] do not, in themselves, involve intervention by the police or law-enforcement authorities of the Member States,” it said. “[The Directive] thus regulates operations which are independent of the implementation of any police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters.”

The ECJ found that EU member states had begun to pass their own, differing laws on the retention of telecoms data, and that this threatened EU economic integration.

“It was entirely foreseeable that the Member States which did not yet have rules on data retention would introduce rules in that area which were likely to accentuate even further the differences between the various existing national measures,” it said.

“The differences between the various national rules adopted on the retention of data relating to electronic communications were liable to have a direct impact on the functioning of the internal market and that it was foreseeable that that impact would become more serious with the passage of time,” said the ruling.

The Directive was found to have a sound legal basis.

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

Social Networking: Commission brokers agreement among major web companies.

(10/02/2009) 17 leading web firms have signed for the first time a European agreement to improve the safety of under 18s who use social networking sites. These include Arto, Bebo, Dailymotion, Facebook, Giovani.it, Google/YouTube, Hyves, Microsoft Europe, Myspace, Nasza-klaza.pl, Netlog, One.lt, Skyrock, StudiVZ, Sulake/Habbo Hotel, Yahoo!Europe, and Zap.lu. Social networking sites are an emerging social and economic phenomenon, attracting 41.7 million regular users in Europe and changing the way we interact with each other on the Web.

The use of social networks has grown over the past year by 35% in Europe and is expected to more than double to 107.4 million users by 2012. To make sure that social networks continue to grow, young users need to feel safe when expanding their networks or sharing any personal information. The agreement signed today in Luxembourg at the Safer Internet Day organised by the European Commission will empower teenagers to deal with potential risks they may face online, like cyberbullying or revealing personal information.

“The Safer Social Networking Principles for the EU” have been developed by social networking services providers in consultation with the European Commission, as part of its Safer Internet Plus Programme, and a number of NGOs, to provide good practice recommendations for the providers of social networking and other user interactive sites, to enhance the safety of children and young people using their services.”

Read full text of the Principles.

Extreme Pornography : Legal Guidance : Crown Prosecution Service

Up to date on 19 January 2009

This link will lead you to the Guidance on Extreme Pornography provided by the Crown Prosecution Service. It has been prepared to assist Crown Prosecutors and Associate Prosecutors when making decisions in respect of sections 63 to 67 of the Act to prosecute for possession of extreme pornographic images.

Comment: The other face of ‘Digital Britain’ – politics.co.uk

Julian Petley, professor of Film and Television at Brunel UniversityJulian Petley, professor of Film and Television at Brunel University

Monday, 26, Jan 2009 08:02

A while back, British newspapers were harrumphing about the Australian government banning Aboriginals from accessing pornography, as a knee-jerk response to a report showing high levels of sexual abuse of Aboriginal children. What they signally failed to notice, however, was that one of the nineteen new offences announced in New Labour’s 54th criminal justice bill since it came to power was the possession of what it calls ‘extreme pornographic images’. Those found guilty risk three years in gaol, or a hefty fine, or both. They will also be put on the sex offenders register, and thus have their lives wrecked.

In spite of a concerted three-year campaign against this measure, and great swathes of the bill being dropped as it passed through parliament, the anti-porn clauses not only remained in the bill but were actually widened in scope. This can only be regarded as a direct smack in the faces of those like Backlash, the Spanner Trust, Index on Censorship and a considerable number of academics, who had the temerity to object to it in the first place, and a clear warning that the government intends to intimidate and criminalise not only the entire BDSM community but very considerable portions of the DVD/video-owning and website-visiting communities as well.
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