FC: European Parliament votes 351-133 for surveillance; also spam

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Fri May 31 2002 - 05:12:07 PDT

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    Politech archive on data retention:
    http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=retention
    
    News coverage of the vote:
    http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,52882,00.html
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/internetnews/story/0,7369,725204,00.html
    
    The official report:
    http://www2.europarl.eu.int/omk/OM-Europarl?PROG=PRESS-DAILYNB&L=EN&PUBREF=-//EP//TEXT+PRESS-DAILYNB+DN-20020530-1+0+DOC+SGML+V0//EN&LEVEL=1&REFERER=X&NAV=X#SECTION4
    
    The three documents that Ilka Schroeder mentions in the message below:
    http://www.politechbot.com/docs/eu.vote.retention.1.html
    http://www.politechbot.com/docs/eu.vote.retention.2.html
    http://www.politechbot.com/docs/eu.vote.retention.3.html
    
    ---
    
    Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 13:27:46 +0200
    From: "Ilka   Schroeder" <ischroederat_private>
    Subject: EU Vote on Data XPXrXoXtXeXcXtXiXoXnX Retention
    
    Dear Friends,
    
    we have prepared a number of docs highlighting a bit the background of 
    yesterday's vote on data protection in the EU Parliament. The first is a 
    so-called panaché, a non-official version we prepared to see what the 
    future directive will look like if approved by the Council. Note that the 
    Parliament's additions are in blue, italic and bold, while Parliament's 
    deletions are in blue and strikethrough. We have also added the numbers and 
    authors of all amendments adopted, just to give you an idea.
    
    The second doc is the outcome of roll calls during that same vote. In fact 
    all roll calls were on the retention issue, with the LIBE committee's 
    amendments 2 and 20 being against retention, and the PPE-DE / PSE 
    amendments 46 and 47  being in favour of it. On 46, we had asked for a 
    split vote (an attempt to disperse right-wing votes), with part one being 
    everything but the phrase referring to data retention, and part 2 being 
    that phrase only. As you all know, they won nevertheless. The Abbreviations 
    mean roughly:
    
    PPE-DE Conservatives / Christian Democrats
    PSE Social Democrats
    ELDR Liberals
    Verts/ALE Greens
    GUE/NGL Left-Wingers
    UEN Right-Wingers
    EDD Eurosceptics
    NI Independents
    
    OJ Official Journal of the EU, at http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/oj/index.html
    
    The Third doc is the text of Amendments 2 and 20, voted down yesterday but 
    included in the roll calls. If you want to know quickly who the bad guys 
    are: They are the ones who voted against 20 and / or in favour of 46, part 2.
    
    Take care, and cheers
    from Ilka Schroeder's office
    
    Bureau Ilka Schroeder
    Parlement européen
    Tel: +32 2 284 74 49
    GPG Fingerprint: 327F 22F7 6685 20B0 39C7 2762 95C7 A7E8 8B37 3F0A
    Come to https://www.ilka.org
    
    ---
    
    From: "Caspar Bowden" <cbat_private>
    Subject: FIPR-Bulletin: Please distribute - petition in protest at data 
    retention
    Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 12:47:18 +0100
    
    This German website performed the valuable service of collecting 17,000
    signatures in just two weeks from all over Europe protesting against
    blanket data retention. Although the EP vote is over, you may wish to
    redistribute this invitation to join the petition.
    
    (If you would like to redistribute, I think it often works best if you
    add a two-line personal comment signalling that you consider the issue
    of some importance)
    
    Ample background can be found at:
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/internetnews/story/0,7369,725204,00.html
    
    http://www.statewatch.org/news/2002/may/10epcavein.htm
    
    Regards
    --
    Caspar Bowden
    Director, Foundation for Information Policy Research
    Tel: +44(0)20 7354 2333                 www.fipr.org
    
    ...
     >***********************************************************************
     >ENGLISH VERSION:
     >
     >The Presumption of Innocence is History.
     >
     >The European Parliament today passed a law that grants the EU member
     >states the rights to unlimited data retention and thus buried
     >fundamental rights of EU citizens: freedom of speech, the right to have
    
     >privacy and the presumption of innocence. The Members of the European
     >Parliament ignored the expressed denial of more than 16,000 individuals
    
     >to broad data retention as well as the collective statement of more
     >than 40 civic organizations, which all signed the open letter of the
     >GILC (Global Liberty Internet Campaign) opposing this law.
     >
     >The stop1984 team is more than disappointed about this decision, which
     >is contrary to every EU citizens' interests. The rights of loyal
     >citizens were sacrificed on the altar of "war against terrorism". So
     >the beneficiaries of the events of 9/11 have finally reached their
     >goal: to destroy freedom for the sake of a putative increase in
     >security. The fight against terrorism has been used by the MEPs to
     >erode fundamental rights in the democratic societies of the European
     >Union. We deeply regret this unwise decision.
     >
     >Stop1984 - and all groups supporting the new open letter - will not be
     >inactive when leeway, which can be abused much too easily, is given to
     >European countries when it comes to unlimited retention of data.
     >
     >With our new action (www.stop1984.com/index2.php?text=letter.txt) we
     >will address not only to the European Union Parliament but also to all
     >governments of Europe and notify them that we're not willing to accept
     >derogation of basic rights and will protest against it --- and we ask
     >everyone to support our protests by his signature so that the adressees
    
     >will no longer ignore the people´s voice.
     >
     >-------------------------------------------------------
     >
     >Cedric Laurant, Policy Fellow
     >Electronic Privacy Information Center
     >1718 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Suite 200
     >Washington, DC 20009  -  U.S.A.
     >Tel: +1 (202) 483-1140 (x114)
     >Fax: +1 (202) 483-1248
     >www.epic.org  www.privacy.org
    
    
    ---
    
    From: Montse Doval Avendaño <mdovalat_private>
    To: <declanat_private>
    Subject: European parliament to cave in on data retention?
    Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 13:49:04 +0200
    
    Hi Declan,
    you may be interested
    
    Statewatch News Online, 28 May 2002
    <http://www.statewatch.org/news/index.html>
    
    All articles include background and full-text documentation]
    
    1. EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT TO CAVE IN ON DATA RETENTION?
    
    The PSE/socialist group have joined the EPP/conservative group and accepted
    the demands of EU governments and law enforcement agencies to place
    communications under surveillance.
    
    Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, comments:
    
    "The EU governments already have all the powers they need under the
    existing Directive to combat terrorism, this measure has nothing to do with
    terrorism. The proposal by the EU governments is a cynical exploitation of
    public sentiment to introduce draconian powers to potentially place the
    whole population of Europe under surveillance.
    
    It took years to agree and put in place the 1997 EU Directive on privacy in
    telecommunications in every member state. The right to privacy and freedom
    from surveillance once lost will be gone forever.
    Montse Doval Avendaño
    mdovalat_private
    www.labitacora.com
    www.desdegalicia.com
    God put me on earth to accomplish many things.
    Right now I'm so far behind that I may never die.
    
    ---
    
    Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 13:16:54 -0500
    From: Victoria Clarke <Victoriaat_private>
    To: Declan McCullagh <declanat_private>
    Subject: EU to Require Opt-In for Commercial Email
    
    Hi Declan,
    Thanks for a great list and keeping me informed.
    
    The politech readers may be interested in the following.
    I got it from a recent post on SlashDot, 
    http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/02/05/30/1640210.shtml?tid=111,
    and the Parliament's daily notebook has an overview.
    
    Have a good day,
    Victoria
    --------------------------
    Posted by michael on Thursday May 30, @12:41PM from the 
    all-things-dull-and-ugly dept.
    D4C5CE writes "EuroCAUCE (Usenet message below) and Heise (in German) 
    report that the European Parliament has voted to ban spam by adopting the 
    "opt-in" system for unsolicited commercial email, finally freeing the way 
    for the entry into force of a "European Parliament and Council directive 
    concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in 
    the electronic communications sector". The news of the parliamentary U-turn 
    comes after a recommendation by the "Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and 
    Rights, Justice and Home Affairs" to permit "opt-out" marketing had 
    received critical coverage, causing countless spam victims world-wide to 
    alert the Members of the European Parliament to the big mistake they were 
    about to make, and it is hoped to become the useful precedent of a workable 
    approach for US lawmakers currently evaluating means to regulate spam as 
    well." The Parliament's daily notebook has an overview. Individual EU 
    countries still have to implement this with legislation before it is 
    effective.
    
    From: Beebit <beebit-u03at_private>
    Newsgroups: news.admin.net-abuse.email, talk.politics.european-union
    Subject: European Parliament Supports 'Opt-In' for Commercial Email
    Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 13:08:11 +0200
    
    
    The European Parliament has decided to accept the Council's Common Position 
    which would require senders of advertisements by "electronic mail" to have 
    the recipient's prior consent. "Electronic mail" is defined broadly enough 
    so as to include text messaging systems based on mobile telephony in 
    addition to email.
    
    The 'opt-in' requirement for electronic mail will be in Article 13, 
    Paragraph 1 of the new Directive concerning the processing of personal data 
    and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector which 
    will enter into force following its publication in the Official Journal. 
    The Directive will guide the enactment of legislation throughout the 
    European Economic Area, which includes the 15 EU Member States and European 
    Free Trade Association members Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein. EU 
    Members Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, and Italy as well as 
    EFTA member Norway had already implemented 'opt-in' in their national 
    legislation.
    
    Further provisions in the same Article would allow companies to send 
    advertising via email for their own products or services of a similar 
    category to addresses which they had obtained in the course of a sale, 
    unless and until the customer has registered an objection. Customers are to 
    be given the opportunity to object "free of charge and in an easy manner" 
    both at the time the contact details are collected and with each 
    advertising message.
    
    All in all, is an extremely welcome development, and should serve as an 
    example and inspiration for legislators in other territories. We are 
    absolutely delighted to see Parliament joining the Commission and the 
    Council in taking a stand to protect European consumers and network users. 
    It only remains to extend similar protection to corporate citizens. This 
    will probably have to be within the framework of other legislation than 
    that pertaining to the processing of "personal data".
    
    ~~~~
    The European Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email is an 
    all-volunteer, ad-hoc grouping of Internet users and professionals 
    dedicated to bringing about an end to an unethical practice by technical 
    and legislative means. http://www.euro.cauce.org/en/
    
    ---
    
    From: Montse Doval Avendaño <mdovalat_private>
    To: <declanat_private>
    Subject: Fw: [MakyPress] 568 - 30/05/2002
    Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 21:51:06 +0200
    Organization: BCSC
    
    Hi Declan,
    I forward to you an e mail from Makypress (a daily newsletter with tech and 
    Internet news)
    It's about the same law I sent you yesterday in an email.
    It might be interesting for Politech readers.
    Regards,
    Montse
    
    | Subject: URGENT/IMPORTANT- PRESS RELEASE BY MARCO CAPPATO
    | Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 14:11:53 +0200
    | From: "Marco Cappato" <Mcappatoat_private>
    | To: undisclosed-recipients:;
    
    EP/PRIVACY: POPULAR AND SOCIALIST GROUPS DETERMINE EP ENDORSEMENT
    OF COUNCIL  REQUESTS FOR DATA RETENTION AUTHORISATION IN EU LAW,
    AGAINST CIVIL LIBERTIES  ORGANISATIONS APPEALS - THE FIGHT
    AGAINST DATA RETENTION GOES ON AT THE NATIONAL AND EUROPEAN
    LEVEL
    
    Brussels, 30 May 2002
    
    Declaration of Marco Cappato, Radical MEP of the Lista Bonino and
    EP rapporteur on the directive on privacy in electronic
    communications:
    
    "With the vote of today, the directive on privacy in electronic
    communications can be correctly defined the directive of data
    retention and of iper-regulation of the Internet. The EP first
    reading position, as confirmed by the civil liberties committee
    in second reading, have been completely reversed in plenary,
    convincing me to withdraw my name from the report, as I announced
    in plenary after the vote. PPE and PSE have approved  the set of
    amendments they had tabled together - with the opposition of the
    rapporteur and of my Radical colleagues, the Liberals, the Greens
    and the Communists - and that determined the EP surrender to the
    Council requests for iper-regulation of the Internet and for data
    retention. On this issue, from now on Member states of the EU
    have an explicit authorisation in this EU directive to impose on
    telecom and Internet service providers the retention and storing
    of all citizens' communication datas, such as telephone and
    mobile calls, Internet surfing, emails, location datas. The
    requests of the almost 17 thousand citizens that had signed a
    open letter-appeal on line (http://www.stop1985.com and
    http://www.radicalparty.com) to ask to MEPs to vote against the
    insertion of this "data retention" provision, have been ignored.
    Mme Ana Palacio - Spanish PPE, that worked hard to sponsor the
    Spanish Council Presidency requests in the EP, and to have the
    committee position she chairs completely reversed in plenary,
    furthermore being absent yesterday and today either during EP
    debates and votes - and Mme Paciotti - PSE shadow rapporteur,
    that did a remarkable U turn on data retention, passing from
    opposition to endorsement - took the political responsibility  of
    driving their EPP and PSE colleagues for this vote. Belgium,
    Holland, Germany, the UK are working on data retention laws that
    could make possible the generalised, massive surveillance of the
    citizens, and efforts to co-ordinate and establish a Europewide
    regime of data retention are taking place in the Council and in
    Europol. The fight on the protection of privacy now has to go on
    at the national and European level, to protect civil liberties
    and foundamental freedoms from measures that with the declared
    and apparent aim of fighting against terrorism to protect
    democracy, have the effect of damaging it.
    
    ---------
    You can see who voted how on amendment 20 (Cappato report - LIBE
    amendment on deletion of data retention) and on the split vote
    asked by Marco Cappato and the GUE, Green and ELDR groups on
    Palacio-Paciotti amendment 46, 2nd part (data retention) on the
    webpage of the EP:
    
    http://www.europarl.eu.int/direct/application/fr/vote/ResultatsVotes.asp
    or
    http://www3.europarl.eu.int/omk/omnsapir.so/calendar?APP=PV1&LANGUE=EN
    
    Escrito por ErZoto (para MakyPress)
    <mailto:tarifaplanaat_private>
    
    ---
    
    
    
    
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