EU-Chefposten: Parliament wants Juncker, Cameron does not | tagesschau.de. Why do the EU states still let themselves be fooled by the island kingdom? Are we the EU or are we just an appendix of the British? Juncker is certainly not my dream candidate, but if the heads of government let themselves be fooled by the British again and propose another candidate, they might as well skip the next elections.
bananenunion
Pornwall: British porn filter also blocks other content. The upcoming model for Europe? What exactly distinguishes us from the various censoring and filtering dictatorships? Oh yes, we can vote every few years for who fools and lies to us.
Mr McNamee suggested that repressive regimes would “laugh till they choke when the EU next lectures them regarding free speech online”: via Clean IT: Die EU-Kommission will das Internet überwachen und filtern, ganz ohne Gesetze.
No Quick-Freeze: Chancellor urges Rösler to implement data retention. Isn't that funny? An EU commission wants something that has been rejected as unconstitutional in several member states, partly stopped by courts. There is a chancellor who has already been reprimanded by the Federal Constitutional Court because she pushed through an unconstitutional law. There is an EU commissioner who announces a new version due to constitutional problems. And what does the EU do? It threatens with penalties if the current, non-constitutional version is not implemented. And what does the chancellor, who is sworn to uphold the constitution, do? She wants to enforce a regulation against the objections of her own justice minister and against the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court over the Rösler boy (of course she takes him, after all, he has been on the chopping block since the NRW debacle and is dispensable). And amidst all this nonsense, the prolethicians in Berlin wonder why everyone is so upset about their surveillance fetish. A comedian who comes up with such an absurd story would be booed.
I still like to read him and think he was one of the better Extra 3 people. Here he explains why copyright might not be so great from the perspective of a copyright holder. Draw your own conclusions about what this says about the EU Commission, which still wants to ram through ACTA at all costs and is now pouting because of the protests.
Because it's not a copyright but a rights management agreement. Example: The Süddeutsche Zeitung printed interviews and texts about productions from my company. We put it - proudly, of course - on our homepage. A law firm sent us a cease and desist letter, and we pay the Süddeutsche 500 Euros each time for content that is based on our copyright. Another example: Westdeutscher Rundfunk, in a big publisher appeasement of the WAZ group, opened its archives. Result: If I show an old contribution of mine, both the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung and WDR can sue me; the only one who definitely does not have rights to his work is me - the copyright holder. ACTA significantly strengthens the power of marketers against consumers and copyright holders; it is a suicide attempt for idea-driven economies. The fury of many pirates to abolish copyright at the same time makes it difficult to demonstrate.
via Die Woche: Wie geht es uns, Herr Küppersbusch? - taz.de.
Flight data agreement has been negotiated - fm4.ORF.at. And where are our so-called diligent data protection officers of the states and the federal government now? Oh, sorry, they must hate Facebook. It's also much more important to campaign against Like buttons and threaten websites with fines rather than standing up to their own government representatives who draft and enforce such data trading deals.
Euro-Crisis: China Offers Help and Wants Concessions. Of course. Money is scarce, so let's ignore human rights and political systems or exploitation of the population and quickly recognize the whole thing as a market economy, after all it's about our prosperity! For that, one must make sacrifices in China!
Controls again at the German-Danish border - great achievement for a founding member of the EU just to satisfy right-wing populist idiots to destroy the Schengen area..
Acta: Lobbyists want to prevent the ECJ from examining Acta. Where would we end up if we dared to check the rights extortionists and their machinations, or have courts examine the cleverly crafted contracts. Especially when experts are already saying that it does not comply with EU law in essential points.
Malmström: EU Commissioner does not want internet blocks for other topics. Oh, great, we just have to give the EU Commissioner the general filtering tool and then believe her that the EU does not plan and want to expand it to other topics. And then also believe the same for all following EU Commissions, because they would never expand a once introduced censorship tool in its application. I mean, that would be like assuming that the toll data would also be used for purposes other than just the pure billing of road usage. (by the way: anyone who finds sarcasm in my comments is welcome to keep it)
Netzsperren: Großbritannien plant globalen Pornofilter and thus proves that mad cow disease can jump from harmless cows to politicians and then to ISP bosses. The obvious thought of an analogous treatment as with the cows, however, does not seem practical. There are indeed differences between company bosses, politicians, and cattle. Amazing. (I decline any betting offers on whether the British model will quickly spread to the EU because it is too obvious)
EU-Kommission plant Umstellung aller Girokonto-Nummern | tagesschau.de - typical bureaucratic action. Most people will continue to make the majority of their transfers within their own country, but then they will have to enter the monsters of IBAN and BIC, just in case a transfer might occur across national borders ...
EU Commission wants to introduce Internet blocks - proof of how brainless the Commission construct is and how urgently Europe needs to be put on sensible, democratic feet. We now have to deal with this nonsense again, even though it's finally done locally - and European commission bureaucracy is even harder to overcome than Schäuble's fantasies. For Schäuble, one election and a change of ministers was enough, but the time until the next commission composition is long.
Open Wi-Fi 'outlawed' in Digital Economy Bill - ZDNet.co.uk - in the UK, free Wi-Fi could soon be a thing of the past - a point where we can only hope that it remains a purely British path. But I can imagine one or the other politician who would crave to implement the same in other countries or even across the EU. And hey, if this forces hotspot operations only into the hands of large providers, that's great, because then we also know where the next party donations will come from ...
Foto verboten - we can still hope that the British way will not prevail in the EU. However, the EU has already adopted some completely stupid ideas in the past. For amateur photographers, who usually do not have their photos registered with a recognized agency (we can assume that photo agencies will continue to ensure that their own rights are protected), this would be quite catastrophic.
EU allows Bayer to import genetically modified soybeans - great, they can't be grown, but of course the stuff can be used as food. What nonsense ...
The Death of Google's Patents? - "The Patent and Trademark Office has now made clear that its newly developed position on patentable subject matter will invalidate many and perhaps most software patents, including pioneering patent claims to such innovators as Google, Inc." - Only in the Banana Republic do the paid prolethicians still clamor for the introduction of software patents, because we just need them. And how does their argument "we need them, otherwise we look stupid compared to the USA" look now that the US Patent Office itself says: "Software patents are a mess"?
Data trading with the FBI - and this is how we are sold and traded. And the fact that perhaps one or the other state still has rudimentary data protection regulations that prohibit such trading does not interest anyone either.
TP: Victims on the Altar of Uniformity - "By November 1, 2009, all member states were supposed to have fully implemented the 'Directive on Payment Services.' At this point, SEPA direct debits were supposed to become 'binding' across Europe. This transition is problematic, among other things, because banks in Germany have so far refused to set up debit limits. Thus, anyone can debit an arbitrary amount from a current account without presenting a direct debit authorization. Similarly, there is no right for the consumer to limit the amount of direct debits. And neither the EU nor the federal government is currently considering limiting potential SEPA damage by introducing such rights. The consumer can only counter this risk by keeping as little money as possible in the current account and having all overdraft options definitively blocked." - we will be mocked and robbed with this. And why do we still pay the banks money when they anyway shirk responsibility at every corner and end?
Turkey: President and Prime Minister must go to court - cute, how the EU is now supporting the nationalists and religion-close (too close?) AKP people. Probably Erdogan seems controllable and usable for their own power games. People just never learn. State and religion must be strictly separated. But as long as this is not implemented in Germany, we should not be surprised by reactions like the one from the EU ...
EU-Abgeordneter: Provider sollen bei Urheberrechtsverstößen die Leitung kappen - even more prolethicians, who open their mouths without a spark of understanding and know-how. All this shouting for filtering solutions on the Internet, and then they arrogantly complain about the evil Chinese firewall and get upset about censorship in Islamic states - meanwhile, they themselves are busily working on the European Internet wall and the establishment of massive censorship apparatuses in Europe.
Criminalization of parallel imports still controversial - sounds cumbersome. But it means nothing else than that the opinion of the EU Parliament should be ignored again. Parallel imports mean, for example, buying music abroad because it's cheaper there. And that is of course a thorn in the side of the rip-off merchants. Because the free movement of the market in the EU can and may not apply to something as important as music or films. Where would we end up there. After all, we also have to give up our rights to the stuff. There will probably be rain again soon - the arguments of the prolethicians and rip-off merchants are particularly flat at the moment ...
Court of Auditors wastes millions - by goats and gardeners?
heise online -Softwarepatent-Gegner beklagen Deal der EU-Kommission mit Microsoft - "The Commission does not understand how Open Source works," Benjamin Henrion, the Brussels representative of the FFII, also shakes his head at the negotiated agreement. The authority has naively accepted the promises of the Redmonders that they will now abide by the rules. Meanwhile, Microsoft has been planning for years to control the Open Source economy through commercial property rights on computer programs. This plan has now advanced considerably. "Kroes has ensured that software patents of the EPA, which the EU rejected in 2005, now strengthen the monopolist's grip for years to come."
Outrage over EU plans for «web censorship» - latest from Looney Land. We have funny years ahead of us, with crazy politicians with control freak neurosis and the most absurd ideas about reality.
EU Commissioner wants to "block dangerous words" on the Internet - yet another politician running amok, ignorant of the facts.
EU "pulled over the table" on passenger data - "A closer reading of the documents shows that the triumphantly announced breakthrough rather resembles a capitulation to the USA, warned representatives of the ALDE and the Greens. 'The EU was pulled over the table,' judged Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert (ALDE). In particular, it was criticized that the German presidency had emphasized the reduction of the categories of transferred data. The question asked twice by Green Kathalijne Buitenweg to Commissioner Frattini, which data would no longer be transferred in fact, he did not answer. It was only a summary of the data in fewer categories, the deputies complained."
EU and USA have reached agreements on the transfer of flight passenger and financial data - the data trading continues. What can all be justified with the fight against terrorism and how the politicians' brains turn off (do they really believe that no economic espionage would be added to this, or do they just not give a shit?), is frightening. What do we actually have representatives of the people for, if they then behave like traitors to the people?
No labeling required: EU allows traces of GM in organic food - great. Because GM crap doesn't respect field boundaries, organic food is simply redefined and made even more meaningless than the EU organic label already is. All for commerce. The stupid little coins that are probably more important to corrupt politicians shoved up their asses by lobby groups than effective consumer protection ...
IT-Chronik - who is behind the eavesdropping interfaces. Are we selling our data, our conversations, and everything else to all those cooperating intelligence agencies. Parliamentary control only rudimentary and in the absence of the public. Big Brother Global.
Terror-Webseiten: Europol sucht Terroristen im Netz - "According to the Interior Ministry, the German EU Council Presidency also aims to extend Europol's competencies to all forms of cross-border serious crime. This would allow offenses such as the dissemination of child pornography or activities by hooligans to be pursued even more effectively."
Gen-Mais: Rats show damage to liver and kidneys - CRIIGEN concludes their investigation report with the finding that, based on the available data, the genetically modified corn cannot be considered safe. Who cares if sales are good.
Poland: Minister wants to ban "homosexual agitation" - Poland, the European America. Just as crazy.
EU Parliament votes for liberalization of television advertising - well, this will make television even more uninteresting than it already is. If I want advertising, I look at the junk mail in the mailbox, which is at least local. What can you do, I hardly ever turn on the TV anyway - besides the internet, this simple ad-infested broadcast medium makes a rather pitiful impression ...
Censorship allegations against EU report on IT future - when you make goats into gardeners (like making an SAP employee the committee chairman).
EU may not transfer bank data to the USA - what do you want to bet they will find a loophole to pass the data on to the USA?
SDU-Wahlcomputer excluded from Dutch parliamentary elections - and when will this madness be completely stopped? And here too? I am in favor of a Europe-wide ban on silly voting computers. Sorry, but counting the classic way is really not that hard that we would need a computer for it ...
EU will hand over connection data to the USA - because data protection doesn't matter these days in Europe either.