The European Parliament voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to reject the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. The vote blocks the treaty from taking effect in EU member states, and is likely to make the treaty a dead letter around the world.
The General Court of the European Union has made a small reduction in the fine that Microsoft has to pay for its abuse of its dominant market position and refusal to provide interoperability documentation. The 1998 case, brought by the Free Software Foundation Europe and the Samba Team and assisted by SIIA, ECIS, IBM, Red Hat and Oracle, was being appealed by Microsoft, which wanted a 2008 ruling and fine to be annulled and to have its costs paid by the Commission and others.
Regulators in Europe said Tuesday they will watch closely to make sure Microsoft complies with its commitments to ensure competition in the browser market, after Mozilla complained its Firefox browser is being excluded from Windows RT.
However, the European Commission noted that an agreement it struck with Microsoft in 2009 to regulate its behavior applied only to "client PCs," and it wasn't immediately clear if that incudes tablets, one of the main targets for Windows RT.
The European Parliament on Thursday approved a clampdown on mobile network operators to protect consumers from paying excessive prices for using their phones and tablet computers abroad.
The legislature backed by a massive 578-10 margin, with 10 abstentions, a deal to make it cheaper to make phone calls, download emails or surf the Internet when abroad in other EU countries.
A global trade deal to stop copyright theft could give internet providers the right to spy on users, breaching European Union law, the EU's data privacy chief said on Tuesday.
Several governments in the developed world have been pushing for multilateral agreements to ban trademark theft on consumer goods and medicines, as have websites such as MegaUploads and PirateBay, which provide free film and music downloads.
The European Parliament on Thursday approved a controversial data transfer agreement with the U.S. that had sharply divided legislators.
The EU could soon introduce rules to monitor the deployment of internet censorship technology in autocratic regimes including China and Saudi Arabia.
The European Parliament is proposing a resolution to strengthen the accountability of countries that export gear used to block websites and eavesdrop on mobile communications.
The Bunker, near Sandwich in Kent, is an unassuming place, as the name implies, it’s what goes on underground that is of interest. However, there are outward signs that this is a slightly unusual place: a barbed-wire topped fence surrounds the premises, on top of a green metal container sits an enormous exhaust pipe. To enter, I’m required to show my passport to security.
On the 26th May* the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)) will impose an EU directive designed to protect Internet users’ privacy. As I said last year, European websites will have to police their own cookies but what about third-party cookies from advertisers? This will be more problematic to regulate under the European privacy law. The EU Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) also wants an “icon” or “logo” on adverts that when clicked shows the data that is being transmitted.
Austrian federal police have arrested a 15-year-old student who allegedly cracked the servers of 259 companies during a three-month hacking spree. The student is supposed to have indiscriminately hacked the servers of companies in Austria and internationally with a selection of hacker tools. As part of the attacks, he defaced web sites and boasted about his actions on Twitter, and also posted links to data dumps of stolen confidential information and user data. He confessed to the actions as soon as he was arrested by the police.
