Blog
The latest blogs from Open Rights Group
01 Sep 2009 By Jim Killock
Google books: getting it right in Europe
Next week, Open Rights Group will be one of a number of groups speaking to the EU Commission about what they should do to ensure the right deal is made to ensure online book services grow in Europe.
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28 Aug 2009 By Michael Holloway
Supporter update – August 2009
Stop press 1: Please support ORG by setting up a direct debit Stop press 2: 38 Degrees have started a petition telling Mandelson not to rush through extreme internet laws /p>
Here’s August’s monthly round-up of our activities and press.
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28 Aug 2009 By Jim Killock
38 Degrees backs campaign against ‘Digital Dictator’ Mandelson
Online campaigners 38 Degrees have launched an attack on Mandelson’s plans to give himself the power to order internet cut-offs without trial.
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25 Aug 2009 By Jim Killock
New fast-track P2P clampdown proposals announced today
According to the Guardian and reports this morning, Government officials today have announced that they intend to put in place a strong clamp down on illicit file sharing to ‘support’ record and film industries they wrongly believe are threatened.
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01 Aug 2009 By Michael Holloway
Supporter update – July 2009
Click through for July’s monthly round-up of our activities and press.
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24 Jul 2009 By Jim Killock
Kang-Karoo courts: guilt by accusation, punishment without trial
Largely away from public attention, Karoo in Hull have been operating a ‘three strikes’ policy with the tacit support of rights holders.
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23 Jul 2009 By Jim Killock
Welcome Podcasters!
Update: this meeting has been postponed.
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22 Jul 2009 By Michael Holloway
Looking for an experienced Joomla developer
We need some volunteer help rebuilding the website in Joomla.
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22 Jul 2009 By William Heath
A Malmo Unconference!
As flagged here there’s an EU e-Government summit coming up in November in Malmo, Sweden.
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21 Jul 2009 By Jim Killock
National Portrait Gallery vs Wikipedia
National Portrait Gallery’s (NPG) threat to sue a Wikipedia administrator for reposting 3,000 images caused a great deal of discussion on our lists and across the media.
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16 Jul 2009 By Jim Killock
Individual voter registration is the current focus for electoral modernisation in the UK
On Wednesday ORG Executive Director Jim Killock and Advisory Council member Jason Kitcat met Michael Wills MP, a minister in the Ministry of Justice.
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10 Jul 2009 By Michael Holloway
Sir Bonar on Intercept Modernisation at Open Tech 09
Sir Bonar Neville-Kingdom GCMG KCVO is her Majesty’s most senior civil servant concerned with information and communications technologies (or ‘ICTs’).
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Digital Privacy
07 Jul 2009 By Michael Holloway
There’s no excuse for industrial-scale snooping
Following yesterday’s news that BT have ditched Phorm, it is now reported that Carphone Warehouse have joined the list of big-name clients shunning the service.
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Digital Privacy
06 Jul 2009 By Jim Killock
BT’s decision to ditch Phorm is a victory for privacy
It is reported this morning that BT has dropped Phorm’s Webwise, the controversial behavioural advertising system that profiles internet users based on a reading of their internet traffic.
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30 Jun 2009 By Michael Holloway
Supporter update – June 2009
Click through for this month’s update, including:
Filesharing will be throttled in digital Britain
Do your MEPs agree with ORG?
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Digital Privacy
29 Jun 2009 By Jim Killock
Lobbying and public policy
Corporate lobbying in the European union has long been recognised as a significant problem for citizens.
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19 Jun 2009 By Jim Killock
Who should help Open Rights Group form policy?
We are looking for nominations to our Advisory Council, who contribute policy guidance to Open Rights on both a strategic and day-to-day basis.
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17 Jun 2009 By Jim Killock
Digital Britain: closing down the open internet
Digital Britain promises to ‘tackle piracy’ online.
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15 Jun 2009 By Jim Killock
All you can eat? (Within a limited menu)
Virgin have today announced that they are on the way to providing an ‘all you can eat’ music service, although they have so far only secured a deal with Universal.
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15 Jun 2009 By Jim Killock
mySociety campaign for internet-friendly Speaker
mySociety, as many of you will know, are campaigning for the next Speaker to agree with three internet-friendly principles:
1.
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12 Jun 2009 By Jim Killock
Lord Carter to quit: where will Digital Britain be going?
News that Lord Carter will quit government in July raises serious questions about the future of the Digital Britain proposals, which are due to be released next Tuesday.
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10 Jun 2009 By Jim Killock
HADOPI is dead
From LQDN:
The Constitutionnal Council, highest jurisdiction in France gave its decision1 concerning the HADOPI “three strikes” law, final stage before the promulgation of the law.
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09 Jun 2009 By Jim Killock
What do the EU results and Pirate Party mean for digital rights?
Stand back from the media frenzy concentrating on Labour’s woes for a moment, and ask yourself what these elections mean for digital rights.
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04 Jun 2009 By Jim Killock
Voting in the EU today: why it matters for digital rights
ORG is non-partisan, and the quality and chances of your candidates vary from region to region, so we are not recommending any party over another.
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01 Jun 2009 By Jim Killock
Do your MEP candidates care about digital rights?
Update: We have now had a reply for all Conservative candidates.
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29 May 2009 By Jim Killock
Fair deals can bring fans back.
Six million UK citizens are infringing copyright daily by downloading material via P2P and other file sharing services, according to the government’s Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property.
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29 May 2009 By Michael Holloway
Supporter update – May 2009
This month’s supporter update is now available.
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07 May 2009 By Jim Killock
Amendment 138/46 adopted again. Internet is a fundamental right in Europe.
Reposted from La Quadrature du Net
The debates on the Telecoms Package, thanks to a remarkable citizen mobilization, led to an extremely strong recognition of the access to internet as a fundamental right with the re-adoption of amendment 138/46 in second reading by a qualified majority.
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07 May 2009 By Michael Holloway
Home Office drags its feet on DNA database removals
GeneWatch UK Press Release
GeneWatch UK today questioned the Home Office’s proposed delay in deleting innocent people’s DNA profiles from the police National DNA Database, following last year’s decision by the European Court of Human Rights.
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05 May 2009 By Jim Killock
Ask MEPs to adopt Citizens’ Rights Amendments on 6 May.
(This urgent call to action was originally posted by La Quadrature du Net)
ALERT: last minute trick to prevent European Parliament to vote on amendment 138/46 by changing the order of votes.
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30 Apr 2009 By Michael Holloway
Supporter update – April 2009
Click through for a round-up of another busy month for Open Rights Group, including our new campaigning sites.
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Digital Privacy
28 Apr 2009 By Jim Killock
Phorm and the Home Office: cold comfort to citizens
You’ll probably have read today that leaked emails have shown that the Home Office worked with Phorm to offer advice that would give “comfort” to their investors.
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23 Apr 2009
Parliament buckles: copyright extension goes through to Council of Ministers
Against widespread dissent and controversy MEPs in the European Parliament voted this morning to allow copyright term extension to pass a first reading.
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21 Apr 2009
Last day to tell your MEPs: Do not enclose the cultural commons
Wednesday is the last full day to lobby your MEPs in Strasbourg before this Thursday’s vote on copyright term extension.
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17 Apr 2009
European Parliament votes on copyright extension next Thursday
Intense lobbying pressure has resulted in last minute tabling of the copyright term extension proposal, for a full plenary vote in the European Parliament, in Strasbourg next thursday.
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17 Apr 2009 By Jim Killock
Pirate Bay: blame lies with industry failure
Yes, copyright should be respected.
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Digital Privacy
17 Apr 2009 By Jim Killock
Goverment announces RIPA review in wake of EU threat
The government has announced a review of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.
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Digital Privacy
17 Apr 2009 By Jim Killock
Wikipedia blocks Phorm
Wikipedia have announced that they are blocking Phorm as they
consider the scanning and profiling of our visitors’ behavior by a third party to be an infringement on their privacy.
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Digital Privacy
15 Apr 2009 By Jim Killock
Open Rights Group welcomes decisions to block Phorm
Open Rights Group welcomes decisions by various major websites, including Amazon.
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Digital Privacy
14 Apr 2009 By Jim Killock
EU Commission moves against UK Government and Phorm
The EU Commission has launched proceedings against the UK concerning Phorm, the intrusive behavioural advertising system.
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10 Apr 2009 By Jim Killock
Statebook: because knowledge is power
Today we launched a campaign site, portraying the seemingly unregulated amassing of personal data by the state.
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06 Apr 2009 By Jim Killock
Data retention endangers democracy
European legislation that came into force today requires internet service providers to retain details of user’s emails, net phone calls and other web traffic.
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03 Apr 2009 By Jim Killock
Is Queen Liz a copyright infringer (and Obama, for that matter)?
You may have read that President Obama has given Queen Elizabeth an iPod with 40 show tunes on it.
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01 Apr 2009
EU governments vote against copyright extension in Brussels
Copyright term extension was dealt another serious blow last week when COREPER, the European Committee representing EU member states and the Council of Ministers, voted against the proposal.
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01 Apr 2009 By Jim Killock
Facebook’s theatrical rights and wrongs
In February, Facebook’s newly issued terms of service, which “implied that Facebook owned any content posted to the site, even after an account was terminated, forever and ever”, were hastily revoked.
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31 Mar 2009 By Michael Holloway
Supporter update – March 2009
Click through for your roundup of an extremely busy month for Open Rights Group.
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27 Mar 2009 By Michael Holloway
Event – Doctorow and Stross: Resisting the all-seeing eye
Update: the event video is now available in.
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Digital Privacy
25 Mar 2009 By Jim Killock
Telecom Package in second reading – dangerous amendments?
[ A Black Out Europe campaign has started on Facebook.
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22 Mar 2009 By Jim Killock
Open Letter – Call for major websites to opt out of Phorm
Open letter, sent to Chief Privacy Officers or equivalent at:
(i) Microsoft (ii) Google / Youtube (iii) Facebook (iv) AOL / Bebo (v) Yahoo (vi) Amazon (vii) Ebay
Dear Sir / Madam,
We are writing this open letter to you to ask you if you will act to protect your users’ privacy.
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19 Mar 2009 By Jim Killock
MEPs back off from copyright term extension vote!
Amid intense lobbying in the European Parliament next Monday’s vote on the proposal to extend the term of copyright has been struck off in a shock move.
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19 Mar 2009 By Jim Killock
A Digital Rights Agency: ‘an industry owned, industry led and industry run body’
Last Thursday the Open Rights Group along with many others made a submission in response to the Digital Britain Report.
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11 Mar 2009
Copyright extension vote on 23rd March: contact your MEPs now!
With the European Parliament set to vote on 23 March on extending the term of copyright for sound recordings, key European experts opposing the extension have released a new letter to MEPs warning of the dangers.
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06 Mar 2009 By Jim Killock
Refuse consent for information sharing
Update: Jack Straw last night scrapped clause 152.
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04 Mar 2009 By Jim Killock
Good practice in behavioural advertising?
The Internet Advertising Bureau, a digital marketing trade body, have launched Good Practice Principles for companies that collect and use data for online behavioural advertising purposes, which contain a number of clear problems:
The guidelines presume that:
“More relevant advertising is beneficial for both users and businesses: users discover more of what interests them and businesses find a better way to communicate with users.
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27 Feb 2009 By Michael Holloway
Supporter update – February 2009
Click through for our monthly roundup of activities.
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25 Feb 2009 By Jim Killock
Leading Academics Hit Out as Government Abandons Evidence-Based Policy on Copyright.
In an open letter sent today to David Lammy, UK Minister for Innovation, some of the country’s most eminent economists and intellectual property scholars, have hit out at government proposals to consider changing policy on term extension.
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16 Feb 2009 By Michael Holloway
ORG and Cory to debate NBC Universal and the chair of the Culture Committee
Policy Exchange, a leading right-of-centre think tank, is holding a lunchtime panel debate to discuss ‘anti-piracy legislation’.
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06 Feb 2009 By Glyn Wintle
Lords Constitution Committee report on surveillance and privacy
The House of Lords Constitution Committee report Surveillance: Citizens and the State is out today.
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06 Feb 2009 By Jim Killock
Sound Copyright conference attacks the “fairy tale” of copyright term extension.
Consumer groups, musicians, academics and industry stakeholders, together with a cross party panel of MEPs, hit out at the “fairy tale” of copyright term extension at the ORG “Sound Copyright” conference in the European Parliament last week.
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30 Jan 2009 By Michael Holloway
Supporter update – January 2009
Follow the link for your monthly round-up of our activities.
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29 Jan 2009 By Jim Killock
Digital Britain: leaving consumers out of the picture
We are looking at the report in detail, but we are extremely concerned that the voice of consumers and citizens is being marginalised.
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22 Jan 2009 By Jim Killock
Online activism leads to important transparency victory
A legislative proposal to exempt MPs’ expenses from the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act has been hastily withdrawn, with the media reporting cross-party support dissolved in the face of mass public outcry.
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21 Jan 2009 By Jim Killock
Consumers, citizens and information professionals around the world unite to condemn copyright extension
Update (22.
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16 Jan 2009 By Becky Hogge
Come to Brussels and demand sound copyright
The European Parliament is set to vote on whether to double the term of copyright in sound recordings in early 2009.
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08 Jan 2009 By Jim Killock
A crucial year for ORG – let’s make sure our voice gets heard
I’m delighted to be writing this as the new Executive Director of the Open Rights Group, whose work I have been watching with enthusiasm for the last few years.
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07 Jan 2009 By William Heath
Welcome to Jim Killock, ORG’s next Executive Director
ORG is pleased to announce the appointment of Jim Killock as the next Executive Director of the Open Rights Group.
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02 Jan 2009 By Michael Holloway
Supporter update – December 2008
Follow this link for the December 2008 supporter update.
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19 Dec 2008 By William Heath
Changes to the ORG Board
We have two fresh faces and one departure from the Open Rights Group Board, which oversees the running of ORG.
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18 Dec 2008 By Becky Hogge
UK Government launches new consultation on copyright
When Andy Burnham indicated last week that he was willing to consider extending copyright term despite robust, independent evidence that it would cost consumers dear and benefit artists little, many in the Open Rights Group community were outraged.
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Digital Privacy
17 Dec 2008 By Becky Hogge
Who’s been losing your data?
You hand over your personal details to councils, hospitals, employers and businesses all the time.
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15 Dec 2008 By Becky Hogge
Lessons and questions for the IWF
Last week’s outrage over the blocking of Wikipedia by the UK’s major ISPs after the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) added, and then removed, an image hosted by the online encyclopedia to their blocklist may have died down.
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11 Dec 2008 By Becky Hogge
Screw the evidence, says Burnham, let’s extend copyright term anyway think about extending term, maybe, perhaps…
Update (15/12/08): The Department of Culture Media and Sport have now released the full text of Burnham’s speech last Thursday, and it appears the report we referenced in Music Week was misleading.
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11 Dec 2008 By Becky Hogge
Home Office respond on Intercept Modernisation Programme – sort of
The Home Office have sent back a deeply disappointing response to our Freedom of Information request about the Intercept Modernisation Programme.
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08 Dec 2008 By Becky Hogge
IWF censors Wikipedia, chaos ensues
Update #2 (09/12/08): The IWF has just announced that they have removed the Wikipedia url from their blocklist.
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28 Nov 2008 By Michael Holloway
Supporter update – November 2008
Here’s an update on our works for this month, which is basically your quick and easy roundup of our campaigning and community efforts.
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26 Nov 2008 By Becky Hogge
From bad to worse: MEPs to rush through disembowelled term extension directive.
The flawed proposal to extend the term of copyright protection afforded to sound recordings, robbing consumers in the name of performers but for the benefit of the world’s four major record labels, is being fast-tracked through the democratic process.
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19 Nov 2008 By Becky Hogge
Our busiest year so far – and what lies ahead…
Today I’m proud to release ORG’s annual Review of Activities [.
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13 Nov 2008 By Becky Hogge
Council of Ministers move to delete vital safeguards from EU Telecoms Package
Update (17/11/08): Write to your UK representatives today!
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03 Nov 2008 By Becky Hogge
Illicit filesharing: don’t legislate, innovate!
ORG has submitted a response to the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform’s consultation into legislative options to tackle illicit peer to peer filesharing [pdf].
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31 Oct 2008 By Becky Hogge
Remix the Big Picture
As regular readers will know, on 11 October 2008, thousands of images of the database state sent in from around the UK by citizens fed up with Government’s cavalier attitude to their civil liberties were combined to show Parliament what will happen if it continues to allow itself to be frogmarched away from freedom.
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31 Oct 2008 By Michael Holloway
Supporter update – October 2008
Read on for the monthly roundup of our works.
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Digital Privacy
27 Oct 2008 By Becky Hogge
No e-voting in next year’s elections
The Government have announced today that they do not plan to run e-voting pilots during the 2009 European or local elections.
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24 Oct 2008 By Becky Hogge
Come see Neil Gaiman talk in London tonight
Update 3: And here’s links to the recording in MP3 and Ogg
Update 2: Here’s the audio recording of Neil Gaiman talking at our event last week
Update (15:00) – That’s it, guys – I’m afraid all our 200 tickets are now spoken for.
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22 Oct 2008 By William Heath
The biggest and best job in European digital rights campaigning falls vacant in 2009
After two very successful years as Executive Director of ORG, Becky Hogge, who took over from the founding director Suw Charman, has advised the Board she’d like to move on early in 2009.
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21 Oct 2008 By Michael Holloway
To 1,000 – and beyond!
This week, to encourage more people to join up and support Open Rights with a fiver per month, we’re giving away copies of Ray Corrigan’s Digital Decision-Making: Back to the Future.
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16 Oct 2008 By Becky Hogge
Intercept Modernisation: plans put on hold to allow for public consultation
As regular readers will know, the Open Rights Group have been following developments around what is known as the Intercept Modernisation Programme with great interest and concern.
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14 Oct 2008 By Michael Holloway
Open Source for Games Developers – A Debate on New Business Models
With the games industry apparently enthralled by DRM and committed to criminalising their customers, our upcoming event as part of the London Games Fringe is especially timely.
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11 Oct 2008 By Becky Hogge
Freedom Not Fear: the Big Picture unveiled on Parliament Square
Thanks to everyone who came along to Parliament Square this morning and made the ORG/No2ID “Big Picture” event such a success.
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08 Oct 2008
EU Commission says ‘non’ as France tries to ditch key telecoms package amendment
In a press conference on monday the European Commission denied a request by French President Nicholas Sarkozy, to reject an amendment voted on by the European Parliament in September’s Telecoms Package vote:
“The amendment on a new regulatory framework for telecommunications stated “no restriction may be imposed on the fundamental rights and freedoms of end-users, without a priori ruling by the judicial authorities.
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07 Oct 2008
Make sure MEPs hear your views on copyright term extension – get in touch today
The European Parliament has begun preparing its opinion on the European Commission’s flawed proposal to extend the term of copyright protection for sound recordings.
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03 Oct 2008 By Becky Hogge
Show Parliament the Big Picture
I’m pleased to announce that I can now reveal the location for our live collage of the hundreds of surveillance state photos you’ve been taking this week for the Freedom Not Fear, Big Picture event.
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02 Oct 2008 By Michael Holloway
ORG-GRO: Aiming for 1,000 this month!
This post contains both good and bad news.
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30 Sep 2008 By Michael Holloway
Supporter update – September 2008
Here’s your regular, concentrated dose of ORG’s activities for the past the month:
Click to read the September 2008 supporter update.
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Digital Privacy
30 Sep 2008 By Becky Hogge
4 good reasons not to take part in the BT Webwise trial
Today, BT will start trials of Webwise, a technology which analyses your web surfing habits in order to serve you targetted ads.
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29 Sep 2008 By Becky Hogge
Capturing the database state: community photocall
Happy-snappers unite!
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24 Sep 2008 By Becky Hogge
Home Office extend deadline for ORG FOI request on Intercept Modernisation
Back in August, we submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Home Office, asking them to shed light on the Intercept Modernisation Programme (IMP).
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20 Sep 2008 By Becky Hogge
To do this weekend: ask your MEPs to vote for Telecom package amendments 133 and 138
Update (24/09/08): The votes are in.
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Digital Privacy
19 Sep 2008 By Becky Hogge
What BERR want from Phorm – and what we think they’re missing
Phorm, the targeted behavioural advertising technology company, has been back in the headlines this week.
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