Heavy Day for Freedom and Big Brother
Seldom has there been a day with so many headlines about laws and lawcases and policy submissions and calls for boykott that all have to do with our Big Brother and Freedom of Culture. Just a short overview for you:
Danish Internet Provider has to cut off its customers from Pirate Bay Bit Torrent Tracker
(heise.de)
The german Bundesrat (the federal assembly) has ruled AGAINST the new law that would allow video surveilliance in homes without court order and putting spy software on anybody also without court order - that is after the Bundestag (state assembly) has ruled in favor of the law. If until Christmas the law is not passed it will have failed - a BIG BIG hurray for civil liberties - lets see what our evil minister for interior Mr. Schäuble will cook up to force it through until then. (heise.de)
Some internet providers in Germany are not adhering to the one year old "Vorratsdatenspeicherung" (data retention) law in germany despite the threat of hefty fines - guess it might be cheaper for them to pay the fines then to invest in the massive infrastructure that would be needed to make the data rentention possible - or maybe they do value their customers wishes in the end. This puts a lot of pressure on Mr. Schäuble to react - especially since there will be a final ruling on the legality of such law from the "Bundesgerichtshof" (federal court of justice) - the first round of the ruling already hinted that the law might be in breach with the german constitution. Manifest of Internet Providers Calling for Boykott of the law.
The Free Software Foundation has called for 35 days against DRM boykott - the first day marks an issue close to my heart - Apple. They are calling out Steve wonder Jobs on his statement claiming he does not like DRM and then only shortly after removing DRM from music he introduces drastic messearues on its prestigious macbook line that basically cripple the functionality of said computers just to include DRM. I fully support the boykott and will not buy a new Apple computer until that issue is resolved (good thing my current lappy and standalone machine are plenty good for a while). That means I will rock the current lappy again until it falls apart but its unacceptable for Apple to make such a move and I would really really like to see them bleed badly. I am very glad the issue has not died the media short attention span death yet. (Defective By Design 35 days against DRM)
Interesting developments for sure.