Europe passes data snoop law
p2p news / p2pnet: As expected, the European Parliament has signed off on new laws making it mandatory for telecom firms to retain call and Net records for up to two years.
Now, companies will be forced to store:
- Data that can trace fixed or mobile telephone calls
- Time and duration of calls
- Location of the mobile phone being called
- Details of connections made to the Internet
- Details, but not the content, of internet e-mail and internet telephony services
The UK-inspired legislation, written only in September, was shoved through in record time, supposedly to help law enforcers in anti-terror investigations.
However, the Big Four record labels and Big Seven movie studios will be rubbing their hands in pure delight.
Their newly-formed Creative and Media Business Alliance (CMBA) has “expressed an interest in communications traffic data so that they can more easily prosecute ‘intellectual property infringements’,” as the Open Rights Group’s Suw Charman recently summed it up.
Police will now have access to information about calls, text messages and internet data, “but not exact call content,” says the BBC, going on:
“The UK, which pressed European member states to back the rules, said that data was the ‘golden thread’ in terrorist investigations.
“The parliament voted by 378 to 197 to approve the bill, which had already been agreed by the assembly’s two largest groups, the European People’s Party and the Socialists.”
Details of connected calls that are unanswered, which can be used as signals to accomplices or used to detonate bombs, will also be archived where that data exists.
The BBC has the European Telecommunications Networks Operators’ Association’s Thierry Dieu saying, “it is clear that there will be a lot of investment for the industry to make”.
ISPs would have to create ways to hold data, manage it and provide access to it, he said, but, “At the end of the day ISPs are not law enforcement agencies so they should not have to pay for it all”.
The entertainment cartels in particular now have so many laws in place around the world, so many politicians bought and paid for, so many print and electronic media outlets under their direct and indirect control, and so many lobbyists constantly harrying groups and governments, that it makes Orwell’s 1984 look like Utopia.
Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local political representatives. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance.
Also read:-
summed it up – Big Music tries Europe hi-jack, November 23, 2005
BBC – EU approves data retention rules, December 14, 2005
December 15th, 2005 at 12:17 am
How Orwellian can you get? Quick! Get me some serious data encryption software!
December 15th, 2005 at 1:55 am
Heard this before, I know, but using encryption would intuitively make you look suspicious, would it not?
December 15th, 2005 at 2:02 am
Should not have to pay for it all…
Should not have to do it all either. They basically want ISPs do their work for them and devise the methodology, claiming ISPs have “responsibilities”. Sure they do, in particular to *customers/subscribers*.
Revelation has already predicted things like this too (although admittedly, weirder to decipher than something like 1984 in plain English).
December 15th, 2005 at 4:17 am
I’m pretty sure some judge in the US decided a while back that merely having encryption software on a pc was “probable cause”.
December 15th, 2005 at 4:28 am
There’s only 2 things this legislation will achieve.
1. Less competition as smaller companies fold, unable to afford the systems and storage necessary for compliance.
2. Rising prices as the larger surviving telephony and internet providers try to make a profit out of recouping their costs in complying with it.
I’m sure europeans everywhere will be so grateful for the “protection” this legislation promises (political promises anyone?) they won’t mind paying higher prices for their phone and net services at all. NOT!
December 15th, 2005 at 10:09 am
The Greek independent MEP Karatzaferis stated that “Hitler would have killed 6 mil. Jews more if he had this kind of technologies” and “The stalinists would still be in power today.”
And right he is. I’m glad most of the representatives from my country (the netherlands) voted against it.
See http://www.ffii.be/bigbrother for the votes of the Belgian and Dutch representatives.
December 15th, 2005 at 1:40 pm
Wow! This is getting complicated. Let me see if I can reorganize my thoughts.
1. The western powers shoot themselves in the foot by helping midlle east monarchs hated by the population to remain in power. Good examples are the Saudi Monarchy, the Shah of Iran. Now the middle east people hate westerners Americans and the American following Europeans. Now America has to pay(ola) Arab newspapers to plant America friendlt stories to get back some of the lost sympathy.
2. Then what should have been expected happened. Terrorism in America and Europe. Then, like quacking ducks, America and Europe run amok.
3. Over in America, the people elected an inheritor to the throne, as if the American government was a monarchy. Clearly th President cannot or will not see clearly. He has too many economic interest ties. He prefers war to reason. A logical result of having unlimited and unmanegeable economic and military power at one’s disposal. The American political two pary (and no more allowed) system stopped working a very long time ago and it shows. Democracy is dead in America and it shows. Why the American politicians want to export their alleged non working democracy is beyond any kind of analysis.
4. Europeans follow the Americans lunatic fringe because American money and power can buy anything. Besides a lot of money can be made from the terrorism-war industries and the related laws. Surely there is money to be made from spying on the people and in selling anti-spy products.
Now we must ask ourselves, what is the solution for the people of the western countries?
It is rather simple and paradoxically complex:
Kick out the warmonger leadership and replace them with a humane leadership that believes in equality among all people, that do not see countries as markets or otherwise exploitable and who do not believe in meddling in other countries businesses and politics. Leaders that do not see technology as a patent system gimmick to make fortunes or copyrights as a method of exploiting the artists and stealing the art lovers. Leaders who do not see the legal and health systems as business. Leaders who have no need to perfect, manufacture in huge amounts and export them to foreign governments. Leaders who seek peace through peace, not through war. Leaders who have done, not that say they will do.
The solution is complex because people do like admitting that they fell for fools’s gold, the messages of politicians that wished to be elected, and for the history given at the schools. The people find it hard to admit that they have been brainwashed. Until the people change, the necessary changes to eradicate terrorism through peaceful means will not be achieved, and only through peaceful means, and not war, will terrorism be eliminated.
Would you believe that I was told in school that Washington was a man of freedom, a signer of the constitution that guaranteed freedom. Then I learned the real truth: Washington was a slave trader. Died with about 300 slaves in his farm. The courts said that freedom did not apply to black people. The defective legacy is still there.
We need a new age of reason! A new legacy to replace the old one!
Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com
December 15th, 2005 at 7:07 pm
You need a dose of reality my friend.
Here’s one:
http://www.revradio.org/movies/ml.wmv
December 15th, 2005 at 8:12 pm
Well revelations has already started anyways…. I pray to when the world ends and we all goto heaven.
December 15th, 2005 at 8:34 pm
And what is the problem and the solution?
December 16th, 2005 at 6:49 pm
The problem is that all politicians are just naturally corrupt, it comes with the territory. They will do whatever it takes to screw their populace if it puts one more grain of rice into their pockets. If they are not afraid of the people they will just get worse over time, driving taxes up and providing less and less actual benefits for the people. It’s not just the US people, Europe and Canada’s politicians would just as much love to see citizen rights go into the toilet.
On a positive note, “The American political two pary (and no more allowed) system that stopped working a very long time ago and it shows” today successfully filibustered the renewal of the abomination of a law known so ironically as the patriot act. Maybe there is some hope after all.
December 17th, 2005 at 11:18 am
This repeats the previous post.
Wow! This is getting complicated. Let me see if I can reorganize my thoughts.
1. The western powers shoot themselves in the foot by helping midlle east monarchs and dictators hated by the population to remain in power. Good examples are the Saudi monarchy, the Shah of Iran, Pinochet in Chile. Now the middle east people hate westerners Americans and the American following Europeans. Now America has to pay(ola) Arab newspapers to plant American friendly stories to get back some of the lost sympathy.
2. Then what should have been expected happened. Terrorism in America and Europe. Then, like quacking ducks, America and Europe run amok and decide to fight terrorism with war.
3. Over in America, the people elected an inheritor to the throne, as if the American government was a monarchy. Clearly the President cannot or will not see clearly. He has too many economic interest ties. He prefers war to reason. A logical result of having unlimited and unmanegeable economic and military power at one’s disposal. The American political two paryy (and no more allowed) system stopped working a very long time ago and it shows. Democracy is dead in America and it shows. Why the American politicians want to export their alleged non working democracy is beyond any kind of analysis.
4. Europeans follow the Americans lunatic fringe because American money and power can buy anything. Besides a lot of money can be made from the terrorism-war industries and the related laws. Surely there is money to be made from spying on the people and in selling anti-spy products.
Now we must ask ourselves, what is the solution for the people of the western countries?
It is rather simple and paradoxically complex:
Kick out the warmonger leadership and replace them with a humane leadership that believes in equality among all people, that do not see countries as markets or otherwise exploitable and who do not believe in meddling in other countries businesses and politics. Leaders that do not see technology as a patent system gimmick to make fortunes or copyrights as a method of exploiting the artists and stealing the art lovers. Leaders who do not see the legal and health systems as business or see the danger of it hapenning. Leaders who have no need to perfect, manufacture in huge amounts armaments and military gear and export them to foreign governments. Leaders who seek peace through peace, not through war. Leaders who have done, not that say they will do.
The solution is complex because people do like admitting that they fell for fools’s gold, the messages of politicians that wished to be elected, and for the history given at the schools. The people find it hard to admit that they have been brainwashed. Until the people change, the necessary changes to eradicate terrorism through peaceful means will not be achieved, and only through peaceful means, and not war, will terrorism be eliminated.
Would you believe that I was told in school that Washington was a man of freedom, a signer of the constitution that guaranteed freedom. Then I learned the real truth: Washington was a slave trader. Died with about 300 slaves in his farm. The courts said that freedom did not apply to black people. The defective legacy is still there.
We need a new age of reason! A new legacy to replace the old one!
Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com