Global cybersecurity rules and standards are needed to counter the “bad, scary world out there,” said Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) CEO Gottfried Liebrandt Friday. He and other industry and EU speakers at a Brussels conference reviewing progress on the EU cybersecurity strategy backed more coordinated efforts in fighting cyberthreats. Several said they have learned lessons from Edward Snowden’s revelations about National Security Agency spying. For Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes, the lesson is that “technology and democracy have to talk to each other,” she said. Snowden’s insights can be used to ensure a more secure online world and a more competitive environment for European industry, she said.
The app industry is misleading consumers, the European Commission said Thursday. It and national consumer protection authorities were scheduled to meet Thursday and Friday with app developers such as Google and Apple to address consumer complaints “from all over Europe,” it said. The EU market for online and mobile games and applications is vibrant but consumers are griping about such things as games advertised as “free” that aren’t, and receiving default credit card charges, it said. The sector has “enormous potential” to generate jobs and growth, but not if consumers lack confidence in the products, said Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding. Despite the concerns, however, the U.K. Office of Fair Trading (OFT) told us that app developers are making progress on the issues. The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) said it should be at the table as well. European software developers agreed to further talks.
Voting on the proposed EU single telecom market package was postponed Monday evening in the European Parliament Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) Committee, but could still see plenary action April 11, a European Commission spokeswoman told us. The problem was not having compromise amendments available in all languages, she said. Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes said in a statement Monday that she’s “confident that this postponement will not distract the ITRE Members from their vote on this important proposal.” Kroes will offer whatever support she can to the Parliament members involved, said the EC spokeswoman. Kroes and her staff “stand ready to help support the Greek Presidency when they begin work on the text next month,” the spokeswoman said. The Wall Street Journal and others reported that some ITRE members welcomed the postponement because it gave them more time to address issues arising from the measure’s net neutrality provisions. The anti-net neutrality lobby doesn’t need breathing space, said European Digital Rights Executive Director Joe McNamee. Having gotten everything they want from the EC and Parliament’s lead rapporteur on the package, “they are worried about protecting their position,” he said. The proposal doesn’t have effective net neutrality provisions, he said. The issue of whether companies should be allowed to offer “specialized services” as long as they don’t interfere with Internet speeds promised to other customers is a major bone of contention in the net neutrality debate (CD Nov 29 p12).
European regulators have paved the way for commercial development of short range devices (SRDs). In a report on future spectrum demand for SRDs in the UHF bands, and a recommendation on the use of SRD, both made public Feb. 14, the Conference of European Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) set out a common spectrum allocation approach and regulatory parameters for the 870-875.6 MHz and 915-921 MHz bands. CEPT’s actions got praise from U.S.-based Silver Spring Networks, which said more standardized cross-border spectrum treatment will ensure buildout of large machine-to-machine (M2M) networks across Europe. Meanwhile, consultants for the company urged the U.K. Office of Communications (Ofcom) to make the two bands available for SRDs as quickly as possible.
Reaction to Wednesday’s European Commission policy proposal on Internet governance was generally favorable. The EC communication on Europe’s role in shaping the future of Internet governance (www.bit.ly/1dHeFDI) is an attempt to set out the EC position on what an appropriate Internet governance model should be, one EU official said at a background technical briefing. Among other things, it envisions a less U.S.-centered Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers and a more robust multistakeholder model. ICANN is pleased that the EC stressed the need for a multistakeholder approach to Internet governance in its policy statement, said ICANN Vice President-Europe Nigel Hickson in a statement. European telecom operators praised the proposal, as did the Internet Society. There was skepticism, however, from one member of ICANN’s intellectual property community.
Legislation allowing cross-border licensing of music for online uses won enthusiastic backing (640-18 votes) from the European Parliament Tuesday, and now moves to formal approval by EU governments. The directive on collective management of copyright and related rights and multi-territorial licensing of rights in musical works for online uses in the internal market (FAQ here: http://bit.ly/1nMP44F) is a “cornerstone for the digital single market,” said Internal Market and Services Commissioner Michel Barnier during the European Parliament’s plenary debate. It will make it easier for smaller, innovative services to offer music-streaming services, he said. Parliament’s response to the European Commission-proposed measure was supported across party lines, said its author, Marielle Gallo, of the European People’s Party and France. The measure also sets EU-wide rules on collective management societies (CMOs), some of which have been accused of non-transparent accounting, embezzlement, failure to pay royalties within a reasonable time and other “unfortunate lacks in efficiency,” said Gallo and other Parliament members (MEPs). CMOs will now play a role in the single digital market by requiring online music providers and platforms to deal with only a limited number of rights organizations, Gallo said. Debate on the draft was “lively” but everyone from the U.K Conservative Party to Sweden’s Pirate Party agreed on it, she said. All MEPs who spoke at the plenary debate praised the Gallo report, and only a few raised concerns. One issue is that the legislation leaves it up to EU governments to decide whether large American music platforms and providers are covered, said MEP Helmut Scholz, of the Confederal Group of the European United Left-Nordic Green Left and Germany. If U.S. companies don’t have to follow the same rules as European firms, music services could end up being offshored, he said. The EC is taking additional steps to modernize European copyright, Barnier said. There’s an ongoing dialogue on “licensing Europe,” and the EC is making an in-depth study of EU copyright law. Its extensive consultation has sparked so much interest from all stakeholders that the comment period was extended to March 5, said Barnier. The outcome of the inquiry will feed into a potential revamp of EU copyright law, with a discussion paper possible in June, he said. The issue of modernizing copyright will be for the next European Parliament and commission to move forward, he said. The next commission may also delve into notice and take-down of pirated content, he said. Such content must be removed, but there must be a transparent, balanced procedure for doing so, he said. It’s a “sensitive subject matter” that has to do with fundamental rights, so it’s important that Parliament is on board, he said. Separately, the Independent Music Companies Association (IMPALA) Tuesday urged the “whole music sector to speak up on copyright in Europe.” With four weeks to go on the EC consultation on copyright reform in the digital age, Europe must “reinforce creators’ fundamental freedoms, instead of seeking to unpick copyright as requested by powerful lobby groups,” IMPALA said. U.K. collecting society PRS for Music said it supported the principles and objectives of the directive all along, because it will deliver high standards for governance and transparency, along with a voluntary framework for aggregation of repertoire for online multi-territory licensing underpinned by agreed-upon standards. It said this will help CMOs “play a role in a more integrated, efficient and valuable single market in Europe.”
The safe harbor agreement for transfer of European citizens’ personal data to the U.S. should be scrapped, said U.S. privacy and consumer advocates and EU lawmakers Wednesday. The U.S. Department of Commerce is “flying blind” on safe harbor, said Center for Digital Director Executive Director Jeffrey Chester in an interview. Commerce doesn’t look at the data protection practices of U.S. businesses in the U.S. or EU, so before it responds to European Commission recommendations for cleaning up safe harbor (bit.ly/IorNGe), it should order an in-depth FTC study on what U.S. businesses are doing and collecting, he said. That report will likely find that industry is using the program as a “smokescreen” to cover up European data, he said. Chester also said CDD is trying to encourage European consumer groups to file complaints with the FTC. He and other civil society groups took part in a Commerce Department International Trade Administration meeting, closed to the press, to discuss the recommendations.
European Parliament recommendations for dealing with U.S. mass surveillance can’t be allowed to simply “evaporate” when a new legislature is elected in May, member (MEP) Claude Moraes, of the Socialists and Democrats and the U.K., said Thursday. He presented the final version of his resolution (bit.ly/1e58zU1) on spying to general preliminary approval by the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee (LIBE). The document recognized the magnitude of the revelations and their ongoing nature, and pushed for “forward planning” to ensure there are specific proposals on the table for follow-up in the next session. It called for a “European digital habeas corpus” to protect privacy based on seven actions: (1) Adopt the data protection revamp package this year. (2) Finalize the EU-U.S. umbrella agreement on data protection with provisions allowing redress for Europeans whose data has been transferred to the U.S. for law enforcement purposes. (3) Suspend the safe harbor agreement allowing data transfers to the U.S. pending a full review. (4) Suspend the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program until the umbrella agreement has been concluded and all problems raised by the parliamentary enquiry have been addressed. (5) Protect the rule of law and Europeans’ rights with a focus on threats to press freedom and better whistleblower safeguards. (6) Develop a European strategy for information technology independence. (7) Develop the EU as a reference player for democratic, neutral Internet governance. The report sets a proposed timetable for monitoring implementation to try to keep the findings high on the EU political agenda. “We want to look to the future,” Moraes said. The report is an “excellent, very comprehensive package” whose recommendations should be adopted as this Parliament’s legacy to the next, said MEP Sophie in ’t Veld, of the Alliance for Liberals and Democrats in Europe and the Netherlands. However, she said, the issue of enforcement is also important. Europe has good data protection rules in place which national authorities and the European Commission should be much stricter in enforcing, she said. The next parliament should be given the authority to conduct full enquiries, including subpoena power, she said. Moraes’ report is “one of the most important” in this legislative session, said MEP Cornelia Ernst, Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left and Germany. The question now is what parliament’s priorities will be, she said. Legislators must ask whether they have gotten to the heart of the matter and what happens next with the report, she said. Parliament needs stronger powers to be able to make a difference, she said. Proposed amendments from LIBE members are due Jan. 22.
Cybersecurity, rollout of high-speed broadband networks and e-identification services top the list of telecom priorities for the Greek EU Presidency, whose six-month term began Jan. 1, Greece said in a work program. Greece will push to promote measures needed to establish a single digital market, it said. It will promote European Commission plans for cross-border and cross-sector laws that enable safe, reliable and user-friendly electronic transactions, and measures to cut the costs of deploying high-speed networks, it said. It also plans to work on ensuring a high level of network and information security across the EU, it said. The Greek government will “strive to promote” the EC proposal for a single telecom market, it said. Its program also includes work on making public entities’ websites accessible, and reviewing Europe’s digital agenda, it said. The presidency will help define the EU position for the ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference, it said. On satellite issues, it will stress international relations and common minimum standards on rules for access to the public regulated service provided by the global navigation satellite system, it said. On digital content issues, the presidency aims to finalize procedures required for approval of legislation on collective rights management before European Parliament elections in May, said Maria Sinanidou, communications officer for copyright issues. It will also look at the future of copyright and the digital agenda, with a June 6 conference in Athens on current rules and future challenges, she said. Participants will consider how to make content accessible in a digital single market; how to deal with limitations and exceptions to copyright in the digital age and enforcement on the Internet; and future policy recommendations, the conference program said.
Broadcasters said Friday they're pleased with the progress made on substantive issues during two days of talks (CD Dec 5 p9) at the World Intellectual Property Organization Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) on a treaty updating copyrighted broadcast signals. In proposed conclusions (http://xrl.us/bqbq23), many countries appeared to edge closer to agreeing that traditional broadcasting and cablecasting organizations would be the beneficiaries of the treaty, but not pure webcasters, said European Broadcasting Union (EBU) Head of Intellectual Property Heijo Ruijsenaars in an interview.