ORG policy update/2016-w49

This is ORG's Policy Update for the week beginning 05/12/2016.

If you are reading this online, you can also subscribe to the email version.

ORG’s work

ORG submitted a response to a consultation launched by the Intellectual Property Office on the European Commission’s draft legislation to modernise the European copyright framework. Our response addresses concerns of pre-censorhsip of copyright material in the upload filter. You can read it here.
We launched a campaign in support of our submission to the IPO consultation asking people to write to the IPO themselves. The consultation has closed now.
ORG prepared a briefing on the DEBill for the House of Lords before it will be debated in the Second Reading next week. The briefing explains outstanding issues in the Bill on age verification and privacy, web blocking, online copyright infringement and data sharing.

Planned local group events:

Join ORG Birmingham on Monday 12th December for their joint Christmas social with NetSquared Midlands for a chance to talk to people who care about digital rights.
Join ORG Bristol on Monday 12th December for their Christmas social for a chance to reflect on what we’ve accomplished and look ahead to how we can advance our movement in 2017.
Come to a presentation on data-collection apps with ORG London on Wednesday 21 December. Academic Jennifer Pybus will be holding a presentation on a recent hack day she led, where her students created an app that showed how advertisers collected data.
Join ORG Aberdeen on Thursday 29th December to discuss digital freedoms and explore the use of cryptographic tools. Take a smartphone or laptop and browse the web anonymously, learn about these technologies and chat about the reasons we need them.

Get involved with your ORG Local Group! Local Groups are at the heart of our campaigns. They are welcoming communities of ORG supporters in towns and cities across the UK.

Parliament

DEBill

The House of Lords’ Second Reading debate on the Digital Economy Bill will be on 13 December.

To see what amendments got accepted and rejected in the House of Commons, follow this link

ORG has prepared a briefing for the debate. We outline the outstanding issues in the Bill. These relate to:

Age verification and lack of privacy safeguards
Web blocking of legal material
Online copyright infringement
Data sharing

You can read the briefing in full here.

IPAct

The Investigatory Powers Bill received Royal Assent became the Investigatory Powers Act on 29 November.

The UK public responded to passing of the Bill in Parliament by launching a petition to repeal the new law. The petition has reached 170,000 signatures on Parliament petition site. This means that the petition got considered for a debate in Parliament (it only needed 100,000 signatures to be considered).

Earlier this week, the Petitions Committee responded to those who signed the petition stating that the Committee had decided not to hold a debate. They reached this decision on the basis that the IPBill was recently debated in Parliament and was also subjected to pre-legislative scrutiny.

However court judgments on 21 December and next year are likely to force parts of the bill to be revised and debated further. Read more on IPAct in this blog by Jim Killock for AlJazeera.

Question on intellectual property

Barry Gardiner MP asked the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimates have been made of the cost to UK businesses of resolving future cross-border trademark and patent disputes through court action after the UK leaves the EU.

Jo Johnson MP responded that the IPO is currently closely working with stakeholders and other government departments to assess the impact that leaving the EU will have on IP rights and their enforcement. Johnson said that it is not possible to draw an accurate estimate of the costs at this time.

Question on cybercrime

Lord Wigley asked, what estimates had been made of the costs of consolidating existing criminal law relating to digital and criminal law.

Baroness Williams of Trafford responded that the Home Office had not carried out any estimates on the cost of consolidating these aspects of criminal law.

Question on biometrics

Lord Scriven asked, what assessment the Government have made of the finding by the 8th Report of the National DNA Ethics Group that the storing and searching of facial images by police forces are likely to raise significant concerns with regard to privacy.

Baroness Williams of Trafford responded that they acknowledge these privacy concerns and will address them in the Review of the Use and Retention of Custody Images.

Written statement on the National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review

Amber Rudd MP, the Secretary of State for the Home Department, announced the publication of the 2016 annual report of the National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review. The report sets out the government’s progress in implementing the key commitments made in the 2015 National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review. The full report can be found here.

Question on cybercrime

Jim McMahon MP asked the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many cyber-security breaches government departments recorded that involved Ransomware viruses in the last 12 months for which data is available.

Ben Gummer MP responded that the government cannot comment on specific details of cybersecurity attacks for security reasons. He said that 68 cyber incidents from all types of organisations were voluntarily reported to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) in its first month of operation.

Europe

EU-US data protection deal backed by MEPs

The EU-US Umbrella Agreement on the data protection of personal data exchanged for law enforcement purposes was supported by a broad majority of MEPs.

The Agreement covers the transfer of all personal data (names, addresses, criminal records) exchanged between the EU and US for prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of criminal offences. The deal is supposed to ensure high level data protection standards for exchanged data.

The deal will ensure that American and EU citizens will have the right to:

be informed in the event of data security breaches,
have inaccurate information corrected and
judicial redress at court.

Furthermore, the deal sets limits on onward transfers of data and retention periods.

The deal will be now passed on to the Council of Ministers for the final decision.

International developments

Social media companies to stop spreading of terrorist material

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft announced that they will be working together to restrain dissemination of terrorist materials on their platforms.

The companies are planning to create a shared database of hashes for violent terrorist imagery and terrorist recruitment material that have previously been removed from their platforms.

There is a risk that the new database will lead to poor censorship decisions. It is necessary that these companies are transparent about any limitations and restriction put on content in order to protect free speech.

Media coverage

See ORG Press Coverage for full details.

2016-12-05-Edgy Labs-U.K.’s “World-leading” Investigatory Powers Bill: Author: William McKinney

Summary: Jim Killock quoted on the IPAct having impact on foreign countries.

2016-12-06-Ars Technica-Internet giants will join forces to stop online sharing of terrorist material: Author: Glynn Moody; Summary: Jim Killock quoted on the necessity for Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to be transparent about any limitations and restrictions they place on content.
2016-12-06-Information age-What impact will the Investigatory Powers Act have on my privacy?: Author: Ben Rossi; Summary: Jim Killock quoted on the IPAct being one of the most extreme surveillance laws ever passed in a democracy.
2016-12-06-Privacy groups: Amazon Go takes invasive technologies to a 'whole new level': Author: Carly Page; Summary: ORG quoted on calling for Amazon to be upfront about how they are going to use the data they will collect in their new checkout-free experience Amazon Go.
2016-12-06-IT Pro-Uber wants to know where you go - after you leave its cars: Author: Nicole Kobie; Summary: Pam Cowburn quoted on the necessity for Uber to to disclose why they are collecting data on their customers whereabouts.
2016-12-07-Dissident Voice-Total Surveillance: Snooping in the United Kingdom: Author: Binoy Kampmark; Summary: Jim Killock quoted on the IPAct being one of the most extreme surveillance laws ever passed in a democracy.

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