New
- Annual meeting elected a new board for EFFI
- T-shirt sales reopening
- FFII’s new petition against software patenting
- Comments on music distribution published in Helsingin Sanomat
- KaZaA won in Holland
- DVD-Jon free from charges
- Statement on the Digital Data Protection Act for the Administration
Committee - Statement on the national broadband strategy of Ministry of Transport
// ANNUAL MEETING OF EFFI
The annual meeting of EFFI was held at Friday the 28th November in the main
building of the University of Helsinki. The meeting elected a new board and the
formal process for accepting the accounting for the year 2002 was finally
done.
The members of the new board are:
Chairman: Ville Oksanen
Vice Chairman: Tapani Tarvainen
Other members: Juho Heikkilä, Herkko Hietanen, Mikko Hänninen, Janne Lindqvist,
Kai Puolamäki, Lynoure Rajamäki ja Mikko Välimäki.
The records of the meeting (in Finnish):
http://www2.effi.org/yhdistys/kokoukset/kokous-2003-syksy.html
// T-SHIRT SALES REOPENING
The sales of EFFI T-shirts have been on hold for the autumn, apologies to
the membership. The situation has been fixed as the new board member Lynoure
Rajamäki has promised to take the task on her responsibilities. The choice of
products will remain otherwise the same except for one new product. The Choose
shirt will have a new long-sleeved model that will be available for sale at a
later time.
More information:
http://www2.effi.org/yhdistys/kannatustuotteet/
// FFII’S NEW PETITION AGAINST SOFTWARE PATENTING
EFFI has announced its support for FFII’s (an organization that coordinates
lobbying at the EU level) new petition against software patenting. At the
moment the fate of the software patent directive is in the hands of the member
countries. EFFI is trying to get the subject under political scrutiny so that
it wouldn’t be treated only as an administrative detail. For this purpose, it
is encouraged that the EFFI members would contact the parliamentary
representatives, especially the ones in the Economy Committee.
The representatives in the Economy Committee (in Finnish):
http://www.eduskunta.fi/thwfakta/hetekau/toimielimet/te-tav01-su.htm
FFII’s new petition (in English):
http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/europarl0309/demands/index.en.html
// KaZaA LEGAL IN HOLLAND
According to a court decision the KaZaA peer-to-peer network is legal and
thus the distribution of KaZaA software is legal. The decision handed by the
Supreme Court of Netherlands is in line with the respective court decisions
handed in the United States where the legal status of the Grokster and Morpheus
peer-to-peer networks was recognized. My own comment in EFFI’s bulletin: “The
decision was very significant because now an European court has confirmed that
the makers of technical tools, the software companies, should not be charged
for the possible infringements committed by the users. The result is not
surprising and it is unfortunate that the content industry has been able to use
desperate trials to delay and push back the innovativity of the technology
sector.”
Press release (in Finnish):
http://www2.effi.org/julkaisut/tiedotteet/lehdistotiedote-2003-12-19.html
// DVD-JON CLEAR FROM LEGAL CHARGES
The upper court in Norway did not change the decision of the lower court
where Jon Johanssen, man accused of breaking the DVD copy protection scheme,
was released from charges. The prosecutor did not file an appeal to the supreme
court.
Press release (in Finnish):
http://www2.effi.org/julkaisut/tiedotteet/lehdistotiedote-2003-12-22.html
// OKSANEN AND VÄLIMÄKI IN HELSINGIN SANOMAT
Mr. Oksanen and Mr. Välimäki called for discussion on the state of content
distribution and the need for new legislation in their article published in
Helsingin Sanomat, the newspaper with largest distribution in Finland. We would
also like to bring forth the fact that the music sales in Finland have
increased rapidly during the year 2003 which appears to indicate that the
peer-to-peer networks are no threat to the music business. The reply written by
Mr. Kotilainen from the Anti-Piracy Centre in Finland was published later in
the same section. The reply criticized the “consumer organization” EFFI for
being a lackey of the technology industry and it was also stated that Finnish
music is not widely found in peer-to-peer networks.
The article by Mr. Välimäki and Mr. Oksanen (in Finnish):
http://www2.effi.org/julkaisut/kirjoitukset/hs-2003-12-16.html
// STATEMENT ON THE DIGITAL COMMUNICATION DATA PROTECTION ACT
As requested by the Administration Committee, EFFI issued a statement on the
digital communication data protection act. The board member Kai Puolamäki
honourably defended the users’ point of view in the committee while accompanied
by two lobbyists from the Anti-Piracy Centre in Finland, Mr. Vuorenmaa and Mr.
Kotilainen. EFFI’s statement highlighted the necessity of limiting the
investigative authority to the police, the areas of legal decryption of
encrypted material and the restriction of spam when it comes enterprises and
unsolicited mail that asks you to opt-in.
The statement (in Finnish):
http://www2.effi.org/julkaisut/lausunnot/svt-2003-11-28.html
// STATEMENT ON THE NATIONAL BROADBAND STRATEGY
On 2nd February 2004 EFFI issued a statement on the national broadband
strategy of the Ministry of Transport and Communications. The statement
insisted that if the users can’t rely on having their right to privacy
respected, broadband connections can never become a backbone of communication
in the society. Additionally the statement noted that new copyright legislation
should not set any limits for technical innovations for distributing
content.
The statement (in Finnish):
http://www2.effi.org/julkaisut/lausunnot/laajakaista_lausunto.html
EFFI Email is a more or less regularly published bulletin on the activity of
Electronic Frontier Finland ry. If you wish to join as a member or ask
additional information of our activities, please contact us and fill a form at
http://www2.effi.org.
The English version of this newsletter has been edited and translated from
the Finnish newsletter by Janne Nikula (jni@iki.fi).
Regards,
Ville Oksanen
Chairman