The European Parliament is readying the publication of its software source code, a move that would open up the details of its lawmaking processes. Meanwhile a number of political activists are undertaking their own initiatives to make not only lawmaking processes, but also content more transparent.
The main journalist trade union in Europe and the UK wants citizens to be given 'European Democracy Vouchers', funded by internet service providers, which can be used to buy newspapers and pay for online media subscriptions.
The city state of Milan is prosecuting Google for defamation and breach of privacy after a video showing a down-syndrome boy being attacked by bullies was posted on the search engine's video site. Yesterday (16 December), four Google executives were in the stands protesting their innocence under EU laws on Internet freedom.
Europe's economy is beginning to reap the benefits of ever-more interlinked and interoperable online technologies, but many obstacles remain to be overcome, experts have told the Commission.
A number of major industry players, including broadcasters, telecom operators and holders of copyrights, signed a Commission-inspired charter for promoting the online distribution of films.
The Commission's front page increasingly puts non-specialist, general information on the EU and communication at the core of the Europa web site, which is now hosting almost all the Commission's official published content.
Bertelsmann's announcement that the German media company is close to signing up as a partner behind the European search engine project Quaero has kindled discussion on Quaero's role in the emerging 'search engine wars'.
BEUC, the European consumers' organisation, has started a new campaign to combat overly restrictive digital rights management and terms of use with digital content. In an interview with EURACTIV, the organisation's senior legal advisor explains the issue.
The Parliament has launched its new web portal with a series of round table talks on the information society, the first of which was about ethical questions arising from the emergence of millions of weblogs.
While Google has announced versions of its online book service in 6 EU languages other than English, France is speeding up its rival venture for a European Digital Library.
The Commission plans to launch, on June 1, 2005, what Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and the Media, has branded as “the first-ever Lisbon Strategy realistic action plan”. The plan, labelled “i2010”, sets out to boost at the same time the information and communication technology (ICT) and content industries, as well as the industry take-up of innovation.
EU telecoms ministers are set to adopt a new programme aimed at
protecting children from violent and pornographic content over the
internet. New action against junk e-mails is also set to be given
the green light.
At the annual EU-US information society meeting
on September 17, both delegations stressed similar positions on
most issues, including internet telephony (VoIP) and Digital
Rights Management (DRM).
The Commission wants to promote "open, flexible and interoperable Digital Rights Management Systems (DRMS)" for the protection and distribution of digital content on the Internet.
