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So, Brown's been doing popular things wherever possible. He was very big on the whole debt-cancellation move during the summer, for instance. He's trying to look as good as possible to voters. He's not likely to endorse law changes along the lines of 'hey, people I'd like to have vote for me at the next election: you're not allowed to copy CDs to your iPods!'

And while we are all chatting about this subject, the European Parliament are about to pass draconian anti-privacy laws against all forms of electronic communications.

While these laws have been mooted for some time, it seems that 13 December 2005 is the crunch date, and the UK are pushing for it !

From the FFII newsletter -

PRESS RELEASE FFII -- [ Europe / ICT / Information Society ]

EU introducing "Big Brother" anti-privacy law, warns FFII

5 December 2005 (Brussels, Belgium) The EU is passing a "Big Brother" law to track every electronic communication, warns the FFII, an international information rights group based in Munich.

"Imagine a world in which the state follows everything you do. A world where computers watch every step you make. A world in which privacy is dead and the machines can track down every dissident in minutes. A world ruled by unelected agencies, working hand-in-hand with powerful commercial interests. A world in which citizens have no rights except to consume. Science fiction? The Age of the Machines? No, this is Europe, coming to you in 2006."

So warns Pieter Hintjens, president of the FFII. He says, "the EU is about to pass a directive to track every communication you make. This law makes the old Soviet spy states look like amateurs."

He continues "This law goes against our European traditions of civil liberty. It appears to break Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It will destroy small ISPs and raise prices. To enforce it, the EU will have to shut or monitor every cybercafe, web mail access, and wifi hotspot. Such a regime would be more authoritarian even than China. Even the US, after 9/11, does not have such oppressive laws. The EU does not need this law: it is a bad law, pushed through without respect for the democratic process."

Erik Josefsson of the FFII says: "We are entering into an era of 'I don't have time' legislation. With the expanded competence of the Commission (see consequences of the ECJ Judgement September 13, case c-176/03 Commission v. Council), the underarmed and weakened Parliament stands no chance to do its job properly. The 'sausage machine' is far too easy to abuse."

The Big Brother "data retention directive" makes Internet and telephony providers record "communications traffic data" for up to several years. These huge amounts of detailed personal data can be easily leaked, stolen, and abused. The forces - mainly the UK government - pushing the Big Brother law claim it will prevent terrorism. The FFII does not accept this simplistic argument. The real targets, it appears, are ordinary citizens, going about their daily business.

The FFII president points out, "almost everyone carries a mobile phone. With this law, your mobile phone and web browser becomes Big Brother's way of watching you. You will never be alone again. If you do not like this idea, contact your MEP today, urgently, and explain why it worries you. On 13 December 2005, personal privacy becomes history."

Background Information

News, position papers on and analysis of the directive

How Parliament is denied a chance to properly evaluate the directive

Procedural overview of the directive

MEP contact guide

Permanent link to thi

Are you sure? According to http://wiki.ael.be/index.php/EUCD-Status the EUCD is in effect.

So that suggests that circumventing copyprotection schemes is prohibited. CSS might be excluded on the basis one can consider it not being technically effective (today).

Well, that really depends on appicable laws. For me downloading anything but computersoftware for personal use is permitted while uploading it is illegal since it is not for my personal use. The fun stuff is that this exception for personal use doesn't say anyhting about the source.

This results in the Dutch minister of justice being quoted on http://wiki.ael.be/index.php/EUCD-Status saying:
"The Minister of Justice, Piet Hein Donner, confirmed that downloading for private use is legal, even if the source is not legal, with the exception of computer games and software."

To me as a European, the fact that you have the DMCA in the USA seems absurd. The PATRIOT act seems absurd.

You mention not being able to say fire in a movie theater being absurd. How about not being allowed to say anything that might lead someone to do something violent, or writing anything construed as promoting violence or terrorism? This is law in the UK and Netherlands and is on its way to the EU.

How about having all of your telephone/cell traffic saved and archived for one year, and all of your internet traffic archived for 6 months? Sound crazy? Absurd? Luckly it is still a proposal, but that sure makes the USA PATRIOT Act library records section look good.

I am pro-freedom everywhere and not trying to defend America. Just be aware of contollers who want to rob you of your freedom in Europe as well.

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A: Tasty, tasty leather!

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooo

Feel free to send me an email if you ever want to say something on this topic that I could use while talking to a Free Software fanatic that believes having the source code is enough to guarantee democracy or to publish on our web site.

After a talk with Richard Stallman about the use of Free Software for Electronic Election, I emailed him. RMS sent me the following:

Free software is not enough to ensure that elections are carried out properly.

The software used in and for government should always be free software; the government should always have the freedom to run it, study its source code, change it to suit government needs, and distribute copies to others either unchanged or modified. That way, software owners will not have power over the government's computers. But that is not enough to ensure that computerized elections are fair and honest.

It is easy for a programmer to change a program so that it tells the user "You voted for Mr Smith" but actually record a vote for Mr Brown. Unfortunately, free software does not prevent this. There is no known way to prevent this.

With free voting software, a government election committee can study the source code. If the program has been published, anyone can study the source code. But there is no way to be sure that the program actually running when you cast your vote is the same program that you and the election committee studied. Someone could have installed a fiddled version an hour before the election and replaced it with the authorized version an hour after it ended.

To assure honest elections, we need physical ballots that can be used for a recount.

Don't contribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity.

The Dutch Minister of Economic affairs has voted pro-patents as well, despite both the Dutch Parliament (including his own party, D66!) and the majority of the Dutch MEPs not agreeing. The patent lobby at his Department must have convinced him he was voting for something that was a real compromise between pro- and opponents.

Anyhow-- if you happen to be a Dutchman representing a company (MKB) please undersign the communiqé at: http://wiki.ael.be/index.php/DebatDenHaagJointStat ement

Changed introduced by Fart Bolkestein include:

• Removing the part starting at whereby the tehcnical..., as you outlined
• Changing technical field into field of technology in order to match TRIPS (let's hope this doesn't introduce some subtle semantic pitfall, you can't trust a Fart, after all...)

Interestingly enough, in the same intervention, Fart Bolkestein proposed an amendment saying A computer program as such cannot constitute a patentable invention, but he probably did so knowing full well that the words as such are weasel words, which can be bent by a skilled lawyer to mean anything he wants... It's quite odd, knowing the notoriety of the "as such" phrase, that nobody reacted to this obviously trollish amendment.

I'm disappointed that the German government voted for after initially saying they'd at least abstain -- my understanding is that they could have held up the process if they had at least abstained. :-(

You can read...
* Richard Stallman on Free Software and Free Software.
* Free Software Foundation France on Free Software and Free Software
... to understand that Free Software or Open Source is not the solution to the lack of democraty when you introduce Electronic Voting.
Please remember that 99% of the citizen-elector can not read code and that the 1% left can not verify what code is running the day of the election.

A Good example is the movement against EU software patents. A similar style is used as in huge open source development projects. Different sites such as FFII.org, the AEL Wiki, Vrijschrift, Eurolinux Petition are used. There are many core activists that contribute to email communication on different lists, monitor the net, take part in events, speakers for events and many supportes 8around 50 000 registered of FFII or 300 000 Eurolinux signatures). Registered supporters can be contacted in cases of urgent action. There is no strict organisation structure, contributions count and create a personal karma. Participants in the debate act as individuals, not as objects of an organisational ideology. If you don't like something, contribute. If you are not pleased with the organisation or action of FFII join another group in the debate and contribute in a different style.

Participants were able to convince the EU parliament by massive protests. FFII and the other groups of the network created a kind of watchgroup for IP policy issues. They were able to put light in dark backyard where patent attorneys and servants of the DoJ decide what may be beneficial for the information society.

I think in europe we were able to show: "Hacking politics works."

No, Switzerland is a member of EFTA, the European Free Trade Association. Switzerland is also the only member of EFTA that is not a party to the EEA (European Economic Area), which it is usually called, not EEC. EEC stands for European Economic Community, which is now EC, the European Community. (The name was altered by the Maastricht treaty establishing the European Union.)

The EFTA members which are parties to the EEA are Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Sweden, Finland and Austria were previoulsy members of EFTA before joining the EU in 1995.

The Norwegian "green paper" on the implementation of the EUCD/Infosoc is available online, as a PDF file, but it is in Norwegian. This is just draft-draft legislation, asking for the opinion of various affected parties (a "hearing"). The final draft has yet to been issued. Norway has not yet implemeneted the EUCD in its copyright act.

The decision-making process leading up to the passing of the directive 2001/29/EC (EUCD) can be found at PreLex.

The status of the passing of the EUCD in various nations can be tracked.

An appeal to the Supreme Court is possible on legal grounds (i.e. wrongful interpretation of the penal code) and faulty legal proceedings, however, the acquital stands unless the case is remanded and a whole new trial takes place.

Since when is it illegal to import a legal copy of a video from another country?

In Denmark, since december 2002. An EU directive forced through that giving or selling copyrighted works imported into the EU is illegal without the consent of the "rights holder". Several small countries including Denmark had voted against it - the danish minister claimed that it had been forced through by english publishers. Several other EU countries have implemented the directive as well. (They should have done it by Dec 2002)

Initators of ENISA are software patent lover Arlene McCarthy (UK labour) and the doubtful European Internet Foundation (see disinfopedia).

Association Electronic Libre (Belgium) has monitored the ENISA situation .

It is probably initiated by Business Software Alliance. Many observers regard the EIF as a parliaments prostitution camp. This may be a strong comment. However, I guess ENISA will promote Digital Rights Magemenent, Palladium and so on. It will not compare to well respected security institutions like German BSI.

I know the key persons and we knwo the aganda.

according to this site. (Google is your friend).

A Candidate receive 4096 extra vote more likely because cosmic ray can change the value of a bit.

For more information about voting in Belgium (electronic and traditional).

More information about Belgium e-voting on PourEVA.be

The real question is how to fix the patent system. IBM (ie. PA Fritz Teufel) pressures for EU software patents. up to now they were successfully defeated. However, in order to gain ground we have to expand the European Campaign to the USA. And there it is up to you, create an initiative that puts pressure on the patent system with assistance of your FTC.

We can support you, bring the software patent war home!

http://www.noepatents.org
http://wiki.ael.be
http://swpat.ffii.org
http://softwarepatents.co.uk

I would also like to remind you of UN World summit Of the Information Society. It may be the right place to raise the issue.

Richard Stallman say Free software is not the solution to democratic election.

Adding a printer (Printing paper audit trail) might be the best option for the US that is stuck with voting machine.
The best solution of all is PAPER and PEN.
If you want speed in the result, then SCANNING the paper is the best option.
Using computer to generate paper is not the cheapest way to make a PAPER BALLOT and any device between me and my vote is a risk to the secrecy of my vote.
In french and dutch for Belgian that want to have fair election... PourEVA

The lawyers dictate the law.

You'd better talk to your department of Justice now or ask the ministers of economy to put pressure on the justice ministers. Also for parliamentary initiatives is now the right time.

The council of ministers will decide on nov 10th. They are not bound by the EU parliament's decision as national governments are only accountable to the parliament. And the uk is likely to push for a horribel proposal. Note: now the government groups themselves decide about this issue.

Take a look at FFII UK's call for action and adapt it like the German Gnus did.
Or write your own call for action.

You can track the latest news on this issue via AEL wiki. And there are national European FFII mailing lists, for instance for denmark dk-parl@ffii.org (Mailman Interface)

There is still a case existing: EU commissioner (competition) Mario Monti against Microsoft. Perhaps it would be better to focus on this case.

There is an article on EU Business: Microsoft faces 'final chance' in EU anti-trust probe from August. And Newsfactor thinks Don ' t bet on it.

The response of Microsoft is already very strong. They want to take the case to the US, where the justice system is probably more corrupt (home advantage). See Hindustan Times's Reuters article for more information on this issue. They present the same accusation in an more polite manner: "Microsoft Corp has been trying to drum up support among US lawmakers as part of its effort to fend off antitrust sanctions being considered by European regulators, congressional sources say.

With the European Commission weighing a fine and behavioral changes that could go beyond its US antitrust settlement, Microsoft lobbyists have taken their case to key members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sources said.

While Microsft is under investigation because of its abuse of power, Microsoft propaganda requests stronger IPR law, criminal prosecution . They claim the proposed EURO DMCA++ (IP Enforcement directive) was not strong enough. Examine the horribleEU directive proposal paper by AEL Wiki (page of Association Electronic Libre, Belgium).

About the sellout of the software industry: Tell it your MP, another point which he'd have for rebut.

The European Commission is completely undemocratic and some also say, it's corrupt(look for subsies in the articles).

"The Commission might be prepared to support a revision of the Munich Convention to improve it and to make it clear that computer programmes are no longer excluded from patent protection."

John Mogg, Director General of DG XV (Internal Market and Financial Services), European Commission

There are also MEPs, especially in the JURI committee(a commitee of lawers) which only saw this from the law view and not from the political view and stayer very much on the patent office view, except for one amendment, the interoperability amendment.

But fortunately, the parliament consists of 625 members from all member states and the patent family didn't convince enough of them to close eyes and send this thing thru. This is where the power lies. We the people of europe, have the power to speak with our local representative and they have the power of their vote, and they excercised it on September 24th.

In this very moment, the European Parliament has demostrated that it is a absolutely democratic institution which takes care of their constitutionents and does not follow special interest groups alone - if they have the backing of the people in doing so. So write your MPs and tell them that tell them what you see.

And if you think the power to elect our representatives is not sufficient because they don't hear us, we have the right to demonstrate and we did it in Brussels, Strasbourg, Munich, Berlin, Stuttgart and Vienna!. This is what makes us really heard if you feel your MP is not listening. Subscribe to the mailing lists and come to the next demonstration or organize one with your Linux user group if you are upset about not being heard!

The European Commission is completely undemocratic and some also say, it's corrupt(look for subsies in the articles).

"The Commission might be prepared to support a revision of the Munich Convention to improve it and to make it clear that computer programmes are no longer excluded from patent protection."

John Mogg, Director General of DG XV (Internal Market and Financial Services), European Commission

There are also MEPs, especially in the JURI committee(a commitee of lawers) which only saw this from the law view and not from the political view and stayer very much on the patent office view, except for one amendment, the interoperability amendment.

But fortunately, the parliament consists of 625 members from all member states and the patent family didn't convince enough of them to close eyes and send this thing thru. This is where the power lies. We the people of europe, have the power to speak with our local representative and they have the power of their vote, and they excercised it on September 24th.

In this very moment, the European Parliament has demostrated that it is a absolutely democratic institution which takes care of their constitutionents and does not follow special interest groups alone - if they have the backing of the people in doing so. So write your MPs and tell them that tell them what you see.

And if you think the power to elect our representatives is not sufficient because they don't hear us, we have the right to demonstrate and we did it in Brussels, Strasbourg, Munich, Berlin, Stuttgart and Vienna!. This is what makes us really heard if you feel your MP is not listening. Subscribe to the mailing lists and come to the next demonstration or organize one with your Linux user group if you are upset about not being heard!

You are deluding yourself if you think that the European Parliament gets to make any serious decision. That's the job of the Council of Ministers and the Commission.

This was right a few years ago before the Tready of Maastricht(1992), there is the co-decision procedure which changed the role of the Europarl from a consultative to decisive body which the Council of Ministers cannot ignore anymore.

This procedure has been improved with the Amsterdam Treaty from 1997.

Short overview of the EU Treaties

Now, the European Parliament can even send the European Commission back home and even menioning this possibility in the past made a huge impact, so it can be considered very powerful institution nowadays!

I think the problem with the non-knowledge of many normal people about how the EU works is that there is no real education going on (AFAICS) which really covers EU topics in depth in local news papers and TV stations(at least in Germany)

This is just a general opinion. Related to the software patents, the same applies.

Also: The council has not the absolute power. If the Europeanparliament is strong enough in it's opinion(like it was already in the 1st reading), it can fix or reject the whole thing again, see the picture on this page

EOLAS endangers the freedom of the Web, MS gets a patent on a crappy invention. It is time to stop the American liberal patent policy that causes anti-competetive behaviour and is a threat to freedom. Patent lawyers and patent privateers or information society?

Americans, please join the succesful EU movement by organizing similar initiatives and events. We alkready made some mistakes for you, so you don't have to start from scratch. Leaflets, Online demo material, material, visual propaganda stuff

EOLAS endangers the freedom of the Web, MS gets a patent on a crappy invention. It is time to stop the American liberal patent policy that causes anti-competetive behaviour and is a threat to freedom. Patent lawyers and patent privateers or information society?

Americans, please join the succesful EU movement by organizing similar initiatives and events. We alkready made some mistakes for you, so you don't have to start from scratch. Leaflets, Online demo material, material, visual propaganda stuff

EOLAS endangers the freedom of the Web, MS gets a patent on a crappy invention. It is time to stop the American liberal patent policy that causes anti-competetive behaviour and is a threat to freedom. Patent lawyers and patent privateers or information society?

Americans, please join the succesful EU movement by organizing similar initiatives and events. We alkready made some mistakes for you, so you don't have to start from scratch. Leaflets, Online demo material, material, visual propaganda stuff

EOLAS endangers the freedom of the Web, MS gets a patent on a crappy invention. It is time to stop the American liberal patent policy that causes anti-competetive behaviour and is a threat to freedom. Patent lawyers and patent privateers or information society?

Americans, please join the succesful EU movement by organizing similar initiatives and events. We alkready made some mistakes for you, so you don't have to start from scratch. Leaflets, Online demo material, material, visual propaganda stuff

It is very common that patent protagonists lied to the general public and their collegues. Patent lawyers are like crackers. Cracker circumvent security, patent lawyers circumvent restrictions of patent law. A patent lawyer that cannot file a patent on software patents with the current "JURI amended"-directive proposal would not be worth his money.

Here you find the amendments that will be voted on and FFII's recommendation. FFII and the Eurolinux Alliance are very strong in Brussels and they grow stronger every day. Many parliamentarians listen to us and then the directive protagonists sell the directive as an fulfillment of our concerns, switching rhethorics, but not substance. About 200 people now focus on this issue as activists on our mailing lists. You can subscribe to patent@aful.org or take part in theOnline demonstration or become a member/supporter of FFII or sign the Eurolinux Petition. You can support FFII by donations or even better by contributions. The European Parliament underestimated us. The patent lawyer slaves in Europarl came under strong pressure. We will be a mayor stakeholder in any future debate. The Green Party/EFA Groups impressed by our work even called for Open Source in the EU institutions

The Green/EFA group in the European Parliament has called on the EU, and in particular on the European Parliament, to support free/open-source software by introducing it into their IT systems. In a letter to the Secretary General of the Parliament, Julian Priestley, dated 9 September, the two Green/EFA Co-Presidents Monica Frassoni and Daniel Cohn-Bendit, argue that - as well as supporting Europe's software industry - switching to free and open source software would benefit the Parliament in terms of data continuity, technological independence and budgetary considerations. It would additionally take note of the Parliament's Echelon resolution, which recommended using non-proprietary software to increase technological security.

The Green/EFA group in the European Parliament has called on the EU, and in particular on the European Parliament, to support free/open-source software by introducing it into their IT systems. In a letter to the Secretary General of the Parliament, Julian Priestley, dated 9 September, the two Green/EFA Co-Presidents Monica Frassoni and Daniel Cohn-Bendit, argue that - as well as supporting Europe's software industry - switching to free and open source software would benefit the Parliament in terms of data continuity, technological independence and budgetary considerations. It would additionally take note of the Parliament's Echelon resolution, which recommended using non-proprietary software to increase technological security.

Id you know a European language it is very helpful if you could translate part of the thing on Sunday. (Erik needs this by monday morning. There are persons working on it, help is needed help for it, subscribe to the translations mailing list and the info page for more info).

Once doing that whetted your appetite for coming to Strasbourg (there is a demo), help is also appreciated of distributing this inside the parliament (write to europarl ATt ffii DOtT org or call +49-174-7313590, sleeping between 1 am and 9 am CET).

Also note that before there are some supporting events in Greece, Stuttgart and Berlin.

Id you know a European language it is very helpful if you could translate part of the thing on Sunday. (Erik needs this by monday morning. There are persons working on it, help is needed help for it, subscribe to the translations mailing list and the info page for more info).

Once doing that whetted your appetite for coming to Strasbourg (there is a demo), help is also appreciated of distributing this inside the parliament (write to europarl ATt ffii DOtT org or call +49-174-7313590, sleeping between 1 am and 9 am CET).

Also note that before there are some supporting events in Greece, Stuttgart and Berlin.

Out finde more about the EU IPR Enforcement directive here or here.

Similar events will be organized across Europe, in Madrid, Poland, Duesseldorf, Berlin, Paris, ...

Sept 23 there will be a demonstration in Strassbourg. And another Online demo will be started.
http://wiki.ael.be/index.php/InfoStands
http://wiki.ael.be/index.php/OnlineDemo

Similar events will be organized across Europe, in Madrid, Poland, Duesseldorf, Berlin, Paris, ...

Sept 23 there will be a demonstration in Strassbourg. And another Online demo will be started.
http://wiki.ael.be/index.php/InfoStands
http://wiki.ael.be/index.php/OnlineDemo

Similar events will be organized across Europe, in Madrid, Poland, Duesseldorf, Berlin, Paris, ...

Sept 23 there will be a demonstration in Strassbourg. And another Online demo will be started.
http://wiki.ael.be/index.php/InfoStands
http://wiki.ael.be/index.php/OnlineDemo

• Industrial application: the EPO interprets this as "usable in a way that makes money". Don't believe me? One of the biggest proponents of software patents said so himself in the JURI meeting, when other proponents mentioned they were afraid that this requirement would exclude too many software patents.
• Technical effect: first of all, the "normal physical interaction between a program and the computer" is nowhere defined. Furhter, technical is also nowhere defined (and they don't want to define it, they say it has to follow from case law). In other words, you need anundefined effect apart from something which is not defined, so what could that be? Plenty of things, it turns out (see the heading "When is something technical"). Examples: processing data representing an image, saving memory, increasing speed, using computers instead of humans to process secret/private/sensitive data and automating a known process if the automated process provides surprising speed or economy of scale benefits.

For information on her other claims, please read the the English translation of the letter I sent to most Flemish MEPs, as well as this short overview of why software patents are bad.

Thanks for writing your MEPs, and keep it up!

http://wiki.ael.be/index.php/OnlineDemoPartnersWeb sites for a full list of website participating in the action. You can also add your web site if you participate in the online action against software patents.

I first ask Slashdot and slashdotters to join the protest tomorrow.

Come on! Join Us!

If you are an European and able to visit Brussels tomorrow, please do so! It doesn't occur much that we Europeans have a good opportunity to get ourselfs heard on these topics.

See here for info. You can visit Brussels by train from many a European country; see here

Hope this all isn't slashdotted before I will plan my own trip this afternoon.

If you are an European and able to visit Brussels tomorrow, please do so! It doesn't occur much that we Europeans have a good opportunity to get ourselfs heard on these topics.

See here for info. You can visit Brussels by train from many a European country; see here

Hope this all isn't slashdotted before I will plan my own trip this afternoon.

Belgian is the worst of all... Spontaneous Bit Inversion change the result of the election. Feel free to join PourEVA association.

I am Belgian too and not happy with data retention (like ISP connection) and many thing in my country.

My next IdCard will be RSA smart card for signature and authentication.
But I already have a memory card for social security. I did explicitly request my national id not to be printed on my old plastic id card, but it is printed on my social security card anyway.
Last time I came to the bank, they asked me my id card to get my new id card number (because I changed address). They told me 70% of the id card number stored in bank database are wrong (say outdated because of peaple renewing car or changing address). They are require to update those database or pay penalty... it never made the news, but it is hapening right now.

At previous election, I voted using magnetic card. My vote was counted by computer I don't trust. I know the code of the election is ugly and I can not accept official expert explanations on a strange bit inversion during election electronic counting.

I know the Big Brother is Belgian and is legally watching me.

Some belgian party want every transaction above 500 EURO to be done electronicaly, but hopefully they are not successfull during election.

Whatever, all the belgian bank grouped together to form Banksys wich is having a de-factomonopoly on ATM transaction, and they introduced the an electronic card to pay very small amongt of money. So they know how I spend my money.

All supermarket have fidelity card and they know how you spend your money, if you take baby, dog or kat food. If you hope to have babys because you take pregnancy test or if you cheat on you wife because you take condom.

All of your medical expense are also track by a card (social security card, see above) and don't try to go to the pharmacy without your card, they will let you die rather than to give you the medecin that was prescribed to you.

If you are belgian, do what you want, but I choosed to fight back and join association that care about human right in the computer world: AEL. Strangly enough, they care about free software, but that's only a positive side effect.

I don't know if the European beast is in Brussels or not, but I know Belgium don't need Europe help to track belgian. And if there is a beast in Brussels, it might well be the one tracking Belgian... If the beast does not exist, all the data are already available for starting the project.

I am Belgian too and not happy with data retention (like ISP connection) and many thing in my country.

My next IdCard will be RSA smart card for signature and authentication.
But I already have a memory card for social security. I did explicitly request my national id not to be printed on my old plastic id card, but it is printed on my social security card anyway.
Last time I came to the bank, they asked me my id card to get my new id card number (because I changed address). They told me 70% of the id card number stored in bank database are wrong (say outdated because of peaple renewing car or changing address). They are require to update those database or pay penalty... it never made the news, but it is hapening right now.

At previous election, I voted using magnetic card. My vote was counted by computer I don't trust. I know the code of the election is ugly and I can not accept official expert explanations on a strange bit inversion during election electronic counting.

I know the Big Brother is Belgian and is legally watching me.

Some belgian party want every transaction above 500 EURO to be done electronicaly, but hopefully they are not successfull during election.

Whatever, all the belgian bank grouped together to form Banksys wich is having a de-factomonopoly on ATM transaction, and they introduced the an electronic card to pay very small amongt of money. So they know how I spend my money.

All supermarket have fidelity card and they know how you spend your money, if you take baby, dog or kat food. If you hope to have babys because you take pregnancy test or if you cheat on you wife because you take condom.

All of your medical expense are also track by a card (social security card, see above) and don't try to go to the pharmacy without your card, they will let you die rather than to give you the medecin that was prescribed to you.

If you are belgian, do what you want, but I choosed to fight back and join association that care about human right in the computer world: AEL. Strangly enough, they care about free software, but that's only a positive side effect.

I don't know if the European beast is in Brussels or not, but I know Belgium don't need Europe help to track belgian. And if there is a beast in Brussels, it might well be the one tracking Belgian... If the beast does not exist, all the data are already available for starting the project.

I am Belgian too and not happy with data retention (like ISP connection) and many thing in my country.

My next IdCard will be RSA smart card for signature and authentication.
But I already have a memory card for social security. I did explicitly request my national id not to be printed on my old plastic id card, but it is printed on my social security card anyway.
Last time I came to the bank, they asked me my id card to get my new id card number (because I changed address). They told me 70% of the id card number stored in bank database are wrong (say outdated because of peaple renewing car or changing address). They are require to update those database or pay penalty... it never made the news, but it is hapening right now.

At previous election, I voted using magnetic card. My vote was counted by computer I don't trust. I know the code of the election is ugly and I can not accept official expert explanations on a strange bit inversion during election electronic counting.

I know the Big Brother is Belgian and is legally watching me.

Some belgian party want every transaction above 500 EURO to be done electronicaly, but hopefully they are not successfull during election.

Whatever, all the belgian bank grouped together to form Banksys wich is having a de-factomonopoly on ATM transaction, and they introduced the an electronic card to pay very small amongt of money. So they know how I spend my money.

All supermarket have fidelity card and they know how you spend your money, if you take baby, dog or kat food. If you hope to have babys because you take pregnancy test or if you cheat on you wife because you take condom.

All of your medical expense are also track by a card (social security card, see above) and don't try to go to the pharmacy without your card, they will let you die rather than to give you the medecin that was prescribed to you.

If you are belgian, do what you want, but I choosed to fight back and join association that care about human right in the computer world: AEL. Strangly enough, they care about free software, but that's only a positive side effect.

I don't know if the European beast is in Brussels or not, but I know Belgium don't need Europe help to track belgian. And if there is a beast in Brussels, it might well be the one tracking Belgian... If the beast does not exist, all the data are already available for starting the project.

I am Belgian too and not happy with data retention (like ISP connection) and many thing in my country.

My next IdCard will be RSA smart card for signature and authentication.
But I already have a memory card for social security. I did explicitly request my national id not to be printed on my old plastic id card, but it is printed on my social security card anyway.
Last time I came to the bank, they asked me my id card to get my new id card number (because I changed address). They told me 70% of the id card number stored in bank database are wrong (say outdated because of peaple renewing car or changing address). They are require to update those database or pay penalty... it never made the news, but it is hapening right now.

At previous election, I voted using magnetic card. My vote was counted by computer I don't trust. I know the code of the election is ugly and I can not accept official expert explanations on a strange bit inversion during election electronic counting.

I know the Big Brother is Belgian and is legally watching me.

Some belgian party want every transaction above 500 EURO to be done electronicaly, but hopefully they are not successfull during election.

Whatever, all the belgian bank grouped together to form Banksys wich is having a de-factomonopoly on ATM transaction, and they introduced the an electronic card to pay very small amongt of money. So they know how I spend my money.

All supermarket have fidelity card and they know how you spend your money, if you take baby, dog or kat food. If you hope to have babys because you take pregnancy test or if you cheat on you wife because you take condom.

All of your medical expense are also track by a card (social security card, see above) and don't try to go to the pharmacy without your card, they will let you die rather than to give you the medecin that was prescribed to you.

If you are belgian, do what you want, but I choosed to fight back and join association that care about human right in the computer world: AEL. Strangly enough, they care about free software, but that's only a positive side effect.

I don't know if the European beast is in Brussels or not, but I know Belgium don't need Europe help to track belgian. And if there is a beast in Brussels, it might well be the one tracking Belgian... If the beast does not exist, all the data are already available for starting the project.

I am Belgian too and not happy with data retention (like ISP connection) and many thing in my country.

My next IdCard will be RSA smart card for signature and authentication.
But I already have a memory card for social security. I did explicitly request my national id not to be printed on my old plastic id card, but it is printed on my social security card anyway.
Last time I came to the bank, they asked me my id card to get my new id card number (because I changed address). They told me 70% of the id card number stored in bank database are wrong (say outdated because of peaple renewing car or changing address). They are require to update those database or pay penalty... it never made the news, but it is hapening right now.

At previous election, I voted using magnetic card. My vote was counted by computer I don't trust. I know the code of the election is ugly and I can not accept official expert explanations on a strange bit inversion during election electronic counting.

I know the Big Brother is Belgian and is legally watching me.

Some belgian party want every transaction above 500 EURO to be done electronicaly, but hopefully they are not successfull during election.

Whatever, all the belgian bank grouped together to form Banksys wich is having a de-factomonopoly on ATM transaction, and they introduced the an electronic card to pay very small amongt of money. So they know how I spend my money.

All supermarket have fidelity card and they know how you spend your money, if you take baby, dog or kat food. If you hope to have babys because you take pregnancy test or if you cheat on you wife because you take condom.

All of your medical expense are also track by a card (social security card, see above) and don't try to go to the pharmacy without your card, they will let you die rather than to give you the medecin that was prescribed to you.

If you are belgian, do what you want, but I choosed to fight back and join association that care about human right in the computer world: AEL. Strangly enough, they care about free software, but that's only a positive side effect.

I don't know if the European beast is in Brussels or not, but I know Belgium don't need Europe help to track belgian. And if there is a beast in Brussels, it might well be the one tracking Belgian... If the beast does not exist, all the data are already available for starting the project.

I am Belgian too and not happy with data retention (like ISP connection) and many thing in my country.

My next IdCard will be RSA smart card for signature and authentication.
But I already have a memory card for social security. I did explicitly request my national id not to be printed on my old plastic id card, but it is printed on my social security card anyway.
Last time I came to the bank, they asked me my id card to get my new id card number (because I changed address). They told me 70% of the id card number stored in bank database are wrong (say outdated because of peaple renewing car or changing address). They are require to update those database or pay penalty... it never made the news, but it is hapening right now.

At previous election, I voted using magnetic card. My vote was counted by computer I don't trust. I know the code of the election is ugly and I can not accept official expert explanations on a strange bit inversion during election electronic counting.

I know the Big Brother is Belgian and is legally watching me.

Some belgian party want every transaction above 500 EURO to be done electronicaly, but hopefully they are not successfull during election.

Whatever, all the belgian bank grouped together to form Banksys wich is having a de-factomonopoly on ATM transaction, and they introduced the an electronic card to pay very small amongt of money. So they know how I spend my money.

All supermarket have fidelity card and they know how you spend your money, if you take baby, dog or kat food. If you hope to have babys because you take pregnancy test or if you cheat on you wife because you take condom.

All of your medical expense are also track by a card (social security card, see above) and don't try to go to the pharmacy without your card, they will let you die rather than to give you the medecin that was prescribed to you.

If you are belgian, do what you want, but I choosed to fight back and join association that care about human right in the computer world: AEL. Strangly enough, they care about free software, but that's only a positive side effect.

I don't know if the European beast is in Brussels or not, but I know Belgium don't need Europe help to track belgian. And if there is a beast in Brussels, it might well be the one tracking Belgian... If the beast does not exist, all the data are already available for starting the project.

Belgium is having 43% of the population voting using computer (not at home) and magnetic card.
On 18 May 2003 we had a mysterious and spontaneous bit inversion on the vote result ElectronicVotingRandomSpontaneousBitInversion.
This problem was not explain by the code poor quality: AvailableVotingCode
Believe it or not, but maybe by cosmic ray did strike the counting computer during election day: RandomSpontaneousBitInversion.
I have documented and translated a few document in English for internationnal reader, you may want to check ElectronicVoting.
Belgian can get more information in french from VoteElectronique. or PourEva.
Trust me... never trust a computer or a computer expert for election result.