Ortsgruppen/Regensburg/Planungen/InternationalesTreffenVDS/Protocol

This is the log of the Cross-Border-Meeting Saturday, 21. Mai 2011, Hörsaal 2, Universität Regensburg

9 participants

TOPICS 1. Situations in the attendant countries 2. Plattforms and method of operating 3. Callshop Meeting 4. Brussels and beyond 5. IP-DR

Situations in the attendant countries, Plattforms and method of operating

Austria:

What is "gegenvds.at"?

• Initiative gegen VDS
• founded 2 weeks before DR passed the national assembly (28.April - one year left until implementation of DR / storing data)
• organized demonstrations in Graz + Linz
• supported by a lot of groups: <http://gegenvds.at/unterstuetzerinnen>

Plans:

• found a national association (yet only local) in summer
• focus on information events in schools etc. (similar to freiheitsredner)
• maybe protests
• lobbying
• collaborate with FPÖ? right wing party, dont want to but they have success in the elections and maybe we need them..
• legal measures (but might take long)
• small and effective group

Possible partners:

• AK Data (Mr. Zeger)
• Quintessenz (exclusive to Vienna)
• AK Vorrat AT (Vienna) - Had a meeting on Monday with at least five people: <http://www.doodle.com/ttr5bu7ctprz576p> - 532 Supporters signed on their website

Censorship is a problem (access to kino.to declined without special law) See http://futurezone.at/netzpolitik/3153-upc-muss-streaming-webseite-kino-to-sperren.php (German)

Against DR

• evangelic church
• communist party (strong in Graz, 20%)
• BZÖ
• FPÖ
• Green Party
• Pirate Party

For DR

• SPÖ (Divided - Vienna SPÖ against DR; youth organisation is against DR)
• ÖVP (Divided - Graz ÖVP against DR)

Czech Republic:

What is iure?

• non-profit organisation
• human rights
• employs professional activists
• not only DR, but also CCTV, Databases (score, health, etc),
• eGovernment (eElections, identification numbers)
• contacts to MPs, police, secret service
• educate mass media journalists (workshops for journalists, presented what Malte Spitz did with zeit online and it was quite helpful)
• flyers and stickers
• less volunteers and more professionals - starting a campaign to find more volunteers
• only organisation concerned with privacy in cz

Situation of DR in cz

• constitutional court canceled DR
• new law in discussion
• hard to discuss on regional level
• press doesn't care about european topics
• politics criticize the constituational decision and iure, because they think they can't investigate crimes any more
• police officials support DR, but the policemen "on the street" say it's not necessary (money, people, education would be more important)

Conflicts with constitution

• possibility of abuse
• too many requests by police (not used exclusively for serious crimes, but also for divorces, stolen cars, etc.)
• no real discussion of topic. law was passed before european directive
• constitutional court agreed with all twelve points

Reason why the czech constitutional court found czech DR unconstitutional

The court said that EU law was not part of the constitution of the Czech Republic and that the directive could therefore not be reviewed by the Constitutional Court.

According to the court decision, the content of the Data Retention Directive gives the Czech Republic sufficient space for its constitutionally conformal transposition.

According to the court decision, the content of the Data Retention Directive gives the Czech Republic sufficient space for its constitutionally conformal transposition.

The court doubted whether the blanket monitoring of the communications of all citizens in terms of intensity of intervention into the private sphere is necessary and appropriate.

The court also doubted the effectiveness of the use of the retained data in combating crime, particularly with reference to the possibility of anonymising communications.

The police statistics show that despite a significant increase in the number of requests for traffic and location data, this did not translate into a proportional number of committed and solved crimes.

he Constitutional Court also regards certain provisions of the Criminal Act concerning the use of such data by authorities engaged in criminal proceeding as highly questionable and it called on MPs to consider its modification.

According to the Court, it will be necessary to consider each individual case in which data have already been requested in order to be used in criminal proceedings, with respect to the principle of proportionality regarding privacy rights infringement.

What will happen next

• new law planned for september
• politics not concerned with european developement

Against DR

Green Party

For DR

no party really supports DR, most neutral when switching from opposition to government, partys drop the topic

Undecided

Socialists,Communists

(Political partys in Czech dont care much about data retention in general)

Material / Links

Stickers against DR: http://slidilove.cz/sites/default/files/iuridicum_remedium_-_vyrocni_zprava_2008-2009.pdf

Decision of the cz constitutional court: http://www.slidilove.cz/en/english/english-translation-czech-constitutional-court-decision-data-retention

The comic book "Under surveillance" http://www.edri.org/comic-book/en/Under-surveillance-comic-book.html

Germany:

AK Vorrat

• participants: users, ngos (Foebud, Fiff, CCC, ...) and politicians started the ak vorrat together.
• Loose group. Groups which are concerned from DR joined e.g. physicians, human rights organisations, churches. Covers the whole political spectrum - left wing to right wing.
• Open System, everyone can join the mailinglist. No conventional form of organization.
• no institutional opinion: different ideas and philosophies of all participants

Roots

• census in 1980s, important decision of const. court: informational self-determination as a basic human right

Other groups

• AK Zensur
• AK Zensus

Against DR

Greens Liberals Left party Pirate Party

For DR

Social Democrats (Divided) Conservatives

Plattforms and method of operating

• Meetings like this are a good plattform - get to know people personally
• International plattforms like telecomix,ak vorrat, anonymous, quadrature..
• infrastructure like etherpads, wiki, mailinglists, instant meag, twitter/identica
• press relations
• exchange of partner groups (?) - how to get stronger networks, share information
• Planned Wiki is still not in use
• AK Vorrat english DR-Campaign Site: <http://wiki.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/EU>
• International Mailinglist of AK Vorrat as meetingpoint for international discussions
• Translations!

Result: Go public on international mailing list with contact data and offer to help!

Activist exchange! (couchsufing for campaigners)

Freedom not Fear 2011

Austria

<http://www.freiheit-statt-angst.org/bba-2010/> ("Freiheitsmarsch")

Czech Republic

Organisation "Freedom not fear" (fnf.cz), also discussion-club in addition to demonstration. iure will again be participating this year

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VYfKrDuqMY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3xzxbAR1Rk&feature=related

Germany

Mass-Demonstration "Freiheit statt Angst" 10. September 2011

http://wiki.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/Freedom_Not_Fear_2011/Draft

Callshop Meeting

Presentation of the new campaign "Callshop Meeting"

German: <http://wiki.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/Ortsgruppen/Regensburg/Planungen/CallshopMeetingDoku>

English: <http://wiki.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/Ortsgruppen/Regensburg/Planungen/CallshopMeetingDoku/en>

- EU funding?

- find out the main topics of the MPs and set them in relation to DR

In Austria: http://www.parlament.gv.at/PAKT/VHG/XXIV/ME/ME_00117/index.shtml to see which organisations oppose to DR and what are their main motives. Similar things in Germany?

- normal people are calling in Brussels to transport their public opinion

- problem, that the action can only be performed during work time --> mobilize students, pupils (when are holidays?), senior citizens