Once Again Privacy Laws And Anti-Piracy Data Retention Laws Conflict
from the ain't-that-always-the-way? dept
We've noticed in the past that there are two massively conflicting ideas pushed by politicians: privacy laws that require companies to dump data they collect on users and data-retention laws that require companies to hold onto data for law enforcement or anti-piracy efforts. That seems to be showing up in Sweden now, where the recent IPRED law required ISPs to turn over data on those accused of file sharing. However, that simply led many Swedish ISPs to stop keeping log files. So, of course, some Swedish politicians put forth a data retention amendment, requiring ISPs to keep logs, which sounds great until lots of folks recognized this would clearly violate privacy laws already in place (via Michael Scott). You get the feeling we're going to see a lot more of these sorts of conflicts in the near future.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: data retention, ipred, privacy, sweden
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Start forwarding your log files to your congress critter now. Just tell them that you do not have the storage capacity.
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There is a new law on the books in Sweden known as IPRED, under which law info that is in the hands of ISPs can be subject to a subpeona in matters pertaining to illegal file sharing. Some ISPs apparently have decided to avoid the matter by not keeping any data (though I am not sure that technically this can be accomplished on-the-fly).
In response a bill has been introduced to amend the IPRED law to mandate that data be retained for six (6) months. That bill to amend the current law, currently in draft form, limits disclosure of such retained information only for criminal investigation purposes. Thus, the bill as currently written would preclude the availability of such information in furtherance of civil suits for illegal file sharing.
Is there anybody out there in internet-land who seriously believes that this oversight will not be cured in the next draft of the amendment?
Quite frankly, this article strikes me as putting the cart before the horse.
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Quite frankly, this article strikes me as putting the cart before the horse.
I'm sorry you feel that way, though I believe you may have misread the article. It was about the conflicts between privacy laws and demands for new laws to retain data.
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To reiterate, my comment was not directed to techdirt. I was directed to those who post "rant-type" comments that I believe demonstrate a lack of familiarity with the interplay between two bedrock priciples of constitutional law, i.e., "freedom of speech" per the 1st Amendment and "right to a trial by an impartial jury" per the 6th Amendment. These two principles oftentimes clash, and reconcilitation between them is not necessarily an easy matter.
What we essentially have here is a judge who has listened to oral agrument on a motion, asked question to help understand the pertinent issues, and has taken the matter under advisement to consider the issues before ruling on the motion. I expect the judge will come down on the side of the 1st Amendment, but even so I believe it is disconcerting that so many seem to villify the judge for proceeding cautiously. Without a copy of the pleadings, the motion papers, and the oral agrument transcript commenting so negatively as some commenters seem inclined to do demonstrates, in my opinion, a profound misunderstanding of how our system of laws and the judicial process work.
Techdirt openly advocates economics as a basic course of study in school. I agree, and also believe that civics should be added as well.
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IPRED
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Re: Protect your PC.
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Re: Protect your PC.
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