IFSO friends,
The EUCD was signed into Irish law on 22.1.2004. See http://www.entemp.ie/tcmr/ipuwork.htm. Much as expected-Arts 5.1, 5.2(a) & 6.4.4. The declaration that "Nothing in the chapter shall be construed as operating to prevent any person from undertaking the acts permitted" has been maintained, a slight chink of (meaningless!) light. There was no "extensive consultation process"! There's also a section on the IPRE and softpat directives, Not quite accurate in that the IPRE link is not to the latest text under discussion and it refers to a vote on 9.2.2004-the debate may be on 9.2.2004 and the vote on 25.2.2004. On Monday, I will accompany the national association of ISPs to two meetings, with the government department responsible for the IPRE and also the Deputy Data Protection Commissioner. The DP commissioner was very concerned when he heard about the directive and wants to table it for a European meeting of DP people in February. The recent complaint by the German DP commissioner (as reported in EDRI-gram) is very timely.
IFSO IPRE letter will soon be available.
Teresa
---------- Teresa Hackett 114 Cedar House Mespil Estate, Sussex Road Dublin 4, Ireland Email: teresahackett@eircom.net Dutch Mobile: +316 523 63486 (until 19.3.2004) NEW! Irish Mobile +353 87 6253768 ----------