Directive 2006/24/EC: Too Quick To Blow Your Horn!

UPDATE 20/04/2014: A demonstration of EU’s affection towards intelligence agencies. Lovely article by Gavin Sullivan on AlJazeera about the future use of secret intelligence intel as evidence by the CJEU. Do you still believe the EU will attempt to restrict their functions?

Since this morning when the ECJ declared the Data Retention Directive invalid, the view that the invalidity extends to the state functions of the member states slowly began to emerge. I do not understand what caused that impression.

The Directive referred to a blanket retention of all public telecommunications for a period from six months up to two years. The EU Commission promptly issued a memo  concluding that a finding of invalidity of the Directive does not cancel the ability for Member States under the e-Privacy Directive (2002/58/EC) to impose the retention of data. This surprisingly seems to dash the hopes of many.

Data retention under the e-Privacy Dir has to be proportionate to the purpose for which it needs to be performed. It also needs to last a specific (preferably short) term. How can these be compared with the blanket retention the 2006 Directive commanded?

Cyberbullying & Harassment: A Recipe for Disaster

As I have argued before, cyberbullying is not a novelty. The problem with our times is that, 20 years later, the World Wide Web  has expanded to all four corners of the Earth with information (including audiovisual content) travelling at the speed of lightning. Anyone, any place, at any point can upload anything with a single click.

The statutory protection against (cyber)bullying in Ireland at the moment is s10 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997 re harassment, which defines it as:

Mars One: Should I Stay or Should I Go?

EDIT: For a  more thorough analysis of the potential legal implications of the mission, I have uploaded a paper on SSRN (15 pages).

The latest trend on crowdfunding website Indiegogo seems to be that of Mars One. Mars One is a project initiated by Bas Lansdorp and Arno Wielders, both Chief Officers of a company called Interplanetary Media Group BV (IMG), based in the Netherlands. IMG is the subsidiary of Stichting Mars One, a non-profit foundation.

The mission’s aim is no other than to colonise planet Mars in the very near future; 2024 to be exact. The plans include life support units that generate energy, water and breathable air. Supply units with food and other commodities, inflatable living units, rovers and other machinery. And that seems to be as far as the provision goes. A number of satellites will be put in Martian orbit to record the lives of the colony members, and to transmit video so Earth can watch through a television link.

All this sounds swell … but is it really that simple?

Come together, Right now… Over me

I did not want to write about this matter yesterday because I was emotionally charged. Let me tell you that a day has not made a difference.

Yesterday an ex parte application was brought before Hedigan J, aiming at inducing a woman into a cesarean section (Waterford Regional Hospitan v AD).

The thing that distinguishes a slave to a free man is the right of self-determination; the ability for one to make their own choices, for themselves. A slave can be a political slave, a social slave, a sexual slave… no matter what kind of a slave they are, they do not possess the right to exercise their free will – they do not own their body.

Big Kids say: Cyberbullying not a novelty

There has been so much commotion over cyberbullying lately, especially after the death of Shane McEntee (God bless his soul). The Oireachtas committee on Transport and Communication is to report to Pat Rabbitte and it is believed by many that legislation can be enacted to effectively combat this ‘new disease’. In my view there is very little the legislator can do to stop cyberbullying, which is not that different to actual bullying but for its broader, public effect – whereas actual bullying is of a more private nature. People need to be informed of how bullying works, that is the greatest ammunition of all.

I belong to the pre-internet generation, I have been a child and a parent as well as a victim of bullying in both childhood and adulthood, therefore I believe that I have formed a – reasonable – opinion overall. Let me start by saying that bullying sees no age, no gender, no culture, it is pretty much blind. It doesn’t source from the victim, but from the bullies themselves; they either have very little to satisfy them (emotionally or physically) or they have some other inclination to pain, usually not their own; or sometimes they are plainly inconsiderate. Whatever the cause for their actions, the target would be in a much better position had they known they are not being bullied out of their own fault – no one tells you that when you are on the weak end, and it is usually too late by the time you find out.

The Referendum of the angry

The Referendum on Childrens’ Rights will be up for vote in exactly two weeks, millions of euros have been put aside for its promotional campaign but despite this, it is still getting an overall negative reaction.

One would think the Irish don’t want our children protected by the supreme law of the State but we would rather leave it up to the courts that have done a wonderful job so far sending them to industrial schools (and we all know how they were run) or placing them with seldom loving foster families; we do not care about our children.

This cannot be further from the truth. For this campaign to have caused so much anger and for persons in authority to look the other way is wrong. As previously mentioned the change to Article 42 is to set the fundamental rights of the children in stone. Although it does hand out some rights (e.g. the right to be heard in court), it does absolutely nothing to solidify the rights of the child within the family.

The super-law of the www: a monster in embryonic state?

 

Nobody would like to wake up one morning to the view of  Godzilla smiling through their window; just because we choose to ignore science’s monstrosities though, it doesn’t mean they ‘re not there – I am pretty sure a visit to a genetics lab would thoroughly convince us to spare a thought.

The internet is not very far from those scary test tubes. It is an everyday experiment where millions of brains around the world come up with new ideas, some good, and some evil. These ideas have the same effect on us as Godzilla: we do not feel the need to protect ourselves until we feel the thing breathing down our necks. But we are there, lost in a world of digits and semicolons, unfolding our past, present and future to the unknown. Would we ever walk naked in the street holding a banner that tells our life story for the world to see? I do not think so.