parliament

Like U.S. lawmakers, Brits raise spying fears over Huawei gear

A British Parliamentary committee has raised security concerns, echoing fears in Congress, about the potential threat that Chinese telecommunications-gear maker Huawei could be snooping on government and business interests.

The Intelligence and Security Committee issued a scathing, 27-page report Thursday, expressing shock over the lack of oversight regarding the manner in which Huawei gear has spread throughout that country's "critical national infrastructure." Rather than aggressively investigating concerns raised in the United States and elsewhere about the possible threat of relying on Huawei gear, British government agencies balked over worries that they would need to compensate the company … Read more

Europe's copyright bill ACTA on last legs

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA, has been rejected by the European Parliament's trade committee, the opinion of which is a major influence on the wider parliament.

INTA supported rapporteur David Martin's rejection of ACTA this morning by 19 votes to 12. Minutes before, the committee also voted 19-12 to ignore European Commission calls to postpone voting until the European Court of Justice has decided on ACTA's legality.

Trade commissioner Karel De Gucht said late last night that he would still ask the Parliament to reconsider ratifying ACTA when the ECJ ruling comes through in a year … Read more

Australia probes download, software pricing disparities

Australia's Parliament is planning to investigate why it costs more to download software and other content in Australia than it does in other countries.

The probe comes after a report on the situation released last year by the government Productivity Commission found significant price disparity between prices charged in Australia and in overseas markets. The controversy flared up again last week when Adobe Systems announced that Australians would be paying several hundred dollars more for its Creative Suite software than their American counterparts.

"People here scratch their heads trying to work out why they get fleeced on software … Read more

European Parliament slams digital copyright treaty

The European Parliament took aim Wednesday at a secret intellectual property treaty that has been criticized for possibly giving copyright holders more power to pull the plug on peer-to-peer users.

By a remarkable vote of 633 to 13, the Parliament rebuked European negotiators who have been drafting the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) in a series of confidential meetings around the globe. No version of the document has been disclosed by the participants, which include the United States, the European Commission, Japan, and Canada.

Parliament's resolution demands that the European Commission--the EU's executive branch--grant "public access" to … Read more

Ahoy! Pirate Party gets berth in European Parliament

Sweden's Pirate Party has won entry to the European Parliament in Brussels in elections held Sunday.

The Pirate Party gained 7 percent of the Swedish votes and secured at least one of the 18 seats that Sweden holds in the parliament.

"Citizens have understood that it's time to pull the fist out of the pocket and that you can make a difference," Rick Falkvinge, leader and founder of the party, told the Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet, after the result of the elections were revealed. "We don't accept to be bugged by the government. People … Read more

U.K. parliament computers get Confickered

You'd think the British government would be up on the latest and greatest security practices, but apparently even officials there have their problems.

The U.K. parliament's computer network has been infected with the Conficker worm, according to the Dizzy Thinks blog.

In his own blog post, Trend Micro security researcher Rik Ferguson questioned the security practices that could have allowed Conficker onto such hallowed turf. "Dear Parliament, if you are having trouble cleaning this up, give us a call, we'll come and do it for nothing," he offers.

Below is the text of the … Read more

Parliamentary support builds for NASA hacker

Support is building in the British Parliament and from legal experts for self-confessed NASA hacker Gary McKinnon to be tried in the U.K.

Liberal Democrat peer Lord Carlile of Berriew, Queen's Counsel, the independent reviewer of Britain's antiterror laws, told CNET News sister site ZDNet UK on Wednesday that McKinnon's diagnosis with Asperger's Syndrome, a condition on the autistic spectrum, means he should be tried in Britain rather than in the U.S.

McKinnon was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome last summer by Cambridge University autism expert Simon Baron-Cohen. Despite the diagnosis, the Home Office … Read more

Italian Communists choose Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop

The headline is a bit of a joke, but the news is serious: Novell just announced Europe's largest rollout of Linux desktops with the Italian Parliament. Approximately 3,500 PCs will be migrated to Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop, including those belonging to the 630 members of parliament. Not too shabby.

This makes it the second and largest parliament in Europe to choose open source. The French Parliament, with 577 seats, voted last year to have open source installed on all of its 1145 PCs. France decided on Ubuntu this February, and the migration in the Parliament should be under … Read more