At the request of the Pirate Party MEP Patrick Breyer, EU Commissioner Vera Jourová has commented for the first time on the gamers’ protest against the rendering of popular computer games unusable by their manufacturers.[1] Jourová explains that EU legislation “does not set specific requirements as to the duration of the supply of products”. Only if a contract is terminated before the end of an agreed period of provision do consumers have rights such as a pro-rata refund of the purchase price. In the event of a dispute, courts and authorities decide.

Pirate Party MEP Patrick Breyer sees a need for action: “In their terms and conditions, computer game manufacturers regularly reserve the right to arbitrarily terminate video games at any time, even if they have just been purchased. In my opinion, this is an unfair and ineffective contractual clause under the EU unfair terms directive, but legal clarification will take a long time. Compensation does not help the community anyway. To protect video games as cultural assets, as well as the gaming communities, we need new EU legislation that allows the community to take over and continue orphan games. The EU Commission must take action here, instead of putting the industry’s profit interests above everything else.”

At yesterday’s webinar “Stop the death of computer games” on the “Stop Killing Games” initiative, representatives from politics and civil society spoke out in favor of better protection for the gaming community. [2] There has been criticism of the decision by computer game publisher Ubisoft to shut down the racing game “The Crew” at short notice at the end of March 2024, even though it was still being sold until December 2023.

Lawyer Renate Schmid and MEP Dr. Patrick Breyer – himself a lawyer and former judge – raised doubts about the legality of this approach under consumer protection law. The first question was directed directly at Renate Schmid, a lawyer at Kanzler WBS.LEGAL, namely whether Ubisoft was allowed to shut down the computer game at such short notice. She explained: “Ubisoft says, ‘I’m allowed to do that because of my terms and conditions’ but I have a serious question mark over whether the terms and conditions are even effective. According to my current research, they are not.”

Patrick Breyer, Member of the European Parliament for the Pirate Party, complained that the European legal situation is unclear and that improvements need to be made to protect gamers: “That leads us to the general directive, which is ancient, on unfair contractual terms. But of course, it doesn’t say which terms and conditions are unfair. In my view, there needs to be clarification and specificity. This is also a good idea because the directive is to be revised anyway.”

The Pirate Party hat organised the webinar. Digital expert and Pirate Party Spitzenkandidat for the European elections Anja Hirschel moderated the event and brought many questions from the live audience into the discussion. The frustration of many gamers became clear. Their demand: after the commercial end of the game, game manufacturers should at least allow private use offline or hand the game over to the community. With servers operated by fans, even online games could continue to operate.

Daniel Ondruska, from the Stop Killing Games initiative, explained the problem that players are faced with here: “Ultimately, you sell something and then simply take it away. You can imagine it like this: you buy a car and after 5 years a new model is brought onto the market and then your car turns off.” In addition to the legal assessment, the protection of computer games as modern cultural assets was also discussed. The idea of ​​bringing members of the next European Parliament into direct contact with the topic of gaming also emerged during the discussion, so that politicians take the interests of players into account better than before. If she is elected as an MEP, Anja Hirschel – the German Pirate Party’s top candidate – wants to invite people to a LAN party in Parliament: “I think it’s important because it shows what gaming can do, which communities exist, and I imagine that many MEPs might lose their reservations.”

[1] https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-9-2024-001023-ASW_EN.pdf
[2] Recording (in Geman): peertube.european-pirates.eu/w…

patrick-breyer.de/en/stopkilli…

Patrick Breyer

2024-06-04 17:41:22

Livestream: #StopKillingGames - Gegen das Computerspiele sterben - 6/4/2024, 4:24:01 PM

Webinar zu Stop Killing Games, weitere Infos folgen...

Sprecher:
Anja Hirschel, Spitzenkandidatin der Piratenpartei
Dr. Patrick Breyer, Europaabgeordneter
Daniel Ondruska, Initiative Stop Killing Games
Renate Schmidt, Rechtsanwältin bei WBS.LEGAL

#STOPKILLINGGAMES

Stop Killing Games: stopkillinggames.com
WBS.LEGAL: wbs.legal

Mehr Informationen über die PIRATEN findest Du hier: piratenpartei.de

After Sunday‘s European elections, the EU is planning to reintroduce indiscriminate communications data retention without suspicion and force manufacturers to allow law enforcement access to digital devices such as smartphones and cars. This is the “confidential” 42-point plan compiled by a “high-level group of experts” set up by EU governments and the EU Commission, which Pirate Party MEP Patrick Breyer was able to look into (Council document 9984/24). The EU Commission has already submitted proposals on how it intends to make previously secure devices accessible to the police.

Specifically, according to the 42-point surveillance plan, manufacturers are to be legally obliged to make digital devices such as smartphones, smart homes, IoT devices, and cars monitorable at all times (“access by design”). Messenger services that were previously securely encrypted are to be forced to allow for interception. Data retention, which was overturned by the EU Court of Justice, is to be reenacted and extended to OTT internet communications services such as messenger services. “At the very least”, IP connection data retention is to be required to be able to track all internet activities. The secure encryption of metadata and subscriber data is to be prohibited. Where requested by the police, GPS location tracking should be activated by service providers (“tracking switch”). Uncooperative providers are to be threatened with prison sentences. The results of the hacking of an entire communication service, as in the Encrochat case (the evidence has been rejected by some courts), shall be used as evidence in court.

The EU Commission has already contributed specific proposals to the surveillance plan, according to two presentations obtained by the Pirates. A legal framework for access to encrypted devices that are “proven to be used exclusively for criminal communication” is among its proposals. Manufacturers such as Apple should be forced to help crack the encryption of confiscated smartphones.[1] The directorate of EU Commissioner for Home Affairs “Big Sister” Johansson is also proposing the reintroduction of a Europe-wide obligation to retain communications data indiscriminately.[2]

“Experience has shown that this secret wish list of EU governments stands an excellent chance of being hastily implemented by the next EU Commission under the auspices of ‘Big Sister’ von der Leyen, right after the European elections,” warns Pirate Party MEP Patrick Breyer. “After all, she wants to stay in power with the help of the heads of government who commission this plan. This extreme surveillance plan must not become a reality, if only because it has been cooked up by a completely one-sided secret group of surveillance fanatics working without any real transparency or democratic legitimacy. We Pirates are declaring war on this secret plan and call on von der Leyen to distance herself from it and also from the proposals now made public by her own Commissioner for Home Affairs!

Anyone who attacks our right to secure encryption is not only attacking our legally guaranteed right to privacy but also European businesses that rely on it. Forcing access to encrypted smartphones used ‘exclusively for criminal purposes’ would render our smartphones generally accessible and insecure. The planned internet data retention threatens to destroy our right to anonymity online, which enables crime prevention through anonymous counseling and pastoral care, victim support through anonymous self-help forums, and also investigative journalism, which often relies on anonymous whistleblowers.”

The Pirate Party’s lead candidate for the European elections and digital expert Anja Hirschel comments: “The going-dark plans are an unprecedented, excessive leap directly into a fully monitored society. Everything we do, where we go, and with whom we communicate would be accessible at all times and without limits. The surveillors themselves prefer to remain in the dark. We can not allow this to be implemented!”

[1] fragdenstaat.de/anfrage/docume…

[2] fragdenstaat.de/anfrage/docume…

patrick-breyer.de/en/first-ins…

The highly controversial indiscriminate child sexual abuse regulation (so-called chat control) could still be endorsed by EU governments after all, as France could give up its previous veto. This is reported by Euractiv and confirmed by internal documents. France considers the new “upload moderation” proposal in principle as a viable option.

According to the latest draft regulation dated 28 May (Council document 9093/24), which is presented as “upload moderation”, users of apps and services with chat functions are to be asked whether they accept the indiscriminate and error-prone scanning and possibly reporting of their privately shared images, photos and videos. Previously unknown images and videos are also to be scrutinised using “artificial intelligence” technology. If a user refuses the scanning, they would be blocked from sending or receiving images, photos, videos and links (Article 10). End-to-end encrypted services such as Whatsapp or Signal would have to implement the automated searches “prior to transmission” of a message (so-called client-side scanning, Article 10a). The initially proposed scanning of text messages for indications of grooming, which is hardly being used to date, is to be scrapped, as is the scanning of voice communication, which has never been done before. Probably as a concession to France, the chats of employees of security authorities and the military are also to be exempted from chat control.

During the last discussion on 24 May, the Council Legal Service made it clear that indiscriminate chat control scanning of non-suspects is still envisioned and remains a violation of fundamental rights. Nevertheless, most EU governments are determined to go ahead. EU governments plan to continue their discussions on June 4th.

“The Belgian proposal means that the essence of the EU Commission’s extreme and unprecedented initial chat control proposal would be implemented unchanged,” warns MEP and most prominent opponent of chat control Patrick Breyer (Pirate Party). “Using messenger services purely for texting is not an option in the 21st century. And removing excesses that aren’t being used in practice anyway is a sham.

Millions of private chats and private photos of innocent citizens are to be searched using unreliable technology and then leaked without the affected chat users being even remotely connected to child sexual abuse – this would destroy our digital privacy of correspondence. Our nude photos and family photos would end up with strangers in whose hands they do not belong and with whom they are not safe. Despite lip service being paid to encryption, client-side scanning would undermine previously secure end-to-end encryption in order to turn our smartphones into spies – this would destroy secure encryption.

I am alarmed that EU governments that have been critical so far are praising the repackaged plans, which threatens to overturn the previous blocking minority. If the EU governments really do go into the trilogue negotiations with this radical position of indiscriminate chat control scanning, experience shows that the Parliament risks gradually abandoning its initial position behind closed doors and agreeing to bad and dangerous compromises that put our online security at risk.

Now is the time to take to the barricades for privacy and secure encryption.”

Information portal and document archive for chat control

patrick-breyer.de/en/majority-…