Suchergebnisse

This text explains how to minimise risks and cope with problems, with the help of many clear illustrations. This book is useful for students of agriculture as well as managers of rural businesses. A companion volume, Farm Chemical Safety is also available in the Practical Farming Series.

Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society has proven more contentious than its drafters foresaw. This EU Copyright Directive (EUCD), as it is commonly known, allowed only 19 months for implementation by Member States. But controversy in many of the fifteen States meant that only Denmark and Greece met this deadline. Given the experience in the United States with a similar piece of legislation passed in 1998, this may be less surprising than it seems. The EUCD and the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) both give new protection to "technological measures" — systems that restrict the use of literary and other works in digital form based on instructions from their owners. Even legitimate users of such works are forbidden from circumventing such measures. Tools that facilitate circumvention are also banned. This has led to problems in the US for innovators, researchers, the press, and the public at large. This guide describes the debate that has occurred within each of the EU states during this process of implementation. It also describes the options that are available in implementation, and how these options have been exercised across the EU. Our aim is to provide information to government and civil society bodies in the countries that will be joining the EU during 2004, and hence who must also transpose the Directive into national law as part of that process. These organisations will then be in a better position to represent the views of copyright users in the debate over transposition, in order to ensure a proper balance between the rights of rightsholders and users.

Countries around the world have since 1996 updated copyright laws to prohibit the circumvention of "Technological Protection Measures", technologies that restrict the use of copyright works with the aim of reducing infringement and enforcing contractual restrictions. This article traces the legislative and treaty history that lies behind these new legal provisions, and examines their interaction with a wide range of other areas of law: from international exhaustion of rights, through competition law, anti-discrimination measures, regulation of computer security research, constitutional rights to freedom of expression and privacy, and consumer protection measures. The article finds that anti-circumvention law as promoted by US trade policy has interfered with public policy objectives in all of these areas. It picks out key themes from the free trade agreements, legislation and jurisprudence of the World Trade Organization, World Intellectual Property Organization, USA, EU member states, and South American, Asian and Australasian nations. There is now a significant movement in treaty negotiations and in legislatures to reduce the scope of anti-circumvention provisions to ensure their compatibility with other important policy objectives.

The reporting of leaks from whistleblower Edward Snowden has led to a global debate about privacy in the Internet era. This article reviews US and UK alleged practices related to surveillance of foreign Internet communications content and "metadata", and the international human rights law issues they raise. Often, these practices are based on vague laws that are applied on the basis of secret guidance or interpretations—which in international human rights terms is not "law" at all. To the extent that there are specific, published laws, their hallmarks are the sweeping, largely discretionary powers that they grant, a lack of effective oversight, and (often) discrimination between nationals or residents and non-nationals or non-residents. Spying on citizens, politicians and companies in another country, and obtaining data from servers in that other country, without the consent of the target country, furthermore violates the sovereignty of the latter country.

As the Internet has become a mainstream communications mechanism, law enforcement and intelligence agencies have developed new surveillance capabilities and been given new legal powers to monitor its users. These capabilities have been particularly targeted toward terrorism suspects and organisations, which have been observed to use the Internet for communication, propaganda, research, planning, publicity, fundraising and creating a distributed sense of community. Policing has become increasingly pre-emptive, with a range of activities criminalised as "supporting" or "apologising for" terrorism. The privacy and non-discrimination rights that are core to the European legal framework are being challenged by the increased surveillance and profiling of terrorism suspects. We argue that their disproportionate nature is problematic for democracy and the rule of law, and will lead to practical difficulties for cross-border cooperation between law enforcement agencies.

Deficits in job satisfaction and performance have been reported among operators of modern cordless telephone switchboards relative to the operation of the older cord switchboards. The attentional demands of these switchboards were investigated using, as an index of attention, the amplitude of the cortical evoked potential (CEP) to an appropriate task-relevant event. However, no reliable differences in the CEP were obtained; nor indeed were differences in alpha activity or heart rate present. Emphasis is placed upon the methodological importance of this contribution in drawing attention to the CEP as a measure of psychological processes in applied contexts.

The relationship between the final factors and the composition of the original variance in a factor analysis is discussed, It is argued that, where factors defining intra individual processes are required, it is inappropriate to include interindividual variability in the original variance. A case study is reported illustrating this point. Factors defining intraindividual mood dimensions were obtained to assess differences in the self-rated mood of telephone operators as a function of switchboard design. Scores on a "well-being" factor were found to be lower for operators on a modern cordless switchboard than on the older style cord switchboard. The analysis also revealed significant changes in well-being and a second factor, labeled "competence," over the working day.

This report consists of six chapters. Chapter 1 explains the choice of specific SROs for the Phase 2 focussed evaluations, and the methodology we adopt (as in the Inception Report). We set the examples against a common set of criteria, and selected and tabulated against these criteria. The substantive Chapters 2-5 contain case studies arranged by four categories: infrastructure and critical resources (Chapter 2); issues affecting content rating (Chapter 3), Internet filtering and reporting of illegal content (Chapter 4); issues that are emerging (Chapter 5). This provides the basis for examination of standards, infrastructure, ISP self-regulation, mass media content, and user-derived content. It also provides the framework to examine personal Internet security, DRM and e-commerce standards. Finally, Chapter 6 details the comparative analysis across case studies, in order to develop patterns, especially with regard to the dynamic evolution of case studies identified in the study period June-September 2007. Further gap analysis bridges the Phase 1 mapping exercise, and Phase 2 detailed examination of a representative and strategically chosen universe of case studies, is to identify the continually emerging environment for new topics and/or sectoral areas of regulatory and/or legislative interest. This concise gap analysis provides the background for the final report explanation of potential areas for further research. In the final section, we detail the work to be undertaken subsequently to complete the study. Appendix 1 details the schedule of interviews and other discussions conducted with stakeholders and experts. Appendix 2 details web survey responses.

Influenza A viruses of H5 and H7 subtype in poultry can circulate subclinically, and subsequently mutate from low to high pathogenicity with potentially devastating economic and welfare consequences. European Union Member States undertake surveillance of commercial and backyard poultry for early detection and control of subclinical H5 and H7 influenza A infection. This surveillance has moved towards a risk‐based sampling approach in recent years; however quantitative measures of relative risk associated with risk factors utilised in this approach are necessary for optimisation. This study describes serosurveillance for H5 and H7 influenza A in domestic and commercial poultry undertaken in the European Union from 2004 to 2010, where a random sampling and thus representative approach to serosurveillance was undertaken. Using these representative data, this study measured relative risk of seropositivity across poultry categories and spatially across the EU. Data were analysed using multivariable logistic regression. Domestic waterfowl, game birds, fattening turkeys, ratites, backyard poultry and the "other" poultry category holdings had relatively increased probability of H5 and/or H7 influenza A seropositivity, compared to laying‐hen holdings. Amongst laying‐hen holdings, free‐range rearing was associated with increased probability of H7 seropositivity. Spatial analyses detected 'hotspots' for H5 influenza A seropositivity in western France and England, and H7 influenza A seropositivity in Italy and Belgium, which may be explained by the demographics and distribution of poultry categories. Findings suggest certain poultry category holdings are at increased risk of subclinical H5 and/or H7 influenza A circulation, and free‐range rearing increases the likelihood of exposure to H7 influenza A. These findings may be used in further refining risk‐based surveillance strategies, and prioritising management strategies in influenza A outbreaks.