December 9, 2012

Apple iPad is not a phone, Dutch judge says

Filed under: Gadgets,Technology by Branko Collin @ 2:09 pm

Why would you want to ask a court whether an Apple iPad is a phone or a general computer? Well, if computers given as a Christmas bonus are considered income and phones are not, you might have an incentive, especially if the back taxes amount to 323,687 euro.

Broadcaster RTL Nederland gave 664 of its employees an iPad in 2010, including a Vodafone 3G subscription. The law says that something supplied by one’s employer does not count as income if this something is intended “to prevent costs, expenses or depreciations needed for a correct execution of one’s employment”, Arnoud Engelfriet reports.

The law also prescribes categories of devices that are applicable, including “phones, Internet and such communication devices, but not computers, nor similar devices or peripherals”.

RTL Nederland sued the Dutch tax office and the question before the court became whether these iPads were mainly computers or mainly communication devices. The court ruled on 30 November that “considering the format of the iPad (the version the claimants provided has a 9.7 inch screen diagonal) verbal communication should not be seen as the central function of the iPad.”

RTL Nederland will appeal the decision. “We are a media company,” a spokesperson told Webwereld. “We work with those iPads, they are part of our daily business.”

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

October 27, 2012

Dutch incarceration rate dropped 44% in 5 years

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 2:36 pm

In 2010 there were 75 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants in the Netherlands.

This is down 44% from 134 prisoners in 2005, according to a study by the Research and Documentation Centre of the Ministry of Security. RTL Nieuws reports that Estonia had a greater absolute drop in inmates, from 327 to 259.

A spokesperson of the ministry told the broadcaster that reason for the strong decline in inmates is that the number of serious felonies has decreased a lot.

The thing that struck me in the 664 pages long report is how few prisoners we used to have. In 1980 the Netherlands had 23 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants:

See also:

(Photo by Moira Durano-Abesmo, some rights reserved)

Tags: , ,

October 9, 2012

‘Two strikes and the government will make you homeless’

Filed under: General,Weird by Orangemaster @ 12:23 pm

While everybody has been distracted by other news, the Dutch Senate quietly passed two laws that allow the government to enter into people’s homes on suspicion on fraud without having a shred of proof. The second law states that anybody caught committing fraud for the second time will see their entire income automagically disappear for five whole years.

Anybody on benefits of any kind is ‘at risk’ of having a pencil pusher at their door at any time now. As well, anybody who receives money in the form of a government allocation (kids, housing, etc.) is also a candidate for a pencil pusher’s visit. Old people and parents are not amused.

All kinds of organisations are saying it’s disproportionate and highly controversial. Sure, the government wants to crack down on fraud, but this seems to go too far, even legally. If someone were to commit fraud twice and get caught, they’d have no benefits anymore to live on and will be forced to find a job, is the ‘logic’ behind the law.

I think they’ll force people into crime and poverty, and the media is going to have fun compiling the sob stories.

(www.ed.nl)

Tags: ,

May 25, 2012

Apple finally admits to be bound by Dutch warranty

Filed under: Technology by Branko Collin @ 4:09 pm

A tiny victory for real globalization. After years of pressure by Dutch consumer watchdog Consumentenbond, American electronics manufacturer Apple has finally adapted its warranty for the Netherlands to make clear that is bound by Dutch law.

Last Monday tech news site Webwereld pointed to the new warranty on Apple’s website, which now states: “If you buy an Apple product, you are covered by the limited Apple warranty of one year, optionally the AppleCare Protection Plan, and the Dutch law.” A handy table shows you what these three warranties cover.

Dutch consumer protection law states that a product must live up to a consumer’s reasonable expectations. A laptop battery for instance can be expected to last longer than a year, but the law does not protect you against capacity reduction, since that is something from which all batteries suffer. According to Internet law blogger Arnoud Engelfriet, a warranty can be both narrower and wider than this rule of conformity—a manufacturer could for instance cover battery capacity reduction in its warranty (this is just an example, Apple for instance does not cover capacity reduction).

Earlier Apple claimed that its warranty provided a better coverage than the law.

In the end of course this does not change anything legally. Dutch consumers have always been protected by the law. It’s good though that customers are made aware more of their rights.

Tags: , ,

March 4, 2012

Internet lawyer Arnoud Engelfriet says “Limit copyright on images”

Filed under: Photography,Technology by Branko Collin @ 3:19 pm

Engelfriet writes on his blog:

An [Internet trend] I had not seen before, Pinterest, is a service that lets you publicly bookmark images, a sort of virtual notice board. […] Is this legal, can anybody just make a collection of images from everywhere without the rights holders’ permission?

No, this is not legal. […] If I were older and more cynical, I would now announce the bankruptcy of copyright law for images. Everybody, and I mean everybody, thinks it is normal that you take images off Google for your mood boards, blogs, and Facebook accounts. And this is happening on a grand scale. The uploaders are difficult to track, middlemen are not accountable, and notice-and-take-downs are a lost battle.

[…] If half of the country breaks the law, it is time to start wondering if the law should not be changed.

In the comments Engelfriet (who incidentally has helped us in the past and who regularly comments here too) gives several examples of road rules that have been adapted following civil disobedience: on one hand, cyclists can now turn right on a red light in certain situations, but on the other, they are still obliged to use bike lights when it’s dark outside. Compliance with the latter rule has, however, been increased with safety campaigns and stricter policing.

(Illustration: pinterest.com)

Tags: ,

January 10, 2012

‘A webshop run from home deemed technically illegal’

Filed under: Food & Drink,Online,Weird by Orangemaster @ 12:02 pm

Some judge in Den Bosch ruled that a webshop that sells alcohol from an industrial building was illegal because they should operate from a building marked as a retail shop or proper warehouse. The city is reviewing this decision, as it would also imply that any webshop run from a home would be illegal because a home is not location for this purpose. Imagine a physical liquour store taking a competing webshop to court and the latter losing because they aren’t run from an actual shop.

In the case of alcohol, the webshop cannot properly check how old someone is (an easy argument), but if this applies to all webshops — it probably won’t but imagine — some rules are going to have to change because they’ll give people a bigger headache than any booze could. Most webshops in the Netherlands are run from homes and the entire idea of having to be in a physical shop is preposterous.

(Link: www.z24)

Tags: , ,

December 26, 2011

Postcodes and road maps liberated in the Netherlands

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 5:27 pm

It took a couple of lawsuits to put their prospective gatekeepers into place, but both the Dutch postal code data and the Dutch road map data have been set free.

Postcodes used to be determined by the Dutch PTT, and when the company privatized they somehow started claiming ownership. When the government started handing out postcodes for free through its kadaster (land registration office), the new company now called Post.nl sued them, and lost. The judge has determined that starting February 2012, everybody may use the postcode database for free, Gelderlander writes.

Similarly map makers Falkplan lost a lawsuit against the government where the latter published map data via freedom of information requests, Arnoud Engelfriet writes. Falkplan’s angle seems to have been to disallow competition, plain and simple.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

June 29, 2011

Six things you should know about the Dutch cookie law

Filed under: IT by Branko Collin @ 8:12 am

There seems to be a lot of misinformation going around about the fresh Dutch (Internet) cookie law, so Internet lawyer Arnoud Engelfriet set out to dispel the myths in a few excellent articles.

1. First this. The Dutch call their cookie law ‘cookiewet’ instead of ‘koekjeswet’ in spite of the Dutch origins of the English word. (The oo sound is spelled oe in Dutch.)

Says Arnoud (and I paraphrase):

2. Other ways than invasive pop-ups are OK to ask permission to plant cookies. A checkbox on a profile page, a central register, and even browser settings can be used to get and store permission. You are even allowed to use cookies for which you did not ask permission to store the fact that you got permission for other cookies.

(more…)

Tags: , ,

April 23, 2011

Looking back at the first and short-lived Dutch constitution

Filed under: History by Branko Collin @ 3:52 pm

Wedged between the Dutch republic and the Dutch monarchy—and like France and the USA born of the Age of Enlightenment—was the short-lived Batavian Republic (1795-1806). It was both the product of its time and of the continuous threat of French occupation.

The republic was working on a constitution that would help it move away from provincial powers and to a more unified state. In 1797 the government held what was to be the country’s first national referendum, in which the new constitution was soundly rejected. In the end this rejection only served to hasten the French occupation.

The General Principles of this first Dutch constitution were:

  1. The goals of a societal union are the security of person, life, honour and possesions, and the improvement of mind and morals.
  2. The societal pact neither changes nor limits the natural rights of man, except where necessary to reach society’s goals.
  3. All members of society have an equal right to its advantages, regardless of birth, possesions, standing or rank.
  4. Every citizen is completely free to have disposal of his possesions, income and the fruit of his ingenuity and labour, and furthermore to do anything that does not infringe upon the rights of others.
  5. The law is the will of the entire societal body, as expressed by the majority of its citizens or by their representatives. It is equal to all in protection and in punishment. It only pertains deeds, never sentiments. Everything that agrees with the unalienable rights of man in society cannot be barred by any law. It neither orders nor permits that which would conflict with this rule.
  6. All the duties of a member of society have their basis in this one holy law: do not do unto others what you do not wish to happen to you; do unto others, at all times, as much good as you would wish to receive from them under the same circumstances.
  7. Nobody is a good citizen but he who excercises the domestic duties of his rank with care, and who furthermore fulfills his societal duties in every way.
  8. The reverent recognition of an all powerful supreme being strengthens the ties of society, and remains warmly recommended to every citizen.

Modern day republicans still regard this text highly, some of them even considering it better than what we have now. Which, I guess, helps to explain the huge support for the royal house of Orange by the Dutch. Having royalists run the country may not be perfect, but it does seem to be the saner alternative at the moment.

Tags: , ,

January 31, 2011

Even gossip queens have a right to privacy

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 11:47 am

The Court of Appeal in Den Bosch has recently ruled that the public prosecutor must start a case against broadcaster BNN reporters Sophie Hilbrand and Filemon Wesselink for spying on TV presenter Albert Verlinde and his husband, Onno Hoes.

Ironically, Albert Verlinde is one of the presenters of TV gossip programme RTL Boulevard, and Onno Hoes is the Mayor of Maastricht—between them they must have committed more privacy violations than all the hidden cameras in girls’ locker rooms the world over combined.

Volkskrant reports that reporters Sophie Hilbrand and Philemon Wesselink installed audio recording equipment in an award they presented to Verlinde, the ‘Golden Ear”, with which they successfully recorded a discussion Verlinde and Hoes had in the car on their way home. The public prosecutor had already fined the reporters, so that they now get punished for the same offence twice. For the record, double jeopardy—or ne bis in idem as it is called here—is illegal in the Netherlands.

(Photo of Albert Verlinde by Thomas van de Weerd, some rights reserved)

Tags: , , , , ,