Bonum Certa Men Certa

The EPO Bundestagate -- Part 5: The Federal Eagle's Disconcerting Metamorphosis

Series index:

  1. The EPO Bundestagate -- Part 1: How the Bundestag Was (and Continues to be) Misled About EPO Affairs
  2. The EPO Bundestagate -- Part 2: Lack of Parliamentary Oversight, Many Questions and Few Answers…
  3. The EPO Bundestagate -- Part 3: A “Minor Interpellation” in the German Bundestag
  4. The EPO Bundestagate -- Part 4: Parroting the GDPR-Compliance Myth
  5. You are here ☞ The Federal Eagle's Disconcerting Metamorphosis


EPO 3 monkeys



Summary: How the German Federal Eagle metamorphosed into an EPO Management Parrot

In the last part we saw how the Federal Government's response to a parliamentary question about the EPO's data protection framework seemed to come straight from the EPO's internal echo chamber.



A clue to understanding how the mighty and sovereign Federal Eagle could be reduced to the subservient role of an EPO Management Parrot can be found in the footnotes of Bundestag Printed Paper no. 19/15072 [PDF] where the following is stated (in translation):

The answer was sent on behalf of the Federal Government in a letter from the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection dated 8 November 2019.


Readers may recall that the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection did a lot of manipulative and highly questionable things for the notorious UPC, which was stopped due to constitutional issues [1, 2, 3].

The above passage confirms that the German government entrusted the Federal Ministry of Justice with the task of preparing its response to the FDP's interpellation.

As we shall see from the later parts of this series, close personal connections and secretive back-channels can be shown to exist between the German Federal Ministry of Justice and the EPO's Directorate of Legal and International Affairs (known internally at the EPO as DG5).

It is likely that these connections and back-channels played a key role in ensuring that any attempts to conduct an impartial and critical examination of the issues raised by the FDP were nipped in the bud.

"As we shall see from the later parts of this series, close personal connections and secretive back-channels can be shown to exist between the German Federal Ministry of Justice and the EPO's Directorate of Legal and International Affairs (known internally at the EPO as DG5)."The rubber-stamped approval of the EPO's data protection framework by officials of the Justice Ministry - under the apparent influence of their "controllers" at the EPO's DG5 - resulted in the Federal Government, the Bundestag and the German public being seriously misled about the true state of affairs at the EPO.

In its response to the FDP's interpellation, the government concluded by noting the following (in translation):

With regard to the assessment of the lawfulness of data processing in detail, it should be noted that this is not the responsibility of the Federal Government, but of the independent supervisory authorities.


This statement is quite remarkable.

"On that occasion Dr Petri noted that the EPO lacked any independent supervisory authority which could investigate alleged data protection breaches."Why? Because if the Federal Government had done its homework properly then it should have known that a couple of years previously - in 2014 to be precise - the Bavarian State Data Protection Commissioner, Dr Thomas Petri, had concluded that the EPO's data protection framework was not compliant with EU data protection standards.

On that occasion Dr Petri noted that the EPO lacked any independent supervisory authority which could investigate alleged data protection breaches. He recommended that urgent action be taken to remedy this deficiency.

"From the available evidence it would appear that this unfortunate outcome was the result of a nefarious act of collusion between the official of the Federal Justice Ministry entrusted with preparing the government's submission for the Legal Affairs Committee of the Bundestag and a member of the EPO's senior management team."The Federal Data Protection Commissioner at the time in question, Ms Andrea Voßhoff, endorsed the concerns and findings of Dr Petri. In July 2015 Ms Voßhoff brought the matter to the attention of the Legal Affairs Committee of the German Bundestag.

However, the efforts of Dr Petri and Ms Voßhoff to push for a reform of the EPO's manifestly deficient data protection framework ultimately came to naught.

From the available evidence it would appear that this unfortunate outcome was the result of a nefarious act of collusion between the official of the Federal Justice Ministry entrusted with preparing the government's submission for the Legal Affairs Committee of the Bundestag and a member of the EPO's senior management team.

In the coming instalments we intend to retrace the associated train of events in detail and present relevant facts concerning the main protagonists so that readers can form their own opinion about this matter.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Linux and the Freedom Paradox
Linux is losing freedom if some external actors who only use Microsoft tools for development wrest control
Watch the FSF Party Live (via Livestream)
It's in WebM format, which is widely supported by now
Advocacy of Software Freedom Changed, LUGs Became Less Relevant
The way we see it, support groups like LUGs sort of outlived their usefulness when it became easier to install GNU/Linux
For the Second Time in a Few Weeks Microsoft Lunduke Makes False Accusations Against Senior Red Hat Staff to Incite a Despicable 'Troll Army'
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims or says can be trusted
Compromised by NVIDIA Proprietary Library
Meanwhile in Boston there are "[r]oundtable talk with FSF volunteers (both in-person and online)"
How Software Patents Were Viewed or Their General Status Changed Over Time
A rough summary
 
The Free Software Foundation's Livestream Has Ended, Video/s Might be Online Next
I've asked whether they'll upload video of some of the event; I still wait for an answer
The Register MS Does Not Know the Difference Between Microsoft GitHub and GitLab
At the time of writing (October 5) the article from "Thu 2 Oct 2025" remains uncorrected
"Bullshit Generators" (What RMS Calls LLMs) and Fake Images Already Target the FSF
Why does Google News promote fake articles about the FSF while omitting all the real ones?
Software Patents as a Bubble
Don't invest resources in hype; if you detect a bubble, run away from it
Links 05/10/2025: Political Leftovers, Climate Change, and Security Incidents
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, October 04, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, October 04, 2025
When Microsoft "Integrates" Something With "AI" It Means It's Losing Money and Is Generally Hopeless
how did Bing fare after 36 months of LLM slop being hyped up as "replacement" for search?
Most Certificates Don't Improve Security, They Mostly Increase Downtime (for No Good Reason)
The 'Gemini sites' (capsules) are a growing force
The statCounter Site Has Data Integrity Problems
Maybe we'll get back to statCounter when its data becomes more "stable" again
10 Ways to Combat Software Patents
software patents are loathed also by proprietary software developers
"Just a Little Bit of Meat..."
Free software "absolutism" is not a radical stance, more so if the only "radical" belief the user possesses is that he or she must be in control of his or her software, and by extension his or her computer
Red Hat is Ignoring the Free Software Community, It's a "Fortune 1000" Vendor
Red Hat's blog also participates a lot in promoting of Wall Street's latest pump-and-dump "AI" scheme
Free Software Foundation Party Has Begun
We shall be focusing a lot on software patents today
Former Head of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Lina Khan Knows Whatever Microsoft Touches Will Die
Just like Skype (as recently as months ago) [...] When Microsoft grabs things, or when it buys things, it almost never ends well
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About LibreOffice in Austria and Wine 10.16
very short
Links 04/10/2025: "attempted Coup" Noted in Facebook, Russia Kills Journalists via Drones
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/10/2025: Anesthesia and Baudpunk
Links for the day
Links 04/10/2025: "Privacy Harm Is Harm", Criticism Outlawed in US
Links for the day
Garmin Uses Linux for Some of the Garmin Products, Now It's Sued by Strava Using Software Patents
Software patents should never have been granted in the first place
Richard Stallman Will Give a Talk in Sweden in 6 Days
Dr. Stallman, despite his battle with cancer is still alive and mentally sharp
FSF Turns 40
We'll be focusing on patent-related topics this weekend
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, October 03, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, October 03, 2025
Gemini Links 04/10/2025: Distro Hopping and "Part Time"
Links for the day
We Are Turning 19 in One Month, FSF Turns 40 in 3 Hours (CET)
For our anniversary next month we still have no concrete plans
Patent Docs (or PatentDocs) Learned the Wrong Lessons From the Death of TypePad
Had they gone ahead with an SSG, they'd become a lot more future-proof
USPTO Patent Bubble Already Imploding, After Decades of Artificial Inflation, Entire Offices Close for Good
we can deduce that financial pressures (lack of "demand" for monopolies) play a role
TikTok is Not Harmless (Being CheeTok in the US Will Advance Orange Agenda)
Social control media isn't "fun and games"; it's a digital weapon that lets hostile groups or nations infiltrate others, then turn them against themselves
Andy Farnell and Helen Plews Explain What "Modern" Tech Does to Old People
Imposing terrible tech "religion" on people is not helping them
Tomorrow the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Turns 40 and Its Web Site is Still Slow Due to DDoS by LLM Slop Bots
For an advocacy group, uptime is important (for its message to remain accessible)
Slopwatch: Google News as a Firehose of LLM Slop About "Linux"
Google News is really bad
Datamation, Where I Used to Publish Articles, Appears to Have Been Sold to TechnologyAdvice Only to Become a Slopfarm
I'd prefer to not associate with that site anymore
Links 03/10/2025: "NPR’s Economics Lessons Come With Neoliberal Spin" and Canada Post at Risk
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/10/2025: Panic Attacks and Food Adulteration
Links for the day
Links 03/10/2025: Lawyers Caught Using LLM Slop Explain Why They Did It, LibreSSL 4.1.1 and 4.0.1 Released
Links for the day
FSF Board Grew 50% Since Last Year, Has New President, Turns 40 in Two Days
It's a good move for the FSF and - by extension - for software freedom
Links 03/10/2025: Conflicts, Death of TypePad, and TikTok/CheeTok Gives a Boost to Far Right Groups in Europe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 02, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 02, 2025
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Google News, and LinuxSecurity
They carry on polluting the Web with fake articles
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: Kubernetes With FreeBSD and robots.txt
Links for the day