Kroes speaks out against SOPA, for rules on tracking cookies

Digital agenda Eurocommissioner Neelie Kroes has expressed criticism over the online copyright protection proposals put forth by the US Congress in its SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act). In a tweet, Kroes said she was happy to see that support for SOPA was losing steam: "don't need bad legislation when should be safeguarding benefits of open net." In a blog posting, Kroes also said she was in favour of a worldwide, strong "do not track" system, where users could say whether they wanted their surfing behaviour tracked or not. The self-regulation set up by Your Online Choices is not enough. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has put together a group of experts in order to develop global rules, despite the complication that every country has its own regulations. In the EU, the ePrivacy Directive has not been adapted into legislation by all countries, even though the 25 May 2011 EU deadline has passed.