Greece
Legal
Environment
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The Hellenic Parliament in
session
The legal provisions
in Greece in relation to IT are quite modern and adequate. This has to
do with Greece's membership in the European Union, which obliges all member
states to incorporate its directives into their legislation. Transformation
of Greece's antiquated legislation into a set of modern and reasonable
laws is a process the fruits of which the Greeks have only started to reap.
Greece has adopted
all ICANN and WTO rules and legislation concerning IT product piracy. Nevertheless,
the level of piracy (66% in 1999) is still the highest in the European
Union. Projections for the coming years indicate that piracy is going to
remain as a major problem, albeit at a lower rate than the current one.
Law 2121/93 provides protection of copyright. Implementation of the law
is inadequate, although recently the authorities have become considerably
stricter (much to the dismay of many PC users). Illegal copies of software
are mostly imported by groups based in Greece, Bulgaria and Nigeria.
The discussion concerning
digital signatures and their legal status started quite early in Greece;
as a result, the legal framework is already in place (Presidential Decree
150/2001). Currently, the National Comitte of Posts and Telecommunications
(EETT) is undergoing research on confering upon entities the ability to
authorise digital signatures. This research has the form of focus groups
with people and entities concerned with information technology.
Domain names in Greece
(national domain: .gr) are registered through the Foundation of Research
and Technology - Hellas (F.O.R.T.H.). FORTH operates under the monitoring
of the Hellenic Government. Recently, Men & Mice (www.menandmice.com)
reported that less-than-adequate monitoring of the .gr domain results in
access speed problems in 75% of cases. This report brings to the surface
the need for better, centralised monitoring of the Greek domain name system.