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Internet Freedoms Come of Age
'Copyfighters' test restrictions around the world.
As many a policy wonk / green lobbyist / aging ex-frontman of the Boomtown Rats will tell you, there comes a time in the life of a political rebel when you cut your hair, put on a tie, put down the placard and walk into the building. Entering the corridors of power to make your case may involve a little compromise of your principles, but that's all part of growing up.
Similarly, it seems, the Internet is entering a new age of responsibility. Where once the out-of-control look seemed sexy -- all off-the-cuff and emergent in an oversized Grateful Dead t-shirt - now as the World Wide Web is increasingly finding its place in polite, and profitable, society, something a little more refined is in order. Something with a degree of self-control.
Before November's World Summit of the Information Society in Tunis, the idea that the Internet could be controlled was anathema to the "network of ends". Then when Google went into China last month, it cast light into the shadowy corners of a regime bent on censoring the net and controlling the packets of data that pass between its citizens and the outside world, to perpetuate its iron grip over a nation by depriving them of information. The image of Internet control that was projected back out to the rest of the world spurred the US Congress to draft the Global Internet Freedom Bill, bringing the impulse to legislate into the open.
But legislation to harness the net's unstoppable flow of information has been drafted, away from the public eye, ever since powerful rightsholder lobbies realized that the Internet's potential to distribute information at zero cost had grave implications for the way they did business.
Defeats and successes
A disparate group of campaigners has been the only voice for Internet freedom in this often rarefied and remote debate. Sitting in on working groups in forgotten corners of Brussels, attending endless hearings of court cases in Washington, it has marked up both defeats and successes in their quest to keep technological innovation in the information age free from inappropriate constraints pursued by rightsholder groups.
In January 2003, creative commons frontman Lawrence Lessig failed to persuade the US Supreme Court that extending the period of copyright to nearly a century hinders the progress of science and the useful arts. The case against copyright term extension is now being fought by Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive on free speech grounds.
In May 2005, the Electronic Frontier Foundation successfully persuaded the DC Circuit Court of Appeals that a ruling by the Federal Communications Commission to disable digital recordings of television broadcasts and criminalise the sale of hardware that did not conform to the specifications of rightsholder groups was beyond the organisation's remit. Following the US ruling's defeat, a similar piece of legislation developed by the Digital Video Broadcasting project is now making its way through Brussels.
In June 2005, the Supreme Court ruled that Grokster, the manufacturer of the peer-to-peer networking service Morpheus, was liable for copyright infringement that took place over its network. This reversed the precedent set by the famous Sony Betamax case against the video recorders, which decided that technologists working in the information field were free to create new ways of distributing and copying information so long as their inventions had significant non-copyright-infringing uses.
In July 2005, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to reject a European Commission recommendation to allow patents on software code, a development that could have led to the demise of free and open source software and the fossilisation of one of the most dynamic, innovative industries in "new Europe".
A never-ending fight
As these cases show, the fight between Internet freedom and intellectual property law -- the "copyfight" -- is a never-ending one. Many characterise its protagonists as techno-utopians, or geeks worried that someone might take their toys away. But as the narrative of control over Internet freedom joins the mainstream, it is worth remembering how long, and against what adversaries, the fight has been fought up until now.
The movement to keep the Internet free will be the defining fight in the information age, just as the environmental movement is the defining fight of the industrial age. As our physical make-up is reduced to a string of ones and zeros, and knowledge replaces property and labour as the means of production, democratic access to information becomes a basic civil right.
The copyfight has many parallels with the early environmental movement. Valid interest in access to information unhindered by intellectual property law is diverse -- from librarians to scientists to developing world campaigners fighting for the right to distribute lifesaving generic antiretrovirals in Africa. These parties are beginning to organise together, as shown by Consumers International's recent condemnation of the UN World Intellectual Property Organisation's pursuit of tighter intellectual property controls. Just as peace campaigners joined with conservationists, animal rights activists with anti-nuclear protesters, so will the people who fight on the fringes of the information war join forces.
Copyfighters, like environmentalists, seek to protect a complex ecology. The abolition of copyright and patent law is not the goal of these defenders of Internet freedom -- they merely seek a balance between the needs of creators to profit from their work and the needs of the public eventually to own it. As players in the knowledge economy continue to prospect in the pool of collective wisdom, copyfighters ask only that they do not over-farm.
Now that the fight for Internet freedom has moved from the corporate to the political stage, it is likely to gain more exposure and more support. But it should be noted that the arguments used in this fight -- such as freedom of speech and transparency of government -- are similar to those used in the copyfight.
On February 14, Condoleeza Rice announced a Global Internet Freedom Task Force. It will "consider the foreign policy aspects of Internet freedom, including the use of technology to restrict access to political content and…efforts to modify Internet governance structures in order to restrict the free flow of information." The fight for Internet freedom has finally entered the corridors of power. Let's hope it remembers its roots.
Becky Hogge is the managing editor of openDemocracy.net. This article is distributed by Alternet.org. ![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
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13
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jim beam
6 years ago
Comments on "Internet Freedoms Come of Age"
good article,but as usual not as detailed as it should be.but that's because of where it is,HERE,on the internet.and we all know articles and the responses on a site like this only have a certain size and lifespan...
because it is information it is only informative to those that consume it,much like food,we all have different tastes.
those interested in rights are really few and far between,most are just USERS.get me from point A to point B and let me do my chore/s.
the only time people are really interested in their rights is when the rights are denied.then it's crying time...and well it should be.we are social animals and we must communicate for our exixtence.take away that ability and you stop existence.
so communication leads to education and that leads to a better life for the most of us that can afford the tecnology.
so how come the poor here are not supplied with the tecnology?for free?
and how come the Right has allied itself with lefties to supply the information to the CHINESE?
talking about,freedoms, laws and rights rings a little hollow...
when you figure out all the apples and hp's and intel chips and the microsoft os' and the symantec virus programs and the zonealarm firewalls...
when you add up the money the west will make selling the hardware and software...
rights,copyrights ,freedom of information all that HOLIER THAN THOU stuff,espoused by some,
is nothing more than the unwitting being used by MARKETEERS...
copyfighters are as portrayed elecronic greens trying to keep their ecology safe... a fight of the intellectual rights holders in a world where technology is far outstripping the rights of the human designers...
that was only to be expected...
Stump
6 years ago
"so how come the poor here are not supplied with the tecnology?for free?"
Internet access is available for free at the library. Library cards are free. Access to information doesn't get any freer than that.
jim beam
6 years ago
hard to access to a library at 0430 when you want to get info for an idea that pops in your head.
poor people are just becoming computer literate in the sense of ownership...the fact that it can be a horn of plenty...information...education,
or a pandoras box...gambling...pornography...
it doesn't escape anyone and the poor see the infobox as a way and means out of their dilema.
but here people do use the infobox to do exactly what we are doing at this moment...communicate,exchange ideas and most of all educate ourselves to the ways of the world.
when the poor have access 24/7/365 days of the year then they will thrive , because knowledge is power.
and the information highway must be available to all...because one idea can change the world
Wobbly
6 years ago
And we all know the knowledge and power that comes through a keyboard at four thirty in the morning.
Trying to legislate content on the internet is like trying to legislate the weather.
Google worked in China because the access to the computers is restricted. Google or any other company tried this across here they would just switch searchbars or pick another browser and they would loose money Why do you think internet providers don't provide IP adresses out off a concern for their clients privacy?
Stump
6 years ago
"hard to access to a library at 0430 when you want to get info for an idea that pops in your head."
easy to access a pen and paper so you can write it down and get the relevant info later.
jim beam
6 years ago
the thinking of haves who do not want have nots getting anything for free...even when there is a benefit to all.
it benefits all to have an informed society/citizens.
and if you want porn at 0430,thats your business,if you want to reread Machiavelli's The Prince to counter an argument in politics,or tzun tsu for The art of War...
thats true freedom and we don't have it yet.the Chinese don't even want to think about it.
and GOOGLE is doing nothing more than setting up CHINA as a CASH COW for the TECHNOCRACY OF THE WEST !
thomas49
6 years ago
"setting up china as a cash cow for the technocracy of the west"
unwittingly or complict,these people are opening the door to freedoms unknown in china.
but the commentor is correct about the monies involved and the Technocrats at the wheel of the vehicle.bill gates is the richest man in the world now.once the doors open to public consumers to own computers,gates will be richer than god.
asher
6 years ago
Like what? Could you give an example.
Let me tell you about how the Internet creates more fear in China.
I emailed a person in Suzhou a link from wikipedia.com (Chinese version) showing her that Victoria and Suzhou were sister cities. Well, I wasn't sure when I emailed her that wikipedia was banned in China, but now I've found out that it is banned. She never emailed back after I sent the banned link. She's probably scared and thinking that I am setting her up.
How did the internet help there? It just reincforced to this person in Suzhou that the government is watching her. There are 1000s of Internet cops in China (they actually do call them police).
The Internet is just creating another opportunity for the Chinese government to instill more fear, to track down disidents etc...
asher
6 years ago
Like what? Could you give an example.
Let me tell you about how the Internet creates more fear in China.
I emailed a person in Suzhou a link from wikipedia.com (Chinese version) showing her that Victoria and Suzhou were sister cities. Well, I wasn't sure when I emailed her that wikipedia was banned in China, but now I've found out that it is banned. She never emailed back after I sent the banned link. She's probably scared and thinking that I am setting her up.
How did the internet help there? It just reincforced to this person in Suzhou that the government is watching her. There are 1000s of Internet cops in China (they actually do call them police).
One has to recognize that the Internet is also creating another opportunity for the Chinese government to instill more fear, to track down disidents etc...
I don't know what freedoms it is bringing, and even with more information coming in, whether it outweighs this new tool for instilling fear that the governemnt has.
Why doesn't Bill Gates or Google just spend millions of bucks to support progressive groups that already exist in China if that's what it is mostly about.
Of course it ain't. It is about making a buck and exploiting the weak in China.
asher
6 years ago
at the cost of exploiting the weak in China.
thomas49
6 years ago
you answered your own question.
regardless of the internet cops they have,the west will sell those programs like ANONYMIZER and others that hide the true ip ADDRESS so that the populace can surf in freedom.
but the internet cops will be right behind with technology ferreting these freedom fighters out.
the technocracy of the WEST setting up shop to fleece the CHINESE.
THE TECHNOCRATS DON'T CARE WHO BUYS THEIR TECHNOLOGY.AS LONG AS IT SELLS THEY ARE HAPPY.
just ask billy gates.
wiley
6 years ago
Democracy, like the internet, is open source. It has no copyright. In fact it's "copyleft". Condoleeza can steer that oil-laden supertanker S.S. "Freedom-from- the Barrel-of-a-Gun" over to their miserable little gulag at Diego Garcia, and spend a few years in rehab for her part in war crimes, ok? The problems in China will be circumvented by diligent hackers and better encryption and proxy, not by Google or Gates. And not by Imperialism.
mikev
6 years ago
You have to read this story:
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70358-0.html?tw=wn_index_1
Don't be shy, go read their legal page:
http://thepiratebay.org/legal.php
I almost peed my pants reading that stuff!!
Well it's my goal. Copyright was a temporary artifact made possible by tight control on the means of production. Today copyright is silly. Making copies doesn't cost anything anymore, so why should anyone be paid? That stupid argument about where would the culture come from if people couldn't make millions from it turns my stomach - people would still sing songs and tell stories even if you tried to punish them for it. Robber barons have been busy putting our culture in chains and behind fences for a few centuries, now freedom is coming back. If you want to make money singing songs then sing them - have concerts. If you want to make money telling stories then tell them - put on a play. The days of doing a single performance and then sitting back and collecting a tax from everyone who gets a recording of it are fading. Let those days go I say.
And what about China? What a bunch of hypocritical crap. If China shouldn't be able to block content and jail dissidents then why are we so happy to do the same thing here?
Indymedia
http://seattle.indymedia.org/en/2001/04/3013.shtml
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2002/01/114474.php
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2002/01/114583.php
http://www.indymedia.org/en/2004/08/111732.shtml
http://www.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/112047.shtml
http://www.indymedia.org/fbi/
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/02/334543.html
Dmitry Sklyarov
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2001-07-17-russian-hacker.htm
Jon Lech Johansen / DeCSS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeCSS
That's off the top of my head, I'm sure there are a million other examples out there. Until nobody can go to jail here for what they do on the internet, then who are we to say anything about China? It really bugs me to hear politicians talk about net freedom in China while working to crush net freedom here at home.