A bill of rights for the internet age has been proposed at a United Nations' conference in Athens. The bill would update and restate rights that have been enshrined for centuries, said Robin Gross of civil liberties group IP Justice. The proposal was made at the Internet Governance Forum, at which the future of the net is being discussed. "The rights we have enjoyed in the traditional age must move with us to the digital age," said Ms Gross.
The inaugural meeting of the United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) hosted lively discussion during today's "Openness" session, which focused on online freedom of expression, the free flow of information, and access to knowledge. During the session, a representative from the government of China had the audacity to tell a room of 800 IGF participants that China doesn't restrict access to websites. The audience hissed with disapproval upon hearing this massive bold-face lie and several people even shouted out "liar" in a number of languages. Read more and see video clips...
Sun Microsystems Inc and like-minded organizations will promote the use of open standards, including the OpenDocument Format much feared by Microsoft Corp, at the Internet Governance Forum summit this week in Athens, Greece. The company, along with supporters including IP Justice and the Consumer Project on Technology, will urge governments to adopt procurement practices that recognize open technology standards as important, and forbid buying only proprietary technology.
The inaugural meeting of the United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) takes place in Athens, Greece from 30 October – 2 November 2006. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has convened the forum to build multi-stakeholder dialogue on Internet policy issues. Over 1500 participants from around the world are expected to attend the forum to identify emerging issues and make recommendations intended to foster the sustainability, robustness, security, stability and development of the Internet. In May 2006, Annan appointed IP Justice Executive Director Robin Gross to the IGF Advisory Group to help shape the policy dialogue. “The IGF was created out of recognition that the Internet has connected the world’s people together like never before, and we must work together to build an Internet that fosters a free flow of information, innovation and development for all,†said Robin Gross. Together with a number of other NGOs, industry and governments, IP Justice is co-sponsoring three workshops at IGF on the topics of “An Internet Bill of Rightsâ€, “Access to Knowledge and Freedom of Expression†and “Open Standardsâ€. Details on the 3 workshops are below....
Jon Johansen has done it again! He has has figured out how to improve existing technology by reverse engineering it and building innovative new software that expands consumer choice -- this time for digital music. You may remember in 1999, when 15-year-old Jon Johansen posted DeCSS, a tool created to build a DVD player for the Linux operating system, and started a fire-storm of movie studio lawsuits under the brand new 1998 US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and California trade secrets law. (Jon was also acquitted twice in Norway by the Norwegian Supreme Court). The DeCSS case was my first case as an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and we were all treading on unchartered territory in those days. Since then, the DMCA and other anti-circumvention laws have created a legal quagmire for reverse engineers that has kept us all too busy. ....
Take a look at these two privacy workshops to be held at the Internet Governance Forum in Athens on 31 October 2006. i) "Privacy and Identity Matters" Chaired by Gus Hosein of the London School of Economics and Political Science, and, ii) "Privacy, Development, and Globalisation" Chaired by Ralf Bendrath of the University of Bremen and WSIS Privacy & Security Working Group. Read more.
The controversy over ICANN's "Whois" personal data policy, which conflicts with a number of national and international privacy guarantees, is the topic of an upcoming panel discussion sponsored by the New York Internet Society. ICANN requires Internet domain name registrants to publish their personal information, like their home address and telephone number on the Internet in its "Whois" database. ICANN's policy has caused a lot of problems for people because spammers use the personal information, the data is used to engage in identity theft, to send bogus legal demands, and silence freedom of expression on the Internet.
"Many of the proposals in the 2006 LSE Report to reform the GNSO are good - for example, standardized term limits for GNSO Council Members, reducing the number of constituencies from 6 to 3 -- and consolidating the business, intellectual property rights lobby, and internet service providers all in a single "commercial" constituency. This would be an improvement because currently many of the same companies dominate more than one constituency, so are given much greater power within ICANN than other constituencies. For example, companies like Disney, News Corp, and the International Chamber of Commerce dominate both the IPR and business constutiences - giving their interests double weight on ICANN's GNSO Policy Council. ..."
1. Eliminates the public domain. 2. Creates obligations that drastically exceed international standards. 3. Chills freedom of expression similarly to U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). 4. Threatens to regulate Internet transmissions of media. Read more .....
"IP Justice strongly recommends, that Member States decide against convening a Diplomatic Conference to draft a Broadcast Treaty. At the 15th Session of the SCCR several Member States made clear their objection against moving forward based on the draft proposal. The SCCR Chairman’s decision to convene a diplomatic conference is premature and lacks the consensus necessary for legitimate democratic law-making. ..."