Tuesday 13 April 2010

We need some Internet rights

Recently I saw proposed a number of internet rights which I feel should be put into law. Without them we may see an increasing abuse of our rights to free speech and free association. The proposals are:

I. We have the right to connect.



This is the right to sign up to an ISP and get online. No one should have the ability to prevent connection or terminate it (even temporarily)

II. We have the right to speak.



This is the right to free speech, such as blogs, web sites, emails, comments, etc

III. We have the right to speak in our languages.



No one says you have to use english!

IV. We have the right to assemble.



We can join chat rooms and have open, public or private discussions

V. We have the right to act.



We can express our opinions and make calls to action

VI. We have the right to control our data.



Our data belongs uniquely to us, we have the right to view it and edit it.

VII. We have the right to our own identity.



We can be unique on the internet, and not confused with anyone else

VIII. What is public is a public good.



If anything is made public then this is a good thing and cannot be blocked

IX. The internet shall be built and operated openly.



No one shall impose a structure on the internet which affects any of the above rights.

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