After SOPA: A Declaration of Internet Freedom

When millions of Internet users unite, big things happen.

Earlier this year, more than 13 million people joined up to stop twin bills -- the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act (SOPA and PIPA) -- that would have irrevocably damaged the open Internet.

As those millions of activists made clear, we shouldn't mess with online openness. It's at the core of why -- and how -- the Internet has revolutionized culture, politics and community across the globe. Without the freedom to express and share what we want, our laptops, tablets and phones would be little more than 21st-century television sets.

But for years, powerful interests have sought to limit online innovation and free speech. And for years, Internet users have come together to protect net neutrality and to fight for universal access to an affordable, high-speed, open Internet.

These big fights remind us of the fragility of the free and open Internet -- and that if we don't fight to protect it, no one will.

We need to keep engaging in these fights. But we also need to go on the offensive.

So this week a group of more than 100 organizations, business and individuals is putting out a Declaration of Internet Freedom -- five principles outlining the basic freedoms that all Internet users should enjoy.

Here's the text:

We stand for a free and open Internet.

We support transparent and participatory processes for making Internet policy and the establishment of five basic principles:

Expression: Don't censor the Internet.

Access: Promote universal access to fast and affordable networks.

Openness: Keep the Internet an open network where everyone is free to connect, communicate, write, read, watch, speak, listen, learn, create and innovate.

Innovation: Protect the freedom to innovate and create without permission. Don't block new technologies, and don't punish innovators for their users actions.

Privacy: Protect privacy and defend everyone's ability to control how their data and devices are used.

The release of this document is just the beginning of a movement of we, the people, to make these five principles -- Expression, Access, Openness, Innovation, Privacy -- true in every corner of this world. Everyone is encouraged to interact with the text -- you can agree or disagree with it, debate it, translate it, make it your own, and broaden the discussion -- in a way no platform other than a free and open Internet can allow.

The fact is, powerful interests around the world would prefer your computer was a TV. That way they could contain political dissent, prop up their aging business models and maintain the status quo.

The power struggle to keep the Internet from becoming yet another locked down, one-way medium is what the fight to stop SOPA was all about. And it continues to this day as Internet users protest overreaching cybersecurity bills (CISPA), harmful international trade agreements (ACTA) and the monopolistic zeal of the cable industry.

Please take a moment to read the Declaration of Internet Freedom and discover all of the ways you can interact with it and help to protect the open Internet (you can add your own name over at SavetheInternet.com). I hope you'll agree that these principles are worth fighting for.

 

Follow Josh Levy on Twitter: www.twitter.com/levjoy

Comments

[montanason]

11:52 AM on 07/17/2012

About time I'd say.

[Studentinlife]

09:16 PM on 07/02/2012

In the way social media is developing, we see collaboration, across cultures. This is beginning to foster personal growth in learning of our differences as human beings given our different values and beliefs. I believe that the internet should be considered an instrument of peace. The understanding of cultural differences, the transparency, leads us to more compassionate attitudes toward one another. Government needs to embrace the change, rather than control it (out of fear).

[ClaudeCM]

03:01 PM on 07/02/2012

Josh, I don't think anyone is advocating crushing innovation, those of us who are supportive of legislation similar to SOPA see ourselves as protecting innovators. The internet, like all other forms of human interaction, must be regulated to protect innovators as well as consumers. Why should the internet not reflect the society we want to live in? A society has laws, a society protects our privacy and fosters innovation. We don't tolerate theft and fraud offline, how can we rationalize abetting it online?

[TreyMGordon]

12:59 PM on 07/02/2012

Looks like Google is controlling this through Patrick Ruffini, who's on the launch call. I wish they were as transparent about their own motivations as they pretend to be.

The line: "Innovation: Protect the freedom to innovate and create without permission. Don't block new technologies, and don't punish innovators for their users actions." was clearly added for their benefit. It basically means, "please chase public users down for the internet industry's unlawful ideas. NetCoalition's members don't want to be bothered with any public responsibility - we'd rather you go after the college kids."

[Matt Wood FP]

06:50 PM on 07/02/2012

Ludicrous. Patrick Ruffini is a signer, but Google's not controlling 140 groups, advocates, and entrepreneurs who've come together on this, nor the tens of thousands of signers who flocked to the principle today. It's not really worth dignifying such paranoia with a response, but I couldn't help it.

[TreyMGordon]

11:24 AM on 07/05/2012

No, Patrick Ruffini is an *organizer* of this effort that's on Google's payroll. For someone at an organization that claims to represent transparency and freedom of information, you're being awfully opaque and misleading on this issue. Why on earth would an effort that seeks credibility be led by Google astroturfers? It's absurd that you'd suggest that this is in any way unrelated to Google's business motivations.

Listen - the most telling aspect of this whole charade is that all "interaction" with the proposed text is on sites with a particular point of view about the relative merits of intellectual property protection, versus business models that benefit from piracy.

If this was intended to be a democratic process, it would be open and available in a variety of communities, not just the ones where artists get shouted down.

[Christopher Mitchell]

10:48 AM on 07/02/2012

Excellent - this is a discussion we need to have. The Internet is an incredible engine of innovation and creativity, but a variety of powerful interests think they are threatened by it and will try to limit our access to it.

[ethicalfan]

03:48 AM on 07/02/2012

Ridiculous. "Internet Openness" just means taking people's music, movies, books, software and games without their permission and without payment - and the corresponding declining revenues in half a dozen industries. ISPs and major websites work together to maintain block lists of IP addresses to block spam and sites with malware.. Just google spamhaus. It is no more difficult to block access to sites like the pirate bay, isohunt and thousands of other sites that make money from providing illegal free content.

[IgnoreTheGov]

04:26 AM on 07/03/2012

Who do you work for? The people and free information or a government state operated data collection that monitors everyone?

Get with it, the internet is changing the game, people are gaining TRUTH and FREEDOM through the internet.

That is what this boils down to, not any copyright junk. This is about control, of you and I.