Digital Rights are nothing other than our usual and common rights, but expressed and translated into the domain of the Internet.
The right to share, the right to protect one’s privacy, freedom of speech, the right to learn, the right to access knowledge or consumer rights are amongst the common rights that apply in a digital world, hence they are Digital Rights.
Several of these rights gather new power because of the digital environment where they are placed. The right to access knowledge is strengthened as the possibilities of accessing it are enhanced due to technological advances. This fact confers a new importance to these rights.
Although these are rights that we Westerners may have taken for granted, the fact is that the digital world is a new environment, and these rights have to be fought for again.
In the last years we have experienced a series of attacks on Digital Rights:
- The Digital Guillotine, aimed at banning from the Internet users infringing copyright
- Collecting Societies criminalize users for downloading songs, even if this is not considered to be an illegal action
- Governments spend public money to pay for advertisements where Internet users are compared with thieves.
- Public Organisations systematically neglect the existence of GNU/Linux or other open source software in their Calls for Tenders.
- Users are forced to buy certain products in order to have a normal experience on the Internet.
- Consumers are forced to pay intellectual propriety levies on CDs/DVDs even if they are used to store their own content.
- The European Union is continuously trying to grant software patents. One directive was rejected by the European Parliament, but they insisted with EPLA and now through ACTA.
- Privacy is put at risk and subdued under more government and police control.
- Free speech is under attack from several governments.
One key idea behind all these attacks is that some companies, in connivance with governments, want to make profits at the expense of no matter what (read “our rights”). Government control by authoritarian regimes is also a threat, and it also has no respect for digital rights.
* We need open knowledge: The right to access knowledge
- The internet made it possible for knowledge to become accessible to a huge number of people in a relatively cheap way. The expansion of the internet has to be defended in order to make knowledge accessible to everyone in the world
- Knowledge must be free. Knowledge helps people’s development and, as it has been developed based on previous knowledge, can be considered as a common good. Therefore it is absurd to allow knowledge monopolies. It is not ethical to make profit at the expense of other people’s access to knowledge.
- Free software has to be supported, as it is free knowledge. It is also the proof that a new economic model can be set up based on free access to knowledge, rather than on restricting it
- Creators need to find a new way of making profit. They must be helped to achieve a sustainable business model that does not entail reducing our digital rights.
* Technological neutrality is a consumer right
- People can’t be forced to use a certain technology. Just as it would be nonsense to force users to drive a certain brand of car to enter a national road, so is it nonsense to force internet users to “drive” on certain operating systems to access websites, especially if the websites have been built with public money.
- To respect that technological neutrality, public organisations have to respect Open Standards and ensure interoperability.
- Consumers shouldn’t be forced to buy technology they don’t want, in particular in the case of computers, where hardware and software are usually sold together. We support unbundling, so users can buy both the computer and the operating system of their choice.
* The right to privacy and to protect personal data
- Anonymity on the Internet should be supported.
- Cryptography is a technology used to secure communications and protect against unauthorized access to our communications. It should be used there should be no restriction on its use imposed by any Government.
* Supporting P2P means protecting our right to share
- Sharing is not a crime, and it shouldn’t be illegal. Copying is not stealing, and digital propriety is not comparable with physical propriety, especially when producing legislation.
- In Europe, the European Commission is worried about “unauthorized” downloads. There is no authorization needed to make use of our right to share.
- Network Neutrality means that all information sent on the Internet should be treated the same way. In particular, Internet Providers can’t reduce the speed of P2P communications.
* Free Speech in a Free Internet
- Free speech is under attack in several countries, and censorship is being enforced. This should not be tolerated, even if abiding by authoritarian rules helps western companies make more profit.
- Internet has a special status, as no political and economical control must influence it, as should be the case for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which manages important technical aspects of the operation of the Internet.
