[pp.int.general] Looking for a Declaration of Internet rights? Here goes.

[Jens-Wolfhard Schicke]

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Valentin Villenave wrote:
> at the French Parti Pirate, we've been busy for (almost) a couple of
> years now on an ambitious project: the Declaration of Internet Rights
> (D.I.R.). It' a long shot and there's obviously quite some room for
> improvement, but it's time for us to share our project with you guys.
> It has also been discussed with other PPs (French-speaking PPs,
> Canada, Ireland among others).
Just my personal critique:
> Article 6: "No one shall impose the usage or possession of a particular digital technology, either in hardware or software."
Actually, providers do that all the time. If I speak FidoNet protocol (http://www.ftsc.org/docs/fts-0001.016)
directly to my _Internet_ provider, I doubt I will receive much success. :/

Article 1.2: "Only the legal authority may decide of the surveillance, the interception or the banning of a stream or of a piece of data."
I propose the stricter
"Only the legal authority may decide of the surveillance of a stream or a piece of data.
 No person, organization or whatever may intercept, change or ban a stream or a piece of data, except if the designated recipient of the data explicitely stated otherwise."
(The weird "except" clause is for anti-virus software, which actually bans streams of data all the time :))

> (Besides, Christian Engström has recently emphasized the need for an
> international "Internet bill of rights", obviously unaware of the
> project we'd been working on for months.)
> 
> Attached is the text (roughly) translated in English; you can also
> download the PDF version on
> http://partipirate.org/qui-sommes-nous/docs/DDI_Anglais_finale.pdf
Roughly indeed:
"Any legal or physical entity may seize the public authority if it considers its rights to be scorned."
did you mean "appeal to" or something?

Best Regards,
  Jens
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