I think it is Ok to endorse this statement. What you people think?<br>We have to respond immediately <br><br>Anivar<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">vinay sreenivasa</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:vinay@itforchange.net">vinay@itforchange.net</a>></span><br>
Date: Wed, Nov 26, 2008 at 10:09 PM<br>Subject: Defending the threat to the public-ness and the egalitarian nature of the Internet<br>To: Anivar <<a href="mailto:anivar.aravind@gmail.com">anivar.aravind@gmail.com</a>><br>
Cc: <a href="mailto:anja@itforchange.net">anja@itforchange.net</a><br><br><br>
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Hi Anivar,<br>
<br>
Hoping to get the support from Swathantra Malayalam
Computing for the internet governance related campaign - <br>
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<br>
Hi All,<br>
<br>
Apologies for cross-posting.<br>
<br>
Most of us tend to take the commons and the public nature of the
Internet for granted. However, increasing corporatisation and control
of the Internet are strongly threatening these fundamental
characteristics of the Internet as we know it. Therefore, six civil
society organisations in India have proposed an open letter to the UN
Internet Governance Forum which meets for its third annual meeting
between 3rd and 6th December in Hyderabad. The letter exhorts urgent
global action to ensure that the public-ness and the egalitarian nature
of the Internet are preserved as its essential features. The
possibilities of democracy, equity and social justice in our societies
will be significantly impacted by the extent to which we can achieve
this objective.
<br>
<br>
The proposed letter is pasted below. If you and/or your organization
wish to endorse this letter, please indicate so in response to this
email by the midnight of 1st December(India time). Please respond
offline and not to the entire mailing list. <br>
<br>
The proposed open letter can also be accessed at
<a href="http://www.itforchange.net/component/content/article/195-igf-open-letter.html" target="_blank">http://www.itforchange.net/component/content/article/195-igf-open-letter.html</a><br>
<br>
Thanks,<br>
Vinay. <br>
<br>
------------------------------------------------------------<br>
<br>
<b> An Open Letter to the UN Internet
Governance Forum (IGF)<br>
for its 3rd Annual Meeting at Hyderabad, India, from 3rd to 6th
December, 2008<br>
</b><br>
<blockquote>
<blockquote> <b>The IGF must ACT NOW against the threat
to the<br>
public-ness and the egalitarian nature of the Internet<br>
</b></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br>
The undersigned wish to express their deep concern that the UN Internet
Governance<br>
Forum (IGF), created by the World Summit on the Information Society in
2005 as an<br>
Internet 'policy dialogue' forum, is largely failing to address key
public interest and<br>
policy issues in global Internet governance – including that of
democratic deficit.<br>
<br>
<b>Who shapes the Internet, as the Internet shapes our new social
context?</b><br>
The Internet represents the single most important technical advance of
our society in a<br>
long time, so much so that it defines a new emerging social paradigm.
The basic<br>
characteristics of the Internet determine the contours of the emerging
social order in<br>
many important ways. The Internet was conceived as, and still largely
is, an extensive<br>
communication system which is democratizing, and has little respect for
established<br>
social hierarchies. Interactions and associations built over this new
'techno-social'<br>
system have, therefore, held the promise of a more egalitarian society.<br>
The era of innocence of the Internet however appears to be fast
approaching its end.<br>
Today, the Internet of the future – the very near future – is being
shaped insidiously by<br>
dominant forces to further their interests. (See the fact-sheet on the
following page for<br>
some illustrations of this.) Unfortunately, global policy forums have
largely failed to<br>
articulate, much less act on, crucial Internet policy issues, which
concern the<br>
democratic possibilities for our societies.<br>
<br>
<b>The IGF needs to act now!</b><br>
As the Internet Governance Forum convenes for its third annual meeting,
between 3rd<br>
and 6th December, 2008, in Hyderabad, India, it must take immediate
steps to anchor<br>
and discuss important global public interest and policy issues involved
in Internet<br>
governance. If it does not act now, it may get seen as a space that
only provides an<br>
illusion of a public policy dialogue, and, consequently, as being
co-opted in furthering<br>
the agenda of dominant forces that are shaping the Internet as per
their narrow<br>
interests. <b>We therefore strongly urge the IGF to directly address
the following key<br>
global public interest and policy issues:<br>
<br>
1. Increasing corporatisation of the Internet<br>
2. Increasing proprietisation of standards and code that go into
building the<br>
Internet<br>
3. Increasing points of control being embedded into the Internet in
the name<br>
of security and intellectual property violations<br>
4. Huge democratic deficit in global Internet governance<br>
<br>
</b>We exhort the IGF to adopt clear directions for engaging with these
crucial public<br>
policy issues. The IGF should come out with a clear work plan at its
forthcoming<br>
meeting in Hyderabad to address the four key areas listed above.<br>
The global community – comprising not only people who currently have
access to the<br>
Internet, but also the un-connected billions who are being impacted by
it nevertheless<br>
– will judge the meaningfulness and legitimacy of the IGF in terms of
what progress it<br>
is able to make on these issues.<br>
<br>
<b>Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore<br>
Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore<br>
Delhi Science Forum, New Delhi<br>
Free Software Foundation - India<br>
IT for Change, Bangalore<br>
Knowledge Commons, New Delhi<br>
<br>
</b>For endorsements and/or more information, please contact Anja Kovacs<br>
email: anja (at) <a href="http://itforchange.net" target="_blank">itforchange.net</a>, tel: +91 80 266554134, mobile: +91
9611747212<br>
<br>
------------------------------------------------------------<br>
<b> Information Sheet<br>
<br>
How the Public-ness and Egalitarian Nature of the Internet is
Threatened<br>
– Some Examples<br>
<br>
Corporatisation of the Internet</b><br>
Largely unsuspected by most of its users, the Internet is rapidly
changing from being a<br>
vast 'public sphere', with a fully public ownership and a
non-proprietary nature, to a<br>
set of corporatised privately-owned networks.<br>
On the one hand, telecom companies are carving out the Internet into
privately-owned<br>
networks – controlling the nature of transactions over these networks.
They seek to<br>
differentially charge content providers, while also building wholly
private networks<br>
offering exclusive content relay services. Developments like video/TV
over Internet<br>
Protocol and the provision of controlled and selective Internet
services over mobiles<br>
are contributing to increasing network-operators' control over the
Internet, with a<br>
corresponding erosion of its public-ness.<br>
On the other hand, the commons of the Internet is also being
overwhelmed and<br>
squeezed out by a complete domination of a few privately owned
mega-applications<br>
such as Google, Facebook, Youtube etc.<br>
<br>
<b>Proprietarisation of standards and code that build the Internet</b><br>
One of the main ways of appropriating the commons of the Internet is
through the<br>
increasing use of proprietary and closed standards and code in building
the Internet<br>
system. Such appropriation allows the extortion of illegitimate rent
out of the many<br>
new forms of commons-based activities that are being made possible
through the<br>
Internet.<br>
<br>
<b>Embedding control points in the Internet</b><br>
A growing confluence of corporatist and statist interests has led to
the embedding of<br>
more and more means of control into the Internet in a manner that
greatly<br>
compromises citizens' rights and freedoms. Whether it is the pressure
on Internet<br>
Service Providers to examine Internet traffic for 'intellectual
property' violations; or<br>
imposition of cultural and political controls on the Internet by states
within their<br>
boundaries; or ITU's work on IP trace-back mechanisms; or the
tightening of US<br>
control over the global Internet infrastructure in the name of securing
the root zone file<br>
and the domain name system, these new forms of controlling the Internet
are being<br>
negotiated among dominant interests away from public scrutiny and wider
public<br>
interest-based engagements.<br>
<br>
<b>Democratic deficit in global Internet governance</b><br>
The current global Internet governance regime – a new-age privatized
governance<br>
system professing allegiance mostly to a single country, the US – has
proven to be an<br>
active instrument of perpetuation of dominant commercial and
geo-political interests.<br>
Lately, OECD countries have begun some work on developing public policy
principles<br>
that, due to the inherently global nature of the Internet, can be
expected to become<br>
globally applicable. It is quite unacceptable that OECD countries shirk
from discussing<br>
the same public policy issues at global public policy forums like the
IGF that they<br>
discuss among themselves at OECD meetings. Apparently, developing
countries are<br>
expected to focus on finding ways to reach connectivity to their
people, and not burden<br>
themselves with higher-level Internet governance issues!<br>
People's and communities' right to self-determination and participation
in governance<br>
of issues that impact their lives should underpin global Internet
governance.<br>
<br>
<pre cols="72">--
Vinay Sreenivasa
IT for Change
91-98805-95032
<a href="mailto:vinay@itforchange.net" target="_blank">vinay@itforchange.net</a>
<a href="http://itforchange.net" target="_blank">http://itforchange.net</a>
<a href="http://india.is-watch.net/" target="_blank">http://india.is-watch.net/</a>
<a href="http://is-watch.net" target="_blank">http://is-watch.net</a>
</pre>
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</div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Any responsible politician should be encouraging a home grown Free Software industry because it creates the basis for future jobs. Learning Windows is like learning to eat every meal at McDonalds.<br>
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