Transcript Document

How do we determine who has
the right to access information
and knowledge?
Stefan Landreau
Amanda Hang
Kevin Murphy
WikiLeaks
'"WikiLeaks is a non-profit
media organization dedicated to
bringing important news and
information to the public. We
provide an innovative, secure
and anonymous way for
independent sources around the
world to leak information to our "We open governments"
journalists. We publish material
of ethical, political and historical
significance while keeping the
identity of our sources
anonymous, thus providing a
universal way for the revealing of
suppressed and censored
WikiLeaks
• Non-profit organization that dedicates themselves to leaking
secret government cables to the public
• The WikiLeaks Servers went live on 4th October 2006
• Was founded by Julian Assange in an attempt to allow the
public to view what he considers they have the right to know
The WikiLeaks Scandal
• On November 28, 2010 WikiLeaks announced
that they had 251,287 United States Embassy
cables that they were planning to release
periodically throughout the next couple of
months
• Once they began to release the cables the United
States government and governments around the
world began to react adversely, for some of the
cables included confidential information on their
country
• Is it right to release the documents to the public?
• Does Julian Assange appear to think that
governments have the right to privacy?
How we determine who can access
information and knowledge
• In several modern societies, access to information has been
referred to as a right of the public
• In certain situations, governments deem some information
not suitable for exposure to the public; it is classified as
sensitive or irrelevant to the situation of the masses
• These two cases often infringe upon one another, as
governments feel that some information should not be
released to the public, while the public believe it is their right
to have access to this information
Aspects of determining who has the
right to information
• Language - We can interpret different documents to
determine when certain people should have access to
knowledge
• Ethics
o Based on the situation, we can determine when it is
ethical to expose people to information, based on its
severity and the extent to which the information is
withheld
o Also, when the information could potentially become a
threat to our security, we enter the ethical dilemma about
whether security or honesty to the public is more
important
• Reason - We must use reason to draw conclusions from
specific instances about when people should have access
Definitions
Information: the communication or reception of knowledge or
intelligence
Knowledge: the fact or condition of knowing something with
familiarity gained through experience
or association (2) :acquaintance with or understanding of a science,
art, or technique
Property: a quality or trait belonging and especially peculiar to an
individual or thing
Intellectual Property: property (as an idea, invention, or
process) that derives from the work of the mind or
intellect; also : an application, right, or registration relating to this
Theft: the act of stealing; specifically : the felonious taking and
removing of personal property with intent to deprive the rightful
owner of it
Intellectual Property
• Intellectual property is an idea or invention that a
person can claim as theirs
• To claim something as Intellectual Property, one can
copyright, trademark, patent, claim industrial design
rights, and as a trade secret
• Government documents can not be considered
intellectual property and thus it is public domain
making releasing it technically legal and not against the
law
Plagiarism
Plagiarism: the unauthorized use or close imitation of the
language and thoughts of another author and the
representation of them as one's own original work
• Plagiarism can be considered a specific case of
intellectual property theft
o The theft is continued further, with the work as a
whole being copied/imitated without giving due
credit to the original work
Freedom of Information Act
• Signed into law by President Lyndon B.
Johnson on July 4, 1966
• Allows the public to access previously
unreleased information controlled by the
United States Government
• Enacted because people have the right to know,
but also because certain types of information
should not be disclosed
• The Freedom of Information Act includes nine
exemptions which address sensitivity and
personal rights
• The exceptions were also modified in 1976 to
clarify and put forth the specific details
"[Wikileaks] Could become as important a
journalistic tool as the Freedom of Information
Act." - Time Magazine
Freedom of Information Act - Exceptions
• Issues dealing with foreign policy and national defense
• Rules and practices of a federal agency
• (Modified in 1976) Information regarding national
defense, rules and practices of an agency and
information surrounding a crime
• Trade secrets and/or financial information
• Medical files or similar documents that would infringe on
personal privacy
• Law enforcement actions that would compromise
someone's right to a free trial or unwarranted invasion of
someone's privacy
Combating Online Infringement
and Counterfeits Act (COICA)
• A
llows the
government to censor
or block websites that
infringe on copyright
laws.
• Would give the
Attorney General
jurisdiction over
websites that
participate in
"infringing activities"
Limewire
"This is an official notice that
Limewire is under a court
ordered injunction to stop
distributing and supporting
its file-sharing software.
Downloading or sharing
copyrighted content without
authorization is illegal."
Censorship
Censor: to examine in order to suppress or delete anything considered
objectionable <censor the news>; also : to suppress or delete as
objectionable <censor out indecent passages>
• Access to knowledge is often restricted through the
censorship of the press
• Censorship of the press is usually related to freedom of
speech
• Freedom of the Press - the right to freedom of expression
and communication through the means of published
material
• Reporters Without Borders - a non-governmental
organization defending the freedom of press and protecting
journalists worldwide
Censorship of the Press Worldwide
• Reporters Without Borders' Press Freedom Index
o Based on countries' press freedom records
o As of 2010, Finland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway,
Sweden, and Switzerland are tied for first
o The U.S.A. is ranked 20th on the list, followed by Canada
o Cuba ranks 166th on the list, China ranks 171st, and
North Korea is 177th and Eritrea ranks last at 178th.
http://en.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/carte-2011.pdf
Internet Censorship
• One of the most common modern forms of censorship of the
press is the censorship of the internet
• Apparent difficulty of Internet Censorship
• Several nations worldwide severely limit public access to the
internet or certain sites
o Reporters Without Border's Internet Enemy list: Burma,
China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia,
Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam
• OpenNet Initiative
Internet Censorship in the United States
• Access to the internet itself is not censored or prohibited in
the United States
• Publishing things online may be monitored or restricted,
though, given a violation of copyright laws or intellectual
property
• Private instances of internet censorship do take place
To what extent do you think governments
should censor internet use?
Internet Censorship in China
• Golden Shield Project - "Great Firewall of China"
• Certain websites are blocked using a variety of methods:
o Blocking IP addresses
o Filtering URL's based on specific keywords
o Blocking certain domain names
o Terminating TCP packets based on detection of keywords
Consider the following:
Your teacher finishes grading your most recent test, but
you already know you did poorly. A classmate of yours
obtains all of the scores for each student in the class.
Before the teacher can return your graded tests with their
scores, this classmate then decides to make these grades
public, claiming that it is necessary for everyone to not
only know how they did on the test, but know how they
compare amongst their classmates.
Do you:
1. Check out the grade sheet because you have a right to
this information, and you are interested in seeing
everyone else's scores
2. Decline to see the grade sheet, claiming that
the information is private, and your classmate had no
right to publicize it
Who has the right to access information
and knowledge?
• In many cases, the government puts forth legislation that
attempts to limit or monitor access to information
• Access to information is often seen as a right. However, this
is under the condition that the access of this information will
not lead to violation of intellectual property, copyright laws,
or jeopardize the security of a nation
• It is therefore dependent on the situation itself; some
situations should be exposed to the public, as they have few
possible repercussions, yet some could understandably be
held from the public, because of their severity and potential
consequences