Transcript Freedom of Expression in Cyberspace

Freedom of Expression in
Cyberspace
Codes & Creativity
3-4 February 2005, UNESCO
Chris Kabwato, Highway Africa
www.highwayafrica.ru.ac.za
Acknowledgements
• Lawrence Lessig, Free Culture
• Joost Smiers, Arts Under Pressure
• UNESCO, Cultural & Linguistic Diversity
in the Information Society
• Fred von Lohmann, Electronic Frontier
Foundation
The Spirit
“Whatever you do, don’t kill the spirit of this
most beautiful thing – the Internet,”
Mouhamet Diop, Senegal
“The Internet – its structure and processes are
an experiment,” Vint Cerf, USA
The Contrary Spirit
• Fear of technology – threat to established
business and political models. From the
phonograph, the VCR, the MP3 to P2P
• Closing of the public space
• Appropriation of public goods
The Return of the Ogre
• Edward Felten, Princeton University &
Recording Industry Association of America
• Napster, KazaA, Morpheus
• David Buren, Place des Terreaux, Lyon and
the Fountains
3 Crosscutting Issues
• Freedom of expression & Freedom of the
media
• Intellectual Property
• Indigenous Knowledge
Free Culture vs What?
The opposite of a free culture is a
“permission culture”—a culture in which
creators get to create only with the
permission of the powerful, or of
creators from the past.
Lawrence Lessig, Free Culture
Creative Commons
Packaging Oxygen
• Ngugi Wa’Thiongo’s Devil on the Cross
• “Lets sell air to the people. We could make
money out of it.”
Indigenous Knowledge &
Oxygen
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Indigenous Knowledge & Oxygen
Both: provide sustenance to life
One nourishes the soul
Other nourishes the body
Marrakech Declaration
Principles:
• A19 is an essential foundation of the Information Society
• Freedom of Expression and press freedom are at the
construction of the IS in Africa, the Arab region, and
throughout the world
• The Internet and other new media forms should be
afforded the same freedom of expression protections as
traditional media
Marrakech Declaration
Action Plan
• Recognize the status of online journalists and
grant them the same economic and social rights as
other journalists in traditional media
• Encourage the establishment of national and
regional networks to monitor and act against
violations of free expression, create knowledge
banks and provide advice and technical assistance
in media development
• Reaffirm multilingualism as a crucial,
fundamental component in the building of an open
and inclusive information society
Marrakech Declaration
Action Plan
• Encourage the development of technical standards
for digitally processing local or international
languages on the Internet
• Ensure that ISPs are independent public
authorities and not found legally responsible for
the content of the online media service
• Protect the privacy of journalists who subscribe to
the electronic message services of ISPs…
Declaration on Cultural Diversity
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4 main themes
Diversity & Pluralism
Cultural Diversity & Human Rights
Cultural Diversity & Creativity
Cultural Diversity & International Solidarity
Some Int’l Copyright
Agreements
• Berne Convention on Copyright
• WIPO Treaties
• TRIPS
Heart of the Matter
• “…to balance the moral and economic
interests of the creators on the one hand and
the provision of access to the socioeconomic and cultural benefits of such
creativity world-wide on the other hand”
Cyberlaw & Civil Society, p.60
In comes the Internet
• Digital Technology and the Internet have
caused “migration of intellectual property”
• Digital Technology perfects the art of
copying
The Response?
• Digital Millennium Copyright Act (1998)
• EU Directive on Information Society (2000)
The Grey Areas
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Originality
Material form of the creation
Ownership of copyright
Transfer of ownership of copyright
Duration of copyright
Reproduction right
Moral rights
Fair dealing/use
The Codes at War?
• Source Code – proprietary software; open
source; free software
• Digital Rights Management Technologies –
anti-copying mechanisms (SDMI); P2P;
circumvention technologies
• Unicode – supporting multi-lingual text
• Cookies/Filtering/Blocking
Fair Use, Fair Play
• Fred von Lohmann, Electronic Frontier
Foundation:
“If DRM systems are to preserve fair use, they must
somehow preserve its ambiguity, its ability to
evolve and embrace as yet unrealized uses of
copyrighted works. A consideration of
technologies past, present and future, and their
collisions with the fair use doctrine, illustrates the
virtues of ambiguity in fair use.”
African Position on IPR
Preservation of the IP in language, culture,
music, art, medicine etc, to ensure that in
the anticipated global economy any value
that accrue as a result of African heritage is
protected for the benefit of its impoverished
peoples.
E-Africa Vision, p.16
WSIS Declaration of Principles
“The creation, dissemination and preservation of content in
diverse languages and formats must be accorded high
priority in building an inclusive Information Society,
paying particular attention to the diversity of supply of
creative work and due recognition of the rights of authors
and artists. It is essential to promote the production and
accessibility to all content –educational, scientific, cultural
and recreational- in diverse languages and formats. The
development of local content suited to domestic or regional
needs will encourage social and economic development
and will stimulate participation of stakeholders, including
people in rural, remote and marginal areas.”
African Alphabet - 1978
A Wise Society?
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Information
Knowledge
Wisdom
Another world is possible?
Data, Information, Knowledge &
Wisdom
“Raw data can be turned into information,
which then, through much added effort and
value, can rise to the level of knowledge,
which is the foundation for wisdom.”
James Billington, Librarian
Last but one statement
• Zano marairanwa – “Ideas are the fruit of sharing”
Shona Proverb
• Above pre-supposes:
Knowledge is the product of a process
• But when does the process begin and end and who
owns the final product?
• The control of that process, product and its
distribution are at the core of our present and the
future
Closing Statement
• Journalists, knowledge workers, artists, cultural
workers, teachers – PEOPLE – want the space,
freedom and platform to share their stories, ideas
and experiences.
• The Internet promises such a space and platform if
can be FREED from the increasing usurpation by
corporate interests and increasing attention by
anxious governments
• FOE, IK, IPR interplay in our context
Thank you!
www.highwayafrica.ru.ac.za