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EDRI-gram

biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe

Number 3.23, 21 November 2005

---WSIS SPECIAL---

Urgent call for support for EDRI-gram

1. General disappointment in WSIS-host Tunisia

2. Tunisian government blocks citizens counter summit

3. Agreement on internet governance issue

4. Civil Society Tunis declaration

5. Panel meeting with EU delegation

6. RSF report: 15 enemies of the internet

7. Panel on freedom of expression

8. Panel on privacy and security

9. Panel on WIPO and intellectual property

10. P2P, filesharing and digital rights

11. Forum on ubiquitous computing

12. Unesco round table

13. Recommended reading

14. Petition closed: 58.000 signatures

15. Agenda

16. About

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- Urgent call for support for EDRI-gram -

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As host country of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), Tunisia has not lived up to the optimistic expectations of some UN officials, but in stead exceeded the worst expectations of civil society. Many individuals searched their souls whether to attend the Summit or not. But the promise of a Citizens Summit, dedicated to the human rights demands of civil society and inclusive of the Tunisian people and organisations purposefully excluded by the Tunisian government, convinced many of them to come to Tunis and mingle amongst the 23.000 official participants.

In an opinion article titled 'No place to talk about Internet freedom' for the International Herald Tribune, Kamel Labidi, the former director of Amnesty International-Tunisia, describes Tunisia as "one of the Arabs world's most autocratic regimes." "Not only is the choice of Tunis insensitive to the many brave Tunisians who have suffered harsh reprisals from their governments for expressing their views, it also signals that repressive governments face little consequence when they systematically curtail basic human rights." But he also said the activities by the NGOs to show the unworthyness of the country as a host "sparked hope among Tunisians yearning for freedom and democracy".

The Citizens Summit on the Information Society (CSIS) was to be organised by 19 organisations, made up of both Tunisian and international NGOs. The organisation was difficult from the start. The CSIS objectives were to send a strong message of support and solidarity from international civil society to the local civil society and citizens, and to address the main issues being debated at the WSIS, from the perspective of citizen groups and the public. But the Tunisians did all they could to disrupt civil society meetings. It started at the third Prepcom in Hammameth, where meetings were disturbed by incredible quantities of loud-mouthed Tunisian infiltrants, claiming to represent civil society in Tunisia.

In Tunis the reserved rooms for the counter summit, though confirmed and prepaid, were cancelled at the last minute, because of 'urgent renovation works'. And no other hotel or venue could be found that dared to resist Tunisian government pressure. The obstructions facing the CSIS culminated on Monday 14 November when civil society organisations were forcefully prevented from holding a planning meeting at the Goethe Institute downtown Tunis. Following this incident, the EU group, represented by the British ambassador to the UN, Nicholas Thorne, issued a demarche (diplomatic letter of concern) to the Tunisian foreign minister.

In his opening speech, the Swiss president mr. Samuel Schmid used very harsh words about this climate of repression. "It is not acceptable — and I say this without beating about the bush — for the United Nations Organisation to continue to include among its members those States which imprison citizens for the sole reason that they have criticised their government or their authorities on the internet or in the press. Any knowledge society respects the independence of its media as it respects human rights. I therefore expect that freedom of expression and freedom of information will constitute central themes over the course of this Summit. For myself, it goes without question that here in Tunis, within its walls and without, anyone can discuss quite freely. For us, it is one of the conditions sine qua non for the success of this international conference."

Though the Tunisian national television had a live broadcast of the opening ceremony, halfway during the speech of the Swiss president the broadcast suddenly turned into a black screen, much to the dismay of the Swiss delegation. The next speech, by Shirin Ebadi, winner of the Nobel Peace prize in 2003, explicitly addressed the practice of Tunisia to create fake NGOs to frustrate the NGO decision making process. She also addressed the problem of censorship and the possibility that internet providers in the Western world could be forced for political or economical reasons to deprive entire parts of the world of their internet access. She called on the plenary to institute a forum under UN supervision to watch over internet filtering and equal access rights.

After the closing ceremony on 18 November, the US delegation used very harsh words in a press release. "We are therefore obliged to express our disappointment that the government of Tunisia did not take advantage of this important opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to freedom of expression and assembly in Tunisia."

Opening speech Swiss president, mr. Samuel Schmid ( 16.11.2005)

Opening speech Ms. Shirin EBADI (in French, 16.11.2005)

EU attacks police tactics at Tunis internet conference ( 16.11.2005)

Kamel Labidi, 'No place to talk about Internet freedom' (16.11.2005)

International Herald Tribune

U.S. Delegation Urges Progress in Tunisian Reform, Human Rights (19.11.2005)

While the Tunisian authorities did all they could to prevent civil society events outside the Kram exhibition centre, on Wednesday 16 November civil society activists succeeded in getting the upper hand against state repression. A press conference to announce the cancellation of the Citizens Summit transformed into a major human rights event.

When civil society activists and journalists moved from the official WSIS Kram centre to the offices of the Tunisian Human Rights League on Wednesday afternoon – the day of the opening of the WSIS summit – they didn't know what to expect. All earlier meetings and press conferences outside the official summit area had been forcefully prevented by Tunisian police and secret service. What they found, however, was a room packed with international journalists, civil society and government delegates, and the who-is-who of international human rights advocacy.

On 14 November, some 30 law enforcement agents in plain clothes shouted, pushed, and tried to physically intimidate the Tunisian representatives of Tunisian independent NGOs present at a coordinating meeting for the Civil Society Summit in front of the Goethe Institute, the German cultural embassy. When members of international NGOs, such as the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), Human Rights Watch, the Danish Human Rights Institute and other civil society representatives tried to intervene, the police officers moved away, and pushed the international delegates away. In response a number of civil society organisations cancelled their scheduled events on Wednesday 16 November and used the space to issue a letter of protest in solidarity with their Tunisian colleagues.

A lot of high-profile participants took the floor at the press conference on 16 November and addressed the more than 150 journalists and other participants. Amongst them Mokhtar Trifi, President of the LTDH, Shirin Ebadi, Sidiki Kaba, president of the International League of Human Rights, Manuel Tornare, Mayor of Geneva, Ambeyi Ligabo, UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression, Catherine Trautmann from the EU Parliament and Steve Buckley, President of the World Association of Community Broadcasters.

They all denounced the repression against civil society activities in Tunisia and showed strong support to the local human rights groups. "We are here to express our total solidarity with the LTDH and all strikers, all prisoners, because they have said no to censorship", Sidiki Kaba said. Mr Ligabo summarised the many statements by proclaiming: "Human rights are not a gift. They are the rights of each and every person." He demanded Tunisia should release all prisoners of opinion.

As the press conference continued, it transformed into a major discussion with many participants joining in – a mini Citizens Summit, with a powerful, celebratory atmosphere. This was exactly what the Tunisian authorities had tried to prevent. In the official press statement Rikke Frank Jørgensen from the Danish Human Rights Institute said: "All the participants in this press conference have made the summit a reality."

Steve Buckley added: "The Citizens Summit exists in all free media, all free associations, all free gatherings. We are all the Citizens Summit!" The Association of Progressive Communication APC summarised the event like this: "While heads of states' speeches present at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) were pouring in on all TV channels, revolution was just around the corner in another district of Tunis."

Flagrant violation of human rights this morning alongside UN summit (14.11.2005)

The citizens summit is dead – long live the citizens summit!

Flagrant violation of human rights (14.11.2005)

(Article copied from APC News and the Heinrich Böll Foundation WSIS weblog, thanks to Rikke Frank Jørgensen)

The day before official opening of the summit, delegates finally reached an agreement on the sensitive issue of global internet governance. Both the US and the EU claimed victory at the creation of a new Internet Governance Forum (IGF). The forum will be set up next year and decide upon public policy issues for the internet. It will be made up of governments as well as private and civil society, but it will not have power over existing bodies. There will not be any new oversight on ICANN. Governments will continue to discuss policy desires within the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) of ICANN.

Today, e-zine The Register reports that the only dissonant came from ITU secretary-general Yoshio Utsumi. At the closing press conference he said that while it would continue to discuss issues in the newly created Internet Governance Forum (IGF), an increased "regionalisation" of the internet would mean the ITU will be called upon to take over in five years' time. "The internet need not be one Net controlled by one centre," he said. "Regionalisation has already started and I suspect in a few years, the simile of the internet will be a quite different one."

US, EU remain at odds over Net governance (16.11.2005)

ITU refuses to accept net governance agreement (21.11.2005)

Report on WSIS PrepCom III (05.10.2005)

APC, the association for progressive communication, reports on the civil society press conference on 18 November. Civil society representatives from all continents lined up on a panel to deliver a stark closing statement. The civil society statement was not finalised, but four points are addressed: internet governance, human rights, financing and development, and follow-up. The press conference essentially driven by questions of the audience, revolved around issues of development through ICTs.

Renate Bloem of the Civil Society Bureau kicked off the conference by saluting some language used in the official Tunis Commitment such as multistakeholderism. She held up that civil society has become a force to be reckoned with. "We have moved to become a partner in negotiations," she assessed.

Civil society welcomed the creation of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), and emphasised the key role it played in its creation. This is seen as a positive development by these representatives because it is expected to broaden participation in internet policy. The compromise on the ICANN did not satisfy everybody, without any clear policy preventing the US from retaining dominance.

In general though, there was not much optimism about the official outcomes of the Summit. For example the crucial right to privacy has totally disappeared from the Tunis Commitment. In stead, security needs are extensively underlined. This was already partially the case in the Geneva declaration, back in 2003, where privacy was mentioned only as part of "a global culture of cyber-security", but at least in 2003, civil society succeeded in keeping human rights prominently on the discussion agenda.

According to the draft declaration "Paragraph 40 the Tunis Agenda gives unrestricted authority to governments and law enforcements agencies. This is a serious problem. Without bounding this license with calls for respect for human rights, freedom of expression and privacy rights, the text invites the sorts of abuse that are evident in many countries today, from the imprisonment of journalists and activists, to the filtering of content and the registration of bloggers."

Civil society representatives on the panel voiced concern about human rights such as the freedom of speech not being respected by many countries in the world. Human rights monitoring was described as an essential means to attain a more balanced development of the information society. Compliance with universal human rights standards and the mainstreaming of ICTs were stressed as building blocks for a respectful and just implementation of WSIS outcomes.

The human rights issue was approached more specifically in the press conference that followed. Steve Buckley of the Tunisia freedom of expression monitoring group vowed "Never again!". He argued that "the United Nations should never again hold a world summit in a country that does not respect its international human rights commitments."

He linked the WSIS outcomes directly to the situation on the ground here in Tunisia where many violations of basic human rights had been observed on the eve and during WSIS. Thereby, this member of civil society (Steve Buckley is president of AMARC) wanted to shed light on the central importance of freedom of expression and human rights, "not only in Tunisia, but in the entire world."

Meryem Marzouki, from EDRI-member IRIS in France hammered the issue on the nail by saying that if the UN is to boast its role in aspects of internet governance, it must start by monitoring its internal accreditation processes. She suggested that an independent commission be set up to monitor the accreditation of all stakeholders, including the GONGOs, the Govermental non governmental organisations. Tunisian government sympathisers masquerading –and accredited- as NGOs have disrupted multiple civil society-organised events on and off site in Tunis and in the two years run-up to the summit. Finally, on behalf of the human rights caucus, she also asked 'all the media, governments, civil society and, more generally, all participants and observers to this Summit to keep a close eye on the situation in Tunisia after the summit."

The close of the WSIS: The civil society verdict (19.11.2005)

Civil Society Tunis Declaration (not ready yet!)

Speech Meryem Marzouki (in French)

Official WSIS outcomes Tunis Agenda for the Information Society ( 18.11.2005)

Tunis Commitment (18.11.2005)

On the closing day of the Summit, Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Information Society and Media and Catherine Trautmann, Member of the European Parliament co-hosted a Workshop on "Human Rights and the Information Society". Trautmann (Social Democrats) also was the special rapporteur on the WSIS for the European Parliament. Her report was adopted in plenary on 23 June 2005.

Speakers included: Ambeyi Ligabo, UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression, Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Information Society and Media, Catherine Trautmann from the EU Parliament, Sidiki Kaba, president of the International League of Human Rights, Sharon Hom from Human Rights in China, and Rikke Frank Jørgensen, Danish Human Rights Institute and author of this contribution.

The purpose of the workshop was to cover a range of issues pertaining to the role and place of human rights in the Information Society and to provide an opportunity for representatives from civil society and from the European Union Institutions to exchange views and share respective concerns, perspectives and recommendations on HR in the IS.

All speakers expressed strong support of the need to uphold human rights standards in an information society context, and stressed the value of more civil society inclusiveness. Rikke Frank Jørgensen stressed that though the European Commission and the European Parliament are generally supportive of human rights, there is a tendency to flag greater support for human rights protection in other countries, while not being as critical to the EUs own policy and legislation.

As examples she mentioned data retention, copyright and the transfer of passenger data, and called for stronger human rights proofing of proposed legislation within the EU. She also addressed the fact that many Tunisian civil society organisations were prevented from participating to the Summit, just as the Citizen Summit had been prevented. Unfortunately, the intended debate with the audience was disrupted by a number of Tunisians who aggressively occupied all speaking slots for the audience and aggressively yelled at panellists for addressing human rights in Tunisia.

Report Catherine Trautmann (P6_A(2005)0172)

(Contribution by Rikke Frank Jørgensen from the Danish Human Rights Institute and EDRI-member Digital Rights)

On 17 November 2005 Reporters without Borders (RSF) released a new report during the WSIS on the 15 enemies of the Internet, and 15 countries to watch. RSF writes: "The 15 'enemies' are the countries that crack down hardest on the Internet, censoring independent news sites and opposition publications, monitoring the Web to stifle dissident voices, and harassing, intimidating and sometimes imprisoning Internet users and bloggers who deviate from the regime's official line." Amongst those enemies Tunisia is prominently mentioned, next to predictable countries such as China, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

The report says about Tunisia: "President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, whose family has a monopoly on Internet access inside the country, has installed a very effective system of censoring the Internet. All opposition publications are blocked, along with many other news sites. The regime also tries to discourage use of webmail because it is harder to spy on than standard mail programmes that use Outlook. The Reporters Without Borders site cannot be seen inside Tunisia. The government also jails cyber-dissidents and in April 2005, pro-democracy lawyer Mohammed Abbou was given a three-and-a-half-year sentence for criticising the president online. Yet Tunisia seems well thought-of by the international community for its management of the Internet since it has been chosen the International Telecommunication Union to host the second stage of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in November 2005."

The countries to watch cannot be compared to the list of enemies, but "many countries that have so far respected online freedom seem these days to want to control the Internet more. Their often laudable aims include fighting terrorism, paedophilia and Internet-based crime, but the measures sometimes threaten freedom of expression," RSF writes. The European Union is included in this latter list, for the e-commerce directive of 2000. "(This) proved a threat to freedom of expression, by making ISPs responsible for the content of websites they host and requiring them to block any page they consider illegal when informed of its existence. This creates a private system of justice, where the ISP is called on to decide what is illegal or not."

The report was presented in spite of the fact that Secretary General Robert Ménard was not allowed into the country to attend the WSIS. "Plain clothes Tunisian police officers physically prevented Ménard from leaving an Air France plane after it touched down in Tunis on 17 November 2005. One officer told the head of the worldwide press freedom organisation that he had no right to get off the plane since he did not have accreditation for the WSIS." Though Ménard had official accreditation, he was held on the plain and flown back.

On 17 November, other representatives from the organisation managed to stick a giant 2 by 3 meter poster of the "black holes in the web" on the entrance floor of the main expo building.

Reporters without borders, 15 enemies of the Internet (17.11.2005)

Robert Ménard prevented from attending the UN Internet summit

Together with the internet blogging project Global Voices online, the Dutch NGO Hivos organised a two day program on 17 and 18 November on freedom of expression. On the first day two panels and two lectures were scheduled, the second day was devoted to a workshop on secure communication tools for NGOs. It was only thanks to the Dutch embassy that the event could actually take place. The event was the subject of immense and incredible pressure from Tunisian authorities. They pulled every trick to cancel the event, including the presence of 20 grey-clothed unidentified representatives from some law enforcement services in the back of the room. They threatened to close the doors halfway during the event, if the announced coffee break was to be held, to make sure nobody could get back in.

The main argument from the Tunisians was that the summit took place in two different territories; one was an exhibition hall with presentation rooms and adjacent was U.N. territory, where the plenary sessions were held with matching diplomatic protection for participants. Obviously, on Tunisian territory it was out of the question to debate such a sensitive issue as freedom of expression, and like the EU, Hivos should have quietly moved its discussion to U.N. territory. But Hivos was unable to move the panel on such a short notice, especially because of the impossibility to advertise the new location to all possible participants.

In the first panel, three speakers from Zimbabwe, Iran and China spoke about their experiences with the limits of freedom of expression. Chairwoman Rebecca McKinnon from Global Voices said she had left a comfortable position as CNN desk chief to join the bloggers movement, especially because these global citizens voices could compensate for the over-reporting on the US and Western Europe.

The blogger from Iran, currently living in the United States, Hossein Derakshan gave a lively description of the explosion of blogs in Iran. A few months after he started one of the first blogs in Iran in 2001, there were between 3 and 4.000 blogs. Five years later, there are 700.000 blogs in Iran.

The blogger from China, Isaac Mao, chose his words very carefully, and explained the level of control was so strong, in China it was important to focus on free thinking than on free speech.

The representative from Zimbabwe, Taurai Maduna, said internet participation was very low and legislation extremely tough. Under the Public Order and Security Act for example, it is illegal for more than 5 people to gather without a previous license. He mentioned two other examples of successful activist communication in the country, One was a sticker illegally stuck on condoms. Freely distributed by many government organisations, the condoms suddenly said "Get up, Stand up!" Another one was a CD entitled "Rock the regime into retirement." Maduna said he was unable to detect any specific internet monitoring by the Mugabe government, since nobody had ever been arrested on an internet related accusation. But later on, speaker Nart Villeneuve from the Citizen Lab in Canada said he said it was likely that a shipload of Chinese censorware was underway to Zimbabwe.

Nart villeneuve also pointed to a brandnew study on internet filtering in Tunisia. "To document the extent of Tunisia's Internet content controls, the OpenNet Initiative (ONI) tested 1923 sites from within the state, and found 187 (10%) blocked. Tunisia's filtering efforts are focused and effective. The state employs the SmartFilter software, produced by the U.S. company Secure Computing, to target and prevent access to four types of material in particular: political opposition to the ruling government, sites on human rights in Tunisia, tools that enable users to circumvent these controls, and pages containing pornography or other sexually explicit content."

The day ended with a second panel debate with panellists from China, Iran and Europe (your editor) about the limits of freedom of expression and a closing speech from the Dutch minister of Economical Affairs. The next day, a group of extremely eloquent and funny geeks from Front Line and the Tactical Technology Collective presented the project 'Secure NGO in a box', all kinds of free software tools to enable NGOs to secure their internet communication. The tools include software to generate secure passwords and store them in a secure safe on a hard disk or even USB-stick; references to anonymising proxies, and an easy to understand guide to use anonymous communication tools such as Tor, JAP and Freenet. The audience (minus the Tunisian secret service representatives) responded very enthusiastically when they mentioned Tor is now also available for use on a USB-stick, to use in any internet cafe.

Translated highlights from Chinese blogs

Weblog Hossein Derakshan

Internet filtering in Tunisia in 2005

NGO in a box - security

Download Tor software for use on USB-stick

The US digital rights organisation EPIC organised a panel with a preview of their annual privacy and human rights report, with 7 panellists from all continents, from China to Argentina, and from Israel to the Arab Human Rights Watch. Speaker Alberto Escudero-Pascual from Sweden/Spain focussed on the RFID badges given to every participant. Some participants were given badges in which the mini-chip was included, others were given a cheaper add-on RFID-sticker on their badge. Escudero-Pascual briefly explained the results of his earlier research into the RFID badges handed out to participants in Geneva in 2003.

Though he said the mini-chip could probably not be read at any significant distance and the tags were probably only used at the entrance where everybody had to hold their tag against a reader to match the picture on their badge with the picture of the computer screen, he strongly objected to the fact that nobody was told about the badges. He also protested against the fact that the WSIS organisation failed to produce any privacy statement, in spite of repeated requests from civil society.

Free source software champion Richard Stallman did not let the RFID badge go by unnoticed. He demonstratively foiled the badge in tin foil, preventing any secret scanning, but alerting an immense crowd of security employees to his odd behaviour.

Public Voice Symposium (18.11.2005 )

Highlights from the Privacy & Human Rights 2005

The physical access security to WSIS: a privacy threat for the

participants (December 2003)

Richard Stallman Gets in Trouble with UN Security for Wearing a Tin-Foil Hat (18.11.2005)

On 16 November IPJustice organised a panel on intellectual property and WIPO, chaired by Robin Gross.

Philip Petit of WIPO spoke about the history of WIPO, its relation to other organisations like WTO and its role in various treaties. He also welcomed NGOs participation in WIPO. According to him WIPO's mission is promoting IPR in order to accelerate economic and cultural development, yet IPR is not determined by WIPO but by its member countries. WIPO merely administers treaties. He also said copyright is no monopoly because copyright owners are free to donate their rights if they want to. Perhaps most telling was his statement that "as long as you have no legal right to your creation, it is not worth anything".

The second speaker was Alex Byrn of IFLA, who spoke about the importance of IPRs for the libraries. IFLA members are serving more than 2.5 billion users. Byrn expressed support for the treaty on Access to Knowledge (A2K) and review of the WIPO mandate, in order to recognise the rights of different stake-holders, including users. Libraries' concerns include the imbalance of IP laws favouring right holders, monopolisation of information, the inhibiting effect of IPR laws on new technologies and the shrinking of the public domain, but also the protection of indigenous knowledge.

He also noted that all creators are also users of others' copyrighted works, invoking Newton's metaphor about standing on the shoulders of giants. Copyright laws are increasingly a hindrance rather than a help to libraries, also in developed countries, and any future models should be based on the right to know.

Next spoke Georg Greve from FSFE. He spoke about the problematic nature of the term "intellectual property" and how much of the debate is ideologically charged, as if there were a "church of IPR". In his speech he underlined user rights and wondered how anyone could compare copying to real piracy, robbing and killing people. He also wondered whether it made any sense to have the same copyright rules for literature and software. He told the audience how FSFE had gotten involved with WIPO and how WIPO officials actually had been very helpful, even though sometimes appearing a bit afraid of NGOs. Perhaps key point was that IPR are not a god-given system but human-made, so it can be modified to work better. Perhaps WIPO could play a mediating role there. Like Byrn, Greve supported the A2K treaty.

The fourth speaker was Jamie Love of CPTech. He spoke about IP as a tool to support innovation. This could be done right or wrong, leading us to alternative futures. "Do we want to make everything controlled, patentable, with no commons, or should we rather pause to think what we really want with IP?" He spoke about the WIPO development agenda and suggested WIPO should be changed to optimise, rather than maximise IPR. Love also spoke extensively about the A2K treaty.

All in all the discussion was quite constructive, with all parties expressing interest in continuing cooperation and hoping NGOs would play a greater role in future discussions on IPR.

IP Justice information on the WIPO panel

(Contribution by Tapani Tarvainen, EDRI-member EFFI, Finland)

IPJustice organised another panel on P2P, filesharing and digital rights on 17 November 2005, with Robin Gross as moderator.

The first speaker was the Canadian law professor Michael Geist, also editor of the excellent daily newsletter BNA's Internet Law News. He started by telling that a few months ago IFPI had sued 2.200 people in 17 countries for filesharing, but none in Canada, and proceeded to speculate why that is. He explained Canadian laws are different. There is no DMCA equivalent and Canada hasn't ratified the relevant WIPO treaties. Furthermore Canadian policymakers are increasingly recognising the need for copyright reform instead of swallowing all the content industry's claims.

Markus Beckedahl of Netzerk Neue Median (and EDRI) spoke about the situation in Germany and in particular the implementation of the European Copyright Directive. He listed five key rights consumers should have:

-right to choice of technology (principle of technology-neutrality);

-right to benefit of new technologies without new restrictions;

-right to interoperability of content;

-right to privacy, and the

-right not to be criminalised (everyone has always shared music, why does it become criminal when digital?).

Heather Ford of Creative Commons South Africa told of efforts to find alternatives to copyright in Africa, about fighting against misleading assumptions and simplifications like "p2p = downloading music, downloading music is bad and illegal. Therefore p2p should be banned", whereas in reality downloading music is not always illegal and p2p is very useful for other purposes, too, especially in low-bandwidth situations. She explained the most pressing issue in Africa isn't so much downloading but VoIP and its threat to telecom monopolies, and told a weird story about a music remix service they had started (with voluntary contributions by musicians) and how RISA (South African RIAA-equivalent) had threatened them for making people think remixing music is legal (!). Also, her university had summarily blocked skype and all mp3 files even though they have legitimate uses, too. She finished by noting that p2p is not the same everywhere. Since it is used for many purposes, the technology should not be demonised.

A discussion followed on a wide range of issues, including the infamous Sony rootkit, how p2p works with free and open software (very well) and about using IP addresses to sue people. The only downside of the panel was the lack of dissenting voices. No copyright industry representative had bothered (or dared?) to show up.

Information about the P2P panel

BNA's Internet Law News

(Contribution by Tapani Tarvainen, EDRI-member EFFI Finland)

As a side-event to the World Summit on the Information Society the Institute for Information Industry and AFACT organised a Forum on the Advancement of e-Trade & Ubiquitous Society in the Africa Hotel in Tunis.

Following the welcome address by Dr. FC Lin, Chairman of the Institute for Information Industry, and the opening remarks of Kenneth Lim, Ex-Chair AFACT, the morning session was dedicated to the advancement of a ubiquitous society and ICT for All. The afternoon session focussed on e-Trade Facilitation.

Njideka Ugwuegbu-Harry, Founder of the Youth for Technology Foundation presented the vision and activities of the Youth for Technology Foundation towards bridging the Digital Divide. Through cooperations with major international ICT companies the Foundation managed to benefit over 4.000 youth since its establishment in 2000 and pioneered a digital village movement in and for Nigeria. Mrs. Njideka Ugwuegbu-Harry stressed the importance of a people-centered, inclusive development and focus on young people when introducing ICT in remote rural areas.

Mrs. Cynthia Waddel, Executive Director of the International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet, focused her presentation on the accessibility of ICT for people with disabilities. Disability law and public policy historically reflected what she termed 'medical model', indicating a focus on diagnosis and disability rather than ability and human rights for equal opportunity. ICT design therefore did not include user interfaces for people with disabilities. Now, Mrs. Waddel explained, signs of an inclusive society shift become visible. A growing recognition of significant social cost if the divide remains, the emergence of technical standards for accessible design and economies of scale contribute to this goal.

Mrs. Saloua Mahmoud of the Higher Institute of Documentation of the University of Manouba, Tunesia, spoke on the topic ICT & Social Transformations. She presented an overview of the evolution of communication and the Internet and explained the principles of information technology and the way they changed our lives starting from new research possibilities to telemedicine, electronic voting and e-payment.

In my presentation I focussed on future developments of ubiquitous computing and the potential dangers stemming from the transformation of computers from relatively large machines that serve in the center of our work, demanding our attention to small very specialised gadgets serving unobtrusive in our surroundings. If not carefully designed the concept of ubiquitous computing will not only endanger our privacy but also intensify the digital divide. It will introduce new questions regarding (intellectual) property rights related to the ubiquitous generated information and the computing equipment in our surrounding, information security and unsolicited information.

In conclusion, the morning session demonstrated foremost that the term ubiquitous computing includes a wide field of important issues, depending on the geographical, societal and technological area one chooses to examine.

(Contribution by Andreas Krisch, EDRI-member VIBE!AT)

In the UNESCO high-level round table 'Shaping the Future through Knowledge' on Thursday 18 November 2005 director-general Koïchiro Matsuura presented the four main pillars of knowledge societies: respect for human rights, especially for freedom of speech, universal access to information, respect for cultural and linguistic diversity and quality education for all. Those pillars have been described in detail in the recently launched UNESCO report 'Towards knowledge societies'. The report was prepared in three earlier conferences organised by Unesco in 2005, described in EDRI-gram 3.3 and 3.10.

The panel members were asked to reflect on the 4 mission goals. Improving universal access to education turned out to be the most prominent concern of the panel. Also the attempts to safeguard indigenous knowledge and the preservation of small languages were highlighted as important goals. This could only be achieved in a situation of solidarity.

MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte elevated the discussion with a provocative statement that the world is heading towards a one language society. In his opinion language is about communication and not about preservation. This was not his personal wishful thinking, he said, but his expectation of unavoidable logic. This opinion met with severe criticism and concern. Major event of the round table however was Negropontes presentation of his project to create a one hundred dollar laptop for every child in developing countries. This technological innovation should bring down financial barriers and was applauded loudly.

Unesco report 'Towards knowledge societies' (04.11.2005)

Report about UNESCO conference St. Petersburg (24.05.2005)

Two Unesco conferences on internet and human rights (09.02.2005)

MIT FAQ about the 100 dollar computer (October 2005)

(Contribution by Jos de Haan, member of the Dutch Unesco delegation)

During the WSIS Summit a number of new books were presented and discussed during parallel events. Among these are:

"Word Matters", a four language "dictionary" offering multicultural perspectives on information society concepts, in French, English, Portuguese and Spanish. "Technology is never neutral: it carries social, economic and cultural consequences. New information and communication technologies are no exception. The words used in international negotiations or legislation are a poor reflection of such consequences; they propagate perceptions that are rarely subjected to democratic debate, the fundamental requirement for any political decision."

The publication is co-ordinated by Alain Ambrosi (WFCN) and Valérie Peugeot (Vecam) with the collaboration of Daniel Pimienta (Funredes). The book is a collective work by some thirty authors from civil societies all over the world. Sample chapters are available online. The 656 page book can be ordered for 39 euro through:

"Human Rights in the Global Information Society"; an upcoming publication by MIT press to be published in 2006. The book includes a Preface by Adama Samassekou and contributions by several EDRI-members, and is being published in the MIT Press series "The Information Revolution and Global Politics". The introduction by William Drake and book editor/EDRI board member Rikke Frank Jørgensen is freely available online.

"Visions in Process II - Geneva 2003-Tunis 2005" is a publication by the Heinrich Böll Foundation, which features civil society assessments of major controversies regarding the agenda and the process of WSIS. The book is edited by Olga Drossou and Heike Jensen, and is the sequel of "Visions in Process", a previous publication launched right before the Geneva Summit, in December 2003. The book features 15 contributions from WSIS civil society actors, all women, and is structured in three parts: "Human rights"; "Multi-stakeholder processes and civil society"; and "Developing the information society". Articles of the book are covered by the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 license, and can be downloaded from:

The EDRI and XS4ALL petition against data retention has attracted 58.000 signatures, of which over 21.000 from the Netherlands (where the campaign was launched), almost 7.000 from Germany and almost 6.000 from Finland. Runners-up in the daily country count are Bulgaria (over 3.000), Sweden and Spain (over 2.000 each), Austria (over 1.750). France, the UK, Italy, Belgium, the United States and Slovenia have each contributed over a 1.000 signatures.

85 organisations and companies have signed in support of the petition. The petition is available in 21 languages, with Portuguese as the last addition.

The campaign closed today. The petition will be offered to the European Parliament, to the chairman of the LIBE committee and to rapporteur Alexander Alvaro on Wednesday afternoon 23 November, the day before the important vote on the amended Alvaro report.

Petition

Petition WIKI

1-2 December 2005, London, UK, Patenting Lives Conference in the Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute. The call for papers closes on 26 August 2005 and invites abstracts on topics such as Access to Knowledge, Consumer Aspects, Public Interest, Public Goods, Public Domain and Human Rights.

27-31 December 2005, Berlin, Germany, 22nd CCC congress

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