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<p class=western style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Attached a final draft
for comments for this paper. Please make specific suggestions for change or deletion
on list in reply to this topic within 24 hours – Google Docs is now closed.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=western style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>I must confess to not
following the detail of this debate, so I may have missed some points – and
Google Docs was getting messy towards the end. So any omissions are
unintentional and I ask that you suggest appropriate changes.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=western style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=western style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>‘</span></font><b
id=vn-n4><font size=4><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-weight:bold'>Rights
and the Internet’ as the over-arching theme for IGF-4 in <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Egypt</st1:place></st1:country-region> </span></font></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><br id=vn-n7>
</span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
Arial'>The Internet Governance Caucus strongly recommends that 'Rights and the
Internet' be made the overarching theme for IGF-4 in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region
w:st="on">Egypt</st1:country-region></st1:place>, and that the IGF-4's program
be framed by the desire for developing a rights-based discourse in the area of
Internet Governance. The Caucus has already expressed support for the letter on
this subject which was sent to the MAG by the Dynamic Coalition on an Internet
Bill of Rights.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>The IGC offers the IGF assistance in
helping to shape such a discourse at the IGF meetings, and specifically to help
make 'Rights and the Internet' an overarching theme for IGF-4 in <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Egypt</st1:country-region></st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=western style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b id=vn-n44><i
id=vn-n45><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold;font-style:italic'>A complex new emerging ecology of rights
and the internet</span></font></i></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=western style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt' id=vn-n46><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'
id=ysci><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> One
important purpose of a discourse on rights should be to clarify and reach
greater consensus on how rights with respect to the Internet are defined, how
they relate to pre-existing definitions of human rights, and which ones need to
be internationally recognized and strengthened. Within this context, we
acknowledge that, even within the civil society caucus, differences of opinion
exist as to the nature of various rights and conceptual rights and the degree
to which they should be emphasized in internet governance discussions.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The openness and
diversity of the internet provide an avenue for widely recognized (but still
imperfectly enforced) basic human rights: the individual right to freedom of
expression and to privacy. It may also be useful to explore if and how concepts
such as positive and collective rights may be meaningful in relation to the
Internet – for instance, respectively, a ‘right to the
Internet’, or a right of cultural expression - including the right to
have an Internet in ones own language, which can inform the important IGF
thematic area of cultural diversity. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=western style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Many important internet
policy areas, like network neutrality, are being framed in terms of rights,
such as a right to access and share information, or as an extension of freedom
of expression itself. The right of the public to access government-produced
information presents itself in a wholly new manner in a digital environment,
where information is often publicly sharable at little or no extra cost.
Positive acts of withholding digital public information from citizens in fact
can be looked upon as a form of censorship. All of these rights-based
conceptions may be included in the IGF openness theme area. Other rights such
as the right of association and the right to political participation may have
important new implications in the internet age, including the right to
participate in the shaping of globally applicable internet policies.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=western style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt' id=ehq6><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=western style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt' id=vn-n60><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>While the
internet opens unprecedented economic, social and political opportunities
in many areas, many fear that it may at the same time be further widening
economic, social and political divides. It is for this reason that development
has been a central theme for the IGF meetings to date. In this new, more
global and digital context it might be useful to explore what the term
"right to development" means. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=western style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt' id=vn-n61><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=western style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt' id=vn-n63><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>With respect to
privacy rights, corporations and governments are increasingly able to extend
digital tentacles into people’s homes and personal devices, in manners
invisible to consumers and citizens. Consumers of digital products thus face
new challenges including the right<a name=sdfootnote3anc id=vn-n65></a><a
href="http://docs.google.com/RawDocContents?docID=dcskr5r9_7n2dnxhs&justBody=false&revision=_latest×tamp=1220550114112&editMode=true&strip=true#sdfootnote3sym"></a>
to know and completely ‘own’ the products and services they pay
for. Technological measures to monitor and control user behavior on the
internet are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and often outrun public
policies and traditional concepts of what rights users have.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=western style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt' id=eh1j0><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=western style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt' id=vn-n69><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>While property
rights are of considerable importance, their applicability and mutations in the
digital environment have led to widespread political contention over the proper
scope of copyrights, trademarks and patents. In fact, intellectual property is
emerging as a primary area of socio-economic conflict in the information
society. The IGF can explore issues surrounding the public interest
principles which underpin intellectual property claims alongside the concept of
a right to access knowledge in the digital space. It can also explore how
individuals' property right to own, build, test, and use consumer electronics,
computers and other forms of equipment can be reconciled with the regulation of
technical circumvention to protect copyrights. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><br id="h:sg">
<br>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=western style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>We recognize that while
it is relatively easy to articulate and claim “rights” it is much
more difficult to implement and enforce them. We also recognize that rights
claims can sometimes conflict or compete with each other. There can also be
uncertainty about the proper application of a rights claim to a factual
situation. The change in the technical methods of communication often
undermines pre-existing understandings of how to apply legal categories. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'
id="h:sg4"><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'
id="h:sg6"><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>These
complexities, however, only strengthen the case for using the IGF to explicitly
discuss and debate these problems. There is no other global forum where such
issues can be raised and explored in a non-binding context. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><br id=vn-n71>
<br>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=western style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Internet governance has
up to this time largely been founded in technical principles and, increasingly,
on the internet’s functionality as a giant global marketplace. With the
internet becoming increasingly central to many social and political
institutions, an alternative foundation and conceptual framework for IG can be
explored. It is the view of the IG Caucus that a rights-based framework will be
appropriate for this purpose. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=western style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt' id=jpe00><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'
id=jpe02><span id=o6u06><span id=pe-s><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>A rights-based </span><span id=o6u07> </span><span
id=pe-s0>IG shouldn’t be seen as threatening to governments or companies,
but rather rights provide a set of international standards and guiding
principles that can help to inform complex policy decisions. It is pertinent to
recollect that WSIS called for a people-centric information society, and a
rights framework helps develop people-centric IG agenda and polices.</span></span></font><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'> </span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
</span>
<p class=western style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt' id=vn-n73><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=western style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt' id=vn-n75><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>It is the
Caucus’ view that the IGF is the forum best suited to take up this task.
This process should start at the IGF Hyderabad, where workshops on rights
issues are being planned. These issues will also hopefully figure
prominently in the main sessions. The IGC fully expects that these discussions
will help the IGF work towards developing ‘Rights and the Internet’
as the over-arching theme of the IGF-4 in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region
w:st="on">Egypt</st1:country-region></st1:place>. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoAutoSig><st1:PersonName w:st="on"><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Ian Peter</span></font></st1:PersonName><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoAutoSig><st1:PersonName w:st="on"><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Ian Peter</span></font></st1:PersonName>
and Associates Pty Ltd<o:p></o:p></p>
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