[governance] Obama on security, net neutrality, civil

[Parminder]

Also see http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/?p=4072  for how strong public 
interest outcomes can be obtained at multi-lateral processes with good 
civil society activism and participation.

The new paradigms of public interest exceptions to global regimes that 
are being worked out at WIPO are path-breaking work. Since we have been 
analyzing civil society's role in global policy arena, I think that 
these achievements at WIPO have significant role of CS, which has been 
made possible because the progressive directions that CS espouses are 
relatively clear and strong in IP arena, which is much more than can be 
said about IG arena. This should make CS introspect as we bemoan the 
issues with power and apathy of state and market players.

One basic question is - in an arena - meaning IG - where we may appear 
to have made much gain in much higher levels of 'formal' participation, 
has this process been accompanied by certain structural elements that 
may have in fact decreased 'real' participation which leads to better 
public interest outcomes.

Quoting from the article on WIPO linked to above.

    Brazil, Ecuador and Paraguay, introduced the proposal into
    committee, "have channelled into WIPO a legitimate and urgent demand
    from the civil society," members of the Brazilian delegation told
    /Intellectual Property Watch/ afterward.

    "For the first time ever, a draft treaty on exceptions and
    limitations is brought to the attention of the SCCR," they said.

    The treaty proposal, which originated from the World Blind Union,
    "was broadly supported and member countries showed openness and
    willingness to discuss" it, the Brazilians added.

    "This has been a very important shift of what we would like to call
    the 'new paradigm', which is to give equal importance to the private
    interests of rightsholders and the human rights of the public,"
    Flavio Arosemena, national copyright director of Ecuador, said
    afterward. "WIPO has just taken a first step towards assessing the
    intellectual property system as a tool for development, and to
    contribute to better the lives of all people not only rights holders."



Parminder wrote:
> Thanks Anriette,  there are very useful  insights in  your report 
> below, and they present some significant dilemmas. How to best ensure 
> and represent public interest at global arenas remains  a huge 
> challenge and is  a long haul. What we in civil society, in my humble 
> opinion, can best do is to build and strengthen civil society networks 
> and capacities at the global level. It consists both in anchoring 
> strongly a vision of 'another world is possible' and, perhaps even 
> more importantly, invest in processes of openness, collaboration and a 
> very high degree of p2p and bottom-up accountability in the civil 
> society arena. That is our legitimacy, and that alone can give us the 
> needed strength to influence these processes better. Parminder
>
> Anriette Esterhuysen wrote:
>> Thanks Adam... Friday was definitely *not* a good day at the CSTD in
>> Geneva. I don't have the copy of the final resolution yet, but it is not
>> particularly positive about the IGF, makes no reference to national and
>> regional IGFs, and proposed text with regard to consideration being
>> given to reporting on WSIS follow up from non-governmental stakeholders
>> was not included.
>>
>> It has fairly good text on the general 'state' of the information
>> society, but that is about as far as it goes.
>>
>> Negotiations were difficult and depressing, shaped by the narrow
>> interest of particular governments and far removed, in my opinion, from
>> the CSTD mandate which is oversight of WSIS implementation with
>> consideration of inputs of all stakeholders and the WSIS principles in
>> genera.
>>
>> Many of the government representatives tried extremely hard to change
>> this, to be positive and proactive and open. I respect their hard work.
>> Without their efforts the final resolution would be even worse.
>>
>> Anyone who has doubts that the IGF is an important and useful space, or
>> that feels frustrated by it not 'making decisions' or 'leading to
>> action' should have been here.
>>
>> The consensus based decision-making process of intergovernmental forums
>> such as this one sometimes does more than just reduce outcomes to the
>> lowest common denominator - it punishes proactivity and discourages
>> collaboration and openness.
>>
>> Anriette - in my personal capacity NOT speaking on behalf of APC :)
>>
>>
>> On Sat, 2009-05-30 at 15:42 +0900, Adam Peake wrote:
>>   
>>> Interesting things happening in the US:
>>>
>>> President Obama's speech "Securing Our Nation's Cyber 
>>> Infrastructure", 
>>> <http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-on-Securing-Our-Nations-Cyber-Infrastructure/> 
>>> includes the paragraph:
>>>
>>> "Let me also be clear about what we will not do.  Our pursuit of 
>>> cybersecurity will not -- I repeat, will not include -- monitoring 
>>> private sector networks or Internet traffic.  We will preserve and 
>>> protect the personal privacy and civil liberties that we cherish as 
>>> Americans.  Indeed, I remain firmly committed to net neutrality so we 
>>> can keep the Internet as it should be -- open and free."
>>>
>>> Administration supporting network neutrality, security *and* civil 
>>> liberty and privacy.
>>>
>>> Next:
>>>
>>> ICANN oversight hearing in the Congress, Thursday June 4. "Event: 
>>> 'Oversight Of The Internet Corporation For Assigned Names And Numbers 
>>> (ICANN)' "
>>> <http://energycommerce.house.gov/index.php?option=com_jcalpro&Itemid=54&extmode=view&extid=47>
>>>
>>> Anyone know the speakers etc?
>>>
>>> And interesting, seems Andrew McLaughlin will join the Obama 
>>> administration as Deputy Chief Technology Officer, reporting to 
>>> Aneesh Chopra 
>>> <http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/googles-top-policy-exec-to-join-obama-administration/>. 
>>> You can see Andrew talking about technology and government in this 
>>> video from the Obama transition 
>>> <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InI5n3NTvR4>.
>>>
>>> Think Friday was a good day.
>>>
>>> Adam
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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