[governance] Australian Pirate Party pushes for an Internet treaty

[Suresh Ramasubramanian]

The internet is quite changeable and applications on it are too.  However, it takes 

1. A valid proposal
2. Valid use cases
3. An orderly transition plan

before any sort of significant change is possible in any mature system at all, even one that isn't used by people around the world.

It requires rather different skills than just political polemic to accomplish this though

Lessigisms such as "code is law" (or architecture is policy for that matter) aren't any particular good in this situation, any more than other overly broad generalizations are, reduced to soundbite quotes or not.

--srs (iPad)

On 06-Sep-2013, at 9:58, parminder <parminder at itforchange.net> wrote:

> 
> On Friday 06 September 2013 09:04 AM, Jeremy Malcolm wrote:
>> In the Australian election week, I noticed in the Pirate's Party manifesto at http://getawarrant.org.au/:
>> 
>> "The Pirate Party will push for negotiations to begin on an international treaty for a free and open Internet.
>> 
>> In 2012, the United Nations passed a landmark resolution that declared the Internet to be a fundamental human right. The same rights that people take for granted offline must be also enshrined online. An international treaty can guarantee this now and for future generations."
>> 
>> Naïve, or ahead of the curve?
> 
> Well, ahead of curve only if we want to wait till the architecture of the global Internet, and social processes building on it, is firmly set and too late to be changed. And this will be soon. Remembe the adage 'architecture is policy' and so a policy coming too later after the architecture is rather useless. 
> 
> I really dont understand why and how people say things like it is too early to begin talking of international arrangements - also knowing that even once you begin talking about them in a positive manner it may take years for them to get off the ground.... In fact it is already getting late. Around WSIS, the Internet pioneers and evangelists still held some high ground and people were ready to develop global frameworks based on such ideals - give or take some. As more and more malignant interests have discovered how to control the Internet and make it deliver for them, the chances of such agreements in fact recede. In the circumstances, what really is the case for holding that to begin talking abut such agreements may be ahead of time, far worse, it being naive? 
> 
> Meanwhile, of course OECD is going ahead full steam to make global Internet policy and policy frameworks.... I think we need to get real, sooner the better. I mean if we are really thinking global democracy and global public interest, 
> 
> parminder 
> 
> 
> 
>> 
>> -- 
>> Dr Jeremy Malcolm
>> Senior Policy Officer
>> Consumers International | the global campaigning voice for consumers
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