Posts Tagged ‘#marcocivil’

Tapa_Hacia_una_-Internet_libre-01

19.01.2012 por Joana Varon

The Internet Filter: understand SOPA and Internet censorship through Latin America’s context

The right of every citizen to seek, receive and share information is protected both in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). As regards Latin American countries specifically, the American Convention on Human Rights lays down rules on censorship in article 13. Similarly, the Tunis Agenda also recognizes these rights within the Information Society.

However, despite the fact that freedom of expression depends on the free flow of information, there is a tendency for national and regional laws to intervene in the end-to-end architecture of the Internet, prevent the free flow of information and thus undermine the rights of every citizen to freedom of expression and privacy. Several Latin American governments and governments around the world, allegedly for the fight against piracy or the sake of security, have proposed legal texts that impose criminalization of legitimate expressions; liability of intermediaries; and disconnection of users on the pretext of violations to copyright or transmission of illegal information (such as pornography, drug trafficking, cyber attacks, etc.), or that simply establish arbitrary mechanisms to filter, block and remove content from the net and fail to provide an adequate protection of the rights to privacy and protection of personal data.

All these provisions are rather reprehensible, as they not only jeopardize the fundamental rights to privacy and freedom of expression of citizens, but also pose a threat to some of the key elements of the network architecture, such as neutrality and openness. No wonder yesterday’s movements have reached such enormous popularity, with more than 10 thousand websites shutting down in protest against SOPA – the subject is alive and kicking. Wikipedia, Google, Facebook, Mozilla, Wired, Reporters Without Borders, Greenpeace, IDEC and many others have joined the ranks of protesters. This context shows how utterly important it is to watch abusive Internet legislation worldwide. This is the intent of the book “Towards an Internet Free of Censorship”, published by CELE (Center for Research on Free Speech and Access to Knowledge), in which researchers Joana Varon Ferraz, Carlos Affonso Pereira de Souza, Bruno Magrani and Walter Britto participate with the chapter entitled “Content Filtering in Latin America: Reasons and Impacts on Freedom of Expression”.

As the Internet in nature knows no bounds, establishing regulations influences the freedom of expression and access to knowledge of the other countries; therefore, it is important that developing countries also define standards to be evaluated and discussed globally. While developed countries have already established a legal framework for the Internet, the movement in Latin America is still recent. This context provides more room for reflection, both if we observe the criticisms against foreign regulations, or if we strive to evaluate and think of access and freedom-related issues for our specific regional scenario.

The book is available for download here.

Direitos autorais | Direitos da Internet | OMPI | Política Internacional | Propriedade Intelectual

08.11.2011 por Joana Varon

@Global Voices: Cybercrime law could restrict fundamental rights, Internet openness

Source: Global Voices, by Ellery Biddle

Pending in Brazil’s House of Representatives is a proposed cybercrime law [pt] that could criminalize many ordinary online activities and that would mark an abrupt shift in Brazil’s progressive digital policy environment. The Committee on Science and Technology will vote on the bill on November 9, 2011.

Under the proposed law, PL 84/99, sponsored by Representative Eduardo Azeredo, courts could apply criminal penalties to activities like file sharing, peer-to-peer communications, and the fair use of copyrighted works. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and sites like YouTube and Flickr could become liable for unlawful content posted by their users. And ISPs, email service providers, and other Internet intermediaries would be obligated to collect and retain users’ personal data for extended periods of time. Scholars, civil society leaders, and advocates for digital rights have spoken out against the bill, arguing that the law would interfere with citizens’ rights to free expression and privacy and restrict the openness of the Brazilian Internet.

Researchers at the Centro do Tecnología e Sociedade [pt] (Center for Technology and Society) of the Fundação Getulio Vargas, Brazil’s premier social science research institution, have circulated ample analysis calling attention to problems in the bill. Mega Não [pt], a collective of digital rights activists and scholars who advocate for Internet openness and strong online privacy laws, worked with stakeholders to compose a 2008 petition [pt] illustrating the bill’s problems and urging legislators to vote against it. The petition emphasized the importance of balancing the nation’s security interests with fundamental rights and the broader trajectory of Brazil’s information society:

Não defendemos o plágio, a cópia indevida ou o roubo de obras. Defendemos…liberdade de troca, o crescimento da criatividade e a expansão do conhecimento no Brasil. […] [Esse projeto] Projetos como esses…colocam o país definitivamente para debaixo do tapete da história da sociedade da informação no século XXI.
We do not advocate plagiarism, improper copying, or theft of works. We defend…free exchange, the growth of creativity, and the expansion of knowledge in Brazil. […] Bills like this one…will take the history of [Brazil’s] information society in the 21st century and sweep it under the rug.

The petition received over 160,000 signatures and prompted legislators to hold a series of public hearings on the bill before allowing it to move forward in the legislative process. Speaking at the International Free Software Forum conference in Porto Alegre in 2009, former President Lula Ignacio da Silva said of the bill [pt],

Essa lei não visa corrigir abusos na internet. Ela quer é fazer censura. Precisamos é de um código civil para determinar as responsabilidades na internet, mas não proibir.
This law does not aim to curb [criminal activity] on the Internet. Its aim is to censor. What we need is a civil code to determine [legal] responsibilities on the Internet, not to prohibit [ordinary activity].

US-based advocates for Internet openness and privacy including the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have also raised concerns about the bill.

The proposed law would undercut many of the positive developments in Brazilian Internet policy that have taken place in recent years. Under Lula, Minister of Culture and singer-songwriter Gilberto Gil worked to increase Internet access and supported expansion of digitally-based educational and cultural programs for Brazilians. The International Free Software Forum, Creative Commons, the Peer-to-Peer Foundation, and other leading innovators partnered with the Ministry of Culture and held events in Brazil, making the country a global hub for Internet openness.

In tandem with these developments, lawmakers drafted a digital “bill of rights” or civil regulatory framework, known as the Marco Civil da Internet. The full text of the bill of law is available in English, Portuguese, and Spanish. Developed through numerous consultations (both online and offline) between lawmakers, scholars, and digital rights advocates, the Marco Civil da Internet represents a balance of the right to freedom of expression with the interests of privacy and security. The bill establishes a clear set of rights and responsibilities for users, sets strong net neutrality principles, and shields intermediaries from criminal liability for user-generated content. Congress has yet to vote on the legislation; the Azeredo Law currently sits higher on the Congressional agenda than the Marco Civil, but should members of Congress call for further deliberation concerning the PL 84/99, this could change.

Under the new administration of President Dilma Rouseff, who took office in January of 2011, Minister of Culture Ana de Hollanda has signaled that she will likely diverge from Gil’s policy agenda. She startled the digital rights community by removing the Creative Commons license from the Ministry’s website during her first days in office.

As part of its partnership with the Centro da Tecnologia y Sociedade (CTS), CDT has issued comments on PL 84/99, analyzing its provisions under international and regional human rights law and comparing PL 84/99 with the Council of Europe’s Convention on Cybercrime, which Representative Azeredo has referred to as the “inspiration” for the bill. The key points of the CDT memorandum are as follows:

PL 84/99 would criminalize the violation of an “express access restriction” to a computer, network, or online service. The language used in the bill is so broad that it could criminalize violations of the “terms of service” of websites or other online services.

PL 84/99 would criminalize obtaining or transferring data from a system or network protected by an “express access restriction.” This could criminalize activities such as file sharing and transferring data from one device or system to another.

PL 84/99 could generate legal consequences for intermediaries—ISPs, hosts, or platforms for user-generated content—that facilitate, unknowingly and unintentionally, the “unauthorized” transfer of data or the dissemination of malicious code.

PL 84/99 would obligate intermediaries to retain user data for law enforcement purposes, a measure that would also interfere with the citizen’s right to privacy.

Over the past decade, Brazil has pioneered a digital policymaking approach that countries all over the world have looked to as a model for promoting innovation and openness online. CTS and CDT urge digital rights advocates in Brazil and throughout the Americas to oppose PL 84/99, and to support the efforts of Brazilian legislators and civil society leaders working to maintain Brazil’s vibrant information society.

Direitos da Internet | Liberdade de Expressão | Não categorizado | Política Internacional

06.10.2011 por Joana Varon

Brazil Drafts An ‘Anti-ACTA’: A Civil Rights-Based Framework For The Internet

By: Techdirt from the who’s-leader-of-the-*free*-world-now? dept

One of the striking features of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is that it is mainly being signed by Western/“developed” countries – with a few token players from other parts of the world to provide a fig-leaf of nominal inclusiveness. That’s no accident: ACTA is the last-gasp attempt of the US and the EU to preserve their intellectual monopolies – copyright and patents, particularly drug patents – in a world where both are increasingly questioned.
Much of the challenge to the old order is coming from the BRICS group of emerging countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – none of which has been involved in ACTA. Of those, the one in the vanguard of adopting innovative approaches to making knowledge widely accessible in the Internet age is Brazil.

Direitos autorais | Direitos da Internet | Liberdade de Expressão | OMPI | Política Internacional | Propriedade Intelectual

27.09.2011 por Joana Varon

English translation of the Draft Bill Proposition on Civil Right’s Based Framework for Internet in Brazil

The draft bill proposition for a Civil Right’s Based Framework for Internet in Brazil has just reached Congress. The English translation of this version is available here.

It is the result of an initiative from the Brazilian Ministry of Justice, in partnership with the Center for Technology and Society of the Getulio Vargas Foundation (CTS/FGV), to develop a collaborative online/offline consultation process in which all the actors from Brazilian society could identify together the rights and responsibilities that should guide the use of the Internet in Brazil. The process, which resulted in a Bill of Law, is an example of the importance and the great potential of multistakeholder involvement on policy-making.

The online consultation was divided into two periods, each of them spanning roughly 45 days. The first period of the consultation involved a debate about general principles, which then served as reference for the writing of the text of draft Bill. These principles were divided into three groups: (1) individual and collective rights (privacy, freedom of speech, and access rights), (2) principles related to intermediaries (net neutrality and civil liability), and (3) governmental directives (openness, infrastructure, and capacity building). The draft text for the Bill, reflecting the comments received on its first phase, was then put under consultation for the second period.

Contributions were received through a website hosted by Cultura Digital, an online platform developed by the Ministry of Culture, with the goal to encourage the emergence of online communities for the discussion of public policies for the digital environment. During both periods of the consultation, users were allowed to comment on the consultation texts, paragraph by paragraph, directly in the website. Nonetheless, blog posts, tweets, articles published in mainstream media, and institutional and individual contributions sent by email (and then made available to the public at the website) were also taken into consideration.

Predictably, debates that involved the balance between conflicting rights and interests, freedom of speech, anonymity, privacy and access rights were the topics of heated and often rich debates during both stages of the consultation process. Over 2,000 contributions, from individual users, governmental and non-governmental entities were received.

NGOs, universities, internet service providers (collectively though associations, as well as individually), business companies, law firms, law enforcement agencies, individuals, Brazilian Embassies from all over the world, and many other participants have joined the online public hearing. The participation of several stakeholder groups has promoted the diversity of opinions and the availability of high quality information and expert advise, which have helped the government to draft a balanced bill. The openness and transparency of the process, entirely conducted online, in the public eye, has improved the legitimacy of the bill. Marco Civil was introduced in Congress with the political weight and the legitimacy that the Bill would be expected to have after a complex multistakeholder discussion.

The final text of the draft  bill contains 25 articles divided into 5 chapters, concerning: (1) Preliminary Provisions; (2) User Rights and Guarantees; (3) Provision of Connection Services and Internet Services; (4) The Role of Public Authorities; (5) Final Provisions. The bill begins by advancing users’ rights and some general principles for the regulation of the Internet, before dealing with the issues of the preservation of connection logs, secondary liability for ISPs, and net neutrality, and then wraps with directives aimed at the public sector.

If approved by the National Congress as it stands, the Marco Civil would be a Federal Law, applicable to public and private entities, as well as to individuals. Its provisions would be enforceable and one could resort to courts as a mean to have such principles complied in further national Internet regulation processes.

The Marco Civil is presently being discussed at the National Congress as Bill of Law nr. 2126/2011.

Conhecimentos tradicionais | Direitos autorais | Direitos da Internet | Liberdade de Expressão | Não categorizado | OMPI | Patentes | Política Internacional | Propriedade Intelectual

06.06.2011 por Joana Varon

UN rapporteur releases joint declaration on freedom of expression and the Internet

Source: OAS, Press Release R50/11

The need to protect and promote the Internet and the limitations on the State in the regulation of this medium were set forth in a joint declaration signed this June 1 by the Special Rapporteurs for Freedom of Expression of the Americas, Europe, Africa, and the United Nations.

The United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Frank LaRue; the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organization of American States (OAS), Catalina Botero Marino; the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović; and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, Faith Pansy Tlakula; issued a joint declaration establishing guidelines to protect freedom of expression on the Internet.

In the Joint Declaration, the four rapporteurs maintain that States have the obligation to promote universal access to the Internet, and cannot justify for any reason the interruption of that service to the public, not even for public safety or national security reasons. In principle, any measure that limits access to the network is unlawful, unless it meets the strict requirements established by international standards for such actions.

Direitos da Internet | Liberdade de Expressão | Política Internacional