Citizens, Governments and the Sovereigns of Cyberspace

This TED talk, Let's Take Back the Internet, just came out and if you are interested in citizen's right, free speech and cyberspace governance, have a listen.

Rebecca MacKinnon of the New America Foundation gives a frank but balanced talk about the relationship between citizens, governments and the internet service providers.  I won't go further and spoil the show for you but I will point out that Sarkozy has a slide all to himself.



In her talk, she mentions (and I found) the United Nations Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Frank La Rue. A real eye-opener for me.  Hadopi (called the "Three Strikes Law" outside of France) is mentioned in Section D, paragraph 49, where Frank La Rue says:

In addition, he is alarmed by proposals to disconnect users from Internet access if they violate intellectual property rights. This also includes legislation based on the concept of “graduated response”, which imposes a series of penalties on copyright infringers that could lead to suspension of Internet service, such as the so-called “three strikes-law” in France and the Digital Economy Act 2010 of the United Kingdom.  

Enough said. Enjoy the talk.