++++++++++++2012 was a huge year for Internet freedom. Please support Free Internet And The Digital Bill Of Rights!++++++++++

Together we stopped SOPA and PIPA, bills that would have dismantled the open Internet in the name of copyright enforcement. We forced AT&T to relent when we caught it violating Net Neutrality and harming consumers by blocking the FaceTime video-calling app. We stopped the march toward privacy-killing cybersecurity legislation.

And we put forward a vision of Internet freedom for all: The Declaration of Internet Freedom was translated into more than 70 languages and signed by thousands of organizations, multiple members of Congress and even the president of Costa Rica.

Meanwhile, the International Telecommunication Union's meeting in Dubai this month reminded us that we can never take the open Internet for granted and must fight for it at every turn. Make no mistake: In 2013, we’ll have to work even harder to keep the Internet free and open.

Here’s the short list of what we’ll face in the New Year:

A federal court will decide the future of Net Neutrality.
Local legislators will try to stop communities from building their own broadband networks.
The SOPA/PIPA forces will be back with new Web-censorship bills.
Corporations and government will push cybersecurity policies that violate our privacy and harm the Internet.

And those are just the threats we can predict.

More than ever before, the public needs to be at the decision-making table every time the Internet is under threat. And despite the need to play defense, we must also continue to push forward a proactive vision of the future of the Internet — one in which everyone, everywhere has access to an affordable, fast and open Internet.

Free Press will be ready. I hope you'll be there with us.

Please click here to support our campaign to protect the open Internet. Thank you.

[link to www.freepress.net]

A bill of rights in cyberspace

I. We have the right to connect. This is a preamble and precondition to the American first amendment: before we can speak, we must be able to connect. Hillary Clinton defines the freedom to connect as "the idea that governments should not prevent people from connecting to the internet, to websites, or to each other". It is this principle that also informs discussion of net neutrality.

II. We have the right to speak. No one may abridge our freedom of speech. We acknowledge the limitations on freedom of speech but they must be defined as narrowly as possible, lest we find ourselves operating under a lowest common denominator of offence. Freedom is our default.

III. We have the right to speak in our languages. The English language's domination of the internet has faded as more languages and alphabets have joined the net, which is to be celebrated. But Ethan Zuckerman also cautions that in our polyglot internet, we will want to build bridges across languages. We will want to speak in our own languages but also speak with others'.

IV. We have the right to assemble. In the American Bill of Rights, the right to assemble is listed separately from the right to speak. The internet enables us to organise without organisations and collaborate and that now threatens repressive regimes as much as speech.

V. We have the right to act. These first articles are a thread: We connect to speak and speak to assemble and assemble to act and that is how we can and will change the world, not just putting forth grievances but creating the means to fix them. That is what threatens the institutions that would stop us.

VI. We have the right to control our data. You should have access to data about you. And what's yours is yours. We want the internet to operate on a principle of portability, so your information and creations cannot be held prisoner by a service or government and so you retain control. But keep in mind that when control is given to one, it is taken from another; in those details lurk devils. This principle thus speaks to copyright and its laws, which set the definitions and limits of control or creation. This principle also raises questions about whether the wisdom of the crowd belongs to the crowd

VII. We have the right to our own identity. This is not as simple as a name. Our identity online is made up of our names, addresses, speech, creations, actions, connections. Note also that in repressive regimes, maintaining anonymity – hiding one's identity – is a necessity; thus anonymity, with all its faults and baggage and trolls, must also be protected online to protect the dissenter and the whistleblower. Note finally that these two articles – controlling our data and our identities – make up the right to privacy, which is really a matter of control.

VIII. What is public is a public good. The internet is public; indeed, it is a public place (rather than a medium). In the rush to protect privacy, we must beware the dangers of restricting the definition of public. What's public is owned by the public. Making the public private or secret serves the corrupt and tyrannical.

IX. The internet shall be built and operated openly. The internet must continue to be built and operated to open standards. It must not be taken over or controlled by any company or government. It must not be taxed. It is the internet's openness that gives it its freedom. It is this freedom that defines the internet.