From: “Robert A. Hayden” <hayden@krypton.mankato.msus.edu>
To: Cypherpunks Mailing List <cypherpunks@toad.com>
Message Hash: 21e69ad2afdefc9e8b4e37dc26120bcc8cfdec4ec53490f78b95b810b9695a7b
Message ID: <Pine.3.89.9404031534.A1135-0100000@krypton.mankato.msus.edu>
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UTC Datetime: 1994-04-03 20:47:46 UTC
Raw Date: Sun, 3 Apr 94 13:47:46 PDT
From: "Robert A. Hayden" <hayden@krypton.mankato.msus.edu>
Date: Sun, 3 Apr 94 13:47:46 PDT
To: Cypherpunks Mailing List <cypherpunks@toad.com>
Subject: THOUGHT: International Electronic Declaration of Rights
Message-ID: <Pine.3.89.9404031534.A1135-0100000@krypton.mankato.msus.edu>
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Hi everyone. This is a fairly involved piece, so forgive me if I ramble
a bit.
I just finished reading Sterling's The Hacker Crackdown, and one of the
statements he said in there struck a chord with me and got me to thinking.
Paraphrasing, Bruce said soemthing along the lines of 'Cyberspace is a
world unto itself, without borders or national identity.' Why is this
important?
Because at the same time we are witnessing the birth of Cyberspace (an
archaic, and almost vulgar term, yet also most appropriate), we are also
witnessing a terrifying and growing movement towards the heavy-handed
regulation of this new world.
In cyberspace, national borders are merely annoyances on the Information
Superhighway, much like that one pothole you manage to hit every morning
on your way to work or school. Yet, as the information future comes into
existance, governments will seek to put up checkpoints and roadblocks to
make sure information does not propogate.
Thus, I had a thought.
What if we took it upon ourselves to write an International Electronic
Declaration of Rights? A single body of ideas (not necessarily founded
upon the U.S. Bill of Rights) that will seek to define the underlying
tone of this non-existant cyberspace. It would have to be no more that a
few statements about what ideals and freedoms we feel are not only
important, but also granted to us on the basis of being living beings.
Hang on, don't run away yet. :-)
What to do with it, you ask? How do we get a bunch of geek-written
libertarian ideals to mean somehting?
Well, assuming we come up with our Electrion Declaration of Rights, the
next step would be to get various civil-liberty organizations (such as
EFF, ACLU, CPSR, and others outside the US) to sign on as supporters.
Then we pitch it to corporations and universities world-wide, and get
them to sign on. Soon, public pressure would force governments to look
at it as a Rights issue, and perhaps we get it adopted as bodies of law
or some such (a UN resolution?).
Ok ok, I'm _obviously_ getting quite ahead of myself, and I apologize.
But think about it, I do not know of a single resolution or declaration
of the rights a citizen of Cyberspace is granted. Yes, each country has
their own rules, but cyberspace doesn't understand the concept of
borders, and perhaps it never will.
Furthermore, there is precedent for International declarations of this
sort. The United Nations has a Declaration of Human Rights (ftp.eff.org
:/pub/CAF/civil-liberty/human-rights.un) [Note, though, that I avoided
the use of the term 'human' above' for reasons that any avid sci-fi
reader should recognize :-)]. If we based our declaration on THAT
declaration, as opposed to basing it on the U.S. Bill of Rights, it would
be less likely to meet objections from people outside of the United
States.
In any case, among the rights I think that need to be established (and
this is by no means a complete list, jsut what I came up with in the last
few hours)
Freedom to say what you wish without fear of retaliation
Freedom to participate in any forum without fear of retaliation
Fundamental right to personal privacy both in storage and in
communication (therein lies the right to cryptography)
Freedom to hold any religious views your wish, including no
religion
Freedom from having religious views the basis of policy
Access will not be denied to a person without due process
Policies will not be implemented on the basis of race, colour,
creed, gender, sexual orientation, language, religion,
political or other opinion, national or social status,
property, birth, or other status.
Oops, sorry, went a little overboard, but you get the point (actually, I
like the 'access' one. It's actually pretty important.)
In any case, we are on the esge of a new world here, and I fear that
reactionary regulation will make it into a dreadful world to live in.
Perhaps something like the above, coupled with a grassroots
organizational effort that we have shown to be so successful in
cyberspace will perhaps slow the regulational onslaught, or perhaps even
turn it to freedoms advantage.
I'd really like to hear your opinions on this.
(BTW: I did not bring this up in EFF forums because I was concerned with
'Americanizing' this idea too much. Instead, it is my belief that if
this was a more international effort, with US and other civil-liberty
groups signing on AFTER, it may be more successful. Perhaps I'm wrong
which case I will repost this into other forums).
I appreciate your time.
____ Robert A. Hayden <=> hayden@krypton.mankato.msus.edu
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