/~ato/weblog

Skip to navigation.

Sharing is the future

Andreas Tolf Tolfsen

Keep the internet free demonstration in Oslo, Norway.

Around a hundred people gathered outside the parliamentary building in Oslo, Norway this evening to fight for citizen rights in the digital world.

The demonstration, which took place outside Stortinget, was initiatied by FriBit, a cultural organization aiming to inform and raise awareness around the issues of copyright, sharing of culture, and file-sharing. Although they try to stay neutral, with a leg in both industry- and grassroot camps, they are primarily an interest- and debate group furthering consumer rights.

The file-sharing debate has been quite active in Sweden for a long time, and has recently made international news with the Pirate Bay trial. In Norway, the debate is also heating up, with recent involvement from many prominent politicans, lawyers prosecuting file-sharers, EU directives (through the EEA agreement), and recent law propsals in various European countries attempting to regulate and control the internet.

Market powers are pressing politicians to enforce laws benefitting economical interests, but which will hurt the free, neutral internet, and in turn limit the basic rights for internet users. There is no doubt in my mind that we're facing a battle for the internet as we know it.

FriBit summarizes a number of controversial laws and law proposals:

ACTA agreement
A secretly negotiated trade agreement to increase the rights of copyright holders, and which will enable them to take legal action against those who violate the copyright of a work.
FRA law
A Swedish law granting the military the right to survailance and wire-tapping all internet traffic crossing Swedish borders. This naturally also affects Norwegian internet traffic, as telephone-, fiber- and copper lines doesn't follow country borders; but rather takes the most efficent route.
HADOPI law
A French law instructing internet service providers to monitor their customers and to cut their internet access at suspicion of having committed a copyright violation.
IPRED directive
An EU and EEA directive giving copyright holders the right to monitor and they themselves conduct investigations into possible violations of the copyright law. This has already been implemented in Sweden.
Data retention directive
An EU and EEA directive instructing internet service providers to log all internet- and telecommunication for a minimum of six months.
Telecom package
An EU- and EEA-wide package in which multi-national corporations are attempting to remove ammendments preventing censorship, ensuring privacy, and the right to have your case tried in a court of law. This is an attempt at outsourcing and privatizing the juridical authority on the internet to private companies. The package will also deprive us of rights normally consolidated in the constitution and in human rights conventions.

A number of different organizations and parties had joined the call for a free internet, primarily from the left wing:

It's very pleasing to see an aspiring free cultural movement in Norway. In September, there are parliamentary elections in Norway, and issues relating to digital rights, copyright and file-sharing must be put on the agenda. The ongoing debate enables us to challenge the current conceptions, intent and impact of copyright law. Perhaps more interestingly, the EU directives will test Norway's position as an outsider to the EU, and are bound to show the real faces and positions of the politicians allegedly against EU membership.

I have also uploaded a number of photos from the event.

Last updated:

Comments