The internet is referred to as humanity’s greatest invention.
Yet, the recent past has shown that this invention is very fragile and its principles, such as free and uninhibited communication, can be easily disturbed by corporate greed or the love of power.
Another factor contributing to increasing risks is the constantly decreasing quality of software and operating systems, while an ever increasing part of mankind’s daily life takes place on the increasingly vulnerable, digital infrastructure.
And when Edward Snowden released his information upon the population of earth, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the internet as we know it today, called for an Internet magna carta.
The Global Internet Magna Carta Project is the response by 36 year old Lars G. A. Hilse, who privately funded two years of work to meticulously scrutinise global efforts in Internet regulations and forge the guideline to ensure fair usage of the Internet by nations and private companies around the globe.
The main focus of the Global Internet Magna Carta Project are aspects like privacy, equal access to the internet around the globe, as well as content inheritance.
Another important aspect is infrastructure security, stemming from Hilse’s research into Cyber Security.
Introduction
The Internet has been called humanity’s most important invention. Therefore, there must be humanity’s most important document governing it.
The Global Internet Magna Carta Project deals with everything from profane questions like “what happens with your digital content in the case of death” up to fundamentals of mankind, for instance that all nations and private entities adhere to the human right for privacy.
Further rights of Internet users, as well as global quality standards to secure digital infrastructure are also paramount.
Why a regional/national Internet Magna Carta will not work
The Global Internet Magna Carta is something so comprehensive, that it took two years to research and create. And it is work in progress.
The internet’s influence on society has become substantial – this document had to be translated to over 20 languages – so that every human being on earth has equal access to it.
We need a Global Internet Magna Carta
Attempts have been made all across the globe to create documents to preserve the rights of internet users.
All of them were local.
The Internet knows no borders or regional boundaries, which is why all previous attempts had an unsatisfactory outcome.
The Global Internet Magna Carta aims to unify and organise human rights on the internet for all mankind.
Goals of the Global Internet Magna Carta Project
The set goal of the Global Internet Magna Carta Project is to assist nation states and state actors, as well as private entities to keep the Internet fair for all mankind to use.
With the guidelines created therein, we will attempt to make the Internet a better place. A place for humanity to become more productive and use the Internet more efficiently to drive innovation and to achieve equality among the people of earth.
How is the Global Internet Magna Carta structured?
The Global Internet Magna Carta is structured into three main elements:
1. Basic Human Rights
2. Reducing Internet Crime
3. Intellectual Property
Main Content
§1 Right to Freedom of Expression
No state actor or commercial entity shall intervene with or limit free expression or speech on the Internet but protect the freedom the Internet bears to all people equally.
It shall further not misuse its controlling power to intervene with change initiated and demanded by the people.
The freedom of expression and speech is a globally recognised human right and shall therefore supersede any national or commercial craving.
§2 Right to Uncensored Content
No state actor and commercial entity shall attempt or take part in efforts to censor the internet, thereby limiting the freedom of expression.
Any entity involved in such efforts shall held accountable for their actions.
§3 Right to Security and Privacy of Data
No state actor or commercial entity shall use the Internet to interfere with the privacy of a person in accordance with Article 12 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, issued by the United Nations.
Providers offering cloud services must oblige to secure the data of their customers in such a fashion that the customer-data cannot be intercepted by state actor or commercial entity other than the provider.
Motive
Every conversation should be kept confidential, as human behaviour in communication changes when scrutinised.
Privacy becomes even more important regarding intimate details about every human’s life, for instance, their health or financial situation. We must make sure that privacy always stands before economic interests.
§4 Right to be forgotten and Anonymity
Any state actor or commercial entity shall grant the right to any person to be forgotten.
In such a case, in which the person brings forth such a request, the state actor or commercial entity shall without hesitance delete all records about this person.
§5 Right to Equal, Global Access
It must be achieved that the controlling bodies, particular telecommunication enterprises, are urged to subsidise the costs encountered when providing less developed nations with Internet connectivity through the profits made by those nations which are more fortunate.
Motive
The Internet continues to play a major role in the development of economies around the globe.
International telecommunication companies create inequality by making access to the Internet difficult both by monetary and technical standards.
§6 Right to Content and Intellectual Property
Any state actor or commercial entity shall respect the right of any person publishing content in the assumption that the published content is copyrighted under international copyright agreements.
§7 Right to Property and Inheritance of Content
Content purchased by any person must become their undisputed property.
The legitimate purchase of digital content resembles that of the purchase of a physical item.
Commercial entities selling digital content must therefore ensure that the content is available to the owner even after the commercial entity ceases to exist.
Particularly those commercial entities not only selling content, but also storing it for their customer must ensure that the purchases of the owner are safe and available to the customer even if the commercial entity ceases to exist or is acquired and/or restructured in case of a merger with other commercial entities or state actors.
Further, digital content purchased must be made available to the owner’s next of kin in case of death or precautions must be taken so that the digital content of a customer can be retrieved by their next of kin in case of death.
§8 Right to Internet Education (Training)
Every state actor and commercial entity shall make it a priority to include Internet Education into their curricula.
Motive
Currently only a minority of states actually focus on teaching new technology, resulting in an ever increasing populous of “electronic consumers”.
Only if we manage to sensitise the educational bodies of the importance of obtaining creational skills in software development can we reduce this trend.
§9 Right to Network Neutrality
Every state actor and commercial entity shall attempt to maintain a status of network neutrality, prioritising the benefit of the consumer and preventing data monopolisation.
No state actor or commercial entity shall attempt to circumvent such policies through any means.
§10 Right to a Global Law Enforcement Body
Every state actor and commercial entity shall accept the creation of a global law enforcement agency to combat Internet crime across national borders.
It must therefore be the goal to create an internationally operating law enforcement agency funded by all participating states to significantly reduce Internet crime.
Motive
The financial damage through credit card and similar frauds alone exceeded USD $2 trillion in 2013.
Investigations into financial and other very major crimes often failed due to national borders.
While some states have very knowledgeable law enforcement agencies, others lack such specialisation or neglect/underestimate their importance.
Organisations like Interpol, for instance, only act as intelligence brokers between national law enforcement bodies.
§11 Right to Transparency of Vendors
Every state actor and commercial entity shall be transparent as to their identity, and their history.
It shall therefore be obligatory for every state actor and commercial entity to publish all relevant contact information on their website.
Motive
One of the highest contributors to fraud on the internet is the lack of contact information provided, particularly by commercial entities. A globally accepted agreement to make available all contact information can reduce chances for fraud committed through the internet.
§12 Right to Transparency in Internet Governance
Every state actor or commercial entity shall be transparent about their Internet operations.
Particularly those state actors collecting large amounts of data, publicly funded, must make them publicly accessible to researchers and other interested persons, so long as the release of this data does not endanger the security of the state actor or the competitive advantage of the commercial entity.
§13 Right to Cyber-Security and Software-Quality Standards
The consistent decline in software quality over the past years may have dire consequences in spite of the ever-increasing demand for network-connected infrastructure.
It has become evident that the software used to control critical infrastructure elements is consumer quality.
While a consumer might be able to live with a piece of malware or a virus disabling their consumer device, power plants using the same operating systems to control their sensitive network connected hardware might not.
It is therefore necessary that companies issuing software utilised in critical parts of public life must be subjected to scrutiny by a third party to ensure that these instruments remain secure from criminal or terrorist entities.
Contribute
This is a mammoth project for the good of all users of the Internet and those being affected by the Internet; so, every human being.
We therefore rely on your contributions to keep this project running and expand it further.
How you can help?
Monetary Donations
If you wish to contribute to the project monetarily, please use the following means:
PayPal
Bitcoin
Wire Transfer
Tweet About it
This will only take a minute, and have a great impact!
“I support the Global Internet Magna Carta Project”
Like/Share on Facebook, Google+, and other Social Networks
We have a Facebook Page for the Global Internet Magna Carta Project here.
Please like and share the content as far as you can!
Do you know someone in the Media?
Getting the word out about the project is crucial.
If you know a newspaper editor/editor in chief, email them our press release and ask them to write about it.
Do you know someone at a TV station around the globe? Send out our press release as well.
We are happy to answer all questions, participate in interviews and TV-broadcasts.
Do you know a Blogger?
Every blogpost we get about the Global Internet Magna Carta project is worth it!
So if you know a blogger or are a blogger, tell them about us in an email and we will be happy to contribute to their blogs for interviews or articles they publish.
Missing a Language?
The Global Internet Magna Carta Project needs to be equally accessible to every human being.
If we have missed a language, please let us know. Also if and how you can help us translate to that language we have forgotten.