more on ITU cyberspace treaty

[David Farber <farber () tmail com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Adam Peake <ajp () glocom ac jp>
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] ITU cyberspace treaty
Date: Sat, 04 Jan 2003 23:02:56 +0900

Dave,

Seems the story is following up on a speech Utsumi made at a regional 
meeting of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), November 
7-9, in Bucharest.  See <http://www.itu.int/wsis/> --  WSIS will be the 
UN Summit of 2003 (and 2005.) ITU is the lead agency for the Summit 
within the UN family.

And WSIS is a messy business. Launched with much promise of being a new 
type of UN Summit, with government, civil society and private sector 
working as partners, the outcome has been pretty much to marginalize 
civil society (with China and Pakistan in particular adamant that NGOs 
should not have a significant role in the Summit.) The original themes 
of the summit were well meaning an appropriate for a UN summit: to raise 
awareness of information society, and address the digital divide. 
Utsumi's speech in Bucharest introduced a new theme: "to develop new 
legal and policy frameworks, appropriate to cyberspace".

Rumor is that the new theme was added to the Summit agenda at the 
request of the US and Russia. US, in "homeland security" mode, had until 
then been quite dismissive of the Summit (as might have been be expected 
of the Bush administration), and Russia just emerging from the Moscow 
hostage/gassing tragedy.

I think we should be very concerned that such issues will be discussed 
at head of state level in such a fora.  Not quite sure what the 
intention is -- ITU as a new policy-maker for cyberspace?  Not a happy 
thought.  Particularly as Civil Society has been quite significantly 
excluded from the WSIS process and has little or no interaction (unless 
you pay over $10,000 ITU membership) with the ITU. The Summit "PrepCom" 
process is well advanced, opportunities for comment and discussion are 
not great.

Partial text of Utsumi's speech in Bucharest below (full document at 
<http://www.itu.int/wsis/docs/bucharest/speech_utsumi.doc>)

I hope EFF, CDT, etc., will take a look at WSIS and get involved.

Thanks,

Adam

Adam Peake
GLOCOM Tokyo


(Yoshio Utsumi - Bucharest, European regional preparatory meeting of 
WSIS.)

Given that the information society covers virtually every aspect of 
our
lives, there will be many different views as to what should be achieved 
by
the World Summit. Let me give you my own personal view of why we need 
a
World Summit. I believe that there are essentially three reasons:

1. To raise awareness among political leaders, at the highest level, 
of
the implications of the information society and the new challenges it 
will
bring.

2. To tackle the injustice of the digital divide.

3. To develop new legal and policy frameworks, appropriate to 
cyberspace.

Let me take each of these in turn, beginning with the need to raise
awareness of the challenges of the information society. The industrial
revolution brought many new labour-saving devices into the workplace 
and
home. Those who could afford them, and knew how to use them, gained 
benefits
in terms of higher productivity and increased leisure time.

In the information revolution, we use ICTs to support and enhance our
ability to see, hear and communicate. We use them to enhance our 
learning,
our knowledge base and our creativity. Again, those who can afford 
these
tools, and can use them effectively, will reap the benefits. Wise
politicians already know how to use television and the media to win
elections, but many do not yet know how to make the best use of ICTs to 
run
the government, or to extend the reach of educational programmes or 
medical
services.

Despite the fact that activities based around the creation, processing 
and
dissemination of information already account for more than 80 per cent 
of
employment in the developed world, in the mind of political leaders, 
issues
concerning ICTs are not yet high on their political agenda.

For developing countries, the dawn of the information society poses 
the
opportunity to leapfrog ahead; to be free of the constraints imposed by 
the
distribution of natural resources or the terms of trade. ICTs can help 
too
in nation building for those countries emerging from a troubled history. 
But
how many political leaders in the developing world are seriously 
seeking
these opportunities for their people?

The information society will also pose new ethical challenges for our
political leaders which are similar in nature to those posed by 
genetic
engineering in that the information we generate and collect will give 
us
much more power to control our environment.

We must help our political leaders develop a common vision of how to 
turn
these challenges into opportunities, by using ICTs.

The second reason to hold a World Summit is to tackle the injustice of 
the
digital divide.

Between 1995 and 2000, the volume of Internet traffic grew by four 
times,
but available capacity grew by 200 times. And the "dark fibre" available 
on
the most popular routes, such as across the Atlantic, grew by several
thousand times. Haphazard, overzealous planning has led to 
overcapacity,
which in turn has led to falling prices and falling profits for
telecommunication operators and manufacturers.

Yet, in other parts of the world, investment just can't seem to keep up 
with
demand. There are still millions of villages that do not even have a 
basic
telephone connection. It is not a question of lack of resources. It is 
a
lack of a global policy perspective.

In the year 2000 alone, the telecommunications industry invested more 
than
200 billion US dollars worldwide. But much of this investment has not 
paid
dividends, either financially or socially, because we were super-serving 
the
rich few, rather than providing basic services to the many.

In recent years, we have seen many initiatives designed to tackle the
digital divide, such as the G8 DOT Force, the UN ICT Task Force, the 
digital
opportunity initiative, and long before that, the Maitland Commission 
in
ITU. We must learn from these initiatives, but we must not make the 
same
mistakes. We must be inclusive of all stakeholders. We must seek 
innovative
ways of mobilizing investment, by seeking a global perspective and 
securing
justice. We must develop programmes of sector reform based on 
competition,
private sector participation and, most importantly, with truly global
policies and effective regulation. Otherwise the digital divide will 
widen
further.

The third issue that the Summit should address is the need for a new 
legal
and policy framework for cyberspace. Cyberspace is a new land, without
frontiers and without a government yet. Cyberspace is not a parallel
universe: it interacts with our own world and poses many new challenges 
for
policy-makers. For instance:

·       We are increasingly dependent on cyberspace, but how can we protect
against international cyber-terrorism?  Who can police cyberspace and 
how?
·       If we pay taxes in the real world, should we also pay them for our
transactions in cyberspace? And to whom?  How?
·       How can we control crimes conducted in cyberspace?  Which
jurisdiction should take precedence?
·       How can freedom of expression or other fundamental human rights be
guaranteed in cyberspace? Is there a danger that some would seek to 
control
content?
·       How can we build user trust and confidence in cyberspace?

There may well exist national policies and laws on these issues, but 
their
effectiveness is limited by the fact that they only apply within 
national
borders. Yet many of our economic transactions and our intellectual
activities are already conducted in cyberspace, without clear rules 
and
regulations.

We need a new global governance framework. Developing policy frameworks 
for
cyberspace-to deal with issues of cyber-crime, security, taxation,
intellectual property protection, or privacy-is something like 
establishing
a new government in the New World. I recall the early history of 
colonial
states in the USA or the story of El Dorado in Spanish America. But
cyberspace is an invisible world and much more complex. Its inhabitants 
are
not only individuals but include corporations, governments and even
sovereign states. They require new mechanisms for coordination. We need 
a
much more stronger political will to solve the issues than our ancestors 
did
in establishing a state in their newly conquered territories.

END




> ------ Forwarded Message
> From: Esther Dyson <edyson () edventure com>
> Date: Sat, 04 Jan 2003 05:40:17 -0500
> To: Peter Harter <harter () attglobal net>
> Cc: farber () cis upenn edu
> Subject: Re: ITU cyberspace treaty
>
> they really work fast, don't they?
>
> Shocking notion:
>
> "If countries have different rules, some countries will gain a 
> commercial
> advantage over others, fair competition will be hindered due to the
> spread  of illegal products, and countries without rules could become 
> a
> hotbed
> of crime, according to Utsumi."
>
> What kind of "offensive material" will constitute a crime, do you 
> think?
>
> Esther
>
> (Dave, sorry, a little old, but FYI.)
>
> At 01:02 AM 1/4/2003, Peter Harter wrote:
> > FYI Esther -- you probably have already seen this article.
> >
> > SNIP
> > Cheers,
> > peter
> >
> > ITU To Propose Intl Cyberspace Treaty At Information Summit
> > 279 words
> > 14 November 2002
> > Nikkei Report
> > English
> > (c) 2002 Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
> > TOKYO (Nikkei)--The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) will
> > propose at the World Summit on the Information Society in December 
> > 2003
> > the
> > creation of an international cyberspace treaty to set forth basic 
> > rules
> > on
> > Internet taxation, copyright protection and crime prevention, 
> > according
> > to
> > Secretary-General Yoshio Utsumi.
> > In an interview with The Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Utsumi said the ITU, a
> > United
> > Nations agency, believes that different rules among countries will
> > hamper
> > cross-border e-commerce and lead to more Internet crimes. The ITU
> > announced
> > a basic plan for the treaty at a preparatory meeting for the summit 
> > held
> > in
> > Europe in early November. It will seek cooperation from the Japanese
> > government at a preparatory meeting in Asia in January.
> > The union hopes to incorporate plans to sign the treaty in an
> > actionprogram
> > to be compiled at the world summit, which will be attended by heads of
> > state.
> > The treaty will cover taxation of international e-commerce; copyright
> > protection for content; prevention of Internet crimes, such as
> > cyberterrorism and release of offensive material; security measures 
> > such
> > as
> > prevention of illegal access and data tampering; and privacy 
> > protection.
> > It
> > will set forth uniform domestic and international guidelines to handle
>  >problems that occur.
>  >If countries have different rules, some countries will gain a 
> commercial
>  >
>  >advantage over others, fair competition will be hindered due to the
>  >spread
>  >of illegal products, and countries without rules could become a 
> hotbed
>  >of
>  >crime, according to Utsumi.
>  >The ITU believes the international rules will be helpful for 
> developing
>  >countries in Africa and Asia when they draw up their information
>  >technology
>  >policies.
>  >(The Nihon Keizai Shimbun Thursday morning edition)
>  >21/20/02 DIARY - POLITICAL AND GENERAL
>  >398 words
>  >21 November 2002
>
>
>
> Esther Dyson                    Always make new mistakes!
> chairman, EDventure Holdings
> writer, Release 3.0 (on Website below)
> edyson () edventure com
> 1 (212) 924-8800    --   fax  1 (212) 924-0240
> 104 Fifth Avenue (between 15th and 16th Streets; 20th floor)
> New York, NY 10011 USA
> http://www.edventure.com
>
> The conversation continues..... at
> http://www.edventure.com/conversation/
>
> PC Forum 2003 - March 23 to 25, Phoenix
> Who? what? where? Data comes alive!
>
>
>
>
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>
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-- Dave

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