Re: We need a Magna Carta moment on information

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: David P. Reed [dpreed () reed com]
Sent: Friday, March 21, 2008 11:19 AM
To: David Farber
Cc: ip
Subject: Re: [IP] We need a Magna Carta moment on information

Note that the Magna Carta was the first limitation of a King's powers
forced onto the King by his subjects.

I'd suggest an alternative.  Don't grant the King the framing based on
the idea that he has *any* powers that do not derive from the people
through their creation of a fully amendable constitution that is beyond
the reach of the King.

That's the difference between the American Revolution and its result
from the English process and its result.  It's also the difference
between Edmund Burke (the Ronald Reagan of his time) and the American
founders (as eloquently related by Tom Paine in The Rights of Man).

Granting the idea that "information" is somehow separate from the
natural communications of human beings, that it is "owned" by default,
that it is the province of abstract persons like "sovereigns" and
"corporation" - merely *granting* that idea to be true is how we become
slaves.

So I'd go way beyond a "Magna Carta" moment.  I'd reject the very
concept that ideas can be owned or regulated.  Even copyright limits its
scope to *fixed* expression, not ideas.

Ideas are not the province of government.  They never have been.  Don't
even enter into an argument based on that premise.

David Farber wrote:
> ________________________________________
> From: Brian Randell [Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk]
> Sent: Friday, March 21, 2008 7:11 AM
> To: David Farber
> Subject: We need a Magna Carta moment on information
>
> Dave:
>
>  From yesterday's (UK) Guardian Newspaper, for IP if you wish.
>
> The background story on the UK Governement's plans for "joined-up
> government", and hence for aggregating huge databases on the entire
> population, is the 2005 Cabinet office Report "Transformational
> Government":
>
>    http://www.cio.gov.uk/documents/pdf/transgov/transgov-strategy.pdf
>
> And the BCS Survey referred to by Michael Cross is at:
>
>    http://www.bcs.org/upload/pdf/dgs2008.pdf
>
> Cheers
>
> Brian
>
> ----
>
>
>
> We need a Magna Carta moment on information
>
> Michael Cross
>
> One casualty of last November's missing-disc fiasco was a government
> strategy for sharing citizens' personal data between departments. It
> was scheduled to appear on November 22, just two days after
> Chancellor Alistair Darling told Parliament the HMRC had lost the
> details of 25 million people. Unsurprisingly, the data-sharing
> announcement was buried in a deep vault under Whitehall where it has
> languished ever since.
>
> It can't stay there indefinitely. Huge chunks of the government's
> programme to reform public services depend on the presumption that
> information gathered by one public body is made available to others
> in the interests of efficiency, customer-centricity and detecting
> fraud.
>
> Until now, government policy has assumed that data-sharing enjoys
> public support. Many public service managers can tell of citizens
> being amazed that data are not shared, even when failure to do so
> costs lives. Ordinary citizens don't differentiate between different
> arms of the state, the argument goes.
>
> I'm sympathetic to this assumption. However, it is untenable in the
> current climate. Ordinary citizens clearly do care what officialdom
> does with their data, and don't necessarily view the NHS or their
> local authority as a branch of the state. Last week, the British
> Computer Society (BCS) released a poll showing two-thirds of Britons
> say their trust in the government to look after personal data has
> fallen in the light of recent revelations. At the same time,
> parliament's joint committee on human rights painted a picture of a
> government with a frighteningly gung-ho attitude to new data-sharing
> procedures. Its report criticised the approach of passing laws
> containing very broad enabling provisions, while relying on secondary
> legislation, generally unscrutinised by parliament, for data
> protection safeguards.
>
> Even more than the data loss fiascoes, this is a symptom of a
> government out of step with growing public awareness of the power of
> information. If IT-based reforms - let alone schemes like the ID card
> - are to retain credibility, the government must recognise these
> concerns.
>
> New guidance on officialdom's management of personal data is expected
> to appear shortly. A seminar organised by the BCS last week suggested
> it could start by embedding the importance of personal data in
> Whitehall's own criteria for success or failure. All IT-based changes
> should have a privacy impact assessment; this should be carried out
> regularly as part of "gateway" reviews of major projects. Meanwhile,
> "capability reviews" should test government departments' ability to
> handle information safely (possibly instead of current criteria such
> as their ability to "ignite passion, pace and drive" - I'm not making
> that up).
>
> Meanwhile, ministers could send a signal to society by giving the
> Information Commissioner real powers to spot-check organisations for
> data protection breaches, and to put unauthorised snoopers in prison.
> (Incredibly, the government is contemplating backtracking on tougher
> sentences, apparently under pressure from media organisations worried
> about their executives going to jail.)
>
> Citizens need to be brought in to the equation, too. This means
> gaining more informed, active consent before information is shared -
> and creating workable procedures through which individuals can revoke
> that consent. Vitally, citizens should have an automatic right to
> correct data about themselves.
>
> The whole information relationship between citizens and the state
> needs to be put on a new ethical basis. What we need, someone told
> the BCS, is a Magna Carta moment. I agree.
>
> From:
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/mar/20/politics.intellectualproperty?gusrc=rss&feed=technology
> --
> School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne,
> NE1 7RU, UK
> EMAIL = Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk   PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
> FAX = +44 191 222 8232  URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/people/brian.randell
>
>
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