Crowdsourcing tool launched to create positive plan for a Fair Digital Future amid censorship proposals

October 25, 2013– Global citizens and innovators are working together to shape a new crowd-sourced vision for 21st century copyright rules and a fair digital future. The move comes after over 100,000 people recently spoke out against attempts by old media conglomerates to impose extreme Internet censorship rules through the Trans-Pacific Partnership - rules that would have made the Internet more expensive, censored, and policed.

The project is being spearheaded by citizen-backed OpenMedia, which has been consulting extensively with Internet users, digital access experts, innovators, and entrepreneurs from several countries to identify how best to ensure people are free to collaborate, create, and manage content online.

“Earlier this year, we asked the Internet community what we should do to stop Internet censorship rules from being imposed. We heard loud and clear that it’s time to start crafting our own community-driven copyright rules - and that’s exactly what we’re setting out to do,” says OpenMedia Executive Director Steve Anderson. “Once a citizen-centered alternative exists, it becomes impossible for decision-makers to claim their extreme proposals are serving regular people.”

Anderson continued: “Our crowd-sourced vision will be a direct challenge to the top-down, last century approach of old media conglomerates. Citizens have made clear their strong opposition to any move to censor their open Internet. We can’t let outdated conglomerates set the agenda - that’s why we’re working together to create our own vision for open, 21st century rules that work for creators, innovators, and citizens alike.”

Everyone is invited to take part in shaping this positive new vision at https://openmedia.org/crowdsource

About OpenMedia

OpenMedia is a network of people and organizations working to safeguard the possibilities of the open Internet. We work toward informed and participatory digital policy. Through campaigns such as StopTheMeter.ca and StopSpying.ca, OpenMedia has engaged over half-a-million citizens, and has influenced public policy and federal law.

About the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement:

The TPP is one of the most far-reaching international free trade agreements in history. We know from leaked TPP draft texts that participating nations would be bound to much stricter and more extreme copyright laws than now exist under current national laws. These new rules would criminalize much online activity, invade citizens’ privacy, and significantly impact our ability to share and collaborate online.

Negotiators from 12 of the TPP negotiating nations—Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Peru, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Vietnam, and the United States—met in Malaysia to discuss these changes without input from the public, creators, or most businesses. The negotiating documents are classified—unless you are one of just 600 industry lobbyists permitted to participate. TPP meetings took place in Malaysia from July 15th to the 24th.

Negotiators have indicated that they are in the “home stretch”, with leaders of the participating countries expecting a resolution sometime in October. However, reports have indicated that the intellectual property provisions have been quite a “challenging” issue for those behind the agreement.

Over 15,000 people have now signed a petition at http://OurFairDeal.org, which demands that negotiators reject copyright proposals that would restrict the open Internet, access to knowledge, economic opportunity and our fundamental rights.

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Contact

David Christopher

Communications Coordinator,

OpenMedia.ca

1-778-232-1858

[email protected]

More Information

• In August 2013, OpenMedia and the Our Fair Deal Coalition launched an alternative process to the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership talks, enabling citizens to have their say on shaping their digital future.
• In May 2013, OpenMedia and Coalition partners sent TPP Trade Ministers a letter to demand a ‘Fair Deal’ on provisions that would restrict Internet use in the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks.
• We also sent a message to new U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman by purchasing a hard-hitting Washington D.C. newspaper ad.
• In December 2012, OpenMedia’s Steve Anderson took our message direct to TPP negotiators in Auckland. Read his full report from Auckland here.
• In June 2012, OpenMedia joined with a diverse coalition of groups to launch the StopTheTrap.net petition - a petition which gained over 135,000 signatures and which was hand-delivered to TPP negotiators in San Diego.