PDC: Digital liberties working group

This Working Group (WG) was established by the Policy Development Committee (PDC) on 20 February 2013.

Working group report
This working group was tasked with developing policy to develop policy on digital liberties. The working group was chaired by Ben McGinnes and will present the following policy text to the April 3 PDC meeting.

Recommendation
The Digital Liberties working group recommends the following policies be adopted as a means to implement the PPAU platform.

Platform amendment
The grassroots nature of the Internet is causing considerable disruption to traditional power structures. Unsurprisingly, corporate and government entities are now trying to control the Internet by imposing censorship, preventing access, instituting global treaties to reduce the rights of Internet users, and granting themselves unprecedented surveillance and monitoring powers. Resisting this requires firm defense of the founding principles of the Internet. The nature of attacks on the rights of Internet users varies over time, but currently the focus is on data retention and compulsory censorship.

Net Neutrality

Net Neutrality is a fundamental principle behind the development of the internet. It ensures that the internet is free, open and equivalent by preventing gatekeepers from blocking, speeding up, or slowing down content based on the source, destination or owner.

Content providers and ISPs have recently threatened this principle by seeking to differentiate among different forms of information and data flow, and impose priorities. Abandoning Net Neutrality and subjecting internet traffic to a commercial veto will hurt competition and innovation, and allow service providers to preference or block protocols and force consumers to use less desirable options. Net Neutrality guarantees that even the smallest entrepreneurs have the same access standards as established firms, and the absence of such a guarantee will impose a perpetual threat on generations of new entrants.

Free, open and non-discriminatory access to the Internet is essential for our democracy and for our economic well-being and the Pirate Party will seek the adoption of clear Net Neutrality principles to protect the internet from the introduction of any discriminatory practices.

Data retention

Surveillance of the public is expanding constantly. This is often justified in tactical terms, but amounts to a strategic failure as it undermines the fundamental principles underpinning a trusting relationship between the state and the citizen.

The latest expansion in surveillance is a proposed law which would force ISPs to retain telephone and internet data for 2 years, and force people to reveal their passwords on demand. This is a gross invasion of privacy and will create a vast database of material. Ultimately this database could become accessible through many channels not mentioned in the legislation, including subpoenas. The database will pose little threat to criminal activity, since many technical avenues currently exist through which data retention can be avoided.

Censorship

Internet censorship proposals create a permanent infrastructure for web blocking, and connect it to a permanently shifting array of banned content. The RC classification has been altered frequently by parliament and has become patchwork and inconsistent. We believe that the government should look to adequately funding law enforcement, removing illegal content and prosecuting those responsible for the manufacture of the material, rather than funding a filter that slows connection speeds, is liable to wrongly block websites and is easily circumvented.

No issues exist with households choosing censorship programs for their own use. However, parents should be allowed to make decisions for their own families, and the government should trust them to do so responsibly.

Future directions

All attempts to control Internet use share one critical flaw: they are easily evaded by those with technical knowledge. All such laws ultimately impose a general loss of rights on the public while doing nothing to curb criminal behaviour. The Pirate Party will oppose all current and future attempts to restrict Internet use on that basis. A fast and free Internet, open to all, is a safeguard not just for our economy and culture, but for our fundamental rights.

Policy text
Provide a fast, neutral Internet.
 * Institute legal protection for Net Neutrality, and prevent attempts by carriers to restrict it.
 * Ban prioritization of traffic based on packet sources or destinations.
 * Allow generic prioritization of traffic based on protocol types defined by the IETF.
 * Support the installation of fibre-to-the-home Internet connections wherever possible.

Prevent the institution of a state-mandated data retention regime.
 * Any legal mechanisms enacted to create records of Internet use among the general public will be opposed and/or repealed.
 * Any data collected though such a regime will be securely deleted.

Prevent the institution of internet censorship.
 * Any compulsory censorship architecture will be opposed and/or repealed.
 * Remove the catch-all "Refused Classification" category from all classification systems.